by Tara Tyler
Cooper followed the Colonel on the frames as he made his way back to the transport room upstairs. It seemed to take forever.
Finally, the old coot got into the transport dock and waved at him through the guard droid’s eyes before he popped away, making Cooper cringe.
He wouldn’t just sit and watch his brother be killed. Cooper growled and shook the metal chair, rocking it back and forth until it tipped over. Squirming on the ground to get free did no good. The straps were super strong magnets, and now he couldn’t see the frames.
The guard droid behind him patiently set him back up, chair and all, as if he was straightening a crooked picture. Everything in its proper place.
“Thanks.”
The droid ignored him and went back to slowly rotating its head, panning the room.
Straining his neck, Cooper watched the droid behind him for a minute. The guard droids were basically mobile security cameras with a few added features. That Echo android was special, though. He seemed like a real person, almost. And the Colonel had given him a job to do. Cooper searched for the droid on the frames, but couldn’t find him. However, he did notice some strange movement on an outside monitor.
In one of the frames showing the front gate, some bushes rustled, as if a gust of wind blew by them, but the effect didn’t reach the branches in the trees above. Cooper knew better. Looking more closely, he caught a couple glints from Geri’s camo cover.
That’s my girl.
Lake Lanier, GA
Wednesday, June 24, 2082
fter using Aimee’s QV mirror function to hop past the Colonel’s laser fence, Geri snuck onto the grounds of the vast estate, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. The camo worked best with an intricate background, like trees and bushes, so the hundred yards of sparse forest along the driveway gave her excellent cover to sprint through. When she emerged from the wilderness, she saw the mansion another hundred yards ahead. There was a lot of trimmed green grass between the tree line and the house. And droids, so many droids.
It was easy to tell they were androids because they stood erect like statues and didn’t communicate with each other. Human guards would be more laid back, cutting up or gossiping with each other out of sheer boredom. Droids didn’t get bored.
Scanning the front of the house from right to left, Geri noted one droid at the corner of the five-car garage, one stood at the front door, and a third guarded the far corner. Past the house to the right, she spotted two more droids at some tennis courts. She opened the QV telescoping gadget to see further back. To the far left, she added two more droids to the list who were guarding a… driving range? Come on! Geri rolled her eyes.
“And I thought I had too many droids,” Hasan interrupted her thoughts in her earpiece.
“Shh!” She had given Hasan and Jared access to her QV’s vidcam, but told them specifically not to speak unless they had some pertinent information. Her goal was to get into the house, find the study where Cooper was being held, and get him out. She didn’t need Hasan jabbering his little comments in her ear.
“Sorry. Zipping it.”
Geri surveyed for the best cover around the house and chose a dense group of bushes on the right side of the garage. As she got ready to dart over, she paused.
A new droid came out the front door. He walked over to the guard standing on the front left corner of the house and tapped his shoulder. The new one took the original’s place, then that one took the position of the front door guard, and he replaced the one at the garage. The droid from the garage strolled around the bushes Geri had been eyeing and headed toward the tennis courts. It was time for a shift change.
Hugging the tree line, she kept pace with the last one and skirted the ten-foot-high fenced tennis courts. Once the droids changed positions, Geri followed the last one, which walked back to the house through the backyard. She had to leave the safety of the trees and crept up to what looked like a maintenance or storage shed jutting out from the back of the house. Peeking in a window, she saw a couple of hovercarts. Well, everyone should have a hovercart garage.
Around the corner, she spied the next two guards as they tag-teamed each other, one at the pool and one up some stairs to the deck at a back door. The last one left the pool area and went off in the direction of the lake.
Geri stayed by the pool house and watched the droid trek over to the driving range. The guards there did their little do-si-do and the odd man out came back toward her. She hoped it would go inside and she could tailgate him.
But he didn’t go into the house. He was aimed straight for her. She had to flatten herself against the wall as he strode just inches in front of her, then on toward the trees north of the tennis courts at the far corner of the property. She assumed there was a method to the zigzagging, but that puzzle could be solved later by someone else.
Finally, she saw where the last droid was going. A building was hidden in the trees. It looked like another garage or maintenance shed and there was no droid to replace, so this one had to be going in. Geri slinked up close behind it and watched it use a finger on the lock, just like the one at the warehouse. Interesting.
She followed the droid inside, slipping through the door behind it.
Lining one of the walls, electronics and tools hung over a workbench with a few spare parts laying on it. Twenty or so guard droids stood in charging stations. Close up, the front row of faces looked familiar, but she couldn’t place them. They were about twenty-five human-years-old with dusty blond hair. Feeling conspicuous in the dead quiet of the dark, wooden shack of a building, she barely breathed, afraid they might hear.
As the returning droid stepped into an empty slot, another one woke up and headed toward the back of the room.
Geri started to follow, but Jared’s voice startled her.
“Grab that spare hand on the workbench! And that spark plug doohickey!”
She didn’t want to lose the droid and be stuck in the room with all his cousins until the next shift change, sleeping or not, so she hurried over to the workbench, grabbed the items, and shoved them into her pockets, camouflaging them. Then she ran across the room, even though she risked waking the snoozing droids, and scooted through the door after the new one. She had to open it slightly to fit through before it shut.
The droid paused to inspect the door for not shutting right away, and Geri almost bumped into it. After five seconds, he must have judged everything to be okay, because he resumed his progress down a pitch-dark staircase. Geri hated being in such close quarters with the droid. Its eyes glowed like headlights, making it look like a possessed mannequin. Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears, she couldn’t believe the droid hadn’t detected her presence. They must have low sensitivity, adhering to their programming and reacting to blatantly unusual sights and sounds. They were basically mobile cameras.
At the bottom of the stairs, Geri saw some light coming from a small square window in a side door the droid bypassed. She peeked inside and glimpsed a small manufacturing setup. Droids were making police androids. The Colonel obviously had way too much money and way too much time on his hands. Hence, the devil’s workshop.
Turning back to her droid, Geri had to hustle to catch up to it as it walked down a long corridor. If her sense of direction served, they were headed back toward the house.
The droid used its finger to open the lock. The room they entered was like an operating room, similar to Rajul’s secret lab at his garage, but much cleaner and brighter. One of the machines had a blinking red light and was whirring and bubbling with milky, blue fluid in it. It looked like a giant test tube, similar to the one she’d seen her own face in. She couldn’t see clearly inside, but something, or someone, was cooking in there.
Next to the machine, an imager displayed the green structure of a human body. It looked like it was fully formed. Another clone android.
As the old guard left, using another droid lock to exit, Geri decided to stay and check things out. She was in a hurry t
o rescue Cooper, but this seemed important enough to spare a few moments. Hopefully the droid hand she’d picked up would work for the lock when she was ready to move.
Before she could take a closer look, another door opened at the back of the room.
Geri sucked back a gasp when she recognized Rajul.
He yawned and stretched, then paused and sniffed the air. He scanned the room with squinty, suspicious eyes. Geri’s perfume was giving her away.
The machine buzzed and the light turned green.
Rajul shook his head and shrugged. Pushing a button on the machine, the liquid drained away, revealing the specimen inside. He smiled.
This time, Geri did gasp. It was Cooper! Was he dead? Oh, no!
“It’s a simulation,” Hasan whispered in her earpiece.
Geri’s heart started beating again as she realized Hasan was right.
Rajul raised an eyebrow at the guard droid and the droid focused on Rajul. They both heard her.
After a few seconds of silence, Rajul grimaced at the droid, who would easily win a staring contest, and sighed. He pushed another button and the front of the test tube machine opened. The simulation was supported on a leaning platform in the chamber. Guided by a mechanical limb, the platform gently raised the simulation of Cooper and came to rest on the operating table. With the push of one more button, the limb detached from the platform and retracted back into the test tube with the doors sliding shut on it.
Geri squinted as Rajul cut open the sim Cooper’s scalp. He pushed on the skull and it unlocked for him to open. While Rajul went over to a cabinet, Geri peered into the cavernous skull with some wires sticking up from the base of it. She got chills every time she glimpsed Cooper’s peaceful face, yet the procedure was so fascinating to watch.
Rajul came back with a processor brain and carefully inserted it into the opening, connecting it to the wires and snapping it into place. Then he went over to a large CC imager station and opened some frames. A cable hung from the compucenter. Rajul took it and plugged it into the sim’s ear. Time for some programming. Geri was in awe.
While Rajul worked, he mumbled to himself. Mostly complaints.
“Why did I get involved with that crazy old man? I was doing just fine on my own. Now I’m trapped like one of his droids, a personal slave in this dungeon. I was better off with Negrini.”
It sounded like Rajul might be ready to help them. Geri needed to contact him somehow.
Meanwhile, Hasan was freaking out in her ear. “Geri, things are heating up at the debate. Sim Geri said she has hundreds of followers ready to take civilians hostage at several highly populated areas around the city if they can’t reach an agreement. You need to free Cooper and get over there!”
When the droid turned away from her, Geri grabbed a note tablet and propped it on the simulation of Cooper so Rajul could see it, but the droid couldn’t.
Rajul, still murmuring, turned to the sim and jumped. “Ah!”
The droid swiveled to him and spoke, “Is everything all right, sir?”
Typing on the tablet, Geri knew this would make or break them. Cool it, Rajul. I can help you. Don’t alert the Colonel.
Rajul thought for a moment, scrunching his brow as he stared at the words on the tablet. He was curious and felt the air in front of him, searching for the mysterious writer.
Geri backed away, out of his reach.
After taking a deep breath, he responded. “Of course, everything is all right, bolt-head. I shocked myself, is all.”
Good cover. Geri smiled to herself.
Rajul pretended to work on the simulation as he typed on the board. How do you know my name? Who are you?
A friend who knows the Colonel has lost touch with reality.
Yes! He’s nuts!
I’m here to stop him. See this simulation you’re working on? I need to free the man it originated from. Where is he?
Upstairs.
Jared spoke in her ear, “Geri, the guard droids seem more basic than the police droids. I think I figured out how to turn off its sensors so you can talk to Rajul openly. Go stand behind it and aim your QV at its ear. I sent you some signals that will put it into varying modes of stasis, like a remote. The Colonel won’t know any more than the droid is malfunctioning or out of batteries. Choose one, select activate, and see what happens.”
Geri followed Jared’s instructions and got into position. After glancing through the commands, she activated the command that said sleep.
The droid closed his eyes as if he stood in a charging station. But Geri wasn’t sure if his hearing had turned off too.
“Hey, how’d you do that?” Rajul asked.
The droid didn’t move. That answered that question.
Jared got all excited and rambled, “Great, it worked! Now ask Rajul if there’s a backdoor access code for the simulations. Or if there’s a way to disconnect them without the Colonel knowing. Or if they can be shut down to a harmless level but still function.”
Geri shook her head. Too many questions at once. First, she had to establish Rajul would help them.
“Rajul, we don’t have much time.”
“You’re right. A replacement droid will come in a few minutes. But why should I help you? I think you need to show me who you are.”
Geri turned off her camo cover and hoped he wouldn’t quit helping her once he saw her.
He looked her up and down and nodded his approval. “What are you, some sort of sexy spy? Who do you work for?”
She was surprised he didn’t recognize her. Then she remembered her Gina disguise. She decided to go with a half-truth.
“I work for the FBI and I’m on an undercover mission. We’re taking the Colonel’s operation down, so you’re either with us or against us. If you aren’t with us, I’ll have to arrest you.”
He put his hands up. “Okay, okay. I’ll help. Will I be exonerated?”
“All I can guarantee is witness protection. Now we have to get moving! Can you tell me how to shut down the simulations?”
“Yeah, sure. Sure. I can tell you how to shut down the simulations of Wells and Agent Harper, but that would cause the backups to carry out their orders. There are androids planted all over the city, disguised as regular people. They’re programmed to take hostages and kill one at a time at certain intervals until they get new directives. And at that point you would have to get right up to them and redirect them manually.”
“Great. Who controls the droids and backups?”
“The Colonel controls Wells and Agent Harper. The simulations then relay mass orders to their droids. Wells directs the police droids and Agent Harper commands the backups.”
Geri pointed at sim Cooper. “What about this simulation? When will it be ready?”
Rajul turned to the imager and tweaked it a little, then sealed the scalp with skin glue. “There. He just needs to be charged.”
Hasan yelped in her ear, “Hurry, Geri! Aimee could be in trouble!”
She winced from his whiny, high-pitched screech.
“One last thing. Is there a back door?”
“You just came in through it.”
“No, I mean for the simulations. So we can take over their controls.”
“Oh, yes. It’s Labam, after the Indian princess. Can we go now?”
“Yes, of course.” Geri stepped over to Rajul and patted his shoulder. “Thank you for all your help.” She squeezed a pressure point on his shoulder and he fell to the floor, unconscious.
Quickly dragging him into the room he came out of, apparently his bedroom, Geri got him onto the bed and left him snoozing. Then she shut and locked the door.
“Sorry, dude.”
Turning her camo cover back on, she took out the spare droid hand she’d taken from the maintenance building and attached the spark plug doohickey to charge it. Then she tried it on the door to the main house. It didn’t work.
Jared piped up. “I guess it needs the rest of the droid for it to work.”
&n
bsp; Wonderful. Geri threw down the useless appendage and grabbed the sleeping droid’s hand. When she used it on the lock, it opened. On her way out, she heard the door from the tunnel unlock. That must be the replacement droid coming in. She just made it.
Amazingly, she didn’t see any other droids in the basement, and sprinted up the stairs.
When she got to the landing, she had an opening on her left and a door on her right to choose from.
Hasan whispered to her, “He’s in there on your right.”
Of course it was the door with all the security locks on it. She decided to try the conventional way and knocked.
After several clicks, the door opened. A droid stuck his head out and looked around. With nothing to see, he shut the door again, but not before Geri slipped in under his arms.
Inside, she saw Cooper sitting helpless, confined to a metal chair facing the frames. He looked at the door, then the droid, and shook his head. He was just waiting to be rescued. She smiled, happy to oblige.
Once the droid was settled in place to monitor the room again, Geri positioned herself behind it. She chose another one of the remote signals Jared sent her and immobilized the droid’s movement and hearing, but left the camera on. To test him, she stomped her foot.
It didn’t budge.
But Cooper smiled and searched in her direction. “About time you got here.”
Geri moved to stand in front of Cooper, enjoying her invisibility. “You look like you could use some saving.”
Hasan shouted in Geri’s ear, “You must hurry!”
Geri winced again. She couldn’t wait to strangle that guy. Before helping Cooper, she stepped over to the control panel of the CC for the house and all the guard droid cams.
“Jared, I’m going to patch you in. Figure out a way to pause all the house guard droids so we can get out of here.” She plugged in her stick drive transmitter.
“Sure. Okay. I’ll try out the backdoor code.”
“Tell us when we can move.” While Jared worked on the droid cams, Geri examined Cooper’s restraints. “By the way, Cooper, Rajul made a simulation of you downstairs.”
