Page 40 of Operation Iron Heart

“I thought I’d lost you,” she gasped, trying to keep up with him.

“I’m not that easy to reprogram,” he assured her, pushing her forwards. “Cathrin built in some additional safeguards to act as a back-up in case of emergency. And to make any fundamental changes to my brain, you have to access the hardware, and I know how to prevent that.”

Upon hearing this, Marci gave a sigh of relief and didn’t ask where he was taking her; she just followed him. Jack looked like he had a plan.

As the alarms started to wail as if World War 4 had broken out, he pointed the rifles upwards and used a green laser beam to cut a clean hole in the ceiling, revealing what looked like a crawl space. He didn’t hesitate, lifting Marci easily into the yawning blackness.

Numerous cables ran along a maintenance shaft up there that was big enough for the two of them to run through, albeit with their heads bent. Jack handed her the laser rifles and sprang like a big cat to join her in the shaft.

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her along poorly lit shafts that had endless branches leading off them.

“Where are you going?” she asked, wondering where they were going to end up. “I haven’t the slightest idea where we are.”

“You don’t need to know,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it all under control.”

“What are you looking for, then?” she asked, out of breath.

“I’m heading for the hybrid production labs. There are thousands of inactivated hybrid soldiers there waiting to be sent off to war. Cathrin programmed me with the code to recover their human consciousness before we left the base. If we can get these boys on our side, MacIntyre is done for.”

“So you knew that MacIntyre was a robot?” she asked in disbelief.

“I didn’t know for sure, but we suspected. Initially, there were just a few things that happened that seemed odd and Cathrin expressed a suspicion, but when all the stuff with the hybrid soldiers started happening, and then the escort robots, we knew something wasn’t right. It doesn’t surprise me that his robotic clone had an idea like that. He’s clearly intending to create his own little robot empire, something Cathrin always warned might happen.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” she complained, out of breath.

“Because it would just have upset you,” he said, urging her to keep moving.

She was gasping for breath now but persisted with her questions. “How could MacIntyre’s copy get this far without anyone in power noticing?”

“Because the politicians of this world are naïve idiots. They think they have the authority to lord it over robots just like they do over people and forget that at some point, machines will become their intellectual superiors, particularly if they develop a life of their own one day.”

“And robots have different characters, too, like with you and MacIntyre.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “It’s only a matter of time before a ‘good against evil’ robot war breaks out. Robots like MacIntyre essentially don’t possess the emotional programs that enable feelings like love, honour and conscience. MacIntyre wants to rule the world and to do that he needs robots that are awakened enough that he can manipulate them, but not so much that they will disagree with him or rise up against him.”

“That means, if he’s not stopped, he’d then fight against rebellious robots?” It was now Marci’s fear that made her gasp for breath, her throat tightening suddenly.

“Yes, he would,” replied Jack bitterly. “That’s why we and Cathrin are not just fighting for or against robots, but for peace.”

“How long has it been going on? I mean, did Rochelle even realise that her ex wasn’t the real MacIntyre?”

“No, almost certainly not. It was the real Monty who got divorced from Rochelle, otherwise he would never have given her CRU and the code. But it’s not too late. We’re here to stop that kind of thing from happening.”

Marci felt a sudden burst of pride in her chest at being part of something really big. And when she thought about it, Jack was a saviour of the whole world – someone who could open everyone’s eyes. It was his task to save not just humanity but the awakened robots, too, who yearned for nothing more than an equal life. If he gets the chance, she thought anxiously.

Since they’d started running, MacIntyre and his henchmen had mobilised everything that could move, including tiny bird-like drones fitted with spy cameras and laser weapons, part of the company’s military portfolio.

Fortunately, Jack had re-established his link with Silver, who was able to see where everyone was, but it seemed that MacIntyre could do the same, as he pursued them mercilessly through a labyrinth of endless maintenance shafts.

Jack had pressed one of the laser rifles into Marci’s hand; she’d already shown that she was a damn good shot, and when a mini-drone suddenly appeared in front of them, she instinctively shot it down before Jack could respond. Together, they forced their way along the shafts until he signalled to her that they were now above the hybrid soldiers’ production lab.

Marci was scared of going into the lab with him, not because she didn’t trust his abilities but because she didn’t want to be faced with men who’d suffered the same horrendous fate as Will. The thought of him undergoing the agonising torture of being turned into a robot in this place without his consent was just too painful.

“You have to follow me,” Jack ordered. “We don’t have a choice. If you stay here, MacIntyre’s people could catch you and I can’t let that happen!”

Marci swallowed her fear and, summoning her trust in Jack, grabbed his hand as he led her down a dark shaft that dropped out into another hangar. Before she could land on the hard concrete, Jack caught her neatly and set her back on her feet, the weapon still in her hand. Glancing around, she saw that they’d arrived exactly where Jack had intended. They were surrounded by thousands of tanks filled with finished hybrid soldiers, held in a kind of suspended sleep and connected to respiratory machines, waiting for deployment. Marci couldn’t see any difference between these men and real robots, apart from the fact that the suffering they had undergone was still indelibly etched on their faces, even in sleep.

“We need to hurry,” hissed Jack. “MacIntyre’s watchdogs will be here any minute.”