The Credulity Nexus (31 page)

“
They work for Cordell,” Rik added, in case
anyone should be in doubt.

“
How did they get fixed so quickly?”
Freymann wondered.

“
How did they get
here
so quickly?” said Rik.

“
Cherchez la
femme
,” Clermont said,
smirking. “We got a big organisation, Drew. You think we can't keep
tabs on one dumb blonde?” He glanced meaningfully at Maria then at
the robots. “You think Mr. Cordell can't afford to keep a couple of
spares lying around?”

Rik stepped
over to the table where the package lay and picked it up. “All
right, Clermont, you found me. Now what?”

“
Simple.” The little man strolled into the
bar with exaggerated casualness. The two Barbie-bots maintained
formation beside him. “You give me the package, and I take it back
to Earth with me. It's as easy as that.”

Rik watched
the man carefully. He appeared to be carrying a gun under his
jacket this time, but was showing no sign of wanting to reach for
it. Why should he, with the two robots at his command?

“
Veb,” Rik said. “Let Rivers go.” As he
said it, he tossed Greet-Greet aside, sending the Scotsman
skittering across the room.

Veb looked
reluctant, but he did as he was told. Rivers immediately stepped
away from him, out of reach. She didn't even look back at him. Her
full attention was on the two robots.

“
Now this is great, just great,”
Greet-Greet said, getting his balance. “It looks like Good triumphs
after all, Rik. You don't seem so cocky now, you great steaming
pile of crap.”

“
Shut up,” Clermont commanded him angrily.
“And fuck off.” The tension in the room was building as the moment
approached for somebody to make a move.

For a brief
while, Greet-Greet blustered and protested, but then he seemed to
notice that the two factions had squared off for a fight. “Ah.
Right,” he muttered. “I'll be away, then.” He made for the door
almost at a run.

“
You too, Maria,” Rik said, not looking at
her. “Get out and get clear. This is nothing to do with
you.”

“
What?” she asked, stupidly. He could hear
the fear and uncertainty in her voice. “I want to stay with
you.”

Rik almost
laughed. Right there, with him, was about the least safe place in
the system just at that moment. He made an effort to harden his
tone. “Maria, please. Just go. You're just a distraction here.”

“
Just a...”

“
Fariba?”

He heard
Freymann go to Maria and start persuading her to leave. He hoped
she would be firm about it. He didn't want to worry about Maria's
safety while he was trying to save his own life and keep the
package out of Clermont's hands.

“
Do you know what's in this package,
Clermont?” he asked, stalling.

“
Nope, and I don't give a damn.” He held
out a hand. “Let's have it.”

“
It's a virus. A weaponised virus that will
invade the cells of your brain and re-wire the DNA. If you get
infected – and you will, if Cordell has his way – you'll be as much
of a robot as the silicon sisters behind you. Do you want to be
Cordell's robot? Isn't there anybody in this world you care about
enough to save them from that?”

He could hear
Maria's and Freymann's voices moving away, to the back of the bar.
They might both be safe now if the fighting started, although he
knew Freymann would be back in a moment if there was trouble. He
didn't want her hurt, but it would be good to know she had his
back.

“
Give me the package, Rik,” Rivers said,
from somewhere to his left. She sounded too close for comfort, and
he itched to look round to find out just what she was up to. “It's
the only way to keep it safe. You don't stand a chance.”

Whatever she
was doing, it was making the robots nervous. They started moving
out from behind Clermont, positioning themselves to outflank Rik
and the two uploads. Rik could only imagine what kind of strategic
and tactical algorithms were running in their photonic brains, how
many entangled superpositions of qbit arrays were sifting and
sorting the geometry of the little group as they sought optimal
outcomes.

“
This could get messy, Clermont. You and I
might not last long if these guys start swinging.”

“
I'll take my chances. Hand it
over.”

“
My friend Rivers here beat off two of your
girls all on her own, last time they had a disagreement. You don't
want to be too confident of your chances.”

The two robots
turned to look at Rivers, then back at Rik. Their expressions did
not change.

“
Yeah?” Clermont seemed altogether too
relaxed for Rik's liking. He must have heard what happened at the
Cordell mansion in Mexico. “Well, them others were just Mrs. C's
playthings, if you know what I mean. These babies are more advanced
models. You've got five seconds, Drew. After that, I don't care if
you're dead or alive when I get the package.”

“
I'll pay you anything you like, Clermont.
I've got a lot of money at my disposal.”

“
Too late for that, chum. Three
seconds.”

Rik felt a
movement behind him, one he'd been expecting ever since Rivers had
spoken. With all the speed he could muster, he pulled the arm
holding the package up and across his chest. Rivers' black arm
flashed past where his hand had been.

Then
pandemonium broke out.

As the two
robots sprang at him, and the two uploads sprang at the robots, Rik
dropped to a crouch, his feet almost lifting off the ground as his
body dropped at an infuriatingly slow pace. Then he jumped, flying
above the rest of them, looking down from the ceiling as his back
hit it. The robots both reached for him, and might have caught him,
had they not been tackled by Veb and Rivers in the same moment. But
he wasn't trying to avoid the robots. As he fell at a leisurely
lunar pace, he pointed his gun at Clermont and fired twice.
Cordell's man had his hand in his jacket, pulling out his own
weapon, when Rik's bullets hit him in the chest and knocked him
down. The recoil was enough to push Rik off balance, and he hit the
ground awkwardly, dropping his gun as he struggled to keep the
package safe.

Veb and Rivers
were each wrestling with a robot. The combination of superhuman
strength and low lunar gravity meant their struggles were throwing
them all over the bar, shattering tables, bouncing them from floor
to ceiling, smashing them into walls. Individual movements were too
fast to follow, but Rik could see that the new robots were doing
better than the last pair had. These seemed faster and more sure of
themselves. Whereas before, Rivers had been able to outmanoeuvre
them, this new pair seemed better at anticipating their opponents'
moves, and better at exploiting their mistakes. They looked like
they were specially programmed and trained for close fighting.
What's more, they were completely focused on getting to Rik and the
package. Everything they did was designed to move them closer to
him.

He grabbed his
gun off the floor and made for the door. His best chance was to get
out of there and hope he could get into hiding before the robots
found him. But he didn't get two paces before the one fighting Veb
got an arm free, grabbed a chair and threw it at him so hard and
fast that it sent him sprawling across the room. He took some hard
knocks before he fetched up against a wall, desperately protecting
the package and its fragile contents at the expense of his own
fragile flesh.

He was stunned
and winded. When he could take in what was happening again, he saw
Freymann had re-entered the bar and was going to Veb's aid. The
ex-bouncer, seeing her arrive, grabbed onto the robot and heaved it
round, presenting it to Freymann, who dutifully emptied half a clip
into its slender back. The robot jerked and twitched as the bullets
hit, but showed no signs of damage. In fact, it immediately broke
Veb's grip and spun around to land a vicious kick on Freymann's
shoulder. It sent the agent cartwheeling across the room. By the
time Rik was on his feet and running to her aid, she was lying
still on the floor.

The
distraction gave Veb the chance he needed to land a mighty right
hook on the robot's jaw, lifting it off the ground and sending it
arcing across the bar. Yet even as it happened, Rivers came
crashing into Veb, having been thrown across the room herself by
the other robot.

Rik dodged
around the flailing uploads as he raced towards Freymann. He turned
to the robot that had been fighting Rivers, intending to get off a
couple of shots in its direction, only to find it was already upon
him. Elegant and feminine though it looked, the robot hit Rik like
a charging bull. The blow carried him across the floor to the solid
concrete of the bar itself. With a sickening crack, he heard his
head hit the bar. There was a moment of darkness and silence, then
pain shot through him. He gasped, only half-conscious, and
struggled to get his bearings.

When his head
cleared, he found himself lying on the ground with one of the
robots standing over him. It stepped back, quickly putting several
metres between them. In its hand it had the package.

Rivers and Veb
had disentangled themselves and were squaring up to attack the
robot. Meanwhile, the second machine was circling around behind
them. Freymann was on the floor not far away, lying still.

Rik dragged
himself to his feet, leaning on the bar for support. His head felt
as if one of the robots was still pounding on it, and his left
shoulder felt crushed.

“
You'll never get out of here with that,”
he said, although for the life of him, he couldn't see any good
reason why they wouldn't. “You might as well hand it over
now.”

The robot with
the package gazed steadily at him. Rik could hardly begin to guess
what it was thinking. Certainly it could not think that he,
personally, was much of a threat. Even holding onto the bar, he
could feel himself swaying. He wiped a hand across his mouth and it
came away smeared with blood. The robots, by contrast, looked as
sleek and beautiful as ever, with hardly an artificial hair out of
place.

“
What now, boss?” Veb asked.

It looked like
another stalemate had been reached. The robots couldn't leave with
the package without being attacked again, and now the risk of
losing the package made that less attractive than before. However,
if Veb and Rivers went after the bots, there was a good chance one
of the Barbies might get away in the ruckus, or, much worse, break
the phials and release the virus. He wanted this to be over so he
could see to Freymann. He felt her stillness on the ground beside
him like a shout in his mind. But he couldn't help her now. Not
until the robots had been dealt with.

“
Any suggestions, Veb? Rivers, have you
called the ship for reinforcements?” The crew of
The Phenomenon of
Man
was mostly uploads
and would have been very handy just then.

The fuckers aren't returning my
calls
, Rivers told him
through his cogplus.

What the hell are they up
to?
he sent
back.

Rivers
shrugged.

Rik hoped the
robots weren't listening in.

“
Well, here's the thing,” he said, aloud.
“We've really only got one choice here.”

He tensed
himself, ready to give the word to attack again. As he did, the
door to the bar slammed open and an amazing troupe of heavily-armed
weirdoes stormed in. At their centre was a tiny, massively
overweight man sitting on a vacuum dirigible.

“
Hello, Rik,” Turgu said, swooping to a
halt. His followers formed an untidy phalanx around him.

The two robots
moved quickly to new positions, trying to optimise their tactical
situation in the light of all these new players. Veb and Rivers
moved too, keeping themselves between the package and the exits.
Rik pushed himself upright, glad he was in one-sixth gravity, and
went to confront his old enemy.

“
You look like shit, mate,” Turgu said,
looking around at the bar, its occupants, the woman on the floor
and the smashed fittings. “So does your bar.”

“
Turgu, you ugly slug,” he snarled. “I
blame you for a lot of this.” If it hadn't been for this ridiculous
petty gangster and his outrageous demand for money Rik didn't owe,
Rik would never have needed to take Cordell's job. “So you're going
to put it all right for me.”

The Turgu were
armed with buzz-guns, heavy-duty lasers, grenade launchers, damned
near everything you could think of that was portable and nasty.
They jigged about and grinned like madmen. Dumb, vicious,
fanatical, and deadly.

“
How much do I owe you, Turgu?”

“
Well, it was twenty thousand...” The ugly
gnome grinned as he bobbed about on his barely-stable flying
machine. “But you've put me to a lot of trouble. So now it's
thirty. You better have it, Drew.”

“
Boss?” Veb sounded anxious. Rik turned and
saw the robots were moving across the room, splitting up, working
on some kind of plan.

Turgu watched
the robots too. “Are these your new bar staff, Rik? I've got to
say, they're better looking than the big ape you've had running the
place lately. Why don't you throw them in as deal-sweeteners? Then
maybe I won't trash the place like I was planning.”

Rik stepped
closer to Turgu, and weapons all around him rattled into readiness.
“Here's the deal, Turgu. I'll make it fifty grand. Hell, no, I'll
make it a hundred, if you can get me the package that one is
carrying. You see it? The little box? And here's the sweetener: if
either of them is alive when you've finished, they're all
yours.”