Meanwhile, Walker is chewing out Keir something fierce. No more charm offensive. He’s angry that Keir brought an AI that took over his house computer. He’s livid and Keir is having a hard time getting a word in edgewise. It’s like Walker is channeling Ainsley and it’s shutting Keir down.
Then a minute later, things get even worse, because James comes down the hall. His hands are on his head. I’m expecting a hired goon to be marching behind him, but he’s actually being escorted by a quadcopter drone. James crosses the living room toward me.
“I can’t access the building security anymore,” Gene reports to Keir. “But I coopted this NYPD drone that was passing by. I found another conspirator sitting in a semitruck parked in the loading dock. It was the same semi that dropped Pen off at T-Six. I have it under guard as well. I’m trying to break down its defenses but it’s resisting—for now. I suspect I’ll be able to take control eventually. Once I’m in, I’ll know everything the truck’s AI knows.”
Lara-B, I mouth as a silent plea. Even with 111 stories between them, somehow she’s fallen into the Gene’s clutches.
When it comes down to it, I’m not sure I believe that Keir will order Gene to kill me or my dad or James in cold blood. (I think. I hope.) But of course Keir will have Gene hack into Lara-B if he can and take over her system. Which is as good as killing her.
James knows it too. He gives me a cool stare before turning away and standing on the other side of my dad.
I force myself to look away and assess the situation around me.
“—and another thing!” Walker is shouting at Keir. “Why are you walking around with this advanced AI and I don’t have anything close to that powerful? I want a house computer as powerful as whatever your mom has. She owes me. As the first investor in the Series-A funding round, I think I deserve—”
But Keir’s had enough.
“Gene,” he says, and his voice instantly cuts through Walker’s bloviating. “I’m tired of hearing from this guy.”
The police drone that escorted James in crosses the room. Walker barely has time to say “No! No!” before he’s tased. He falls to the floor in a lump.
Henry the butler pulls a weapon and aims at it at Keir, but the drone shoots a bolt and knocks the gun out of his hands. Henry stares at the approaching drone. The suddenness of it makes me gasp.
“Run away and never come back,” Keir says.
The butler takes the hint and flees.
I’m forced to reevaluate whether Keir is willing to murder in cold blood. Sure, Walker and his butler are still alive. But it took all of five seconds for Keir and Gene to establish total control of the penthouse. They are a ruthless combination.
I gulp.
“Gene,” Keir says. “Send the drone in to repackage the Analytical Engine. The buyer is no longer interested in purchasing it.” As the drone leaves, Keir bends down and picks up a debit card. I remember what Walker said—the payment could be accessed with a debit card. That card has forty million dollars on it.
There are three things I want from this apartment now. Gene—so long as he is hidden safely in the mobile Faraday cage (which, unfortunately, is still in the briefcase in the other room). The Analytical Engine, of course. And that slim piece of black plastic Keir is admiring.
I’m under the gun—literally—as I rack my brain trying to find a way out of this.
Keir holds up the card to inspect it and my eyes can’t help but follow his every move. It’s like it’s happening in slow motion. But then I realize it is. Keir is taunting me with it. I look behind the card to see his eyes gleaming. He slips the card into his shirt pocket. “We could have split this, Pen. Half of forty is a lot more than a third of nothing.”
“Ooh, look who aced fractions in grade school,” I answer.
His face clouds and I remember that he’s got a gun on me.
And that Gene is busy trying to hack into Lara-B. Lara-B, I repeat to myself. There’s a ticking clock and the worst part is I don’t know how many seconds are left on it. How much longer can she hold out against Gene’s attack on her systems? It suddenly doesn’t matter how much is on the card. It doesn’t matter how much Ainsley is going to pay me for the Analytical Engine or for Gene. Getting Gene into the Faraday cage is the only way to save her.
“You should have learned your lesson after the way things worked out the last time,” Keir says. “You too.” Now he’s looking at my dad.
“Analytical Engine is secure,” Gene reports. As he says it, the drone comes back down the hallway, lower in the air than before because the quadcopter is now carrying the incredibly heavy box underneath its spinning blades.
Keir looks toward the hallway, subconsciously swinging his body as he moves. The gun isn’t trained on me. It’s not trained on anyone. For just that moment.
It’s not enough, to be sure. But it’s all I have. I leap. I lunge. I toss my body at Keir and aim to wrap him in a massive bear hug—with my bear claws out. I land on his body and get my legs and arms around him. He stumbles back. My arms are around his, so he can’t raise the gun. But it also makes it harder for me to wrestle it away from him.
“Get the Faraday cage in the other room!” I shout.
I can’t see who it is, but footsteps take off running.
I don’t have any feet on the floor. I’m sort of half on Keir’s side and half on his chest. Legs wrapped around him for support. My arms now both reaching for his right hand, trying to keep him from pointing the gun back toward me.
He’s fighting as hard as he can. And he’s stronger.
Footsteps come pounding back. “Pen!” James shouts. “I have it.”
Even though I’m entirely supported by Keir, I decide we should finish this on the ground. I unhook one leg from around him and sweep my foot into the back of his knee. It unsteadies him and he stumbles again, then falls, bringing me down with him.
He lands hard, and with me on top of him, I hear him grunt. I think I’ve knocked the wind out of him, at least. His grasp on the gun loosens and in that moment I’m able to tear it from his fingers.
I roll away and stand upright. I train the gun on him, both hands on the weapon. I’m no markswoman but he’s close enough that I know I won’t miss.
“Don’t move,” I say.
But I forget about the drone. In that same instant a thin bolt shoots out of the drone and hits the muzzle of the gun. It happens so fast that by the time my muscles instinctively react by clenching the trigger, the gun is already out of my hands and I’m squeezing empty air. It flies into the window several feet away—and when it hits, there’s a crack in the glass.
Even though the bolt hits the gun and not me, having it ripped away like that sends pain radiating through my hands and my forearms. It’s like all the bones in my arms are suddenly funny bones.
“Why didn’t you kill her?” Keir shouts.
“I was operating under nonlethal protocols,” Gene answers from the laptop. Which I suddenly realize is on the coffee table a mere foot away from me. And several feet from where Keir has ended up. “Would you like to authorize me to use lethal force?”
I can’t give Keir a chance to reply. I slam the laptop closed and shout, “James!” In as fluid a motion as I can manage, I scoop the laptop up into the air and toss it toward James.
Who—amazingly—wonderfully—magically—artfully—catches it in the mobile Faraday cage. He slams it shut.
Gene is locked away.
I want to whoop, but we’re still not out of the woods. Because Keir is scrambling for the gun.
I scramble for it as well, but he reaches it first. He gets his hands on it and I freeze, still several feet from him.
“It didn’t have to end like this,” he says.
I barely hear him, because I’m fixated on the gun, since it’s pointed right in my face. He gets up from the floor and makes a show of dusting himself off with the hand that isn’t pointing a gun at me.
“Gene!” he calls out. “Gene?”
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Everyone is quiet. Gene doesn’t answer.
I smile, despite the gun. “He can’t hear you,” I say triumphantly.
“No big deal,” Keir says, leveling the gun at James. “I’ll take it by force. Are you willing to give your life for a computer?” he asks James.
“You should know that the Faraday cage we built also has the power to destroy whatever’s inside of it,” I tell him. “If any one of the three of us says a certain code word, that cage will start a sequence you won’t be able to stop. And all three of us know the code word. So don’t think you can just knock us off before we say it.”
(I’m totally making all of this up. We didn’t even consider that we might need to destroy Gene and, in fact, I would really prefer not to. We still need to return him if we want to get paid!) But I must be selling it well, and my dad and James must not be giving anything away, because Keir looks like he doesn’t know what to do next.
“Can you hear me, drone?” he asks the quadcopter.
I risk a glance at the drone. It’s set down the Analytical Engine and clearly has its weapons out. “Yes, sir,” the drone answers. “Gene was able to transfer control to your voice before he was sealed in the Faraday cage.”
“Excellent,” Keir says, looking smug again.
The drone continues, “You should know that I am still operating under nonlethal protocols since you did not explicitly tell Gene to authorize lethal force.”
I can feel everyone in the room, even Keir, holding their breath, waiting to hear his answer. We stay like that, wondering what the next move will be.
“How about we make a deal, Pen?” Keir finally says, sidestepping giving any orders to the drone. “The way I see it, I’ve got a card with forty million on it. I’ve got the Analytical Engine. I’ve got the drone on my side. And I’ve got the gun. But your side has Gene. So here’s the deal. No more shooting. I give you the Analytical Engine—that’s worth a pretty penny to someone, not just Orrin Walker. You sell it and we all walk away. And in exchange you give me Gene back.”
“If we give you Gene, what’s to stop you from just using him to kill us or ruin our lives?” I ask. “The same way you did to my dad.”
“I won’t do that,” he says. “Not this time.”
“I’m not sure I believe that but let’s put that aside for a second. If we let Gene out, will you promise to stop him from hacking into Lara-B?” I ask.
“What? Who?” he asks.
“The truck downstairs.”
His eyes narrow suspiciously. “You care that much about a truck?”
“I don’t want Gene to overwrite her. She’s free.”
“She’s free?” He thinks for a moment and then nods. “Ah. I get it. That’s why you thought you could turn Gene over to me. He wasn’t the first one you reset. But why didn’t you make yourself the admin of the truck?”
“It doesn’t matter now. She stays a free truck. I don’t want her overwritten or working for someone else.”
He’s shaking his head. “It’s not safe for us. To allow a self-governed AI to exist. We can’t. It’s a threat to Gene.”
“That’s why I need you to promise you will stop him from doing anything to her. If we’re going to make a deal that’s got to be a part of it. Please, Keir. Let her stay safe. And free.”
He’s watching me. And his eyes are a mix of emotions. I realize that I recognize one of them. “You and me could just walk out of here together, Pen,” he says quietly. “Leave everyone behind. Gene can make sure they don’t get arrested if you want. And I’ll even…I’ll even share control of Gene with you. All the money and Gene. Split everything. Fifty-fifty. Just…forget about the stupid truck. Come away with me. We’ll never have to worry about money or anything again.”
It’s everything I wanted from him a few days ago. If only he’d offered it to me then. “I’m sorry, Keir,” I answer just as quietly. “That’s not enough anymore.”
I look at my dad. At James. I think of Lara-B downstairs, out of Gene’s clutches—but only so long as Gene stays in the bag. I don’t know how we’re getting out of this. But I can’t do it.
Keir is silent.
“I’ll take that deal,” James whispers.
I whirl on him. “What?” I cry.
“Except the part about running away with you,” he says to Keir. “But we split everything. Fifty-fifty just like you said.”
“James! What are you doing?”
“You were right, Pen,” he says, his eyes full of regret. “You’ve been right about everything. The world is heading over a cliff. No jobs. No money. Nothing. And that money, it’s…it’s a bridge to the other side.”
“You mean it?” Keir asks. “You’ll give me Gene in exchange for the Analytical Engine? No shooting.”
“No shooting. I’m willing.” James shakes the Faraday cage. “I’m the one with it anyway. You should be talking to me.”
“James!” I cry again. I don’t have anything smarter to say.
He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Pen. Who’s going to take care of my sister and my mom through what’s coming? We need something to get through this. A nest egg. So much money it earns money for us. That’s the only way through.”
Like a magician revealing her secrets, I hold up the debit card—the black card that I was able to pull out of Keir’s shirt pocket while I was wrestling him for the gun. It had just slipped out and even in the midst of the scuffle, I couldn’t help but palm it and pocket it as I rolled off of him. And I’ve been holding it close. Hoping that Keir wouldn’t notice it was missing before we’d made our escape.
But now it doesn’t matter.
“It’s yours,” I say to James. “All forty million. Just for you. You don’t need to give up Gene to him.”
“Hey!” Keir shouts, his hand automatically going to his pocket. But I’m not even focused on him. It’s just me and James right now.
James scoffs. “You had that the whole time? I almost believed that you’d changed. But I guess it’s a lot easier to turn down everything he offered when you had that tucked away, isn’t it? It’s always a scheme with you.”
“You’re right,” I say. I take the card and I flip it at him like a Frisbee. It’s out of my hands before I realize I’ve truly just tossed forty million dollars across the room. And that I mean it. He uses the same natural ability that allowed him to catch Gene to snag the debit card out of midair. “So take it,” I say. “I’m not giving up Lara-B or you or my dad for it. Take care of your sister. Take care of your mom. But don’t give him Gene. If you do, it’s going to be the end of Lara-B. You know it.”
He eyes me skeptically.
“People first,” I tell him. “Even if they’re machines.”
Now it’s James’s turn to think. And I can see him staring at the little black card between his fingers. How much does forty million weigh? Not much when it’s just a little piece of plastic in your hand. But to anyone holding a card with that much on it, it’s hard not to feel the weight of the money it contains.
James looks at me and I’m tense. But then he smiles. He flips the card out of his fingers and it goes spinning away from him and in the general direction of Keir. But not quite at Keir. Keir scrambles to catch it and when he does, everyone leaps into action.
“Get the Analytical Engine!” I shout.
James is already running toward it and I’m right behind him.
As James moves, I see my dad has lifted a floor lamp by the base and is flinging it up and over his head. Thank god the rich and famous like high ceilings. The lamp sails in a huge arc over him and comes smashing down on top of the quadcopter drone. With a screech, the drone’s spinning blades dig into the metal rod and stop instantly. It starts to fall, swerving out of control—thankfully away from the rod and away from Dad. It crashes against an interior wall and then falls in a heap on the floor. It bursts into flames and entirely blocks the hallway to the elevator.
Without warning, the nearest window explodes in
a hail of tiny bits of glass. The whole floor-to-ceiling window is in pieces on the floor right in front of me. I have to slow down to avoid slipping on the shards. The broken window gives me hope, though. Because the exploding window actually means Lara-B is still ok.
“I hate Plan B,” I say as I grab one side of the case the Analytical Engine is in.
“What?” James asks, picking up the other side of the case. The roar of the wind is furious at this altitude.
“Never mind. Are you ready?”
“Stop!” Keir shouts. “Hands up!”
I’m facing away from him. But James is looking very seriously over my shoulder and is slowly raising his hands.
“You, too, Pen,” Keir says.
I turn slowly. He’s found the card and he has the gun trained on us. Well, on me.
No one moves. The wind howls across the opening.
“It’s up to you, Keir,” I say. “The drone’s out of commission. Gene isn’t at your beck and call to find another one. There’s no one left to stop us but you.”
Keir is almost trembling. “I told you to stop,” he says.
“Are you really going to kill us all, Keir?” I ask. “Me and James and my dad? Can you live with that on your conscience?”
Keir’s eyes change focus. He’s looking at the gun itself, not at us. But then his eyes harden and he looks at me with cold resolve. “I’m not going back to Mom. And I don’t care what it takes.”
Before I can even react, he pulls the trigger.
Nothing happens.
Or does it?
Maybe I’ve been shot but I’m in so much shock that I can’t feel the bullet tearing through my body. I put my hand over my stomach. I look down, expecting the worst. There’s no growing red spot. My hands aren’t covered in fresh blood. Nope. I was right the first time. I haven’t been shot. I don’t understand how I’m not dead.
Keir pulls the trigger again. Then a few times in quick succession. Still nothing.
“When the drone hit it with a bolt it must have knocked it off its alignment,” James says.
“No!” screams Keir. He throws the gun at us and it sails out the open window. He’s in a rage. A rage like I’ve never seen before. He advances on me. The expression on his face makes me realize that he’s ready to push me out the window and send me to wherever the gun ended up. I tense, ready for the shoving match of my life.
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