“What’s taking so long?” the woman asked after they had stood by the pillar for over thirty minutes. “She said she was meeting us here, right?”
Simon nodded. “She gave me a map showing exactly where to meet her. I’ve double checked several times now. We’re in the right spot.”
“And she was supposed to meet us now?”
“Half an hour ago,” Simon corrected her.
They both looked at the people passing by before turning to each other.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Beth said. There was almost something in the air that heightened her senses, like she was detecting an odor of danger.
“I agree,” Simon said after some thought. “This is starting to feel like a setup. Stay on your toes.”
How exactly am I supposed to do that? Beth wondered. What would I do if I had to defend myself right now? Smack the attacker in the face?
As if her thoughts had manifested themselves, Beth heard a small boom and a lot of small objects clatter. She turned toward the ramen restaurant, where the commotion had come from. There was a bit of motion in the black curtains in the windows. Her body tightened as she braced herself — for what, she did not know.
Then a form burst through the restaurant’s front window. The curtain flowed out into the new opening as thousands of glass shards tinkled to the tile floor. Everyone jumped back a bit, stopping their rushed walking or loud babbling to look at the form, which rolled out onto the ground and stopped about ten feet from Beth and Simon.
Simon’s bodyshell beside her raised his hands. She felt her own fist clutch at her side, but she was too startled to lift it.
The form unfolded itself and stood at its full height. It was a robotic bodyshell unlike anything Beth had ever seen before. It towered a full foot over Simon, who she had regarded as pretty tall until this moment. Its silver-plated head was covered in three faces, like some ancient Greek theater mask. The faces were angular and full of little lights, arranged in a geometric pattern not unlike the eyes of a spider. A green glow came from its light panels, which almost seemed to smile at them. A mechanical mouth filled with dozens of sharp metal teeth grinned at them.
The thing spread out its four tentacle-like arms, each with a robotic hand on the end. The limbs were composed of several intricate joints, allowing it to move in any manner the user saw fit. Two of the hands were clutching katanas, brandishing them towards Beth and Simon like a large pair of shears. A neon blue glow covered the blades.
Simon moved in front of Beth, standing between her and the terrifying new bodyshell before them. She peered around his metal body to see the machine’s head rotate. One of the faces, its optical lights glowing purple where the other face had been green, locked into place and faced the detective and her I.I. companion.
“Gotcha,” a voice sneered out of the four-armed bodyshell.
Rubik
The machine’s violet optical lights gazed over Beth and Simon. Beth felt like she was being scanned by a security system back at the precinct, but this felt much more sinister. It almost seemed like it could glimpse into her soul and look around.
Simon held his ground. If he was afraid, Beth couldn’t tell. Nothing about his body language indicated defeat.
“Right where you’re supposed to be,” a woman’s voice comes out of the four-armed bodyshell.
“Just like they said,” it spoke again, this time in a Southern man’s voice.
“It seems like the intel was good,” another male voice said through the thing’s voice speaker. “Want me to handle this one?”
“No, this moment is mine,” a fourth voice said. This one sounded strained, like breathing was difficult.
“Oh, Lynch wants to play with his meat before he eats it,” the first voice — the woman’s — teased.
Simon and Beth looked at each other. Her companion couldn’t make any expressions, but she could sense an air of confusion about him.
“Then let him play, I say,” another woman’s voice replied. This one was much deeper and rough.
“Very well.”
“Look at the two of you,” the voice that sounded strained said. This time he was addressing Beth and Simon, rather than talking to himself. “Like flies in a web. I can’t believe you fell for our trap.”
One of the other voices, this one with a distinct Japanese accent, commented, “As I said they would.”
Simon spoke up. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Want?” the voice breathed heavily at them. “Oh, I want so many things. But my employers want you, and that’s why I’m here. I thought it would be easier to send you back to the boss piece by piece, but here we are. I have my orders.”
“Tarov sent you?” Simon asked.
Beth was still trying to take everything in. The assassin’s bodyshell seemed to be occupied by more than one I.I. It was something she’d always heard of, but never seen. Unlike Trishilan, who was an entity that identified as one individual, this bodyshell seemed to be a unit. As far as she’d ever learned, a unit was made up of several different consciousnesses, all sharing a single body but identifying individually. It seemed impractical to her, but she’d always heard that the harmony between members of a unit can make for a formidable team. A unit like this — except in an organic body rather than robotic one — had once put away the country’s biggest real estate broker when it became apparent that he was laundering money for the Russian mafia. Still, she had never encountered a unit in real life.
“Look at the girl,” the
