Page 75 of Lust
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Two.
Three.
The patrol car glided by on the main street. She waited for another few beats and then drove back to the intersection. This time, when she looked left, she almost had a heart attack. The patrol car had stopped at the front of Lazarus House. She glimpsed two uniformed officers disappear into the lobby.
Fuck. Shit. Fuck.
Why would they be there?
“AIMI, it’s Lust,” she said into the hood microphone. “Why are police entering the building?”
Static.
She waited a few seconds in case AIMI was busy with another request, but then realized AIMI was a supercomputer. She could handle more than one person using her at a time. She could handle millions.
“AIMI,” she tried again, a note of urgency in her voice.
After another minute, dread unfurled in her gut. Something wasn’t right. AIMI was offline.Impossible.
In no world would Parker leave their artificial intelligent management interface offline for this mission. AIMI was their eyes and ears in the streets. She alerted them to danger, both from local law enforcement, and the enemy.
Revving the engine, Liza planted a boot on one side, spun the back wheel, and turned around. In two seconds she was back at the garage, approaching the closed roller door. But it didn’t go up. She slammed on the brakes, bringing the motorcycle to rest just inches before the metal door.
She looked up to the camera. It was supposed to recognize her and let her in. She waved. Nothing.
Don’t panic.Everything is fine. Just because systems are down, and a patrol car is at the front door, doesn’t mean a thing. But the sick feeling wouldn’t go. In fact, it increased in intensity until it pierced her abdomen.Deadly lust.
And there was only one person in this building who’d been throwing that sin earlier—Daisy.
Liza’s heart twisted with the realization of what it meant. Daisy was betraying them. They’d hoped so hard it wouldn’t be true.
No time for regrets.
She had to get inside. It was either head out the front, potentially reveal herself to the police at the front entrance to her building, or climb up the seven-story facade to the roof and enter through the stairwell there. She could always try smashing a window, but that would get messy. She looked up the long line of the building to the cool winter sky.
The building had no fire-escapes. Only a single drainpipe. Then that’s how she’d go. She tugged on the two karambit she’d synced to her battle uniform, but they wouldn’t detach.Fuck, she realized with a jolt. The knives were stuck to the suit via computerized synchronization. The suit was made of some kind of kevlar polymer blend. It was virtually indestructible.
AIMI was definitely out. Daisy must have put a virus into her mainframe, effectively shutting down everything she managed. Elevators. Suit functions. Communications. Building security.
They were sitting ducks. Anyone could infiltrate the building.
The loud thwacking of a helicopter’s rotor blades drew her attention to the sky.
“Motherfucker,” she cursed.
Multiple scenarios ran through Liza’s mind.
Could she use her poison to somehow weaken the synchronization?
No. It wasn’t acidic based. The sizzling that happened on Parker’s face was due to temperature, unlike she’d originally thought.
So, then what?
Pull the knives until her arms broke, or the connection did. She could get down with that. With a renewed sense of purpose, Liza pushed energy into her arms—almost screamed at the tension she emitted—and... nothing.
She tried again, and again, until eventually, her stubbornness won. The magnetic lock between the indestructible fabric and knives gave way, and she sagged with relief. Whether it was a flaw in the suit’s system, a safety backup, or her strength, she didn’t care. It worked. Making haste, she used the blades to claw the brackets on the drainpipe and climbed.
