Kazimir pulls up a chair next to him. "How's my computer?"
Blice covers his eyes with his arm. "Ugh . . ."
"Just stay calm. You're going to feel out of it for a while. Everything looks good, including your new USB port. I took the liberty of giving you a bath and you are healing fine. You took well to being started up and you should find your files in your mind. See the interface?"
"Weird. I can see it all."
"Welcome to being a computer." Kazimir holds up a glass of water with a straw in it.
Blice takes a much needed drink. "So is this how Isidore sees his files?"
"Yes."
"It's like they're there, but then not. They only show up when I think about them. I feel really weak."
"You've been out of it for three days."
"Three days?" Blice's heart jumps in his chest. He begins to slide out of his chair. "I have to go to Isidore."
Kazimir pushes him back down. "Stop. The only thing you're going to do right now is recover. You will be fine in a bit."
"I have to get to Isidore."
"He's fine." Kazimir says. "There's nothing to worry about. He's been spending every minute of these last three days with his daughter. If you listen closely, you can hear her laughing. Katarina is one of the happiest babies I've seen. She loves her father dearly."
"That's why I'm doing this. You know that. I can't watch her grow up without him, knowing that I was the one who could have done something and saved his life."
"The ultimate decision is yours, but I caution you. I will step in and try to stop you from doing this if I deem that your connection to Isidore isn't enough. I still have my doubts about you two."
"Why?" Blice asks.
Kazimir pins Blice down in the chair and leans close to him, anger showing on his face. "What are you going to get out of this?"
Blice tries to pull away from him, but he's stuck here. "I don't-"
"Don't hold this over his head like you have been doing with his freedom. If you know he will always be a slave, don't give him false hope by promising equality. I know all about that. What do you think that does to him? Don't play around with his mind and emotions. It's cruel."
Oh. That. "I haven't said a word about it to him. He thinks I've been meeting with the other world leaders."
"I want your word right now that you will go through with this unless something happens to Katarina."
"I swear it."
"Good. That's what I wanted to hear." Kazimir says. "Now, let's run some tests before I let you out of this room. Oh, one more thing. If you connect to another living computer, you might be surprised to find out the bond that can form."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Blice asks.
"I want you to connect to Isidore. Then your bond will be unbreakable."
* * *
Blice has been looking around the Presidential Palace for about an hour, trying to find Isidore. Byron was feeding Katarina and he hadn't seen Isidore for a while. Where could he have gone? Surely he didn't leave the palace grounds. He couldn't have without risking being beaten by guards. Then he gets the idea to check the one place that Isidore has always loved, even when he was a kid. The gardens.
He makes his way downstairs and through the large glass sliding doors then out into the cool night. The breeze is welcoming, but it also ushers in a flowing sadness. Is it regret or is it the realization that soon one of them will be dead and there's nothing they can do about it? Perhaps it is regret for the things that never happened or the ones that unfortunately did. It's beginning to hit Blice now that there is a definitive and unmoving, uncompromising line that they are about to cross and from it, only one of them will come back. Is he making the right decision? Only time will tell. Either way, he has to talk to Isidore. It kills him inside every time he has to be away from him. As Blice walks past Isidore's favorite apple trees, he calls out for him. "Niko?" Then he sees him.
Isidore is floating on his back in the fountain. His clothes are completely soaked and the pale light from the streetlamps glows on his skin. He doesn't move or make a sound as he stares up into the sky.
When there's no answer, Blice goes over to him and sits in the grass by the water. "Are you okay?"
He still doesn't move. "Hey, Blice."
"What are you doing?"
"Watching the space fighting." Isidore says. "I didn't know that Great Victoria and the Red Republic had so much technology. Why don't we have space fighter planes?"
"We used to." Blice says. "I think Clark decommissioned them. Why are you in the fountain?"
"For a computer, I really like being in water."
Blice laughs and leans over the water towards him. "Want a towel?"
"No. I like it in here. Where have you been the past couple of days?"
"I, um . . . I was with Kazimir."
"Wait. I sense something about you." Isidore reaches out of the water and gently touches Blice's hand. "What have you done? Why . . . you're a T.I.M.E."
"I am."
Isidore sighs and spreads his arms out in the water. "I'm not stupid."
"Well, you are the computer submerged in water."
"You know it won't hurt me." He sits up and wrings out the water from his hair that has started to grow back out. "You can't do what I think you're going to do. It won't work."
"Why not?"
Isidore looks up at him with his large blue eyes. "When you try this, I will be forced to step in and stop you from killing yourself. You programmed me to give my life in order to save you. If someone tries to hold me back, I might not be able to stop myself. I don't want anyone to get hurt."
Blice knows he will have to address this issue later. "Something else is on your mind. What's up?"
"Can I ask you something a bit personal?"
"If we can't talk about everything at this point, then there's a problem. Ask away."
Isidore holds water in his hands and lets it trickle through his fingers. "I heard what you said to your father. Blice, do you want to have sex with me?"
How can he answer that without being weird? "I . . . I . . . is that an offer?"
"Just answer the question."
"I do, but I know that you aren't like that." Blice says. "Are you?"
He shakes his head and stares at the water moving gently around his chest. "Not at all. Sorry."
"Don't apologize. I understand."
"Have you been with a man before?"
Well, technically. It was mostly just some awkward kissing that he wants to forget about. "I almost was once, but the only person I could think about was you so I left and never spoke to him again. Don't worry about me. I have plenty of women."
"Can I ask another question?" Isidore asks with a tiny smile.
"Go ahead."
"Are you a transvestite?"
That one catches him off guard. "What kind of question is that?"
Isidore starts giggling. "One that Miss Lavender should know the answer to."
Blice blushes. "I knew you were eventually going to ask about that. She's like my alternate personality."
"Right . . . so how does that work?"
"When I wear women's clothing, I feel like a different part of myself comes to life." Blice says. "It's freeing."
"Do you want to be a woman?"
"It's not that. It's just another side of myself. One side is Blice McSage and one side is Lavender."
"So the other night when we had way too much to drink and I think there were some drugs involved, were you Lavender?" Isidore asks.
"Yes."
"And did Lavender do anything to me? My pants were unzipped."
Now Blice feels a bit guilty. But he did enjoy it . . . did Isidore? "Before I answer that, you need to know that you didn't tell me to stop."
Isidore doesn't look amused. "Oh hell. Really? So you did. That's why your lipstick was all over my pants."
"Not much . . . she was just playing around."
"You'd better be glad t
hat I can't kill you, Blice."
"Are you mad?" Blice asks as he watches the lights up in the night sky.
"A bit, but I'll be okay. Remember those fifty-eight memories?"
"Unfortunately."
"Did you enjoy doing that?" Isidore asks. "If you were attracted to me back then, you found pleasure in it. There's no point in lying to me about it anymore. I die in two days."
He's right. There's no point in hiding the truth anymore. "Okay. I did enjoy it to a point, but believe me when I tell you that wasn't the reason I did it."
"I know."
"So, you're not interested in men?"
"No." Isidore says. "I only recently became attracted to human women."
"You're right."
"And the electronics I was with were always the female ones."
That's interesting. Blice didn't know there was a difference. "What? How could you tell?"
"The female ones were kinder to me." Isidore says as he closes his eyes. "Their energies and the sounds of their motors were so much softer than the masculine ones. That's why I've never been with anything in your office. They're all males and they don't like me very much."
"Weird. That's . . . different."
"Well, we can be different together." Isidore says.
"Thanks for understanding me, Niko. You don't think something is wrong with me because of this?"
"Nope. No matter who you're attracted to or who you like to dress up to be, I'm here for you. You're still my owner and . . . my friend." Isidore takes Blice's hand and squeezes it tightly.
"You will never understand how much that means to me. In two days, our lives will never be the same. There's a chance that things could go horribly wrong and the world could end. If that happens, I will die happy knowing that you consider me a friend." Blice takes off his shirt then dries Isidore's hair with it. He reaches into his pocket and holds out a USB cable. "Connect this to your port."
"Okay. Why?"
"I want you to transfer the alpha code to me." Blice says. "Don't try to open it and don't leave any trace of it in your mind."
Isidore takes it and looks at it for a moment.
"What's wrong?"
"I've never connected to another living computer before. I'm scared." Isidore says.
"It's okay." Blice holds him close. "It's all going to be okay. I swear it. Trust me, Niko."
29
An explosion shakes the building as the ceiling crashes down around Isidore's bed. The impact sends him sprawling to the floor as the overwhelming heat bears down on him and he cries out in alarm. The flames engulf the room as the windows shatter and the lights go dark. The floor shakes and Isidore crawls over to the door, but when he reaches up and tries to turn the door knob, it is jammed. Thick black smoke fills the air and he quickly ties a shirt around his face. He knows this smell. Jet fuel. They don't have much time until this entire place goes up. His jeans are doused in what he can only believe is blood. But from what? His eyes burn and he coughs as he pushes against the door, but it won't budge. Something crashes in the hall and the screams of panicked people filter in above the crackling of the flames.
Something is missing. Katarina. Isidore dives back under the twisted metal and into the flames. He looks around and frantically tosses blankets from the bed. Where is she? Do something, Katarina. Cry. Come on. Cry. Still, as much as he begs, there is nothing. If she is crying, he can't hear her over the raging fires and explosions surrounding him. He can't stay in here any longer, but there's no way out of this room. The window is unreachable, blocked off by debris and flames.
To keep himself from losing his bearings in the chaos, he crawls under the thick billowing smoke and over to the door again. At least he knows where he is now. When he tries to scream for help, his voice is hoarse from breathing in all the smoke. It chokes him and he doubles over coughing.
Where is Blice? He had fallen asleep beside him, but now Isidore is nearly certain he's not in this rom. From the hallway, someone is pounding on the wall that Isidore is next to.
"Niko! Answer me!"
Blice. "I'm in here." Isidore knocks on the wall, hoping that he will hear him.
"Get away from the wall. Dark matter." A opening appears in the wall as his dark matter eats away at the wall. Blice grabs Isidore's hands and pulls him through. "Get up and run."
They run hand in hand down the stairs into the main hall as embers and fuel rain down from the floor above. Out on the street, he takes a deep breath of fresh air and holds onto Blice as he nearly collapses from coughing. When Isidore moves his left arm, a severe shooting pain causes him to gasp. He glances at it to see a black bloody burn from his collar bone back to his shoulder blade. The flash of white makes him sick. That's bone. It might go farther down his back, but he can't think about that right now. That's what the blood on his jeans is from. Part of the ceiling must have fallen on him and he was too caught up in trying to find his daughter that he didn't notice until now. He grits his teeth as he becomes more and more aware of the pain. Apparently Blice noticed.
"We'll get you bandaged up as soon as we get to Byron and Kazimir. That burn is bad. I have some morphine. Where is Kat?"
"I don't know. I couldn't find her." Isidore says.
"Get to the warehouse on the edge of the courtyard. Kazimir and Byron have a base set up there. I'll meet up with you later after I find my Nika."
"No!" Isidore grabs his arm. "Blice, you'll die. You can't go back in there."
Blice pulls away from him and puts his suit jacket around Isidore's bare shoulders. "I can't let her die."
He watches as Blice runs back into the inferno as the ceiling collapses over the entrance. What should he do? Does he go after him or do what he was told? Turning his back on it all, he walks off towards the courtyard. He will do as he was told. From across the courtyard, up against the lead walls to the west, there is another blazing building as people run past screaming and police vehicles speed towards the scene. What is going on? All of Paradise fills with the thick choking black smoke just as the sun is beginning to peak out above the horizon. A siren sounds out above the chaos, but Isidore knows he can't hear things correctly. That explosion must have messed with his hearing, but that isn't as important or urgent as the pain in his shoulder that is beginning to border on crippling. He continues to cough and rub his eyes as he stumbles into the warehouse.
Kazimir immediately comes to him. "Isidore! Thank God. Your shoulder looks bad. Sit down. I'll take care of it."
Isidore does as he's told. He is no condition to fight anyone even if he wanted to.
"Where did Blice go?" Byron asks.
"He went back inside to find Katarina." Isidore pushes back tears. "I don't know where she is or if she's even . . ."
"Don't think about that right now. We have to get our burn tended to." Kazimir twists together a bundle of fabric and holds it out to Isidore. "Bite down on this. I'm warning you now. This will hurt."
Isidore takes the cloth in his mouth and braces himself against the wall in preparation for what he knows is coming. When Kazimir pours the water over the burn, Isidore screams between his clenched teeth as the tears sting his eyes. His breathing is ragged as he trembles uncontrollably. The bandaging process is just as painful, but he knows it has to be done.
"There. That will have to do for now." Kazimir hands him a bottle of tequila. "Drink this. It might help a bit until we can ask Blice how much morphine to give you."
"Just give me some. I'm dying. I need it."
He digs in a bag until he finds the bottle. "Okay, okay. Stay calm."
"Give him the amount that Blice takes." Byron says.
"Do you want me to kill him?" Kazimir asks. "This is straight morphine. I have to inject it. Blice takes two of these syringes at one time."
"Then give him one."
"I can't do this. It's not safe." Kazimir says.
Isidore slides down on the floor until his face is on the cold concrete and tears at his hair. "Give me someth
ing. I don't care if it kills me."
"Fine." Kazimir fills the syringe and takes Isidore's arm. "If I kill you, Blice will never forgive me."
"If you don't give it to me, Blice won't get a chance to kill you because I'll kill you."
"Okay." Kazimir injects it into Isidore's arm. "You should feel it soon."
Maybe they know what's been going on. "What happened?"
"Turns out that Common Ground's missile defense system covers this area as well." Kazimir says. "They shot down three of our civilian aircrafts."
"Why?"
Byron loads his shotgun. "Turns out they didn't appreciate Blice killing their Prime Minister. It's all out war now."
A few silent minutes pass as the pain in Isidore's shoulder begins to dull, but he can tell something else is wrong with him. He is sweating and shivering at the same time. When he pulls up his vital signs on his watch, his suspicions are confirmed. "Kazimir, I don't feel very good."
"Let me see." Kazimir looks at the screen. "You're going into shock. Lie down on this blanket and stay still. I'll see what I can do. Byron, check in those medical crates and try to find anything we can use to get an IV going."
"Is he okay?"
"He will be if we can get him some fluids. Thankfully he's an android so his body is regenerating while we speak, but we have to keep him from crashing before he has a chance to stabilize."
Reality begins to meld together into a foggy disjointed conglomeration of sounds and voices, but mostly just cold. Isidore continues to shiver under the blankets that Kazimir and Byron are piling around him. His heartbeat grows so faint that he questions if he is actually alive anymore. When his watch begins to beep, alerting everyone about his condition, he feels something prick his arm as he starts to fall asleep.
"Isidore, stay with me." Kazimir says. "You're going to be okay. I have an IV in your arm and you should be feeling better soon. Relax. You're in good hands. I've been trained to treat battlefield injuries."
Isidore can feel his body repairing itself. It's both amazing and concerning. But he is grateful for one of the only times in his life to be an android. As he lies here, he can feel his heartbeat growing stronger again and his mind clearing. He might be okay after all.
Paradise of Lead Trilogy Page 76