At the halfway point, two more androids appeared out of the crowd and joined the group, making Alisa feel hemmed in.
You know I can’t read their minds, right? Young-hee asked silently.
I know. I’m assuming we’re being taken to meet Solstice. And you can read her mind.
Understood. Did you bring any of my sister’s drugs?
Should I have? Alisa still had some of the compound that could make it difficult for Starseers to control people, but she hadn’t expected to meet any of them in the dome. As far as she knew, her ship was the only place collecting Starseers.
She has other useful things, Young-hee said, sounding slightly bemused.
Have you sampled some?
We meditated together last night. While sampling. My mother wouldn’t approve. Young-hee slid Alisa a sly smile, appearing pleased at this streak of rebelliousness. She was, Alisa recalled, only in her early twenties.
I won’t tell her.
The four-story compound with its drab cement walls came into view at the end of the street, and Alisa withdrew her comm unit. One of the androids watched her. To make sure she didn’t pull out a weapon? Or would he object to communication?
“Mica?” Alisa asked quietly, keeping an eye on him.
“What?”
“You sound cranky.”
“You commed me to tell me that?”
“No, it was an observation.”
“Starseer kids keep floating my tools out of engineering and hiding them. Can’t you bring them some hoops or balls to play with?”
“They’re not dolphins. Listen, I wanted to let you know that we’re being escorted to Solstice’s compound by androids.”
“Because you’re special?” Mica asked.
“That’s one possibility. The other is that Solstice doesn’t trust us.”
“No? I thought Leonidas made her sensitive places tingly.”
Young-hee tripped and planted her staff to catch herself.
“Maybe it’s a good thing you have a walking stick,” Alisa observed.
“Definitely,” Young-hee murmured.
“How long do we wait without hearing from you before planning a rescue?” Mica asked. “Keep in mind that the crew member most likely to be able to carry out a rescue is currently wearing an apron and instructing the CargoExpress woman on how to stack his boxes.”
“If I haven’t checked in in four hours, get concerned.”
“How many androids are flanking you now?” Mica asked.
“Four.”
“Six,” Leonidas corrected, nodding toward one side of the street behind them.
One that Alisa hadn’t noticed before was following them about twenty feet back. She peered through the pedestrians and ground vehicles toward the same spot on the other side of the street and spotted another one.
“Six,” Alisa agreed.
“I’ll start practicing my concerned look now.”
“Thanks, Mica. You’re indispensable.”
“I know I am.”
The gate to the compound opened as they approached it. The gloomy gray building, which looked more like a bunker than a residence, had not changed. Alisa eyed the top-floor windows, remembering that Solstice’s huge art-filled quarters were up there. Tinted forcefields kept her from seeing anything inside.
The androids closed in, marching her group up the steps, through the double doors, and into the foyer. Two more androids waited inside.
“These are not the limited resources of a woman in need of a favor,” Alisa told Leonidas.
“You don’t think so?”
“What can you do for her that eight androids can’t do? And no, this isn’t the time to make jokes about large cannons.”
He blinked, and she wondered if he had forgotten his first big attempt at sexual innuendo.
“Jokes aren’t on my mind now,” he said.
“Remove your armor and weapons,” one of the androids said.
“All of us?” Alisa asked.
“All of you.”
“Hm.” She reached for her stun gun and handed it to the closest android. She hadn’t expected to be allowed to bring it in, regardless.
Leonidas did not move.
“Your combat armor is not permitted for this meeting,” the android told him. He also gave Young-hee’s staff a pointed look. “Nor is your weapon.”
“This is just a walking stick,” Young-hee tried.
“You are wearing a Starseer robe. It is highly likely that you are carrying a Starseer foci staff, a tool capable of enhancing mental powers and generating an electrical current that can be used independently as a weapon or a shield.”
“I told you they weren’t gullible,” Alisa muttered. “Is Solstice putting together an army for a reason?” she asked them as Young-hee sighed and leaned her staff against the wall.
Leonidas hadn’t moved yet. None of the androids answered Alisa.
“Solstice asked me here for a favor,” Leonidas said. “If she wants a favor, she can come down here and ask me about it.”
“You are required to remove your combat armor and all weapons,” the android said.
“No.”
Alisa eased a couple of steps away from Leonidas. If he ended up in a fight with eight androids, she did not want to get in his way. Nor did she want to get in the way of an android being hurled down the hallway.
The android that had been giving orders moved several paces down the hallway and tapped a comm unit.
“Can you handle this many in your armor?” Alisa whispered.
“No,” he replied, never taking his eyes from that comm unit. With his enhanced hearing, maybe he could hear both ends of the conversation.
“Then maybe it’s best to comply for now. If we have a battle right here and don’t get to talk to Solstice, we won’t find anything out.” Alisa looked at Young-hee, wondering how much she could do in a fight with a bunch of androids. She had seen Young-hee hurl someone across a library with her mind once, but she wouldn’t be able to tinker with the mind of anything with a computerized brain.
“There shouldn’t be a battle,” Leonidas said.
Alisa wasn’t so sure. What if this request for a favor was a ruse? Maybe the Alliance had made a deal with Solstice to set a trap for Leonidas. But why would the Alliance be after him now? He had no more idea of where Thorian was than anyone else did. And Alisa was the one who had kidnapped Tiang and was drugging him, or so they seemed to think.
“Understood, mistress,” the android with the comm said.
A click-thunk noise came from behind Alisa. The doors locking.
“Nullify the cyborg and remove his armor,” the android said.
Chapter 4
Alisa was still processing the android’s order when Leonidas spun around. He slammed his shoulder into one of the locked doors, striking it like a battering ram. Though they were made of something far sturdier than wood, a thunderous crack filled the hallway. He rammed the door a second time, and it flew open, cement splintering and metal warping. But the time it took to assault those doors cost him. Three androids leaped onto him, gripping his armor, and the others also charged toward him.
“Outside, Alisa,” he barked, whirling to face his attackers.
The uniformed security androids swarmed over him, and Alisa could only stumble back to the wall as a boot almost took her in the eye. Leonidas hadn’t managed to move the fight away from the door, so she didn’t know how she could escape, even if she wanted to abandon him.
Young-hee pressed her back against a wall, her eyes wide.
“Try to knock them away from him,” Alisa told her, her hand dropping instinctively to her belt where her stunner had been, but there was nothing there. One of the androids had set it on that desk. It wouldn’t have done anything against them anyway. She couldn’t do anything against them. Why hadn’t she worn her armor, damn it?
She watched with horror as Leonidas stumbled, dropping to one knee under the assault. He hurled one andro
id down the hall so hard that he flew all the way to the far end, but the others tore at him with their great mechanical strength. An ominous snap sounded—a piece of his armor breaking?
“Young-hee,” Alisa urged.
She didn’t seem to be doing anything.
“Not that I’m doing anything either,” Alisa muttered, thumping her fist against the wall.
Then an idea came. She couldn’t do anything to help with the androids, but maybe she could stop the person giving them orders. Especially since they were all focused on Leonidas, deeming her a non-threat.
Alisa circled the fight, ducking a leg that flew out, a leg that was no longer attached to its body. For a moment, she thought Leonidas might somehow come out ahead, that he would survive long enough to tear the androids into pieces, but another snap sounded. Leonidas roared in anger—or was that pain?
With her heart in her throat, Alisa made it to the table. None of the androids were paying attention to her. She snatched the stun gun and sprinted down the hallway toward an elevator. She knew from her last visit that it would take her up to the top floor, Solstice’s lair.
Alisa felt like she was abandoning Leonidas and Young-hee, since she hadn’t warned them, but she hadn’t wanted to warn the androids either. As it was, before she reached the elevator, she heard boots pounding on the marble floor behind her. The doors to the elevator stood open. As she flung herself into the car, she glimpsed one of the androids racing down the hall after her. She slammed her stun gun against the button, mashing it repeatedly, certain her swift pursuer would reach her in time to stop her.
When the doors shut and the elevator lurched into motion, she let out a relieved breath. If she could make it to the top floor, she might have a chance of surprising Solstice—of stunning the damned bitch. How dare she set Leonidas up.
A thump sounded against the doors, and Alisa’s relief was short-lived. Leonidas would have the strength to force those doors open. An android would too. But maybe he would have orders against destroying elevators in the compound where he worked.
A wrenching sound filled the car, and it lurched to a stop. Alisa pitched against the back wall with a curse. The lights went out, save for the control panel, which informed her that she was halfway between the second and the third floors. That wouldn’t do.
She jabbed buttons, trying to open the doors. She had to climb out and find some stairs. It wouldn’t take that android long to run up here.
The buttons flashed but otherwise ignored her. She pulled out her multitool, flicked on the light, and looked for an access panel in the ceiling. A square light panel was the only thing up there.
A boom echoed through the building, and that panel shivered. Had Leonidas brought grenades?
Something above the car groaned, and the floor shivered.
Hoping Leonidas and Young-hee were all right, Alisa flicked the laser cutter out on the multitool. She had to jump to reach the light panel with it, so all she managed was a slash before landing again. Feeling like an idiot, she jumped several more times, trying to cut out the panel. Another groan came from above. She imagined plummeting back to the ground floor and landing in the android’s arms. Maybe the car would land on the android.
Alisa kept jumping and cutting. The ceiling panel tumbled free so abruptly it startled her, bouncing off her shoulder before she could get out of the way. Wires dangled down from a hole in the ceiling, and a dark shaft rose above it.
A shout sounded in the hallway outside—whether from the second or third floor, she couldn’t tell. She stuffed her multitool in its holder and jumped, wishing for the augmented power of her armor. Without any grace, she pulled herself through the hole and onto the top of the car. Memories of the last elevator shaft she had climbed came to mind. That one hadn’t had a cable, only tiny rails to grip, tiny rails she had only been able to climb with the help of her armor. Luckily, this less sophisticated model had a cable.
A wrenching squeal came from below. The elevator doors.
Alisa scrambled up the cable in the dark, not waiting to see the android run into the car. Grease and grit caked her palms and made the climb hard, but fortunately, she did not have to go far. Unfortunately, the doors on the fourth and final floor were closed. She reached for her multitool again, thinking the lick of the laser cutter might cause them to open. Her fingers brushed the stun gun first, and she snatched it and shot at the doors. She didn’t expect it to do anything, but hoped for more luck.
A slash of light entered the shaft from below. Still hanging from the cable, she peered down as an android peered up at her through the hole.
“Damn it,” she growled and fired at him.
The stun gun wouldn’t have damaged an android, but maybe the darkness kept him from recognizing her weapon. He leaped back out of sight. Alisa fired at the elevator doors again. She was halfway to holstering the stun gun and grabbing the multitool when a sickly bleat came from the doors. One of them jerked, then opened.
Light entered the shaft, bright enough that Alisa couldn’t see anything in the room outside. She would have waited for her eyes to adjust, but the android stepped back into the car below her. Cursing again, she swung her legs out and flung herself through the open door.
She landed in a crouch, pointing the stun gun ahead of her. Just as she spotted Solstice—that damned woman was lounging on her sofa and drinking from a glass, the same as she had been last time—a dark figure appeared in her peripheral vision.
Alisa sprang forward as a pair of arms reached for her. She ran toward Solstice, hoping to reach her, press the stun gun to her neck, and use her as a shield for protection. But the dark figure reached Alisa first, catching her and hefting her into the air as if she weighed nothing. She snarled and tried to turn her weapon on her captor, but her arms were pinned painfully to her sides, and it was all she could do not to drop the stun gun. She doubted it mattered. She could tell from the faux skin of the fingers wrapped around her arms that an android held her.
It walked her forward, her legs dangling a foot above the floor.
“That was moderately entertaining,” a woman said. It wasn’t Solstice.
Alisa hadn’t had time to notice the second woman in the room, this one also lounging with a drink. Silver-haired and pale-skinned with a simple blue earstar, she regarded Alisa blandly. She wore simple trousers and a wrap in contrast to the dress with the plunging neckline that Solstice had on. Of course, she also looked to be thirty or forty years older than Solstice, so maybe plunging necklines were no longer flattering.
“Captain Merchant-something, wasn’t it?” Solstice asked Alisa, making no move to wave for her android to put her down.
“Marchenko,” she growled.
“The cyborg looks to be out of juice,” the second woman remarked.
“What?” Alisa wrenched her neck to look in the direction of her gaze, toward the walls that had, the last time she had come, displayed videos of people being eaten by dinosaurs in those dreadful swamps. Today, the internal security camera footage was on display, including a view of the hallway Alisa had left. Young-hee was nowhere to be seen. Leonidas was…
Alisa gulped.
He was down on the floor, shattered marble tiles under his body, unmoving androids sprawled around him, many with limbs ripped off. But two other androids stood over him, forcibly removing pieces of his armor. He wasn’t doing anything to fight them—he wasn’t moving at all. Was he unconscious? Not dead… he couldn’t be dead. They wouldn’t be bothering to take off his armor if he was dead.
Hoping that logic proved true, Alisa turned a scowl on Solstice.
“Any chance you’ll pay for my androids and my broken doors?” Solstice asked the older woman, her tone dry. Callous.
As ridiculous as it was, Alisa felt stung on Leonidas’s behalf. Solstice had been draping herself all over him before, determined to recruit him—if not bed him—and now she wasn’t even worried that he was unconscious. Maybe worse.
The silver-haired w
oman waved an indifferent hand. “Send me a bill. You’ll come to the meeting? Your husband is invited, too, of course, though I’ve always gotten the impression that you run more of the family business than he does.”
“Just the important business.” Solstice smirked.
Alisa, still watching Leonidas for a hint of movement—a hint of life—barely noticed. Maybe she should be paying attention to what the women were talking about, but all she could do was grimace and wince as pieces of his armor were pried off. Finally, he lay unmoving on the floor, in nothing but the fitted T-shirt and underwear he wore underneath.
“No wonder you kept in touch with him,” the older woman said, her tone dry this time.
Solstice threw her a startled look. “Ms. Henneberry.”
“I’m not dead, dear.”
One of the androids picked up Leonidas, looking ridiculous as he balanced Leonidas’s big, muscled frame over his shoulder. He headed toward the camera, in the direction of the elevator Alisa had taken, though that was presumably out of order now.
“He is nice looking, isn’t he?” Solstice said. “Do you want to sample him before we get rid of them?”
Get rid of? Alisa stared at the women, suddenly much more invested in the conversation.
“No, he’s dangerous,” the silver-haired woman—Henneberry—said. The name sounded somewhat familiar, but Alisa couldn’t place it. Maybe because she was busy being distracted by her impending death. “They both are. Trust me, I know. They’ve cost me a lot of money.”
“Uhm,” Alisa said. “Who are you?”
Neither woman bothered looking at her.
“Don’t you have plenty?” Solstice asked dryly.
“Only because I’m not in the habit of throwing it away, usually.”
Alisa? Young-hee’s voice whispered in her mind. She sounded far away. I’m outside the compound. The gates almost shut in my face, but I was able to break one and escape. She hesitated. I’m sorry I ran. But he told me to, and I wasn’t able to do much against the androids. I can’t—couldn’t concentrate when they were right there, and I was in the middle of the fight.
Understandable, Alisa thought. Young-hee only would have been captured if she had stayed. Do you have a comm unit on you?