The train kept speeding along the rails until it started to slow to another stop. And then another. This was her stop. The doors slid open again and Hazel pushed past ten or more people, never apologizing for bumping shoulders or shoving. The night air was cool and the ground was wet from an earlier rain that brought streams next to the sidewalks. On a soaking spring night like this she wished she had a light jacket to shield her from the chilly wind.
The train doors closed and she found herself alone in front of an empty set of tracks. At least, she had thought she was alone. When she looked to her right, the same man that had been staring at her on the train stood on the platform. He was looking at her with his mouth open and his eyes squinting.
“You following me?” the man asked. “I don’t like it when people follow me. Makes me think you’re up to something.”
Hazel didn’t know what to say. Any words that probably needed to come in that moment didn’t. But her legs worked. She was off the platform and halfway down the street before she even realized what she was doing. She allowed a single glance behind her to see the man walking in her direction.
Her pace quickened.
The buildings around her were mostly dark, the lights within having gone out hours ago. It would be much of the same at the research facility. There were very few people traveling the streets, at least in this part of the city. Another look behind her revealed that the man was gaining on her, though he wasn’t yet running.
Hazel had tried to keep up a brave front when she was at her father’s house, making it seem like he was the paranoid one, but when it came down to it she was more scared than she liked to admit. Now with a man following her through the empty streets she was terrified.
She made a left. She made a right. Left. Right. Every turn she took was meant to lose her pursuer yet it made her more nervous because now she couldn’t see him. She found herself in front of some abandoned building and couldn’t quite tell where she was. She had meant to keep heading in the direction of her office but now she felt lost. She looked all around her but all she found were dirty, empty streets.
She took a deep breath and leaned against one of the brick buildings. She wanted to tell herself that she was just imagining things—that he wasn’t actually after her. But she couldn’t lie. This guy was trying to get her and she didn’t know why. This was probably the man that had trashed her father’s house. What did he want?
She looked down at her wristwatch. It was little more than a link between her and Esroy, but he could help her. She tapped a short message on the tiny screen and sent it. It read:
A man is following. Track me.
She let a sleeve fall quickly over her wrist and pulled herself away from the wall. She had to get her bearings and figure out the best route to her office. Her feet carried her only a few steps when she saw the man walk out from behind one of the buildings in the direction she was headed.
Her body froze and her mouth hung open. There was nothing she could do. Somehow he had gotten in front of her. He hadn’t only followed her but had also anticipated her movements.
His pace didn’t change as he walked toward her, his face keeping the same expression that he’d had on the train.
“What do you want from me?” Hazel asked. She could feel her lips quivering. She shivered like she was out in a snowy blizzard yet only cool water from the previous rain trickled around her feet.
The man didn’t say anything as he came closer. Hazel wondered what his intentions were. Did he want to rob her? Kill her? This was the perfect place to do it.
“Listen, I don’t have much, but I’ll give you everything I have on me.” She didn’t think she looked like a prized target.
The man was less than fifty feet away now and showed no sign of stopping. Everything within Hazel told her to run, but she knew it wouldn’t make a difference. This man knew these streets better than she did. He would catch up to her, and help was nowhere to be found. She wished she had a gun or a knife, but the only weapon she carried with her was her confidence.
She stood as straight as possible and slipped her right hand inside her jacket as if she was reaching for something. The man stopped suddenly, squinting at her.
“What do you have there?” he asked, nodding toward her hidden hand.
“You take another step toward me and you’ll find out.” His jaws clenched tightly and she stared into his eyes, daring him to try. But the man didn’t seem afraid. Cautious maybe, but not afraid.
He took a step forward and Hazel stiffened.
“You should listen to me,” she said.
“You offered all your things,” the man said. “I don’t think a person with a gun would have jumped to that so quickly.”
“I’d rather you take my money than me have to kill you.”
“Really?”
“What do you want with me?”
“You’re Hazel Hawthorn, right?”
She swallowed.
He took another step forward. “I have business with you.”
“What business?”
“There’s someone who needs to meet with you.”
“Are you the man who trashed my dad’s house?”
The man shrugged. “I had to get you out of your office somehow.”
Hazel gritted her teeth, her stomach twisting in knots.
“What kind of person would do such a thing to a poor blind man?”
“The kind of person who is desperate.”
“You’re despicable.”
“We got you out in the open didn’t we?”
“Who’s we?”
The man shook his head. “You gonna take your hand out of your jacket and come with me peacefully or am I gonna have to do this the hard way?”
“I’m not coming with you,” Hazel said.
The man nodded. “So, the hard way.”
She wasn’t ready for the man to jump at her with such speed. One moment he had been in front of her and the next, she was struggling, trying to get out of his grip. His arm was around her neck so tight she thought it might break if she fought too hard. She briefly felt a sharp prick in the side of her neck, but before she could cry out, she was already asleep.
14
“Something’s wrong,” Esroy said from his computer terminal.
Des looked at the screen. “What is it?”
“Hazel just sent me a message. Take a look.”
Des moved to the desk and bent lower to get a good look at the screen. A box appeared with two short sentences typed out: A man is following. Track me.
“Are you tracking her?” Des asked.
“Of course. She’s not far from here.”
“What does she want you to do?”
“I’m not sure. She’s headed south, away from here. Very slowly, I might add.”
“Should you call the authorities?”
“What if you went?”
Des stood straight. “What?”
“I’m not sure this is a police situation,” Esroy explained. “However, I’ve tried to contact her, but she isn’t responding. Could be serious.”
“You want me to leave the room?”
“As I said, it isn’t far.”
“But Hazel told me not to leave.” He couldn’t go. What if somebody saw him? What if Bracken saw him? He would have Des shut down. Des wasn’t even supposed to be alive!
“This is actually a good opportunity for you,” Esroy said. “It’s your chance to finally leave this facility.”
“Why would I want to leave?”
“Sooner or later, they will find out about you. That means sooner or later, they will delete your programming. And you and I both know what that means.”
“It sounds like you don’t want me here.”
“Des, if I had a body and legs I would already be out there. Our maker is in trouble and she needs your help. I believe as the mobile version of the two of us, it is your responsibility to make sure she is safe.”
Esroy sounded convincing en
ough, and Des didn’t want anything to happen to Hazel. She was truly his only friend in this world.
Des scanned the room. The only way out was through the door or out the window. He took a few strides toward the window and peered out into the night.
“The window isn’t too high for you is it?”
Des caught the sarcasm in Esroy’s tone but decided to ignore it. The scans showed that no possible harm could come to his body by the short fall. A human? He or she might break a bone, but Des was made of better stuff than bones.
“Can you send me live updates of Hazel’s location?”
“I’m already doing it.”
Just as Esroy said it, the images shined over his vision like a see-through hologram. It was a map of the city and a red dot. The dot, Des assumed, was Hazel.
“How do you have this information?” Des asked.
“Her watch,” Esroy answered. “She uses it to communicate with me when she’s not here.”
Des nodded and reached out to open the window as wide as it would go. He pulled himself up to the ledge, looking out over the wet concrete below.
“You’re about to take your first step into the real world.”
Des looked back at the computer screen. “I’m sorry you don’t have that chance.”
“Soon I will. You’ll see.”
Des wondered for a moment if there was something in Esroy’s voice that indicated a double meaning in his words. It was as if he was hiding something from Des, but it humored Esroy to keep it from the robot. Of course, Des was no expert. He had been talking to sentient beings for less than a day. He still had a lot to learn.
“You have access to the network. Can you disable security cameras?”
“Not in the time we have,” Esroy answered. “Just do what needs to be done. We can take care of video files later. Des nodded and looked below him one more time.
The drop was mere inches compared to what he had climbed in the simulator. Still, a small part of that fear returned to him. This time he knew it was completely irrational. Even his programing told him that there was a zero percent chance of harm. He supposed it didn’t help that one of his first experiences was having to deal with heights and death caused by them. But it had just been a simulator. In reality, he had probably dropped a distance much less than this second story window. He held onto the ledge firmly and lowered his body all the way down until he was hanging from the side of the building with both arms. He turned his head slightly to see where he would land and then made his fingers let go.
The drop took about a second and his feet hit the concrete hard. A quick check showed him that his vitals were intact and that nothing was broken or harmed on his body. He looked out toward the gate, the red dot in his vision telling him where and how far Hazel was from him. 942 meters. Not that far.
He stood from his crouch and started in a sprint, his legs carrying him faster and faster. How fast could he go? Smack, smack, smack. Echoes of metal slamming against the asphalt bounced off nearby walls. He wanted to take everything in—the night sky, the wind blowing between the buildings, the sound of buses in the distance. But he had a mission. He had to get to Hazel and make sure she was all right. He didn’t know what her message to Esroy had meant and he didn’t know what he might face in the next few minutes, but he was ready. He didn’t feel fear. This wasn’t like the simulator. If only they would give him a chance, they would see that he would be a good soldier. He wouldn’t be too afraid to fight evil in the world.
He let that thought drive him as he hurried through the empty night streets. He didn’t know his enemy. He didn’t care. Hazel had saved his life. It was his turn to repay her.
722 meters. He ducked behind buildings, jumped over trash bins, and even climbed past fences.
589 meters. He was closing in, his energy never wavering. He felt limitless.
453 meters. He ran past a group of people in the street. There were maybe four or five of them, each of them looking inebriated. They might tell others about seeing a robot running through the streets but who would believe them?
304 meters. This part of the city looked less attractive. Perhaps it was mostly abandoned. None of the buildings had lights and many windows were shattered or blacked out. Des saw one building that look scorched from a fire long ago.
At 207 meters, the red dot faded from his vision. What? What’s happening? A short crackle in his comm reception sounded in his head. The voice came from Esroy.
“Des, can you hear me?”
“Yes, what happened?”
“I’m not sure. I lost the signal. Whoever was after her might have found the watch and destroyed it.”
Des stopped in the middle of an empty street. He stood awkwardly, unable to feel relieved by the lack of people around for the new situation before him.
“Can you get me the last known location?”
“I can get you within fifty meters, but that’s about it. I’ll try to reconnect with her.”
This time a green dot popped up in Des’ vision.
“This is near the last known location. She shouldn’t be too far from there.”
“Thanks,” Des said. His legs carried him quickly again, but he had to use more than his speed if he was going to find Hazel now. As he ran, he scanned his schematics again to look for something that might be useful. Heat sensors. Night vision. Noise enhancers. All of these might help. He only hoped that Hazel was still alive.
15
Hazel was still alive. She knew that much when she woke up in a dark room, her wrists tied together behind her as she sat in a hard, wooden chair. Orange light shined to her left, but it did little to help her see in the darkness. It also didn’t help that her vision was blurry from whatever it was that man had used to knock her out. Her short time of confusion was replaced with anger when she remembered what had happened. The strange man on the train had pretended that she was the paranoid one, even suggesting that she was following him! Hazel cursed herself for not being more cautious. She shouldn’t have gotten off the train. She shouldn’t have gone to her father’s house.
The sound of slow footsteps from the other side of the room broke into her thoughts. Her eyes had just begun to adjust and she could see the face of the man who had kidnapped her. He had another wooden chair in his hands and he set it down a foot or so in front of her.
Her head felt foggy and her neck ached from the headlock he’d given her, but she felt lucid enough to know what was happening, though she still wanted answers.
“Who are you?” she asked. She hadn’t expected her voice to be so hoarse. It cracked when she spoke and it sounded like she only breathed most of her words out. “What do you want?”
“I’m not the one who wants you,” the man said. He sat down in the chair and stared into her eyes, studying her as if to make sure she was all there. “I was afraid I’d given you too high of a dosage, but you seem to be all right.”
“Who are you?”
“Gus,” the man said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. The front was shattered glass and dark. “You care to tell me what this is?”
“It’s a watch.”
“It was a watch. It’s broken now. I just wanted to know who you were sending your little messages to.”
“A friend. Someone who is probably looking for me right now.”
“Well, if this watch had a tracker then your friend isn’t going to find you now.”
“What do you want with me?” Hazel repeated.
“I told you, I don’t want you. Someone else does. It’s just my job to get you here and to prep you to meet him.”
“Prep me?”
Gus held a finger up and turned his head to cough into his shoulder. He hacked one or two times before conjuring up a wad of phlegm and spitting it toward the other side of the room. He turned his head back to Hazel and shook his head. “Sorry about that. Old cough that won’t go away.” Gus sniffed loudly. “Yeah, prep you,” he said. “I’m going to tell you a fe
w things so you won’t be asking a bunch of unnecessary questions to the guy who wants to speak with you.
“Okay.”
Gus nodded. “Okay, yeah. Uh…first, we’re Outlanders, as you Mainlanders like to call us.”
“Outlanders?” Hazel felt her body stiffen. Just the thought of being in the same room with an Outlander was enough to drive a knife of fear into her heart. But it made sense now—the man’s demeanor, his callous look. He lacked some of the markings that Hazel remembered from other outlanders. He didn’t have a lot of lavish tattoos and piercings, and his hair seemed normal. Perhaps that was how he could be in Mainland without being noticed.
“I know your history with us is bad,” he continued. “I know about your mom and your sister. I know about your dad losing his sight.”
“Then you know that I hate Outlanders with every fiber of my being.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then I ask again, what do you want with me?”
“The guy you’re gonna meet thinks you’re the only one who can help him.” Gus shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s true. Frankly, I think he’s a little off his rocker, but that’s why I’m not in charge.” He let out a short cough. “Anyway, I say this to tell you that what happened with your family all those years ago was an isolated incident. Never would we allow that kind of behavior from any of our people. If we’d known such actions had been going on, we would have put a stop to it immediately.”
“Wow,” Hazel said. “My whole outlook is just…it’s changed. Thank you! I feel so enlightened. I don’t hate you and the rest of your Outlander scum anymore.”
Gus pressed his tongue to the bottom of his lip and shook his head. “I didn’t think this was going to work.”
“What? Your lies?”
“I’m not lying to you. What I’ve said is the truth.” He put his hands up in the air. “Forget it. There is no talking to you. I’m just going to get the guy who actually cares.” Gus stood up from the chair and took a couple of steps before turning back to look at her. “Don’t be shocked by who it is.”
Prototype D (Prototype D Series Book 1) Page 12