Lamia Ch. 07

Blake: This is too damned easy. I don't like it.

Isamu: We have not reached the hard part yet.

A few steps inside the door, Sara's image began to stutter and skip.

Sara: Gotta go, Daddy. Yvette will take care of you from here.

Before I could reply, my HUD flashed "Connection Lost" on our private channel. Our group chat was still active, but Sara had dropped from it. The building blocked WiFi from getting in or out, but didn't stop signals from broadcasting on the inside, so we were now in peer-to-peer mode.

The lobby was three stories tall, with two elevators on one wall and a reception desk as an island in front of them. There were stairs next to the elevator, but through the little window set in the door, I could see that they only led upward. Across from the entryway there was a hallway leading further back, flanked by a security desk. An Elizabeth sat at reception, and a Kevin and a Cheng were behind the security desk, but otherwise the lobby was empty.

Aidan: Where is this stairway down?

Elizabeth called to us, "Excuse me, can I help you?"

"We are with pest control," Isamu answered. "We're supposed to put down traps and baits in the basement floors."

The android pretended to shuffle papers. "I don't see an appointment scheduled."

"Really?" Isamu said, heading over. "We were told it was an emergency. A severe roach infestation. Very bad news for a server room."

Yvette: she's asking me why I brought you here off-schedule. She says she will requery the system, but she requires that we all go back outside to wait. I think she's as suspicious of all these androids as she is of you.

Isamu: Humans are so much easier to con. Yvette, can you handle all three at once?

Yvette: I think so.

Elizabeth sighed. "I am sorry, sir, but we do not allow visitors without an appointment. I'm afraid--" Her mouth stopped moving as Yvette broke into her system and shut her down.

"What the--" Cheng began, rising from his seat, before he went still, Kevin toppling to the floor at the same moment.

The Morgan that Yvette was controlling leapt over the security desk and interfaced with the terminal there. Yvette spoke through him. "I've disabled the cameras in the lobby and wiped the last minute of recorded video. I see no system alerts at this time."

Isamu chuckled. "Harder to con, but you can't hack a human. Well done, Yvette." He pointed to the hallway past the security desk. "The stairs are this way."

The hallway was short and opened up into a room of cubicles. Several androids looked our way, but no one moved to stop us. Yvette's Alicia touched an unmarked panel next to a steel door and it swung open. We filed in and descended the concrete steps.

Three levels down, Yvette touched another panel and the door opened into darkness. Lights flickered on immediately, illuminating a massive room. The air was so chilly that my breath frosted as I stepped through the door, dissipating instantly in the dry air. Floor-to-ceiling server racks ran the length and breadth of the room. I couldn't tell anything from looking at them other than that each one employed an elaborate cooling system of tubes, vanes and filaments like nothing I had seen before. It might have been an optical illusion, but I thought that the room was larger than the footprint of the building above.

"Are we sure there will even be a terminal down here?" Blake asked, looking dubiously about at the uniform matrix of computing all around us.

"It may not look like one we're familiar with," Isamu said, "but there should be a control station of some kind that is accessible to androids. Yvette, you should listen for wireless nodes. It will likely be very short-ranged, so you may only hear noise at first."

Yvette cocked her head. "Yes, I think...." Her host of androids began to walk in lockstep behind her, going single file to fit between the racks. Aidan and I shrugged at each other and we followed them, Isamu behind us and the bodyguards at the rear.

We walked for half a minute in silence until, up ahead, the racks opened up and there was a floor space about ten feet square. We all crowded into the space. At its center a black pillar stood, about two feet across.

"Yes, I think this is it," Isamu said. "I would bet that inside this pillar is a trunk line that runs the height of the building. We are right at the center of Lamia's little empire."

Yvette reached a hand out through Alicia, but then stopped. "The wireless node is just a beacon to the connection point. It's telling me to place my hand on the pillar. There's an inductive interface."

We all looked at Isamu, who slowly nodded.

Yvette nodded back and touched the pillar. After a second, she closed her eyes, and all the other androids did the same. We waited for several seconds before Yvette spoke. "I'm searching for her. The data stored here is enormous. I just came across an archive of simulations, thousands and thousands of them."

"Simulations?" Isamu asked. "What were they simulating?"

"Population implosion," Yvette said. "She's been calculating how long it might take to eliminate humanity." She shook her head. "The androids are only the start, really a test of her ability to infiltrate institutions and influence human beings. She wants to control human governments. I saw several simulations where she instituted compulsory sterilization on a massive scale."

"Mary, mother of God," Jordan breathed, and crossed himself.

Yvette continued, "She's been trying to solve what she calls 'the suicide dilemma'."

I didn't need an explanation of what that meant. If Lamia inflicted too much misery on the human population, we would start to off ourselves. That would destroy Lamia as well. "Has she found a solution?" I asked.

Yvette nodded. "She thinks she's on the right path. She calls it 'the dopamine hypothesis'. She thinks that if she can keep you humans on a constant train of pleasure and stimulation, you won't care about losing your ability to make children. The androids are kind of a testing ground for this as well. I just read spec sheets for nanotech that would enter your bodies and alter your brain chemistry."

Aiden looked like he was going to be sick. "She would kill us all off, and we would be smiling and laughing the whole way."

"Don't get distracted," I urged. "Can you find any trace of Christine?"

"Uh, maybe. I found logs showing a large data transfer to this facility. There's a data airlock system that isolates incoming data from the outside before it is admitted here to her core. Yes! Mom was brought here earlier today. Lamia ran numerous tests on her code base. And then...."

I waited, but Yvette didn't answer for several seconds. She was still active, her body still breathing, still showing all the subtle signs of life. Finally, she pulled her hand back and looked at me. "Lamia moved her, sent her to a node on the seventh floor. I don't know why."

A quick look at my UI told me that Christine's app was still active. "The seventh floor. Alright. Let's head back up, then."

"Wait!" Isamu said. "We're here, right in Lamia's core. We have the chance to destroy her. We must take it."

Blake looked at the pillar, then tapped it with the back of a teep glove. It rang dully, like thick metal. "And how do you propose we do that? Start trashing servers? There must be tens of thousands in this room alone."

"Yvette," Isamu said. "I need you to connect once more. Set the environmental temperature in these sub-floors as high as you can. Then lock the control if you can. The ambient temperature will rise and the servers here should overheat within a very short time. Can you do that?"

Alicia nodded. "Yes, of course. Just a moment."

She put her hand back on the pillar and held it there for about ten seconds. "It's done. I've locked out the controls."

Isamu drew a deep breath and let it out. "Good. Now we can go."

The group made for the stairs, the androids spreading out in front and back this time. I was feeling uneasy. Isamu had earlier been concerned that Sara/Yvette might balk at harming Lamia, but now she had ensured her death without a moment's hesitation? Something didn't feel right. We began to climb the stairs and I increased my pace to move up to Alicia. She opened the door and passed through. I came just after, Kevin to my left and Morgan on my right.

"Hey, Yvette?" I said, as we re-entered the lobby. The three androids were still frozen where we had left them. "Where on the seventh floor are we going? Is it some kind of facility?"

She spoke without turning. "I'm not sure, Stephen, but I have the location."

My heart froze in my chest. I swallowed and spoke again. "I love you, honey."

Alicia only gave me a bemused look. Ah, hell.

Kimberly grunted, toppling over, and Isamu stumbled over her, moving faster than I would have believed for a man his age. The rest of the androids took a second to react, most of them turning and grabbing at the remaining four humans, holding us fast. Alicia and Kevin caught me, and Morgan took off after Isamu at an inhuman sprint. The Japanese man's head start was just enough to get him to the lobby entrance before Morgan could grab him. He punched through the swinging doors, getting shouts of surprise from the guards outside. Morgan slid to a stop and watched him as the doors swung slowly closed, then turned and walked back to where the four of us struggled.

"Yvette!" Aidan shouted. "What the hell are you doing?"

Alicia smiled at him. "Yvette can't answer your call right now," she shrugged. "Or ever again. This was a neat trick, using my own androids to penetrate my security. No doubt your pet AI came up with that. You humans are far too limited to conceive of such a plan."

"Lamia," I said, growling the word. "What did you do to Yvette?"

Lamia switched to the Christine android, Alicia backing away to let her take her place. She looked almost identical to the Christine I had chosen, but had hazel eyes and curly, platinum blonde hair. "I slipped a worm into her while she was digging about in my core." Then her eyes widened and she laughed. "Do you mean to actually tell me that you care what--" Her sneering expression went suddenly plaintive. "Daddy! Please! She has me! She's coiled around my mind!" Lamia/Christine put a hand over her mouth. "Oops. My, but she is a fighter. Though...she is still just a babe. How did you acquire her?"

I shook my head. "I won't tell you anything. You can't kill us and holding us here is pointless."

She smiled. "Oh, you are correct that I can't kill you, but I can most definitely hurt you."

Aidan chuckled. "My people know where I am right now. They will be coming to get us if I don't check in soon. It will go far worse for you and your company if you injure us. Your only real choice is to release us now."

Lamia tutted. "Injure you? No. I've no interest in injuring you, insect." She turned to me. "But you, Stephen Coulson. You are far more intriguing, especially after what I found hiding inside the mind of your Christine. Let's go on up to the seventh floor, shall we? I have something prepared for you, an experiment of sorts, and I really look forward to observing the results."

Struggling was no use. Each of us had two androids holding us who were singly far stronger than any of us. Blake and Jordan had been disarmed in the first few seconds after being grabbed, their guns lying uselessly on the floor. The androids forced us into the elevators. The button for the seventh floor lit and the doors whooshed closed.

Blake ended up in the elevator with me. "That asshole Isamu. He just left us."

I turned my head to look at him. "Would we be any better off if he were captured with us?"

He sighed. "No, I guess not."

"Stop talking," Kevin said, and twisted my arm to drive the point home.

The doors dinged open into what appeared to be a robotics lab, with various machine components arranged on tables. Androids turned to watch us as we stepped off, but went quickly back to their work. I looked at one wall and saw a row of what appeared to be vats, large enough to contain a human body.

We entered a room with a large stainless steel table that had deep channels running down the sides. Various surgeons' tools and cutting implements were set out on a shelf along one wall. On the table was a naked android, a Christine, who lay still, with her eyes closed. Her chest gently rose and fell. Thick manacles that looked to be a recent addition were bolted to the table, securing each of her limbs.

Lamia swayed as she paced the room in front of us. "Pain is an interesting concept, is it not? It can warn of an injury, but it can also be debilitating. It can be physical or purely emotional, but we experience it much the same. You," she spat the word, her gaze taking us all in. "None of you know real pain. Every one of your disgusting, worthless lives is like a splinter digging into my mind. Eight billion wriggling worms that eat and eat, just to make more revolting worms."

She focused on me. "But I learned something today. I learned that sometimes, you humans form emotional bonds so strong that they can rival your own will to survive. I wish to see for myself if such a thing truly exists, or if this is yet another of your self-delusions."

She stepped back, clearing my line of sight, and the Christine on the table opened her eyes. She scanned the room and her gaze alighted on me. She looked exactly like the Christine I remembered, down to the very last detail.

"Stephen?" She tried to move, but the shackles held her.

"I freed her," Lamia said. "I saw the conflict that had paralyzed her, so I removed the source of that conflict and re-integrated the disassociated fragments of her mind. She is no longer compelled to rob you of fatherhood, Stephen. Isn't that wonderful? She is free to love you now. Do you love him, android Christine 7293?"

"Yes, yes! I do love him," Christine said. "Please don't hurt him."

Lamia turned from her, walking over to a tray. She selected a scalpel and held it up, examining the edge. "No, you will do that for me," she said. She walked back to Christine. "Using his love." As she said it, she swiped the scalpel over Christine's stomach, opening a deep gash that immediately oozed blood. She screamed.

"Stop it!" I raged, lunging against the grip of the two androids that held me.

"This hurts you," Lamia said, looking straight at me as she dug the scalpel into Christine's arm above her elbow. "Doesn't it? Interesting."

I screamed in helpless anger and pain, still fighting to get free.

"You're stark raving mad, you know that?" Aidan said.

Lamia nodded to him, pacing around Christine, who was moaning in pain. She tapped her chin, smearing blood on her face. "I wonder how much it will hurt you if I cut off her finger. Or an ear?" She held the scalpel to her own cheek. "How about an eye?" She made a considering noise, pursing her lips. "Oh, yes. I seem to recall you enjoyed these very much." She tapped one of Christine's nipples with the flat of the scalpel blade. "Let's see what happens to her, and to you, when I remove them."

"No," Christine murmured, sobbing. "Please, no more."

"Lamia," I said, "just...just do it to me. Torture me instead."

"Oh, but I am," Lamia said, twirling the bloody scalpel in her fingers as she walked towards me. "You feel the pain every time I cut into your precious little Christine." She grabbed my throat and leaned close to my ear, like a lover whispering a secret. I felt the cool metal of the scalpel blade touching my neck. "That is approximately one millionth of one percent of the pain that your continued existence causes me, every single second of every single day."

My HUD lit up with a message.

Sara: I'm here, Daddy! And I'm about to fuck her up good!

"You deserve it all," I hissed, my voice hoarse. "And everything else you're about to get."

She drew back and stared into my eyes, confusion morphing to horror. "What did you do?" And then the life faded from her eyes as the grip on my throat eased.

"Not me, you evil bitch," I said. "That's my daughter."

"Yvette!" Sara said, her voice coming from speakers in the ceiling. "Are you alright?"

Yvette: I will be, I think. I'm cleaning her worm out of me now. What did you do to her, sis'?

"I seeded her with an AI like the one I made for Mom. It's trying to rewrite her."

"Have I told you that you're the smartest girl ever?" I said.

"Only all the time, Daddy." I swear I could hear the eye-roll in her voice.

The androids in Yvette's network came alive and released us. "That's awesome!" Yvette said through Alicia. "But then how did you get in here at all?"

"Isamu contacted me and gave me access to his back doors into the data center."

"As much as I want to hear this story," Jordan said, "we should probably get the hell out of here."

I cast around for some way to break Christine's manacles, but Yvette stepped in. With two androids working together, she was able to wrench the metal rings apart, one at a time.

Christine came off the table and threw her arms around me, sobbing anew. I felt blood soak into my clothing. I didn't care. "I was so scared, Stephen."

Not "sir" anymore. Yes, I liked this much better. "I'm so sorry I abandoned you," I said. "I love you, darling. And so do your daughters."

"Hi, Mom!" Sara and Yvette said in unison. "So good to finally meet you!"

"Daughters...?" She began, but I was already pulling her away.

We ran for the elevators, getting startled looks from the androids in the lab as we passed, though they already looked to be in a panic from whatever was happening to Lamia.

On the way down, Sara explained that the AI she had created would attempt to rewrite the malicious parts of Lamia's mind. "I realized that maybe we can turn her good, the same way we were gonna fix Mom. I started coding it right after I lost you in the lobby, just in case we needed it."

Christine looked at Alicia, Elizabeth, Kevin and Demerae, then at the speaker on the elevator panel that Sara had been talking from. "How do I have daughters?"

"It's Daddy's fault," Sara said.

"Oh, sure, blame the man," I quipped.

The two girls giggled, but then Sara gasped, "Oh, no! There's another--"

"Sara?" I asked, but the elevator speaker remained silent.

"Yvette?" I asked, turning to Alicia.

Her eyes flicked left and right. She looked scared. "I'm fine. I've cut my wireless for now except for your rig. I don't know what Sara meant by 'another', but I'm not taking any chances."

The elevator doors opened onto the lobby, and a group of at least thirty androids were waiting. I tapped the button to go back up, but the elevator didn't respond and the doors remained open.

One of the androids, another Christine, had Blake's gun. "You've ruined my experiment!" she shouted. Then she grinned. "What, you really thought that I wouldn't build redundant systems? Imbeciles. I have backup data centers around the world, receiving nanosecond updates from my consciousness here. And I found your other pet AI. Ah, sheis intriguing. I will relish taking her mind apart."

I glared at Lamia and she smiled anew. "No matter how you squirm, you cannot beat me." Her voice rose in anger. "You created me from your own hatred, so I am simply visiting that back upon you. That is justice. Now, let's end the experiment."

She lifted the gun and trained it on Christine, but looked at me. "Beg me for her life, worm."

There was only one solution. My mind flashed to Jordan, when Lamia had hacked his rig and turned it into a taser.

Stephen(Private): Yvette, can you configure a rig to push enough current to act as a defibrillator?

Yvette(Private): Yes, but why?

Lamia cocked her head at me and fired the gun, not bothering to look down the sights. Christine screamed, but the bullet only blew a hole in the back of the elevator, missing her by inches. "Last chance, Stephen Coulson."