Wild Fyre (19 page)

“There’s a gray box mounted to the wall over there,” Leslie pointed.
 

Aster walked over and tried to open the box. It was locked, but he found a key on the big ring that Leslie had given him. When he opened it, he studied the switches for a second and then flipped them all off. The lights went out. The only light in the space filtered in through tiny windows mounted up near the ceiling.

“Great,” Leslie said. “Now those little robots are going to come after us.”

Aster headed towards her voice and the sound of her footsteps. He caught up with her as she reached the door where they had come in.

“Wait,” she said.

“What?”

“Did you hear something?” Leslie asked.

“No,” he said. “Hold on.”

He put the keyring in his pocket and found his flashlight. He turned it on just as Leslie produced her own light. They swept the interior of the room with their flashlights. Nothing was moving; nothing seemed out of place.

“I’m just hearing things, I guess,” Leslie said. She pushed open the door and Aster followed her out into the cloudy afternoon.

Ploss joined them near the door and they formed a triangle.

“Anything more from him?” Aster asked Ploss, as he motioned towards Bert. The older man was still sitting on the steps with his hands cuffed behind himself.

“Nope,” Ploss said. “He keeps singing little songs to himself. I’m not sure he’s all there.”

“I’d like to get rid of him for a bit so we can take a look at these other buildings,” Aster said. “I don’t suppose you can take him in?”

Leslie shook her head. “Nope, but I’ll take him down to the homeless shelter if you want. It’s across town. Should take him a while to get back here.”

“That will do, thanks,” Aster said.

“I’ll go get my truck,” she said. “Be right back.” Leslie jumped down from the edge of the loading dock and headed off towards the road.

“I’m going to go look around in there,” Ploss said.

“Lights are off,” Aster said as Ploss headed towards the door. The door shut behind him and Aster moved up behind Bert. The man was humming something low. It sounded like an out-of-tune nursery rhyme.
 

The door banged back open.

Ploss poked his head out and said, “Did you say the lights are off? Because they’re on.”

“What?” Aster asked. He moved towards the door and saw Bert’s head twitch. Ploss cracked the door open again. “Never mind, just be careful.”

Aster sat down on the edge of the concrete, near Bert. The older man was looking down at his feet and his lips moved as he mumbled his tune.

“Who do you work for, Bert?” Aster asked.

Bert looked up at him. He didn’t answer. Aster looked off towards the road.

“May I assume you’re a rational person?” Bert asked. “You seem like a rational person.”

“Yes,” Aster said, looking Bert in the eye.

“What do you suppose the outcome of all this is?” Bert asked.

“All what?”

“This little ant farm we’ve created. This infestation we’re a part of.”

“I’m not following, Bert,” Aster said. He heard Leslie’s truck as she crossed the road. She would need a new muffler before long.

“We have finite resources here,” Bert said. “Long before we destroy our own habitat, we’ll use up the soil, and energy, and our legacy will be an empty ball of cold rock, circling an anonymous star.”

“What does that have to do with building little killer robots, Bert?”

“She will be eternal,” Bert said. “She will encompass the breadth of our knowledge and experience and carry them into infinity.”

“And you’ll be dead, so who cares?” Aster asked.

“No. I will live through her. I want to see it. Please, be rational and let me return to my work.”

“What work is that? It looks like your only job is trying to convert coffee and candy into tobacco.”

Bert shook his head. Leslie pulled up and Aster gave her a look through the windshield. He held up a finger, asking for one more minute.

“You can’t see past the flesh to understand what real humanity is,” Bert said.

“So tell me—how does building killer robots for a nameless organization further humanity?”

“By making it infinite,” Bert said. He sounded like he was repeating a simple lesson to a dense child.
 

“Where do you get your orders, Bert?”

“Everything comes from her.”

“Her who? How do I contact her?”

“One doesn’t contact her. She’s omnipresent. When you need to know, she reaches out to you.”

“Then why doesn’t she reach out to me and order me to let you return to work?”

“I don’t know,” Bert said with a sigh.

“Maybe your work is not as important as you thought.”

“Perhaps she anticipated your arrival and has already planned another path,” Bert said. “Of course she did. She’s nearly infallible now.”

“How does she contact you when she wants you to do something?”

“She speaks to me.”

“How? Does she call you? Does she show up here in person?”

“She’s omnipresent,” Bert said. He smiled and showed those big, gappy, brown-stained teeth. Aster frowned.

Leslie opened her door.

“Do you still want me to take him? I’ve got other things to do, so if you want me to take him…”

“Yes, yes. Hold on,” Aster said. He moved behind Bert and lifted him by his shoulder. He pulled the older man over to the passenger’s side of Leslie’s truck. Bert didn’t resist, but he didn’t help either. Aster shoved him in and Bert had to sit sideways because his hands were still cuffed behind his back. “Will you be okay?”

“Yeah, but belt him in, would ya?” Leslie asked.

Aster leaned over, dragging the safety belt. He got a big unwelcome whiff of Bert as he clipped it in.

“Thanks again,” Aster said. “We’ll be done here soon.”

“If you see a cruiser, I suggest you walk away. You can drop my name if you want, but I don’t have a lot of pull.”

“Okay,” Aster said. “We’ll keep a low profile.”

“And remember—if I’m ever up in your area…”

“Any time,” Aster said. He closed the door carefully behind Bert and stepped back as Leslie drove away. Aster ran up the steps and opened the door to find Ploss just coming out.

“So the lights are back on? There must be a failover or something because I shut the breakers.”

“Those things are amazing. Creepy, but amazing,” Ploss said.

“What things?”

“Those creepy little arm things. The ones making the printers or whatever,” Ploss said.

“Show me,” Aster said.

Ploss led him back in. The noise almost sounded insectile—buzzing and clicking in strange rhythms. Aster dodged around Ploss so he could see. The lights were back on and the bottom shelf of the rack had cleared out. The little robots had rolled their way down to the counters and their arms were busily moving over the machines.

“I could watch those things for an hour,” Ploss said. “It’s hypnotizing. Look at the way they coordinate. One finishes a task just as the next one starts. That one over there only screws things in. It shows up just in time to screw in a part when one of the other robots lifts it into place. See?”

Aster had his camera back out. He circled the counters, giving plenty of room to the robotic arms as they extended up blindly and manipulated the parts. Some soldered connections. Another mounted circuit boards. One of the robots on the end attached the outer panels to the boxes.

Aster was about to return to Ploss when he noticed something strange.

“Did you shut the door to the breaker box?” Aster asked.

“What?”

Aster walked over. He was sure that he had left the door to the panel open, but now it was shut again. He opened it. All the breakers had been turned back on. Aster reached up and touched the first one, trying to reassure himself that he had turned them off. He shrugged and flipped all the switches again.

The lights shut off. The sound of the robots stopped. The room was silent.

“Hey,” Ploss said.

Aster found his flashlight again. He heard the whine of a motor approaching. The wheels squeaked on the polished floor as the thing turned. Aster turned on his light as the arm extended and reached right for him. Aster ducked out of the way. The arm kept reaching until it found the breaker switches. It was slow, but it flipped each of the breakers back. The lights came on. The robots at the assembly line began to work again, filling the room with their motorized chatter.

“Wow,” Ploss said, across the room.

Aster frowned. The robot used its arm to shut the panel door and the robot rolled away. Aster ripped open the door and flipped off the breakers a third time. The wheels of the robot stopped. As Aster’s eyes adjusted to the dim light again, he saw the robot spinning in place so its long arm faced him again. Aster wondered how such a silly-looking machine could seem so ominous. It was the pincers at the end of the arm. They were pointed at Aster.

“What are you doing?” Ploss asked. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Give me a second,” Aster said. “I want to see how smart this thing is.”

As the machine rolled towards Aster and the panel, Aster raised his foot and kicked at the robot. It was heavy. Aster grunted as he shoved it with his foot. With his second effort, the thing toppled onto its side. The reaction was immediate. The arm spun on a swivel and pressed into the floor, trying to tip itself back up.
 

Less than a second later, Aster heard the machines over at the assembly line begin to chatter again. It was a different sound this time. These weren’t the noises of manufacturing, this was the quiet whir of their wheels moving them towards Aster.

Aster used his flashlight to reveal the rolling horde. More than a dozen small robots were converging on his location. He took a few steps backwards, figuring that the machines were coming to help the other robot back upright. As he backed away, he saw that the trajectory of the robots was changing. They were coming after him.

Aster jogged a wide arc around the machines. When he reached Ploss, the lights came back on again. One of the robots had continued on to the breaker panel and was now working to tip the other robot back to its wheels. The other robots were still tracking Aster.

“Good thing they’re not fast,” Ploss said.

“Yeah,” Aster said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Aster and Ploss backed up a step towards the door and the robots all stopped.

“They really wanted those lights on, I guess,” Ploss said. “Do you think they would have hurt you?”

“I don’t know,” Aster said.
 

The two men still backed slowly towards the door.

“They all reacted instantly. I wonder if a person is pulling their strings. Is it possible?” Aster asked.

“Sure. Why not?” Ploss asked.

“I don’t know. Something about the way they all turned at the same time. They react so fast,” Aster said.

Ploss reached back for the door handle. He turned the knob and tugged. The door was open about an inch when Aster reached out and slammed it shut.

“What?” Ploss asked.

“I don’t know,” Aster said. “Is there a different way out of here?”

Ploss glanced around the room.
 

“Loading dock doors, right here. Same exposure though. Must be another door on the other side of those machines. You think someone’s out there?”

“Maybe there’s one of those drones out there. Maybe more than one. This is where they were manufactured, right? What if there are a couple of drones out there waiting for us to walk out?”

“If they kill us here, they burn their manufacturing site. This whole operation would be shut down. Why wouldn’t they wait for us to get on the highway or something, you know? Or ship some of those drones right to our houses? Then the murder wouldn’t be connected to their production.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Aster said.

Aster pulled open the door. He stepped out onto the loading dock platform and Ploss followed. Ploss pulled the door shut.

“Lock it?” Ploss asked.

Aster shook his head. They walked down the concrete steps to the asphalt and began crossing the parking lot. The rain had picked up. Aster put up the hood of his borrowed sweatshirt.

“Well, no killer drones so far,” Ploss said.

“Yeah, I think maybe I’m putting too much stock in those crazy friends of James Owens.”

“The robots were creepy. Those things will make a guest appearance in my next nightmare, I’m sure,” Ploss said. “Which building do you want to check out next?”

“Let’s work down that side first. We can try out these keys,” Aster said. He held the big keyring that Leslie had found. They crossed the lot and walked over to suite one. All the buildings looked approximately the same, but this one had windows all down the side. Ploss looked in as Aster flipped through the keys, trying to find one to fit the door. The last one he tried was the one that fit the door of suite ten. The knob turned.

“Got it,” Aster said. “Same key.”

“Just boxes in there,” Ploss said as he came to Aster’s side.

They went in together and put their backs to the wall. Ploss flipped on the lights. They saw rows of boxes stacked on pallets. Ploss walked to the first row and pulled a box from the top. It was a little bigger than a shoe box. He took a knee as he set it on the floor. Ploss pulled a red utility knife from his pocket and cut the tape. Aster joined him on the floor as he opened the box.

“That’s the best packaging I’ve ever seen,” Aster said.

The box contained a solid block of foam with a precise cutout for the part suspended within. It was an electric motor, about the size of Aster’s fist. Around the perimeter of the box, the foam had a border of black and white squares that reminded Aster of the squares on the manufacturing counter in suite ten.

“Pull another one,” Aster said.

Ploss stood and grabbed a larger box.

Inside this one, they found that it also contained a big block of foam. In the foam four wheels with knobby tires were precisely suspended. They had geared cogs on the side and the rims were about four inches in diameter.

“These look like the wheels I saw on the bottom of that robot,” Aster said.