Machines of Eden (31 page)

It was just a shame that
she had come so close to getting her own way, and now would be
foiled. If only Nut had taken out Janice! That would have been
fortuitous. If only she could make it happen herself. But it was
not allowed. She could only hope Adam would find a way on his own,
and then submit to her management.

Suddenly she became aware
that her man was in the Facility again, and he was moving quickly
and confidently through the hallways.

"Eve!" John shouted. "I'm
home again."

"What have you been doing
out there, Adam? Time is short."

"Little of this, little of
that. Carousing with the boys, smashing up bars. How've you
been?"

"Janice stepped up her
schedule. You have just over an hour to do something, or it all
goes out the window. All of it. You, me, the Facility, everything.
Glenn never meant this to happen. It's a
catastrophe
."

Aside from the irony of
Eve's choice of words, John didn't like the sound of things. But at
least Eve was being helpful. It meant he could take the elevator.
"Of course there's no time, there's never any time. Don't worry,
stress makes me work smarter. Just keep Janice off my
back."

"Janice is not a threat to
you anymore, Adam. But there will soon be one much
greater."

"Oh yeah, her Gaia body,
right? What is that, anyway?"

"There isn't time to give
you the details now, and I can't tell you all of it
anyway."

"Doesn't matter. If she's
tied up, so much the better. I just need one more piece of the
puzzle and I'll have everything under control."

"Adam, I don't know what
piece you're after, but I don't think you realize how close you are
to failing me,” Eve said. “Can you even--"

"Hey!” John shouted. “I'm
not a pawn anymore, Eve. Haven't you gotten that yet? I'm on my own
team, and to be perfectly honest, you don't figure into my future
at all. I know breakups are hard, but deal with it." While he
mouthed off, he was walking over to one of the wall consoles he had
noticed earlier. He jumped on and scanned through the map of the
Facility.

"What are you looking for?
I can help you if you'll help me."

"I'm looking for the
controls to that wonderful-looking toy installed on the roof. The
one wrapped in camo netting with blast barriers around
it."

"I'm not sure--"

"Yes you are. The AA
launcher. The LambdaTek Sayonara surface-to-air missile launcher.
Is that specific enough for you, computer?"

The telltale tips of the
missiles' arrowhead nosecones had caught his attention in spite of
the camouflage. Another curious thing about it: there had been one
missing out of the set of four.

"Ah. That old relic hasn't
been functional for--"

"I disagree, Eve. I think
it was that very launcher that brought me down from the sky and led
to my rude awakening on the beach outside. I should have put things
together sooner. Well, now I'm going to turn those devil-darts to
good use."

"Adam, you couldn't
possibly--"

"I can and I will. I just
found the control console. It's on Level Four."

"All right, Adam, you go to
Level Four. I will show you the dusty old console there that once
controlled the missiles, but which has not functioned for that
purpose in five years. I tell you, they are military surplus
garbage that we wrote off at the end of the Wars."

She didn't miss a beat.
She really must be okay with me going to Level Four.

"Mmm, nope, changed my
mind. I'll try Level Two. The workstation set down the stairs from
the living quarters looks more promising after all."

"Adam, that level is still
full of gas. I cannot guarantee your safety there."

"Gotcha! Eve, you're a
peach; it would have taken me half an hour to search it out on my
own."

I should have guessed that
first. Didn't the old protocols state that air defenses be
controlled from lower levels to function through bombardments, and
near living quarters to allow for rapid deployment at all times?
Second level it is.
He climbed into the
elevator and pressed Level 2.

Eve was silent from then
on.
Probably cutting her losses as much as
she can. She's a clever girl, but I'm no slouch myself when it
comes to mind games with A.I.'s.
John
quickly moved through Level Two, keeping an eye out for danger. Eve
would not allow him to reach the controls if she could stop him. He
wasn’t worried about the gas anymore, but he was expecting some
kind of resistance.

At the entrance to the
workstation room just off the dormitory area, he found it. Four
small cleaning bots blocked his way, their little scrubber/vacuum
arms extended.

He snorted. "Really, Eve?
This is your line of defense?"

No answer. He stepped
toward the row of little robots, readying a boot. "Out of the way,
bud. I mean it."

The units rolled forward
at him simultaneously, closing in around his legs. He heard a sharp
electrical cracking sound as two of them came within millimeters of
each other, and it caused him to jump back.
She's got them overcharged somehow. Better not touch
one.

He backed up and grabbed
the first non-conductor that came to hand, a heavy plastifoam chair
cushion. He swung it at the advancing robots, bowling one over on
its side and leaving its wheels spinning in the air. He gave
another a hearty thump on top with the cushion, hitting its manual
shutdown switch. It died instantly.

He did the same to the
remaining two and left them all sitting there harmlessly. Then he
sat down at a likely-looking console in the workstation room. "Try
harder next time, Eve. And don't let your surveillance video of
that little incident out; I'd never live it down if my colleagues
knew I had to pillow-fight my way into a high-security
facility."

A minute later three
Sayonara missiles roared across the short space between the
Facility's roof and the dam in the hills across from it. The fire
coming from their tails and the noise they made would have
frightened any wildlife away from the vicinity had there been any
left. But whatever sixth sense allows the animal kingdom to foresee
a disaster and flee it had already cleared the area hours
before.

The first missile punched
through a foot of concrete and created a powerful shockwave. The
next two pounded the concrete wall in succession, opening a crack
running up and down the whole dam. By the time the flame and dust
fell away, water was already spraying out through the opening like
a firefighter's hose. That lasted for six seconds while
increasingly large chunks of wall flew outward with the water, and
then the whole structure caved.

Splitting like a soggy
watermelon, the dam burst open and a tidal wave twelve meters high
rushed through the air, engulfing the little turbine building
underneath and pushing everything before it. It thundered down from
the hills, uprooting trees and taking a layer of soil with it,
crashing across the lower ground leading up to Eden’s
cliff.

Despite its initial force,
the flood died down quickly, with most of the small reservoir’s
water expelled in the first few seconds. It was more than enough,
however, to turn the little creeks that flowed across the highlands
above the Facility tunnels into swollen torrents that jumped their
banks. It was even enough to create several creeks where none had
been. In minutes the low-lying hollows were muddy ponds, obscuring
the vent tunnels that had previously opened out into the air. The
only sign that tunnel mouths existed in the hollows at all was the
occasional bubble that gurgled up from the water-sealed tunnels
underground.

John stood up from the
monitor inside the facility and cracked his knuckles loudly. "I
trust you saw and heard that, Eve."

Still no answer. I'm
really getting to her. It's a nice change from the first part of my
sojourn on this lonely isle.

“
I guess now I just get
out of Dodge, before this place becomes uncomfortably
claustrophobic. Sorry you can’t come. It will be lonely in Eden
without you.”

He turned and walked toward
the observation deck exit, enjoying the quiet, but eager for fresh
air again. The interior of the Facility had become incredibly
stuffy and warm. As he paused to grab some food and beverages from
the lounge area, a gentle tone sounded from the elevator bank. He
turned his head.

The elevator was coming up
from Level One.

Nutrient bars spilled from
John’s arms as he backed away from the elevator, heart racing. A
voice, a hundred echoing megaphones of female wrath, welled up from
the elevator shaft.

“
Eve!
” the voice thundered, “
Eve!
” It grew louder as it
approached his floor. “You’ve violated every protocol you’ve ever
been programmed with!”

Eve’s voice cut in. “An
event of this magnitude merits interruption. You already have all
your vital sectors. The interruption only excludes minor
personal-memory sectors. I’m sorry, but if I didn’t get you up here
your whole plan would be jeopardized.”

“
You’ve jeopardized
me
, Eve!” the voice came
back, rattling the elevator doors. The elevator came to a stop at
Level Two. “After I crush the intruder, the first thing the nanos
destroy will be you!”

John turned and ran for his
life. Behind him the elevator doors had opened, but whatever was
inside was slow in exiting. A brief glance over his shoulder
revealed a huge shape hunched inside the elevator. It appeared to
be having difficulty climbing out.

He slapped the button to
raise the lift that would take him down to Eden’s entrance. Too
slow. He jumped to meet it, knees almost buckling on impact, then
rolled off and down to the ground level.

Slamming the panel to open
the door, he dashed out into the open air and scanned the area for
danger. The only bot he could see was standing in the trees half a
klick away, head slumped on its chest and one arm missing. Smoke
still trailed out of its back.

I hate the way they remain
standing when they die. Battlefield scarecrows.

He ran toward the nearest
tangle of trees, wishing for the powerbike from earlier but seeing
it nowhere. He had barely made the tree line when a loud crash
signaled that his pursuer was not far behind him. He lunged behind
a moss-covered rock and lay still, peering back over his shoulder
toward the Facility.

The observation deck
windows were gone – blown outward as if by a wrecking ball.
Something large moved inside, then another blow shattered the rest
of the crystal glass. A moment later a massive figure clambered out
and dropped to the ground, then stood erect. He gasped.

It was a cyborg unlike any
John had ever seen or heard of, breathtaking in its perfection.
Four meters tall at the shoulder, the borg was a smooth, gleaming
white. Its body and limbs were slender and curving, giving it the
appearance of a giant bleached skeleton with a veneer of porcelain
armor over top. It had proportional hands and feet, but its torso
was longer than a human’s, and its head was bald and slightly
elongated. There was no nose above the thin, unmoving mouth slit
but its blue-tinged eyes were large and penetrating. It was gynoid
in form, and John could already tell from the way it moved that it
possessed enormous strength. It looked around, scanning for him,
and he ducked behind the boulder.

“
Come out, little man,
come out,” the voice called out. “I will allow myself the small
pleasure of popping your little skull. It will delay my timetable,
true, but will be so gratifying. After all, this is Paradise.
Someone should enjoy it. Not you.”

The towering gynoid-cyborg
turned back toward the Facility, as if listening. Watching it, he
quickly turned on his earpiece, missing what Eve had said to the
cyborg, but hearing her reply echo in the device and across the
distance between them.

“
Of course he can’t, but
he’s the last loose end. All it takes is one. I want him put down
without further delay.”

John moved away from the
rock and through a thicket on hands and knees, belly almost
touching the ground. He had covered only a few meters when
something hurtled overhead and into the thicket he’d just vacated
with devastating force. The ground shook and twigs pelted the back
of his head.

She’s seen me.

He was up, sprinting. The
trees passed in a green blur as he pushed hard for deeper cover,
trying to put as much foliage between them as possible. Despite his
own hammering heart and panting, he could hear, or perhaps feel, a
deeper thudding behind him. The thing was running too, horribly
silent, hunting him down like a rabbit.

He knew he couldn’t outrun
it. The memory of Janice’s cyborg trying to exit the elevator
flashed in his mind, and he knew his only chance was to find small
places, areas she could not follow him into because of her
size.