Half Life (Russell's Attic Book 2) by Huang SL

Author:Huang, SL [Huang, SL]
Language: eng
Format: azw, epub
Tags: mathematical fiction, urban, superhero, speculative fiction, robots, contemporary science fiction, thriller, SFF, mathematics, female protagonist, artificial intelligence
Publisher: SL Huang
Published: 2014-12-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

I ARRIVED at Arkacite at 9:12 the next morning and recognized Checker, Warren, and Pilar waiting for me outside in the plaza. As I approached, Checker detached himself from the group and came over. “Everything good?”

“What’s Pilar doing here?” I said.

He shrugged. “Eh, she wanted to come. They treated her like crap here; I figured she deserved to see them taken down a few pegs. Besides, you never know when it might be useful to have someone on our side who can call them out if they try to bullshit us.”

He did have a point. But…“Wait. Who’s watching Liliana?” I’d tried to get Arthur back, but he was still at Tegan’s.

“Nobody needs to watch her,” scoffed Checker. “I just disabled her movement capabilities for the moment.”

“You what?”

“I’m joking! I’m joking. Calm down. Miri’s looking after her. She’s home for the weekend.”

I took a breath, unsettled by how strong my response had been.

“I made some noise about an abusive stalker parent and warned her not to leave the apartment or open the door, which she was frighteningly blasé about, by the way. My phone will get a ping if the security system detects anything.” He waggled the smartphone at me.

And thanks to Checker, Miri’s security was about as good as it was possible for a civilian apartment to have. Still, I would have felt a hell of a lot more comfortable with Arthur. Given Checker’s talents, I was less worried about the efficacy of Miri’s security system than I was about trusting Miri or Pilar, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of people on call to babysit a five-year-old girl.

Or something that looked like one. What I should have done was turn her off and lock her in a vault.

“In a few hours it won’t matter, anyway,” I said, more to convince myself than Checker. “We’re going to hash this out right now.”

“We hope,” said Checker.

“Yeah.” I fished into my pocket and pulled out a compact shape of rubber and metal about the size of my hand. “Speaking of, stick this in a pocket.”

“What is it?”

“A gas mask.”

“A what?” he yelped.

“It’s a contingency plan, genius. Next time tell me if you’re bringing an extra person.” I relented at the horrified look on his face. “We’re not going to need it. They’re a corporation, not a crime syndicate—the worst we have to worry about is them calling the police, and they won’t. They want to deal.”

He took the mask, fingering it nervously. “I hope you’re right.”

We all walked into the broad lobby together. It was remarkably quiet, with only the security guards at their posts and nobody else. Come to think of it, the plaza outside had been empty, too.

“Did they send everyone home just to meet with us?” I wondered aloud.

Pilar gave me a funny look. “It’s Saturday. I mean, some of the hardcore engineers still come in on weekends, but not many other folks.”

Oh. Right.

Three people waited by the elevators. One was Lau, wearing an exceedingly sour expression and a surgical dressing over the gash on his face.

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