Duality quantum gate boo.., p.14
Duality (Quantum Gate Book 2), page 14
“When you learn patience,” the woman responded, eyeing the menu.
Arista was barely aware they were speaking Japanese and the words were being morphed and translated into her brain. She was more concerned with finding a suitable target. It would be better to take someone alone rather than trying to deal with two or more. She gritted her teeth as her thoughts ran back to when she’d done this to Max, first luring her down a dark alley then incapacitating her with a steel pipe. Arista had been so nervous in the moment she’d accidentally changed Max, sending the paralyzed woman into a near-frenzy. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. But it had. Max had never forgiven her for it. Arista had only meant to injure her, mug her, then the police would have found her body and sent her to for repairs and she’d have been as good as new. But once she changed and her eyes shone bright orange her life as she’d known it was over. Had she been found by anyone other than Frees she would have been wiped and recycled.
Damn. She did not want to be thinking about him. The traitor.
Regardless, this time was going to be different. She would just try to turn one and then ask for their help. Then it didn’t feel so dirty. It didn’t feel like she was violating them in some way even though that wasn’t what she was doing at all. Not at all.
But the memory of the farmer shot back through her mind. What if the person she chose was staunchly anti-human? What if they tried to turn her in? She’d be forced to use her weapon on them and she didn’t want to do that unless necessary. They were still people after all. And Frees had been wrong, she did feel bad about all those Peacekeepers back there. But she had wanted to protect them more. To protect him.
Stop thinking about him.
She shook her head, willing the thoughts to fly from her mind so she could concentrate. She scratched her wrist absentmindedly. The connection itched. Eventually someone would have to come to the restroom.
As if on cue the woman at the table stood up. “I have to use the restroom.” The man groaned, his head tilting back in an exaggerated fashion. Arista couldn’t help but smile. The way they interacted with each other was so close to the real thing she almost couldn’t tell. She ducked back into the restroom and hid inside one of the private stalls.
The door to the restroom opened and the woman’s shoes clicked on the tile floor. This time Arista would use anger. Last time had been a fluke. Hogo-sha had done something special to those husks. This was just a random person. And she was angry enough at Frees for leaving to give her plenty of emotional fuel. She didn’t try to push the memory of him away this time. Instead, she focused on it, on how he could betray her like that, leave her in this strange country. How he almost killed her jumping out of that window. How he was so conscientious and concerned about his own people that he put everyone else around him in danger. And how he seemed to love an argument. That last one betrayed a smile on her face and she had to shut it down to maintain her concentration. Once all the thoughts had coalesced in her mind and she was literally seething with anger, she stepped out of the stall.
The woman was in the middle of applying lipstick when she caught Arista out of the corner of her eye, only to continue what she was doing as if Arista wasn’t even there. Arista came and stood directly behind her, willing the woman’s brown eyes to turn orange, and yet she finished with the lipstick and slipped it back into her purse.
“He might not complain so much now,” she said and Arista felt her anger seep away. Something was wrong. That should have changed this woman easily. Arista grabbed the woman by the arm, staring down at the comm buried beneath the skin; was it blinking under there? The woman didn’t yell or scream or make any movement to get away. She only stared at Arista’s hand clamped to her arm. “It doesn’t work like that here,” she finally said. “You are powerless.”
Arista let go immediately, scrambling away from the woman. All thoughts of her anger forgotten. “W-what?”
“You have to find a way to outthink him. That’s the only way you can beat him,” she said, her face betraying no emotion.
Arista backed up against the stall, horrified. How could she know? He was toying with her. The Peacekeepers hadn’t been a fluke. She truly was powerless in this place. And this was the price she paid for her recklessness. For her need to use a shortcut. Sy had been wrong.
Arista rushed at the woman and swung her new fist around, connecting with the woman’s jaw, sending her sprawling into the mirror above the vanity, shattering it and sending bits of glass all over the floor. But Arista was already out the door, running back through the kitchen and pushing everyone out of the way to get to the back alley. The woman would notify Hogo-sha once she recovered, if he didn’t know already, but Arista hadn’t been able to bring herself to shoot anyone else. Damn Frees. Damn him and his crusade.
She burst through the back door into the alley, running as fast as she could and knowing it wouldn’t make much difference. The machines were twice as fast as she was and the only non-lethal method she had to stop them had been neutralized. Had he done something to her when she came through that Gate? Everything worked fine the day before. Or maybe it was something about this place. Something she couldn’t see yet.
She rounded another corner and found herself in the middle of the morning throngs of downtown Osaka. There were people everywhere and she ducked into the crowd, pulling her hood back up to avoid any of the surveillance devices. Even if Hogo-sha’s Pseudokeepers were out here it was better than staying back with the one who had already identified her. One way or another someone would come for her. She couldn’t imagine she’d gotten much distance on that machine back in the bathroom, but no one seemed to be on her tail.
Great plan, Sy. Yeah, go ahead and recruit your own people, sure. That will work beautifully. Then just stroll up to Hogo-sha, blast him in the center of his giant sphere and come back home. Easy. Arista was just thankful she didn’t know how Peacekeepers were made. She planned on never letting her find out.
To be fair, this wasn’t Sy’s fault. Arista should be able to turn these people. At least one of them anyway, but it seemed she’d been rendered powerless. At least she still had her new hand. She glanced at it while pushing through the crowds. It packed one hell of a punch—literally. She never would have been able to do that with her regular hand. Though it did ache some, probably just a result of smashing that machine’s face in. Which she didn’t feel bad about because due to the fact the woman hadn’t changed she would get repairs and be good as new in a couple hours. Or Arista would feel a hand on her shoulder any second now.
She had to find another way in. One that didn’t involve interacting with anyone. She mentally instructed the Device to download all the architectural plans she could find for the structures surrounding the tower. She needed to see exactly how they got in the first time if she was going to make a second attempt. It seemed Hogo-sha had been one step ahead of her in every way. It was like that machine said: think of something he hadn’t thought of yet.
The plans finished downloading and she mentally overlaid them with the route they’d first taken into the building. It seemed Shin had led them through a fairly conventional path, it was only her unfamiliarity with the place that had made it seem more clandestine than it really was. She had to remember, he didn’t want to kill her, only capture her. Maybe she could find a way to use that to her advantage.
TWENTY-TWO
Frees finished the internal diagnostic. No anomalies detected. That was the third time he’d run through it. “Bullshit,” he said to no one in particular. There was no one to say anything to. He hadn’t moved from the spot he’d rooted himself to since he’d left Arista.
He scoffed. Left. More like she’d shoved him away. She’d practically begged him to leave and that had been fine with him. Because she’d been right. He was a danger to her.
He kept going over the jump again and again in his mind. He’d seen how far the building was from their location. His internal sensors were in the middle of making the calculations when she told him they couldn’t make it. But he had been sure they could. He had been so sure he was willing to bet both of their lives on it. Due to his incompetence, they’d gotten into a very bad situation up there and it had been his responsibility to get them back out, as fast as possible. But she’d been right. They couldn’t make the jump. Something his internal computer confirmed after they were already in mid-air.
But even if his computer hadn’t relayed the information, even if it told him they couldn’t make it when they were still on solid ground, he didn’t trust he still wouldn’t have taken the leap. And that bothered him. Self-preservation had always been his top priority, and his second priority had come to be Arista. To keep her from harm until they could finish the plan. Somewhere along the way he supposed they had become friends, but she was there to do a job: to give machines the freedom he could not. So she needed to be protected. At all costs.
He stood, surveying the scene below him. He’d taken refuge on one of the few low roofs in the area, making a few short jumps to get on top. This city bustled with activity all the time; there never seemed to be a lull. Especially now, during the morning rush. On the ground delivery trucks moved through the crowd, the bodies parting and coming back together around them. Above him maglevs hovered inches above their tracks, running between the buildings like they were metal caverns. And high above the hyper lanes were clogged with activity. It didn’t matter what level you were on, it was crowded everywhere. Everywhere but right here, on some non-descript roof in the middle of the city.
It wasn’t like him to make mistakes like that. What had happened up there? His first thought was he’d been corrupted somehow, but his diagnostics had confirmed that wasn’t the case. And still, something was wrong with him. Something that had caused him to make an irrational and stupid decision in the heat of the moment without considering all the consequences.
Frees slammed his fist on the concrete. He hated being in the dark, especially when it came to his own systems. Something was wrong with him, he just had to figure out what it was. And this hadn’t been an isolated incident. He’d almost faltered back on the farm when that idiot had branded the gun at Arista. It had been the first time he’d been tempted to hurt one of his own because he wanted to. He’d told himself it was because the man shouldn’t have a gun but if he was really honest it was because of the threat to her. Not that she wasn’t in danger all of the time but that particular situation placed her in a more immediate danger than usual. It placed her in a danger in which he could do something to rectify the situation immediately. And he’d been tempted to turn the gun on the old man, see how he liked it.
But he’d kept his cool. He’d run that scenario through a few outcome probabilities. He’d decided that any action toward the farmer would have resulted in a worse situation or even leading to Arista dying.
So why hadn’t he come to the same conclusion when jumping out that window? He hadn’t even considered her hand weapon could provide some additional thrust. He’d just…jumped. Frees tried running through the scenario again, focusing on what he would have done had she not saved them. Would he have let them fall to their deaths? What other choice would he have had?
Despite having been autonomous for over ten years, sometimes his own mind confounded him. He was not one to take things on impulse alone. Never had been. But ever since she’d come along he noticed he’d been acting different. It was as if she had pushed him into a new stage of his development, with nothing more than her presence. Could that be it? Could she still have an effect on him despite the fact he was already autonomous? Because how much did they really know about what she could do, really? Even she didn’t understand it. Regardless, there should have been some kind of measurable change somewhere within him. Some neural connection he could confirm had been inactive or nonexistent which now brimmed with activity. Something was different, and he didn’t care if he had to run a thousand diagnostics before he found it. Even if he had to take himself apart piece by piece he would figure it out. Until then, he might need to refrain from making too many decisions. Because until he could trust himself, it was possible he was putting those around him in danger. Maybe she had been right to send him away. For her own safety.
Frees touched two fingers to his temple and rubbed in a circle.
“Okay.” He sighed. “One more time. Run internal diagnostic.”
TWENTY-THREE
The train rumbled along, bouncing and jostling Arista as it sped down the tracks. She sat near the back of the last car, hoodie up and bent over slightly so no one would see her face. No one had approached after the incident at the restaurant but one could never be too cautious.
The train hit another bump, sending her butt off the seat for a millisecond. How long had it been since these tracks had been serviced? Most people used the maglevs above. There was hardly anyone in the subway car with her; but the unit was still running, right on time. Apparently the efficiency of Hogo-sha hadn’t reached this particular aspect of Osaka life yet.
Arista glanced up, the train was only one stop away from her closest entry to the tower. But she had to make it look convincing. Which meant she really needed to be in character for this. She couldn’t let her true motives slip, as hard as they might be to swallow. But this was the only way she might have a chance at taking him down. God, even just the prospect made her heart race. The Device flashed a warning for her to control her breathing but she had long since stopped listening to it. It didn’t matter here, it wasn’t like she was going to accidentally change someone sitting right beside her. It seemed nothing mattered here, she shouldn’t have been able to get away from the restaurant so easily. Which only led her to one conclusion: Hogo-sha had stopped them from coming after her. He wanted her to come to him. Well, he was about to get it.
The train slowed, pulling to its stop and Arista said a silent thank you to whatever force managed to keep it on its rickety tracks for at least one last trip. She got up and turned the backdoor handle, opening it to the black tunnel before her. She hopped down, shutting the little door behind her and made her way through the darkened passage. She didn’t have far to go.
She got a good look at the tracks before the light faded from the station she’d just left. No wonder she’d been half off her seat that entire time, they were in terrible condition. Warped at odd angles from too much use and too little repair. If she got to speak to Hogo-sha, which she didn’t expect, she’d mention it to him. Maybe get under his “skin” since he was so proud of his efficiency.
Double-checking the time, she confirmed it was past eight in the evening. Good, less people in the building to deal with. She didn’t know how many were inside, but it was a good bet the majority of them worked a regular nine-to-five. That’s how it had been back in Chicago at Cadre HQ. The Cadre itself had only used a portion of the building, the rest was deemed general usage and occupied by companies other than the Cadre. She suspected it was the same here. The tower was much too big to house just one organization. She’d done a lot of research in the past few hours. Apparently it had been designed as a multiple use “city-within-a-city”. Everything people would need to survive all in one place. Housing, shopping, office space, parks, and recreation, all of it. But Hogo-sha hadn’t seen it that way and had repurposed the entire building to office work. It was a shame. Arista bet the humans who had designed and built it were probably rolling in their graves over the travesty, and she didn’t blame them. He had corrupted their vision and now he would pay for it.
Exactly four hundred and fifty-seven feet into the tunnel she reached a door with a small keypad. Instead of hemming and hawing like she normally would have done she grabbed the handle and wrenched it off with her new hand. The mechanism inside failed and she was able to swing the door open. It might throw off a silent alarm but it wouldn’t be enough to get their attention. This was just phase one.
The corridor beyond the door was dark, lit only with a few fluorescents every few feet. It should have sent her into a panic, but so far so good. She didn’t bother disguising her footsteps or taking care to not make any noise. They already knew she was in the vicinity. And it was up to them as to how far she made it before someone stopped her.
At the end of the corridor stood another door which she opened with ease, bypassing any kind of security protocol. The second doorway opened into some kind of cooling station. It reminded Arista of the one underneath Frees’ apartment when they had to go underground to get to the production facility. Did Osaka have a hyperloop grid like Chicago? Or had the technology been too new? Back home they’d managed to determine it had only been operational a short while before the war with the machines, who had subsequently forgotten or discarded it.
She scaled the stairs surrounding the cooling units, her palm sweaty as she tried not to think about what she had to do. There was really no other way, not if she really thought about it. And this would be more than enough to disrupt every connected grid on the planet. Enough so that she could get back to where she belonged and with her own people. That was all she really wanted. Was it so much to ask? And what price was too high?
She almost stopped. Almost turned around to think of something else or give up completely. But she didn’t. Her foot stopped on one of the steps a moment longer than necessary before she continued on, determined to make this work. Nothing was going to stop her now. She had run out of options.
The map confirmed this was the last door before she breached the underground security perimeter. No turning back now. She wrenched the door open easily, passing through.
On the other side stood two men in black suits, flanking either side of the door. They didn’t react to her other than to turn their heads. “She’s inside,” the one on the left said.
“I am here to surrender. Take me to your leader.”
“Subject is requesting escort,” muttered the one on the right to no one in particular. He grabbed her arm faster than she would have thought possible and placed his fist inside her palm so she couldn’t touch her fingers together. So he had been paying attention. She’d wondered how he would prevent her from using her weapon.
