Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) Page 20

  Jane took the weapon, cold and small, yet frightening in its power.

  “Jane?” Adam sat in the box, blinking. He held his head with one hand.

  “Adam!” Jane rushed over and threw her arms around him, relieved that he was able to wake up after all.

  “Good to see you too, but why are you armed?”

  “Yikes, forgot I had this.” She stuffed the gun into her pocket. “Holy shit, Adam, are you okay?”

  “Yes, just… confused.” Adam brushed his light brown hair to the side, peeled one of the pads off his forehead, and examined it with bewilderment.

  “You won’t believe what—”

  The sound of blasts interrupted her.

  Devin shot out the door, aiming high. “Hey! I’m glad you lovebirds are reunited, but it’s time to go.”

  Jane’s mouth fell open. “We are not lovebirds!”

  Crack.

  The force of the doors crushed the machine body holding them open.

  Jane hurriedly helped Adam remove the rest of the pads and tubes. Adam winced as she tugged the needles out of his arms. When she finished, she stood so quickly that black dots splattered across her vision. She started toward her brother, then noticed Adam still in the box. He clutched his forearms with his hands.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.” Adam took her outreached hand and pulled himself up. “I’m… hallucinating or something. What happened to me?”

  Jane didn’t get a chance to answer. A blinding light and a high-pitched squeal inundated her senses. Her head seemed to split in half, and she had the bizarre desire to chop it off and be done with the pain.

  Devin regretted using the flash grenade as soon as he’d thrown it. He’d only had the one, and seventeen levels separated him from the Stargazer. About a dozen Wrath Guards had run straight at him. Despite his instinct to rush in firing, he couldn’t have taken them all. They currently lay unconscious on the floor, but they wouldn’t stay out for long. He’d destroyed the internal defenses in the corridor. The coast was clear.

  He turned around. “Jane! Adam!”

  Jane held her head with both hands, her mouth open as though screaming in silence.

  Devin took a step toward her. “Jane, what—”

  “Warn me next time!” Jane yelled.

  Crack. The machine body between the doors crumpled.

  “Let’s go!” Devin watched the corridor, weapon raised in case more Wrath Guards showed up.

  Jane climbed onto the machine body and slipped out, giving him a furious glare. She looked back. “Adam!”

  Devin turned. Adam stood still, clutching his arms. “Adam!”

  Adam snapped to attention. “Sorry.” He ran to the doors and started to climb onto the machine body, then froze.

  “Move!” Devin yelled.

  Adam blinked rapidly. “Sorry.” He climbed out.

  Crack.

  Devin jumped onto the machine body and into the corridor. The doors slammed shut behind him.

  He glared at Adam. “What the hell was that?”

  Adam gave him a helpless, apologetic look. “I’m sorry… I—I didn’t mean to…”

  Devin put his hand in his pocket to make sure the computer chip he’d taken from one of the machines was still there. It was.

  Adam leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

  Jane approached him worriedly. “How long were you out?”

  “No idea.” Adam opened his eyes. “The last thing I remember was entering my dorm room. I feel like… I’m losing control of my limbs or something…”

  Definitely drugged.

  The float’s internal defenses fired around the corner. Too many—can’t destroy them without getting hit. Devin looked up and found the vent leading to the utility conduits.

  Jane followed his gaze. “Not more conduits.”

  “Get back.” He blasted around the vent’s edges until it fell, leaving a square hole in the ceiling. The gun clanged as he tossed it up. He jumped, grabbed the opening’s edge, and pulled himself in. His head brushed against the metal ceiling. Cold air breezed past him.

  Crouching, he surveyed the dark conduit. Nothing unusual. He reached down, grabbed Jane’s wrists, and hauled her up.

  “Give Adam a hand. I have to figure this place out.” Devin approached the control panel a few yards away. Dozens of switches greeted him, labeled with letters and numbers. He ran through his memories, trying to recall the float’s layout—and which switch would turn on the lights.

  Adam looked up the hole where the vent had been. “Say, Jane? I know it’s a bad time to ask, seeing as we’re running for our lives and all, but… what’s going on? It’s not every day I wake up in a box to the sound of guns going off.”

  Jane lay on her stomach. “You were kidnapped. I went to your dorm and saw this deep blue robot carrying you out the window. That was… about three days ago.” She reached down, grabbed Adam’s wrists, and bit her lip as she pulled.

  Adam grabbed the edge of the conduit. “Wait… what?”

  Jane let go of him, sat up, and held out a hand. Adam took it, and she grabbed his wrist with her other hand.

  “No one would believe me.” She sounded strained as she leaned back, hauling him up by one arm. “They said you’d gone on a retreat and couldn’t be reached because of religious isolation.”

  Adam pressed his elbows into the conduit floor and pushed himself up. “That was… clever.”

  AN-50N—that’s it. Devin flipped the switch with that label. A line of green lights flickered on above him. “C’mon.”

  Jane crawled behind him. “Adam, can I just say those stupid Via retreats are full of shit! Who the hell goes and cuts themselves off from the world so no one even knows when they’ve been kidnapped? It’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard of!”

  Adam followed her. “That’s not very nice. Isolation is paramount to—”

  “Don’t! Do you have any idea how many times I got that freaking line? Your cultish Via programs are downright stupid!”

  “Again, not very nice.”

  Jane stopped and faced him. “I don’t care! Dammit, Adam! You were gone, and no one was even looking for you because they thought you’d gone off to commune with the Absolute or some bullshit!”

  “You’re right,” Adam said gently. “I guess they are pretty dumb.”

  Good answer. Devin had only met Adam once before, when he’d run into him and Jane at Quasar’s café four weeks back. Dad had charged Devin with finding out just what kind of boy Jane spent so much time with. Devin could barely remember anything about the kid other than that he was nice. There was nothing anyone could say against him, and while that was an admirable trait, Devin found it puzzling that his vivacious sister would enjoy the company of someone so… boring.

  He approached an intersection. Spidery mechanical arms waved in his face. He instinctively blasted. After destroying the repair bot, he noticed the gun it had been carrying and was glad he’d shot first.

  Jane peered over his shoulder. “Oh, so that’s why these things are so small. Damn machines.” She looked back at Adam. “Just so you know, we’re on Travan Float. Heard of it?”

  Adam nodded. “People at school often joke about Counselors being sent to work there if they get in trouble. It’s supposed to be a crime-ridden cesspool.”

  “It is. And whoever took you left you here, boxed up in a warehouse like you were a piece of cargo.”

  “Who were they? What did they want with me?”

  Seeing a shadow before him, Devin held up his gun. The shadow didn’t move. He looked closer. Only a broken ceiling panel.

  He relaxed and moved forward. “The Networld calls them No Name. They wanted to replace you with
an AI lookalike.”

  “Is he kidding?” Adam sounded perplexed.

  “Afraid not,” Jane replied.

  “So lifelike androids… they exist?”

  “Yes.” Devin tried not to think about the lie he’d lived with or his disappointment that nothing in the warehouse told him where Sarah might be. “On the outside, they’re completely indistinguishable from humans. Before you ask where they’re coming from—I don’t know. I’ve already run into one of them.”

  Devin expected Adam to ask where or when, but something in his voice must have discouraged questions.

  “Thanks. For finding me, I mean.” Adam sounded almost fearful, like he was intimidated.

  Devin hadn’t meant to scare the kid, and he felt a little bad for having yelled at him earlier. He jerked his head toward Jane. “It’s her fault we’re here. I had to do something to stop the ranting.”

  “Hey!” Jane cried.

  “You also get the credit!”

  “Yes, I do.” She gloated. “Oh, and Adam, in case you were wondering, that’s why I’m dressed like a… hey, bro, how’d you put it?”

  “A child prostitute,” Devin said dryly.

  “Heh, yeah. I got into one of those underground criminals-only clubs as a performer and sweet-talked some demons into hacking the float’s security cameras for me.”

  “I was wondering about that,” Adam said. “Didn’t seem like your usual style.”

  “I actually like it. What do you think?”

  “That’s entrapment! Either you’ll get mad at me, or your big brother will beat me up! I’m not answering.”

  Devin smiled. “Smart choice.”

  A wide shaft lay ahead. He hoped it was the one he sought. Travan was an old float, and so its transports still used cables. The thick black cords moved lightning fast as box-like cars zipped up and down at dizzying speeds.

  At the end of the conduit, Devin looked out and was relieved to see crude rungs on the shaft’s wall above him. The rungs had been put in place over the years for innumerable heists and criminal missions, forming a ladder from where he was on the lowest level to the top of the float.

  He shoved his gun into his bag, grabbed the first rung—which was right above the conduit’s opening—and climbed up. Less than a yard behind him, a cable moved continuously upward. Across the shaft, another cable—the other half of the revolving cable system—moved downward. A transport above him latched onto it and the other downward-moving cables, went down a few levels, and then latched onto a horizontal cable set. It disappeared into a tunnel.

  “We’re climbing?” Jane groaned. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s safer than the stairwells,” Devin replied.

  “And we’ll get trapped if we used the transports. I hate being a fugitive.” She sounded drained, which was strange since it usually took a lot to wear her out. They hadn’t exactly been running around—yet.

  Devin looked back. “You okay?”

  Jane sighed. “I’m fine.” She climbed the ladder behind him.

  Adam emerged from the conduit. “I know I’m approaching my question quota for the day, but… who’s after us?”

  “The float proprietor’s goons,” Jane replied. “She put a hit out on Devin, and they don’t seem too concerned with collateral damage.”

  “What? Why’s there a hit on Devin?”

  “I got too close to their evil plans,” Devin said.

  He was between the third and fourth levels when Jane yelled, “Devin! Above you!”

  He looked up. A robotic arm with a gun reached out of a conduit a couple levels above him. He flattened himself against the rungs. A laser blast flew past his head.

  Devin whipped out his gun. As he destroyed that repair bot, another emerged. And then another from a different conduit. And then another. Every time he hit one, it seemed two took its place, all sticking out of different conduits above him and firing relentlessly. Fortunately for him, the robots used small caliber lasers that did little more than pierce the shaft’s metal walls. They had terrible aim.

  Devin shifted his position and fired back. Why would anyone send them? They’re not exactly attack drones. Repair bots had visual sensors designed for myopic close-up work, making them useless for targeting anything more than a yard away. Must be because nothing else would fit in the conduits. Their presence seemed to confirm that No Name had infiltrated the float’s central computer, and that Madam Wrath had nothing to do with what was going on.

  It wouldn’t be long before his luck ran out—or a missed shot hit one of the kids. He looked behind him at the fast-moving cable.

  Jane must have had the same idea as he did. Before he could say anything, she jumped off the ladder and grabbed the black cord.

  “Jane!” Devin watched in alarm as she zoomed up the shaft. For several tense seconds, there was no reply.

  “I’m up here!” Jane’s voice sounded small and faraway, barely audible over the blasting and the whooshing of the transports.

  Adam stared up the shaft. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  Devin shot another robot. “Go!”

  “You go first—you’re the one they’re after!”

  Devin would’ve told the kid to move it but was forced to jump when a blast broke the rung he held. He caught the cable with one hand, which burned from the friction as he flew upward. He couldn’t hear anything over the roaring of air.

  The top of the shaft rapidly approached. He pushed off the cable and caught one of the rungs.

  “Devin!” Jane’s head stuck out of a conduit two levels above him. “Where’s Adam?”

  “He’s coming.” Devin pressed himself against the ladder as a transport nearly clipped him, then climbed into a conduit. He looked back.

  Adam flew up on the cable, expression terrified. He passed Devin and was almost at the top of the shaft when he let go and grabbed the ladder. Adam’s grip on the rung slipped, and he fell.

  Fuck! Devin heard Jane scream as he reached out and caught Adam’s arm. That was too close.

  Adam grabbed the nearest rung. “Thanks.” He sounded shaky.

  Jane exhaled and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were still filled with horror.

  Adam looked up at her. “I’m all right, Jane. That was… fun.”

  Whoever controlled the machines must have decided it wasn’t worth firing upward, for the shooting had stopped.

  On the conduit’s ceiling, the number twenty-six gleamed in painted white numbers. Nine levels above the Stargazer.

  “Jane,” Devin said. “We overshot. Come down to this level.”

  Jane climbed into the conduit behind him, then turned back. “Adam, c’mon.”

  Adam reluctantly released his grip on the rung. He started climbing in, then abruptly stopped and grabbed his wrist. “Sorry… Those drugs… I keep feeling like…”

  “Like what?” Jane asked.

  “Like I should attack your brother,” he finished apologetically.

  Devin wondered what the hell kind of drug No Name used on the kid. He knew firsthand how powerful mind-altering drugs could be, and he had to give Adam credit for his willpower.

  But if he succumbs and attacks me, it’d be easy enough to knock him out.

  As Devin approached an intersection, a robotic arm fired at him. The blast missed and punctured the ceiling. He shot back, pulling the trigger repeatedly to destroy the machine.

  Jane reached around him and picked up a piece of burnt metal. “Safer than the stairs, you said.”

  A mechanical hum. Devin whipped to the side and shot another armed bot. “We should get out of here.”

  Jane flicked the metal at him. “You think?”

  He approached a vent in the conduit’s floor.
Below him lay a richly decorated lounge covered in luxurious tapestries embroidered with flame-like patterns. The place appeared deserted. He aimed his gun at the vent’s corner and fired around its edges until it fell onto the black carpet. Hearing nothing from below, he stuffed his gun into his bag and jumped down.

  The fall was further than he’d expected. The impact rippled up his body like a shockwave. He straightened.

  The lavishly adorned room glowed red from the light of scarlet chandeliers. Sculptures of vicious creatures stood in the corners. Large black chairs ringed a circular table. A tall black shelf displayed holographic heads, each with a name and date emblazoned underneath—portraits of memorable adversaries Madam Wrath had eliminated. The room must have been her private lounge in some club.

  Damn. I should’ve known.

  At least that meant no security cameras would give away his position.

  Jane looked down with a doubtful expression, as though asking if she was really expected to jump the distance.

  Devin glanced at the shelf. “Wait there.”

  He approached it, aiming to grab it so she could use it as a ladder. Someone sat in a chair whose back had faced him. He pulled out his gun with a start.

  “What is it?” Jane asked.

  Devin kept his weapon raised as he walked toward the occupied chair. To his surprise, he found Madam Wrath lying there, limp but breathing. Two barely discernible injection sites dotted her neck.

  “It’s Madam Wrath.” Devin prodded her with his weapon. She didn’t react, so he prodded her harder. Still nothing. “She’s out cold.”

  “The Madam Wrath?” Jane sounded surprised. “Then who the hell is ordering everyone to hunt you?”

  “Must be No Name.” Devin shoved the shelf toward the hole in the ceiling.

  “Those guys keep getting scarier and scarier.” Jane climbed down.

  Meanwhile, he kept a watchful eye on Madam Wrath.

  “Jane!” Adam cried.

  Devin turned in time to see his sister land on her back. He rushed over and knelt beside her.