by K. F. Breene
“Marie, cut the controls on anything Daddy doesn’t blow up,” Millicent said, back to hunting for the various devices they’d be facing.
The first craft exploded, rolling a wave of heat and fire in their direction. Their craft only rocked, far enough away that the blast did no damage. The next went up, and then the next, pumping flames and debris into the sky before falling like stones.
“I’ll do the last one, Daddy.” Marie jumped up and ran to the opposite window. The farthest vessel, not affected by the violence of Ryker’s device, started to shake in the air. One side dipped, then the other. “They’re fighting me for control. Like wrestling. But it’s rudiments.”
“Rudimentary, you mean,” Millicent said, pulling up all the many devices deployed to this area. “Wow. All this for one woman. She is a prize, and they know it.”
“Jealous, princess?” Ryker grinned.
Millicent ignored him as a warning blast of code scrolled down. “Their craft losses have been recorded. The race is on, gentlemen. They’ll send reinforcements, and soon. We need to get in and get out, or we’ll be captured trying. They have way too many robots deployed for us to kill them all and walk away.”
“Take that craft down, little lady,” Ryker said to Marie urgently. “Let’s get going.”
“They’ve logged the details of this craft.” Millicent had to raise her voice over the moving and shifting of the troopers preparing to disembark. “They have eyes in this area, it looks like. They’ll blow it up if possible.”
“I figured. We have another craft standing by.” Ryker’s arm flared with muscle as he leaned against the door.
“Where?” Millicent flicked all the coordinates she’d assembled toward her wrist screen, copying the data over.
“There you go, Daddy.” Marie pushed her hands against the window. The distant enemy craft tilted violently, rocking back and forth, before it exploded.
“Holy shit,” one of the troopers said, stooping down to look out the window. “She did that?”
“Ryker! They’ve got a lock on us!” Millicent twisted around, looking behind them through the windows. She didn’t see a craft or anything resembling weaponry.
“What does that mean, Millie?”
“I have no idea.” Back at the console, she finished her preparations. The craft drifted toward the building. “Marie, do you see where I parked all the coordinates for the Toton devices in the building?”
Marie tore her eyes away from the window and looked at the screen. She nodded.
“They are always moving. The map of the building isn’t perfect, and neither are the movements of those devices. But they are all parked in that file, and I need you to keep your mind on them as much as possible, okay?”
Her brow scrunched. “I’ll try.”
“We’ll do it together. I’ll try, too.” A warning blared. The craft started to beep.
“We’ve registered a missile lock,” the pilot yelled back. “I have no idea from where!”
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Ryker slammed the console. The door opened, five feet from the edge of the dilapidated walkway that led into the floor’s entrance seventy feet above ground level. Harsh wind whipped into the space, the environment prevalent within the ruined bay. “We don’t have time to extend a platform. Jump it. Go!”
The beeping in the craft turned furious. “We’ve got three minutes!” the pilot yelled. “Hurry!”
“What about all the handheld weapons?” Millicent yelled, desperate.
“There’s no time. Go, go, go!” Ryker slapped backs, half pushing his men out. They launched across the lessening distance and either got out of the way, or turned to help the next person out.
“Two minutes!” The pilot threw off his seat belt and hopped up.
“Take Marie!” Millicent yelled, shoving her at Ryker.
He scooped her up and jumped across, landing easily. With a last look at her precious weapons, she sprinted after him. Her feet touched down and she staggered forward, landing awkwardly. A large man grabbed her upper arm with a strong, firm grip and pulled her farther onto the walkway. “There you go, little lady. We gotcha.”
The craft bumped off the bay lock and drifted away. The pilot waited for the last trooper to jump before throwing himself across the now-enlarging space. The roar of something flying via jets echoed off the buildings around them. The pilot landed at a backward slant on the very edge of the walkway. He windmilled his arms with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
“Grab him!” someone shouted as someone else screamed, “Run!”
“Go, Ryker!” Millicent yelled, grabbing the front of the pilot’s suit and yanking. He tipped toward the walkway. A small object trailing a white stream of smoke was sailing toward them.
“Run!” she yelled, turning and putting on a burst of speed. Ryker was right in front of her, carrying a terrified-looking Marie.
They raced into the building as the object made impact. An explosion slapped Millicent in the back and shoved her forward onto her face. Ryker staggered, but managed to stay upright with Marie, who was shielding her face with her arms.
Those strong hands found Millicent again, lifting her like she was a baby and carrying her farther into the building. Flames engulfed the craft moments before it sank away from the bay.
“That was a small-scale missile,” Millicent said, looking over the wide shoulder of the man who had now helped her twice. “It had a tracking system and was designed specifically for enemy crafts. The nature of that weapon was to hit its mark while doing the least amount of damage to the property around it, be it a building or any surrounding crafts.”
“Wow. That’s pretty good. How do you know so much about that missile?” The man, a natural born and quite handsome, set her down. Marie was put next to her a moment later.
“Because I designed it. That was a Moxidone missile.” She smoothed her hair back as the implications ran through her mind.
Ryker turned her around and touched a few points on her back that were probably scorched. “Any pain?” he asked.
“No.” She dusted off her front. “No. I’m fine.” Glancing around, she didn’t see whom she was looking for—namely the man she had saved on the walkway, who apparently hadn’t stayed safe for long—but noticed something else.
Her relief at surviving the blast was short-lived.
“Mommy,” Marie said in a warning tone.
“I see it baby. Robot.”
The man from before stepped in front of her, his broad back blocking out her view. Annoyed, she pushed at him, trying to get him to move. That worked about as well as it always did with Ryker. “Get out of the way. I need to see what we’re up against.”
“Dagger,” Ryker barked.
Dagger took a step to the side before saying, “I see it. It’s guarding the entryway.”
Millicent glanced down at her wrist. “That’s one of the spider models. Only one, probably relaying intel. Soft spot is—”
Dagger reached it in a rush of muscle and power. In a fluid movement clearly born of years of training and excellent breeding, he dodged one of its kicking legs, picked it up, flipped it over, and punched the soft spot on the underside. The legs spasmed before they folded in on themselves.
“A simple kick would’ve done,” Millicent muttered, looking back at her screen.
“Do we bring this with us for observation?” he asked.
“No. No sense in carrying it. There’ll be plenty more to grab along the way.” Millicent turned to Marie. “But if one of those things comes near us, you get out of the way, okay? You hide off to the side and wait until Daddy and I take care of it.”
“Okay.” Hugging herself, Marie looked around. “Should I just hide behind the piles of garbage?”
“Hide wherever you can.” Ryker dropped his hand to her shoulder, but his eyes kept scanning. “Make sure nothing can get you from behind. Put a wall to your back and make sure we’re to your front, okay? Like we’ve practiced on Paradi
se.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she said in a tiny voice. The know-it-all attitude from times of safety was gone.
“Let’s get moving.” Ryker motioned everyone on. “There are bound to be more.”
“Many more, yes.” Millicent pulled Marie close. “I’m not going to be much good if I’m watching her.” Anticipation made her heart flutter. Despite having lost a bunch of her handheld arsenal in the blast just now, she had weapons that could handle what they were walking into, but it had been a year and a half since they’d received the last thorough machinery report from Roe’s people. Toton could’ve easily upped their game in that time.
“We got you.” Dagger winked. “There ain’t nothin’ gettin’ through us.”
“Dagger just sounds like a Curve hugger, princess,” Ryker said as the troopers fanned out around him. “He’s actually two and three above. He was one of the New York security directors.”
“She judging?” Dagger asked with a laugh.
“She’s always judging, bro-yo.”
“Oh lovely, you’re using the slang now, too.” Millicent tried to prevent a frown, since that would only lead to more teasing, regardless of the danger they were walking into.
“That’s okay, I can cut it back for the boss. No problem.” Dagger laughed and fell back, covering their rear.
“And we’re moving,” Ryker said. Millicent suspected it was for her benefit because the men around him kept position perfectly, maneuvering as one entity.
Ryker took out his specialized EMP gun, another item Millicent had designed.
“We have two hanging out ahead of us, one to either side.” Millicent pointed for those who could see her.
“One above,” Marie said in a small voice.
“Need distances, ladies,” Ryker said. “Oh, there we go. I see the ones up ahead, two and ten. Keep an eye on your six, just in case.”
“What unit of measurement are you using?” Millicent asked, looking up.
“Based on an old clock.” His eyes kept scanning. “The ones with faces.”
Millicent shook her head and pushed the explanation from her mind. She had no idea what they were talking about. Movement caught her eye. A rusty sort of metal skittered, upside down, away to the right.
“There’s the other one,” she said, pointing.
“Don’t see it,” one of the troopers said, looking up.
Two gunshots rang out. Then two more. “They aren’t bulletproof, boys,” Dagger said. “And this ain’t your first picnic. Get ’em gone.”
“Save this weapon, princess?” Ryker asked, hefting the EMP gun.
“Yes. If a high-caliber gun will take them down, use that. Save the EMP gun for when we’re surrounded. Which will be sooner rather than later . . .”
“I got one.” A trooper braced, sighted, and fired in rapid succession. A moment later, a spasming robot fell from the ceiling.
“Someone should’ve told me they could climb.” Millicent looked harder at her screen. “What other advancements do they have that I don’t know about?”
“Despite climbing, these things are weak.” Ryker stalked forward, arms held up with his gun out, leading them across the devastated floor. “Compared to those smart doors I remember, they’re useless.”
“They’re easy to make, cheap, and probably filled with a not-bright CPU.” Millicent tried her best to detach herself from what those CPUs were likely made up of. “They can make a ton of them, send them out into the world, and make easy grabs. Now that they know a harder job is at foot, they might be readying something better as we speak. We need to pick up the pace.”
As one, they heeded her words, walking through the level at nearly a jog. Marie actually did have to jog to keep up, wringing her hands in fear and looking from side to side. Millicent would bet she was constantly monitoring the robots’ movements.
“Got something.” Ryker held up a hand, and everyone but Millicent and Marie slowed. Millicent jerked to a stop, committing Ryker’s silent order to memory for the next time.
Ryker toed a curled-up spider robot out of the way, passed another, and then kneeled next to a pool of blood. Millicent tapped one of the trooper men and thrust Marie at him. “Watch her for a moment.”
“I don’t think you should be—”
“Let her do her thing,” Ryker said without looking up, silencing his man immediately. “She’d take you down without a struggle. She doesn’t need to be coddled.”
The trooper stepped away with Marie, helping the little girl crawl up a pile of debris off to the side, apparently so he wouldn’t have to bend to grab her if things went south.
“If only you’d follow your own directive,” Millicent mumbled as she advanced on a robot she hadn’t seen before. No pictures or reports had come through about this particular model. “This is a transport system, it looks like.” She kicked the thing to make sure it was a robot’s equivalent of dead.
A shiver went through its strangely shaped frame, styled to look half human and half bug. It didn’t reboot or wake up.
She bent over a damaged crater in the thing’s back and then glanced at the other two CPUs that were still in place.
“Looks like our girl was injured.” Ryker followed the droplets of blood around the robot.
“Marie, can you check to see if she’s still trying to hack into the pirate network?” Millicent batted down the surge of anxiety that her sister had already been taken.
“So you said these things run off these metal globes?” one of the guys asked, looking at the CPU that had been torn off and thrown to the side.
“It is a computer, and yes, that CPU is integral. The computer can’t run without it. The organic matter within the CPU dies very quickly after being separated from the body in a normal robot. Those globes are for storage, I think. This thing is a life-support system, for lack of a better analogy.”
“And if it’s not segregated?” another asked, holding his position and facing their rear.
“It has a while before it goes to sleep and never wakes up.” Millicent grimaced. “I think. This is all theory.”
“So . . . like . . . it’s a human brain in there, right? It’s a person?” one of the other guys said, distaste curving his lips downward.
“Yes. I have no idea if it retains its identity. Although, it wouldn’t have much of an identity, anyway. Not if the person was taken from one of the conglomerates.”
“Speak for yourself, princess,” Ryker said, frowning at the ground. “I was all identity when I was in the conglomerate.”
“You were an exception, yes,” Millicent said dryly, making a few notes on her wrist screen. “For better or worse.”
“She’s still trying to get in, Mommy.” Marie pulled at her earlobe, something she did when she was anxious. “But Toton is sending more crafts here. We don’t have much time.”
“Not much at all. Twenty minutes, maybe.” A wave of adrenaline coursed through her body. “Let’s go, Ryker. We’ll aim for the area the robots are targeting. We don’t have time to investigate.”
Another tiny robot ran by the fortified office deep within the building. Danissa had taken Puda down as far as the elevator would go, which was to floor forty-three. The environment wasn’t turned on, or maybe it wasn’t working, so the stagnant air smelled putrid and slightly burned her throat.
She sat, holed up in an office blocked off from the main floor by an overturned table in front of the door. The robots, which were a stupider tech than the others, were tiny dronelike devices that used a brain-wave seeker. She’d long ago learned how to change the readings of her implant and mask her brain. But if the bigger machines or the heat-seeking robots came down, she was out of luck.
Shaking from hunger and fatigue both, she stared at the code on the screen. So intricate. There were only a few points that she could pick apart in the hopes of weaseling in. Millicent Foster had really upped her game in the last few years. She’d clearly learned the same new tricks from Toton as Danissa, but sh
e’d then expanded on them and created a unique and interesting product.
Frustrated tears obscured her vision, and she wiped them away furiously. Puda’s ragged breathing was worse now, and his head had begun to bleed again. She’d found another Medi-Kit on this floor, but even the fresh supplies were barely helping him cling to life.
“C’mon, Danissa,” she whispered, her mind churning. “There must be a way in. Must be.”
She’d already sent a plea for help to Gregon and Moxidone’s security departments, but it had been intercepted by Toton, like all things sent through the internet these days. They had their hooks in everything, except her rooted, private network and Ms. Foster’s pirate network. Those were the only available options for communication, and since the hard port in this building wasn’t working, that left the pirate network.
The impenetrable pirate network.
Hopelessness tugging at her, Danissa analyzed the code on the dim screen. “Okay, what if I try . . .” The screen flickered.
Danissa yanked her hands away. “I didn’t do anything yet,” she said to Puda, even though he wasn’t responsive. It made her feel like he could be. Like he was okay.
It flickered again, the information in front of her wobbling.
What if Toton had already cracked this code? She’d be stuck. That would be it.
The screen went white, and then the whole thing seemed to melt. A hazy picture of a blue ocean appeared. A large wave crashed down.
Danissa blinked in astonishment.
Light flickered outside the windows of the office.
Danissa stood, as if in a dream, her mouth dropping open. Outside, in the open space filled with rows of mostly intact work pods, all of the screens flickered to life. From dull gray, they turned crystal blue, cut through with the foamy white of a cresting wave.
“It couldn’t be,” she said in barely contained hope.
A message popped up on all the screens. “We are coming. Mommy said to just hold on. We will be there as soon as we can.”
