Maxwell Huxley's Demon

by Michael Conn

  “I understand. Do you see the grey metal door almost directly across the street from you?”

  “Yes.”

  “In that door and up one flight of stairs is a door with a few bags of food outside it. In that door there is a boy who is unconscious and dying. He just needs help eating and getting warm. Can you help?”

  “Why don’t you call 911?”

  “He needs to stay hidden.”

  “Well that doesn’t make me feel better.” Lara walks back to her motorcycle. Catherine zooms in on her. She unlocks the seat and tucks a s mall hand gun into her jacket. The n she sits on her scooter and does nothing for a few moments . “What’s his name?”

  “Max.”

  She starts across the st reet, then stops and turns back, then turns again and walks quickly across the street, in the door, up the stairs.

  “I’m Lara. Who are you?”

  “I am Catherine .”

  “You’re voice is weird , Catherine , and I’m not stupid. There is a lot more going on here than a sick boy. You’ll have to tell me about it later.”

  When Lara enters the building, Catherine triggers Alohomora bots that Max left in the lock on the lab door . “The door at the top of the stairs is unlocked.”

  Lara walks into the lab and sees Max on the floor.

  ---

  Keith stands alone in his lab. My lab. Everyone calls it Keith’s lab. I’ve heard them. I’ve always deserved this. Pirelli said to build whatever he needed so long as he finds Max. Keith said he needed a fully equipped lab. He got the lab , and he got a private room. Sleeping in a residence is for little people now, like Max.

  He circles his lab, tablet in hand, brainstorming. Where would I run? Find him. Keith types on his tablet. Big city. Asia. South America. Africa. Crowded. Crime. Chaos . Either that or I would hide in plain view. I’ll never tell Pirelli this, but Max will lead us right to him long before I ever find him. Max is a show off. He likes being chased and cornered . Escape shows how clever he is.

  If I was loose , I would make money and weapons. Build walls and recruit a team. Max makes nanoBots . Weak yet clever . Keith looks at a few bots through a microscope. “Blah.” He pushes the scope away. I can’t work with this. There are no markers in these bots. Each one has something unique in its core. Why does Max play with magic wh en he should be making weapons? The microscope makes satisfying sounds when it smashes against the far wall. Tell Pirelli to stop using electronic means to track Max. Every time you do he’ll see you coming.

  Keith leaves the lab and heads to the gym. Maybe sparring will help create some ideas. Walking down well lit hallways , he avoids talking with anyone. I want my lab to be away from here. These kids slow me down. I want a lab at the top of a dark tower, in a castle, with a moat, and a dungeon. I’ll ask for that next.

  They gave Max so much. I was just left overs. He can’t be on his own. He needs people. He’s desperate without someone. I need to take things away from him. He turns around and heads back to the lab. The fogBots aren’t good enough. Keith pulls his chair up to his workbench, puts his head down, and begins to work. When he stops, five hours have past; he looks around for his microscope.

  Chapter 24 –Lara

  For the first few days , Max stays in bed , and Catherine keeps calling Lara with instructions. Lara would have left except Catherine tells her where to find a bank card and how to use it. The card lets her take out $200 American a day, more money than she has ever made. Lara comes back twice daily , working it around her deliveries.

  Max frequently mumbles in his sleep. Lara hears him cry out , sometime just shouting, “No ,” sometimes calling out for people by name.

  The first time she gives him a bath she is shocked at how light he is when she picks him up. Placing him in the tub she looks down at him, her hand covers her mouth as she inhales sharp ly. How could su ch a little boy be this scarred? Burnt. Cut. Broken. Starving . She baths him . Her tears fall in the bath water .

  Catherine always spends a few cycles watching over Max . But during this bath , Catherine focussed almost all her spare cycles on Max and Lara .

  A week later , Lara checks in on Max , and he is sitting up in bed.

  “Hello Max, I’m Lara.”

  Max stares at her with an intensity that frightens her.

  “Can you hear me?” Lara asks.

  Max stays like that most of the day. Unable to get Max speaking, Lara starts reading to him. Portuguese romance novels, bu t at least it passes the time. Lara spends most of November nursing Max back to health.

  ---

  Max finds himself dressed and sitting at a round table set with breakfa st food. He recognizes that he’s in his lab, but many things are new to him. The table is new . There is a second bed in the room, and a broom leaning in a corner. As he sits and stares out the window , a woman walks out of his bathroom. She’s new too. Max guesses that she has had a shower, because her hair is wet, and she has no clothes on. Max watches her.

  She looks at him, pauses, and then keeps walking. Max keeps looking at her. She pauses again, moves left and then right. Max’s eyes move left and then right.

  “Hello,” says Max.

  She let out a little scream and runs back into the bathroom , c oming out a few seconds later wrapped in a towel. “Max? How long have you? . . . When did you? . . . I’m Lara . . . uhm . . . nice to meet you.” Lara sits down at the little round table facing Max.

  Max’s cell chime s . He has a text. ‘Trust her, ” is all that it says.

  “Hi. Have you met Catherine ?”

  “I have, ” Lara says tilting her head and smiling.

  “Good . . . Accio cane,” says Max. His cane floats swiftly to his hand. “Are you hungry, there is food here?” He points to the food on the table.

  Lara smiles. “Thanks , no , I’m not hungry .” Lara stares at the cane, wondering if she really just saw what she thought she did .

  “Do you mind if I eat, I’ve been a little sad lately, a friend died, but I think I’m better now.”

  Lara watches him devour everything on the table.

  ---

  Lara claps. “Do that again.”

  Max goes invisible, moves five steps to the right and then becomes visible again.

  “That is so cool . What else can you do?”

  Max grips his cane and says , “Cura .” Nothing seems to happen. Max sits down beside Lara and shows her his cell phone. The screen shows a video of them sitting beside each other. Max rotate s the cell , and they can see each other from behind. If Max drags his finger over the screen , he can see behind him self . Max zooms in and out. It’s like having a hundred cameras floating around him that he can point in any direction. “There are two reasons I built this. One, I can see around me, see who might be following. Two , these same bots determine where my eyes are looking, s o other commands like this one can work.”

  Max fills a glass with water and puts it on the table in front of Lara. He looks at the glass and says, “Cullen,” the water turn to ice. Max says, “Vulcan,” the ice melts and the water boils.

  Max and Lara spend the day playing with nano bots . Late in the evening, Lara says, “Max, why?”

  Max tries to stay happy , but what she asks saddens him . He doesn’t want to think about them yet. “Why what?”

  “Why are you doing all this? Why are you here? What are you going to do with all this?”

  I knew it would end. I guess I don’t get more than a few days of calm. I knew I would have to go back. There’s never enough time . “I need to be free—I need to find my mother,” Max says “We all need to be free, Max. Tell me what could have done all this ,” Lara gestures to the scars on Max’s face, “. . . to a nine-year-old.”

  “I told someone else and now my person is my enemy and my friend is dead.” Max lets out a tired sigh.

  Lara smiles and waits.

  Max flips in to Portuguese , and tells her the story.

  Hours later, Max says, “I have to lea
ve soon , d o you need to stay here?”

  “What do you mean; do I need to stay here?”

  “I mean , do you have pe ople here, people that you need ?”

  Lara sighs. “I guess not . . . not really.”

  “Will you come with me then ?”

  Lara touches his face. “Silly boy . . . where are we going?”

  ---

  For the past month , Catherine had been scouring for evidence of anyone looking for Max. She found a lot of activity in Mexico, along the southern US border states, in Vancouver, and some in the EU. Catherine saw almost no evidence of anyone looking for Max in Brazil.

  Lara follows Max closely at the Guarulhos airport in São Paulo. Max has his cell phone headset on. “Boarding passes please, Catherine .” Max walks up to the self-check-in kiosk . I t prints boarding passes for Max and Lara just as Max reaches for them . Max no longer needs to dial to get Catherine on the phone. Catherine has a process ‘listening’ for his voice.

  Max and Lara left the lab this morning, right after Catherine told Max that she had a hit on his mother’s voice. The call initiated from Romania.

  Max walks beside Lara with a ‘normal’ coat on. He can’t wear his trench coat through airport security anymore. Of course he still has his cane.

  “Max, everything looks good at this airport, no increased encrypted cell traffic, and your picture is not coming up on an y no-fly lists.”

  They’ll be there waiting near her . I was taught this in first year entrapment. The simple patterns are the best.

  “You r temporary seating is booked, non-stop to Barcelona.”

  Max stops. Lara takes a few steps and then turns around. Max lets his focus spread over the mass of moving people then turn s sharply to ward a drinking fountain.

  “Thirsty, are we? Couldn’t wait until we’re underway?” Lara takes his arm.

  Max lets his senses run over him, lets the lid off his demons , then he turn s right , taking Lara with him. Now he can see it, a pattern amongst the thousands of people. If Max changes direction then five gorillas turn and speak into their wrists.

  “Lara, we need to get out of here. Catherine they’re here, they found us. Help us run.”

  “What?” Lara says still pulling Max forward to security.

  Max pulls back harder. “La ra, let go of me now.”

  She let s go and faces Max.

  “I’m trained for this. There are four men and one woman converging on us in this airport. I won’t let them catch me. Stay close to me now or s tay behind. They don’t want you. You can just walk away.”

  Lara touches Max’s face. “As smart as you are, you’re not so good with people are you?”

  “I keep losing people.”

  “I’m staying with you , Max.”

  “I see them now . They must be using h ard copy photos, no cell phones. They must have been pl anted in this airport for weeks. I have been watching , and these guards work here. Max move right and stand behind the closest pillar.”

  Max pulls Lara over. “Do exactly what I do.”

  “Walk straight forward. Now stop. Turn left , walk forward . . . Stop and w ait”

  Max and Lara freeze. “Catherine, get us back to Lara’s motorcycle.” Max looks at Lara. She looks frightened .

  “On three move as fast as you can until you are in the magazine store in front of you . . . one . . . two . . . three.”

  Max moves and Lara follows. Max takes a moment to look around. He sees that the gorillas are concerned and moving quickly. Obviously they can’t see him right now.

  “Walk through the store and to the left, past the coolers there is a door, go through it.”

  Max and Lara burst through the door and into an empty concrete corridor, which runs behind the stores.

  “Quickly. The female gorilla is in the store.”

  Max run-hobbles down the corridor with Lara pulling him, their footsteps horribly loud. “Come on , Max.” A door opens in front of them , hitting Max in the shoulder. He falls.

  “Sorry !” s ays a boy in a MacDonald’s uniform.

  Max and Lara turn and run in the back of the MacDonald’s as they hear another door slam open in the corridor behind them.

  “Get out of the restaurant fast. Another gorilla is getting close to the entrance .”

  Lara pulls Max out the front. People are look ing at them with concern. Max can tell they're thinking why is that girl pul ling a poor cripple boy so fast?

  “Lara, Catherine , stop . . . I can’t move this fast , and we are attracting more attention. We have to walk.”

  “Are you serious, Max, we have to . . .”

  “Walk with me.” Max leads the way into the densest part of the crowd. “Catherine , where is the nearest passenger transit cart?”

  “Ten Metres to your right, just passing under a b aggage claim sign.”

  “I see it.” Max pulls Lara gently to intercept the cart.

  Blocking the cart, he says, “Please, I can’t make it in time. We have to get back to baggage checkin and then back here, please can you help, I can’t make it with a cane . . .”

  “OK, hop on.” They get on and the cart pulls a U-turn and heads back to checkin .

  Max whispers, “Cura,” and then looks at his phone. “Catherine , make the CuraBots show each gorilla.” The screen on Max’s cell splits showing each gorilla and their direction from Max.

  “They ha ve a call into airport security. I blocked the page to the driver of your cart, but you are approaching two gorillas quickly.

  Max leans into Lara, “Get us off this cart.”

  Lara pulls Max onto her lap and jumps out of the cart. She skids to a stop , drops Max to the ground, helps him up, and hurries out of the building through a revolving door.

  “Get on the train.”

  An unmanned train is to their left, door s open. “Lara , go get your motorcycle.” Max pushes Lara away from him , and he boards the train.

  Looking over his shoulder , Max sees t he doors close behind the female gorilla as she steps on the train . Max stands and faces her. The train gather s speed. She opens her coat slightly, exposing a Taser and a gun. Max lifts his cane. She moves behind another passenger. Interesting, they know what I can do.

  The train stops and Max gets off entering the parking garage. The female gorilla follows , speaking into her wrist.

  “Catherine , call Lara and direct her to me.”

  “Already done.”

  Somewhere off in the parking garage , Max hears a motorcycle. He walks away from the female gorilla, and then sees her colleagues enter the garage. Without his coat, and batteries, his cane can’t handle too many commands .

  The gorilla s spread out and flank him. Max hears the motorcycle get closer.

  “There are five of us. We’re armed and armoured.” The female gorilla says. “Drop the cane . It’s better coming in than running —”

  Lara appears at the top of a ramp and gets closer. Four men and one woman. Max says , “Vacuum,” and looks from on e gorilla to the next. They all throw their hands to their ears in obvious pain. Lara drives up and sees blood coming from their ears.

  Max get s on the back of the motorcycle , and t hey speed off.

  “There a vehicles closing in on the parking garage.”

  Max tells Lara.

  “Catherine ,” Max says, “you direct Lara.” Max puts the head set on Lara then hugs her .

  Lara speeds out of the garage with three cars close behind. Lara only stays on the road for a few seconds and then turns down a pedestrian walkway, through a set of doors, down a stair case and back out onto a road two stories under the one the cars are on.

  Max hears the cars on the ramp above them, tires squealing.

  Lara stops and hands the headset back to Max. “I don’t need this . I know where I’m going.”

  Max take s it , and they speed off again.

  “Max , I have a new flight for you, across town at a private airfield . I told Lara already.
I hope you don’t mind I spent a bit of money.”

  “I don’t think I want to know how much.”

  Max puts his head down for the rest of the frightening ride across town.

  “Catherine , what happened?” Max asks. “They were on us as soon as we got there.”

  “I do no t know, but I did see that all the agents had hard copy pictures of you. If they do not use computer systems then I cannot track what they are doing .”

  ---

  Keith looks up as the door to his lab opens and Pirelli enters. Keith speaks before Pirelli has a chance. “I told you he might be in Brazil. Didn’t I say he would be somewhere crime riddled and chaotic? You have to admit it’s a good place to hide. You could hide an army there if you needed to.”

  Pirelli sits beside Keith. “What kinda bots you got in there ?” He gesture s toward an oven.

  “New fog Bots . Max will land in Asia next.” Keith gets up and opens the oven, r emoving a sealed box.

  “Brazil is—big—Asia is a whole world. Do you think you can do b etter than, ‘I think Max might g o to Asia’?” Pirelli gently touches the box Keith just took out of the oven, testing how hot it is.

  “I know where he’s going . I almost gave him to you last time. You have to admit—”

  “I don’t admit anything. You’re not giving us much. All this,” Pirelli motions around the lab, “might not be worth it. I need Max . . . not close calls.”

  Yo u don’t know what the MGA wants. You thin k you know. I know more than you. “Max will go looking for his mother. Her location was in the data he stole. He’s on his way there.”

  “Positive?” Pirelli asks.

  “You’re an idiot, Pirelli.”

  Pirelli picks up the box of freshly baked bots. “You’ve not been able to make anything useful have you?” Pirelli holds a hand up, palm facing Keith. “No, no, don’t answer. Time ’s running out , Keith. I suggest you stop trying to copy Max and do something original.”

  ---

  Catherine replays the scene of Lara giving Max a bath. Since that day Catherine has spent many cycles replaying this scene again and again while contemplating what makes humans human.

  Catherine watches the bath and believes that something cod ed within Lara came into play that day. Something in Lara bonded with Max when she bathed him. After this, Cat herine believes Lara did not have a ny choice but to stay with Max. They did not become one , but t hey bonded .