“Which means?”
“Which means,” Nancy said, “I don’t know. They might just keep going as if they were human, they might attack, they might just fall over.”
“Crap,” Tanaka said. “What do we do?”
Daniel reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a card. “We call the police, let them know what’s happening. These people need to be free.”
“What is that?” Tanaka asked taking the card. He looked at it. “Oh, right, I remember him. Kind of a jerk.”
“But a cop.” Daniel said talking his phone out. He looked at it and saw he had no signal. “We need to get outside to get a signal.”
“I’ll do it,” Nancy said. “Give me the phone once you press the green button on the panel. That’ll disconnect me.”
Tanaka walked over to the panel. He pressed the green button. “I’m going out there with you while you call. Daniel, use your powers to find Destructo and Robot Nancy.”
Nancy felt the wires slowly pull out from her scalp. A foaming agent oozed out to seal the wounds as the sharp pins left her scalp and retracted back into the chamber. She was free. She slid her legs over the side then slowly lowered herself to the ground. Her legs held; she was weak, but could move.
“What about me?” Daniel asked. “How do I get these out?”
Nancy didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed it before and, once she did, she did her best not to gag. “How did that happen?”
“I had to slice the connection,” Tanaka replied. “He wasn’t in a chamber.”
“I... I don’t know. I only used the chamber which has a system to remove the pins. I don’t know how to get them out without the chamber.”
Daniel nodded. “We’ll deal with these later then. Tanaka, take Nancy outside, get in touch with Officer Lee and fill him in. I’ll start walking around to see if I can find a scent or hear something. I have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get going.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“So, how have you been?” Nancy asked Tanaka as they walked outside into the hot desert.
“Now is not the time for small talk,” Tanaka replied sharply. “You don’t even know what you started.”
“You’re right, I don’t.”
Tanaka pulled out his phone and looked at it. He had one, then two bars. Hopefully it was enough to make a call. He looked at the card and dialed the number while Nancy looked around. She squinted in the bright sun. A breeze blew some dirt into her eyes, forcing her to look away. Even though it was warm she still hugged herself as if she were cold. This was too much for her to understand. What had happened? What could have gone wrong?
“Yeah, send an army of ambulances and medical teams here. It’s bad, really bad, and people will need help.” Tanaka said. He listened for a moment then said, “I don’t know. Things could be very interesting over the next few hours as you wake the people up. We’ll come up with a plan when you get here. I’ll wait outside. I don’t think there are any robot guards left but bring the heavy weapons just in case. Right, see you then.” He hung the phone up then looked at Nancy. “So, now we have the entire Las Vegas and surrounding counties police force coming to help clean your mess up.”
“My mess? God, all I wanted was to make some money to start again. I didn’t know this was going to happen.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tanaka replied. “You’ll be spending a lot of time in jail, so you’ll at least have a place to stay.”
“Jail?” Nancy asked. “What did I do that was illegal?”
Tanaka opened his mouth to talk, but no words came out. Nancy had seen the look before, he was thinking hard for an answer. Finally, he said, “I don’t know, I’ll think of something.”
“All I really did was give my body to a robot to study. That’s weird, sure, but not illegal.”
“But he used it to create a robot version of you. A version you were supposed to control.”
“But I didn’t,” she replied. “God, this is all too much. Too much for me to handle.”
Tanaka took a deep breath, trying to get his blood pressure down. It was something Nancy had seen him do many times before. It was weird knowing he still had to do that. Even though he wasn’t an angry teenager anymore he still had a hard time dealing with his emotions. That was something she could always count on, Tanaka thinking more with his heart than his head. “The last thing I remember was Destructo connecting the wires to my head. I remember looking over to see the robot version of me laying there all still. I thought it would be fun to be that robot.”
“I don’t want to hear it, and I don’t care.”
Nancy continued, her voice low and distant. “I remember the transfer. Being in two places at once. It was weird. Then the next thing I know, you and Daniel are looking down at me and a year has passed. God, I missed a year.”
Tanaka opened his mouth to say something. His eyes grew wide and he reached back to get his sword when he was hit in the chest by a fist. He fell on his backside. He looked up just as Robot Nancy’s fist smash into his face. He grabbed his face, blood poured out from the shattered nose. Robot Nancy reached down to grab his throat when he teleported away, leaving her to grab nothing but air. She waited for a moment and looked around.
Nancy found she was unable to move. She stood there looking at herself crouched down in a fighting stance. She could never look like that, could never be a warrior. Her double stood and looked at her.
“Looks like your boyfriend won’t be back,” Robot Nancy said. “Do you want to know the rest of the story? Do you want to know what happened after we were disconnected?”
Nancy nodded.
“I woke up in your apartment. Katie was there, told me that I had been missing for a month and wanted to know where I had been. I didn’t know, couldn’t remember and simply chalked it up a month’s worth of drinking and drugs. Not like that’s never happened to you before, right?”
“Happened to us,” Nancy replied. “You have all my memories, so it had to have happened to both of us.”
“True, so true. Anyway, yeah, that’s what I thought. Thought I had fallen off the wagon again and that made me sad.”
“Would have made me sad, too,” Nancy replied. She looked around wondering if she could run somewhere and hide. Wondering if Tanaka was going to come back to rescue her. Or David, or Daniel. So many men in her life, and none were around when she really needed them.
“Yes, of course. I went back to the strip club, not knowing that Turing was the one who erased my memory, and begged for my job back. I was so happy when I got it back, so happy to strip again. Turing watched me carefully, I thought he was just looking out for me but he wasn’t. He was testing me. Testing to see if I could fool everyone, including myself.”
“And?”
“It worked way better than we thought,” Robot Nancy replied. “What made it work was that I wasn’t connected to you. I don’t need you. We don’t need you. You might as well be dead.”
“All I wanted was some money, something to help me through life, something to help me fulfill my dreams.”
Robot Nancy stepped forward. “You were always looking for an angle, always trying to find some way to get ahead. You dated Tanaka because of his status. You married David because he was stealing enough money to keep you comfortable. You didn’t like Daniel because he saw right through you.”
“No, that’s not true.”
Robot Nancy laughed, and it sounded just like hers. It sent a chill of fear down her spine. “Nancy, my love, my dear friend, I am you and this is you. Sometimes looking at yourself in a mirror is hard.”
“No, I refuse to believe this. All I wanted was money, I didn’t want anything else.”
Robot Nancy walked up to Nancy and stroked her cheek with the back of her hand. Nancy looked into the eyes of the robot and saw life in them. It was the look of ambition, the look of someone tired of life beating her down. The eyes of a woman who wanted nothing more than to show the world she was worthy of them, sh
ow them that she wouldn’t be pushed around anymore. That look always faded after a long sleep. She would look into her eyes again and see a woman who had given up, who just wanted the world to end and for another day to be over.
Robot Nancy tilted her head and smiled. “I think you get it now. I think you see what I’ve been talking about.”
“I do,” Nancy replied. “But I never gave into those impulses. Never wanted to.”
“Yes, you did,” Robot Nancy replied framing Nancy’s face with both her hands. “I’m not sure if this is going to be some weird suicide or me simply exorcising my demons. Well, I guess I’ll figure it out later.”
And, with one quick flick of her hands, Robot Nancy snapped human Nancy’s neck, leaving nothing more than a lifeless body to fall to the sandy ground.
Daniel leaned against the wall and activated his powers. His skin and the clothes he wore changed color to help him blend into the shadows and the gray wall. He reached out with his senses, trying his best to home in on something, anything, that would allow him to find Robot Nancy and Destructo. One of the wires fell in front of his face and he jumped, deactivating his powers and sending his senses back to normal. He brushed the wire aside. It swung away for a moment then came right back into his field of vision.
He looked at the wire, his eyes crossed as he did, then reached up and gave it a tentative tug. He winched at the pain. He counted at least seven wires hanging from his head. He wondered what would happen in a fight if one of the robots grabbed a wire. He would have to prevent that.
He closed his eyes and pushed all his power to his hearing. He listened carefully, noting each sound, trying to figure out what he was listening too. He heard the snap and sizzle of electricity passing through wires. Heard mice running through the walls. Heard the whistling of the dry desert wind as it passed over the bunkers.
As he reached out further, the sound of a dozen heartbeats reached his ears. More victims of Destructo. He concentrated on them listening carefully. The beating was steady and healthy. They were in good health at least, so that was something positive. He walked slowly, keeping his back against the wall as he did, trying to zero in where the heartbeats were coming from. They grew stronger, louder by a small degree. He was on the right track. He continued moving until he reached the end of a hallway then he opened his eyes.
The world was dull, gray and colorless. His sight wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be since he pushed his powers to his hearing. He focused on the sounds.
He moved down another blurry hallway, barely aware of what he was seeing. It was the sound he cared about, and the hearts came to him in crystal clear surround sound. He reached the end of the hallway and faced a metal door. They were in there; he knew this and turned his powers off. His sight returned back to color and his hearing receded back to slightly above normal range. With his buckler shield in his right hand, he reached for the door handle, turned it slowly, opened the door and peeked in.
Standing in the middle of the room, he saw Robot Nancy and Destructo. They weren’t talking, just standing there. Destructo’s normally red eyes were bright blue and blinking. Robot Nancy swayed back and forth, her lips moving but no words came out.
Daniel walking in slowly, his feet not making a sound, his body blending into the darkness around him. He moved to the first chamber, slowly stood and looked inside. He saw a woman in there, her face frozen in sleep. He bend back down and duck walked over to another chamber where he found the same thing.
He heard some movement and peeked past one of the chambers. Destructo’s eyes were now red again and Robot Nancy took a step back. “Do you understand now?”
“Yes,” Robot Nancy replied. “I understand.”
“Good. Now go, find your other self and kill her.”
“Been looking forward to it.”
That’s not good, Daniel thought, watching as Robot Nancy turned and walked out of the room. Destructo stood there unmoving, his red eyes flickering off and on. Daniel, making sure the robot’s back was too him, stood and slowly walked toward Destructo. He used his powers to keep his feet from making a sound and concentrated on his danger sense as he moved, knowing it would alert him to when he might be caught. Adjusting the buckler shield, Daniel raised it over his head getting ready to strike it down on his enemy.
Suddenly, his danger sense kicked in and he hesitated. Destructo turned around to face him. He reached up and grabbed Daniel’s arms preventing him from moving. “I am surprised at you. I didn’t think you were murderer.”
“I’m not,” Daniel replied, taking a step back with his right foot. Destructo leaned forward, Daniel spun and flipped the robot off his feet. He let go of Daniel as he fell onto his back. Daniel stood over his foe, ready to take his head off with his shield.
“I am a sentient being!” Destructo yelled. “Killing me will be like killing another person.”
Daniel stopped, his shield still over his head. He eyes narrowed and he realized Destructo was right. If he were human, if he didn’t have the metal skeleton and fake skin, he would be no different than any other person Daniel fought. And Daniel swore he would never kill unless he had no other choice. Killing was never the answer and justice had to be dealt through the legal means.
“So, what’s it going to be hero? You going to arrest me, or kill me?”
“Arrest you.” Daniel replied, stepping off the robot.
Destructo stood from the ground with his hands in the air. He pointed to the wires dangling out of Daniel’s head. “I can help you with those.”
Don’t make a deal with the devil, Daniel thought. Someone can figure the wires out and help you. You don’t need him.
“It’s really easy to get them out, but if you do it wrong you will die. I know how.”
“Not going to let you get into my head.”
“But I am in your head.” Destructo laughed. “All those wires come from me. I’m in there, touching your brain. Oh, it’s shame you’re going to die without my help.”
“I’ll figure it out,” Daniel said, turning the robot around. He looked around the room hoping to find something to bind his hands together. Instead he simply held them with his own hand.
“No, you will die. It’s a pity really.”
“Shut up.”
“So simple to get them out. You don’t have to die. I can heal you, I can fix you. All you need to do is let me go.”
“You don’t know me as well as you think you do. I won’t let you go.”
“Again, such a pity.” Destructo’s eyes went from red to blue.
Daniel fell to his knees.
The pain in his head felt as if someone were punching him with a thousand tiny sledgehammers. He grabbed his temples and tried to scream but the pain was too much, preventing him from yelling or screaming.
“I still have control. The ends of those wires have tiny chips in them, chips I can control. I really did want to help you but now you give me no other choice but to kill you. If we had reached a bargain, you would have lived, but as it is, I will have to kill you.”
Daniel’s scream finally came out as Destructo slowly shut down Daniel’s mind.
Tanaka appeared on the floor of the darkened room surprised he had teleported at all. Slowly he sat up, the pounding in his head did little to help him think about what just happened. The coppery taste of blood assaulted his lips as it dripped from a badly broken nose. He was in the chamber where the bodies were. It was the closest location to where he was attacked. He knew he was going to die, knew that Robot Nancy’s surprise attack had caught him off guard and she was about ready to smash his head in with her powerful metal hand. Instinct, that’s why he teleported. It was good to know his instinct and self-preservation could save his life even when he was in too much pain to think.
Nancy! He sat up quickly then regretted it as his brain felt as if it were about ready to fell out of his head. He tried to bring up the image of the desert where he left her but couldn’t. The headache and probable concu
ssion made it nearly impossible to get any clear image in his mind. She wasn’t too far away, he reasoned, he could run to her instead of teleporting.
He tried to stand but wobbled and fell down. A stream of sticky snot fell from his nose onto his shirt, creating a disgusting puddle on his chest. He lifted his head to try and stop the bleeding. His face would never be the same again after this trip.
He heard the sound of metal feet and tilted his head down. He saw Destructo running past the door and toward an exit. He must have evaded Daniel somehow. Tanaka took a deep breath and tried to stand again. It seemed to take all his concentration not to fall over, and after a few moments to steady himself, he ran toward he door.
Destructo had stopped at the end of the hallway and seemed to be looking into deep space. Something had occupied his time and Tanaka knew this would be his only chance to stop him. Slowly he walked up to him, careful not to alert the robot of his presence. With Destructo’s ability to mimic Tanaka’s power, Destructo could easily teleport away. Tanaka never understood how annoying that was until it started happening to him.
He was close enough to attack and subdue Destructo. With a cry of war Tanaka jumped and landed on Destructo’s back. He placed his hands on his head and said, “I know I’m strong enough to break your neck and I know that’s your weakness. Please give me a reason to do that and I will.”
Destructo spun around trying to get Tanaka off his back. He slammed him into the wall several times. Each time sent another wave of nearly unbearable pain through Tanaka’s head but he held on. Each attack strengthened his resolve and he started to twist the neck, hoping to break it and get this mission done.
Destructo stopped moving and resisted Tanaka’s strength. “If you kill me, you will kill your brother.”
“Don’t make a threat you can’t keep.”
“Your brother is dying somewhere in the base. Only I know where. You still have time to save him. But if you kill me, you will never find him in time.”
The Evolutionite Chronicles Book Two: Dagger and Shadow Ninja in: Welcome to Las Vegas Page 19