He looked at Roger. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
Roger rolled his eyes and shook his head, his slumped frame looking defeated.
Nolan chewed the inside of his cheek, his fingers tapping lightly against his leg. “They’re going to deactivate Des.”
“What?” Roger said, standing straighter. “Des is back?”
Nolan nodded.
“Wow,” Roger said, turning his eyes to the floor. “And they’re going to kill him?”
“Bracken is,” Nolan said, lifting an eyebrow. “We literally have minutes to make this work.”
“Make what work?”
“I need to switch Des out with a different prototype. That way, Des will survive and one of these will be deactivated.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“Quickly,” Nolan snapped.
“Right. Um… I would go with Prototype C.”
“Why C?”
“Well, A walks crookedly and B can’t see.”
“What’s wrong with C?”
Roger sighed. “Something with the programming. He couldn’t tell the difference between an enemy and a friend.”
Nolan looked back at the robots, thoughts running through his mind wildly. Finally, he shook his head. “Give me Prototype A. I don’t need it to walk. But if it can’t decide whether I’m an enemy or not, that ld be disastrous.”
Roger shrugged and punched a few commands at his terminal. Nolan stared at Prototype A with anticipation. He felt strange when the robot came to life, it’s eyes opening for the first time in years. It looked around the room, but it asked no questions. It gave no curious look. It was identical to Des, but it waited to be ordered.
“Prototype A,” Nolan said.
The robot looked at him. “Yes?” His voice sounded like Des too.
This was weird. “My name is Nolan Ragsdale. I’m your commanding officer.”
“Uh…” Roger said, but he was cut off by Nolan who held up a hand for him to be quiet.
The robot stared at Nolan almost as if it was waiting for him to say something else.
“We need your help,” Nolan said.
The robot kept staring at Nolan in the eyes and it hopped off the small platform and started walking toward him, though it staggered just a little as it veered to Nolan’s side.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Nolan said when the robot was directly in front of him.
Prototype A held out a hand like it wanted to shake Nolan’s. Of course, Nolan thought this was strange. This whole thing was weird. But it didn’t matter. They were running out of time. He reached a hand to the robot to shake it, but as soon as his skin touched the cold metal, Prototype A grabbed Nolan’s wrist, twisting his arm behind his back. Nolan fell to his knees and screamed out in pain, and before he realized what was happening, Prototype A had him face down on the ground, restrained and completely helpless.
Nolan cursed loudly as Roger ran up to the robot. “Wait! Stop! Stop!” He stood just above Nolan, his hands in the air. “Scan my face! Scan my face! Do you see who I am?”
“Roger,” the robot said.
“That’s right. I made your body. And right now I’m your commanding officer. I need you to listen to me.”
“Tell it to get off me!” Nolan shouted.
“You are to be taken into holding,” Prototype A said. “You are a wanted criminal—assassin of President Godfrey.”
Nolan swore again.
“This prototype hasn’t been updated in a long time,” Roger said.
“You think?” Nolan shouted. “Get it off me!”
“I order you to let him go,” Roger said.
Prototype A looked at Roger for a brief second and did as he was told. The pain running up and down Nolan’s arm and back throbbed as he pulled himself back up to his feet. He brushed dust off his shirt and pants and grimaced as he did a rotating motion with his arm.
“Nolan is no longer a criminal,” Roger said. “You haven’t been updated yet.”
“Yes, sir,” Prototype A said absently.
Nolan sighed. “These things are a lot more pleasant with Soul programmed into them.”
“They are incredible,” Roger said.
“Any ideas for getting him through the building?” Nolan said, still staring at the robot.
“Yeah,” Roger said. “Same tactic Hazel and I once used to sneak Des around. Cover him up like a dead body and use a gurney to push him around.”
Nolan turned back to him. “You think that will work?”
“It did once,” Roger said. “Unless someone is looking for it, you should be fine. But that all depends on where you’re trying to take it.” Roger shrugged. “You might have some trouble in the deactivation chambers.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to just hook Des up to a hard drive and sneak him out?”
“Then they’d know I did that,” Nolan said. “I’ve got to make them think Des is dead.”
Roger nodded. He walked up to Prototype A and the robot stared at him intently, waiting for instructions. “You have to listen to whatever Nolan tells you, do you understand?”
The robot looked at Nolan. “Yes.”
“Good,” Roger said. He turned to face Nolan. “Just so you know I’m doing this for Des. Not you.”
“That’s fine by me,” Nolan said.
“You said Bracken is going to watch the deactivation?”
Nolan nodded.
“That might be a problem.”
“Why?”
“Because Des has a different colored leg. I remember. I’m the one who attached it for him five years ago. That is, unless he has changed.”
“No,” Nolan said. “It’s the same. You’re right, but I think we can get by with it. Bracken isn’t suspecting anything and he’s watching the deactivation on video. It won’t be as clear.”
“I don’t like getting involved with this kind of stuff,” Roger said. “This isn’t just getting fired territory, this is jail kind of stuff.”
“Do you think the way the new Mainlanders have been treated is right?” Nolan asked him.
Roger didn’t say anything.
“Do you think the memory wipes and limited archived memories for the robots programmed with Soul is right?”
Roger sighed. “I don’t like taking sides. I just want to do my job and go home at night.”
“A true agent of change,” Nolan said. “Come on, let’s get that robot onto a gurney.”
23
Des faced the end of his life and he was not ready for it. He was bound at his wrists which stuck out underneath the thick metal netting that was wrapped around his upper body. He stood in a dark room alone, and no matter how much he moved, he could not break free. There were no windows and no furniture. There was a single door on the other side, but he was no match for its thick locks and sealed latches. He knew when the guards came to get him he wouldn’t have the chance to escape.
Before the meeting of the Mainland leaders, he had thought he was going to be safe. With the alliance of President Lester Vaughn and Nolan Ragsdale, Des thought he would say what he needed to and be gone. But here he was, his wrists still clenched together by handcuffs, his body wrapped tightly. He feared what lay ahead. It seemed that all the emotions programmed within his memory core were coming out. He had the desire to cry, but that was impossible. He wanted to be held, but who was there to do it? And what would it help? Sadness. Anger. Hopelessness. They all overpowered him and all he could do was stare at the blank wall and wait for his impending demise.
He wondered what had changed Lester. Had power gotten to him so easily? Had he always been so corrupted with no regard for life? Or did he only care about the Outlanders and no one else?
Des had never known who to trust in Mainland except for Hazel. But now, she was as helpless as Des. Even if he could get a message out to her—that he was captured and that the government was about to execute him—she wouldn’t be
able to do anything.
The government was wise to kill Des. He had no plans of helping them. His loss would be their gain. If they were to let him go, there would be no way he would stay quiet. His everlasting purpose would be to expose them for who they were until they either killed Des or were overtaken by a revolutionary force.
This was wrong. All of it. If it wasn’t clear before, it was crystal clear now; the government did not see robots programmed with Soul as people. They were simply expendable, smart machines.
A small noise crackled inside Des’ head, cutting into his thoughts. Then, a voice.
“Des, can you hear me?” It was Nolan. He sounded hurried and his voice came in a whisper.
Des felt startled and was not sure what to think. Nolan had been in the room when Lester ordered Des’ execution and Nolan was supposed to be on Des’ side.
What do you want?” Des asked internally.
“Sorry to cut in on your comm channel. I did some digging and figured it out. Anyway, I wanted to see how you were holding up.”
“I’m about to be executed,” Des said. “I would say I’m doing rather well, considering.”
“The channel we’re speaking through is encrypted so I’m going to be upfront with you,” Nolan said. “This whole thing was a ploy, a way to let you go dark. We don’t want Bracken and Morris to know you’re still alive. Not yet, anyway.”
Des sat quietly, careful that his thoughts did not become voiced through the channel frequency. Why the charade? Why not just break him out and let him go? Or better still, have Lester use his power as president and order him to be set free.
“Then what happens next?” Des asked.
“I’m going to get you out, but we’re going to stage your execution. I’m going to be there in five minutes so just hold tight.”
“How do you plan to stage the execution?” Des asked, but he got no answer. He remained in the darkness, with only his thoughts to speak back to him.
Every moment in Mainland was another moment where he didn’t know who to trust. It always felt like a guessing game. Even if Nolan got him out of his current predicament, that didn’t mean he could suddenly trust Nolan and be on the same side. Everyone here always had his or her own motivations—Hazel being the only exception. That was not how things were back in the village. Des had grown to trust almost everyone there, and they trusted him. They worked together as they should have, for mutual benefit. In Mainland everything was cutthroat and mysterious, everyone wanting to be the one in charge. Des had thought that by now most of the fighting would have been finished. It was days like today and probably the days ahead that had kept Des from bringing his village to Mainland. How could it have been good to bring them here? Each of them, if allowed in at all, would have been forced to become an Outlander and been subject to living under an oppressive police force. But wouldn’t this be better than the fate they received? Of course it would have been better. Des wished he could have saved them. He wished he could have done something different. But if there was one thing he had learned in his five years of existence, it was that he could not change the past. All he could do, was look to the future.
The future now was a blank slate for Des, and he couldn’t even begin to guess what it might look like in the coming days, hours, or even minutes. He had come here seeking justice for his friends who had been slain. Now he just hoped to survive the night. He had already resigned himself to the fact that there would be no justice for the villagers. He should have known that before coming here in the first place. But he had come with a different Mainland in mind. He had assumed things wouldn’t be so different, so hard. He had thought that maybe if things were like they used to be, he might have been able to find the responsible party and deal with it. But there didn’t seem to be a single responsible entity. It had been a decision by all of them to set off the nuke. The why and who questions still loomed in the air about the coordinates changes, but it was a question that would never be answered. And it was clear that Des would never again have access to anyone high up within Mainland’s government. He was hanging on by a thread as it was, and Nolan was his last remaining hope, but what then? Where would Des go next? Would he live with Hazel? Would he leave Mainland again and explore the world, looking for more people?
Thinking of these questions only depressed him. Living with Hazel was all well and good, but he wanted to be more than an advanced version of Gizmo. There was no future there. He would not be making a difference. Exploring the world wasn’t the answer. He knew he would only be searching for the same people he had lost, but they didn’t exist anymore. There might be other settlements hundreds of miles away, but to start over with new people seemed like a waste of time.
Des was doomed to a life of loss. He would live on as long as he wasn’t destroyed, and people would go in and out of his life. He wondered what he would do if he learned that his energy core was fading. For him, it was as simple as finding or building a new body or replacing parts. But humans couldn’t do this. If their hearts gave out, it was possible to get a new one or to have a machine assist it. But eventually, no matter how many parts are replaced, a person will die. Was it the same for a robot? Would Des’ programming simply die out and corrupt like a human’s?
No. It didn’t work that way. It couldn’t work that way. The only way Des could truly die was if his programming was permanently deleted or his memory drive completely destroyed with no chance of recovery. From his own schematics he knew that if his energy core died out and Des wasted away for a decade, his programming could conceivably still be recovered. He could sit on a hard drive for a thousand years and if someone possessed the technology to use it, he could come alive again.
But that wasn’t how the EMP chamber worked. Des knew what it was. After the switch was flipped, Des would only be a mass of metal and wires, his memory core completely unrecoverable.
Des stood a little straighter when he heard voices coming from the other side of the door. He moved closer to it and turned his head slightly. He could hear the voices clearly and recognized Nolan’s.
“I have orders to transport Des to the EMP chamber,” he said.
“We have not heard about these orders,” one of the guards answered.
“That’s because they talked to me and not you,” Nolan came back. “In fact, I have your orders.”
The guards waited.
“Both of you have orders to go for an update right now,” Nolan said.
There was no answer for a few seconds, then one of the robot said, “But we are in the middle of our shift.”
“We aren’t scheduled for an update for three more hours,” the other guard said.
“It doesn’t matter. You are to go to your terminals and update immediately. I am informing all the robots on this level. There has been some new information that needs to be embedded into your memory core. It’s vital.”
There was another long moment of silence. Des imagined the robots looking at each other, trying to decide if this was a trick or not. But how could they argue with someone like Nolan, the president’s right-hand man?
“It’s time to go,” Nolan said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
The guards walked out of the room, their metal footsteps tapping softly against the floor. Des took a step away from the door as he listened to Nolan type in a code. The lock clicked and the door swung open while Nolan remained at the controls. Des inched his way to the door and saw Nolan standing by himself. He looked up from the screen in front of him and smiled briefly, then his face turned back to normal and he looked back down.
“You think that will work?” Des said.
“I think it will buy us a little time,” Nolan answered. He pressed a few more buttons and the metal netting wrapped around Des’ torso fell limp to the ground with a loud clanking noise. Nolan then walked over to Des and reached for his wrists, pressed his thumb against the side of the handcuffs and they unclipped. When Des gave him a strange lo
ok, Nolan shrugged. “Finger prints. Mine can do a lot around here.”
“Can they get us out of here safely?” Des asked.
“No, but we can do it together.” Nolan tiptoed to the doorway and stuck his head out the door, watching as the robot guards walked away for their updates.
“You don’t think someone will find out about them?” Des asked.
“Like I said, I think I’ve bought us some time, but we need to hurry.” Nolan walked out of the door and came back pulling a long gurney with a white sheet draped over what looked to be a body.
Des’ forehead crinkled as Nolan pulled the body into the room and shut the door behind him. “What is this?”
“This,” Nolan said, “is your replacement.” Nolan yanked off the sheet, revealing a long, slender body, metal and shiny like it was brand new.
Des’ eyes went wide at the sight of…of himself. The robot sat up straight on the gurney and swung its legs over the side to get into a sitting position. Des couldn’t help but notice that everything from its facial features to the way its arms were built, and even the way its metal fingers flexed, was exactly the same as himself. The only difference was this one looked like it had just been made—without any flaws. Both its legs matched.
He looked up at Nolan. “Is he programmed with Soul?”
Nolan shook his head. “No. Just basic programming. This one obeys orders that are given by a person it recognizes as superior.”
“I have not been programmed to recognize you as my superior,” the robot said.
Des looked at Nolan. “Which one is this?”
The robot looked at Des, its face showing no surprise, uncaring that it was the exact same build as Des in almost every way. “I am Prototype A,” it said.
“I’m Des. Prototype D.”
Prototype A showed no interest and turned its head away from him, only to look forward and await orders.
“This is weird,” Nolan said. “I see now why the Soul program is so important for all the guards and soldiers.”
Prototype Exodus (Prototype D Series Book 2) Page 15