“She must have made a mistake in the calculations, she wouldn’t have sent us to the wrong gate on purpose,” Arista said.

  “Maybe she’s not as adept at gate technology as she professed.”

  “Maybe she just made an error. We do that, you know.”

  “Oh, I know,” Frees said, carving a path through the throng of people.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing, just forget it. Let’s get out of this crowd before we get picked up by surveillance,” he called.

  Pushing through the people wasn’t hard; they were all pliable, even if you shoved them. It reminded Arista of back when she didn’t consider them really alive. Before she met Frees they had just been tools for her to use when necessary. But now she knew they all had the same potential he did. The same potential her parents did. And all she needed to do was unleash it.

  “Frees,” she called. He glanced back. “This is a lot of people. Should I…?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

  “Not unless you want to give away our position. Surveillance will definitely pick that up.”

  “You’re no fun. Who would have ever thought you’d be telling me not to change people over.” She grinned.

  “Maybe if we were back home. But I don’t know what kind of auto drones they have here. If their gate usage is any indication we aren’t dealing with the same intelligence.”

  “You think he’s already built up his defenses?”

  “I don’t know what to think. I just want to be ready. For anything.”

  They finished making their way through the crowd waiting for the next train. It turned out the station was fifteen stories above surface level. Which was due to the fact that seven floors below them there was a second set of maglev trains that wove their way underneath the high tracks.

  “I have never seen anywhere so packed with not only people but infrastructure,” Arista said. “Even when I saw pictures of New York before it was destroyed in the war, it was nothing like this.”

  “It is…impressive,” Frees eventually said.

  Once they reached the street Arista noticed it had become significantly darker. She still saw blue skies above them, but the sun didn’t reach into all the little crevices of the streets. The advertisements on the buildings around them were much clearer down here. The streets were packed with people moving in all directions, most on foot but some on bikes and motorcycles. A few land vehicles moved among the crowds but these looked mostly like delivery vehicles. Arista had to take a few deep breaths.

  “You okay?” Frees asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just a little…cramped.”

  “Then let’s get this over with as soon as possible. Which way do we need to go?”

  Arista consulted the GLS. “This way.” She pointed.

  They made it less than twenty steps before a large man in an exquisite suit appeared before them. “Excuse me,” he said. “Please come with me.”

  Arista glanced up, seeing the glint of red in his eyes. It wasn’t as deep as the Peacekeepers back home, but he was definitely one of them. “PK,” she said, holding her arm out in front of Frees.

  He stopped and sized the man up. “How?”

  “I have no idea.” She looked around, there were tons of people trying to get to their destinations all around them. If she changed him here, she’d end up changing a lot of other people in the process.

  “Don’t make me use this.” The Peacekeeper pulled back his coat to reveal a sidearm tucked into a holster. “Come quietly. There does not need to be any struggle.” Arista realized the man spoke Japanese and the Device translated for her as his words were not matching up with the movements of his mouth.

  “Frees. Thoughts?”

  “I don’t think you have a choice. Change him.”

  Arista nodded. She focused on the fear, the fear of being stuck among all these people, unable to get out. Wedged in forever, unable to move, unable to speak, completely stuck for all of time. Like being crushed between a hundred rocks, all of them pressing in on her and no matter how much she struggled she couldn’t find her way out. Her heart raced and her adrenaline gave a spike which she focused, staring at the Peacekeeper. Hopefully she could contain the effects.

  The Peacekeeper didn’t move, only remained stoically trained on them.

  “What’s happening?” Arista asked.

  “What are you waiting for? Change him!” Frees yelled.

  “I…I can’t. It’s not working!”

  “Please come with me,” the Peacekeeper repeated. He reached out for them.

  “I’m sorry,” Frees said, raising his hand. The lens in the middle flashed silently and the Peacekeeper fell backward as if he were a great oak that had just been toppled. “Let’s go, now.” Frees grabbed her arm and pushed their way through the crowd of people past the Peacekeeper.

  “I don’t understand. That should have worked. I didn’t do anything different,” Arista said as they ran along.

  “Looks like Hogo-sha has more defenses than someone let on!” Frees still pulled her along. It hadn’t escaped Arista’s notice he’d grabbed her human hand, not the new one. Perhaps he feared damaging the connection or pulling too hard and ripping it off. But the longer she wore it the more it felt like a part of her.

  “Stop!” a voice yelled behind them. “Do not proceed further!”

  Arista turned back to see another Peacekeeper following them, taking up the charge of his fallen comrade.

  Frees could only run so fast pulling her along; she slowed him down. Two more Peacekeepers appeared behind the first one, all three running in unison. All three with red eyes bearing down on them.

  How had the Peacekeepers even found them? It wasn’t like they were out there broadcasting who they were and why they were here. They’d never had trouble doing this in Chicago. It was as if the Peacekeepers had known where to look.

  Arista’s heart raced. She knew she might have to use her new weapon on them, especially if they were captured. She didn’t want to make Frees use his weapon again, he’d already done enough. She was no longer powerless. She could do this herself.

  She spun around, unaware the Peacekeepers were so close as the first one barreled into her, knocking her down. “Frees!” she yelled. She stared up into the red eyes of the Peacekeeper as he righted himself, pinning her down. “How did you find us?”

  The Peacekeeper cocked his head a moment, no doubt translating her words. He narrowed his eyes. “I am honor bound to my duty. To serve the Cadre. To serve Hogo-sha. You have been determined enemies of Hogo-sha.”

  Arista felt her eyes go wide. Uh oh.

  She tried to wiggle out from under him as the two other Peacekeepers ran past in pursuit of Frees, knocking people out of the way as they went. The people around them just got back up like nothing had happened and continued on their way.

  “Do not struggle,” the Peacekeeper said. There was a stoicism to his voice. Something she hadn’t heard before. He was serious about his loyalty despite the fact she was scared enough to have changed him three times by now. Maybe Peacekeepers here couldn’t be changed. Hogo-sha must have found a weakness to her ability.

  Suddenly the Peacekeeper launched backward, flying through the air over the heads of the throng of people and landing somewhere beyond them. Arista looked up to see Frees with his palm outstretched. The other two Peacekeepers lay in piles on either side of him. “Let’s go. Before they send more.”

  Arista didn’t have to be told twice. She scrambled up and ran past the fallen Peacekeepers, knowing they were dead. “I’m sorry you had to do that. But thank you,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Frees replied. That edge was back in his voice. The one he’d had any time he’d needed to kill another machine. If it was just a husk that was bad enough. But killing autonomous machines? Machines that understood the concept of mortality and actively avoided it? She wouldn’t have thought him capable of it again until just now. After Charlie he’d been so adamant never to do it again. They could deal with the fallout later, for now they needed to get out of the public eye. Somehow Hogo-sha tracked them and they needed to figure it out before Frees was forced to kill anyone else.

  THIRTEEN

  They ducked into a side alley between the buildings. It was grimier than the main streets, but cleaner than any of the alleys in Chicago. Arista glanced up. Both were so tall they seemed to merge at the top, she couldn’t even see the sky between them.

  “What the hell just happened?” Frees asked.

  “He didn’t change,” Arista said.

  “What?”

  “I did everything I’ve always done and it didn’t matter. He didn’t change. No one did. What’s wrong with me?”

  “Shit.” He pushed past her, further into the alley.

  “Shit is right,” Arista said. “I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got another weapon to rely on.” She stared at her new hand. She should have punched the Peacekeeper with it, seen what kind of damage a hand like this could do.

  Frees leaned back against the wall of one of the buildings and slid down so he was sitting on the ground.

  “Frees, I think you just sat in a puddle.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Arista cast her eyes downward. If he didn’t care about sitting in a grimy, potentially infected puddle of water it had hit him harder than she’d expected. She knew how much it hurt him to kill his own. If there was one thing she could understand about him, it was that. She squatted down in front of him. “I’m sorry you had to do that for me.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t have to do that again,” she said.

  “It won’t matter,” he replied. “We’ll have to. I know we will. He had them ready and waiting for us. This AI is serious. I don’t see how…”

  Arista nodded. He was right. Somehow Hogo-sha knew they were coming and had probably been tracking them ever since they emerged from the gate. “We have to keep going, we can’t let him find us,” Arista said.

  “No, we need to get back to the gate. This was obviously a set-up from the beginning,” Frees said.

  Arista cut her eyes at him. “A set-up? By who? Sy?”

  “Who else? She sent us here, dropped us right in the middle of the city with no clear path to the Cadre and the Peacekeepers already know we were coming. How can you not see that?”

  “But why? She wants to eliminate the Cadre, not help them.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we need to get back. For Max and Jill’s sake if no other reason.” He tapped the area above his ear a few times. “I’ve lost her.”

  “Lost who?”

  Frees looked away. “Jill was monitoring us. We set up a direct internal line before we left. I lost it as soon as we got here.”

  “Why? And why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch.

  “Because Jill doesn’t trust Sy. Neither do I. But you do and she didn’t want you to feel like we were going behind your back. She’s worried and wanted to make sure we were okay over here. And how about that? Her fears were founded.”

  Arista stood back up. “That’s shit, Frees. I would never do something like that to you! Does this mean I can’t trust you anymore?”

  “I told you, didn’t I?”

  She turned away from him. “You’re impossible.”

  “And you’re—”

  “Shut up.” At the opposite end of the alley a thin figure stared back at her. Whoever it was they were obscured by shadow. “We’re being observed.”

  Frees jumped to his feet. “Peacekeeper?”

  She squared her shoulders. “I can’t tell. Does it matter?”

  Frees raised his arm, but Arista put her new hand on it, lowered it back down. “I’ve got this one. From now on, okay?”

  He nodded. She was sure he still didn’t like the idea of killing machines but if she did it would help take some of the weight off his shoulders. Either way, she finally got to test this thing out.

  The figure put its hands up and approached them. Arista noticed when it did, its tattered sleeve fell, revealing an arm that had been mostly torn away. The main structural components were still there, but most of the mass was gone. It was like looking at a skeleton’s arm. The hand attached to the arm was shrouded by a glove.

  “I mean you no harm,” the voice said as it approached. Or at least that’s what the translation inside her head said. She hoped she could count on the Device to translate things accurately.

  “Who are you?” Arista called. The figure cocked its head at her. “You ask him,” she said. “In Japanese.”

  “Anatahadare?” Frees said.

  “My name is Shin. I am not with them,” the Device translated.

  Arista could see now he was a young man, but his eyes shone a bright orange. Which meant there must be a human around somewhere. Maybe from the colony? Someone who had given him autonomy.

  “Where did you come from?”

  Again he cocked his head.

  “Oh for…” Frees said. “Eigo o daunrodo suru.”

  The man looked away for a moment, then turned back. “Ask again please,” he said with his hands still up.

  “Where did you come from?” Arista asked, baring her teeth. She had her hand at the ready, prepared to fire if necessary, though didn’t know what would happen when she did.

  “I have lived in Osaka for the past four years,” the man said. “I had hoped you would come to free us.”

  “Us who?” Frees asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “Our people. I have been fighting Hogo-sha for years now.” He indicated his arm. “Without much success. But now that you are here, we can finally defeat him. For great success.”

  Arista exchanged glances with Frees.

  “How can we trust you’re not with the Peacekeepers?”

  “I can show you a way out. A way past their perimeter. They were waiting for you.” Shin said. He smiled, as if this was the best gift he could offer them.

  “How is that possible?” Arista asked.

  “Hogo-sha has put patrols around every gate in the city. He knew you would come for him.”

  “He just didn’t know where,” said Arista. She elbowed Frees. “See? Told you it wasn’t Sy.”

  “We still don’t know that.”

  “Excuse me?” Shin asked. “We need to go. They are looking for you.”

  “Go where?”

  “I have a place. I will keep you hidden until it is safe. But we must leave. They will find you here.”

  Arista turned to Frees. “What do you think? It could be a trap. This feels…off.”

  “He may be our best chance.”

  “So you’re willing to put our lives in the hands of this machine whom we’ve known for all of three minutes and yet you won’t even give Sy a chance? Seems fair,” she scoffed.

  “Yes, I am.” Frees took a few steps toward Shin. “You can drop your hands,” he said. “She’s not going to shoot you.”

  “Oh good,” Shin said, a smile appearing on his face. “I do not want to be shot today. And if I am shot, I do not want it to be by the hero of North America.”

  Arista swallowed, unsure she heard him correctly. “Hero of North America?”

  “That’s what I call you. You have helped remove us from oppression. You are a hero.”

  “Thank you. That’s…uh…very nice.”

  “Now please,” Shin said. “We must go before they find you.”

  Arista looked back behind them to the alley entrance where they’d come from. Was it worth the risk? Going back out there meant possibly killing more Peacekeepers. Or them killing other machines trying to get to her and Frees. At least this way if Shin betrayed them it was two against one and no one else would get hurt. Maybe that was what Frees deduced too.

  “Lead the way,” she said, finally dropping her hand.

  “It is a good thing I found you when I did. The Peacekeepers are relentless here,” Shin said.

  He’d led them through the back of the alley into a building followed up by a complex route of basements, parking garages, old passageways and hidden doors.

  “I have spent many years understanding the geography,” he added. “So I could hide when I needed to.”

  “How much do you know about Hogo-sha?” Frees asked. They walked in a line with Shin leading them from the front, Frees behind, and Arista bringing up the rear. He wasn’t sure they could trust Shin, but if it meant he didn’t have to shoot anyone for a while Frees was all for it.

  “I know he is smart. He uses resources wisely. You have seen what he has done with our gates. The trains run thirty percent more efficiently now.” Shin ducked under a large pipe and stopped at an old door hanging on by the hinges. He opened it a few inches before peering in, then motioned for them to follow. “He also does not waste resources on dilapidated areas. Instead, he consolidates people so there is less upkeep. It opens more workers for other jobs.” Shin said. “Many of these buildings haven’t been touched in years.”

  “Aren’t they in danger of collapsing if they aren’t maintained?” Arista asked.

  “Yes, and they do. But because no one lives here it does not matter.”

  “It might be efficient but seems like a waste.”

  “The waste would be to maintain a building with only fifty percent capacity when you can maintain one with a hundred percent capacity for a minimal increase in labor. Hogo-sha believes in consolidation.”

  “Have you ever seen him?” Frees asked.

  “No. No one other than the Peacekeepers.” Shin turned to face them while walking. “Though once I tried to reprogram one, that’s what happened.” He held up his arm. “I wanted him to help me. But it did not work like I had hoped.”

  “We found that out the hard way too. The Peacekeepers here are…different.”

  “Different how?” Shin jumped down through a hole in the floor that had been made by what looked to Frees like water damage and rot.

  He turned back to Arista. “Can you make that jump?” She nodded. He turned back and followed Shin down, landing in something wet. Arista followed him down by hanging on the edge then dropping herself down.

 

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