Page 55 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“Come on, let’s go,” Talia pointed with her head.“Sesi’s ready for us.”
Callie was grateful to be moving again, though she was certain her teeth chattering would set off some sort of alarm and then Sesi would have to come up with her back-up-back-up plan.
The three of them stood, huddled around the maintenance hatch.The late winter light had just started to fade and it blanketed the world in a dingy grey hue.Tyton spread out like a filthy blemish on a pristine blanket of snow beyond it.Callie had seen the clean snow with Sparx during their power station check, but it wasn’t like this.Tyton seemed so insignificant compared to the vast expanse around it.She felt like she was beginning to understand why Sesi cared so much about what happened once they were gone.The last humans clung to their petty existence, about to ruin everything she could see.Sesi’s whispered commands interrupted her thoughts.
“I’ll signal when the sensors are down.Talia, you’re on your own after that, Callie, stick with me.”
The hatch opened with a hiss of air.Sesi disappeared.She heard a muffled gurgle and a few moments of silence before Sesi whispered “clear.”
Tallia quickly raised her eyebrows at Callie and she dropped into the hatch.Callie followed, grateful for the warmth inside, though now, she couldreallyfeel the ice in her fingertips.Sesi waited for Talia to get to the control room before flashing a smile.
“You’re doing great, Freckles” she spoke quietly into her ear.Callie flushed.They stepped over the body and left the access room.The hallway only had dim emergency lighting.There was a stairwell to their right and three doors straight ahead.If the blueprints were correct, the experimental tech lab would be behind that third door.
Three doors, three possibilities that any of them could contain someone who would trip an alarm.Sesi handed Callie a stack of translucent pads.“Hold on to these,” she whispered.“I don’t want to fumble pulling them out of my pockets.”Callie nodded.
Sesi padded quickly to the first door and pressed her modified PalmInter to the Hexaline wall.Thankfully they didn’t consider whatever was inside private enough to hang something on the inside to prevent this sort of spying.Two men played cards while security displays scrolled lazily in the background.
Sesi swore under her breath.She disconnected and the viewing port disappeared.She moved to the room across the hall and created a new port.Thankfully, this one was only a janitorial closet.
The third door was the lab.Two women and one man were working.Talia should have taken care of the alarm system by now, but that would matter little if it was manually activated by any one of the employees.
Sesi came up with her plan.Security guards, one at a time, then the lab.Distract, separate, eliminate.She held up two fingers and Callie handed her two pads.“Into the janitorial closet, then knock something over.”Callie was about to ask a question, but Sesi pushed her into the closet and the door closed behind her.Callie’s stomach fluttered at being manhandled.Dammit, stop.Not the time.
The closet looked like any other, full of chemicals, a SaniBot and the overpowering smell of wet boots and shower drain.The SaniBot looked too stable to push over, so Callie swept her arm along the shelf of chemicals and knocked them on the ground.As she did it, she realised that she probably should have read the labels in case any of them broke open.Chloramine gas was not how she wanted to die.Callie imagined her obituary.Promising young AI psych found dead in closet.
As she laughed quietly at her own joke, the door opened and a shocked security guard raised his gun at her moments before Sesi slit his throat and he collapsed on the floor.Callie stifled a scream and wiped the blood from her eyes.She knew that she was going to see some people die today, but hadn’t expected to be wearing them.She told herself this would get easier.
Sesi noticed her breathing.“That’s my girl,” she whispered.Panic turned into a hormonal flush and Callie thought she might lose her mind.
At least she didn’t blow the mission this time.
“Is there any in my mouth?”she asked.
Sesi shook her head and then disappeared to take care of the other guard.Callie picked her way around the bottles of chemicals on the floor.
She followed Sesi to the last door.
Sesi paused and chewed her lip.“How do you feel about killing?”
“Uh…” Callie stared blankly.
“It was a joke.I said I’d never make you.If Talia did her job, their heart rates shouldn’t be monitored by the system anymore and I can disable them through their strength amplifiers.”
“Why didn’t you do that with the other ones?”Callie hissed.
“Because if Talia botched something, there would be fifty security guards here right now.”
“And if you disable them and people start coming?”Callie asked.
“There’ll be two fewer security guards between us and the hatch.We’ll have about one minute before the rest get here.You stand in the doorway of the maintenance room.If you hear people coming up the stairwell, slip out the roof.”
“What about you?”Callie was picking at her nails again.Sesi noticed.
“Here.”Sesi handed Callie the ulu.
“Your mom’s knife?I don’t know how to use this?”
“No, but if it’s one or two, I can disable them and slip past.The knife won’t do me any good.If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to grab the tech on the way.”
