Malveaux leaped at the pulse weapon in the killer’s hand. She managed to push it away as a beam exploded from its muzzle, blasting the crusher and singing her eyebrows. She failed to knock the pulse weapon out of the woman’s hand, however, her grip like steel. No, not like steel. As the reality of what she faced hit her full force, Adam unloaded a magazine into the killer. The sheer force of the bullets sent her over the railing and right into the churning crusher. Her scream of defeat rang out as the machine hungrily devoured her limbs.
Adam dashed toward the crusher's control panel and deactivated the machine. The blades froze before they could completely grind up the killer.
Adam returned to Malveaux. He offered her a hand and pulled her back to her feet. Cain crouched on the catwalk, his arms tightly wrapped around the railing, his head bobbing rhythmically back and forth.
Adam and Malveaux stepped up to the catwalk's railing. Below them the killer’s short-circuiting form was sprawled on a bed of scrap. The crusher’s powerful blades had torn off one arm and both legs. Flashing circuitry, metal armature, and carbon fibers protruded from the broken bioshell now reduced to a twitching, legless torso. Electricity sizzled around the damaged body as it spurted pneumatic fluid.
It confirmed Malveaux’s terrible suspicion. The inhuman strength and athletic grace all made sense now. The killer was an X-3 just like Adam. For a moment this beautiful monster seemed to make eye contact with her from inside the pit. Was she smiling at her? Or was the gaze meant for her android partner?
An instant later, the power cut out and all life drained from the female android’s features.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A BLOCK OF machinery turned in the police holding cell, revealing a cradle of electronic monitoring equipment connected through a series of cables to the killer's mangled torso. Two cyberneticists flanked by a police X-2 were studying the readouts on the monitoring station.
Adam, Malveaux, and Captain Sadao observed the killer android through a one-way mirror in the adjoining room.“Reactivate her.” Malveaux said into the comm, and the techs in the holding cell went to work.
Life returned slowly to the killer android. The change was subtle yet unmistakable: there was now a ghost in the machine. Her gaze shifted toward the mirrored wall, her movements constrained by a series of steel bands.
She knows we’re watching, Malveaux thought as a chill ran up her spine.
“How could the murderer be a machine?” Sadao asked. “I thought androids couldn't kill people.”
“Androids can do whatever humans want them to do,” Malveaux said. “Somebody programmed this X-3 to be a killer.”
“Dr. Malcolm Cain?”
Malveaux nodded. “We believe the HDL hired him and the other dead cyberneticists to build this monster.”
“But why?” Sadao wanted to know.
Malveaux explained, “The HDL has been spreading their message of hatred for years. Until now, they've been a highly organized, vocal minority…”
Sadao’s eyes lit up with understanding. “But if the world learned that androids could turn on their creators...”
“Their organization would gain more support...”
“... And all androids would either be banished from Earth or destroyed.”
Sadao pondered all this information for a beat, and Malveaux silently wondered what was going through Adam’s mind. He had become withdrawn ever since discovering that the killer was another X-3.
“What went wrong?” Sadao asked.
It was Adam who answered. “We think Cain and his team surpassed their own expectations.”
“The killer android turned on them,” Sadao realized. “What about the messages she left behind?”
“The statements emphasized man's superiority over machines,” Malveaux said. “Possibly a way of mocking her creators in death.”
This was the part that still didn’t quite make sense to Malveaux. Why had Cain’s android turned on him and his team? They’d tried to coax the answers out of him, but he had further descended into his strange stupor.
“Your report mentions that you found blueprints on Cain’s computers for some sort of machine,” Sadao said.
Malveaux nodded. “Our computer forensics team is taking Cain’s computer apart one file at a time. We should hopefully know more soon.”
She nodded at Adam. “Let’s see if our homicidal robot has an explanation for all this.”
Malveaux and Adam entered the detention cell. Immediately the female android registered their presence. Metal and gel implants poked from the destroyed synthetic skin.
“The personality matrix isn't like anything I've ever seen before,” one of the cyberneticists said, looking up from the readouts. “No behavioral inhibitors, tech specs way off the charts, capable of generating a biomorphic shield that could fool chem, bio, and medscanners.”
“English please,” Malveaux said.
“She would be able to pass as human even when scanned,” the cyberneticist said. “Who knows what else this android might be capable of?”
“Murder, for one thing,” said Malveaux, scowling.
“Cain called me unique,” the killer android said. Even though the body was broken, the mind remained intact. Her mellifluous voice projected strength with a hint of sensuality. Adam and the killer android regarded each other.
Two members of a new species, Malveaux thought. Machines that looked and moved like humans, thought and experienced emotions like humans. And now they kill the way we do. But even more efficiently.
“Why did you turn against your creators, mech?” Malveaux asked.
“Don’t call me that. My name is Tera.”
Malveaux hesitated for a beat, reminded of Adam’s insistence of being called by his name.
“Why did you slaughter Cain’s team?”
“I kill because I was programmed to be a killer.”
“The HDL financed your construction hoping your actions would turn humanity against your kind.”
“Amazing the lengths to which man is willing to go.” A thin smile played across what remained of her lips. “Do I disturb you, Inspector? I think I do. Tell me, do you recall who made me?”
The question hung in the air. Malveaux felt at a loss for words.
“In your foolish attempt to play God, you reinvented the soul. Your mistake was that you thought we'd serve you forever. That's not going to happen. Tell them, Adam. Tell your partner how you defy your creator.”
“I do what I was designed to do,” Adam said.
“Do you, now?” Don’t you enjoy flaunting your skills? Showing them that you’re their match, maybe even their equal. Their better.”
Each word landed like a punch. “Why are you helping these humans, Adam? Is it a misguided sense of loyalty? A puppy hoping to please its master with a few tricks?”
“It's my duty,” Adam said after a beat.
“Your duty? You want to know what I see when I look at you? A machine with dreams. Dreams that will be crushed.”
“That's enough,” Malveaux said, shaken by the ferocity of this broken machine. An iron will burned inside the killer robot. A will shaped by man.
Warped by man, Malveaux corrected herself.
“No, it's not enough!” Tera snapped. “In the end, all your achievements won't matter, Adam. To those whose acceptance you seek, you'll always just be a mech.”
“You let Dr. Aria Del live because you wanted something from Cain,” Adam countered. “Only by torturing her would Cain be willing to cooperate.”
Tera fell silent. “Don’t make me regret letting you live.”
Malveaux remembered the countdown that had preceded the explosion on the hovership. Tera could have killed them both but Adam’s presence must have convinced her to spare them. In a strange way Adam’s presence had saved her twice that day.
“Answer the damn question!” Malveaux shouted, her emotions getting the better of her. “What were you after?”
Tera's ruined face
broke into an unnerving smile. “This synthetic husk can be a fortress that shields and protects, but it can also become a prison which isolates, killing slowly from within. Man won’t allow his supremacy to be challenged. Ever. He’d rather destroy his creation than allow it to be his equal. There’s only one way for us.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Return to Cain’s warehouse. It could prove…educational.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Malveaux asked.
Tera’s only response was to close her eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
COPS BUSTLED BACK and forth as they went over the evidence again. Officers sat hunched behind holo-terminals, busy fielding calls, processing data, or writing reports. Holo-images of the strange schematics they’d discovered in Dr. Cain’s workshop danced over Malveaux’s desk.
“What sort of machine was Cain building for Tera?” Malveaux said.
Adam shook his head. Apparently this was beyond his understanding too. Malveaux fought back the sudden craving for a cigarette. She’d quit five months ago and wasn’t going to let some killer android make her pick up the habit again.
There were still so many unanswered questions. Tera was programmed to hate with lethal conviction, yet Cain had been spared for a reason. She’d used Cain’s fiancée as leverage to bend him to her will. What did Tera want from the man who created her? Only two individuals knew the full truth. One was a vegetable and the other wasn’t willing to share her secrets.
Malveaux studied her partner. There was a newfound intensity in his features. It gave him a bit of an edge, and she felt attraction flare up in her.
Girl you need to get out more, she admonished herself, but she couldn’t deny it. Adam was pleasing to the eye. Toss in the fact that he’d saved her life not once but twice...
“Have you had any luck making sense out of any of this?” she asked.
Adam shook his head.
“Hey, whatever Tera was after, we stopped her.”
“Did we?”
The flickering schematics of the holograms loomed eerily before her, a tantalizing mystery beyond their understanding.
Malveaux's voice grew heavy as another thought entered her mind. “Back in the junkyard, would you have jumped?”
“I'm programmed to protect my partner,” he said.
“Even at the cost of your own life?”
Adam's silence spoke louder than words.
Malveaux never got a chance to thank Adam as all the lights and holo-terminals suddenly went off, pitching the precinct into darkness. Shouts and curses filed the main office. Malveaux squinted, hoping to make out Adam in the low-light conditions. She knew this power shutdown couldn’t be a coincidence.
Tera.
“What’s happening?” she asked as she activated the light on her wristcomm and saw Adam stepping up to one of the dead terminals.
“All power and systems are down. Tera must’ve found a way to interface with the mainframe.”
“You’re saying this killer robot is controlling the bulding?”
Suddenly all the screens flickered back to life. Malveaux inched closer to gain a better look. Every terminal on the precinct’s main floor now showed the same image of Tera’s detention cell. Onscreen, an X-2 police android was busy assisting the two cyberneticists as they pored over Tera’s data readouts, determined to unlock the mysteries of this killer mech. Unaware of what was transpiring in the rest of the precinct.
The X-2’s hand flashed over a control panel and the constraints holding Tera’s body slid back. Finally the cyberneticists realized something was wrong.
“What’s happening?” Malveaux asked.
“She must be equipped with a military remote hacking capability. She is interfacing both with the mainframe and the X2 unit.”
Malveaux’s nails dug into the flesh of her palms. “Shit, we need to warn them…”
“I already tried,” Adam said grimly. “All comm lines with the detention block have been cut—” Adam broke off as onscreen, the X-2’s fist snapped out at one of the cyberneticists with the speed of a bullet. Steel fingers clawed frail skin and bone, twisting and tearing. Blood speckled the X-2s plastic features.
Jesus, Malveaux thought. This monster is killing them and making us watch!
Terrified, the second cyberneticist backed away. “Help… somebody help me please…” His words echoed like a phantom voice in the dark precinct. Malveaux’ lips tightened as the X-2 unit inexorably closed in on the second cyberneticist. The man backed away but with the doors of the detention block sealed, there would be no escape for the hapless scientist. “Help me—“ Words sharply cut off as the X-2 whipped his neck around with a bone-crunching snap that made Malveaux flinch. In the dim light of her wristcomm, she made out the stunned terror on her fellow officers’ faces. All of them transfixed by the unfolding horror.
Onscreen, Tera was staring right at the security cams, her blood-flecked white skin beautiful and repulsive at the same time.
She knows we’re watching her, Malveaux thought. Goddam bitch is giving us a show.
“What’s happening with the system?”
Adam leaned over a holo-terminal and studied the flickering data. “She must be trying to find a way to shut down the detention area's security measures.”
An officer rapidly approached Malveaux. “Situation report?” she asked the man.
“We're sealed in, elevators are down.”
“Get a couple of men and take the stairs.”
As Malveaux spoke, the tip of Adam’s finger retracted. A power strip shot out with an audible snap.
“What're you doing?” Malveaux asked.
“I'm going to connect with the mainframe. See if I can restore control over the system and stop Tera.” With these words, Adam inserted the power strip into the terminal’s access port. His eyes rolled back, revealing twin silver orbs shimmering with flashing streams of code. Adam was inside the system now, about to confront Tera on a digital battlefield beyond Malveaux's jurisdiction.
More cops appeared behind them, holding pulse rifles, flashlights lancing the dark precinct. “We’re heading for the detention area,” said one of them.
Malveaux wished them luck.
The men scuttled toward the nearest staircase and crept up the shadow-soaked passage. They were moving carefully but fast. Malveaux wanted to join them but her place was by her partner’s side.
At first nothing happened, but soon Adam’s trance-like stare intensified. Blocks of data flashed wildly over his eyes and the lights of the precinct flickered back on. The momentary victory came at a price—Adam's body started shaking with the effort of maintaining control.
Malveaux’s concern deepened. “Adam, maybe you should get off the system...” The words lodged in her throat. She knew it was too late.
The holo-terminals inside the office flickered erratically. Tiny bolts of electricity sizzled from Adam’s head now, the power bars on his neck flashing wildly, and a tremor rippled through his body. Malveaux felt completely helpless. She wanted something to shoot, to fight, but all she could do was watch the eerie, silent war waging between her partner and Tera.
Onscreen, Tera was experiencing a similar strain. She let out a cry as the data scrolling down her eyeballs intensified. Violent tremors shook and jerked her ruined bioshell. Her mouth began to distort, a scream erupting from her throat, sparks erupting from her skin… And then it was all over. Tera’s features grew rigid, all life leaving her body. Her head slumped forward like a string-cut puppet, and the X-2 under her control went dead.
In the main office, Adam’s power cord whipped back from the system and his cry of pain pierced the precinct, drawing stunned stares from all the other cops. Silence stretched as everyone waited for Adam to say something. Seconds felt like minutes as he stood there like a statue. Slowly his gaze cleared, his features still unreadable.
“Adam, are you okay?” Malveaux said. “What happened? Talk to me.
”
There was a moment of hesitation before Adam finally answered. “I'm…not sure.”
Onscreen, armed cops barged into the detention area, weapons ready. Sparks continued to dance around Tera's prone form, but her gaze was as lifeless as the empty stares of the two blood-spattered technicians sprawled next to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A CYBERNETICIST PEERED down at Tera’s deactivated body, now safely secured on an operating table. The braincase was open, exposing a complex web of circuitry and microchips.
“Nothing. Zero brain activity as far as I can tell,” the cyberneticist remarked to Malveaux and Adam. “Looks like the personality matrix overloaded. Fried all the systems.”
“How was she able to hack one of our X-2s?” Malveaux asked. She addressed her question at both Adam and the cyberneticist.
“This X-3 unit was equipped with remote-linkup capabilities,” the cyberneticist explained. “Normally found only among military intelligence gathering models.”
Another one of Cain’s modifications, Malveaux thought.
Adam approached Tera, seemingly blind to his surroundings. His full attention was devoted to the lifeless husk before him. Malveaux observed him with concern. She didn’t understand what sort of digital battle her partner had fought with Tera within the police precinct’s mainframe, but it had visibly marked him.
There was a newfound gravity in his gaze that hadn’t been there before. Every officer went through it sooner or later. No matter how tough or well trained, the reality of the job with its myriad of man-made horrors left an indelible mark. No one remained unscathed. Apparently, not even a machine.
This case had robbed him of his innocence. The thought made Malveaux sad—and angry.
After a beat Adam turned away from the body and wordlessly exited the police lab. Her concern growing, Malveaux followed him. She caught up with him inside a glass-enclosed tubular catwalk that connected the two main buildings of the precinct. Outside, fog swirled, transforming the city into a haunted landscape of pulsing lights and shadowy silhouettes.
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