Code of Vengeance: The Complete Collection, page 19
Using some of the antennas built into her van, Nat analyzed the wireless signals emanating from the building. Her monitors flashed information at her, and she blinked in surprise.
“B, there's a lot more to that building than meets the eye.”
He stepped over and studied her results.
There was a tremendous amount of information flowing in and out of the wireless networks in the building. Nat expected that much coming from a building downtown, but she never would've expected it from a random office building in the middle of nowhere.
There were also numerous encrypted signals. She had to assume it was the soldiers talking back and forth.
“B, I think they know you're coming.”
His voice was dead calm. “It’s not going to save them.”
Nat watched on her monitors as Br00-S went to work, her heart beating faster as he approached his goal.
She was endlessly fascinated by the robot, but what caught her attention now was the fact that he was getting better.
On one hand, that was no surprise. The entire principle of artificial intelligence was that machines could learn much faster than humans. It was their greatest gift and their greatest threat.
Nat was seeing firsthand what learning looked like when it was a threat.
Although she was dealing with incomplete information, she felt like his typical approach was to throw himself into a situation and expect his greater speed, strength, and intelligence to see him through. Tonight, he was smooth, silent, and smart. He kept track of the guards and where they were. He stopped and looked for sensors and cameras. In short, he was like a ghost to the building’s security.
The robot’s first attempt was a fire escape that led to the roof of the building. Nat watched on the cameras as he moved up the stairs, pausing near the top. The roof was clear, but as he approached the door that led down into the building, his sensors picked up the encrypted wireless signals of four men.
He retreated, returning to the fire escape and down to the ground, keeping track of the roving guards the entire time.
His next possibility was a side entrance near a loading dock. This one was also guarded from the inner hallway, but only by two men.
Nat held her breath. It felt as though they knew her and B were coming. Either that, or this building just kept a very tight lid on security.
Br00-S decided the side door was good enough. He ran up to the door.
With a flying leap, his robotic foot came back and slammed into the door at tremendous speed. The metal door broke off its hinges with a crack and spun wildly into the brightly lit hallway beyond. One guard suffered a direct hit, collapsing under the blow. The door ricocheted off the wall and knocked the air out of the second guard.
Br00-S followed the door less than a second later, making sure the two guards stayed down.
Beyond the hallway, the rest of the office was in darkness. Br00-S moved forward without a problem, his own sensors attuned to a much wider set of wavelengths than mere human vision. Nat switched the input on her monitors to thermal vision, turning the walls a dull, gray color. There was no way the other guards didn’t know he was there. Br00-S’ entrance would have woken the dead.
The first floor looked to be a warehouse, filled with tall metal shelving, pallets, and sleek metal containers. Br00-S glanced at the supplies, but none of them were labeled, and he didn’t have time to dig through them. That wasn’t why they were here.
Br00-S was here for Felix. Nat was here for evidence. With any luck, both of their journeys would be over after tonight.
Nat forced her mind back to the present. Perhaps the end of her journey was almost here, but not if she wasn’t paying attention. She keyed on her microphone.
“The offices must be upstairs. Plug me into any computer, and I’ll get to work.”
Br00-S didn’t say anything, but he turned to the stairwell and climbed the stairs quickly, making an almost straight line for the upper floor. Over the audio pickups, Nat could hear shouting in the background, but she didn't see anyone.
The second floor of the building looked like a traditional office space, cubicles filling the center and executive offices around the outside.
Br00-S ducked into the cubicles, moving with incredible speed while crouching low. She still couldn’t hear him moving. It looked like he’d completely forgotten about her half of the mission.
“B, stop for a second and plug me in!”
On the screen, the movement stopped and he turned into a cubicle, plugging a device into an open port.
“Thank you,” she said.
On her second monitor she started her hack into the building’s security, her attention diverted away from Br00-S. The security, even on a cubicle computer, was intense. She narrowed her eyes in focus.
Then two guards came up right in front of Br00-S.
They never even saw him. He was crouched low to the ground, and they had been patrolling the cubicles. He smashed their helmets together, making Nat worry that he had come close to killing them.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that there weren’t any lights on in the upstairs offices either. They’d been empty.
“B, I don’t think Felix is there.”
“Then find him. I’ll look for other evidence.”
Nat shook her head. What could he possibly hope to find?
“B, you’re amazing, but there’s not enough time to do a thorough search of the entire building. There are too many men in there trying to kill you.”
Nat had worked in an office building once. In the two months after she left the foster system, she’d tried to be gainfully employed. Being an office drone didn’t work for Nat, endless hours of drudgery followed by moments of panic anytime her boss called her name. It had been the first and last job she held before striking out on her own.
More than once, in some of the darker moments of her two-month stint in hell, she wondered what it would be like if armed men had fought inside the office space. It had been a pleasant distraction from the mindless toil.
As of today, she didn't need to wonder anymore.
Six of the mercenaries, or guards, or whatever they were, had figured out where Br00-S was. They crested the stairs from below and spread out in pairs.
Br00-S used the cubicles as cover, but they were thin protection against the submachine guns the guards carried. Bullets tore through walls as Br00-S smoothly scooted from hiding place to hiding place. She didn't know if he'd been hit. Even if he was damaged, she did not understand how much he could take. How many of his systems were protected or redundant? She had no idea.
Nat downloaded files as fast as she could from the local servers. Br00-S was acting as the conduit for the information and she didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep the channel open. She would get what she could and worry about the rest later.
Papers flew everywhere like thick snowflakes as bullets shot through everything. Br00-S made his way toward one pair of guards. When he got close, he broke from cover.
The two guards reacted, but not nearly quickly enough. Br00-S was too fast.
Even on the monitors, she could see the way he moved his body in response to the aim of the men. As soon as a barrel even came close to pointing at him, he was moving against it.
She didn't know how he did it, only that it worked. His movements were too quick and erratic for anyone to hit him.
A second after the thought crossed her mind, the data stream coming through Br00-S shut off. He needed everything for the fight that was coming. She glanced at the file size. They’d still gotten gigabytes of data. Hopefully something useful was inside.
The robot grabbed the first man he met by his body armor. The man flew through the air as Br00-S launched him, crushing the paper-thin office walls.
The second of the pair wasn't any more fortunate. Br00-S twisted, his legs sweeping those of the guard. As the man was falling, Br00-S slammed his fist into the man's chest, knocking him to the ground with incredible force. Neither of the soldiers got back up.
As the other four trained their sights on him, he darted back into the cubicles. Gunshots followed him, and Nat held her breath.
She suddenly realized that she wanted the robot to win.
When had that happened? She wasn't supposed to be his ally. At most, she was his enabler. But now she wasn't so sure anymore. Had she switched sides in the past few days?
Her attention was drawn back to the monitors. Br00-S emerged from the cubicles once again, and again he took out one of the fire teams with ease.
Despite his efforts, though, the noose was cinching tighter around his neck. Another pair of gunmen appeared on the upper floor, drawn by the sounds of gunfire.
Her observation of the fight was distracted by a beeping from a nearby alarm.
Her eyes widened. Of all the eventualities they had planned for, this wasn’t one of them.
Back when she designed the van, she had put simple motion sensors on the outside. In the city, they were meaningless most of the time. When she parked on the street, people passed by all the time. But here, on an abandoned road? There shouldn't be anyone. Her stomach sank as she realized the awful truth.
She had both her Taser and the robot stun gun concealed on her person, but even as she reached for them, it was too late.
The back doors of the van were violently ripped off their hinges, and her small living space, her home, was invaded by six mercenaries. She was raising her hands to surrender when one of them struck her face with the butt of his gun, sending her entire world black.
Chapter Eighteen
Bryce knew, deep in his gut, that he was on the edge of cracking the case. He’d been working through the files Natalie sent him, and a vague but menacing picture was emerging. Bryce wasn’t the sort of man who believed in conspiracies. He believed in Occam's razor. Given two competing theories in which all else was equal, the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. There had never been any crazy plot to assassinate whichever celebrity recently died. It was an overdose, just the way it appeared to be. No need to make reality more complicated than it already was.
But what he saw in front of him had all the markings of conspiracy. The more he investigated, the more he realized that Proskey Enterprises was two halves. There was the public half, and there was the shadow half that released no financial statements, even though a substantial amount of money passed through. The public side was human resource solutions, and from his research, the company was great at finding the right people in a crowded pool of applicants. Their website was plastered with messages about “the human touch” in the hiring process.
Without Natalie’s information, that was as much as he would have discovered. But thanks to her digging, he was able to sketch the outlines of a picture of the whole company. He saw government contracts and frequent transactions with private security firms. Coupled with confidential memos, Bryce learned that the cash cow for the company was working with displaced soldiers. They found and trained the best former Special Forces soldiers, and no doubt Proskey Enterprises itself employed a number of them.
He didn't yet know where everything led, or what it led to, but he did have a sinking feeling in his stomach. Kleon’s homicide, which had once seemed like nothing more than a simple murder, was clearly the beginning of a thread he was just starting to pull at. He sighed, and then grimaced as his ribs reminded him he still hadn’t healed from the assault.
He requested a car to his hotel. After his experience with Natalie and the fake mugging, he decided he was better off living away from his apartment for a while. At a hotel, he felt like he could get a good night’s sleep, not afraid someone would come bursting through his door.
As the car drove through the night streets, Bryce tried to let the case slip from his mind. He would rather let his subconscious work on the problem. Perhaps in the morning he’d have a new perspective.
When Bryce opened the door to his hotel room, turned on the light, and saw a robot sitting in the single upholstered chair, he was surprised. So surprised that he didn’t even draw his gun. His exhausted brain tried to make the connections.
“How did you find…?” His voice trailed off as he realized the obvious answer.
“You rented the hotel room in your own name, Detective Lewis,” the robot said matter-of-factly.
“What are you doing here?”
The robot stood and approached him, standing just a few inches taller than the detective. Bryce forced himself not to flinch backward, but he still didn’t draw his weapon. He had only done so a few times in his life, and he didn’t care to see that number increase.
“First, Detective Lewis, I'm sorry that we have not been formally introduced. My name is Br00-S.”
The robot extended his hand.
Hesitating just for a fraction of a second, Bryce reached out and clasped the robot's hand. Had Br00-S been a normal perpetrator, he would have considered trying to use the handcuffs on him, but handcuffs wouldn’t even slow this robot down. The robot’s grip was firm but not unpleasant. In fact, it was remarkably lifelike.
“Bryce Lewis, although you can just call me Bryce.”
“Very well, Bryce. It was not my first choice to come here, but I'm out of options. I was hoping you could help me with my problem.”
Bryce shook his head. “Even if you aren't guilty of Kleon's murder, you're still a criminal, and you’re operating outside the bounds of your original parameters. My job is to bring you in, not cooperate with you.”
“And yet you haven’t drawn your weapon to attempt to force me to comply, even though you’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
Bryce shrugged, conceding the point.
“I could give you a speech about serving the law or serving justice, but that wouldn’t convince you, would it?”
The corner of Bryce’s mouth turned up in a smile. The robot understood him well. “It’s the same speech all vigilantes give.”
“So let’s ignore that. You care less about justice, and much more about truth.”
Bryce had never considered that perspective, but he wasn’t about to be persuaded by a simple argument. “I could also bring you in and still discover the truth. I’m a fan of having my cake and eating it, too.”
The robot smiled at him, an action that looked surprisingly natural. “You’ve looked over the files Nat sent you?”
It took Bryce a moment to realize that Br00-S was talking about Natalie. So, she went by Nat. It suited her. He nodded.
“Then you know the resources we’re up against. If you arrest me, you’ll never get to the truth.”
Bryce stood in the center of his hotel room, considering what the robot said. If the hole went as deep as it seemed to, the robot might be right. He could chip away at the lies, but he would never find the full truth. Still, it wasn’t a reason to give up his career and his values. He would take the robot in. He set his shoulders and prepared to draw his weapon. He wasn’t sure how this would end, but this was the path he chose. “You’re not going to persuade me to work with you. Will you come in peacefully?”
In stark contrast to the tension Bryce felt, the robot just chuckled. “She was right again. Nat never believed you would join us.”
Something about the robot’s words didn’t ring well in Bryce’s mind. It took him a few seconds to realize why. “Believed? Why did you use the past tense?” The detective's heart raced as he feared the worst.
“That’s why I'm here today, Detective,” the robot said. “Last night, Nat was kidnapped, and I need your help tracking her down.”
Bryce fought against the facts. The career detective in him wanted to say that they could recover her, but he knew better. Everything he’d seen in this case indicated people with more resources and more will than his own police department. If anyone was going to bring Nat back alive, it would be the robot. The choice in front of him felt stark. Arrest the robot, or save the young woman’s life.
He felt like he was being carried away by forces beyond his understanding. As soon as he spoke, his decision was made. “Okay. Tell me what happened.”
For the next five minutes, the robot described their investigation and where it led. The robot talked about the interrogation of Clive Proskey and the subsequent attack on his hideout.
Bryce was shaking his head by the time the robot got to the invasion of the office building. Perhaps the robot thought he was searching for justice, but he was a vigilante, pure and simple. He acted as though the laws didn't apply to him, and eventually, that belief would be his downfall. At the end of the day, society couldn’t tolerate vigilantes any more than it could tolerate criminals.
Regardless, he had made his decision and wouldn’t back out. The robot continued telling the story of the botched invasion, talking about how mercenaries had tried to corner him upstairs.
Once Br00-S had received the notification that Nat was in trouble, he immediately switched his mission parameters. Saving Nat became all that mattered. He broke cover and crashed through the security forces, taking several hits along the way. He pointed to the dings and dents on his armor, and Bryce thought to himself that it must be nice not to have organs or the thin protection of skin. The robot had smashed through a wall, into an office, and out a window, escaping the building with little problem. Unfortunately, once he got to the van, it was too late. Nat and her captors were already long gone.
Br00-S tried to work on the problem on his own, but to no avail. He confessed that he was a young robot, and while his AI excelled at certain tasks, such as pattern recognition, he still struggled to predict and anticipate human behavior. He was learning, but it was not a skill that came naturally to him.
Br00-S concluded that he needed help. He needed someone who knew how criminals acted and who could guide him. Bryce had been the only name he could come up with.
With that, the robot went silent. Bryce considered everything Br00-S said. He didn't doubt the truth of the story. Everything the robot said made sense and told a coherent story. But how was he supposed to find Nat?
