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

I tried not to flail in panic at the sudden terror gripping my heart as I fell. Even though the distance was short, I felt certain the occupants of the room would notice the flash of crimson my uniform made. The outfit was a damn beacon under these conditions, and all it would take was a glimpse of it out of the corner of someone’s eye, and they’d know they weren’t alone.

Still, I didn’t freeze, and bent my knees and pointed my toes as the wall of the dome loomed up in front of me, using my hand controls to slow my descent some. I hit the surface lightly, pushed off, and then lowered myself a few more feet, making sure I was well and truly hidden behind the dome before taking a moment to check below me.

The area along the wall between the machines and the dome was clear as far as my eyes could see on either side, and I quickly tossed my second line out, hitting the dome a few feet above my head. Disconnecting the first lash end, I rappelled down the side, taking short jumps to keep the sound of my boots as quiet as possible.

As soon as my feet were safely on the floor, I detached and turned around, looking at the machines on the wall. There was a space just behind them for service workers, and it was our best route for sneaking up on Sage and Sadie—provided we could find a place to squeeze through the machines to get to that space.

I studied them for several seconds, spotted a crawl area created by a machine with a weird overhanging section that looked promising, and crossed over to it, stepping on the outer edges of my feet to keep my footsteps as quiet as possible. I dropped to all fours in front of the machine and stared into the shadows. There didn’t appear to be anything blocking our way of accessing that area, and I was satisfied that all of us—even Eric—could fit through.

I got back to my feet and quickly turned to signal the others, only to find Eric falling awkwardly from a lash connected to the ceiling, spinning quickly away from the dome as he dropped down. He was fiddling with the controls, trying to arrest his fall, but his boots scraped along the side, and he landed awkwardly on his rump before sliding down.

I winced at the noise it generated, and quickly ran a few steps toward him, holding up my hands to try to break his fall as quietly as possible.

He jabbed at his hand controls, panicking, and then jerked to a stop a few feet before he hit me. His eyes were wide and filled with fear and remorse, but I ignored it to wave him down, already knowing that they must have heard the noise he had made. Which meant we had to move—quickly.

“Did you hear that?” Sadie said loudly, her voice carrying with it a note of alarm, and I cursed internally, increasing the speed of my wave to hurry him along.

“I did indeed, my dear,” Sage replied. “Take Alice and check it out while I get to work on this.”

Eric hit the ground with a low thump, and I looked up at where Maddox was still standing on the platform above, cutting a hand across my neck to tell her to stay in place. She flashed me an okay symbol and then took a few steps back into the shadows, disappearing from view.

I grabbed Eric’s arm, pulling him toward the crawlspace I’d only just found. He followed behind me, keeping his footsteps light, thankfully, but that only made it easier to hear the heavy metallic sound that could only be generated by a sentinel’s heavy gait. I quickly slid onto my belly and dove through the hole. My back hit the metal overhang of the machine I was crawling under in my haste to get through so Eric would have time to follow, and I gritted my teeth together and flattened myself to the floor, hating that I had made even more noise.

I quickly scrambled through, pulling my legs into the gap and sliding to one side, and seconds later, Eric was shoving himself after me. He was lying on his back, and I quickly realized the wisdom of the position as he reached up to pull himself into a sitting position, dragging his legs farther under the overhang and out of sight.

My mouth went dry as the thundering sound of the sentinel drew closer, and I quickly tucked myself farther behind the machine, trying to get my legs under me so I could stand up. My gun was in my pocket, but the tight confines meant I couldn’t reach it unless I was on my feet. Looking around, I spotted a small pipe running along the wall and grabbed it, using it for leverage to haul myself up.

Eric was doing something similar, only right in front of the hole, and I feared that at any second, the sentinel was going to drop to all fours in front of it and see his feet.

I was only halfway up when the heavy footsteps came to a halt. I couldn’t tell where, exactly, but I knew it was close, and I held my breath and slowed my movements, terrified that it would somehow hear me.

“Do you see anything?” Sadie demanded, her voice so close I could’ve sworn she was standing next to me. I carefully shifted my weight, trying to straighten silently, my fingers inching toward the gun in my pocket. If I could just reach it, I wouldn’t feel so afraid, and we wouldn’t be defenseless.

“We do not,” Alice replied after a moment. “But the source of the noise remains unaccounted for. Was it perhaps mechanical?”

Sadie made a considering sound, and I continued to hold my breath, even though my lungs were beginning to protest the action. Tony started to compensate by slowing my heartbeat some, but he and I both knew it was just a stopgap measure. I continued to hoist myself up, careful not to make the slightest whisper of sound, and finally got both legs under me so that I could straighten.

My hand immediately went to my pocket, grabbing the tab of the zipper to open it, but then I paused, realizing that if I moved too fast, it would make an obvious noise. Gritting my teeth together in frustration, I leaned my forehead against the back of the machine I was pressed behind, expelling a shaky breath. I was certain that at any moment, Sadie was going to insist Alice check behind the machines. She wasn’t stupid—she knew something was up. My muscles quivered, screaming at me to run away, to preemptively make a move to escape, but I ground it down, knowing it was folly. The gaps between the machines were large enough for them to have a clear view of what was going on behind them, so if I moved, they’d notice, and we’d die.

“Call in two more units and start patrolling the room on a circuit,” Sadie said, and I balled my hands into fists, wondering how the hell three of us were going to take out three sentinels without any plasma weapons. Then again… I supposed we didn’t have to. All we had to do was get close enough so Leo could hear the protocol, and then it would be over.

Except for the fact that we would die, it wasn’t so bad. Leo would be wirelessly transferred to the integration chamber to await the neural clone that passed the vetting process. Once he and the other AI were integrated, they could turn the citizens of the Tower against Sage and get rid of him and his children once and for all.

Unless, of course, Sage’s neural clone was the one that passed the test. I wasn’t sure how many legacy nets were currently being used, but I was guessing there weren’t that many, considering the lengths to which Sage had gone in order to get rid of them. And given what he knew about the AI program already, I had little doubt that his neural clone could pass the test—whatever it was—that Lionel had set up. Technically, he already had once, in the form of Kurt, so it stood to reason that he could again.

And I had no idea how much control Leo had over the selection process.

Which meant that while I kept “kill Sage” as a part of my plan, I had to prioritize it as the step right before giving Leo the protocol. After that, I was pretty much anticipating that we were going to be killed by the sentinels, but if Sage was dead and Leo was in the process of replacing Scipio, then that wouldn’t be so bad.

At least we’d go together.