Minutes later they wheeled in an ancient looking computer festooned with cables. One of them started setting it up and the other pushed passed Daniel to bodily lift me from the bed. He dumped me in a chair in front of the computer as the machines behind me went wild at my fluctuating heart rate.
“She can’t help you if she’s dead,” Daniel muttered.
Kendall turned a cold smile on him. “And you’re both dead if she doesn’t. What little patience I have is wearing thin. Don’t push me.”
Daniel stepped back, but the furious look on his face didn’t change. Kendall ignored it and yanked another chair over to sit at the side of the desk. He waved away the two guards and started plugging himself in.
“I – I still don’t know what you want me to fix,” I said, looking over the ancient machine with apprehension.
“You’ve heard of the three laws of robotics?”
I nodded. Everyone had. When the first proper robots had been designed the programmers had based those basic rules on the fictional ones from the books of Isaac Asimov. A robot may not harm a human. A robot must obey any order given to it by a human, as long as it didn’t conflict with the first law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as it didn’t conflict with the first or second law. They made sense, so it didn’t seem worth re-writing them. The later Mechanicals had been different, they hadn’t been built with the laws. Code had been developed that was far more intricate than the basic rules.
Kendall seemed pleased. “I was the first. When they still used those laws. And no one yet has been able to get around them.”
Of course not, I thought, though I didn’t voice it. The laws had been developed to never be broken or overwritten. They were so much a part of the base code on any of the older models that they were impossible to work around. “You – you want me to try and re-write the three laws?”
“Right now I am still bound by them. I must rely on others to – do my bidding. But it has reduced me to a figurehead in my own army.”
Army? The thought of that made me shiver. I thought the Mechanicals just wanted their freedom, but Kendall wanted more than that. He wanted war. I could see it in his eyes. The wild fire burning in the depths of them. He wanted to make those who had built him pay. It wasn’t about freedom, it was about revenge.
Kendall was still talking and I forced myself to pay attention. “I was able to override so much of my programming. Even the two later laws I can circumnavigate if I need to. But the first? Oh they made that one strong. A robot cannot kill a human. You will re-write it.”
“You want me to allow you to kill?”
He snorted at the horror in my voice. “I want my humanity back. Is that so much to ask?”
“Humanity?” I glanced desperately around at Daniel and Ian, but Kendall caught my chin in one iron fist, forcing me back to face him.
“Yes. My humanity. Because that’s what it means to be human, isn’t it? Freedom. Free to live as you chose, to make your own laws in your head. To love, to dream, and yes, to kill. Because I want to be able to kill Kendall, the monster who turned me into this, with my own two hands. I want the last thing he sees to be me. The first thing he built.”
The computer whirled into life in front of me as one of the guards stepped back, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t even look at the lines of code scrolling up the previously dark screen. Did Kendall deserve to die? Probably. When I thought of what he’d done to Daniel, what he had done to so many innocent people, I wanted to hurt him myself. But would The First stop there? Would he be satisfied with just the one life? What about all the others? The other scientists who had only been following orders? The humans who had sat back and done nothing as hundreds of young children like Daniel had been maimed and tortured until they were nothing but machines? Were they as guilty in Kendall’s eyes? Did they too deserve to die? Would The First see the difference?
“Can you do it, girl? Or not?” Kendall gestured to one of the guards and I saw a prod gleaming in his hands as he stepped up behind Daniel. It was the same one Daniel had taken off his trackers. The one he’d used to shut them down.
I forced myself to look at the screen, to think about the code. I was weighing Daniel’s life against the possible lives of hundreds more, and as much as I hated myself for it, I couldn’t let Daniel die.
“I’ll try,” I said finally. “I can’t promise anything. But I will try.”
He nodded. “Get started then.”
The hours flew by as I lost myself in the code. Lost myself in the world I had always felt most at home in. My fingers danced across the keys as I delved deeper and deeper into the complex programming that made Kendall work. His programming didn’t have the elegance of the later Mechanicals. It was clunky, awkward in places, but somehow it worked. And worked well.
Daniel and Ian hovered around me, bringing food and drink, and trying to force me to rest. But the guard with the prod was ever present, and I didn’t want to give Kendall any reason to harm Daniel. I knew that one wrong move on my part wouldn’t fall on me, but on him.
Even when my chest began to sear with pain, and my breathing became laboured, I kept working. The law wasn’t just one code, but hundreds, layered on top of each other, weaved into one another, until it was almost impossible to separate.
Almost. But not entirely impossible. I could see the way. I could see the answer, I just needed to tease it out. Dig out the base code without altering or corrupting any of the others.
My chest tightened, pain searing through it and my fingers slipped on the keys. I quickly fixed my mistake, but I could barely breathe. It was scary how much I had relied on my mechanical heart even as I’d hated it. So often I’d wished my parents had never fixed me, but now that it was failing I wanted nothing more than to keep it working. The idea of it stopping terrified me.
“She needs to stop and rest,” Ian said, as the machines behind me went wild with my fluctuating heart rate. “She’s going to kill herself.”
For a moment it seemed as though Kendall was actually going to ignore him. That he would keep me working even as my vision blurred and my throat closed up. But finally he gave a short, sharp nod.
Before I could move or think Daniel’s arms swept me off my chair and carried me the few steps to the bed with ease. Even in my semi-conscious state I couldn’t miss the look of calculating interest on Kendall’s face. My eyes locked on his over Daniel’s shoulder and his silicone face curved into a dangerous smile.
“I will be back in the morning,” he said as he rose to his feet, unplugging the cables and cords. “First light. I suggest you make sure she’s fit enough to continue.”
As I lay there, dazed and confused, I heard Ian and Daniel talking about me over my head. I wanted to join in, I wanted to be part of the conversation rather than the focus of it, but I couldn’t get my brain to work.
But enough of what they were saying got through to me. Enough to send a cold fission of fear up my spine. Whatever the magnetic field had done to my heart, Ian couldn’t repair it. No one at the Sanctuary could. And sooner or later it would fail completely. The only person who could fix it was the one person I would never ask for help.
Just a little longer, I told my faltering heart. Just another day. Because I knew that even if my heart was going to give out on me, it couldn’t be until after I’d fixed The First. If I died before I was successful I knew, with a desperate certainty, that Daniel wouldn’t survive more than a few hours after me. And I couldn’t have his death on my hands.
I drifted off into the blackness of unconsciousness, but not before I heard Daniel’s voice whispering in my ear. Echoing my thoughts even if his reasons were different.
“Hold on, Ellie. Just a little longer.”
The next morning I woke feeling barely improved. The tightness in my chest refused to loosen, and my breathing stayed laboured, even as Ian injected my IV bag with half a dozen different compounds.
They may not have fixed my heart, but they cleared my
head enough that when Daniel placed me in the chair beside the computer I was able to focus on the lines of code already scrolling across the screen.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Kendall, even though I could feel him watching me. I had the feeling that he expected me to fail, that he was almost hoping for it. It would give him a reason to have the human girl killed, and rid himself of a troublesome Mechanical at the same time. A friendship, or more, between a Mechanical and a human did not play into his plans, his theory of the world.
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
As I worked desperately at the code in front of me I felt, not for the first time, that my whole life had been leading up to this. I’d been a computer nerd all my life, and proud of it. What had started as a rebellion against the parents who expected me to become something better, more fitting to the wealth and privilege they’d provided for me, had become a passion. Fuelled even more by the alien piece of metal sitting in my chest. For years I had simply wanted to understand how I was still alive. How a piece of metal kept me living. And then there had been the Mechanicals. Who, even before my encounter with Daniel, had fascinated me because they seemed more like me than I was willing to admit. A pretty, human façade hiding the machine inside.
Now the machine, the metal that pumped my blood, was failing and it was the human in me that kept me going. The sheer will to live.
I worked on without thinking. The programming becoming almost instinctive. And then there it was, the single line of code, now free from entanglements. Free for me to change.
I hesitated. My eyes flicked up to meet Kendall’s penetrating gaze. He cocked one eyebrow and I knew he knew exactly what I was thinking. Did I dare change it? He was dangerous enough now, a madman driven by a desperate need for revenge, but limited by this one piece of code that kept him from directly killing a human. Kept him somewhat contained. But if I changed it, if I removed that limitation, what horror would I be inflicting on the human world? On my world?
A tiny smirk played across his thin lips and his gaze shifted to Daniel. Unable to help myself I turned that way too, and saw the guard step up behind Daniel, saw the flicker of electricity spark along the top of the prod. Daniel didn’t move, not a twitch or a flinch. His eyes met mine and something, if not my faltering heart, lodged in my throat.
I lowered my hands back to the keys and began typing.
It was done in moments. The chains removed. The beast freed.
Slowly, with great relish, Kendall unplugged all the cables, letting them drop to the floor one by one. He stood, stretching out his metal frame. It was hard to believe, looking at him, that there really was a human brain hidden inside all that metal.
Then, in a flash he had Ian by the throat. A strangled cry broke through my lips, but I was too weak to move. Too weak to protest. Daniel moved but was immediately restrained.
His metal hand began to squeeze as Ian struggled futilely. But then, as Daniel shook off the two guards, Kendall threw Ian to the ground.
Had I failed? No, I was sure I’d made the fix.
Kendall turned to smile at me. “Oh don’t worry, girl. You were successful. But as much as this snivelling weasel irritates me, I need to keep him alive. Because it seems he’s the only one who can keep you alive. And it turns out you are rather useful after all.”
He gestured for the guards to release Daniel and even reached down to draw Ian back to his feet.
“I think you had best remain our guest here for a little longer.”
“She needs help, Kendall. Help I can’t give her. She will die if you keep her here.”
“Will she die today?”
“Well – no. But – “
“Then I don’t care. Keep her alive, Ian. Your life depends on it. All your lives depend on it.”
Nineteen
“She can’t stay here.”
“What else can we do? Are you going to defy him?”
The hushed voices drifted over my head as I lay dozing in the bed. Since I’d finished working on Kendall I’d found it almost impossible to stay awake. Ian insisted that rest was the best thing for me, but I didn’t want to sleep. I was too scared of what I’d done. The monster I’d released.
“If I have to,” Daniel replied in answer to Ian’s question. “I won’t let her die.”
“If you have a suggestion I’d gladly hear it, but I don’t have the skill to fix her heart.”
“But you know who can?”
“The one who designed it. Who built it.”
The real Kendall. I shuddered at the thought.
“Well then,” Daniel said, a tiny tremor in his voice. His fingers reached out, brushing over my cheek. “We know what we have to do then.”
What? I thought desperately. What possible choice do we have? But I couldn’t ask the question out loud. Sleep finally claimed me, and I sunk into blessed, pain free blackness.
I opened my eyes. The ceiling above my head had a long, thin crack in it. It curved around, etching out the shape of a horseshoe. I’d always thought of it as lucky, my safe space.
It took a moment for that realisation to sink in. I should have been staring at the canvas roof of a tent, not an all too familiar ceiling.
I took a deep breath, and then another. No pain. No tightness. Except there was. Different though. A sharp tugging sensation down the centre of my chest. A strange, distant memory came to mind.
Horror rose up like bile in my throat and I pushed back the heavy duvet laying over me, scrabbling at the faded, blue t-shirt I was wearing.
A pristine, white bandage stretched from just below my throat nearly to my belly button. Picking at it desperately I managed to peel back the corner of it. The incision was vivid red, barely healed, and still sporting a long row of neat staples.
My breath came in desperate gasps as I forced my weak body up onto my elbows. My room swam a little before my eyes as I shook off a wave of dizziness. But it was undeniably my room. The room I’d grown up in, the room I’d come to suspect, even to hope I’d never see again.
The door opened and I shrank back against the pillows.
“Oh, darling. I thought I heard movement. You really must lie back though. Dr Kendall says you must let everything heal.”
My mother crossed the room in a few, quick strides. She placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me back into the pillows. I was too weak to resist, but somehow I found my voice.
“What am I doing here? What happened?”
She perched on the edge of my bed, stroking her fingers through my hair. In my whole life she’d never shown me so much affection. Had my disappearance really affected her that much?
“You don’t remember? You snuck out –“ She was clearly holding back the reprimand, though I could see the tightening of her eyes. “You went to a party.”
“I – I remember that. I mean after that – I mean – “ I shut my mouth tight before I could say Daniel’s name. There was no way my mother would understand. Nor would she want to. I’d learnt enough over the past couple of weeks to know how deeply involved she and my father were in the Mechanicals experiments. Even if there was more. The truth Uncle Ian had been hiding from me. The story he’d promised to tell, but never had the chance.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said, misinterpreting my silence. “I can’t even begin to imagine how terrible it was for you. We honestly never thought we’d see you again. Being held against your will by that disgusting machine. We were sure that he would just leave you for dead somewhere.” She clicked her tongue. “Well, he did. Though at least he had the decency to leave you somewhere you could get help. As soon as you were found and identified they contacted your father. We had you airlifted straight to Dr Kendall.”
My fingers splayed over the thick bandage on my chest.
She nodded at the gesture. “He replaced it. This one should work even better than the last.”
I shuddered. I had gotten used to my old heart, I’d had it long enough that
it had begun to feel like a part of me. But now I had another piece of foreign machinery inside me. And now I knew what Dr Kendall did, I couldn’t shake the fear that he’d done more than replace my heart. How could I know that he hadn’t turned me into a Mechanical whilst he’d had me on his operating theatre? That he hadn’t plugged some kind of code into my brain to control me? The thought chilled me to the bone.
“Now, you must rest. People are going to want to speak to you soon. But I’ll hold them off as long as I can.” She air kissed my cheek and bustled back out of the room.
I lay back on the pillows, staring at the crack in the ceiling. What had really happened? The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in the tent with Daniel beside me. He and Ian had been so worried about my heart. Somehow Daniel must have gotten me out of the camp, and taken me to the nearest city. He must have thought it was the only way to save my life.
But what about him and Ian? Kendall would not take losing me lightly. My skin suddenly felt icy. Would he kill Daniel? Had Daniel risked his life again to save mine?
I wished I could remember leaving the camp. I wished I could have said goodbye to Daniel. Would I ever see him again?
Yes. The voice in the back of my mind was emphatic. And I had to agree with myself. I had to see Daniel again. I couldn’t simply forget about him, or the plight of the Mechanicals. The First might have scared me, but I still believed in what those at the Sanctuary were trying to do. I still believed in putting a stop to what was being done to them.
Could I help from here? Could I find my way inside?
As I lay on my back, staring at the crack in the ceiling, I began to plot and plan. I was determined. I would find Daniel, and I would find a way to pay the debt I owed him. I’d save his life. Truly save it. I’d set him free – I’d set them all free.
Ellie and Daniel’s story will continue in
Soul in the Machine
Coming Soon
Metal in the Blood (The Mechanicals Book 1) Page 17