531
Rusty

Wu DaQi had never felt more helpless in his life. The news played on the large screen across from him, but his head was full of live video feeds as he watched the chaos that took the lower levels of the city.

His heart was breaking for Yi.

More than anything, he wanted to pull Yi into his arms and keep him from the mayhem outside their safe house. It wasn’t who they were though. Hiding from the world and the horrors outside wouldn’t make anything better. They had to face it and see where this new horror would lead.

Yi hadn’t moved in hours, not since martial law had been declared. Yi stood silently staring out into the city, resting his head against the window. DaQi saw Yi’s back straighten at the same time the news across from him flashed to alert them to an urgent report.

“We have just received breaking news. The police have released a statement concerning the case of possible AI let loose on our city streets. A doctor has been taken into custody by agents of Mann Enterprises. There is no indication of what chargers Dr. Atieno Obuo might face, but the doctor was a part of Mariner Tech’s science division before she was fired for selling corporate information to Safe-E Tech.”

The screen turned off the reporter and showed an image of Obuo being led into Mariner Tech’s corporate office.

“As you can see, the doctor is now in custody. Police will soon know what hand she had in the development of sentient artificial intelligence and what she knows about the current location of these two dangerous robots.”

DaQi muted the screen as it moved on to images of the Piles again.

“I thought she’d made it out safely,” Yi said. He walked away from the window and took a seat on the couch across from the screen. “She had connections to stay alive that long. I hoped they’d see her outside of this mess.”

“You know what this is.” DaQi needed him thinking clearly tonight, but it was obvious he was worried about his friends.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t change anything, does it?”

Wu DaQi ran a hand through his hair. “No. Even if it is a trap, we need to get her out of there. She did too much for us over the years.”

“They won’t hurt her.”

“We don’t know that for certain though.”

Yi nodded. “And that’s exactly why we have to get to her. They won’t keep her at the corporate offices. They made too much of a show of bringing her in there. They’re using the crowd to help keep an eye on us and any escape we might try to make.”

“We don’t know who she’s connected to, but it’s high enough they’ve kept her alive this long. They’re using her arrest to bait us, and they’ll move her someplace safe.”

“So, we just need to figure out where that someplace safe is. So how do we do that? She gave me an earpiece that would reach her, but even if she managed to keep them from replaceing it, she’d have made it untraceable.” Yi said.

DaQi thought about Mariner and the information he’d learned over the years. About what he knew from the last seven years working in various positions around Mann Enterprises and Mariner itself. “The stolen tech,” he realized. “They knew where it was, but Salin kept putting us on the detail because he was trying to get you to come back for me. I don’t think he knew what was going on. Which means he probably didn’t pass along the fact that we were tagging the stolen merchandise. Before they let the Piles burn they would have retrieved it and taken it someplace safe.”

“Follow the tech and you think they’ll have her there too?”

“They aren’t going to worry about securing too many of their locations against the raids and riots. The ones they do are important.”

“So, we just need to replace the merchandise you tagged, tap into the properties owned by Mariner Tech, and see which ones they’re securing.”

“And then we go get Obuo.”

“Oh good.” Chan Yi smiled for the first time since they’d come home. “It’s been almost a week since I last broke into a Mariner Tech building. I was afraid my skills might get rusty.”