Warden 4 by Isaac Hooke

Warden 4 by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-04-25T04:00:00+00:00


10

The door behind Rhea began to glow red in the center from the impacts it was taking on the other side, and she quickly backed away. As she moved farther away from it, more doors began to seal behind her, further fortifying the passageway and ensuring the escape of her and her companions.

She spun around to face the forward direction. The roof of the corridor was low, almost brushing the heads of the taller members of the party and wasn’t any wider than the employees-only passageway she’d just left, so that she and her companions were forced to travel in single file. She gazed past the Wardenites.

“Where are we?” Rhea asked, projecting her voice toward the black-robed man who guided them.

“The secret underground passages of Hongton,” the man at the fore announced. “The robots cannot come here. They’re programming won’t allow it.”

“Doesn’t seem to stop them from firing at the wall…” Will commented.

In the distance, the corridor was dark, but overhead lights activated in turn as motion sensors detected the advance.

“Who made this?” Horatio asked.

“The Martian government designed this place for its officials, in case of an attack,” the man explained. “It connects all the major government buildings and leads to a series of underground bunkers. I’ve coopted one of them for us.”

“Won’t the city’s AI know we’re here?” Rhea asked. “Considering the robots watched us enter…”

“It will know,” the man agreed. “However, it will not reveal this knowledge to anyone. This is part of its programming and is meant to prevent betrayal in the event the city falls. Would you want the AI of your city capable of revealing your hiding place to the enemy? You’ll also notice there are no cameras in these halls. No one knows we’re here, and the only way we’ll be discovered is if we stay here long enough to encounter the weekly inspectors. That gives us a few days.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Will said. “If I was part of the city’s security operation, and I knew the AI wouldn’t report on anyone who fled into the underground tunnel system, this would be the first place I’d look.”

“Yes, except no humans are part of the city’s security team,” the man said. “Everything is handled by machines. It’s the law here, in fact: robots are impartial, and can’t be bribed or otherwise corrupted. They’re the perfect law enforcement officers. There are, of course, a handful of party officials who know about these tunnels, and they’ll put two and two together. It’s possible they might even come looking for us in here. But since they can’t bring any robot bodyguards with them, I doubt it. More likely they’ll send in bounty hunters, of a cyborg ilk. And we may have to face such bounty hunters at some point, this is true. Or these party officials might simply decide that we’re better off left alone. I suppose we’ll see. It really depends on how long we intend to stay here.”

“Where are you taking us?” Rhea asked.



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