The Girl Who Dared to Think 7: The Girl Who Dared to Fight

And even if she did, her mental instability might be intense or confusing enough that Scipio allowed her to overwhelm him and get Jasper free.

And if I could just download them both back into the hard drives, I’d have a chance of getting them away from Sage. It was clear he wanted them. He had mentioned needing the fragments to replace Scipio, and I could only assume the program he was going to use was Kurt himself. Kurt was one of the larger fragments, but he wasn’t a full AI. However, centuries of being inside of Sage’s head had undoubtedly caused him to grow and change, much like Leo had changed Grey, and how Grey was changing Leo.

Which meant that if Sage managed to replace Scipio, we were going to be dealing with some sort of deranged version of him in the Core. Not good.

Especially since it seemed clear that whatever had dropped on the roof was here for Sage. If he escaped with the fragments and managed to delete Scipio from the Core, he could easily change the Tower as we knew it—and we’d be unable to stop him, without going through and digging out the fragments all over again. I doubted they could survive the process a second time.

I had to figure out a way to kill him, here and now, before his backup came in.

Luckily, I didn’t feel alone anymore. With Rose downloading, I had hope that at the very least, she would cause a distraction that would allow me to take cover and shoot Sage.

Not to mention, the sparks at the door could only be the result of a singular force of nature who just happened to be on my side—because only Dylan Chase would be courageous enough to cut through the door of the Council Room when it had been sealed shut.

But until she got in, or Rose made her move, I had to keep him talking.





2





I glanced quickly between Sage and Scipio, but neither of them had noticed me plugging Rose in. Taking a step back, I cleared my throat and smiled just as Sage looked at me, his rheumy eyes blinking in surprise.

“So, it seems we’ve got a bit of a race going on,” I said lightly. “My Knights cutting through the door, yours the roof. Who is it, anyway? I was fairly confident I got all of your people.”

His eyes widened, and then he gave a barking laugh that had him clutching his ribs with one hand. It went on for just long enough to be obnoxious, and I pressed my lips together to keep from snapping out an angry, “What’s the joke?” I knew he was baiting me, and I was damned if I was going to rise to it. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and affected a bored look.

Oh, I was scared. Scared enough that I had to pee a little. With Scipio obeying Sage’s every command, mysterious noises coming from above, and Dylan a long way from cutting a hole large enough for me to escape through, I didn’t have a lot of options at the moment. I was trapped in a race—one between his people and mine, and one between him and me. At any second he could choose to end the conversation and shoot me dead. And at the moment, I was defenseless against him.

I needed to get to my gun, and I kept hoping I would be able to as soon as Rose made her move, but so far, the fragment hadn’t made a peep.

His laughter gave over to coughs—heavy, wet ones—which were punctuated by wheezing breaths that almost had me reaching for the pocket on my thigh, so I could unzip it and have access to the gun.

Almost.

Except he kept his eyes on me the entire time, and the gun remained pointed at me, in spite of his shaking, reminding me that he wasn’t as helpless as he seemed. The sparks continued to spill across the floor as Dylan doggedly cut her way through, and my eyes struggled to remain on Sage instead of glancing at the terminal to see what Rose’s progress was. I needed Rose to download so she could help me. All I needed was a distraction, something that I could use to get my gun or get to cover, whichever seemed prudent should the time come. My stomach twisted into knots as I wondered if I was even going to get out of here alive.

Sage caught his breath eventually, and straightened, a jovial smile wrinkling the lines of his face. I’d once thought he had kind eyes, but now, staring at the bright blue flames of them, I could only see madness within. “My dear, I will be long gone and you will be very dead before Ms. Chase cuts through that hole. In fact, I think a lot of things are going to go wrong for her in the next few minutes. Now, would you be so kind as to do me a favor? I require the hard drive on Engineer Green’s desk. Fetch it for me.”

I swallowed as he added a little wave with the gun, and then exhaled a deep breath and began walking toward the steps to Lacey’s desk. He’d shot her twice, but not in the head like Strum. If she was alive, maybe I could give her the gun, and when Rose finally made her move to help, Lacey could take out Sage.

Provided she wasn’t too seriously injured.

The wooden steps creaked under my weight as I placed my boots on them, and I asked, “So that’s all you needed to make your plan work, huh? Tony?” As I spoke, I slowly unzipped the pocket with my gun in it, pulling it out of the slot.

“Actually, no,” Sage said gleefully. “I later learned that destroying the backup version had severely damaged my plans to replace Scipio with Kurt. You see, each fragment was coded with a specific protocol for the integration process, a sequence of commands that instructed them on how to form the connections. What I didn’t realize was that the backup version of Scipio was the only one programed with the initiation codes. Lionel programmed the one in the Core to delete them once his upload was complete, so that was a wash. I had thought them lost forever, which was why I was working with Devon. You see, one of his ancestors had been on the original programming team with Lionel Scipio and had figured out how to replicate them. He was working on it before you so rudely ended his life. But as I said, you do have a gift for attracting extraordinary things, and to my surprise, you unearthed the backup.”

I exhaled as I rounded the switchback, fear coursing through me as I realized that Sage was going to be gunning for Leo—which meant he’d also be gunning for Grey. “Leo will never help you.”

“My dear, when Kurt and I are done with him, he’ll be no more effective than a toaster. We’ve grown quite adept at tearing apart AIs over the years, and while Jasper and Rose aren’t our greatest successes, they will be put in their place soon enough, just like you and your little friends will be.” He paused for several seconds, and then added, “And you only have yourself to blame, really. Your audacity in trying to expose all of this has sealed your fate. I mean, what did you really think would happen here?”

I blew out a deep breath and shrugged. “I figured if I could prove to Scipio and you what Sadie and her family had done, you would agree and arrest Sadie and Plancett. Then we would’ve selected new members of the council, explained the situation, and began working on a plan to restore the fragments to Scipio, to try to repair him.”

“And it would’ve worked, had I not been who I am.”

I stopped on the last step and turned to look at him, my hand tightening around the pommel of my gun. “How did we miss you?”