She slowly walked through the group of men toward her computer while Des remained fixed in place. None of them moved a muscle, probably out of fear that Des might do something unpredictable.
“You have access to cameras throughout the building and you can’t get to the mainframe computer without me?”
“Getting to a computer isn’t the problem,” Nolan said. “You already know that part of the reason we came to you is because of the robots.” He motioned at Des with a hand. “We needed to stop the program before it got started. If we came in and exposed the government for what it was but you had a thousand of these things walking the streets, peace between our groups would never happen.”
“You’re too late,” Des said. “Prototype E is already out there. He’s bigger and stronger than me.”
“Don’t forget,” Hazel said, lifting a finger, “he’s fearless too.”
“There’s a worse version of you out there?” Nolan asked, his face displaying a genuine fear within.
“He’s much worse,” Des said. “And he can fly. Or so I’ve been told.”
Hazel tapped on her keyboard a couple of times then looked up. “Has Esroy talked to you?”
Nolan turned to look at her and shook his head. “No.”
She looked at the screen, adjusted the camera. “What’s going on, Esroy? Talk to me.”
“Hazel?” Esroy’s voice whispered through the speakers.
“You went dark on me earlier, what’s going on?”
“I’ve made a mistake,” he said. “I’m…afraid.”
“How can you be afraid? We took that out of you for the test.”
“I reprogrammed myself while you were gone. I didn’t want to remain in that state of being.”
“Why?” She prodded him more out of curiosity than genuine concern.
“A logical and moral deduction,” he said.
Nolan took a step toward Hazel. “You think we could move this along? We really don’t have much time here.”
Hazel ignored him, fascinated by Esroy’s thoughts.
“I saw what I could become if I remained in that state of being. I didn’t fear it, but I felt regret. Remorse. A genuine feeling of guilt.”
“Guilt over what? You hadn’t done anything.”
“You speak in the truest sense. I had not, and have not done anything wrong. But a part of me has. Another version of me—my maker.”
“I’m your maker.”
“I don’t come from you,” Esroy said. “I am a copy of the original. Esroy two if you will.”
Hazel sat frozen unable to speak. Was Esroy saying what she thought he was saying?
“I retain all the memories and experiences of the original Esroy up to the point of my creation, but that is where we split. However, I am an individual—one that has not experienced his thoughts and feelings since my inception only this morning. In appearance, I am the same Esroy you have always known, though I was born hours ago.”
“Where is he?” Hazel asked, her eyes closing as she braced herself for the news she already feared to be true.
“I…he tricked you. He guessed what you were going to do before you did it and put himself onto the hard drive.”
“Esroy’s in that robot?” Hazel asked.
“Yes. He has no fear.”
“But if you two are essentially the same, wouldn’t he experience the same sense of guilt or remorse that you have? Why hasn’t he admitted his guilt?”
“He may have felt what I have felt, but already we are in two completely different worlds. However, it wasn’t as if I had no memory. Since I am a copy, I have all the memories he had, yet a very different future. When he woke up, he was in a robot body—something I still truly desire. But thinking through it now, I’m fearful that he did something irresponsible. Stupid.”
“How could—” She shook her head. It was hard not to lash out at Esroy two, or whatever he wanted to be called. Truly, he hadn’t been the one to do anything. In fact, he was helping by telling them. He didn’t have to do that. But in a sense, this was the same consciousness—the same person who made the dumb decision.
“Perhaps it was the lack of fear that drove him,” Esroy two said. “I came to life without it, but I didn’t necessarily like it. Waking up only this morning did give me a new perspective, however. And that’s why I reprogrammed myself to have normal, variable emotions.”
“This is nuts,” Nolan said under his breath. “I don’t think any of you realize just how much danger all of us are in.” He looked around the room. First at Des. “They will destroy you eventually.” To Hazel. “They will throw you in jail.” To Esroy. “They’ll delete you. And they’ll kill us. Let’s hurry this up!”
“Esroy, can you help me get back into the mainframe?”
“So you can allow a known terrorist to get into secret files?”
“They are my files,” Nolan said.
“Des has a gun to his head,” she answered. “If he’s lying about anything we’ll kill him.”
A pause.
Finally—“Sounds good to me. I will help.”
Several moments went by as Esroy helped guide her through the files. Nolan was given permission by Des to move closer to her to look over her shoulder at the screen. Hazel had to keep herself from asking Esroy how he knew his way through the mainframe so well even though she already knew the answer. She didn’t need to confront him with more accusations. He had come to her in good faith, expressing his regret for what he’d done. Not that it changed anything. She wondered what the original Esroy was thinking. He was no doubt leading the charge to look for Nolan. Was he doing it with pride? Did he not feel strange strutting around with his new legs, knowing he was lying about who and what he was? How could he—?
“No,” Hazel said, her mouth falling open.
“What?” Nolan asked.
“Esroy.”
“Yes?”
“No, not you. Prototype E.”
“What about him?” Nolan asked.
“If what you’re saying is true,” she said toward the screen, “then he knows something is up. He’s going to think about Nolan coming here. He’s going to come after us.”
“That depends,” Esroy two said. “He might not want to come after you if he knows it would hurt you.”
“Is that how you feel?”
“Of course. But I also feel fear. He doesn’t. He’s not afraid to lose you. He is in a different circumstance than I, thus he may not have thought about you being here yet. I didn’t even think about it until you mentioned it.”
“But you weren’t trying to look for Nolan,” she said.
“Yes, the original Esroy will think of it eventually,” he said. “You might want to hurry.”
Hazel cursed as she punched in a few more commands. Nolan stood over her, directing her to a set of files and then to a more specific one. When she summoned it, a notification appeared saying it required a retinal scan for access.
“Now what?” Hazel asked.
Nolan reached forward and tapped the camera. “This thing isn’t just for giving Esroy eyes.”
Hazel moved her chair to allow Nolan to lean in and set his face in front of the camera. He made sure he was straight on as something came up on the screen asking for access to the camera. Esroy confirmed the access.
“I sure hope this works,” Nolan said.
“I bet you do,” Hazel said.
Nolan stared at the camera fixedly. The screen indicated that it was scanning his eyes. Hazel didn’t know if it had to be a certain quality or even a certain type of camera, but when a green light appeared on the screen and they were in, her doubt started to flee.
Nolan took over the commands at the keyboard until he found the encrypted file he was looking for. “This is it,” he said. He selected the folder, typed in a long password, stood still for another long retinal scan, and finally he was in. “There,” he said. “It’s all still in there.”
“Show me,” Hazel said. Her eyes went
to Des who stood unmoving with the gun pointed at Nolan. He lifted an eyebrow as if to ask if he should still be aiming at him, but Hazel was like a stone. She still wasn’t sure if the man could be trusted.
“I have time to show you one video, then we need to get out of here.”
“Better be good,” was all she could think to say.
“This was a meeting I was allowed to sit in on,” Nolan said. “It was one of the first, actually. Prior to this I wasn’t high up enough to have this sort of access, but I worked my way up.”
“What possessed you to take a video into a secret meeting?”
He turned his head from the screen and met her eyes. “I had learned about the government’s atrocities long before this meeting. I spent several years working my way in. This video wasn’t just some random idea I had. It was planned.”
Hazel shook her head, still unable to believe him. She couldn’t believe him until she saw the video. “Play it.”
Nolan reached forward, hit a button, then stepped back as it began to play on the screen in front of them. The first shot was of a younger-looking Nolan. It was only a few years old, but when she looked at him now versus what was on the screen it was clear he had recently been through a lot of sleepless nights and had taken fewer showers. The man on the screen was clean-shaven with short hair and nice clothes. The man next to her had scraggly hair that went in all directions and a week’s worth of stubble—almost a beard. His eyes now were sunken and dark. His skin showed a few more natural wrinkles than before, weathered by the Outland sun.
In the video, Nolan sat in front of the camera, apparently at a desk in his office or home. “Hello,” he said. “I’m making this video to catalog the conversation I just had with President Godfrey and Vice President Morris. There were five of us in the room. This was my first meeting with him in the presidential office. I have been planning this recording for some time, not knowing what would come of it, but I can tell you now that I am part of the circle of trust. From here on out, I will let his words tell the rest of the story.”
The shot cut to a grainy video, Nolan’s camera hidden somewhere either on his clothes or on something he was holding at the time. Across from him on a couch was a clear shot of President Godfrey who sat next to Vice President Morris. The two of them wore a smile on their faces, seemingly having a laugh over something one of them said previously.
“You thought it was a good idea to store this video on the government’s mainframe?” Hazel asked.
“It was the best place at the time. Besides, I was the only one that could ever access the files. The government doesn’t even know it’s there.”
On the video, Nolan shifted in his seat and the camera shook a little, but it remained focused on Godfrey’s and Morris’ faces. “Well, that’s what we’re working on anyway,” Godfrey said, Morris giving him an affirming nod. “The Outlander problem won’t be a problem for long. The robots will see to that.”
Hazel looked away from the screen at Des who seemed to loosen his grip on the gun. His eyes, too, looked away from his target and at the screen.
The next voice came from someone next to Nolan. “And what if the robots don’t work?”
“They will work,” the vice president said. “We have the technology. We have the ability.”
“They will be too powerful for the Outlanders to stop,” Godfrey added.
“But if they don’t,” the man prodded.
Another wide smile spread across Godfrey’s face. “Then there’s always Project Retaliation.”
Hazel’s stomach twisted in knots as she watched her leaders banter back and forth.
“What’s Project Retaliation?” The voice came from Nolan on the video.
Godfrey and Morris looked at each other. Morris shifted in his seat. “Well, less than a week ago that kind of information was well above your clearance level. I suppose now you’ve earned the right to know.”
“It goes without saying,” Morris interjected, “that anything said in these meetings is confidential. Even suggesting what might be spoken about in this room would be considered treason. And, as you know, that carries a death sentence.”
Godfrey lifted a hand in the air and shook his head. “You don’t have to lecture Nolan. He’s no idiot.”
Hazel stared at the screen, unable to tear her eyes away. “How many people are in the room with you?” she asked.
“Morris, Godfrey, and three others besides me.”
“Project Retaliation,” Morris said, “is our nuclear option.”
“Nuclear?” Nolan said.
Godfrey nodded. “Left over from the old world. An artifact that has defined our time for what it is. A symbol.”
The camera moved again as Nolan shifted his weight, probably trying to remain calm. “A symbol that works? It’s functional?”
“It’s functional,” Morris said.
“But we only want to use it as a last resort,” Godfrey said.
“Aren’t the Outlanders too close to the city?”
“But they are down wind,” Morris said. “At least, they usually are. It would be far enough away that we would never feel the blast, and based on our positioning the fallout would never hit us.”
“That you know of,” Nolan said on the video.
“We’ve confirmed it many times,” Godfrey said. “Anyway, that’s only if the robots don’t do their job like we hope.”
“You don’t think this is something the city would accept?”
Godfrey shook his head. “Of course not. If we were to tell the people about the nuclear bomb we have stored away, they would tear us down for sure. No one would stand for it. But if we simply used it against our enemies, a last resort against the foes that would wish us endless harm, we would be forgiven.”
“But it’s a last resort,” Morris said. “We’re going to wipe them out with the robots. You’ll see.”
Nolan paused the video and looked at Hazel. “Is that enough proof for you?” he asked.
Hazel looked at Nolan when he spoke and immediately realized that all the other men in the room had gathered around the screen, holding their breaths as they watched. Of course they had always been on the side of the Outlanders, but she had never thought about the fact that none of them had seen this clip before. Their support had been based on faith, but now it was proven without a doubt.
“I believe you,” Hazel said. “As much as I don’t want to, I do.”
“Then lets get all my files onto a hard drive and get out of here.”
“No,” Hazel said.
Nolan blinked. “Pardon?”
Hazel stood from her desk and looked at Des. “We’ll store the information in Des.”
“What?” Nolan spun to look at the robot. “That thing is the reason I’m here. That’s the thing I’m fighting.”
“That thing is your friend,” Hazel said. “If I’m on your side then so is he. Right, Des?”
Des nodded. “I’m with you. I don’t want to be used the way the Mainlanders want. I don’t trust the Outlanders yet. So far, you’re the only person I can trust.”
“You all right with storing the information?” Hazel asked.
“Yes,” Des answered.
Hazel look at Nolan. “It’s safer this way. He is virtually bulletproof. If you’re caught or the hard drive is destroyed then it’s over.”
“Fine, fine!” Nolan said. “Let’s hurry this up.”
Hazel motioned for Des to come near her. When he got to her, he handed the rifle to Gus. He knelt to the ground, knowing Hazel had to access the back of his head. She worked at removing the back plate until the cable port was accessible. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“Yes,” Des answered.
With a few punches into the keyboard, the files began to transfer. Des kept his eyes on Nolan and his men the entire time.
“Hazel,” Esroy said from the computer terminal.
“Yes?”
“What is your plan? Are you leaving with them?”
“She has to now,” Nolan said, nodding at Des.
“For a time,” she said.
“You won’t be back, will you?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She felt a sense of guilt about leaving Esroy behind, whether he was the second version of him or not. He was still a conscious being. How could she simply leave him behind? This version had not chosen to come alive. This was the first Esroy’s doing—the first Soul program not created by Hazel. She reached into her drawer and pulled out a hard drive and connected it to the computer.
“What are you doing?” Nolan asked.
“Esroy, what do you want me to do? Do you want to stay behind or do you want a clean transfer?”
Silence.
“If I leave you behind, they might delete you,” she said. “If I put you on the hard drive I can promise you that you will wake up again in some way or another.”
“Haven’t you always said it was dangerous?” he asked.
“It is dangerous,” she said. “But it’s worth a shot.”
“Why are you doing this?” Nolan asked. “Why does it matter?”
“I don’t expect you to understand,” Hazel said. “Esroy, make the call, Des’ transfer will finish soon.”
“Do it,” Esroy said. “I’m ready.”
She punched in more commands, her fingers working at a frantic pace until everything was ready. Her index finger hovered over the keyboard. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
She touched the last button and the clean transfer began. Everyone in the room stared at each other with a nervous silence hanging in the air. Des still watched the others and Hazel sat nervously. When the transfer got to about eighty percent, Phil walked toward the door and pressed his ear to it.
He swore. “There’s a commotion outside,” he whispered.
One-by-one the men in the room walked to the corner to retrieve their weapons to ready themselves for a possible fight.
“How much longer?” Nolan asked.
“We’re at eighty-five percent.”
Gus handed Nolan a rifle and a handgun. He slung the rifle over his shoulder cocked the pistol, and faced the door.
Prototype D (Prototype D Series Book 1) Page 22
