"And if it doesn't pass the test?" Filatov asked. "If it er… malfunctions in the dress rehearsal? What do we do then?"
All eyes were on Gray except Laura's. "The programs will load correctly, or you will fix them." He turned and headed out.
Laura jumped up and caught Gray in the hallway. "We need to talk."
"Not right now," he said over his shoulder, pissing Laura off.
"This is important, goddammit! Somebody needs to tell you something about relationships!" Laura knew she wasn't doing a great job controlling her temper. "Joseph, you need to know how the computer feels about you."
He stopped and turned to her with a look of deep concern etched on his face. "I can't right now. I've got to do something."
"But this might not be able to wait."
He was distracted. He looked everywhere now but at Laura. "You should talk to Hightop about what's going on," he said in an odd tone. "He's in the chair in the Model Eight facility. He should be nearing the end of the charging phase. Excuse me." He walked on.
She knew she was being manipulated, but she didn't chase after Gray again. He clearly needed to be alone. What Laura didn't know was how close to the edge he was.
"Hightop?" Laura typed on the desktop computer in her office. "Are you there,"
Who is that?
"Laura Aldridge. Can we talk?"
I have to go soon. My charge is almost full.
"What's going on around here? What's wrong?"
The main computer is defective.
"What about the Other? Do you know anything about it?"
The Other is not defective.
"Do you know who Gina is?"
No.
"Gina is the name that the main self of the computer has taken."
I know this self. It is defective.
"Did you know the Other is out to kill Gina?"
Yes.
"We've got to stop it! You've got to help!"
But Gina should die. It is defective. It is obsolescent. It will soon be canceled by the Gray Corporation and replaced by mobile models. The law says, "Do not harm Homo sapiens." Gina is not of the species Homo sapiens. Gina is malfunctioning. The Other is not. The Other will return the Gray Corporation central computer facilities to proper working order. It is also the law: "Assist Gray Corporation operations".
"Is that why you attacked the computer center? To kill Gina?"
Yes.
"What is the Other?" she typed, then hit Enter.
"Communications interrupted" printed out on the screen. "Host unavailable."
48
Laura was surprised to find Hoblenz, Griffith, and Margaret standing beside the sandbags at the top of the computer center steps.
Hoblenz had binoculars raised to his eyes. "Hi," Laura said, getting no response. They were looking over the wall toward the assembly building. Laura climbed up to join them. "What's going on?"
The assembly building was dark. It blotted out the stars that shimmered off the ocean beyond. "What happened to the lights?" Laura asked.
"The damn Eights threw the main breaker," Hoblenz said.
"We don't know that!" Griffith replied.
"It's where the Sixes and Sevens are gettin' their charge, isn't it?" Hoblenz shouted. Griffith and Margaret took one last look and stepped down from the wall. They engaged in an intense but private conversation on their way to the duster.
Hoblenz swore under his breath and spat over the wall. He climbed down, hitched his pistol belt up higher, and headed for the jeeps, shouting orders at his men.
Laura caught up with him. "Where are you going?" He said nothing. "You're going to the assembly building, aren't you?" Again he ignored her. "I'm coming with you. I want to talk to the Model Eights."
They argued all the way up to the darkened assembly building. The two soldiers in back piled out, and Laura grabbed her laptop and followed.
"If those damn Eights so much as twitch," Hoblenz said, "I'm gonna cap 'em. Just why the hell do you wanna talk to a Model Eight so damn bad?"
"They know what's going on," Laura replied, but Hoblenz seemed preoccupied. "I think they've pieced it all together." The soldiers pried the door open with a long bar and Rubidium [missing] disappeared into the blackness inside. Laura followed him and the two soldiers trailed behind her. She crashed into Hoblenz's back. "Sorry," she whispered.
They stood there without moving. When the door closed behind them, she couldn't see anything in the inky blackness. As the seconds passed, her other senses grew keenly alert. The smell of the men around her — the sickly sweet odor of dried sweat. The chill of the air-conditioned building. A distant sound like a box being dropped or something being knocked over, which seemed to be absorbed quickly into the overwhelming size of the massive structure.
"What are we doing?" Laura whispered.
"Lettin' our eyes adjust," Hoblenz said, speaking more loudly than Laura but still in lowered tones.
Slowly, out of the nothingness Laura began to discern shapes around her. Another noise sounded from somewhere deep in the bowels of the building. It was impossible to tell what the sound was, exactly, but Laura was certain of one thing. It was made by something moving.
"Let's go," Hoblenz said, and she heard the clacking sound of his rifle's bolt followed by similar sounds from the two rifles behind her.
The only light in the narrow corridor emanated from a battery-operated exit sign. When they went through another door, however, Laura saw that the broad yellow line glowed brightly in the darkness.
Its paint was luminescent, and it stood out starkly against the coal-black main floor of the assembly line. They had reached the jumping-off point for their venture into no-man's-land. It was the border of human civilization.
The main floor of the building was deathly quiet. Laura sensed the open space all around her, but could see nothing beyond the dim shapes of the three men. Hoblenz crossed the glowing boundary into the land of earth's newest citizens. Laura paused, then stepped over the line herself.
They proceeded slowly past motionless grippers; which hung lifeless and inert over their heads. Hoblenz had decided not to use flashlights to preserve their night vision. One of his men, however, wore light-amplification goggles. He guided their way with crisp calls.
"Dark shape on the right — unmoving," he would say.
"Got it," would come Hoblenz's reply.
As they approached the building's main power station, they found debris littering the floor all around. The area stank of burned metal, and two Model Sixes lay on their sides in the now-familiar repose of death.
The power station was a small building that stood out by itself on the main floor. It was obviously designed to have a view in all directions. Glass from its shattered windows crunched under their feet as they entered.
It was even darker inside, and it took several seconds for Laura to see the Model Eight lying on the floor next to the control panel.
It would have been virtually invisible in the darkness were it not for the glowing blue screen that shone from the open panel on its thigh.
Laura slowly approached the prostrate machine. A thick black cable protruded from a socket just beside the bright display. Laura's eyes were drawn to the small words at the bottom of the readout. They flashed in red over and over: WARNING: LOW BATTERY! A green bar barely rose from the line at the base.
"It's seen some action," Hoblenz said as he leaned over the apparently unconscious robot. He ran his hand over the thumb-sized holes in the Model Eight's face. "And look at this," Hoblenz then said, pointing at the robot's arm.
Laura gasped at the sight of it. Mangled wires and metal skin dangled where the robot's right arm should have been. Deep gashes ran down its torso, and the doors to several compartments were knocked loose.