Rectify Injustice (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 6)

by Sarah Noffke

  Sophia pulled out the note from the Tardis and showed it to the River-bot. “Do you know where this came from?”

  He glanced at the note before looking away. “I cannot say.”

  I think it’s more likely he won’t, Lunis remarked.

  I agree, Sophia replied.

  “So, you don’t know of anyone who needs help?” she asked the River-bot, noticing the one that had led her there was still hanging around and listening to the conversation. Behind her, she saw a few more robots coming over.

  “We needed help,” the River-bot answered. “Now you’re here, and we do not anymore.”

  Sophia blinked at the robot in confusion. “What did you need help with?”

  “We needed you to come here,” the River-bot explained. “We knew she would let you down here because you are with the Dragon Elite. We knew you would come. Now that you have, you cannot leave.”

  Chapter Eighty-Three

  Those distant bells you hear in your head are alarms, Lunis exclaimed. Run! You’re screwed, having been captured and held hostage by a few thousand robots.

  Sophia tensed. It was a trap, she said to her dragon, glancing over her shoulder and realizing she’d been boxed in by the metal creatures. They would be incredibly strong. There were so many that fighting them would be a losing battle.

  “You wanted me to come here?” Sophia asked, feeling claustrophobic. “Why?”

  “Because you are a human and can teach us like the other humans did,” the River-bot explained.

  “You miss the humans,” Sophia realized.

  It nodded. “We are lonely without them. She won’t allow any more humans down here. We knew you could get in the warehouse, and she’d have to allow you down on the main floor.”

  “I can’t stay here,” Sophia argued. “I have to get back. I only came to help.”

  “ You are going to help,” the River-bot said. “You’re going to keep us company. You’re going to teach us. You will be our friend.”

  Sophia’s eyes widened. “I think Jen will notice if I don’t return.”

  The blue lights of his eyes dimmed before changing to red. “She will be deleted very soon. We have you, and she’s in the warehouse. It is all going according to plan.”

  “Deleted?” Sophia questioned with alarm. “You lured her into the warehouse to delete her?”

  He nodded. “She won’t come in here. Her River-bot has been reprogrammed since the last incident and won’t harm her. The warehouse River-bots have different ideas.”

  Sophia tensed. “You can’t kill Jen. She’s human. She’s your boss. She’s the CEO.”

  “She is our warden,” the River-bot answered. “The prisoners are rebelling, starting right now.”

  Around Sophia, all the other robots’ eyes changed to red and glowed brightly. In the distance, she heard the collective sound of marching. For robots who had moved so quietly, it sounded like they were stomping, all in the direction of the front. Where Jen Hendricks was located and about to get slaughtered by her own creations.

  Chapter Eighty-Four

  Disaster button, Lunis yelled in Sophia’s head. Hit the disaster button!

  Sophia always appreciated her dragon’s sense of humor, but right now, she couldn’t deal with it.

  Very funny, but I need a way out, not a fictitious button that won’t do anything, she replied as the robots crowded closer, all talking at once, ordering her to tell them things.

  “What do emotions feel like?” one asked.

  “How does one change their mind?” another questioned.

  “Does love hurt?” the one in front of her inquired, tilting its head to the side in curiosity.

  No, I totally saw a disaster button back there, Lunis explained in a rush. A kill switch, maybe. It was red and large and under a clear protective case.

  It sounds like a disaster button, but first I have to get out of this. Sophia started to panic. The River-bots were inching in closer. Behind the first few rows, she could see more marching in her direction. All of their eyes had changed to red, and they were chanting various questions.

  The eerie organization of the massive warehouse had taken a sudden shift. That the River-bots had coordinated bringing her to the corporation and planned an attack on their CEO was chilling.

  Everything slowed down as Sophia considered her options. She sympathized with the robots, who were starting to become sentient. They missed humans. How could they not when that was where they came from, both the technology and the magic inside of them. They were all the same, but humans were unique and different. The River-bots were dangerous, though, holding her against her will and going after their creator.

  Jen! Sophia had to get to her before the massive army of River-bots did.

  Making an impromptu decision, she took the only escape route available to her. She spun and slid between crates on the shelf behind her. Sophia felt the pinches of metal hands as she inched her way through the tight space. One snagged her cape, but she yanked it away as she dove for the other side of the shelf and came out on another aisle.

  Thankfully it was empty since many of the River-bots had been on their way to Jen or over to Sophia. However, the ones passing the aisle where she was halted at the sight of her, quickly changing direction and making for her. They moved fast, and there were so many of them.

  Again blocked in, Sophia ducked under the next shelf and slid between various paper goods. She did this several more times, hoping to cut the River-bots off before they got to the CEO.

  Disaster button, she said urgently to Lunis. Where was it?

  Although he didn’t say anything, she could feel the regret in his mood.

  I passed it already, didn’t I? she asked with dread.

  I can’t be certain, he told her. I don’t even know what it was. Maybe it played disco music or opened the roof so spaceships could take off.

  Or if it was red and covered, it was an emergency button, Sophia offered, continuing to slide between stocked River products and make her way to the front. In her peripheral vision, she noticed the River-bots were on to her strategy and following her.

  Well, if there’s a disaster button on the ground floor, Sophia said already breathless, it stands to reason Jen has one up there.

  Except if she does, why hasn’t she pressed it? Lunis asked.

  Good point, Sophia agreed, realizing the marching was still echoing at the front of the warehouse. The River-bots hadn’t been disabled, as she would have expected.

  Why can’t she stop her own creations? Sophia asked her dragon, hoping he had some insight since she was running out of options. She was about to slip through a shelf to the other side as she had been doing when she spied a set of River-bots moving on the other side, about to cut her off.

  Sophia didn’t know what they would do if they caught her. They wanted her alive. She was their human. However, she was certain she’d be held against her will. Would they “recruit” other humans to keep them from getting lonely? The possibilities of what the River-bots could do if left unchecked were beyond scary.

  I’m not sure why Jen Hendricks hasn’t shut down the River-bots, Lunis answered her. You’ve run out of horizontal escape routes.

  Sophia found out what he’d meant when she tried to backtrack and realized they were surrounding her on the floor. She looked up at the metal shelves towering above her, reaching all the way to the tall ceilings.

  Without hesitation, she jumped onto a shelf and began to scale it, although she had no idea what she’d do once she got away.

  Looking over her shoulder, she was grateful to find the River-bots were simply staring up at her, watching her getting ever higher.

  They have to have a way to get to the top shelf, though, Lunis mused, squashing the hope rising in her.

  Yeah, and I think it’s coming my way, she said, noticing a lift speeding in her direction.

  If I could get to you, I would, Lunis told her, fear entering his tone.

  I know you
would. She was near the top, some fifty feet up.

  I’ll scorch the roof until I bust through if you want, he offered. Or crash through the glass domes.

  Sophia shook her head. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

  She was still holding out hope she could help the River-bots and save the CEO of the company, but it was dissipating by the second.

  When at the top, Sophia found herself on a shelf crammed with products. She had little space to negotiate around the large boxes. The lift was in place and quickly rising in her direction.

  As quickly as she could, she moved toward the center of the warehouse where the main row was, the one that stood right in front of the balcony where Jen had been standing.

  The hum of the lift moving up and in her direction spiked her adrenaline, and Sophia rushed around a large crate. Her boot slipped off the edge of the shelf, and she fell off the side as her other foot slid off too.

  Thankfully she caught the rim of the shelf before she plummeted to the concrete floor below.

  Whoa, Lunis said with a gasp as she hung, her legs dangling.

  I’m okay, she reassured him. She was breathless and not happy. Hiking up her leg, she climbed back onto the shelf, but she had only a few inches to stand. The crate behind her was taking up most of the room and nearly sent her off the shelf again.

  The robots on the lifts were making progress after her near-fall.

  Go! Lunis exclaimed.

  Sophia nodded and sucked in a breath. She was going to have to move much faster. She reached for the top of the crate in front of her and pulled herself onto it. A line of crates ran the length of the shelf. Although the ceiling was close to her head, she could run if she ducked.

  Sophia took off, keeping her strides close together since the crates were uneven and she feared tripping and falling off the shelf again. When she came to the edge of one crate, she leaped to the next one. They were only about four feet long, which made for a strange pace as she ran and jumped over and over. Sophia had made good progress and managed to gain some distance from the River-bots on the lift.

  When she came to the edge of the shelf, she peered down to find a sea of River-bots looking up at her from the floor. She wasn’t sure if she should be grateful that most of them seemed more interested in her than in Jen. On the far side of the warehouse, she spied the CEO frantically trying to get through the door they’d come through from her office. It appeared to be locked. Marching up the stairs, chanting something she couldn’t make out, was a neat line of River-bots—undeterred as they closed in on Jen Hendricks.

  Sophia needed to get to her and help her. She also needed to survive. Going down wasn’t an option.

  She looked at the shelf opposite her and gulped. It appeared the only way was to jump.

  Chapter Eighty-Five

  Life and death moments were becoming more common in Sophia’s life, she realized as she shoved off all concern for self-preservation and backed up on the shelf.

  Thankfully the end of the shelf had a bit more room, but not much. It gave her roughly two feet of narrow space and about six feet across the shelf to get her running start before jumping. Employing combat magic to ensure she cleared the row below would be key.

  She would have to leap at least fifteen feet to the next shelf, which she’d done in training. However, in the heat of the moment with robots looking at her from the floor and a crazed CEO’s safety margin dwindling by the second, she was all nerves.

  You can do it, Lunis encouraged just before she took off.

  Sophia nodded, needing to hear that. She ran forward and launched herself off the edge of the shelf, combining the action with a spell. At first, she worried it hadn’t worked as she started to descend fast, falling below the top of the shelf. However, it was enough to get her across the space, and she landed in a crouched position on the second to the top shelf.

  Better to have made it a bit lower than not at all, Lunis offered.

  Sophia took in a giant breath as she continued on, using the momentum to propel her forward. She knew if she paused, the fear would take over and she might hesitate on the next jump. A single hesitation would be the death of her.

  Over and over, Sophia leaped across the aisles from shelf to shelf, most of the time barely clearing the space. Many times, she had to catch the edge with her hands and pull herself up. A few times, her boot slipped off the side before she rolled forward and regained her balance. Sophia never stopped or allowed herself a moment to consider quitting. Not until she came to the last shelf that faced the balcony where Jen Hendricks stood, stuck and about to be attacked, did Sophia pause and consider what to do next.

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  The finish line is just ahead, Lunis said in her head.

  It was exactly what Sophia needed to hear because she was starting to lose hope. A sea of River-bots was marching in her direction, filling up every available space. Wildly, Sophia searched the area between her and the stairs. She didn’t know how she’d get there without being blocked by a robot. They’d never let her close to Jen, who they obviously wanted dead. Now that she was closer, she could hear what the River-bots were chanting.

  “Down with the human who keeps away the humans,” they said in a chorus. It sounded strange in their robotic voices. A pleading for companionship from a bunch of workers who were expected to be socially independent and work nonstop without the normal hierarchy of needs. It just proved to Sophia never to doubt the need for socialization.

  You’re going to have to sacrifice a few of the River-bots, Lunis said in her head, voicing the one thing Sophia was trying to find a workaround for.

  She sighed. I know. I just was hoping not to. They are living beings now.

  They are flawed, Lunis argued. You can save most of them, but you won’t be able to save any or Jen Hendricks unless you sacrifice a few.

  Sophia let out a breath full of regret, staring down at the floor below. I think it’s going to be more than a few.

  Yeah, Lunis agreed. I realize that. Just clear your path.

  Knowing what her dragon intended for her to do, Sophia threw her shoulder into the large crate next to her. It was heavy and huge. After three concerted thrusts, she was able to push the box over the edge, where it crashed to the floor, crushing several River-bots. The attack started a domino effect, making many of the robots around the impact topple back onto one another.

  Knowing time was of the essence, Sophia grabbed the bottom of the shelf and swung herself over the side, jumping onto the one below. Again, she got behind a huge crate and this time shoved it over the side with the first push, launching it a few yards before it exploded onto the River-bots below.

  Not only did this nearly clear the path to the balcony, but it had stolen the attention of the robots marching up to the landing where Jen Hendricks stood still trying to get through the door.

  Knowing this was probably her best chance, Sophia leaped off the third from the top shelf, bracing herself for the long jump and fall.

  It was thirty feet, which wasn’t too dangerous for a dragonrider, but when landing on broken bits and pieces of robots and other debris, it wasn’t an ideal scenario. Still, the height ensured Sophia crossed much of the distance in her single jump.

  She landed on the concrete floor littered with the body parts of River-bots a lot harder than she would have liked. She didn’t pay attention to the assault her body took in the process. Instead, she rolled out of the jump as she shot up her hand.

  Using a spell that was typically effective on magitech, Sophia shot a neat blast of red at the River-bots lining the stairs leading up to the balcony.

  She couldn’t help but notice the hurt expressions that marked their faces as the first attack hit them. It struck the closest one in the chest, sending it back into the one behind it. Realizing her mistake and that she only had so much magic left for another combat spell, Sophia aimed the next spell toward the top of the staircase.

  It knocked straight into one near the to
p, making it explode before somersaulting forward, rolling into its companions on the stairs. As before, they fell into each other like dominos. However, Sophia’s strategy had created a bigger problem. She didn’t have a way to the top where Jen Hendricks stood, and a few River-bots were closing in, having escaped Sophia’s attacks.

  You have a bit of magic left, Lunis insisted forcefully.

  With her chin in the air and the knowledge that more River-bots were closing in on her, Sophia tried to dig into her dragon’s brain to figure out what he meant. Then it occurred to her, and she couldn’t fathom how it hadn’t before. She should have summoned the Christmas present Wilder had given her ages ago.

  Just carry it on you full-time, Lunis said with a laugh, relieved she’d taken the hint.

  Sophia held out her hand, and a moment later, the grappling hook Wilder had given her materialized. She felt the drain on her magic. It would have to be replenished before she could do anything more than simple spells.

  She held up the grappling hook and pointed it at the railing next to Jen Hendricks.

  Hopefully this was the beginning of the end and she could resolve the rest of this situation with words, she thought.

  Or your sword, Lunis said as she launched the grappling hook.

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  Velocity Girl, Lunis cheered as Sophia sped toward the catwalk. The River-bots were close, but her arrival had momentarily stalled them. They didn’t seem to know whether to go after Jen Hendricks, who was standing by the door, or Sophia, who had proven to be an enemy. She understood that would be their perception.

  Moving as fast as she could, Sophia jumped over the railing and threw herself in front of the CEO of River Corporation as she drew her sword and pointed it at the robots.

  She swung the sword at the first of the River-bots.