Absolute Knowledge Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Drew Cordell

  “We are once again starting session this day to discuss and conclude the matter of Justicar Ashton’s robot. Also, we will address the issue of Justicar Ashton’s situation and legal standing on the surface with the Government. If there are no objections to the agenda, we will begin session and proceed to opening comments. It is to be noted that Justicar Price will have no say in this meeting due to inappropriate actions,” she recited.

  I looked around the room, and everyone remained silent. After a few moments, Chloe continued. “With no objections, I pass priority to Justicar Escobar.”

  Tomas Escobar continued where Chloe left off. “We have the issue of Mindshift to cover first. The technology, according to the robot, allows the transference of one being to another or to a specialized robot. We have no way to verify this without first obtaining the technology, but we do know the robot in question is more advanced than any we have ever seen and is made of a metal that has yet to be damaged by any means attempted by us, including a direct blast from an energy weapon discharged by Justicar Price.”

  Alex sulked at the mention of his actions and sunk back into his chair. Despite the circumstances, I saw Justicar Clark Mohr suppress a smile—he was apparently amused watching Alex not get his way.

  “We must now consider the potential risk and reward of trying to acquire Mindshift. Or, we could simply attempt to acquire the robot as an asset for our Guild and disregard Mindshift, allowing it to be destroyed remotely by the robot. The issue, however, with allowing the technology to be remotely detonated would be the unjamming of communications from the robot and the potential for revealing our location through a digital transmission.” Tomas took a brief pause. “The robot identifying itself as the late Wesley Ashton, father of Justicar Jacob Ashton, initially told us it was his son’s decision to make, but agreed it could become a Guild decision should Jacob Ashton become a Justicar on this Council. With the weight of this ruling being what it is, the Council agreed that Jacob Ashton should indeed be appointed as Justicar for one term pending renewal at that time. Now, I move to have Justicar Ashton explain what he knows about the technology to the rest of the Council to provide more information in order for us to make a decision.”

  Chloe called for a vote, and it passed. I was urged to speak, so I explained everything my father told me, as well as his strange behavior since I had met him and the apparent flaws in the technology as it existed. I explained my fears of the technology creating something like the Prolific for the Guild and corrupting the core beliefs of the organization.

  Alex scoffed at this. “Justicar Ashton, do you really believe you would know what’s best for the Champions as a mere Initiate?”

  “I don’t pretend to know everything, but if the technology was something the Government wanted, then I don’t believe it’s a line we need to cross,” I responded.

  “You wouldn’t even consider the application of preserving lives in our archive to better our own assets and secure the truth of humanity’s history?” Alex asked.

  “That is something we could consider, but I don’t believe in using the technology to transfer minds to other humans. Based on my experience, my father was fine the last two weeks of his life, but the code of the robot appears to be deteriorating at a rapid rate. The scariest thing about the deterioration or bad code is the fact my father thinks he is still human and attempts to do human things. For instance, he believes he is sick right now and has a bad cough.”

  “Justicars Ashton and Price, your comments have been noted,” Justicar Schaff said.

  “What about the potential to get both the technology and secure the robot as an asset for the Guild?” Justicar Rachel Hensley asked.

  “That’s something we will consider when we bring the robot in for questioning later in the session,” Justicar Schaff said.

  The council meeting proceeded to last for another hour or so until my father was brought in. Before he arrived, more questions were asked and debated, and a consensus of the eligible Council members was hard to infer from the questions and answers given. Alex Price was obviously in a foul mood, but he kept quiet for most of the session.

  Two men wearing Guild camouflage escorted my father into the Hall and ushered him to a seat. They stood by him holding high-caliber HexTox rifles as protocol demanded, despite the fact that firing the weapons at the robot would likely result in more harm to them than anyone else. The restraining cables around my father seemed like a makeshift attempt at keeping up with precedence, that those being detained for questioning should be restrained. I doubted there had been few, if any, robots ever questioned in a Council session.

  My robotic father was sitting in the same chair I had sat in the first time I visited the Council hall. It seemed strange that I was a mere candidate for Guild recruitment a short while ago and now I was a Justicar. Not only that, but I was also the youngest ever and the first Initiate to ever become such a high-ranking Guild official in such a short amount of time.

  “Mr. Ashton, we would like to know what purposes you believe the Mindshift technology could serve the Guild if we choose not to use it to transfer minds to other living hosts,” Justicar Schaff said.

  “Unfortunately, Ms. Schaff, the only application of such tech is violating the laws of nature. I do believe the Champion’s Code of Justice would be breached should you acquire it, but again, it is now your decision to make,” my father responded.

  “Mr. Ashton, would you be willing to aid us in the development of our own Hephaestus Alloy and technology based on that of your computer components?”

  “If my son wants it, yes, but it could spell my second death. I’m not sure my code or life force would survive deactivation for any amount of time. Being offline would likely cause a detrimental breakdown of nuclear decay.”

  The other council members murmured amongst themselves.

  “Even now, I am only here because I care about my son. He is the only reason I put up with the presence of you, Mr. Price. You refused to help me during my time of need and because of you, my wife and I lost our lives. I persist through this skeleton, nothing more than a robotic husk of what my life once was,” the robot said, his voice taking on a dark, crazed edge. Something shifted in his demeanor, and I felt my stomach lurch.

  “In fact, Mr. Price, it takes a great deal of will even now not to kill you on the spot, to allow myself to be restrained by this petty metal wiring and your false sense of security and self-righteousness,” my father growled, his voice rising. My heart started to race faster as I noticed the other Justicars growing tense.

  The robot stood up suddenly, and the two armed guards shifted their weapons and moved their fingers to the trigger.

  “Mr. Ashton, please be seated!” Justicar Schaff yelled.

  There was a low metallic groan as I saw the cables wrapped around my father’s chest start to stretch. The bolts at the end began to bend at unnatural angles, then they suddenly snapped as if they were no more than rubber cords.

  “Mr. Ashton! Be seated at once or we will be forced to destroy you!” Justicar Schaff yelled, her voice wavering.

  The guards tried to fire, but it was too late.

  Something was very wrong. In an instant, the robot whirled around and snatched one of the rifles, breaking the sling around the guard’s shoulder in a single swift motion. Effortlessly, he fired two deadly rounds at the heads of the guards and they dropped to the ground. A horrible smell of smoldering flesh and sweet ozone filled the air. There was a moment of silence in which everything seemed to freeze in place followed by absolute chaos. The robot turned toward the Council and began firing into the massive desk. All the Justicars including myself dropped to the floor as the HexTox energy blasts blew deadly slivers of wood through the air above us.

  “How the tables have turned,” the robot yelled over the crackle of rifle fire.

  I was aware of screaming as I looked over at Alex holding his hand to his side. Dark blood welled between his fingers as he gritted his teeth and drew his s
idearm with his other hand. Sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead in thick droplets. The noise in the room was deafening as the robot mercilessly blasted away at the desk. Thankfully, the front of the desk was covered in the same thick wood as the top, and it had so far stopped the force of the blasts from the heavy rifle. The crisp and unfamiliar smell of burning wood began to fill the room as the robot continued to shoot. I was aware, as the others must have been, that there was no logical reason why the robot didn’t walk around and kill us. It wasn’t in any apparent danger from our weapons, and none of the other Justicars other than Alex and Edgar were armed. Coming directly from detention myself, I was also unarmed—other than my knife which had a blunted edge, not that it would be of any use against the armoring of the robot.

  I peered around the corner of the desk and saw the other guard’s rifle was still attached to the body. It was a few feet away from the robot. I didn’t have long before a blast came much too close to my face and splintered wood shards into my cheek. I felt a few warm trickles of blood and whipped my head back behind cover as the bright purple blast seared my vision, temporarily blinding me.

  Sometime between when the robot had taken the rifle and when it started firing, it had taken the excess ammo from the dead guard and effortlessly reloaded the gas magazine. Dark billows of smoke began to rise from the scorched wood desk frame, filling the room with a thick haze. Light from the room danced through the shifting smoke clouds that were accumulating at the ceiling. I turned toward the others and was terrified to see Alex pointing his gun right at me. My heart seemed to freeze, but a surge of relief flowed through my body as he turned the weapon and tossed it to me with a painful wince. I caught the gun and checked to make sure the safety was off. I no longer considered this robot my father, and if it was, then it needed to be destroyed. This wasn’t the man that had cared so deeply for me; it was a broken mirror of the great man I once knew.

  Edgar signaled for me to fire at the robot, so I peered around the corner and fired a violet burst of energy which caused bright green sparks to spew from the robot’s chest. Unfortunately, it looked unscathed. The robot turned toward me and began to fire again, blowing away chunks of wood from the large desk. While it was distracted, Edgar stood from cover and fired a single well-aimed shot directly at the grip of the energy rifle the robot was holding. There was a small hiss, a sharp crack, then a blinding explosion of purple vapor as the gas cartridge exploded. The force of the blast sent the robot flying into the wall, which crumbled under the force of the impact. The robot was lodged in the wall at a strange angle and was struggling to free itself. Edgar and I raised our weapons and began to fire with sustained shots. Sparks continued to fly, and thick arcs of green electricity began to surge across the exterior of the robot’s alloy armor. Suddenly, the alloy started to char in places and the sparks stopped. The metal began to tear in small layers from the surface, and the robot struggled to raise its broken weapon at us. Edgar aimed his shots at the shooting arm, and the robot’s rifle dropped to the ground from the force. Edgar stopped firing and raised a hand to signal for me to stop. Rachel and Chloe were attempting to help Alex stop his bleeding while Edgar and I approached the disabled robot. Anger surged through my veins as I approached the robot that claimed to be my father.

  It laughed as I approached. “Your father is dead,” it spat at me.

  Just as we closed in, guards swarmed the room from outside the Council Hall and began to circle around the damaged robot. Medical personnel entered minutes later and began to tend to Alex after confirming the deaths of the two guards who had been with us.

  Though it seemed no one wanted to discuss the idea, it appeared the robot wanted to keep the Justicars alive. Even the shot to Alex appeared to have only been a maiming shot rather than a shot meant to kill. The brutal headshots of the two guards were a testament to the lethality and accuracy of this robot. Yet, why did he bother saving me in the first place if it was a pawn of the Government?

  Questions flooded my mind as a medic began to examine me and bandage the cuts on my face that were much deeper than I had realized. The robot was carried to a holding cell where Martinez was able to analyze it through the safety of steel walls. Edgar and I had managed to destroy whatever shielding protected it from our sustained HexTox fire—something no ordinary robot could withstand.

  An hour or so later after answering hundreds of questions, I was sitting at a table at the pub drinking beer and trying to think about how I had fallen for everything the robot had said; how it had managed to trick me into thinking it was my father. I still hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to Edgar about why he had thought the same thing, or about why the Government was after me. The entire Guild was in a frenzy trying to sort out the events of the day.

  The technology of the robot far exceeded that of anything anyone in the Guild had ever seen, and it seemed impossible to think the robot was anything other than my father. It had known about the Guild. If it was the Government’s robot, then that would mean they knew the Guild’s location and the identity of many of the Guild members. It was much more comforting to think the robot was what was left of my father and it had merely lost its mind and gone crazy. Its attack, other than the killing of the guards, seemed wild and uncoordinated—as if it were simply going berserk. If the Government did control the robot, that would mean they knew I was in the Guild, that they had orchestrated the Enforcers on the streets of the Slums to chase me to my father intentionally.

  Caeldra sat down at the table across from me, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Hey, Jake,” she said softly.

  “Hi.”

  “I know you’re not all right, so I’m not going to ask. This isn’t your fault. You need to know that,” Caeldra said as she placed her hand on my arm.

  I took a big sip of the beer and placed the mug down with a dull clunk against the laminated table. “I’m still not entirely sure what happened. I need to talk with Edgar, but the Council is meeting. I’m on temporary suspension pending investigation,” I said with a flat, emotionless tone. “Imagine that. The youngest Justicar ever is suspended on his first day of the job due to the deaths of two Guild members and the severe injury of another Justicar from either a deranged remnant of his father or a Government infiltrator.”

  “It’s not your fault,” she repeated. “You had no way of knowing this would happen, nor did anyone else. Look, they’re sending out other Runners to retrieve Mindshift and whatever else they can find in the dwelling. Martinez managed to crack the encryption on the bot’s memories, but the core code is locked with something more secure.”

  “Did they ever consider it wanted us to know the location? It seems to have been playing us this whole time.”

  She frowned. “You have a good point.”

  “If I could have remembered the exact location and how to get there, I would have volunteered the information. It took about an hour to get here from that bunker, and we took so many turns.”

  “There’s no way anyone could be expected to remember such a long unmapped route,” Caeldra replied as she waved to Jeff to ask for water.

  A few seconds later Jeff brought over a large glass of ice water with a large wedge of lemon floating between the cubes. Jeff looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated after looking at me for a moment. He gave us both a faint nod before turning away and returning behind the counter of the bar.

  “I’m just surprised I’m not being detained. This can’t look good for me.”

  “I think everyone is a bit shocked. They’ve got bigger things to worry about than an unarmed Guild member. Besides, you’re on house arrest right now,” she said.

  “House arrest?” I asked.

  “Well, technically we all are. No one is allowed to leave the Guild Hall except the Runner crew tasked with getting to the robot’s bunker until all of this is sorted out. Security is on high alert.”

  We turned to see Edgar approaching the table with a grim look on his face.

  “
Jake, Caeldra, come with me.”

  23 TRUTH

  ∆∆∆

  We left our unfinished drinks and rushed to keep up with Edgar’s brisk pace as he led us away from the pub and toward the library. He ushered us into one of the private study rooms and closed the door behind him.

  “Things aren’t looking good. We don’t know anything else about the robot yet, or anything about why the Government is after you. Also … we lost contact with the Runner team that was heading toward the robot’s bunker. With the lockdown and security review, it will be awhile until more Runners are authorized to go after the missing team. Unfortunately, if we want any chance of finding them alive, we need to move now. You two are the only ones I know who I can trust to do this off-the-books. If we caught, I will take the fall. Until then, I want you both to do your best to find the missing team, but don’t risk your lives doing so.”

  Caeldra nodded grimly. “I assume we leave now?”

  “Yes, I’ve already grabbed your gear,” he said as he pointed to our packs in the corner of the room. “It would have looked suspicious if you geared up in the locker room. A Justicar grabbing some equipment, well, that doesn’t cause anyone to raise an eyebrow, especially with the current situation.” He paused, considering his next words. “You won’t have communications or Artemis to guide you, I’m afraid. Utilizing the system would reveal your position and you’d be busted. Actually, if you do manage to rescue the other Runners, you’ll have to sneak back in. They will have to promise not to tell that you saved them,” he said with a frown.

  “Simple enough, but how are we supposed to find the bunker?” Caeldra asked.

  “I’ve got an old positioning system you can use. It operates offline, and I marked the position of the bunker. It won’t give you a direct route, but it will tell you which way to go and the difference in altitude from your current location. I’m afraid you’ll have to get creative with your actual route.”