“Don’t leave the apartment for a few days.”
“Why?”
He sits and takes her hand, her cold hand, in his and looks at her earnestly. “Trust me.”
Caufmann is in the lower labs refining the testing of Del’s internal systems. There seems to be a serious problem once the combat protocols are unlocked. He uses sonar to see his surroundings but has great difficulty distinguishing between viable targets and non-combatants.
In all simulations, he lasts about half an hour before he starts to become confused, shooting friendlies and targets alike. With a glitch like this, Del will never be allowed in the field. “There must be some way to determine why he suddenly sees friendlies as enemies.”
Rethrin mutters something before responding to him. “He either kills everyone or no one at all. Why did you think it was such a good idea to make a blind android?”
“I like a challenge.”
“Eyes would solve everything.”
“Not if they’re disabled. Android eyes are their lifelines, they can not do anything without them. Once Del is perfected, he will be the ultimate in future combat. There are none like him.”
“What about Del’s brother unit Adrenin?” asks Rethrin.
Caufmann glances at Rethrin for a moment before continuing to read the diagnostics display on the Transfilm in his hand. “Not ready.”
Rethrin stares hard at him. “William… I’ve worked with you long enough to know when you’re hiding something. It’s frustrating.”
“You must spend a lot of your time frustrated.”
“If Adrenin is Del’s twin, why is he taking so long? It’s not just a birthing algorithm instalment, I know that’s garbage.”
“Adrenin has eyes and he isn’t exactly Del’s twin,” he says pausing for a moment to think. “Maybe more of a half-brother.”
Rethrin’s expression is almost a wince, “What have you done this time?”
“Doctor Hillon is already aware of this, but I’ve cloned one of the Suvaco units.”
Rethrin is stunned. “You did what?”
“I needed to know their limitations. After everything that’s gone wrong with Del, I now believe their programming is organic and can be copied with the genome.”
“To accomplish what?”
“Adrenin may hold the key to decoding the Suvaco units. I tried altering certain sequences with Del but the result has left him unstable. Adrenin is a direct copy.”
“It would explain the extreme amount of ghost code,” says Rethrin.
“The main aim with Adrenin is to ascertain how the Suvaco units communicate with each other. Once done, I can set Adrenin up to command them, should they ever awaken.”
Rethrin scoffs, “It could do the exact opposite, they might be able to command him.”
“Which explains Del’s existence. He is the contingency. He is specifically designed to kill androids.”
She nods to herself. “William, may I be excused?”
“Of course, I’ll stay on.”
Rethrin walks out of the lab door. It flies up into the bulkhead then slams behind her, excluding her from the lab.
Doctor Roths is waiting on the other side, “What did he say?”
Rethrin avoids eye contact. “I didn’t ask.”
“Why not? You believe the infection sweeping the city is his doing. He told me both strains of DNA weren’t made here and I believe him, Mepida. He’s insane, most definitely, but he’s not a liar.”
“I know he made it. He’s sick.”
Roths’ sickly complexion is ashen. When she swallows it sounds like two pieces of wet sandpaper rubbing together. “He talks to his test subjects, you know. He knows most of their names. He looks them in the eye when he injects them with his experiments. Do you know why he does that?” asks Roths doing her best to suppress a coughing fit.
Rethrin shudders and shakes her head.
“He says he wants to remember what he’s taking from them, because he owes them that much.”
Rethrin takes a sharp breath and looks like she’s just eaten something that tastes horrendously nasty.
“Listen to me carefully, Mepida, a man willing to do that does not mince words with his staff. We’re already in the restricted section, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
Rethrin obviously still doesn’t like it.
Roths coughs into her sleeve and wipes her eyes. “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”
“Such as?”
Roths eyes are piercing, “If you do, I’ll kill you.”
Rethrin looks up in surprise.
Roths is standing perfectly still. “But I do envy you,” and with that, she enters Caufmann’s lab where he is still reading the diagnostics. The door slams down and Caufmann looks up.
“Hello, Doctor Roths, I’d like your opinion on something.”
“Of course, William.”
“Am I going to have to kill Doctor Rethrin?”
Roths huffs a little, bringing on another hacking cough. “I don’t think so, sir. She still thinks saving the world is supposed to be romantic.”
Caufmann makes a rumble with his throat. “I don’t think anyone would accept what we do here as saving anything.”
Roths smirks, “It’s like a gangrenous limb, you have to remove it.”
“No one ever says thank you while it’s being cut.”
“Maybe one day,” she hacks again, this time hard enough to nearly double her over. “William, can I have my antigen now?”
“Oh, yes,” Caufmann says absently, producing a vial from his coat pocket and loading it into a syringe. “I forgot about that, I’m sorry. How are you finding it?” he asks looking up at her.
Roths tilts her head cracking her neck. “It’s quite crippling, I’d prefer Ebola.”
Caufmann actually smiles enough to crease his face. “There’s always next week, but I get to test the next one,” he says flicking the syringe before jabbing her arm with the antigen. Most of her veins are black. “How is the pain in the lower spine?”
“Pretty intense. I started internally haemorrhaging this morning, and felt the parasite move. How far along was I?”
“Probably another day or two and you would have been too far gone. I have to thank you for enduring it for so long. Initially I found it very disturbing that you were infected.”
Roths smiles slightly, “I probably don’t want to know the answer, but will the parasite break down with the virus?”
“It will degrade, don’t worry. It requires an enzyme that the virus produces to sustain itself.”
She sighs, “For once, knowing that you have no fear of telling the cold hard truth actually comforts me.”
“You’ll still feel terrible for another day or so.”
“Do you know why they’ve released this virus?”
“I have an idea, but I don’t know why this city specifically.”
Roths’ interest is piqued, “Do tell.”
Caufmann takes a deep breath. “I need more time before I make an educated guess.”
6.
Blackout
Rennin is pacing outside Caufmann’s office.
He talks absolute garbage all day, he should be able to tell a slight fib to get the vaccine.
I don’t care if he says it’s too late for her. I have to try.
Rennin had been wearing his armour-weave coat to work everyday since his return, but the upper echelons of staff have forced him to revert to wearing his standard black Godyssey tunic. So he wears it over the top of his leather coat, looking absolutely ridiculous, tearing at the seams. But aggravating the staff isn’t bringing its usual solace. And he’s barely even ribbed Wanker for most of the day.
Carla’s skin is now almost translucent, her veins almost all black. Her back hurts enough to keep her seated most of the time.