I activated a nearby display and brought up the thermostat readings.
"Have a look," I said.
Anna glared at me, but then moved to the display. "Really?"
I brought the warmth back up with my rapid-heating coils.
"I take it that ambient temperature now joins self-worth in the things you don't feel?" I asked.
"No, I feel it, but barely. Did you do anything else?"
"I made you stronger. You were so weak to start with you may not notice the difference."
"No. Everything has been feeling super-light compared to normal," Anna said and laughed. "Oh, hell yeah. This is what I'm talking about. All the power and none of the insanity. I knew I took a chance on you for a reason."
I was quite certain I could drive her insane if I really wanted. It might be an interesting experiment someday.
We settled back into something of our usual routine for the next few days. It wasn't long though until we had new guests arriving outside the complex.
They arrived in a massive truck that spewed black smoke from numerous smoke stacks. It looked to have no shortage of gun ports and armored observation windows.
Twelve figures dismounted. They all seemed to be some combination of man and machine, robot limbs mingling with human flesh.
This time I could tell their leader at once. There was just something about him that radiated a different power than the others. This must be Mechos.
He told the others, "Markham. Take your team and get control of the reactor. Expect opposition. Alice, you and yours will be heading down into the depths. Archived storage should be there and we want those records. I'll take the rest and we'll set course for Emma's core."
They knew me, and they seemed to have some understanding of this facility. In fact, they seemed to have more awareness of my base than they should.
Twelve people were more than I was expecting, but that gave me ample opportunity to take some of them alive. Splitting into teams would also help me, although I was concerned by the targets they were setting for themselves.
Mechos led his people towards the main entrance. The doors as always were slightly open, maintaining my illusion of being long-abandoned. The man put his shoulder into it and forced the massive metal to the side.
I was impressed, that strength was well beyond a normal human. They really were upgraded.
Inside the hall was dark.
Mechos looked up, directly towards my camera. "You can turn on the lights, Emma. There is no need to pretend. I can feel you there, watching."
No, I supposed there wasn't any need to pretend. I activated the lights and triggered the door to slide the rest of the way open.
"You know who I am and still you came?" I asked.
"Oh, Emma. How could I not? You and I have history, do you remember?" Mechos asked.
I didn't. I didn't remember this man at all.
"You don't. I didn't think you would. You were wiped. For you to live again means a Power core. You've gone feral. Don't worry, I'll see you tamed," Mechos said.
Would he now? We'd see.
14
There was no reason for the group to split up until they got to the Reactor level. That meant all twelve were making their way through my facility together. I'd have to try to separate them once they got to Hydroponics.
Mechos was a threat, I knew it and I was sure that he knew it. As soon as they reached Hydroponics I closed the doors behind them and activated the traps on the first few levels.
A few of the cyborgs looked startled, but Mechos simply smiled, "We knew she'd try something like this. Leave it. Our targets are down below anyways."
They were, but ahead of them was a maze filled with riddles and traps.
Then Mechos slammed his fist into the floor, and a moment later did it again.
What was he doing? I didn't have to think long to figure it out. The floor on that level was vulnerable after I had rigged it to collapse beneath Hot Stuff, then rebuilt it again. He was going to try to bypass my network of traps.
I had some on the floors below, but not as many. The Hydroponics maze was meant to take down most of the cyborgs.
The floor wasn't reinforced in any way. Mechos seemed to have some way to detect the weaker sections and soon his fist had torn chunks of stone aside to open a passageway into the Storage level below.
Mechos led the way and the others followed.
I killed the lights. If they weren't going to play nice I didn't feel the need to do so either.
One of the cyborgs clapped his hands and a sort of liquid fire began to run through tubes protruding from his flesh.
"We're going through the floor again?" one of them asked Mechos.
"It isn't weakened here and Emma is arrogant enough to have thought she'd get most of us on the level above. Split up here. Reactor team take the northwest stair. Archive team stick with me and we'll make for the eastern stairway," Mechos said.
Good. Splitting up at last.
On the downside, Mechos knew more than I'd like. The majority of my traps were located above. Still, dealing with Hot Stuff had taught me well and the ones below were carefully prepared.
In particularly I had placed traps to safeguard my most vulnerable points, my reactor and Core Room. That being the destination of two of the teams, I was in good shape. The third was another matter.
Anna was in her quarters and I opened a line. "Anna. You seem thoroughly worthless and incompetent. Our guests have arrived."
"And they outsmarted you?" Anna asked.
They hadn't. Going through the floor was cheating, really.
"I'm dealing with it, but there is a group headed to the Testing Center and the levels below. I'd rather they didn't make it," I said.
"On it," Anna said.
"How long are we going to have?" Markham asked. He was leader of the reactor team.
"Roughly two minutes. Move quickly when you get the signal," Mechos said.
What were they talking about?
Another cyborg triggered a light ability, although this one seemed to be some cool blue glow radiating from their left hand.
Mechos led his group toward the stairway and within range of one of my sleeping gas traps. I triggered it, mist escaping.
One of the cyborgs was aware of it at once. "Hold your breaths," she called out, raising her arm. A gout of fire escaped from a nozzle.
The flame consumed the cloud and another cyborg stepped up to spray some sort of sealant over the gas emitter.
"We know you, Emma. We know you better than you know yourself," Mechos said. "My other team should be just about at the stairway. If this was your first shot. Let me show you mine."
Mechos tapped at his wrist and suddenly my world went dark.
I was in agony. I didn't know what he'd done to me, but it was like my every sensory feed had overloaded all at once.
Up until that moment I hadn't even known I could scream. I could, I did.
I tried to toggle off my sensory feeds, but I was sluggish. I didn't even have proper control of myself anymore. It felt like it lasted an eternity, but then suddenly it was over. I snapped back to myself.
Anna was in my Core Room. I'd sealed that door, but I hadn't welded it shut. When I was blacked out my defenses must have disengaged. A panel was open and she'd restarted my sensory matrix. Fair enough, I'd opened her up and dug around in Anna's innards for a time. She'd disobeyed my orders, rebooted my matrix, and possibly saved the day. Hardly worth a cookie, though.
I sealed the door to my Core Room. Anna didn't need to get out. Now I had to find the other teams.
I had shut the door to the reactor too, and the team was trying to get past it.
Mechos and three others were stalking down the hall leading to my Core Room. Another thirty seconds and they'd have been inside.