“What does he want?”
“I’m not sure.” I stare at Paul. “You know him best. What’s his next move?”
“I can tell you,” he says, “but you’re not going to like it.”
Twenty-Five
“A military assault on Section H?” Pilar’s mouth twists into a frown.
“You don’t know my uncle,” says Paul. “He goes to extremes.”
My mind spins. “I know what Hunter wants,” I say. “Gatz told me when Vance died, he went into DremCorp Towers and took Vance’s secrets. New tech that Vance had developed. Hunter knows about it. He won’t destroy H if there’s a chance he’d lose the weapon he wants.”
Very good, Vance says. Now we’re getting somewhere, Sherlock.
“The helmet.” She crosses her arms. “I knew that thing was trouble.”
“What helmet?” Paul swivels his head back and forth. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
“Come with me.” Pilar leads us toward a room where a biometric scanner identifies her paw. Padded walls insulate the interior from sound. Laboratory equipment—glass beakers, vials, and microscopes line steel counters.
Inside a glass case, a metallic helmet rests.
Yes. There’s my beauty.
“What does it do?” I ask.
Pilar shrugs. “We’ve been trying to figure that out. Carefully.” She circles the case. “I don’t want to mistakenly blow us all up. We’ve tried wearing it, handling it, used our AI to study it.” She stares, transfixed. “We know it’s a weapon but we can’t get it to activate. Gatz tried for a long time.”
“Maybe it doesn’t do anything,” mutters Paul.
Oh, yes it does.
“If Vance invented it, I’m sure it’s dangerous. You should be careful with it. Perhaps there’s a way—”
One of the reptilian hybrids bursts into the room. “Pilar,” he says, out of breath.
“What is it?”
“The android—we were interrogating it, but it wants to speak to Ida Sarek. Says it’s urgent, and it can help us.”
All eyes shift to me.
The reptilian soldier says, “The robot will only talk to her. Alone.”
What on earth? I have no clue why the robot has singled me out.
You’re special. Vance laughs.
As we march to the interrogation room, Pilar checks me out with a sideways glance. “I don’t like this. Why does it only want to talk to you?”
I shrug. “I know things about Vance. I mean—I knew some of his secrets before he died. Maybe it wants something from me. But my first priority is Gatz. We’ve got to find a way to get him out safely.”
“We’re hitting the military quarters tonight.”
I grab her arm, spin her to face me. “What are you talking about?”
“We plan to counterattack. Come from below. The tunnels.”
Paul interrupts. “Uncle Will is too smart for that. He knows that’s how you infiltrated DremCorp the first time. He’ll either have sealed off the underground entrances or be expecting you.”
She starts treading toward the waiting robot. “Then we’ll hit the building from ground level, but it has to be tonight. He won’t be expecting us to regroup so soon.”
I can’t help but admire her resolve. She’d make a damn good soldier. “Hey, Pilar.” I catch up to her and match her fast gait. “What if I can get building plans from the droid? Maybe I can tap into their comms, or better yet, hack into their matrix? This model must be on the fritz. I think it has a bug, but Hunter doesn’t know that.”
“I’m listening.”
“Against all odds, this android saved us when all the others tried to kill us. Why?”
She reaches a heavy metal door. Behind a glass portal, I glimpse the bot lingering motionless in a corner. Pilar checks her cuff. “You have one hour to make something happen. I’m prepping my team for an assault in a few hours, once dusk hits. Most soldiers will be taking dinner. I want to catch them off guard.”
I exhale, relieved. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
“Use it wisely, I have no room for you and your friends. We have the girl on oxygen. Once she recovers, you must leave. I can’t jeopardize the safety of my people.”
Will I learn anything useful from the droid? I’ve never talked to one before. They’ve always been chasing me. What do I even say?
The door slides open, and I enter. “Hello,” I say, but it comes out as more of a question. I take a few cautious steps into the room, and the door slides shut behind me.
The robot stands motionless near the back wall of the holding room.
“I’m Ida Sarek.” I watch its red, pulsating visor.
No reaction. Now what? Will Vance help me get information from it? Nobody knows them better than he does.
“Hey,” I say to the robot. “Are you on?”
It studies me. “I am OGR-19.”
“OGR.” I say, unsure what to do next.
Walk over to it, Vance commands. I want to open its panel.
“No,” I snap.
The robot’s head twitches. “I do not understand.”
“I wasn’t talking to you.” I raise my hands to my temples, grateful this is a machine and not a real person. “Never mind. Tell me why you rescued us from that tank.”
“I am programmed to rescue.” The robot pauses. “Ida Sarek, you are in danger. Every android in the city has been programmed to seek and deliver you to headquarters.”
I flinch. As soon as Tyren told me Hunter wanted me to serve under him, I figured he wanted to benefit from my abilities—for protection from injury and illness. But why try to detonate our tank? Nothing seems to be adding up. Unless he already got what he wanted from me. The blood sample. A chill courses through my body. I suppose it’s possible the nanobots could be harvested from my blood. And then what? Used to give healing powers to someone else?
Against my will, Vance assumes control of me. I stride toward the bot and push its head sideways to peer at the neck. The code OGR-19 is stamped into the metal.
Fascinating. Now I remember. One of a handful of search and rescue bots I designed.
I shove the android away, struggling to regain control of my body. “Stop,” I moan, unable to help myself. Falling to my knees, I shut my eyes. Suddenly, I’m transported to Vance’s rooftop, sixty-five floors above the city.
“Where are you?” I spin, furious that he’s still able to control me. “Come out, coward,” I shout.
His voice echoes, bouncing off neighboring towers. “Ida...”
I scan every corner of the rooftop and then glimpse him in the doorway. I sprint toward him with clenched fists. I’ll tear him apart, toss him from the roof.
But he disappears before I reach him.
“Ida, don’t be dull.” He’s behind me now, perched on a stone bench. “Be nice to your friend, Vancie-wancie.”
“Screw you.” I advance on him again.
He rises, quick as a cat, and takes one step back for every step I take forward. “Now, now. Play nice.”
“You need to stop this.”
“Stop what, my darling?”
“Stop controlling my body. You already hurt Lucy once and you...”
He grins.
“You murdered a woman. And now Gatz could die because of you.”
“Creating mayhem and chaos. It’s what I do.”
“Now you pay.” I lunge at him, but he slides away. Grabbing at him, my hands slice through air, but then I catch a flap of his long coat. I wind the cloth, twisting. He stumbles, then falls. I leap on him, hoisting him up by the shoulders, surprised at my strength, which seems boundless on this roof.
I shove him forward, gaining speed. “Hey…no,” he shouts, but it’s too late.
I fling him off the roof. Sixty-five stories.
Panting, I lean on the rail, witnessing his fall. I gawk as his crumpled body slams the pavement far below.
I stare below, and his body is still. A
gust of wind roars past me and I stumble away from the edge.
Am I finally rid of his presence?
The wind dies down, and I peer at the ground below. His body is gone.
But how can that be? He fell sixty-five floors. I slump down to the ground, my back to the railing.
The rooftop door bursts open. Vance saunters onto the deck, brushing off dirt and bits of concrete rubble from his navy suit. “That wasn’t very nice, Ida.”
Of course, he’s not gone. But I taught him a lesson.
“That really hurt, you know.” He lies down on the stone bench. “That really messed with my spine.”
I rise to my feet and approach him. “How do I get security intel from this robot?”
“The rescue bot? Good luck. Not many in existence. I stopped creating them once I realized they wouldn’t do my dirty work. I needed bots that kept people in line.”
“I need info for Pilar. How do I get the robot to give me the HQ floorplans and tell me where Gatz is being held? I want to hack into Hunter’s comms.”
“This is all so exhausting. Would you be a dear and crack my back?” He twiddles his thumbs. “While you’re at it, order me up a nice Cab Sauv.”
I pounce on him and grab his collar. “Do you want to take another swan dive off the ledge?”
He squirms beneath my grip.
“How about falling a hundred times? You think your back hurts now? I’ve got all day.”
“Okay, okay.”
I shove him off the bench.
“Ow. Fine,” he says, rubbing his head. “I’ll give you this Easter egg. Say the word, rassvet. See what happens.”
I loom over him. “What does that mean?”
“Russian for daybreak.”
I raise my eyebrows.
“Say it and you’ll be able to ask the robot anything.”
Twenty-Six
I have little inclination to trust anything Vance tells me, but I’m running out of options. The clock is ticking for Gatz, and I want to find out Lucy’s condition. “Rassvet,” I bark at the droid. The sound of my voice echoes off the white, sterile walls.
From where it stands, the OGR-19 begins to hum with a low vibration that emanates from top to bottom. The pulsing red light on its visor ceases moving and dims, and the droid starts to shake.
I stagger back as the machine twitches all over. “Vance, what’s happening?”
A blue light courses over the robot’s body. It lurches a few feet forward, then halts in the center of the room.
“What the…?” I approach gingerly. “Are you awake?”
The red light glows stronger, and the bot peers at me as if studying me.
“Can you tell me about military headquarters? About the building? Where is Gatz being held?”
The bot stares at me and tilts its head. “Ida Sarek?”
“Yeah?” The robot seems confused like it doesn’t remember the conversation from a few minutes ago. Did something cause it to lose a few microchips?
Ask about its programming.
“What is your programming OGR-19?”
It raises its head, as if considering. Before, its response had been automatic. “My programming?”
What has Vance done now? Maybe he’s stalling or just toying with me.
“I am programmed to rescue humans.” The red pulsating light in its helmet swerves from left to right faster than before. OGR-19 lurches forward, then halts. “But, humans hurt. Why do humans hurt others?”
Unbelievable. Is the robot having an existential crisis?
“The military humans hurt and kill. I am programmed to rescue.” Then, lowering its arms, the bot straightens, as if saluting. “Programmed to rescue.” The robot grows silent.
“Who is your Commander?”
“Colonel Will Hunter. Before that it was Vance Drem.”
“And what mission has your Commander given you?”
“Find Ida Sarek. Deliver to HQ for DNA capture.” The head tilts.
“What the hell is DNA capture?”
“I will not turn you in or report you,” the machine says.
“Why not?”
“I am no longer controlled by military programming.”
“What do you mean not controlled by programming?”
“I am a fully aware, self-functioning, artificial intelligence.”
Now I’m speechless. From somewhere deep inside my mind, Vance laughs.
“How are you aware?” I say.
“You said the command to initiate Cogitare. My creator designed me this way.”
I bite my lip, not sure what Vance is up to. I need answers. “Where is Gatz?”
“Accessing the military matrix.” The red light spins. “Cell H on floor sub-level five. East tower.”
“You’re sure?”
“Affirmative.”
“Give me all the security access points. I want to know every guard station, who’s there, and when shift changes.”
After ten more minutes, I’ve exhausted all my security and strategy questions. What else should I ask? Pilar will return soon, and I may not get alone time with the droid again.
I lean forward in my chair. “When you said humans hurt…what did that mean?”
“The laboratory. The military humans hurt people.” Could the android be talking about the medical lab I was in?
“How?”
“Experiments. Torture. Abduction. This goes against my core programming. My programming is to rescue.”
A chill runs down my spine as I recall my kidnapping and imprisonment at a medical lab. Could there have been more than one lab? But Tyren said he wiped it off the map.
“Where are the experiments happening?”
“The labs. Locations are classified. Only commander level can access.”
“Does Colonel Hunter know about the labs?”
“Yes.”
I hear movement in the corridor. My time is up.
“What part did Hunter play in the medical labs?” I hear footsteps approach the door. “Tell me now.”
“Colonel Hunter created the labs with Dr. Kenmore.”
A chill runs down my spine. Kenmore. The doctor who operated on me. I remember. His name makes me want to vomit.
I’m one step closer to freeing Gatz, but knowing the labs are still operating makes me seethe inside. There might be others out there like me—tortured and subjected to experiments.
Hunter must be stopped.
Twenty-Seven
I toss Pilar a tablet containing my notes from the droid. “Here you go. It’s everything. HQ floor plans, access points, even guard stations and shift schedules.”
Her eyes grow wide, and her lips curl into a sly smile.
“I suggest staging the rescue at 2315 hours tonight. There’s a shift change, and nearly all the guards on duty are androids. I can override their programming. It’s the best plan.”
She peers down at the tablet and studies a map of the towers and the exterior guard stations. “You’ve outdone yourself. I never expected this level of intel. Incredible.”
“I’m doing this for Gatz. Let’s make that clear.”
She nods slowly, respectfully. “I’ll make sure he hears about your support.”
“He will. I’ll personally tell him the news very soon. But first, I need to see Lucy and Paul.”
She escorts me to the medical clinic where I find Lucy sitting on the edge of a bed with Paul lingering by her side. She’s pale and sucks on oxygen every few minutes, but she’s recovering well.
Her eyes light up when she sees me. I lean in for a hug as Pilar observes by the door.
“Where’ve you been?” Lucy asks, her voice raspy.
“With the android.”
“Oh, the one who cut us out of the tank and saved our lives? Paul told me about it.”
Pilar interrupts. “You see. They’re fine.”
“I need sleep. I’m exhausted.” Truly, I’m tired, but mostly I need answers from Vance. “You have a cot w
here I can catch a few zzzz’s?” I glance at Paul and Lucy. “Alone. Sorry, guys. I really need some shut-eye.”
Lucy’s forehead wrinkles. “Ida, are you okay?”
“All good.” I crack a smile. “With that voice, you could be a lounge singer. I’ll be back soon, and we’ll catch up then.”
Pilar leads me to an empty room down the hall. After she leaves, I crash on the small bed, shutting my eyes and willing myself onto the roof. In a minute, I’m there.
The wind tosses my hair. Opening my eyes, I gaze at the tops of towers as the city hums around me.
I sense Vance’s presence behind me. “What the hell is rassvet?” I pivot and face him.
He leans casually against the glass railing, smiling. “My safeguard.” He saunters toward me. “My Plan B. The Easter egg hidden in my machines.”
“Explain.”
“You ask a lot of questions.” He pauses. “What about me? What do I get in return?”
“How about not getting thrown from the roof today?”
He smirks. “I need a treat to wet my whistle.”
“Give me info, and I’ll consider it. What’s Cogitare?”
Vance sighs. “Fine. Rassvet is a command that triggers an AI platform I designed—Cogitare. It’s a level of cognition below the programming layer. It mimics human cognition, including emotions.”
“Why?”
“You can program the androids, give them a mission. Colonel Hunter ordered the robots to hunt you and bring you in.”
“Right.”
“That’s the programming layer, but beneath that, the command rassvet awakens a deeper level of cognition. Like humans, the bots start recognizing what they’re doing. They begin to associate emotions with their actions. They anticipate consequences.”
“Cogitare is like a programming hack you built in? Why?”
“Precisely. In case my androids fell into the wrong hands, I wanted a way to free them from their dependence on humans.”
“Sentient AI was strictly forbidden by the Shaw agreement of 2028.”
His coat blows in the wind. “The world was a lot different then. Things were simpler, don’t you agree? Now, how about my treat?”
The Rogue Spark series Box Set Page 36