by John Zakour
‘‘Already done . . . no response.’’
‘‘Let’s go get her then,’’ I said, plopping my fedora on my head.
‘‘Carol’s waiting for us in the lobby.’’
Chapter 29
We met Carol in the hotel lobby. She looked as stern and as serious as I had ever seen her. She was arguing with the attendant at the front desk.
‘‘You can’t seriously expect me to be believe every single transport on the Moon is tied up right now?’’ Carol said.
The young, square-jawed, blue-haired (duh) lady looked at Carol without really looking at her. ‘‘I’m sorry, ma’am, it’s all down for repairs.’’
I moved forward next to Carol and leaned on the desk. ‘‘Call your leader, Boris ‘Bo’ Sputnik and ask him to approve of transportation for us.’’
‘‘I’m sorry, sir, Mr. Sputnik cannot be bothered now,’’ the attendant said without bothering to look at us.
‘‘This is ridiculous,’’ I said slamming my hand onto the desk, hoping to scare the girl.
She looked at me. So I at least had her attention. ‘‘Sir, being rude is not going to help matters,’’ she said before she turned away.
‘‘Make her give us a car,’’ I thought to Carol.
‘‘Gladly.’’
Carol looked at the attendant. The attendant touched her earpiece, sending a chill up my spine.
‘‘Uh-oh, she’s calling for help,’’ I said.
Sure enough, coming in through the front door were four extra-large gorillas in heavy armor. They were flanked by two cylinder-shaped battlebots. Bringing up the rear was their commander, a tall, light-skinned woman with a short military-style haircut. Her hair was so dark blue that in some light it probably looked black. I knew her from the dinner last night. She didn’t say much, but she was there.
I nudged Carol. ‘‘Forget the attendant. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.’’
‘‘The psi is called General Tang,’’ Carol said. ‘‘She’s Sputnik’s number two wife.’’
‘‘Figures she’d be a general,’’ I said. ‘‘HARV, can you tap into the hotel’s holographic system?’’ I asked.
‘‘I’ve been working on that since we arrived. Their defenses are quite good. The algorithms are a kind of hybrid between Doctor Pool’s and Doctor Thompson’s. Fascinating, really. Certainly their defenses are on par with the North Pole’s.’’
Tang, the apes, and the bots drew closer.
‘‘Short answer, HARV. Short answer.’’
‘‘Of course.’’
‘‘Of course you’ll give me the short answer or of course is the short answer.’’
‘‘The latter,’’ HARV said.
I smiled. That was all I needed to know. The odds didn’t look quite so long now.
‘‘HARV, we need cloaks over Carol and me,’’ I said.
‘‘Cloaks,’’ HARV said. ‘‘Can’t we do something a little more original?’’
‘‘Sorry, HARV, when in doubt and pressed for time go with the old standbys.’’
HARV sighed in my brain. He’d get over it.
‘‘HARV, tell me when we’re cloaked,’’ I said.
The psi, the apes, and the bots looked confused. Well at least as confused as bots could look with their simple displayscreen heads. Tang’s head was leaning forward, her eyes wide open.
‘‘Earth scum!’’ she spat. ‘‘Blanket the room with laser fire,’’ she ordered.
‘‘Change of plans,’’ I told HARV. ‘‘Project images of us as far away from us as you can.’’
‘‘I wasn’t programmed yesterday,’’ HARV retorted.
One of the apes spotted us, well our images, and pointed them out with a grunt.
The other apes and the bots turned and fired on them, cutting our holographic images down. Except, of course, for HARV’s image, which knelt over our bodies weeping.
‘‘Don’t overdo it,’’ I thought to HARV.
‘‘We got them!’’ one of the bots chirped. ‘‘So much for the great Zachary Nixon Johnson.’’
Tang wasn’t as convinced though. ‘‘I’m not picking up any thoughts from them,’’ she said as her and her squad cautiously moved toward our bodies.
‘‘Of course not,’’ the bot chirped back. ‘‘Dead people don’t think.’’
‘‘I wasn’t picking up any thoughts before you shot them,’’ Tang said.
‘‘The girl was a psi; she was blocking you,’’ the bot insisted.
The door was now clear. I mentally motioned for Carol to follow me. Carol and I slipped toward the door as Tang and the bots were arguing. While we moved, I kept one eye trained on our attackers and my gun in my hand.
The apes started to sniff.
‘‘Don’t worry, I’m projecting our scent into their minds from the images,’’ Carol said.
Good thinking on her part. Luckily for us, the apes weren’t wearing psi blockers. I didn’t know if it was because of budget constraints or to just make sure Tang would be able to control the apes if need be. Whatever the reasoning, it was nice that we could use it to our advantage.
We made it to the door; we were now safely behind our attackers. The option was ours to flee or go on the offensive.
The psi, apes, and bots reached our bodies.
‘‘Hey! These are just holograms!’’ Tang shouted.
‘‘Impossible!’’ the bots both said. ‘‘We were picking up heat signatures.’’
HARV’s hologram stopped his weeping and looked up at them. ‘‘That would be my doing,’’ he said.
‘‘Impossible!’’ the bots both said. ‘‘The Moon’s computer systems are secure cubed!’’
‘‘You better check your language databases as I’m not sure you know what impossible means,’’ HARV said.
I was proud of him. He was learning from our connection, further proving he was evolving. HARV pointed behind the bots, ape, and psi.
‘‘Messed up verbal databases are the least of your worries though,’’ he said with a smirk.
The bots spun. It was too late for them. Explosive mini-mirv-missiles (M&M&Ms as Randy called them), slammed into the bots, shattering them on contact.
The apes aimed their weapons toward us, but they didn’t have a chance either.
‘‘Sleep,’’ Carol ordered them.
The four apes dropped their weapons, yawned, then followed their weapons to the ground. They curled up with them like they were high-powered, teddy bear sleep aids.
Tang was indignant. ‘‘I give you the first two rounds,’’ she said, radiating with raw white energy. ‘‘But now you need to deal with me, Tang, Boris ‘Bo’ Sputnik’s number two wife!’’
‘‘Ah, long name,’’ I told her.
Tang clinched her fists and her eyes as she stood her ground. ‘‘I proudly call myself number two!’’ she said.
‘‘Being number two, does that mean you try harder?’’ I asked, snickering some.
Without even motioning, she sent the sleeping apes and destroybot parts flying out at us. I ducked under one ape, but another one mowed into me. That’s what I get for letting my mouth do the talking instead of my gun. Luckily my armor took the brunt of the damage.
Carol telekinetically deflected the apes thrown at her around her.
‘‘This bitch is mine,’’ Carol said.
‘‘Too slow,’’ HARV told her.
I rolled the ape off of me and sat up. HARV’s hologram had clasped his hands around Tang’s head.
‘‘Please, you are only a hologram,’’ she said to him. ‘‘You are less of a threat than Zach!’’
I tried not to take that personally. Too bad for her HARV did. Energy ripped from his hands into her head. Tang screamed in agony.
HARV appeared next to me, watching himself. ‘‘I’ve learned how to change the energy from holographic projectors into electrical energy,’’ he said with a smile. ‘‘The move is draining, but it’s worth it.’’
Carol, HARV,
and I watched as the other HARV held number two between his hands. She wiggled like a fish out of water, screaming like a banshee for a few seconds. She went limp. She fell to the ground through HARV’s hologram. The far hologram disappeared.
HARV looked very satisfied. ‘‘Serves her right,’’ he said.
‘‘You didn’t kill her, did you?’’
HARV put his hand over his chest, and his nose pulled the rest of his head upward, all the better to look down on me. ‘‘No, of course not,’’ he said. He pointed out the door. ‘‘Now I suggest we head out and to the Conference Center before more guards show up.’’
‘‘You know, for a supercomputer you can be pretty smart,’’ I said.
‘‘You know, for human you have a keen grasp of the obvious,’’ HARV said.
‘‘Thank you,’’ I said.
Chapter 30
Carol, HARV, and I headed outside. There, sitting right in front of us, was our ticket to the Moon Convention Center—the security team’s car. It was a big, blue carriagelike sedan that looked like a smaller version of the one Sputnik had taken me touring in.
‘‘It was nice of number two to bring us our ride,’’ I said to HARV and Carol as I sat in the driver’s seat.
Luckily, my love of old-fashioned cars meant I could drive this baby. Once I entered the starting code of course.
‘‘HARV, can you hot-wire this car?’’ I asked.
‘‘No,’’ he replied simply.
HARV appeared sitting on the cars hood. ‘‘I can’t hot-wire it but I can start it.’’
‘‘Then do it, buddy.’’
‘‘You have to look into the ignition.’’
I did as I was told, bending down and staring at the spot the ape would put a key. The car purred alive. I put her in gear and pulled away.
‘‘I suppose you know where the Convention Center is?’’ I said to HARV.
‘‘Of course,’’ he said. ‘‘Go straight until I tell you to turn.’’
‘‘As you wish,’’ I said.
Something about driving the old-fashioned way always made me feel good. Even on the Moon and surrounded by hostiles, when I was in the driver’s seat (and actually driving) all was good in my world. Of course HARV wasn’t going to let that last.
‘‘Do you have a plan?’’ HARV asked.
‘‘Of course I have a plan,’’ I said, hitting the accelerator for no good reason. ‘‘I always have a plan.’’
HARV tapped his fingers on the dashboard. ‘‘So what is this brilliant plan of yours?’’
‘‘To find Electra and make sure she and the other Earthers are safe.’’
‘‘Then what?’’
‘‘I haven’t thought that far in advance yet,’’ I conceded.
‘‘No, of course you haven’t,’’ HARV scolded, his finger waving in my face. (It was made even more annoying by the fact that he was sitting on the hood of the car.) ‘‘How hard can it be? We’re only 384,000 kilometers from Earth, surrounded by hostile psis, security apes, and deadly bots.’’
‘‘My sentiments exactly,’’ I said, driving forward.
‘‘Turn left at the next intersection,’’ HARV said, pointing in my face again.
Once again, I did as I was told. A large white building came into view. It had an arching roof and the front wall was entirely stained glass. Next to the Head Administrator’s residence, it was the most stylistic building on the Moon. Above the building were the holographic words MOON CONVENTION CENTER AND HOTEL.
This was the place all right. The holographic sign suddenly disappeared. I guess they figured if they turned it off I wouldn’t be able to find the place. I tried not to take it personally.
I drove up to the Convention Center. It was oddly quiet. There were four ape guards in front of the double doors leading into the building and those were the only living souls to be seen.
‘‘Weird,’’ I said.
‘‘For once I concur,’’ HARV said.
‘‘I don’t like this, Tió,’’ Carol added.
‘‘You picking up any thoughts from the building?’’ I asked Carol.
She focused her gaze forward, squinting. ‘‘Weird,’’ she said.
I was getting anxious. ‘‘What?’’
‘‘I’m picking up a lot of well, dreaming . . .’’
‘‘Dreaming? I know it’s early, but somebody should be awake.’’
‘‘Maybe it’s a boring convention?’’ HARV offered.
I shot HARV a look like one he normally reserves for me.
HARV bent down and got all defensive. ‘‘Just throwing out a suggestion,’’ he said. He processed for a few nanos, pondering his own words. Slapping himself on the head, ‘‘DOS, we have been hooked together too long!’’
HARV pointed to the empty parking lot. ‘‘The good news is you have plenty of parking.’’
‘‘You’re grasping at straws now, buddy,’’ I said, pressing down on the accelerator.
‘‘Just trying to look on the bright side,’’ HARV offered.
‘‘Can you see inside the building?’’ I asked.
HARV shook his head. ‘‘Nope. They took their computerized cameras offline. I can have them back online in five minutes and twelve seconds.’’
‘‘Too slow,’’ I said.
The car raced forward.
‘‘Ah, Zach, I know your driving may be a bit rusty, but it’s customary to slow down on your approach to parking.’’
‘‘Not parking,’’ I said, flooring the pedal.
The car sped up, the building drew closer faster. The ape guards pulled their weapons.
‘‘This car will fit through those doors . . . right?’’ I asked.
I drove the car off the road and up the ramp leading to the building. HARV made a few fast computations.
‘‘Yes, you have two centimeters on both sides if we hit the doors in the middle,’’ HARV told me.
‘‘Good,’’ I said.
The guards took aim.
‘‘Carol.’’
‘‘I’m on it, Tió.’’
Carol pointed at the apes then waved her hand to the side. The apes’ weapons flew out of their hands. Three of the apes, now realizing my intentions, cleared the area. Without their weapons they knew they didn’t have any chance of stopping me. Truthfully, even with the weapons they wouldn’t have had much of a chance.
The one lone ape stood in the car’s path, defiantly holding his hand out in the universal stop position.
‘‘Not a bright ape, is he?’’ I said.
‘‘Just doing his duty,’’ HARV said.
‘‘Carol.’’
‘‘On it!’’
Carol lifted her arm up. The ape went flying up over the car just as we crashed through the doors into the Convention Center’s main exhibition room. It was a huge room, easily large enough to house hundreds of exhibitors and their booths. The thing was the room was empty—well almost empty. The walls of the room were lined with containers that looked like a cross between human-sized tubes and electronic coffins. Each one had a body in it. I didn’t like that at all.
There better not have been in those tubes what I was pretty sure there was in those tubes. I kicked the door of the car open and got out, Carol by my side. I looked around. Coffin-sized tubes and more tubes as far as I could see. I put two and two together and came up with trouble.
‘‘These people better be alive,’’ I snarled.
‘‘I am picking up faint life signs from all of them,’’ HARV said. ‘‘They are in cryo-chambers, in suspended animation.’’
‘‘That would explain the dreams I was picking up,’’ Carol said.
We moved towards the cryo-chambers lining the room.
‘‘Let me guess, there are five thousand of them,’’ I said.
‘‘Actually, five thousand and two,’’ HARV corrected. ‘‘Most of them, forty-five hundred, have women inside. Five hundred have men and two are empty.’’
I didn’t kn
ow what worried me more, the five thousand that were occupied or the two that were empty.
‘‘Electra is in one of them, I assume,’’ I said, popping GUS into my hand.
‘‘Affirmative,’’ HARV said.
HARV appeared from my wrist communicator and pointed forward, ‘‘She’s on the north wall in receptacle oh-two-two-two.’’
I stormed toward the direction HARV pointed. ‘‘She better be okay, or else.’’
‘‘Don’t worry, she’s fine,’’ a familiar voice said from across the room.
Carol, HARV, and I turned. There at the entrance stood Bo Sputnik, Melda, Lea, Aprill, Windee, and seven other blue-haired women of various sizes and ages. They were backed by twenty or so heavily armed and armored apes. Those were backed by a couple of heavy-duty eight-armed battlebots. This was basically the same group used to take Elena out. In a way, I was honored. Of course, in a bigger way, I was angry. I was determined to keep my wits about me. Like my old mentor would always say, ‘‘Keeping your wits means keeping your ass.’’ She had a way with words.
‘‘Not exactly a good way to treat your guests,’’ I said, motioning to the rows of cryogenic chambers with one hand, keeping my weapon trained on the others with the other hand.
‘‘Actually, I don’t consider them guests,’’ Sputnik said with his crocodile smile.
‘‘What do you consider them?’’ I asked.
‘‘Residents of the Moon,’’ he answered dramatically.
‘‘Well, in that case it’s actually worse,’’ HARV said.
Sputnik started rubbing his goatee, which was now blue. ‘‘Truthfully, they’re more like breeding stock.’’
‘‘You can’t just take people and keep them for your own use!’’ Carol shouted at him.
Sputnik smiled and started rolling his handlebar mustache (that he must have waxed for this occasion). ‘‘Oh, I think they will thank me,’’ he said.
I shook my head. ‘‘I don’t see that happening.’’
Sputnik slowly inched closer to me. As he moved, the entire group behind him followed. I let him come toward me. After all, if they had wanted us dead they could have taken us out without warning.
‘‘I know it may not seem like it now,’’ Sputnik said, ‘‘but I am doing them and the Moon a favor.’’
