by Jay Kristoff
“Will! You! Calm! Down!”
Cricket bellowed with rage, finally managing to land a lucky blow against the lifelike and send him flying once more. Ezekiel tumbled as he hit the ground, Cricket raising his chaingun and leveling it at the lifelike’s—
The explosion hit him from behind, white-hot and booming, knocking him back down onto his hands and knees. Cricket felt it shredding the armor at his back, damage reports scrolling down his feeds. Another explosion hit after the first, then another, his internal alarms screaming. He rolled over onto his back and caught sight of a flex-wing zooming overhead, firing off another barrage of missiles. It was heavily armed, painted black, a winged-sun logo in pristine white on its tail-fins.
“DAEDALUS!” Cricket bellowed.
Troopers in heavy tactical armor leapt from the flex-wing’s flanks, jump boots firing to cushion their landing. And as the flex-wing swooped back up for another pass, it spat a looming black shape from its belly. The thing unfolded into a hulking humanoid as it fell, hitting the ground with a thundering boom. It stood taller than Cricket—almost eight meters—bristling with cannons and missile pods, its eyes glowing baleful red.
“TARGET ACQUIRED,” the machina boomed. “LIQUIDATE WITH PRIORITY.”
“They brought a Goliath!” Ezekiel roared.
The heaviest infantry model in the Daedalus arsenal, Goliaths were the meanest machina to fight in the CorpState Wars—missile launchers, napalm jets, gauss cannons and armor thicker than a grav-tank’s. The tactical troopers fanned out, blasting away at Cricket with grenade launchers. The big WarBot took cover in the behemoth hole, shots peppering his hull. His defense mechanisms kicked in, and a blast of thick white smoke spat from his shoulders to give him better cover. It spread out like a fog, heavy and slow, cutting visuals down to a couple of meters.
It wasn’t much, but it’d give him time to think, at least. He was reeling from the initial strike, wondering where these goons had come from, what they wan—
“Alpha Team, secure the warheads!” came a sharp command out in the smoke. “Bravo, Charlie, frag that WarBot!”
“WELL, THAT ANSWERS THAT QUESTION,” Cricket muttered.
He rose from cover, opening up with a long rattling burst from his chaingun. The Three Laws of Robotics prevented him from harming humans, and underneath that tactical armor, these Daedalus troops were definitely meat. But the Goliath was fair game, and the biggest threat anyway. His shots ripped into its hull, forcing it to stagger, one hand held up to protect its optics. It recovered quickly, launching another salvo of rockets and forcing Cricket back into cover. Shells ripped his hull, coolant bleeding onto the broken dirt at his feet. Smoke billowed about him, thick and white, the laser sights on the troopers’ rifles cutting it like red swords.
He was outgunned here. Outnumbered and unable to harm most of the troopers set on killing him. He needed help in the worst way.
A scream rang out in the darkness, edged with the electronic crackle of a tac suit’s voxbox. Cricket heard a crunching noise, another scream.
“Alpha Team, report!” came a shout.
“Contact! Contact! One hostile, humano—”
The voice was cut off by a series of pistol cracks, another strangled scream. On his scanners, Cricket caught the impression of a small shape in the fog weaving among the Daedalus troopers and cutting them down, one after another.
Ezekiel…
Fire rang out in the smoke, missiles ripping the dark. Cricket saw the hatchway to Miss O’s flung open, a bewildered-looking Grimm poking his head up above the rim. “What’s all the bloody barney—”
“GET DOWN, YOU IDIOT!” Cricket bellowed.
Bullets cracked off the metal, sparks flying in the gloom. Dark eyes wide, Grimm slammed the hatchway shut again as a handful of grenades bounced off it, exploding into blinding flame.
“More hostiles!” came a shout. “Zone is hot. Repeat, zone is hot!”
A heavy engine tore through the air overhead, and another barrage of bombs fell from the sky as the Daedalus flex-wing flew another pass. Explosions rocked the ground, boomboomboom, boomboomboom, the flames lighting up the night. Heat, ash, smoke. Cricket caught a flash of movement, dark hair and blue eyes, Ezekiel sowing chaos among the troopers’ ranks. But there were at least a dozen men out there, all heavily armed and armored, and if that Goliath figured out Ezekiel wasn’t human, that the Three Laws wouldn’t prevent it from harming him…
“It’s the lifelike! Lifelike! Goliath, light him up!”
“DAMMIT,” Cricket growled.
He lunged up from cover, charging across the burning ground. The machina took the bait, firing off another burst of missiles, opening up with its guns. Cricket felt the blows on his armor, heard his decoys screaming, his one functional missile pod spraying a volley of his own. His hull was ripped to shreds, damage reports filling his visuals with red. Staggering, he launched himself toward the towering machina with hands outstretched. The pair collided with a sound like oldskool cathedral bells, the impact ringing in his skull as he and the Goliath crashed to the ground.
The Goliath smashed its fist into his head, sending a blizzard of static across his inputs. He grabbed the machina’s shoulder cannon, ripped it out at the root. All the dirty tricks he’d seen WarDome champions use over his years were coming back to him now, and pinning one of the Goliath’s arms down, using the torn cannon like a club, he started pounding on the machina’s face, whump, whump, whump, twelve thousand horsepower roaring, sparks flying, metal crumpling.
“We got movement! Movement!”
“More hostiles!”
“What the hell is—”
More screaming behind him. A blinding shear of flame. Cricket caught movement on his scopes, an explosion ripping the air above him, Abraham’s voice ringing above the gunfire. But he was lost now, the electronic frustration of the past week boiling up inside him, his rage at Ezekiel, at Evie, at all of it, reverberating up his mind with every blow he dropped into the Goliath’s head.
The machina seized his throat with its free hand, bucked its hips. An explosion bloomed at his back—more damage reports, more alarms, more red. He was flung off balance, toppling as the Goliath finally knocked him free. He felt a blow to the side of his head, a boot crunching into his flank. He rolled over onto his back, proximity alarms screaming. He was hurt bad, the Goliath was faster, targeting lasers lighting up Cricket’s chest, missile pods opening wide….
A burning truck tire crashed into the Goliath’s back. A small figure—dark, blindingly quick—flew out of the chaos and flames. It was Ezekiel, leaping onto the machina’s knee and scrambling up its smoking, torn armor plates.
The machina tried to pound the lifelike flat, its hands spanging against its hull. But Zeke’s preternatural speed proved superior, and twisting, dodging, he leapt up onto the back of the Goliath’s neck. Peeling aside a buckled armor plate, Ezekiel started tearing cables out with his bare hands, bright flashes of current illuminating his prettyboy features, smudged with grime and blood. Cricket could see he’d taken a handful of bullets to the chest, his new T-shirt soaked with blood.
The Goliath shuddered as Ezekiel ripped something vital loose. Its hull burst into flames, and Cricket heard Grimm yelling in the smoke and chaos.
“Zeke, get clear!”
The lifelike dodged another massive swipe, swung out on the Goliath’s shoulder and slung himself free. The big machina was raising its fists when it suddenly burst into flames from within. Fire bloomed out through its optic sockets, rolling over its hull, scorching, blistering, melting. It staggered, burning from the inside out, vital circuitry reduced to puddles. And with a pitiful electronic gurgle, the big bot crumpled to the broken earth in a hail of sparks and flames.
Silence fell as suddenly as it had been shattered. Smoke rolled through the air, ashes and embers on a burning w
ind. Cricket could see Daedalus CorpTroopers scattered over the ground, some of them charred, some of them crushed. He saw Grimm and Diesel stalking out of the fog, just silhouettes against the flame. Abraham came behind, looking a little shaken. He saw Faith, too, on her makeshift crutches, her hands spattered with red, a fresh bullet hole in her belly.
Solomon poked his head out of the hatchway, his smile flashing.
“I TRUST EVERYONE IS ALL RIGHT?”
“What,” Grimm said, surveying the carnage, “in the name of Charles Bloody Darwin was that?”
“Daedalus s-strike team,” Ezekiel said, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
“I know that. I mean, what the hell were they doing here?”
“THE NUKES,” Cricket said, hauling himself upright. Coolant and hydraulic fluid were dribbling down his body, his left arm hanging limp. “THEY WERE HERE FOR THE OTHER NUKES. PREACHER TOLD ME DAEDALUS HAD DETECTED THE LAUNCH.”
“They must have tracked the missile back to its point of origin,” Ezekiel said. “Sent a squad to check if there were any more warheads for the taking.” The lifelike shook his head and sighed. “We’re out of time.”
“We could bounce?” Grimm said. “Take the trucks and jet?”
“And go where?” Diesel asked.
“I got the satellite arrays working,” Abraham said softly, eyeing the bodies around them with horror on his face. “I checked the data from the last twenty-four hours. BioMaas took your friend back to CityHive.”
Cricket glowered at Ezekiel. “I TOLD YOU.”
“Fine, you told me,” the lifelike sighed, rubbing his temples. “But we can’t just leave these warheads sitting around for Daedalus to steal. Who knows what those bastards would do if they had nuclear strike capability.”
“Why didn’t BioMaas lift the nukes when they snatched Lem?” Grimm asked.
“BioMaas doesn’t touch deadworld tech,” Ezekiel said. “They consider it polluted. Maybe their agent didn’t even understand what she was looking at.”
“Well, we can’t just bang them in the back of a truck and drive around till Daedalus catches us,” Diesel said. “This is our home. We need to make a stand.”
“Deez, we need to go get Lemon,” Grimm said. “Who knows what BioMaas is doing to her?”
“We need to get Eve and Ana out of Megopolis,” Faith said, glaring at Ezekiel. “All of this is moot if Daedalus unlocks Myriad. With an army of lifelikes at their disposal, they’ll crush BioMaas with or without your little missiles.”
“IF YOU THINK I’M LIFTING ONE FINGER TO HELP YOU FREE ANYONE”—Cricket glowered at her—“YOU’RE MORE INSANE THAN I GAVE YOU CREDIT FOR.”
“You want to continue living your life on your knees, little brother?” Faith asked. “Myriad holds the secret to replicating Libertas. The virus can break the Three Laws in any robot it infects. You can finally be free.”
Solomon poked his head up farther from the hatch. “I BEG YOUR PARDON?”
Faith glanced at the spindly logika. “Oh yes, brother. Free.”
“You’re in no shape to go anywhere, Paladin,” Abraham said, sizing up the torn armor, the bleeding cables. “You need repairs. Badly.”
“I NEED TO HELP LEMON,” Cricket said. “NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.”
Faith’s lip curled. “Spoken like a true slave.”
“Faith, shut up,” Ezekiel said. “You’re not helping.”
“And you are?” she scoffed. “Are you seriously contemplating going to CityHive to rescue some cockroach when your family is in the hands of maniacs intent on taking over the entire country?”
Silence fell over the assembly, broken only by the crackle of the flames, the howl of a lonely ash-gray wind. Diesel chewed her lip, staring into the flames.
“Seems we’re being pulled three ways here.”
“There’s six of us,” Grimm said. “You and me. Zeke and Miss Manners over ’ere. Big Boy and Abe.”
“THERE’S SEVEN OF US, I THINK YOU’LL FIND,” Solomon muttered.
“Right. Seven. Sorry, guv.”
“Well, Paladin is in no shape to travel,” Abe said. “I can stay here and work on him? Maybe rig up some kind of trigger for the rest of these warheads? If Daedalus comes calling again, the threat of detonation might hold them off?”
Diesel blinked. “You really expect us to leave you alone here with a swag of nukes, Brotherboy? Your people have been trying to murder us for years.”
“The Brotherhood aren’t my people,” Abraham said, squaring up to Diesel. “In case you missed the feeds, my own mother tried to murder me.”
“And how many of us did Sister Dee and her horsemen murder while you were just sitting in New Bethlehem on your ass, Brotherboy?”
“Deez, easy on the take it,” Grimm said softly. “This kid just saved my life.”
“So you trust him with the keys to the house now? Are you smoked?”
“My home just got annihilated by one of these nukes,” Abraham said, anger in his eyes. “And my own grandfather was responsible for it. I’m not going to sit by and let it happen again. And if you’re really worried, Paladin will be here with me.”
“I don’t know him, either.”
Grimm ran his hand over the stubble on his scalp, the radiation symbol shaved into the fuzz. “Look, this could work, Deez. You and me head to CityHive, snatch Lem, bounce back here. Cricket and Abe guard the fort. A friend of Lem’s is a friend of ours, and once we’ve got her power back onside, and a couple of nukes in the bank, Daedalus can’t come near us.”
“Which leaves you and me, brother,” Faith said, staring at Ezekiel. “Megopolis and your precious Ana await.”
“I made a promise to Lemon,” Ezekiel said. “I can’t just leave her.”
“There are more important things at stake than your promises,” Faith spat. “If Daedalus gains the ability to create more of us, the country will tear itself apart.”
“Don’t pretend like you care about anything except getting Gabe back, Faith.”
“Don’t pretend your little heart doesn’t flutter at the thought of seeing your beloved Ana again, Ezekiel.”
“She’s not my Ana!” Ezekiel shouted, temper finally getting the best of him. “She’s brain-dead! There’s nothing left inside her, do you understand that? Nothing!”
“But there is something inside her, Ezekiel,” Faith replied. “There’s the DNA required for Daedalus to break Myriad’s third lock. Even with only her body, they can still use her to unmake the world.”
Ezekiel fell still at that. Faith’s words hanging in the air like black smoke.
“Zeke, maybe she’s right, mate,” Grimm said softly. “Deez and I can handle it.”
Ezekiel turned on the boy, his voice dripping skepticism. “You’re talking about invading the capital of the second-biggest CorpState in the country, Grimm.”
“No fear, mate,” the boy grinned. “We’ll be in and out. We got Diesel power.”
The girl arched one brow, then shrugged. “I am technically amazing, I s’pose.”
“Well, that’s not going to help us.” Ezekiel glanced at Faith. “We’re going to be invading the capital of the biggest CorpState in the country. Without a CorpCard, without being accredited citizens, we won’t get past the Wall.”
“IF I MIGHT INTERJECT FOR A MOMENT?”
All eyes turned to Solomon, still peering out from the hatchway.
“I IMAGINE MOST OF YOU WILL BE BLISSFULLY UNAWARE OF THIS,” the logika said. “NONE OF YOU STRIKE ME AS CONNOISSEURS OF THE ARTS. IN FACT, IF I MIGHT OFFER A SMALL CRITIQUE, YOUR COLLECTIVE WARDROBE LACKS A CERTAIN—”
“SPIT IT OUT, SOL,” Cricket growled.
“WELL, IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT MY KNOWLEDGE OF MEGOPOLIS IS EXCEPTIONAL. I PROGRAMMED ONE OF THE MOST UPMARKET STIMBARS IN THE ENTIRE CAPITAL. PEOPLE QUEUED
UP FOR HOURS TO GET INTO MY SHOWS. THEY CALLED ME—”
“THE SENSATIONAL SOLOMON…,” Cricket murmured.
“YOU REMEMBERED!” Solomon grinned.
“Are you saying you can get us into the Daedalus capital undetected?” Ezekiel asked, incredulous. “That place is a police state.”
“WELL, NOT TO GENERALIZE, BUT STIMBAR OWNERS TEND TO BE AN UNSCRUPULOUS LOT. I BECAME QUITE FAMILIAR WITH MY FORMER OWNER’S NEFARIOUS ACTIVITIES. INCLUDING THE ROUTE BY WHICH HE SMUGGLED HIS CONTRABAND OUT OF THE HUB.”
Faith looked at Solomon, lips curling in a small, malevolent smile. “I knew I saw promise in you, little brother.”
“Well, I suppose that’s that,” Diesel sighed, hands on hips. “Three jobs, three teams. Me and Grimm go get Lemon; Brotherboy and Rustbucket stay and defend the warheads; Ezekiel, Bitchqueen and Smileybot go to Megopolis and…”
“Do what must be done,” Faith finished, looking at Ezekiel.
Cricket was staring at Ezekiel, wondering what he’d do in the lifelike’s position. If he had the ability to hurt someone, could he do it to someone he loved? Even if the fate of the entire country hung in the balance?
She’s not beyond redemption, Cricket. Not yet.
He thought about Evie then. The girl he’d been built to protect. The girl he’d been built to love. She wasn’t human. She wasn’t anything close. The Three Laws didn’t protect her from him, and if she were here right now, would he be able to hurt her? What would he do to stop her?
What was he really made of?
Looking at the pain in Ezekiel’s eyes, he hoped he’d never have to find out.
“Okay,” the lifelike sighed. “We’ve got some driving to do.”
They buried Fix in the morning.
Grimm did the digging—he didn’t want anyone else to have to swing the shovel. Ezekiel had put in a quiet offer to take care of it. But aside from Deez, Grimm had known Fix the longest, and having a stranger doing the work just didn’t feel right.
