Chapter 58

In his air-conditioned control room Vaughn remained concerned by the back and forth of the battle. He hadn’t expected such organized resistance on the part of the escaped subjects, even with NUMA’s help. As he looked on, palls of smoke were drifting over the field, and both groups of his men seemed to be under an artillery barrage.

“How many men have we lost?”

TAU’s response was clinical. “Connections have been broken with nineteen subjects, meaning they have been killed or damaged beyond repair. Another fifteen are exhibiting signs of acute distress.”

As Vaughn considered that, the Overseer’s call came in, updating the battlefield situation and requesting assistance from the missile-armed drones.

“Is he correct?” Vaughn asked.

“His assessment of the battlefield situation is accurate,” TAU said. “But shells from his rifles would penetrate the siding of the maintenance building as easily as missiles.”

“I don’t want bullets,” Vaughn said bitterly. “Send the missile carriers and turn that shed into an inferno.”

“And what about other intruders?” TAU asked. “There were two men from NUMA.”

No sooner had the words reached Vaughn’s ears when a deep and slightly raspy voice called out from the darkness behind them. “I can help you with that.”

Vaughn snapped his head around in time to see Kurt Austin stepping down onto the platform from the metal stairway. Aside from a small tube in his right hand, he appeared to be unarmed.

The robotic guards sprung to life, drawing themselves up to full height and extending their serrated weapons and armor-plated shields. They moved forward, closing ranks and taking up positions in front of Vaughn to prevent Kurt from reaching him. But they didn’t attack.

Vaughn was in shock. He couldn’t imagine how Austin had made it across the island without being seen, let alone how he’d made it into the compound, through multiple layers of security and into the innermost sanctum, without being detected.

“How did you get in here?” Vaughn hissed.

“I would be a little more concerned with how you’re going to get out of here,” Kurt said.

“I think that would be a better question for you to ponder,” Vaughn replied. “TAU, have the guards dismember him, piece by excruciating piece.”

The robotic guards began widening their positions, spreading out to prevent Kurt from focusing on them at the same time. But Austin ignored them. Instead, he stared directly at Vaughn, holding his position until the machines came to a stop without attacking, as if they’d halted by Austin’s willpower alone.

“What are you waiting for?” Vaughn shouted at his computer. “Destroy him!”

“Attack is contraindicated,” TAU replied. “Subject is armed.”

“What do you mean?”

“What your machine has realized,” Austin explained, “and you’re about to, is that I’m talking softly but carrying a very large stick. Or should I say a very loud one.”

He held up the tube, his thumb placed strategically over the end. “The detonator is already depressed. If either of your metal monsters touch me, the button will be released. They could strike me down and the charge will detonate before I hit the ground.”

Vaughn began to understand the dilemma.

Austin made sure to drive the point home. He nodded vaguely at the surroundings. “Considering the size and shape of this room, the shock wave will crush you once on the way out and once more on the way back in. Every organ in your body will rupture and you’ll die a slow, painful death.”

“TAU?” Vaughn asked, his voice a half octave higher.

“His analysis is mostly correct,” the computer announced. “Assuming those explosives detonate properly, you would have no hope of surviving. Though your death would be quite rapid.”

Vaughn’s eyes receded into his skull as he glared at Austin. Hatred, anger, and spite filled his heart and flowed from him. Austin was an uncontrollable force. An agent of chaos. Even TAU’s brilliance could not account for him.

“Your threat is hollow,” he spat at Austin. “If you detonate that charge, you’ll die right along with me.”

Austin did not appear concerned by that. “I never expected to live this long,” he said. “But you on the other hand…I hear you plan on living forever, if you can consider being melded to a machine living.”

Any doubts that Austin would follow through on his threat faded, but if he’d come here on a suicide mission, he would have set the charges off already. Clearly, he wanted something. That realization brought the color back to Vaughn’s face.

“The fact that we’re both still alive tells me this is nothing more than the opening round of a negotiation. Very well. Make your offer. What are our lives worth to you?”

Austin shifted his weight. Vaughn thought he detected a sense of grudging admiration from his opponent. “For starters, turn your locust swarms around before they deliver the virus you’ve planted inside them.”

As surprised as he was to see Austin in his inner sanctum, Vaughn was equally surprised by the depth of his knowledge. “What makes you think I can control the swarms? They’re a force of nature at this point.”

“You’ve got them traveling in a straight line,” Austin said. “Or should I say five separate straight lines. If you can do that, you can call them back.”

Though he had no intention of complying, Vaughn saw no reason to argue the point. “And then?”

“You shut down your machine, surrender yourself to me, and give me my people back.”

Vaughn began to laugh at this. In a way he was glad Austin had come here. Now he would understand the future of the human race. “They’re not your people anymore. But rather than explain it, let me show you.”

With that, a series of lights began to brighten inside the floor. They revealed a macabre scene. The circular floor was in reality a pool with a clear acrylic lid on it. In the dim light, this lid seemed opaque, but illuminated from within; the circulating liquid could be seen surrounding and supporting a dozen bodies clad in wetsuit-like material. They were arranged in a circle, heads pointed toward the middle, with masks holding oxygen and feeding tubes covering their faces. Eyes were hidden, ears were capped, while a forest of wires and tiny fiber-optic cables sprouted from them in various places.

Most of the circuits were connected to their skulls, but some of the bodies had additional arrays connected to their spines, fingers, and stomachs. They were skeletal and pale. Their skin molting in the strange amber liquid. These subjects provided TAU’s human side. They didn’t consciously exist anymore as independent souls. They were part of him.

Austin’s eyes went from one to the next and then to the next, a sense of grim understanding on his face. Vaughn would have preferred a look of horror, of course, but he was satisfied when Austin hesitated at one particular body. Austin squinted, then winced in recognition of a familiar figure. It was Gamay Trout.

“Yes,” Vaughn said, as if Austin had asked a question. “The newest part of TAU’s mind is already in place. If I shut TAU down, she will die along with all the rest.”