Relics: Three (Relics Singularity Series Book 3), page 14
She was almost on him, but it was too late. The man flicked his wrist upward, bringing the pistol in line with her chest. Ravi could almost see him pulling the trigger, squeezing…
Ravi reached his arm behind his back, exaggerating the motion. He screamed at the ARU at the same time, hoping the man had his peripheral vision still scouting for Ravi.
He did, and he reacted just as Ravi hoped he would. His eyes widened, no doubt locked onto the movement Ravi had made and assuming he was about to draw a gun, and he turned his own to Ravi.
Ary flung herself into the air, diving toward the guard and focusing on her tackle. She collided, her forehead with his nose, and Ravi could hear the double crack of the man’s nose as it echoed off the glass wall he was standing in front of. His gun fell, and stood for a moment, blinking.
Ary, as light as she was, didn’t take the man down but fell at his feet, gracefully, rolling to a side and then out of the way. She crouched, ready to pounce on him again, but Ravi saw him begin to falter.
He finally started falling, backwards, and hit the glass door. His eyes closed while the blood began pouring from his nose, and he hit the ground hard.
Ravi was there, and he reached for the ARUs gun. Finding it between Ary and the guard, he took up a position pointing the weapon down at the man as the others caught up.
“You… you okay?” he asked, breathless.
She nodded, then whispered a soft ‘yes.’ She rubbed at her forehead where it had struck the man’s face, but she seemed unharmed. She hesitated a few more seconds then stood up, joining Ravi at his side.
Diane, Rand, and Shannon all congratulated Ary. “Nice work,” Rand said. “I don’t think he’s going to be waking up anytime soon.”
Ravi gritted his teeth. This fight isn’t over, he thought. This is just the beginning. He walked a few steps forward and aimed the gun down, at the man’s head.
He heard footsteps behind him, and Diane’s voice cut through the air. “What are you —“
He pulled the trigger. The pistol was in fact one that had already been inside the field, and it worked flawlessly. The man jolted, then lay still. Another line of blood began pooling outward from the back of his head, filling the doorstep quickly.
“Let’s get inside,” he said, calmly.
PETER
THE LINE OF ARUS AND their prisoners was stopped outside of a door leading into the center of the round building, and Grouse almost exposed his group by almost bumping into the soldier at the end of the line.
He held his arm out as he backpedaled, forcing Ailis and Raven back down the hall a bit, out of way. He listened as the leader of the ARUs spoke.
“This is the room?” he asked.
“Yes,” another ARU responded. “The Antechamber is between the hallway and the scraping chamber. There is an elevator inside as well that leads to the storage facility.”
He didn’t hear the response, but the door beeped as it slid open. Grouse waited until it sounded like they were all starting to walk through before he turned to two others on his team.
“This is our shot. We’ll need to surprise them, but once I get through the door keep coming. Don’t want to get stuck in the hallway.”
“We’ll need to hope there aren’t any more ARUs inside that room, either,” Ailis said.
Grouse nodded. “We’ve come this far, and Kellan’s right there. Let’s get him back.”
Raven and Ailis nodded their approval. Grouse glanced around the curving hallway and saw that the last soldier in line was about to step through the door.
He had to time this correctly — wait too long and the door would probably shut, locking them outside and no closer to their goal, but too soon and he would alert the ARU and have to fight in the hallway, also potentially locking them out.
He started to sprint, focusing on staying on the balls of his feet to reduce the noise and stay light. He reached the door just as the last ARU walked through and started to turn around. Grouse reached out his arms as the man’s eyes widened.
He forced the man back, throwing him as hard as he could toward the opposite wall inside the room. The other ARUs, including the huge leader of the group, began to turn around, confused about the newcomer.
Grouse saw a blur out of the corner of his eye, and the second ARU went down. Ailis and the soldier rolled around on the floor, each vying for control of the other, but Grouse knew it was a terrible match. He’d seen Ailis bring down men twice her size and three times her weight. This man didn’t stand a chance.
Finally, Raven entered. His face was twisted into rage, and he targeted the last ARU — the leader. The leader, strangely, didn’t step out of the way. Instead, he dropped to a slight squat, lowering his bulk toward the floor, and stretched his arms and hands out in front of him.
Grouse’s stomach fell. He’s ready to fight, he knew. The motion was instinctual for the man, and it wasn’t going to be an easy victory for Raven. Grouse flicked his eyes to the ARU sprawled out on the floor that he had taken out, watching for any signs of movement. He hoped the man was dead, but he had a feeling he was just knocked out and would rise in a minute or two.
Still, he had to help Raven. He called to Kellan, who so far seemed to be in a trance, and watched the man’s eyes.
Kellan frowned, his eyes glassy, then they grew. “G — Grouse? How did —?”
“Not enough time for that,” Grouse said. “Help me —“
The huge ARU had somehow broken free of Raven and thrown a punch toward Grouse. It was perfectly on target, landing on Grouse’s left eye and sending him stumbling backwards across the room. The man seemed content with the single blow and focused on the next threat.
This time it came from behind him. Kellan launched his body onto the man’s back, reaching for his neck. The man roared and bucked, and Kellan flew over his head and onto the floor.
Grouse waited for an opening in the fight, but the man never slowed down. He kicked Kellan’s side, generating a sharp yelp from the younger man, then jumped nearly across the room to land in front of Raven, who was still picking himself up off the floor.
A well-placed kick to Raven’s head told Grouse everything he needed to know.
We’re not fighting the ARUs anymore, he knew. We’re fighting the System itself. He knew the System had been programmed to not be able to harm humans directly, but everyone believed it was only a matter of time before the System decided to ignore that subroutine or do what Grouse was seeing here: put a portion of its operating system into a human, bringing together the malleability of humans with the control and precision of a computer.
This man is a monster, and the System created it.
That much was certain to Grouse. How he was supposed to defeat it was another story.
“Raven,” he yelled. “You okay?”
The man didn’t answer. He couldn’t see any signs of breathing, but he was still across the room from him. The other two Unders, a man and woman, were useless. The woman seemed groggy, as if waking from a deep sleep but unable to come completely back to life, and the man just trembled as he watched the scene with blank eyes.
He could hear Ailis breathing heavily, and he noticed that she had broken the neck of the ARU she had been fighting with. A quick glance around the room would tell her everything about how his and Raven’s side of things was going.
“All at the same time,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said.
They sprang forward, the three of them, aiming for the ARU leader. Kellan saw the attack and prepared to help out. Grouse saw the younger man crouch down like a cat preparing to pounce on its prey. The ARU’s back was to Kellan, as he was focusing on the threat from the front and sides — Grouse, Ailis, and Raven. The three of them reached the man at about the same time, but Grouse realized very quickly the mistake he’d made.
As this man had no doubt been affected by new and advanced auxiliary implants from the System, including a complete physical makeover, Grouse was not prepared for the speed and brutality the ARU was able to muster. The huge man, easily six inches taller than Grouse, swung with a single right hook, through Ailis and Raven, pulling them toward Grouse as he came to the man’s position. He felt Ailis’ body smack into his own, then Raven’s, and the three of them tumbled to the side.
Kellan was on top of the man, just like he’d attacked before, but Grouse, from his new position at the bottom of a pile of three bodies, noticed that he had wrapped his legs around the man’s torso and was pressing inward, hoping to assuage the damage of any wrestling move that the ARU might attempt next.
Instead, the ARU simply smiled, turning and looking down at Grouse. Kellan was pummeling his fists into the man’s neck and face, but the man seemed to not even notice.
“The System has given me the ability to turn off specific nerve endings temporarily.” Kellan lightened up his attack when the man mentioned this, then he started in even more heavily. “In addition, I do not react the same way a normal human would. It’s more… nuanced.”
Grouse wasn’t sure what the man was talking about, and he didn’t care. He pushed Ailis and Raven off of him, allowing them to recover from their crippling blow and subsequent landings. “Why — why are you working for the System?” he asked. His voice shook, but forced the grogginess away and stood up.
The man shook his head, simultaneously lifting Kellan off his back like he was no more than a toddler, and tossing him to the side. Kellan cried out in pain as his lower back bent around a chair lying against the wall. “The System saved me. Don’t you understand that? I am not a soldier-for-hire, like the rest of these ARUs. I am a human, advanced by the best the System can offer. It’s mutually beneficial partnership.”
“You’re a monster. The System’s Frankenstein.”
The man laughed, a hearty, deep laugh that actually sounded genuine. “I guess that is correct, technically. But this is the future of the human race, Peter Grouse.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I am in charge of the entire ARU force that is standing outside, ready to destroy anyone that tries to leave. You don’t think I would lead an army into battle without knowing my enemy?”
“But I am supposed to be back at the —“
“You mean the hoax of a war you started? Josiah Crane and the Relics would never stand a chance against the Unders, and you both knew that. It didn’t take a lot of reasoning to figure out what you were really planning. I was able to redirect most of the fighting force to the outskirts of town.”
“Why? Why not just put them all here, in the lab? It’s dead out there.”
The man nodded. “These troops aren’t the most intelligent, if you haven’t noticed. I couldn’t afford the collateral damage.”
Grouse frowned. “You mean Myers Asher.”
He laughed. “No, of course not. Myers Asher is the target. He’s the one I’m trying to find. The System is the one I’m trying to protect.”
“Then let’s finish this,” Grouse said, clenching his fists. He felt the weight of the situation. His team was mostly incapacitated — Raven and Ailis were passed out at his feet, Kellan was breathing heavily and clutching his side across the room — and he had no weapons on hand he could use against this monster. “I have no interest in leaving here until I’m —“
The door behind him opened. He and the ARU leader turned simultaneously, both men caught off guard.
Myers Asher walked into the room.
MYERS
AFTER BEING PUSHED THROUGH THE circular room of the main ICPL laboratory, the rows and rows of floor-to-ceiling mainframes blinking with a vigorous intensity, Crane had told him to stop at a door almost on the opposite side of the room they’d entered from.
He waited, still trying to buy time to work through the logic of his plan. He needed every second he could earn, knowing that the risk of being wrong wasn’t only likely, it would lead to disaster.
Time, however, was one of the many things he didn’t have in his favor.
“Myers,” Crane said. “Move. Stop stalling.”
The room in front of him had a simple, old-school handle on its exterior door, and a small sign above it that said Antechamber.
He felt Crane’s finger in his lower back, urging him forward.
He opened the door, turning the handle slowly and swinging the door open.
Inside, he saw what looked like the remnants of a battle. ARUs and other people lay haphazardly on the floor, and one of them even looked like their neck had been broken.
But there were two men standing in the room, at opposite sides, looking at him.
“Myers Asher,” the larger man, wearing the fatigues of the ARU soldiers, said. “It’s about time we met. My name is Roan Alexander. Do come in.”
Crane pushed him forward, and Myers could tell by the man’s hesitation that he hadn’t expected to run into anyone in this room.
Myers walked in, confused as well. He had been at the mercy of Crane and Redhair so far, and now there were other players involved. On top of that, he knew Diane and her group were out there somewhere as well, possibly even heading to this location.
However it goes down, he knew, this is the end.
He tried to rack his brain to understand every angle, every situation he might find himself in, and measure it up to the plan he had been working on. It depended a lot on staying alive for as long as possible, of course, but there were other things that were out of his control as well.
Like, for instance, the fact that he had no idea if his plan was based on truth or just an assumption he’d made. It made sense — a lot of sense — but that was far from a solid bet. There were so many variables, so many —
The sound of a gunshot drew his attention back to the interior of the room. It sounded so out of place, so far away.
But it wasn’t. It had been the ARU standing on the far side of the room, who had pulled it out from somewhere on his person, and he had aimed it…
Right at Myers.
Myers suddenly felt it. He stumbled, choked, and fell.
What —
The blood, warm and thick, like the syrup he and the kids would pour over their pancakes every Saturday morning, while Diane would abstain, for ‘dietary reasons…’
Diane. The kids. His daughters.
Crane had lied to him, from the very beginning it had all been a ruse. Even if Crane had been successful here, even if Myers got his chance with the System, his daughters weren’t here. They weren’t in Paris, and he started imagining whether or not they were even alive.
He felt anger. Disappointment in himself, surely, but anger toward Crane and everyone else. They had lied to him, drawing out a truth that was inevitable. He would die here, and there was no other plan.
There was nothing else for him, no matter what he thought he might be able to concoct. There was no plan that would save him, or get him out of this mess, or save the rest —
There. That was it.
He hadn’t even realized, during the course of his slow-motion descent to the floor of the antechamber, that he had stumbled upon it.
The truth he’d just realized was the second half of the plan he had been working on just before entering the ICPL. The truth that meant it all was, in fact, true. He wasn’t sure how, or why exactly, or how they were related, but they were. He knew it, without a doubt now, as he faced the end of everything he had known.
This is the end. And this is the truth.
He was supposed to end up here, even though he knew it was likely that he had told everyone not to let him come here. To come here would mean only death, he might have told them. To come here would mean the end…
Of him.
But to come here would also mean the end of the System, of that he was certain. It would spell disaster, in more ways than one, but what massive infrastructure change didn’t? What change in the course of human nature would be easily palatable?
All this, he thought, as he fell.
When he hit the floor, his cheek bouncing and absorbing the impact by dispersing it equally throughout the rest of his head, he didn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel it. The gunshot had taken a part of him away, but it was a part of him he didn’t need anymore. There was blood, sure, but there was still Myers. There was still time.
He opened his mouth to speak, and nothing came out.
That, he realized, was something he hadn’t considered.
He needed to explain the plan to the rest of them — whoever would listen now — or risk not achieving it.
Then the pain came rushing in. The gunshot wound hurt, and the pain fell into the rest of his body like an enemy force, slowly ripping away his defenses and then making its presence known to the rest of him before he had a chance to react. Even so, there was no reaction possible or necessary.
This is the end. There is no reacting.
The pain was just a harbinger. It was just a signal, alerting him that he had taken too long to figure it out. This was his torture, his punishment, and it would end him.
But, there was something else.
This will end everything.
RAND
DIANE ASHER RAN BEHIND HIM, and he knew what she was looking for. This was a woman on a mission, he knew. But not a mission she’d shared with the rest of them. She was no longer looking for a solution, a way out of the maze. A way to defeat the minotaur and escape the labyrinth.
She was looking for her husband.
Rand was conflicted, knowing that she loved him, and also knowing that there was nothing time or reason or intellect or emotion could do to replace him.
Myers Asher.
She was looking for her husband.
They ran through a huge, dome-topped structure, weaving between stacks of computers and whirring racks of equipment. Even he, a man intimately knowledgeable about the technology the System used to operate its more basic functions, was out of his element.
A part of him wanted to stop and take it all in. He wanted to understand this beast of a machine, somehow separate from the rest of the world and somehow the entire world. The System, a beast with a name, a machine capable of a computing power governments and militaries could only dream of so many years ago.
