Chapter 17

Valerie waved goodbye to Greg as he disappeared home after walking her to the door of her apartment. She wanted to shower and get an early night, ready for work the next morning. The past two days had been incredible. They had swum in the sea, eaten fabulous food, and explored one of the most beautiful resorts in the country.

Each night they had wallowed in the luxury of their accommodation and made love into the early hours. Part of her could have stayed there forever, forgotten about status reports and mission plans and just existed in a state of perpetual nirvana. The reality of the situation was that, like it or not, she still had a job to do. It was an unfortunate aspect of that job that she had to work against a man for whom she was developing strong feelings.

She entered the apartment and Felix rushed from Emily's room towards her, mewling in agitation. His food and water bowls were empty and she silently cursed Emily for not looking after him properly. The first sense that something was wrong was the sight of blood on the carpet. A gory trail led off in the direction from which Felix had appeared and she followed it to make a horrific discovery.

Emily lay face up on the bed, her body riddled with bullet holes and her eyes staring vacantly up at the ceiling. Her blouse was drenched with blood and her arms and legs scored with dozens of tiny scratches.

"Emily," Valerie gasped, dropping beside her fallen friend and searching desperately for signs of life.

With no detectable pulse, a more detailed examination revealed her to be in a state of advanced hibernation. The small amount of remaining reserve power was barely enough to maintain her sleeping Quantum.

Hovering on the verge of calling the Facility for an emergency medical evacuation, she realized that every second wasted brought Emily closer to death. If her Quantum lost power completely, its junctions would degrade quickly leaving no option but to replace it and reboot from her Datacore. She knew that no replacements were currently available; the likelihood was that Emily would perish permanently unless she acted quickly.

Valerie headed to the kitchen and returned with a sharp carving knife. Cutting away her friend's blouse and bra, her heart broke as she viewed the grisly sight of the woman's damaged body. With calm deliberation, she pressed the tip of the knife between Emily's breasts and made a deep incision down as far as her naval. Her fingers turned crimson as she parted the skin and peered into the gaping chest cavity.

The ruptured power coupling soon became apparent and Valerie rushed to the kitchen cupboard to fetch her repair kit and some pliers from out of a drawer. Returning to Emily, she spliced the frayed connections into an inline connector and crimped them crudely together. Having sliced through some data fibres, the bullet had lodged in the protective outer membrane of her back. She used the pliers to carefully reach in and extract the deformed bullet.

The first indication that her actions were successful was when Emily's eyelids flickered. She withdrew her hands from inside her bloody torso. With a lot of damage still to rectify, it took several hours and her entire supply of repair gel to get Emily to the point that she could seal her up and patch the holes in her arm and shoulder.

The wounds were still weeping but Valerie managed to stem the losses with gauze and bandages. Their external membrane was organic in nature and capable of regrowth but she doubted it was designed to cope with injuries this extensive. The scarring would be pronounced and probably permanent.

"Valerie," a frail voice sighed, marking Emily's return to consciousness.

"Keep quiet love. You're still very weak," Valerie urged her as she took out an aerosol and sprayed a skin-toned pigment over the woman's minor cuts and abrasions.

Pouring a large quantity of their supplement into a cup, she elevated Emily's head so that she could swallow. With appropriate care, she would be walking around within a few days but she was under no illusions about the mental trauma that her injuries would produce. Valerie still suffered from the occasional flashback to the moment of her death and the subsequent disorientation as she woke up in the Facility.

Having worked continuously for most of the night and desperately needing rest, Valerie finally snuggled beside her friend and fell into a fitful slumber.

Bennett arrived at work refreshed from his vacation but was thrown headlong into the middle of another major crisis. An attack had taken place, this time against the facility that routed all their surveillance data. The substation that provided it with power had been destroyed and two guards struck down, one fatally. Engineers from the Syntel division that maintained the complex were estimating nearly two weeks before the system would be restored to full operation.

A crime investigation team was on-site. Initial reports suggested that the saboteurs had gained access through a hole in the fence then used explosives to complete their objectives. At least one of the attackers had been badly wounded according to the amount of blood found at the scene, but had subsequently escaped.

Valerie had called in sick claiming that she'd contracted some sort of vomiting bug. She advised him to keep away from her for a day or two until she'd fully recovered.

Sands was the only bearer of good news, stating that his Syntel contact would be meeting them later in the week with the information they'd requested but confirming that nothing would be handed over unless the money was forthcoming. The man had selected an abandoned industrial unit beside the Belmont as the location for the exchange. Bennett began thinking of ways to get the money other than by official channels.

The Syntel CEO quietly fumed at the loss of the surveillance grid. The company received a great deal of funding to operate it on behalf of the government; those payments would be suspended whilst the system was inoperative. The substation would require time and considerable expense to restore. The most optimistic estimate of the time to repair was ten days.

He suspected the group that Emily had infiltrated was behind the attack. Beverly had inferred from their recent behaviour that they were planning something extravagant to help raise their profile.

All Henderson's attempts at contacting Emily had proven unsuccessful, leaving him annoyed at the Hybrid's failure to keep in regular communication. Even Valerie had been incommunicado so he'd been unable to determine the extent that the police suspected Syntel's complicity in recent events.

Valerie awoke to find Emily resting and stable. She continued to administer large doses of the supplement to build up her reserves and provide the raw material for the regeneration of her internal data network.

"What happened Emily?" she asked.

"I was with Janus..." Emily whispered.

"The bastard," Valerie snapped. "Henderson had no right putting you in such a dangerous situation."

"No. I..." Emily started to protest but lacked the energy to complete her sentence.

Valerie turned on her phone and dialled Henderson's number, her anger palpable.

"Where have you been?" Henderson snapped.

"Listen to me Henderson," Valerie ranted. "Your incompetence nearly cost Emily her life."

"What are you talking about?"

"I came home last night to find her close to death. This guy Janus shot her. I managed to patch her up but she's going to bear the scars for a long time."

"We've been trying to get hold of you. We think Janus's group was behind this weekend's attack."

"What attack?"

"They took out the Central Surveillance Nexus. The whole city is going to be blind for the next two weeks."

"Why did you insert her into such a dangerous group?"

"That's what you're designed to do."

"We're not designed for suicide missions."

"You can be brought back to life whereas humans can't."

"Except we can't," Valerie contradicted, angered at the lack of Hybrid spares.

"Get her back on her feet," Henderson commanded. "We'll have more instructions for her soon."

"You can't be serious?"

"We've got orders for you too," he told her adamantly. "We need you to find out how many of your team are currently investigating Syntel and specifically how much they know or suspect about the SYLF project."

"What on earth?" she replied in shock.

"Pete Sands is a member of your team, is he not?"

"Yes."

"He's suborned a chemist on our research staff to provide classified information. He's already been sent confirmation that Syntel developed the supplement that they discovered at Mason's club and at the apartment block."

"This is terrible."

"We need to know who else knows."

"What are you planning to do?" Valerie asked falteringly, a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Whatever's necessary. It's imperative that knowledge about this be contained. If it ever became public, everything would start to unravel. You'd all become a liability."

"You can't mean that," she panicked.

"You're classified as weapons technology. You break smoke knows how many treaties. If the Caliban ever found out, we'd risk outright war if we didn't destroy you."

"You'd kill us?" Valerie asked hysterically.

"We'd have little choice."

"What about our choice?"

"You're machines. You have no say in the matter," he told her flatly. "But it won't come to that if you do your job and help us keep a lid on this."

Valerie sat staring at the phone long after the call had ended. She suddenly understood that no matter how human she felt, she had no rights whatsoever and that Syntel could terminate her at will if they so desired. Nobody would be any the wiser and no one would be held responsible. She was only a machine after all. Wiping a tear from her eye, she turned and noticed Emily trying to sit up.

"Don't try and move yet," she demanded.

"I'm feeling much better."

"You don't know how lucky you are. Another few hours and you'd have died for good."

"Valerie. Thanks for saving me."

"It wouldn't be the same around here without you," Valerie told her affectionately.

The cat jumped onto the bed between them and purred.

"Felix agrees," she added.

Claire waited until her children awoke before indicating that she had something important to show them. Curiosity drove them to follow her outside where she instructed them to close their eyes. As soon as they complied, Claire crept into the barn and returned leading a large sandy-coloured Labrador by its leash.

"You can open them now," Claire advised, and took great delight in the expression of sheer joy that filled her daughters' faces. They made an instant fuss of the animal, stroking its thick fur and tickling it beneath the chin.

"She's lovely," Ruth exclaimed.

"It's a he," Claire corrected, "but yes, he is."

"What shall we call him?" Hailey asked.

"Timmy," Ruth stated without hesitation. Claire surmised that a dog of that name existed on one of the many teen dramas that they watched.

"Timmy it is then," Claire confirmed when Hailey showed no objection to the name.

The children had always wanted a dog but both she and Karl had always felt that their previous homes lacked sufficient space to cater to such an animal's needs. It had been Karl's idea to provide the pet, venturing that no farm was complete without one. She'd located an animal shelter the previous evening and selected the cutest from the many abandoned animals confined within the rows of sturdy wooden kennels.

Ruth threw her arms around Claire's neck and hugged her tightly, thanking her for the addition to their family and promising to look after him to the best of her abilities. They turned to watch Hailey giggling in delight as the dog jumped up against her and licked her face in excitement, his tail wagging frantically from side to side.

It was another day before Valerie felt confident enough to leave Emily on her own. She was eating food and her injuries were healing nicely. Valerie changed the dressings but looked with great sadness at the dark scar that ran down her middle, marring her undeniable beauty. Emily had refused to talk in any detail about what had happened but Valerie was sorely tempted to hunt Janus down and kill him for what he'd done to her.

Leaving Emily to sleep, she drove into the station, still drained from the trauma of the previous two days. Greg came over to her and hugged her without hesitation, drawing jeers and wolf whistles from the staff. He didn't care any more; knowledge of their relationship was an open secret.

He led her back to the office where he outlined all they knew about the latest attack and the chaos caused by the loss of the surveillance grid. When she heard that a member of the group responsible had possibly been shot, she jerked in surprise. Surely Emily hadn't been with them on the raid, had she?

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Emily had been dragged along with them then shot when she tried to intervene or warn the Nexus security. This was clearly a well organized and dangerous group that needed taken out of circulation.

Greg went through the list of possible terrorist suspects of which Janus's group was just one of many. Valerie tried to figure how to determine if Greg knew anything about his colleague's dealings with the Facility chemist, but could not figure how to phrase the question without drawing his suspicion. She had no doubt that his contact was dead but she needed to learn who else knew in order for the knowledge to be suppressed effectively. The Hybrids' lives now depended on it.

Emily struggled out of bed and into the shower. She looked dolefully at her scarred flesh, tracing along the raised ridge with her finger and wondering how anybody would want her with such a severe disfigurement.

Janus had saved her life. He had shot the second guard before he could pump any more bullets into her. She couldn't blame anybody for what had happened other than herself. Overconfident in her abilities, she had recklessly endangered everything just to ingratiate herself into Janus's favour. For what? To get herself nearly killed and be left in such a state that he wouldn't want anything further to do with her?

"Why couldn't I just let them blow up the substation and be done with it?" she lamented. "Why did I have to try and go one step further?"

Despite her regrets, she realized that the virus was probably still in place and that as soon as they powered up the Nexus it would spread throughout the network.

Her mission must go on, she decided, or it would all have been for nothing. She dressed her wounds and put on thick baggy clothes before summoning a taxi.

Janus was at home, keeping a low profile in case the authorities linked him to the weekend raid. He regretted the killing but his raw emotions had burst forth. When he'd seen Emily shot, he'd acted out of sheer bloody-minded retribution. The group advocated peaceful protest and action against property only. Now they had taken a life. Emily had been either killed or was in the custody of the authorities. The fact that he wasn't under arrest probably confirmed the former of the two possibilities.

He'd not known Emily for long but he'd liked her a great deal and felt there was something between them that could have been more. Her loss affected him more deeply than he dared believe possible, overshadowing the celebrations of victory and the admiration of his followers.

A knock at the door provided notice that Huxley had returned with an update on the repairs to the grid and he rushed to admit him. The sight of Emily on his doorstep made his heart leap.

"Emily. I though ... I thought..."

"I was dead?" she finished for him.

"I saw you shot."

"I'm harder to kill than that," she assured him.

He led her inside, hardly able to believe his eyes.

"How did you escape?"

"The same way you did, through the fence."

His mind vividly recollected the events of the fateful night and her mad dash onto the roof. He became suspicious because of what he couldn't understand.

"Why didn't you stay put?" he demanded. "What did you think that you could achieve by climbing onto the roof?"

Emily sensed his suspicion and knew she had to tell him what she'd achieved.

"I got inside the Nexus building. I knew from your diagram where the server room was located so I broke in and planted a virus within the system. As soon as they power it back up again it will infect every single node. They'll all start performing a mathematical calculation that they can never complete."

"How long will it take them to fix it?" he asked in amazement.

"They'll have to power down and reload every node simultaneously if they're to stand any chance of eradicating the virus. It will be a logistical nightmare that will take weeks to coordinate."

"How? How?" he repeated incredulously.

"I have knowledge of Quantum computers. They can be subverted."

"That's not possible."

"I can assure you that it is."

Her words only fuelled his suspicions.

"You really expect me to believe you're a simple politics student?"

"No, I guess not."

"Then who are you?"

"Somebody that just wants to help?"

Another knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. It was Huxley. The man was deeply sceptical of Emily's claims to have infiltrated the Nexus and infected it with a virus. He also had other disappointing news.

"They're working around the clock to fix the substation. They've just brought in a portable power unit on a truck and are wiring it up as we speak. It's just a temporary measure until they repair the substation but I reckon they'll have the grid back up and running by the weekend."

"The sooner the better," Emily replied. "Once they turn it back on, their problems will really begin."

"So you say," he retorted.

"We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

Her confidence unsettled him but Janus was simply relieved that she was still alive.

"I'm holding a meeting of everybody here tomorrow night," he announced. "We need to maintain the momentum and decide what other targets are justifiable in the light of what just happened."

"I agree entirely," Huxley confirmed. "We need to take the battle to the enemy now that the war has been declared."

Emily wondered exactly who the enemy really was.

Henderson informed Simmonds of the Hybrid's critical wounding. The CEO felt it might have been better all round if she'd been killed outright. She'd given no effective warning of the attack and wasn't proving herself as valuable an asset as the other Hybrids. Beverly had reported a large meeting of the new insurgent group the following evening. He decided to employ Emily one last time.

He instructed Henderson to ensure Emily attended the meeting then hand her command codes over to Beverly where she'd instruct the Hybrid to kill as many of the group's hierarchy as possible. He had no doubt that the insurgents would react and possibly kill Emily but that suited his purposes. When pandemonium broke out, Beverly would alert a clean-up crew to remove Emily's body before it fell into the hands of the authorities.

Emily remained with Janus after Huxley left and they enjoyed a quiet meal together. They read poetry and listened to a classical concerto that Janus had recently purchased. He asked her to stay the night but sensed her reluctance.

"I don't think that you'll want me anymore," she stated solemnly.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" he joked.

She undressed slowly before him.

As her mutilated body was revealed, he gasped in horror then cried in utter desolation.

"This is my fault," he sobbed. "I should never have allowed you to accompany us."

"I'm not very pretty am I?"

He shook his head in denial of her words.

"Emily, I think you're prettier than ever," he sighed, reaching out and gently touching her scar. "I promise to protect you from now on."

She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair, wanting nothing more than to be with him.

"Make love to me, please."

"I don't want to hurt you," he replied.

"You won't."

He lifted her in his arms and carefully carried her upstairs like a fine porcelain doll.

Despite several carefully crafted hints, Valerie failed to steer the conversation around to the Syntel investigation. Bennett and Sands stuck resolutely to discussing the events of the weekend and who they believed was responsible. Other than asking outright, she could think of no way to obtain the information she required. She suspected that both were complicit but absolute proof evaded her.