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But before she could pull the trigger,there was a gunshot from behind her. A slug burned across the side of her neck.Susa
She turned, eager for more—yes, thiswas what she wanted, what she had been made for, and she’d always revere Rolandfor showing her—but the others were either dead or fled. The spider raceddown the side of its birthbed on its many legs, leaving thepapier-mâché corpse of its mother behind. It turned its whiteinfant’s head briefly toward her.
You’d do well to let me pass, Blackie,or—
She fired at it, but stumbled over thehawkman’s outstretched hand as she did. The bullet that would have killed theabomination went a little awry, clipping off one of its eight hairy legsinstead. A yellowish-red fluid, more like pus than blood, poured from the placewhere the leg had joined the body. The thing screamed at her in pain andsurprise. The audible portion of that scream was hard to hear over the endlesscycling blat of the robot’s siren, but she heard it in her head loud and clear.
I’ll pay you back for that! My fatherand I, we’ll pay you back! Make you cry for death, so we will!
You ain’t go
All right. Not great, not the best solutionby any means, but she was still alive, and that much was grand.
And the fact that all of sai Sayre’s crewwere dead or run off? That wasn’t bad, either.
Susa
She tried to get in touch with Jake,couldn’t hear herself think, and turned to the robot. “Hey, big boy! Shutoff that damn sireen, what do you say?”
She had no idea if it would work, but itdid. The silence was immediate and wonderful, with the sensuous texture ofmoiré silk. Silence might be useful. If there was a counterattack, she’dhear them coming. And the dirty truth? She hoped for a counterattack, wantedthem to come, and never mind whether that made sense or not. She had a gun andher blood was up. That was all that mattered.
(Jake! Jake, do you hear me, kiddo? Ifyou hear, answer your big sis!)
Nothing. Not even that rattle of distantgunfire. He was out of t—
Then, a single word—was it aword?
(wimeweh)
More important, was it Jake?
She didn’t know for sure, but she thoughtyes. And the word seemed familiar to her, somehow.
Susa
(wimeweh)
on purpose, or it had slipped out. Eitherway, it might be better to let him roll his own oats for awhile.
“I say, I have been blinded by gunfire!”the robot insisted. Its voice was still loud, but had dropped to a range atleast approaching normal. “I can’t see a bloody thing and I have this incubator—”
“Drop it,” Susa
“But—”
“Drop it, Chumley.”
“I beg pawdon, madam, but my name is Nigelthe Butler and I really can’t—”
Susa
“Nigel DNK 45932, drop that fucking glassbox, say thankya!”
The robot (DOMESTIC was stamped justbelow its serial number) dropped the incubator and then whimpered when itshattered at its steel feet.
Susa
She hoped.
“Nigel, pick me up.”
There was a whine of servomotors as therobot bent.
“No, hon, you have to come forward a littlebit. There’s broken glass where you are.”
“Pawdon, madam, but I’m blind. I believe itwas you who shot my eyes out.”
Oh. That.
“Well,” she said, hoping her tone ofirritation would disguise the fear beneath, “I can’t very well get you new onesif you don’t pick me up, can I? Now get a wiggle on, may it do ya. Time’swasting.”
Nigel stepped forward, crushing brokenglass beneath its feet, and came to the sound of her voice. Susa
“Now take me to the door.”
“Madam, beg pawdon but there are manydoors in Sixteen. More still beneath the castle.”
Susa
A brief pause. “I should say five hundredand ninety-five are currently operational.” She immediately noticed thatfive-ninety-five added up to nineteen. Added up to chassit.
“Do you mind giving me a carry to the one Icame through before the shooting started?” Susa
“No, madam, I don’t mind at all, but I’msorry to tell you that it will do you no good,” Nigel said in his plummy voice.“That door, NEW YORK #7/FEDIC, is one-way.” A pause. Relays clicking in thesteel dome of its head. “Also, it burned out after its last use. It has, as youmight say, gone to the clearing at the end of the path.”
“Oh, that’s just wonderful!”Susa
“I sense you are distressed, madam.”
“You’re goddamned right I’m distressed! Badenough the damned thing only opened one-way! Now it’s shut down completely!”
“Except for the default,” Nigel agreed.
“Default? What do you mean, default?”
“That would be NEW YORK #9/FEDIC,” Nigeltold her. “At one time there were over thirty one-way NewYork–to–Fedic ports, but I believe #9 is the only one that remains.All commands pertaining to NEW YORK #7/FEDIC will now have defaulted to #9.”
Chassit, she thought… almost prayed.He’s talking about chassit, I think. Oh God, I hope he is.
“Do you mean passwords and such, Nigel?”
“Why, yes, madam.”
“Take me to Door #9.”
“As you wish.”
Nigel began to move rapidly up the aislebetween the hundreds of empty beds, their taut white sheets gleaming under thebrilliant overhead lamps. Susa