But what he was talking about was madness. Destroying Scipio would only destroy the Tower. And more than that, he was the reason I didn’t have a true view of what the Tower should be like to begin with. My perceptions of Scipio and his control had been manipulated by the changes Sage had made to the Tower over the centuries. He’d stripped people of their legacy nets, as they recorded the memories of each generation, and then modified the ranking system, changing it from a way to monitor citizens’ happiness to a way to punish them. He’d transformed it into a system where the lower you were, the more you were stigmatized, until you either improved… or fell low enough that you were executed. Leo had told me Lionel’s dream had been nobler than that, and he had been appalled at the changes that had been made over the centuries.
And Sage was behind them. I couldn’t agree with his ideology, because he’d already corrupted the system before I was born. Instead, I was angered by it. He was just some old man who was clinging blindly to a past ideology, getting people killed in the process.
“You’re insane,” I said. “And if not insane, then just selfish. People are dying because of what you’ve done to Scipio and the ranking systems—all because you didn’t agree with Lionel’s ideals and dreams for the future?”
His face hardened and he looked away for a moment before taking another step down the stairs, shaking his head, and I slid a few more inches forward, keeping my movements slow. I was within grabbing distance of the cable, but if I reached out now, it would be too obvious. Not to mention, the tension of the room had ratcheted up several degrees, given my last statement.
“Ideals?” He scoffed. “He tampered with his own thrice-damned experiment, for crying out loud! When he scanned me, Kurt’s full memory of me saving my team during the war involved me making a decision to never let situations like the one my team and I had almost died in happen again! He said my ambition was like a poison to the personality, and stripped it away from Kurt, without consulting any of us, before declaring his own neural clone’s program the winner of the selection process. He castrated Kurt so that his precious AI could win, because he didn’t have faith in anyone but himself leading the Tower forward! Our psyches weren’t pure enough for his little project. And when I protested, he accused me of only having my own interests at heart.” He snorted derisively and ran a hand through his hair, his gun still trained on me, right over the wooden rail running along the stairs. “And then to top it off, he made his little experiment inescapable! You don’t think he knew that even after the radiation storms had dissipated, the radioactive byproducts from the Tower’s operation would permeate the land around us, making it impossible to leave? He was keeping us from escaping, from exploring, from creating empires! All so he could prove that humans could live in peace together, as long as they were working for the so-called common good!” He snorted derisively, shuffling down another step. “Yet they still killed each other. They still stole and hurt each other. Requiem Day proved that.”
I frowned as he continued making his way down the stairs, trying to make sense of what he was saying. It was like he was talking in circles, blaming humans for their behavior inside the harsh system he had created, and then using that behavior to justify killing Scipio. Yes, he made some sense when he talked about the land around us being toxic. I had assumed it was an accident, but it seemed like a pretty big oversight by someone as smart as Lionel. But instead of letting us find a way to adapt, or using the Patrians to escape, he’d focused instead on killing Scipio and ending everything. All because he felt Lionel had robbed us of our ambition.
“Your logic is a little warped,” I spat at him, unable to keep the ire out of my voice. “You made the changes to the system that make us desperate and afraid. You’ve conditioned us, more so than Lionel or Scipio could, and then you blame us for how we react in life-or-death situations, as some sort of justification for what you’re doing to Scipio! It’s madness!”
He rolled his eyes. “Is it madness to want more for the Tower? Our ambition was stolen from us, neutered by Scipio’s very design. Yes, they made him capable of keeping us alive, and finding ingenious ways of doing it, but they didn’t give him the most important trait humanity has to offer. The ability to grow! The desire to explore and understand the world around us! No curiosity, no drive—just heads down, plodding forward like sheep. Well, I say enough is enough! We deserve better than that!”
“And what, you’re going to fix it by killing Scipio?” I shot back, taking a step toward him, placing my hands on the table—on either side of Rose’s hard drive—and leaning over it. My finger brushed against the cable, but I ignored it, holding his gaze and making my scorn shine through. “News flash: The systems are dependent on him being in the Core. Without him, our water, our air, our food, will stop! We will die, and it will all be your fault.”
Sage smirked. “Actually my dear, it will be your fault. Or at least, that will be the last message Scipio gives before he gasps his final breath. And as for the rest of it, you shouldn’t worry so much about that. I’ve been cultivating Scipio’s replacement for years, but unfortunately, you’ve forced me to accelerate my plans—the second time I’ve had to do that in twenty-five years, I might add—and I’m worried he’s not quite ready. That, and you haven’t exactly given me enough time to make the remaining fragments more accepting of him, but no matter. Adaptability has always been one of my specialties.”
My skin crawled as I realized he was talking about the visit from the group of survivors—the Patrians—and their first visit a little over twenty-five years ago. I had met their direct descendants only a few days ago, and my twin brother Alex was with them now, negotiating refugee status on behalf of the people I had been protecting from Scipio. I had known the event was significant to the legacies, that they had accelerated their plans in some way shortly after that, and he had just confirmed that. Still, it was a hollow victory. I still didn’t fully understand why their presence had caused him to panic. It wasn’t like they had been in a position to attack us at that point. Their culture was being devastated. We could’ve helped them in some way, and in doing so, found a way to free ourselves of the prison Sage seemed to despise.
I decided to let him know that I knew what he was talking about, if only to keep him talking and gain more insight into what he was thinking. “The alien visitors,” I said softly. “The ones from Patrus. They made you step things up.”
He gave me a canny look as he stepped down from the last stair. “So you’ve met with them? How… Ah, yes, the monitoring station. I suppose you and your friends figured out that I’d shut it down and reactivated it somehow. Very clever, although if you were smarter, you would’ve just left with them. Could’ve spared yourself this little embarrassment and been free to live your life. Still, I suppose I can’t fully fault you. You do seem to attract extraordinary things, don’t you? Take your boyfriend, for example. Do you prefer calling him Grey… or Leo? And after you tell me that, I’d love to know how, exactly, Scipio’s backup survived the virus I put into his system.”
I tried not to cringe as words I’d never even uttered to anyone outside my inner circle reached my ears, leaving me vulnerable and exposed. How had he known about Leo? I’d done everything in my power to keep his existence a secret, but somehow, Sage knew. It shouldn’t be possible. But it was.
He cocked his head at me, waiting for my answer, and I swallowed back some of my fear and decided to deflect. “How do you know about that?”
“Why, your net, of course. The alpha-series nets are probably the only worthwhile thing that Lionel ever invented. They are capable of any number of things—one of which is hacking into the others for a live feed, so to speak. Of course, there are steps you can take to keep your net from getting hacked, but you didn’t take them, I’m afraid. Which made it terribly easy to keep tabs on you. However, I wasn’t lying when I said you caught me by surprise. I had no idea this was coming. But then again, I had no idea you were in cahoots with Lacey and Str
um.”
I frowned. He was lying. He had to be. If Kurt could hack my net, then he would’ve known I was working with Lacey and Strum. “You’re lying. If you had been spying on me, you would’ve known I was making a move against your people and warned them.”
He smirked. “Spying through the nets requires our full concentration, so it’s impossible for us to watch you at all times. And, as I mentioned earlier, I made a mistake in assuming your mother’s death would slow you down.”
I absorbed what he was saying, his words sinking in and ringing of truth. He had been spying on me through the legacy net Lacey had given me. It shouldn’t have been possible for him to do it, as Lacey was a legacy herself and had been indirectly fighting Sage for years! She would’ve known about this, and done something to protect from it.
A wash of cold fear rolled over me when I realized she might have done just that—only to have me screw it up. I knew there were memories on there that she had purposefully kept me from retaining. I had wanted to know what was inside, and asked Quess to remove the protections. It stood to reason that if he hadn’t fully understood what he was looking at, he could’ve also disabled the protocol keeping Sage out. Which meant he had literally been inside my mind without me knowing, monitoring my actions and my thoughts. I felt violated in more ways than one—and wanted nothing more than to rip the net out of my skull right then and there. He could be monitoring my thoughts right now and know what I was planning with Rose. He had said that using the net required his full concentration, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t talk while Kurt spied on me. This entire conversation could’ve been a game of cat and mouse.
Sage noticed my distaste, because he added, “If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t pleasant for me, either. You have the thoughts of a teenage girl with the anxiety of an overprotective mother. I’m not sure how your friends put up with it, really. Not that they will for much longer.”
His comment told me he wasn’t monitoring me after all. If he had been, he wouldn’t be smiling at me like he was. In my mind, it only confirmed he was telling me the truth. When memories from the legacy net hit me, they made me freeze up, unaware of the world for several seconds while the memory played out. It probably worked the same way with Sage and Kurt—if Sage used him now to get into my head, he’d probably lose awareness, which meant he wasn’t going to be able to access my net until whatever happened in this room was finished. Not unless he wanted to give me an opportunity to shoot him and end this.
That did nothing to make me feel better, and I fully planned to rip the legacy net out of my head just as soon as I got out of here, but at least I knew he wasn’t on to me right at that moment.
Still, that didn’t explain why he had even started looking through my thoughts, or what he was looking for. I doubted it was Leo—he’d had no reason to believe the AI was alive. “Yeah, but why even watch me?” I asked, lending voice to the question. “I mean, once you figured out what I was up to, I would assume you would have just had me killed. You’d been so protective of your identity, killing everyone who came close, but you didn’t kill me. You gave orders to keep me alive. Why?”
“At first it was idle curiosity. You were a veritable nobody who had somehow managed to get Jasper to overcome the restrictions we put on his program, and then wound up rewriting a portion of Scipio’s memory to get out of murdering Devon. I assumed you were a rather aggressive legacy, planted by one of the other groups working against us, and wanted to see how much you knew. But everything changed when I realized you had taken Rose. That you had the backup version of Scipio. That you had the audacity to break in to Sadie’s terminal to steal Jasper! I figured a girl like this was relentless enough to get me the one element that was missing from my plan. And you did.”
Tony. Of course. Tony had escaped the mainframe when he realized he would be next and managed to plant his code in the Mechanics Department for Lacey to find. And I had just delivered the poor fragment right to Sage.
Anger burned through me, but it was hardened by another thought. He had said the “one” element missing from his plan. But what about Alice? She was the only other fragment we hadn’t been able to find. Did that mean he already had her? If so, what had he done to her?
I opened my mouth to ask the question but was cut off by a heavy clang emanating from the domed ceiling above, so sharp and intense that I swore I felt the impact through the floor. I was glancing upward, a dark sense of foreboding coursing through me, when two more similar noises echoed after the first. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say something heavy and metallic was banging against the ceiling. At first, I thought it was debris, from some sort of explosion or something, but it didn’t seem to move or shift past its initial impact point.
Sage tsked and looked at his indicator, checking the time, but didn’t offer anything by way of explanation. Overhead, more clanging sounds rang out, only this time they were muted, though in roughly the same area.
“What’s that?” I demanded.
Sage was just starting to reply when a shower of sparks exploded from the door leading to the antechamber, spraying across the floor. I froze, but Sage made a surprised face, his head turning toward it. And I realized that this was my chance. My heart in my chest, I cast a quick glance at Scipio and Jasper—who were also distracted by the door—and then grabbed the connecting cable and plugged it in with a click. I hoped that after Rose downloaded, she would get a good read on the situation before she sprang into existence singing, “I’m here!” But one could never tell with her.
And even if she did, her mental instability might be intense or confusing enough that Scipio allowed her to overwhelm him and get Jasper free.
And if I could just download them both back into the hard drives, I’d have a chance of getting them away from Sage. It was clear he wanted them. He had mentioned needing the fragments to replace Scipio, and I could only assume the program he was going to use was Kurt himself. Kurt was one of the larger fragments, but he wasn’t a full AI. However, centuries of being inside of Sage’s head had undoubtedly caused him to grow and change, much like Leo had changed Grey, and how Grey was changing Leo.
Which meant that if Sage managed to replace Scipio, we were going to be dealing with some sort of deranged version of him in the Core. Not good.
Especially since it seemed clear that whatever had dropped on the roof was here for Sage. If he escaped with the fragments and managed to delete Scipio from the Core, he could easily change the Tower as we knew it—and we’d be unable to stop him, without going through and digging out the fragments all over again. I doubted they could survive the process a second time.
I had to figure out a way to kill him, here and now, before his backup came in.
Luckily, I didn’t feel alone anymore. With Rose downloading, I had hope that at the very least, she would cause a distraction that would allow me to take cover and shoot Sage.
Not to mention, the sparks at the door could only be the result of a singular force of nature who just happened to be on my side—because only Dylan Chase would be courageous enough to cut through the door of the Council Room when it had been sealed shut.
But until she got in, or Rose made her move, I had to keep him talking.
2
I glanced quickly between Sage and Scipio, but neither of them had noticed me plugging Rose in. Taking a step back, I cleared my throat and smiled just as Sage looked at me, his rheumy eyes blinking in surprise.
“So, it seems we’ve got a bit of a race going on,” I said lightly. “My Knights cutting through the door, yours the roof. Who is it, anyway? I was fairly confident I got all of your people.”
His eyes widened, and then he gave a barking laugh that had him clutching his ribs with one hand. It went on for just long enough to be obnoxious, and I pressed my lips together to keep from snapping out an angry, “What’s the joke?” I knew he was baiting me, and I was damned if I was going to rise to it. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and af
fected a bored look.
Oh, I was scared. Scared enough that I had to pee a little. With Scipio obeying Sage’s every command, mysterious noises coming from above, and Dylan a long way from cutting a hole large enough for me to escape through, I didn’t have a lot of options at the moment. I was trapped in a race—one between his people and mine, and one between him and me. At any second he could choose to end the conversation and shoot me dead. And at the moment, I was defenseless against him.
I needed to get to my gun, and I kept hoping I would be able to as soon as Rose made her move, but so far, the fragment hadn’t made a peep.
His laughter gave over to coughs—heavy, wet ones—which were punctuated by wheezing breaths that almost had me reaching for the pocket on my thigh, so I could unzip it and have access to the gun.
Almost.
Except he kept his eyes on me the entire time, and the gun remained pointed at me, in spite of his shaking, reminding me that he wasn’t as helpless as he seemed. The sparks continued to spill across the floor as Dylan doggedly cut her way through, and my eyes struggled to remain on Sage instead of glancing at the terminal to see what Rose’s progress was. I needed Rose to download so she could help me. All I needed was a distraction, something that I could use to get my gun or get to cover, whichever seemed prudent should the time come. My stomach twisted into knots as I wondered if I was even going to get out of here alive.
Sage caught his breath eventually, and straightened, a jovial smile wrinkling the lines of his face. I’d once thought he had kind eyes, but now, staring at the bright blue flames of them, I could only see madness within. “My dear, I will be long gone and you will be very dead before Ms. Chase cuts through that hole. In fact, I think a lot of things are going to go wrong for her in the next few minutes. Now, would you be so kind as to do me a favor? I require the hard drive on Engineer Green’s desk. Fetch it for me.”