Reality 36 Read Online Free PDF Page B

locked.
      The Six's voice emerged from nowhere, always as if it were standing just behind her left shoulder. Her ear tickled in anticipation of non-existent breath. "Miss Valdaire, I now urge you to stop. Your actions are indicative of guilt. If you are not guilty, you are bringing suspicion upon yourself; if you are, then you are making things worse. Halt. My advice is final. Upon my next insistence, I will employ force."
      Chloe could not open the door. Veronique's fingers slid over the touch screen, quickly shifting program modules. It was no good. She'd need to make something from the ground up to tackle the Six's locks.
      "That is a fine friend you have there, but I am not falling for the same trick twice," said the Archimedes. "Please, I implore you, do stop."
      "Archimedes, you better let me out."
      "Are you threatening me?" A strain of malevolent amusement entered its voice. "You are very gifted, Ms Valdaire, but…"
      "Chloe, pull the plug."
      " Oui oui , Veronique," said Chloe.
      The Six's voice cut out as Chloe slid Kitty Claw into the Grid, an off key for the Six Veronique had crafted some time ago, just in case. Her military file said mild paranoia. She liked to think of it as being careful.
      Around her, lights and wall terminals flickered and died. Up the corridor, a robot cleaner slid gently into the wall, brushes spinning to a halt. All machine activity stopped. It became so quiet all she could hear was the building's passive aircon whispering away.
      "Veronique, I am blind! I am deaf!"
      "Local grid's gone down with the Six, that's all," she whispered, half her attention on what was behind her. The corridor was dim, lit faintly by emergency bioluminescent panels. Her sentence ticked upwards in her mind as she walked through the building. Somewhere an alarm lazily sounded.
      "Will he be all right?" asked Chloe.
      "Probably," said Veronique. "His pride will be dented though."
      Chloe sniffed. "I never liked him," she said.
      Veronique pushed the firedoor. It had unhitched itself; they probably all had.
      She looked outside cautiously. A couple of technicians cycling into work, nobody else, it was early still. No VIA men. Technology makes them lazy, she thought. They should be watching all the exits . She walked quickly to the car racks.
      With the Six offline she had to get Chloe to hijack the parking subsystem to call down the car. She couldn't open it. Archimedes had pulled the plug on that too.
      Chloe soon had her in. More illegal software, more time in the freezer.
      She was getting jumpy. When she climbed in and told the car to change colour, and it asked her to specify which, she shouted at it.
      The car's screens were white with electronic snow, the windscreen alive with static. Where the car's Gridsig should have been displayed in the lower left of the glass was a constantly changing stream of numbers, Chloe running fake masking sigs. More time in the freezer for that.
      "Go!" she shouted.
      "Please provide a destination," said the car.
      "Get out of here! Go!" Veronique kicked at the car.
      "Home," said Chloe. The car complied.
      By the time they had reached the apartment, Veronique was beginning to think – many things, but mainly What if I was wrong? She double-checked Qifang's data to reassure herself.
      Her life had just got very dangerous. Somehow, that made her calm.
      A big, ugly aircar squatted outside her duplex complex. It could have been anyone's, but it could have been the VIA's. She did not want to find out. Her heart hammered as the car drove carefully down the road. The aircar remained still. They reached the end of the street, turned left and accelerated towards the interstate. Where she was going, she had no idea. All she had was the boxed v-jack, Chloe and the clothes she was in.
      "What the hell am I doing?" she said.
      "Travelling," said the car's literal personality.
      "Idiot," said Chloe.