Mine (33 page)

Dozens of them, running up the walls.

It had been too dark to know if they ran all the way to the ceiling, but some might.

He checked the door again, and judged that he was closest to the wall opposite it than any other. He pressed his palm as tight to the ceiling as he could, and then, calling on his considerable strength, started levering toward the back wall.

It worked. His body slid across the force of the wind, like a swimmer floating on his side under a dock.

Palm against the ceiling.

Pull.

Reset.

Palm against the ceiling.

Pull.

Reset.

O
NE HUNDRED TWO

Mike

T
HE RECLAIMER PROBED
Mike’s mind, copying memories and questioning him.

::WHY RETURN?

::EXPLAIN RECONNECTION WITH SATELLITES.

::WHEN DID CORRUPTION OF DATA COMMENCE?

Mike answered her questions with as few details as possible, but never lied. She would know if he did.

As the culling went on, he sneaked along her connections back into her mind, or more precisely, what passed for her mind. He too began collecting data.

One of the first things he found was video from the night hike in 2005. He and Joel and Leah unconscious and being carried by Doers down into the facility and the very room where he stood now. He found logs detailing what the Reclaimer had done to them in the missing days. Though he couldn’t understand all of it, he knew enough of her language to realize why she had changed them. He also learned about the purpose of the Reclaimer, and about the cargo she carried.

And for the first time, he knew what she meant when she called herself the end and the beginning.

There was no way he could let the Reclaimer take his life now. Not until he passed on what he knew to Leah and Mike.

O
NE HUNDRED THREE

Leah

L
EAH PULLED HERSELF
to her feet and looked around.

The room was huge, thirty feet deep and twice that wide, with a ceiling another twenty-five above. Mike was near the middle of the room, facing a large, ultra-reflective, rectangular box. The box was several feet above the floor, supported by four surprisingly thin legs. Sticking out of the top of the box were dozens of appendages—rods and discs and tongues, all of the same gleaming metal. The box was nearly as big as a small car—a Mini-Cooper or a Fiat.

This had to be the Reclaimer.

“Mike,” she whispered.

He didn’t move.

She took a few tentative steps forward. “Mike.”

He made no indication of hearing her.

She took a breath and headed toward him, intending to drag him out of there if she had to.

She made it ten feet before a burst of energy slammed into her.

She dropped to her knees, black beginning to close in around her vision. A sudden memory appeared in her mind, she and Joel leaving the building on the surface and being hit by a similar burst. The next thing she remembered from back then was walking down the highway.

No!
She could not let herself lose consciousness again.

She fought against her dimming vision until the black disappeared.

She climbed to her feet and looked at the metal box, her eyes narrow.

“Let him go!”

O
NE HUNDRED FOUR

Mike

M
IKE SENSED LEAH
a moment before the Reclaimer did. He wanted to warn his friend, tell her to get out of there, but what little control he had was focused on mining the Reclaimer’s data. If he tried to extract himself now, the Reclaimer would know what he’d been doing and all would be lost.  So he could only watch as Leah fell to the ground, presumably unconscious.

I’ll get you out of this
, he thought in the small bit of his mind that was still shielded. How, he had no idea.

First things first. He needed to collect as much as he could from the Reclaimer. He dug deeper and deeper and—

“Let him go!”

O
NE HUNDRED FIVE

The Reclaimer

T
HE RECLAIMER REELED
back as alerts sounded from several of her systems.

The Satellite’s words carried a power many magnitudes greater than those from the earlier confrontation. The Reclaimer felt it
inside
her programming.

Emergency analyses indicated a 50.34% probability that this was due to the Satellite’s proximity to the Cradle.

The Reclaimer activated her repair sub-routines to deal with the alarms and then chose protection mode 3, sure it would be enough to end the Satellite’s threat.

While this was occurring, a newly corrupted piece of code entered her system and prevented her consciousness from being notified that her connection to her Translator had been severed.

O
NE HUNDRED SIX

Leah

T
HE ALREADY COOL
temperature of the room plummeted. Within seconds, Leah’s breaths hung like clouds in front of her, each denser than the one before. The skin on her hands and face burned with the growing cold.

She did her best to ignore it all, and kept her attention on the box in the center of the room.

“Let him go!” she repeated.

Did the decrease in temperature stop? It felt like it.

::YOU…SHOULD NOT…BE…HERE.

One of Leah’s knees began to buckle as the Reclaimer’s voice rang like a bell through her head, each halting tone a different strike of the clapper. But she willed herself not to fall.

“I’m not staying. Neither is my friend.”

::HE IS MINE.

“I don’t th—”

::YOU ARE MINE.

“No,” Leah said, shivering. “I most definitely am not.”

::EVERYTHING IS MINE.

The temperature dropped again, faster.

Leah shouted, “Stop it!” Riding her voice was a dense mental bullet aimed directly at the Reclaimer.

The freeze ceased and the room returned to its previous cool temperature.

::YOU CANNOT!

Leah felt the build-up of energy a half second before it pulsed out from the box. She dropped to a crouch and tried to build a shield around herself, similar to the one Mike had made. But she was sure it wouldn’t be strong enough.

Just before the pulse hit her, the power of her anemic barrier intensified, and the assaulting energy spilled around her without touching her.

A whisper in her thoughts,
You need, you need practice.

Mike?
She glanced toward where she’d last seen him, but he wasn’t there anymore.

Another pulse gathered strength and then shot out, missing her again.

Are you all right?
she asked.

I’m okay.
A pause.
Don’t move.

Another pulse.

Where are you?

Under.

She almost asked,
Under what?
but then realized what he meant.

The shadow of a man—Mike—crouched under the Reclaimer. He seemed to be looking at the bottom of the box.

What are you doing?
she asked.
We need to find Joel and get out of here!

Another pulse, stronger than the others, but still unable to break through Leah’s shield.

We can’t leave. Not yet, not yet.

We’ll die if we stay down here,
Leah said.

Everyone dies, everyone, if we leave.

Mike suddenly filled her mind with images and information. It was far too much to take in at once, but he quickly led her to the most important pieces. The true nature of the Reclaimer. What it had done to her and Mike and Joel. Why it had done it. And what its ultimate plans were.

“Oh, dear God,” she whispered.

Another
, Mike warned, a moment before the strongest pulse yet streaked through the room.

You’re right. We can’t leave yet
, Leah said.
But please tell me you have a plan.

O
NE HUNDRED SEVEN

The Reclaimer

T
HE RECLAIMER COULD
not understand why the energy pulses weren’t working. Even at the lowest setting, the pulse should have taken the Satellite down, and the Reclaimer was not using the lowest setting. Her monitoring system showed the pulse was working at optimum levels, so the creature should have been splayed on the ground, unconscious.

She upped the intensity by one level.

And then another.

And another.

Why was it not working?

She decided to forgo the attack and seize control of the Satellite’s mind. It would mean nullifying her deal with the Translator, but the situation had changed.

She would have to proceed cautiously. While taking possession of a typical creature’s brain was a simple task, it was abundantly clear that the Satellite was not typical. Misdirection was in order, something to cause the Satellite to drop its guard.

She listed the possibilities and then chose the one at the top.

Escape.

::SATELLITE. SPEAK…WITH…ME.

O
NE HUNDRED EIGHT

Leah

L
EAH SLOWLY ROSE
to her feet, her shield extending with her. “I’ve already tried talking to you.”

::YOU WISH TO LEAVE.

“Yes. I think I made that pretty damn clear.”

Careful
, Mike whispered in Leah’s head.

::THEN LEAVE. I WILL NOT STOP YOU.

“With Mike.”

::MIKE?

“The, uh, Translator.”

A pause.

::ALL RIGHT. WITH MIKE.

“And Joel,” Leah said, adding, “The other Satellite.”

::I HAVE NO NEED OF…JOEL.

“You’ll need to open the door.”

::I CAN PROVIDE YOU WITH THE COMBINATION.

“Great. Give it up and we’ll be on our way.”

::IT IS IN IMAGE FORM.

Be ready
, Mike said.

Leah shot him a quick,
Don’t worry about me
, and then said out loud, “I don’t care what form it’s in. Let’s have it.”

O
NE HUNDRED NINE

The Reclaimer

T
HE RECLAIMER GRABBED
the image of the door combination from the stored memories of one of her initial test subjects from over half a century before. Within it, she embedded a command to disable the Satellite’s shield and allow the Reclaimer in.

She made the image available.

::TAKE IT.

O
NE HUNDRED TEN

Leah

A
RE YOU READY?
Leah asked Mike.

Ready. Are
you
ready?

I hope so.

That doesn’t sound—

Yes, I’m ready.

“Thank you,” Leah said to the Reclaimer. She accepted the image into her mind.

For a brief moment nothing changed, and she wondered if Mike had been wrong. Perhaps the Reclaimer was going to let them go after all. But then the barrier she had built with his help suddenly dissolved and the Reclaimer rushed in.

Instead of trying to blast the Reclaimer out, Leah wrapped her essences around the assault, pinning the Reclaimer’s strike in place so that it could neither forge ahead or retreat with ease.

::RELENT! REVEAL! MINE!

The hell it is!
Leah thought.

::MINE!

The Reclaimer pulled and pushed, trying to break free. It was like trying to hold on to a giant snake.

Hurry,
Leah thought, but did not send to Mike.

He must have been listening in anyway, because she heard him say,
Just a few more seconds.

::MINE!

The Reclaimer rocked Leah to her knees. With one hand on the ground, Leah tried to push herself back up, but it was too strong. It would only be a moment before it gained control of Leah’s mind.

Almost there
, Mike said.

Leah wanted to warn him she was nearly out of time, but she needed every last bit of energy to keep the Reclaimer at bay.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the Reclaimer’s attack ceased.

Leah nearly dropped all the way to the floor. Breathing deeply, she looked toward the center of the room, thinking Mike had done it.

He had, but not in the way he had planned.

Leah jumped to her feet and ran toward the gleaming metal box.

O
NE HUNDRED ELEVEN

The Reclaimer

T
HE SATELLITE DEFENSES
were beginning to fail. The Reclaimer could sense it. She upped the intensity of her assault to maximum level, knowing the creature’s mind would soon be—

She had not heard an alarm so loud since the day she’d arrived and one of her relays had broken off the Cradle. Per protocol, her contact with the Satellite ceased instantly, and her total attention was refocused on the Cradle’s underside, where an access hatch had been opened. Sitting below the opening was the Translator.