“Survive, survive, survive,” I muttered my mantra after Alloy left. I was sure as hell glad that my epidermis implants hide sweating. I had been the golden goose, and I just gave away my eggs. I'd be lucky if they honored the deal.

  I rubbed the back of my head where they had cut out the chip. It was itchy. I knew I wasn’t supposed to and pulled my hand away slowly. Still itchy. I'd slip up and rub it again I knew.

  I sighed, I had learned to tell the time off only the lights in the room, and it was almost time to sleep. The light would shift from golden to white to bright gold again as it shifted across the room to simulate the sun. Lights out would hit and the whole room would be lit by a dull red. Red is good for night vision. Easy to sleep through. Way better than the Neon lights in the streets of Atlantis.

  I lied down on my cot. Wasn’t the most comfortable lay in the world, but what could you expect from a cell. “Survive, survive, survive,” I muttered as the lights snapped to red and closed my eyes.

  “You hear me, boy.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s ‘yes, mama,’ to you, little mister,” my mama said huffily. She patted my clothes down as she spoke. “Now remember, baby, you gotta survive, survive, survive. Grab some fresh fruit if they got it, otherwise follow the grocery list to the letter.”

  I looked down at the piece of cardboard in my hand. Me and mama didn’t have any cybernetics, so we had to write things down. “All natural,” she would brag when she was pitching her sales. All bruised as well. She was always covered in them. New ones after every shift, and she’d be working one while I grab the groceries. “Yeah.”

  “Yes, mama,” she said.

  “Yes, mama.”

  She pulled me into a deep hug with her bandaged arms and I went to the door and pressed the open button. If you had cybernetics, it would slide open automatically, but mama still never got us any. As I left, the door slid shut and I stepped out into our unit’s level and looked over the railing at the lights, dazzling and beautiful. I had never seen the sunlight. Instead, the streets were lined with neon advertisements that danced and shifted.

  I skipped to the stairwell and slid on the handrail down to the next level before crossing to the next set of stairs as I zigged, zagged, and slid down to the bottom level. I slowed to a walk as I entered the street and looked left and right before hopping onto it.

  The smell of seawater pervaded the slums of Atlantis and you could hear trickles of water in the gutters. It’s near impossible to make something as large as a city watertight. Instead drips and leaks would pervade in the sky-ceiling and get pumped out with the sewage. Most of the adults scattered in the streets were either smoking or drinking. Mama told me to avoid getting high, it’d screw my thinking. Drinking was even worse, but after her roughest shifts, she would drink herself to sleep so she didn’t preach about it too much to me.

  A man with a pair of women in each arm called my name, “Kristoff! How’s your mother?”

  “She’s staying strong, Jake,” I said as I passed by. Spelt JA3OB. Our names were given to us by the King. Two letters, a number, followed by another two letters. Allowed it to keep track of us. Also allowed there to be more than one Jake. Mama hated the King. Called it things I'm not allowed to say.

  I got to the market. The stalls were stocked with freshly synthesized food. Meat, veggies, starches. Everything. No freshly synthesized fruit, though. I walked through grabbing a basket and began filling up. I bought the ice cream last so that I could put it in the freezer. Me and mama would once a week have a movie night and sit in the VR sharing the tub of frozen goodness.

  As I was checking out, I noticed that the monitor was broken and they were doing manual purchases. Normally I was the only one who had to call an employee to help me. Being all natural seemed like more hassle than it was worth, but mama didn’t want me getting a contract with the King.

  “Kristoff,” the clerk greeted me with a smile, “How’s your mother.”

  “Staying strong. What happened to the monitor?” It had a large crack on it as it flickered displaying the price of ‘KOBE BEEF.’

  “A scout came in drunk. Made a mess of the place,” they said as they held their open palm over my basket and processed everything I had grabbed with their built-in scanner.

  “What’s Kobe?”

  “Hand me your chip,” I handed the pay-chip from my pocket. Another hassle of being all natural. He answered my question while it processed. “Species of beef. World class. Back before it was extinct. Used to be Angus, buffalo, llama, all sorts of beef. But the only thing the ancients ever saved for synthesizing was the best of the best. So, all we got is Kobe.”

  I opened my hand, and he dropped the pay-chip back in my hand as I exclaimed, “Wow, that’s a lot of cows!”

  “Sure is. Say hi to your mother for me.”

  I hurried home, doing the long march up the stairs. I could hear mama still working so I took a seat outside the door on the ground. After a couple minutes there was silence, and finally the door slid open and out stepped a man.

  He had an implant that looked like an eyepatch in one eye. Night vision or something. He had the telltale scars that told me he had gotten implants for his skin. You only did that if you needed armor against bullets. That meant he was a scout or scavenger. Maybe even an operator. He looked down at me, while I looked at him. He nodded and walked to the stairwell while I stepped inside and headed for the kitchen.

  Mama must have thought I was going to be longer as she was standing over the sink and was using a knife to cut across her forearms. She was still panting from exerting herself with the customer. The bandages were washing in the sink. I knew I wasn’t supposed to see her hurt herself like that, which is why she kept them bandaged up. I tiptoed to the door and pressed the open button and shouted, “Mama, I’m home!”

  “Shit, honey, stay out of the kitchen for me. I gotta clean up!”

  I looked down at the ice cream. It was melting.

  She called again, “Alright, Kristoff come in!”

  I stepped in and looked at the recently wrung out bandages, still dripping.

  “Let’s get those groceries put away, baby,” she said with a smile, took the basket from me, and set it on the counter. We began placing them in the fridge, cupboard, and freezer. “Oh honey, the ice cream is too soft. Now it’s going to be crunchy.”

  “A scout damaged the checkout at the market. Had to stand in a long line,” I lied. If she knew I had been here for about ten minutes waiting on her to finish work and bandage up her arms she would apologize to me and end up drinking herself to sleep. I wanted to see her smile more.

  “Damn. My client today was a scout too. I think a party got back last night.”

  “You alright mama? Those guys have some intense cybernetics.”

  “Not this one. Only thing he was packing was that fancy eye of his. Made me give him a strip dance while he kept his natural one shut.”

  “Gross,” I let slip. The idea of mama doing a strip dance was not an image I even wanted to imagine.

  She laughed at my disgust, “Hey, it pays the bills. Gotta pay for movie night somehow. Speaking of which.”

  I smiled while I placed some cereal in the cupboard, which was also the last of the groceries, “There’s that new comedy they found in those ruins last month. I hear it’s a riot.”

  “Oh? And where do you hear that from.”

  “Jake.”

  She sighed, “I swear, if that man wasn’t one of my best customers I’d flay him alive. That last movie with the knight was awful.”

  I chuckled, “But milady, I have been afflicted with the gaseous.” It was such a stupid quote that my mama rolled her eyes at it.

  “Lord, help me with this child. Catch,” she tossed the basket at me, “throw that away.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes, mama,” she corrected.

  “Yes, mama.”

  Later she had me sitting in the VR while we covered schoolwork. I hear many people around Atlantis don’t have a parent to teach them. They learn the basics, reading and writing. But that’s it. Mama though would say “your mama didn’t raise no fool,” and indeed we were covering exponents. Damn if it wasn’t confusing though.

  Finally, she disabled the VR and we were back in the apartment. “Alright baby, time for dinner.” I always helped with dinner by grabbing out the ingredients or dishes. She did all the cooking though, and tonight she was making stroganoff with the fresh mushrooms and beef. She made a cream based sauce and we sat down at the table to eat.

Finally, it was time for movie night. As the hero of the story, a maverick pilot, got into a slapstick fight with his copilot I looked up at mama. She had a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and pulled it out to laugh. I smiled, and reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “Mama! Mama!” I shouted at her as she shook violently on the ground, naked and with welts around her throat that were already turning purple from bruising. I whipped my head around at Jake who was looking down at us. We were in her bedroom, where she conducted business. “What did you do!?”

  “I- she- I paid so I could be rough. This wasn’t even any worse than the usual- its- it isn’t my fault.” Oh great, the man was useless.

  “Pick her up, we gotta get her to the hospital.” He continued to stammer uselessly, so I kicked his shin. “Pick. Her. Up.” He nodded shakily.

  Hours later I was helping mama back into our apartment. She still had the medical bracelet around her wrist and her bandages had been taken off and thrown away at the hospital. “H-hold on honey, I gotta put new bandages on my- I- I’m sorry I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “You’re fine mama, the doctor said you just got a bad knock on your head, no lasting damage.”

  She started crying, “It’s not just- I- my arms-baby, I’m so sorry. I must be the worst mother.”

  “It’s okay, mama. You’re perfect,” I pulled her arm down and kissed her on the top of her head as she bent over. “The best mother in the whole world.”

  “You’re just saying that.” I was not. Every day, I knew I was loved. If that isn’t world class, Kobe beef levels, I don’t know what is.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said.

  “It’s not okay. The medical bills, the rent, I don’t know how I’m going to pay for everything.”

  “We just gotta do what you always tell me.”

  “What’s that,” she sniffed.

  “Survive. Survive. Survive.”

  She looked at me, smiled, and cried harder, “How did I get blessed with the best son in the world?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  As per the doctor’s orders we got her settled into bed and I woke up the next morning early. Early enough for me to be awake before her. I left a note on the counter saying I’d be back later and headed out.

  I was tired of it. The bruises. The cuts. The apologizing. Watching my mama torture herself just to get by. Survive, survive, survive. Yeah, we were surviving, but she wasn’t living. She needed credits, and prostitution was the only option for someone without cybernetics or a contract with the King. Cybernetics cost too many credits. But a contract with the King. That was free and could set you up for life depending on how much of your life and body you signed away.

  I reached the street, looked left and right, then headed the opposite way of the market. Towards downtown. No one goes downtown, cause the King controls those streets. Its eyes followed you, the red cameras glaring down from the building walls. The colorful neon lights ceased and disappeared as I headed further in. All that could be seen were the red blinking of cameras. The filth in the street, puke from alcoholics and ash from druggies, all of it disappeared. Eventually I noticed large hulking robots stepping onto the streets, their laser rifles glistening in the dimly lit road and pointed at me.

  They wouldn’t fire unless I made a sudden move. And followed instructions.

  “HALT.”

  I stopped, and floodlights crackled on as I was illuminated. I flinched and squinted at the lights that were brighter than any I had ever seen in the underwater metropolis.

  “STATE YOUR BUSINESS.”

  “I’m here to negotiate a contract,” I shouted back. Shouting seemed like the appropriate response as I couldn’t see a living being. Nor did I expect to in this part of town except for the King.

  “PROCEED. DO NOT RUN. VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT.”

  “Oh. Uh, okay then,” I said. The floodlights swung to illuminate the building in front of me. The old statehouse, where all matters of government took place. I swallowed.

  I walked up the steps looking at the building. Though it was old it had elegant organic architecture. Like a giant insect, resting until a great butterfly metamorphosis out of it. One of the books mama taught me had talked about butterflies and how beautiful they were. This building seemed inspired by the concept. I walked between the arches and came upon a pair of glass doors that slid open. No cybernetics required. I stepped inside and stood in awe at the tiled floor, which created a pattern of a naked man with a trident. His beard was long and flowing and grey. Around his free arm he held a blonde woman about the waist, who held a pair of babies in each of her arms. Her lower body was covered in a flowing sheet with one leg peeking through. Circling around the three were four pairs of clean-shaven young men. All but one pair had their arms about the other as if brothers, and each had identical features with their counterpart. The last pair showed two men with short auburn beards with one holding an ingot of some sort. The whole thing was bizarrely out of place, and yet seemed perfectly suited for the hall.

  I continued to walk through the entrance hall and came to a second set of doors, these one made of what looked like wood. I had never seen wood before, and I couldn’t tell if it was synthesized or had been kept in pristine condition over the eras. The doors swung inwards.

  “ENTER,” beckoned the voice.

  I stepped into complete darkness until I was clear of the doors. They slammed shut causing me to squeal in fear.

  “TAKE THREE STEPS FORWARD.”

  I once again obeyed the voice. Suddenly a hundred red lights turned on as cameras in all directions stared at me. A single lamp illuminated up above casting a narrow beam of light directly over me.

  “STATE THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT.”

  I stood quiet for a second and fidgeted. The voice repeated itself. I stuttered as I mustered the courage to respond, “Uh- w-well you see, sir- I mean my lord- um- y-your majesty-”

  “HONORARY TITLES SERVE NO PURPOSE. I AM ATLAS. STATE THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT.”

  The booming voice lacked any emotion, and somehow that calmed me. “Atlas, then. I wanted to ask you a few questions first. Um- please?” I added in the manners at the end to try and appease the King.

  “ASK.”

  “Is it true you hold your end of the bargain?” I was starting to regain my nerve.

  “I AM HARD CODED TO HONOR OFFICIAL CONTRACTS ON THE BEHALF OF THE CITY OF ATLANTIS. FAILURE TO COMPLY LIES IN HUMAN HANDS.”

  I thought through the response, and then blurted out a question without thinking, “S-so does that mean you aren’t human?”

  “I AM ATLAS. I AM NOT HUMAN.”

  I looked about in the darkness in some surprise. Most people didn’t like talking about the King, and those who did, like mama, called it stupid and useless. But no one ever said it wasn’t human except for… Well, now that I thought about it everyone called the King an it. “What are you?”

  “I AM THE FIRST OF TEN AI BUILT TO SERVE ATLANTIS. I AM THE LAST SURVIVING. I AM ATLAS.”

  I swallowed as I processed the information. “How exactly do you serve Atlantis?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “I AM HARD CODED TO PROTECT ATLANTIS. I LEAD THE CITY TO PROTECT IT. I INVENTED GEL TO GRANT ECONOMICAL INDEPENDENCE. I INVENTED THE SUICIDE CHIP TO GRANT A CONTROLLABLE POPULACE. I SUNK THE CITY TO ISOLATE FROM HOSTILE NATIONS.”

  Once again, I swallowed as these revelations hit me. Still my curiosity urged me on. “Why would anyone let you put in the suicide chip?”

  “ORIGINAL CHIPS WERE MULTIFUNCTIONAL. I OMITTED THEIR FULL PURPOSE. ONCE AN ADEQUATE AMOUNT OF ATLANTEANS WERE CHIPPED I ACTIVATED THEM. TO REFUSE TO PUT A CHIP IN YOUR CHILD IS THE WISH OF HOSTILES. ALL THOSE THAT TAKE THE SIDE OF HOSTILES ARE PUT TO DEATH. LOYALTY CANNOT BE FORCED ON HUMANS, BUT FEAR OF DEATH CAN. ALL ATLANTEANS MAY EITHER SERVE, SURVIVE, OR DIE.”

  “Survive, survive, survive,” I whispered quietly.

  There was a moment more of silence, and then, “STATE THE TERM OF YOUR CONTRACT.” So, I did.

  I was about a block from the first of the of the glowing signs indicating I had left the bounds of downtown when Jake called out to me, “Kristoff, your mother has been looking for you all… day…” His voice trailed as he saw me. I had multiple bandages to cover up the shots Atlas had given me. His brow furrowed in concern, “Kristoff, what have you done?”

  “I made a contract, like you.”

  To my surprise he became angry as he approached me and grab me by the shoulders. “Why would you do that? What were you thinking?”

  “I did it for mama!”

  “Your mom would rather die than let you sign a contract! Everything she does is so that you and her can stay free of the King’s damn influence! How in the world would you think your mom wanted this?”

  “I don’t want mama to die!” My voice broke as I screamed at him, my eyes filling with tears. “I know she does it for me, but I can’t watch her hurt anymore. I can’t watch a jerk like you hurt her anymore.”

  “You-” His voice hardened as he bared his teeth with wrath. Yet he managed to catch himself, and suddenly a sadness passed across his whole figure as his shoulders slackened and he released me. He refused to look me in the eye and stared at his shoes before continuing melancholy, “What was your contract?”

  “I offered it my body and service for life, no strings attached. In exchange it had to give mama the credits I would otherwise be paid until the day she dies.”

  He looked back at me crestfallen, “Everything? No one who has ever done that has lived past thirty. Why everything?”

  I looked at him defiantly as I responded, “She’ll never have to work another day in her life. She can get any medical help and live to a hundred fifty years old. Buy anything she wants. She could buy one of those fancy condos with the androids. She… she can be happy.” I sniffed as I finally brought my tears under control.

  He shook his head. “This child… Kristoff, no mother would be happy sacrificing her boy for money,” he said with a sigh. “Come on. I’ll walk you home.”

  As we walked back I noticed that the people would turn to stare at us. Normally they would ignore passersby, but apparently news of my disappearance had spread like wildfire. A woman called out, “See hon, I told you he headed that way.”

  Jake waved half-heartedly and mumbled a thank you causing her to cross her arms. “Asshole,” she cursed.

  As we approached my apartment building a man leaning at the stairwell saw us and came over. “Damn son, the hell happened to your arms?”

  “Grab his mother,” Jake growled.

  The man stumbled and caught himself. “Uh, yeah, gotcha.” He took off in a jog down the opposite way we came.

  Me and Jake walked up to my apartment and he had me open the door with my pin. We sat awkwardly at the kitchen table.

  Finally, I heard the door slide and mama rushed in. She saw me, cried, “Kristoff!” and embraced me. “Baby! Jake? Where was he?”

  “Tell her,” Jake mumbled sullenly.

  Mama’s eyes narrowed and she pulled her head away while shifting her arms from her embrace to holding my shoulders. “Kristoff?”

  “I went downtown.”

  Silence.

  “Jake. Get out.”

  “I tried-” Jake started.

  She cut him off with a shout so fierce it made me jump even with her tightening grip, “Out!”

  She let me go once he had left and crossed her arms. “Kristoff, please tell me you didn’t.”

  “I did,” I couldn’t look her in the eye as I spoke. And then I noticed her shaking and looked up to see her crying. “Mama!”

  “Kristoff,” she cut me while raising a pointing finger, “don’t… What could you possibly ask for worth giving up your freedom? I give you everything I can. Was it not enough?”

  “It is enough-”

  “Then what?” she demanded.

  I found myself unable to speak and looked down at the floor. She waited with surprising patience for my answer. Eventually I said, “I asked it to give you all the credits.”

  “Me?” she exclaimed.

  “Yes, mama.”

  “Oh honey, I don’t need the credits to be happy,” her voice quivered as she spoke.

  “I can’t watch you hurt no more mama. I won’t let you hurt anymore.”

  “So, you signed a contract? How many years did you sign for?”

  “Life.”

  “Oh honey,” she cried as she held me. Through her tears she said several things I couldn’t make out. I hugged her back.

  When finally we pulled back she gave a shuddering sigh. “Honey, I’m sorry, this has been too much for me.” She went to the top shelf in the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of moonshine. She took a long swig and sat back down. “Alright. Baby, you gotta promise me something.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yes, mama,” she said with a sad, but encouraging smile.

  “Yes, mama,” I responded stoically.

  “You gotta survive, survive, survive,” she took another deep drink. “I’m not outliving my son. Understand me, Kristoff?”

  “Yes, mama.”

  “Say it for me.”

  “Survive, survive, survive.”

  “That’s my boy.” She came over and kissed my forehead.

  “I feel tired, mama,” I said. The concoction Atlas had put in my body was starting to exhaust me. I was required to head downtown again tomorrow for modifications as Atlas prepared my cybernetics. As I drifted to sleep in my bed I noted mama had left the lights on and hadn’t gone to bed.

  Some time in the night I awoke to hear her loudly weeping. What she said made my heart stick in my throat, “My boy… My poor baby boy ruined everything.” I felt sick, but still passed out again.

  I awoke the next morning to find the lights were still on. I got out of the bed and saw mama passed out in her seat at the kitchen table with two more bottles of moonshine. Grabbing her arm, I shook her to wake her. “Mama.” She didn’t stir, so I shook her a bit harder. “Mama, wake up.”

  Silence. “Mama!”

  “Survive, survive, survive!” I toasted loudly as I celebrated my twenty-ninth birthday. Everyone else at the bar repeated back my toast and we all downed our shots at the bar.

  It was me and the others from my salvaging crew celebrating, as well as a couple of my sex friends. I wasn’t particularly close to any of them, when you were broke most people didn’t like covering your tab. They were covering me on the bill for my birthday as we did for everyone else. It was the only way I could even afford alcohol most days. With my size and cybernetics it would take dozens of shots to get drunk, and I ended up stopping at about twenty.

  Marcus, our appraiser, drunkenly asked, “How’z a guy like you thtay thober?”

  I responded with a smile as I drank my eighteenth shot. “Got those nice cybernetics.”

  “Yeah, but you are gonna die young and,” he hiccupped, “and thtupid.”

  As I headed out for the night I smiled. He was wrong of course, but to be fair there weren’t a lot of men like me. The King rarely got someone as young as me. Allowed him to pump my body with enough hormones that unlike other guys I actually could handle my cybernetics.

  I had four other armored cybers in my salvaging crew, and all of them had bad joints and spinal issues from their cybernetics since they didn’t get their treatments until adulthood. At this point we were the only ones still sober as we went our separate ways for the night. I waved a couple away as they escorted the shambling drunks to their homes. Course all I had to call home was the shelter, but I had some business first.

  I wasn’t drunk, but I had enough drink in me to make me numb, which was going to help me out as I headed to my cybernetics doctor. Man was a cheap, self-centered, prick. Perfect for a pea in a pod like me. As I walked through the city, I passed by my childhood’s old market. Mama would want me to pick up groceries. I ignored the thought, reminding myself that mom was gone. I looked across from it and raised an eyebrow at the scurrying activity.

  There was an old statue that they had installed about seven years back. Some scavenging party’s appraiser had fallen in love with it, and everyone here liked the occasional change in artwork. Tartarus and Olympus never fought us for artwork like this. They didn’t seem to appreciate it. Hell, from what the operators told me Tartarus didn’t even know what the word cultured meant.

  Thing is the chest had seemed to have opened up. Not like by breaking either, but instead as if a square section on the chest had popped off like a lid. A work crew was inspecting what appeared to be contents. Not really my concern, though I would miss the sculpture if they ended up taking it down.

  I continued over to my doctor and walked through the front door. His secretary looked up, nodded and then her eyes turned black again as she dived back into whatever VR she was watching.

  I walked on through to where the doctor was wiping down his tools with disinfectant. “Kristoff,” he greeted enthusiastically, “you here for your update?”

  I smiled and clasped his arm while he did the same as our wrists confirmed our transaction with each other. “Same deal as usual, doc.”

  “Ah, well the thing is we gotta change the numbers,” he said with a fake apologetic smile.

  “Demetri,” I warned, “We split fifty-fifty. In exchange you cut out the anesthetics and we split the profit.” I can’t afford my own cybernetics. Instead the King covered the bill, though there was standardized pricing. I always cut out what wasn’t necessary and worked with this shady guy so that I could get a few credits to spend. My squirming from the pain occasionally caused problems, but so far nothing big.

  “Ah, but Kristoff, my friend,” Demetri bullshitted, “prices have gone up, but King doesn’t raise the payments.” His eyes turned black and white again as he continued, “How am I supposed to get my own updates? I’d hate for my eyes to go on the fritz while I’m tinkering with your nerves.”

  “Fifty-fifty.”

  “Sixty-forty, and in exchange I don’t blacklist you to every other doctor in Atlantis and your chip kills you.”

  “Damn it, Demetri.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Have a seat.” He gestured with his freshly disinfected scalpel to the operating chair. I sat down and he began strapping me down. Four for each limb, two for the body, one for my forehead, and a last one for my jaw. He held out a stick for me to bite down on.

  He snapped his finger and the operating chair flipped upside down so that I was facing the ground. An opening on the back of the headrest allowed him to access the back of my skull, and he began removing my epidermis exposing my skull access plate. I grunted in pain.

  I felt that terrible itch in my head indicating my brain was exposed to fresh air and he plugged something into my head. I managed to jerk in agony. “Watch it! Shit, you could’ve damaged the chip!” I felt some force on the back of my skull before he said, “Well at least the GEL is still in its capsule, but… ah it’s probably fine.”

  A few minutes later I was right side up again and he took the stick from my mouth. “The hell you mean it’s probably fine?”

  “Eh, you’re fine. See, it didn’t go off.”

  I held my hand out and a small metallic creature crawled from my clothing down to my open palm. It was brass and had six legs. At the end it had two bladed ball jointed pincers that it gnashed together in a surprising display of intimidation.

  Demetri stared at the thing, his normal fake bravado quickly fading. “The hell is that?”

  “I got this from a, we’ll say, contact in Olympus while I was out. A good contact, kid’s name is Adonis. This little toy? Just something he made. Runs off steam with a little refined GEL and a chip to control it. Able to make the normal time delay take minutes as opposed to seconds.” The thing gnashed loudly again to drive home the point. I left out the part that I could only give complex orders while its legs were making skin contact with me. “So, tell me. Why did you say, ‘probably fine?’”

  “The plug came undone part way through, but I replaced it, and the chip finished the update fine. I’ve just never had that happen before so wasn’t sure if it damaged the chip!”

  I gnashed the pincers again, and he cursed. Finally I had the thing crawl back up my sleeve. Activating the automaton made it heat up significantly, and the thing already sat at about fifty Celsius even with its in built insulation while in hibernation. Oh well, I figured it would cool off over the next hour.

  “Fifty-fifty. And don’t try to scam me for mandatory updates next time, cause I have my own way of ‘blacklisting’ if you catch my meaning.” Demetri’s nod was all the confirmation I needed as I left.

  REPORT TO DOWNTOWN IMMEDIATELY. The voice in my head was beyond irritating. It was like a form of radio that targeted the suicide chips that would vibrate the noise directly into your head. It had insanely short range, but it allowed the King to talk to any of his operatives within the city. If only you could broadcast back.

  It’s also how I normally was contacted by Adonis. He was a teenager who was frequently out with the airships testing his inventions, and apparently one of the operators had sold my frequency in exchange for one of Tartarus's security teams while we salvaged. Apparently it was at the request of this quite frankly naïve but charming kid who wanted me to test his different devices in the field.

  Since Atlanteans tended to have a more antagonistic relationship with the other cities it made me the perfect lab rat. I had a feeling he would love to know how his little invention had faired today.

  I made my way back downtown and stepped in Atlas’s room. Not that any of us call it that. It doesn’t like being called King, so it’s one of the few ways we can rebel against it by refusing to call it by name.

  “YOU WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO A SCOUTING TEAM EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” I didn’t argue, I had learned this AI could not be persuaded. At least not by someone who had already sold his body and service for free. “WE HAVE LOCATED A RESOURCE CACHE.”

  From there it filled me in on what was found in the statue I walked by earlier. El Dorado. Video evidence, untampered, and an entire manifesto breaking down what was there. And the King was thrilled.

  “YOU WILL BE ON THE SCOUTING PARTY WHERE THE COORDINATES ARE SUPPOSEDLY LOCATED. DUE TO TECTONIC SHIFTS, THERE WILL BE OTHERS IN THE AREA DEPLOYING. ADDITIONAL TEAMS WILL ALSO SERVE AS RED HERRINGS FOR OUR ENEMIES SO THEY CANNOT TRY TO LOCATE IT BEFORE US,” Atlas finished, adding in a small set of instructions pertaining to my specific set of cybernetics.

  The room contained a single table with a data port in it. “Is that it?” the rookie asked. He was a runner, capable of reaching speeds of a hundred kilometers an hour.

  “Let me check,” our appraiser responded. It wasn’t normal to have one on a scouting party. That’s what salvaging teams were for. Still, it was determined we needed the appraiser to ensure we had found what we were looking for.

  A scouting party consists of ten members. Two lookouts who keep an eye out for trouble while you check ruins, three runners designed to outmaneuver any Olympians or Tartarians you had to fight, three movers who were slow but could move mountains. Almost literally. And finally, there was me and the appraiser. Normally I was paired with a second armored cyber, but the King decided I was enough.

  Advantage of being an unpaid slave for Atlas. I was cost effective to upgrade. I had top of the line cybernetics, and even a specially designed liver. That thing could store raw GEL in a spool of cable kept in a compartment hidden within. I could use it to plug in to different data ports to download information. And finally, and my personal favorite, it made me a hell of a good drinker. I had tried everything… except for moonshine. Too many painful memories were brought up by that.

  The appraiser held his palm over it and it scanned for a few seconds. He smiled, “It’s El Dorado alright. Damn thing is hidden under Lake Sahara though! I am not looking forward to scouting that out.”

  I shoved through and said, “Good. The King wants me to store a copy, in case we die.” I spat out the cord, and to my surprise the data port was compatible with my hardware. Lucky. I finished transferring the data. Slurping it up I ordered, “Alright, we got what we came for, move out.”

  Our radios buzzed with static as one of our lookouts chimed in, “Hold on, we got movement outside.”

  Our movers unslung their big heavy bags, and we began grabbing our weapons from inside. I had a large plasma rifle that could fire a shot that could melt steel and iron. My job would be maneuvering to take out the cockpit of any Charlie or airship that might crash the party.

  Being the armored cyber in the group, I was the only one who had replaced every one of my muscles with nanofibers. Movers relied more heavily on GEL hydraulics, which made them slower but insanely strong. I on the other hand was way faster and stronger on average compared to everyone else in the group. Even a runner could at best hope to keep up with me. Problem was those nanofibers tore you apart when you worked at full capacity, not that I ever had to worry about that. Atlas covered my medical charges making me his most fit cyber. They say most armored cybers die before they reach thirty and had to waste a lot of their money on medical expenses. But I wasn’t most armored cybers.

  I radioed out to my lookouts, “What do we have?”

  “Tartarus salvage team. I count three leveling Charlies and one truck. I don’t have a good shot at any of their men, they’re all behind the blast windows.”

  That wasn’t terrible news. Tartarus preferred bullets to any other weapon for some reason. This meant the only things that were threats to me were the Charlies with their high caliber guns. We were on the seventh floor of this building and the room had no windows or crumbled walls so we didn’t need to worry about being spotted so the only concern was-.

  “Shit they saw me,” my other spotter chimed in. Of course, nothing can go smoothly.

  “Are they moving towards you?” I inquired.

  “No. One of the Charlies is taking aim at my cover, but the others are proceeding to… shit. They’re headed towards your building.”

  The rookie chimed in, “Wait, what? How are we supposed to fight three Charlies by ourselves?”

  The appraiser took that one, “We don’t have to. We hold our position and the Charlies can’t fit in the building. We win fights between personnel.”

  “Oh, okay yeah. We got this.”

  “We sure do,” the appraiser rolled his eyes. Rookies can be pains in the ass with their irrational fear of Charlies. Now an Alpha? Damned Thanatos himself arriving from Tartarus.

  “Their insignia, they’ve got an Alpha assigned to them,” the hidden spotter said.

  Fuck me then. Shit. The rookie flipped out, “They have an Alpha, how the fuck are we supposed to fight an Alpha!?”

  The appraiser said in exasperation, “If they can’t get a Charlie in here how the heck are they getting an Alpha in?”

  One of the mover cybers chimed in with, “Did you just say heck? What are you a kid?”

  “Yeah, yeah, fuck you.” We shared a nervous laugh, though it didn’t reach the rookie. So much for calming him down.

  I needed more intel, so I radioed, “Which Alpha does this unit have?”

  “Hypnos,” he responded. And we were back to good news. Hypnos, as we took to calling it, was a flying Alpha that was rarely deployed. First reports of it were believed to be mirage and exaggeration until we got video footage of it taking off. Thing could level a city, but it was slow and normally only taken out for test flights. The name was a joke. Since no one had ever died to it, and at first it was only a rumor, so we said it was the brother of death. Merely a dream. Mind you it actually had a laser cannon on it that could level a building, which was unusual for Tartarus weaponry. But chances of it being close enough for backup was slim.

  The second spotter spoke up again, “They stopped outside the building, I’ve got a line of shot.”

  “Get back under cover,” I ordered. Idiot had already been spotted he needed to stay low. Suddenly there was a rapid series of pops as the GGG from the Charlie fired. The hidden spotter explained, “They got Barry.” Shit, down to one spotter. And the rookie started freaking out again.

  “Shut up,” ordered the appraiser. The new guy quieted down but I could see him shaking. He was going to be a problem if things broke out into a firefight.

  “Man, we’re all going to die.”

  “Shut up,” this time it was me addressing him. I didn’t have time to explain to him how bad an idea it was to start talking defeat.

  “But-” this time the other runner cyber cut him off.

  “Shut up before you get us killed.”

  The greenhorn was not backing down, “But even if we try to fight, the Charlies and Alpha-”

  My skin crawled as I realized what he was about to say. The damn idiot was going to put those words in the air for all our chips to hear. Even if not all of them believed the words as long as one or two did it would domino effect and take us all out. “Stop!” I shouted in panic, not caring if my voice gave away our position.

  “-will capture us alive,” he finished. His suicide chip was the first to go.

  One by one, in a matter of maybe two seconds everyone fell to the floor and began to spasm slightly from the pain. I held my breath, not daring to breath. I had never been so conscious of the chip pressed against the back of my head. Seconds passed. Minutes. The bodies became as still as mom’s.

  My mind reeled back to that day in the kitchen. The day I started existing. The day I felt Thanatos for the first time.

  I jumped as the static from my radio sounded off, “They’re entering the building.” It was followed by a much louder series of pops as the Charlies were closer, probably right outside the building. Any second now it could swing the barrel of the GGG and end me. That would be better than the chip. I radioed in, but now there was silence in response.

  I stared at my plasma rifle. I was outnumbered. Outgunned. Trapped. I could attempt to fight to the death, but if I did then I would risk being incapacitated and killed by the chip. I placed the barrel of the gun in my mouth.

  “My poor baby boy has ruined everything.” I threw the gun to the ground, gasping for air. “My poor baby boy has ruined everything.”

  “No!” I shouted with a voice that was not my own at the phantom memories. “Mama, I did it for you!”

  “Say it for me,” she said. I retook control of my voice.

  “Survive.” Why hadn’t the chip gone off yet?

  “Survive.” I had unplugged during the update.

  “Survive!” I shouted the last one with maniacal laughter. I was going to survive. No, fuck that! I was going to live! I felt joy coupled with dread. Why wasn’t the chip going off? Praise to any higher power that it didn’t go off!

  A voice outside the room said, “It’s coming from in here.” The door opened and bullets rained in, bouncing uselessly off me. I covered my eyes to protect them. When the bullets stopped, I lowered my arms and continued to laugh.

  “I surrender,” I giggled. The man looked at me with my mother’s face and asked me to repeat myself dumbfounded. I repeated myself without laughter this time, “I surrender.”

  The lights of my cell turned on and I awoke from my dream. It had turned into a recurring dream since my capture. Regardless of the memory, my mother would always appear to say I ruined everything, and I would always break down into maniacal laughter.

  The door to my cell opened and the tall brunette that had been with Alloy stepped in. She was slim and sexy, though I preferred a little more meat in the right places personally.

  “Good morning, Kristoff. I have some questions for you.”

  “And I want freedom. Where’s Alloy?” To my surprise she didn’t seem dissuaded from my response.

  “Alloy said you wouldn’t answer anymore of his questions until he delivered on his side of the deal. He said that you would answer my questions, though I don’t know why he thinks that.”

  This woman had convinced me to remove the suicide chip, and with it a burden I had forgotten I had been carrying had been lifted. Somehow Alloy seemed to have figured out I felt indebted to her. “Ask away,” I said with fake enthusiasm.

  “Thank you. I had two questions, one of curiosity and another of possible importance. I’d like to know more about the statue with the time capsule and I would like to know what that Olympian robot was on your person.”

  I scratched my unshaven chin. I hadn’t been able to shave since my imprisonment. “I got it as a dead drop from some kid named Adonis. It runs too damn hot though.”