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cerulean eyes were
angry.
    If you’re not
going to kill me, leave.
    She winced at
the force of his words, like sledgehammers that pounded against the aluminum
walls of her brain.  “What about your friends?”
    Don’t worry
about us.  Leave.  Lock the doors and never come back.
    Marie met his
deep blue stare, saw the danger there, then dropped everything and ran from his
cell.  She heard the gate to Twelve-A’s cage slam behind her as she went to the
containment doors and set them to shut.  She used her card to lock them, then
rushed through the facility, gaining speed as she realized she was the only one
left alive.  The only one who knew about the experiments.  The only one who
could help them create new lives on the surface. 
    The only one who
could keep them alive .
    She could
rehabilitate them.  Find them jobs.  Find them friends.
    The guard was
not at his booth.  She remembered his fat corpse in the observation deck, still
jiggling after it collapsed to the floor.  Buoyed by her new mission, Marie hurried
past, pushed through the bullet-proof glass doors, and locked them behind her
with another swipe of her card.  She followed the corridor upwards out of the
mountain and exited through the single door at the top.  Facing it, the
entrance looked like the door to a decrepit coffee shop, with the Coffee House
Express sign hanging askew and the paint peeling on the CLOSED FOR BUSINESS
notice.
    Under the
façade, however, the door was tank-proof, the walls behind it bomb-proof.  It
would take nukes to get inside.  Or get out.
    Marie locked the
entrance with her card, sliding it through an inconspicuous crack in the wooden
trim. 
    Thank you, Twelve-A told her.  That should keep them out.
    “Yes,” Marie
said, hurrying toward her car.  “But don’t worry—you won’t be in there long. 
I’ll find somewhere to keep you.  The war will make it harder, but once I’ve
got living quarters and food, I’ll come back for you.”
    You don’t
understand, Marie.
    She stuck her
key into her Ford.  “Don’t understand what?”
    Once it’s
safe, we’re going to get ourselves out.
    “But I can—” 
Terror infused Marie’s soul as she realized why Twelve-A had left her alive. 
Babbling, Marie said, “Please, Twelve-A.  I can help you.  I won’t tell
anyone.  Please— you don’t need to kill me.”
    Twelve-A gave a
mental shudder, buoyed on a wave of self-loathing.  It’s always so hard.  
    Even as she
opened her mouth to scream, a wave of calmness overpowered her.  Her eyes
drifted shut and she slid to the concrete beside her car, the keys tumbling
from her hands to clatter on the cement.  Trapped in the darkness of her own
body, Marie felt her heart stop.
     
    Somewhere, deep
underground, Twelve-A replaced the IV line and closed his eyes.  His shoulders
began to shake as he waited for oblivion to take him.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER
2 – A Human Mistake
     
    Earth
Representative Fred Mullich was scowling at the latest—alarming—reports from
his home planet when the Watcher activated a node in his apartment without his
permission.
    “ Representative
Mullich, the Regency requests your presence in its chambers immediately for a
Regency-wide disciplinary action.  Shall I take you there now? ”  The
Watcher’s voice was perfectly Human, lacking any of the metallic or artificial
quality of other AIs.  Of course, there were plenty of whispers that the
Watcher wasn’t an AI, but to say as much anywhere within the
gravitational pull of Koliinaat was political suicide, at least for a
Representative as politically impotent as Fred Mullich.
    Today the
Watcher was using the London dialect, sharp and crisp.  Fred wasn’t sure if the
Watcher knew it, but it switched to a British accent whenever it wanted Fred to
take him seriously.
    More than a
little spooked by the idiots back on Earth, Fred glanced at his call log. 
Whoever was behind the Watcher’s request was influential enough not to