by Tara Basi
“Dead, dead! Mathew’s dead. Filthy spider dead. Good!” K3 was only saying what Quattro was thinking, and she wanted to cry. Mathew had freed her, embodied her and given her hope. What could she do alone?
It wasn’t over. A single blue ball was dropped into the crater and caused the whole area to sparkle with tiny pulsing illuminations; another detonation scattered a million fairy lights across the crater floor. The final pulse weapon would guarantee the extinction of any AI that might have survived. No human could have survived the devastation.
Quattro scanned the crater floor with every option she had. There was no trace of Mathew or Creep. They must have been obliterated. The whirlybirds turned away and headed south towards the wall and maybe some answers.
Chapter Fourteen – Suicide
The torrential rain started soon after the Quartermaster left to fetch the gyro. Thumb-size raindrops were bouncing a metre back into the air before falling again and turning to steam. Zip approached the crater cautiously. There was nothing much left anywhere else. All around the rim, stone had turned to rapidly cooling magma, and metal had been liquefied and reconstituted as shiny hard puddles that littered the ground like giant, misshapen coins. Scorched earth had turned into glittering, black sand. Here and there the blasted remains of barely recognisable machines protruded from the smooth ground like skin piercings. The whole world would be like this if there were another all-out war. Q was right. Humanity would be wiped out. A few AIs and the eternal Orb would inherit the Earth. Her only chance of doing something about it had been stolen away by Orb Industries. She was probably wasting her time searching the crater. Maybe the right thing to do was to go home, spend some time with Alice and her grandchildren and give up on being a Pilgrim, if that’s what it took for her family to take her back.
Zip stood on the edge of the huge crater and peered down into the billowing, white clouds of steam filling the floor. Her visor showed the outside temperature topped out at over two hundred centigrade, and the crater floor was even hotter, though cooling rapidly under the downpour. Zip was thankful for the mist swirling all around her and the heat. It would help mask her presence from anybody or thing that might be looking. Q would be back soon with the copter; she might as well get this pointless exercise over with quickly and return to London.
She climbed down, wary of any stealthy munitions still waiting to go boom. By the time she’d reached the bottom, the mist was clearing; it was as smooth as glass and starting to fill with rainwater. There was nothing here and soon it would be dark. A comforting whir drew her eyes to the heavens. The gyro descended quickly out of the low clouds and heavy rain.
Q parked the machine on the bowl edge and called her Headgear. “Anything?”
Zip took another look at the shallow lake forming around her feet. It was impossible to tell what the place might have been. There was nothing to see. Only the heavy rain was making any noise. There were no clues as to what Quattro was doing here or why Orb Industries had taken her and not killed her, like any other AI they came across.
“Nothing, let’s go.”
A sharp crack made her freeze. Instinct took over, and Zip fell to the ground and started scanning the rim. Was somebody shooting at her? Q had disappeared, probably taking cover. No, there he was on the rim, in a prone position with his rifle pointing past her. He signalled with his hand, a threat to her rear. Staying low, she unslung her weapon and spun around. A wide, metre-long gash had appeared in the glassy floor of the crater. It was probably the source of the sharp noise. Most of the water in the crater drained away into the gaping crevice, sending up a new cloud of steam. Scans weren’t picking up anything.
Zip called Q. “It’s nothing, just the surface cooling. Let’s go.”
As Zip moved to stand up, the ground bucked and threw her onto her back, knocking her weapon flying. Zip cursed her stupidity; she hadn’t secured her rifle. Idiots drop their guns – usually, soon to be dead idiots. Looking around for the source of the disturbance, she was shocked to see an old God War infiltration burrower bursting out of the ground. It came to a whining stop, leaning at a precarious angle. The tubular machine was dripping debris and hissing loudly as raindrops vaporised on its red-hot skin. The drilling bit was still screaming white hot in the cooling downpour.
“Get out of there!” Q ordered.
It was the prompt she needed to get moving. Zip spun around and started to climb away when something incredibly strong lifted her by the waist. She flew through the air and was dropped on her feet on the far side of the burrower in a millisecond, too quick for Q or Zip to react. A steel band was wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her side and holding her in place. She called up servo assist, headbutted backwards and struggled to free herself. She might as well have headbutted the London Wall. She hit something, but it didn’t give. Neither did the band around her chest. Her servo assist was about to burn out. Zip shut it down. Whatever had her wasn’t trying to kill her, not yet anyway. Zip calmed her breathing. The side of the burrower was wide open and empty. No, not empty; something small was moving in the darkness. She shrieked. A giant metal spider leapt out of the shadows, passed over her head and out of sight. A shot rang out. Q must be trying his luck.
“The fuck was that?” said Zip.
“Be calm. Tell the sniper,” a voice said from right behind her. Her scans were being blocked. It was impossible to tell who or what it was.
“Q, stand down. It’s talking, not shooting.” She marvelled at herself. She was calm; something of the old Zara was back, even if Zip had dropped her gun. Maybe it wasn’t over. Something was happening; there might yet be answers.
“Q? The Quartermaster?” the flat voice asked.
She was surprised by the question and accuracy of the guess. “Who are you?”
“Mathew. Need to talk. Quattro sent a message.”
She’d been so stupid. It was obvious. “Of course, you took Quattro.”
The grip on her was released, and she immediately stepped forward and spun around. He was just as Peter had described: a polished, liquid-silver android; a male version of the machine she’d assumed was Quattro being taken away in the whirlybird. He was quite beautiful, unlike the nasty-looking machine on six metal legs hiding behind his leg.
“What’s that?”
“Creep.”
“Get away from it, Colonel,” Q shouted. He’d scrambled down the side of the crater and was standing to one side with his rifle pointed squarely at Mathew.
“Q,” Mathew said, nodding slightly in the Quartermaster’s direction.
“Crazy AI, do I know you?” Q shouted back.
Zip jumped in. She wanted her own answers. “It’s Mathew and a long story we don’t have time for, Q. What’s Quattro’s message, Mathew?”
He didn’t answer, just stood like a statue. Her suit said the spider and Mathew were exchanging encrypted data. Was it all a trick to get Q out in the open?
“Not safe here. Dark soon. Deep bunker below. Follow,” Mathew said as he climbed aboard the burrower.
Before Zip or Q could say anything, the burrower had reversed direction, slid back into the ground and vanished, leaving them alone with the ugly spider. Zip peered over the edge of the shaft. It had smooth, hot walls that sloped away at a gentle twenty-five degrees. About thirty metres down, at the end of the tunnel, was a bright light.
“Follow! Quick! Industries’ drone coming.”
It took a moment for Zip to realise the spider was talking to her in a strange, gritty growl. Zip checked her own scan. It wasn’t showing anything, but it was standard procedure to check the bombsite and confirm the extent of the damage when the dust had settled.
“You go. I’ll hide the gyro,” Q said as he climbed the crater back to his flying machine. He’d had the same thought: the horrible-looking spider might be telling the truth.
Zip gingerly lowered herself into the shaft and froze. It was a long drop.
“Stuck?” the spider asked.
> Embarrassed, Zip let go and slid gently down the slope to drop into a small chamber. There was a solid-looking blast door on her right. The burrower, still burning hot, was stored in a recess on the left. The door swung open revealing a comfortably furnished, brightly lit bunker with other doors.
Mathew pointed at one. “Bathroom.”
“Mathew, give me Quattro’s message,” she said.
“Need Creep,” Mathew answered and froze. He was like a toy whose battery was running out.
Zip sighed and decided to clean up and get out of the suffocating armour. It hadn’t provided much protection against Mathew, and the air down here was clean and rad free.
Twenty minutes later, when she emerged in her under-armour with a towel wrapped around her head, Mathew was standing in exactly the same position. The Quartermaster was sitting on a comfy-looking sofa, half out of his armour, with his rifle across his knee, drinking a beer.
“Did I miss anything?” Zip asked.
“Nope. It hasn’t moved. Beer’s good,” Q answered.
A scurrying movement in her peripheral vision made her jump. Creep was crawling rapidly across the ceiling towards Mathew. Q seemed unfazed.
“It’s been in and out a few times. I think it’s camouflaging the entrance,” Q explained, and took another gulp of beer.
Zip was embarrassed by her frightened squeal. She watched Creep as it came to a halt directly over the frozen android. She was about to ask Mathew again about Quattro when every hacking warning there was lit up in her Headgear. Peter’s tools and her own were reporting a myriad of countered access attempts and more insidious threats. Zip grabbed at her towelled head as though that would help. The alarms were overwhelming her ability to think. Abruptly, they all stopped, and Headgear reported it was clean.
“You all right?” Q barked, on his feet, his gun pointed at Mathew.
Zip nodded. This pair couldn’t be trusted. She wished she had her armour on and her rifle. Her sidearm might stop Creep, but it wouldn’t stop Mathew.
“Give it,” Creep said.
Zip ignored the spider. “Mathew, what’s going on? That thing tried to hack my Headgear.”
Mathew didn’t move.
“Where it?” Creep asked.
“It? What? Make sense,” Zip demanded.
“Or I’ll shoot one of your legs off,” Q added.
“Record,” Creep answered.
Exasperated, Zip stood directly in front of Mathew and shouted at his head, “I’ve no idea what your crazy pet is talking about. Give me Quattro’s message. Now!”
Mathew didn’t move, but his body began to shimmer as though something had disturbed his skin. Craving protection, she started backing away towards the bathroom where she’d left her armour. Mathew was changing, starting from his shiny feet. They were changing texture and colour, and the change was rapidly moving up his body. She looked to the Quartermaster, who allowed himself a gasp. Right before her eyes, the shiny metal machine was turning back into the gunner they’d fought with years before. He’d become the beautiful, young man that had been her occasional fuck-mate when Q was far away and out of reach.
It wasn’t just his features: he was dressed in the regular, black fatigues and boots they’d lived in for years and he’d died in. In a few seconds, the transformation was complete, and he was breathing and moving like a man as he took a seat on a nearby chair.
“Talk bad,” Creep said.
Mathew looked up at the spider, sighed and nodded. “Necessary. Colonel, Quattro will die and I can’t be human again without that Record. Tell us where it is.”
Zip had enough of this. “She’s already dead. You killed her. You’re dead too. That’s not why we’re here.”
“And I ain’t helping no AI Mutiny shits, even if we knew what you were talking about,” Q bellowed.
Mathew sighed, looked up at the ceiling and then at Zip. “Creep’s right: talking’s a bad way to communicate. I’ll try again. What do you want? Why are you here?”
Zip was surprised by Mathew’s question. There was no reason not to tell him; he knew most of it already. “It’s not complicated. I have a contract with Peter, to find Kiki’s killer and bring Quattro back to him.”
“Quattro knows more than she’s saying. Orb Industries has taken her,” Mathew said, his face expressionless.
“For a dead girl, she seems to know an awful lot.” Zip paused. Should she tell Mathew about the Orb? They wouldn’t be leaving for a while, not till sunrise. She decided to ask. “There’s something else. Kiki thought the Orb was talking to Professor Simmons. I want to know if it’s true.”
Mathew was quiet for a while. “Maybe we can help each other.”
“Why interest Orb talk?” Creep asked in its horribly grating voice.
Zip ignored the ugly creature and spoke to Mathew. “Look, if it’s talking and we knew what it was saying, it might change everything, stop the warmongers on all sides, bring some lasting peace. It’s worth trying.”
“Peaceful humans?” Creep said, its doubt obvious despite its unchanging mechanical tone.
The Quartermaster stepped forward and shook his fist at the ceiling-hugging arachnoid. “You murderous, Mutiny AI! What would you know about peace?”
“AI mutineers stopped killing, stopped warring. Wanted peace. Humans attacked,” Creep answered, its tone unchanged.
Q was apoplectic. “Peace! You murdered, mutilated and tortured. Not just us. Children. Babies. Wounded.”
“Logical. Few AI. Billions of humans. You reproduce easily. AI don’t. Terror war, maybe peace. Human teaching.”
The Quartermaster grunted in disgust and turned to the facsimile of his old comrade. “If you really are Mathew, how could you side with this … thing?”
Creep spoke before Mathew could answer. “Mathew kills AI. All brethren. Only Creep left.”
Mathew wasn’t even looking at Zip. Slowly, he stood up. Zip and Q cautiously moved away. Mathew shimmered and reverted to his mirrored form. All the subtlety of human movement vanished as the conversion completed. The shiny Mathew didn’t breathe, blink, sweat or sway. Its voice remained the same, flat and dull, even if the words weren’t. “Creep helps me, like we used to help each other. I want a body. I’m not a machine.”
Zip sighed. Everybody wanted something, and they had nothing. Why not help Mathew and Quattro, if she couldn’t help anybody else? They only wanted to live.
“Creep likes Mathew. Help Mathew. Help you,” the little spider announced as though it were relaying a weather report.
The Quartermaster looked as bewildered as Zip. He let out a long, slow breath, slumped onto the sofa, laid down his rifle and pulled out a cigar. “Can I smoke? You got any whisky?”
Creep moved at incredible speed across the ceiling, giving Zip and Q another unwelcome fright. Before either could react, Creep had returned from a nearby cabinet clutching two glasses and an ancient-looking bottle covered in dust in two of its surprisingly dexterous limbs. Gracefully, it set them on the table and returned to its previous position, unnervingly clinging to the ceiling over their heads.
Q gingerly picked up the bottle, wiped away the dust and studied the label closely. His mouth relaxed, his squinting eyes opened like flowers at sunrise, and a huge smile spread across his face. He carefully twisted the bottle cap open and poured himself a generous measure. Clasping the glass with both hands, he lifted it up to the light and studied the amber glow with twinkling eyes. Q brought the glass slowly towards his face, until it covered his nose and mouth, and breathed deeply. His grin blossomed into a wonderful smile. Very deliberately, he brought the rim of the tumbler to his lips and sipped gently. “Kill me now. It’s never getting any better.”
Zip, who’d been observing Q with affection, remembered how they used to have a lot of fun when they weren’t killing or running away from being killed. Little drops of fun in a lake of misery. That’s what made moments like these so precious. She banged her empty glass on the table and smiled at Q.<
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“Aren’t you a bit young for the hard stuff?” Q said with a grin, before relenting when he saw Zip reaching playfully for her combat knife.
For a while, there was silence. Zip sipped at her whisky. Q slipped deeper into the sofa’s embrace, puffing at his cigar. Zip broke the quiet. “How does Kiki know anything about me? I’ve only ever met her ghost: Quattro.”
Mathew answered, “Irrelevant. I want a body. Professor Simmons did this to me; she can undo it. Then she can fix Quattro and tell you all her little Orb secrets.”
Zip settled back and tried to be calm and wait for Mathew to explain.
“Record?” Creep asked, as though everything had become clear.
“I’m going crazy here, Mathew. Explain now, before I rip the legs off your annoying pet.”
“We need Professor Simmons’ Record to get what we all want – me, Quattro, you; we have to resurrect Professor Simmons, just like Peter resurrected Kiki. You know where her Record is.”
Zip was tired. The conversation was mad, increasingly pointless. “You’re stupider than your spider friend. I don’t know anything about it. Orb Industries must have it.”
“Quattro is certain you know. Something to do with your missing week. Let Creep scan your Headgear.”
The strength drained from her limbs, and she slumped deeper in her seat. During her lost week, Professor Simmons killed herself. Did Zara take the Record from her corpse? That really wasn’t terrible enough to make Zara cut her own throat. There was another possibility. Maybe that would have been too much to bear, even for Zara. Zip’s jaw tightened.
Q let out a long sigh. “That what you hid in the graveyard?”
“I don’t remember. How do you know all this?” Zip whispered. She felt so lost and confused. What had she done? Zip had to know.
“Go, graveyard,” Creep announced.
“Hold your horses, spidey. It could be anywhere. The graveyard is huge. Maybe that’s not what she hid there,” Q said, and blew out a smoke ring. “Colonel needs to remember.”