Half Life (Russell's Attic Book 2) (31 page)

“
Jealousy?”
cried Agarwal. “Me, jealous of them? This wasn’t
jealousy,
it was
justice
—”

He stopped.

Rayal’s voice rose. “You commit murder and you gut the support for science funding in the US just so you can—what,
win?
Funaki isn’t going to want you anymore after this, no matter how much they hated us at Arkacite—you turned your technology into a killing machine; you’re insane; you don’t deserve to be called a scientist!”

There was a beat of total silence.

Then we heard an angry rustling, and everyone jerked back as a large video window appeared with a close-up of Agarwal’s face, his eyes wild, his skin smudged with dirt and sweat, his wiry black hair in disarray. “Can you see me? Do you see me, Denise?
I
am the future of humanity. I am! You know what it is to look at everyone else, at their stupid,
meaningless
little lives, at their petty problems and logical fallacies, and know that it all means nothing, that
they’re
nothing—less than nothing! I will rebuild this world—
I
will—and I will do a better job than any politician, any bureaucrat, any two-faced, lying Wall Street CEO or schmuck born into a trust fund, and the people will love me for it!”

“I’m not giving you Liliana,” said Denise. “Whatever you want her for—I’m not giving her to you.”

Agarwal started to laugh, the sound building, slow and malicious. “Well, what did we say, about me always having a backup plan?”

He moved aside and adjusted the camera to focus on a wilted, bleeding figure tied to a chair.

Lau.

They took him,
Grant had said. She hadn’t been talking about the Sloan robot.

“You think humanity is worth something?” ranted Agarwal. “Then I dare you to a trade. I want our ’bot; you get him back. You never liked him much, did you? None of us did. Would you like to see his brain matter spattered all over the floor? If the answer is yes, then join the new regime with me.” He grinned broadly, the smile all too-wide angles. “If not, then give me our work, and you’ll get him in return. Not a very fair trade, I admit, but let’s see what you think.”

The video blinked out.

C
HAPTER 29

“
W
E CAN’T
do it,” said Pilar. She sounded like she was near tears. “She’s a scared little girl—”

Checker was pressing a hand to his eyes. “No,” he said. “She isn’t.”

“Here’s a thought,” said Arthur. “How about we call the cops? We just got video of him kidnapping someone.”

“The cops are after both Liliana and Rayal in the first place,” I said tiredly.

“It doesn’t matter.” Denise’s voice was muffled. She had sunk into one of Miri’s chairs after the phone interview, hunched over, her face in her hands again, but this time her hands were shaking. She slowly raised her head and spoke to us. “Vikash is—he’s one of the smartest people I ever—no matter what we try, he’ll have a plan. If we call the police, he’ll have a plan. If we try to double-cross him, he’ll have a plan.”

“I’m pretty smart, too,” I said.

“But you’re also injured, and—” Arthur took a shuddering breath. “I think we got an elephant in the room here. Liliana, she ain’t…you all tell me she ain’t human. The guy he got is.”

None of us said anything. Pilar found something riveting to study on the floor.

“She’s just a kid,” I whispered. Checker didn’t correct me this time.

“I dunno nothing about this stuff,” said Arthur. “I gotta trust what you guys say. Russell, you tell me honestly—you think this girl got a—a soul?”

My throat was dry, and the pain in my arm was making it difficult to think. “I don’t even know what that means,” I said.

“She’s not sentient. You know that.” Checker still hadn’t looked up, but I knew he was talking to me. “Ye gods, she’s not even the most advanced computer we have today; it’s only that she
looks
human, that she’s been programmed to interact with us—Cas, you
know
that.”

“He’s right,” said Rayal.

Pilar made a small, unhappy noise.

“I don’t want to be the bad guy here,” said Checker, “but this—I’m sorry; I don’t see how this is even a question. I know Lau’s an ass—I do—but he’s a person.”

“And if we could prove she were conscious? Would you still say that?” I wanted the words to be ornery, argumentative, but they came out weak and tight. “That just because she’s not built like us, she deserves to die?”

Checker recoiled as if I’d slapped him. “That’s not what this is,” he pleaded. “This isn’t—
she
isn’t, she isn’t what you’re talking about.”

“How do we know? If the programming is sufficiently advanced, how can we say it’s any different from conscious thought?”

“Because you know the math!” Checker said. “You know how she works.”

“And why does that mean anything?” I countered bitterly. “What if some higher intelligence understood the science behind human beings? All
we
are is very sophisticated slot machines, only biological ones!”

“Are you telling me if she were a smartphone, or a tablet—with all the same programming—would we honestly still be having this discussion?” Checker sounded anguished. “I don’t want to turn her over to him—I don’t—she’s an amazing piece of technology, and it tears me up to think of her dissected or destroyed, but—you can’t tell me that she’s worth a human life!”

I imagined Noah Warren’s reaction.

If he ever woke up, I couldn’t help but think we were trading Lau’s life for his.

“I’ll take her,” I said.

♦ ♦ ♦

P
ILAR AND
I went back to the bedroom so she could say good-bye to Liliana.

“Be a good girl, okay?” said Pilar, crouching to be on eye level with her and smiling through tears.

“Where am I going?” asked Liliana.

Pilar just hugged her. Liliana hugged back, tightly. “I don’t want to leave,” she said when they pulled back, her lip starting to tremble. “I want to stay here with you and Mommy. Where’s my dad? Am I going to see my dad?”

Pilar didn’t answer, a wrecked expression on her face.

“Yeah,” I said. “We’re going to find your dad.”

Liliana’s face lit up. Pilar lowered her head and her shoulders tensed. I wondered if she was about to stand up and sock me. “Come on,” I said, holding out a hand.

Liliana took it. Trusting.

Pilar didn’t follow us back to the living room.

Liliana insisted on saying good-bye to everyone, speaking very gravely and holding out a hand to shake and thank them for having her. She was very polite. Rayal had gone over by the windows, as far away as possible, and when Liliana approached her she turned away.

“Denise,” I said sharply.

I didn’t know if it was my tone or the use of her first name that got her, but her gaze flicked to me and then she turned to Liliana and crouched down.

“Will you come and meet us?” asked Liliana. “I want to be a family again.”

“I—I don’t know,” said Denise. Her voice was a peculiar mix of stiffness and longing, as if she were fighting to hold herself back. “You—you’re going to be fine, sweetie.”

“
Mommy,”
cried Liliana, and threw her arms around Rayal’s neck.

For a moment I thought Rayal was going to throw her off and flinch away, but then she slid her arms around Liliana and embraced her, squeezing hard, her eyes closed.

They let go, and Denise brushed past me and out of the room without turning back.

“I’m going with you,” said Arthur at my shoulder. “You need backup.”

“It’s an exchange,” I said, not making eye contact. “There won’t be a fight.”

“This ain’t a discussion.”

I waved at him impatiently. “Whatever. Checker, did he send a location?”

“Got it. It’s out in the middle of the desert. I’m sending it to your—”

“I broke the phone I was using,” I said. I’d run out of burners again.

“I’m sending it to Arthur’s, then. Cas—” He reached out and caught my sleeve as I headed for the door. “Be careful, all right?”

I didn’t answer.

Arthur and I headed out to the street. I let Arthur take Liliana’s hand this time, and made sure to bump into him slightly on the way out.

Arthur, being honest, had gotten a rental car. “I’m driving,” I said.

“Your arm—”

“I said you could come,” I said, a trifle too loudly. “I didn’t say you could tell me what to do.”

He squinted at me but tossed me the keys, then opened up the back and got Liliana settled in. I glanced at his face in the mirror as I swung into the driver’s seat and started the engine—his expression was tight and stiff as he helped Liliana buckle her seatbelt.

Arthur liked kids. Despite what he’d said inside, he wasn’t sure about this either.

He slammed the door to the back, and just as he reached to open the front door I floored the accelerator.

Liliana screamed and covered her eyes; the seatbelt yanked her back as the car lurched and I went zero to sixty gobbling the pavement. A rapidly shrinking version of Arthur chased after me in my mirrors, shouting. I ignored him. The tires squealed as I careened around the corner.

Less than a minute later, the cell phone I’d pickpocketed from Arthur rang. I tucked it onto my shoulder and went back to driving one-handed. “I’m saving them both,” I said.

Arthur’s voice came over the line, frantic. “Russell, you ain’t—”

“Don’t come after me unless you want to interfere and endanger everyone.”

“Stop! Think here—Denise says he’s too dangerous—says he’s too smart!”

“Oh, yeah?” I said. “Well, so am I.”

I hung up and steered with my elbow as I checked the phone’s texts. As Checker had promised, the location was far to the north, out in the empty desert.

I memorized it and chucked the phone out the window.

C
HAPTER 30

E
VENING WAS
descending over the desert, the twilight staining the sky purple behind the distant mountains.

Only this morning we’d had a nice, civilized deal with Arkacite. Less than a day ago.

I stopped at the coordinates Agarwal had provided. I’d pulled off a few miles before to untie the sling Arthur had rigged, preferring not to look obviously weak in front of an enemy. Arthur had left his leather jacket in the car; I’d slid it gingerly over my arm—it was about ten sizes too big, but at least it covered the splint and my bloodstained shirt. I also had my P7 and the Mob sniper’s Browning in my belt and a tire iron I’d grabbed from the spare bay in the trunk thrust through a belt loop.

I got out of the car, the soil hard-packed and dusty under my boots, and pulled open the back door. “Come with me, okay?” I said to Liliana, keeping my eyes on the stillness around us. The desert stretched vast and empty to the horizon, marred only by jagged rocks and dry scrub.

Liliana undid her seatbelt and climbed out obediently, the party dress and patent leather shoes entirely incongruous out here in the twilit nowhere.

We waited.

A distant humming buzzed against my ears, and I had my P7 up and aimed before I identified a small UAV zipping toward us. It did a pass a short distance away and then veered off.

Again we waited.

In the distance, a tiny dust cloud kicked up. It grew as it came closer, and eventually resolved into a red ATV with two figures perched inside, the driver a dark and fierce silhouette and the other man listing to the side, almost collapsing. “Take my hand,” I said to Liliana, “and stay behind me.” My arm twinged in pain as she reached up and gripped my useless right hand where it dangled at my side. I still had the gun in my left one.

The ATV stopped about twenty feet away, and the driver jumped out. He went around to the other side and hustled Lau down, hauling him back up by his ripped suit when he stumbled. Lau had his hands tied behind him and a gag pulled tight over his mouth, and half-dried blood painted his temple from a scalp wound. The dressing from where I’d pistol whipped him the other day had partly torn off.

Agarwal kept his hand fisted in the lapel of Lau’s suit jacket and dragged him toward us. They closed the distance about halfway and stopped.

“You’re not Denise,” he said.

“And you’re not Agarwal,” I replied.

His face bent into that too-angular smile. “You can understand why. But how did you know?”

It was brilliant, really—particularly if we’d called the police. Agarwal would have had a fall guy and perfect plausible deniability for everything.
Officers, someone built a robot that looks like me! I’m innocent!

“I’m surprised you’re self-aware,” I said. None of the other ’bots had known what they were.

“Oh, I’m not aware at all,” said the robot. He tapped the side of his head. “Different model. One I can speak through in real time, but he’s just a shell. Not nearly the advancement our Liliana is, of course, but very convenient.” He stretched his face in mock suspense. “Am I really Vikash Agarwal, even? Well, it’s true no one else would be smart enough for this. But maybe not. Maybe I’m dead! Tell Denise that; see if it keeps her up at night.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “You were human on the video link.”

His features elongated with surprise, and he squinted at me. “Well, well! Curiouser and curiouser. Denise, what
have
you been up to?”

“Give me Lau,” I said.

“On the count of three?” asked Agarwal, in the same gleeful tone.

“What’s to keep me from shooting you and taking them both?”

He waggled his artificial eyebrows at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

So he had a contingency, as I’d expected. The desert held no cover for snipers, robotic or otherwise, but the ATV might hold a bomb—or a chemical weapon, something that would kill people but not destroy the ’bots. He wanted Liliana intact, after all. Agarwal wasn’t a chemist, though; he was a roboticist…I thought of the UAV. “Death from the skies?”

Agarwal touched the side of his nose and pointed at me. “Our little secret.”