Chapter 28

Apate 3

Gaige

The disassembled robot spread out in front of her, giving up its secrets. She'd been able to finish taking it apart after her conversation with Artemis, though she kept glancing around, wondering what was up with the other girl. She'd been out of contact for a while, something that worried Gaige, she couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong.

Had she run into some kind of resistance? Was she hurt? Unconscious? If not, why wasn't she checking in?

It occurred to Gaige that she was being paranoid. That if she was really that concerned, she could pick up her ECHO just as easily as the other girl, possibly easier depending on the situation, after all, she'd used the excuse that Artemis might need to use the vents, which hadn't been pointless conjecture on her part, it was a very real possibility, after all, the exterior door had been sealed, so there was reason to think that the interior ones might be as well.

She remembered her own trip through the vents and rubbed her chest, wincing at the memory.

Thinking about the other girl led her back down the rabbit-hole of their relationship. She knew she needed to figure it out, but for the life of her, she couldn't get anywhere, so she decided to move to a related topic, what her dad had advised her.

At the time, she'd been grateful to get some solid advice, but the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she was by the vague impossibility of it. How was she supposed to make Artemis feel accepted? She'd done everything she could to do that already, from watching movies that were more orientated towards her, to flat out telling her, but it didn't seem to be getting through.

But maybe that was the problem, she just kept telling her these things, she wasn't giving her time to think about what she wanted or accept that Gaige was there for her no matter what. Maybe she just needed to once and for all tell her what she thought and then back off, let it sink in and make up her own mind.

That would probably work, she realized, but there was just one problem, she didn't know what she wanted from Artemis.

Which made her deflate again. She'd been so sure that she'd finally found a solution, only to be hit with cold reality again.

'That's not true' She told herself 'I've got a path, I just need to figure out one more thing, then it'll work. It's like building a robot or a cybernetic, you figure out one part, then the next, you don't need to figure it all out at once.'

Smiling slightly, she felt a renewed sense of purpose, she was sure this would work, but to get there, she'd need to do some more self-searching, but for now, she needed to finish what was in front of her, if she failed at that, then there might not be an after.

So, she turned her full attention to the bot.

She'd managed to figure out what they were doing to them at the facility and it didn't bode well for them if there were any bots like this one lying in wait. Other than the EMP field generators and the explosives, it seemed that these ones had been the Holloway security forces. In fact, that was what the entire plant was dedicated to, making Holloway's private army.

She couldn't figure out why he hadn't sent it after her, she supposed it had to do with his ego, he'd wanted to finish her off with his own hands, he'd said as much, but it was stupid, if he killed her with his own hands or with a bot, she'd still be dead.

Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't sent mercenaries after her, though she supposed they might have had capture orders for her and kill orders for Deathtrap. That seemed to make sense, after all, she remembered a few of them snapping and saying they were going to kill her, which would've been a bit redundant if they were going to kill her anyway, though she had seen plenty of people snap and yell that they were going to kill someone halfway through a fight to the death, so she wasn't entirely sure.

But none of that mattered at the moment, what did was the bot in front of her.

She continued dismantling the bot, examining its capabilities and came to a realization. The reason that Holloway hadn't sent the bots after her was that she could've taken them out without breaking a sweat. Sure, they were good enough to use for defense against most invaders and they would've stopped or at least stalled even some trained soldiers, but against someone like her, they were slightly better than a test range dummy.

Artemis could've taken a hoard of them easily, and Gaige herself wouldn't have lost against them without seriously overwhelming numbers, the kind of numbers that would likely start an interplanetary incident, so the only way he could've used them against her would've been to lure her to a planet that he controlled, which now that she thought about it, she was kinda surprised he hadn't. It wasn't like she'd been super cautious about her clients. Sure, she'd done a background check on them and had made sure they weren't bounty hunters or anything like that, but if he'd had some of his employees go out and try, or better yet, some of their relieves, she likely wouldn't have caught it and just walked into the trap.

She supposed she should be grateful that he either hadn't thought of it, or had dismissed it for some reason.

Continuing her disappointing research, she realized that Holloway must have had someone on his staff that had tampered with her design further, since it was a bit better than his initial theft, but she supposed that should've been obvious, after all, he'd successfully sold them and the original design he'd gotten his hands on was woefully incomplete.

She stood back and looked around, she'd gleaned about all she could from the bot, the only thing she hadn't tried cracking was the A.I., mostly because that would require her to hook the chip up to a computer and there was no way she was letting that thing anywhere near her ECHO, which was the only computer that she had with.

It seemed that they had taken most of the hardware with them, leaving only the things that were too heavy to easily carry, which was what she hoped the explanation for the bots being left behind was, otherwise they were a trap meant to give her false information about her opponent, something that while she could see Holloway doing, also seemed a bit too crafty for him.

She hated to admit it, but other than faking his death, he hadn't really come up with anything all that original. Well, she had to admit that the surveillance capacity of his bots was actually fairly clever and must have netted him quite a bit of information, judging by the tech he'd displayed against her in their last fight.

That was what was bugging her, she realized. It wasn't that all of this seemed low tech, the bots and their lack of capabilities, it was that they just seemed low tech in comparison to the stuff he'd wielded against her previously. Other than the EMP tech, and possibly the bombs, nothing was all that good, it was all just recycled old stuff, which meant one of two things, either he was saving that stuff for the end of all of this, after he'd led her through his series of hoops, or he wasn't responsible after all, and this was all just the actions of some disgruntled employees.

She really didn't think it was the latter, something about this felt too personal, too familiar to just be someone else, though she supposed it could just be her wishful thinking. After all, wasn't it better to have some kind of nemesis than to be targeted by a bunch of people without any real skill? To have a villain to stand and curse you as they monologued, rather than just a bunch of average Joe's that you put out of work by arresting their boss?

Besides, even if it was the latter, something didn't make sense, this would've taken a lot of organization to pull off, something that a group of pissed of workers wouldn't do, not that it was impossible, she'd known plenty of workers that were better at this kind of thing then their bosses, but without someone to lead them, it wouldn't be possible.

On top of that, they'd already proven that Holloway had faked his death, so the only real solution was that he was planning something for the end of this, but what and why, she didn't know.

Well, that wasn't entirely accurate, she knew why he was after her, but the why she couldn't figure out was, why go to all this trouble to lead her to all of these bases, and then not do anything to her when she got there?

He could've had an army waiting, he could've lured her to a base and had the planet's authorities waiting for her, sending her to jail. She knew he wanted her to suffer, so that might be it, but she felt like she was missing some vital piece of the puzzle, something that would make everything clear and until she got it, she'd continue having to flail around in the dark.

Still, she supposed it didn't really matter. After all, she only had one real solution, and that was to continue plowing forward until she finally found the jerk again and slugged him in the face. After that, well, she'd have to decide then, cause she really wanted to kill him this time.

She supposed she'd have to see how it all shook out.

Stepping away from the table she gathered her tools and got ready to leave, if she had no reason to stay after figuring out all she could, then she should just get ready to meet Artemis wherever she could.

Shouldering her gun, she headed for the stairs and gave one last look around the room, when she spotted something. It had been hidden during her initial sweep, only having been uncovered while she'd been shifting things around to work on the bot.

She walked over and picked the ECHO recording up and debated saving it for later, to share with Artemis, but she told herself that she didn't want to waste her time, but mostly, she just didn't want to wait to find out what was on it, so she started to reach for her player, and that's when the alarms started blaring.

Deathtrap

If Deathtrap had learned one thing during his time on Apate 3, it was that he hated being invisible.

Not only couldn't you do anything for fear of giving away that you were there, it seemed that everyone else forgot about you as well.

It had started out fine, the girls had infiltrated the facilities without any trouble, but the longer they wandered around, the more Deathtrap started to feel that they were forgetting about him. It wasn't that he was lonely, it wasn't that he had anything much to contribute, but he missed being asked, he missed being able to put his impute into the conversation. He understood why he had to stay hidden, if he was there, the girl's disguises would be worthless and anyone watching the security footage would easily identify them for who they really were, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

But what he hated the most about it was how boring it was. It reminded him of the times when Gaige had an actual job and had left him behind while she'd gone to work, only this time he had to float around and wait while watching her to her job, which somehow was worse.

He'd started out by trying to keep his sensors open to try and pick up any sign of danger, but nothing had happened, at least not so far. And then the girls had done something foolish, they'd split up.

He understood why they'd done it, he'd even agreed with everything that had been said, he even understood that if they'd went together, he would've had to wait behind, out of fear of him screwing something up, like forcing a door to remain open too long or getting stuck waiting while they went through a vent, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

He knew that they worked better as a team, that they each had a set of skills and that there was undoubtedly going to be a time when Gaige would be needed, but they'd split up anyway. And he'd been stuck waiting while Gaige had taken apart a bot.

He'd tried to pay attention, to see if he could glean anything from it, but he was better at dismantling them then figuring out how they'd gone together, so he'd quickly lost interest.

Trying to figure out something to do while he waited, he went through his usual repertoire.

Trying to figure out what Holloway's trap was going to be this time.

He had no idea, but it would probably involve more bots.

Trying to figure out what Holloway's end goal was.

That was easy, killing Gaige, him and probably Artemis as well, but what his method of trying to accomplish that was, he didn't know.

How to help Gaige figure out what she wanted out of her relationship with Artemis.

That he had even less idea of then the other two. To begin with, he had no idea of what she wanted, so he couldn't help there, which left trying to help her figure out what she wanted, but again, he had no idea.

He tried to counsel himself by reminding himself that he wasn't programmed to be a therapist bot, but an anti-bullying one, though he'd turned into more of an all-around fighter and personal assistant over the years, he didn't let that bother him, instead, he lamented the fact that despite all the things he'd learned, he couldn't help those closest to him when they needed him the most.

So he was enormously grateful when Gaige finally stopped working on the bot and got ready to leave, but then she paused and walked over to something. When she stood up, he spotted that it was an ECHO recording, which she didn't even hesitate to reach for her player to listen too, despite no doubt knowing that Artemis would like to listen as well, though he supposed it might actually be more prudent for her to listen to it first, in case there were those EMP fields, since he was sure they would wipe out the data on the cartridge if it got hit, but before she could play it, then the alarm went off.

Artemis

The revelation that this was in fact Holloway's office had frozen her for a second, but the more she thought about it, the more sense it made, after all, why else would there be such needless opulence this far out in space, unless someone important, or more likely, who thought they were, was present.

The only thing she couldn't figure out was why?

Why was his office all the way out here?

It wasn't like it was easy to get to, nor was it convenient for setting up meetings. She'd been sure that the invite she'd got from him had been for another planet, she wanted to say it had been Eden 5, but she couldn't remember properly, only that she'd shot him down over the call.

Which meant this probably wasn't his main office, so what was it?

She felt like she might have a better idea if she could've seen what was on the rest of the floors, but since she hadn't, she had to speculate, which she didn't feel very confident about.

She gave up almost as soon as she started, things like that weren't her forte, not that she couldn't do it, but without all the information there wasn't much point. Even if she came up with something, she couldn't prove it right, so she started to reexamine the room, trying to find anything that might have been hidden.

She started by going to the paintings and checking behind them, but other than security sensors to prevent them from being stolen, there was nothing, so she went to the bookshelves. She didn't think that a person like Holloway was much of an avid reader, so the number of books seemed suspicious. She got that he was trying to give the illusion that he was a sophisticated person, but it just smacked of pretentiousness.

She checked the spines, looking for the telltale signs of wear on them that would indicate that they'd been pulled out more than the others and quickly identified a few of them, so she took them out one at a time, searching through them as she went.

Most of them were worthless, cheap novels hidden behind nondescript covers. Maybe they held some kind of sentimental value to him or he just liked them, but they were of no use to her. But three of them held things of interest, the first was a stack of money, the second was a small derringer, the last though, was the most interesting, a small remote with a few buttons on it.

Not knowing what it did, she pocketed it along with the money and went back to examining the room. By the time she'd gotten back to the desk, she realized the only thing left to do, besides wasting more time, was to get to work on it.

She started by checking the drawers and found them stocked with all kinds of useful things, such as pens and memo pads, but none of it helped her at the moment, so she pulled the drawers all the way out and set them against the wall, checking each one over to make sure they didn't have a false bottom or there wasn't anything hidden behind them.

She wound up finding another packet of cash and two more guns, but nothing interesting until she got to the top drawer on the left side. After completely removing the drawer and checking the cavity where it had been, she found an electronic set up.

After searching around a bit, she pulled the entire thing out and set it on the desk. While she was no expert, she recognized it as a small audio recording device, which made her wonder, what had Holloway been doing? Was he recording conversations with his employees? Or was he taking other meetings there? And more importantly, where were the recordings now?

She finished checking the drawers, but found nothing, so she looked around the office again, but couldn't figure out where he'd stashed them, so she figured that either he'd taken them with or they were hidden in another room and since neither of them was immediately helpful, she put it out of her mind and went back to work.

Before turning her attention to the computer, she pushed the chair back, marveling at how easily it rolled despite the cushiness of the carpet and checked the floor for any secret compartments.

Like she figured, she didn't find any. She'd guessed that based on how the carpet felt, any cuts in it would be easily noticeable, not to mention that unless a large area was able to move, the chair would get caught in it every time it moved.

Still, as long as she was down there, she crawled under the desk and once she was sure that she was out of surveillance, popped her Digi-blade and cut a foot square of the carpet loose. She tucked it into her bag, promising herself that once this was all over, she'd look into finding out how to get her hands on some of it for her bedroom.

Having run out of things to delay and distract herself with, she pulled the chair forward and got to work on the computer. It didn't take long to boot up and she found herself faced with a password prompt.

Cursing, she nearly reached for her ECHO to call Gaige, but stopped herself. Gaige was trusting her to get the job done, so she should at least try, so she flexed her fingers over the keyboard and thought for a moment. She hadn't found any pieces of paper stuck in the desk that had the password on them, so she'd have to do this the hard way.

Her first attempt was MARCIE, but like she expected, she only got an incorrect password notification. So, she tried MARCIEWASTHEGREATEST but that was rejected as well.

Sitting back, she tried to think of what Holloway himself had said in their brief exchange, mostly it had been self-congratulatory drivel or hateful bile thrown at Gaige, so she tried one of his favorite phrases and typed CHILDKILLERGAIGEMUSTDIE but then stopped, finger hovering over the enter key. He'd never called her that, she realized. Not once did he call her by her name, so she deleted it all, instead opting for DEATHTOTHECHILDKILLER, which to her surprise worked.

The computer finished loading up as she shook her head, of all the petty, simple minded passwords he could've thought of, he'd went with that? She didn't know whether to feel pity for him, or his tech people. Still, she was grateful to him, after all, it hadn't taken her long to get in. Well, it was either that, or someone was watching and let her in, but since that worried her, she decided to go with the first.

Once the computer had finished loading, she found herself faced with a new problem, she had no idea what she was looking for or where to find it.

Deciding to try poking around, she clicked open the first thing she saw, only to find a disgusting amount of files dedicated to the short life of Marcie Holloway. There were pictures and videos, recordings of all the major events of her life, from her birth certificate to her report cards, every major event was neatly organized in the folder. There was even a large sub-folder dedicated to Gaige, simply labeled 'The Child Murdering Bitch'.

As tempted as she was to go poking around within, she knew she had to work fast, lest she spend the rest of the day there. Still, she felt it was worth a shot so she opened the folder and scanned for the newest document, which turned out to be one a month before he'd confronted her on Feno Phena. Inside were a number of various plans and methods of attack, varying by location and troop strength, both his and hers.

Artemis was honestly impressed with the amount of work that had gone into the plan and wondered what would've happened to him had he directed that energy into something more productive, but she supposed that she knew the answer, after all, Holloway Robotics had taken the galaxies by storm the last few years, growing from a small local supplier to the single largest robotics manufacturer in the six galaxies in just under eight years, which was no small feat.

Still, there was nothing there that helped her, so she did a quick scroll up to make sure there weren't any documents with names that seemed like they'd help and upon finding none, closed the folder.

She debated what to do next, she could search through the rest of the documents on the drive or she could try and find his messages. Since the last clue had been in the recent messages, she reluctantly decided to try there first. As much as she would've liked to see what else she could find on the hard drive, she didn't know what she was looking at, so it wouldn't have done her much good.

It took a bit of digging to find the messaging system, but it turned out to be one of the icons on the bottom of the screen, serving as a painful reminder of how little she used tech.

Once she was in, it didn't take long for her to find the newest message, which was dated the same as the last one they'd found.

Clicking it open she was slightly disappointed to see the brief message it contained.

Initiate emergency override Protocol: Marcie 18.

Prepare for arrival of available units

Re-outfit to specification S23-A

Processed units proceed to Dolus

Authorization code: H37M51962

Activation condition: Read

Approval: Holloway 1

She reread the message, committing it to memory as she reached for her ECHO when everything went wrong.