“Access granted,” an electronic voice said. “Passage allowed.”
The great doors opened, and the group entered a greenhouse. After Feiluo closed the doors, a vague expression of dejection appeared on his face. A clone was currently tending to the plants in the greenhouse, and when he saw Feiluo he instantly went bug-eyed.
“Do you have any treatment chambers?” A-Ka asked. “He’s hurt!”
“Who are you?!” that clone said. “The medical bay is just next door, but I must confirm your identities first…”
Before he finished speaking, Heishi knocked the clone down with a clean, swift punch. He took his identification card, said “Thanks,” then dragged him toward the medical bay, using his palm and identification card to open the door.
By the time Feiluo was carried into the treatment chamber, his entire body had already become covered with blood. Sirens sounded in the distance, as if there were even more guards chasing after them.
Huixiong pointed at the rest of their group and said, “You guys are in charge of making sure he gets the treatment he needs. I’ll hold the guards off. Don’t wait for me. Run directly for the human district.”
“Capture them!” a clone guard shouted angrily. “Intruders!”
Heishi and Huixiong’s gazes met for a split second before Heishi curtly nodded once.
“After you’ve succeeded, use the chaos to escape,” Huixiong said. “We’ll see each other again outside the city.”
Shahuang glanced at his watch. “There are still four hours and twenty-three minutes before the start of the revolution.”
Huixiong patted A-Ka’s head and said, “Good luck.” With that, he lifted his machine gun and marched out of the greenhouse.
Inside the chamber, Feiluo’s face gradually regained color until its lid sprang open. From outside came the earsplitting reports of guns firing. Feiluo let out a breath before pulling out his identification card, but his body was still weak as he hurried to guide them through the greenhouse garden toward the Eastern District.
Guns firing and the sounds of detonations rang in Feiluo’s ears. He hesitated several times, looking torn. He clearly wanted to turn around to stop Huixiong, but Heishi grabbed his arm and pulled him along so he couldn’t.
Suddenly, hundreds of flying robots swarmed toward them.
“Keep going,” Shahuang ordered.
Immediately afterward, Shahuang fired toward the ceiling of the clones’ living district. That discharge turned out to be not a bullet but a sonic bomb that shattered the entire roof of the greenhouse. The cluster of flying robots turned their firing ports toward Shahuang.
“Shahuang!” A-Ka screamed.
“Go!” Heishi pushed A-Ka onto an elevator. Feiluo activated it with a swipe of his ID. In the distance, a clone guard rushed over, shouting, “Who are you?!”
Feiluo said, “You two head down first!”
“Wait…” But A-Ka could not get a word in before Feiluo tossed his ID into the elevator and rapidly pushed a few buttons on the outside that made the elevator doors slam shut.
“Destination, the Ant’s Nest,” an emotionless electronic voice announced.
In the last moment before the door to the elevator closed, A-Ka saw Feiluo’s silhouette through that crack. He raised both his hands, turning to face the clone guards that were coming toward him.
There was a loud boom, and the sudden loss of gravity almost caused A-Ka to start floating. He and Heishi stood in the elevator as it sped downward. Shutting his eyes tiredly, A-Ka buried his face against Heishi’s shoulder.
“Prepare yourself,” Heishi said. “There will be more pursuers in front of us.”
A-Ka said, “We’ll be safe after we get into the human district, but they…”
“Don’t worry. They’ll no doubt be able to escape soon.”
A-Ka remembered then that the revolution still loomed over them. Liber might have already begun his plans for the invasion; Heishi was keeping mum on matters relating to the revolution, to prevent them from being overheard by the surveillance cameras in the elevator. He glanced at A-Ka meaningfully, and A-Ka understood what he meant. Right now, the most important thing was to reach the Nucleus as quickly as possible.
They had almost four and a half hours to pass through the human quarters. Heishi said, “After we get in, stay behind me.”
“I’m begging you,” A-Ka said, “Heishi, don’t kill my kin.”
“I won’t attack them if they don’t sell us out,” Heishi said. “But you also need to keep your guard up.”
A-Ka nodded and fell silent. The elevator continued to head downward, as if it was falling into a bottomless hole or the depths of the ocean. Heishi gazed down at A-Ka. His nerves were a little frayed, and he toyed with the small device still in his hands.
“You trust your kind so much,” Heishi said.
“Yeah,” A-Ka said. “I know that we’ve yearned for freedom for a long time… Every human is like me, really. We long for the outside world.”
“I don’t agree,” Heishi said.
A-Ka smiled as he looked into Heishi’s eyes. “Humans are the most complicated living things. Was your heart not at all moved when I said that, after the revolution, we should walk across this whole land?” A sliver of confusion appeared in Heishi’s eyes for a brief moment, so A-Ka added, “You’re becoming more and more like a human now.”
“What are you holding in your hand?” Heishi asked, changing the topic.
A-Ka stared levelly at Heishi. He never liked to admit that he had developed human emotions, as if that were embarrassing. But his embarrassment was, at its heart, also an emotion. He even knew how to evade questions that he didn’t want to discuss. A-Ka couldn’t help finding this a little funny.
“It’s K’s controller,” A-Ka said. “K was the robot that you saw the day we first met.”
“You built it?” Heishi asked.
“Yep. Don’t you remember meeting it? Before you came, K was like my best friend. Once, I made a wish for it to start moving.”
A-Ka recalled how Heishi had almost choked him to death by pressing him against a wall when they first met. Now, they had returned to that same day, but Heishi’s gaze was so warm, as if he had become an earnest, stern big brother.
“What are you smiling about?” Heishi asked.
“Nothing,” A-Ka said, still grinning.
Heishi couldn’t resist reaching out a finger and brushing it along A-Ka’s cheek. He went quiet.
“Arriving at the Ant Nest,” the electronic voice announced.
The elevator doors slid open, but before A-Ka could move, Heishi flicked his wrist, creating a long dagger. “Don’t go out just yet. There are guards outside.”
Surveying their surroundings, Heishi realized that the two robotic guards were not targeting them. A-Ka turned to follow their gaze and was stunned by what he saw.
Next to them, another elevator was ascending. His past self was in there, behind the metal bars. The elevator next door was crowded with people, and a mechanic was shivering inside, his face the color of dirt.
“Let’s go. Don’t look any longer,” Heishi said.
A-Ka pulled the brim of his cap lower, following Heishi as they walked out of the elevator.
The two robotic guards entered the elevator. The doors to the elevator opened, and the mechanic bolted.
“Warning! Stop immediately!” The robotic guards rushed forth at the same time, and the humans in the elevator flooded out. The doomed mechanic continued his dash into the hallway.
A-Ka sped up, but he couldn’t resist turning his head back to watch the escaping mechanic as the robotic guards chased after him.
“Get down!” Heishi shouted. At that, the hallway of people exploded into action.
With a hum, thin metal needles shot out of the surveillance camera hanging from the ceiling, and each needle spread its wings, flying wildly through the air. One needle pierced the escaping man right through the skull with a loud crack. He slammed into the wall, skewered firmly onto it.
Heishi tackled A-Ka to the floor. At the same time, the elevator behind him closed and continued its journey upward.