Brute jogged to the end of the warehouse, slipping behind the far side where they could watch the harbor where a line of people were chained inside the fishing vessel. Brute pressed against the side of the building and Delilah hid in his shadow.
“If he’s not on that boat, it’s going to take a lot more than you and me to rescue him,” Brute said.
Delilah watched the boat glide softly past. It was too far away to make out individual faces, but she imagined Zane’s on every one. One giant bot navigated from the front, but it thankfully didn’t turn their way. Brute’s technology was handy, indeed. The bots relied on their scanning technology, not their eyes. Delilah was sure some of the prisoners saw them, though, and it took all she had not to run after the boat as it glided past.
Brute took his map out and messed with it. They were the only people in the immediate area, except for the bots and the prisoners.
“Luke.” Using his real name felt more natural in the situation. She touched his arm lightly. “If they’re not on that boat, and they were captured, where is he?” she asked. She had memories of Authority jail cells. Stupid, drunk nights and waking up hung over. Paying a fine. Having a human jailer frown as she and Zane raced back to the Rez. But that kind of naivety was fading away. There was worse out there.
“The gallows, though that’s rare.” He pocketed the map and looked right at her, the wheels behind his deep brown eyes spinning. He was trying to decide how much to tell her. The boat floated past the warehouse as he let out a breath. “Or the zoos, Delilah. They’re real. And they’re not good.”
The prison jumpsuit didn’t protect them from the chilly night air that blew in over the ocean. Delilah tried to stay behind Brute, but the wind whipped around him. The sound rose over the hum of the boat’s motor and the waves crashing, even the whirr of the bots’ mechanics, and allowed a few seconds of peace, though their situation was far from peaceful. Delilah and Brute were stuck in the alley between two warehouses with no hope of finding Zane, never mind rescuing him. Their only escapes were the way they came, or the walkway by the harbor. Either way ran the risk of being seen. Brute took a step back the way they came but Delilah caught his arm.
“We’re not leaving him here.” She swallowed. Zane was the most important, but what about all those other people?
Brute gently removed her hand. “We never leave anyone behind. You have to trust me,” he told her. He took a step back, but it became clear Delilah wasn’t following. “We have a rendezvous point.” He looked back over his shoulder, where just out of their range, prisoners were shuffled off the boat. Occasional yells carried over the wind, along with laser fire. The smell of saltwater hung in the air, along with the tang of metal and the rot of dead fish.
Brute shifted on his feet as the noise from the docks picked up. People yelled. Bots shouted orders. And lasers. Threats, she hoped, or another vaporized body.
“If the others get out, they’ll go to our meeting point. That goes for Zane, too. And if he’s not there, we’ll get help to find him. You can’t go running off alone, Delilah. You’ll get caught, too.”
She rested her head for a minute on the cool wall of the warehouse next to them and closed her eyes. It was the first time she’d afforded herself a breath since they’d left Zane. Panic had taken over, and she knew better. What would Zane tell her? Think, Dee. Think it through.
She opened her eyes and nodded. The scene before her unfolded like a nightmare she half hoped she’d woken up from. Maybe that potion the woman in the Banks had given them was hallucinogenic? If it were, the effects hadn’t worn off yet. She’d have to play along.
“Okay.” She stepped to his side and tipped up her chin, ignoring the chill in the air and the scratchy prison uniform. “Where’s this safe house?”
He eyed her, gaging her intentions. “It’s past this warehouse, a couple storefronts down. We can’t go by the river though. With the boat pulling up there’s sure to be a bot on the water.”
She leaned around the corner to check out the way they came. The hill led to a grid of streets and warehouses, but the intersection was wide. They’d be out in the open if they crossed. “We can’t go that way either. The bots could look over any time.”
Brute sighed. “I can get us inside the warehouse and through, but it will be complicated.”
Another blast blast cut off his voice. This one lit up the sky like a firework. It was followed by terrified screams, but another laser blast silenced them. “You better hurry,” Delilah breathed, willing herself not to run back. It wasn’t Zane. It couldn’t have been. She’d know if he was hurt. There couldn’t be a world without him where her heart went on beating like everything was normal.
“Okay.” He jogged across the road, pulling the map device out of his pocket and Delilah followed. She watched the rolling current of the dark river, hoping she’d hear a revolt or see prisoners running, but since the last laser shots, only the sound of soft sobs carried on the waves. She assumed the prisoners were being unloaded, filed into lines, and carrying the boxes of their destruction to be assembled.
Brute approached a door and pushed on it with his shoulder. It had no give. He fiddled with the handle.
“Don’t you have a code?” she asked, glancing at the keypad next to the door.
He let out a breath. “We try not to use it,” he told her. “It’s the only one we have, and if they figure it out…” He trailed off, then seemed to decide it was worth the risk. It was better than being caught out in the alley where they’d be incinerated if they were seen. Or worse.
Delilah tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as the moon went behind a cloud. “About these zoos…” she began. The stories had been the stuff of urban legend. Nightmares. Parents in the Rez would scare their children into believing if they didn’t behave, the robots would come and put them in a zoo. They had been repeated so many times, Delilah laughed about them, but there was nothing funny in the threat. People disappeared. It was a fact. They were taken by the Authority and never came back. She always worried about it when she or Zane got in trouble, but the more times they saw the inside of that cell, the more she was sure it was a story, and the bots were trying to scare them into obedience. But it was true very few people had been into Authority City. And people did disappear. And sometimes, rumors were based on fact.
“Not now,” Brute said. The keypad turned green and the lock unclicked softly. Brute winced and looked behind him, but the coast was still clear. He opened the door, followed Delilah in, and closed it behind him.
She leaned against the closed door, letting the darkness overcome her. Opening her eyes was getting harder as she fought off weariness and the adrenaline left her system, but they weren’t out of danger yet. Not by far. And she wouldn’t sleep until she knew Zane was safe.
She started to speak but Brute shushed her again. A small amount of light streamed in from high, slatted windows by the ceiling, only enough to illuminate the clutter. They’d have to work their way through the room, but that wasn’t what Brute was worried about. He pointed. She barely saw his shaking hand in the dark, but something in the warehouse reflected the low light. A small, red light, on the floor, made its way toward them. She grabbed Brute’s arm and reached for the door handle behind them, but it was too late to go out. It had seen them.
Brute froze, in an apparent attempt to pretend the bot could only sense movement and not see them. It was a better plan than Delilah’s, which had been to panic and run. To where? All their escape routes were cut off. She let out a cry, but then a smile broke out on Brute’s face.
“Are you crazy?” she hissed. She turned and took the handle in her hand, but before she could swing the door open, he covered her hand with his.
“It’s okay,” he said in a normal speaking voice. “Look.”
He let go of her hand and knelt. The little bot made its way across the floor, and finally Delilah caugh
t on. It was Thor, the little mouse robot. Or at least it sure looked like it. The mouse approached Brute with glee, sniffing his hand and then squeaking.
Brute picked it up. “It must mean Smoke is around here.” He eyed the warehouse, but the area was covered in shadow. He knelt down and let the bot go. It rolled off a couple paces, turned back, pinning Delilah with its red eyes, then took off across the warehouse.
Delilah bounced on her heels. “So we just sit here?” she asked.
“If Thor is inside, Smoke is nearby,” Brute responded, but he sounded as unhappy about it as she was. “It’s not worth risking the safe house. Not yet.”
“Doesn’t that thing have a flashlight?” Delilah fidgeted in the dark. She could hear Brute rooting around his pocket but she couldn’t wait. Not when Zane’s life was on the line. She reached out in front of her and took a step, until her hand bumped into something metal. She reached around and felt a cool, cylindrical surface. It ended in something sharp, and she cried out when it cut her. She put her index finger in her mouth and tasted blood.
“What…” She didn’t have a chance to finish as Brute snapped the light on just at that moment. There was a lag as she took in the thing standing in front of her and the bile rose from her stomach. The scream rose from somewhere primal inside her, somewhere that couldn’t believe the instrument of death she was seeing in front of her. She opened her mouth and only let out a squeak before a hand clamped tightly over her mouth.
“Don’t scream.” The voice didn’t belong to Brute’s, but the high-pitched sound was familiar and calming all the same. It didn’t do much to stem Delilah’s rising panic, because as much as she was glad to have a friend behind her, and Gen’s voice held more comfort than she could hope for, she was still staring at a contingent of what could only be described as bot super soldiers.
She took deep breaths to show Gen she was okay, but Gen held on for another couple seconds. A couple awful seconds when Delilah took in the scene in front of her. The bots were the same size as the bots outside, maybe even smaller, but what they lacked in size, they made up in firepower.
A helmet covered their heads, made of shiny, bulletproof metal. Under it was a face with human skin and characters Delilah had seen before, almost as if the machine could blink itself to life at any moment. Red lights circled the helmet, meaning the bot could see in all directions at once, and, presumably fire all directions at once. And if that didn’t work, various torture devices covered its body. One arm held an enormous laser cannon, large enough to take out a whole block. More ammunition was anchored to its chest, and the other arm, the one Delilah had reached out for in the dark, had an array of knives strapped to it.
“They’re not online yet,” Gen said. She slowly lifted her hand off Delilah’s mouth and only a squeak escaped. They’d seen Authority bots in the Rez, and sometimes in the Banks, rounding people up, even shooting to kill. But this…this was more than she could imagine. These bots could take out scores of people at once, and couldn’t be fought. The stories were true. The bots wanted to wipe them out. She tried to get a hold on the number of bots in the warehouse, but they were lined up so tight and close it was impossible to count. Hundreds.
“What’s going to happen when they’re connected?” Delilah stumbled a step back and away from the bot. She stepped right into Gen, who steadied her.
“We’re hoping not to find out,” she said. Gen kept hold of Delilah’s shoulder while they looked at Brute, who was greeting General Smoke.
“Where are the others?” Delilah asked Smoke. She looked around the warehouse, but all she could see in every direction were the bots. There was a note of desperation in her voice. “Zane?”
Smoke frowned, and Delilah’s stomach fell. “Some got away, but Zane was taken. I’m sorry,” Smoke said. “But we have a chance to get him back before they take him to Authority City. A small one.”
She and Gen were wearing the same standard prison uniforms as Delilah and Brute, a green, zip-up bodysuit, but even in it, Smoke stood out. It was something about the spark in her green eyes, a spark that suggested she hadn’t given up. Her dark skin was smooth and unbroken, as opposed to the beaten prisoners, and a light sheen of sweat covered her brow.
“Where were you?” Brute asked, rolling his sleeves up. If he knew how to get Zane back, he wasn’t saying, and it wasn’t optimism Delilah read on his face.
“Here,” Gen answered. She’d slicked her blonde hair back and out of her face. It gave her a tougher appearance. The cold flushed her cheeks. Details like these had always been amazing to Delilah. “We were trying to disconnect the bots.” She looked around and frowned. “The army.”
Smoke stepped between them. “She’s being generous. We’re trying to take it out, but we don’t have the firepower. This could be our only chance.”
Delilah held her hands up and turned away from the bots, a rising tide of panic in her gut. “I know we have to take them out, but you said they’re offline?” She turned desperately to Gen, who bit the bottom of her lip and nodded. She turned to Brute. “We need to find the others. You said you don’t leave anyone behind!” Her voice rose, and she paused to try to calm herself down. She’d never convince him like this.
“This is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen…” Smoke started, but Delilah cut her off.
“It doesn’t matter. This is what makes us human. This is what makes us better than them. We don’t leave anyone behind. We don’t abandon anyone to these zoos.” She spat the words out. She still couldn’t imagine Zane being in the bots’ hands, and she wouldn’t let it happen.
The others exchanged looks, and a silent conversation went on between Smoke, Brute, and Gen. After a tense moment, Smoke sighed and backed down.
“You’re right. They have five more of our people, too, as far as we could tell, including Sunny.” She took out another device, one similar to the one Brute held, and a small three-dimensional map pulled up. Red and blue dots swarmed the area. They were unloading.
“They were on the boat just brought in,” Gen said. “After this unload, they’re bringing them back to Authority City.”
“So many,” Delilah said. She tried to count the dots, but they all blurred together.
“Slave labor,” Smoke spit out. “We’re going to need a diversion.”
“I think I have an idea,” Gen said.
Smoke closed the map, and they leaned in to listen.
The plan to rescue Zane and the others was insane, even more so because of the fact they were trapped in a warehouse with next generation war bots that might come online at any moment. It was something Zane would come up with, involving a great deal of luck and contingencies that were out of their control. She understood why Zane liked these people. They were reckless and passionate, but believed in their cause with all their heart and were deeply brave. For that she gave them a chance—even if she didn’t have a choice, when it came right down to it.
Somehow, this group had stolen her heart. All of them. Smoke, with her righteous leadership. Brave Sunny. And Brute, who was much less scary than he seemed at first glance. Smoke leaned over Gen as the bot drew a rough map of the area in the dust on the floor. Gen had always been a friend, but there was so much about her Delilah didn’t know. One thing she didn’t question was Gen’s hatred for the Authority. The Authority wanted her dead as much as any of them. She was a wild card. All the Gen Ones were. Uncontrollable, and therefore, a liability.
Brute held a small light up as they discussed their plan, which involved hiding in the shadows, grabbing Zane and the others, then stealing the boat. Insane, but Gen seemed to think they could pull it off with the scrambler tech. She tucked a piece of her short, blonde hair behind her ears as she laid out the plan, a decidedly human gesture. Gen had been picking up more and more of those, to the point where sometimes Delilah considered her more of a roommate than a bot. How had she missed the fact Gen
was involved in something this big? The Human Coalition had been unfolding all around her, and she’d been blind to it.
“Are you listening?” Brute elbowed Delilah as she stood up and cracked her back. It wasn’t morning yet, but there was no way she’d get to work, and that would send up huge red flags.
She shook her head. “Not really,” she admitted. “It seems impossible.”
The low light from the high windows highlighted the shadow of a smile on his face. “This whole thing is impossible. Welcome to the mission.”
Gen interrupted them. “Dee, Brute—you guys will have to commandeer the boat.”
“Commandeer?” Delilah raised an eyebrow. She cleaned boats. She didn’t drive them, and she sure as hell didn’t commandeer them, though she had studied the technology.
“No one’s on it,” Gen answered. “Not yet.” She pointed to a place on her improvised map Delilah assumed was supposed to be the boat. It looked like scribbles. “All you have to do is get yourself on board, make sure the bots don’t see you, and don’t let anyone else on until we have the others. It shouldn’t be long.”
“And weapons?” Delilah leaned in to the map, and the lines started making sense, but it didn’t make the task any less daunting. She’d failed to sketch in the many bots and the firepower they controlled.
Brute gestured around. “Take your pick.” He approached one of the bots and yanked a knife off the arm. The bot barely wobbled. It was made of heavy stuff. Brute wielded the blade. Its sharp edge shone in the light.
“This should do,” he said.
“Against a blaster?” Delilah asked, though she had to admit, the six inch, serrated blade looked like it could do some real damage. But against a bot?
“You have to know what wires to cut,” Brute said. He grasped the hilt of the knife and pulled out a small blaster from the other arm, then handed it to Delilah.
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