I frown at the group of people and set my jaw.
“Nolan
Marcus and Dawn look at each other again.
“Mathilda?” asks Dawn. “How do you know it’s not a trap, honey? I know you want to help Nolan, but you also don’t want to hurt us.”
I think about it.
“The autodoc is smarter than the spiker,” I say. “It can talk. But it’s not
“But that thinking Rob is out there—” says Marcus.
Dawn touches Marcus on the shoulder.
“Okay, Mathilda,” says Dawn.
Marcus gives up arguing. He looks around, sees something, and strides across the room. Reaching up, he grabs a wire dangling from the ceiling and swings it back and forth to unloop it from a piece of metal. Then he hands it to me, eyeing the autodoc’s swaying legs.
“This cable goes to the building above us. It’s long and metal and it goes high. Perfect antenna. Be careful.”
I barely hear him. The instant the antenna touches my hand a tidal wave of information comes flooding into my head. Into my eyes. Streams of numbers and letters and images fill my vision. None of it makes sense at first. Swirls of color blow through the air in front of me.
That’s when I feel it. Some kind of… mind. An alien
The autodoc begins speaking in a constant babble.
It’s too fast. Too much. I can’t understand what the autodoc is saying anymore. I’m getting dizzy as the information surges into me. The monster calls for me again, and now it is closer. I think of those cold doll eyes that night in my bedroom and the way that lifeless thing whispered my name in the darkness.
The colors spin around me like a tornado.
I drop the antenna like a snake. The colors fade. The images and symbols drop to the floor and are swept away like fall leaves into the corners of the room. The vivid colors bleach away into the dull white tile.
I take one breath. Then two. The autodoc legs start to move.
There are tiny motor sounds as the autodoc works on Nolan. A spotlight flicks on and shines on his back. A rotating scrubber comes down and cleans his skin. A syringe goes in and out almost too fast to see. The movements are quick and precise and full of little pauses, like when the petting zoo chickens used to turn their heads and peck at corn.
In the sudden quiet, I can hear something beneath the static of the tiny motor noises. It is a voice.
After about ten seconds, the broken message repeats. I can barely hear it. The man sounds very scared and young but also proud. I hope that he is okay, wherever he is.
Finally, I stand up. Behind me, I can feel the autodoc operating on Nolan. The group of people still stand, watching me. I have barely been aware that they are here. Talking to the machines takes such concentration. I can hardly see people anymore. It is so easy to lose myself in the machine.
“Dawn?” I say.
“Yes, honey?”
“There’s a man out there, talking. His name is Lurker. He says he destroyed a communications blockade. He says the satellites are free.”
The people look at each other in wonder. Two of them hug. Tom and Marcus slap their hands together. They make small, happy noises. Smiling, Dawn puts her hands on my shoulders.
“That’s good, Mathilda. It means we can talk to other people. Rob never destroyed the communications satellites, it just blocked them off from us.”
“Oh,” I say.
“This is very important, Mathilda,” she says. “What else do you hear out there? What’s the most important message?”
I put my hands on the sides of my face and concentrate. I listen very hard. And when I listen
There are so many messages floating around. Some of them are sad. Some are angry. Many of them are confused or cutoff or rambling, but one of them sticks out in my mind. It is a special message with three familiar words in it:
Mathilda had only scratched the surface of her abilities. In the coming months, she would hone her special gift in the relative safety of the New York City underground, protected by Marcus and Dawn.
The message she was able to find on this day, due to the ultimate sacrifice made by Lurker and Arrtrad in London, proved instrumental in the formation of a North American army. Mathilda Perez had found a call to arms issued by Paul Blanton, and the location of humankind’s greatest enemy.
2. CALL TO ARMS
We have discovered the location of a superintelligent machine that calls itself Archos.
The following message originated in Afghanistan. It was intercepted and retransmitted worldwide by Mathilda Perez in New York City. We know that, thanks to her efforts, this communication was received by everyone in North America with access to a radio, including scores of tribal governments, isolated resistance groups, and the remaining enclaves of United States armed forces.
Headquarters
Afghan Resistance Command
Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan
To: Survivors
From: Specialist Paul Blanton, United States Army
