The Unseen (22 page)

“I won’t,” Kari said, but they both knew it wasn’t true. Joseth looked down to the floor and shook his head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kari.”

“Are you going to be dropping off all of my meals?”

“No, but I am going to be cooking you one.”

“So, how is it?” Joseth said. He sounded genuinely nervous to hear Kari’s response. He had commandeered the entire kitchen at Valhalla in order to cook food for her by hand. Printed food was universally available, cheaper, and consistent. Food prepared by a human was considered a luxury in most places.

Valhalla had several staff chefs, but Joseth had given them the evening off. When Kari arrived, he had been rushing around trying to finish the final touches. She had no idea cooking was so physically demanding.

“It’s good,” Kari said. He had made her a Thai chicken stir-fry, which was delicious, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.

“Excellent!” They both continued to eat, without much conversation, until Kari finished her plate. Joseth was still eating, so Kari was faced with the awkward choice of either talking to him while he ate or watching him eat.

“If you think cooking for me is going to change my mind then you’re going to be upset.”

“I’m already upset,” Joseth said. “But, I wanted to cook for you anyway.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because my dad used to cook for my mom all the time. He taught me that cooking for a woman was the best way to her heart.”

“I have a boyfriend,” Kari said.

“I know,” Joseth said. “But I was craving some proper stir-fry, and I thought we might enjoy one last dinner together, as friends.” Kari wanted to correct him about them not being friends, but found the other part of what he had said more troubling.

“Last dinner?”

“Yes. I have no doubt that you are serious when you tell me that you’ll never give me your drones. The lives of the generals, or thousands of people, seem to have no sway on you. Even your own life doesn’t seem as important to you as your drones. It upsets me, but I’ve come to accept it and even, in a way, respect it. So, I’ve made plans to move on without you this week, and that will unfortunately consume the rest of my time during your grace period.” Kari was glad she was finished eating because she would have choked when she heard that.

“This week?”

“In two days actually. You see, I haven’t been telling you everything. All those weapons I have been selling to the governments have been filled with nanobots. So when I hijack their printers and print out a new army, they will find their weapons melting in their hands when they try to defend themselves.”
He paused to take a bite of stir-fry and thankfully took his time to finish chewing before continuing.

“It’s going to be messy, much messier than I would like it to be, but I’ve calculated my odds of success at eighty-seven percent, a number I am comfortable with.”
Two days! It’s too soon—I don’t know if the package has even been delivered yet! Oh no.
Kari realized for the first time that the package containing the EMP guns that she had told Motorcad to readdress was also filled with millions of nanobots that could chew through humans just as easily as they could chew through metal.

“Is something bothering you?” Joseth’s voice was filled with amusement now.

“Yes,” Kari said. “Is there any way I can talk you out of this?”

“No more than I can convince you to help me.”

“There are other ways to do things than through force, Joseth. I get that you want to see change, we all do, but you don’t have to conquer to do it. I could help you start a movement, or a political party or something . . . anything.”

“Every revolution has causalities.”

“This one doesn’t have to.”

“If I don’t act soon there will be nothing left to save,” Joseth said.
But that’s because of you! You’re the main reason the fighting is still happening!
Kari wanted to scream. Joseth backed his chair out and stood, presumably inviting Kari to do the same.

“Before I let you go for the evening, there is one last thing I wanted to show you,” Joseth said. He backed his chair away from the small table for two and stood up. Kari did the same. With a single sweeping motion, Joseth grabbed the tablecloth from the table and flung it and everything on it onto the floor with a clatter. It made a mess that irritated Kari, because she knew that Joseth wouldn’t be the one to clean it up. He gestured to the table proudly.

“A table?”

“Not exactly.” The metal table, which looked as if it had been printed with a low-resolution printer, as it had a large amount of texture, morphed into a large chair. Millions of tiny points shifted to form an entirely new object.

Kari backed away from it instinctively, even though she was fascinated. Joseth took a seat on the new metal recliner as the chair he had formerly been sitting in morphed into a footrest and moved into position itself underneath his feet. Before Kari could react, the recliner broke apart into thousands of tiny threads and lifted Joseth to a standing position with no effort of his own. The display filled her with rage.

“What a waste!”

“What are you talking about?”

“This technology could change the world! It’s decades ahead of anything else I’ve ever seen, and you use it kill people and to help you overthrow a government. You could be saving lives and improving the quality of life for countless people.”

“Don’t you lecture me about keeping incredible technology to myself,” Joseth said. She couldn’t do anything but shake her head. He looked her over closely, as if he were trying to figure out why she hadn’t responded like he had expected her to.

She couldn’t think of anything to say. She just stood in place, staring at the most amazing display of technology she had ever witnessed. She was entranced at its potential and horrified by what Joseth could do with it.

“I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, Freelancer. I wish that we could have done more together, been more together than we have been. But, in the end, I think we are just similar enough to be incompatible.”

“I don’t think it’s our similarities that are the problem,” Kari said. Joseth led her to the door as the nanobots reformed the original table and chairs.

“Hi,” Kari said as soon as David’s face appeared on the other side of the call. He looked exhausted and stressed. And great.

“Hello,” David said. He stopped himself from saying something and took a second to regroup before continuing. “How are you?”

“I’m all right,” Kari said. “Been a long week, you know?”

“Yeah,” David said. “I know what you mean, lots of pretty tough news.”

“Couple more assassinations,” Kari said.
We’ve talked about this a lot before. Should be fair game if Joseth is listening.
“And looks like the fighting has gotten pretty bad.”

“It really has; people around here are scared. My professors aren’t even sure if we’ll be able to finish the semester. How bad would that suck? All this studying, and I wouldn’t even get any credit for it.”

“That would suck,” Kari said.
Being in school would suck, actually, if we’re being honest.

“Anyone worried about it around you?”

“You could say that,” Kari said. “But it all seems far away for me. I’ve had other things on my mind.”

“Yeah?”

“Would you still like me if I couldn’t code?” It was a jump in subjects, but ever since her dinner with Joseth she had been thinking about it.

“Of course I would,” David said. “If anything, I might like you more. Think about it. You’d be the one thinking I’m the genius. It’d do wonders for my ego.” Kari laughed and felt tears form in her eyes at the same time. It was an odd combination of emotions.

“So college is going OK?”

“Yeah, I’m getting along. It’s kind of like high school. Except everyone is cooler and smarter, and no one cares about you one bit. You might even like it here.”

“You still driving that manual around town?”

“Yes.”

“How fast does that thing even go?”

“Fast enough to be home by . . .” David paused for a second to calculate something. “About eleven in the morning.”

“Well, you should go home sometime. I’m sure your family misses you.”

“I will.”
Perfect. Now you just better not be late.

“You’ll have to tell Aubrey hi for me whenever you go home. She seems to have been too busy for me lately,” Kari said. She was happy to change the subject now that the important part of the conversation had been taken care of.

“She has been busy. School started and she’s got something like three boyfriends already. My parents are trying to keep them all at bay. They are a little more traditional than Aubrey’s parents.”

Kari laughed. She could only imagine how the conversations between Aubrey and the Pratts about dating went. “Well, I’m sure she is happy,” Kari said.

“She is. She’s going to go to homecoming.”

“She got asked already?”

“Yup. Got to strike early when you have competition.”

“Well, I hope her school dance experience goes better than ours did.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“Oh, I loved it. I just thought we could have done with a little less face-punching.” Kari laughed as she remembered that night. It felt like so long ago.
This year has been so full of highs and lows. If I could just stop being held against my will, life wouldn’t be so bad.

“I don’t remember much except for what happened a little later . . .”

“Ah, yes, good times.” Kari hadn’t realized how much she missed him until right now. She didn’t want to get emotional, so she decided to end the conversation and get back to work. “Well, I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to head to bed, but you take care of yourself, OK?”

“I promise I will.”

“You better.” Kari smiled and closed the call, hoping it wasn’t the last time she’d ever see him. She checked the time and found that it was midnight already. She ordered some drinks that she could have printed herself, but the gourmet drinks made in the kitchen were worth the extra wait. They had been a staple for her lately as she’d been staying up late working. It was a clear sign that she was planning something, but that was OK. Joseth knew she was up to something already; there was no point in going to extreme measures such as limiting her caffeine to try to hide it.

Now to set him up.
Kari wrote a quick message and sent it to SeptemberMist.

“Tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. is vacation time. Can you be ready?”

She didn’t wait for a response before shifting her attention to her development environment. One of the biggest projects she had left to complete was her own modified cheetah design.

Nearly everything else was in place, but this one had proven to be more difficult than she had first estimated. Joseth had hundreds of cheetahs armed with EMPs and nanobots. There was no way she could outgun them unless her cheetahs were able to withstand EMP attacks. The outer protective casing would slow the cheetahs down significantly, but Kari accepted that fact. She wouldn’t be outrunning anyone anyway. She didn’t make much progress before she got a response.

“Yes. But can I ask you one more time not to do this?”

It felt weird messaging SeptemberMist rather than talking to her directly. They didn’t communicate that way. But Kari was too tired and too busy to go tracking her down to chitchat. Besides, she didn’t care if Joseth was able to see what they were talking about, unlike when she talked to Motorcad.

“I have to. Thanks for your friendship and help.”

Kari sent her response between modifying parts of the cheetah design. She would miss SeptemberMist in some ways. Even though she had lied to her, manipulated her, and betrayed her, they had still had some good times.
Sad that she’s been one of the best friends I’ve ever had, and she’s willing to let me be killed.
Her coffee arrived, and Kari burned her mouth taking an overeager sip.

“Fine. Tomorrow at two. Be smart.”

Kari read SeptemberMist’s reply and dismissed the conversation as she fully focused on work. It would be a long night.

Everything is in place. Now everyone’s just got to do their part, and I might just have a chance at pulling this off.
It was a long shot and she knew it, but that wasn’t going to keep her from trying. She had moved her timeline up by a week, which made the whole thing even less likely, but she had no other choice. Nothing would be worse than being taken away quietly at the end of her grace period.
No, if I’m going down, it’s going to be swinging.

“Thanks for the lovely company during this fine breakfast,” Kari said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to prepare for—catch you guys for lunch.” SeptemberMist and Motorcad were both still eating, but they looked up at her with questioning looks.
Yes, I want to do this.

She pushed her chair under the table and walked to the workroom that was off of the cafeteria. Here, she picked up a single match from a printer before heading back to her room. She opened a can of dog food and let Lars eat the whole thing before lighting her bed on fire.
All this wonderful woodwork, it’s beautiful and conveniently flammable.

Kari strapped Lars onto her back again, as she had in her first escape attempt, and walked calmly out of her room, which was already filling with smoke. She had disabled the smoke alarms on the floor earlier that morning, as she needed the fire to be enough of a problem to cause a significant distraction.

She knocked on the doors of the rooms nearby and found them all empty, which was a relief.
I
don’t
want anyone to burn alive.
The smoke had spilled out of Kari’s room and into the hallway by the time she headed down the stairs. She took a seat on the edge of a bench to the side of the great room, waiting for the right time. She had turned down two offers of service by the time the first person came running down the stairs yelling “Fire!”

A fire? How frightening, everyone should panic!
The commotion started slowly at first, but it picked up steam quickly. Kari ducked down the stairwell and headed toward the basement. She was already executing a number of programs that would bring the entire basement factory under her control.
Oh, is it not two in the afternoon yet? My bad, Tara. Hope you didn’t tell Joseth the wrong time the party was starting.