Disparity

by Eric Warren

  “Slowing down,” Frees added.

  He was right. The cruiser had slowed. They might have to make a run for it. Or Frees could just shoot the car’s occupants, but she was sure he wouldn’t do that.

  The cruiser stopped and the door swung up, revealing none other than Officer Foley, who struggled to extricate his large frame from the vehicle. His movements weren’t coordinated like the first time he’d approached them in the park; this time he seemed either annoyed or under the influence of something. Remembering their last encounter Arista considered it might be painkillers.

  “You three, identi—” His words were cut short by Arista’s fist clocking Foley across the jaw. Right before it made a connection she noticed a light bruise where her last hit had landed and she couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride that the medical marvels of this place hadn’t completely healed him.

  Foley stumbled back, hitting the car and trying to brace himself before he slipped and his ass landed in a puddle. He struggled for his weapon but Arista grabbed his hand, yanking the gun from its holster. Foley, still somewhat dazed, reached up to tap his temple but she swatted his hand away.

  “Officer down,” Foley said, though she thought he might be delirious as he was speaking to no one. The car was empty.

  “Here,” Arista said. “Stuff him in the back and get in. We can use the system to contact Jennings.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Blu asked. “Police communications are monitored.”

  “I’m not sure we have the time,” Arista said. “We need to shut Charlie out; so we need to start with the biggest targets in the city.”

  “How can we be sure he’ll use a police vehicle?” Frees asked.

  “We can’t. But we can make sure he doesn’t have the opportunity.”

  Frees picked up Foley, who moaned slightly, and tossed him unceremoniously into the back of the cruiser. Arista took one glance around and saw a few bystanders, watching them through the rain. It didn’t matter. She doubted they could see their faces.

  Blu ran to the other side and slid into the passenger seat as Arista got behind the controls and closed the door as soon as Frees was clear. “Contact your dad,” she told Blu. “Make sure he knows the plan. Is that thing encrypted?” Blu pursed her lips and looked at Arista like she was the stupidest person on the planet. “Sorry I asked. Let’s get off this road.”

  The controls were already familiar to her and she easily maneuvered the vehicle around a few adjacent streets until they came to one without any other foot traffic. She pulled it to the side and inspected the interior. There had to be a backup communication system in here somewhere; in the case officers’ comm devices were damaged in the line of duty.

  “I sent it but I haven’t heard anything back yet,” Blu said. Foley moaned again from the back seat.

  “Help me find the comm,” Arista said, searching the cockpit. Blu glanced down, running her hands over the series of buttons and touchpads.

  “There,” Frees said, pointing above their heads. A small switch labeled “comm”.

  “Are you sure?” Blu asked.

  “We…” she hesitated. What if blasting their plan across the police communications somehow alerted Charlie? She didn’t want to do that either. “Let’s just get him to meet us. If we meet in person he still might be able to isolate all the vehicles. Including this one.”

  “Or,” Blu said. “We could use his encryption key. I might be able to do it myself if I can get into the headquarters.”

  Arista shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. Jennings won’t be noticed by anyone. And he can issue an official alert letting them know there is a danger. Better than risking you getting caught.”

  Blu sat back in the seat, crossing her arms.

  Arista hit the comm button. “Unit…” It took her a second to locate the registry printed on Blu’s side of the dash. “Unit LZ-44 to HQ. Priority message for Officer Jennings.”

  “Copy LZ-44, patching you through,” came a man’s voice on the other end.

  “This is Jennings.” Arista recognized the voice and the Device confirmed it.

  She made her voice as deep as it could possibly get. “Priority alert. The rogue prisoner has been found. Report to garage bay 1 for pursuit.”

  “Say again, LZ-44—Foley, is that you?”

  Arista gritted her teeth, but as she went to open her mouth, Foley’s voice spoke for her. “It’s me, Jennings. We’ve got a lead on that escapee. Do you want to bring her in or not?” Arista turned to see Frees speaking with Foley’s voice. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

  “Copy partner. I’ll be at the garage in two minutes.”

  Arista cut the comm. “Good thinking,” she said, slamming her foot on the ascend pedal sending the cruiser rising in the air. She jerked the controls, spinning the car and pointing it directly at police headquarters, but she was staying low enough to avoid the sky lanes. Hitting the sirens, she slammed the throttle forward and the car took off, speeding like a bullet toward HQ. The controls were just as solid as on the last vehicle but she managed to handle them with more precision. Somehow, she’d become an even better driver without any experience. She couldn’t help a glancing thought run through her brain; something about how she was adapting so quickly to things now. But she let the thought pass; there was too much on the line to be lost in thought.

  The ports on the side of the building opened as she approached, slowing to a near-crawl so she didn’t slam into the building. Already she could see Jennings standing beside one of the parking lanes inside the building. She pulled the vehicle in with precision accuracy, turning to Frees. “Don’t let him run.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Frees replied. He opened the back gull-wing door to reveal Jennings standing there, alert at first. Then his face changed to confusion. Then to fear. “Get in, officer,” Frees said.

  Jennings’ eyes switched from Frees to Arista to Foley laying against the seat, unconscious. “What is going on?”

  “Hurry up and we’ll explain,” Arista said.

  Jennings cautiously got into the vehicle and as soon as the door was down Arista yanked the car back out of the space and drove toward the street once they were clear.

  “Holy shit,” Jennings said, his arm going up against Blu’s headrest as if to stabilize himself. “How did you get this vehicle? What happened to my partner?”

  “There’s a security issue,” Arista said. “Foley is fine. He might need a few more days off but he isn’t permanently harmed. And we stole his car.”

  “There’s an APB on all three of you,” he said. “When I saw Blu’s face on there I knew something must have gone wrong,” he said, leaning forward.

  “There’s a rogue AI roaming the network,” Arista said. “From my world. We think he’s trying to inhabit a moving vehicle in order to return once the gate opens again.” She leveled the car out as they approached the streets. As soon as it was settled she pulled into a side alley and brought the cruiser to a full stop. Turning around to face Jennings, she said, “We need you to issue an alert. Disconnect all police vehicles from the network, so he can’t take one over and use it for himself. These things are fast and they’re armored. It would make sense for him to hijack one.”

  “Can he…it do that?” Jennings asked.

  “If the vehicle is hard-lined in,” Blu said.

  “But…we have firewalls. We have all sorts of protection in place,” Jennings said.

  “It doesn’t matter. This isn’t like a human mind. He can change and adapt faster than anything you’ve got. If he wants to, he’ll get past your systems in a heartbeat. The only way to cut him off is to physically do so.”

  “And you really think he’d take a cruiser?”

  “Or an armored van or whatever else you have. We can’t take the chance. If he gets into one of these he’ll be impossible to stop. I managed to elude six other cruisers and I didn’t even know anything about this system.”

&
nbsp; “Okay,” Jennings said. “I can call in an alert. But I’m going to be honest about it. I’m telling them there’s a rogue AI. It’s the only thing I think they would take serious enough to do something like this.”

  “Isolate as much as you can,” Arista said. “We have no idea where he’s going to pop up. But we do know he’s working closely with Echo. They’re going to try and cross together. Along with Croden’s Key.”

  Jennings wiped his brow. “You guys sure have a lot of issues.”

  “And we owe it all to you,” Arista replied.

  “Don’t remind me.” Arista tapped the button to open all the doors. “Where are you going?”

  “Back underground. David is down there, waiting for us.” She stepped out of the car back into the rain.

  Blu’s interface crackled to life. “—oom. Are you there? Bloom?”

  “Dad?” she asked.

  “The –at—is—en,” he yelled, but it was too garbled.

  “What, Dad? You’re breaking up. What?”

  “The gate! It’s opening!”

  THIRTY-TWO

  “WHERE IS SHE NOW?” Charlie’s high-pitched mechanical voice asked.

  “Coming out of the subway station,” Echo replied, watching her monitor. “Can’t you see the same information?” She had to be careful; she couldn’t let her disgust for him show through.

  “I can.”

  “Then why ask me?”

  “Because you owe me. You will do whatever I ask until your debt is paid.”

  Echo turned from the monitor, shaking her head. She didn’t like this. Aligning herself with him again. It had been bad enough the first time but then he showed up in this alternate world to taunt her again. If it was up to her, she’d leave him here but she had little choice at the moment.

  This was all Miranda’s fault. Or whatever silly name she used now. It didn’t change the fact she was Miranda Reynolds; daughter of David Reynolds, heir to the human empire. That was hyperbole of course, there was no human empire. The Reynolds’ had been in power since the great war with the machines. They’d been the ones to save everyone. The ones who figured out a way to reprogram some of the personal servants so they couldn’t be controlled by the Cadre. They were the ones who started construction on the colony; a place to house the human race until they could rise up and defeat the machines.

  And yes. They had even been the ones to create the Quantum Gates. But that one action had turned out to be their downfall. When the plan went awry and the machines outsmarted David’s father the family finally fell out of favor. Only then was it the Dante’s turn.

  “Continue to track her,” Charlie said. “I must be ready when the gate re-opens.”

  “It might be a while yet,” Echo said. “McCulluh told me they were having problems on the other end.”

  “I am aware of the communication between the worlds,” Charlie said, unsurprisingly. It was how he’d found Echo in the first place. He’d picked up on a quantum signal emanating from the other side, permeating the membrane of the multiverse. She wondered if he’d been as surprised to find her as she was him. “In the meantime,” he nearly screamed, “send a police vehicle to pick up the girl.”

  “You think she’ll go that easily?”

  “I do not care. Just keep her occupied until we are ready,” Charlie said. “We will capture her before we return.”

  Echo couldn’t see the sense in spending so much effort on the girl. They’d already wasted enough time with her, and she was the last person Echo wanted back on the other side. Had only she and her insipid robot been blown across the barrier Echo would have had the gate destroyed and been done with it. But no. Charlie wanted her and only her. There was no more negotiation. Echo couldn’t help but suspect he held a grudge against her for what she did to him. Charlie wasn’t someone she would say had the most stable of personalities.

  None of this should have happened this way in the first place. If the plan had proceeded like it was supposed to sixteen years ago, Echo’s power wouldn’t be in question now. And she never would have had to make her deal with Charlie to begin with. But the girl had escaped her fate somehow and ruined the whole program. Echo had already been hearing whispers of her “early retirement” from the council and her position as leader even before Miranda arrived at the colony. Though Echo had managed to stay the council’s hand until she could find a way to sabotage David’s project. She had hoped to use it as another example as to why she should remain where she was. And it would be just another blow to the Reynolds family. One they couldn’t hope to recover from. And with Hogo-sha and Charlie dead, they would be able to overwhelm Trymian and finally destroy the Cadre forever. She would be the one who saved mankind. Not the Reynolds’. But then she had to get trapped in this god-forsaken universe. And with a decidedly not-dead Charlie. She should have given him more credit. He’d always been a bear to kill.

  Her communicator beeped in her ear. She wished she could keep it on silent—to keep Charlie from overhearing—but it was impossible. He’d be monitoring the incoming transmission from the other universe. She squeezed the key tighter in her hand.

  “You have a call,” Charlie announced, his disembodied voice still projecting through the speakers.

  “Thank you,” Echo said too forcefully, but she didn’t care at this point. She tapped her temple. “Echo here.”

  “Leader Dante,” McCulluh said on the other end. “Is everything alright? Are you ready to return?”

  “There have been some…developments,” Echo said. “Is the gate repaired?”

  “Yes, as best we can get it. But it won’t hold long. You’ll need to be right beside it when it opens,” McCulluh replied.

  “Will it open in the same location?” Echo asked. “I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “Yes, leader. I will tell the technicians to prepare it.”

  “Hold that order,” Charlie’s voice boomed.

  “Is…that…?” McCulluh started.

  “It is Charlie,” he replied, his voice all around Echo but in her ear as well. He’d hacked into her personal comm.

  “The Charlie? Leader, what is going on over there?”

  “I’m bringing him back with me,” Echo said. “He survived inside the mind of that machine that came over with Miranda. Arista. Whatever.”

  McCulluh was silent for a moment. “Yes, leader. But the same rule applies. You need to be beside the gate—”

  “You will move the location,” Charlie yelled.

  “I’m sorry, move it?” McCulluh replied, confusion in his voice. “Move it where?”

  “I will send you coordinates. I have decided how I want to return.”

  “I don’t understand. Echo, what the hell is going on over there?” McCulluh asked. His tone had lost any sense of decorum.

  “Charlie doesn’t have a body. He’s just information at the moment,” Echo replied. “There are no husks over here. Nothing for him to inhabit. He’s been…exploring options.”

  “The easiest of which is to ambush her in a place she feels safe,” Charlie replied. “I need access to the transportation grid!”

  “Sir,” McCulluh began. But Echo already knew what he was going to say. “What is going on?”

  “I will explain when we return,” Echo replied. “Reset the coordinates to whatever Charlie sends. We’ll be coming through together.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She gripped the key so tight she thought she might be drawing blood in her palm. “I’m sure.” She could just imagine McCulluh shaking his head. That was okay; he didn’t need to understand. Because once they got back none of it would matter. Charlie could take Arista and do whatever he wanted with her and all she had to do was wait another few weeks. As long as he kept her away from the colony. He could rebuild his little experimental jail for all she cared. She was in control of this situation, even if McCulluh couldn’t see it at the moment.

  “Okay, we’ll signal you again as soon as the coordinates are se
t,” McCulluh said. “We’ll have to shut it back down for a moment; it was in the process of warming up.”

  “That’s fine,” Echo said. “Whatever you have to do.”

  McCulluh cut the comm. She couldn’t wait to get out of this place. Sure, it was comfortable and she had all of her needs taken care of, but she had no real power here. She only had the illusion of power. Power via wealth. And she hadn’t even been the one to earn it. It had been the other Echo. Disposing of her had certainly been an enlightening experience. There’s nothing quite like staring into your own dead eyes as your body was incinerated.

  “I have accessed the grid!” Charlie yelled. “Prepare to go underground. We will take her when she least suspects it.”

  “Underground?” Echo said. “What…the only vehicles underground are—”

  “The maglev trains,” Charlie finished for her.

  “You’re going to put yourself in a train?” Echo asked. “Why?”

  “Because she will not expect it! I have already removed all other trains from service and am downloading myself into the main computer on the vehicle.”

  Echo’s brow furrowed. This was insane. “What about the gate? Surely you’re not—”

  “The gate will appear on the tracks. Past the location where I will pick her up. Near the barrier leaving the island.”

  “You realize when you come through the other side there won’t be any maglev tracks in the colony. The train’s inertia will destroy everything in its path.”

  “I do not care, that’s your problem.”

  She shook her head, her heart rate picking up speed. “I won’t do this, Charlie. You could kill some of my people when you go through. You’ll have to find another way. Why not inhabit a police cruiser or something more maneuverable?”

  “She cannot suspect! She must return with us to the other side. Anything else is obvious.”

  “That’s it,” Echo said. “I’m calling McCulluh to put the gate back where we first came through. This little alliance is done.” She raised her arm and moved to tap her temple.