Isidore is not someone who likes to bring people down with his own problems. He would rather suffer in hidden silence than reach out for help. He only goes to Blice occasionally for support and that's because Blice is his owner. Katarina used to sit outside the Oval Office late at night and listen to Isidore and Blice talking and crying with each other. It used to scare her when she was little. But now, she knows that it was the only way they were both able to keep living.
Byron pulls her down behind a forklift. "Okay. Once Blice gets this door open, I'll take point. You watch behind us and make sure nothing sneaky happens."
"Are you up for this?" Katarina asks.
"I'm feeling good enough today."
"Good enough? You can't keep doing this kind of stuff. I'm worried about you."
He glares at her. "I didn't marry you for you to be my mother, Kat."
She places her hand on his arm. "You're hurting and you're old."
"Never call me old, sweetheart." Byron spins his shotgun in his hands then fires twice, hitting a security camera that smokes as it is left useless.
Someone yells out assorted obscenities from below the armory doors.
Zach comes over the speakers on their watches. "So much for this being a covert infiltration."
"When have you people ever known me to do things quietly?" Byron asks as he loads his shot gun.
"Yah, I hear you and Kat every night." Blice says.
"You're damn right you do."
"You're proud of that?" Zach asks.
Blice laughs. "He's proud of anything involving women. He's Bryon Erikson."
"How's it going, Blice?"
"About thirty feet and I'll be at the end of this pipe. I'm not seeing any light, though."
"They must have the entire place in blackout to prevent people from trying what we're trying. The difference between someone else and us is that we have a pretty purple butterfly."
"Shut up."
"Don't pretend that you don't like being pretty. I know all about your alternate personality, Miss Lavender."
"I'm going to kill Isidore after we save him." Blice growls.
"He's not the one who told me. The internet did. I found some . . . interesting pictures of you when you were still human. You make a pretty woman, Blice." Zach says.
"This I have to see." Byron says.
"I'll send them to you later. Knowing how much you like women, I don't want them to distract you while you're working on this mission."
"Dude, he's my brother."
"Hey, I don't judge, man." Zach says. "Blice, you there?"
Silence.
"Blice, come in. Were you able to get into the main room?"
Still, Blice doesn't answer.
"Guys, has anyone heard from Blice?" Zach asks.
"No." Byron says. "The doors aren't opening yet, either."
"I've lost his signal. There's nothing, not even static."
"Because I turned it off, you idiots." Blice says as the doors slide open. "I can't work with you people bickering like school girls."
"School girls like you were in that one video?"
"I swear that I will make you pay for this. All of you will pay. Now's not the time for that. The doors should be open. Get climbing down into the armory and I'll come meet you there. I killed four guards while you were indulging yourself to my pictures, Zach."
"Just get moving. Byron and Kat, be careful going down there. Those ladders are twenty feet tall and it's pitch black. I don't want anyone getting hurt."
Katarina steadies herself as she places her feet on the first rung of the ladder and grips the sides tightly. She's never been afraid of heights, but something about descending a twenty foot ladder into the dangerous darkness of a terrorist hideout isn't helping her nerves. She can do this. She has to do this. Her father needs her.
"Kat, it's okay." Byron says as he starts down the one on the other side. "I'll be waiting for you down at the bottom. Once I'm down, I'll summon some fire so we can see better."
Oh yeah. Sometimes she forgets that he can control fire. "Thanks, Byron."
"No problem, sweetheart."
"Awe, you two are so cute together." Zach says mockingly. "Stop the sweet talking and man up. Yes, you need to man up as well, Kat. This is a battlefield now. There is no time for romance."
"Who died and made you drill sergeant?" Byron asks. "I had enough of pushy guards when I was in prison."
"Wait. You were in prison?" Zach asks.
"How did you not know that? I was one of the most wanted convicts in all of the Unified State."
"I know it's never a good idea to ask dangerous criminals why they were locked up, but I'll do it anyway. So what did the great Byron Erikson do to serve time?"
"I killed about sixty soldiers at a fueling station that I set on fire." Byron says. "Turns out that gasoline explodes when set on fire. Who knew?"
"Are you saying it was an accident?"
Byron chuckles. "That's funny. No. I had to get revenge on those bastards. Then a few years later, Isidore was blamed for it too. Ah, good times."
"Good times? Killing a bunch of people and being put in prison is your idea of a good time?"
"Sure. At least in prison, I got food that I didn't have to steal or kill for like I had been doing since I was a little boy. It was nice to have a warm place to sleep at night and a roof over my head. I didn't grow up in Paradise like Blice. The wasteland was a terrible place, still is. All right, Kat. I'm at the bottom."
All this time, she has been making her way steadily down the ladder while trying to ignore everyone on the radio. Sure, she knew about Byron being in prison . . . well, some of it. Like Isidore, Byron doesn't talk about his past much. Even if he was a violent and sort of dangerous person in the past, that's not the Byron she has grown to love as both her owner and her husband. She knows that he will stop at nothing to protect her and that makes her trust him even more. Nothing he could have done in his past will ever change that. He has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.
Byron was her first friend other than her father and when Isidore was busy with official business or meeting with people, Byron would take her out to the artificial lake where they would fish and have picnics together, sometimes taking Blice along just to keep him from complaining about never leaving the Presidential Palace. After Katarina's sixteenth birthday, Byron moved into her bedroom so they could be closer. That's when they really began to bond. Sure, it might have been Byron's attempts at training her to be the android he wanted, but she was eager to obey. Maybe it was his kindness. Maybe it was fear. Either way, she quickly fell for him and they shared their first kiss the next day.
Byron takes her hand and helps her down from the ladder before holding up his right hand where a flame dances in his palm. Now that they can see at least a bit better in the darkness, they look around at the bleak concrete walls and the hallway in front of them. "You ready, Kat?"
Not really. "Sure."
"Take this." He hands her a 9mm handgun. "Don't lose it. It's Doss's."
"Thanks."
"You can keep seeing him if you want."
Where did that come from? She follows behind Byron into the darkness. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm not stupid. As long as you come home to me at night, you can flitter around wherever you want. I'm not gonna force you to stay tethered to just me."
"I haven't been flittering anywhere." Katarina says.
"Sure. Give it a couple of months. I see how you are when I mention Doss. You used to look at me like that."
"Byron, please don't do this right now."
"Baby, I'm not upset. That's what I'm trying to tell you. If I was once living with two strippers at one time, I think I can give you a little bit of leniency with our relationship. I'm not like other guys. Exclusivity just isn't in my blood."
Zach clears his throat. "We can hear you two, you know? By the way, I didn't know you could use big words, Byron. So, does this mean
I can have a go with Kat?"
"No." Katarina says as they step through a narrow corridor with water dripping down from cracks in the ceiling into puddles that have collected on the floor. Something moves in the shadows at the base of the wall to her right and she jumps as a large rat scurries past. "Was that a rat?"
"Looked like it. Pretty rare. Remember it. That one might be the last of his kind." Byron quickly pushes her up against the wall and extinguishes his flames. "Shh. Hear that?"
Katarina listens closely to the voices on the other side of the wall. "That's the man from the television broadcast."
Byron holds his watch close to his mouth as he whispers. "Hey, Zach, we're close to the area they've been streaming from. I don't want to go knocking on their door like I'm trying to sell cookies."
"Then what are you going to do?" Zach asks.
"Well . . . I was thinking about using this C4 that I stole from Doss."
"Don't. You'll give everything away. There's no telling how many hostiles there are in there. Besides, what if Isidore is on the other side?"
"Can't you find out right quick?"
"Okay, fine. He's not. But don't do anything stupid, Byron. You can't solve every problem with explosions."
Byron takes something out of his pocket and adheres it to the wall. "But this one I can." He takes Katarina's hand and runs out of the tunnel and back to the ladders before pressing the button on the remote detonator. As soon as he does, the explosion shakes the place, sending concrete down from up above them. "Let's go check out my masterpiece."
Crazy M.A.G.E. How did she ever think it was a good idea to get involved with this man? She follows him back down into the darkness then grabs onto him when the walls tremble again and an alarm sounds.
"Good job, Byron. You destroyed one of the primary support columns down there." Zach says. "That entire place could come crumbling down on top of you."
Byron pushes a chunk of concrete out of the way and motions for Katarina to follow him. Someone shouts at him, but he unloads his shotgun into them without a moment's hesitation. "Get in here, Kat."
She climbs over the rubble left over from the explosion and steps into the room. It's the same one from on the television. Whoever was in here before the explosion isn't anymore. Her hand is tight around the pistol as she moves around the area looking for any signs of Isidore. The bright lights flicker as more parts of ceiling drop down and crash on a few tables in the far corner of the room. A large streak of dark blood spans the length of the room. Katarina feels sick when she sees the rows and boxes of torture devices that are still coated with Isidore's blood. The cameras that had been filming are now on the floor, one of them in pieces. She looks up as Blice flutters into the room and lands on her shoulder.
"Hey, Nika." Blice says.
"Good job."
"It's what I do."
"This way." Byron calls for them from a door in the wall. "There's more blood on the floor leading through here. If we follow the blood, we'll find your father."
Zach's voice comes over the speakers on their watches. "Okay, guys. According to Isidore's tracking device, he is about fifty feet in front of you."
Kazimir, who has been silent up until now, is the next to speak. "Isidore's heart just stopped."
"No, no. We're so close." Blice says.
"All of his processes have stopped." Zach says. "Abandon the mission."
"Not a chance." Blice says. "We can repair him. If we have to, we can do a full system reboot. I've never given up on him before and I don't plan on starting that now."
"Sounds like you do care, Blice." Byron says.
"I've always cared. I owe him my life so I'm sure as hell not going to let him die before me."
Byron pushes the door open and they walk down the dimly lit hallway as the alarms continue to sound around them. The blood leads them to another door on the right. "I'll go in first and deal with anyone inside. Kat . . . I don't want you to see what might be in here."
"Byron, I'll be okay."
"All right." With one powerful kick, Byron forces the door open. He immediately drops his shot gun to the floor and runs inside.
Katarina peeks around the corner and has to look away. So much blood. She falls to her knees and vomits. She tried to be strong, but this is beyond anything she expected to see.
Blice calls for her from inside the room. "Kat, we need your help."
It takes all of her remaining fortitude to stand and go into the room. She tries to not look at it all or at Isidore who is pale, limp, and lifeless and barely recognizable. How could they do this to him in just a few hours?
"Help me get him up on my shoulders." Byron says. "We have to get him out of here before they come back. I don't know if we can save his life, but Isidore is too good of a man to die in a place like this."
Katarina closes her eyes as she helps lift up Isidore so Byron can carry him. Her eyes burn with tears. She tried to be strong and not let it affect her so much, but it's just too much for her to handle. This is by far the worst thing she has ever seen. It hits her hard to know it's her father who is usually so caring, friendly, and proud, who has been beaten and broken in this horrific animalistic manner. As she wipes her father's blood from her hands onto her pants, a disturbing revelation enters into her mind. If humans were the ones who did this, then what is stopping them from continuing this kind of tragic savagery in the future? How can they say that androids are the ones capable of intense hatred when they do this to an innocent android who only wanted to keep both sides content and not killing each other? The voice over the speaker breaks her out of her morbid thoughts about humanity.
"Did you find Isidore?" Zach asks.
Byron leads the way out of the room. "We have him, but it's not good. He has a very faint heartbeat. Any word on where the enemies are?"
"Seems like they scattered when they heard your explosion. Good new, boys. We got some inquisitors en route to your location. Oh, and there's an elevator at the end of the hallway."
Byron sighs angrily. "An elevator? You're telling me that we had to come in down those ladders and through a nasty tunnel when there was an elevator right here the entire time?"
"We couldn't risk you being caught. Now stop complaining and get up above ground before that bunker falls apart. I'm not going to come rescue all of you."
16
Blice watches Isidore who is strapped down to an operating table while Kazimir and Zach work on him with the help of some of Zach's cyborgs who seem to actually know quite a bit about T.I.M.E. technology. They've been working for nearly twelve hours straight and they've made some progress. After shutting Isidore down completely then restarting him three times, they managed to get his brain and heart working correctly.
Their initial fears regarding the extent of the mutilation were confirmed and it's tearing Blice apart to see his friend like this. Even if Isidore wanted to find another woman and get married or have more children, those thoughts are forever destroyed. While androids have regenerative skin, they can't regrow body parts.
How many more times will Blice be forced to watch Isidore be brought back from the edge of demise? It's been too many times already and each time, it is torture for him. If he could take Isidore's place there on that table with the monitors hooked up to him, he would in an instant without any hesitation. Over the past few years, their relationship has deteriorated far more than Blice ever wanted it to, but the basis of it all is still there. He's seen it on those lonely dark nights when Isidore has a nightmare, like he used to have so often when they were younger, and comes to Blice for comfort. It's in those tender moments that he knows it has all been worth sticking around even in this form. If he can make Isidore's life at least a tiny bit better for one night here and there, then he'll continue to exist.
"Good work, everyone." Kazimir says as he strips off his blood-covered latex gloves and wipes the sweat from his face. "I think he's going to be fine, well . . . as fine as he can be. But that is a problem for
another day."
Blice flies up to Kazimir and lands on his shoulder. "Thank you for your hard work."
"Hey, you aren't the only one who cares about him."
"I actually wanted to see if you could help him with something when he wakes up."
"The drugs?"
"How did you know?" Blice asks.
"Blice, I've been alive long enough to see the signs." Kazimir says. "Besides, Isidore is probably the worst at hiding it. But yes, I am going to have a serious conversation with all three of my little creations to discuss some things and get to the bottom of others. Doss, Remi, and Isidore are going to have a rude awakening when I lay down some ground rules. They will learn that I mean business and some of their behaviors have been abhorrent, especially those of my archons. It's disgraceful and insulting. And if Doss has done what I think he has, then we may very well be losing someone."
* * *
Isidore has been staring at his reflection in the mirror on the wall in the lounge of Zach's lab for two hours. The swollen abrasions and gashes on his face are healing and he is still remembering details about last night. Most of it is still a blurry haze of confusion and pain. If he had his way, he would just erase all memories of it and be done with it. Then maybe he could pick up the pieces and move on with what he has left of his life. He knows it is dangerous to focus on this for so long, but he is having to come to terms with things. Or he could pretend that nothing has changed. Yes, he'll do that. He slips the vial of nanochems and the syringe into the pocket of his jacket that is draped over the back of the chair. He can't risk anyone finding out that he's still using them.
He pours himself a cup of coffee and drops four sugar cubes in it. The others are just now starting to wake up from where they passed out early this morning. They'll undoubtedly be surprised to see that he has recovered so much in this extremely short amount of time, but it's not surprising to him. After the amount of regenerative nanobots that Kazimir pumped into his body, he might just live forever. Of course, he's not fully recovered yet and he's very much in pain, but the morphine IV in his arm is helping that aspect. He can't move around or do much, but he's alive and that's better than they thought he'd be.
Paradise Awakened Trilogy Page 12
