Chapter Thirty-One

All Argosys had a single target—

CLEFF.

Get him down, and get the girl.

The shields were gone.

He could not return fire.

CLEFF’s chromium shell was taking a beating as it was now breached.

Bullets damaged his exterior and some of his protected circuits.

CLEFF knew he had to get out of there immediately.

He had to protect Viktoriya.

CLEFF lifted her into his arms again, taking two quick steps, rushing deeper inside the apartment, away from the incoming threat.

“We must exit the apartment immediately!” CLEFF exclaimed.

Realizing they were nearly boxed in, as more and more of the group filled the apartment, he continued to carry Viktoriya deeper into the apartment. CLEFF raced into the master bedroom toward the terrace, looking through the sliding glass doors. He began tracking different trajectories and distances from the building to other nearby structures.

CLEFF powered up his thrusters again as he began his graceful leap out of the tenth-floor apartment. He was still deflecting several shots as he launched through the glass doors over the balcony, out into the cold, crisp air as they left the apartment in a graceful, long arc toward the roof of the building across the street.

Viktoriya trembled against his chest, engulfed in his arms, when he deployed a heavy bundle of airbags from his chest, arms, and legs, partially folding himself into a makeshift roll cage around her. His best attempt to form a cushioning cradle and protect Viktoriya from the fall and subsequent landing.

He estimated she had an eighty-nine percent chance of survival, which was the best he could do under the circumstances.

The rooftop presented itself as an unlikely salvation, a vision of Eden as seen through an android’s eyes, the only sanctuary that the machine could find.

Viktoriya pressed herself hard against the cluster of his protective airbags, encased in a cocoon of sealed air, trying to shut everything out and find a safe space in her mind to retreat into.

CLEFF’s critical warnings rang out repeatedly blaring, “Impact from this height will cause catastrophic damage.”

More warnings alternated as they left the glass fragments behind, now gliding through the air.

“Not enough distance for braking thrust.”

Gravity took over, and he began to fall with Viktoriya cradled in his airbags.

Firing his counter-thrusters, he attempted to rotate his position so that his back was toward the targeted roof, hoping what was left of his thrusters would slow their fall.

“Jettison rear shielding and all non-essential components.”

Bits and pieces flew away from CLEFF as he desperately tried to reduce his weight to lessen the impact, hoping his thrusters would ease the blow.

However, that was not to be the case, as there was not enough distance to create enough thrust to land gently.

“Warning–not enough distance for braking thrust.

“Warning–not enough distance for braking thrust.”

“I’m sorry, love, they did not design me to fly.”

Viktoriya’s heart pounded like tympani drums performing a solo concert especially for her, droning in her ears as they flew through the cold open air.

Her breath escaped from her lungs, and the tightness in her chest overwhelmed her. It was too much to comprehend.

It was far too much.

The noise.

The fear.

Viktoria knew that this was how she would die, and it was all her own fault.

Her obsessive curiosity would now finally end her life and the lives of the others, possibly Aura’s as well.

Viktoriya was semi-zoned out as gravity took over and began their fall. It was far too much for her to take in.

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And then—as they tumbled through the air—she felt her mind slipping.

The stress and danger took over as she began flashing out, somehow involuntarily escaping this reality into the quiet, comforting embrace of the Spectrum.

Time disappeared first, as it always seemed to. She was no longer seconds away from death; she had escaped to a magnificent brilliance of a peaceful paradise, soft choruses, and warm, inviting darkness.

And then she was engulfed by the nothingness. Everywhere and nowhere, all wrapped into one.

The entire place—if it indeed was a place—hummed a soothing white noise in the distant background, like a familiar song that had become an earworm that lingered persistently, even when one is unaware that it is there.

An explosion of brilliant white light was all she could see.

Then, the familiar gray planets with hundreds of moons quickly orbiting around came into view.

“Could Choe be right? Are these atoms? I can’t… I can’t tell if I’m very tiny, or. Or if it’s an atom, it’s very—”

The noise whooshed and flowed, almost as if it was trying to form words.

Was it attempting to speak to her?

Loud alarms pulled her back out of the nothingness.

The flash-out was over, and instead of staring fearfully at the ground below, Viktoriya found herself looking up, staring into the clear blue sky above, peering from between the airbags.

Viktoriya was semi-zoned out as gravity took over, and they began their fall, as it was now far too much for her to take in.

She had momentarily escaped into her mind, though her body was still captive to their dangerous, inescapable reality. But now she was back in the here and now, in the thick of it.

Loud warnings continued to ring out, “EMERGENCY! IMPACT IMMINENT—Not enough distance for braking thrust,” as they crashed onto the office’s rooftop across the street, which CLEFF had targeted as the best possible impact location, rather than falling entirely to the street ten floors below.

Viktoriya subconsciously calculated six stories at twenty-one kilometers per hour at four seconds in her mind.

Impact.

They made a crash landing, if it could be called a landing.

The blow knocked the breath right out of her lungs as CLEFF crashed onto the roof. The arms he had wrapped around her jerked violently as a snapping noise rang through the open air.

“Arrgghh!”

A sharp pain shot out from Viktoriya’s arm, and she felt it pulsing, throbbing instantaneously. The airbag array had indeed saved her life, but she knew she was hurt badly—she just did not know to what extent.

She was spinning, dizzy and nauseous, and unable to focus.

She gasped.

Finally, air again.

With labored breaths, she looked at the building they had just escaped. The balcony and the apartment window seemed like an impossible distance to have fallen from yet still live to tell the tale.

CLEFF was hopelessly wrecked, but she had survived the fall, suffering a badly broken arm, a few sore ribs, lacerations from broken glass, some impact rash, and a bloody nose. Viktoriya was dazed and dizzy, barely semiconscious—but in remarkably good shape thanks to the airbags.

She begged and pleaded with CLEFF to get up as she came around. She tried to drag him across the roof and said, “We have to leave!” But it was no use, and beginning to cry, she heard the droid plead with her to return home.

Viktoriya didn’t hate her android anymore. She loved him and was sorrowful that he now lay in pieces.

“Come with me. You have to follow me! NOW!” she cried, but there was no moving the machine.

She stood, shaking, trying to pull him, but she could barely get him to budge at all. Tears stung her eyes as they began welling up and starting to flow.

“No, don’t die,” she cried. “You saved me, CLEFF, don’t die,” she pleaded. Then she poured her grief uncontrollably.

“I cannot die, Viktori-Ya; I am an android,” he replied.

“CLEFF. Shut up! I’m hurt. And you have to help me. So, you have to get up!”

“You… You must comply. This is a safety directive override command,” she cried out to him.

From the balcony which Viktoriya had just abandoned, Azid watched the girl struggle. He was not about to let CLEFF thwart the success of their mission.

No.

Not when he was so close to getting the girl, knowing she would completely ruin their plans if she got away.

He rushed away from the balcony, picking up a shoulder gun and loaded it with an armor-piercing round, then went back to the balcony’s edge to have his revenge.

“Viktori-Ya. Rruunn!!” CLEFF shouted, pushing her away.

She jumped up and stumbled over herself, leaping for CLEFF. She pressed a command code, opened the android’s circuit panel with her emergency override, and removed his small mainboard.

As she pulled it close to her chest, stumbling and wobbling, she ran toward the rooftop access maintenance door.

The rest of the men stopped firing down at the droid; they all could not believe their eyes.

Azid had utterly lost it.

His blood was racing with adrenaline. All he could think of was the excitement of the bullets flying all around him. It made him feel invincible. He pulled the gun to his shoulder and opened the scope.

“Stop it, Azid, you’re crazy. You are going to kill the girl. The droid is already in pieces!” Rebecca screamed, but she was too late.

Azid took his shot. The round locked its target, screeching and spiraling down to the roof of the adjacent building where they had fallen.

The impact blew apart the remnants of CLEFF and the roof beneath him. The resulting shockwave flung Viktoriya toward the door, knocking her senseless. She fell with such force that she dropped the mainboard.

Knowing she was about to die if she didn’t move, Viktoriya pushed herself dizzily to her feet, grabbed the android’s board, and once again made for the roof access door. Once through, she made her way down the four floors, through the lobby, and outside. She tripped and fell to the sidewalk, out of breath.

A black car pulled up beside her.

“Get in!” Rebecca called from the open door she flung open.

Viktoriya gazed up to see her, but she was still falling and stumbling.

“Where’s the girl!?” Azid shouted as he and the other men came out of the apartment building’s door.

Viktoriya raised her head to see them shouting, then turned back to Rebecca who continued pleading for her to come.

She pulled herself up, steadied herself, then ran toward the car.

“Over there!” one man screamed.

She made it into the car just in time and after she slammed the door behind her, Rebecca sped off.

Azid shot another armor-piercing round at the car as it sped away. The screeching round flew just over the top of the vehicle, spiraling out into the air.

“Ha-Ha-Ha, what’s the point of having a shoulder gun if you never get to shoot it at anyone?” Azid cackled.

“Z… You’ve gone completely mad, you—Everyone around here, they all saw this. You’re completely crazy! The authorities are going to come here and haul us all away, or worse!”

Azid pulled out his sidearm. A final, single shot rang out as he put a round into the chest of his challenger. The man dropped to the pavement, dead.

“Does anyone else, any one of you, also think that I’m completely mad?”

“Anyone?”