Android X: The Complete Series Page 23

“You tell me.”

  “Big Papa, you id—”

  X fired into the wall again, and Xadrian said hurriedly, “Fool. Yeah. Fool. That’s what I meant to say.”

  “Dr. Crenshaw worked for the university?”

  “He was the president of this fraternity while he was a student. You’re so formal. Loosen up, brother. His name is Big Papa!”

  “What are you looking for?”

  Xadrian laughed. “If you knew the truth, you would wish you were on our side. It’s not too late.”

  X handcuffed Xadrian with electric handcuffs. “You’re under arrest. And you’re going to tell us everything we need to know.”

  X’s algorithm chipped buzzed and a voice said, “And you’re under arrest now, Xandifer Tyrone Crenshaw.”

  X turned around and saw Jazzlyn standing in the doorway with two guns pointed at him. A saxophone with zebra stripes was strapped to her back.

  “You again,” X said. “Go away.”

  “Me again?” Jazzlyn asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “You say that like I’m scum.”

  “You are.”

  Jazzlyn’s voice grew tighter, along with her fingers on the guns’ triggers. “How dare you call me scum when you don’t even know me? You’re an android. You’re not even supposed to pass judgment in the first place!”

  “Get out of here,” X said, waving his hand. “Go on.”

  Jazzlyn balled her fists. “I could leave,” she said. “Or I could stay here and tell you about your past. Obviously, this stupid android isn’t going to tell you what you want to know.”

  “Shut up, human!” Xadrian barked.

  Jazzlyn’s lens lit up and she projected a screen. “Xandifer Tyrone Crenshaw, third generation of Crenshaw androids. With architecture codenamed JEANETTE, you and the androids of your ilk were destined for greatness …”

  “How do you know that?” X asked.

  Jazzlyn held out Ballixter’s black box. “A little white lie.”

  X’s eyes widened. “But you destroyed it when we fought.”

  “Digital sleight of mind,” Jazzlyn said. “I had to see what was getting you so worked up at the sanitation facility. And you know what? It was a bunch of crap. It has the most boring memories ever. I risked my life to hack into it, and all I got was some android creator talking about stuff that only a scientist would care about. But then I realized, you probably care about that stuff, don’t you?”

  “Give me the box,” X said.

  “Nah. I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to take your black box and add it to my collection. It will look great next to the other androids I’ve conquered.”

  “Impossible!” X barked.

  Xadrian slanted his eyes at her.

  “Give me the box,” X said again, “Or I’ll place you under arrest and you’ll go to jail for the rest of your life.”

  “Look at you, Mr. Big Black Suit-Wearing Android on a power trip! Don’t forget who you are. You’re just a robot, honey.”

  “Yeah, X,” Xadrian said. “Don’t forget who you are!”

  X conked Xadrian on the head with his gun.

  “If you don’t give me the box,” X said. “I’ll have to take it from you.”

  “I’ve been waiting for those magical words all night,” Jazzlyn said, clutching her chest and twirling in place. She looked up at the skylight where the moonlight shone in on her face. Then she pointed her guns at X. “Beautiful night for a fight, don’t you think?”

  X rushed at her, but she backflipped over him and kicked him in the back.

  “Let’s see how you like my new invention.”

  She took the saxophone and played a chromatic scale. All of a sudden, a huge explosion came from the wall next to them and another giant, blue, buck-toothed robot burst through, its triangular eyes glowing.

  “You can’t be serious,” X said. He fired at the robot’s chest, but Jazzlyn had sealed it with reinforced steel and the bullet only made a dent.

  Jazzlyn played a jazz riff, and the robot grabbed X and hurled him at the wall. Jazzlyn started a solo as the robot tried to smash his head in.

  X fired at Jazzlyn, but she jumped out of the way. For a moment the music stopped, and the robot stopped moving. But before X could determine a plan of action, a rock crashed into the side of his head, knocking him down.

  Xadrian stood over him, grinning. “Ha ha! I just hit you with an igneous rock!” He turned to leave, stepping past the blue robot.

  “Where are you going?” Jazzlyn asked, her mouth still on the mouthpiece of the saxophone. She played another harmonic scale and the robot punched Xadrian, dazzling him. “I’m not leaving here without your black box, either.”

  X regained his composure and beelined for Jazzlyn. She grinned, and her swarm of cockroaches flew out of her dress and circled around her, connected with electric lasers.

  X remembered her similar defense from last time. All he had to do was connect a punch, and that would take her out. He lunged forward, but Jazzlyn flipped back and the roaches swarmed around him, buzzing and biting.

  X fell to the ground, swiping at the attacking cockroaches.

  “Nice try this time,” Jazzlyn said, blowing a rumbly low note. Through the swarming roaches, X could just see the robot begin to choke Xadrian.

  Then the roaches gathered over X’s eyes, rendering his sight useless. The world went dark, and his algorithm chip hummed as his other senses tried to make up for the loss of sight. He sent out a sonar wave that bounced around the room, and a digital image of the room appeared in front of him. He was next to an oversized aquarium; he hadn’t even noticed its gentle hum.

  X threw himself into the glass of the aquarium, shattering it. Water poured onto him, short-circuiting the roaches and washing them across the carpet in a sea of sparks.

  X’s face was sparking, too, from the impact, but he regained his vision quickly. He saw Jazzlyn standing in the doorway, too shocked to respond yet.

  The blue robot stopped moving and Xadrian fell to the floor, clutching his neck.

  X grabbed the giant oak desk in the middle of the room and hurled it at Jazzlyn, knocking her into the hallway. Her sax flew into the air. X jumped, caught it, and bashed the robot’s head in on his way down, destroying it.

  Jazzlyn coughed and strained under the weight of the desk.

  “Damn it.”

  X stood over her. “Give me the black box.” He put his shoe on her neck and she whimpered. “I don’t have to show you any mercy this time.”

  Jazzlyn reached in her dress and pulled out the black box. “Fine. Take it.”

  WHOOSH! Xadrian had recovered his flying disk, and he darted between them and swiped the box.

  “Hey!” Jazzlyn cried.

  X fired at Xadrian’s disk, throwing him off. The android crashed down the long staircase and hit a wall.

  “Ouch …”

  The black box fell down toward the stairs, but Smoochums caught it with his hind legs. Jazzlyn pulled herself from under the desk and drew her guns as Smoochums dragged the black box back into her dress.

  “You’re not going to give it to me, are you?” X asked as they circled each other.

  “I guess this is a duel to the death, isn’t it? I’ll walk away with your parts in my bag or I’ll leave in a casket. I have nothing to lose, android.”

  X’s eye glowed red. “Neither do I.”

  He calculated the sonar patterns in her voice. She was susceptible to something, though he couldn’t tell what.

  X shot the ground near her, and she fell back into a metal knight statue. Then he turned away and jogged down the stairs. Jazzlyn fired at him and hit him several times, but her bullets didn’t affect him.

  X picked up Xadrian and threw him over his shoulder. “See you,” he said, waving to Jazzlyn.

  “What?” Jazzlyn screamed. “You’re going to walk away? Don’t you want this stupid black box?”

  “Since it’s so important to me, and since you’re going to keep hu
nting me down, I trust that you’ll take good care of it.”

  “That’s not android nature! You’re supposed to attack me for it! You’re supposed to—”

  “Shows how little you know about me. And androids in general,” X said. He walked out the door, then turned to look at her one last time. Her expression was a mix of embarrassment and humiliation, and X knew he was right. She would not stop hunting him.

  Chapter 15

  X tied Xadrian to the wall with electric rings that shocked the android if he tried to move. The android hung on the wall in the briefing room, suspended by his arms and staring at X and Fahrens.

  Fahrens paced around the room. “What does Crenshaw want?” he asked. “Domination? Destruction?”

  “I’m not saying anything,” Xadrian said. “I’ll die before I betray Mama’s secrets.”

  “Who said we were going to kill you?” Fahrens asked. He stopped his pacing and laughed. “Not at all, Xadrian. We’re going to disable you bit by bit until we have answers—or until you’re totally deactivated.”

  “W-What? I have rights!”

  “You’re an android criminal,” X said. “You tried to assassinate the Council. We can do whatever we want with you.” He pressed a button on the wall and administered a shock to Xadrian. The android screamed.

  “That’s high voltage. You’re going to short out my chips!”

  “Exactly. I plan on doing that one by one,” X said. “First, we’ll destroy your motor skills. Second, we’ll disable your logic. Then your senses—all but your sight. You’ll be no better than the drones that clean the floors. Then perhaps you can help them clean the bathrooms. That is, unless you talk.”

  “She wants to restore Big Papa’s image,” Xadrian said quietly. “And we won’t rest until she does.”

  “Keep talking,” X said.

  “The Council has digital records of all of Big Papa’s research—including your memory chips, X. If you surrender those, then Mama will stop her attacks. She just wants to do research. She doesn’t want to be a devious super-villain.”

  “We’re not going to surrender anything,” Fahrens said. “So what else will it take?”

  “Well, now that you mention it, Mama really would like that black box,” Xadrian said.

  “What black box?” Fahrens asked.

  X groaned. “When I was fighting him, I came across an android hunter. I had met her before, in the sanitation facility before the UAE attack. She killed Ballixter and had his black box. She was using it to taunt me.”

  “If you surrender that black box, Mama would consider restoring your network,” Xadrian said. “That android hunter said that it had a bunch of information about Big Papa.”

  “And she’ll restore our network if we give it to her?” Fahrens asked. “How can we believe that?”

  “Mama keeps her word.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Fahrens said. “But we should get the black box, X. Do we know where this hunter is? I’ll send an agent after her.”

  “Send three. She’s clever.”

  “There,” Fahrens said to Xadrian. “We’re working to get you the information you need. Now it’s time for you to do something for us.”

  “You haven’t done anything for me, yet,” Xadrian said.

  “You’re still alive, for starters,” Fahrens said. “Considering you launched a terrorist attack and you report to a known terrorist against the UEA—yes, that’s a miracle in itself.”

  “Some talk for a peace monger,” Xadrian said.

  “We’re defending the legacy we’ve worked so hard to secure. Now, quid pro quo.”

  “Quid pro kiss my ass!”

  Fahrens motioned to the android engineers. “I changed my mind. Call off the mission for the black box. Find the girl and escort her out of the UEA. Once she leaves our borders, Xadrian, you’ll never find the black box in the badlands. She’ll sell it for scraps.”

  Xadrian didn’t say anything, so X gave him another shock. His circuits smoked and the room filled with the sound of sizzling metal.

  “Stop!”

  “Quid pro quo,” Fahrens said, grinning.

  “What do you want?” Xadrian asked. The burn marks on his arms were smoking.

  “Call your mother,” Fahrens said. “I want a direct link with Jeanette Crenshaw.”

  X admired Fahrens’s negotiation skills. Of course they weren’t going to kill Xadrian. They were already technically at the limit of what they could do by UEA law, but their tactics were working.

  And at that moment, X missed Shortcut and wished he were there. He would have an idea or a crazy new avenue to pursue to help get more information. But now all X could do was use his muscles and brute strength, and that wasn’t always the best course of action.

  “Get my disk,” Xadrian said.

  X grabbed the disk that was lying against the wall. He set it up on the table. Soon, Jeanette Crenshaw appeared. Her background was fuzzy and they couldn’t make it out.

  “You have my attention,” Jeanette said.

  “We have a black box that will be of interest to you,” Fahrens said.

  “What black box?” Crenshaw asked. Her eyes widened.

  “It belonged to Ballixter Crenshaw,” X said.

  “Ah,” Jeanette said. “A second generation android. You’re right. That will be valuable to me. But that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m not going to engage in silly negotiations. Xadrian has already told you what I want. It’s quite simple. Now that you’re playing dirty, let’s play a game. Your network is in my possession and your citizens are suffering. The Internet is their life. What would happen if I turned it against them?”

  Digital screens across the room lit up with the UEA logo. The logo, normally golden, was purple and green and had a diseased look.

  “Sir, the network is back up!” an engineer cried.

  “You can have your network back,” Jeanette said, “though it might be different than you remembered.”

  A city map appeared on the screen in the middle of the room, but it was so covered with dots that they couldn’t see the city itself.

  “What will you do?” Jeanette asked. “Bank accounts are emptying out. Phones are taking photos when they shouldn’t be. Cars are malfunctioning and getting into accidents. Lenses are nothing but dumb contacts. Drones are on the attack. Let’s see the Council hold itself accountable for the chaos.”

  “We just got a report of a pile-up on the highway,” an engineer said. “Emergency calls are coming in faster than the operations system can handle it. Sir, Crenshaw’s not lying. We’ve got chaos all over the city.”

  “There will be more accidents every minute you delay,” Jeanette said.

  Fahrens winced. “Let Xadrian go.”

  X cut the straps binding Xadrian. Xadrian fell and bowed to Jeanette. “I’ll be with you soon, Mama!”

  Jeanette disconnected and Xadrian grabbed his disk and flew out of the window. X watched as he disappeared into the skyline.

  “My plan backfired,” X said. He looked at the screen, the blinking red lights flashing reports of robot violence and death all over the city. “Is this really true?”

  The engineering team pulled up a live video of a street in the financial district. Cars were overturned, drones were chasing people, and many lay wounded in the street.

  “There’s violence on every block,” the engineer said. “But the real problem is what you don’t see. Crenshaw drained a ton of bank accounts. Fifteen banks are currently insolvent. Combined with the damage she’s already done to thousands of homes and businesses—”

  “We’re looking at an economic collapse,” Fahrens said. “This isn’t your fault, X.”

  X shook his head. “People are dying because of my mistake. Crenshaw outsmarted me again. I don’t know how it can get any worse than this.”

  “I’m going to recommend to the Council that we surrender,” Fahrens said. “It’s going to be a tough conversation.”

  “Don’t do
that,” a voice said.

  Shortcut stood in the doorway. “I know how to stop her.”

  Chapter 16

  “Shortcut, you’re supposed to be in the hospital,” X said.

  “They couldn’t hold me,” Shortcut said.

  “Nice to have you back, Mr. Aaronheart,” Fahrens said. “Your transgressions notwithstanding. We’ll deal with those in time.”

  Shortcut gulped and smiled nervously. “If we survive.”

  “So what’s your plan, Mr. Aaronheart?” Fahrens asked.

  Shortcut draped his coat over a chair and studied the screen. He still had a bandage over his head and his face was bruised. “Crenshaw is desperate for information on her dad. All the androids that have attacked us are scout androids. They can’t fight very well and they’re not very smart, but their sensors record a lot of information. Crenshaw is after the classified information, but she’s also after memories.”

  “You’re right,” X said. “All of the androids were mourning Dr. Crenshaw. But they were also gathering physical supplies. Android parts. Food. Jewelry.”

  “If you think of her androids not as individual androids, but as the collective of a larger conscience, then what she’s doing makes a lot of sense. Don’t you think it’s strange that her military androids haven’t been back? The androids we saw during the siege were much more powerful than these. It seemed like she had ships of them …”

  “Unless she didn’t,” Fahrens said, brightening.

  “X alone probably killed a dozen of them. Crenshaw hasn’t used them since because she has a supply problem. She has fewer androids than she’s letting on, and the rest of her androids aren’t of the same caliber. She’s holding back the strongest ones, now.”

  “The closer we get to Crenshaw, the more powerful her androids should become,” X said. “Good work, Shortcut.”

  “And how does that help us?” Fahrens asked.

  “I wasn’t done yet, sir. I heard through a confidential source that Crenshaw has been on the virtual black market.”

  “Who told you that?” Fahrens asked.

  “Respectfully, sir, I can’t say. But this person is a trusted source.”