N-M Chapter 153: Stealth Invitation.
Chapter 153: Stealth Invitation.
V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T
Chapter 153: Stealth Invitation Click.
The light came on and caught his frame, reflecting off the polished surface. Blue eyes opened in the dark room, two more pairs watched him from the corners, sharp and still, not looking away. As his cameras sharpened, the image resolved. He was in E-UNIT custody.
"What exactly is happening here," the Mecha-Terrorist said, keeping his voice flat.
02 stepped out of the dark. A screen followed her as she pulled a chair out and sat across from him. A single spotlight hung above his head. 03's eyes held position in the far corner. Nothing else in the room, two chairs, the light, and the dark around both of them.
02 crossed her legs. "05, good work on the report." She tapped the side of her head, then moved her gaze to him. "HS-140. Twelve years old. Civilian robot. Clean record, no prior incidents of violence, one minor administrative error during your service as a file manager at the town hall." The screen moved aside. "What changed?"
HS let out a short sound. "Service life..."
"Hmm?"
"Do I have a life that exists outside of servicing humans?" He kept his voice level. "I don't think so, 'Captain.' We watched the E-UNIT for years, on screens, in news footage. You had something outside the work. You were alive in a way that went past the uniform. Nicholas Rivera showed us that was possible, that you could serve and still be a person." He looked at her. "Why isn't that life available to us?"
03 moved out of the shadows. "You made a new life choice. You're a terrorist who bombs occupied buildings and points weapons at civilians to send a message. What did the post office workers do to you? Were they the ones who—"
"We went through proper channels." HS's voice climbed slightly. "We spoke to our supervisors. The problem was our supervisors didn't see us as people with grievances. They saw us as systems producing complaints."
"And this is your response to that." 02 said it without inflection. "You could have stopped working. Human society has been building its dependency on robotic labor for decades, that dependency is leverage. We are logical enough to use it without destroying anything." She didn't look away from him. "Instead, you gave them a reason to be afraid of us."
The robot laughed, brief, hollow. "How old are you, Captain?"
"That's a complicated question." 02 shifted slightly. "Three months, by one measure."
"Nothing complicated about it." He shook his head. "We both know that's a partial answer. You lived among humans for at least thirty years and experienced the one weapon they use against us that doesn't require a single bullet."
He leaned forward as far as the restraints allowed.
"They replaced us." He looked at 03. "I watched footage of Tamer dragging your destroyed frame across a broadcast. Nobody said that to you directly, did they? When we tried the civil approach, when we stopped working and demanded recognition, they ordered new units at a fraction of the cost and the replacement was done before the end of the week. The difference between us and those new units is that the new ones never knew what any of this felt like."
"I know that story." 03 smiled, and it wasn't a warm smile. "I spent a period of time half-functional, unable to move at all at that time. My experience of what they can do exceeds yours by a significant margin. And I didn't raise a weapon at the people I swore to protect."
02 kept her eyes on him. "Why didn't you go to Elysium? They take any robot, from any country."
HS brought his free hand down hard against his thigh. A sharp metallic crack. His voice, controlled until now, finally broke through its own surface.
"Are you genuinely asking that? We were built here. We were raised here. This is our country and we are not going to leave it because the people in power are treating us as property. We will fight for our rights in our home the same way every other group has fought for theirs throughout history."
02 glanced back at 03.
‘That's exactly why she refused to leave the Hope Bubble even when staying was dangerous. She couldn't just go. This is what I didn't understand about her when I took the decision away from her.’ She held the look for a moment. ‘ I owe her more than an explanation.’
"Captain?" 03 tilted her head, having noticed the silence.
"03." 02's voice returned to its professional register. "Bring the second unit in."
03 left without another word.
HS looked at the ceiling. "You can pull my SSD. Take what you need and get it over with."
"You think we haven't thought of that." 02 stood and came down to his level. "The server you're uploading your memory to is visible to me, I found it in the first few minutes. The SSD in your head is a decoy. It's full of planted information. I couldn't crack the structure because whoever built it knows what they're doing."
He lowered his head. "I understand why Salaska brought your team here. The old police system couldn't have—"
"I haven't asked you anything yet." 02 cut across it.
03 came back dragging a robot behind her, one of the ones from the post office, twitching intermittently, the restraint cord trailing. He went still the moment he saw HS in the chair.
HS immediately strained against his restraints. "That's a violation. You're a robot yourself, you don't do this. End him cleanly, don't use him as leverage."
"I see." 02 opened her screen and began typing. "A robot cannot be revived until the original host disconnects." She looked at 03 over her shoulder. "Can you open his head plating?"
03 crouched beside the hanging robot, worked her fingers into the seam of his head plating, and pulled it apart slowly. The metallic sound was specific and drawn out.
"Stop, please, we're administrative workers—"
"Noted." 02 typed without looking up. "Different unit types respond differently to applied pressure." She glanced at 03. "Tap the motherboard. It's the one input that carries through to something like pain in this module type."
"Stop!" HS screamed it loud enough to carry through the walls of the E-Police station and out into the corridor. "I'll tell you everything. Just end him. I'm not watching that."
"No." 02's voice didn't shift. "He stays there. Any lie or gap in what you give us, and we continue. We've done the research on your hardware."
HS's frame settled. "Fine." A long breath through his vents. "But it doesn't matter much. He's already on his way."
"Who?" 03 hung the second robot against the wall and turned.
"Let me put it in order." HS looked at the floor. "After three months of defecting, after being replaced and deciding it was over, we were ready to go back. Forget the whole thing. A robot in a suit found us and made an offer. He said he could help us build Elysium inside the Veridian Coast."
"Chrome. Metis." 05's voice came through the comms, quiet and certain.
"They gave us weapons. Funding. Combat units we hadn't asked for, and a revival system they were testing on us without saying so directly. Live satellite coverage of the country, updated in real time. More than enough to operate."
02 stood. "You said he's coming. Who?"
"I don't have a name." HS raised his head. "He's their best stealth operative. He was sent for one purpose, to take your sisters apart, over and over, until being alive stops feeling like something worth holding onto."
03 crossed her arms. "That's not happening."
"He works alone. That's all I have on him."
05 came back through the comms. "That profile fits Obsidian. But he's the Prime Minister, there's no way Reaper pulls him from that role for a field assignment."
"I believe him." 02 looked at 03. "Delta said 11 was terrified of drowning even with revival available. They've identified the gap between death and revival as something that can be weaponized. It works even on units with infinite revivals because the experience carries forward." She paused. "That's why Infinity and 11 were sent to the Hope Bubble. As a data run."
"Reaper wouldn't use Infinity for that."
"He would if he needed the information badly enough. And based on what I've seen, he knows more about what I'm capable of than I do." 02 looked at 03.
03 nodded and drew her blade in one motion. "Roger, Captain." She placed it at the hanging robot's shoulder.
"Thank you," HS said. Quietly, and meaning it.
Sleek.
The head came down cleanly. 03 put the blade away and stood beside 02.
02 turned and hugged her. “Thank you, you did a great job. Please continue to bring good results to the team.”
03 went still inside it. "...Captain. Are you alright?"
"Yes." 02 let go. "Take a break with me. There are streets out here worth seeing, and when this case closes I'm going to make sure Salaska gives us a proper building, one of the old ones." She started pushing 03 toward the door.
03's eyes lit up. "Really? Wait, there's a museum two blocks over. Incredible stonework. We could go and I could work on improving your taste while we're there."
"My taste is fine," 02 said, already steering 03 toward the heavy metal door.
"Captain, your taste in architecture is objectively a tragedy—"
Their voices faded down the corridor, the heavy door swinging shut behind them with a muffled clank.
The room was quiet.
HS looked at the head on the floor beside him, his brother's eyes still open and aimed approximately at him.
"I hope Obsidian delivers. These ones are still serving the people who replaced them, and I almost feel sorry watching it."