Heishi turned his head and gave A-Ka a look. A-Ka dug through his thoughts for a long time before he said, “What are the conditions that need to be met for the emergency system to kick in?”
“Someone needs to get close to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe and send a command to it. The Nucleus in and of itself does not have any consciousness. It only stores energy and the terminal that is used to execute the command. The only passageway is under Father’s tower, but it’s already been connected to the Central Computer by lead wires.”
“So, we can try, but this emergency system…” A-Ka suddenly remembered something and stopped breathing for a second. He asked, “Is it that chip? Who else knows about this?”
“That chip only recorded the explorations of the adventurers. It doesn’t have the voice command needed to enter the Nucleus,” Heishi said. “The old man that you found underneath the City of Steel was one of the adventurers who entered the Primeval Heart back then.”
A-Ka remembered the assassination that Heishi had carried out. “Then, why…?”
“There were only four people who knew about this matter,” Heishi said. “You, me, the dead Liber, and General Macksie. Father discovered their plans and sent robots to kill Macksie, before creating a copy of him, who would then sneak into Phoenix City to gather the armies and start a war. He intended to send the battle strength of millions of clones into the City of Steel, where a trap would be laid beforehand. That way, everyone would die at once.
“But General Liber, through some method or another, discovered that something was wrong. Unfortunately, it was too late. He knew very few things about the secrets of the Nucleus, and in the end he was sacrificed. Now, I’ve killed the spy pretending to be Macksie. After this, they’ll take back control of the upper ranks of Phoenix City. If this succeeds and we find the emergency system, there’s a 50 percent chance that Father will shut down and reboot the Astrolabe.”
“When the Astrolabe is rebooted, what will happen?” A-Ka asked.
“It’ll return to the environment of the Golden Age,” Heishi said. “The reboot will release the power of ions and expedite the growth of all plants, cleansing the pollution that you guys have wreaked upon this earth over these past few centuries. It will turn the environment and atmosphere into one more suitable for plants to grow. Do you think this is necessary?”
A-Ka had once read in a book that, during the Golden Age, the lands were green and flourishing. “I like the sound of that world,” A-Ka said. “It’s just like a terrarium.”
“But after thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years,” Heishi said, “humans will still destroy it, as they always do.”
“I won’t,” A-Ka said quietly. “But I can only speak for myself.”
“You really want it that way?”
“Of course,” A-Ka responded in a small voice. “Wouldn’t you want a world where the wind blows and the sun shines and all kinds of organisms thrive?” Heishi seemed to be mulling something over, but he said nothing more. “Well, thank you for trusting in me.”
“I only wish for you not to be entangled in such a complex problem,” Heishi said in a deep voice.
“But I’m willing—I’m willing to help you.”
“I’m not planning to go through with this.”
A-Ka smiled. “If you weren’t, then you wouldn’t have come to Phoenix City.” When Heishi didn’t reply, A-Ka added, “I get it, but it went all right when I helped, didn’t it? You should have told me some of what was happening.”
“Don’t tell anyone else about this,” Heishi reminded him in a quiet voice.
A-Ka knew that the urgency of what was going to happen would fill everyone with horror, especially since they hadn’t yet found the emergency system.
“No matter what,” A-Ka murmured, “there will always be hope.”
As Heishi finally reached the exit to the sewers, he pushed open the steel door to let in the golden afterglow of the sunset. A-Ka stared down at the scene below in shocked silence. The entire city seemed to have been bombed, with smoke rising from all directions. Many places had already turned into rubble.
In this brutal battle, clones and the humans engaged in a life-
and-death struggle for Phoenix City. A-Ka hadn’t realized it, but while he was unaware of what was happening outside, strife had spread shockingly fast. Heishi, still carrying A-Ka on his back, walked toward the Western Quarter, where the mercenaries were screening any human residents who wanted to enter.
“What’s going on?” someone shouted.
“Are we separating?” another mercenary roared angrily. “I’ve tolerated those clones for far too long! I’ll go beat them to death this instant!”
The human migrants on the other side of the wire netting responded with a hundred cries of agreement, and A-Ka began to realize how deep the conflict between the clones and the humans ran. The entire population of humankind in the Western Quarter shouted in favor of reclaiming their resources and usurping the last power-holder of the clones, Commander Angus. With emotions running high like this, there was no way to eliminate the schism between the species.
The mercenaries guarding the sentry post at the entrance of the Western Quarter interrogated Heishi when he walked up. “Who’s there?”
Heishi, still carrying A-Ka on his back, said: “My chest pocket.”
From Heishi’s pocket, A-Ka pulled out a card. After the mercenary checked it, he immediately said, “Hurry up and get in. This place is too unsafe!”
Heishi brought A-Ka into the streets of the Western Quarter. Half of Phoenix City had already been taken over by the humans. The Mercenary Association occupied the tallest building, fifty-two floors high, and had its doors open wide; many people poured in and out. Heishi took A-Ka inside.
It was the first time that A-Ka had entered this place since coming to Phoenix City. Heishi put A-Ka down and let him sit while he went to fetch some medicine. Others immediately noticed A-Ka’s presence, and some mercenaries came over, asking him about the specifics of the situation outside. When Heishi returned, he gave A-Ka a shot of antibiotics to prevent infection, fed him a rapid-healing capsule, and moved to hoist him up again.
“I can walk on my own!” A-Ka protested.
“Come with me, then.” Heishi pulled A-Ka into the elevator. They traveled up to the third floor and entered an expansive conference room. “You can rest here.”
With this, A-Ka finally lay down, exhausted. His abdomen throbbed, itching a little; he could feel the wound slowly healing.
Not long after, footsteps woke A-Ka.
“Who is our little friend?” a deep voice asked. “Your companion?”
“A comrade in arms,” Heishi said. “One of us.”
A-Ka opened his eyes and saw that quite a few people had arrived in the conference room: Heishi, of course, along with a red-haired man A-Ka was not familiar with, Huixiong, Shahuang, and a man wearing a hat, as well as a woman in a wheelchair.
“Your little brother is safe, no need to worry,” Shahuang drawled.
When A-Ka heard Percy was all right, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Let me introduce our group,” Huixiong spoke. “You’re looking at the leaders of the Phoenix City Mercenary Association.”
A-Ka’s eyes bugged in his head.
Shahuang propped his feet, clad in polished black riding boots, on the conference table. “I think we’ve frightened this little friend of ours out of his wits.”
“You… Weren’t you running a repair store?!” A-Ka asked with a yelp.
“Selling firearms is just his side job.” The woman smiled warmly as she spoke. “Shahuang is our trump card, in charge of passing on intelligence and news about the clone regime from within his store. I’m the bookkeeper, Lilith.”
The hat-wearing man took off his accoutrement, revealing a bald head covered with scars. He said very civilly, “I’m the leader of the Mercenary Association’s troops, Rang Marx.”