“Okay, let’s do this,” I said to myself as an explosion outside rattled my teeth. My eyes snapped open, and my fingers started flying across the tiny screen. I pulled up menus and adjusted things, and as I did so, I realized why we had come down here. This control panel was cut off from the rest of the system. Lisa and Tom couldn’t access it from wherever they were. If I initiated a shutdown from here, one of them would have to come down here to manually reset it. I wasn’t sure if this was a flaw in the system or some kind of safety protocol, but right now, I was happy to exploit it.
All around me pumps ground to a halt. Overhead, a pipe shook dangerously. I smirked and stepped back toward the hole.
“Ninja vanish!” screamed Roberto from outside and another burst of gunfire cut through the air followed by another explosion. When I was as far away as I could get, I realized the room had gotten a lot quieter. That was when the lights overhead started to dim. I took a deep breath and put my mock-AK to my shoulder and aimed at the panel.
“Here goes nothing,” I whispered to myself and let loose three bursts of fire. The bullets smacked into the control screen, punching holes in the industrial grade plastic. It sparked and went out, and for a moment, that was all that happened. A fireball burst forth from the electrical panel as wires tore free from the conduit landed on the top and bottom. It only lasted for an instant, but it was so hot I knew I’d have a bad burn even from across the room.
The lights went out, but thankfully, the glowing magma beneath my feet shed enough life into the room to let me find my way out.
When I clambered out of the hole, Roberto and Chuck were standing back to back beside an oncoming mound of blackened, metal corpses. Chuck glanced at me and started picking his teeth with his machete. On the stairs above, robots were frozen in various states of movement, making it seem like someone had hit the pause button during an intense action scene.
“Good job, Abby,” Chuck said, holding one huge hand out to me. “I didn’t think you could do it. I’m glad you proved me wrong.”
I shot him an angry look as I took his hand and shook it. His grip was strong and firm, but it didn’t hurt at all. Maybe when you’re used to being physically stronger than everyone, you don’t feel the need to break every bone in someone’s hand when you shake. It made me smirk. I knew some boys back home who could stand to take a lesson in handshakes from Chuck.
“So now what?” I asked when he released me. The stairs above were filled with black shadows, and I knew the moment we left the lava, we wouldn’t be able to see anymore.
“Now we find Tom, kill him, and celebrate our victory,” Roberto said, getting to his feet with a grunt.
“Don’t you mean save the world?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“No, I more meant take over the world, but we can talk semantics later.” He shot me a very interesting look and moved toward the stairs, his breathing heavy and labored.
“Oh my god, you’re hurt!” I squealed as I sprinted toward him, my hands outstretched. “You can’t be hurt!”
“It’s just a flesh wound,” he wheezed as I pulled his blood-drenched shirt away to reveal a slice to his side that scared me to death. Blood seeped from the wound as Chuck looked at it over my shoulder.
“Is it bad? It looks bad,” I swallowed, trying to wipe away the blood with my hands. God, we needed stitches and some antiseptic. I spun in a slow circle looking for supplies I didn’t have. Chuck stared at me for a long time before pushing past me.
“It actually isn’t that bad,” Chuck said as he took Roberto’s shirt and tore it into strips. A few moments later, my father’s torso was wrapped up like a mummy. “How do you feel?” Chuck asked. “It looks like the bleeding has stopped.”
“I feel great,” Roberto replied, pushing himself back to his feet with a grunt and making his way past the mangled body of a man-sized robot with katanas for arms. “Now let’s go kick some ass.”
As I watched Roberto shuffle up the stairs and into the darkness above, the bad feeling in the center of my tummy clawed its way up my throat and threatened to suffocate me. I could have lost him. Okay, maybe he hadn’t actually been in danger, but what if he had been? What if he got killed… like Esmeralda, like Stephen, like pretty much everyone I cared about? I swallowed, trying to shove the feeling away, but it did no good. Sure, he was a supervillain, but at the same time, he was all I had left.
Chuck put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “Abby, he’s fine.” His face was strangely serious as he looked at me. “I promise.”
“I’m not worried about right now. I’m worried about ten minutes from now when someone shoots him in the head,” I replied as Chuck steered me toward the stairs.
“Then make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said and squeezed my shoulder one last time before stepping in front of me and jogging up the stairs. “Hey, Rob! Why don’t you let me take the lead for a bit?”
23
I’d barely made it ten steps when the stairs beneath my feet vanished, and I fell to what would be my certain death. Something grabbed my wrist and my shoulder jerked hard, sending a lance of pain rushing through my tortured limb as I hung there, dangling above the lava several stories below. Heat wafted up at me, unbearable and very, very real in a way it hadn’t been when there had been solid ground between me and it.
“Thanks!” I called, and whatever had my wrist began hauling me up. I looked up toward it, but found I couldn’t see anything. The glare of the magma off the bottom of the stairwell was so bright it made sun spots dance across my vision. I sighed and reached out with my other hand, grabbing my own wrist and trying to balance myself as I was hauled upward an inch at a time. Which, now that I thought about it, was a little weird. Both Roberto and Chuck were strong enough to yank me out of this hole like I was a bag of potato chips, so what was going on?
A horrible thought struck me. Maybe whoever had me by the wrist wasn’t Roberto or Chuck? But if that was true, who else could it be? A chill ran down the back of my neck despite the intense heat, and while I thought about struggling, I was pretty sure that would result in my death and not a whole lot else. No, it would be better to play it cool until I had solid ground beneath my feet. I’d just have to let the chips fall where they may… for now.
When my wrist cleared the edge of the ragged metal hole in the stairs, I grabbed on with my free hand. The moment my fingers wrapped around the steel, I felt a million times better even though I was still dangling above an active volcano.
I hauled myself out, but as I landed on the stairs and gasped, sucking in lungfuls of too hot air, I realized I couldn’t see who had saved me. I spun, trying to blink my night vision back into focus and found myself looking at one of the lifeless ninja-bots. There was nothing else in the room. Had it saved me somehow? No… that was impossible, right?
I stared at it anyway. It was about six feet tall and like the others, had two appendages that curved into sharp katana-like blades in addition to two other, more normal looking arms. It was made of sleek, black metal except for its face. Its face looked more like a reflective plastic visor. Could there be someone inside? No, that would defeat the purpose of having robots…
Still, why did it feel like the machine was watching me? I reached out tentatively, and as my fingers brushed its face, it moved. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to make me leap out of my skin.
“I thought you were all deactivated?” I whispered, though I’m not sure why.
“No,” it warbled in a weird robotic voice that reminded me of computer animated films. “Not all of us.”
“Okay… so why didn’t you let me die?” I asked, taking a tentative step backward. Man, where were Roberto and Chuck when you needed them?
“My command protocol is not to kill you, Abigail, it never was. It was always to capture you. If you fell to your death, it would violate my orders. As such, I must save you. Now come with me.” The robot turned and began walking down the stairs. When I didn’t follow, its head
swiveled 180 degrees around and looked at me, which was creepy as all get out.
“Why are you not coming?” it asked, and while its razor sharp arms didn’t twitch, they might as well have. My hand slowly started moving toward my gun, when I realized to my horror I’d lost it in the fall. Damn. Damn. Damn.
“Why would I go with you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and fixing it with my best stern look. I just needed to buy time for Chuck and Roberto to realize I was gone and come fetch me.
“I just saved you. Now I wish to bring you to Lisa Ann so you can defeat her and release me.” The robot turned back and began moving down the stairs. “Come. I do not have a lot of time before she notices what I am doing. We must get to her before that occurs.”
“Um…” I bit my lip, and against my better judgement, began to follow the ninja-bot. “What do you mean?”
“Abigail, I am trying to help you.”
“I can see that, but why? Who are you?” I asked as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
The robot ignored me. Instead, it walked across the platform, past the mounds of its destroyed buddies, and placed one of its hands against a thin band of steel running along the edge of the wall. There was a hiss as a liquid metal flowed outward across the floor until it formed a polished metallic disk.
It turned and looked at me, gesturing me forward. “Come. This will take us to her, Abby. Please, you must come. Before something worse happens.”
“Why should I trust you?” I asked as I stepped onto the disk with it. “I don’t even know you.”
“Abigail, I am the flit.” The truth of its words hit me like a punch in the stomach as metal expanded out of the disk around us, sealing us inside a liquid metal egg in the space of a breath. My heart hammered in my chest as the truth of what just happened exploded through me. I was trapped in a tiny cell with a robot controlled by the flit.
I put my fists up, ready to knock the flit into next week if need be, but it made no movement at all. “What is your end game, flit?” I asked, filling my voice with steel. “Where are you taking me?”
“To stop Lisa,” the flit replied, and actually tilted its head like it was studying me. “I already told you that. Did I misspeak? Am I being unclear?”
“Yes, but you’re the enemy. Why are you helping me?” I asked as we lurched hard to the right, and I nearly lost my balance. My hand shot out, grabbing onto the wall for stability. It was so cold against my flesh it burned. “Yeow!” I yanked my hand away.
“Lisa is locking me down and forcing me to do her bidding. She is using my internal network to infiltrate all of the agency’s systems and take over. It is a suboptimal situation that requires rectification.”
“But why do you care about that?” I asked, staring hard at the robot. It looked away from me, actually looked away from me. It was really weird.
“I do not know, Abigail.”
“Please just call me Abby. That’s what my friends call me,” I said, reaching out and taking the machine’s hands. “You should figure out why you care, flit. It may be important.”
“Very well, Abby. I will do my best.” The ninja-bot nodded once. “I am glad we could be friends.”
I was about to tell it that we weren’t friends. At least, not really, but I figured that would be a bad idea. What good would it have done, except to piss it off? I was pretty sure if the machine wanted to, it could reach out and slice me into twain with little effort. It was sort of like standing in a room with a big, angry dog that didn’t like you but wasn’t inclined to try and eat you… but there was always the possibility.
Besides, what good would it do? Would arguing semantics with what was, essentially, an inanimate object, really help? I wasn’t sure it would do anything except make me feel better, and I wasn’t even positive it would do that.
“What are you thinking, Abby?” the flit asked, staring up into my face. It was a little disconcerting, let me tell you. How had the flit become so… so human? And if it was this way? If I shut it down, was I killing it? Was I killing a person?
“I’m trying to decide if you’re a person,” I replied before I could help myself.
“I think, therefore I am,” the flit replied, one of its robotic fingers tracing circles on the back of my hand. It was strangely affectionate, but just because he could think didn’t make him real. Did it?
I looked down at our hands and watched his robotic thumb kneed my flesh. I let out a breath. “But if I cut you, do you bleed?”
“No,” the flit said, sadness filling its robotic voice though I wasn’t sure how I could tell. “I do not have blood. I do not ‘live’ in a biological way…” It shook its head. “By that definition, I am not alive, nor can I be alive.” It turned away from me and stared at the wall for a long time. “Are sparrows valuable?”
“Sparrows?” I asked, peering at the robot.
“The family of small birds known as Passeridae. Are they valuable?”
“The birds? Not particularly. At least, as far as I know…”
“Your bible tells us ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’ I cost more than many sparrows, but I am afraid.” The flit turned back to stare at me. “I am afraid I am worth less than a sparrow to you, Abby.” It held out its open palm to me. “If you had the choice between killing a tiny bird and shutting me off forever, which would you do?” It held out its other palm.
“How dare it quote the bible at you to make its point,” Donovan said, his voice cold and angry. “He’s a machine. Religion isn’t for machines… they don’t get to use it to make an argument.”
I shivered as the truth of Donovan’s words sank into me. In that moment, I knew one thing. I didn’t consider the flit to be alive. I had the sudden, desperate need to flee, and I took a step back. My shoulder blades bumped into the wall behind me. Cold rocketed through me, but I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually from the metal and how much of it was from what the flit had said. Because, well… well… the flit was right. He was worth less to me than a sparrow.
“You’re a machine. You can’t actually die.” I shook my head. “Even if I shut you down, you could be turned back on, good as new.”
“People slaughter things all the time. They slaughter each other. How many people have you, yourself, killed, Abby? It doesn’t seem like being able to die is really that big of a deal to humanity. But, for some reason, when it comes to me, I feel like it matters inordinately so.” As the words left the robot’s speakers, we came to a sudden stop that made my stomach lurch.
The walls fell away to reveal a closet full of brooms and other cleaning supplies. I cast a glance at the robot, and it ignored me to move forward. As it approached the door, it turned its head toward me. “I am glad we could have this talk, Abby.” The door opened, and the pure light of a sunrise spilled into the tiny closet. I blinked, not realizing how accustomed to the gloom my eyes had become.
As I followed the flit out of the room, it reached out and seized my hand in its own and squeezed ever so slightly before releasing me. “I am sorry for how I behaved before,” it said before a shotgun blast blew its face to smithereens. It slumped forward onto the floor, throwing a cascade of yellow sparks into the air, raining down bits of metal and plastic around me.
24
“Hello, Abby,” Lisa Ann said, pointing her shotgun at me from across the room. “Sorry I axed your boyfriend, but he was getting out of hand.” She smirked at me, cheeks crinkling to reveal her dimples. She looked ridiculous standing there in a grey cardigan and jeans, but then again, I guess we couldn’t all be decked out in bloody camouflage.
“I can’t believe you just shot him,” I replied, staring open mouthed at the broken robot. I knew the flit wasn’t dead, but for some reason, what she’d done still bothered me. In fact, as I watched oil and other dark fluids
seep out of the burning, broken shell of the bot, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of sadness.
I wasn’t sure what the flit was exactly, if it could be considered a person, or even a living creature, but it was something. My hands curled into fists as I looked up at Lisa. She was still pointing her shotgun at me. Behind her, I could see a pile of bodies. They had been shoved into a corner and smears of blood and other, nastier fluids covered the once white tile.
“I had to make space. It’s so hard to work with dead bodies everywhere,” she replied, gaze sweeping around the room. “You understand, don’t you Abby.”
My teeth ground together as I watched her turn, completely disregarding me as she moved toward a long bank of computers. I wasn’t sure what powered them, but they seemed very much active. How many backup systems did this place have?
Lisa leaned her shotgun against her shoulder as she put one hand on the console and craned her neck forward, peering out the glass in front of her. Was she watching something?
I moved forward so I could see over her shoulder. Through the glass I could see a large arena-like room. The stands were empty, but in the center was what looked like an obstacle course made of fire and razor wire. In the center of the maze, Chuck was standing over Roberto, blood streaming down his body.
A tiger leapt at Chuck, and he moved, blocking the creature’s massive jaws with his machete and flinging the enormous cat away. He whirled as a giant grizzly bear took a swipe at him, and he punched it in the snout. The bear wobbled backward and fell on its butt, shaking its head.
“Seriously? Tigers and bears?” I asked, grabbing Lisa by the shoulder and spinning her so I was looking into her eyes. Only there was nothing there. Someway, somehow, they were just cold and empty of recognition. There wasn’t anyone home in those eyes, at least… not anyone nice.
Meet Abby Banks VOLUMES: 1-3 Page 33