Machines of Eden (34 page)

“
I almost had
her
,
”
John rasped, massaging his throat.

“
Your humor is droll,
but
meanwhile the countdown is ticking
toward apocalypse. You must
return with me
to the Facility. Once we have halted the threat there, I will take
care of you until we can rebuild this body for you.”

“
Wait, now you want me to
inhabit that
abomination
?” he asked incredulously
as he pointed at the smoking Gaia body. “While you run around in
your
brand
new
suit?”

“
It’s not ideal,” Eve
replied, “but we must carry on. I saved your life for a
purpose.”

“
You’re backwards,” he
said. “Doesn’t work
for me. I’ll have
nothing to do with— LOOK OUT! S
he’s
getting up again!” He feign
ed
panic
,
pointing at the inert cyborg under the
tree.

The portion of
Eve
embodied in the
android, entirely dependent on her self-contained sensors,
fell for it. She turned, arms up and ready to
grapple with the threat, and
John
took his opportunity. Running toward her, he
launched himself off
of a
fallen tree trunk and slammed into the
android’s
back as hard
as he could.
Eve
stumbled forward, catching herself and preventing a fall, but
going a few centimeters too close to the tree.

As
John
fell to the ground, bruised and
aching, the electrode field activated again, and
Eve
’s android body dropped
next to Gaia.
The sleek
white shell
twitched once and a
high-pitched whine came from
its
thin white lips. Then it cut out with a pop, and
everything was quiet.

“
It would never have
worked out,” he said as he got up again, massaging his shoulder.
“You
won’t
understand, but it just wouldn’t.”

He started walking back to
the Facility.

Nut
was hiding just above the ceiling of the observation deck,
crouched between two fan tubes that were each bigger than he was.
Eve couldn’t get at him up there, and it afforded him the only view
of the outside he ever got. He
peered
through
a grating at the crystal windows
stretching across the observation deck
,
scanning for movement. There was
none.

He
wonder
ed
if
the cyborgs would return to the Facility or if the danger was over.
He
considered
creep
ing
outside
to
seek an opportunity to stab the towering figures in the back.
The automatic pistol he had
stolen
might not damage their bodies terribly, but a
headshot from close range
might
incapacitate them. Then the island would be
his.

No
. He almost giggled
again
.
They
want me out there. It’s what they’re waiting for. Tricks, tricks,
tricks, but not today. Not today. I’m not a fool.
He snarled soundlessly.

Nut watched for a moment
longer, then let out a cackle and whirled, bounding away down the
narrow maintenance space, grabbing a crossbar above to swing down
to a lower landing. He entered the single
-
line elevator shaft
and shimmied down the cables. His stolen pistol
was carefully tucked into his shirt, and he took care not to let it
fall.

At the bottom he wormed his
way out through the small vent tunnel that went into the ceiling
away from the elevator. As he passed the opening that gave airflow
to a laboratory room below, he stopped. The lights hadn’t been on
in this part of the Facility earlier when he had passed this way.
And machines were now humming that he had never seen in operation
before.

And there was a woman in
the room.

“
Janice,” he muttered.
“Bad Janice.”

But he wasn’t quite sure,
so he quietly, quietly turned the vent cover until it came loose.
Setting it carefully to the side so that it wouldn’t make even the
slightest noise, he poked his head down through the opening to get
a better look.

She was sleeping,
stretched out on an operating table encased in a transparent
plastic shell with shiny metal bands encircling it. Her head
protruded from the shell, her loose blonde hair lying so
delicately. Several upright machines were clustered around her head
with lights blinking, and an ugly little surgical
‘
droid was slumped next
to her in sleep mode
, its job
finished
.

The comatose woman wasn’t
wearing the beige jumpsuit that Janice wore; only a black
undershirt. He wasn’t sure he recognized her face. It could have
been Janice, but he hadn’t seen her with her hair loose like that
before.

It probably isn’t Janice.
Is it?
He had
n’t
seen her this close
in a long time
. It
wasn't safe to.
Who else could it
be?

Nut silently wiggled
through and dropped to the floor. The woman didn’t move. The
‘
droid self-activated,
awaiting commands. He crept over to the woman and studied her, his
face
centimeters
away from hers, controlling his breathing so it wouldn’t
disturb her.

It is Janice. It must be.
What is she doing here?
But it isn’t
b
ad Janice
.
This is… Good Janice. She has come
back.

O
verwhelming loneliness seized him. He had not spoken to
another human since the man, and that hadn’t gone well. The man
didn’t listen. He didn’t understand the island. He didn’t care what
happened. But Janice understood the island.

She looks
lonely
, like me. She isn’t a bad person,
not anymore. It was the accursed artificial’s influence that made
her into something bad. Controlling her, holding her hostage with
the bots and the endless talk of the Plan.

Pity welled in his
chest.

She has changed; she no
longer looks so bad. She is i
n need of
rescue, in need of company.
We humans must
stick together.

He was crying now, but soon
his tears turned to hot anger.

Not the man
called Adam
, though. The
man
is
a
troublemaker
,
riling
Eve,
damaging things. Making Janice angry. Now she
is
unconscious
. It is his doing, his
and the artificial’s! They are conspiring against us. Yes,
h
e has allied himself with Eve to
overpower Janice. She is in bondage, leaving them free to carry on
with all manner of evil outside.

Her soul is being poisoned
by these machines!

Thoughts raced through
Nut’s brain, each more revelatory than the last. It all made sense
now. Every bit of it, the past few years, fit exactly into Eve’s
master plan. The man’s arrival was no coincidence. Nut had heard
the
aircraft’s approach
. He had seen the
flash in the night
sky
, the long
fiery
trail toward the ocean, and
then the man appeared soon after.
Eve
brought him here to cause us all harm!

Poor, poor
Janice
. Nut set his heavy gun down on the
table next to the surgical
‘
droid and turned to the
woman.
I understand now. I understand
everything
. She was not always so bad. She
is not my enemy; she is my sister
.
That thought made him pause a moment as his mind
teetered on the cusp of memory, but then it shied away. Memories
were bad things for Nut, things that haunted and teased him
endlessly.

Nut began to pull the cords
away from Janice’s head, ripping the tape free and unclamping the
stabilizers from her neck and shoulders. The surgeon bot moved,
backing up, and Nut lashed out at its head in sudden fury, knocking
it over backward. Then he kicked forcefully at the nearest
monitoring machine, sending it rolling out of the way and yanking
its cable from the wall.

“
Let her go!” he screamed.
“Get away from her, demons!”

Janice’s eyes fluttered
open and then her body arched
as the
tranquilizers drained away from her muscles and freed her mind.
She
push
ed
herself up
from the
table and kick
ed
her legs against the plastic shell around her.
Nut watched in fascination as
s
he made a choking noise and then gave a
sharp gasp. She rolled over onto her side and began heaving
desperately for air. Her eyes focused on Nut’s.

Nut beamed. “I finally
understand what has been happening, Janice. There is no need to
fear any longer.”

Janice blinked. Nut cleared
his raspy voice and spoke again, in an even kindlier
tone.

“
You are free from the
machines, and the man has fled into the valley. Do you see? Eve is
the only threat now, and the vicious machines, the great white
ones. But they have also gone into the valley, and they are
fighting with each other.”

Janice’s eyes traveled to a
nearby table, and Nut followed her gaze. She was staring at the
black automatic pistol lying among the tools littering the table
surface. He nodded.

“
I understand. You’re
right. As long as the man is alive, he is a threat to us. Here you
are, Janice. You are the one to do it.”
Nut handed her the gun.

She took it carefully, her
eyes never leaving him. When she had it, she sat up and flicked off
the safety in one smooth motion. She shook her head to clear away
the grogginess of the tranquilizers and stared at Nut.

“
Why did you wake me?” she
croaked through a dry throat. “What are you doing here? Where is my
new body?”

Nut didn’t have a ready
answer. Instead, he reached for Janice’s hand, thinking to lead her
out of the room.

She
shot him
in the
chest and in the neck
.

Nut lay staring at the
ceiling as Janice
walked toward the
door
. His mouth felt wet and sticky, and
he coughed. The lights were very bright.

“
I should have done that a
long time ago,” Janice whispered as she left the room. “It’s not
your fault. I’m sorry.”

“
I understand,”
he replied, coughing
.

The lights dimmed to utter
black.

"Adam, I beg
you."

John
picked his way among the myriad shards that had once formed
the crystalline windows of the observation deck. They now littered
the ground outside the Facility, crunching frostily under his
boots. His head ached.

So much for the natural
glass containing the airborne nanos.
No
way I can patch this hole, not in time. Gotta defuse the bomb
itself, or it's the end of the world.

The scope of the situation
was dizzying. Life as he knew it, as everyone knew it, was about to
end and all he could think about was his throbbing head.

"Eve, I think I've drawn a
pretty clear line in the sand. I'm not going to help you resurrect
those bodies. I killed them for a reason."

"But Adam, if you will
think with me rationally for a moment..."

The lift still worked, and
he rode it up to Level Two and stepped off, absurdly grateful for
the dim interior. His head wasn’t aching as severely, and he tried
to focus.

Bomb. Big one, about to
trigger. If I were a doomsday device control station, where would
I...

T
he nano labs, in the basement. Of course. There was no
control in the inner sanctum
so
i
t must be controlled from the lab itself.
Seems risky for the technician
pushing the
button
, but on the other hand it ensures
that it can’t be gotten to from outside.

It was very hot in the
Facility. His sabotage of the ventilation tunnels, the power from
the dam, and the heating-cooling systems were
working well.
For a human, that is.
Pity that Eve couldn’t care less
.