Phil was wiping the sleep dust out
of his eyes with one hand and shaking out the last few drops of piss with his
other when he saw something that made his stomach churn with fear. Stevie was
cowered against a tree at the edge of the football field with a tall figure
bearing down on him. Phil was not one for white collar fashion but he could
pick that line of slim fit suit from a mile away – right now it was only a
quarter mile.
His swooped his loose pants over
his dick, probably staining the inside of his fly with a swansong spurt. He
looked around the shrubs where he had just pissed and found a thick looking
stick, but it was still very damp. Another lay next to it, not quite as large
but a suitable replacement. He set out to save Stevie in a wide, arching run to
sneak up on the robot and Stevie.
As he closed in on the pair he
slowed. He was aware of the enemy’s capabilities. He was within ten paces when
he heard the faintest crunch underneath his left foot. A small but sharp twig
dug into the soft skin in the arch of his foot. Phil froze, desperately wanting
to remove the stick but afraid to give away his only advantage. The robot
didn’t seem to react. Stevie hadn’t sighted Phil yet, but it was likely due to
the glare of the rising Sun behind him. Phil kept closing in. He was like a
lioness as he inched forward ever so slightly before raising his weapon and
charging.
The wood shattered like a vintage wooden baseball bat
cracking its final home run. The robot staggered forward but only half a step.
Phil had fully expected to knock him out – he had no other plan and now his
stick was broke. In a panic he jumped on the robot’s back, slipping his forearm
below his chin and locking it in crook of his opposing elbow.
“Phil?” Stevie asked, his voice
more puzzled than grateful or panicked.
“Hit him!” Phil barked, not
willing to exert too much energy on the order. The robot was yet to react,
probably from the pain and the loss of oxygen.
“Phil it’s OK,” Stevie said,
standing up slowly.
The robot slid his hand between
Phil’s and his neck, instantly breaking the lock Phil was trying so hard to
hold. The robot then began to lift Phil’s arms over his head and then lowered
him to the ground. The escape was effective and oddly gentle. The moment Phil’s
feet touched the ground he launched himself at the robot again but was
deflected to the side. He tried again to attack but this time Stevie held him
back.
“Phil!” he said, more forcefully
this time, “It’s OK; he’s not here to hurt us.”
Phil couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Are you fucking insane?! These guys are the ones hunting us down!”
“Not him, though. He isn’t like
the rest. He is on our side. Right?” Stevie said, seeking approval from the
robot. The robot did not react.
“Our side?! These fuckers don’t
have a side, Stevie, they are programmed to follow orders. He’s a fucking robot
and he is here to fucking kill us!”
“If he wanted to kill us then we’d
be dead. He would have killed me with my guard down and he would have snapped
your neck while you still had your dick in your hand.”
“He wants us alive.” Phil
retorted.
“Why?” Stevie challenged. “Look.
Whisker what are the orders for us? Kill or capture?”
“Kill.”
Phil scoffed. “Convenient. He’s
just lucky I didn’t have a better weapon.”
“Phil, he let you hit him. He
heard you coming – he saw your shadow for fuck’s sake.”
Phil looked down at his shadow; it
stretched several yards in front of him. The robot would have surely noticed
his approach well in advance. “Well,” Phil searched, “Well why did you let me hit
you?”
“I felt I owed it to you,” the
robot replied politely, “I have brought you some grief in recent times.
Phil scoffed again, but with less
conviction this time round. In the last few months he had begun to understand
the notion of experience and age much clearer. He had lost count of how many
times he had been out-witted or acted with flawed logic. He looked to Stevie,
“And you believe this shit?” Stevie nodded. Phil shook his head, “Well fuck me,
then, but this is a big fucking mistake.”
“Look, it may be hard to believe
but Mr Whisker, or Whisky, is here to help us.”
“I’m sorry - Whisky?” Phil mocked,
his anger fuelling up again, “You nicknamed this fuckhead?”
“He spared my life, Phil!”
“Yeah, well he tried to fucking
take mine!” Phil looked around in frustration and caught something in his
peripheral. A shadow slowly bobbed at the robot’s feet. Phil traced it back to
a skinny figure. Forest was holding a large stick in the air – and a damply
familiar one if Phil wasn’t mistaken – he put a silencing finger to his lips,
in effect kissing Phil’s morning piss. Phil was too angry to find any of this
humorous. “Forest he can see your fucking shadow, you deadshit.”
Stevie let out hoarse laugh.
“Dude! What the fuck? I was just
about to own this motherfucker!”
Phil shook his head in
resignation.
“I was going to let him hit me as
well,” The robot stated.
“Prove you’re trustworthy, yeah? I’m
sure it fucking hurts when you’re a 7 foot tall robot.”
The robot raised his hand to the
back of his head and showed Phil the blood on his fingers, “It hurts; just like
the rest of them.”
“I’m sorry, did I miss something
here?” Forrest asked.
“No nothing big, just Stevie
trusts the Citadel robot who is here to kill us all.”
“I’m here,” the robot interjected,
raising the volume of his voice without seeming to display any extra emotion,
“to tell you that Citadel does not know where you are, but they are expecting
you to turn up at your rally. There they will take you into the Towers and you
will not be seen again. Ever.”
“Risk we’re willing to take.” Phil
spat.
“Word.” Forest offered.
“Understood. What I am offering
you is a way into the Towers to assist in the rescue of Walter Wallace.”
“We already got a way in.”
“Your previous endeavour into the
Towers has been thoroughly investigated and is no longer an option.”
Phil was slightly taken aback. He
had been relying heavily on that entrance. “Well if you want to help then make
it an option again.”
“It is manned.”
“Then kill the man.”
“Ha! Fight the power!” Forrest
added in triumph.
“There is a cleaner way; a smarter
way.” Phil stayed silent waiting for the next bullshit sentence to leave the
robot’s mouth. “I’m proposing that I be the one to take you into custody. I can
escort you directly to Walter.”
“Oh isn’t that fucking convenient?
What a flawless plan you have devised. We simply surrender ourselves first
chance we get and then what? Wait, I know, we will ‘not be seen ever again’”
Phil spat – literally this time – at the robot’s foot, narrowly missing.
“Phil.” Stevie said, sternly.
“What? You’re gonna buy this shit
just like that?
“I trust this man-”
“-this robot.”
Stevie rolled his eyes. “I trust
him, whatever the fuck he is, not because he spared my life once, not because
he came out here alone, but because he is all we’ve got.”
“We can do it alone. If he is
trustworthy then he can create some diversion, or tell us where Walter is. But
I’m not going to let him bind my wrists to my ankles and fuck me up the ass.”
“Walter is on the forty-fifth
floor. He is in a laboratory, hooked to The Machine with scientists conducting
a range of excruciating tests in an attempt to extract some physical manifestation
of his happiness. Take this.” He handed Stevie a small USB drive. “Sam Tank
would kill me just for knowing that, let alone telling the enemy. I am reaching
out to you because I want to rescue Walter Wallace and I cannot do it alone.”
There was a silence hanging over
the group. Phil almost saw the robot breathing a little heavier. It was the
same odd sense of emotion he had picked up when he faced the other robot at
behind the train wreck in Newport Haven. “Sam Tank? The doctor guy? Don’t you
mean Boss Citadel?”
“Boss Citadel is as good as dead.”
“What?”
“He is mute and immobile. I
personally broke both his legs as well as his jaw. Sam Tank and Boss had a
falling out. Sam ordered me to do it. He watched it on camera to make sure I
could be trusted. He may or may not be a doctor – I do not know for sure – but
he is most certainly the enemy.”
“I’ve met him,” Stevie said, “He
is bad news.”
“He’s the guy who told me to write
the anti-Walter bit.”
“He must have wanted to start the
backlash,” Stevie said.
“Never take Sam Tank at face
value. He is many steps ahead of you.” The robot was blunt. “There is every
chance that he knows my intentions, may have even put a tail on me. I made sure
to lose one if that was the case, but I would never assume I had fooled him.”
Phil had lost his fire. The robot
sounded honest. But he could not consider himself a valid sceptic if he was so
easily swayed. The robot was programmed to carry out orders and if this was
another order than every line of it was a simple equation that was calculated
in an instant. “I don’t trust him, Stevie. I can’t. But I trust you and we are
nothing without that.”
Stevie was frowning with
concentration, looking at the ground just in front of him as if the answer was
due to apparate any moment. Without saying anything he looked up at the robot.
“Do what you need to do on the
day. I will find you when I can and I will have one agent partnering me. If it
is not me taking you in then make sure you do all you can not to be caught.”
Stevie nodded.
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