Before long, Balot could feel, through her skin, all the results of her searches. She had her moment of
In her dream state, Balot felt all the cogs of the wheel slotting into place.
Tweedledum’s voice was distinctly under pressure now.
Balot slowly turned over to Tweedledum.
≡
Medium spoke not with his voice but through the transmitter implanted in his head. The electronic signal disappeared mournfully into space.
Medium checked how long he had now been inside this giant structure. Just over an hour. In that time he had managed to penetrate the security defenses with ease, in the process killing three guards with his two-hundred-thousand-dollar butter knife—that magnetized blade.
His knife made easy work of the three, and he cut them into pieces to store them in the lockers in the guardroom, not forgetting to first strip the uniform off the guard closest in size to him. Medium then donned the uniform himself.
After that, Medium had obtained all the information he could from the guardroom. The blueprints for the whole facility, including the plumbing and wiring. He downloaded what he could from the information circuits, copying it straight into his intracranial hardware, and took a few minutes to digest it fully.
When he had finished that operation, he covered his bald head—his glassy pate suggested more “inpatient” than “security guard”—with the regulation uniform cap, and left the room.
He had followed the patrol route carefully and had planned on contacting his new boss, the one that sent him here, but now he wasn’t able to get through. It seemed that the whole building was set up to block the transmission of most electromagnetic frequencies. He had noticed back in the guardroom that there was a particular wavelength that did seem to work, but even that was being shielded by something at the moment.
With his knife still gripped casually in his right hand, Medium continued down the corridor as if he were on a pleasant evening stroll. He passed a number of doors to either side of him, occasionally branching out into a spacious lobby or a terrace encased in glass, but there was almost nobody around. Even when he came across the occasional group of people, it was always old people attached to machines, or researchers huddled together in deep discussion. There was no sign of anyone who looked remotely like a young lady.
Eventually, the hardware in his head scored a hit. “Rune-Balot,” Medium murmured. His internal computer had managed to crack the flimsy password that protected the visitor records. He grinned. Both corners of his mouth swerved up to abnormal lengths. Behind his sunglasses his eyes glittered red, and Medium moved toward the area that the data entry pointed toward.
It wasn’t long before he arrived. There was a thick door in his way. Medium got out his Lockbuster Card and shoved it casually into the slot in the wall. He looked into the retina scan with his mechanized red eyes, which projected a fake iris for the scanner to recognize. Then he took from his pocket a human finger that he had removed from one of the security guards he’d killed and placed it onto the DNA scan, gripping tight. The fingers on his own left hand—blown off only the other day—had been replaced with electronic substitutes. His new metal fingers picked up the finger on the DNA scan and crushed it. Blood dripped out onto the machine, and the ID check was complete.
“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! I’m coming for you!” Medium was laughing now, a high-pitched squeal. The door opened with a heavy rumble.
He took a step into the room. “Oho!”
He scanned the insides of the room.
Against the backdrop of the verdant foliage, the bright sunlight, and the warm breeze, Medium danced about with his brutal knife held in one hand. It was almost as if he were waltzing. “Man, this is hardcore! They’re not kidding when they call this place Paradise! What a blast! What a great place to play with my little kitty-cat!”
He swayed from left to right, brandishing his knife every which way. Plants and flowers fell to the ground, burnt, scorched. Silver flashed all around, and his eyes glowed bright red.
Then, in an instant, his manic spree was over. Medium had seen someone. He crouched down and approached, circling around the trees so as not to be seen.
“Who are those guys?” he murmured to himself, exhaling through his nostrils.
