There was another glass shaft to the left, not far from her, which traveled up the sloping surface of the pyramid like this one. It was currently empty.
DING. DING.
She watched the digital display update as the lift continued upward floor by floor.
She didn’t know what she was doing. She should be fleeing instead of heading to the fifteenth floor. But something impelled her upward. She wanted to continue her little talk with the mayor. Still, what did she hope to accomplish with a laser drill as a weapon?
Well, whatever the case, she couldn’t use this lift. The central AI controlled the elevator, and most likely would be halting it any moment now, so that security robots could rush inside and grab her.
She wasn’t going to allow it.
She slammed her fist into the emergency stop button, hoping it would override any control the AI had, and was pleased when the lift stopped halfway between the fifth and sixth floor.
She turned toward the far wall. The basement robot had done a good job of poking holes through the glass with its plasma bolts. A few well-placed kicks, and the brittle material surrounding it shattered. That left only the external glass shell she had to deal with.
She deactivated the laser drill to pocket it, then she smashed her fists into the translucent material of the shaft. It quickly became obvious that the glass was a lot thicker than it looked. Even with the laser drill, it would take her a long time to cut through.
Glancing at the ceiling, she saw the outline of what must have been a maintenance panel. She leaped up, and punched a fist into it, bending the metal far inward. Good. It was malleable.
She jumped again, this time crunching her fingers into the material to form a handhold. She hung on, and with her other hand did the same thing, but this time she pulled downward. She kept repeating that until she had torn several small holes, which she promptly enlarged. She peeled the sections back, forming a crawlspace, then hauled herself through.
The whole thing took about sixty seconds.
She proceeded up the shaft at a crouch. She had kept track of the spacing between each floor below, and she multiplied that by the remaining levels to fifteen, to estimate the distance she had to go.
Another glass elevator descended inside the second translucent shaft beside her. Combat robots were crowded within. When that elevator reached her level, it changed course, mirroring her ascent, with the unspoken promise that the robots would unload when she did.
She heard a thud come from ahead. A pistol had landed on the glass shaft ahead of her and was sliding down its sloping surface. Curious, she paused, and followed its descent with her eyes. When it was almost above her, a plasma drill tore a circular hole into the glass; the drill cut off, and the pistol slid through, falling into the shaft.
She dashed forward and scooped it out of the air.
She glanced up; narrowing her eyes, she saw a drone hovering overhead, so far away that it appeared only as a faint dot. The geofence was supposed to prevent drones from even flying over the parliament area, but apparently DragonHunter had a way to circumvent even that. He would have had to fly very high, however, to avoid being shot down immediately. No doubt security drones had been scrambled to intercept it.
She fired a test shot to confirm the pistol still worked after the fall, then continued upward. It wasn’t an X2-59, but it would do.
She gazed at the sprawling compound behind her. There was still nothing on the ground, but in the air, she saw several incoming craft. About half of them were headed skyward, toward the intruding drone. The rest seemed to be coming straight toward her.
She wondered if the enemy drones would open fire and damage the glass shaft.
Her question was answered a moment later as plasma bolts slammed into its surface. The glass offered some protection, reducing the intensity of the bolts that passed inside. She began randomly zigzagging as she advanced to decrease her chances of getting shot. So far, the robots mirroring her route in the shaft next to her own had yet to open fire. She wasn’t certain how long that would remain to be the case.
She knew she couldn’t stay here: she was too exposed. She targeted the next elevator door in front of her and fired at it as she clambered up the slope. She continued to zigzag, adjusting her aim to compensate. The door was sloped itself, making it a smaller target, so repeatedly hitting the same spot wasn’t easy.
Three floors past it, another elevator door opened. Security robots appeared; their weapons aimed down at her.
She reached the door she was firing at. By then she’d formed a gaping hole in the center, its edges white hot. She immediately leaped through.
Behind her, the air lit up as plasma bolts from the robots joined the attack from the drones.
The elevator next to hers dinged to announce the arrival of the combat robots crowded within. The doors opened, and she caught a glimpse of metal and polycarbonate limbs.
Rhea fired at the doorknob of the stairwell—just in case it was locked. She shoved her body into the door, breaking it open, and plunged inside as plasma fire broke out behind her. She raced up the stairs; the zig-zagging flights sloped diagonally, matching the exterior shape of the pyramid.
She aimed behind her as she ran, and when one of the pursuing robots came into view, she fired, scoring a hit. Return fire came, and she ducked, continuing upward.
The stairwell doors were labelled here, so she didn’t have to keep track of the number of floors remaining to the fifteenth anymore.
When she reached it, she paused, uncertain what she would find on the
