by Gary Naiman
“How could you do that? You’ve exposed us to another attack. If they blow up that platform—”
The Meta backed away. “We must hurry, 0021. Time is short.”
“Why aren’t you listening? What’s wrong with you?” Lucinda pushed off the sleep bubble and stepped toward the robot, her gray eyes only an inch from its amber screen. “Listen, robot. You’re out of control. You don’t know what you’re doing. You must turn yourself in. I’ll contact Robotron and we—”
The amber screen flashed bright blue. “YOU MUST KNOW THE TRUTH.”
CHAPTER 30
The Encampment
Lucinda pressed her cheek against the stone column, her eyes focused on the twin silhouettes at the exit gate across the paved courtyard. She could barely see the Guardians through the moonlit mist. The cold droplets stung her face. The only sound was the Thames splashing against Westminster Bridge.
She stared in horror at the ominous shadow drifting toward the Guardians. Blast, he’s gone mad. You don’t confront Guardians. What’s wrong with him?
She pushed away from the column, but it was too late. Any non-human intruder within a hundred yards of a challenging Guardian face disintegration.
The Guardian’s synchronous voices crackled in the fog. “HALT AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF! YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED—”
Their synchronized challenge was cut short by a flash of blue plasma.
The Guardians raised their lethal laser arms. “YOU … ARE … NOT...”
Their voices ceased. Their red eyes faded. The only sounds were the Thames and Big Ben’s resonant gong. It was two a.m. in London.
Lucinda stumbled across the cobblestones, her eyes locked on the shadow floating toward her.
The amber eye flickered. “We must hurry.”
She glanced at the motionless Guardians. “What did you do to them?”
“Come, 0021, time is short.”
Lucinda felt the blood pulse through her veins. She glared at the Meta. “Answer me, robot! What have you done to them!”
“I have neutralized them. When they regain their senses, their memory banks will not recall what has happened. Please … we must hurry.” The Meta’s arm seized her waist.
“What’s wrong with you? I order you to stop! Let go of me before I—”
She gasped as the courtyard drops away. They were rising into the fog above County Hall, their bodies oblivious to the force of gravity. There was no sound except the Thames rushing water. Moist droplets stung her face.
“Let me go, you idiot!”
“Not advisable, 0021.”
Lucinda looked down and quit struggling. They were two hundred feet above the fog-shrouded river. The Meta’s voice crackled in her ears.
“Their sensors are very powerful. I detect their beams probing my deflectors. We must fly low.”
Lucinda’s head snapped back from the sudden descent. The fog rushed against her face. She clutched the Meta’s arm while squinting at the darkness, and she saw the water rushing at them. “Look out, it’s the river! We’re going to hit the water!”
She gasped as the wavelets brushed her body. They were only a few feet above the water and racing across its surface. A second bridge rushed at them. “You’re mad! You’ve lost your senses!”
They dived under the bridge and followed the winding river eastward. Lucinda clung to the cold metallic arm as they passed beneath three more bridges. She could see The Tower of London through the fog, its bridge dead ahead.
“Damn you!”
Her voice echoed off the bridge’s underside. The Thames splashed against her face. They cleared the bridge and surged upward toward the blurred half moon, the moist night fog rushing against them.
Lucinda looked back at the fading lights and shouted at the Meta. “Where in deity’s name are you taking me?”
“To the truth. Prepare yourself, 0021.” The Meta accelerated to blinding speed.
Minutes later, they were descending toward a faint orange glow beyond the river’s left bank. It appeared to come from a moonlit forest. They were dropping through the trees now, only a few feet above the ground.
The soft earth touched her feet. She collapsed on her knees, gasping for breath. The Meta had backed away, its amber eye focused on the glow.
“Are you well, 0021?”
Lucinda glared at the Meta. “Don’t ask me that again.” She pushed off the moist ground and stared at the glow.
The amber eye flickered. “It is best you proceed without me. I will await your return.”
Lucinda clenched her fists. “Return? From where?”
The Meta pointed at the glow.
“What is it?”
“One of several million encampments across the planet. To know the truth, you must begin here.”
Lucinda felt a chill. “They’re Anarchists?”
“No, 0021. They are your brothers and sisters.”
“My?”
“The masses, 0021 ... from where you came.”
Lucinda shook her head. “I’m not one of them. I’m the Western Hemisphere Overlord.”
The Meta’s eye flickered. “You were picked from them thirty-four years ago. You are very special, 0021.” The eye flickered. “Please proceed.”
Lucinda stared at the glow. “I have nothing in common with them. I can’t promise them anything. What can I say?”
“Tell them you are lost. They will understand.”
She looked down at her obsidian uniform. “With this? The mark of the Consortium? They’ll tear me apart.”
“Remove it. I will retain it for your return.”
She looked at the Meta in shock. “You want me to—”
“Please, 0021. We only have minutes.”
“Damn you...”
Lucinda peeled off her obsidian uniform with a gesture of her hand. She stood naked before the Meta, the uniform dangling from her arm.
The Meta snatched the uniform. “I will await your return.”
Lucinda shot a final glare at the Meta before clutching her tiny breasts and shuffling through the trees. A minute later, the glow became a raging bonfire.
She stared in horror at the ragged humans huddled around the bonfire, perhaps twenty in all. Her eyes focused on their skeletal faces. The only sound was the crackling flames.
One of them rose, his hand grasping a familiar object. He dropped the empty Manna wrapper on the ground and shuffled toward her. His tremulous voice was barely a whisper.
“Who are you?”
Lucinda clutched her nakedness. “I am lost, can you help me?”
“Lost?”
“Yes, can you help me?”
The man gestured toward the others at the fire. “We are all lost. You can join us if you wish.”
She nodded and advanced toward them.
“Wait!”
Lucinda stared at the emaciated woman in gray rags who had risen from the huddled mass. The woman shuffled beside the man and lowered her tattered shawl. Her face was drawn tight beneath her blotched scalp.
The woman stepped toward Lucinda, her bloodshot eyes glistening in the firelight. “You appear well fed, girl. Some bones perhaps, but well fed.”
Lucinda eyed the others who had risen to their feet, their hollowed eyes gazing at her. She slipped her hands from her breasts and opened her palms. “Do you have any food for a lost soul?”
The woman raised her clenched fist. “How dare you ask that? There is no food or water here. If you’re one of us, you should know that.” She looked at the man standing beside her. “I don’t trust this one. There must be others in the trees waiting to attack us.”
Lucinda extended her hands in an imploring gesture. “There is no one but me.” She nodded at the silver wrapper lying on the ground.” All I ask is a bite and sip of water. You must have Manna and water from your monthly allotment.”
A bedraggled man advanced toward Lucinda, forcing her to back away. He swept his soiled cloak away before pointing a gnarled finger at her. �
�She is one of them. I smell it. Kill the Consortium dreg!”
Three others rushed toward her, their hands clutching drawn knives. Their shouts were blood curdling. “Kill the bitch and cook her! She’s good meat!”
Lucinda was running through the trees, their footsteps closing from behind. She saw the amber eye rush at her. The Meta’s arm swept her off the ground.
They were lifting through the trees. The twigs tore at her naked skin. She felt the cold fog on her face as the shouts faded away.
They landed near a second glow, perhaps a mile away. The Meta extended Lucinda’s obsidian uniform which she snatched from its skeletal fingers in anger. She was melding it on when she noticed the glow was far brighter than the first.
The Meta’s metallic hand touched her shoulder. “Please follow me.”
She pointed a trembling finger at the robot. “After nearly being butchered and cooked? You must think I’m crazy.”
“Please, 0021 ... no harm will come to you.”
Reluctantly, she followed the Meta through the trees until its powerful arm stopped her. The Meta drifted aside, revealing a terror Lucinda has not seen since that horrid night in 2053.
Twin Zambex 39s were firing their ruby lasers into a funeral pyre of burning corpses. The flames had ignited the surrounding trees, but the Zambexes were oblivious to the spreading fire. Their lethal rays swept the burning mass of decayed bodies until the disintegration began. The air stunk from the smoldering ashes of human beings.
Lucinda clutched her stomach and dropped on the ground, her body wrenching. She vomited the best meal she had ever eaten while glaring at the frightening insignia on the Zambex’s visors — a pair of white-gloved hands clasped in prayer — Nirvana’s global symbol.
The Meta grasped her shoulder. “Soon, this same fate will befall the people that attacked you. The vaporizations are incessant. They follow every encampment across the planet.”
Lucinda looked at the amber eye. “But the Human Edict forbids—”
“These humans were already dead. The Edict concerns the living. The Zambexes are unrestrained.”
Lucinda swiped at her mouth, her eyes locked on the disintegrating mound of smoldering ash.
“We must go, 0021.”
She turned to the Meta. “Those people at the encampment were out of Manna. They’d exhausted their monthly allotment. What’s wrong with them? By now they should know how to apportion their ration. The next ration won’t be available until next week.”
The eye flickered. “Their monthly allotment has been reduced by one fourth. The nation-states have no funding to cover the final week. The Consortium has cut their funding.”
“Cut?”
“By one fourth.”
She gripped a tree and stared at the last traces of glowing ash. “Why?”
“Profit, 0021. It is the Consortium’s prime directive.”
She stroked her wet hair. “You’re telling me seven billion humans will starve to death so their leaders can make a profit?”
The eye flickered. “Correction, 0021. Only five billion remain. Two billion are dead.”
Lucinda grasped her forehead, unable to speak.
The Meta swept its metallic arm around Lucinda’s waist. “Come, 0021, there is more.”
CHAPTER 31
The Great Museum
They retreated toward London at incredible speed. Descending now, only a few hundred feet above the Thames.
They veered inland over the city’s fog-obscured lights. Lucinda felt the Meta’s metallic arm tighten around her waist. She wanted to shout at him, to admonish him for dragging her into this nightmare, but the words won’t come. Her mind was consumed by the ragged mass of humans at the bonfire and the chilling sight of Zambex 39 robots vaporizing the dead.
Gog’s voice crackled. “Prepare yourself, 0021. This will be difficult.”
The trees brushed her uniform as they dropped onto the concrete walkway. She slipped the Meta’s grasp and collapsed on all fours while trying to regain her senses. She didn’t see the blue-white flash burst from Gog’s eye.
The Meta’s skeletal fingers grasped her shoulder. “We must proceed. My deflectors cannot evade their probes much longer.”
“Where are we?”
“The Great Museum. Our final destination.”
She pushed off the wet sidewalk and stared at the sprawling building barely visible in the fogged darkness. “We’re going in there?”
“Yes.”
She glared at the Meta. “My orientation hologram warned that museum access is forbidden, punishable by death.”
The Meta gripped her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“We must hurry, 0021. I have neutralized the Guardians, but the Consortium’s probes are very strong.”
The Meta ignored Lucinda’s protests while tugging her across the fog-shrouded street to the museum’s steps. Lucinda looked up in shock at the two Guardian robots flanking the museum’s colonnaded entrance. They appeared motionless, their laser arms lowered at their sides.
Her mind was racing. The Meta was out of control. An unexplained anomaly had compromised its reasoning. The blasted creature was hallucinating. It had become paranoid with false interpretations of reality.
She flashed to the ’39s firing their lasers at the burning funeral pyre. It made no sense. The Consortium would never kill off the very people it rescued from the nation-states. There had to be an explanation.
Her eyes brightened. Of course... a virus! A new strain boiling up from the dead to kill off the masses across the globe. In her training, she was warned this could happen. The Consortium was vaporizing the dead to ensure the contagion didn’t spread. The Zambexes were performing a necessary act of sterilization.
But what of the reduced food and water ration? There must be a reason. Maybe a glitch in the Manna distribution network. Maybe another Anarchist attack.
She clenched her fists. That was it! The Anarchists had struck again! They had hit the platform because the blasted Meta had abandoned its post!
The Meta’s grip tightened. “We must proceed, 0021. The Guardians will awake in six of your minutes. They must not detect our intrusion.”
Lucinda was dragged up the steps toward the sleeping robots. Her face flushed. Now or never, woman. Escape this monster now. If you can reach the maze of streets, you’ll surely be detected by the Consortium’s sensors. Blame the whole mess on the renegade Meta. Thank the Leader for rescuing you and praise her name. Now, 0021 ... do it now!
“Damn you, robot!” Lucinda yanked her arm free and charged down the steps, but it was no use. The Meta swept her into the air and flung her over its metallic shoulder. The robot ignored her curses while floating between the neutralized Guardians into a cavernous room with a towering transparent ceiling.
Lucinda pounded at Gog’s metallic back as the Meta advanced toward a large cylindrical structure at the room’s center. The Meta accelerated through the cylinder’s singular portal and halted inside its circular interior.
The Meta released its grip and lowered Lucinda to the floor while ignoring her leg kicks and curses. It backed away and spread its metallic arms. “It is here you will learn the truth.”
Lucinda lowered her clenched fists, her eyes studying the rows of empty bookshelves encircling her. She looked up at the room’s domed ceiling, its transparent plasma supported by converging golden arches. The moonlit fog swirled against the plasma.
The Meta’s voice crackled. “This was once the Reading Room. The larger exterior was known as the Great Court. As you can see, all books and other media have been removed.”
Lucinda stared at the empty shelves.
“Do you comprehend, 0021?”
Lucinda’s gray eyes locked on the Meta. “I comprehend this much, robot. We have violated a Consortium non-entry edict. You just killed yourself and your master!”
Gog ignored her outburst while floating toward a statue at the center of the barren room. The gold st
atue was shaped like a “C” with twelve radiating Consortium symbols.
Lucinda’s voice echoed off the empty shelves. “Say something, robot! If we’re going to die, you owe me that.”
Gog’s screen flickered. “The answer lies below.”
The Meta shoved the statue aside exposing a dark shaft and staircase.
CHAPTER 32
The Truth
The Meta descended into the shaft, its amber eye flickering. “Please follow, 0021. Time is not our ally.”
“What are you doing? It’s pitch black down there.”
“Follow ...” The Meta disappeared into the shaft.
Lucinda stared at the dark opening and it suddenly hit her.
What are you waiting for? This is your chance. You can escape this nightmare now. Get past the Guardians and flee into the street. With all those sensors, the Consortium’s robots will be on you in a heartbeat, but you must be clear of this place. Blame the Meta and praise the Leader, and all will be well.
She was backing away when the shaft burst with light. Gog’s voice was barely audible.
“Follow...”
Lucinda’s eyes darted from the glowing shaft to the Reading Room’s exit portal. Her survivalist training ripped at her.
Now, 0021, before it’s too late. The Guardians will awake in seconds. If they find you with the Meta, you’re finished.
Lucinda clenched her fists and dashed through the portal. She was running across the Great Court toward the sleeping Guardians when something stopped her — something very deep.
She recalled her first encounter with the Meta, and all that followed. Something was eating at her, but she couldn’t grasp it. She lowered her head and mumbled a curse. It was hard to abandon a partner, even when it wasn’t human.
She looked back at the portal. If there was a truth, something was pulling her toward it. Perhaps it was Franz Harrier’s stinging words that night in the sphere, or Olafang Tabulek’s stern warning at Synapse, or maybe the Meta. Whatever the source, the mystery had haunted her since the moment Harrier cursed her name.
“Blast.” She frowned and retreated toward the glow.
Lucinda edged down the shaft’s winding staircase into a small circular room that was easily a hundred feet below the larger one above. She stepped off the staircase while eyeing the illuminated rows of memory cubes encircling her. The upper rows glowed gold, platinum, copper, and black. The lower — blue, green, gray, and white. A small pedestal rose from the room’s center, its spiraled colors matching the encircling rows of cubes. The holographic “C” atop the pedestal was unmistakable.