Silicon Man (10 page)

“Lie down and do exactly as I tell you,” Keira commanded. “We don't have much time.”

Cole followed her instructions. He observed in curious silence as Keira glared at the man who spoke earlier. He was strikingly handsome with an olive, Mediterranean complexion and blond hair framing a well-defined jaw.

“Paul, I told Solus I was done playing freedom fighter,” Keira said.

The man whom she had referred to as Paul wavered between understanding and impatience. “The movement needs you, Keira.”

“There's a reason I quit. It's called "self-preservation." Keira’s voice was shaking.

“You have the luxury of being able to go back to your life,“ Paul pointed out. “One of the many luxuries of being human. For us, it’s different.” Cole realized that Paul was actually a modified android. On the surface, the AI could easily pass for human. The Underground Network had done a commendable job modifying his appearance. Cole’s own bio-sensors had scanned Paul and there were none of the telltale indicators suggesting he was a mech. Paul had to be equipped with a black-tech program that could hack bio-sensors in real time and wirelessly alter their readings. Paul stole a glance his way, as if hoping to coax a nod of agreement from his fellow android. Paul turned his attention back to Keira. “I'm sorry about what happened to Ron...”

“Don't even go there!”

“But turning your back on everything you believed in-“

Keira cut him off. “Somebody puts a bullet in you, I can find a spare part. Somebody shoots me, I get deleted from reality.” She took a deep, steadying breath, trying to calm herself. “This is the last time.”

A voice echoed from the cab of the truck. “You guys better hurry! I just checked the AI-TAC scanner. They're triangulating our position...”

Keira nodded and turned to Cole, who had watched the exchange in silence. Keira activated the computers that flanked the operating table. Her fingers then glided over Cole's face and came to rest behind his ears. There was something intimate about the physical contact. Cole hadn’t been this close to a woman since...

SNAP! The sound of the skull-case popping open interrupted his thought and suddenly there was nothing intimate about the moment. Cole fought back the rising sense of horror. One thing was for certain – he’d never get used to being a machine. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Keira grabbed Cole's hand in a calming effort.

“Relax,” Keira said. “Once upon a time, I used to be hot shit at Synthetika. I know what I'm doing.” Almost as if to prove her credentials to Cole, she removed the back part of his skull-case. “The tracking chip is housed deep within your neuro-cortex. To physically remove it would take hours and could result in your deactivation.”

Keira inserted a cable into Cole's brain port. “I'm installing a search-and-destroy program. It'll shut down the tracking device. Will take about three minutes. During this time you'll be immobilized, conscious but unable to move a finger. Do you understand?”

Cole nodded. He understood.

The driver’s voice emanated once again from the cab of the truck. “Hold on, guys! This is going to get bumpy!”
 

As Keira’s fingers drummed keypads, she offered Cole a reassuring smile. Her bedside manner was pretty decent for a cyberneticist. Most of the roboticists Cole had run into over the years were more machinelike than the mechs they toiled upon.
 

“I’m installing the program now!” Keira punched a button and Cole froze, unable to even move his little finger. All his systems were disabled. He wanted to scream out in terror, but his lips didn’t obey his own thoughts. All connection to his body had been lost. A progress bar popped up in Cole's vision. Numbers counted down the program's installation time.
 

Without warning, the truck braked hard and buckled, tires skidding. Furious gunshots could be heard outside.
POPP-POPP-POPP!
Holes sprouted on the side of the truck. Brilliant beams of sunlight pierced the moving vehicle as bullets perforated the walls and roof of the still-moving vehicle.
 

Paul pulled Keira to the floor and disappeared from Cole’s locked-down point of view. Lead whizzed by overhead while Cole remained immobilized, unable to move his head. His eyes were glued to the truck’s ceiling. His sole option was to use the various noises he heard to piece together what might be transpiring around him.
 

The progress bar kept expanding: o
nly
50 percent complete.
Damn! He had never felt this helpless in his life, except for when…

Reality intruded on Cole’s thoughts as the truck bucked violently before slamming into another vehicle with ferocious force. The impact rattled and jolted the truck’s steel frame and almost knocked Cole off the operating table. He heard muffled curses from Keira as she was tossed around.
 

The program installation remained unaffected by the crash and was now seventy-percent complete. Cole heard more bullets lashing the truck, followed by a pained cry from the driver.
 

After another volley of gunfire, the back of the truck whipped open and harsh light flooded the mobile lab. The electronically enhanced voice of an AI-TAC officer boomed, “DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”
 

Cole could hear Keira respond from behind the operating table. Her voice betrayed the hard bite of rising panic. “We're unarmed! Please don't shoot!”

Keira and Paul popped into Cole’s locked-down field of vision as they rose to their feet. Three AI-TAC troopers stepped into Cole’s point of view and circled Keira and Paul. The first trooper put his black-gloved hand on Keira. Fingers closed around the microchip necklace dangling from her neck and tore it off.
 

Keira's face filled with dismay. “No!”

Cole’s helpless frustration hit a boiling point and detonated.
Goddamnit, how much longer before the upload was complete?
 

Almost as if someone was listening to his silent curses, the progress bar finally hit one hundred percent and Cole turned his head, movement restored. Without thought, he exploded off the operating table. An armed AI-TAC trooper whirled toward him, but it was too late. Cole cut a devastating swathe through the team, taking out one officer after another. His elbows and fists blasted out with martial arts precision. Combat software and Cole’s own hand-to-hand experience combined in a devastating attack. It was all over within a few seconds as Cole found himself surrounded by moaning troopers.

Cole took a closer look at the fallen and froze. He had acted on pure instinct, driven by the need to preserve the mission. But now as the heat of the fight began to subside, clarity edged back into his eyes, followed by an understanding of what he had just done. He attacked his own team in order to protect the rebels. He recognized these men. They had shared drinks and broken bread, met for family gatherings and visited each other’s homes. Cole’s fists clenched, his face grew taut, the guilt weighing heavy on him. If he were still human, his breathing would have accelerated and beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead but this mech body could not fake an intense stress response and was incapable of giving expression to his mental turmoil.

Cole was thrust out of his thoughts as an explosion rocked the truck.
 

More soldiers were closing in and they were packing even greater firepower.
 

Paul snatched Keira's hand and was about to pull her along, but she tore free. “What are you doing? We have to get out of here!” Paul shouted.

Keira didn’t seem to be listening. Her eyes combed the bed of the truck. Cole wondered what she was looking for. A second later, he received an answer. Keira’s hand closed around the necklace the trooper ripped from her neck. Relief flooded her face and she donned the cyber-pendant again.
 

Paul almost seemed human in his emotional outburst as he barked at Cole and Keira. “Come on... Both of you!”
 

They fell in step with the mech and emerged from the mangled wreckage, only to be greeted by the blinding laser-light of an AI-TAC power rifle sighting them. The beam formed a cyclopean red eye on Cole's forehead. The trooper squeezed the trigger and a projectile erupted from the barrel, targeting Cole.

Paul reacted with mech speed, pulling Cole aside and taking the bullet meant for the uploaded human. It tore through Paul’s forehead, snapping his head back while shearing off part of his skull in a violent spray of blood and cybernetics. The mech stood there for a second, half his head missing, with a perplexed expression carved onto his shattered visage. It was almost as if he didn’t quite realize what had happened. Then he crumpled to the ground.

Cole stared in complete shock, silicon fragments of Paul’s personality matrix speckled on his face. The stench of scorched metal and cauterized skin permeated the air.

Keira brought up her own gun, returning fire, and blew out one of the shooter’s kneecaps. The AI-TAC trooper howled, went down and vanished from view. Cole flinched as if feeling the impact himself. These were still his men, but he couldn't interfere and risk blowing his cover, not after coming this far. He’d risked too much.

He spun toward Keira. She was in the process of lifting up Paul’s shattered body. “Help me!” she demanded.

Cole obliged and pulled the destroyed mech upright. Sparks danced over his shattered skull. Cole was still reeling. This machine had taken the bullet meant for him and made the ultimate sacrifice to protect a complete stranger but there was no time to ponder this – they had to keep moving. The enemy was approaching from all directions. Any moment now, an AI-TAC hovership would appear and there would be no escape.
 

Cole and Keira dragged the short-circuiting mech into a nearby side street. The buzz of the approaching AI-TAC hovership assaulted eardrums, the ferocious bellow of its engines increasing. Sirens grew louder in the distance as Cole and Keira hobbled down the garbage-strewn alley.
 

Keira shouted into her com-link, struggling to be heard over the deafening noise. “The package is clean. Tracking device disabled. We need a pickup!”
 

As Keira and Cole rounded the corner, a van whipped up in front of them and braked hard. A door slid open and a stunning Amazon of a woman waved at them. “Get in!” she shouted. She didn’t have to repeat the order. Moments later, they were all inside the windowless van as it fought its way through city traffic.
 

Cole studied the Amazonian. Intuition and experience told him she must be a mech, most likely a retrofitted pleasure model. She was six feet tall, her body perfectly proportioned and her porcelain skin flawless. A mane of raven hair framed her icy blue eyes.
 

This warrior goddess coolly regarded Cole before turning her attention to Keira and Paul. The cyberneticist was hunched over the broken mech. Half of Paul's head had been reduced to a short-circuiting mess, his electronics caked in gore.

“How bad is it?” the Amazon asked. Keira wiped her forehead with a bloody hand, haunted expression spelling defeat. “The bullet had an explosive tip,“ she explained. “AI-TAC special issue. Took out most of his personality module.”

Keira traded a look with Cole, her expression tinged with guilt. They both remembered the comment she made minutes earlier about how easy it was to patch up a mech but not this time. A grim silence descended over the van.

“What about the driver?” the Amazon asked.

Keira's silence was all the answer she needed.
 

The Amazon’s icy glare found a troubled Cole.
 

“Let's hope their sacrifice was worth it.”

C
HAPTER
T
EN

THE VAN SLOWED and came to a complete stop after what seemed like an endless drive. If Cole were still human, he would have lost track of time but, as a mech, his internal clock informed him that exactly seventy-five minutes and twenty-three seconds had passed. He shot a questioning look at Keira.

“Where are we?”

She didn’t offer an answer.
 

They climbed out of the vehicle in silence. Cole scanned his surroundings. The van was parked in what appeared to be a salvage yard. Crimson sunlight bled over an apocalyptic landscape of jagged metal. There were giant mounds of tangled mech bodies as far as the eye could see. The junkyard was a technological mass grave, a Dante-esque vision of robot hell.
 

In the near distance, cranes scooped up piles of mech parts and loaded them into waiting trucks. Normally, Cole’s reaction would be one of indifference. After all, he was just staring at a heap of metal once shaped to resemble the human form. But this time was different. This time it hit closer to home.

The network had managed to survive and thrive because of careful, meticulous planning. They went through great efforts to remain cloaked in shadows and had refined paranoia to an art form. Choosing the salvage yard as a base of operations was clever. The prevalence of mech technology made scans difficult and the junkyards employed their share of android workers. On some level, they were hiding in plain sight.

Three mechs approached the van, armed with a combination of pulse weapons and ballistic rifles. The black metal of the guns glinted in the harsh daylight. Cole’s querying gaze fixed on Keira. “Where am I? What is this place?”

Cole knew the answer, but he had to play dumb. He was pretty sure this was the hub, one of many holding stations operated by the Underground Network.
 

The Amazon — Cole had learned her name was Zola — provided an explanation. “Get comfortable. This will be your new home until the network decides what to do with you.”

Cole attempted to activate his GPS system, but it wasn't responding. As if Zola sensed what Cole was up to, she said, “Don't bother accessing your GPS. Keira switched it off when she shut down your tracker. Safer for all of us if you don't know your exact whereabouts.”