The Harmony Paradox (Virtual Immortality Book 2)

by Matthew S. Cox

  Joey split the camera view, watching the blonde Alexa run as if escaping a serial killer while the nude redhead unplugged the wire from the back of her neck, stood, and walked out in no particular hurry. An external camera offered a view of Division 1 patrol craft landing seconds before Alexa emerged from the factory. The police pointed weapons at her and ordered her to get on the ground.

  Oh, you sneaky little rattlesnake. You’re hiding your face from the cameras. He attacked the video files, using every trick in the Division 9 digital arsenal to peel back the edited video, but… it seemed genuine. It took him almost an hour of sifting back and forth over the file before he realized that as soon as Alexa plugged into the console, a Nicohaler disappeared from a desk. He backed up, played the video, and backed up again and again, watching the little tube disappear.

  Son of a bitch. The video wasn’t faked―he rendered it. I’ve been reviewing an animation. “Argh!” Who the fuck knows what happened in there…

  Intera hadn’t noticed the missing doll or filed a legal report about any stolen components. He figured either Shinigami had covered its tracks too well for their network people to find, or the whole thing had been a lie to allow Alexa to ‘return to society’ with Shinigami still inside, or perhaps Intera hadn’t thought the material losses worth enough to risk a potential inquiry about an illegal doll. If Intera knew an outside entity inhabited the doll, technically they hadn’t broken the law regarding ‘making people.’ They had only provided an empty body.

  He teleported to the Intera system, the Division 9 override allowing him to walk in like a ghost. In minutes, he stood in a virtual recreation of the factory floor, identical to what he’d seen on the video, only with the addition of control interfaces and status readouts at each stop on the assembly line.

  We could have a real problem if that thing amped itself up to military grade. He didn’t remember seeing anything that looked like Nano blades or other weaponized parts, but he didn’t trust himself to recognize what they’d look like during assembly, plus he didn’t believe that ‘animation’ represented reality. The AI had shown him what it wanted him to see. He accessed system logs of the date and time that the machinery had produced the redhead, but found only ‘self-test’ entries.

  Enough to answer anyone asking why they heard machinery operating at that hour.

  “Well, that was useless.”

  He debated visiting Penumbras, but hadn’t quite reached the point of being desperate enough to ask for help. He set to modifying a spider construct to check on any recent PID registrations for sentient dolls with red hair. Not that he expected Shinigami to even admit to being a doll on his ID… assuming he even bothered to get one using official channels. In order to transact anything with credits, he would need one. Sooner or later, he’d find something that didn’t match up. Fake PID, woman with red hair, transactions that seemed wonky. It creeped him out a bit that the AI chose to continue being a woman, but perhaps the choice had been tactical: society often assumed the harmlessness of a pretty face.

  “Oh yes…” He drew a nonexistent .45 Peacemaker from his hip and made a gunshot sound. “The reckonin’ is close at hand, friend.”

  he sky up ahead darkened much faster than Kenny liked. The dust storm had eaten a large part of the day and left them only about five hours of light for driving. He regretted not stopping by a ruined trailer park they’d passed a little while ago, but any extra distance only made him feel better. Camping out in the open had its benefits. Sure, the truck stood out like a kick me sign, but anything coming after them would have nothing to hide behind either.

  “Gonna be dark soon,” said Eldon.

  “Yup,” said Kenny.

  “How long are we going to push?” Kathy had one arm around Cielo, who slumped half-asleep in her lap, the other around Hayley who had spent most of the ride looking like a meditating monk.

  “Little bit more.” Kenny eyed the horizon; a spike of optimism at the sight of a square bump in the otherwise flat terrain raised his eyebrows. “I think I see something.”

  “What’cha got?” Eldon leaned forward.

  “Some kinda building. Maybe it’ll have a garage or something where we can hide the truck, if not, can still pull up close. Locals will be used to seeing the structure there, so they might not notice the truck so much.”

  A few minutes later, they got close enough to discern the shape of a sizable one-story building from the terrain. It had the appearance of a gargantuan adobe hut, though cracks in the stucco gave it away as fake. Metal lettering over the doorway spelled ‘Fiesta Grande’ next to a trio of cartoon tacos with big smiles and noodle-like limbs. Aside from the crumbling remains of green and orange plastic in the hollow lettering, the place didn’t seem too damaged.

  He drove closer to the building, over ground where hints of parking lot peeked out from below a layer of dirt. The ancient restaurant had the shape of a giant square. A row of wooden spars jutted out of the wall, though a few had fallen off. Obvious plastic ruined the illusion.

  “We got about ten minutes of light left.” Kenny shut down the diesel engine. “Be more comfortable to sleep inside.”

  “I’ll set the orbs on an automated patrol around the place.” Nasir tapped at his control board. “Setting up the sentry gun in the back to watch.”

  Kenny nodded and got out. “Lemme check the place out first.”

  Halcón, Gato, and Luna exited via the rear window to the truck bed. They collected their arrows, quivers, and compound bows.

  Eldon rounded the truck and walked beside him to the entrance.

  Predictably, the aluminum framed double doors had no glass left. Large canine tracks in the dust on the red tiled floor went in and out, but their size remained within the range of an ordinary animal.

  “Hello?” Kenny leaned his head in. “Anyone here?”

  Thirty seconds, and no answer later, he pushed the aluminum frame open, unconcerned with how loud it screeched. Hand on his pistol, he stepped past a host’s podium and eyed a room full of booth seats and tables on the right, and another room of only tables on the left. Far in the back on the right side, a sign dangled sideways from the ceiling with the word ‘restrooms’ on it. A faint hint of dead flesh teased at the air, but the pervasive smell of dirt overpowered it.

  Probably rats or something.

  “Anyone here? We don’t want any trouble, just lookin’ for a spot to sleep.”

  Eldon headed left, boots scuffing.

  Hayley and Alyssa crept in behind him.

  “Guess no one’s home.” Kenny exhaled. “Should be good for one night.”

  He walked back out to the truck to grab the bedrolls. Eldon took his, while Kathy raided the ration stores.

  “Good thing you over packed.” Kathy grinned, nodding toward the Scrag kids. “Still going to cut it a little close.”

  “We won’t need dinner for day three. We’ll be back in the city. Can hit a place on the way home. I don’t think I’ll feel much like cooking.” Kenny hauled the bedrolls over the side of the truck, smiling.

  While Nasir sent three orbs on a rotating patrol path around the building, everyone else set up a camp in the front area between the two dining rooms. The kids sat in a cluster near the wall opposite the foyer, pulling open their ration packs and devouring them. Kenny gave Halcón the side eye, as the boy sat cross-legged right next to Alyssa.

  She asked him what his tribe was like, and he started telling them about scavving. Ever since he’d been about nine, he’d gone out with groups to search for things their community could use. As the years passed, they had to go farther and farther from home to find places with stuff worth taking. Cielo was too little to go scavving, but something about that morning made him agree to bring the boy along. He didn’t want to be separated from his sister, and Halcón claimed the boy has ‘good instincts,’ which is why he trusted the boy’s suggestion that they go with Kenny’s group to the west.

  When it got dark, Halcón decided to bed down
on one of the padded bench seats along the right side. Kenny set up his sleeping bag near Kathy, with Hayley and Alyssa between them. Cielo crawled up on top of Kathy, and slid into the hollow between her and Hayley. Luna wriggled in between Kenny and Alyssa. Eldon let Gato take his sleeping bag, and propped himself up in a chair on the tables-only side, somewhat facing the door. Nasir dragged the host podium closer to the wall and laid it flat, setting up his bedroll behind it out of sight of the door.

  Kenny pulled his hat down over his eyes. Sleep. Yeah right.

  Luna passed out in seconds. The way she clung to his side made him wonder how long she’d been without parents. Scrags didn’t exactly have long lifespans. He glanced left, smiling at Alyssa’s protective arm over Hayley, and Kathy having rolled on her side to hold Cielo.

  Just going to hand them over to social services. Those kids have a lot of adjusting to do.

  The whirr of orb bots outside lulled him into a fitful sleep.

  Hayley’s whimpering dragged him awake. His limbs had gone leaden, his mind foggy. Kenny wiped at his eyes and yawned. Moonlight illuminated the interior to a point, enough to make out that Hayley tossed in her sleep, evidently frightened by her dreams. He exhaled a mental sigh of relief at being awakened by a nightmare rather than actual danger, and almost dismissed it until it occurred to him how quiet the place had gotten.

  The hum of small hover engines had ceased.

  A hand grasped his shoulder. He startled and slapped his grip around a thin wrist.

  Gato twitched, but didn’t cry out. Kenny locked eyes with the boy. Though only twelve, he had the confident stare of a hunter. The glittery pupils of the white cartoon cat face upon his pink t-shirt gleamed in the moonlight.

  “Something approaches,” whispered Gato, in Spanish.

  Kenny sat up, all traces of sleep gone from his mind. Luna woke in an instant and stared at him. Alyssa mumbled incoherently. Gato ran to Eldon, bare feet silent on the tile.

  Footsteps crunched on the dirt outside, accompanied by high-pitched whirrs and faint electronic squelching noises.

  Kenny scrambled out of his sleeping bag and grabbed Kathy and Alyssa by the shoulder, shaking them. “We got trouble coming.” He pulled Luna and Cielo close and pointed toward the dining area on the left. “Find a place to hide.”

  Luna collected her bow, pulled her quiver on over her shoulder, and dragged Cielo by the hand into the dining area.

  “Dad?” Alyssa sat up, wiping her face. “What time is it?”

  “Time to get your ass down. Something’s coming and it doesn’t sound friendly.” Kenny snagged his rifle from the floor.

  “Targets acquired,” croaked a voice somewhere between male and robotic.

  “Aww shit,” said Eldon.

  Kenny one-hand-tossed Hayley and Alyssa over the podium onto Nasir. “Stay down. El, what’cha got?”

  “Some kinda fucked up I ain’t never seen before.” Eldon slipped out of his chair and took up a firing position by the window.

  “Wha?” yelled Nasir. He sat up.

  Hayley popped up, aiming her handgun over the podium at the front door.

  “This is a bad spot,” whispered Alyssa. “This thing won’t stop bullets.”

  Halcón sprang out of the bench seat where he’d been sleeping, loaded an arrow, and sent it out the window in one smooth motion.

  A plastic clack preceded buzzing, and a semi-human voice repeating, “Error. Error.”

  “Shit.” Kenny scurried to the left, heading for the room with booths.

  He slid into cover behind the windowsill and brought his rifle up. Humanoid figures with glowing red eyes shambled toward the restaurant. Metal bits, wires, and tiny lights glinted in the moonlight beneath a clear plastic face. Transparent artificial skin covered them, suggesting their creators had bothered with only the most basic effort to make them look like people. One had a green Kevlar vest, with numerous holes, while the rest all wore identical dark jumpsuits. The moon didn’t provide enough light to make out any sort of insignia.

  An array of prewar rifles and handguns came to bear on the restaurant.

  The nearest of the shamblers had an arrow stuck in its head, a near-perfect shot between the eyes. It stood in place, twitching like a person having a mild seizure and not a fatal wound. Behind them, more identical figures emerged from the side door of a boxy transport truck. Distant metal squeaking heralded the approach of a second vehicle.

  “Uhh, yeah.” Kenny sighted at the nearest one. “Go ’head and shoot.”

  He shot at the one in the Kevlar first. Azure muzzle flare lit up the night in staccato flashes. Modern bullets punched precision holes in the centuries-old armor. Sparks flickered inside. After six bullets, the android collapsed.

  Eldon opened fire.

  “Nas!” yelled Kenny. “Where the hell are the bots?”

  Hayley fired a few shots out the front door.

  “Dammit, Hale, stay down!” yelled Kenny. “They might not shoot you if you look unarmed.”

  A gun went off outside; sharp pings came from the dining area; Luna and Cielo shrieked in fear.

  “Never mind,” shouted Kenny as he switched targets and fired in the direction of the orange muzzle flash. Sparks lit up beneath the android’s clear skin, making it quite visible.

  Kathy’s rifle barked and the sparking machine collapsed.

  “I’m trying!” yelled Nasir.

  “Down!” roared Eldon, as he dove away from the window.

  Hayley and Alyssa screamed and leapt flat on their stomachs. The slow boom-boom-boom of a machinegun shook the air from outside, sending bits of plaster, tile, and wood flying around. Kenny edged up to a thick column between windows and risked a peek out. Fire belched from a belt-fed weapon carried by another android in Kevlar. Nasir let off an agonized wail as the podium exploded in a shower of toothpicks.

  Kenny shifted to aim at the machine-gunner, but Gato and Halcón loosed arrows within a split second of each other, striking it in the face and chest. Kenny fired anyway. The android spun to its right, raking bullets in their direction.

  The boys dove, Halcón tackling Kenny to the floor. Metal clanked, glass bits shattered, and plaster dust rained down on them. Androids screamed in distorted, digital buzzing amid several loud crackling flickers of lightning and a humming noise.

  Seconds later, the machinegun went silent, so Kenny popped up. The gunner had spun around too far and hosed some of his buddies. Eldon and Kathy opened up on the staggering, sparking, humanoid machines. Kenny fired single shots at a time, not wanting to run out of ammo.

  “Nas?!” yelled Kenny.

  “He’s shot,” screamed Alyssa. “His side, but he fainted.”

  “Argh!” screamed Hayley. She stuffed her Hello Kitty pistol back on her belt and jumped on the bot panel.

  Alyssa hovered close to her, pistol raised at the windows, eyes wild with a feral mixture of vigilance and fear.

  An android appeared in the window at the far right end of the building. Alyssa spun and fired at it. She hit it twice out of four shots, which seemed to only confuse it, but her attack made Eldon aware of it trying to flank them. He put two bullets into its head, blasting the artificial skull into burning fragments. Flames crept down beneath its transparent neck into the chest, and it fell out of view.

  “Damn…” Kenny shot at three more out front. A whistling bullet came in and nailed him in the left pectoral, but didn’t penetrate his armored coat. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he slumped down. “Ow. Fuck. What are you aimin’ at that’s blowing their heads off?”

  “Ain’t that.” Eldon patted his Crusader rifle. “APEX rounds. Standard military load. Armor piercing explosive tipped. Those ’bots are pretty flimsy.”

  Growling and snarling came from outside a second before a persistent hydraulic whine.

  “Dogs!” yelled Halcón. “With metal in them.”

  A bright spotlight flicked on in the bed of the truck. The sentry turret extended itself u
pward until the barrel cleared the roof of the cabin. It whirled to face the androids, and three feet of blue fire belched from the barrel. The thunder of a 15mm machine gun pounded on Kenny’s brain and made everything feel mushy.

  Orange muzzle flare flickered in and out from random spots outside, at least seven different sources. Hisses and snaps sounded from everywhere. Fragments of wood and plastic hung like a blizzard in the air. Alyssa let out a noise like someone had slammed a rooster in a car door. She went from kneeling at Hayley’s side to slumped back against the wall, but kept firing her handgun out the window.

  One android emitted a loud buzz and burst into flames.

  “Liss!” shouted Kenny, tears gathering in his eyes.

  She wheezed, unable to speak as she pumped bullet after bullet into a floundering android in the doorway.

  The sentry turret whirled around 180 degrees and mowed down the burning one.

  Kathy edged to her left, closer to the room where the two smallest kids went to hide. Halcón and Gato crouched behind the windowsill, trusting the brickwork to stop bullets. Every so often, they’d pop up, let off a shot, and duck. Most of the time, their attacks left an android standing in place bewildered, with an arrow jammed in its head. While they didn’t seem capable of taking them down, their effort stopped the closest ones from opening fire into the restaurant long enough for Kenny or Kathy to finish them off.

  Eldon focused on the androids shooting back, leaving the ‘stunned’ ones for Kathy.

  “Son of a bitch,” muttered Eldon. He raised the Crusader a little higher and launched a grenade, which went off with a brief bang outside. Three androids flew apart into a scattering of limbs and sparking wires, shredded by fragments.

  “There’s another whole truck coming,” yelled Hayley. “I got it.”

  The sentry gun swiveled around, aiming over the hood to the right before erupting with a sustained burst of automatic fire.

  Six huge dogs with glowing red electronic eyes, metal claws, and tiny missile launchers grafted to metal plates on their shoulders leapt in the windows of the dining area. Fortunately, all of the missile tubes appeared empty.