Frank's initial plan seemed fair and realistic. There was still that nagging fear in the back of my head as we sat in my apartment, waiting for time to fall into night. Frank thought it was best; it took twenty-four hours for everything to go into effect, which meant the preparation for disposal wouldn't happen within the first ten hours.
I just couldn't shake the feeling.
Victoria prepared and served coffee for both of us, but I stared at the steaming cups. "I think I need something stronger, Vicky." I passed my hand over my face.
She blinked at me but insisted on pushing the cups closer. Frank took his without complaining. "I think a little caffeine is in order," she said. "Alcohol, as I'm assuming that's what you're asking for, will only lower and hinder your judgment in this case. We need you to be at your best to get this done."
She was right. That didn't fix how I felt. Inhaling sharply, I pressed my hands on either side of the cup and looked into her emerald eyes. The amount of anxiety pushing through me made it feel like the kitchen's island would give way. "Yeah," I said, my voice slightly trembling, "but the buzz will push away doubts. I can't be doubting now, right?"
Her brows pinched together. "Elijah..."
Frank bumped my shoulder. "Just drink the coffee, we'll be fine," he said.
I looked at him. The calm demeanor and certainty—the Frank I met on day one was back again. Perfect, because we needed that guy. Not me; I wasn't the person to set the mood for this kind of plan. I could only see myself slipping up.
That was why I wanted a drink.
Knowing I wouldn't get one, I reached for the cup, brought it to my mouth, and sipped. The scent plus the heat was refreshing. "Okay." I licked my lips and put the cup back where I got it. "Could you run the plan back to me again?"
Frank continued drinking his coffee as he glanced at me. Then he pulled the cup away and sighed. "Won't know exactly how we'll do it until we get to the disposal floor, but the idea is easy. We just need the androids to move and find enough parts that it looks like they've been destroyed once everything starts."
I took another sip from my cup and turned. Reggie stood by the TV. He'd been glued to the tablet since Victoria gave it to him. The look of curiosity on his face was nice to see; especially at a time like this. I wanted the androids who Katherine deemed unworthy to have that chance, to be free and curious.
With the cup to my mouth, I shot Frank a side glance. "Where are we going to put them?"
Frank dipped his head back, his eyes facing the ceiling. "Again, something else we'll need to figure out once we get down there." He placed his cup back on the island. "Why do you keep asking? You don't trust me?"
"No offense," I put my cup down, too, "yesterday I put my faith into someone with my plans and now I'm correcting it." I chewed on the insides of my cheeks. "What was supposed to be easy, now's a mess."
Frank's brows shot up. "You mean Logan, right? Katherine didn't mention it, but—"
"Katherine thinks I did all of this alone." I locked eyes with his.
"She knows everything." Frank looked down at his cup and turned it before Victoria took it from him. She grabbed my cup, too.
Rude. I wasn't done. "I know she does." Dropping down into one of the stools, I faced him. "She made it clear that she sees everything in this building. So, whether she knows about Logan or not, it'll be a mystery to me. But us moving inside of her walls has me anxious."
As he closed his eyes, Frank pinched his nose. "I wouldn't have trusted him with something like this," he hissed.
Heavy footsteps approached us. We both turned to look and see as Reggie pushed off the wall, crossing the gap between us. His eyes danced between Frank and me. Then he smiled.
"I think I can help you both with this," he said.
I straightened, shifting in my seat to better look at him. My hands relaxed on my legs while I twiddled my thumbs. Frank, tugging at his shirt, took the stool seat beside mine and looked at Reggie the same.
"How can you do that?" he asked.
"Yeah," I waved a hand, coaxing him to explain, "share the details."
"Well, I am a 700 series," he said, "and I was created inside of this building."
Two things I already knew. I thought he'd come out with something different. Amazing. Hands waved around in my mind as if I expected pizzazz. Instead, I got the obvious. I chewed on the corner of my bottom lip. "Okay?"
I fished. I needed him to tell me more.
Reggie glanced down at the tablet in his hands before passing his index finger over the screen three times. Then he passed the device to me. I took it but held my breath. The screen wasn't what I had normally seen on this tablet. Rather than application icons and internet photos, there was a video photo and a map; a detailed blueprint of what I assumed with the building we were in.
I turned wide eyes in Reggie's direction. "How did you—is this what I think it is?"
Smiling, he loosely crossed his arms and smiled. "If you're asking if what you're seeing is Lyons headquarters, then the answer is yes."
Frank gasped, snatching the tablet from me. He stared at the screen before flipping it over, as if there was something underneath it. "How? How?"
My thoughts exactly, Frank. Taking the tablet back from his hands, I pinched my fingers across the screen and zoomed in on the twenty-seventh floor. On my floor. My apartment. There were two blue dots and two yellow dots. I could easily figure out who was who.
Blue is organic. Yellow is synthetic.
"As I've said, I was created in this very building. Meaning, my data is more ingrained with the security systems here. I should be able to go in and easily dismantle any cameras for a while, allowing you both a safe passage to the lower floors."
Pressing my finger against the side of the tablet, I blackened the screen. "How much time could you buy us?"
Reggie shook his head. "I don't know, I've never done this before." His gaze lifted, watching as Victoria moved around from the kitchen to stand at his side. He smiled at her. "But won't know unless we try," he said.
I blinked at both of them. He had been spending time with her, seeing the world through her eyes. Like this, it would be great. Placing the tablet behind me, I stood. "If you have this kind of access and you can share it, would it be between the both of you?" I pointed at them.
Victoria nodded. "If he wants, anything he sees, I can see."
"Okay," I rubbed my chin, "Reggie, are you able to shut off the camera in each of the stairways?"
"Stairways?" Frank stood beside me.
"Yeah," I glanced at him, "wouldn't it be safer than Katherine's controlled elevators? She'd know it'd be you controlling them, wouldn't she?"
He hissed and lowered his head. Passing his hand over his neck, he blew out a puff of air. "You're right," he agreed.
"Right." I looked back at Reggie. "So, can you? Just need to shut them off long enough for us to get the lower levels. Then, maybe you can control the cameras inside the floor, too? So no one knows we're inside."
"I've got one better for you." Reggie clapped his hand together before standing close to Frank and me. He placed his hands on both of our shoulders. "I can control them and allow the previous thirty minutes of camera feed to replay. This way, no one knows what's happening or would be aware the cameras are off, either."
"Thirty minutes?" I quickly looked at Frank. "Would that be enough time?"
He lifted his brows. "We won't know—"
I shook my head. "Okay, right, we won't know until we get there. So, I guess we have to make the best of it." Looking back at Reggie, I rubbed my lips together. "When could you start?"
"When do you need me?" he asked.
I looked at Frank. "When do we start?"
It all felt rushed. The look on Frank's face didn't help, either. We'd gone from simply deciding what needed to happen and I endlessly asked unsure questions, to us needing to leave and move now. Honestly, with Reggie in the mix, I didn't see how horrible this could go wrong. He could be our best bet to do this and get back to my apartment without getting caught.
Frank, pulling his phone out of his back pocket, glanced at the time glowing on the screen. "Now's as good a time as any," he said, then looked at me. "Guess that coffee helped, huh?"
"Not coffee." I patted his shoulder before turning toward my room for my shoes. "Just the adrenaline of knowing we could get out of this alive."
Then I looked at Reggie, nodding my head. "Let's start that clock."
"Understood," he said, and for a moment, white passed over his eyes. My breath hitched in my chest as I watched his head dip to the side, as numbers and letters passed over where the color of his irises would be. When his normal gaze returned, Victoria passed a hand over his shoulder and smiled at him. He returned the expression before looking at me, subtly nodding toward the door. "The timer has started. You have thirty minutes."
***
The elevator ride down was quicker than I expected. Next step was down the stairs on our left. I had faith in Reggie and knew Victoria would be watching the feed, but that didn't stop anxiety and fear from gripping my chest. I couldn't let it suffocate me; I had to keep breathing. I was skipping steps to keep up with time.
"4B, 4B." Frank's hand passed over the railing as he hurried, jumping down three steps and swooping around the corner. "We're almost there."
The lower we got, the darker it seemed. Or was it that the walls felt like they were closing in?
Don't do this. Breathe, Elijah. Breathe.
Frank pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Okay, we're making good time," he said as he looked back up at me. "We've got twenty minutes."
"Right." Twenty minutes to fake the death of fifty androids. What could go wrong?
Frank hopped off the last step and rolled his head around his shoulders. His gaze followed the glowing sign guiding our way before his hand fell on the doorknob. I held my breath, waiting for him to open it. He waited for a second, head falling forward as he took in a deep breath. He was either bracing himself or preparing, which I couldn't blame him for. I was doing the same.
Once he turned the knob and pulled open the door, I expected the light to fill the stairway. Instead, the opposite happened. I'd never seen darkness swallow shadows; that only happened in my nightmares. Slowly, the breath I'd been holding left me. My eyes followed the line of black as it split the dimness. I made my way off of the stairs and stood beside Frank, staring inside the massive floor.
It was pitch black. It felt empty, but I knew that wasn't the case.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I grabbed Frank's phone out of his pocket and pressed the flashlight, holding it over my head.
"Hey," Frank hissed.
My eyes widened as I caught a glimpse of what was inside the dark disposal floor. "Frank," I whispered, side-eyeing him, "this isn't a trash heap. This is a graveyard."
The shine from Frank's phone light shone on a floor covered in android parts. Varying in stages of rust and deterioration, I spotted the joints, wires, and fried connective tissues from all types of androids. Dried patches of blue fluid spattered on them like a nightmarish painting. But I saw no art here.
Just death. Androids at disparate stages of their creation—heads, fingers, legs, empty chest cavities. I covered my mouth as if there was a foul smell, but the only scent that lingered was rubber. Maybe metal, it had to be.
Turning my head, I looked back at Frank as I stepped inside. An android hand crunched under my foot and I hissed, recoiling. "Frank, I don't know how we're going to do this."
"We have to." Frank stepped inside, kicking away a leg that had gotten in his way. With his hands on his hips, he sighed, then his gaze followed the light from his phone. "We're here, we're in, there's no going back now."
He had a point; we were on a mission. We only needed to find the point we needed to get to. "You're right." I tossed Frank his phone to give him his light back, then I reached into my back pocket for mine. The disposal floor was too dark otherwise.
I pressed the button on my phone as I shone the light over my head so I could see several feet in front of me. The number of pieces, so clustered together, made me sick.
The last time I'd seen so many android parts was three years ago when I broke into an android scrap yard. A client of mine, Ralph, had an old 200 series that refused to function, and whenever a model older than a 500 series fails to execute its original commands, an order was placed to have the android destroyed. Ralph refused the order; submitted a request to have the android fixed instead. Sentimental value, he'd said. But when that request was declined, he called me—Elijah Garret, the savior of all poor androids.
His 200 series wouldn't work anymore, so I found a junkyard for scraps. I broke in late at night, and snuck through security grids, just to find pieces I believed the android would need. This place reminded me of that garbage dump. And then, like now, I felt sick.
But again, this is for the greater good.
Frank cleared his throat as he took three long strides forward, then cupped one hand over his mouth. "Hello! Anyone!"
My brows pinched together. I would've thrown my phone at him if I didn't need the light. "Hey!" I hissed. "What's the matter with you? Someone can hear us!"
"Yeah." Frank looked at me with wide eyes as if he'd done nothing wrong. "The androids. I need them to know we're looking for them."
"And what about other androids?" I looked around at the scraps of dismembered pieces. "What if they hear you?"
"They're not functioning anymore, Elijah." Frank kicked a metal skull partially covered by synthetic flesh. It bounced on its neighboring parts before settling on a pile, facing me. One empty hollow gazed at me while its other eye blinked due to contact. I inched back, baring my teeth in disgust.
"That doesn't mean anything," I whispered.
Taking a few steps to the right, I reached for an arm and lifted it, observing the dents in its metal frame. "Frank, I've got a question," I called out.
"Shoot," he said.
My nail grazed over scratches in the metal shell before I dropped the arm back on the floor. "Exactly how are the androids disposed of?" I continued in my direction but glanced back at Frank to see what he'd say. "I see every part imaginable, but they're all in different conditions. Some intact, and some," my foot landed on the smallest parts yet; I couldn't figure out what they were, "are destroyed."
"They're smashed," Frank said it so easily, I had to stop moving.
My gaze focused on him as my brows lifted. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Smashed," he repeated. He then pointed his phone up toward the ceiling, shining his light upon the metal overhead. My gaze followed the path, noting the odd ridges protruding from the ceiling wall. They looked like teeth.
"When the other is placed, the ceiling," he wiggled his phone as if it intensify the moment, "will come down and press whatever is in here. Sometimes there are too many parts or android bodies, and not everything gets destroyed. So they stay here, cushioning the next blow."
I shivered. That was barbaric. A floor within Lyons was specially designed to destroy whatever was within it; an android press, like a sandwich maker.
Gulping, I turned my phone back into the darkness. "Hey!" I took a page out of Frank's book and called out. "Androids? A? A, are you here?"
Logan's android had to have been sent down for deconstruction. And if they were still functioning, this meant they could possibly hear me. I hope they'd react in time because the clock was ticking.
Frank copied me, calling out the same words. "A, are you here!" he shouted.
When I lifted my foot to take another step, I found that it was heavier than before. I didn't look down at my show. Instead, I kept trying to lift. I grunted, I tugged, and I pulled; everything but look down at my feet.
"Elijah! Hey!" Frank shouted.
My gaze quickly snapped in Frank's direction.
He waved his hand over his head. "Hey, be careful!"
That was my cue, right? Holding my breath, I looked down at my foot. What I didn't want to happen... happened. An android with much of its torso, arm, and head attached, hooked onto my calf. The light in its eyes blinked like a flickering candle as it looked up at me. Its mouth opened with no sound.
The android bases don't have voices yet.
"Oh, fuck," I breathed, trying to tug my leg away. The android's grip tightened. I hissed, biting my lip. "Okay, hold on, listen—" I tried to reason with it. "—I don't know why you're down here, but I need you to let me go."
No response. Not that I was expecting a voice, but I hoped it would listen and just let go. It didn't. I tugged my leg back again.
"Okay, I'm coming!" Frank tried his hardest to run through the scrap metal. I hadn't realized we had gotten so separate from one another. It felt like a second ago we were walking side by side. Yet, now, I watched as he grew in the distance.
"Just hold on, and—wait! Get away!" Frank's arms were waving frantically. He pointed but at what. I looked back at the android at my feet, then at the scraps beside it. Everything was strange, but not enough to get away.
"Behind you!" he shouted. "Look out!
My blood ran cold.