I motioned to Dylan, flashing her a few hand signals in Callivax to explain the problem and my plan. As soon as my hand stopped moving, she looked up at the approaching cameras, and then nodded, dropping back to the left side of the sentinel behind us and leaving me to get close to Rose. She glanced down at me, her head cocked quizzically, and I quickly signed a message to her as well, letting her know what was going on. She nodded and returned her gaze down the hall, trying to assume the same walk that the sentinels around her were using. I tucked up next to her, walking in short steps, but quickly enough to keep up without being noticed.
We stepped into the light together, and I fought the urge to increase my speed or turn back, suddenly feeling exposed. I kept my eyes ahead, even though my impulse was to check on Dylan, and watched as the first camera passed us. I was guesstimating where the image would end and where the next camera would pick us up, and, after ten of Rose’s steps, I quickly darted around to her other side, praying that neither camera picked up the movement.
I put a hand on her arm this time and chanced a fast glance at Dylan. She was still on the left side, but when I glanced back, she quickly mimicked my movement, coming around to the other side of the sentinel. Exhaling, I returned my gaze to the line in front of us and saw that they were turning right and heading closer to the center of the Citadel. I checked the cameras down the hall across from us, but realized I had no way of knowing where the cameras were placed in the other passageway intersecting with this one, making it difficult to gauge how best to mask our movements.
If I broke cover to check, and someone was watching the screens, they’d know we were here.
My mind was searching for something as the corner loomed closer, trying to figure out how to handle this turn, when Rose whispered, “Get behind me. I’ll tell you which side.”
Of course! I could use her massive frame to hide my own for the turn. Appreciation surged through me, even as I realized there was still a chance that the cameras in the adjacent halls would see us, but there was nothing I could do about that anyway. Either way, we were going to have to get through this section, so it was a risk we had to take.
I quickly signed a hasty “do what I do” message to Dylan and then stepped behind Rose as she started to turn the corner. It was all I could do not to cringe at the exposure I felt in the intersection, but I kept moving forward.
As soon as Rose whispered, “Go to my right,” I was speeding up my steps and tucking in on her right side. A glance over my shoulder told me Dylan had followed. We kept walking, but for several seconds, I felt breathless as I waited for any sign or hint of an alarm.
There was nothing. The sentinels continued on for several more junctures, with Dylan and me dodging cameras in between, and by the time we arrived at the next turn, I was feeling exhausted and my heart was pounding desperately against my ribs in protest of the prolonged exertion of everything I had put it through over the past twenty-four hours.
I ignored it—I was getting good at that—but also knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that for much longer.
Although, if I could just reach Leo and initiate the process Lionel had told me about, it might end this fight, and I might finally be able to get some rest. After we found and caught Sage and the legacies, of course.
As ideal as that picture was in my head, I knew there were a few steps between here and there, and for it to actually work I had to get to Leo. And then… I paused, a sudden question occurring to me. Did I tell him about the New Day protocol? Should I? I felt like I should. But what if my time with Leo had somehow changed his priorities?
What if he refused?
Tony kept trying to reassure me that he wouldn’t, and truth be told, I didn’t believe he would either, which was probably why my initial idea was just to use the activation code without telling him. It would be easier that way, and potentially less painful than dragging out any sort of goodbye. And while I still secretly hoped we could copy him, I couldn’t justify the loss of life that would occur if we delayed the protocol while we figured out how to do it.
If we even could, that was. I had no idea whether that was something he could do in Cornelius’s terminal, or if we needed a bigger computer to do so. Leo was full AI, meaning it took a lot of energy for him to copy himself, and a lot of space to house him. Cornelius’s terminal was probably too small to handle the process. And even then, what if we did copy him? His clone would have all of his memories of us, and share his feelings toward me, and I would be consigning him to a future without me, all so I could keep a version of him to myself. It didn’t feel right.
It would be easier if I knew my neural clone was the one that made it through the vetting process, because at least then he’d have some version of me to be with. But I highly doubted it would, and I didn’t want to fill him with false hope. I wasn’t suited to be an AI; I barely had it together as a human, and even that was questionable at the best of times. Not to mention, I had failed more times than I could count, trying to keep the people in the Tower safe. That alone would probably disqualify me.
I shook off the dark musings and focused on keeping up with Rose as we took another corner, moving to her left side when she told me to. As I did, I realized that this was it—the sentinels were turning in to one of the storage rooms. I checked the cameras, and then told Rose, “Move to one side and stop by the door, and act like you’re malfunctioning a little bit. I’ll hide behind you and look inside, see what they are up to.”
Rose nodded, and a moment later, her steps became jerkier, loud whirs and straining noises being emitted from her legs. She began altering her trajectory, and I followed her, shifting behind her as she walked. I motioned for Dylan to tuck in next to me as her sentinel went by.
Within moments we were stopped just to the side of the door, Dylan and me pressed together behind Rose’s back. It wasn’t the best cover, but it was all we had.
While Rose continued her ruse of her legs not working, I quickly slid up to the edge of the door and looked in.
And what I saw made my heart stop.
25
Inside the room, in an aisle running between plastic-wrapped packages of emergency supplies, stood a tall metal frame, like a door. A low ramp ran up to a pad under the frame. The pad itself reminded me of the wireless transfer pad Lidecher had created earlier, only this one was much larger, and sparking with yellow lightning. As was a weird glowing circle on top of the frame.
As I watched, the first in the line of sentinels marched up the ramp and onto the pad, where it came to a halt. The circle at the top of the frame flashed yellow while the pad began to glow gold, and a moment later, the flash dimmed and the sentinel stepped down, and was met by a man wearing IT gray. When it turned toward him, giving us a view of its side, I could see the eyes were now glowing a brilliant gold.
It was Alice. Or rather, they were Alice. This was where Sage was downloading her copies directly into the sentinels. Dozens were already in the room, forming twin columns of ten before marching through a side door into one of the adjacent halls. My spine tingled at how lucky we were not to have been passing by that door when they emerged, but I quickly shoved it back to worry about our present danger.
I came around the wall and leaned against it, my hand going automatically to the plasma rifle. I looked over at Dylan, and then back at Rose, and blew out a breath, a special kind of insanity beginning to form. The same one that had driven me to shoot those two Eyes outside the server room in Cogstown. The one that was telling me to shoot now… and then make a run for it.
And I knew I needed to let them know this time before I acted. Kicking this particular hornet’s nest could not be a solo operation.
“Dylan, Rose, I am about to do something stupid and reckless,” I said in a low voice, my heart beginning to catch up with the plan I was moments away from enacting. “It looks like this is where they’re downloading Alice into the sentinels, and I’m thinking we need to stop that right now. Maybe we can buy Scipio so
me relief from the torture they’re subjugating him to. Here’s the thing: I’m going to shoot the crap out of that thing, but there are at least twenty sentinels in there, and a few humans to boot, so as soon as I do this, we need to book it. Like, run because you’re going to crap your pants sort of running, you know what I mean?”
Dylan gave me a concerned look. “Yeah, I think I’m okay with all of that, but are you okay? You sound a bit… mmm… crazy?”
I nodded in absolute agreement. This was crazy. It was suicide, really. As soon as I unloaded into that machine, the sentinels with Alice inside of them were going to come tearing after us like nothing we’d ever seen before. If we didn’t make it to a hatch that led to the Citadel before they caught us, we’d be ripped apart, and we’d never get Lionel’s message to Leo. I was putting the entire future of the Tower in jeopardy by doing this, and to be honest, it would’ve been smarter to focus on getting to Leo and starting the New Day protocol.
But that wouldn’t save the people these Alices were destined to kill. I was here, and I had the means to do something about it. How could I just walk away?
“That’s a totally fair assessment,” I said. “Because this feels a little crazy. But she’s killing people, and if taking out this little download pad slows her down on that front, I’m really okay with the risk. I just need to know where we can find the closest access hatch to the Citadel. Do you know?”
She looked around, studying the numbers on the hall. “I think so,” she said. “We’re a little far from the one I’m most familiar with, but I think there’s one nearby.”
“Let’s hope so,” I breathed, lifting the plasma rifle up and bracing it with both hands. “Because we are super far from the one leading to my quarters, and we won’t have a lot of time to get there once I start pulling the trigger. Tony, any advice on how to use this thing?”
Tony, who had been doing a great job at staying out of my head for the last twenty minutes or so, sent me a surge of reassurance, along with his response. Sure do. There’s a button on the side that changes the yield of the plasma. For this, you’ll probably want to crank that bad boy up to thirty.
I flipped the rifle over in my hand and spotted a button right next to a little indicator that read “10” in a cool blue light. I hit the button and it leapt to “20,” then “30,” the number growing redder the higher it got. At 30, it was a mild orange, telling me this thing probably had a much higher setting. It does, but that other number on the side indicates how much of the plasma you’re using in terms of battery life. Take it to 100, and you’d be left with no charge, so just keep that in mind.
An important and good note. I pulled the gun to my shoulder and exhaled, thinking, Anything else?
Should be good to go. Permission to take over if things get too dangerous for us?
Granted, I replied, and took a small moment to mentally steady myself and close my eyes. “All right, ladies, get ready to run.” I exhaled as I opened my eyes. I turned toward the corner, already moving the plasma rifle between Rose and the wall, stepped out past her leg, and turned the gun in to the room.
I pulled it tight to my shoulder, took a second to scope my target through the sights along the top, aiming for the download pad itself, and then squeezed the trigger on my next exhale.
Purple plasma exploded from the tip at high velocity, the gun itself hissing as a blast of heat shot out around me. The kick of it also caught me unawares, and I staggered back a step, bumping into Rose’s side, but never lost sight of the volley, my eyes tracking the violet projectile as it arced past the line of sentinels, toward the download pad.
My breath caught as it hit, just left of center, splattering all over the frame and the sentinel mid-download before exploding in a fiery blast that blew my hair back.
“Move!” I shouted as cries of alarm from the men and women inside hit my ears. Dylan was already running and had passed the line of sentinels that were grinding to a halt with the explosion. I ducked behind Rose to follow, and within seconds, all three of us were tearing down the halls.
I fumbled with the gun to lower the charge, hitting the button several times to cycle through the yield number, knowing we had only seconds before the Alices were after us. Dylan darted through a pair of sentinels and down an adjacent hall, and I followed, spinning through them and catching one last glimpse of the open door behind us—just in time to see one of the Alices pushing a frozen sentinel out of her way, her eyes and carapace glowing golden.
Then there was nothing but wall, and a need for speed like I had never known before. I tore after Dylan, holding the plasma rifle tight to my chest, and almost slammed into the girl when she came to an abrupt halt at a set of doors halfway down the hall.
“Here?” I exclaimed, looking back over my shoulder. “This isn’t the best—”
“I know,” Dylan shouted. “Dylan Chase, 051-29—”
“Cancel that,” I said, knowing that anyone watching in the Core could override her authorization to enter. “Open on my authorization, Lionel Scipio 001-001-A.”
The door began to rattle open, just as an Alice stopped in the intersection a hundred feet back, its form twisting away from us, then toward us. There was nowhere we could hide.
I pulled the plasma rifle to my shoulder and fired, catching it in the chest. The burst was smaller than the first one but hit square on the sentinel’s chest and began to smoke. Seconds later, bright sparks were shooting from the armor, and it fell to a knee only a few feet from where it had been when I hit it, before toppling over, its golden eyes flickering.
I wasn’t sure whether that meant it was dead or not, but it didn’t matter. Two more entered the junction behind it, automatically turning toward us, and I could hear more behind them. Standing here shooting at them and expending plasma rounds was a waste of the time we could use to escape.
“C’mon,” I said to Dylan, moving toward the widening door. “Let’s get to the hatch.”
“You go,” Dylan said, shoving the gun in my hand. “Leave me the rifle. I’ll stay and hold them—”
I growled and grabbed the lapel of her uniform, giving her a little shake. “No martyrs,” I ordered, not wanting to accept even one more loss. Cyril had been the last for me, as far as I was concerned. “No sacrifices. We can make it to the hatch if we move now. So go!”
With that, I shoved her, forcing her through the door instead of letting her take a breath for an argument. She stumbled for a second, clearly confused that I wasn’t letting her stay behind, but got her feet under her quickly and began moving down the aisle, heading toward where the hatch was hopefully located. I stepped in and looked up at the door even as Rose slid in next to me.
“Emergency: seal the door under the same authority!” I shouted, praying that it would work.
The door jerked to a halt, filling me with hope, and then began to close itself, the motors in the wall screeching angrily at the rapid movement. I took several steps away from the door, the clanging sound of the running sentinels drawing closer, and then stood my ground, sighting down the rifle.
I tried to keep my breathing even as my finger curled around the trigger, my heart thundering in my chest.
The gap in the door grew narrower as the door continued to roll forward, the opening dwindling from eight feet, to five, to three… My mouth was dry when it got to one, and my eye caught a glimpse of silver near the edge of the door seconds before it slammed shut. For several long moments, I remained stock still, convinced that the sentinels would tear the door open at any second, and attack.
Then something slammed against the door, rattling it in its tracks, and I realized they couldn’t. Using Lionel’s code must’ve done something to the door that made it ignore their orders.
Or at least, that was my best guess. And even if it wasn’t true, I wasn’t going to stand around waiting for them to break down the door. I had done what I set out to do and destroyed the Alice download pad, hopefully applying yet another set of brakes to Sage’
s plan.
But there was one more thing I needed to do to really obliterate it, and we were finally getting there. I did an about face away from the door, swinging the gun around to my back using the shoulder strap, and headed to where Dylan was on one knee on the floor halfway down the aisle, fiddling with what I assumed was a keypad.
“It’s not taking my code,” she said in a frustrated voice. “I’m putting Lionel’s in now.”
I nodded. I appreciated her taking the time to try to limit our use of Lionel’s code, but the cat was out of the bag at this point, and speed was of the essence. The banging against the door continued, the sounds both creepily rhythmic and terrifyingly loud, and I wanted to be halfway down the shaft before they even got in.
The door slid open as soon as Dylan hit the enter key, and I quickly motioned for her to go first, afraid she might try to volunteer for a suicide mission again. I was relieved when she didn’t argue, and quickly looked at Rose, gesturing for her to go next.
“I should stay,” she said hesitantly, looking back at the door. “Try to talk to my sister, and figure out what—”
“What did I just tell Dylan?” I demanded, my irritation at having to explain to them why self-sacrifice, and stupid ideas about reasoning with a psychotic AI, were both unacceptable. “I’m done arguing about this. Get in the hole, now.”
Her eyes “blinked” at me, and then she slowly nodded, but I could tell from her posture that she wasn’t pleased. Still, she climbed in after Dylan, and I let her, keeping my mouth clamped closed. Maybe I was being too harsh on them both. I was beyond tired, and everything since this morning had been nonstop, so it would make sense if my patience was getting short.
But at the same time, I was angry about how easy it was for them to volunteer to stay behind. I didn’t want people willing to sacrifice their lives for me; I wanted them beside me, making smart moves that kept us all alive.