Android Paradox (16 page)

Dr. Crenshaw adjusted a screw in the black box, and X’s body hummed to life.
 

Why am I receiving this memory?
X wondered.
 

Dr. Crenshaw patted him on the shoulder and said, “Because you need it, X.”

X almost fell off the table. This was supposed to be a memory, yet he never remembered Dr. Crenshaw saying this.

“What is this?” he asked. This time he heard himself speak aloud.

“Your awakening,” Dr. Crenshaw said. “By the time you receive this update, the world will not be the same, and it will need you. It will need all of my children.”

“Sir, what are you—”

The door to the basement opened, and a female called for him.
 

“Daddy, dinner’s ready!”

“Dinner?” X asked. “But this wasn’t in the memory. None of this makes any sense.”

Dr. Crenshaw winked at him and said, “The test is complete, and you passed.”

The room faded to white, and Dr. Crenshaw’s body became a silhouette. Everything shattered, and the tunnel stretched before him again.
 

He could move again, and he reviewed his system logs: Upgrade Complete.

What did it mean? Why had he seen Dr. Crenshaw, and was it really him? The doctor had been dead for almost a decade now.
 

X couldn’t reason through what he had just seen, and he wondered what a human would have done in the same situation. Probably just gone crazy.
 

He couldn’t dwell on the experience, but he knew one thing: he hadn’t gone rogue. He still vowed to protect the UEA. He remembered his mission, reactivated his guns, and stalked through the tunnel. After a few steps, he turned right into an opening. This tunnel was brighter. Thin rays of sunlight shone through the ceiling, and he heard distant water bubbling against rocks—he must be below the atrium. He could smell the verdurous fragrance of exotic flowers and trees, as if the plants had just been watered.

Boots stomped above him, crunching glass and leaves. Shards and soil fell through the ceiling of the tunnel, and X stopped and waited for the air to clear before he continued. He heard harsh voices but couldn’t make them out through the thick walls of the tunnel.

He came to a staircase and followed it as it wound upward to the next floor. He passed a vent where he could see into an office. Dozens of people were on the floor with their hands over their heads as a pair of androids with machine guns threatened them. X honed in on them and memorized every detail.
 

“Nobody move or you die!” one of the androids commanded.

People whimpered.

X wondered where the UEA androids were and why they weren’t here. And then he saw them crumpled in a pile on a nearby desk, their black boxes removed and shattered to pieces on the orange carpet.

One of the androids gave a hand signal. He held a digital screen and it illuminated his ugly face. “All right. I got everyone’s passwords.”

“Nice job,” another said. “Mama’ll approve. We were really running low on funds.”

The android with the screen manipulated the digital display. The screen rippled. “A million dollars in Mama’s bank account—just like that!”

A human in a white suit stood up and charged at the android. “You bastards!”

Both androids shot him thirty times each, making a mess against the wall.
 

X had to stay down. He couldn’t help these people. He crawled away as the androids pulled the man through the middle of the room and threw him among the survivors. “That’s what you get for living in a utopia!” the android with the screen said. “Next person that tries to play hero gets it worse. Actually, never mind.”

He opened fire on everyone in the room.

X winced. He couldn’t watch anymore, and he kept moving through the tunnel.
 

Scum. That’s what these androids were. No class. Cutthroat killers. He had seen rogues—Brockway was one of them—but these androids were in a different category. They were evil, they were smart, and they were ruthless.
 

It wouldn’t be hard to get to the eleventh floor; it wouldn’t be hard to fight them. What would be hard was figuring out
why
they were here. X’s logic chip kept failing him, and he didn’t know if he’d ever find the answers to who these mystery androids were.

He came to a secret elevator and rocketed up to the eleventh floor. He emerged in a well-lit tunnel this time; green can-lights hung above, humming gently in the quiet. He passed several white doors with numbers on them that corresponded to the rooms in the android quarters. The numbers followed no logical pattern, but he had them memorized. He opened the door for the library, pulling the smooth, rounded handle toward him. Inside, he tracked down a dark tunnel and smelled paper and the ancient, heady smell of teakwood; by the light underneath his feet he knew that he was walking on the ceiling above the library.
 

He removed a grate in the floor of the tunnel, stuck his head down to confirm that no one was around, and dropped down onto a table. The android invaders might have been smart, but he could at least count on the fact that they weren’t interested in reading books.
 

 
No one was around. He climbed down from the table and stepped in a puddle of soapy water. Nearby, Lonnie’s cart and mop were overturned. X hoped he was okay.
 

He dove across the floor and hid behind a ficus plant, scanning the stacks of books. He climbed quietly to the top of the stacks and surveyed the room. All clear. He flipped down to the ground, peeked out the door and saw an android walking down the hall. He picked up the potted ficus and threw it to the ground, breaking the terra cotta pot.
 

The android burst into the room, but X punched him on the side of the face, twisted his neck, and body slammed him to the ground, immobilizing him. He turned his hand into an electric rod and shocked him, draining much of his energy.
 

He climbed into another ceiling grate that led to a different tunnel and followed it, emerging over the engineering room. Through slats in the floor, he saw Fahrens with his hands up, talking to someone. His shoulder was bleeding, and he grimaced as he spoke. A group of androids had their guns aimed at him. He also heard a female voice, but she was just out of view.

“This is foolish,” Fahrens said.
 

“Shut up!” the woman screamed.
 

X prepared to drop down, but the woman appeared, circling Fahrens.
 

She wore high heels and an orange dress with a white lab coat over it, and a long gray scarf that trailed behind her as she walked. One of her eyes was bloodshot and looked useless. She was light-skinned, and a strand of curly hair hung down in front of her face …

No. It can’t be.

“Give me what I want,” the woman said. The smell of her patchouli perfume was so strong that X could detect it from the ceiling. She held up one of her arms—it was made of steel, and her hand was a fierce, metal claw. She made a fist with the claw and the metal fingers gnashed against each other.
 

“What do you want?” Fahrens asked.
 

“I want X.”

“No,” Fahrens said. He knelt down and exposed the top of his head to her. “Go ahead and kill me. Anything else while I’m still alive?”

The woman laughed. “You think I’m going to kill you that easily, Fahrens? I wouldn’t kill someone who was so dear to my father’s heart.”

“You’ve already killed half of the androids he created. If you hadn’t destroyed their black boxes so readily, you would have the data you desire.”

X couldn’t wait any longer. He kicked open the grate and dropped down in front of Fahrens. All of his weapons activated, clacking open from his arms and shoulders, and the androids in the room aimed at him.
 

“Finally!” the woman said. She grinned widely. “X, it’s been so long.”

“Stand down,” X said. He pointed his guns at her.

“Xandifer Crenshaw, put those guns away!” she said.
 

He knew her voice from the memory. She was the woman at the top of the stairs. She was the one who had spoken to him in the apartment.
 

“Who are you?”

“The UEA wiped your memory chips clean, didn’t they?” she asked. “I am Jeanette Crenshaw, the daughter of Roosevelt Crenshaw, your creator. By law, you are my property. Put your guns away and join me.”

She stepped toward him, staring at him intensely. “You are every bit as wonderful as my dad had hoped. Powerful, dutiful, intuitive. I’ll admit it was difficult to outsmart you. I had to behave in a very erratic manner.”

X shot the ground near her feet and she jumped back.

“You’ve seen the signs,” Jeanette said. “You’ve seen my power. Do you think that you found me today because you
outsmarted
me?”

Another android stepped forward and joined her.
 

“I need you, X,” Jeanette said. “I need your intelligence. Your emotion. You can join me, or you can burn with the rest of the UEA.”

The other android beat his fists together. He resembled X—bald, suave, and tall—but not exactly. Even though he hadn’t said a word yet, he looked like a brick with arms and legs; no emotion whatsoever.

“ProtoX,” X said.

“Not quite,” Jeanette said, pulling out a remote control. “He’s better. Xanthus, immobilize him.”
 

Xanthus dashed at X, and X jumped back and pointed his gun at him. He fired and hit Xanthus’s chest, but the bullet bounced off like a pellet.
 

Xanthus punched X in the jaw and X stumbled back. He charged Xanthus and they fell to the ground wrestling each other. Xanthus grabbed X’s skull. Jeanette jumped on top of him and tried to access his black box.

“Give in to me,” Jeanette said, pulling out a metal rod. She jammed it into X’s skull.
 

X saw code flash across his vision and he struggled against Xanthus. He saw Jeanette’s face contort into a smile.
 

He remembered what Dr. Crenshaw had told him: “I have created you to be intelligent, social, and a protector of all that is good. No one will define you. You define yourself. No one can take away the supremacy of your mind. As I’ve told all the androids before you, and all that will come after you—be regal. Be royal. But best of all, be real.”

X’s eyes glowed red, and Jeanette laughed. Then, with a strength he didn’t know he had, he grabbed Xanthus by the throat and launched him into the air, sending him crashing down on the floor.
 

He stood up and looked at Jeanette.
 

“Kill Fahrens,” Jeanette said, pointing.

X turned to Fahrens, who stumbled backward and shook his head.
 

“X, no—”

X’s shoulder turrets rotated to point behind him and shot the metal rod out of Jeanette’s hand. The rod rolled across the floor and into an air duct.
 

“No!”

X aimed at her. “You will not define me. I don’t know why the other androids succumbed to your reprogramming, but I won’t.”

Jeanette stepped back and the other androids formed a semi-circle around her. X could only see her eyes, wide and angry.
 

“Leave this place,” X said. “Or I will have to kill you.”

“Sacrilege!” Jeanette said, hiding behind her androids. “You blaspheme me and you blaspheme your creator!”

Xanthus grabbed X from behind, but X pushed him off and jumped onto the second floor balcony. Xanthus grinned and shot an arc of electricity at the balcony. X dove out of the way and ran as Xanthus carved dark holes in the wall, destroying computers and digital screens in his wake.
 

X backflipped over the arc. He grabbed a burning desk and hurled it at the sprinklers in the ceiling. Xanthus recoiled as water rained down, short-circuiting his arm.

X jumped into the air and slammed into Xanthus with a hard punch in his face, knocking him against the wall and leaving a crater.
 

“Excellent!” Jeanette cried. “Unleash your rage. Show me what you can truly accomplish.”

X’s eyes widened and he stumbled back. He turned to Jeanette. “I won’t take orders from you.”

Seeing his chance, Xanthus ran at X, but the balcony collapsed and he fell down with it. X shielded his eyes, and when the dust cleared, Shortcut and Brielle stood at the entrance to the room.

“Take that, you stupid android,” Shortcut said, brandishing a buzz saw.

Jeanette stepped forward. “If dad were alive, he’d be proud, X.” She looked at Shortcut and Fahrens and then scowled. “As for the rest of you, the Android Winter is coming. And when it does, you’ll wish you had reconsidered your alliance. Let’s go, boys.”

The androids stood at attention. “Yes, Mama!” Jeanette walked to the window, where one of the airships waited outside. The androids fired at the glass, shattering it, and she leaped onto the deck. The ship moved away, the rest of the ships joining in a V formation, their fins flapping and reflecting the sunset. Then they shimmered and disappeared.
 

“An invisibility cloak,” Fahrens said. He stood by X’s side. “We’re supposed to be hundreds of years away from that technology, yet here it is.”

X looked around the room at the dead engineers. While he couldn’t express pain or regret, his logic chip sparked as he noted their deaths.
 

Shortcut shook his head. “What was the point of all of this?” He saw Crandall slumped over a desk, his eyes still open. He balled his fists. “God, Crandall. You were a son of a beached whale, but you didn’t deserve this.”

Brielle stepped delicately through the rubble. “We’re lucky to have survived. She was just sending a message.”

“Who was she?” X asked.

Fahrens put his hand on X’s shoulder. “She wasn’t lying to you. Her name is Jeanette Crenshaw. The only child of the late Roosevelt Crenshaw.”

“Why didn’t I remember her?”

“There’s a lot you don’t remember, X,” Fahrens said. “Trust me—it’s for good reason.”