Rhea pulled herself off it. The first robot lunged at her but missed, landing on the second robot instead. She scrambled to her feet, stumbling away from the blinded robot, and turned toward the stairwell.
She froze.
Ahead of her, several more combat robots awaited outside the stairwell, apparently having arrived from upstairs. They all had their rifles pointed at her.
It seemed her two opponents had managed to get off a signal before she attached the CommNixers.
Too bad.
She raised her hands in surrender.
19
The security robots escorted Rhea through the corridors of city hall. They had bound her wrists behind her back, and one robot followed along on either side, their polycarbonate hands threaded through the crook of her elbows and tightly gripping her arms.
Despite all her upgrades, and her enhanced strength, she couldn’t break through her binds. She had tried several times, but eventually had been forced to concede defeat.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
The robots didn’t reply.
She activated her comm node, since there was no point in maintaining radio silence anymore. She tried to connect to the compromised access point but was already too far away and had to accept a closer one. She wasn’t sure she’d actually be allowed to log on to the Net through it, but a moment later she received the confirmation.
She highlighted the names of Will and DragonHunter in her contact list and initiated a mental call. Both parties connected at almost the same time.
How goes it? Will asked.
Didn’t DragonHunter tell you yet? she sent over the encrypted mental channel. I’ve been captured.
What? Will sent. No, he did not! Where are they taking you?
I don’t know, she replied. I’m still in city hall, for now. We’ll see how long that lasts.
It’s my fault, DragonHunter transmitted. I should have been able to protect you. Or at least given you an earlier warning about those robots. I wish I could have found a way to disable them.
It’s not your fault, Rhea sent.
I should have gone with you, Will sent.
You can’t always protect me, Rhea sent. If you were with me, you would’ve only been captured too.
Well, I’m coming to get you, Will said. Me and Horatio. And any other Wardenites that want to help. DragonHunter still has control of the cameras.
She passed another group of armed robots on patrol. They were searching the different rooms, as if on the lookout for intruders.
I wouldn’t advise it, she told him. They’ve heightened the patrols, as far as I can tell. They’ll be expecting a rescue attempt. You’ll be captured, too.
I never was one to follow advice, he replied.
Rhea knew she couldn’t stop him, so she didn’t say anything more. She could disable location sharing or turn off her comm node entirely, but that wouldn’t stop him. If Will did plan to rescue her, she might as well make his job as easy as possible.
I probably won’t have control of the cameras for much longer, DragonHunter said. The central AI will be wondering why she didn’t show up on any of the feeds until after the attack. And why those two robots suddenly vanished from the cameras as they rounded the bend… that’s right, I did my best to hide you during the fight.
That could explain why the second patrol found her. The CommNixers might have successfully blocked the communications of the first two robots after all, and the central AI had sent a patrol to investigate the malfunctioning cameras.
There you go, Will, Rhea sent. Stay away. Without control of the cameras, there’s no way you’ll reach me.
Come hell or high water, I’m going, Will replied.
No, she sent. It won’t help anyone if you get captured, too. If you truly care about me, stay back. I’ll find a way to get out of here. Somehow.
He didn’t answer.
Will?
At first, she thought he’d hung up on her, but then she glanced at the upper right of her HUD: she’d been disconnected from the network. The access point was blocking her.
Convenient.
Now that she’d turned her comm node back online, she took the opportunity to scan the IDs of every robot that passed by. None of them matched up with the ID DragonHunter had sent.
The robots loaded her inside a glass-walled lift and the doors shut. Through the glass, she could see the compound spread out behind her.
The lift traveled at a diagonal angle along the outer surface of the pyramid, following its slope. Each time the floor number incremented on the digital display, a soft ding sounded.
When the display read fifteen, the lift halted. There was still a significant portion of the pyramid remaining above her, but the usable space available would diminish with each successive level, so she figured she was probably close to the top floor.
The doors opened and the robots escorted Rhea into a narrow hallway. The doors on either side were unlabeled. She had augmented reality popups enabled on her HUD, but no overlays appeared, which told her she didn’t have the access rights necessary to view them. Then again, it was also possible there weren’t any overlays, and these doors remained unlabeled not just in the physical realm, but the virtual.
Ahead, a pair of double doors opened.
She was taken into a sprawling room. A carpet, intricately embroidered with an eagle, lay spread out in front of a large cherrywood desk. Its four legs were veritable pillars, and abstract patterns were carved into the wood. Curios rested on the desk, including a steel cube floating on one corner above a magnetic plate, the tri-pronged skull of a dinosaur or bioweapon, and finally a pair of rhinoceros beetles held in the same glass cage. A partition had been placed among the foliage in that cage, keeping the horned beetles separated.
The mayor sat beside that desk, his hands held in front of his chest, the fingers splayed and touching, forming a steeple. He wore an expensive-looking black suit, which fit him perfectly. A
