by Gini Koch
“Give it to Adriana. She’s bringing up the rear, meaning she’ll be in the lead if we have to run like crazy for some reason.”
The first keycard handled, we went back into formation. White put Christopher behind him, despite Christopher’s arguments against this. “I’m bigger than you, son, and I’m wearing body armor and you’re not. Just accept that I don’t want to see my only child hurt and roll with it.”
“Kitty’s rubbing off on you, too, Dad.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
“Hence why I’m never mad at your dad, Christopher.”
The stairway was unremarkable. Concrete all the way around—per the goggles it was at least twenty feet thick on either side—and decently lit. We went down the equivalent of two stories, based on the number of steps and landings. And came to another door. This one wasn’t glass but metal, only six inches thick per the goggles. However, it had the keycard entry pad as well.
Joe tried the three cards he still had. Third one was again the charm. This one we handed back to Camilla, since she was next to Adriana.
Through this door we entered a long hallway, also concrete as thick as the other area had been, also well lit. Refrained from making any Get Smart jokes, mostly because I doubted Camilla would appreciate it. Because of Jeff’s old TV shows obsession, I’d probably seen every TV show ever made by now, and I was fully up on Maxwell Smart and his gang. However, had to figure we weren’t going to find much to laugh about at the end of this corridor.
Took what seemed like forever but was probably only a couple of minutes for us to reach the end of the hallway, which was, naturally, another six-inch-thick metal door. The first keycard Joe tried was the winner. This one he gave to Randy.
Through this door and, lucky us, it was time to go down another couple of flights of well-lit and thick concrete stairs, which indicated to me that we were now at least three stories underground. And, at the bottom of these stairs we got to meet Door #4.
It was metal, too, the now-standard six inches, and Joe’s last key worked. Nice to know that the security guys had been able to get down here if they’d wanted to.
“Everyone get ready,” Joe said softly. “And be prepared for attack.”
With that, he opened the door cautiously and stepped through.
CHAPTER 79
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happened, and Joe motioned for the rest of us to come inside.
We entered into a dark area, but that was because we were behind heavy curtains. Had a feeling that whoever had designed this place had helped Stephanie out with her lab as well.
Rejoiced that we were finally using the night vision part of our goggles, but it was underwhelming since I wasn’t deeply into curtains.
Joe waited until we were all in, with Adriana still holding the door open just in case, then he slowly drew back a tiny bit of the curtain. He looked back at me and jerked his head. Went forward.
“Need you to take a look and tell me what you think,” he said softly.
Nodded and took that look.
It was a brightly lit space, large as far as I could tell and the goggles shared. It was also clearly a factory. There were assembly lines and similar, but it was sparkling clean, like an Intel commercial—I expected that anyone we would see in here would be dressed in the white clean room suits, complete with hoods.
Only there was no one that I could see.
The goggles were having issues, though. They were no longer telling me anything. Had no idea what that meant, but figured it meant something bad.
Went back to Christopher. “I see no one. Need you to do the Flash reconnaissance, with me, so we can see what’s going on. Be careful—the goggles aren’t working past the curtain as near as I can tell.”
“Glad I’m not wearing them, then.” He grabbed my hand and took off.
On the plus side, we were going fast enough that even an A-C couldn’t see us. Of course, on the negative side, the moment we stopped I was going to be retching unless I got lucky. Tito’s Hyperspeed Dramamine didn’t work for anyone in terms of Christopher’s Flash Speed. So in addition to looking at what was going on and who might be where, I was also looking for my Vomit Target.
I was spoilt for choice.
The space was as large as I’d first thought, all bright white walls, floors, and ceiling, with industrial lighting and glass anywhere white walls were not. The place screamed Clean Room, and it was definitely a factory where delicate things were being created. Delicate, feminine things that were still going to pack quite the punch.
There were what I sincerely hoped were synthetic limbs all over the place, each in their own section along a winding assembly line. The parts were all feminine, at least based on what I saw at this blurry level. Giving me hope for synthetic, the parts looked more plastic than person.
What there weren’t were any whole people, synthetic or organic.
We did a full circuit of the room, then Christopher started to really examine it. Decided not to complain, because as long as we were moving I wasn’t barfing.
“Christopher, I’d like to point out that we’re clearly in the Fem-Bot Factory.” Said this softly just in case.
He grunted. “Yeah, good call. I don’t know how you do it.”
“I’m able to think like the crazed evil geniuses. It’s such a thrilling gift, believe me. Speaking of which, I see no one here.”
“I’m going to slow to regular hyperspeed because I don’t, either.”
At this speed I was still able to hold off the barfing, so that was good. In addition to the winding conveyer belt assembly line and the baskets and bins of body parts hanging or sitting at stations, depending, we were able to spot what was labeled the Art Room, which, based on a quick inspection, was where the bodies were spray-painted to look lifelike. It was a large room and it resembled a car body and paint shop, presumably for similar reasons.
There were offices as well, lining the far walls. All their walls were made of glass, and I was certain whoever had created this place had also had the contract for Stephanie’s Fixer-Upper at Forest Haven.
There were a bank of what looked like gigantic closets or similar, also all white, near to the offices that looked the most important, if I based importance on the size and sleekness of the desks and the size and apparent comfort of the executive chairs behind them, which I did. The closets or whatever they were were about eight feet tall, came out about ten feet from the wall, and were at least thirty feet wide. But those thirty feet were broken up into ten three-foot sections, at least based on the lines that seemed to indicate doors.
We headed back to the others, me grabbing a handy wastebasket along the way, and, while I barfed into that, Christopher shared our findings with the others.
Barfing done, I straightened up and shared my thoughts. “We need to search this place as fast as we can, meaning the A-Cs are going to have to do most of the detailed searching. There are a lot of offices in there—we’re looking for anything that shows who’s involved and what’s actually going on. Anything suspicious, as well. If you’re not sure, run it by me or Camilla. Christopher can show you where to start.”
“What do you want the humans, princesses, and semi-androids to be doing?” Joe asked, as the seven A-Cs headed off.
“We’re going to do a general search, just in case, and examine what looked like closets near the executive offices.”
“You don’t want us doing the hyperspeed search?” Rahmi asked.
“Nope. I want you two with us in case there’s something bad hidden somewhere in here. Link up, it’s a long way from here.” So saying, I took Joe’s hand, the others linked up as requested, and we headed off toward the giant closets.
I was revved and angry and not creeped out in here, so the skills were working just fine, meaning I was able to go at the slow version of hyperspeed, mostly so the others could
see what Christopher and I had seen already. Still, it didn’t take us long to find the closets. Had to say this for these giant white rooms—they were hard for me to get lost in.
“Any guess for how we open these?” Randy asked once we arrived at our destination. “I don’t see any door handles or locks or anything.”
“It’s definitely a room or rooms,” Adriana said. “But the goggles are telling me nothing.”
“Yeah, I care a lot more about what’s behind Door Number Three here than I do about how thick the concrete around the stairs was.”
Rhee cautiously touched part of the closet. Nothing happened, so she pushed against it.
And it swung inward, just a bit. Nothing happened, other than the door swinging back quickly. So she pushed it again, harder, and it opened fully.
“Come in,” a man’s voice snarled. A man’s voice I recognized. “Don’t just stand there gloating.”
“Malcolm?”
Went to the doorway and looked in, using my body to keep the door opened. This wasn’t a closet—it was a cell. An all-white, brightly lit, but ultimately rather tiny cell. And the door was definitely trying to close itself automatically. If I hadn’t been enhanced I’d have probably been pushed back.
Buchanan was sitting on a bench that was part of the back wall. He looked shocked. And like he’d been in a fight, but that wasn’t a surprise. Really didn’t figure the people we were coming to rescue had been taken without a struggle of some kind. He also wasn’t alone. There was what looked like a bright, white Roomba in there with him.
“Missus Executive Chief?”
“In Drax Industrial’s finest in body armor and weaponry.”
“Don’t stand there, get the hell out of here!” Buchanan wasn’t getting up. In fact, I wasn’t sure if he could.
“Um, we’re here to rescue you. I mean, if that’s okay and all.” I took a step in.
“Don’t come inside!”
“Why not? Will the walls explode or something?”
“No, the doors only open in and they’re impossible to open from the inside. Believe me, I’ve tried. But that thing,” he pointed to the Roomba, “will shoot you if you come any closer.”
“What will it do to you?”
“It’s why I look like I’ve just had a vacation. Prisoners get electric jolts of increasing intensity if they don’t behave. These rooms are also soundproofed and they have limited air. I had no idea you were here.”
“We were stealthy.”
“Sure you were.”
“Huh. I’m choosing to ignore that.” Considered my options. “What happens if I shoot the Roomba of Evil there?”
“No idea.”
“Rhee, want you ready. Rahmi keep the door open. Rhee, when I fire, you go grab Malcolm and get him out, using your fastest version of hyperspeed.”
The princesses nodded. Rahmi locked her arm against the door. “It won’t move, I promise.”
Nodded, then took another step in so that Rhee would have some room to get past me—a three-foot-wide space didn’t leave a lot of room for maneuverability. As I did, the Roomba of Evil spun toward me. Didn’t hesitate. Shot it, and jumped back as Rhee ran inside.
Drax made good guns and I only needed one shot. The Evil Roomba exploded as Rhee picked Buchanan up, spun, and ran out of the room. Pulled Rahmi away as soon as those two were free and got us both to the side. Some debris did come flying out before the door closed itself, but Joe blocked it from hitting anyone else. He wasn’t even knocked down.
“Body armor works great,” he said. “That explosion packs a punch, though, so we need to be careful.”
Rhee nodded. “I am uninjured, but I don’t know if Mister Buchanan was hit.”
“I was, but not badly.”
“Same thing all over again. Adriana and Camilla, get Malcolm out of range and patched up somehow—it’s a factory but there must be med kits somewhere. And be sure the others know we’ve found at least some of our missing people. Randy, want you ready in case things go badly here and to handle rescued captives transport. Otherwise, princesses, Joe, let’s do it again.”
Rahmi opened the next door. Looked inside to see Falk. He looked as bad as Buchanan had. “Burton Falk, nice to see you. Sit tight, we’re here to rescue you.”
“Missus Martini?”
“Getting tired of those I’m here to rescue sounding shocked about it, and you’re only our second of this particular foray. Everyone else I rescued after I’d been kidnapped was hella grateful.”
“Get me out of here without getting yourself hurt and I’ll fall onto that side of things.”
“Will do. Team, let’s rock and roll.” Stepped inside so I had a clear shot at this Roomba of Evil, took it, and we all did what we’d just done before. Rhee had Falk out and Joe blocked the rest of us from being hurt. Randy carried Falk off to find where Buchanan and the others were, even though Falk insisted he wasn’t hurt.
We waited for Randy to return, which was pretty quickly. “I think I can go almost as fast as an A-C now,” he said. “Joe, you probably can, too. Want to switch jobs and test it?” Joe nodded so they traded places while Rahmi opened the next door.
Kyle was in here. “He’s the biggest guy, most likely,” I said to Rhee. “Will you have any issues?”
She snorted. “We practice carrying two of our people, one over each shoulder, as battle drills. Kyle will not be an issue.”
“Kitty, be careful,” Kyle said. “That thing is evil.”
“The Roomba of Evil, I know. However, it’s toast against Drax Industrial’s laser blaster.” Hey, I’d taken the gun with the coolest sounding name, so sue me.
Our extraction process worked smoothly again, though Kyle was hit with some debris. Joe picked him up. “And we’re definitely as strong as an A-C now, because there’s no way I could have hefted Kyle before.”
“Do I want to know what happened to you?” Kyle asked, sounding worried. Rightly.
“Tell you later.” Joe ran off while Randy brushed himself off.
“Joe’s right, the body armor’s top-notch.”
“Good to hear, Randy. Let’s get the next captive out, shall we?”
This prisoner was Len. “Kitty! I knew you’d find us!”
“Len is my favorite, I’m just sayin’.” Joe returned and nodded to me. Gave him the nod right back. “Gang, let’s lock and load.”
Once again, we did our thing and once again it went smoothly. Decided not to question this. If we had a rescue that was actually going smoothly for once, I, for one, was not going to complain about it. Besides, it was only going smoothly because we’d found the helicarrier and Jerry had had the brains to tell me to weapon up.
Len was lighter than Kyle and Rhee was faster therefore, so he wasn’t hit with shrapnel. However, Joe took him to the others anyway.
“This is going remarkably well,” Rahmi said.
“I cannot express how I seriously hope you haven’t just jinxed us.” We opened the door. “Dammit. Girls, this is why we never mention when things are good. Because it always explodes in our faces.”
Just like the Roomba of Evil had on the prisoner in this cell.
CHAPTER 80
ON THE PLUS SIDE, such as it was, the Roomba of Evil had literally blown up, so we didn’t have to deal with it. We just had to deal with a body with its head blown off.
Fortunately, I’d already barfed my guts out a little earlier, so I could keep myself to just a little gagging. The flyboys and the princesses were all battle trained, so they handled it stoically.
The bright white room was splattered with blood and gray matter. Actively chose not to look at it. Actively chose not to look at the headless body. Therefore, actively chose to look at my gun. It was far less upsetting.
Rhee retrieved the body. “Who is it?” she asked.
“I have no idea.” The guy was in a black Armani suit, or what was left of it. Every man who’d been captured wore the Armani Fatigues because the P.T.C.U. agents who worked closely with Centaurion dressed to blend in, so it could be anyone. It could be Siler—it was his body build. It was Manfred’s body build, too. Tried not to freak out, because that wasn’t allowed to the leader. “Take the body to wherever the others are. We’ll get everyone out then determine who this is that way, if the others don’t know.”
Joe helped Rhee—he took the shoulders because he was a gentleman—and they headed off.
“What happened?” Rahmi asked softly.
“I’d assume he was trying to get out or he was trying to disarm the Roomba of Evil and hit its self-destruct switch. It’s clear they’re loaded to explode because they’re sending out far too much shrapnel for the single shots I’m hitting them with.”
Joe and Rhee returned, looking solemn. “Falk’s going through the guy’s pockets. Hopefully we’ll know soon enough who we lost.”
“Okay, on to the next.” Tried not to sound grim. Failed.
The next one was also not good. We had another man down. On the positive side, he had his head. On the negative side, he didn’t have his middle, and the room looked even more like a scene out of a slasher film than the last one had. He wasn’t someone I knew, but he looked familiar. “I think he’s one of Falk’s team.” Meaning one of Mom’s people.
Randy helped Rhee take the body away this time. Joe patted my shoulder. “Hang in there, Commander.”
“They died because they came to save me. And because no one else did, so no one got here in time to save them.” The rage hit, and it hit harder than ever before. “Speaking as the FLOTUS, I’m glad Jeff can’t feel how angry I am because it could kill him. But, speaking as the Commander, this makes me never want to forgive him or the others.”
“No, that’s not what you want,” Joe said gently. “Not really. I understand why you’re so angry. I’m angry, too. This is war, though, Kitty, and I know you’ve been through this before. The higher-ups screwed up and our forces paid the price for it. It happens all the time. It’s not good and it’s not right, necessarily, but it is part of how things go. You focus on who you can and did save, and try to honor who you lost.”
