by H. L. Burke
“I’m halfway there on my own, I think. My program is too complex to be manmade. My best guess is it was copied. When you said you took me with you, I assumed it was a replication of my program. I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
She nodded, her throat tightening. “It was the original.”
A hiss that might’ve been a sigh rose from his monitor. “I was copied from a human, wasn’t I? A male human, I’m guessing from the way my thought process is fixated on you. One of the professor’s experimental subjects? A servant?”
“His son,” Nyssa choked out. A tear slipped over her cheek. “Ellis Dalhart.”
“Oh—that makes sense. The professor’s magnum opus was the ability to capture human memories in electronic form. My program must extrapolate the most likely emotional reactions from what it took from Ellis and make decisions based on that.”
“So your programming replicates Ellis’s emotions, even when he’s no longer hooked into you? Like an electric brain?”
“Considering the focus on emotions and morality, more like an electric heart.” He laughed. “Apparently, I’m aptly named.”
“Are you okay with —”
“The guard’s coming back.”
Nyssa dropped back onto her cot, shoving her goggles under the blanket.
A swish and a clank rose from the darkness. A masculine voice let forth a mild oath.
She propped herself up on her elbows. “What was that?”
“I shut the door between the office and the workshop. He’ll get it open in a minute, but I needed to ask you one more thing,” Hart said. “Nyss, this other me, the original me, do you love him?”
She closed her eyes, Ellis’s beloved smile flashing through her memory. “Yes. Deeply.”
“Okay. I’ll get you back to him. I promise.”
The door clanked again, and footsteps approached. “Cursed mechanical doors. What’s wrong with good old fashioned hinges?” the guard mumbled as he settled into a chair across the room.
Nyssa lay still, but her mind raced. Hart can shut the door? Would he be able to keep Rivera out? Of course, I’d still be trapped in here. There has to be a way to get out … and take Hart with me this time.
Chapter Ten
A hand shook Nyssa out of a restless sleep, and she glared up at Aito.
“I brought your breakfast,” he said, pushing a plate towards her.
As much as she wanted to hate him, the smell of eggs and sausage called to her like a long lost love. She snatched the plate from him. A fork balanced on the edge toppled towards the ground, but Aito caught it mid-air and presented it to her.
He clicked his tongue. “Settle down, Miss Glass. You’d think we’d been starving you.”
Nyssa had been up most of the night and hungry for half of it. She and Hart had talked whenever their guard left for his hourly stroll. Unfortunately, he was never gone for long enough for her to seriously put any plans in motion. All that she’d managed to achieve was a further attachment to the weird, mechanical facsimile of her boyfriend.
“I’m thirsty, too,” Nyssa said between bites.
Aito jerked his thumb towards the corner. “There’s a wash sink in one of those cabinets, probably for cleaning off tools, but the water is potable.”
“What about some coffee or tea?” Nyssa asked. “Something to wake me up.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Aito ducked out of the room.
“Rivera’s up to something.” Hart turned his monitor to Rivera’s study. The man was facing a messenger, a none-too-pleased look on his face, his deadly eyes glaring. “What do you think that note says?”
Rivera crumpled the paper and tossed it to the floor.
“I don’t know, but he’s certainly not happy about it.” The image flickered out.
Aito returned carrying a china cup. He placed it on a table across the room and motioned to her. “I hope you don’t mind it black.”
“I’ll take anything right about now.” She walked over and took the warm cup between her hands. The coffee’s scent soothed the cracks in her mind.
He shifted from one foot to the other. “So … any idea what the computer has decided?”
“What do you care?” She raised the coffee to her lips and sipped. Ugh, bitter and thick as motor oil … well, at least it will wake me up.
“If the computer refuses to give Rivera what he wants, he will expect me to carry out his orders, including torturing you until the computer yields or you die, whichever comes first.” The man’s face remained placid, but something in his eyes made Nyssa pause. “While I’m capable of causing you pain, I’m not eager to. It would be easier on both of us if the computer cooperated.”
Nyssa scowled. “I’m sorry if the computer and I have inconvenienced you.”
“And the computer? What does he have to say about all this?” He looked over her head towards the monitor.
“He says go to Hell,” Hart said.
A slight smile quirked the corners of Aito’s mouth. “For a computer, you have the spirit of a warrior. I admire that, but it will not save—”
“Aito!” Rivera’s voice rang through the room.
Aito turned on his heels and hurried into the workshop. Nyssa glanced at Hart then slunk after Aito. She pressed herself against the wall to listen.
“When you found the girl, was she alone?” Rivera asked, his voice a growl.
“She came to the warehouse alone. No one saw me collect her.”
“No, before that, when she was free on San Azula, was she with anyone?”
“Yes, she shared her home with a young man, an older woman, and a small boy. They were together most of the time, which is why I had to go through some lengths to draw her out—”
“Was this young man in a wheelchair?”
“Yes. I believe he was.” Aito cleared his throat.
“Damnit!”
“Did I misunderstand my orders, sir?” Aito asked. “You told me to bring back the girl, no mention of her companions.”
“And you didn’t even think to mention them to me?”
Nyssa hazarded a peek around the door frame. Rivera’s face glowed red, and his hands clenched his cane. Aito’s back was to her, his shoulders up in a way that might’ve been defensive.
“I didn’t see it as important,” Aito said. “The youth was in a chair, not exactly a threat to myself or anyone in our organ—”
Rivera’s cane swept towards Aito’s side. Aito leapt out of the way, the walking aid swiping through the air.
“Sir, obviously I have displeased you, but could you at least explain how before you beat me like a dog?” Aito’s voice came out tight.
Rivera just snarled and pushed past him.
Her insides quivering, Nyssa fled to Hart’s side. Though she knew he could do nothing physically to protect her, being close to him gave her strength. She had a bad feeling she’d need as much of that as she could muster.
Rivera burst in. “You’ve been lying to me, Miss Glass.”
“How so?” She crossed her arms.
“Ellis Dalhart is alive, and you knew it.” The cane in his hand shook like a branch in the wind.
“You never asked about Ellis, but if you had, it wouldn’t have mattered.” She stuck her chin at him, hoping her expression looked fierce rather than terrified. “You aren’t touching him.”
Aito came up behind his employer. “Ellis Dalhart? But how? You told me he was dead …”
“He should’ve been!” Rivera’s fists clenched. “Does he know about his father’s experiments? Can he recreate them?”
“Ellis doesn’t need his father’s twisted monstrosities,” Nyssa said through clenched teeth. “If he had his way, they’d all burn, and you can burn with them.”
Rivera’s cane thwacked the side of her face. She fell against the wall, her teeth vibrating in her skull.
“Nyss!” Hart cried.
Nyssa cowered with her arms over her head. The cane struck her ribs. Her side ached, and her
breath abandoned her.
“Stop it! I have what you want, and I’ll give it to you! Just stop hitting her!” Hart shouted.
The blows ceased. She hazarded her eyes open.
Rivera stared at the monitor. Sweat glistened on his forehead, and the cane in his hand continued to shake, almost as if it had a mind of its own and Rivera was holding it back from hitting her again. Aito rubbed his hand over his eyes.
Rivera’s shoulders rose and fell in a deep breath. “All right, computer. Tell me what I need.”
“It’s complicated. I can’t just rattle it off and expect you to retain it. I can print it out, though. Professor Dalhart had a device that allowed me to turn my data into a readable printout, but if you don’t have that, a standard pentelegraph will do, just anything I can interact with that allows me to control ink and paper.”
“And you won’t use the pentelegraph to send out messages? Call for help?” Rivera tilted his head to one side.
“If you connect it right, it will be impossible. You know as well as I do that my system is isolated to the house. I can’t so much as make a videophone call.”
Nyssa struggled for breath to speak. How can Hart give up so easily? I can’t let him do this.
“We have a pentelegraph in your study, sir,” Aito said. “Do you want me to get it?”
“No, I will.” Rivera stormed out.
Aito paced out of the room into the laboratory.
Nyssa picked herself up and rubbed her bruised ribs. “Hart, you can’t—”
“Nyss, do you know Morse code?”
She blinked. “Y … yes.”
A line of dots and dashes flashed onto his screen. —. . - / .… .. — / -— ..- - Get … him … out. “Who? Aito?” she whispered. “How?”
In response, Hart played the same pattern.
Nyssa slipped out of the computer room into the office. Aito stood in the doorway between the office and the workshop, the one controlled by the big, metal doors. She drew a deep breath. Maybe I can push him out if I catch him by surprise, but he’s got reflexes like a cat … and a soft spot that doesn’t necessarily want to harm me.
“Aito,” she said, forcing her voice into a whimper.
He glanced back. “Huh?”
“I’m in a lot of pain.” She scrunched up her face. “Do you think there’s a bottle of salicylic acid anywhere nearby?”
Aito glanced around and cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“Please, my ribs really hurt.” She tightened her arms around herself. “Could you check the washroom? I saw a medicine cabinet there. It might have some.”
The man hesitated. He then called out, “Hey, Jamison!”
One of the guards strolled into view.
“Watch the door for a minute,” Aito said. He strode out of the office … and the metal doors clanked shut behind him.
Muffled shouts echoed through the metal.
Nyssa rushed back to Hart. “Did you do that?”
“Yeah.”
“But they’ll be able to get it open again, right? It’s just a stall tactic, like last night?”
“Last night I didn’t lock it. I didn’t see a point because … well, you’re trapped in here now, with me, and I can’t get you out of the house.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s a problem.”
“But it buys us time. I couldn’t let him hurt you like that. Do you know what it is like seeing someone do that to someone you love and not having so much as a finger you can lift to do anything about it?”
Nyssa opened her mouth, then shut it. “No, I guess I don’t. How long do we have until they get in?”
“Until they get in isn’t an issue. They can’t cut through that door. It’s electric and tied into my circuits. If they try, it’ll send a jolt through my wires and likely fry my program which means they’ll never get the information they want. They won’t risk it.”
“But can’t they just bring you back? I mean, last time, when Ellis and I surged the power through these wires and used the crash codes, it knocked you out, but Rivera was still able to recover you.”
“He was able to recover my backups from another computer. No, what’s left of me is isolated in these systems. An electrical surge will destroy everything he wants to get his hands on, and he knows it. You’re safe for now.” His screen flickered. “The problem is, you have water, but nothing to eat. Eventually, I’m going to have to open the doors or you’ll starve.”
She sat down on her cot and pulled out her handheld. “It won’t come to that. I’m going to find a way out of here first.”
Chapter Eleven
The hammering on the other side of the metal door grew louder and more frantic. Nyssa ignored it, instead assessing her situation. The wash sink was where Aito had suggested. She had her tools. That left food.
After a moment’s thought, she darted out into Dalhart’s office. There she found the stack of crates with canned food inside. Relief swept through her. “It looks like I won’t starve as long as I’m willing to live off canned green beans and corn.” She returned to the lab and placed her satchel on the small table. “What about you? Is it possible for Rivera to mess with you from outside this room? Cut off your power supply, maybe?”
“Not without blacking out most of New Taured. The Professor wanted to be sure I could function no matter what occurred. I have power lines going out to multiple sources, from the New Taured city grid to the back up steam-generators in the basement. Maybe, with a lot of work and persistence, Rivera could take them down one by one, but I’d guess it would take him weeks.”
She laid her tools out on the table beside the satchel. Lockpicks, wrenches, her goggles … everything a girl could need.
“How do you think he found out about Ellis?” she asked. “It must’ve been in that message he got.”
“I suppose. Do you think Ellis is coming after you? Maybe someone saw him in New Taured.”
A thrill of hope shot through her followed by a touch of dread. “Maybe, but if he is here and Rivera knows it … we need to find a way to warn him.” She took the handheld from her pocket and stroked the smooth metal casing. “He’s smart, though. I’ll have to trust he can look after himself until we can make contact.”
“If I were him, I wouldn’t give up until I found you again,” Hart murmured.
She shot him a smile. “Hey, don’t be sad. We’re going to get out of here somehow. Both of us.”
“Really? You’re just going to have two versions of your boyfriend around? The human one and the electronic one?”
She shrugged. “More Ellis is never a bad thing.”
“Am I Ellis, though? I’m not exactly human.”
Nyssa sighed. “I don’t know, Hart. I’m an electrician, not a philosopher. You seem a lot like him to me, though.”
She examined the handheld. The dial on the front had numbers from one to ten with marks in between to represent decimal points. The amount of possible codes was mind-boggling, but at the restaurant, Ellis hinted that she should be able to figure it out. Ellis had once told her that his mother used to leave puzzles for his father to solve. This had to be something like that. What number would be significant enough to Ellis that he’d expect her to know it? His birthday? The day they met? No, that wasn’t whimsical enough for Ellis. He liked his puzzles but also his jokes and puns … and pie.
A smile blossomed on her face. “Of course.”
She turned the dial to 3.14, and the case snapped open like a clamshell. Something clattered to the ground. She flipped the on-switch, but only static crackled on the view-screen.
“You got it open?” Hart asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not working. I think a piece of it fell off. Hopefully I can fix it.” She dropped to her knees and felt the ground. Her fingers met with cold round metal. A washer? She brought it up for examination, and her heart stopped. A diamond glistened from the golden band between her fingertips. “Oh … Oh, Ellis.”
“What is
it?” Hart asked.
Nyssa somehow couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She stared at the ring, their date night playing over in her head, the speech he’d given about never wanting to let her go, how he’d wanted the evening to be perfect. A tear rolled down her cheek, and her shoulders shook.
“Nyss, are you all right?” Hart’s voice sharpened. “What’s wrong?”
Oh, why did things have to go so wrong? I should never have let myself get separated from him. What if I never see him again? What if he never finds out that I would’ve said yes?
“Please, tell me what’s going on,” Hart said. “You’re scaring me a little.”
She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stood up. “I’m going to see him again,” she whispered to herself. “And I’m going to be his wife.” She slipped the ring on her finger, the metal cold and strange against her skin. It sparkled there for a moment, and Nyssa smiled. “I’m fine, Hart. Let’s get started.”
Chapter Twelve
Ellis tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair as he waited in his lawyer’s parlor. Clarence had put them up overnight, after O’Hara had insisted it was too late to rouse her captain. Now it was mid-morning, and she’d yet to emerge from her room.
Funny, yesterday all she wanted to do was call her captain, and now that I want to go talk to him, she’s dragging her feet like a sulky child. Something’s up.
He reached into his pocket and took out the handheld. It still only registered static, but the five mile range didn’t encompass all of New Taured. Even Dalhart Manor would be just out of reach of the signal. Maybe instead of the police station, I should get closer to the Manor. If I could pick up the signal on my own, I’d at least know I was looking in the right place. I’ll only get one shot at Rivera. Once he knows I’m alive and in New Taured, things get more complicated.
The clock struck ten. O’Hara clomped down the stairs, her red hair sticking out at all angles from under her hat. “All right, let’s go.”
Ellis raised his eyebrows. “Clarence was going to call his driver around when we were ready. I’ll tell him that we are.”
