He opened the door to the sleeping quarters. The lights were dimmed.
Jazzlyn’s cube was empty. X wondered where she was; it had been a few hours since she’d left.
He started for his and Shortcut’s cube. Shortcut was snoring so loudly that X could hear it from the other end of the room. He had forgotten to pull the shades before he fell asleep, and X shook his head at Shortcut’s foolishness.
As he neared, he saw a man in a hoodie peeping into the cube. The man was a gang member, and his lens lit up as he scanned Shortcut’s belongings. Meanwhile, Shortcut’s snores rattled the walls.
X activated his guns and started for the man, but the man saw X’s reflection in the window and bolted down the hallway.
X’s algorithm chip buzzed, but he ran anyway. He had to detain the man. He thought of a million scenarios, and knew he had to keep the man alive at all costs.
He sprinted down the hallway, but the man was fast. He burst through the door and into the night, running across the street full of traffic. X followed, and his algorithm chip told him exactly where to run and how to pace his steps to avoid getting hit by a car. He followed the man down an empty street and fired a warning shot.
The man jumped and ducked, looking back. He flipped X off and rounded a corner into what looked like a giant forest. Hundreds of white, synthetic mushroom-like structures loomed overhead, each twenty feet tall with green, pulsing track lights on their undersides.
X slid to a stop and scanned the area.
Solar cells.
The forest stretched for an entire block, the telltale sign of the district’s renewable power source. The cells hummed gently as moonlight shone through the canopy, creating circles of light here and there on the ground.
X looked for the man, but couldn’t find him in the shadows. He activated his thermal scanner and located a lone figure one hundred feet ahead. His algorithm chip buzzed and he moved slowly through the forest, moving between and around the cells but still taking the fastest route to the man.
The man stopped and looked back, and X hid behind a solar cell tower with graffiti all over it. He took a rock and threw it; it bounced off a tower, and the man spooked and ran in a different direction—a diagonal path that made him easier to catch.
X took off through the darkness and closed the gap. He wasn’t going to lose him now.
But suddenly, the heat signature disappeared from his scanner. It was as if the man was never there.
He stopped and recalculated as his algorithm chip buzzed. He ran quietly to the man’s location just before the signal had disappeared, and saw a manhole with its cover removed.
He aimed into the hole, but he couldn’t see anything.
His algorithm chip buzzed relentlessly, and he knew that going down would be too dangerous.
He pulled up a GPS map of the city and located the sewer grid, looking for all the potential places the hood might pop up. He decided it would be better to take a chance on intercepting him aboveground than going into the hole.
He selected a location and was getting ready to run toward it when he heard a sound from above. Looking up, he saw an electric net falling through the sky. It landed over him and voltage surged through his body. He tried to fight his way out, but the net’s loose ends closed around him, creating a blob-like shape with him inside. Several gang members jumped down from the tops of the mushroom cells, grinning at him.
X tried to rip the net off, but the voltage increased and brought him to his knees.
Electrical net. Conducts electricity when it comes into contact with skin and metal surfaces. To draw a knife or fire a bullet would cause self-destruction.
The man he had been chasing climbed out of the manhole. “You must not be that smart if we outsmarted you,” he said.
X’s language system shut down and he could no longer speak. He tried to stand, but the net held him tight. One by one, the rest of his systems switched off. His vision was the last to go, and the last things he saw were the gang members circling over him, their eyes glowing like evil stars in the moonlight.
Chapter 7
Jazzlyn ran across a rope bridge, dodging bullets from Lax’s gang. Several bullets struck the ropes and the bridge started to break in half. She grabbed onto a rope and swung through the air, kicking her way through a window as the bridge slapped against the side of an office building. She landed in an empty room and rolled across the floor.
“Lax, you bastard,” she said, pulling herself into a run through the abandoned building. She zigzagged through a maze of cubicles, staying low and running as fast as she could while trying to avoid trash and broken glass on the floor. The smell of filth and mold crowded her nostrils, but she tried not to think about it, even as she stepped in a pile of vomit.
She and Lax were supposed to have an agreement. She had thought he was going to shake her hand when he’d pulled his hand out of his pocket, but instead, he had pulled a gun on her. So much for letting things go.
She burst out of another window and onto a rooftop. A few of Lax’s men jumped off a neighboring building and landed next to her, and she shot them before they hit the ground.
She climbed up a ladder onto another roof near a water tower. The legs of the tower were missing bolts. She pushed the tower over and it rolled toward the men, making them jump out of the way.
She slid down a fire escape as more shots fired in her direction. She activated Smoochums and her cockroaches, and they formed a force field around her, catching an occasional bullet.
She crawled through an open apartment window, the cockroaches orbiting her, then kicked open the door and burst into the hallway. A gang member appeared down the hall, and she jumped into the air, ran along the wall, and kicked him in the head as she passed. He yelled in pain and aimed his gun at her.
Smoochums chirruped, signaling that a bullet was on its way toward her. Jumping through a transom window, she landed in an ammunition room, pulled out a grenade and tossed it on the floor. Then she dashed out of the room, dodging another bullet from the man in the hallway. She forced her way into another apartment, climbed out the window and landed in the street. The grenade detonated, and the building exploded behind her.
Smoke and cinder filled the sky, and she saw several gang members on a nearby roof shield themselves and retreat.
She dashed into the darkness of a nearby building, not looking back.
It got quieter as she made her way toward the hotel. She stood on a rooftop and watched the burning building far in the distance.
“I’m sick of this,” she said, wiping sweat from her cheek. “I’m tired of all this fighting.”
She had barely dodged Lax’s bullet. If she hadn’t moved her head two inches to the right, she’d be dead right now.
She had never been that close to a bullet before. She’d had guns to her head; she’d known what it felt like to be near death. But this was the closest she’d ever come, and her heart wouldn’t stop thumping against her chest as she thought about it.
She ran some more, her lungs beating so hard they seemed like they were going to fly away. She thought of X and Shortcut, how they’d likely be talking trash about her right now.
She remembered back, before all of this had ever happened, before she lived on the streets, back when she was studying plants and replanting endangered species with her parents in Europe. How happy she had been. How innocent. How naive.
How, when UEA androids had come to raid her home, she tried to fight back and they shot her father. How he survived, but with ugly scars across his chest, and unable to walk or plant flowers. How she had to wheel him through the gardens so he could see his creations, but could never touch them.
How he had told her that he didn’t blame her, and that he was proud of her for standing up, and that the world would truly be a better place if more people stood up for what they believed in. He made her promise that she would never back down ever again, no matter what.
He died a few years after that
, a shell of his former self, and her mother died of a broken heart. Jazzlyn was alone, with no one in the world to help her. The handful of cockroaches that her father had created were the only things left over from her past life. No money. Just her own ingenuity. She had to make money somehow, and since she was in the badlands, the answer wasn’t that difficult and the commodity not that hard to find—android parts.
She saw Lax’s bullet in her mind’s eye again. Many bullets had ripped past her before, but at least during those times she had been fighting for food. For survival. This time, she was just fighting for some crappy UEA cause.
She didn’t want to die for nothing. She felt a pang in her stomach that was unfamiliar. Maybe hunger? But she knew that feeling well enough. As she ran further, sweat stinging her eyes, she realized the feeling was fear. Weakness. Vulnerability. And loss.
Longing for a past life, but knowing that it would never return.
She shook two tears from her eyes and focused on the darkness ahead. Suddenly, Lax dropped from the sky and landed in front of her.
She slid to a stop and drew her guns.
“You didn’t think you could get away, did you?” Lax asked.
“Back off!”
“Tell me why you’re really working with the UEA.”
They circled each other.
“I told you.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I told you!”
“Once a liar, always a liar. You know what they say: back a liar into a corner and the third lie they tell is actually the truth.”
“I’m trying to find my way,” Jazzlyn said. “I need to get this ankle bracelet off. That’s the truth. But now I can’t trust you.”
Lax shrugged. “Nope, you can’t.”
He ran at her and she ducked underneath him, punching him in the stomach as she slipped by. He fired at her, but Smoochums snatched the bullet out of the air.
“Clever trick,” Lax said. “You always did like technology.”
Jazzlyn jumped into the air and landed a kick on his shoulder. They took turns trading blows and parrying.
“There’s no point in doing this,” Jazzlyn said, ducking under a punch. “It’s going to end in death.”
“Your death.”
“You know your mistake?” she asked, backflipping away. “You mistake my actions for my character. You have no idea what my intrinsic traits are. We’re stuck in the badlands. We have to do what we have to do.”
“Psychology won’t work on me.”
She punched him in the face, took his gun and pointed it at him. “Believe it.”
She shot Lax in the shoulder. He screamed and cursed at her.
“To make sure I get away,” she said, tucking his gun into her belt.
Lax fell back against the wall, clutching his shoulder. “You got lucky this time.”
Jazzlyn ran, zigzagging through streets to make sure no one was following her. She tried not to think—just get away. Smoochums cooed in her ear and tried to comfort her, but she wiped more tears as she ran.
When she was several blocks from the hotel, she rounded a corner and came face-to-face with Shortcut, who had his electric rod drawn with purple sparks flying from the end.
“There you are,” he said.
Jazzlyn stumbled at the sight of him and fell on her back.
“I was beginning to think you ran away,” Shortcut said. His eyes were red and he blinked hard every few seconds.
“What’s the matter with you?” Jazzlyn asked. “You feel okay?”
“Where’s X?” Shortcut asked. “He didn’t come back from his walk.”
“It’s not my job to babysit him. Can’t you track his homing beacon?”
“It was deactivated.”
Jazzlyn cursed.
Shortcut studied her, and then his face went long. “What did you do?”
“Nothing that wouldn’t have happened already.”
Shortcut swung his rod at her, but she jumped back. “You betrayed us.”
“If I betrayed you, you wouldn’t be alive.”
“Where’s X!” Shortcut screamed again. “Why are you panting so hard? Did you kidnap him?”
“Like I can kidnap a three-hundred-pound android. Get real. Stop swinging at me!”
“X should have finished you off when he had the chance. You’re cancer. Cancer!”
“Calm down, Shortcut.”
“I’m not calming down until you tell me where X is!”
“I don’t know. But I know who has him.”
“You’re a fraud!”
Jazzlyn punched him and knocked him to the ground. She snatched his rod and pointed it at him. “Shut up and listen. My plan backfired, okay?”
Shortcut waved his hands in surrender and sat up. “Talk.”
“I tried to get help from Lax, the leader of the local gang. I thought I could sway him, but he has old debts and he’s still pretty pissed at me from our last encounter.”
“You didn’t mention that.”
“If I had, you guys wouldn’t have let me go.”
“What happened?”
“He wanted revenge, so he turned on me. I had to run.”
“But why is X …” Shortcut pulled himself up, thinking deeply. He blinked several times and clutched his head. “You told him about us, didn’t you?”
“He already knew. He has eyes everywhere. Lax had his sights set on X the moment we entered the badlands. I was foolish to think that we could travel secretly.”
Shortcut scrunched up his eyelids and pushed on his forehead, wrinkling his lips.
“Seriously, what’s the matter with you?” Jazzlyn asked.
Shortcut held up a hand, motioning her to be quiet.
“What do we do?” he asked softly.
Jazzlyn shrugged. “If I told you I knew, I’d be lying.”
Shortcut kicked a nearby soda can, frowning as it scratched across the ground. “Crap!”
“For the record, I told X to keep a low profile.”
Shortcut looked over at her, incredulous.
“So you’re blaming X now?” he demanded, his voice shaking with anger. “Do you have any idea how much crap we’re in—I’m in?”
“Get off me,” Jazzlyn said, pushing her palm against Shortcut’s face. “I never asked to be on this mission!”
“You’re going to get the whole world destroyed.”
“The fate of the world isn’t my responsibility. Don’t put this on me.”
“Who else is there to blame? Huh?”
Jazzlyn pushed Shortcut off her. “You know, I could have worked with X. I don’t mind strong and silent types. But I can’t deal with neurotic babies. I’m done with you, Shortcut. Have a nice life. Hopefully you make it back to the UEA without being molested.”
“You can’t leave me!” Shortcut cried. “You’re going to go to prison if you leave again. UEA agents will find you. And when they do, they’re going to—”
“My God, do you ever stop talking?” Jazzlyn asked. She pointed to her ankle and fired a shot at it, breaking the ankle bracelet. A shrill alarm sounded from one of the broken pieces. “I’ll take my chances. Life in prison is better than listening to you complain.”
Shortcut’s jaw dropped as he stared at the broken bracelet.
As Jazzlyn turned to walk away, she heard a gun cock next to her head. The muzzle of the gun touched her skull, and she froze.
Damn it, Lax!
“Stop. That’s enough from both of you.”
The familiar female voice made them both fall silent.
Chapter 8
“What are you doing here, Brielle?” Shortcut asked. He didn’t know she was capable of holding a gun, and the sight of her holding one to Jazzlyn’s head surprised him. Even though she was in battle mode, she still smelled of flowery perfume, and the scent put him at ease. He could almost taste her skin—he imagined delicate petals dancing across his tongue.
He grabbed his electric rod from the ground and ran to
Brielle’s side. “Nice try, Jazzlyn.”
“I knew something was wrong when your signal broke away from the group,” Brielle said to Jazzlyn. “When you were gone for longer than an hour, I came to check things out. I got here just in time.”
“But why did the Council send you instead of an agent?” Shortcut asked.
“The ankle bracelet is my pet project,” Brielle said, not taking her eyes off Jazzlyn. “I’m the one who convinced the Council to spare you and make you a deal. So I have to follow through. My reputation is on the line, and if I am wrong, they’ll reprogram my logic chip.”
“Just go ahead and kill me. Apparently, I’m of no use to you.”
“No, you’re the opposite. You’re very valuable to us.” Brielle pulled another ankle bracelet from her pocket. “Now give me your leg.”
Jazzlyn sighed and held up her leg. Brielle tossed the bracelet into the air, where it flipped twice and latched around Jazzlyn’s ankle. Jazzlyn grimaced as it tightened and beeped.
“This one’s extra tight,” Brielle said. “And if you shoot it, it will produce a loud alarm as well as spray you with geo-located dye. So good luck trying to get away.”
Brielle created a digital screen with her eyes. Fahrens appeared, frowning.
“Miss Grace, I’m disappointed in you,” Fahrens said sternly. “We had a deal, and it appears you tried to violate it. It hasn’t even been forty-eight hours.”
“I know the truth,” Jazzlyn said.
“Know the deal,” Fahrens said. “And also know this: we’ve already enrolled you in a maximum security prison.”
“What!”
“You broke our deal, but I’m keeping my side of the agreement. When you return, you will be taken to jail, and you will spend the rest of your life there. Unless you help us get X back.”
“How convenient,” Jazzlyn said.
“It’s hard to do the right thing, I know,” Fahrens said. “But I’ll let you ponder your situation. Good day, Miss Grace.”
He disconnected.
Android X: The Complete Series Page 29
