“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just…”
“I know. I know. You just need me. I make your job so much easier. This is what you always resort to.”
It was true. Without him, her work would take twice as long. He was able to run numbers and calculations like…well…like a machine. Within the computer terminal Esroy was her true assistant. Outside of it he would become something else.
“Esroy, we don’t have time to talk about this. We need to run the program through a test.”
She almost imagined a sigh coming from the computer as he spoke his next words.
“As you wish, master. As you wish.”
Hazel scowled when he said it. In his infancy, Esroy had thought calling her master was appropriate since she was his creator. The first time he did it she was taken aback, and she told him that he never had to call her master again. She made it clear that she wasn’t his master. But now, the words came out at her like a knife—a jab to her heart. No matter what form Esroy took, he had feelings. And his feelings and desires had ballooned since Des arrived.
“I’ll make a deal with you, Esroy. You get me through this, you help me with this programming, I’ll get you that robot body you’ve always wanted. Right now your life is safe and I’m just trying to save Des’.”
“Whatever you desire, master.”
It hurt her to hear him. His pain was deep enough to keep cutting away at her like that. Perhaps it was because she had made promises like these before. She had always promised to get him a body and she had never followed through. He’d probably even be satisfied with a body like Gizmo, though not forever. Esroy would want something more. At least until he had more than Des. Esroy, after all, was the firstborn, the one who deserved it the most.
But giving him a body was the least of her concerns. She was worried about Des, yet even he took a back seat to Project Retaliation. The thought of it gnawed at her piece by piece. There could be a way to get Nolan in here and show her what was in his personal file. She could let him in and not let him leave until he proved he wasn’t lying. And if he was lying, she could blow the whistle on him. He had seemed confident that he would be able to escape anyway. How, Hazel had no idea. If she wanted to meet him, she had her instructions. She knew what to do. All she had to do was ask Phil the janitor.
21
Hazel got the call that Des was on his way about an hour after her argument with Esroy. The two of them had worked in silence for the most part, only talking when it pertained to the task at hand, which was toying with fear levels in Soul’s programming. When the call came through, Hazel could almost feel the burning tension from Esroy.
“You know this is just something we have to figure out,” Hazel said as she stood from her desk.
“Sure,” was Esroy’s reply.
At least he didn’t call me master this time, she thought to herself.
She left the room feeling relieved to be away from her desk for the moment. She looked toward the closet a few feet away from her, wondering what time it was. She had a feeling Phil had been in last night regardless of whether he was scheduled or not. Part of Hazel didn’t believe that the lowly janitor could be a player in some major Outlander conspiracy. The thought was too wild for her. But why would Nolan have mentioned it if it wasn’t true? She walked to the end of the hallway until she reached another blank corridor. She waited a few minutes until finally Des came into view. She stood a bit straighter as he walked in her direction. He towered over the four guards that surrounded him, carrying guns in their arms like they were the ones in charge. She wondered if they knew that most of the bullets would just deflect off of him, or if the robot wanted, he could lay waste to them with only a few swings of his strong arms.
Des spotted her immediately and a gleam of hope shined from his eyes—a look that told her he still trusted her. She nodded at him when the guards approached. The robot nodded back.
“We’ve been instructed to give you custody of the robot,” the lead guard told her. He looked up at Des and bit his lip, then looked back at Hazel. “Be careful with this one. Seems dangerous.”
Hazel breathed deeply, glad to know Bracken didn’t plan to leave the guards with her. “I think I will be able to handle him. Thank you for bringing him.”
The guards looked at each other then up at Des before finally deciding to move back to their posts. For the longest moment, she and Des stood facing each other, waiting for the guards to be out of earshot. She stared past Des’ shoulder until a door closed behind them. Her eyes then met his.
“Are you okay?”
“A little confused,” Des answered, “but okay. They asked me a lot of questions that I didn’t know the answer to. I think they finally found out that I haven’t been part of everything in which you’re involved.”
“Believe me, I’m not even sure what I’m involved with.”
His facial features shifted at this, his eyebrows turning down. “What do you mean?”
Hazel shook her head. “Not here. Let’s go back to my office.”
Des nodded and followed closely behind her. When the two of them turned the corner, Hazel stopped abruptly and Des nearly walked into her. For a moment, she had a hard time breathing when she saw the man she’d seen so many times before, doing the exact same thing he always did, in the exact same place. But at the exact same time? No.
“Des, what time is it?” she whispered.
“Nine A.M.,” he said.
Had Phil been in to work the night before and his shift was just now ending? That wasn’t right. That would have made for a fifteen hour shift and she was pretty sure their janitors weren’t forced to work such long hours. She watched him wipe his hands with a towel, his back to her. He then bent low and started pulling cleaning supplies from a bucket, placing them in the proper place in his open closet. He hadn’t seen them yet and Hazel wasn’t sure she wanted him to.
Only a few paces from her door, she started to tiptoe forward, turning just briefly to place a finger over her lips to signal to Des that he needed to stay quiet. Once at the door, she reached for the knob, twisted slowly, and opened it quickly. She rushed inside, motioning for Des to do the same. He darted through the door and she closed it, just as Phil turned. The door closed more loudly than she would have liked but at least she was out of the man’s view.
What was she doing? She closed her eyes and rested her head against the door. “I’m such an idiot,” she whispered.
“What’s going on?” Des asked.
“I could ask the same,” said Esroy.
Hazel turned to them, resting her back against the door. “I just…I just didn’t want to be seen by…” she motioned with her thumb behind her, “you know.”
“I don’t know,” Des said.
“She’s talking about Phil. She was avoiding Phil.”
“Shhh! Keep it down. He might hear you through the door.”
“Sorry.”
Hazel breathed deeply again and shook her head. “I don’t know what’s gotten in to me. This is crazy.” Looking back on the last fifteen seconds, she saw that perhaps it would have been better to just say hello to Phil as she always did—pretending that she hadn’t just talked to Nolan Ragsdale about him, pretending that she didn’t know he was a part of something insane. “Des, come over here,” she said as she rushed passed him and sat at her desk chair. “I need to talk to the two of you about something.”
“What’s going on?” Des asked, standing next to the desk.
Hazel looked back and forth from Des’ eyes to the camera above her computer screen, intentionally looking into Esroy’s ‘eyes’ so he knew he was included. “I’ve been holding something back from the two of you. Everyone really.”
“Oh really?” Esroy said. “I’m shocked!”
Hazel rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. “I just didn’t know how to tell you. I need the two of you to trust me, okay?”
“I trust you,” Des said.
“And just what ar
e we trusting?” Esroy asked.
“Me. You’re trusting me.”
“About what?”
She shook her head again. She could feel her fingers starting to tremble, nervousness finding its way into every part of her body. She never wanted any of this. She had a job to do, not a revolution to start. She didn’t want to help uncover a conspiracy. Those kind of people got killed.
“I have to break Nolan Ragsdale out of jail.” The words stunned even her. The silence from Esroy and look of shock from Des was enough to tell her she sounded insane. She knew she needed to say more, to explain why she felt compelled to do such a thing, but her heart nearly stopped when a light tapping sounded from the door.
No one ever knocks on my door, she thought to herself. “Come in.” Her voiced sounded shaky and soft.
She was apparently loud enough for the person on the other side to hear her because the knob twisted and the door came open slowly. The sight of the man in the doorway nearly made Hazel dry heave.
“Excuse me,” Phil said. “I couldn’t help but see you trying to slip by unnoticed.” His eyes glanced from Hazel to Des several times as he waited for her to say something. “I just wanted to make sure everything is all right.”
“Everything’s fine,” Hazel said. She didn’t mean to whisper but it felt like someone had a hold of her throat and refused to let go—that someone had tied her to her chair and she couldn’t move.
“Okay,” Phil said. He stared at her, his eyebrows low, almost looking angry. To anyone else this might have been a natural moment for Phil to leave but instead he took another step into the room. “You sure we don’t have anything to discuss?”
“What are you doing?” Des took a step forward, putting himself between Phil and Hazel.
Phil stopped short. “She and I have something to talk about.”
“Then I’m sure she will discuss whatever it is when she is ready.”
“No, Des, he’s right.” Somehow she found the voice to speak louder this time.
Des turned to her, a confused look on his face.
Hazel shook her head. “This is what I was trying to tell you.”
“Nolan Ragsdale?” Des said.
“Cat’s out of the bag?” Phil rested his hands on his hips and smiled. “Not sure I would have told a government-sanctioned robot about the plan to help Nolan Ragsdale.”
“I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do,” Hazel said.
“Oh, it’s the right thing to do. Question is whether or not you’re the right person for the job.”
“You chose me, didn’t you?”
Phil nodded. “Caught me red-handed. I’m Nolan’s scout within these walls.”
Esroy’s voice came next. “I think it would be best if one of you started from the beginning. It might be nice to have some clue of what is going on before I signal for the authorities to come.”
“Don’t do that, Esroy,” Hazel said sharply. “We aren’t in danger. We just have a few things to figure out.”
“I think there is a lot to figure out,” Des said. “Why don’t you start with why you need to help an assassin escape from jail?”
Phil took another step forward. “We’re running out of time.”
Hazel held up a hand. For some reason her confidence was coming back, the shakes becoming less severe. “Esroy and Des deserve to know what’s happening. If this is actually happening then we’re going to need their help.”
Phil pursed his lips, his mustache coming together into a ball of hair as he nodded and set his hands in his pockets.
“You might want to close the door,” Hazel said.
Des listened to Hazel as she talked about the night of Nolan’s capture. The things he told her, the conspiracies he conjured from his twisted mind, all seemed too much. Too perfect. But then there was Phil standing in front of him watching as they talked. He was a piece of the puzzle that fit in place, yet he carried a presence of mystery. It was possible that everything Nolan had been saying wasn’t true, but the fact that he told her to contact Phil was almost proof that he wasn’t bluffing entirely.
As he listened, he tried to figure out if there was something in what she was telling them that sounded like there might be a hidden agenda. No, Nolan Ragsdale’s agenda was quite clear already: he wanted to bring Mainland to its knees and make the Outlanders equal with them.
“Is it true?” Des asked, looking at Phil. “The Outlanders aren’t savages as we would be made to believe?”
Phil shrugged and rubbed at his mustache. “They live a different lifestyle, that’s for sure. But they aren’t savages by any means. They are people who live and love like we do. They have children. They have to eat. The history between the Outlanders and the Mainlanders is rough. Both sides hate each other. But the Outlanders are willing to work with the Mainlanders now.”
“Because they’re starving,” Des confirmed.
“More than starving,” Phil answered. “I don’t know how to explain to you what life out there is like. It’s…it’s hard. Every meal is a blessing. Every drop of water is a declaration that there might be another day coming.”
“I don’t buy it,” Esroy chimed from the speakers. “The Outlanders have weapons. They are strong. They know how to fight and raid.”
“Raiding is what keeps them alive,” Phil said, looking around, not completely sure where he should direct his voice.
“Outlanders killed my family,” Hazel said. She stared blankly at the wall across the room.
Des looked down at her sharply. He could feel the look of concern come to his face, his eyebrows instinctively moving downward, his mouth forming into a frown. From his archived memory he had learned that Hazel’s mother and sister had been killed in a conflict with the Outlanders, but he never learned how it happened.
“They were gunned down right in front of me,” she said. “The men that did it wanted something else—something my mom and sister weren’t going to give them. They fought. I fought. My dad tried to help, but he couldn’t stop bullets. Even he came out blind as a result.” She looked up at Phil. “Why would I help people like that?”
Phil shifted his weight and crossed his arms. “That’s a terrible thing you had to go through. Nothing or nobody can excuse actions like that. But I tell you now, those men were rogues. That’s not how the Outlanders all behave.” He nodded at Hazel. “I know your story. I remember how the Mainland government used it to push their propaganda machine.”
“Those men have been representatives of the Outlanders for all these years,” Hazel said. “Helping the Outlanders now would feel like helping them.”
Des watched her as water formed in her eyes, a single tear trickling over her cheek. It was a release of emotion Des would never be able to experience. Another fell down her other cheek. Then another. Her stare remained fixed in front of her, focusing on nothing but the images of memory flashing through her mind. He wondered what pain she felt. What did it feel like to lose someone you loved? What did it feel like to love someone?
“There are people like them in Mainland, too” Phil said. “Don’t let all the innocent people suffer for the atrocities of a few.”
“Why me?” Hazel asked.
Phil shook his head. “I can’t imagine what you must feel. I don’t know why bad things happen to some and not to others…”
“No, I mean why did you choose me to do this? What made you think I would help?”
“Oh,” Phil said. He shifted in his weight again and shook his head slightly. “I see you working every day. I see the effort you put into your work—the work that is meant to save human lives.”
“Save me the crap. Why did you really pick me?”
“I’m not giving you crap,” he said. “You’re the main person in charge of the robots. Essentially, you’re creating the first line of soldiers meant to destroy the Outlanders. We figured if we could get you on our side then we might have a chance of stopping this problem before it got off the ground. That, and from this
office, Nolan can get the files he needs. But it all starts with the person. There are plenty of other people with access to the mainframe computer we could have approached. But you don’t have any love for the Mainland government. No love for the Outlanders either.”
Hazel swallowed and looked up at the window, the light making her eyes and wet cheeks glisten. As Des watched her, he couldn’t help but see how vulnerable she looked. Torn. It was then he realized he would follow whatever decision she made. If what Phil said was true, then Des would always follow her.
And Des had seen that fierce dedication from her so far. She had already put herself on the line for him several times. Sure, she hadn’t given in to Esroy’s requests for a body, but an underlying fear had always been losing him in the clean transfer.
Esroy was the next voice to speak out. “Seems strange to me that you would approach the person in charge of programming machines meant to kill all the Outlanders.”
The words were a reality that hit Des harder than he expected. Ever since the moment he woke in the simulator, he had never seen himself that way. He understood his original purpose, but he had never really pondered it. He hadn’t had the chance to ponder it. He didn’t like that fact at all—that he was built to kill all those people.
“Seems logical to me,” Phil said. “Go to the source. But that’s another thing. You could have programmed the robots to hate Outlanders, yet you didn’t.”
“That’s not what I do,” she said. “My job has always been to give them human emotions and reasoning skills.”
Phil looked Des up and down. “It’s incredible.”
“Thanks,” Des said, feeling awkward. He looked away from Phil toward Hazel. “Hazel, I want you to know that I’m behind you one hundred percent. Whatever you decide is what I will do.”
Hazel sighed. “And what if I don’t go along with this? What if I turn you in?” She nodded at Des. “They can extract his memory and get this conversation.”
Prototype D (Prototype D Series Book 1) Page 18