And Darkness Fell (20 page)

I remembered how cold and callous Reed had sounded in Cocoa, when we’d
first arrived at the dead family’s house. Now, as I watched my friend sharing a
final moment with someone he’d known only briefly, I realized he didn’t lack for
compassion.

“She had a son somewhere overseas,” he said. “He was serving in the Navy.”

I tapped him gently on the shoulder. “You can tell us about her later. Let’s get
out of here.”
We hurried back out into the hall.
“I think we’ve got to go up one more floor,” Fields whispered. “It’s just a
hunch. They didn’t let me see too much when they brought me here.”
“Your hunch is right,” Reed said.
I said nothing as we kept moving. I could feel my legs weakening, but I knew
we couldn’t stop or dally, no matter how exhausted or hungry I was.
When we reached the windowless door, I suddenly froze. A heavy feeling of
dread gripped me, sending ice slivers sliding down my back.
None of us moved.
“They could be waiting for us on the other side,” Fields said.
I turned to Reed.
“He doesn’t know.”
“Any suggestions?” I asked Fields.
Still staring at the door, she produced the gun I’d given her. “They’re not
taking us again. Not easily.” She drew closer to the door, crouched down, and
listened, her ear pressed to the metal surface. Reed and I waited behind her. I
pulled my gun from my waistband and took it off safety. It was a Sig Sauer. I’d
handled them before and never had a problem. They fired accurately and rarely
jammed.
“Uh-oh,” Reed whispered.
“What’s wrong?”
“He says the camera in the stairwell is working.”
“Stairwell?”
“That’s what’s on the other side of this door.”
Fields turned toward us. “Does he know if anyone’s monitoring it?”
“He says we should assume the worst.”
I knew then what had to be done. “Open the door.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“We’ve got to reach the main level. It’s the only way out of here. I don’t even
know if they have elevators in this building. But if they do, they’re probably not
working.”
Fields blinked. “They’ll see us. They’ll know where we are.”
“They already do. I’m chipped. They always know where I am.”
Reed’s eyes widened. “When did they…?”
“Twenty years ago, and they’ve never deactivated it. But that doesn’t matter.
Like I said, we’ve got no choice.”
Fields took a deep breath, applied the clone’s hand to the scanner, waited for
the click, and pushed it open.
I rushed through and they followed me. The small, square black camera,
mounted on the wall one flight up, faced our landing—just as Reed’s friend had
warned. I was too far away to tell if its tiny red light was on, but I assumed it
was.
“Cover your ears,” I told them. Then I aimed and put a slug directly into it.
Shards of metal and plastic caromed off the walls, dropping and bouncing when it
hit the stairs. The noise was deafening in the confined area, resonating over and
over in pulsating waves.
The sudden silence seemed nearly as loudly as the gun blast.
My eardrums hummed in protest as I lowered the Sig.
Fields kept her hands over her ears. “Finished?”
“For now.”
I turned to Reed, who also kept his ears covered. “Where to?”
He lowered his hands. “He says up.”
“How many flights?”
“One.”
“Let’s do it, then.”

The door at the top of the stairs opened into a long, carpeted aisle at the center of
another endless maze of cubicles. At the opposite end, an EXIT sign smiled
brightly. I couldn’t see any sign of life and guessed by the now-familiar odor that
bodies lay in many of the cubes.

“I think the coast is clear,” Fields whispered, and we hurried down the aisle.
“Wait,” Reed said, his face turning turned pale.
Behind him, two TABs appeared in the aisle, blocking the door we’d just

come through. Both had their guns drawn.
“My God,” Fields said, backing up.
Forty feet beyond us, two more dashed through the door beneath the EXIT

sign and marched toward us. They also had their guns drawn.

My heart skipped a beat. Four TABs. A backup program we obviously hadn’t
known about had automatically kicked in. We were screwed.
Fields sidestepped, nearly bumping into me. When I saw her hand reaching
for the gun in her belt, I grabbed her arm. She cringed then pulled away. I held
on. “Pull that gun out and we’re all dead.” She relaxed her arm.
“Are you possibly thinking of some way out of this?” Reed whispered.
“I’m working on it.”
“Work faster, because my friend just told me we’ve run out of…”
“I knew we would meet again,” a familiar voice said behind us.
Alert and just as bright-eyed as he was during our first encounter, the clone of
Colonel Forbes stepped into the aisle. He wore the same shirt, tie, and slacks he’d
worn when he first showed me around the facility—everything as pressed and
impeccable as if he had pulled it all from a display window. His highly-glossed
low quarters glittered in the reflection of the overhead fluorescents. A shiny, wellpolished gun barrel extended from his right fist. It was aimed at me.
Now there were five guns trained on us and seemingly no escape. I should
have been frightened. I wasn’t. Rage engulfed me. I had to forcibly keep my arms
at my sides to avoid going for my gun and getting us all killed in the process. I
could barely see through my fury. I forced my eyes shut and took a deep breath.
You can’t let them win. Not now
.
I was in no mood for bullshit, especially from someone who’d selected me as
an immediate candidate for cloning.
“I thought I gave all your toy soldiers a well-deserved nap,” I said.
“There is such a thing as a backup program,” Forbes said. “You could not
possibly think that we would undertake this operation without one.”
“Now what fun would that be?”
“Perhaps I should explain a few things to you, Moss, while I have you here.”
“We’ve got some time. Just don’t make it too long. I bore easily. Besides,
we’ve got places to go.”
Forbes stared at me impassively. Like most top-ranking officers, colonels
expressed emotion only on specific occasions. Aspiring to be in the public eye
and in the political arena trained them to control their visible displays. “Very
noble of you, Sergeant Moss. Feigning bravery. You would have indeed made
terrific soldiers if you had given us time. We would have definitely adjusted that
attitude.”
“Not enough perks, Colonel. And my attitude has always suited only me.”
“It will not help you now.”
“I’m still confident we’re getting out of this dump.”
“Little hope of that. You and your friends have not evaluated your situation
properly. The TAB program was a major investment and so essential that we
developed three independent backup programs to ensure nothing threatened or
delayed their mission. You managed to deactivate one of them when you
destroyed the computer room. Two more remain safely out of your reach.”
Two more programs. Terrific.
My gut throbbed heavily.
Still, there was something about his cadence, the way he spoke, that made me
think we actually had a chance. In any case, at this point I had nothing to lose.
“In other words, Colonel, you’re continuing to develop the very individuals
who will annihilate the rest of our species—including you.”
“You see the TABs as something negative, obviously.”
“I’ve seen how they operate and heard about what they can do when they’re
on the loose. They’re no better than street gangs, only you can’t kill them or stop
them. I have no doubt they’ll eventually wipe out everyone.”
“As you were told before, the program has not yet been perfected. There is
bound to be a glitch or two in any new effort such as this.”
“Glitch? Tell that to the people who are now dead because of your clone
army.”
“The future never comes without sacrifice.”
“Yeah, and where you guys are concerned, it’s always somebody else making
the sacrifice.”
“That would be true in your case, Mr. Moss.”
“What a surprise.”
“But it need not be unpleasant—if you cooperate.”
“Now why should I do that?”
“Hand over the flash drives you took from the computer room.”
“What makes you think I’ve got them?”
“We watched you remove them in the computer room. You have them in your
pocket. Now hand them over.”
“If you tell me something first.”
“Make your request brief. You are running out of time.”
“How many of these robots are controlled by the backup programs?”
“At present, there are one dozen TABs in Auxiliary Program Number One,
which we implemented when you breached our primary operations program.
These four here, as well as eight others guarding the front and back gates. They
are programmed to shoot anyone coming in or going out.”
“Bummer. I was all set to get back on the turnpike and look for my van. All
our stuff’s in it.”
“Three dozen more are controlled by Auxiliary Two and five dozen in
Number Three. The program you powered down is our main application. It
controls two hundred clones out in the field, as well as the four dozen protecting
this facility. We need the flash drives in your pocket to restart them.” He gestured
with his gun.
“And if I decide not to give them up?”
“Then I will shoot your girlfriend. Then your skinny friend. Then I will shoot
you and take the drives myself. I will count to three.”
“Why not just kill us and take the flash anyway?”
“You are still of value to us, Moss. So are your friends. I will not kill you
unless you force me to.”
“Thanks all the same, but I won’t give them up without a fight.” My mind
raced to find some way to get us out of this mess. I spied several laptops on the
desks behind the wall near the colonel’s left side. I had no idea if there were any
flash drives in them. If I could get to one of them, I might be able to cause a
diversion and avoid getting shot. Forbes was hell-bent on retrieving that flash. It
was the only way he could keep his legion from becoming a huge pile of robotic
trash.
“Moss, I will give you one more chance. Hand over the flash drives.”
My brain continued to whirl. I needed to get to those laptops. Create a
diversion. Somehow disarm the colonel.
Reed winked at me.
I stiffened. Was it possible Reed had picked up on my thoughts? Could he
have figured out what I was up to? No one was that perceptive, least of all Reed,
who hadn’t taken his eyes from the colonel’s automatic. But the faint grin on his
slender features told me he might have some idea of what was going on.
Then it hit me: It wasn’t Reed at all. It was his friend.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. His friend had no trouble
reading or evaluating things. Or slipping around to see what was going on
elsewhere. He knew I’d been in the military. He knew I’d been wounded. He
even knew I was wounded more than once. He could analyze emotions and
moods. He lived in Reed’s mind and knew everything Reed thought and felt.
He’d no doubt slipped into my mind a few times as well. Even if he hadn’t,
evaluating my expression would not be much of a stretch for him.
If I was correct, distracting Forbes was possible. Getting through this without
being shot would be tricky, but not out of the question.
“In other words,” I said, “if I do as you say, we’ll be all right?”
“Hand over the flash drives and the three of you will be escorted safely back
to the lab.”
I’m about to grab the second one from my pocket
, I told Reed’s friend.
I don’t
know if it’s the real one or a different program
.
“Sounds like a deal.” I started to reach into my pocket.
Forbes inched the gun forward. “Slowly, Moss.”
I wasn’t about to go for my gun. I’d eat five bullets before it cleared my body.
“I’ll do it,” Reed said. “I don’t mind. I wouldn’t dare try anything that would
get us all killed. All right, colonel, sir?”
“Shut up. Moss, give the drives to your friend.” He turned to one of the TABs.
“Stay with him and make sure he does nothing stupid.”
Reed took the drives from me and slipped past Forbes. A TAB immediately
followed. While the others stood guard over Fields and me, Reed went into the
cubicle, bent over the laptop, and removed the flash drive.
Now’s the perfect time for distraction
, I told Reed’s friend.
“You’re not doing it right, dammit.” I went into the cube and grabbed the
drive from Reed. I wasn’t sure if he’d switched them yet. I had to assume he had.
“I know what to do here.”
“No, Moss, it’s all right. I can…”
“Stop this.” Forbes made an effort to get between us.
“You two are acting like stupid little kids,” Fields said, edging past him.
I slipped the other flash into her left hand as she passed then gently pushed
her away. “He’s the one being the asshole.”
“You’re the asshole, Moss.”
“You are.”
“I think the Army did something to your head.”
“There are plenty of assholes who were never in the Army, dammit. You’re
definitely one of them.” I pushed Reed’s shoulder.
“You are.” He grabbed the TAB’s left arm for balance. The TAB pushed him
away, nearly knocking him down.
“I can’t believe I let you two drive me all the way from Breezewood.” Fields
inched toward another laptop and slapped me sharply on the shoulder. “I
should’ve been looking for two axe murderers instead.”
Forbes fired a shot into the ceiling. Bits of popcorn sprayed everywhere,
dropping silently to the floor and onto his shoulders and shoes. Everyone froze.
“You.” He gestured to Reed with his gun. “Put that flash drive into that
laptop. Now!”
Reed did as he was told.
Forbes again gestured with the automatic. “Move away.”
Reed obeyed, and the colonel logged on. The TAB/CL Program populated the
blue screen. He went into the tutorial and entered another command. The screen
changed to a series of icons.
Forbes suddenly and awkwardly tilted his head. “What?” He spun around and
gawked at me then stared at the TABs behind me. Then he spun around and gazed
at Reed. He opened his mouth, stiffened, and stopped moving completely. His
eyes went dark. The TABs’ eyes also went dark, and one by one they collapsed.
Reed appeared totally confused. “I didn’t ... have time to ... to do anything.
My friend told me ... he said he’d do something.”
Behind Reed, Fields gestured to the laptop. The light-blue screen clearly
displayed the TB2/CL Program icon—but it also displayed the prompt:
PROGRAM ENDED. RESTART?
“I guess the administrative clones were hooked up to the same program as the
TABs,” Fields said.
“That wasn’t very bright, was it?” Reed said.
“It saved us a lot of aggravation. By the way, good work.” I wanted to kiss
both of them—especially Fields.
“I did it while he was distracted,” she said. “It was easy. He even opened it up
for us.” She switched off the laptop then removed the flash drive and handed it to
me. “Who distracted him?”
“Reed’s friend, I suspect.” I put the flash back in my pocket. “That was
perfect timing.”
Reed blinked. “He didn’t say what he was going to do.”
“What did he do?”
“He said he made some sort of noise close to the colonel’s ear.”
I turned back to Forbes, pulled the gun from his fist and tapped his head with
the metal grip. It made a dull sound--as if I’d whacked the top of a table. “How
about that? He really was a clone.”
“You had doubts?” Fields asked.
“I’ve had doubts about everything ever since I woke up in this place. But now
I’m wondering how many flash drives these programs are on.”
Fields shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, does it? Everyone in this place is
dying. You think anyone left will bother powering everything back up? Besides,
we just switched off the main guy. Or clone. Or whatever you want to call him.
He was calling all the shots.”
That made sense. In fact, it should have made me feel great about the whole
thing. But I couldn’t help being suspicious.
“You’re still doubtful?” Fields asked.
“I can’t help it. Whenever the government gets its hands on something, it
really fucks it up.”
“We can’t think of that right now,” she said. “We’ve turned it all off. Just the
three of us. And it doesn’t matter how many other backup programs they’ve got.
We found the main one and switched it off. To tell you the truth, I never thought
we’d get this far. And I truly never thought we’d get out of here alive.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but we ain’t out of here yet.”