Parched (25 page)

From a single building in the Hive, a red dot glows, pulsing slowly. I recognize the location of the building—it's where we are now. I assume that dot represents Aevum.

The view pans out to display the entire continent. Now tiny white-walled Eden is dominated by the expanse of the Badlands. Small black dots appear, labeling the human population. Numbers and graphs indicate first the two million in Eden, and then the two hundred million out in the Badlands.

It's strange to think those tiny clusters of dots represent people. I can almost make out Kep Sai'an, a thousand miles west, on the outskirts of the Manufacturing Zone. Glancing at Ling, I see she's looking at the same place. Sanako.

Then a new spray of dots appear. These are yellow. The words
Substitute Population
appear. Many yellow dots in Eden, but still quite a few in the Badlands. I can picture them easily—mostly older, clunkier models, like my old friend Robowrong. I didn't even know you could track every individual substitute, let alone what the point was.

“What the hell?” I hear Achilles mutter.

More floating words appear.
Project Aevum. Simulation
.

A large red circle spreads from the glowing red dot. It doesn't change anything in Eden, but as soon as the edges of the red circle hit the yellow dots in the Badlands, they begin to turn red. The red circle keeps expanding, turning all the clusters of yellow dots in the Badlands red until it reaches the edges of the continent. The Badlands are now almost entirely filled with pulsing red dots. It looks diseased.

Then the black dots in the Badlands start disappearing.

“Look.” Naz's voice is gruff. She points to a population counter for the Badlands. It is dropping. From a two hundred million to one hundred and ninety, one hundred and eighty, one hundred and seventy, and down down down.

“The population is getting smaller,” Ling says. “But how—why?”

“And why did all the yellow dots in the Badlands turn red?” Benji adds. “What's happening to the substitutes?”

More floating words.
Project Aevum. Test Case
.

“Five minutes,” Achilles warns.

Lana sounds worried. “Guys, we're getting close.”

The map disappears and is replaced by a holo of a group of men in what looks like a typical Badlands water bar. About ten of them sit around squat tables talking and laughing, drinking mugs of disgusting, fetid water. My stomach turns at the sight of it—I can practically taste the foul liquid. A substitute works behind the bar—an old Builder, like Robowrong.

The Builder stops pouring the water. It jerks to attention, standing stiff and still. The men glance over at it curiously.

I lean closer to get a better look at the men. The way they dress—the big brimmed hats and the coarse goat-hair ponchos—is familiar to me, but I can't remember where from.

The Builder walks out from behind the bar. The way it moves is strange: more fluid and faster than a Builder should be able to. The men look on, obviously confused that a substitute is moving without an order. It's heading for the door. One of the men calls out something to it, which makes the other men laugh. The Builder locks the door and stands in front of it. Slowly, the men stop laughing.

A man swaggers over to the Builder, reaching up to rap his knuckles on the substitute's head.

The Builder lunges for the man's throat. In a flash, the Builder's lifting him up off the ground, so his feet dangle above the floor. My chest
freezes in fear. Then the Builder brings an enormous hand down hard on the man's skull. It smashes apart like a watermelon, spraying the room with chunks of brain and skull.

It happens so fast.

Lana gasps in horror, burying her head in Benji's chest. Ling gags. I feel like someone just kicked me in the stomach, but I keep watching.

Stumbling over their chairs and tables, the other men try to escape. But the door is locked and the Builder is too strong. One by one, they meet a similar fate. One has his throat crushed. One is thrown against a wall. They have no weapons, no way to protect themselves, no chance at all.

The whole thing is over in less than twenty seconds. Then the presentation disappears.

I can't move, can't think, can't breathe.

A stunned-looking Benji has his arm around Lana. Ling is supporting her weight with both hands planted on the desk. Suddenly I remember why I recognize the way the men dress. “That was in the Valley.”

“The Valley?” Ling repeats. “Like—”

“The Valley of Spines massacre.” Ten men in a bar, killed without rhyme or reason. I'd assumed it was an urban myth.

“Was that Aevum?” Lana asks. Her bright blue eyes are wet with tears.

“No,” I say. “That was just a regular Builder. But I think Aevum was controlling it.” As I say the words out loud, I realize they ring true. Kimiko is able to control all the systems in Abel's home. It's basically the same principle. “
That's
why the Trust wants Aevum,” I realize with a jolt. “Because it can control substitutes.”

“They call it serfing,” says Achilles. “A ‘serf' is a slave. But in tech speak, it means reprogramming something. Controlling it.”

“Aevum can serf other substitutes,” I think aloud. “It can control them.”

“But substitutes can't kill people!” Lana exclaims shakily. “They've never been able to do that, not ever.”

“Because humans can't program them to,” I say. “But Aevum isn't human. The Trust must've worked out that artilects are different.”

Ling's nodding slowly.

“And if Aevum can serf substitutes and make them kill,” I go on, “then the Trust is not to blame.”

“Whoa, hold up,” Naz says. “How would the Trust not be responsible for this? They own Aevum. This is all their doing.”

“Yeah, and even Edenites won't stand for mass murder,” Ling says. “The Trust won't be allowed to get away with this.”

“Because the Trust isn't doing this directly—
Aevum
is,” I say. “Aevum's the perfect scapegoat!”

“It could be weeks before anyone even found out,” Benji says. “The Trust controls the border crossings, and the Trust controls the streams.”

“Right, and afterward, they'll probably just say Aevum malfunctioned or something,” Ling adds.

“For sure.” I nod. “They'll put all the blame on Aevum and then destroy it. No blood on their hands, and everyone in the Badlands is dead.”

“But they've just shut off the aqueduct—why this too?” demands Naz.

I shrug. “Probably because this'll be so fast. So . . . effective. Whatever the reason, this is real. This is going to happen.”

We stare at each other. Millions of Badlanders. Dead.

“Three minutes,” Achilles announces. “Time to move.”

Ling draws herself up and exhales hard. “Let's get the hell out of here. Tess—”

But her words are cut off by an earsplitting alarm. Blue lights start flashing wildly. The door snaps, locking into place.

“What's happening?” I yell. The high-pitched scream echoes through the whole building.

Ling shouts, “Spike, what's going on?”

“I don't know!” Achilles sounds panicked. “Liamond is working again!”

“What?”
Ling yells.

Ling, Naz, and Benji struggle uselessly against the locked door. “Get us out of here!” I yell over the alarm.

“I can't!”

Shouts outside: “What's going on?”

Footsteps race for the room. A man's yell: “It's coming from in there!”

Another yell. “Override the code!” Then, just outside the door, “A drill at one a.m.? This has to be a malfunction!”

“Monkey, Angel. Left side,” Ling snaps into command. “Storm, Pitbull, behind me on the right.” I can barely hear her over the alarm.

Naz whips out a small razer pistol from her boot and tosses it to
Ling. A second razer materializes in Naz's hand. “Storm, get your knife.”

I pull Mack. I have no idea what to do when the door opens. We haven't run a drill for this. Benji and Lana are flexing, limbering up. Ready to run—or fight. My heart is racing and on fire. Is Ling ready to kill someone? Is Naz?
Am I?

The
door disappears. Three Simutech scientists rush in, wincing at the piercing alarm—Frog, Noodles, and another man. They don't see us pressed flat against the wall.

“How do we turn it—” But Frog doesn't make it beyond that before Kudzu attacks.

Benji hurls his shoulder forward as he punches his scientist in the stomach. As the man doubles over in pain, Lana kicks his feet from under him, knocking him flat on his back. Benji grabs the man's wrists while Lana gets the rope.

Naz lands one, then two, square punches on the second scientist's jaw. It's Noodles, the tall, skinny man I saw earlier. He tries to hit her back but she easily ducks his sloppy attempt. He stumbles and within seconds she has one arm twisted behind his back, the razer trained to his head. He jerks, panicked. Naz pulls his twisted arm tighter. He yells out in pain. “Okay, okay,” he gasps, relenting.

Ling's target, Frog, is the biggest of the three. From his position on the other side of the long table, he has a precious few seconds to size up the situation.

“Don't make me use this,” Ling warns, aiming the razer steadily as she advances toward him.

Frog shoots both hands up in surrender, looking terrified. I'm thankful I'm wearing the black mask; otherwise I'm sure he'd recognize me.

“Angel?” Ling calls. “Are there any more?”

I hear a dull thump. Someone cries out. Ling whips her eyes to see what's wrong. It's Benji's scientist—Benji has flipped him over to finish tying his legs. But the second Ling takes her eyes off Frog, he punches her in the jaw. She staggers back, stunned. Before she can regain focus,
he slams his fist into her stomach. The small razer clatters to the table. With a strangled gasp, Ling drops to her knees.

Frog lunges for the razer. Without time to aim, I flick Mack hard across the room. My knife plunges into his outstretched arm, pinning the sleeve to the table. Frog shouts, yanking his hand around desperately. I bolt forward and grab the stray razer. It's lighter than I thought it'd be, and I'm not exactly sure how to fire it. But pointing it at Frog is enough to make him freeze. Keeping my gaze on him, I reach over and yank my knife out of the table. “I was aiming for your hand,” I tell him.

Ling limps over and takes the razer from me, then knees Frog in the groin. It's his turn to groan. “Try that again and I'll kill you,” she says.

“Clear,” Lana calls. “Let's go, let's go!”

Benji has finished trussing up the wrists and ankles of his scientist, who wriggles like a fish on dry land. “Tie 'em or take 'em?” He nods at the other two men.

“Take 'em,” Ling says. “We don't have time.”

Kudzu hustles everyone out. Ling's last, shoving Frog out the door, but as she does, I see a silver streak go flying. The mirror matter. It's on the ground, rolling toward the square of plants at the back of the room. Ling mustn't have felt it; she's already out the door. Everyone's gone. I'm the only one who even saw it fall. Diving toward the plants, I can see it, only a foot down, nestled amid white tubular plant roots. But the gap between the floor and the garden isn't big enough for more than half a hand.

“No!” I gasp in disbelief. Ignoring the pain, I try to shove my hand in farther, but it's no good. The space is too small for me to reach the mirror matter.

“Storm, c'mon!” I hear Lana call.

In a panic, I rip away at the plants and clumps of dirt but my fingers find a metal grate at the bottom of the garden. “No!” I cry again, pawing desperately at the grate. It's no use.

“Storm!” Lana reappears doorway, face incredulous. Without waiting to find out why I'm ripping the garden apart, she hauls me to my feet.

“Wait—” I start, but she doesn't.

“Go!” she shouts, shoving me out into the lab.

Naz and Ling have their razers trained on Frog and Noodles, keeping the men's arms twisted hard behind their backs as they wait for me by the door.

“Swab!” Ling yells at me angrily.

I race to join them, flicking the soft swab under the reader. Nothing happens.

“Open the door!” Naz yells at Frog.

“We can't,” he growls. “Security's in lockdown—doors only open from the outside.”

Acting almost simultaneously, Naz and Ling aim their razers at the long, interior windows that separate the lab from the corridor outside, and fire. Two pulses of burning white light hit the window. It shatters spectacularly into a fountain of breaking glass. I duck, shielding my face. By the time I open my eyes, the others are already climbing through the window, still with the hostages. My boots crunch through splinters of glass as I run for the window. Kicking the jagged shards out of the way, I go to swing a leg over the window ledge. “Here.” Lana offers me a hand.

I grab Lana's hand, but as I do, my boot skids on some stray glass. My free hand shoots out to break my fall but as I slip, I grab a piece of glass still fixed to the window. It slices my palm. I suck in a gasp of shock, momentarily clutching both Lana's hand and the sharp glass.

“Storm!” Lana cries.

“It's nothing.” I swing my leg carefully over the ledge, avoiding the shard now smeared with my blood.

Ling, Naz, Benji, and the two scientists are already halfway down the corridor. I clear the window and start running after them, Lana behind me, boots thudding as we run. I glance down at my palm. My hand is balled into a fist and slick with blood. Blood pulses from the cut with every beat of my heart.

“Guys, I can't see the Quicks from where you came in.” Achilles' voice is tense through our comms.