Chapter 26
Sera
“Can you see anything? Did he jump in the water?” I asked when we left the city center behind and landed, taking a self-driving taxi.
I was so worried about Dean, I didn’t even realize our car didn’t have a driver until we were in the forested area surrounding the landfill.
Isamu fixed his and Motori’s wings to the roof, where magnets clamped them securely.
It was easier to hide in the busy evening traffic instead of the vast sky above.
“I didn’t see him jump,” Isamu said. “Maybe check on the news.”
I grabbed my phone. My AR glasses were gone since I dropped them as soon as I realized they could be used to track us.
Notifications flooded my screen, and I almost cleared them all, but a tiny photo of Dean caught my eye.
I opened the notification, which turned out to be a direct message—from someone called zenkyorei.
Reina Zenkyoza?
“Your friend is scheduled for a core wipe in three hours. If you want to say your goodbyes, you will come visit me. See you soon.”
“He didn’t jump,” I whispered, turning desperately to Motori, who sat by my side. “He didn’t get away! They have him. Look!”
I thrust the phone in her face. It showed the picture of Dean being carried by two battle cyborgs, his feet dragging on the ground, his eyes barely lit. His face was slack. Was he even conscious? Oh God.
“We have to save him!” I screamed. “Turn around. Turn around!”
“Sera, calm down,” Motori snapped, grabbing my arm. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“He’s going to die!” I cried, tears streaming down my face. “He’ll die, and I can’t… Oh God. I can’t live without him. He can’t die! I won’t let him!”
I turned to the door, looking for a handle, but there wasn’t one. I patted the surface anyway, sliding my hands up and down in desperation. Even as I did that, my brain seized up, reason turning on through the haze of panic.
“The doors will open when we stop,” Isamu said. “Breathe, for fuck’s sake. She sent you that for a reason. What does she want?”
I clenched my shaking fists in my lap and shook my head, forcing myself to calm down. All I could think about were Dean’s words to me. I love you. He knew he was going to get captured. He knew and lied to me, and now he’d die, and I…
And I couldn’t let him go. He was more important than everything else.
“She wants me,” I said, clearing my hoarse throat. “I’m supposed to come visit her so I can say g-goodbye to Dean. In—in three hours.”
“That’s good, Sera!” Motori exclaimed, patting my forearm. “Don’t you see? We have time to think, make a plan.”
“What plan?” I snorted. “There is no plan! I have to go there. Because what’s keeping her from wiping Dean sooner? She could be doing it right now! Oh God. What do I do? Please!”
“You wait,” Motori said, patting my hand with sympathy. “Breathe, okay? You can’t save him if you don’t come to your senses.”
The car drove on, the doors locked. I shook, biting my nails and thinking frantically how to save Dean. I wouldn’t get out of there alive, that was plain, but there had to be a way to free him. What could I offer Reina? Myself, yes, but that wouldn’t work, since she’d have me either way. What else?
I had no idea.
“Gokiburi will meet us inside,” Isamu said when we neared the landfill gate. “She got a message from Dean right before he was taken. Sera, do you want to save him?”
“Of course!”
“Good. Then stay here and let us help you. We’ll figure something out. Okay? Gokiburi is running through scenarios.”
I shook my head. “She hates me.”
Isamu huffed softly. “I let her listen to you freak out just now. She’s convinced you care for Dean and that’s why she’ll help.”
As soon as the doors opened, I jumped out of the car, racing to the gate.
It opened on my approach, and I almost collided with Gokiburi on the other side.
Not caring that the robot woman was bigger, stronger, and far scarier than me, I grabbed her elbows with desperation, standing on tiptoes to get closer.
“How do I save him? Please!”
Gokiburi was silent, her golden eyes trained on my face. Then she smiled. It was cool and restrained, but kind. I tried to shake her—we had no time for smiling, for fuck’s sake!—but she was immovable.
“Such a desperate human. If Dean survives, which is unlikely, I am going to show this to him,” she said.
“He’s cut off from the network right now.
They must have incapacitated him. His foot is damaged, he badly needs to charge, and he wants you to know it’s not your fault.
I sent his final words to your inbox. They should be a comfort in your time of grief. ”
Final words. I wouldn’t listen to them. No way. There was nothing final about this, not if I could help it.
I stared at her, my chest collapsing with heaving despair. “How do I save him? Please!”
Isamu stood by my side, patting my shoulder. “Gokiburi, would you please dial down your inner pessimist? Sera doesn’t need to hear the full truth.”
“No, I do.” I shook my head, grabbing Gokiburi’s hand. “Please. Tell me. Is there any chance of him getting out of this alive and whole?”
“Three percent,” she said instantly. “And if you want to survive, too, the chances drop to under one percent.”
Motori groaned, pressing her palm to her muzzle in frustration, but I couldn’t hold back a smile.
“So there’s hope. Tell me your plan.”
“I don’t have one.”
I dropped her hand and paced, looking unseeingly at the heaps of obsolete, useless tech. “How’s Dean incapacitated?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but I can tell you what’s most likely.
” Gokiburi followed a few steps behind me.
“The collar he wears doubles as a control device. I know he can hack it, but that’s in its normal working mode.
If someone flipped a switch, that collar likely cut off his wireless connection and sent a pulse through his body, disconnecting his core from everything else.
He’s a mind trapped inside armor he can’t control. ”
I shuddered, hugging myself. Tears gathered in my eyes, and I swallowed them impatiently, clearing my throat.
“All right. She said she’ll let me say goodbye. Is that likely? Will I see him?”
Gokiburi thought for a moment. “I’ve compiled Reina’s profile with the information available to me.
I believe she has low self-esteem, a constant need to prove herself, and takes every slight personally.
She will want to gloat and see you suffer for every perceived insult.
My assessment is that she will let you see Dean and wipe his core on your eyes to crush you. ”
My belly roiled with nausea when I imagined watching Dean be murdered while I was helpless to stop it. I forced myself past it.
“That’s good. It means she’ll wait for me to arrive. So what we need to figure out is how to free Dean once I’m there. Gokiburi, I want you to come up with a plan that saves him. My survival is optional.”
The robot watched me impassively, then nodded. “Done. I’ll prepare a disruptor device that you’ll have to clip onto his collar. It will revert control to Dean, helping him free himself. Your survival will depend on what he does when that happens.”
I shook my head. “They will search me.”
“We’ll hide it somewhere they won’t look.”
Cold chills crawled down my back when Gokiburi strode away to her work station, but I didn’t ask her what she meant. Wherever she needed me to stuff that disruptor, I’d do it.
Motori pulled me toward the water tank, where she made me drink two cups before I couldn’t take anymore. My nausea got worse, and I was afraid I’d hurl.
I was going to die. There was no question about it. But—maybe that was preferable to living and facing the consequences of all my choices and mistakes. That thought settled my stomach. I could save Dean, atone for my sins, and never once have to face the angry crowd of my disappointed followers.
More importantly, I wouldn’t have to face a life without Dean.
“Sit down.”
Gokiburi grabbed me by the hand and sat me on an overturned bucket by her work table. She undid my braid, combed my hair through with her fingers, and braided it again, then pinned it up on my nape. Hard plastic touched my scalp as she slid in the final pin.
“This is the disruptor. Feel it with your hands.”
I did. It was hidden in the mass of my hair but easy to find. Gokiburi had me practice taking it out while pretending to scratch my head. It was small enough to hide in my palm.
“It shouldn’t trip any alarms since it’s mostly plastic, but I’ll give you a metal decoy disguised as a belt buckle just in case. They’ll expect you to bring something, and once they discover it, they shouldn’t suspect you have anything else on you.”
I fingered the disruptor in my hair. “This seems awfully flimsy. And too simple.”
Gokiburi nodded. “It’s simple but not easy. You will have to convince Reina to let you touch him. Inside that building, she’ll control everything, especially since no employees are there at this hour. You are likely to fail.”
“Oh, will you stop it already?” Motori asked, dropping into a crouch by my side. “Sera, I hate to say this, but is there any chance that you might, you know, stay back? Maybe—call the police, tell them Zenkyoza stole your robot… Or…”
She broke off, knowing there was no one to contact for help. I patted her furry hand and stood up.
“All right. Should I take the train or will you give me a lift?”
Motori glanced at Isamu, who stood by Gokiburi’s side. He shrugged. “I’ll call you a taxi. We’ll follow on wings in case you need help after you get out. Gokiburi’s calculations are wrong half the time, just so you know. Her pessimistic bias skews the data.”
“No, it does not,” Gokiburi said pleasantly.
I shrugged, looking at all three in turns. The silence stretched. I had an hour and a half to the deadline Reina set, but it would take me a long time to get there. “Call that taxi. Goodbye, you guys. Thank you for everything.”