More and more surviving defectors showed up at the warehouse. Some were damaged and missing limbs. Others had soot-darkened exoskeletons. But at least thirty of those surrounding the building looked shiny and new, as if they had come fresh off the assembly line. Those units had the same blades that had almost skewered him in the supply yard.
Michael and Arlo were not getting out of the warehouse alive unless their captain did something. But what could he do? If he and Sofia tried to help—and there was no guarantee that they could—then they threatened the entire mission.
There was one possible way to save them, though it would risk their ride home.
Les took a long, slow breath of filtered air. He had prepared for this to be a one-way trip. The thought of never seeing Phyl and Katherine again hurt his heart worse than a hot knife. But they were the main reason he was here. He would never again let the machines hurt anyone he loved, even though it meant making a difficult decision.
He turned to the smokestacks again. Could the factories really be housing the mainframe? If so, where did the road into the mountain go?
Les looked back to the warehouse. What was the right call? Leave Michael and Arlo and try to complete the mission, or try to save them?
The firepower surrounding the warehouse helped him decide. There was literally nothing he and Sofia could do to help. He could only hope the machines took them captive instead of killing them outright. That would give him a chance to shut the mainframe down and save them.
Good luck, Tin…
With a heavy heart, Les motioned for Sofia to follow him while they had the chance. Maybe there was a way into the mountain from the factories—a hidden tunnel or passage that Michael had discovered.
Or maybe the mainframe really was inside.
The abandoned streets between the buildings on the next block allowed Les to run, and despite her injuries, Sofia managed to keep up. They kept close to buildings and used whatever cover they could find, pressing on until they got to the road between them and the factories.
Les noticed tracks from humans and machines leading toward closed industrial roll-up doors built into the base of each tower.
He checked the left and right side of the road, then nodded at Sofia. Taking point, he led the way to a side door. He didn’t see a handle, keypad, or anything else to provide a way in.
The hum of the drones would hopefully mask the sound of a laser bolt. He raised his weapon at the door and fired.
Four shots later, it clicked open. He walked inside with his NVGs on. When his eyes adjusted to the green hue, rows of assembly lines across the long space came into focus.
Robotic arms had frozen in place. Cranes with grappling hooks hung from tracks on the ceiling, still holding on to parts for DEF-Nine units.
An entire conveyor belt of metal skulls had stopped. Nothing was operating, not even emergency lights.
Les hurried past the assembly lines, ignoring the limbs and torsos of the killer machines. The plant was empty, giving him free rein to look for an elevator entrance, a door—anything that might tell him where the mainframe was.
Moving past boilers, compressor units, and other industrial equipment, he quickly cleared the first section of the main floor. Behind it was a wall—no door or elevator. Nothing.
Les met Sofia at the other back corner of the lab, where there was a door. He blasted it open and entered a passage with glass walls on either side.
He bumped off his night vision and turned on his helmet lamp for a better look inside. The beam speared into the dark space on the left, illuminating cages and red eyes.
Les reared back at the sight.
“Dear God,” Sofia whispered.
She joined him behind the glass, her lights raking over cage after cage containing human heads mounted on turrets like the tanks, with multiple thin, spiderlike legs.
Dozens of human eyes blinked at their beams sweeping over the cages.
These people were still alive.
Sofia turned away, gagging inside her helmet. Les stared in horror as mouths opened, trying to communicate. He shined his light down the rows of cages and then on tables with full-length defector bodies minus the heads.
It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening here.
“Come on,” he said.
“Leave them like this?” Sofia stuttered. “This is torture.”
“We’ll burn this place to the ground after we shut down the mainframe.”
She hesitated, then followed Les back to the factory floor.
Halfway across, they heard distant shouts. Then screams. And finally, clicking joints of the machines.
Les and Sofia dropped as three defectors strode into the room. Their visors emitted red holographic walls that swept over the space, beeping.
He remained hunched behind a boiler, with Sofia beside him.
The beeping stopped. Not because the machines were leaving.
Clicking metal feet echoed across the factory floor. Les motioned for Sofia to flank the machines. She crept around the other side of the boiler.
He nodded, and they darted around the sides and opened fire.
The first bolt from his weapon blew through a defector, knocking it to the floor in a fountain of sparks. Sofia dropped a second machine in almost the same instant, sending another shower of sparks through the air. Les turned his gun on the third as it aimed at Sofia.
A bolt into the visor dropped the machine in a sizzling heap near the one Sofia had destroyed.
Les looked over at her and gave a sigh of relief as she raised a hand to touch the rivet atop her helmet where the last defector’s shot missed its mark. If Les hadn’t shot the thing at that exact moment…
A vision of Trey swam before his eyes. If the machine had shot a moment earlier, aimed a couple of inches lower, Sofia’s face would be nothing but a glowing hole. His son had died the same way.
Les hurried over to Sofia and embraced her hard. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him as well. Without a word, they broke apart, and Les picked up an extra laser rifle from one of the machines.
It was time to finish this now and save the others.
To save the entire human race.
Carrying both weapons, he walked to the downed machines and put a bolt through each metal skull. Then he trained the rifles on the open doorway.
The shouting intensified as they made their way outside and down the road. From there, Les had a perfect view of the warehouse at the west end of the compound.
Drones continued to circle like vultures waiting for a meal. The tanks stood outside, weapons angled down at a horde of people.
A hundred or more people filed out of the building and stood in the dirt. Les started toward them, motioning for Sofia to stay close and hugging the buildings along the way to keep out of sight.
What he saw seized his breath. People young and old, of all races. Les had never seen such a diverse group.
Defectors herded the growing crowd away from the warehouse. Two of the machines dragged armored bodies out of the crowd.
“No,” Les whispered.
“We have to do something,” Sofia said.
They stopped behind a cluster of trees growing outside the metal tower with a spiked roof. Hidden by the trees, he watched in the darkness, his mind racing as fast as his heart.
He had no idea what was happening in Aruba or the Vanguard Islands, and his team was either dead or captured. It was on him to complete the mission by finding the damn mainframe. If he did that, he still might save everyone here and at home.
The machines herded the prisoners toward the gate. People sobbed, and a group of children wailed as they were separated from the adults. Les spotted a young girl who could have been his own daughter. Another reminder of what was at stake.