by Selina Rosen
Sandra wasn't quite asleep. She had just left Levits, Mickey and Poley back at the Golden Arches not quite thirty minutes ago. She heard someone in the hall outside, and was willing to bet it wasn't 'the boys.' When they came in, they made enough noise to wake the dead. She got up quietly, slipped into her robe, and picked up her laser. She went to the door and opened it a crack. She saw the stranger, weapon in hand, poised outside RJ's door, and she didn't hesitate. She stepped quickly into the hall and fired. She scored a direct hit, but the stranger didn't even stagger. She knew instantly what she was up against. She hit the floor and rolled so that his first shot missed, then she jumped up and ran for her room. She knew it was a wasted effort, but if she could just keep it busy.
"Freak! RJ! It's a Freak!" The bolt ripped through her temple and flung her into a wall. Fate was kind to Sandra. She fought to the very end and died instantly.
RJ heard the blaster fire and Sandra's warning. She pushed Whitey onto the floor and jumped up, grabbing her chain in one hand and her laser in the other. She never got a chance to use either. The door exploded in splinters, and a titanium-steel projectile ripped through the doorway and across her face and forehead. She fell limp to the floor. Whitey fumbled for the rocket launcher they kept under their mattress. He got it and raised it to fire. The first bolt caught Whitey in the gut. Whitey continued to raise the launcher to a firing position, but before he could fire, a second bolt caught him in the chest. As he lost control of his body, and the weapon fell from his hands, he saw the GSH pull a laser knife.
"No!" Whitey mumbled through a mouth full of blood.
"I suppose it would be kinder to kill you so that you didn't have to watch this." Then he grinned and cut RJ so that her mechanical heart fell out of her chest, and her life's blood poured onto the floor. He left the heart hanging there. Then he grabbed RJ's chain from the floor. He waved at Whitey. "It belongs to my woman, now! Have a good time dying, you two."
Zark went in search of the robot, but it wasn't in its room, and he was running out of time. Soon the troops would come flooding in, and he still had one more thing to get before he could return to Capitol and Jessica.
Zark ran down the stairs. In the lobby, he discharged a fire grenade. That would take care of anything he might have missed.
Levits saw the fire first. "My God! The hotels on fire!"
In a matter of seconds, the entire clientele of the bar was in the street.
"I hear choppers," Poley informed Levits.
Levits didn't want to be in control. He didn't want to . . ."Poley, Mickey, go sound the alarm. You and you,"—he pointed at two slightly familiar faces—"come with me. The rest of you, go to your units." They all went in separate directions. By the time Levits and the two men with him hit the hotel, the lobby was completely in flames, and there was no way of getting through. "The back door!" Levits yelled, and the others followed. The back door had been nailed shut for security, so they broke in a window. Guns were drawn. "You two, evacuate the lower levels. I'll get the fourth floor."
"Hey, Levits!"
He turned to face the man. "What?" he asked, shortly.
"Good luck, man," he said, and saluted. It was the first time in a long time anyone had shown him that kind of respect.
"You, too." Levits took off at a dead run. He took the steps three at a time, fighting back the fear and uncertainty with every step. The last time he'd been in charge of anything, everything had gone so dreadfully wrong. He had done everything wrong. Please, God, let it be different this time.
The first thing he saw when he reached the fourth floor was Sandra's lifeless body. He ran to her and rolled her over. She was obviously dead. He held her close. "Oh, Sandy!" He didn't even try to stop his tears. For a moment, he was just going to hold her and let the flames consume him. Then he saw RJ's door, or the space where the door used to be. He left Sandra and ran for the room. More horror greeted him there. Dead! They were both dead! He started to leave and return to die with Sandra.
"Levits . . ." The voice was so low, he almost didn't hear.
He ran back to Whitey's side. "Thank God, Whitey! I thought you were dead, too . . ."
". . . will be soon," Whitey choked and blood oozed from his mouth. "Save RJ."
Levits refused to even look at her mangled body. "I can't, Whitey . . . Maybe you . . ."
Whitey was sinking fast. "Listen to me, Levits. RJ is a GSH. You can save her! She's got Pronuses . . . in her jacket . . ." The light went out of his eyes, and Levits closed them.
"I understand, Whitey. I'll save her." Levits approached the mangled body and felt for a pulse. "Well, I'll be damned!" He looked at the metal heart that lay on her belly. Swallowing hard, he took it in hand and shoved it into the opening in her chest.
It only took him a second to find the jacket and a second more to find the pills in her kit. He put three directly into her mouth from the tube, hoisted her into his arms, and headed for the roof. He loaded her in the chopper, and got in himself. In the distance, he could hear the roar of aircraft coming in. In a few minutes, the air would be full of them. The city that had given shelter to their rebellion would be gone, like Sandy and Whitey. He started the chopper and took off.
"Don't die, RJ." He gritted his teeth. "We have to make them pay, RJ. You and me, we gotta make them pay for all they have taken from us."
He had barely cleared the building when there was a loud explosion, and suddenly the whole building was in flames. This time he had done everything right, and he had still failed. Maybe that was just the way life was. For Whitey and Sandra and all the others who would die tonight, the fighting would be over. But for the survivors, the fighting was just beginning. For him and RJ it could never end.
Not now.
Zark's luck was exceptional that night. He was about to give up his search for the metal man when he looked up and saw him running straight for him.
Poley stopped dead and grabbed Mickey, who would have kept going.
Mickey saw the GSH.
"Go sound the alarm; I'll keep him busy," Poley said. "Run!"
"We should both run," Mickey said, pulling on the robot's hand.
"We can't outrun it, Mickey. Now go! Run!"
Reluctantly, Mickey took off as fast as his short little legs would carry him. He glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see the monster cut Poley's head off with a laser knife, and put it into a bag. The sparks flew, but even the realization that Poley was a robot didn't ease Mickey's feeling of loss. He couldn't let Poley down. He ran faster than he ever had before. He finally reached and sounded the alarm, and Alsterase awoke.
Topaz met Levits at the pad. "I saw the choppers on the radar. I tried to sound the general alarm, it must be on the . . . Oh my God!"
"She's bad." Levits lifted her out of the chopper. "Well, come on, man, don't just stand there." Levits started for the medical unit. He laid her down on one of the surgical tables.
Topaz looked at the cut on her face and forehead and the gash in her chest. He saw the veins in her neck thumping and knew she was barely alive. "My God!" he said again.
"Whitey said she's a GSH, and she must be, because I gave her three Pronuses, and they didn't kill her. Her heart's mechanical, too. What the hell is she, Topaz?"
"She's everything that Stewart knew. Everything that he wanted to be." Topaz was far away, and he wasn't doing anything.
"Don't just stand there, man . . ."
"Quite right. What have you done besides the Pronuses?"
"Her heart was out of her chest. I shoved it back in. I . . ." Suddenly he turned white, ran into the hall, and threw up. Funny, doing it hadn't made him sick, but looking down at the dried blood on his hands did. Thinking about Sandra and Whitey didn't help. When he was done puking, he sat on the floor and started to cry.
Topaz scrubbed and put on gloves. In five-hundred-some years he had learned just about everything, and what he didn't know, Marge did. Together, they went to work on RJ.
The batt
le lasted four hours before the Reliance admitted defeat and retreated. As soon as the last Reliance plane was out of sight, the survivors started their exodus for the island. When the Reliance returned with reinforcements, they would find nothing.
It was unlikely that they would think of the island. Topaz had worked hard to make it look abandoned and unapproachable. If they did, though, they would find some nasty surprises waiting for them. With sixteen laser cannons, all controlled by Marge, it would be nearly impossible for anything to get close enough to do any actual damage.
Mickey had insisted that they take Poley's body with them. He sat on the boat by the lifeless body of his fallen metal friend and wondered how many more of his friends were dead. He hadn't seen any of them. Not Sandra, Levits, Whitey or RJ. He could hear the others talking.
"David Grant did this."
"That girlfriend of his did this."
"Has anyone seen RJ?"
"No. She must be dead. If she weren't, someone would have seen her."
"I can't believe that Poley was a robot."
"You suppose RJ's a robot?"
"Whitey Baldor wasn't sleeping with a robot."
"Hard to believe Poley was just a robot."
That did it. Something in Mickey snapped. "Poley wasn't just a robot. He was my friend. He gave up his life so that I could sound the alarm. He loved life, and he loved his sister. If that don't make him human . . . Right now, I would gladly give any of you to have him back."
GA had been a disaster. Everything that RJ had predicted came to pass. The whole city was a trap. As soon as they arrived, Reliance troops crawled out of nowhere to surround them.
In the battle that followed David lost all but twenty-three men, and his left arm was broken. It hung, limp and painful, at his side. At the first opportunity, he led his shattered command straight for the rendezvous point where he'd left Kirsty, the vehicles and three guards. Their only chance for survival was a quick retreat.
When he saw the smoke, his tired legs found the strength to run. The sight of the burning vehicles and dead guards made little impression on him as he searched frantically for Kirsty. Calling, crying, searching. Ten minutes later the last of his small command struggled in and collapsed.
"You fool. You bloody fool!" a battered and weary man said from where he sat propped up against a tree resting what was left of his right leg on the ground in front of him. "She burned you, man. She burned us all. She used you, and fools that we are, we followed you."
"She couldn't . . ." David slumped to the ground. Could it be true? How could it be? He loved Kirsty. Kirsty loved him. Then where is she? Where the hell is she? How did the Reliance know we were coming? He buried his face in his hands. What the hell had he done?
"By now, Alsterase will be a black hole on the map."
"We didn't listen to RJ. Now she's dead . . ."
"NO!" David refused to believe this lie.
"Then where's your girlfriend, Grant?" the first man asked. "She burned us, and you can bet your sweet ass she burned RJ, too."
David stood up. "We'll have to go back. Help them . . ."
Several men laughed. "Help them do what?" one of the younger men asked bitterly. "Pick up the bodies?"
"We managed to live in spite of your 'leadership,' Grant," the first man commented. "I think I speak for us all when I say we're better off without you. Face it, Grant, the war is over. They won, and you helped them. We all helped them."
They left him there. Not one of them asked him to go along. For a long time he just sat there looking at his broken arm. He really should do something about it, but he couldn't be bothered. The longer he sat there, the more convinced he became of Kirsty's betrayal. She had never really loved him. She had used his love for her to pull him away from RJ. RJ had loved him, and what had he done to her? The answer to that question was back in Alsterase. He had to get back there. He got up and started walking.
Zark walked into Jessica's office. She looked up and saw no smile. For a moment, she thought he had failed. In fact, it was Right, who was sitting on the corner of Jessica's desk, who first saw the smug smile light up the GSHs face.
"Well?" Jessica asked impatiently.
The GSH walked over to Jessica's desk and dumped the contents of the cloth sack. RJ's chain rattled out, quickly followed by Poley's head. Jessica jumped up, clapping her hands in delight, and ran to embrace Zark.
"Is she really gone?"
"I cut her heart out and then set the building on fire. She's dead, Jessy," Zark said proudly.
Jessica moved back to the desk and picked up the chain. "Hard to believe that she would put such store in this thing. Hard to believe that someone as intelligent and powerful as RJ would become so attached to something like this. Or this, for that matter." She rolled the head around on her desk. Soon tiring of her new toys, she picked them up and set them on a shelf with her other trophies. She turned then to address Right.
"She and I were so much alike . . ."
"When she heard the girl scream she pushed her lover to the floor. She spent the last few seconds of her life trying to save him. If she hadn't, she might have beaten me. You and she were nothing alike."
Zark looked at Right, and the man bit his tongue to keep from laughing. The petty rivalry between them ended at that moment. They both knew they were in the same boat. Neither of them meant spit to Jessica Kirk. They were just toys, and toys are disposable. Maybe she had loved Jack Bristol, and maybe she hadn't, but she certainly loved no one but herself now. Now that RJ was dead, all that passion would leave her, too. She could return to a being of pure logic.
Worst of all, she no longer needed them. They would be kept like house pets—used for her amusement. They had helped her achieve her goal, and in doing so had made themselves unnecessary.
David walked through the day and into the night. Fever and guilt racked his brain. The arm, now swollen and blue, didn't hurt anymore. He didn't know why, he was just glad the pain was gone. In his mind scenes and words kept playing and replaying. Sick and tormented, he didn't even realize that he was walking in the wrong direction.
In his mind, he saw Alsterase in flame. He saw RJ lying in a pool of her own blood. He heard RJ saying, "I never thought in my wildest dreams that you would betray me, betray me, betray me, betray . . ."
"NO!" David screamed, and slumped to his knees on the ground. "Oh God! What have I done?" he cried. He lay down and looked up at the star-studded sky, which could just be seen through the trees.
The voices cried out at him from the night, and would not be quieted.
"Power corrupts."
"Help them do what? Pick up bodies?"
"If only you had your own army, David . . ."
"We were fools to follow you."
"You don't look at the big picture, David."
"She's not cast-iron . . ."
"Is she a hybrid?"
"Yes, and well shielded."
"Now you finally know how it feels, you bastard."
"Down with the Reliance . . ."
"Please turn the lights out." David now realized that he had never seen Kirsty unclothed with the lights on. No doubt because she wanted to hide the fact that her coloring, like RJ's, wasn't a tan.
"It was fear that allowed the Reliance to rear its ugly head."
"Ax murderer."
"Thank you, boy." An old man dropped a coin into his hand. A coin, bent coins on a chain. RJ's chain gleaming in the sun. A hand reached out for him, a man out of breath and out of hope.
"I'm not your enemy." He took the offered hand and found it warm and strong. He found himself being lifted up. He'd look up and see RJ's familiar grin and all would be right with the world. But when he looked up, all he saw was a grinning skeleton wearing a chain, with patches of platinum blonde hair straggling down from the few bits of scalp remaining.
David woke screaming and jerked upright. He was burning with fever despite the coolness of the night air. His shivering made the arm throb and ac
he again. He ignored it all, scrambled to his feet and ran as he hadn't run since the day, long ago, that he had broken out of prison.
He had to get back to Alsterase. RJ had to be all right. He would make it all up to her.
If he hadn't killed her.
Kirsty paced back and forth along the deserted stretch of road. She was, admittedly, early. It would have been nice if, just this once, the Reliance had been early as well. She knew she had nothing to worry about, but she still felt exposed sitting out here in the middle of nowhere. She gripped her bag of precious money and papers in one hand, her laser in the other. Nothing but darkness around her, so what was she worried about? She was a hybrid, a trained killer. She had nothing to fear. Yet she couldn't quiet the uneasiness of her gut.
