by James Somers
Solomon spoke up. “Come on out, Max.”
The older man, who had helped Chloe bring him to the Christian meeting, stepped out from behind one of the defensive walls. He held a capsule gun trained on Jason.
“Don’t move, son.” Max approached Jason cautiously from behind. He wore a perceptor tech combat uniform just like Gauge. Jason recognized it as the type older agents had worn, before some of the last upgrades.
Max became forceful. “I mean it, Night. You drop that blade, or I’ll drop you. I’m not packing tranquilizers here, boy.”
Jason tightened his grip on the blade. He was about to run out of options. Gauge was finally within his reach. He was going to lose his opportunity. Chloe stood next to her father with a pleading look in her eyes.
Jason knew she didn’t want him to get hurt. For some reason she appeared to care for him. If she hadn’t been standing there, making him feel so guilty, he would have taken his chances and thrown the blade.
Max kept his distance and his aim. If the young agent made the slightest move with his knife, Max would kill him.
ALFRED
They stood at a stalemate. Actually, Jason was quite outmatched with Solomon Gauge watching him, katana in hand, and Max covering him with a gun. Max grew impatient for Jason to disarm.
Then the sound of a vehicle filtered into the gorge. It came from somewhere above and stopped. Jason watched the canyon wall and soon saw Alfred standing on the edge of the gorge.
The tables had turned. Jason spoke into his auditory receiver. “Disarm the two men, Alfred.”
The robot complied immediately. Alfred stepped off of the cliff and plummeted to the sandstone floor below. He landed behind one of the ramparts, but immediately somersaulted over and ran toward Max, at full speed.
Alfred appeared in H7 form with no perceptor disguise. He carried no weapon, bore no expression, but he came on like a juggernaut.
Solomon shouted at Jason. “Call him off!”
Jason ignored them. Max kept his weapon on Jason, but he was growing nervous. In seconds, the robot would be upon them. Solomon pulled a capsule gun from a holster on the side of his thigh and took aim at the approaching robot.
He fired an armor piercing round directly on target.
The shell hit Alfred square in the side of the head. He buckled slightly, but kept running. Jason tensed on his blade, but he was unsure of whether he should kill Solomon. Chloe still stood next to her father. Jason considered what the outcome would be. She would hate him forever. For some reason, he wasn’t fully aware of, he didn’t want her to hate him.
Solomon’s words swirled around like a storm in his mind, but whether they were true or not, he still wanted control of the situation. Alfred would return that control to him and then he could sort out the truth from the lies.
Solomon fired again with an acid rain capsule. It knocked Alfred off of his feet. The robot tumbled then got up and came again—relentless.
Max couldn’t stand it any longer. He turned as he switched his magazine to acid rain and fired on the approaching robot, hitting him square in the chest. He tumbled and then sprang high into the air.
Max tried to follow, but Alfred was too quick. He landed before Max. With a snap of his arm, he sent the man flying backward through the air and the capsule gun out of his hand.
The robot paused and looked at his master. Jason smiled back at his old friend then something unexpected happened. Alfred began to stalk toward Jason.
“Alfred? What are you doing?” Jason wasn’t quite sure what was happening.
Then Alfred’s voice spoke, but it wasn’t from the robot stalking toward him. Alfred’s voice spoke through Jason’s auditory receiver in a panic. “Sir, my systems have been overridden somehow, I’m not in control! RUN!”
Jason tried to react, but the H7 was already upon him. The robot slammed a powerful arm into Jason’s torso, knocking him backward into the sandy soil. If it hadn’t been for the combat uniform he wore under his beggar’s attire, he probably would have sustained a number of broken ribs.
Alfred stalked after his prey, but he was met with more acid rain capsules. Solomon Gauge pounded the robot with round after round, tumbling him like a child hit with a wave breaking upon the shore. Chloe cried out to Jason and ran toward him.
Jason tried to get back the breath Alfred had robbed him of and make sense of the robot’s unexpected attack. Chloe crouched at his side helping him to stand.
“Come on, Jason, Run!” Chloe tried to help him get up the steps.
Max got to his feet again and joined Solomon as they kept the H7 under fire. The robot spun away from them and leaped over one of the sandstone walls for cover. They blasted several more rounds of acid rain into the wall, sending chunks of sandstone into the air.
Chloe and Jason made their way up the stairs with Max coming up behind them. Solomon lowered his weapon and helped to support Jason’s weight. Jason was surprised Gauge was helping him, especially after he had just tried to kill the man.
Still, Jason accepted his help, grateful for it. Alfred had dealt him a deadly blow. Only his combat uniform had saved him. It just didn’t make sense. What had happened to Alfred?
Insight sank into his dazed consciousness. Wraith hadn’t disappeared at all. He had, instead, managed to capture Alfred, implanting some deadly program into his friend. It was just like Wraith to pull something so devious, sending Jason’s own servant to do his dirty work.
Alfred’s voice buzzed in Jason’s ear again. “Sir, watch out!”
A piece of sandstone the size of his head smashed into one of the massive columns of Al Khazneh next to them. They turned to find the H7 hurling several more hunks of the orange rock their way. Solomon shouted. “Take cover inside!”
They ran for the entrance to the treasury as chunks of rock pounded into the stone walls of the old temple. Max fired off several more rounds of the nitro capsules. He was too busy trying to keep out of the path of small boulders to maintain any accuracy.
Jason’s last sight through the entrance of the Treasury was Max running inside and Alfred hopping over the crumbled sandstone wall. The robot ran after them. He would be inside the Treasury with them in seconds.
“How do we keep him out?” Chloe asked.
Jason turned back as Gauge followed them down the long tunnel that led into the inner chambers. “Solomon, blast the roof of the tunnel and cave it in.”
“But we’ll be trapped in here. The emergency exit hasn’t been completed yet.”
“Don’t worry. If we survive, Alfred will have already cleared the way to get at us.”
Alfred’s silhouette appeared in the entrance of the Treasury against the sunlit background. He spotted his prey and took off down the long tunnel after them.
Solomon took aim again and hit Alfred with more nitro capsules. The robot faltered and fell, but quickly clamored back to his feet and started after them again. Solomon decided Jason was right and fired his weapon several times into the roof of the tunnel between them and the robot.
Mounds of rock fell into the tunnel between them and Alfred. Solomon fired again and more rock fell, drowning out the sunlight beyond. They were now trapped inside Al Khazneh.
Almost immediately, they heard the thud of rocks being thrown back on the stone floor beyond the cave-in. The robot wasted no time trying to clear the debris so that he could acquire his targets again to carry out his new programming.
Alfred’s voice came through his receiver again. “Sir, are you and the others all right?”
“We’re fine for the moment, but isn’t there anything you can do to stop yourself?”
“Sir, I’m trying desperately to locate the program. It has locked me out of the direct control pathway, so my only recourse is searching every line of code.”
“How many?”
“Millions, I’m afraid.”
Solomon looked puzzled. “Who are you talking to?”
“My robot. Control of his body has been s
tolen from his positronic brain by some viral program. The Babylon agents on my tail must have installed it. Alfred’s mind is trying to search all the lines of code for the viral program so he can eliminate it.”
Max spoke up. “That may not be quick enough. There are millions of lines of code to go through!”
They ran past the motorcycles still parked near the main power box. Behind them, the sound of rocks being hurled back onto the stone floor became faster. It wouldn’t be long before Alfred’s out-of-control body got through the rubble.
Solomon and Max stopped at a storage locker as they entered the large chamber and loaded up on capsule ammunition and extra guns. So far, only the acid rain capsules had done any good, and that only temporarily.
Jason watched Solomon load his gun. Solomon looked up and paused for just a moment. He reached into the locker and tossed Jason a capsule gun. Jason couldn’t believe the man was willing to trust him with a weapon after what he had done.
Solomon grinned. “Call it a peace offering. I want you to know that what I’ve said is the truth. You can trust me. I don’t mean you any harm. I hope you’re a man of honor, as well?”
Jason knew the last statement meant, “Use this weapon against us and you have no honor.” As a soldier, it cut Jason to the quick. He wouldn’t kill Solomon this way. He did have his honor.
Without honor, Jason knew he would be no better than someone like Wraith. He could never become that. The truth was, he still didn’t know what to do about Gauge, if anything.
Jason couldn’t ignore the facts. Babylon had turned on him the moment he said he wanted out. It seemed like they may have been using him all along. Maybe, he thought, Sarah was the smart one for switching sides when she did.
Jason accepted a clip and loaded his weapon. Solomon nodded. Max looked relieved. Jason pointed at the old robots along the chamber wall. “I’ve got an idea that might slow him down. Exactly how many old H3 robots do you have?”
Solomon smiled. “We’ve got fifty on hand. I could order them to intercept your robot when he comes through.”
“But will it stop him?” Chloe looked nervously back down the tunnel. “None of our H3s could take the kind of pounding your robot did from our weapons.”
Jason considered it. “Alfred has been heavily modified, but if they can divert his attention long enough then maybe we can backtrack through the tunnel and escape through the hole he’s making to get in here.”
“It’s worth a try,” Max said. “I don’t see any other options. That thing will get through in minutes.”
Solomon ran back into the large chamber with everyone else on his tail. The H3s stood lined up on the far wall, plugged into power outlets in order to charge their batteries.
Solomon commanded the robots. “H3 robots, come online.”
All of the robots activated at his command, and disconnected themselves from the power stations. They turned to him awaiting further instructions.
“H3 robots, there is an intruder that seeks to harm the humans in this room. The intruder is a robot and must be stopped at all costs. You must protect the human lives and destroy the robot which is about to enter this chamber. Do you understand your instructions?”
The robots spoke simultaneously. “Affirmative.”
At that moment, they all heard a final push of rocks.
Max turned toward the tunnel. “He’s gotten through!”
Solomon readied his gun. “Everybody, get ready. Hit him with the heavy stuff.”
Jason spoke up. “We need to let the H3s engage him and then try to get past him. He may only be after me.”
With a few heavy steps, Alfred appeared in the tunnel entrance and sized up the room as he sought his targets. Finding Jason and Solomon Gauge, he headed into the room at a brisk stride.
The H3 robots all came away from the wall and stepped in front of the humans to block the way. Alfred paused when he saw the robots moving to protect, but quickly started again.
The H3s were older models than Alfred was. He could mimic the smoothness of human movements to a tee and was much more sleekly styled. The first of the H3s moved into his path and grabbed Alfred. He quickly reversed the move and jerked on the robots left arm.
Alfred sent an elbow into its chest. The H3’s left arm pulled right off of its body and Alfred quickly snapped two fast jabs into the H3’s face that crushed the front of its alloy skull. Alfred let it fall and continued on toward his prey as the other H3s moved in.
Alfred was surrounded. Chaos erupted between the robots as the H3s pounded Alfred’s exoskeleton. He fought back furiously. H3s exploded and fell amid great arcs of electricity and sparks. Shrapnel from Alfred’s counterattack littered the chamber floor as he fought to free himself from the mob of robots, to get to his prey.
“We’ve got to move!” Jason led the others around the pack of robots.
They ran around in a wide arc, trying to stay well away from the mechanical violence, heading for the tunnel. Jason and the others ran down the tunnel until they reached the rubble that blocked the way. About half of it had been pushed away on either side of the blockage.
Jason motioned to the others. “I think we can get past if we climb through one at a time. Chloe, you go first then Max and Solomon. I’ll cover until you’re through.”
Solomon helped Chloe climb up the mound of sandstone rubble. She had to crawl through the opening on her belly. Max followed. Jason heard the noisy battle waged back in the chamber. He ran back to the mouth of the tunnel just in time to see Alfred break through the last H3 robot. Shattered exoskeletons lay scattered around him.
Solomon shouted to him. “Come on, Jason!”
Alfred ran toward Jason as he fired several well aimed shots of acid rain at his old friend. Alfred staggered then went down, but quickly recovered. Jason turned and ran for the pile of rubble with a fifty yard lead on Alfred. The H7 quickly closed the gap.
Jason saw Solomon already through and waiting at the opening to help pull him to safety. “Come on, hurry!” Solomon shouted.
Jason hit the pile of sandstone rocks running. He reached for the opening at the top of the pile. He grabbed the preacher’s hands, and Solomon started to pull Jason through the hole.
Jason felt a powerful hand grab his ankle. Alfred pulled with mechanical might that Solomon couldn’t match. Jason fell back into the tunnel, landing on the stone floor in front of the robot. Jason tried to aim his gun at point blank range, but Alfred smacked the weapon from his hand. It went skittering back down the tunnel.
Alfred grabbed Jason by the throat and pulled him up, slamming his body back into the wall. Jason couldn’t breathe. Alfred began to crush his throat with his powerful mechanical hand. Jason frantically wailed into the robot’s head and body with his fists and feet, but it was no use. He could do no damage to the robot.
Then Alfred became still. The hand that held Jason relaxed. He pried his throat from the robot’s grasp, slumping to the floor. Solomon yelled to him, but he could hardly hear anything except the ringing in his ears and Alfred’s voice calling to him through the auditory receiver.
Alfred remained motionless, standing there menacingly still in the same position it had been while attempting to crush the life from Jason. Alfred’s voice sounded frantic coming through Jason’s auditory receiver. “Sir, are you all right?”
Jason couldn’t answer. His throat ached.
“Sir, I’ve isolated the viral program and have shut down all power to my body. I’m wiping the program at the moment. Are you all right?”
He barely managed a hoarse reply. “I’m all right, old friend. Thanks for the save.”
“I’m most happy to oblige, sir.” Alfred sounded relieved.
Solomon and Chloe got to his side again, trying to help him to stand. At the moment he was just glad to still be alive.
UNBELIEF
Everyone sat out in the shade near the columns of Al Khazneh. The sun beat down unmercifully upon the area, and the sandstone was almo
st hot enough to cook upon.
Alfred prepared the vehicle he had brought with him. It was all the way back near the entrance to the Siq. They would have to ride out on one of the motorcycles that Jason and Chloe had come in on. Then they would make their way back to Jerusalem to break camp within the old sewage plant which had served as their base of operation for the past year.
Solomon hovered over Jason. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah. I’ll just be a little sore for awhile, I guess.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t get the chance to kill me before we could talk. I really am very sorry to hear about Sarah. She was a good person.”
“Yeah…we were going to be married.” Jason choked out. “I guess going to meet you and hand over that disc was business she had to take care of first.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Jason had only sought out Solomon to kill him for Sarah’s death, but the fact was he simply wasn’t responsible. Sarah had become a Christian at some point, but it just didn’t make sense to him. Why would she have joined a terrorist group responsible for all manner of atrocities?
Jason looked at Solomon. “What was supposed to be on that disc, anyway?”
“Evidence. That was the proof we needed to clear our names as Christians. The world has been deceived concerning a great many things, Jason.”
“Yeah, like what?”
Max chimed in. “To start with, that disc contained the initial plans for the worldwide terrorist bombings that took place after the rapture of the church.”
“What plans? Christian plans?”
Solomon straightened. “No! Babylon’s plans. In particular, the plans that Oliver Theed put into action to frame the believers in Christ and establish a lie to explain away the rapture of God’s church.”
“Babylon was responsible for those attacks? I never heard of any such operation by Babylon.”
Solomon continued. “That’s because it was only supposed to be known by very few, Jason. Can you imagine what would happen to our good High Representative if the world learned the truth? He’d be sentenced to death, if some country’s mercenary didn’t get to him first. A lot of people were killed in those attacks and all for the purpose of blaming the Christians.”