Great White Throne (10 page)

“Ronaldo. He’s here. Don caught him.”

She bounced to her feet. “What else?”

“He said he’s locked up in the east wing of the palace.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“Don knows everything we do, everything we say here.”

“He
can
know everything,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean he
does
. He’s not omniscient. He can’t monitor everything at the same time.”

I glanced around my room at all the places where cameras could hide. “I’m not sure about that.”

“Only God can do that.”

“Or the devil with technology.”

“We’ve got no choice.” She held out her hand to me. “We’ll be careful with what we say. Let’s go.”

“It has to be a trap.”

“We’re already trapped!” She pulled me out of the chair. “It’s a long walk to the east wing, right?”

I nodded.
 

“Let’s get baby boy. I’ll bring him with us. Can you wait a little while?”

“Sure, I’ll start the drone training while I wait.”

She hesitated.
 

“I might as well, so we’ll have more info for Ronaldo.”

“Pray unceasingly.” She turned to go, a bounce in her step for the first time in days. “See you soon.”

V STARTED THE training, and everything changed.
 

My mind, my entire consciousness, felt like it was swirling through a pipe, out of my body and into somebody else’s. I heard Don’s voice before I could see anything.
 

“You are inside the most powerful machine in the universe. Let’s see what you can do.”

I opened my eyes. I was standing in a giant crater, larger than a football stadium. The crater was full of ramps and towers and vehicles, like some kind of mining operation. A line of smaller machines was facing me. No human was in sight.

In my mind, I lifted my arm. A massive metallic arm rose in front of me. It was thicker than a tree trunk.
 

I thought of clenching my fist. The arm’s fist clenched.
 

I thought of taking a step, and I moved forward, the ground shaking beneath me. And so it went—my every thought mapped onto this enormous machine’s movements.

But there was more. Every part of this body brought a menu of options. My fingers showed: Gun. Blade. Virus. Fire. Darkness.
 

Every part of me had options. Ways to destroy, it seemed.

I tried to think of a way out. There was no exit button. “Eject,” I said.
 

Nothing.

“Reboot.”

Don’s laughter filled my mind. “You can leave when I let you. Pick a weapon.”

I tried to keep my mind still, to not think. But I couldn’t. It was like there was something else sharing the machine with me. Not someone. But something …
other
. It was strong and close. The
other
seemed to sway my thoughts like a wind blowing a leaf.
 

Stay still
, I thought, but I couldn’t. My mind drifted to the blade option. A gleaming sword the size of a flag pole slid out of the robotic finger. With a flicker of thought, I swung the blade at a line of towers. Four of them split in half and toppled over. Steel beams sliced like butter.

Then my mind went to
fire
. Suddenly flames spewed out of the machine. The torch blasted into the line of machines on the opposite side of the crater. They erupted in flames, and a group of them charged at me.

The
other
directed my mind to my left hand, then to darkness. The machine’s arm pointed into the air and fired out a thin, black stream. Far above, the stream sprang open like a net. It blocked out the sky and dripped down, like water poured over a clear glass ball. As everything around me went pitch black, my eyes adjusted.
The machine’s eyes
, I forced myself to remember. I watched the other charging machines trip and run into each other, as if unable to see.

I heard a roar behind me and turned back. At the lip of the crater behind me was a familiar sight. The dragon.
 

It roared again. As immense as I was, I still feared him. Even the
other
—whatever it was that shared my machine—seemed to tremble in the dragon’s presence.

 
The dragon took flight, straight at me, jaws open. I ducked. The dragon’s bite missed by inches, but its tail hit like a freight train. I
felt
the pain as the machine crashed to its side. The dragon sat back on its haunches and sneered at me. Then the dragon grew. It doubled in size. And doubled again.
 

I made the machine scramble away, up the side of the crater, thinking of hooks as my hands began to lose grip. Giant claws emerged and pierced into the rock wall. I climbed straight up to the crater’s rim.

When I glanced back, the dragon nearly filled the whole expanse. Its head alone was larger than my giant robot. It was still growing. I felt like the earth compared to the sun. I had no chance. The dragon’s jaws opened wide as if to swallow me, but instead it spoke:
 

“Bow down
.
”

Its voice was Don’s. Silky, smooth, and irresistible. I bowed down, the
other
bowed down, and the machine went down with us.
 

Then my mind was in the pipe again, and it poured back into my body in Don’s palace. I’d hardly taken a breath before I realized I was not alone.

A BALD MAN stood there, gazing out my window. He must have shown up while I was in the training, in the machine. I shuddered—still feeling the machine’s power and seeing the dragon in my mind.
 

“Hello?” I managed to say.

The man turned. “It’s me, Alexi.” He stepped closer. “It’s been a while since Greece, and since you came here. About a month now, right?”

Greece
. This was Don’s political adviser, the man who had shown me Babylon. I hadn’t recognized him at first. His mop of dark hair was shaved clean. It looked like his whole body was shaved clean. His once hairy arms were bare. Even his eyebrows were gone. “What are you doing in my room?”

“Don sent me. I would have come sooner to welcome you, but we’ve been very busy with this war.” He motioned to the two chairs. “Please, let’s sit.”
 

I moved numbly and sat across from him, just as I’d sat across from Bruce—who I hadn’t seen since. “You’ve been here, in the palace?” I asked.

“Mostly. The control tower is complete now. Amazing what the machines can build in a few weeks, isn’t it?”

I nodded.
Control tower
—that must be what they called the glass spire rising from the palace.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he added, “I’d rather be in Babylon. I’m spending more and more time there. If it weren’t for these zealots, I wouldn’t have to be here right now. I figure in a few days I’ll get to stay there as long as I want.” He ran his hands over his smooth head. “I went ahead and shaved. That’s required for a longer visit.”

“I talked to Beatriz,” I said. “She made it sound like she was going to stay in the real world.”

“Oh, she and I can go back and forth, but why wouldn’t I enjoy Babylon?” His eyes grew distant, then they focused on me again. “You’ve tasted it. Can you think of a single desire, a single sensation that the place can’t satisfy?”

The memory was rich and haunting. He was right, but so, so wrong. Babylon stole souls, made people slaves. I met Alexi’s eyes. “I want more out of life than sensations.”

“Don’t we all!” he laughed. “You just need to spend a little more time there. You’ll get everything out of life you can imagine.”

“What if I want hair?”

Alexi’s eyes tightened for an instant, then his grin was back. “Of all people, Eli, I figured you wouldn’t get caught up on the physical world. We know about your dreams. Mind over matter, right?” He looked around the room. “In here you’re bound by walls and reality. Don’t worry, once we win this war, you’ll have a chance to revisit. You can have whatever hair you want. You have no idea how
sweet
my Babylon is …”
 

The fanatic look in his eyes made me press back into my chair. Did he really believe life was better floating like bald bacteria in amniotic fluid? “None of this explains why you’re here.”

“I’m here because this war’s not over. Don still calls on me to help. And on you. This might be finished even sooner now that you’ve finally joined us. That was very impressive, what you did with the machine.”

I failed to hide my surprise.
 

“Oh yes,” he said. “I saw you.”

“Have you been in one?”

“Of course,” he said. “Well, one almost that strong. Don doesn’t let just anyone into his masterpieces.”

“How do they work? I mean, I know it’s through a sync, but stronger than other drones. Sometimes I felt like I was sharing the controls.”

 
“It’s just the machine’s code.” Alexi leaned forward and continued in a quiet voice. “Between us, I’ll admit, I don’t quite understand how it works. Don keeps some of his programming separate from even me. But here’s what I think. It’s some master algorithm. It’s almost
super
intelligent.”

“You mean the machine has a mind of its own?”

“Something like that.” He leaned back in the chair and laughed. “Who else is going to run things once we’re all in Babylon?”

“I don’t know.” And I didn’t want to find out. “Why does he need your help now when he’s got the machines?”

“The machines still need a human mind to reach their fullest potential. And now that you’ve done Beatriz’s training, I think you won’t need much convincing. One taste of that power and you’re hooked, right?”

“It’s a powerful machine.”

Alexi laughed. “Never easily impressed, are you? That must be why Don tolerates your messy background, your strange beliefs. You still keep a level head. You’ll do well in the battle. And once we take care of the Mahdi, this should all be over. His men still fight, many of them in Jerusalem, but you know the saying: cut off the head of the snake …”

I kept my face blank. “The Mahdi’s the only resistance left?”

“Pretty much. A few sheepherders here and there. The Amish. Isolated African tribes. No real risks.”

“No countries?”

“Nope. Remember, we already took care of the politics.”