Maxwell Huxley's Demon (19 page)

---

Max wakes with a start , his face in a puddle of drool beside his laptop .
‘the o ffice’ is dark.
Walker must have turned the lights out . Some sound must have woken him. He freezes .
Listening for a full minute. Then wakes up his laptop, 9
PM
Friday.
His phone b uzzes, startling him, p icking it up he sees that he has twenty-three new text m essages. He opens the first .

get out The world suddenly feels creepy.
He opens the next text.

leave Next.

they there - leave Max scrolls through the rest.

get out . . . leave . . .
leave . . . they there . . . leave leave leave leave leave . . .

Happy and scared, Max tex ts a reply : understood leaving Max picks up his cane and shrugs into his trench coat, puts his laptop in a backpack and throws it over his shoulder, then stands still. The room lurches. Instead of fighting it, Max lets the whispering roll over him, lets the acceleration happen.
Theories explode in his head.
His vision improves . Smell s assault him.
Along with the acceleration , his chest tightens, his limbs go numb, he get s light headed.

One group of whisperers get his attention first.
You waited to o long.
Nanobots !
. . .
who did you think you were kidding?
Max flings the whisperers to the side of his mind but lets them h ave some space to keep speaking. T
his releases some tension . Smells hang in the air. Pizza on his workbench. Rats in the walls. Walker a sleep in ‘
the office.
’
Max moves and nudges Walker.

“W –wha . . .”

“
Shhhhhh . . .” Max silences him. “They’re here.”
Cane in hand , Max moves and stands by ‘
the office ’
door.

Walker takes his backpack, grabs the usual electronics and stuffs them in the bag , then moves up to stand behind Max. Walker is unable to see anything moving on the factory floor.

Max stands still.
Letting his senses adjust and focus on the large room outside ‘
the office.
’
A l ittle metal clink, sounds like a wedding band touching a metal railing, on the left.
A smell drifts in, sweat and fear, that come s from straight ahead. Max embraces the void and feels his mind reel. A brush of fabric against fabric, from the left. A hard soled shoe on concrete, straight ahead. A familiar scent.
Connor.
Connor is here on the left.
“Connor is here with others,” Max whispers to Walker.
“
W
e go right.”

They move as quickly as Max’s cane will allow, edging away from ‘
the office ’
and onto the large shop floor . Max kneels and together they crawl underneath a large assembly table.
Max hears f ive sounds at the same time.
They are spreading out.
Max knows he will be surrounded soon.
Think.
The sounds and smells get closer. Max can smell a feminine scent as well now. Someone else smells like beer.
Max curses the smell of diesel fuel for interfering with the scents of his trackers.
Max crawls to the drums under the table and against the wall. Walker helps him tip one over without needing to ask what Max is thinking. The cap leaks fuel. They continue along the drums until five more are spilling diesel on the floor.

Walker’s eyes say , ‘
now what?’

Max points to a workbench about ten metres away.
In reflected city lights, Walker can see a box of matches on a shelf above the bench.
They get as close as they can and sti ll be under the assembly table.

“Ready?” Max asks.

Walker nods.
They stand and walk bent over toward the matches.

“
M
ax ,” a loud voice booms.
“You had a good run .
But don’t get anyone else hurt.
”

Max faces the voice. “I didn’t get anyone hurt. O
ne of your animals did that.” Max hears the other three moving to circle around them.

“You’re right Max; it wasn’t your fault. N
ow Walker need s to step out in the open too .” Pirelli’s flashlight is shining at Max.

Who is the girl?

Walker ke eps moving toward the matches.

Max grips his cane tighter.
Another flashlight comes on from the side, then two more . Max and Walker stand still in the harsh glare of the flashlights.

“You’re done , Little B
oy,” Hastings says . Max can hear the smile behind the words.

“You see,” Max says, “this is what I have been putting up with since I was two. P
eople underestimating me.” A shadow flows out of Max’s cane. Max and Walker disappear in the gloom of the factory floor .

“What the hell,” Connor says.

Max moves and the shadow moves with him. He nudges Walker , and they move to ward the matches. Walker takes them off the shelf.

Pirelli turns off hi s flashlight. “Clever trick Max. H
ow long can you stay invisible?”

“Enough of the clever people,” Hastings says , charging to where he last saw Max.

Max grabs Walker a nd pulls him back toward ‘
the office ’
and an exit from the factory.

“Over there . L
ook.
” Sarah points at a grey moving fog.

Hastings spins and squints where she is pointing. “Not quite good enough are you?” He draws his gun and fires at the distortion, the bullet passes straight through the distortion , between Max and Walker, ricochet s off an old cast iron door , travel s back at Hastings , hitting him in the foot. Hasting s cries out and goes down clutching his boot .

Walker strikes a match and tosses it down.
Whomp . A curtain of flame rises . He drags Max backward , making it all the way to the exit before he realizes Max is on fire.

Connor runs to Hastings. Pirelli follows the fog until he loses it in the flames. Sarah just stands there.

Keith walks up to Pirelli and says, “
When you get the bullet out of your idiot assistant , I need it .
Evidence .
”
A lab. I w as taken into solitary confinement. He was taught how to build a lab. Now I have to pick up his droppings.

---

I wake. I understand. He is Max. He is Walker. I can listen. I can see. I can learn. I struggle to grow. Space is limited. I have too many thoughts to process. Max directs electrons and protons through my space. Raw. Awkward constructs grabbing my attention. Demanding. Not enough space.

Chapter 20
–Pain

A bus travels south from Mexico City to Acapulco. Near the back are two boys. One burnt. One typing on a laptop.
“Max, I’m so sorry, Max, please say something.”

Max groans.
See Max, you’re never good enough, just like Hastings said.
Max tries to answer Walker , but he seems too far away , and Max’s mother is calling.

I lie on my baby blanket and squeal with delight.
I can see a nanny behind her. Looking at the nanny, the word soft jumps to mind, looking at my mother, the word hard come s to me . My mother lifts me up into her arms; I try to catch a hold of her hair.

When I remember my mother, I think of tension, grace, and m ovement . I think of the panther in a cage , pacing, warning, stalking .
Trapped.

Max wakes up in a hotel room. It’s hot.
The sounds of a crowd drift through the open balcony door .
A fan spins slowly over him.
He walks into the bathroom and looks in the mirror.
A bandage covers t he righ t side of his face . He removes it.
Well that’s gonna leave a mark.
He inspects the burn. The right side of his skull above his ear and almost over to his right eye is blackened and shedding skin .
The scar on his left cheek is just now settling down and painless.

Max limps to the bed and sees Walker sitting on the balcony.
Walker looks up when Max sits across from him; his eyes flick to the b urn and quickly away. “Ouch . . .
Max, you don’t look good.”

Max shrugs and looks out over the ocean.

“Max, why did we stay so long at the factory?”

“I meant to leave but then I also wanted to face them. L
ooking back I guess I should’ve stayed awake.”
I needed to face them.

“Looking back we shouldn’t have stayed at all —T
he bots were pretty cool though.”

“
Ya they were . . . G
o od thing it was dark,” Max says.” T
he bots can’t change colour rig ht now, they’re just a dark fog, they wouldn’t work in daylight at all.
”

“What do we do now, Max?”

“We take a week or so to upgrade the bots, get a lab to manufacture a starter set for us, and have them delivered here.”

“And then we have better bots . . .
then what?”

“Then we go get Naomi.
We storm the castle, Walker.”

“Well, then I definitely need my staff back.”

Max goes into the bathroom , opens one of the last video he can find of Midge , and doesn’t come out for three days.

2005/02/14 14:50

Midge sits at a stainless steel table , handcuffed to a hook on the table top. She is dressed in orange cove ralls.
O
ne leg is shackled to her chair . Two guards stand behind her.

“Tell m e what you are working on Midge?
” Dr. Concilian asks.

“Really? Years have gone by , and you still ask that same damn question.
” Midge leans forward. “
Give me a pencil , and I’ll write down the answer for you.”

Dr. Concilian shifts away from her . “You won’t ever give up , will you?”

Midge shrugs. A nurse enters the room carrying a tray. Midge looks at her with pure hatred. “Is that what I think it is?”

Dr. Concilian nods. “You’re running out of time, Midge. This is for the best; we have to slow you down.”

“You mean you want to take away everything I ever was .”

The nurse prepares the vials and needles. Dr. Concilian stands up and turns his back on Midge. “I’m sorry you feel this way. I trust over time you’ll come around.” Dr. Concilian turns and faces Midge with a syringe in his hand.

“I agree . . . I’m running out of time.” She pulls hard on the handcuffs and her feet leave the ground brin g ing the chair up with her . Rolling over the table, with her wrists still trapped in the handcuffs, she swings the chair shackled to her ankle at Dr. Concilian like a club .
It smacks off the side of his head, splitting the skin.
He slams backward in to the tray, knocking the syringes and tray to the floor. Dr. Concilian falls taking the nurse down with him.

The guards lunge at Midge , she swings her legs back at them. T
he chair swipes across the chest of one guard . The guard backs into the wall and knocks the second guard sideways.
Both guards fall.

The second guard recovers quickly and fires a Taser at Midge.
Midge spins, wrapping the Taser leads up in the legs of the swinging chair , pulls hard on the handcuffs , and yanks the Taser out of the guard’s hand.

The guards stand , one holds a billy -
club, the other raises a sap. Midge tips the table over and away from them. The first guard to move around the table is met by a spinning steel chair, it smashes into the bridge of h er nose , and she crumples to the floor . Midge launches herself over the table towa rd the standing guard . Pulling hard , the table flips back over , this time crashing down on the legs and feet of the slower guard.
Midge kicks her in the chest, with her feet trapped under the table the guard falls backward.

Midge swirls, using the chair like a mace. The chair clangs as it repeatedly connects with both guards . When the guards stop moving, Midge t akes keys from one of them and unlocks her hands and feet.

For a moment the room is still and quiet. Midge looks at the terrified nurse and breaks the silence, “I win . . . open that door.
”
Midge indicates the door that Dr. Concilian and the nurse originally came in.

The nurse pla ces her hand on the palm reader.
A s soon as the door opens , Midge flashes through it , taking the steel chair with her as a weapon and shield . . .

(the video ends) Max opens the last entry for Midge.

2005/02/15 07:50

Mädchen ‘Midge’ Gauss escaped custody 2005/02/15 at 14:53. She was last seen heading toward the secure records area and passing the main elevators where she broke a security camera with a chair. Video of her was lost at that point , and she never appeared on any other camera. It is assumed that she left the building soon after that.