CHAPTER EIGHTEEN—THE FINAL PIECES

The secret door took them through a series of narrow passages within the Invera-Tech complex, then down a set of cement steps into a cold basement. That basement had a series of wet and leaky corridors. John suspected this structure was part of one of the outer manufactories or perhaps another structure outside of the complex altogether.

Either way, May pushed open the door and bright light hit them. John squinted as his irises adjusted from the low light to the lighting of midday.

Kyle nodded as he limped forward after Thalaway. “Not bad.”

They were in a steamy alleyway with large industrial piping framing the graffiti-strewn cement wall in front of them. Those pipes ran overhead and a street could be seen a few hundred yards to their left.

John smiled, realizing they had escaped Invera-Tech and were now free to do as they pleased.

“So what do we do with our friend?” May asked. Then she glanced at Lexa and her face brightened slightly. Like John, she must have thought it surreal seeing her in this body—in this body of flesh and blood.

“I have everything on this memory drive,” Lexa said. She held up the device. “I downloaded it all from their secure mainframe in the Alpha Labs—their experiments, what they did to me.”

Thalaway said nothing.

It must have been his style to shut up and shut down and when he was in danger—and he was definitely in danger.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” John said as he reached out to touch her upper arm. Lexa reached over and clasped her hand over his.

“Yeah!” Kyle said as he limped around Thalaway. Then he thrust the massive pistol under his chin.

“Wait,” Lexa said.

Kyle limped back, a question clearly on his face.

“With everything in here,” she said, “there will be no way he doesn’t go down. It’s all here. The illegal experiments, the procedures, the money trails. Strogaus Industries’ involvement.”

“Seriosuly?” May asked.

Lexa nodded stoically.

“What did they do to you?” John asked, and he started to feel a lump in his throat about the answer.

“She was a real person once,” May said.

“Wait, what?!” Kyle asked.

John’s eyes widened as he looked at Lexa. Slowly she nodded as she made eye contact with John and then the others. “I can’t remember. But according to their data, I was a person—and they digitized me.” She looked in May’s direction. “How did you know?”

“Lucky guess, I suppose,” May said.

John sucked in a deep breath, his stomach feeling acidic and uncomfortable. “I can’t believe this.”

“Easy, big guy,” Kyle said. “We’ve seen way worse stuff than this.” He put a hand on John’s back.

John nodded, put out a hand to signal that he was all right. He didn’t need to be coddled like a kid—but Lexa… A real woman!

“I’m not an AI,” she said in way of explanation. “I’ve never been an AI. I guess I never thought about it before. Things are… different when you don’t have a body.”

“Yeah, we’ve seen stuff,” May said. “But probably nothing that hit so close to home, I bet.”

Stolen novel; please report.

John bent over, feeling like he was going to vomit for a moment. But when Lexa stepped up to him, he glanced up. What was in her eyes filled him with hate—hate for Invera-Tech and Strogaus and Thalaway. Was this how Kyle felt? Under his exterior of high bravado, he had always had an intense hatred of the “overlords” as he called them.

“So,” Kyle said to Thalaway. “What’s it all for? Experimentation for immortality?”

“Like you said before,” May added. “’Dreams of forever’ for the overlords.”

“Fuck!”

“Well not anymore!” John snapped. He grabbed Thalaway by the collar and the man’s eyes bulged. “I say we do him right here in this alley!”

“But that would be too quick,” Lexa said. “Let’s watch him rot in prison.” She looked at Thalaway. “For a moment I wanted to kill you all. But now I realize I hold no animosity toward you personally, but you have to be stopped—for the sake of others.”

Kyle glanced at her. He would think such a reason sentimental, but they—the Anarchos—were all different in how they saw things.

“Maybe she’s right,” May said with a nod.

John backed off.

Then, forcing himself not to snarl, he got an idea. He grabbed Thalaway and flipped him bodily onto the ground. He grunted as he landed in the street.

“What are you doing?” Kyle asked.

John grabed both sides of Thalaway’s shirt and ripped it open. He squirmed. “No. No, don’t kill me!”

“I’m not going to kill you.” Then to the others he motioned to Thalaway. “Hold his arms.”

Thalaway screamed. “No!” He tried to jerk into an upright position but swooped in so fast, slamming her knee into his stomach. He went back down and grunted loudly as the air was pushed out of his lungs.

“Seriously,” Kyle said. “That was my crutch!”

John pulled out the little case where he kept the pharma and other tools. Inside he always kept a tiny laser for cutting and soldering. He bent down and Kyle seemed to catch the meaning of what he intended to do, because he bent down and held Thalaway.

“Please don’t kill—“

May put her gloved hand over his mouth. “No more talking.”

John calibrated the laser to the point that it would cut human flesh, but not penetrate all the way through. It would seer Thalaway just enough to allow him to write within his flesh.

He scrawled the words, PROPERTY OF THE ANARCHOS as Thalaway jerked and moaned underneath May’s glove.

“Nice,” May said.

“Wait!” Kyle added as John was about to get up. “Give me that.”

He took the laser and put a comma, then added “BITCH!”

Lexa chortled.

And to John’s surprise, Kyle turned toward her and grinned. “Since you’re not a cruise bot anymore, you wanna have a go?”

She looked at the laser tentatively.

“Go on,” May said.

Her eyes flicked to John and he nodded.

“All right.” She bent and scrawled some quick words. HUMNANS AREN’T PROPERTY—ANARCHO #4, LEXA.

They all got up and Thalaway gasped and pit his hands to his cauterized chest and stomach.

“Stop your moaning,” Kyle ordered as John helped him up.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “A bit dizzy, though.”

Lexa was grinning. “That was fun.”

“Then you’re a real Anarcho,” Kyle said with an approving nod. Then he glanced down at Thalaway one last time. “Still wish we could off this douche.”

“Come on,” May said. “Let’s get out of here.”

*

A part of May wanted to “off this douche,” too. Right here just like Kyle did. In a way, they were more alike than John and Lexa.

John nodded and May could see the deep seated anger on his face. Finally he stepped away from Thalaway. “Let’s get out of here.” He put his hand over Lexa’s shoulder and led her toward the street.

They walked on without glancing back.

“That’s a great sword. Where’d you get that?” John asked.

“Oh this thing?” She touched the weapon on her back. “I just found it lying around.”

They laughed together, completely oblivious of May, Kyle and the monster groaning on the alley cement as their voices receded toward the road.

May smiled, then turned back to Kyle and Thalaway. “Well?” she asked.

Kyle nodded. “Sure thing.”

They walked away like John and Lexa, but Kyle did turn around. “There’s probably a bridge not far from here. “Might be better than sharing a cell with Jerome and Charles.”

May laughed.

Turning back around, Kyle limped heavily. “Ah!”

“Oh!” May said and moved up next to him. He took her shoulder and they made their way after John and Lexa. “I almost forgot you got shot.”

“Yeah,” Kyle said with a grunt. “Good thing Thalaway’s medics patched me up, right?”

“Yeah.”

May saw John glancing about the street as Lexa rested her head against his chest. She smiled inwardly.

With another grunt, Kyle limped along. “So this is what it takes to get you to get this close to me, huh?”

May said, “When we get back to the penthouse we could always shoot your other leg.”

“Uh—thanks, but no thanks.”

“Even if I’m naked?”

Kyle instantly thrust the grip of his pistol at May and they laughed.

John turned around. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothin’,” Kyle said. Then he gave May a secret little wink. “So… Cab?”

John nodded.

Lexa took everyone in and smiled. “Thank you—all of you.”

“For what?” John asked.

She laughed. “For taking me out shopping today, of course!”

“Wow,” Kyle moaned.

May nodded. “Of course, Lexa. Anytime!”

Kyle sighed, then with a nod he said, “Yeah.”

John hailed the cab. “We should definitely do it more often.”

Together, the four Anarchos laughed like idiots high on life.