A Plain Jane Book One

Chapter 19

  Lucas Stone

  Prack… he’d heard her drowning. Heard her choking, heard her thrashing. Yet he hadn’t been able to move. He hadn’t been able to do anything. He had tried. Goddamn it, he’d tried. He’d put every single effort he could muster into moving, into turning around, into jumping into the water and saving her. Yet nothing worked. His armor just wouldn’t move.

  This wasn’t meant to happen; bio-armor was never meant to be controlled by anyone other than the wearer. It had incredible security protocols in place to ensure that it couldn’t suddenly act without the intention of whoever was inside; of course it did. Otherwise, anyone wearing it could become the victim of external control. In fact, all you would require was a sophisticated hack, and you could find yourself in possession of an army of bio suits.

  Yet somebody had still hacked his armor, he was sure of it. While at first, he’d suspected his armor was running some kind of program that was taking up all the processing power, he’d realized too late that it was more than that. Not only was the living membrane consumed with some task, but it had also started to sedate him, calming his muscles, possibly even trying to make him go to sleep.

  He’d fought it.

  Then, as he’d squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of Jane’s choking, he’d heard an incredible splash. Precious seconds later there had been a shake on the path behind him as something heavy had landed, and seconds after that he’d heard Jane choking and spluttering her heart out less than a meter behind him.

  What had followed next had chilled Lucas until no trace of warmth had been left anywhere in his limbs, chest, and heart.

  She’d started talking to something. Then, when he’d found his own voice, that something had repeated his words, had mimicked his voice perfectly.

  When he’d finally managed to turn, it had been to the sight of an assassin robot. It was right in front of her face, its eyes almost touching her own.

  Then she’d thrown herself between him and the robot, just as he’d brought his gun around, just as he’d been ready to fight it off, to get it away from her, to protect her.

  Worse than that, she’d used that voice. Or, more accurately, the implant had spoken.

  Yet despite its authority and certainty, he wasn’t about to believe it. He knew what an assassin robot was capable of.

  So he’d kept his gun held steady as he’d tried to move around her.

  Her eyes were squeezed completely shut now, her lips pressed in, her expression almost one of surrender. Yet despite the fact she couldn’t see him, the implant always expertly moved her between Lucas and the robot.

  If he moved fast enough, if he managed to roll to the side, he might be able to dodge her to get a clear line of sight. Yet he doubted the implant would let him; he knew it could move Jane faster than he could move, even in his armor.

  … But there was something else.

  The assassin robot wasn’t moving.

  In fact, it simply stood behind Jane, and whenever Jane moved, it moved too, but not in a way that suggested it now wanted to kill her; it just let her always keep herself between it and Lucas.

  It was using her as protection.

  Lucas slammed his teeth down, not caring that it sent an unpleasant jolt all the way through his jaw.

  It seemed a lot of things used Jane.

  “Get out of the way,” he snapped again, knowing that it wouldn’t work, but needing to speak out loud, anyway. Plus, even if the implant wasn’t going to listen, at least Jane, the real Jane, could hear him.

  “Lucas,” she replied, but she didn’t say anything else, maybe she didn’t have anything to add, or perhaps the implant would only let her repeat his name.

  He set his jaw even firmer.

  “Lucas,” the assassin robot, Element 52, as it apparently called itself, now repeated his name. While the electronic voice had a detached edge, Lucas could swear it still sounded interested. According to all the files that Lucas had ever read on assassin robots, they couldn’t talk. Fair enough, they could growl, scream, yelp, and make any kind of frightening sound they wanted to scare their prey, but they couldn’t speak. Perhaps it was because the original designers had decided that such a feature wasn’t needed, and would simply take up processing power and room that should be devoted to far more lethal skills and abilities. Or perhaps it was because assassin robots never had anything interesting to say: having single-track minds, as it were. Yet this one spoke.

  “Lucas,” Element 52 repeated. “We must leave, Lucas Stone, something is coming,” its voice pitched up and down with every word, giving the impression that it was surprised and worried. “We must leave; it will try to hack us again,” he added.

  Jane started to walk backward toward it, her arms still held out wide, and her eyes still completely pressed shut.

  “Jane, don’t do it. I have this under control. Honestly, don’t do it,” he begged, knowing that the implant was now not only exerting control over Jane but obviously threatening to finally take her away from him. He couldn’t let that happen. “Jane.”

  “Suggest you come; more susceptible to hack on surface,” Element 52 said, its voice still pitching up and down, “plus, we need you.”

  Lucas didn’t move, and he didn’t put his gun down, shrug his shoulders, and go with the assassin robot because it told him that it needed him.

  He just kept his gun raised and tried to think.

  “Running out of time,” the assassin robot said, its voice still pitching up and down, and giving it, despite its reputation, a far more human countenance, as if it were in fact genuinely frightened about what would happen next.

  “Lucas,” Jane managed. Once again she didn’t say anything more, just his name.

  He gritted his teeth, and he made his decision. He rolled to the left, attempting to get a clear line of sight of the creature. Yet the second he did was the second Jane moved. It was also the second that his armor stopped: once again the exact same force that had come over him moments before, re-exerted control. Lucas faltered, stumbling forward, but it was too late. Jane had turned around and jumped into the ocean. A second later the assassin robot followed. But not after actually taking a moment to shake its head at Lucas, as if it were somehow disappointed in him.

  Then the two of them were gone. There was no choking or blustering, no thrashing around as if Jane were drowning, and Lucas knew that now the implant had full control over her body it was probably swimming with the efficiency of an underwater jet ship.

  He tried to gain control of his armor again, but he couldn’t. He pleaded with his body to move, but it wouldn’t. He simply stumbled down until his knees met the ground until his palms landed either side of them, his head becoming so heavy that it now dropped between his shoulders.

  “Jane,” he managed to say before he lost complete control over his armor.

  Then Lucas stopped, or his armor stopped. He couldn’t move. Hands and knees on the ground, face directed at nothing but the path, the great Lucas Stone could no longer put up a fight.

  …

  Jane

  She was swimming, actually swimming, and not drowning. She didn’t have control over her body, she knew that it was once again doing whatever it needed to get her out of trouble. Though she was screaming in her mind with everything she had to go back to Lucas, it wasn’t letting her. Instead, she was swimming down, apparently with no need for air, the black shape of Element 52 close to her left, the compulsion to drown herself all but a distant, distant memory.

  They swam down for untold minutes until they finally reached the bottom of the seafloor. Jane didn’t know a great deal about oceans, but she did understand that under this much water there should be considerable pressure. Pressure of the kind that a soft-fleshed, unsupported body should not be able to withstand. Oh, and there was a pressing little fact that she didn’t seem to need air anymore.

  The static was back. Oh boy, was the static back. It was ringing in her head. In fact, it was such an overpow
ering sensation that she was having trouble focusing on the fact she was now swimming unaided, all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor, even though she couldn’t actually swim.

  She just wanted it to stop. She needed it to go away.

  Finally, she saw a black hatch on the seafloor before her through the shadowy, murky depths of the water.

  Element 52 darted forward, its tail latching around some kind of handle until it pulled back and a door opened.

  Jane swam forward.

  The static was now everywhere. It was all she could hear, and it was all she could see.

  She was no longer aware of where she was going or what she was doing, she was only aware of the static.

  Jane blanked out. The static took over.