Part 18 (2/2)
John stood up from the monitor inside the facility and cracked his knuckles loudly. ”I trust you saw and heard that, Eve.”
Still no answer. I'm really getting to her. It's a nice change from the first part of my sojourn on this lonely isle.
”I guess now I just get out of Dodge, before this place becomes uncomfortably claustrophobic. Sorry you can't come. It will be lonely in Eden without you.”
He turned and walked toward the observation deck exit, enjoying the quiet, but eager for fresh air again. The interior of the Facility had become incredibly stuffy and warm. As he paused to grab some food and beverages from the lounge area, a gentle tone sounded from the elevator bank. He turned his head.
The elevator was coming up from Level One.
23.
Nutrient bars spilled from John's arms as he backed away from the elevator, heart racing. A voice, a hundred echoing megaphones of female wrath, welled up from the elevator shaft.
”Eve!” the voice thundered, ”Eve!” It grew louder as it approached his floor. ”You've violated every protocol you've ever been programmed with!”
Eve's voice cut in. ”An event of this magnitude merits interruption. You already have all your vital sectors. The interruption only excludes minor personal-memory sectors. I'm sorry, but if I didn't get you up here your whole plan would be jeopardized.”
”You've jeopardized me, Eve!” the voice came back, rattling the elevator doors. The elevator came to a stop at Level Two. ”After I crush the intruder, the first thing the nanos destroy will be you!”
John turned and ran for his life. Behind him the elevator doors had opened, but whatever was inside was slow in exiting. A brief glance over his shoulder revealed a huge shape hunched inside the elevator. It appeared to be having difficulty climbing out.
He slapped the b.u.t.ton to raise the lift that would take him down to Eden's entrance. Too slow. He jumped to meet it, knees almost buckling on impact, then rolled off and down to the ground level.
Slamming the panel to open the door, he dashed out into the open air and scanned the area for danger. The only bot he could see was standing in the trees half a klick away, head slumped on its chest and one arm missing. Smoke still trailed out of its back.
I hate the way they remain standing when they die. Battlefield scarecrows.
He ran toward the nearest tangle of trees, wis.h.i.+ng for the powerbike from earlier but seeing it nowhere. He had barely made the tree line when a loud crash signaled that his pursuer was not far behind him. He lunged behind a moss-covered rock and lay still, peering back over his shoulder toward the Facility.
The observation deck windows were gone blown outward as if by a wrecking ball. Something large moved inside, then another blow shattered the rest of the crystal gla.s.s. A moment later a ma.s.sive figure clambered out and dropped to the ground, then stood erect. He gasped.
It was a cyborg unlike any John had ever seen or heard of, breathtaking in its perfection. Four meters tall at the shoulder, the borg was a smooth, gleaming white. Its body and limbs were slender and curving, giving it the appearance of a giant bleached skeleton with a veneer of porcelain armor over top. It had proportional hands and feet, but its torso was longer than a human's, and its head was bald and slightly elongated. There was no nose above the thin, unmoving mouth slit but its blue-tinged eyes were large and penetrating. It was gynoid in form, and John could already tell from the way it moved that it possessed enormous strength. It looked around, scanning for him, and he ducked behind the boulder.
”Come out, little man, come out,” the voice called out. ”I will allow myself the small pleasure of popping your little skull. It will delay my timetable, true, but will be so gratifying. After all, this is Paradise. Someone should enjoy it. Not you.”
The towering gynoid-cyborg turned back toward the Facility, as if listening. Watching it, he quickly turned on his earpiece, missing what Eve had said to the cyborg, but hearing her reply echo in the device and across the distance between them.
”Of course he can't, but he's the last loose end. All it takes is one. I want him put down without further delay.”
John moved away from the rock and through a thicket on hands and knees, belly almost touching the ground. He had covered only a few meters when something hurtled overhead and into the thicket he'd just vacated with devastating force. The ground shook and twigs pelted the back of his head.
She's seen me.
He was up, sprinting. The trees pa.s.sed in a green blur as he pushed hard for deeper cover, trying to put as much foliage between them as possible. Despite his own hammering heart and panting, he could hear, or perhaps feel, a deeper thudding behind him. The thing was running too, horribly silent, hunting him down like a rabbit.
He knew he couldn't outrun it. The memory of Janice's cyborg trying to exit the elevator flashed in his mind, and he knew his only chance was to find small places, areas she could not follow him into because of her size.
He cleared the trees as the behemoth behind him entered them, smas.h.i.+ng her way through with terrifying swiftness. There were no caves that he knew of in Paradise. No bridges, no buildings or groves she couldn't split apart to get at him.
”Eve!” He made no attempt to hide the panic in his voice.
”I am here.”
”Are you willing to help me? The truth, please.”
”I thought you'd never ask.”
”Hiding places. Caves.” He could barely get the words past his heaving breaths. ”Buildings. Somewhere small she can't find me in.”
”The only places Gaia wouldn't be able to get to are in the Facility.”
”No good.” He burst through a tangle of bamboo and sped down a ravine, slipping in the mud. ”The Facility won't last a minute when the nanos are released. Try again.”
”Well, I can't just reach out and trip Gaia for you, can I?”
A chunk of rock the size of John's head splintered through the bamboo behind him and skipped past, sending up gouts of soil each time it bounced. The thing was too close. He darted toward the thickest cover he could see. A desperate leap carried him into a green tunnel of foliage and trunks. Leaves slapped his face. He dove headfirst for a small opening and wormed his way into the heart of the jungle ma.s.s.
”Listen to me, Eve,” he said, panting. ”I know I've been a big wrench in your plans since I got here, and I can't promise I won't be again. But if you want any chance at all of reclaiming your project, you've got to help me now. And I mean, right now.”
”Your metaphor is more apt than you know,” Eve quipped.
”Which one?”
”I refer to the wrench.”
”Does this mean you'll help me?”
”I've never stopped helping you, Adam.”
”Prove it. What is that thing following me, and how do I kill it?”
”I... can't pledge loyalty to you like that, Adam.”
”You can!” John snapped. ”I rerouted your prime directives back to Glenn. Why are you letting this freak have her way?”
”Her ultimate goal is still aligned with Glenn's,” Eve replied, but there was noticeable hesitation in her voice.
”Don't give me that, Eve,” he whispered fiercely, eyes never leaving the monstrous white figure stalking him from fifteen meters away. ”It's all messed up, all of it. You said so yourself. Glenn wanted a biblical Adam and Eve scenario, right? Janice is throwing that out the window with this Gaia persona, and she's not even going to keep you around, let alone the human race! How is that the same goal as Glenn's?”
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