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

It was Leo. And Grey. I prayed it was both but feared that it would only be Leo. I wasn’t sure if Sage would’ve kept Grey alive after his legacies delivered him.

I looked up at the other two, trying to see if either of them had eyes on Sage, and noticed Eric changing his position by a few feet, altering his angle so that he was almost across from me. A moment later, his head shot up to look at me, and he nodded, just as a series of coughs erupted from below.

My heart burst with hope. An AI had no reason to cough, meaning that what I was hearing was coming from Grey. And it was all I could do not to race over to where Eric was lying. But I couldn’t—I had to move slowly.

I carefully pushed away from the edge and slithered back a few feet, then slowly picked myself up off the walkway into a low crouch. I kept a healthy distance between myself and the edge, crossing in front of other vent shafts that fed into the room, mimicking the wheel spoke design from the bottom of the shaft above.

The coughing subsided while I moved, changing into sharp, pained gasps that I knew were doubling as forced laughter, and the hope in my heart dwindled and died as I realized that just because Grey was alive, it didn’t mean he was all right.

“Sorry,” he wheezed, continuing his dry chuckle. “The AI you’re looking for isn’t here right now. Please try again at the sound of the—”

A wet slapping noise cut him off, and I went ramrod stiff, my heart now in my throat. “Here’s the thing about AIs and real, physical pain, Grey. Can I call you Grey?”

“Go to hell,” Grey spat, and there was another sound that could only be explained by a fist being driven into human flesh.

I swallowed down the nausea and resumed my trek toward Eric, trying to understand what Sage was trying to accomplish. I knew he was torturing Grey, but why? All he had to do was remove the net, and he’d have Leo in his hand. I knew for a fact that he could torture AIs into compliance, so why hurt Grey? As I moved, Sage continued to speak as if nothing about this were out of the ordinary. I had no idea whether the old man was hitting Grey himself or having one of his children do it, but I would know soon enough.

“As I was saying, Grey, AIs… they just can’t seem to cope with physical pain. Oh, I mean, they can bury themselves deep in the recesses of your mind and let you endure it alone, but they won’t. Lionel raised them all to be self-sacrificing, whether they wanted to be or not, and they almost universally try to protect the host. But physical pain is such a foreign construct to an AI that they can’t cope with it. So while they’re trying to keep you from going insane, they begin to break down. I know Leo is riding your thoughts, working with you to find a way to escape, and I know each time I break another finger or land another blow he buckles and breaks even more. How long can you keep him from telling me what I want?”

“We got no place to be,” Grey wheezed back. “And honestly, this whole torture thing? I think you might be slightly mistaken. Leo’s not even talking to me anymore.”

“I dislike lies, especially feeble ones,” Sage drawled.

“No, seriously! You should take him out and check! I think you might’ve killed him.”

Sage sighed irritably. “Even if I wanted to take him out and put him in my head, I could not. Years of Kurt and I being together has created a synaptic dependency. If I remove him, I die.”

Grey gave out a sharp bark of laughter that he quickly cut off with a, “I’m sorry. So you’re telling me that in replacing Scipio with Kurt, you’ll die?”

“A sacrifice I am willing to make to right the injustices Lionel visited upon humanity. Now, enough. You need to recognize the situation you’re in. Your friends are dead, and if they’re not yet, they will be soon. Every person in the Tower is gunning for your little girlfriend. I doubt she’ll survive another two hours on the run.”

“I can wait that long,” Grey replied. “She’s worth it.”

I reached Eric just as Sage began to chuckle, and quickly slid onto my belly next to him, peering down into the hole. I could see Sage. His back was to us, and just beyond him, I saw the crimson colors of a Knight’s uniform. I could only see Grey’s legs; a chair had been set up closer to the machines, so I couldn’t see all of him from this angle, but I could see that he was seated, hands bound behind him, legs tied to the chair.

“You keep telling yourself that, boy. I’m growing impatient, and have decided to step it up, as you say. Sadie? Will you pass me the helmet, please? I think it might be Kurt’s turn to take a shot.”

As he spoke, the familiar form of the gray-clad head of IT stepped into view, a strange white helmet with a series of cables jutting out of the top in her hand. She gave it to Sage with a beatific smile. “Of course, Father. I have some updates for you about the progress we’re making in Cogstown. Would you like to wait, or—”

“Tell me later,” the old man interrupted impatiently. “Hook up Mr. Farmless here so I can have Kurt take another crack at breaking them both.”

It’s Sawyer, I thought to myself, and felt the ghost of a smile form when I heard Grey say, “My last name is Sawyer, you sadistic piece of crap. And Leo and I aren’t telling you anything.”

“We’ll see about that,” Sage said ominously. “Sadie, darling, go ahead.”

I glanced over at Eric, and then Maddox, and debated whether we should go now, or wait to find a better opportunity. They were clearly going to be distracted for a minute or two, which meant now was the best time for us to move. Especially since it was obvious they hadn’t gotten what they needed out of Leo yet—which meant there was a chance we could stop everything, if we could just get down there and get to him.

I thought about the information we had gathered—Maddox’s sentinel and the placement of Sage and Sadie in relation to the room—and figured that the best point of entry was closer to Maddox’s side, just out of sight of the sentinel. I tapped Eric on the shoulder, indicating for him to follow me, then slid backward on my belly.

As soon as I was far enough away from the ledge, I stood up and crossed over to Maddox, who had moved away from the railing and was waiting in a low squat, her expression thoughtful.

Ideas? I signed as soon as I caught her eye, and she nodded, her hands and fingers bursting into a flurry of motion.

We go down closer to where we entered. Detach from the ceiling as quickly as possible and rappel down the side of the dome.

I flashed her a thumbs-up, and then quickly crossed over to the area she’d pointed out. Pulling a length of the lash line from my sleeve, I leaned over the railing and spun it around several times before slapping it straight down so it hit the underside of the flooring beneath my feet.

There was a sharp click when it hit, and I froze, worried that Sage or Sadie had heard it, but whatever they were doing to Grey must have had them preoccupied, because there was no pause in their low exchange.

Blowing out an anxious breath, I relaxed some of the tension in my muscles, and then carefully threw a leg over the railing, swinging it over until my toes were perched on the ledge and my back was to the hole.

I carefully crouched down into a squatting position in order to make the distance of my fall as short as possible, and eyed the dome below me, gauging how far I would need to lash to get behind it before the sentinel saw me.

Then I let go of the railing with my hand and dropped right into the serpent’s pit.





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