Arista turned back to Frees. “That way she’ll think it’s a malfunction on her end. She won’t retaliate against my parents.”

  Frees stroked his polymorphic chin. “And then what? Eventually she’ll still find her way here.”

  “Shin can cut off her communications as soon as she arrives, and it buys us some time to come up with ways to stop her.” She glanced around the room. “We need more input. More ideas. Do you think Shin would let me change some of his people now? To help us brainstorm?”

  “No,” Shin said, “You do not have my permission. The three of us will be sufficient.” He stepped forward. “The exit gate has been changed to Cairo, Egypt. It will slow her down until she can reset the system. If she has expertise, we have brought ourselves twenty minutes at most.”

  “Will you be able to tell when she enters the gate?”

  Shin nodded. “Just like I did when you arrived. I monitor all gate activity.”

  Arista crinkled her brow. “Wait. Did you monitor us when we first used the Gate to get to Charlie? Did you monitor the ones the used to imprison me?”

  “Yes.” Shin’s face remained neutral.

  “And you didn’t care?”

  “I assumed Charlie could handle himself. It turns out he could not. But like I have said, he was a barbarian. He made the deal with the humans. They provided the technology for the gate as a ‘peace offering’. Charlie was foolish. Did not see it for what it was. Trymian and I were more cautious.”

  “Charlie knew about the colony?” Frees asked.

  Shin nodded. “His relationship with them was…complex. Even after they betrayed him.”

  Arista leaned in. “Well? How did they betray him?”

  “Should we focus on strategy—” Frees began.

  “I need to know this,” Arista interrupted. “This is my strategy.”

  Shin lifted his eyebrows. “Very well. The gates were a prelude to invasion. The humans told us they would aid in our resource needs. Less waste to transport goods and people. Less fuel. But they use a lot of energy. Charlie built the first ones. Excited about introducing them, seeing how they changed things. Trymian and I were more cautious, only built a few. None in sensitive areas. I set about to learn as much as I could about them.” Shin turned and glanced up at his other form. “The attack came quicker than expected. All of the gates activated at once, the humans sent explosives through. If I had not been familiar with how the gates worked, they would have destroyed all our cities. They only managed to detonate two before I shut down all the gates, trapping their weapons on the other side.”

  “The colony has its own gates.”

  “Yes, those I cannot control. The humans modified them, took them offline or beyond my reach.”

  “Then why do you still use them?” Frees asked. “If the humans can come through whenever they want?”

  Shin faced him again, his eyes piercing. “Good technology should not go to waste. It is inefficient. Now the humans know we control them, they have not tried to send anything else through. They could only use the element of surprise once. Now everything is monitored.”

  Arista ran her hand through her hair. “That’s why Charlie was so worried. He thought I’d come from the colony through one of the gates. He thought he was facing an invasion.”

  “I tried to tell him. Charlie was stubborn. Did not listen.”

  “So, if the colony has its own gates, could we use yours to get there?”

  “I would need the gate frequency. The humans have done something to mask theirs. They don’t want us sending anyone through any more than we want them to do the same.”

  “What are you thinking?” Frees had asked the question without looking her in the eye. No doubt he already knew but he wanted her to say it aloud. To actually vocalize it.

  “We go through and get my parents out. I guarantee Sy has the frequency. We capture her, get it, and go get them.”

  Frees didn’t say anything. Only walked over to the stairs to the upper level and sat down on the second step. “And how do we fight off an entire colony of humans? Just the two of us?”

  “I would assist,” Shin said. “Knowing the location of the colony would be of great benefit. The information is valuable.”

  “So, you could destroy them?” Arista asked, her voice pitched higher than she would have liked.

  “You do not listen. I do not wish to kill anyone. Only maintain the current balance.”

  “And knowing the location of the colony gives you an edge.”

  He nodded. Arista wasn’t sure if she wanted to help the Cadre find the colony, but honestly, after what Sy had done to her she felt they deserved some retribution. Obviously her mission was sanctioned by someone higher up, which meant Sy wasn’t an outlier. She wasn’t some rogue human working for her own means. She’d been ordered to bring Arista back. And that meant there were a lot more people like her in that colony. Maybe the best thing would be for the Cadre to monitor them. She was beginning to think Shin was right, humans really were cause for alarm and caution. Never had she wanted to be less human in her life than right now. Even back when she was a kid, dreaming of being the same as her “parents”, she had always found the silver lining in being human. Her adaptability, her lifespan, her uniqueness. And now it all just seemed like a waste. She was glad the machines had destroyed her race and taken the planet a hundred years ago. It was what the humans deserved.

  “Arista?” Frees asked, interrupting her thought process. “Is that really what you want to do? Fight through a swarm of humans?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I do.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  “What the…?” Sy stepped out into the empty, dusty street. The moon was high overhead and the sky looked clear as she’d ever seen. She missed the sky; it wasn’t often she got a view like this. She pulled a small device from the utility belt she’d strapped on after receiving the call. Arista knew she was coming, she needed to be prepared. “Location.”

  “Cairo, Egypt,” the device dictated to her. “Longitude thirty degrees, three minutes—”

  “Shut up,” she spat at the machine and stuck it back in her belt. How the fuck had she ended up in Africa? She turned back to the gate, the shimmering had stopped and it had returned to a normal wall. And why was there a gate all the way out here to begin with? In the middle of the city, just on some random wall on the street. These machines were idiots.

  “That’s right. Steal our technology then don’t even use it properly,” she said, walking over to the control panel beside the gate. She accessed the main transport system. She’d never had a gate malfunction on her before. Never. Entry point, gate C-04, confirmed. Exit point, gate L-442. No, that wasn’t right.

  “What the hell, what the hell, what the hell,” Sy said in hushed tones as she hunched over the panel, inspecting it closer. Someone was screwing with her system. Bad enough she had to go find this girl but now someone else was interfering with her objective. She’d been so close to getting her back voluntarily. So close. And now she had to hunt her down and bring her back. Somehow she’d survived the glove—no one survived the glove—but then again no one ever cut their own arm off before. That should have taken care of it, should have killed her so Sy could bring her back saying “Sorry, boss, it happened.” The real value wasn’t in the girl, it was in the information she carried. Sure, McCulluh wanted her back alive for interrogation, but if the sometimes things didn’t go to plan…

  Sy grimaced, resetting the controls on the panel. She’d have to wait until she was there before making the decision whether to kill her or not. She hadn’t spent weeks preparing for this job just for it all to fall apart at the end. At the very least the girl had done her job. McCulluh had been right about that much. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she was a natural born killer. You just had to get under the surface, give her the proper motivation. In a couple weeks the strain of maintaining society with just one Cadre member would be too much and the system would collapse. Then they would be free to finish.

  Someone cleared their throat behind Sy. She turned her head to see a young man with a dark beard standing a few feet away. She stood slowly, meeting its gaze.

  “Hal maeak sijarat?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sy pulled her weapon from its holster and pointed it at the man. “And I don’t care.” She pulled the trigger and a bright burst exploded silently from the weapon, striking it in its chest. It fell back as the blast moved through its body, turning the machine an ashen gray. By the time it hit the ground, the mouth was frozen in a state of terror, as if it were screaming. Sy walked over to inspect it. Was it just a bystander? Or had Trymian spotted her on some camera and sent someone to investigate? It didn’t matter, she’d necrotize machines all day if she could, but she had a job to finish.

  She returned to the control panel. Despite her force reset the exit point still posted as L-442. Someone was in the system right now, deliberately blocking her. But who could…

  “Oh, you clever little wretch,” Sy said to herself. So she hadn’t taken Hogo-sha offline after all. Which must mean he was helping her—helping them. Sy smirked. She would just take care of him herself when she got there. Like she should have done from the beginning. But no, she’d had to try and make Arista’s death look like she’d gone out in a blaze of glory. People would have loved it if she’d destroyed two of the three Cadre members. And it would have helped David. The support would have been overwhelming.

  She had wanted to like her in the beginning; she thought maybe even they could work together. But then she saw how the girl interacted with the machines, how she interacted with the skinless one in particular and Sy knew it would never work. She’d hoped maybe Arista still harbored some hatred for the machines, she’d even tried to cultivate it, push her toward destroying them. Not overtly, she would have seen through that immediately. But with finesse it was amazing what you could convince people to do. But it seemed the girl’s convictions were stronger than she thought. She was nothing but a blood traitor now.

  Sy rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the ache that had appeared in her back after taking that stupid hyperloop pod. The thing was jerky and inefficient. Just like these autonomous machines. Seeing them up close and in person had actually made her feel a lot better. Despite all their posturing they really weren’t cut out to be any kind of threat. Taking out the hothead and the old woman had been simple enough. They had actually been stupid enough to turn their backs on her. She’d been concerned after discovering they had listened in on her conversation with McCulluh, but she’d managed to convince them she wasn’t an immediate threat. None of them would ever be anything more than an annoyance, that was, as long as they didn’t re-organize without the Cadre. But that was McCulluh’s department. Once Sy got back with the girl and ideally, the skinless one, she could look forward to a nice, long respite. Just a few more hours, then it would all be over.

  Pulling a small override chip from her belt, she pressed it up against the face of the control panel, which immediately went blank. “New inputs,” she said. “Entry point, L-442. Exit point, O-75. Confirm.”

  She pulled the chip away and the panel confirmed the new exit as Osaka, her original gate destination. Since Hogo-sha hadn’t been shut down she’d have to cloak as soon as she arrived. He’d be looking for her and the gate was a good distance from their location. She double checked the tracker to confirm Arista hadn’t left the tower to find she was in the exact same spot. “Finally doing something right for once,” she said. “I should have used the parents’ card earlier.” She wasn’t sure what McCulluh had planned for the pair of autos and she didn’t really care. If it got the girl to cooperate that was all that mattered.

  Sy hit the initiate button on the panel and the gate emitted a low rumble, the face of it shimmering in front of her. She pulled the refractor from her belt and affixed it to the front of her shirt, ready to activate it as soon as she was through.

  “Ready or not, here I come.” She stepped through.

  THIRTY-SIX

  “The gate has been activated,” Shin said, his gaze off in the distance.

  “That was quick,” Frees said, checking the power levels on the felp.

  Arista turned from watching him. “Where is she? Have you de-activated her comm?”

  “Working,” Shin said. The lights of Hogo-sha above him blinked faster. “She has…more advanced technology than I expected. I believe it is blocked but she has disappeared from my surveillance.”

  “The refractor,” Arista and Frees said at the same time. She smiled at him and caught a hint of a smile back. This was it, they were really doing it. Her heart rate was faster than normal, but it wasn’t out of control. Not yet. Not until she looked Sy straight in the eyes and asked her why. Until then they had a job to do and little time to do it.

  “ETA?” Arista asked.

  “If her footspeed is normal, fifteen minutes,” Shin said.

  “Okay.” Arista turned, surveying the area. “Since I’m unarmed…” She waited for a reaction but Shin’s face remained neutral and Frees just rolled his eyes. She cleared her throat. “Since I don’t have a weapon I’ll need to stay out of sight. Is there room for me behind the panel?”

  As she said it the control station sunk back into the bookcase. “There is now,” Shin said.

  “I’ll stay in here until she’s knocked out.” She turned to Frees. “Are you sure the felp will work on her?”

  “I’ve never used it on a human. It won’t kill her but it should make her head ring and disable any piece of equipment she’s carrying on her, including the refractor.”

  Perfect. That was all they needed, just a few moments to immobilize her. “Do you think she’ll be brash enough to come through the doors?”

  Frees shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised given how cocky she is.”

  Arista took a deep breath. Okay, now she was getting nervous. She could feel her throbbing pulse in the end of her short arm, thumping regularly like it was sending out radio waves. “Good luck,” she said, brushing her hand against his arm.

  “You too. Now you better hide.” He didn’t return the gesture, but his eyes lingered on her a moment longer than they should have. She didn’t think she imagined it.

  Taking slow, calculated steps she reached the bookcase. She watched both Frees and Shin disappear as the bookcase slid in front of her, obscuring the room from her view. The space became pitch-black as it clunked shut.

  Nothing to do but wait.

  As the minutes passed Arista began to grow restless. Her hand felt clammy and wouldn’t stop sweating, no matter how much she rubbed it on her pants. Beads of perspiration had formed at her brow and she dispersed them with a simple swipe.

  Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.

  She should have brought some water; there was no telling how long she might be in here. Sy might take the long way around, try to wait them out. Or she could just come barging in like a rhino through a bookstore. She didn’t like how they only had Frees’ weapon to rely on, but Shin had no offensive weapons of his own, other than his ability to control parts of the building. The plan was to set themselves as soon as the elevators started moving, even with no one inside, they would know she was close. Most likely she wasn’t coming up the stairs because for one, it was three thousand stairs to the top and two, she’d be completely spent by the time she reached them.

  Hogo-sha had situated himself in a much better environment than Charlie. Not locked away in some basement, but instead sitting atop a castle in the sky, watching everything. Even now in this pitch-black room Arista could feel the gentle sway of the building under her feet, like a palm rustled by the ocean’s wind. Which was good. It gave her something to focus on.

  The Device told her it had been twelve minutes. Any second now.

  Fifteen minutes.

  Twenty-one.

  Thirty-two.

  At forty-five minutes she sat down as comfortably as she could get, all the nervous energy having drained out of her. Sy must be planning a wait-and-see strategy. And why wouldn’t she? It wasn’t like she had somewhere she needed to be. As if to remind her she couldn’t stay in here forever, Arista’s stomach growled. When was the last time she’d eaten? She couldn’t even remember.

  Wanting to call out to make sure they were alright, Arista refrained. It would do no good and her call might come at the exact wrong moment: when Sy entered the room. She leaned over, pressing her ear against the bookcase but no sound permeated through. She wasn’t sure if that was because nothing was happening or because the bookcase was too thick. What was the density of wood when sound was applied to it in a normal atmosphere?

  As she waited for the Device to produce the answer a separate notification came up in her vision. Something she’d never seen before but reminded her of the warning when she’d burned off her own hand.

  Alert! Carbon monoxide detected. Evacuate the area.

  Carbon monoxide? In here? If she didn’t get out soon she’d suffocate. This must be Sy’s doing, driving her out of her hiding place. Had she accessed the HVAC? At least she could still rely on Frees and Shin; they would all face her together after all.

  Arista pushed herself back up and felt around the edge of the bookcase for some kind of latch, but there was only smooth wood. A knot formed in her stomach and she banged on the wood, yelling for Shin to let her out, to retract the wall. What if he couldn’t hear her? What if they managed to defeat Sy, only for Arista to suffocate while she was here hiding? Frees wouldn’t let that happen. Not if he could help it.

  She smacked her hand against the wood harder, producing an audible clap in the small space as the alert continued to flash in her vision, despite her blinking it away. The bookcase wouldn’t move. She gathered up what little breath she had and held it. Carbon monoxide was colorless, odorless; essentially the perfect killer. Had Sy flooded the entire top floor with it? There were HVAC units every five floors. It was the only explanation.

 

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