"Move it!" I said.
Wei switched to a jog, quickly reached Lobo, and let his stride carry him inside. He turned and watched as we approached.
Lobo had him, so I relaxed slightly. Almost there. We were almost done with this phase.
Then Wei put his hand on Lobo's interior, just inside the door, smiled, stepped to the side out of my sight, and said, "Authenticate override shutdown—"
I shoved McCombs out of the way.
"—Jorge Wei code one—"
I reached Lobo as he finished.
"—two beta delta seven."
Lobo went completely dead: Interior lights off, nothing on my comm, a stillness I'd never experienced from him, the complete quiet of death.
I grabbed Wei by the throat and screamed, "Turn him back on!"
Wei pointed behind me.
I pivoted and watched through the open doorway as Ng and a team of half a dozen other guards converged on us, their rifles all pointed at me.
"Put him down, Moore," Ng said, "and you'll get a trial. Eventually. Don't, and we'll knock you out and end up at the same place anyway, but your path there will be a lot rougher." She stopped two meters outside Lobo.
The others followed suit. Park wasn't one of them; maybe he really didn't have a clue as to what was going on here.
"I could kill Wei first," I said, tightening my grip.
"Maybe," she said, "but with all the trouble you went to just to kidnap him, when you could have killed him at Matahi's, I don't think you will."
I stared at her and almost vibrated with rage. Lobo was out of commission, maybe gone—I had no clue what Wei had done. I'd failed again to capture the man, and now I'd failed the children that were prisoners somewhere nearby.
I could fix this.
I could let Wei go, create a nanomachine cloud, and have it kill everything organic in the hangar. It wouldn't take long, and it's not like Wei didn't deserve it for what he'd done. It might even give me the time I'd need to rescue those kids.
It wouldn't, though, tell me how to bring back Lobo.
I needed Wei alive to do that. I could try to kill everyone except him, but unless he fixed Lobo quickly, more guards would come, and then I'd be back where I was now.
On the other hand, as long as they took me prisoner, I could always change my mind.
I released my grip on Wei, stepped back, and put my hands on my head.
Wei rubbed his throat and walked out of Lobo and over to Ng. He turned to face me. "As I said earlier, Mr. Moore, thank you for your restraint. When I recognized Lobo—is that still his name?—from our earlier encounter, I knew I had to have him."
"How?" I said.
"He mentioned children and machine intelligences," Wei said. "No one in this sector knows about the earlier work, and certainly no other PCAV would have that data. It had to be him."
Lobo shouldn't have underestimated Wei. Maybe that kind of error is part of what comes from being as intelligent as Wei had made him.
"And all this?" I said, waving my hand to take in the hangar.
Wei laughed. "An invitation," he said. "Nothing more. Given how much damage you were willing to do last time, I assumed you'd try again to get me. I refused to go out, so I knew you'd have to come in. Spotting you was easy; we rarely get applicants of your caliber."
He turned his back on me. "Bag Moore and put him in a cell," he said to Ng. "In an hour or so, we'll figure out who'll interrogate him." He waved toward Lobo. "Have the loaders move this PCAV to the secure group-experimentation lab. Hook it to the research net so I can send in some retrieval software and download its current programs and data."
As he walked out of the hangar, he said, almost to himself, "I can't wait to learn what came of our experiments on Lobo."
Chapter 53
I hadn't seen a prisoner head bag since the day the Pinkelponker government cops grabbed me, all of sixteen years old and just beginning to fit into the weird group of outcasts on the Dump, and dropped me into a cell on Aggro. Simple blinders would have worked fine, of course, but Ng must have been on a retro punishment kick. Two guards led me out of the hangar and to my cell. One shoved me so hard I smacked into a wall and then pushed the barrel of a rifle against my neck. The second yanked the cover off my head. I heard him back out but didn't look around until I felt the pressure ease from my neck. I glanced at the remaining guard as he was leaving, but I didn't recognize him; no surprise there.
The anger still had me in its grip. I wanted to smash my way out, to create a nanocloud that would disassemble the door and anyone waiting on the other side of it, that would free me and return me to my mission.
Instead, I leaned against the corner farthest from the door of the small room, slitted my eyes, and forced myself to take long, slow, deep breaths, easing the air in and out through my nose. They'd be recording everything I did, so if I used my nanomachines I'd be revealing my secret to the Wonder Island security team. I might be able to use the cloud to reduce the entire area, including all the data archives, to just so much dust, but I'd also have to kill the watchers or live with the knowledge that the truth about me was out there and someone could be coming for me at any time.
I slowed my breathing further.
Even if I killed everyone here, I couldn't be sure they weren't archiving security data somewhere else. McCombs had said all the research data was available only locally, but footage from my cell could be an exception; given their ties to the government, they might be streaming the holos of me to the security police.
I couldn't take the chance.
I also couldn't afford to wait. I had no idea what Wei's people might do to me, but even if their only action was to turn me over to the Heaven authorities, I could end up facing jail time. More importantly, no matter what happened, more children would die in Wei's experiments while I sorted out my situation.
Lobo could die, too. Wei had managed to override his programming with a backdoor Lobo hadn't known existed. I had no idea what Wei might do to him with full access to his data and programs. If Wei decided to wipe Lobo's systems, Lobo as I knew him would cease to exist. I couldn't let that happen.
I couldn't let more children die.
I couldn't let Wei continue his research.
I couldn't let Lobo vanish.
I had to do something!
Who was I kidding? I worked on my breathing as my mind kept racing. If I wasn't willing to risk killing everyone here, then I might have to let children die, let Wei continue, and even let my only friend turn into a normal machine, all trace of his personality lost forever.
I had to find an alternative that wasn't as deadly as using the nanomachines and then wait for the chance to pursue it.
I knew I wouldn't kill that many people. I wasn't willing to do that, at least not right now, not when I still wasn't sure what would happen. Maybe later I would be, but not now.
No, my only real option was to wait for Wei's people to come to me, which they surely would if for no other reason than to deliver me to the police, and see what I could make happen when they did.
I scanned the room but saw nothing of use to me: No machine outlets, no obvious weaknesses, just a plain, small cell, walls and floor and ceiling and door and nothing more.
Which probably meant I wouldn't be here long, because most holding areas built for more than very short occupancy have at least a toilet; cleaning up excrement is a hassle most captors don't want to endure.
I stretched and considered how much trouble to be. When someone holds you captive, it's usually best to choose one of two extreme paths: Cooperate as much as possible, or cause so much trouble that keeping you becomes more hassle than it's worth. The first option is good when you need to stay or fear for your life; the second is the right choice if you have reason to believe they won't simply kill you. Wei could have sent me to the authorities when they captured me, but he didn't, so it was a safe bet he really didn't know who'd sent me and still wanted that information.
I chose the second path.
About an hour later, the door slid open. Lee limped in, whatever prosthesis he was using invisible under his uniform. He held a pistol in his right hand, and he was pointing it at me. Another guard, one I didn't recognize, stood beside him.
"Give it to me," Lee said. He never looked away from me.
"For the gun," the woman said.
"Just give it to me and step out," Lee said. "I won't be long."
The woman shook her head. "Ng's orders, and she'll have my ass if I disobey them. You can interrogate him, but you can't shoot him."
"I won't," Lee said.
"Then give me the gun," she said. She held up a small, oblong box. "I'll trade you this for it, and then you can have some fun."
Lee finally turned to face her. He gave her a hard look, but her expression didn't change. He handed her the gun and took the box, then nodded toward the door. "Get out, he said.
She took the gun, nodded, and turned to leave.
I launched myself at Lee before he could turn back toward me. I caught him around the waist and kept accelerating, so he slammed into the back of the woman and sent her sailing across the hallway into the wall there. She dropped the pistol, but I ignored it to focus on Lee, who punched me hard in the side of my face. I brought up my head as quickly as I could and smashed the top of it into his jaw, snapping his head so far back I thought for a second I might have knocked him out. No such luck. I released him. He staggered backward, still conscious. The other guard was on the ground, her face bleeding.
I'd made as much of a statement as I needed, but if I let Lee recover right now, he'd grab the pistol and shoot me. I couldn't allow that.
I stepped to the left and launched a kick hard into the side of his good knee. He screamed and fell.
I walked over to the other guard, shoved the pistol away from her, and said, "Tell Wei or Ng or whatever idiot sent you that if they want to talk to me, they can talk. If they want to send somebody else to rough me up, they better pick someone a lot tougher than him."
I walked back to my cell.
The door closed and locked behind me.
I wondered what they'd do next.
As best as I could tell, less than half an hour had passed before the door opened again. I'd expected them to respond quickly, so that was no surprise.
What I hadn't expected was the man who stepped inside my cell, arms up, showing me he wasn't carrying a weapon: Park.
"I'm sorry to see you," I said. I meant it. I'd really hoped he wasn't part of Wei's secret research efforts. "Shouldn't you be in bed already?"
"I normally would be, but your attack made them call me. As for being sorry, why? You're the one who's facing criminal charges."
I stared at his face, which was as calm as always. Maybe he didn't know what was really happening here. If he didn't, though, why did they send him to see me? If he was innocent, I might be able to recruit him as an ally—but I'd have to tell him the truth. If I did, I'd be forcing him either to join them or to become another problem they'd have to address.
Finally, I said, "I doubt it. If they were going to hand me over to the police, they'd have done it immediately. They already sent Lee to rough me up; I'd have preferred the next goon wasn't you."
Park's face tightened slightly, but otherwise his expression remained the same. "I heard Lee didn't fare so well. What do you have against that boy?"
I shrugged. "Nothing at all. Both times, he initiated the conflict. I just finished it."
"The recording shows you hit him first this time."
"Come on, Sarge; you're smarter than that. You know he started it when he walked in the door. He was just stupid. Again."
"So that's why you were hoping it wasn't me?" Park said. "You wanted someone else who would be easy to take out?"
"No," I said. "I was hoping you weren't part of all this, and I didn't want to have to hurt you."
"I wouldn't be as easy as Lee," Park said. "Not by a great deal."
This time, I held up my hands. "I know you wouldn't," I said, "and it really doesn't matter which of us would win. What bothers me is that I hate to think you're helping Wei."
"You know what I do here," Park said. "The same work you were doing."
I shook my head. "No. I did basic security duty. I have no idea what you did. For all I know, you helped them kidnap and kill children."
"That's garbage," he said, his voice tight, his words clipped. "You do know I wouldn't do that."
"Maybe," I said, "but Wei and Ng and some of the other security people are definitely involved. Wei's team uses the kids for his research experiments. So far, all of them have died. Heaven's government covers up the whole affair, because if they succeed, the potential rewards are amazing."
"Succeed at what?"
I shrugged and continued to stare at him as I told him the first lie of the conversation. "I don't know," I said. "What I do know is that even if you had no part in it before, you're in it now."
"Because you told me," he said.
I nodded again. "Because I told you."
"So why did you join my team?" he said.
"So I could kidnap Wei and force him to stand trial."
"If Heaven is backing him, where would you take him for trial? Who sent you?"
I laughed. "Finally we get to what they told you to find out. They knew I'd explain why I was here, so you're definitely part of the inner circle now. I hope you can live with that, because I have a feeling that if you can't, you might find yourself in here with me—if I'm still alive, that is."
"You're not going to tell me who sent you," he said. It wasn't a question. He understood me better than that.
"Of course not," I said, "not that it matters. What matters now is what you're going to do with what I just told you."
"All I wanted was a quiet job," he said. "I explained that to you. As far as I know, that's what I have. You made a huge accusation, but you offered no proof."
"That's right," I said. "I didn't, but I think you know I'm telling the truth. As for your quiet job, well, you can still have it—as long as you can live with children dying on the other side of the complex."
"You know how it is," he said. He turned to go and stopped as the door opened. "You can learn to live with anything if you have to." He shook his head. "I'm going to bed."
I stared at the door as it closed behind him.
I hoped he was wrong, that he couldn't bear the knowledge, because soon someone else would come for me. They'd either try a different approach to getting me to talk, or they'd ship me off to Heaven's police.
One way or the other, my time here was running out.
Chapter 54
When the door slid open a little while later, no one entered.
After a few seconds, Ng's voice called from the hall. "Lean against the back wall, hands above your head and spread apart."
I stayed in the front corner of the room, out of her line of sight, as I said, "No."
"You do not want to try me, Moore," she said. "After what you did to Dan, if you give me an excuse to violate Wei's orders to bring you along unharmed, I promise I'll take it."
My options definitely improved if I could get close to Wei, so I stepped to the rear of the cell, spread my hands wide, raised them over my head, and used them to brace myself against the wall. I turned my head to the right and tensed my shoulders. "I'm here."
I could barely make out the guards slipping into the cell, one after the other, both training weapons on me. They weren't taking chances this time.
When one was on either side of me, Ng said, "Moore, move and I shoot. Secure him."
The guards wrenched my hands off the wall and behind my back. My face scraped against the permacrete, but I'd been ready for the contact so it didn't upset me. Cuffs encircled my wrists and secured themselves. The guards spun me so I was facing Ng.
She didn't look happy.
"You hit him before he did anything," she said.
"Only to save m
yself," I said. "You saw him take the toy from that other guard. You know what comes next. Tell me you would have done anything different."
The implicit compliment seemed to help, because she relaxed slightly and gave me a tiny smile. "In your shoes, I would have finished him."
I shrugged. "I'm not here to hurt anybody."
"Yeah, yeah, you've come to stop the bad man and save the poor innocent children."
"Something like that."
"Maybe you should take a look at the bigger picture," she said. "What Wei and his team are trying to do—what I'm protecting—is bigger than the lives of a few kids, many of whom were orphans anyway. When he succeeds, and he will, I know he will, we'll be able to cure diseases that kill millions and millions of people all over the inhabited worlds, stop aging, maybe let people live forever. Isn't that prize worth the cost?"
"That's not mine to decide," I said. "The research is illegal, banned here and everywhere by every major human government."
"And you've never broken a rule for the greater good?" she said. "Wei is a genius who might very well live in history as the man who led humanity into immortality. He hates the cost as much as you or I—and we all do hate it, Moore, you're not alone in that—but he's willing to bear it so we can all benefit."
"He's not bearing the cost! Those children are. They're paying with their lives. They didn't make a choice; you people simply kidnapped them. How Wei feels about killing them won't bring back a single child."
She shook her head. "It figures, a grunt like you, you couldn't understand. I told him." She motioned toward the guard on my left, and he slipped a bag over my head.
"Let's go," Ng said. "He wants to talk to you."
Either the complex was even bigger than I'd thought or they intentionally ran me through a winding route just to confuse me, because it must have taken us fifteen minutes to reach our destination. I heard a door snick open, then the guards pushed me against the wall to the right of the door, and one of them pulled off the bag.
I'd shut my eyes when I felt him grab the bag. I slitted them now so I could look around a little while they adjusted to the light. After a few seconds, I slowly opened them all the way.
Overthrowing Heaven-ARC Page 35