Alliance (20 page)

I resume walking doubled over toward the
office building, although I do so more cautiously now in order to
avoid being spotted by the drones. It seems unlikely that any will
see me, but I am not one to take unnecessary risks, especially when
these risks might end with my dismantlement at the hands of company
workers who might be performing illegal activity.

Soon, I reach the end of the makeshift
wall of rock and snow. Still crouching as low as I can, I am just
about to make a run for the office building—which is not far from
my current location—when I hear the voices of two dwarves on the
other side of the wall, forcing me to stay where I am so they do
not see or hear me.

“
And then she said,
'What, I thought
you
were on Xeeo!'” says one of the
dwarves.

As soon as he says that, his partner
laughs so loudly that I wonder if it will cause an avalanche.
Thankfully, however, the snow on the nearby mountains does not
move.

“
That's hilarious,” says
the other dwarf. “You should tell that to everyone else. Best joke
I ever heard in my life.”

“
I should,” says the
first dwarf. “But you know, Kalcan doesn't like us telling jokes,
even on our break. Lousy snow-skin just wants us to work, work,
work until we're dead.”

“
Hey, keep your voice
down,” says the second dwarf, who sounds worried. “Kalcan has eyes
and ears everywhere, remember? Besides, I don't mind Kalcan pushing
us to work. The more we work, the closer we get to completing the
Mission, which I think is more important than not being able to
tell jokes, even really great jokes like the one you just told
me.”

“
Eh, I guess you're
right,” says the first dwarf. “I guess there will be plenty of time
for joking around when the Mission is complete. Anyway, I'm done
talking. Let's get lunch.”

I hear the two dwarves walk away, but do
not look over the wall to see where they are going. I instead take
this time to think about what they were discussing, as some of what
they say does not make any sense to me.

What is the 'Mission'? I suppose it might
be the company's goals, whatever those are, but they spoke about it
too reverently for me to assume that that is what they mean. This
'Mission' must be highly important if Kalcan is forcing them to
work without much time for breaks or jokes.

Speaking of Kalcan, he is apparently the
one in charge here, if those two dwarves' conversation has any
truth to it. That means that not only is he a traitor to his kind,
but he is also the head of this digging company.

It seems clear to me, then, that finding
Kalcan should be one of my top priorities. If I can find him, then
I can make him tell me about the legality of this dig, as well as
what company they work for. I might even be able to convince him
and his workers to leave if they are doing anything illegal,
although knowing how stubborn criminals can be, that seems
unlikely.

Additionally, I wonder what that dwarf's
joke was. I only got the punch line, but considering how loudly his
friend laughed, I can only assume that it is a great joke. Maybe it
is in
Secrets of Humor
; though I will have to check at some
point later, because right now I have more important things to
think about.

My main challenge now is to reach and
enter that office building without being seen. The rock and snow
wall I have been crouching behind does not extend all the way to
that building. I will have to cross the gap between this wall and
the building if I am to get there, but that also means risking one
of the workers or drones seeing me as well.

The best way to do that is to create a
distraction that will draw all potential eyes away from the office
building. Then I will be able to dash across to the building and
enter before anyone notices.

All of this would be easier if I was
equipped with a stealth mode. Unfortunately, that particular piece
of technology is available only to members of the Midnight Patrol
Squad, of which I am not. Maybe when I get back home, I will apply
for a position on the Squad so I can get that stealth mode.

In any case, I need to come up with a good
distraction. If only I had a blind bomb on me, then I could throw
it and distract the workers that way. Unfortunately, J bots are not
allowed to carry blind bombs through Portals, because the strange
properties of the Portals usually cause the bombs to explode
prematurely.

I peek over the short wall again in order
to see if my environment will give me any ideas for a good
distraction. The crane is lowering something—another large drill,
by the look of it—into the pit, while a drone nearby records the
crane's actions. I also notice several dwarf workers making their
way down using the lift, although there are still many workers
outside of the pit where they can see me if I try to sneak across
to that office building.

Pulling my head back down behind the wall,
I look at the office building again. I can think of no way to
distract the workers and the drones, which makes this mission much
more difficult than it should be.

Maybe I can hack into one of the drones
and use it to cause a distraction of some sort. That might work,
seeing as these drones look similar to the kind built by Annulus
Robotics, Inc., which is the company that also built we J bots. It
might not be difficult to do.

Then again, hacking into any of those
drones will surely draw attention to myself, especially if I fail.
Besides, I have no guarantee that I can establish a connection link
with any of these drones; for all I know, they are custom-made for
this company, which means their software may be completely
incompatible with me. I still think it is worth a shot, however,
because I have no other way to make a distraction. And if I am
found out, I can run, even fly, away, although that will definitely
make the arctic vampire angry at me when she finds out.

Hacking into one of these drones will
require that I send out a signal to whichever one is nearest.
Assuming these drones are built similarly to the ones created by
Annulus Robotics, Inc., then I will have to make it past the
password field, as well as the firewall. In my experience, drones
are generally easy to hack, which is partly why they are not in
widespread use in Xeeo, although the more recent models put out by
Annulus Robotics, Inc., have better security against hacking than
most.

Anyway, I focus on a drone that is flying
several dozen feet away from my current position; not close enough
to see me, but close enough that I can try to hack it without being
seen.

As soon as it is within range, I send out
a connection signal to it. A moment later, the words 'CONNECTION
ESTABLISHED' flash across my optics, followed by, 'USER NOT
AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS DRONE.'

A password screen pops up in front of the
access denied screen. I expect the password to be four characters,
which is the established number of characters that all drone
passwords are required to have, but instead this one requires a
password with five characters.

It appears my earlier theory is correct,
that these are indeed custom drones built specifically for the
digging company. I do not dwell on that fact, however, because I
doubt it will be long before that company finds out what I am doing
and tries to stop me.

As a J bot, I have a built-in password
generator, which is usually used to access criminal files and
computers in order to gather evidence for a trial. It is a
complicated bit of software, capable of generating millions of
different passwords in minutes, so I have no doubt that it will
give me the password I need quickly, no matter how obscure it
is.

So I run the password generator through
the password screen, but the second I do so, even before the first
password is generated, a large 'WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED USER
ATTEMPTING TO HACK DRONE. ALL DRONES GATHER ON HACKER'S
LOCATION.'

I immediately break off the connection
with the drone I am attempting to hack. My vision returns to normal
just in time for me to see dozens of drones flying toward me, each
one sending off an extremely loud alarm, which combined with so
many drones flying together makes a deafening sound.

Seeing that my cover is broken, I stand up
and make a run for it in the opposite direction away from the pit.
Soon, however, the drones are upon me, flying all around me and
slowing my progress considerably.

The drones swarm around me so thickly that
it is hard, though not impossible, to see through them. I turn
every which way, but no matter which direction I look in, the
drones have blocked off every escape route. Their alarms are louder
than ever, so loud that I wonder if my audio receptors will be
damaged by them.

Because there are so many drones no matter
where I look, some of them fly into me or bounce off my head. I
dodge some of them, but they keep coming at me so that I can barely
avoid even that much. It doesn't seem like they are trying to
capture me, however; merely stop me until someone else comes and
gets me, likely the workers.

But I am not going to let them hold me
back like this. I activate my electrical barrier, only this time
making sure to extend its radius by a dozen feet in order to catch
all of the drones at once.

It works. When the barrier strikes all of
the drones in unison, they all fall to the ground around me in a
clatter of metal and plastic. I quickly raise my arms to protect my
head from their fall, because despite their size, these drones are
quite heavy.

In seconds, I am surrounded on every side
by inactive and damaged drones, which are no longer sounding their
loud alarms. A few are even smoking, which means it is unlikely
they will ever see action again.

But I am not free from danger just yet.
Dwarfish workers are running toward me as fast as their short legs
can carry them, pointing and shouting curses at me as they do so.
There are at least a dozen of these workers, with more no doubt
coming on the way, and they are armed with picks and shovels and
other digging equipment that, while not as effective as actual
weaponry, can still harm me significantly if used against me.

I turn to run into the mountains, but
before I can do so, a pale claw flies toward me from the corner of
my optic. I duck and roll forward over the drones, narrowly
avoiding the claw, and then, when I get back to my feet, I look to
see who is trying to kill me.

It is another arctic vampire, although it
is clearly not the arctic vampire from before, the one who took me
here. This one is bigger and more masculine, with a clearly defined
jawline, and wings that are as wide as a phoenix's. He has green
eyes, an unusual eye color for an arctic vampire to have, although
his lips are as red as the average vampire's. He also wears
clothing, some wool pants, but besides that he is shirtless, which
surprises me, considering how cold it is. Then again, he is an
arctic vampire, so he is probably used to the cold.

The arctic vampire advances toward me,
growling as he does so, while the dwarfish workers near the pit
stop when they see him. I do not know why they stop, seeing as this
vampire appears to be on their side, but I am not complaining, as
it will make escaping much easier.

I begin to back up, saying as I do so,
“Are you Kalcan?”

The arctic vampire nods, showing no sign
of surprise at the fact that I know his name. “Indeed. And you are
that stupid robot, J997, that tried to stop Jornan's earlier
attempts to smuggle super speed drugs into Xeeo, yes?”

“
How did you know that?”
I ask. “I did not see you at the crime scene.”

“
Jornan and I are …
friends, to put it one way,” says Kalcan, flashing his fangs at me.
“And we tend to talk to each other. I thought for sure that you
were still with the Foundation, but I guess you must have escaped
the slaughter that that battle ended up being.”

“
Slaughter?” I repeat,
still backing up as quickly as I can. “How could you know about
that battle unless … are you a member of Reunification?”

“
More than a member,”
says Kalcan, “an Elder. But yes, I was there when we slaughtered
every remaining agent there. I even got to snack on a few annoying
Foundation agents myself.”

If what Kalcan says is true, then that
means that the Foundation lost. Of course, he may be lying, seeing
as he does not strike me as an honest vampire, but I cannot say for
certain if that is the case or not.

But again, it does not matter. I have no
loyalty to either the Foundation or Reunification. All I wish to do
is go home.

So I say to Kalcan, “Let me go. I do not
wish to fight you. I only came here because of a deal I made with
another member of your species. Otherwise, I would not even be here
at all.”

Kalcan shakes his head. “Oh, machine, I am
afraid it is not that simple. While you may have no interest in
fighting me, you still present a clear threat to our operations,
now that you've seen our pit here and destroyed almost all of our
active drones. Do you really think I will let you go after
that?”

“
Now? I guess not,” I
say, “because you seem quite eager to destroy me.”

“
Only because you
deserve it,” says Kalcan. He licks his lips. “I won't get any blood
from you, but tearing you apart piece by piece will make me feel
better anyway.”

Just as Kalcan prepares to leap at me, a
familiar voice behind me shouts, “J997!”

Before I can turn to look and see who it
is, a shining, blinding light explodes behind me. The blinding
light causes Kalcan to put his hands over his eyes and hiss in
anger, while the dwarves cover their eyes as well.