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

My vision went dark and pain exploded into my skull, threatening to render me unconscious, but I fought against it. I felt Tony helping me, but it wasn’t easy. I became aware of reality in patches, and in an oddly disconnected way, like I was blinking at a picture without really seeing it. The sentinel was dragging me across the floor by my foot; Maddox was firing at the other one as it climbed up the side of the dome to get her. Then flashing back to my sentinel as my head lolled to one side, only to see Eric tucked neatly under its arm. His face was red, and he was looking at me—shouting at me—but I couldn’t hear him, and within seconds, the blackness had swallowed me again.

I wasn’t sure when we stopped moving, but I grew aware again when something grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled, and the feeling was like shards of glass being jammed into my brain. Something cold splashed in my face just as soon as the pain became too much, and I felt water invading my mouth and nostrils, threatening to drown me. It shocked me out of the darkness, and I began to cough it out, already catching some in my windpipe.

“That’s it,” Sage said from overhead, and I slid open my eyes enough to see the floor and a pair of white boots in my field of vision. “Wake up.”

I groaned, the searing pain in my skull only increasing as my head was pulled back to face his. I winced at the bright light surrounding his face, making him a dark and ominous silhouette, and then groaned when it sank in that he had caught me. I rolled my eyes around as far as I could to the right and left, and saw that it was Sadie gripping my hair, and that Eric and Maddox were being restrained by sentinels, metal hands covering their mouths to silence them. The effort cost me, and my vision grew more and more blurred, until it was doubling while the world started to spin the wrong way, sliding to the left and away. Black spots blossomed and danced across my vision, telling me I was about to black out again, and I almost gave in to it, not wanting to see my friends butchered before my eyes.

A soft slap on the side of my cheek snapped my eyes back to Sage, and I inhaled a shuddering breath, trying to think of something pithy to say to him before he killed us.

“Stay with me, Liana. Here, let me give you something for that pain.” There was a sharp sting at my neck, and seconds later the intense throbbing faded some. I could see straight without feeling like I was going to puke, and my thoughts felt more ordered and cohesive. “That’s better,” Sage said with a sigh, straightening up. “I am so very glad to see you! Tell me, do you know where Tony is? I’m betting you do. I think you had something to do with getting him out of that server in Cogstown. Where is he, Liana?”

I stared at him, having zero intention of telling him anything. “In the words of Grey,” I wheezed, smiling against the lingering pain in my head. “Go to hell.” Then I spat at him for good measure, tearing several chunks of my hair against Sadie’s grip in the process. She jerked me back, but a glob of my bloody spit had already struck his pristine uniform.

Sage made a face of disgust and turned to grab something from behind him. “Really, Liana,” he said in a patronizing tone. “I’m sorry you lost, but do you have to be so immature about it?”

I curled my hands up into fists but froze when I felt something cold pressing into the back of my neck. I recognized it immediately as a gun and wanted to gnash my teeth in frustration. This was it. We were done. Sage was only keeping me around to get Tony, and after that…

I’d messed up. Missed my chance. If I had just waited a fraction of a second longer to get a better shot at him, I would’ve at least killed the bastard.

It was becoming the story of my life, really. I made plans, and the bad guys always came out on top. My litany of mistakes was longer than my arm and had cost me so much.

“Go to hell,” I wheezed. I was defeated, but I’d be damned if I gave him anything at this point. Call me a spiteful girl, but that bastard could rot in hell. Inside, I thought, Tony, can you send your program somewhere to keep out of his hands?

It doesn’t really work like that, he replied.

I wasn’t happy with the answer, because that meant I had to resort to plan two. Then can you delete yourself? I knew I was basically asking the program to commit suicide, but I couldn’t let him fall into Sage’s hands.

There was a pause. From your net? I… I don’t know. I’ve never tried. But look, he’s not going to kill you yet. He needs you. He knows you’re Leo’s weakness. There’s an opportunity here if you can just wait for it.

I shook my head against the thought. Sage had given me something for the pain, and it was making me sluggish and heavy. It wasn’t full sedation, but it was definitely slowing my reflexes down. I appreciated Tony’s advice, but I had to be practical. I couldn’t fight Sage like this. I promise I will, but… we can’t let you fall into his hands. Can you try?

“You’re talking to him right now, aren’t you?” Sage asked, and I blinked my eyes up at him to see that he had squatted down in front of me and was studying my face. “He’s in your net! Of course! It’s clever, and also great for me. Sadie?”

Sadie shoved me forward, and I wasn’t prepared for the action. I tried to get my arms under me, to break my fall, but I was only able to get one up before I slammed into the floor. The angle of my arm caused the impact to translate into that shoulder in a loud, crunching noise that I both heard and felt, and I gasped at the pain, rolling over to my side and grabbing at it. The thing felt damn near dislocated.

I held it for several seconds, breathing through the pain, only to have it erupt anew as something pressed down on it. I opened my eyes to see Sadie standing over me, her hand cupping her arm where I had apparently shot her, her foot planted on my shoulder, and a sudden surge of anger had me lashing out with my own foot, trying to catch her leg with my own.

I was moving too slowly, though, and she sidestepped lazily, her foot only leaving my shoulder long enough to avoid the blow before coming back down again, pushing me onto my stomach. I cried out, and rolled to try to escape the pain, doing exactly what she wanted. Moments later, the collar of my uniform was jerked down, and something was pressed against the back of my neck.

My net! They were going to take it! If Sage did that, he’d have Tony. Not to mention, if I did manage to enact the New Day protocol, no net meant no neural clone of me. Not that I had any idea whether my clone would be able to do anything to stop Sage once his own psyche was made into an AI, but I had to hope that it could, if only to eliminate him from the candidate pool.

Of course, I had to enact the protocol first. I just wished I could remember the final four numbers. Was it 6323? 2336? I was only going to have one chance at this, and I couldn’t get it wrong.

Tony? I thought as I tried to move away, hoping the AI would give me the right numbers, but Sadie buried one knee on my spine, pinning me in place. I winced, expecting the sting of pain as she cut my neck open to extract the net, but after a few moments, her weight was suddenly gone, with no incision made. Tony? I thought, slowly bringing myself to my knees. What was that?

I waited for a moment, and then frowned. Tony hadn’t answered. Why hadn’t Tony answered? I searched my thoughts and emotions for any trace of him, but was only met with silence, and knew then that Sadie had done something to take him.

“Where is he?” I demanded, straightening up and settling my weight back on my heels.

“Wirelessly downloaded,” Sage said, his side to me and eyes on where Sadie was walking toward one of the inactive machines. “Lionel’s so-called less traumatic way of downloading and uploading the AIs to the nets and other terminals. Now that that’s being handled, Leo… your girlfriend brought us some new leverage! Isn’t that exciting?”

Sage stepped farther to the side, letting me see Grey. My breath sucked in sharply as I regarded the damage to his face. The sides were mottled and bruised, and his lips were split and bleeding. One eye was turning black, and the other one was red from where a blood vessel had ruptured. His stomach was a mess of blood, and more had pooled around his feet.