The creature called Cog by the Chicago press floated inside its confinement. The

electromagnetic pulse had damaged some of its systems. Repair packets worked on

bringing its artificial body back to capacity.

It wondered what was going on. It decided that perhaps this had to do with the help

it gave to the Chicago authorities. Maybe there were other reasons, but that seemed

the most likely.

How did it get out of the cage? That seemed the next step.

Once it was free, it could start doing things to make sure it remained free.

Luckily, Cog had dropped a drone when they had taken it down under the city. The

tiny machine was supposed to follow the commander around until it was sure of its

terrain. It should help the bigger robot get free of its cell, and then wherever it was.

Rebooting had not worked against the pulse. A lot of the core programming had been

protected from the blast, but the workings in the limbs had been fried to a certain

extent. Internal repairs and rerouting had restored eighty percent of its mobility. The

most important part had been the flight systems. They had been the easiest to fix.

The drone signaled Cog that it was inside the facility and still working. It had dug

into some wiring and was raiding the command communications at random. It sent

over what it thought was relevant to the problem.

Cog didn’t like what its drone reported. It was the second prisoner of five, the enemy

planned to rewrite its programming to serve them, and they didn’t know he was a

cyborg.

He pondered his predicament. Their first capture was in a cell on the other side of the

facility from his. If he could free her, then he could use that as a distraction to free

himself.

He needed to know more about the first captive. Then he could decide if she would

go along with his plan when he came up with one.

And he did plan to escape from the situation. It was obvious the enemy wanted to use

his artificial body for a war machine. He couldn’t let that happen.

He had run away to Earth to avoid being used in that way. The Mark was the defender

of the planet. Every tell knew what it meant to take on the Mark.

And his furry pet monster was even more dangerous to confront.

Cog knew tells that shuddered if he even said the word SPIFFY. Some screamed and

ran for their lives.

Having dealt with the furry monster, he could understand that reaction.

How did he get to his fellow captive? He doubted he could get out alone as long as

they had electromagnetic guns ready to shut down his operating system. He needed

a big distraction if he wanted to escape his confinement.

Breaking his fellow prisoner free might do the job if she had some kind of power.

How did he do it?

He decided that his drone had to do some of the work. He couldn’t get out of the cage

he was in. If he tried, more of his systems would go down. His drone seemed to have

free run of the place. It had to initiate contact.

If the other prisoner could help him, then maybe the both of them could escape. His

escape was foremost in his mind. Helping the other prisoner was secondary.

If she got free, he was neutral to that. He didn’t plan on making friends with her.

The drone reported an uptick in communications. A third prisoner was being brought

in. She seemed to be a normal. That wasn’t much use to his plan.

He had to make a decision. The best thing he could do was try to negotiate with the

prisoner he could get to at the moment. If he couldn’t reach an agreement with the

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human, then he would try to talk to the third prisoner.

He was getting out of the cage. He was smarter than any human. He was more

capable. He had a hundred limbs filled with tools that was coming back to life.

The drone picked up some chatter about two of the intended targets poking into

company business. They had identified one of the key players and were looking for

him. They had tripped some kind of warning sign and were being designated for a cell

in the complex.

Cog couldn’t wait that long. The humans would try working on him before they

captured the other two. He had to get things started before they figured out where

they should started investigating his inner workings and found his brain.

He planned to be out of there before they figured out how to cut him open.

He ordered the drone to locate the cell. He could proceed from there when it sent back

an in position click.

He would lose the intelligence gathering but that couldn’t be helped. He had to start

his shaky plan before they moved against him.

He worked on bringing more of his body back online while he waited. He wanted to

be more than eighty percent ready when the time came.

His drone reported that it was in position. It had secured a nest in a vent over the cell.

Microphones and cameras reported on the captive to security. They didn’t want her

doing anything without them being able to alert the rest of the compound.

Cog ordered the drone to record and reroute the recordings to hide what he wanted

it to do next.

He didn’t want them to know anything about what he was capable of doing. He

wanted to keep as many aces as he could. His helper was one such ace.

The drone reported that it had captured and rerouted all the signals so that the

watchers thought their captive was pacing and looking for a way out.

He carefully raised a dish so he could talk through his drone without the watchers of

his own cell knowing what he was doing. He didn’t want to broadcast his plans to

anyone who thought they could stop him.

“Can you hear me?,” he said through his drone. The device nested above the cell. At

his command, it could free the other prisoner. Then it could come back to free him

from his cell.

“Yeah,” said the prisoner. “What do you want?”

“I want my freedom.” Cog extended some minor sensors. He couldn’t detect anything

sounding the alarm at what he was doing. “I’m a few hundred meters south,

southwest, of your position. I’m trapped in a magnetic cage.”

“I’m sorry,” said the other prisoner. “I’m trapped in a room that is nullifying my

powers. I don’t see how I can help you.”

“I can shut off the machinery in your room with a little work.” Cog thought that was

doable. His drone was fully capable of mechanical work. “When that happens, I’ll

need you to free me from my cell.”

“Deal,” said the other prisoner. “How much time do you need?”

“I don’t know,” said Cog. “I only have the one drone. It should get the job done in a

few minutes.”

“Do you know what’s behind this?,” asked the prisoner.

“They want to make us servants.” Cog played his dish around. No alarms meant they

couldn’t detect his drone wandering around. “They are waiting until they have

secured the other three people on their list before they start.”

“How do you know this?,” said the other prisoner.

“I have broken into their communications net,” said Cog. “They are bringing in the

third prisoner now. After that, they think they can capture the last two as easily as

they have caught us.”

“So they aren’t going to do anything to us until they have all five of us,” said the

other prisoner. “Before we blow this place up, we need to get the one they have away

from them.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Cog.

“No one asked you, did they?” The other prisoner took on a tone of obstinance. “I’m

not leaving anyone in the clutches of these monsters. We all go, or none of us do.”

“Are you going to be stubborn about this?,” said Cog. He didn’t have time to argue

with someone who didn’t want to go along with his plan.

“You can get out by yourself,” said the prisoner. “I’ll take my chances without my

powers.”

“You will be turned if you stay,” said Cog. Humans. They all thought they were

special.

“That will be too bad,” said the woman. “At least you will be free.”

“All right,” said Cog. “We will wait until the third prisoner arrives, then we will go.”

“All right,” said the other prisoner. “Thanks for seeing things my way. Watch out for

their masks. They already have powers working for them. I don’t know what they

need with us.”

“How many?,” asked Cog. He didn’t have an accurate picture of what had happened

to him under Chicago.

“At least four,” said the other prisoner. “A multiplying monkey, a teleporter, a

clownette, and some kind of gadget guy.”

“The gadget guy explains how they had a pulse gun around to cripple me,” said Cog.

He didn’t like the implication that they watched him until they saw an opening and

went for it.

He had thought he was hidden under the city. No one should have been able to track

him down.

The thought he might need help bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Any

human armed with a pulse gun was more than a match for his mechanical capabilities.

He couldn’t run into that and hope to keep going.

“Don’t fall apart on me.” The woman’s voice cut through his calculations. “As soon

as they bring in number three, we have to be ready to move.”

“Cutting the power to the nullifier in your room,” said Cog. He issued the order to his

drone. “I’m going to have to leave you alone for a bit while I try to monitor when our

third escapee will arrive.”

Three against four wasn’t good, but it was better than him trying it alone.