The Girl Who Dared to Think 7: The Girl Who Dared to Fight

We stepped into the light together, and I fought the urge to increase my speed or turn back, suddenly feeling exposed. I kept my eyes ahead, even though my impulse was to check on Dylan, and watched as the first camera passed us. I was guesstimating where the image would end and where the next camera would pick us up, and, after ten of Rose’s steps, I quickly darted around to her other side, praying that neither camera picked up the movement.

I put a hand on her arm this time and chanced a fast glance at Dylan. She was still on the left side, but when I glanced back, she quickly mimicked my movement, coming around to the other side of the sentinel. Exhaling, I returned my gaze to the line in front of us and saw that they were turning right and heading closer to the center of the Citadel. I checked the cameras down the hall across from us, but realized I had no way of knowing where the cameras were placed in the other passageway intersecting with this one, making it difficult to gauge how best to mask our movements.

If I broke cover to check, and someone was watching the screens, they’d know we were here.

My mind was searching for something as the corner loomed closer, trying to figure out how to handle this turn, when Rose whispered, “Get behind me. I’ll tell you which side.”

Of course! I could use her massive frame to hide my own for the turn. Appreciation surged through me, even as I realized there was still a chance that the cameras in the adjacent halls would see us, but there was nothing I could do about that anyway. Either way, we were going to have to get through this section, so it was a risk we had to take.

I quickly signed a hasty “do what I do” message to Dylan and then stepped behind Rose as she started to turn the corner. It was all I could do not to cringe at the exposure I felt in the intersection, but I kept moving forward.

As soon as Rose whispered, “Go to my right,” I was speeding up my steps and tucking in on her right side. A glance over my shoulder told me Dylan had followed. We kept walking, but for several seconds, I felt breathless as I waited for any sign or hint of an alarm.

There was nothing. The sentinels continued on for several more junctures, with Dylan and me dodging cameras in between, and by the time we arrived at the next turn, I was feeling exhausted and my heart was pounding desperately against my ribs in protest of the prolonged exertion of everything I had put it through over the past twenty-four hours.

I ignored it—I was getting good at that—but also knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that for much longer.

Although, if I could just reach Leo and initiate the process Lionel had told me about, it might end this fight, and I might finally be able to get some rest. After we found and caught Sage and the legacies, of course.

As ideal as that picture was in my head, I knew there were a few steps between here and there, and for it to actually work I had to get to Leo. And then… I paused, a sudden question occurring to me. Did I tell him about the New Day protocol? Should I? I felt like I should. But what if my time with Leo had somehow changed his priorities?

What if he refused?

Tony kept trying to reassure me that he wouldn’t, and truth be told, I didn’t believe he would either, which was probably why my initial idea was just to use the activation code without telling him. It would be easier that way, and potentially less painful than dragging out any sort of goodbye. And while I still secretly hoped we could copy him, I couldn’t justify the loss of life that would occur if we delayed the protocol while we figured out how to do it.

If we even could, that was. I had no idea whether that was something he could do in Cornelius’s terminal, or if we needed a bigger computer to do so. Leo was full AI, meaning it took a lot of energy for him to copy himself, and a lot of space to house him. Cornelius’s terminal was probably too small to handle the process. And even then, what if we did copy him? His clone would have all of his memories of us, and share his feelings toward me, and I would be consigning him to a future without me, all so I could keep a version of him to myself. It didn’t feel right.

It would be easier if I knew my neural clone was the one that made it through the vetting process, because at least then he’d have some version of me to be with. But I highly doubted it would, and I didn’t want to fill him with false hope. I wasn’t suited to be an AI; I barely had it together as a human, and even that was questionable at the best of times. Not to mention, I had failed more times than I could count, trying to keep the people in the Tower safe. That alone would probably disqualify me.

I shook off the dark musings and focused on keeping up with Rose as we took another corner, moving to her left side when she told me to. As I did, I realized that this was it—the sentinels were turning in to one of the storage rooms. I checked the cameras, and then told Rose, “Move to one side and stop by the door, and act like you’re malfunctioning a little bit. I’ll hide behind you and look inside, see what they are up to.”

Rose nodded, and a moment later, her steps became jerkier, loud whirs and straining noises being emitted from her legs. She began altering her trajectory, and I followed her, shifting behind her as she walked. I motioned for Dylan to tuck in next to me as her sentinel went by.

Within moments we were stopped just to the side of the door, Dylan and me pressed together behind Rose’s back. It wasn’t the best cover, but it was all we had.

While Rose continued her ruse of her legs not working, I quickly slid up to the edge of the door and looked in.

And what I saw made my heart stop.





25





Inside the room, in an aisle running between plastic-wrapped packages of emergency supplies, stood a tall metal frame, like a door. A low ramp ran up to a pad under the frame. The pad itself reminded me of the wireless transfer pad Lidecher had created earlier, only this one was much larger, and sparking with yellow lightning. As was a weird glowing circle on top of the frame.

As I watched, the first in the line of sentinels marched up the ramp and onto the pad, where it came to a halt. The circle at the top of the frame flashed yellow while the pad began to glow gold, and a moment later, the flash dimmed and the sentinel stepped down, and was met by a man wearing IT gray. When it turned toward him, giving us a view of its side, I could see the eyes were now glowing a brilliant gold.

It was Alice. Or rather, they were Alice. This was where Sage was downloading her copies directly into the sentinels. Dozens were already in the room, forming twin columns of ten before marching through a side door into one of the adjacent halls. My spine tingled at how lucky we were not to have been passing by that door when they emerged, but I quickly shoved it back to worry about our present danger.

I came around the wall and leaned against it, my hand going automatically to the plasma rifle. I looked over at Dylan, and then back at Rose, and blew out a breath, a special kind of insanity beginning to form. The same one that had driven me to shoot those two Eyes outside the server room in Cogstown. The one that was telling me to shoot now… and then make a run for it.

And I knew I needed to let them know this time before I acted. Kicking this particular hornet’s nest could not be a solo operation.

“Dylan, Rose, I am about to do something stupid and reckless,” I said in a low voice, my heart beginning to catch up with the plan I was moments away from enacting. “It looks like this is where they’re downloading Alice into the sentinels, and I’m thinking we need to stop that right now. Maybe we can buy Scipio some relief from the torture they’re subjugating him to. Here’s the thing: I’m going to shoot the crap out of that thing, but there are at least twenty sentinels in there, and a few humans to boot, so as soon as I do this, we need to book it. Like, run because you’re going to crap your pants sort of running, you know what I mean?”