by Scott Bly
He returned to Jane Virtue’s status report. She was a wonderful part of the marketing plan. Judging from the ratings on her first three interviews, things were going very well indeed.
Foxx had work to do, but his mind kept returning to Geneva. This should not have even been possible. What could she be doing in the lab? It was no surprise that she had made it past security. That was her specialty.
Stop! Do not spin out of control. He focused, returning to the calm center he’d created so long ago he could not even remember its beginnings.
Patience, Callis, patience. It was a fine art. The Future had been a long time coming. And now it was just around the corner.
Geneva, you may yet prove invaluable. He would wait to see what his creation was doing. This boy! He was the real mystery, wasn’t he?
With a few taps on his computer screen, Foxx updated the program commands for his secret weapon. Gargan. They would never see it coming.
The card swipe, code, and thumbprint worked on the next door, too.
Geneva headed for a computer terminal next to an operating table. These animals were a stark contrast to the cacophony in the other room. In better condition, they seemed content. Why were they so complacent?
Charlie read a row of cage labels. “Mouse, rat, bat, rabbit … There’s an iguana, and a koala. Some of them have names. This cockatiel is Samantha.”
The very last cage held a puppy. The label read: Labrador. Unlike the other animals, it did not appear to have any mechanical parts. Foxx must not have started working on this one. Charlie put his fingers in the cage, and the puppy licked them.
“Geneva?” He looked back at her.
She was leaning over the glowing computer, absorbed. “Shhhh. Give me a minute. I think I may have found something.”
“The Future Code?”
“I wish. These are notes on Foxx’s experiments. He was working on animal control. It’s right here. He started with hardware implants in brains. Then once it worked properly, he started using less hardware and more software!”
Charlie saw another door. “Geneva! Come look at this.”
Something in his voice made her look up. “What is it?”
“Over here. In the very back of the room,” he said, his voice catching.
“Yeah, and?”
“This door is labeled ‘Geneva.’ ”
Geneva stood in front of the door.
The card swipe and codes unlocked it. Lights flickered on. Another, larger operating table stood in the middle of the small white room. Metal arms and legs were spread wide and tensed, poised like a Venus flytrap, ready to consume a human-size victim. But there was a different smell here. Geneva placed it. Burned flesh.
It all flooded back.
Strapped down for weeks on end. Feeding time. The smell of gas. Her body, dragged back to that operating table. The prickly fire of metal in her skin. Lying in the small, empty room … alone.
Gramercy Foxx loomed above her. An impossibly bright light cast a white fog. But worst of all was the ever-present stench of smoke. Geneva was burning.
“No,” she moaned.
“Geneva!”
She didn’t answer. Memory-read errors? Absolutely not. She was brought here by Foxx to … to become … what, exactly? The monster had cut her open, wiped away her sense of identity with firmware upgrades, and reprogrammed her. But why?
“Charlie, we can go now,” she said hoarsely. “We have what we came for.” She pulled him into the next room. “He was learning mind control, not animal control! That’s how he was using me. And what we really need to know is not in here.” She looked around at the cage-filled room. “I think it’s in here.”
Geneva pointed at her own head.
* * *
She wanted to change the plan.
“Let all the animals go? You’re joking!”
She was not. She threw open cage doors, one after another.
Charlie tried to reason with her. “We’re going to get caught! Then we can’t stop anything!”
“You don’t understand what Foxx is doing here! This is monstrous.”
“They don’t want to go,” Charlie pleaded. “Look at them. They’re not leaving.”
“It’s mind control.” Geneva continued to open the cages. “That’s what these experiments are. The animals are programmed. Like me. I’ve downloaded the software Foxx used on them. We’ll take it with us to study, but I can’t leave them here. They’ve suffered enough.”
“We’re in the top of a building. Where are they going to go?”
“Just help me. Please!”
* * *
Chickens, rats, squirrels, rabbits … none would leave their cages. Only the puppy, wagging its tail at the game, followed him.
In a back corner, Geneva found a heavy, locked door. It was labeled “Gargan.” She waved her hand and keyed in the code. Thumb. The lock clicked open.
Geneva pushed hard, and the thick steel door inched open. Inside, a familiar low, rumbling sound filled the room. Only a hint of light spilled in. The smell made her nauseated. She reached for a light switch.
That was when she recognized the sound.
Something very large was breathing.
* * *
Foxx had electronically ordered Gargan to hold still until the interior door opened. According to protocol, his weapons were inactive to keep the primary target undamaged.
Gargan had crouched opposite the door in tense anticipation for thirteen minutes. He was nine hundred pounds of pure muscle and steel. His long, powerful arms flexed against the ground. He was poised to launch with incredible fury.
Click. The door had finally opened.
Gargan’s night vision adapted quickly. A small arm reached in. The thick door opened slowly, revealing a girl.
Zap. The overhead lighting came on, and Gargan’s night vision flared to extreme white. Act immediately. The target must not achieve tactical advantage.
He launched directly at the girl and shot across the room. His takeoff crushed tile and concrete behind him. His momentum, size, and strength would incapacitate the target.
* * *
Geneva was fortunate — the technology in her eyes adjusted to the lighting faster than the black form streaking at her. She switched her hands to gecko mode and pulled. Even with her robotic speed and strength, the door only moved an inch. But it was enough. She fell back.
Gargan hurtled into the thick door.
Kerang! It ripped from the hinges and crumpled. He spun from the uneven impact and fell — directly on Geneva. The last thing she felt was the crush of his unbelievable weight. Then everything went dark.
Gargan’s impact was the loudest thing Charlie had ever heard. The walls and floor shook. Glass cabinets shattered.
“Geneva?” Charlie cried.
No answer.
He dashed to the twisted steel door. A huge black gorilla lay in the doorway. Metal implants and heavy steel accessories were embedded in his flesh. Blood oozed from the gorilla’s wounded shoulder.
“Geneva?” This must be Foxx’s newest creation.
A muffled sound came from beneath the gorilla. She’s under there!
Charlie tugged at the massive body, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Uuuhhh,” Geneva groaned as she squirmed out from under the weight.
“Are you hurt?”
“Let’s open the rest of the cages — fast. Charlie, hurry up!”
* * *
“McCallum!” Foxx shouted into the intercom as the walls shuddered.
“Sir,” McCallum’s voice crackled, “I think it was Gargan.”
“Of course it was Gargan! Keep this quiet!”
“Yes, sir. We’re shutting down the elevators. The fire department is on the way. The building is being evacuated as we speak. Our internal fire response team is coming up the stairwell zip lines to get you.”
“It takes fifteen minutes to come up the zip lines!” Foxx barked. “What’s happening? Did Gargan get
the target, or do I have to go find out myself?”
“The security team on 194 is on the way up the fire stairs to 197. I’ll be opening the floor for them. No entry allowed to your lab, sir. We will confirm the targets are neutralized or secure them ourselves in the hallway.”
* * *
Geneva wanted out now.
Boom! Boom! Charlie suddenly felt sick. The gorilla again.
Geneva dashed for the elevator.
That was when Charlie noticed the puppy at the far end of the long, narrow hallway. Charlie sprinted to grab it.
“Stop! You’ll get us killed!”
He scooped up the puppy and held it close. It wagged its tail. His heart swelled.
“Hurry up, you idiot!” Geneva shouted.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Faster!” Geneva shrieked from the elevator.
Ka-BOOM! The heavy lab door exploded. Gargan careened out.
Charlie tried to stop, but his feet slid out from under him. He dropped to the ground, skidding with the puppy in his hands. Now he was cut off from Geneva.
The gorilla unfolded to his full eight-foot height.
The Hum! You’ve been trained your entire life to handle this!
But the gorilla had zeroed in on Geneva. Gargan lunged at her.
Charlie had to help her. Let go of the fear. Clutching the puppy, he cleared his mind. As he did, he could feel the change. His skin tingled. The Hum. It’s working.
Hopeful, he tried a trick he’d been learning at home. He projected the Hum around Geneva to protect her.
Meanwhile, she lowered herself to launch with her cyberhydronetic legs.
At the right moment, she shot like a crossbow bolt.
Midair, she spun and brought her robotic heel down — a flying sledgehammer.
The gorilla jabbed at her.
The animal’s blow glanced off, pushing her aside instead of crushing her.
Amazing. Why is the Hum so strong here? Because of Foxx’s lab?
Gargan was still fast, twisting to spin away, but Geneva was faster. She aimed at the shoulder and snapped her heel down. Sledgehammer, meet open wound.
Bam! The gorilla let out an unearthly howl.
His right arm shot straight out like a club.
Geneva slammed into the wall, but the Hum field held strong. She bounced inside the bubble as the gorilla collapsed to the ground, a round, crushed section of wall left behind.
Thank you, Grandfather, Charlie thought as Geneva sprang up.
The gorilla clutched his shoulder. A team of six security troops stormed the hallway. They were as surprised to see a giant gorilla as Charlie had been.
Gargan spun to face the new threat and roared.
Charlie was caught in the middle of a showdown. The security team took aim at the gorilla and fired. Charlie hit the floor, holding the puppy close. They don’t see me. They don’t see me. If he made it out alive, it would be a miracle.
Geneva heard the muffled thwap of compressed air tranquilizer darts. No bullets. They don’t want to kill it. This must be Foxx’s new invention. How crude, she thought. How can a big ape help him succeed with The Future? And where’s Charlie?
She was so focused on Gargan that she hadn’t seen Charlie hit the floor. She scanned the hallway. Then she punched the elevator button. Where is he?
Twelve tranquilizer darts landed in Gargan’s hide, delivering a sedative. But he didn’t slow down. Enraged, he thundered past Charlie and attacked the team.
“Let’s go,” Charlie said to the puppy. He scrambled down the hall to Geneva.
“Where did you go?” she asked. “Back into the lab?”
“What do you mean?”
“You disappeared.”
“I was flat on the floor. Let’s get out of here!”
Behind them, the gorilla was making short work of the guards. Even tranquilized, he was impossible to capture. Six men lay bloody and broken.
Gargan steadied himself and turned to see Charlie and Geneva run to the elevator. The gorilla pushed off the tranquilizer cobweb and lumbered after them.
* * *
Gramercy Foxx watched the hallway video. Why didn’t Gargan recognize his men? Programming glitch. He could send a stand-down command. Spare the men.
But that would affect the program-run.
The men would live. Probably.
* * *
Geneva hit the lobby button.
The gorilla lurched in their direction, stumbled against a wall, but didn’t stop.
The elevator was stuck.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know, but we’re dead meat if I don’t figure it out.” Geneva closed her eyes, hacking the network. “The elevator’s been shut down! I have to override.”
The gorilla was twenty feet away.
Charlie frantically punched the button. Geneva wirelessly navigated the labyrinth of access codes and shut-off commands.
“What elevator are we in?”
“How should I know?”
Gargan was closing in.
Geneva backtracked to the elevator status monitor. Car 12 was locked out on the 197th floor. Foxx’s access code logged her in, and bang — car 12 was active.
She hit the lobby button again. The elevator doors slid shut.
The high-speed car began the long descent. They could still hear the metallic rattle as the gorilla pounded on the doors above.
Charlie took a deep breath. None of Foxx’s other animals had made it. He stroked the puppy and could feel its rapid heartbeat. On the back of its neck, two small chips had been inserted just below the skin. So Foxx did operate on it.
“Are you OK?” he asked Geneva. “You got flattened.”
“I’ve had better days.”
She’s lucky, Charlie thought. “And what you saw in the lab?”
“I don’t want to think about it. Hey, can you hear that?”
The screech of tearing metal echoed down the cavernous shaft.
“He’s coming down the elevator!” she shouted. “We’re trapped!”
The ripping noises stopped. Then the elevator car shook violently.
“He’s climbing down the cables after us,” Geneva whispered.
“Can we get out on another floor?”
“Everything is locked!”
“So it’s a race….”
They could only watch the numbers drop: 150 … 138 … 120.
“We aren’t going fast enough!”
The elevator car bounced again, steel groaning. The gorilla descended the cables. Thirty floors passed. Then, after one final lurch, there was silence.
Suddenly Charlie understood. “It’s falling! The gorilla is going to fall on us!”
Kaboom! Lights shattered into darkness. The roof crumpled. The steel frame buckled into the concrete shaft walls, grinding the car to an abrupt halt.
Charlie and Geneva collapsed.
“McCallum!” Foxx shouted. “Full report! Right now!”
“Sir, radio transmissions were cut off. The team moved in. We got Gargan, but he didn’t stop. Six men down, sir. We’re trying to get cameras back online. Blue team is on the way up.”
“And the intruders?”
“An elevator went offline near the 15th floor. It was Geneva, sir. With the boy. We don’t know anything else.”
Foxx hovered over the VidFon, thinking for a moment. “Divert the fire team to the elevator shaft on 197. I want to know what happened.”
“Yes, sir. May I speak freely, sir?”
“What is it?”
“What happened up there, sir? Gargan’s programming? He did —”
“Exactly what I programmed him to do,” Foxx interrupted.
“But my men were hurt up there.”
“Then your next set of men better be prepared for anything.”
“Sir, my men are prepared for anything. But they ran into Gargan. There is no training for that. I hope none of them are permanently disabled.”
“But it was Gargan, sir.”
“Don’t let your feelings get in the way of your work, soldier.”
When no comment came back, Foxx jabbed the button, ending the call. He closed his eyes and began the slow, deep breathing necessary to access the weakening pool of the Hum. Something was draining it. It has to be my work in the lab. One more operation, and my new helper will be by my side. His latest experiment would dramatically increase his connection to the Hum. In fact, his power would be tripled.
He would need it for the big launch.
A dry tongue licked his cheek and brought Charlie to consciousness. The putrid smell of metal and burned plastic made his head hurt. Or had he been injured? He wasn’t sure.
The floor was sticky. Was it blood?
“Geneva?” he said weakly.
Her eyes lit up the dark elevator cab.
That was blood on the floor. Uh-oh.
Drip drip on the floor. The gorilla’s arm hung limply through the mangled ceiling, blood collecting at the fingertips. Charlie rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head — just a bump. The blood belonged to the gorilla. Charlie dragged himself to his feet, keeping his distance from the enormous arm.
The elevator doors had pulled open at the buckled floor, leaving a jagged hole big enough for a kid to squeeze through. But then what?
The elevator groaned as it slipped a few inches farther down the shaft.
“You OK?” Geneva asked. Charlie nodded. “Give me your uniform!”
Charlie peeled off the smock, balancing the puppy. Geneva used the thick fabric to cover the nastiest edges of the jagged steel doors. Charlie stuck his head through the opening. They were suspended at least a hundred feet above the bottom of the elevator shaft, wedged between two floors. “Is there any way to get to the elevator doors below us?” he asked.
“First I’ll try to open them.”
She couldn’t tell what floor they were on, so she cracked the security and sent the “open” command to all the elevators. Hacked in, she also saw that the elevator crash was bringing security from all over. They were closing in on them rapidly. The doors opened, and she leaped down. “You have to jump now! Leave the puppy behind!” Before Charlie could protest, she added, “Right now!”