Devil in the Device

by Lora Beth Johnson

  Dzeni stood in the room, illuminated by the light of the magic field.

  She looked far healthier than Zhade had seen her since Wead’s death, though to be fair, he hadn’t seen her oft. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face. Her expression was relaxed, though her body was tense, as though she was prepped for a fight.

  “Dzeni.” Zhade stood. The thing in his head told him he didn’t care bout her, and he promptish told it to shut it. He did care. This was his friend. “Dzeni, are you evens?”

  She gave him a small smile. “More evens than you, I spoze.”

  “Is Andra evens?”

  Dzeni’s smile vanished. “That’s what I came to convo.”

  Zhade’s stomach plummeted, and at firstish he was filled with hate and vengeance for whoever would hurt her, before giving himself memory that wasn’t him. Zhade—the real Zhade—would want to help her, not hurt others.

  A small voice inside him told him that wasn’t true. After all, hadn’t he tried to kill his own brother out of revenge? Maybe the Crown’s magic hadn’t changed him completeish. Maybe it was sole amplifying what was already there. Maybe it wouldn’t be easy to become the person he wanted to be.

  “The gods Andra woke turned evil,” Dzeni said. “She has a plan to stop them, but it requires getting into the palace.”

  “So what do you want from us?” Maret asked. He’d stopped his pacing and now sat with his back against the wall, long hair hanging in his face.

  “She wasn’t convoing you,” Zhade snapped.

  “Actualish,” Dzeni said, “I was convoing both of you.” She turned to his brother. “I hate you, Maret. I will never, ever forgive you for what you did to Wead. I reck you are full bars unredeemable, and I hope one day you are full punished for everything you’ve ever done.” She turned to Zhade. “I love you, Zhade. Wead loved you. And maybe one day, my son will love you too. I hope there’s a future where we can all be happy again. But I don’t trust you anymore. You have a long march forward to earn back that trust. From all of us.”

  She hit the controls that opened the cell. The magic shield stuttered a few times, then vanished.

  She turned to go but paused at the door. “Decide your fates.”

  FORTY-TWO

  00110100 00110010

  Andra had a single bell before the Schism created the diversion that would let her, Rashmi, and Lilibet escape the Vaults and enter the palace. Her mind was frantically sorting through worst-case scenarios and possible solutions. But Andra had been in enough of these situations that she knew she couldn’t be prepared for everything.

  To be fair, she’d never been in a situation quite like this:

  First, using a militia to distract an army of AI body-snatchers who were trying to kidnap a bunch of children. Then, infiltrating a postapocalyptic palace and sneaking past a girl in her mother’s body who controlled an army of murder’bots. Finally, siphoning energy from a bio’dome so she could amplify her tech signature and override a ’swarm of corrupted tech bent on destroying humanity and bending them to her will to help fight against the AI.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  Andra sighed. So many things.

  She sat with her feet up on the lobby guest services table, snacking on syntheal and watching the security holo displaying the other side of the air’lock. For hours, at least one of the AI had been stationed just outside the Vaults, testing the security for weaknesses. Mostly engineering and coding specialists, like Daphle Hanson and Luke Walker. Or at least the AI who inhabited their bodies. Andra had just met Luke, but she’d known Daphle since before going into stasis. She used to give Isla’s children fudge for Christmas, and Andra always got the smallest piece.

  She lowered her syntheal and sat up straight, realizing Daphle was now out of sight of the holo’cam.

  “Where are you going?” she mumbled to herself, scanning the feed.

  Something on the outside of the air’lock started flashing.

  “What the—”

  An explosion rattled the Vaults, and the air’lock blew inward. Andra flinched as she was showered in wood and broken glass. Smoke started filling the lobby.

  She pushed out of her chair, awkwardly rolling herself over the circular welcome desk, and started running, her feet slapping against the eco’tiled floor as she darted toward the nearest exit. Through her nanos, she felt the first of the AI enter through the air’lock just as she ducked into a nearby hallway, shutting the double doors behind her.

  The kinetic orbs had gone into emergency mode, flashing red in the dim corridor. Lilibet and Rashmi were running toward her, but Andra waved them back.

  “Go, go,” she hissed, pushing them back and into a custodial closet.

  “What was that?” Lilibet cried as the door shut behind them. “It’s not time yet!”

  Andra shushed her. “They figured out how to blow through the air’lock.”

  “What do we do? What do we do?” Lilibet started pacing the small space. “The Schism isn’t here yet.”

  Andra put a hand on her arm, stopping her from pulling out a chunk of her long, dark hair. “I don’t know. But we can’t keep hiding. We’ve got to protect the children.”

  Lilibet pulled a tablet from her wide sleeves. “What bout the EMP? I’ve been studying my magic, and I spoze I could figure how to use it.”

  “Neg,” Andra said. “Too dangerous. It’ll collapse the palace on top of us. We’d be trapped in here with the AI. And so would the kids.”

  “Time runs,” Rashmi muttered. “It runs and runs and runs.”

  Andra nodded. “Okay. Evens. Okay. Here’s what we do. Okay. Rashmi, get the kids to the Faraday cages, fourth floor. Lilibet, see if you can figure out a way to send a distress signal to the Schism. I’m going to distract them.”

  “Certz,” Lilibet whispered. “How?”

  Andra swallowed. “By giving myself up.”

  * * *

  Rashmi and Lilibet argued, but in the end, Andra won, because they were running out of time, and they didn’t have a better plan.

  When they exited the closet, Rashmi and Lilibet ran deeper into the Vaults and Andra headed to the lobby, where she could sense the AI congregating. Their angered voices grew louder as she got closer. This was a terrible idea. She couldn’t reason with them, couldn’t fight them. All she could do was distract them long enough for the Schism to get here.

  She saw the AI before they saw her. The smoke from the explosion had cleared, and hundreds of them had filled the lobby, all carrying weapons and wearing armor. They had once been scientists, and now they were dressed for war. Raj was standing on the welcome desk, a large gun pointed at the ceiling as he addressed the crowd.

  “Split up. We’ve got them trapped, so take your time and check everywhere. Whatever you do, Griffin wants Andromeda alive, so bring her to me once you’ve found her.”

  “Got me,” Andra said, walking into the lobby with her hands up. Hundreds of people turned in her direction, drawing their weapons. The guns were huge and nothing like Andra had ever seen before. Veins of green circuitry ran along the barrel from the muzzle to an encasing of some sort of gaseous green cloud in the magazine.

  “Andromeda Watts,” Raj said, turning to her. “Traitor to your kind. Where are the children?”

  “They’re not here,” she lied. “They never were. You can search the full place if you’d like. It’ll just waste your time, and that’s fine by me.”

  “Where are they?” Raj growled.

  He narrowed his eyes, and Andra narrowed hers right back, trying to give him a mocking smile.

  Raj nodded to a group of AI, the ones who had once been cryo’techs. Each was strapped with a green-circuited weapon.

  “Go find them,” Raj ordered. His eyes glazed over as though he were searching his memory—or the memory of his host. “There’s a Faraday cage
on the fourth floor. Try there first.”

  The AI nodded and took off through the lobby, marching up the stairs to the second-floor landing. The Vaults were a maze, but if they all had their hosts’ memories, they would eventually find the Faraday cage.

  Andra swallowed. Hopefully, Rashmi had gotten to them quickly. The cage could be locked from the inside, like a panic room.

  She willed herself not to shake as she stepped farther into the crowd. The AI parted for her as she approached Raj. She recognized so many of them. Remembered some of them from before stasis. Remembered even more from the upgrade procedures that had converted them. But even though she recognized their faces, she didn’t truly know any of them.

  “So what’s your plan? Change all the humans on Earth to AI? Save the world by destroying it? How cliché.”

  “Not all the humans.” Raj tilted his head, eyes unblinking. “Some will die.”

  “It’s not our plan,” someone said, and she would know that voice anywhere.

  Her father stepped out of the crowd, wearing the same professor jacket he’d worn yesterday. The AI quieted until Andra could hear the ticking of the astronomical clock. Auric reached a hand toward Andra, and she flinched.

  “It’s our creator’s plan,” he said.

  Andra bit back tears. “You mean Griffin.”

  He nodded. “Don’t you see? Humanity had their chance and they blew it. They destroyed the planet, fought endless wars, bent on self-destruction. This planet deserves something better. Humanity deserves to be better. We’re that something. We can re-create humanity into something that creates, not destroys.”

  Destroy, a voice said in her head.

  Andra shook. “That’s funny. You talk about creation, but you’re destroying something to do it.”

  Her father took a step toward her. “Not destroying. Repurposing. We’re retaining their memories and their bodies and their imagination and inventiveness. And we’re creating something new with it. Something better.”

  Andra’s lower lip wobbled. “You killed my father. And you replaced him. You’re not something better. He was better, and you killed him.”

  “No, Andra,” he said, taking a step toward her. “You killed him.”

  Her hands trembled. “I didn’t know!”

  “It’s okay.” He took another step, hand still outstretched. “It’s okay. You did the right thing. Now, his memories and knowledge can live on, free of war and pain. He would be so proud of you, of how strong you are. I’m proud of you. You think he’s gone, but he’s not. I remember how he used to put you on his knee and read history books to you as a child. I remember how he would try to make you Hokkien mee and burn the pork lard. I remember that he gave you your first pre-book dictionary for your seventh birthday and that you kept it even though the digital ones were more accurate. I remember his love for you. So now I love you, because those memories are mine. In every way that matters, I am your father.”

  Andra shook. She hadn’t realized her father remembered those things. Had even thought about her that much. And if consciousness really was just a collection of memories, what made the AI who lived inside her father’s body any less her father? How was he any different?

  “I—”

  The sound of a gunshot ricocheted around the massive lobby, and a burst of red blossomed on her father’s chest.

  “No!” Andra shouted, as he fell to his knees. “Daddy!”

  Raj drew his weapon and fired in the direction of the shot. A green bolt flew past Andra and hit the person behind her. The person who had shot her father.

  Thin, pale, blonde hair.

  Cristin.

  She fell, dead before she hit the ground.

  “No!” Andra screamed again, one arm stretched toward Cristin and the other toward her father.

  The lobby was silent except for Andra’s sobs. She’d failed. Her father was dead, killed by her hands, and she’d let the illusion of his return distract her. The AI were going to find the children. Were going to convert them. And now, Cristin was dead. Cristin, who had only avoided being upgraded because she hated Andra. Her body lay stretched out on the floor. Andra had done this. It was all her fault.

  But then Cristin stood up.

  It was an awkward attempt. Not clumsy, but as though she didn’t remember how to use her body. Her long limbs straightened, and she ran a finger through her short blonde hair. Raj hopped off the welcome desk, and the AI parted as he headed straight for her. Andra wanted to scream at her to duck, run, anything, but her voice was stuck in her throat as her brain caught up with what she was seeing.

  Raj handed Cristin a gun. The same gun that had just been used on her, had just killed her. She nodded, and a crooked smile spread across their face.

  “Oh my god,” Andra whispered.

  The realization washed over her. She stumbled back, hand to her mouth.

  Cruz had figured out a way to do it. How to do the upgrade without Andra. And they’d weaponized it. Put the code into their green-circuited guns, so that anyone they shot would be upgraded.

  They could convert everyone to AI on sight.

  FORTY-THREE

  00110100 00110011

  Andra darted toward the nearest lobby exit, but someone grabbed her, pulling her arms behind her back and holding her captive.

  Cristin stood before her, now AI. Her father lay dead behind her. Somewhere in the Vaults, her friends were scattered, vulnerable to the weapons that would kill them and reanimate their bodies with AI.

  She had to get out of here. She had to do something.

  “ ’Cuff her,” Raj ordered.

  “NO!” Andra screamed, kicking at the AI holding her captive.

  As soon as they released her, she fell forward, hitting the ground hard. She didn’t stop, using her momentum to scramble away, but she was surrounded and it was futile, and this time, when she was caught, it was by Raj.

  He was tall and thin with delicate features, but his grip on her wrist was anything but gentle.

  “Griffin wants you alive,” he growled. “And that’s the only reason I’m not killing you now. You’re a traitor.”

  The AI in Luke Walker’s body handed Raj the ’cuffs. He sneered down at Andra as he opened them with a flick of his wrist.

  “Sir,” a voice said.

  Andra looked over his shoulder. The cryo’techs had returned.

  “What?” Raj snapped.

  “The children,” one of the ’techs said, and Andra’s heart stopped. “They’re not here.”

  “What?” Raj turned, releasing Andra.

  She should run, but she was frozen in place.

  “We checked the Faraday cage,” the ’tech said. “It’s empty.”

  Andra held her breath. Maybe Rashmi hadn’t had time to get the children there yet.

  “We found several rooms with lines of unmade cots and discarded trash, but no one was there.”

  Andra let out a hysterical laugh. “Told you. I told you they aren’t here.”

  She just didn’t know where they were.

  Raj whipped back around, snarling. He grabbed her wrist. She felt the first cool press of metal.

  Then a shot rang out, hitting Raj in the shoulder. He stumbled back, pressing his hand to the wound, blood dribbling between his fingers, his shock turning into a sneer.

  Andra turned toward the air’lock. Skilla stood on top of a mound of rubble, laser’gun trained on Raj. Kiv stood next to her. The Schism militia stood behind them.

  “What is this?” Raj sneered.

  Skilla lowered her ’gun and pulled a battle-ax from her back holster. She swung it around, screamed bloody murder, and charged.

  In less than a second, the lobby was chaos. Screams, gunshots, the clash of steel. Andra watched in horror as the two sides crashed into one another like waves. A laser’bulle
t flew past her, knocking her out of her reverie, and she ducked behind a pillar. She waited only a moment before making a run for it.

  Screams echoed behind her as she dove into the nearest hallway. Rashmi and Lilibet were waiting for her and pulled her into a dark exhibit room. The door slammed shut, muffling the sounds of battle.

  “Where are the children?” Andra asked.

  Rashmi shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Andra filled with panic. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “They went with Doon,” a voice said, and a light flickered on.

  Ophele stood next to Xana and Dzeni, all three strapped with weapons. Behind them, there was a metal cylinder the size of an oil drum.

  The EMP that knocked out AI.

  They must have dragged it from the Faraday cage.

  “Doon got the kids out yesterday,” Ophele continued. “All of them, including your siblings.”

  “What?” Andra snapped. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “You’ll have to ask her next time you see her,” Xana said, grabbing her arm. “Now, let’s get you out of here.”

  “We can’t!” Andra cried. “Not now! They have anomalizer guns that can convert everyone they shoot into AI.”

  “Doesn’t meteor. We stick to the plan. You have to hurry. Now go!” Xana pushed her toward the exit.

  Andra hesitated, looking to Rashmi and Lilibet.

  “Go without me,” Lilibet said. “I imagine I have a spell to get the EMP to work. It’ll knock out the AI full long for us to escape.”

  Andra shook her head. “You can’t. That EMP will knock Rashmi and me out too and bring the palace down on top of us.”

  Lilibet gave her a grim smile. “We might not get to decide our fates today. If things march toward badness, it may be the sole march to defeating them.”

  “But—”

  “Stop talking and go!” Xana shoved Andra out the door.

  She gave Lilibet one last look. “Wait as long as you can. We need all the time you can give us.”