The Mechanic(bl)

Chapter 128 - End Game (4)

While half the world was in turmoil due to the battle between the AIs on two opposing sides, Zhang Xun sat in a small aircraft piloted by Adam, swiftly passing over islands and the cold sea.

Pan was also inside the aircraft, his turquoise eyes fixed on a point in the sky, monitoring the three AIs' attacks and the Bronze Women's movements.

While it was early morning here in their part of the world, it was midday in Europe, when traffic was at its busiest. Suddenly the transport systems of five major cities, including London and Rome, came to a standstill, leaving nearly half the city stranded and immobilised. Soon after there were widespread power cuts in the cities. People who normally relied on automatic or semi-automatic systems for everything they did were left scratching their heads, not even knowing how to open locked doors with a key. A certain unease and agitation stirred in the crowded streets as people poured out, questioning each other in confusion among the parked flying machines and cars.

The robot police quickly rushed to all the central control systems that had been invaded by the Bronze Women to try to restore the network, but encountered counterattacks from the extended AI controlled by Pan, Phoenix and Dawn Star. As explosions rang out from all over the city, riots began. People screamed, panicked and pushed against each other, not knowing where to run. Eden's robot soldiers soon arrived to try and maintain order, but the riots had already begun and it wasn't easy to calm it down.

Pan reported everything in a calm voice, each word signifying the collapse of order.

It was surprising that Pan and the others seemed to have gained the upper hand.

Zhang Xun frowned slightly and whispered, "Eden...... doesn't seem to be trying very hard."

Pan's eyes turned slightly and looked at Zhang Xun as if there was a hint of disbelief in his gaze.

Zhang Xun knew that this was unfair to the three AIs who were doing their best to resist Eden's comeback, but with what Zhang Xun knew about Eden, he still felt that Eden was holding back.

"We're almost there." Adam's eyes looked ahead into the darkest pre-dawn sky, "Ah-Xun, when we get there you rest first, I'll take the virus from Natalie and move out immediately. If everything goes according to plan, I should have the virus in one of Eden's main bio-computers in about five hours. So in six hours if you don't hear anything about Eden being paralysed or any contact from me, you are to leave with the others immediately and go to the Clausen family sanctuary in Greenland."

Zhang Xun's heart had a slightly constricted, tingling sensation, not terribly sharp, but prolonged. He knew it was his increasingly dulled senses telling him that he was upset, that he was afraid.

It was his dwindling self telling him that he didn't want to lose Adam.

If even Adam was gone, what was left to keep him in this world?

Would there be any point in holding on?

Zhang Xun didn't dare to think about it, nor did he want to think about the final possibility.

In the vast and barren tundra of Greenland, the bases of the Free Folk were scattered like white umbrellas of different sizes on the grey-red earth. All the buildings look a bit like Inuit Igloos (white, semi-circular igloos) and were clustered together in small and large villages, and towns of considerable size. The sun was just about to rise and the town was quiet, there were only a few silent figures standing near the tarmac dressed in heavy animal furs, the light of the rising sun shining on their solemn expressions.

These Free Folk included not only Inuit, Métis and Aboriginal people, but also many Canadian and even American citizens who had fled the big cities to live here. It was said that they were very strict about accepting outsiders and would not accept anyone if they were fugitives from the law who had committed vicious crimes such as murder and banditry.