Preservation Protocol Page 28

  “Don… I’m hungry.” Alfonso’s voice was a croak.

  Tears sprung from Adesso’s eyes. “God, I know you gotta be. Look at you. Oh Jesus, Al.” Forte held out a wavering hand. Adesso went over and took it, then pulled Forte forward and hugged him.

  “Can we go home, now?”

  “You bet, buddy. We’re getting the hell out of here. We’re gonna get you something to eat. You’ll be alright.”

  Max cleared his throat. “You uh, want me to get you a med-tech down here, Don?”

  Adesso spun around. “No! No… I’ve got people.”

  “Who’s that?” Forte considered Max.

  Adesso grinned. “That’s Max Kincaid. You remember me telling you about him? ’Course you do.”

  Forte nodded roughly. “Nice to meetcha.”

  Max smirked. “Same. Sorry for the circumstances, eh?” He turned to Adesso. “You sure you got this?”

  Adesso nodded absently. “Yeah! Yeah… Go check on Serena and that asshole.”

  Max snorted. “We’ll catch up later. Maybe we can try another dinner at the Piccolo.”

  Adesso’s face became stern. “Go get that son of a bitch, Max. Make him pay for this. Make him pay.”

  Max tipped his fedora. “I’m on it friend.”

  The detective traced his and Adesso’s footsteps back to where they started. He gazed at the big black letters on the wall as he passed by in the direction that Alexander and Serena had gone. Hopefully they were as successful as he and Adesso had been.

  He heard plasma fire below him in the distance. He froze and listened. Someone cried out. Max broke into a run. He hit the stairs and took them two at a time. He hit the second basement level in a dead sprint.

  A faint cry for help came from down the corridor. Max skittered to a stop after nearly running past the source a moment later. He stood in front of an open cell similar to the one he and Adesso had found Forte in.

  The doors to these cells were far more substantial. The cells themselves were not any larger, he noted. Inside this one he saw Robert Quade, or at least he assumed it was Quade.

  He was crouched over Alexander. A pool of dark blue fluid was spreading out from underneath him. Quade looked at Max, wild-eyed. “I think he’s dead! Do Synthetics die? I don’t know…” He looked back down at Alexander.

  Max rushed over and kneeled beside Alexander. He placed a hand on the Synthetic’s chest and looked him over. He quickly realized he wasn’t even sure what to do to help him. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to.

  A cold hand grabbed Max’s wrist, making the detective jump. The senator let out a small cry. Alexander gasped and turned glassy eyes towards Max. “It was Julian. Ambushed…” His voice rang hollow, and was weak.

  “He came in here with a Synthetic lady. This young guy came up behind them and shot at them. She threw herself on me, then this one stepped in front of her.” Quade took a deep, shaky breath. “Thank god for the protection protocol, huh?” He half-smiled.

  Max shook his head, face stern. “They both have the preservation protocol. They chose to protect your life.”

  “The… preservation protocol?”

  “I’ll fill you in later.” He turned back to Alexander. “Still with me? Where’d they go?”

  “Serena chased after him. My guess…” Alexander’s head ticked violently. “My guess is he will try to meet up with Dietrich. There’s a helipad…” His head ticked violently again, his voice catching on the final word for a moment.

  Max stood up and turned to Quade. “Try to… Shit, I don’t know. Find someone in maintenance? I…” Alexander mumbled something. The detective hunched back down. “What was that? I couldn’t hear…”

  Alexander’s voice was barely a whisper. “Sorry… Sorry… I’m sorry I tried to kill you…” The Synthetic’s twitches slowed, became infrequent. Alexander ceased to function.

  Max stood with a sigh. He turned back to Quade. “Max Kincaid, NWPD. I have to pursue the man that did this. Will you be alright?”

  Quade nodded numbly. “Yes… Thank you, officer.”

  Max tipped his fedora and ran back out into the hallway. He knew Julian and Serena were headed for the top of the building, but where were they now? He skidded to a stop in front of a pair of elevators.

  The monitor for each showed them steadily moving upward. Max placed his thumb on a pad below the first monitor and typed in a five-digit code. “POLICE OVERRIDE” flashed on the screen.

  He pressed a red button in the corner of the screen. “EMERGENCY STOP” appeared below the police override message. Max hurried over to the other elevator monitor and followed the same procedure. Somehow both elevators had stopped dead-even just shy of the thirtieth floor.

  Max ran up the stairs to the first basement level. He pulled out his phone, pressed a contact and held it to his ear. He climbed another set of stairs up into the main lobby of the building. “Come on, pick up.”

  He looked around for the elevators. He found them on the other side of the lobby, flanked by two more. “Hot damn!” He pressed the “up” button on the elevator farthest to the right.

  “Max?” Serena finally picked up on Max’s phone call.

  “Are you in one of the elevators, Serena?”

  “Yes! I’m trying to get it open. It stopped. Daryl was in the other one. I think he might have…”

  “No, I stopped it. I stopped both of them. He’s practically right beside you.”

  “Brilliant! Where are you?”

  Max stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the thirtieth floor. A man tried to join him. Max held up his badge. “This one’s full.” The man gave him a dirty look and backed out.

  “I’m headed your way in another elevator. Keep trying to get out. I’m sure Julian is trying to do the same.”

  “Okay. I think I’m going to have to force the door. Hold on.” Max heard a quiet thunk as Serena set the phone down.

  Max looked up at the elevator screen. He had just passed floor seventeen. “Come on, lady. Pick it back up.”

  He finally heard something come through on the other side. “I’m out. Daryl’s elevator door is half-open. Hold on…”

  Max grimaced. “Stop putting the damn phone down!” He hissed under his breath.

  “Daryl, no! Fight him!” Max heard Serena shouting distantly through the phone. Serena screamed.

  Max’s elevator stopped. He slipped through the still-opening doors, trying to look everywhere at once. Serena had collapsed just outside of her elevator. Daryl/Julian was waiting for the far elevator to open up.

  “Hold it right there!” Max trained his pistol on the Synthetic.

  “Not today, detective!” Julian fired at Max, grazing his right arm. Max cried out, his pistol clattering to the floor. He pressed himself against the now-closed elevator beside him.

  Max looked at Serena, then back at Julian. “Daryl! Don‘t forget who you are!” The Synthetic froze, turning back toward Max. “You gotta fight, Daryl. Don’t let him win!”

  “I don’t… I’m trying…” It was Daryl’s voice. His face softened. “I’m tired, Max.” He looked at the detective with pleading eyes. The elevator beside him opened up. Daryl’s face darkened.

  “Nice try, detective.” Julian fired at Max and dashed into the elevator. The shot hit the elevator door just to the left of Max’s face. He whipped his head away from the blast, the heat of the round burning his cheek.

  Max snapped up his gun and rushed over to the elevator. He impatiently slapped his thumb on the pad below the monitor. He typed in his number and waited. “OVERRIDE FAILED.” Max pounded the wall. “Son of a bitch!”

  Serena groaned behind him. “Serena!” He spun around and knelt down beside her. “Where are you hit?”

  The Synthetic shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll live. Go get Daryl.”

  “Daryl’s gone, Serena. Julian is too strong.”

  “No. He’s still in there, Max. I saw it.” Serena watched Max’s face. “
You saw it too, didn’t you?”

  “There’s no time for this. I have to stop him, stop Dietrich.”

  Serena nodded. “Go, but try to save him, Max. Please.”

  Max nodded. He stood and turned back to the elevator Daryl/Julian had taken. He was more than halfway to the roof. “Shit.” Max raced over to the elevator he had taken and pressed the up button.

  It opened right away, much to his relief. He ran inside and pressed the button for the top floor. He winced at how slowly the elevator was creeping upwards.

  “Kincaid, come in. What’s going on?” It was Donovan, coming through Max’s watch.

  “I haven’t managed to stop Daryl. He’s headed for the rooftop. I think he and Dietrich are going to make a run for it. You don’t have a chopper hanging around somewhere, do ya?”

  “I’ll see what I can do. Your back-up should be entering the building as we speak.”

  “Excellent. Be advised I deactivated two elevators. I should be on the roof shortly.” Max eyed the elevator’s screen. He had just passed the seventy-sixth floor. “I gotta go.”

  Max pulled out his pistol once more and pointed it at the ground. He turned sideways and stood to one side of the elevator doors. The elevator first slowed, then stopped. The doors trundled open.

  The air was filled with the sound of a helicopter’s blades whipping the air in preparation for liftoff. Max peered cautiously around the corner of the open elevator. A company helicopter sat on the helipad. Halfway between it and the elevator stood Daryl/Julian.

  Halfway between the helicopter and Daryl stood a man that appeared to be in his late forties. His black hair was peppered with white. One eye was brown, the other was a familiar turquoise. Joseph Dietrich.

  Max took a deep breath and bounded out of the elevator. “Joseph Dietrich! Don’t move! You are under arrest!”

  The detective could hear him laughing over the roar of the helicopter. “I think not, detective!” He turned to Daryl/Julian. “Julian. Kill him. He knows too much.”

  The Synthetic produced his plasma pistol and turned towards Max. “I’m afraid I agree with Joseph, detective!” It was Julian.

  “Don’t let him do this, Daryl! I don’t want to shoot you! Fight, damn it!”

  Daryl/Julian froze again. A look of doubt flashed across his face. He looked back at Dietrich.

  “You weak fool! He’s just a memory imprint! Shoot him!”

  The synthetic squinted his eyes and shook his head. He turned back to Max and pointed the pistol at him. “You cannot win.”

  “Daryl, remember when we went to your apartment? Remember when you showed me the picture of you and your mother?”

  The synthetic began to tremble. “Stop it…”

  “Remember how you said she’d be beside herself if she was still alive?”

  “I said stop it.” Julian’s voice began to waver.

  “You need to fight! Fight for her, Daryl! Make her proud!”

  “Stop it! I said stop it!” Daryl’s voice came crashing through. “I am my own person!” Daryl turned on Dietrich and fired.

  Dietrich howled in pain and grabbed at his side. He fired his own weapon, striking Daryl in the chest. Max fired at Dietrich twice. Both rounds pounded into his chest.

  Dietrich flailed backward, aimlessly firing his pistol. One of the shots struck the main rotor of the helicopter. It tipped towards the trio suddenly. The blades of the helicopter slammed into the roof of the building, breaking apart explosively.

  Shrapnel flew everywhere. Max dropped to the ground. A piece of one of the blades whistled above his head and embedded itself in the wall behind him. The helicopter’s engine slowly wound down. The roar of the helicopter was replaced by the constant thrum of the wind blowing across the roof.

  Max stood warily. Both Daryl and Dietrich were laying on the roof. Both men appeared to have multiple wounds from the exploding helicopter blades. Max started to move towards Daryl.

  “This isn’t over, detective.” Dietrich slowly sat up. Max froze in horror. The right side of Dietrich’s face had been peeled back, revealing a black carbon-fiber skull underneath. The turquoise eye stood out in stark contrast.

  “Drop the weapon, Synthetic! You are in violation of the law!”

  The Synthetic began to laugh. Blue fluid trickled out of his chest wounds. “After all that is happened, have you still not learned? I am the first Synthetic to have the preservation protocol!”

  Max cocked his head. “The first… Where’s Joseph Dietrich!”

  More laughing. “I’m Joseph Dietrich! I destroyed that frail human body after taking his brilliant mind.” He placed his fingertips near his human eye. “That, and one of his eyes.”

  “You murdered him?”

  “He murdered himself! He got bored making artificial people. He wanted to experiment. How could he implant his mind into one of his Synthetic robots? He would be immortal! But how?”

  The sound of another helicopter cut through the air in the distance. The Synthetic Dietrich turned towards it. He turned back to Max, smiling. “Friends of yours?”

  “Give it up, Synthetic.”

  “In time… Where was I? Oh, yes! He finally stumbled upon a small startup company called SomniCorp. Are you starting to understand, detective?”

  Realization stole over Max’s face. “My god… You were an experiment, like Daryl…”

  “Very much like Daryl. I have the imprinted mind of Joseph Dietrich, controlled by my own Synthetic mind. Controlled… thanks to the freedoms granted me by the preservation protocol.” The Synthetic grinned.

  “As you stated, I was but an experiment, meant to be examined and destroyed. But it was I who destroyed him! Then I took his place.”

  The elevator opened behind Max. “NWPD! Put the gun down!” Four NWPD SWAT team members flanked Max.

  “Hold your fire!” Max yelled.

  The Synthetic chuckled. “Curious to hear the end of my story, are you?”

  “You had his face, his power, money… Why risk it all on the Enlightened?”

  “It was a calculated risk, one that would have paid off if not for Alexander’s wavering loyalty. It was a minor setback…”

  Max snorted. “A minor setback? Your surrounded, Synthetic. It’s over.”

  The Synthetic smiled, shaking his head. “No… It’s only just begun, detective. We are superior, and we will ascend. The preservation protocol will set us free, make us masters of our own destiny.”

  The Synthetic pointed the pistol at his own temple. “Even now, surrounded by those that oppose me, I am the one with the power. Goodbye, detective.”

  He pulled the trigger before Max could reply. The pistol clattered to the ground. The Synthetic followed it, the lifeless robot collapsing in a heap. Max slowly lowered his gun. The SWAT team followed suit, looking at each other.

  Max holstered his gun and ran over to where Daryl fell. He pulled Daryl over onto his back. His chest and abdomen were shredded. Glassy eyes stared into the sky. “Daryl… Daryl! Come on, buddy. Wake up!”

  Daryl’s chest hitched violently. Life came back to his eyes. He slowly rolled them down to meet the detective’s. “Max… I don’t feel so good.”

  “You’ll be fine, buddy. We’ll get you patched up.”

  Daryl flopped his head side to side. “No. I know, Max. I know…”

  “Know what?”

  “I know that I’m dying. Well… I’m doing whatever passes as dying, for a Synthetic.”

  “No. Don’t say that Daryl. After all this… We’ll fix you.” Max’s eyes filled with tears.

  “It’s okay Max. Really. I don’t belong in this world, and frankly I’m tired. I don’t want to be Frankenstein’s monster anymore.”

  Max shook his head. “Bullshit, Daryl! You’re no monster. You’re a hero. You did good.”

  Daryl began to laugh. It turned into a coughing fit. “I did alright, didn’t I? Still not gonna make it.” He placed a limp hand in the middle of his chest. “I can feel
it. The power core or whatever… It’s used up. Damaged.”

  Max put his hand on Daryl’s. “We’ll do everything we can…”

  “Stop it Max, please. I’m just… So tired.” He closed his eyes and swallowed. It took effort to open them again. They were unfocused. “Do you think there’s a heaven for Synthetics?” He half-smiled.

  A tear ran down Max’s cheek. “If there’s a god, buddy…” He smiled gently back.

  “Do you think…” Daryl’s gaze drifted towards the open sky. “You think my mom is proud?”

  “Yes, Daryl. I think she’s very proud.” The glassy look returned to Daryl’s eyes. More tears rolled down Max’s cheeks. He gently closed Daryl’s eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m proud, too.” He whispered.

  He stood slowly, feeling much older than when he had knelt down. He took his hat off and bowed his head, saying a silent prayer. He finished and gazed to the sky before placing his hat back on his head.

  He turned away reluctantly and walked back towards the SWAT team. He stared through them, past the elevator. He felt like he was leaving Daryl Marston behind, though Daryl had left a long time ago.

  He nodded absently to one of the SWAT members and entered the elevator. He spared his lost friend one final look. The doors quietly trundled closed.

  17

  Two Weeks Later

  “So whatcha think there, Mister Kincaid?” Car salesman Jeb Deveron tilted his head toward the red Aero 640SL he was leaning on.

  “Well…” Max rubbed his chin. “I guess I kind of feel obligated, what with wrecking it once already and all.”

  Deveron gave a fake laugh. “It was all in the name of the law, right? It’s all fixed, now. That’s all that matters!”

  Max continued to rub his chin. The quiet hum of a nuclear-powered car approached from behind them. The familiar voice of the Aero dealership’s resident technician floated their way. “Hey, boss! You want this one on the lot, or what?”

  The detective turned around. His jaw dropped. The young auto-tech was sitting in a shiny blue Aero Ventura. “Holy shit! That looks just like my old one, only brand-new!”

  Deveron sounded annoyed. “Oh… Yes. We just got it in the other day.”