by A. W. Cross
“What do you mean, what they’ve done?” Mil asked, his voice wary.
“Everybody, sit down.” Ryan spoke with practiced authority and everyone sat. Except me.
“But—” We needed to find Callum.
“Ailith, I saw Callum a few hours ago. He can’t have gotten far.” Tor was already seated.
I slid into my normal place beside him. “I need to talk you,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded, his gaze fixed on the table in front of him.
Fane took the seat on the other side of me. Displaced, Cindra sat across from me, next to Oliver. She reached for his hand under the table.
“Okay, Ryan, start from the beginning.”
“After…what happened, there was chaos. Nobody knew what was going on—”
“Ailith, I’m so sorry,” Lily burst out. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. I never should’ve told you I knew you were a cyborg. I only told you because I-I didn’t want you to have to hide, not from me. I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Not even me,” Ryan said grimly. “You should’ve told me.” His voice sounded tired with repetition. They’d obviously had this conversation before.
“I didn’t want to put them at risk. I was worried about what would happen. And I was right.”
“When did my father tell you?” I pictured him, telling her in confidence, his heart needing someone else to know his daughter was still alive.
“He didn’t tell me. I just knew. I was a nurse before the war. I— The way you all moved, the way you looked. The things Cindra knew.” She glanced at Cindra, her eyes apologetic. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“So the injection you gave us, it was what you said it was?” Cindra asked.
“Of course! I never meant you any harm. Just the opposite, in fact. I-I think we need you. I knew some wouldn’t agree, but you’ve helped us. Nobody could deny that. What reason would you have to harm us?”
“We wouldn’t. But the war…there are people who blame us.” A haunted expression briefly touched Cindra’s face, her hand unconsciously covering the inside of her arm where they’d burned her. Barely a mark remained, but none of us would ever forget it. Oliver drew even closer to her.
“I’m sure there are. But most of us aren’t like that, Cindra. It wasn’t our war.”
“So what happened? Why did they turn on you?”
“I think everyone would’ve been fine. Nobody really understood what Kalbir said. Not all of it. She…she wouldn’t be the first person to have been…unbalanced. We’ve seen it before, people wandering into the town, raving about machines, or thinking they were part one.” She turned to Ryan, and he nodded. “But we knew it was a form of post-traumatic stress. I mean, it’s a completely normal reaction, considering. We’ve seen it in the victims of the silver rain. Given that we just had a fall of it, people would’ve believed that was the cause. It wouldn’t have absolved her of your father’s murder, but it would’ve explained it.”
Oliver and I exchanged glances. “What happened to those people?” I asked.
“They died. I mean, they were sick. Their mental health, whether from the war or their illness, was just a side effect, I’m sure of it.”
I wouldn’t be so sure . I avoided looking at either Mil or Lexa. Now was not the time.
“Ryan had handcuffed Kalbir. The crowd was still in shock. We don’t see a lot of violence anymore. Most people were still there, talking about what had happened and tending to the sick. I was…moving Luke’s—your father’s body, when a man stepped up.”
“Ethan,” Stella said. “His name is Ethan.”
Lily’s lip began to bleed afresh. Handing her some gauze Lexa had brought to the table, Ryan took over.
“He told everyone. What you are. They would’ve just laughed at him any other day, but after what they’d seen…and after Kalbir—that shot took off most of her shoulder. And she wouldn’t stay down. It was clear she’s…not human. Even after I locked her in the cell, she— It was like her injury didn’t matter.” He held up his hands as he looked at us. “I’m not judging. You are what you are. I believe you when you say you mean us no harm. You’ve certainly had the opportunity. We wouldn’t have helped Tor and Lexa get out otherwise.”
“So Ethan outed us?” I asked. Fane’s hand curled into a fist in his lap. I placed my hand over it.
“Yes. And he said you were planning to attack us, annex us. He even went so far as to suggest the silver rain was your fault.”
If only he knew how right he was. Maybe he did. I couldn’t rule out anything at this point.
“And people listened. He whipped them up, reminded them about the war, and blamed you for it. He—” Ryan glanced at his daughter. “He even said you were responsible for that mass murder of the group over near Cress. Our scout originally thought it was a pack of wild animals, but…what he said, it made sense. Kalbir herself even alluded to it.”
“I’m sorry,” Fane said under his breath.
“Is it true?” Ryan asked into the silence.
“Yes, it’s true,” Oliver said, wrapping his arm around Cindra’s shoulders. “They were holding Pax and Cindra hostage and torturing them.”
Lily’s hand flew to her mouth. “You murdered all those people?”
“Yes,” I said. “But it wasn’t our intention. We only wanted to talk. But things…got out of control.”
“The scout said there were nearly a hundred bodies,” Ryan said. “How did so few of you kill that many?” He slumped in his chair, a man in the lion’s den with no other place to go.
Grace burst into tears.
“It wasn’t just us,” Cindra said hastily. “There’s a group, a cult, The—”
“The Saints of Loving Grace?” Ryan asked.
Cindra nodded.
“Yes, we know about them. From all accounts, they’re odd, and they keep to themselves as they did before the war, but I’ve never heard of them being violent.”
“They thought Cindra and Pax were artilects. They were trying to save them.”
We were on dangerous ground now. Although Lily and Ryan insisted they didn’t feel any animosity toward us, what Oliver had just told them could change that. We appeared to be everything Ethan had said we were. And if they knew about Fane…
“Where would they get that idea?” asked Ryan.
“Look, I’m sorry, but we don’t have time for this right now,” I said.
“Why? What’s going on?” Ryan’s eyes narrowed.
Not much, just that one of us has been taken over by an evil machine who tried to bump us off, and you’re sitting in the same room with the people who invented silver rain. And practically murdered a young woman because she caught them. Other than that? Pax has a closet full of ugly sweaters. That’s all.
“Is that true?” Pax asked out loud.
Shit.
“Nothing, we just…one of our own is missing, and we’re worried about him.”
“I would be too, if I were you. The people are out for blood.”
Mil looked at Ryan sharply. “What do you mean?”
“Well, that’s why we’re here. After Ethan’s pretty speech, people were scared and confused. Then Ethan revealed that they’d been looking for you, trying to prevent you from hurting people. That they’d hunted you even before the war and figured you would eventually come to Goldnesse. He said they could protect us from you. That they knew how to control you.” He looked at Tor. “Is it true?”
“Of course not. They’re Cosmists. It may be true that they tried to hunt us before the war, but out of altruism? No. They’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise. They’re exploiting you, nothing more.”
“Did he say how they could protect you? How they would stop us?” I asked.
Do not look at Fane. Do not look at Fane.
“No, just that they understand how you’re made. He offered to protect us from you.”
“In exchange for what?” Oliver asked. “What was their price?”
“Nothing. Well, something that would benefit all of us. He pointed out that you have the facilities here to help us. Supplies, the ability to make medications, technology that could help us rebuild. We would all benefit, and in exchange for our help, they would also protect us from you. He hinted that you’re not the only ones.”
“And people believed him?”
“They’re scared. We tried to tell them that you mean us no harm, that you’ve been helping us…but nobody wanted to listen. I even pointed out that it was Tor who stopped Kalbir, but it didn’t matter. They turned on us.”
“On you? Why?”
“Because I knew what you were and didn’t tell anyone. I let you in. They…they attacked us. They locked us in our house. They think we’re on your side, that we would come and warn you.” As her mother spoke, Grace covered her face with her hands.
“They seem to have been right,” Oliver said. “Or are you leading them to us? Letting them in? Is coming here your penance?”
“No! No. We need to stop this, now. We’ll end up destroying each other otherwise. Besides,” Lily said, “we have nowhere else to go now.”
That, at least, was true.
“How did you escape?” Oliver’s suspicious nature was serving us well.
“Tor helped us. And Stella.”
“You went back?” Oliver’s voice was incredulous.
Tor kept his gaze on the surface of the table. “I had to go back. You were trying to fix us all. I had to do something. Lily and Ryan didn’t deserve this. And I wanted to get Luke’s body. And Kalbir…”
“You went back to get her?” My remorse evaporated.
He closed his eyes. “She’s still one of us, Ailith. And she was affected by the corruption. She wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
“You don’t know that.”
He wouldn’t look at me.
“Well then, where is she? Earlier you told me she was locked in a cell.”
“She was. But Ethan took her,” Stella said.
“Ethan? How did that happen?”
“Like they said, people are scared. They didn’t want her anywhere near the town. They wanted to execute her on the spot, but Ethan said he would take her somewhere and…extract information from her.”
“Is that true, Stella? Do you think he’ll torture her?” A small, terrible part of me hoped he would.
Stella considered Fane before answering. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. She seemed pretty happy to go with him.”
“Then she’s in danger,” Fane said.
“Why? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Ethan hates cyborgs,” he replied. “But he’s attracted to her. I could tell when they were here. He’ll keep her for now, but when his infatuation wears off…I don’t know what he’ll do to her.”
“I don’t c—”
“What do you think his plan is, Fane?” Oliver interrupted.
“Knowing Ethan the way I do,” Fane said slowly, “and considering he wants your compound…he probably wants to start building AI again.”
Tor turned to Ryan and Lily, his face grim . “Now you see? That’s why they’re coming here. Not to help you. They’re going to take the compound for themselves. And all of us with it.”
If I stand by what we did, why then did we wish to keep it a secret? The answer lies in perception. We can’t change what happened in the past, but we can use it to direct the future. And because we had to keep the narrative under our control for it to be successful, any threat to our particular version of it had to be silenced.
—Mil Cothi, personal journal
“What? They’re coming here? Why didn’t you lead with that?” Oliver asked.
“We—” Flustered, Ryan reddened.
“Never mind. We need to decide what to do, now,” Oliver said. All eyes turned to the head of the table. “Mil?”
“Ethan knows where we are—”
“Thanks to you,” Oliver interrupted. “How long until they get here?”
Ryan scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know. Ethan said they needed to ‘do it right.’ They’ll take their time, gathering weapons, making a plan.”
“Aren’t they worried we’ll run?”
“A woman with him said that Mil would never leave his life’s work behind. She seemed pretty confident that you would stay. Is that true?”
The lines on Mil’s face deepened. “It is. I couldn’t run anyway, even if I wanted to. You know that, Lily. I don’t have a lot of time left.”
“So what will you do?”
“We can collapse the mine tunnel entrance into the compound. They won’t be able to get in. We have years’ worth of supplies here. We can wait for a very long time.”
Oliver snorted. “Well, that’s great, but we won’t be able to get out. So how does that help us?”
“There is another way out of here, an emergency exit. It comes out several miles away.”
“I’d say this qualifies as an emergency. How do we know they won’t find that exit?”
“We don’t. But there are also five false exits.”
“False exits?”
“They look like exit tunnels on the outside, and they do lead into the hill, but not to here. There’s a warren of mining tunnels. Only one leads to the compound. The rest…it’s a maze down there, miles of it. A person could get easily lost.” Mil smiled dourly.
“What if they dig us out?”
“They can certainly try. It’ll take them a long time, and they’d have to be careful. Blasting the tunnel will make it very unstable. Then there’s the matter of the doors. They’re built to withstand explosions. They can try and blow them up, but they’d risk taking down the whole place, and Ethan would know that.”
“So you’re saying we should just stay here?”
“No. But I am saying that we have time.”
“What about them?” Cindra nodded toward Ryan and his family.
“You’re welcome to stay with us, of course,” Lexa replied. “Cindra, why don’t you take them into the kitchen, fix them up with something to eat? Then they can have a shower and get cleaned up. We…we have a few spare rooms upstairs.”
Lily stood on unsteady legs. “Thank you, Lexa. All of you. I’m so sorry that it’s come to this.”
Cindra led them to the kitchen, wrapping her arm around Grace’s thin shoulders.
I pushed myself away from the table and stood up. “I’m going after Callum. I’m certain Umbra is behind this corruption.”
“You’re positive it wasn’t Ethan and the others?” asked Fane. “How can you be sure? I thought you were staying out of Callum’s mind.”
“I’m pretty confident. I don’t dare go into Callum’s head the way I normally would, but when I was out after my—after what happened in Goldnesse, I saw scraps from everyone. Callum and Umbra were arguing. Callum was trying to stop her, saying we would find out. She seemed to know what was happening to us.”
“That’s a bit vague, don’t you think?” Lexa asked.
“Oh, and he also wrote her name on his wall in blood. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure.”
Oliver shook his head. “I agree that we underestimated her. I can understand how she managed to corrupt some of the nanites—I mean, she was surrounded by them and she’s part of Callum’s system—but I still don’t understand how they got from him to us. I—"
“Through me,” I said, closing my eyes as the realization hit me. I turned to Fane. “Remember when you found me in the hallway? And I said she’d tried to do something to me and all she could manage was to breathe on me?”
Understanding lit his face. “They’re airborne. She released them in that breath, and you inhaled them.”
“And then I must’ve passed them to everyone else,” I finished. “But how?”
“The coughing,” Oliver said.
“Coughing?”
“Remember? In your room, when we were all gathered there? When Tor and Fane were butting heads like two rutting sta
gs? You were coughing everywhere. And if the corrupted nanites were airborne…”
Even though it was far too late, I covered my mouth with my hand. “Could she do it again?” I asked Oliver from behind my fingers. “Or worse?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea what she’s capable of, or what’s going to happen to Callum now.”
“We need to find them. We can decide what to do once we’ve got them back.”
“I’ll come with you,” Fane volunteered. “She was interested in me. Maybe I could speak to her.”
“I’ll come too,” Tor said. “But how do we find them?”
“I don’t know. I should be able to get a sense of his general direction. But then Umbra will know we’re coming.”
“Actually, I think I can help with that,” Pax said.
“I thought you didn’t want to influence the variables.”
“This information won’t. The variables occur around the moment of interaction. Umbra wants to be like Fane, right? And Callum knows everything that happened to us on the road?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the one place an artilect would be welcome?”
My stomach twisted. “The Saints of Loving Grace.”
“I think so. That’s where I would go.”
“If that’s the case, that changes things,” Oliver said. “They shouldn’t be capable of doing anything with Umbra, but I didn’t think she’d be capable of doing what she’s done, either. If she gets to them, and they’re able to do something with her—”
“They don’t have the technology, Oliver. There’s no way.”
“Ethan,” Pax said.
“What? What does Ethan have to do with this?” I asked.
“If the Saints somehow manage to salvage Umbra, and Ethan finds out about her and has control of the compound…Callum—and by proxy, Umbra—knows what Ethan could do with the right equipment. And if Ethan wants to start recreating AI…”
“Complete and utter clusterfuck,” Oliver finished. “Goddamn. You guys need to go now. And don’t worry about bringing him back alive. It’s the safest option.”
“I hate to agree, but Oliver’s right,” Tor said gently.
“We at least need to talk to Callum first. But I agree, if we have to, we’ll kill them,” I added as Oliver seemed about to protest my diplomacy. There has to be another way.