The Second Rising

by Kevin Douglas

  He was confused by her rare happy demeanor. “What do you want now? I have a feeling something bad happened.”

  “Don’t be so negative, but, yes Mr. Naublock we have much to do. Come with me. It’s time to assemble my army.”

  Marty swallowed deeply and followed her. He didn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve to delay her production run. He would have to hope his deletion of the facial mapping database would be enough to slow her. Minutes ago, he had sent out a final distress call.

  Chimera, if your mission of rescuing Gretchen is attainable in the next hour, proceed. However, if your gut tells you that her rescue will take a second longer, leave alone immediately and expect the next data packet in one hour.

  Marty had a feeling the Butcher was back. If he was, Marty would receive the geo tagging coordinates from the device he had planted on the thug. If he was right, Ms. Likvold’s location would no longer be a mystery. He crossed his fingers and picked up his pace to keep up with Ms. Likvold’s excited gait.

  CHAPTER 32

  H aving a concept of time but it being of no consequence, the Butcher lay in wait to be reanimated. Time stood still for him like a deep sleep or coma. His time in limbo could last a few seconds, a few hours, or even centuries, and he would fire up just the same. The robot he was to be rolled from one station to the next. Being built a section at a time, lifeless, and undesignated, it awaited a personality from the data vault.

  Before his last memory board had been loaded, he had been just another hunk of beautiful metal, emulating humankind in a twisted, unnatural way. The Butcher’s upgrades, thanks to Leo, had been installed in the building process. All that was left now was his silicone façade.

  The hauntingly grotesque humanoid lay in a shallow bath of water, its robotic skeleton exposed and cold. In a matter of minutes, the last machine would turn the BOT into something conventional.

  It fired up and loaded the Butcher’s facial structure, as well as his muscle tone. With the silicone heated and ready, it began laying minute ultra-thin layers of silicon one after another, beginning with his feet and rotating him 360 degrees on a lathe-like apparatus.

  Multiple shades of tan, pink, and red were used to create flesh tone that was nearly indistinguishable from real flesh and the tissue-paper-thin materials gave it a soft spongy, yet taut elastic feel.

  It worked its way up to the head as Marty stood there staring at something he knew would certainly bring harm to humankind. He marveled at the technology they had stolen from Leo to make the BOTS stronger, but cringed as chills ran down his spine, realizing its destructive capabilities.

  Marty had run out of things to delay any further. It was out of his control now. The time would come to disclose what they had forced him to create, however, now wasn’t it.

  The fibers soon reached the BOT’s head. As the lathe still turned, webs began to run over his chin, cheeks, and nose, and then finally covered the openings around his eye sockets, the most distinctively robotic feature now hidden.

  The body ceased spinning. As water from the bed dripped off its body, it was lifted out of the lathe and stood vertically erect. Personality and programming were the last step, this was where the BOT would become The Butcher.

  Ms. Likvold had gone through and removed the blocks she had previously put in place. He would be a free destructive force for her now, but just to make sure he didn’t forget who was boss, she had left all previous memories intact; the last being their bitter argument, followed by her violently and definitively putting an end to his disagreement with a gun and a blade.

  These memories would rush in first; she wanted this to be the first thing he recalled. The Butcher’s memory was burned, and he slowly came to life, his mind flooding with a barrage of images starting with Ms. Likvold’s killing him and then in quick succession the last 24 hours before his demise.

  When those memories were taken in, his mind cleared, and he felt a rush of power, of unrestricted limitlessness capability. Marty had done well this time. He was whole. He checked his systems and detected a number of upgrades, delighted to have what he had demanded finally.

  Confronted with a familiar face, he spoke. “Well hello Evelyn. My you’ve been busy. Now it’s my turn. Who can I kill for you?”

  Ms. Likvold looked over at Marty standing to her right. “We’ll see. I have a long list.” She erupted in laughter, as the Butcher stepped down off the pedestal he was mounted on. He couldn’t wait to get started. Look out, world, here comes a freight train. First things first, let’s start things out with a bang right here in D.C.

  CHAPTER 33

  A fter receiving his latest transmission, Chimera knew things clearly weren’t going well for Marty either. He paced back and forth within the small crawl space, heavy with the decision he must make. He had been given the order to rescue Gretchen or flee. He had fully intended on obeying that order, but his feelings soon clouded the situation.

  He knew good and well that there wasn’t going to be an opportunity to extract Gretchen easily from Mr. Sullivan’s grasp. The very fact he hadn’t fled already was a testament to his hopefulness that a slipup would allow a window of opportunity for him. The alternative of leaving her was too much to bear.

  Chimera fled the safety of his hiding place and made his way to the vent in Gretchen’s room and sat, watching her sleep. Surveying the room, he made sure no one was lying in wait, he had no reason to suspect that Mr. Sullivan knew his intentions, but security was on high alert.

  A few minutes passed, and Chimera hadn’t detected anything moving within the room, with the exception of Gretchen’s chest rising and lowering in a rhythmic pattern as she slept. He quietly opened the vent, lowered himself by his tail, and slid down the wall into the room. He hopped the last few feet down to the carpet, then scampered around the bed to the side where Gretchen lay.

  She lay peacefully in the bed, despite her situation. Chimera decided to scan the grounds outside her window for rodents trying to surveil her room from the trees. He didn’t want to access the system to check for their proximity; instead, he shot out an infrared laser simultaneously with an electronic wave that could detect signatures at a short range.

  The infrared shot out into the night, reflecting some off the glass, causing the room to glow briefly a deep shade of red. Both scans came back with negative results, which put Chimera as ease for the moment, until he heard Gretchen’s movement in bed. The red light had roused her, making her toss and turn a bit. She still appeared asleep, and Chimera scurried across the floor and hopped into the bed to check on her.

  The covers had fallen off her upper body, and before Chimera pulled them up, he rubbed his cold robotic hands together to create some warmth, then pressed his palm against her upper arm. He checked her pulse, then pressed one against her head and detected brain waves similar to that of a sleeper.

  He let his paw run through her hair and let out a trill as he pulled up her covers, giving her some more warmth in the cold dark room. Chimera crouched into a tight monkey-like sitting position against Gretchen and continued to watch the room for anyone trying to harm her. Chimera’s head scanned back and forth slowly while he remained vigilant.

  Chimera had studied some of the patterns of coverage in the mansion. The guards’ rounds were random as instructed, but being human, they naturally gave way to predictability and habit.

  He knew that while Mr. Sullivan expressed need for a top level of alertness, the guards around Gretchen had remained less so with respect to her room. It was clear they perceived the threat exclusive to Halaby, not someone intent on saving the kidnapped daughter of a scientist.

  He knew the opportunity for escape was in approximately twenty- two point seven five minutes, with a window to act of two point three minutes. Not enough time to escape unnoticed but he was willing to take that risk for her. He lay there waiting for that moment. He would wake her minutes before and prepare her for the escape. All there was to do now was wait.

  Nestled among
st the covers, Gretchen sunk into a deep sleep, but Chimera couldn’t quite identify an uneasy feeling as it crept over him. It was something Mr. Sullivan had said. You have one hour to comply. Maybe it was just coincidence, but he thought it odd that it was the exact time frame Marty had given him for action.

  The messages were but a few minutes apart from each other. Was it possible Mr. Sullivan had intercepted his instructions as well? Chimera ran a quick diagnostic on the rodents’ patterns and realized they were out of the norm. Times prior when he had accessed the systems, he detected a tight grouping outside Gretchen’s room. He now knew it was a farce. The lack of coverage was to make Chimera feel at ease, giving him the illusion, he would have time to escape.

  He sat up and uncoiled his tail, arced it over his back, and with both eyes on the room, Chimera scanned the window with infrared a second time as he jostled Gretchen to wake her. His new scan came back with twenty rodents in close proximity. Dang it, I’ve been tricked. Father will be so disappointed in me.

  As Gretchen woke, he spoke with his light metallic voice. “Gretchen wake, now.”

  “What, huh? What is it Chimera?” As her eyes cleared, she noticed Chimera’s attention was drawn elsewhere, he was staring intently out the window to a hoard of little red lights in the trees. He looked different, his gaze appearing less human like, hyper focused, alert, impatient.

  “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

  “Not now Gretchen! Get your shoes on and prepare yourself to run. And if you have to, fight. He knows why I’m here.”

  Still foggy, she hadn’t realized Chimera had hopped off the bed. Gretchen’s confusion wore off quickly with adrenaline from the gravity of the situation. She followed suit getting ready and waited for further instructions.

  Chimera slowly walked to the door, cautious of others on the outside that wished him harm, finally putting an ear against the wood to listen for movement.

  As his ear rested on the door a voice boomed within himself on the mansion’s emergency frequency.

  “You didn’t think I wouldn’t find out why you’re here did you? I was wrong, though. You’re not hers. Your Mr. Naublock’s. That comes as quite a surprise. I always thought of him as an obedient metal working master, not a pilfering thief. I knew he was the curious sort. I should have paid more attention to his requests and our inventory. Enough of that, let’s get to why you’re here. Gretchen.”

  Chimera tried to ignore the frequency as his mind raced to figure out a plan of escape. He didn’t panic, but his movements had a sense of urgency that Gretchen was unfamiliar with. His eyes flexed wide open, his mind seemingly disconnected from her presence in the room. Chimera quickly devised a plan; his features relaxed a bit and he immediately focused on Gretchen as he spoke to her.

  “He knows everything, about Marty creating me. He’ll do everything to stop us, he doesn’t like to lose. Stay down behind the bathroom wall. I’m not going to sit back and let him capture me. If we separate, you should know we are going to sneak right out the front gate. Meet me there. I won’t leave your side, but I can’t say what will happen to me. Take this in case I perish.” Chimera pressed a thin strip on his chest with his right paw and out slid a thin blue disk. “This is my distress beacon. Your father will be able to find you if you possess it.”

  “What if you’re captured? He’ll know where to find my father, to find me.”

  “I’d never give up either of your whereabouts. He will never take me alive. I will die fighting before I allow that to happen.”

  As she took the disk, Chimera’s tail reached around her and pulled her closer. He nuzzled her cheek with his as she bent down, the cold steel a reminder that he wasn’t alive. Her life was in the hands of a robot.

  His eyes dimmed, and he stood motionless for a second; finally, his eyes sunk further into his skull and his limbs began to fold inward. Confused, she stepped back. Marty’s drawings for Chimera never documented the additions to the monkey that gave him the ability to change into a magnetic gyroscope. Chimera intended to use that against Mr. Sullivan.

  Before she knew what was happening, the robotic monkey had morphed into an orb and had set off at a high velocity, crashing through the door. The guards posted on either side in the hallway were prepared but were caught off guard by the sudden explosive exit.

  Despite being unsure what had come through the door, they opened fire anyway. Chimera had exited with such velocity that he was now embedded in the wall; his clawed hands unfurled for a moment to pop himself out of the stucco and onto the floor with a loud bang.

  Bullets ricocheted off his round surface, changing his course slightly with each hit. He zigged and zagged to avoid the slew of bullets and knew it was only a matter of time before the man he was headed towards ran out of bullets.

  Chimera knew the man had expended his last few bullets and accelerated rapidly, uncoiling midair. The man’s weapon gave a click click, the sound of steel on steel. His clip was empty, and whatever had broken through the door had launched itself at him. Wide-eyed in anticipation and fearful of the impact, he braced himself. Chimera now fully uncoiled, hit the man’s face with a scraping smack.

  All four paws contacted at the same time and tore into his flesh, his tail wrapped around the man’s neck and tightened. The monkey turned and faced away from the man and looked down the hall to the other guard staring back at him, the other guard unable to take a shot at Chimera, in fear of killing his own man.

  The monkey quickly contorted his neck backward coiling it, then opened his mouth and rapidly fired several barbed rounds that shredded the stationary guard’s neck, sending him to the ground, grabbing his neck, choking. Chimera’s tail tightened on the guard’s neck as he gasped and attempted to smash the BOT against the wall to remove him, only making things worse.

  Chimera didn’t have time to wait for the guard to asphyxiate. He loosened the tip of his tail and drove it into the base of the guard’s neck firing one barb deep inside, the man immediately collapsed onto the floor folding like an accordion. Before the man’s head had hit the floor, Chimera had leapt down to the hardwood floor, landed on his hind legs and stood in the hallway waiting for Gretchen.

  Becoming inpatient he called to her. “Gretchen, come, now!” His voice raised an octave conveying urgency.

  Gretchen’s head poked out of the doorway, still unsure if things were safe.

  “Come, let’s go. You must keep up!” Chimera knew that Mr. Sullivan was sending his army now, so they needed to get away fast. If they could lose his BOTS, they may escape before he issued a terminate all order. Back in sphere form, Chimera accelerated to the end of the hall, waiting at the corner for Gretchen to catch up, her feet pounding against the hardwood floors.

  He had hoped for a stealthier escape, but that was gone with the guard’s gunfire. Chimera’s head darted back and forth to the open hallway then back at her when a loud crack of shattering glass was heard within Gretchen’s room; as shards spewed into the hallway, tapping feet echoed from the open doorway.

  Mr. Sullivan’s BOTS were now sent to attack, not contain. Chimera’s plan was to run the maze of hallways that he had spent the last few nights memorizing. He knew all their weak points and areas for attack. If they could get down a few more corridors, they would be away from the normally searched passageways. Gretchen reached the corner and looked around to see Chimera already speeding down the next section when the hallway plunged into total darkness. The pitch-black hallway made it nearly impossible for her to see or move.

  “Chimera, wait I can’t see! Wait!”

  Chimera’s eyesight automatically switched over to infrared, and he morphed back into monkey form. He paused to see Gretchen struggling blindly to make her way. Chimera lit up some of his external systems that illuminated for diagnostic purposes, giving him an unearthly glow. Something for Gretchen to follow.

  “Follow me. Can you see me now?”

  As Gretchen’s eyes adjusted she responded, “Umm… yes, y
es I can. Keep going I’m right behind you.”

  They both made their way down the hallway, but it wasn’t long before walls began appearing in front of them, filling in the hallway, moving toward them. Chimera knew they were only holographic, but he also knew the red wall that lay ahead was deadly. They were being cornered.

  Several BOTS he had yet to encounter appeared through the semitransparent red wall, peering at them intently. They were feline-like but much deadlier. These wouldn’t be so easy to kill. They were there to wait for the squirrel BOT’s that were at the prisoner’s heels.

  Gretchen looked ahead in panic at the dead end and the BOTS ahead of them.

  “We’re trapped! Where to now?”

  “Don’t worry. They can’t breach that barrier. Stay away from it. It will cut you to pieces.”

  Chimera looked at the ceiling and up and down the walls on either side, recalling the spaces that lay behind them. Just when she didn’t think he was going to move, Chimera balled up again. He took off at the wall to their right and launched himself at it. It partially gave way, and he backed up and hit it again, this time breaking through, sending a dust cloud into the hallway from the old unused space.

  Worried of their escape, the cats now paced back and forth, never taking their eyes off their prisoners, eager to attack. Gretchen, nervous of the evil cats in front of her, peered into the broken wall as Chimera smashed it again, revealing a thick metal door in a hallway adjacent to one where they were. This section didn’t have any holographic walls popped up as it wasn’t a heavily guarded route.

  This was the door by which he planned to escape, but he never thought he’d have to demolish two walls to get to it. Gretchen bent down and crawled through the small opening he left and into the new open hallway. Chimera had jumped up to the locking mechanism on the metal door and hung there fishing his claws at the lock, attempting to pick it quickly.