She waited another minute and then slipped around to the keypad. As near as she could tell, nothing had changed. It looked like the soldier had just reset the locks and security system.
If they’d reset her codes, using the keypad would alert them to her location. If not, it would get her into the shop and still alert them to her location. But if they hadn’t changed her codes, maybe it hadn’t occurred to them yet to track her with them. Unless they’d left the codes active just for that reason.
Her fingers danced on the keypad. The door clicked open. No sirens went off.
She pulled the door shut behind her and breathed a sigh of relief as it separated her from the outside world. Then she turned and bit back a scream.
A ring of twenty exes circled the tables where the Cerberus suit was spread out, lit by the high skylight. Four more stood at the center by the upright legs and torso section. All of them were in piecemeal ACUs. Each of them held an M16 rifle across its chest.
None of them moved.
Danielle took a moment to steady her breathing and took a step forward. She made a point of setting her sneaker down hard and scuffing it on the concrete floor. The sound echoed in the workshop.
They didn’t react.
She took a few more cautious steps forward, dragging her feet on each one. If they started to move, she was sure she could beat them to the door. Of course, if they were even fair shots, they didn’t need to be that fast.
Her laptop was just outside the ring of dead soldiers. The cables ran between two of them to the helmet and the armor’s spine. She could see the suit was still hooked up and charged. No one had touched it. They’d just stationed guards.
She was five feet from the ring when the two closest exes took a step forward. Their shoulders bumped as they blocked her path. Danielle hopped back and they stopped advancing.
Her codes were still active. Shelly had said the programmed exes could take simple orders. And sometimes they understood priority.
Danielle took in a breath and looked at the closest ex. It was a man, shaved bald, in a sand-colored tee-shirt with a bullet hole in the chest. No blood. She cleared her throat. “Soldier,” she said, “I order you to let me pass.”
The ex didn’t move. She inched forward and it took another lumbering step toward her. Its hands shifted on the rifle.
“I order you to let me pass,” she repeated.
It didn’t move. It also didn’t change its grip on the M16. The ex stared past her with blank eyes.
“I repeat, this is a direct order from Cerberus three-zero-three-alpha.”
The dead thing started to move but shuddered to a halt. The withered head turned and locked eyes with her. It knotted its brow.
“I said, this is a—”
The M16 clattered to the ground. The dead thing lashed out with an arm that moved too fast and grabbed her throat. It glared at the redhead and marched her back, off-balance, until the work table hit the small of her back. The arm bent her over and she fell back next to the laptop. Her feet swung inches above the ground.
Cracked lips pulled away from the teeth. “Fucking puta bitch,” it growled. “Not so tough without your fucking armor, are you?”
She flailed at the arm, but she was weak. Just weak skin and bones.
The dead soldiers took in a dry, shuddering breath and spoke as one.
“IF I’D KNOWN IT WAS YOU,” said the chorus of exes, “I’D’VE RIPPED YOUR HEAD OFF YESTERDAY!”
Chapter 22 - Ghost in the Machine
THEN
Thinking is bad. That’s the lesson of the past year. I don’t want to think any more.
Captain Freedom told me the most fascinating story a while ago. He was very careful about telling it. He knew it was still a touchy subject at the time. Thin ice, as they say.
It’s been fifteen months, seven days, two and a half hours since Eva and Madelyn went missing during the rescue attempt. I still look at clocks and assign mental labels to every date. One month since they vanished. Ten weeks since they were lost. Six months since they were lost. One year since they
I mentioned it to John the other day and he said he did the same thing for almost two years when his father passed away.
Two years? How can I live like this for another year? I still feel cold and empty all the time. Will it be twice as long because I don’t know what happened to either of them? I can’t take four years of this.
Freedom came to see me. It was almost a year ago, now that I think of it. Three months since they’d gone missing. He had a puzzle, of sorts. They had gone out that morning to get the armored vehicle, the Guardian, he called it. It had been sitting out there all that time. Ever since they were
They
I need to get more work done. I still haven’t managed to get the Nest working and reboot the exes. They’re needed more than ever now. I need to focus on that. Must stop my mind from wandering so much. They weren’t here in the lab before, so it shouldn’t be hard to work now that they’re