Chapter 6 #3
Cautious, I turn a corner, passing beneath pillars.
The ground has been disturbed here. This may have been where the hostages were kept.
There are some odd bunches of cords, old and twisted.
It takes me a moment to recognize them for what they are—activation connections.
A way to plug into an android, reset them, repair them.
Reprogram them.
I keep my distance, sticking to the only plan I’ve got: find him, and try to reason with him.
“Ezra,” I begin again, not worried about trying to sneak up on him. “Your girl is here. Worried sick, you know. Katrina, remember? She’s just outside.”
Reason with him, I encourage myself. I can only hope that I would fight such a virus with all the strength and ferocity I have, and that hearing Mia’s name, remembering her face, might bring me back.
“Ezra?” I turn to face another odd sound, and I’m startled to find him there, right next to me, staring right at me with his backlit eyes shining in the dark.
And there’s not a single emotion behind them.
He grabs my neck so quickly, I barely have time to respond. A message flits across my optics.
Download initiated.
It’s the virus.
I override the download as I shove him back so hard he slams against the wall behind him and it cracks, leaving a man-shaped indentation.
He growls, straightening.
Fuck. So much for reasoning.
He launches himself at me, and in this confined space, I struggle to keep my defense up. His hands are what concern me. Ezra has a special NCPD-only ability where he can power an android down just by touching one. And if he powers me down, he can infect me with whatever virus he’s carrying.
“Ezra,” I warn him.
He moves like a caged tiger. Agitated, angry, hateful. A pure machine meant for destruction. Nothing else.
“Stop!” I shout.
It’s no use. He rushes toward me and hits me with such force that I don’t only hit the wall behind me, I crash through it, flying through the air and into a nearby barricade. Errors litter my feed. My receptors register pain.
With a mechanical groan I’m unable to contain, I push myself up to my feet.
“Reason with him,” I grumble under my breath, trying to find my balance and run internal diagnostics. “Right.”
Still, he could’ve powered me down right there in the utility vault, and he didn’t. He can’t be fully gone. Washington’s hopes aren’t in vain.
He’s still here.
Dusty clouds swirl and part as Ezra emerges from the darkness, a shell of his former self, more weapon than bionic. The chief shouts an order to open fire. I’m incredulous as bullets begin to fly. My receptors pick up Apollo shouting too.
“No! No, don’t open fire! You might hit Nolan, you son of a bitch!”
The bullets ricochet off Ezra as the officers follow their chief’s command with zeal, all while the Weekenders watch in helpless horror near the truck, shouting for me. A stray bullet buries itself in my arm, drawing ivory blood.
Caution: leak identified. See a bionic engineer as soon as possible.
But my eyes are on him. His own team is ripping into him, and he’s just standing there, taking it.
His girlfriend cries out for him. “Ezra! Ezra, please!”
Ezra doesn’t hear her. His attention isn’t even on the officers. It’s solely on me.
“Nolan!” Apollo shouts.
I shout back to him and the others, “I can’t go near him! He’s trying to implant a virus in my programming. One touch, and it’s over for me.”
Ezra stalks toward me, face twisted with rage. I brace myself to fight for my life. My identity. I’m not surrendering to TerraPura here, or anywhere. Not when I have my brothers here. Not when I have to look after them.
And not when I have Mia waiting for me.
I’m ready to fight with my fists and do the only thing I can do—pummel him into oblivion and hope my mainframe can dish it harder than he can take it.
Suddenly the pixie-haired girl all but skids in front of me, her arms outstretched.
And surprisingly, rather than simply swatting her away, Ezra stops. “Out of my way, insect,” he declares, no love in his voice whatsoever.
“Ezra, it’s me. It’s your Kat. You remember. I know you do!”
Somehow, she’s stopped him, and he’s listening. Now I know Washington was right, without a doubt. Still, I can’t protect her from my current position, and her safety is now my number-one priority. He can annihilate her with a single strike, break her neck if he slaps her hard enough.
“Ma’am, you should get to safety,” I tell her.
“I love him,” she replies. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Ezra only snarls. “Human filth.”
But she doesn’t flinch. She keeps talking to him. Softly, tenderly, like the lover he knew. Her words are like a spell cast over him.
“This is good,” I encourage her as best I can from where I stand, still trying to keep my distance for my own sake. “Keep talking to him, keep going. You might be getting through.”
I scan Ezra. His circuitry is responding. It’s the gratification drive. It recognizes her, even with tainted programming. That must be the only thing keeping her alive right now, and keeping him away from me.
“His systems are all out of whack,” I mutter. “I can see it.”
He grabs Katrina by the neck. It takes every ounce of strength within me to stop from charging forward. But she’s strong. She keeps reasoning with him better than I ever could. He could crush her in a single second. He doesn’t.
Then his pupils shutter in a familiar way. He snarls and looks like he’s in agony, like he’s fighting every thread of TerraPura installed in him, in that precise moment.
“Ka . . . tri . . . na.”
Officers try to close in, but I hold up a hand. “Don’t! Stay back! Let her do this.” She’s talking of love, and her loyalty and dedication to him resonate with me. Katrina Carson. The Humanity First woman who fought so hard against bionics, falling in love with an android.
If they can make it, it should be easy for Mia and me.
That’s when I spot Kyrone Johnson from the refurbishment and repair shop, Tin Man’s Heart, readying some cords in his hands. He has a reputation for being the best bionic engineer in New Carnegie, if not the country. I have no doubts, then, that we are going to succeed.
Ezra breaks through the programming. “Katrina,” he speaks between his teeth, clenched tight. “Hurry. Power me down. Hurry!”
She calls for Washington. “Deion!”
Kyrone pounces in that moment.
But Ezra and Katrina aren’t looking away from each other. His body is shaking.
“I love you.” Her words are a plea, begging him to stay with her.
“Katrina. I love—”
Then Kyrone Johnson plunges the tri-plug end of a cord into the base of Ezra’s neck. It’s over. And I can let the tension go in my body as the humans finally manage to get him under control. He goes down, blacking out.
I scan my internal drives and banks, feeling somewhat violated that TerraPura touched me, even for a single second.
Everything I have from Mia is untouched, safely stored away.
And all I want, right then and there, is to see her.
After watching Ezra’s girl risk her own safety, risk everything to keep him safe.
Maker, let that never be me. I hope Mia never, ever has to do anything so dangerous as this for my sake.
I just want to feel Mia’s softness. Lose myself in the sound of her voice, the touch of her slender hands.
But I’ll settle for Apollo and the Weekenders, who all collide against me, looking over me.
“Are you okay? Are you purified?” Travis jokes as he pats me. AJ checks me too. I finally push them all off, a little overwhelmed by the attention.
“I’m fine. The download didn’t take.”
“We should take you to Tin Man’s Heart.”
“No, don’t. Johnson has his hands full already.”
“All right, then we’ll take you to BioNex and get you scanned to be sure.
Get that arm taken care of too,” Apollo says as Booker bandages me up to ease the trickle of ivory biocomponents escaping my bullet wound.
When it’s clear there’s nothing more to do, he grasps my shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
On the way back, everyone is in strange spirits.
There’s no celebration of doing a good job, or a sense of satisfaction.
Only unease. Travis and AJ are watching me carefully.
Like they’re worried the virus took me over, and now it’s all a charade.
I remain silent, gripping my arm where I was injured as we soar down the quiet New Carnegie highway, heading for BioNex labs.
The engineers have already been notified, roused from sleep.
Dr. Taylor messages me. I wasn’t asleep. I saw the whole thing play out, and I’ll be waiting for you on the usual floor. That was very heroic, what you did. Not only trying to stop Ezra, but advocating for the girl there too.
It’s not often I receive praise. But when that praise comes from my maker, it means quite a bit. I can only hope Mia won’t be too upset at what she missed, sleeping soundly in her bed. But it makes me happy knowing she’ll be there, waiting for my messages in the morning.
My battery is drained. I allow myself to power down, exhausted from the ordeal.