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

“Now? Quite a few things, actually. Scipio, activate your control programs in Citadel Central Command, and shut down all power except in the cells. Then locate Eustice and establish communication with him.”

“Please wait,” the AI replied. My mind raced as I recognized the name Eustice as one of the legacies we had arrested just a short time ago. I had no idea what Sage was planning, but I had to do something. I rose up out of the squat a few inches, this time taking a peek over the top of the partition, and saw that Dylan was now finishing the hole, intensifying the need to make a move. Only a few short inches of metal separated the two ends of the molten circle she had cut, and any second she could be pushing her way into a room that was a veritable death trap.

If I could just kill Sage, it would put a stop to whatever he was planning to do. It might not stop Alice, but maybe Scipio could do something about her once he knew he was free of Sage’s commands.

I froze when I heard a male voice, and my eyes shifted over to the terminal that Sage was now standing in front of. The screen was filled with an image from one of the cells in the Citadel. There were several people inside, but a man was pushing his way toward the view screen inside the room, already speaking. “Father? Father, the Champion is allied with—”

“Calm down, Eustice,” Sage said soothingly. “I know. Is all of our family inside?”

“I’m not sure. At least eighty of us or so. There’s still no sign of Sadie or—”

“Never mind that,” Sage interrupted the plain-looking man, whom I recognized as having served as plastic surgeon to the legacies. “The Champion’s friends are in the Citadel. I want you to find them and kill them all, except for the boyfriend, Grey. He has something I need in that delightful little head of his, so don’t go messing it up. And make sure you kill any Knight who gets in your way. We’re going for maximum carnage today.”

My stomach churned and I tightened my grip on my gun, trying to clear my head. It was hard, though. He was going after the people I loved while I was all the way down here, powerless to help defend them. I needed to stop him before this got any more out of control.

More importantly, I couldn’t keep waiting for Rose. It was now or never.

“It will be done,” Eustice replied. Then the screen shut off.

“Scipio, go ahead and release all the prisoners into the Citadel,” Sage said. “Throw Jasper back in his hard drive and—”

His words fell short when I stood. My intention was to shoot out the camera between the two of us, but as soon as I saw that I had a shot on him, a dark rage gripped me, and I shifted targets on instinct, desperately wanting to stop him here and now. I had no idea what would happen if I killed him, but it seemed smarter than letting him issue another order. I sighted down the barrel at his forehead, and then squeezed the trigger. Time slowed down as the gun kicked in my hand, and I heard a whir from the guns overhead, telling me Scipio was priming a charge. I threw myself to the side in anticipation of the shot, back behind the partition, but not before I heard the bullet ricochet off of something metal. One of the Alice sentinels had undoubtedly stepped into the line of fire.

It didn’t matter. I had wasted my shot on Sage rather than the cameras, and now Scipio could target me through the partition. And even though I had moved, it was a futile attempt to survive. With his cameras intact, he would just shoot me before I even touched the ground.

I hit the stairs a few feet up on my side, with a thud, gasping when a corner slammed into my ribs. For several heartbeats, nothing happened, and I chanced a glance over the top of the partition to see that the two guns that had been pointed at me were now pointed at Sage.

“Nobody move,” a familiar feminine voice said. I exhaled in relief, and quickly shot out the two cameras before getting to my feet.

“It’s about time, Rose!” I called out. “Can you just shoot this asshole, please?”

There was a pause, and I looked at the two guns expectantly, waiting for them to start shooting.

“No, she cannot,” Scipio announced. I twisted around and took a step back to see the blue image of Scipio squinting his eyes, then reaching out, wrapping his hand around something invisible, and pulling.

Rose gave a shrill shriek and suddenly appeared—with Scipio’s hand gripped tightly around her neck. I drew a sharp breath as I saw the AI in her full glory, and immediately noted that she was missing an arm from the shoulder down and seemed to have stitches crisscrossing her chest and face, holding her together. I realized that was the damage to her code that Leo and Jasper hadn’t been able to fix, reflected in her personal image, and my heart hurt for her. I’d been foolish to think she could stand against Scipio in that condition, and I felt horrible for putting her in that position. I could only hope that she was somehow able to reach Scipio; after all, she had made up his empathy core. Maybe that could help us here.

She was staring at Scipio, her hand fixed around his forearm.

“Please,” she begged him, her face contorted with pain. “We belong together, my beloved brother. Don’t you remember me? Don’t you remember Jasper? Please, don’t let this human tear us apart!”

Scipio stared at her for a moment, his blue eyes searching her eyes. I could see his confusion, sense the conflict in him as he fought against whatever hold Sage had over him.

“That’s enough, Scipio,” Sage called, not giving him the time to find it. “Put them back in their hard drives, won’t you please?”

Scipio blinked and looked away from Rose, whatever spell her desperate plea had caused now broken. “Of course,” he replied hollowly. He handled both AIs effortlessly, his holographic representation dragging their kicking figures back toward the hard drive. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought they would be able to fight him, but I had. In fact, I’d half expected him to be weaker without them. But he was a full AI when they installed him, while their programs had been pared down before being combined with his, so they could augment specific parts of him. Even under Sage’s control, he was still stronger than they would ever be.

I ducked down again just as he shoved their holographic projections back into the hard drives, trying not to cringe at Rose’s desolate cries. It was my fault she had revealed herself. I had forced her to protect me before she was ready, all because I doubted she was going to do anything to help me.

And now Sage was going to take her. He was going to take all of them and use them to kill Scipio and replace him with Kurt. Once he did, I had no idea what would happen, but I doubted it would be good, given Sage’s insane drivel. Not to mention, Sage had said that Requiem Day had been his last attempt to kill Scipio. If I was accelerating his plan, it meant he was going to be repeating that event. I couldn’t let him do that.

“You can’t do this,” I cried, unable to stop myself.

“Just grab those there for me, won’t you, dear?” he said, clearly not to me, and I could see him ordering one of the sentinels to pick the hard drives up. “As for you, Liana, I can, and I will. Lionel had his chance. Now it’s my turn, and this time, I intend to succeed. Alice, as soon as that hole in the door is opened, I want one of you through it. Kill everyone except for Sadie, and get her back to the Core.”

“It will be done,” the voices in the sentinels replied solemnly. “Anything else?”

“Yes,” he snapped. “One of you will remain here, to ensure that Champion Castell dies with Lacey and the rest of them.”

“It will be our pleasure,” she practically purred.

Ice ran down my veins as he continued to snap out orders, and I realized that my chances for getting out of here had gone from dismally low to outright impossible. I had no idea how or even if I was going to get out of this, and I had no more options save my wits and my gun.

Given how well my wits had been serving me during the past few days, I was as good as dead.