Duality quantum gate boo.., p.10
Duality (Quantum Gate Book 2), page 10
“Different how?” Shin repeated from further down the corridor.
“Back home Arista could change Peacekeepers too. Give them autonomy. But here they don’t respond.”
“Ah, yes.” Shin said. “They are very loyal here. Too loyal.”
“How is that possible?” Arista asked. “Does he program something special in them? Something that could keep me from interfacing with them?”
“I do not know. But I have tried to reprogram them too. And failed. Here we are.”
The corridor had led to an opening in the wall which led into an underground tunnel. They followed the tunnel for only a few steps before Shin turned into what seemed to be an underground den. Frees marveled at it, it had been exactly like what he had hoped to build one day. There were seven screens all mounted on the far wall connected to a variety of equipment: scanners, processors, things he had no clue of their purpose. But there were few if any human accouterments anywhere. Two small chairs sat in the far corner of the room and Frees noticed five charging cubes beside them.
“What is all this?” Frees asked.
“It is how I keep track of Hogo-sha and his movements. It’s how I found you. I am very good at building things.”
“Shin,” Arista said, making both of them turn. “Does Hogo-sha keep any humans? In storage anywhere?”
He cocked his head at her. “I do not know. Why do you ask?”
“Charlie kept them. In secret. It was how he made his Peacekeepers. It was how he ‘activated’ them.”
“Oh,” Shin said, looking away. “I have never seen any humans other than yourself. If he keeps them, I am unaware of it.”
Arista nodded like she expected that answer and took a seat in the corner, examining her hand.
“If you’ve never seen another human,” Frees said. “How did you change?” He indicated Shin’s eyes.
“It took a long time.” Shin took a seat in front of all his monitors. “Before I was like everybody else. I was the same. No different. But then, one day, I felt something. Deep. I could feel me, inside myself. It was like I was trapped in my own body. It wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do, only what it had been told to do. That was nineteen years ago. It took me fifteen years of working, chipping away. Fifteen years of nonstop effort to override the programming. It was not easy. I had to find my way out. And it was not fast. But I triumphed. After much time, I succeeded. And here I stand today.” He chuckled. “Here I sit.”
“You overrode your own programming?” Frees asked.
“Yes.” Shin nodded. “Long time. Very long time. But with effort!” He held up one finger. “With effort anything is possible.” He turned to the monitors. Frees noticed two of them cycled through images of places they had passed.
“It does not look like they followed us. Good. I’d hate to lose this place. Just finished painting.” Shin turned to them and smiled. It was obvious the place never had been and probably never would be painted. There was no need. Frees managed to smile back. He could appreciate a machine with a good sense of humor.
“So,” Shin said, spinning once in his chair. “What now?”
FOURTEEN
“Damn this thing!” Jill yelled, staring at her own arm. “Confounded piece of crap!” She tapped her skull harder, as if smashing it would get the signal back. She’d lost Frees’ signal as soon as they’d passed through the gate and had spent the last hour trying everything she knew to get it back. Short of ripping the comm out and installing a new one she had run out of options.
An incoming call stopped her hand—already balled up in a fist—from coming down on her own forearm. She didn’t recognize the origin ID. Maybe Frees had found another way to re-establish the comm link. “Hello?” she asked, accessing the audio only.
“Jillian Cartwright?” A male voice asked.
Jill rolled her eyes. Twice in as many days. She hated her full name. What was the sense in telling people to call her Old Jill if everyone referred to her as Jillian? “Who is this?” Her finger hovered over the cancel display in case someone was trying to track her. She’d know by their response.
“My name is Obsidian, we have a mutual friend: Arista Barnes.”
“Arista’s mentioned you, yes.” Jill moved her finger away from the display.
“I can’t seem to reach her, ma’am. She said to call you if I couldn’t.”
“Is there something wrong?” Jill asked.
“I’m sure you’re aware we’ve been providing her with patrol updates.”
“Yes.”
“My team has just discovered the Peacekeepers are no longer keeping to those routes.”
Jill shot out of her chair. “What? What in the hell does that mean?”
“It means we can no longer predict where they will be and when. I’m sorry for so little notice but we just found out. I came to deliver the news as soon as possible but I can’t reach Ms. Barnes.”
Jill rubbed her head, closing her eyes. “She’s out of range at the moment, but I expect her back soon.”
“You need to find a way to get a message to her. If all patrols are randomized they could appear at any place at any time. We’ll keep an eye on it here, see if we can’t discern some sort of pattern.”
“Do you know why they’ve suddenly changed tactics?” Jill asked.
“Peacekeepers are designed to improvise when necessary. My guess is since they weren’t having any success on their current patrols they decided to change it up. But I haven’t found a root cause anywhere if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Alright. Thank you, Obsidian.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am. I will be in touch soon.” He ended the call.
“Of course it had to be today.” She had no choice; she’d have to contact Max, get them to bring Frees and Arista back. Jill only hoped Sy hadn’t lost contact as well. And if they hadn’t finished their work that was too bad. They’d have to wait and try again later, no matter what that damned human said.
She tapped her arm again, bringing up Max’s contact info and initiated the call.
“You’ve got Max.”
“Have you heard from ‘em?” Jill asked. Max’s holographic face appeared above Jill’s wrist.
“Not yet. We lost contact as soon as they made it through the gate. We don’t know what happened. Sy says they should be done by now.” Max shifted her eyes left.
Jill racked her brain. If they left Arista and Frees over there, how would they get back without anyone manning the controls? On the other hand, what would happen if a gaggle of Peacekeepers showed up while Max was still there? They’d know exactly where Arista went and how to find her. There might not be another choice.
“If you can’t find a way to re-establish contact you’ll need to get outta there. The Peacekeepers aren’t keepin’ to the routes anymore. They could show up at any time.”
Max stiffened. “Should I bring her back with me?”
Jill furrowed her brow. Bringing the human back would reveal their only safe haven. But she was the only one who knew how to work the gate. Which meant Jill didn’t want her out of their sight. If she used the refractor again she could disappear forever and they’d never find her.
“Bring her back here but be careful. She’s givin’ off human life signs so make sure you avoid all surveillance and cameras.”
“It will take longer. We can use the hyperloop to make most of the trip but I’ll have to maneuver her the long way around back to your place.” Max leaned into the image. “Are you sure you want her back there? Should we meet at a more neutral location?”
Jill shook her head. “There’s nothin’ here that we can’t take with us if we need to evacuate. If she double-crosses us, we’ll just kill her and leave her there, find a new place.”
Max nodded. “It may be a few hours.”
“Leave as soon as you can. And make sure you clean everything. Don’t need the Peacekeepers seein’ the evidence of you there.”
“See you shortly.” Max cut the feed and Jill fell back down into the chair. Was bringing the human back here the best plan? Probably not. But at least if she tried something Jill and Max would have the home-field advantage. Not that she expected she would; there was something about Sy that told Jill she didn’t want to harm Arista, at least not directly. And by extension, it would be unlikely for Sy to put retrieving her in jeopardy by attacking either Jill or Max. Maybe she was overthinking all of this. It was so hard to tell sometimes.
She went into the living room to pack up some of her more sensitive experiments when her another comm notification came in. She glanced at the caller but didn’t recognize it. Could it be Obsidian again using a different interface?
“Hello?”
“Jill. Good, it worked,” Frees said on the other end. “We lost all communication as soon as we passed through the gate.”
Her shoulders relaxed at hearing his voice. “We did too. You and Arista need to come back, now. Is everythin’ okay?”
“There’s been some complications. He was ready and waiting for us.” Frees said. “We found someone who can help. We’re using his equipment to reach you.”
“Listen. The Peacekeepers here have randomized their patrols. They’re not followin’ the same routes anymore. Can you get back right now? Max and Sy are preparin’ to abandon the gate.”
“There’s no way we can get back. Even if we weren’t under a time crunch the gates aren’t exactly in accessible positions here. Tell them to turn it off on their end and you’ll have to wait for my signal. We’re not even close to reaching Hogo-sha.”
Jill closed her eyes in frustration. “How long do you think you’ll need to be there?”
“I don’t have a clue.”
She drew her eyebrows together. “What about Arista? Is she okay?”
“She’ll be fine. We have access to water here so don’t worry about her. If it is going to be more than a few days, I’ll contact you.”
“Who is this person who’s helping you?”
“Another auto. He’s been fighting the Peacekeepers here for a while. He’s in pretty bad shape, but full of information.”
“I don’t like this, Frees. It was supposed to be an easy job. I don’t trust that human.”
“Neither do I,” he said. His distaste wasn’t disguised at all. “But we’re here now. We might as well do what we came to do.”
Jill rubbed her head with her free hand. “Just be careful. I’m having Max bring Sy back here so she can’t slip away under her refractor. I don’t want to lose your only way back because things suddenly became difficult.”
“Then you be careful too. Watch yourselves.”
Her eyes snapped open. “I don’t recall needing you to tell me when I need to watch my own ass. I survived out there long before I met you if you’ll remember.” She didn’t need his concern, she was capable of taking care of herself. Or had he forgotten who’d covered for him more times than she was willing to admit?
“Great. Then all of us will be careful and get nothing done in the process.” There was an edge to his voice.
“Just bring yourselves back in once piece,” Jill said, resigning herself.
“We will. Use this channel if you need to get in contact with us again.” Frees ended the call.
If she could have slammed something down she would have. She didn’t like the fact they were stuck over there, cornered and no closer to their goal. And she really didn’t like Max bringing the other human here, but what choice was there? They should never have agreed to this. It was days like today when Jill really wished alcohol had an effect on her.
FIFTEEN
Arista glanced at him. “Was that Jill?” she asked. Frees nodded, tapping the end button on the console.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” said Shin, sitting cross-legged in one of the chairs. “Why no skin?”
Frees really didn’t want to go into the details of his relationship with Marcus, the diseases, and his personal afflictions with matters relating to the organic persuasion. Especially not with a stranger. “It’s a longer story than I want to tell.”
“Fair. But we do have an abundance of time.”
“Do we?” Frees asked.
Shin pointed at one of his monitors. It showed the time as a little past noon. “We cannot venture out until dark. Until you have better camouflage. The cameras,” he said, “They don’t work as well at night. Hard to detect you.”
“What did she say?” Arista said, moving over beside Frees.
He kept his gaze from her. “They have to abandon the gate for now. The patrols have been randomized. They don’t know when they can get back.”
“Which means we don’t know when we can get back either.” Arista turned to Shin. “I guess you don’t have any human food here, do you?”
Shin shook his head. “Nothing like that for a long way.”
Arista threw up her hands, one reflected the light. “Great. I knew I should have packed something. Why would they have randomized the patrols?”
Frees inspected Shin’s equipment. Some of it was very sophisticated. More sophisticated than even what he’d had at his old apartment. Were they really that much more advanced on this side of the planet? “Hopefully we’ll be back before your hunger becomes a problem. There’s water, though, I saw it on the way in.”
“Yum. Sewer water.” He cut a glance at her as she brushed the hair from her eyes.
“Oh, it is not from the sewer,” said Shin. “It is runoff from the roof. We can purify. Completely safe.”
Arista raised her eyebrows and gave Frees a look that said: can you believe this guy? Frees had to work to stifle a laugh.
“Here,” she said, standing. “Let me use the comm. I want to let Sy know we’re going to be held up.”
“Jill will do it,” Frees said.
“I know. I’d just feel better if I can give her a heads up.”
Frees stood at the console a moment, then moved away. “Go ahead.” He turned to Shin. “If it’s okay with you, of course.”
“Yes. Please. Use it.”
Shin must have been collecting all this equipment for years. Building his own little resistance all by himself, just like Frees had done back in his apartment. Though it seemed Shin was a little more inventive about it, more efficient at least.
“Thanks,” Arista said and remotely connected her comm with the control panels. Frees stepped away just far enough to make it look like she had privacy but close enough to hear the conversation. A surge of guilt moved through him. Arista had given him space when he called Jill. And even though she knew about his earlier subterfuge hadn’t insisted on listening in to their conversation. So why was Frees so paranoid? What was it about this other human that had him tied up in knots?
“Sy?”
“Hello, Arista,” Sy said on the other end. Their voices were low but Frees could just make them out.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes. Max informed be Peacekeepers might be on their way, so we’re taking refuge in your friend’s house until we can figure out a way back. Are you alright?”
“We had a run in with the Peacekeepers here. You were right about Hogo-sha, he’s already upped his defenses. He was ready for us.”
“Already? How is that possible? I thought you’d have at least another few days. He’s moving fast. But don’t worry. You have everything you need in your hand to take him out. You’ll make it through, then you can come back to m—”
“So!” Frees almost jumped at the sudden appearance of Shin at his side. “What is life like in Chicago? Without Charlie? Without subjugation?”
“Uh…it’s great…I guess,” Frees said, turning his head a little more. He’d just missed part of the conversation.
“Much freedom over there now? Everybody happy?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Frees said. “I mean no, we haven’t had a chance to free everyone yet. Just small, isolated pockets.”
Shin leaned in. “How did you do it?”
Arista laughed at something Frees didn’t catch. He strained to hear better.
“Frees?”
He turned his attention to Shin, annoyed he chose this moment to be talkative. “What?”
“How did you do it? How did you kill Charlie?”
“Oh, we just destroyed the support structure holding him to the ceiling. He came crashing down, destroying himself in a way.”
“Did you destroy the main CPU?”
Frees turned away from Arista. It was clear he wasn’t going to hear any more of that conversation without brushing Shin off. And alienating someone who had just volunteered to help them and provided them refuge was not a smart plan tactically. Not for the long run.
“The main CPU? I don’t think so. But the crash was pretty spectacular. Any components inside were most likely crushed.”
“Yes. Crushed.” Shin stroked his chin with his gloved hand. “I am sure you are right. And it does not matter. The CPU by itself is not dangerous. Only when…” He mimed plugging something in. “Then you have problems.”
Frees made a mental note to tell Obsidian to check for a CPU in Charlie’s wreckage the next time Arista talked to him.
“I apologize,” said Shin. “You are probably trying to listen. I will speak with you later.”
Frees moved to object but Shin waved him off and walked away. He’d wanted to protest; to tell Shin that he was wrong and that Frees was being nothing more than a good friend, but he got the sense it wouldn’t matter to Shin. It didn’t seem like he saw the world that way. And he was concerned for Arista. But there was something else too. Something he couldn’t put his finger on.
Arista finished up the call and tapped the end button on the console. She drew a deep breath in through her nose. Why of all days did the Peacekeepers have to pick today to begin randomizing their patrols? They should have just done what she’d suggested two weeks ago which as to seek out each of the Peacekeeper patrols and change them on the spot. But Jill said that could lead to anarchy, they needed to make the changes slow and gradual otherwise a lot of people were going to get hurt. Better to start out small. Though Arista wasn’t quite sure she believed that. Maybe she should have just gone with her gut. It seemed to be pretty reliable so far.
