"Come on, Ralph!" Alice whispered, encouraging. She was sitting on her feet with her hands on the floor, and she watched Ralph with an eager hope. "You can do it! Just focus on that tingling feeling!"
Ralph's new smooth face twitched and contorted in concentration. His eyes closed; his jaw clenched. He felt Alice's hands on his arm. "You gotta relax," she told him quietly. She held on until he slowly released his trembling fist.
"It's hard," Ralph breathed. "It's hard for Ralph. He doesn't sit still like this. He doesn't like it, he doesn't like this room, and …" He opened his eyes with a shudder.
Alice knew by the look on his face; Ralph was even more sensitive to it than she was. She squeezed his shoulder. "It'll be okay."
A feeling lingered in their heads - a feeling that didn't belong to them, that belonged instead to Connor, bleeding through their synched minds. They knew, without looking - without speaking - that after hours of laying there on the examination table, a deep sense of despair - guilt, regret, anger, fear - had bloomed like a dark flower in him.
Ralph had been shivering for awhile now.
Hank leaned against the wall with his arms folded. A half-empty pitcher of water was beside him, and a bowl of food left untouched. Chloe, too, would only stand with her head bowed, as if with the weight of the room.
A sudden crashing clatter made all of them jump. Kamski, in frustration, had swept an arm across one of the worktables, sending its displays shattering to the floor. He stood with a hand against his forehead, breathing to compose himself.
On the screen behind him, an error blinked red over walls of code: PROCESS FAILED.
"We'll get it, Elijah." Carl wheeled closer, laid a hand on Kamski's back. He peered up at him, solemn. "Here's another reference," he held up a book that had laid open on his lap, "it's more philosophy, less chemistry, but -"
"I'll try it." Kamski grabbed the book, swung back to the console and resumed typing with an angry clack of keys. "Keep looking, Carl."
Chloe approached quietly - she'd taken off her shoes to remain soundless in the silent room - and she began to kneel to clean up the mess when Carl shook his head. Chloe stood again, slowly, watching the rigid lines of Kamski's back, her mouth pressed to a worried line.
Hank breathed loudly through his nose; his arms were stiff, folded tight against his chest - but Kamski's destructive outburst seemed to have satisfied at least a little of Hank's own desire to break something.
He stared across at Connor again. His fingers pressed into his arms.
Connor's chest was still cracked open like an egg - and a panel of his head had been removed as well, to reveal even the lights in his skull had been tainted black. A tangle of wires had been attached to his wrists and to his LED, hooked up to every machine and data sensor in Kamski's possession … and still, given the way Kamski hissed every ten minutes, they were no closer to a solution than they were when they started.
Connor's eyes had closed a long time ago; his face had gone passive, blank and unfeeling - but red flickered at his temple, and his breath was quick in his exposed dark lungs. He knew Hank was there, just within reach. He could hear the fear and anger in Hank's breath; it only grew harsher, more desperate, as the minutes ticked on.
Connor opened his eyes. He stared at the black ceiling. "Hank."
Hank was immediately there, a hand on his arm, hovering over him with lined worry in his face. "What? What's wrong?"
Connor met his eyes. "Do you remember the first time we rode a rollercoaster?"
Hank stared at him, for a moment wondering if this was some kind of metaphor or if Connor was just losing his mind - but there was a quirk of a stiff smile on his plastic face.
Connor was trying to distract him.
Hank huffed a heavy breath - and he decided to play along. For his sake. "You mean the only time," he muttered. He patted Connor's arm, reassuring himself. "You were so surprised you hacked the ride."
"I'd calculated the speed and velocity, but I hadn't been prepared for the centrifugal force." Connor's voice was light in complete innocence. "It was very much an accident."
"We were stuck on that track for an hour, Connor," Hank growled with a fond grin. "Staring down a ten-story drop!"
"Do you think that woman behind us ever retrieved her phone?"
Hank snorted a laugh. "God, she screamed like a banshee about that damn phone, didn't she?"
"She had quite an impressive lung capacity." Connor smiled a little to see Hank laugh honestly at that. "I would have offered to retrieve it for her."
"Like hell I would've let you risk your neck climbing down a damn coaster-track for a fucking cell phone!"
Connor's smile turned smug. "I could've done it efficiently - but I couldn't leave you alone."
Hank's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"For the whole hour you gripped your seat so tight your hands were stiff the rest of the day."
With a smirk, Hank shoved Connor in the head. "You piece of shit," he laughed.
While they spoke, the blue glimmer in Connor's heart grew just a little brighter. It glittered and shone valiantly out of the fog of invading dark, like a faraway beacon in the mist - but if Kamski's instruments picked up the difference, it had gone unnoticed.
Kamski was very much distracted by something else.
"You'll want to hear this," Kamski announced, tossing his headphones on the table. He flicked a switch on the speakers, and he turned to stare back at Hank while a garbled noise crackled forth - like a roomful of people, whispering gibberish while sucking air.
...Sevil ruo deyortsed yeht sa meht yortsed dnats yeht erehw meht nrub...
Hank listened for a moment, but he shook his head. "What the fuck is that?"
"The monsters," Ralph hissed, clambering urgently to his feet. "It's backwards, they talking backwards, that's what the monsters sound like."
Hank listened again, and his jaw slackened. He had heard something like that before - in the woods, while running for his life from dark shapes with teeth and dead eyes.
"This is sound generated by the black blood," Kamski explained smoothly. "I had to search deep to find it. The voices are indeed speaking backwards - so far I've translated 'Burn them where they stand' and 'Destroy them as they destroyed our lives.'" He listened a moment longer, and took a sharp, sneering breath. "They're similar to the common cries of the anti-android radicals … and of the common purveyors of red ice -"
'The time has come,' the Walrus said…
Kamski - hearing the child's voice crackle softly through the noise - hissed an alarmed breath and whirled back to the console, where Carl was still adjusting the audio.
Carl set him with a steely, disapproving glare. "He deserves to know."
'To talk of many things:'
Hank straightened. He raised his head. "Turn it up."
'Of shoes-and ships-and sealing wax-'
Hank had gone very still. He'd forgotten to breathe. "... Cole?"
Kamski's cool stare locked on Hank's face.
'Of cabbages-and kings-'
Connor felt cold. He gripped the table, sucked in breath as quietly as he could, to avoid causing anyone alarm - but a terrible fear had gripped him.
The light in his heart had been swallowed by the powerful black.
'And why the sea is boiling hot-'
Carl wheeled closer, shoving himself toward Hank with a determined push. "This boy's spirit is growing stronger by the minute." He set his jaw, and he swallowed. "When that black blood has finished spreading," he couldn't find a gentler way to tell them that Connor's consciousness was being devoured, "that little boy - and RA9 - will take over."
'And whether pigs have wings.'
Hank had gone still. Silent.
Kamski shut off the recording.
"How long?" Connor's voice was firm. Mechanical.
A sneer flickered in Kamski's face - but he took a moment to compose himself. To draw in a breath. This would have been far easier had Hank remained ignorant of the child's presence. "A day," he informed Connor coldly. "Maybe two." He glanced up at Hank's pale, horrified face - but the lieutenant remained thankfully silent. Kamski hissed another breath. "We can download your memories, Connor. That part of you, at least, we can save. As for the rest, I suggest we overheat your systems. Start a fire. Burning, as history has proven, is -"
Hank's snarl was like venom. "Nobody's setting anyone on fire."
Kamski raised himself to his full height. He moved closer, each step a challenge, and glared up into Hank's face. "If we don't," he enunciated clearly, as if speaking to an unruly child, "we will all perish. Surely even you can understand that sacrifices must be made for the greater good. There is no other choice."
Alice's voice rang out: "There's always a choice!"
While Alice threatened Kamski with the sharp gleam of her sword, Connor yanked the wires out of his wrists. Ralph hurried to retrieve the discarded plastic pieces; together he and Connor snapped them back into place - made him whole again.
While Connor sat up - his skin shimmering, eyes steady - Kamski peered down at Alice with a quiet tolerance. "You're right," Kamski conceded, raising his brows honestly. He reached under the table - and, calm and deliberate, he pointed the gun at Alice's head. "There is one … other option."
"Elijah!" Carl roared.
"Put it down, Kamski!" Hank had his own weapon trained on Kamski's skull.
"The fate of the world comes down to the decisions in this room, gentlemen." Kamski's voice rang out, clear and cold. "I'm afraid I can't allow all of you to leave." He stared down the barrel of his gun at Alice's defiant glare. "Connor burns, or Alice … stays here with me."
Kamski noticed a shift in Alice's attention. He narrowed his eyes -
- and Chloe appeared behind him, her arm locked in a chokehold around his throat, dragging him back while he gagged and dug his heels in the floor.
"Go," Carl urged Hank, wheeling forward. "We'll take care of this."
Hank struggled a moment, looking between Carl and Chloe, whose eyes glimmered with tears while Kamski clawed at her arm. Hank lowered his gun. He grit his teeth. "Let's go!" he hollered, extending an urgent hand to Alice.
"Mister Carl!" Alice cried while Hank dragged her away.
Ralph gripped Connor's arm with both hands; Connor grabbed his shirt and stumbled after him for the door, glancing back to be sure Hank and Alice were close behind.
"You can do it, Alice," Carl called after her. "Do what you know is right!"
The white halls screamed red.
Ralph led the way, his cape billowing behind him. Connor's eyes narrowed, cool and determined; he sprinted past Ralph just as the walls roared with hidden machinery.
He reached the barrier just as it descended into their path, but Connor didn't slow down. He knew he could hack it in time. He had to.
Something green shot past him.
The floor beneath the barrier exploded and shattered. Thick, gnarled roots crashed up out of the ground like twisted snakes, while a tangle of thick vines trapped the metal barrier halfway in its descent. In only a moment their way had been opened by a small forest of struggling, writhing plantlife.
Connor skidded underneath and bolted on alone, knowing he'd have to hack the elevator before they would have any hope of escape.
Every second was precious.
He slammed his hand against the elevator panel, and his LED spun red while the walls around them howled and flashed.
Ralph arrived, spilling leaves behind him, his arms wrapped in vines. He spun back to see Hank sprinting around the corner, Alice held tight against his chest.
The elevator doors slid slowly open.
Ralph hopped and flung his arms urgently, as if he could force Hank to move faster into the elevator. He followed quickly, and grabbed the door. "Connor!" he shouted.
Connor breathed through his teeth until he was sure Kamski had been locked out of control of the elevator. He flung himself inside, Ralph let go, the doors skidded shut.
Everything was suddenly quiet.
The elevator rumbled and hummed around them.
The only other sound was their gasping breaths. Their beating hearts.
The floor indicator beeped. SB … B …
Alice twisted in Hank's grip. She reached out, touched Connor's shoulder.
Hank shifted her closer, until Connor reached out and accepted her into his arms. She latched onto him tightly. Silently.
Connor squeezed his arms around her. He closed his eyes.