Kitchener and Lucienne came running. Sparrow hugged them both.
“Your island is safe now,” X said.
“I knew you could beat that weed-smoking android,” Kitchener said. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Why was that android here?” Sparrow asked.
“I don’t know,” X said.
“But you’re an android,” Sparrow said. “You guys are supposed to know everything, right?”
“That’s what I thought, too, Sparrow.”
“It’s okay,” Sparrow said. “Some things you can’t do nothin’ about. Are you going to find the bad guys?”
“Yes.”
X knelt down to Sparrow’s level. “Thanks for your help, Sparrow. I couldn’t have done this without you. You’re a hero.”
Sparrow laughed. “Nah. I’m just a regular kid.”
“Train hard, and you’ll be able to join the UEA special forces one day.”
Shortcut landed on the surface of the water and waved from inside the cockpit.
X shook Sparrow’s hand, and then he dove into the sea and swam to the plane.
Chapter 4
X and Shortcut sat in the plane and studied the black box.
“I hope Brockway didn’t put up too much of a fight,” Shortcut said.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. But he said something about an Android Winter.”
“Never heard of it.”
“He wasn’t making any sense. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or if it was a result of his chips malfunctioning.”
“At least Aruba’s back online.”
X looked out at the night sky where Aruba was twinkling on the horizon. He thought of Sparrow. “And safe.”
“I’m dying to know what’s in this box. Probably a bad virus.”
Shortcut squeezed two sides of the black box, revealing two small prongs. He hooked it up to a computer and watched as the box glowed gold and hummed. A shimmering wall of information appeared around the box, rotating like rings on a planet.
“I’m going in,” Shortcut said. His lens lit up and emitted a laser that connected with the shimmering wall.
“Good luck,” X said.
Shortcut felt his vision surge forward as his lens connected with the black box. He touched down in a dark room, on a circuit board floor. A dark, circular tunnel lay before him. The walls flashed as information flowed through them, illuminating the world for a moment before flashing dark again. The air smelled like smoke and silicon, probably a remnant from X’s fight, and he could taste the burning in every part of his mouth.
He started down the path, each step reverberating into the darkness. The pathway was coarse and rigid under his feet, full of grooves and recesses. He relied on his lens to see in the darkness, and he felt his way through.
It was always dangerous to explore a black box. The UEA didn’t want hackers getting into them, so they created virtual reality environments that only humans could access. But they also riddled these areas with threats. If anyone entered who wasn’t supposed to be there, the system infected them with a virus that destroyed their lens and broadcasted their location. By the time they left the virtual box, android soldiers would be waiting to take them to jail. For this reason, few people hacked into androids.
Good thing Shortcut had security clearance.
He came to a circular door decorated with a symbol of a golden Earth with wings behind it—the UEA logo. He touched the door and it lit up, scanning his fingerprints. It chimed and opened into a long corridor with machine guns and lasers along the walls. Shortcut passed them with bated breath, and they tracked him as he walked slowly through the room.
“Almost there,” he said.
He came to another door with a control panel next to it. He entered a key code, swiped through a maze of dots, then answered a security question.
An explosion rocked the room, knocking him back.
“What the—”
The smoke cleared. The door was still shut tight and a logo had been burned onto it: a condor with wings of flame. Smoke rose from its wings, and the security panel for the door lay burning on the ground.
Shortcut tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t move.
He heard X’s voice. “What happened, Shortcut? You were convulsing just a moment ago.”
“I have no idea.”
“Are you inside?”
“Yes and no.”
“Is it a virus?”
“It’s a firewall. I can’t get into the inner chamber. It’s impenetrable.”
Shortcut blinked six times and felt himself being pulled from the virtual box. When he focused again, X was kneeling in front of him.
“What did you see in there?”
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, Fahrens isn’t going to like it.”
Chapter 5
They reached the UEA city after a long flight. The city rested on a man-made continent in the middle of the Atlantic that sprawled for miles in a seashell pattern, whorling out into the sea. Church bells clanged, signifying the hour. Downtown, skyscrapers lined the horizon, glinting in the sun. At the edges of the city, hundreds of tubes spanned out to places all around the world, and sleek white trains shot through them at the speed of sound.
As X and Shortcut neared the city, the skies clouded with more small planes and drones. From the cockpit, they could smell exhaust fumes, a mixture of gas and burning electricity.
The plane entered autopilot as it descended toward an air highway that wove through the city. It entered the fast lane and picked up speed, zipping past other driverless aircraft. Hundreds of feet below, the streets bustled with driverless cars, moving through the streets in synchronized harmony.
They approached a giant, white building. Several spires surrounded a rotunda in the center, and large banners with the UEA logo hung from the walls. They stopped in front of two hovering police drones that scanned their plane and gave it the green light to proceed, then shot toward an open air bay and landed in a parking space between two other black planes.
“Good to be back,” Shortcut said as they climbed out. Panels at the top of the plane slid open and solar panels rose, recharging its batteries.
Shortcut held Brockway’s black box between two fingers and squinted at it. “I still can’t figure this thing out.”
X pointed to the sky. “Get an explanation ready.”
Shortcut’s jaw dropped as a white limousine descended and parked in front of them, blocking their path. A digital screen appeared in one of the windows and an android secretary appeared. “Agents Xandifer Crenshaw and Tobias Aaronhart, the Council wishes to see you immediately. Please enter without delay.”
“Fantastic,” Shortcut said, rolling his eyes. “Just when we don’t have any information, we have to give answers.”
The limo doors opened, revealing the empty interior. They climbed in, and before they could sit down, the limo sped down the street, turning every stoplight green in its wake. The city passed by in a blur.
A platform rose from the floor. A bag of potato chips and strawberry soda rested on it.
“How did they know?” Shortcut asked, grinning. He grabbed the chips and tore open the bag. “I love these UEA cars. It’s so nice when they stock your favorite food!” He chugged the strawberry soda, then sat back with a solemn look on his face. “On second thought, maybe it’s not so cool. It feels like a last meal.”
“As long as we answer the Council’s questions truthfully, we’ll be fine.”
“Hard to answer truthfully when we don’t know the truth.”
The limo approached the giant, white building and entered through a special garage door on the side. It parked in a car bay with several other white limos.
The limo doors opened onto a red carpet path feeding into a gray hallway that stretched for at least a mile. They started down the path, and as they did, LED lights lit up on the floor, guiding them as they walked.
They came to a set of steel doors. Shor
tcut ran his fingers along the cold metal surface, and it recognized his fingerprints and chimed. The doors swung open, revealing an elevator shaft with a white pod inside. The pod had plush seats and a video screen. They sat down, and the pod zipped upwards through the shaft and around several floors until it jolted to a stop. They stepped out into a large office with oak walls and oil paintings of six important officials in severe poses. A secretary sat at a large desk in front of two frosted glass doors.
“Thank you for your fast response,” the secretary said. She was the same one who had beckoned them earlier. She had long blonde hair, green eyes, and she was tall. Her irises revolved in a slow revolution as she performed complex calculations on the digital screen at her desk. She had pale skin, but one could not be sure what her intended ethnicity was—she looked Caucasian, but not quite. She wore a UEA uniform: a blue suit jacket and blue pants, with a pink, sequined scarf for individual flair.
“Nice to see you again, Brielle,” Shortcut said, giving her a goofy smile. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Brielle closed her eyes and smiled. She stood and pressed a button, and the glass doors slid open behind her. She started through the doors and motioned for them to follow. They entered a dark hallway and came to another pair of steel doors with the UEA logo on them, and at her command they recessed into the floor, leading into an auditorium with a long, tall table in the center and a mosaic of the Earth on the back wall. The subtle hum of the building filled the room, and the dry air made Shortcut cough.
Six representatives sat at the table, staring at X and Shortcut intensely. Each represented a continent: the councilman for North America was an older, blonde man with blue eyes; South America, a Latina woman with a pretty but grizzled face; Europe, a woman with long, brown hair tied into a ponytail; Asia, an Indian man in a turban; Africa, an African in sunglasses and alligator shoes; and Australia, a man with a buzz cut.
Fahrens stood in front of the table and nodded to X and Shortcut.
The councilman from North America gestured for them to come closer. “X, Shortcut, step forward. You’re not in trouble.”
“Reporting for duty, sir,” X and Shortcut said at the same time.
“Begin recording, Brielle,” the councilman said. Brielle’s eyes glassed over and turned red, blinking every few seconds. “This conference is being recorded for international security purposes. X, Shortcut, go ahead and tell us what happened.”
X put his hand over his heart. His eyes lit up and he projected a digital screen in front of the Council that played first-person footage from his mission as he spoke.
“At three oh four p.m. yesterday, Richard Brockway-Crenshaw reported for duty in District Seven. While on patrol, he went rogue and started killing humans and androids alike. It is my understanding that he killed one hundred humans with ammunition and, having run out of bullets, he found a steel pipe and beat twenty more people to death. Men, women, and children—he did not discriminate.”
Several members of the Council groaned.
“Spare us the grisly details,” the councilwoman from Europe said, swatting at the air.
“I’m sorry,” X said. “Authorities responded to the scene, but Brockway escaped. They chased him to the docks, where he hijacked a speedboat. He fled to Aruba, and several hours after his arrival, the entire island disconnected from the UEA grid. At this time, Fahrens tapped Shortcut and me to investigate.”
“And?” the councilman from Africa asked impatiently.
“When I arrived on the island, I discovered that Brockway had terrorized the residents, forcing them to stay inside their homes. He then paid a group of human criminals money to patrol the streets for any sign of a UEA agent.”
“If he terrorized the island, why would humans work for him?” the councilman from North America asked.
“We don’t know, but we think it had to do with money. Fortunately, I evaded them with help from a local boy. I found Brockway in a mansion on the west side of the island. I infiltrated the mansion and confronted Brockway in an upstairs bedroom. His actions were … erratic.”
“Elaborate, X,” Fahrens said.
“First, Brockway had moved an office desk into the middle of the bedroom. He greeted me in the dark, and he was smoking marijuana.”
The Council laughed.
“X, you’re being silly,” the councilman from North America said.
“I am not kidding, sir. He was smoking marijuana even though it would not have given him any benefit. Also, he had killed the family of the home and left their bodies on the floor of the bedroom.”
The Council groaned again.
“He was also talking nonsense. I could not follow his logic; his words were irrational, and he kept talking about an Android Winter. I tried to reason with him, but he was irreparable. I had no choice but to terminate him. I recovered his black box and gave it to Shortcut.”
Shortcut cleared his throat. “Yeah, um, I entered the black box’s virtual environment and tried to recover Brockway’s diagnostic codes to figure out why he went rogue, but I discovered some sort of security mechanism. I couldn’t get past the firewall.”
“Why?” Fahrens asked. “UEA programmers designed the firewall. You have full access to all the UEA virtual systems.”
“Someone changed it. I couldn’t crack the code. The moment I tried, there was a digital explosion and I saw a logo of a burning condor on the door.”
“Is it safe to return there?” Fahrens asked.
“I think so, sir. The logo was only meant to be a warning.”
“Go in, and broadcast what you see.”
Shortcut pulled the black box from his pocket and connected to it. He created a digital screen in front of the Council and then beamed himself into the box, giving everyone first-person footage as he trekked through the virtual environment and came to the door. The condor was still there, burning brightly.
“Brielle,” the councilwoman from Europe said, “Note the door and create a separate record of it in the national security database.”
Brielle’s eyes flashed green in acceptance of the command.
Shortcut left the black box and turned off the screen as the Council murmured among itself.
“Could it be a hacker?” Fahrens asked.
“If it is,” Shortcut said, “there may be other androids in the city who will go rogue.”
“History lesson,” the councilman from Asia said condescendingly. “Androids are hack-proof. We went through this in the singularity, and androids today have more advanced technology. Logic! Reason! That being said, a virus is not improbable, but there is no way that a Crenshaw android could have been hacked. This is clearly an isolated incident and I do not believe we should be concerned.”
“I agree,” said the councilwoman from Europe. “I see no reason to believe that there will be a copycat.”
“In any case, this is going to go public soon,” the councilman from North America said. “I just came back from comforting the families of the victims that Brockway killed. This can’t happen again. Fahrens, can you decode the black box by tomorrow? I’d like to know what we’re dealing with by then. The media will want answers.”
“Yes, sir,” Fahrens said. “We’ll have our engineers get to work right away.”
“You both did excellent work,” the councilman from North America said. “You are dismissed.”
X, Shortcut, and Fahrens left the room. They were halfway down the escalator when Shortcut sighed.
“Man, that was brutal.”
“You both did well,” Fahrens said. “The Council was impressed.”
Shortcut patted X on the back. “I was just the backup. X was the one who got to see the action.”
“As long as you carry out your missions as directed,” Fahrens said, “you’ll get no objections from the Council. They’re concerned about the black box.”
“Do you think they’ll be able to hack into it?” Shortcut asked. “I would have tried again, but I didn’t hav
e my tools with me.”
Fahrens nodded. “I have every confidence that we’ll have it cracked by the end of the night. We’ll call Dr. Brockway—he designed it, so he should be able to give us invaluable help. Good work, gentlemen, and good night.”
The escalator brought them into a huge atrium, and Fahrens left them among a landscape of trees, flowers, and butterflies. A creek zigzagged through the space, and elegant wooden bridges crossed over it. Birds occasionally flew overhead, circling between the trees. The air smelled of roses and green grass, and the fragrance of a nearby blackberry bush was so strong they could taste it. Androids and humans sat on benches scattered throughout the atrium, reading and talking and relaxing among the wildlife. Squirrels and chipmunks scurried up trees. A calico-colored school of fish fed in a pond near the escalator. Above, a glass ceiling showed the night sky full of stars.
“Time to get some rest,” Shortcut said.
“Night, Shortcut,” X said, patting Shortcut on the shoulder. “Maybe you’ll see some action next time.”
Shortcut rolled his eyes. “Yeah, no. I like being backup.”
As X walked away, Shortcut saw Fahrens crossing a bridge and started toward him. “Sir, wait!”
Fahrens turned around. “Yes?”
“I wanted to talk to you about that promotion.” Shortcut said, falling into step next to him.
“You mean your rejection.”
“Yes, sir.”
Fahrens continued walking, touching the flowers with the back of his hand as he passed. “Did you know that many of the plants here were previously extinct specimens? Until recently, most humans didn’t know or care that plants could go extinct.” He stopped at a bright purple orchid and caressed it gently. “Take this orchid. It’s called dragon’s mouth. It was considered extinct in the year 2025. No one could find one except in laboratories. And when we faced the singularity, preserving nature was the last of our concerns. Yet, after humanity recovered, the UEA made wonderful efforts to secure seeds from an underground facility long forgotten. Now the flower flourishes again, given a new life by our hand. Reincarnated, just like much of the wildlife in this atrium. A modern marvel of human civilization, Mr. Aaronheart.”
Android X: The Complete Series Page 4