Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [52]
‘Uh?’ uttered Lam.
On the far side Liam could see movement. Someone running. It was the girl Laura, running, staggering, stumbling to her knees, then back up on her feet. Behind her, pursuing with a swift purposeful stride, a figure all in black with flaming red hair: Becks.
‘Whoa … catfight,’ uttered Jonah, grinning like an idiot.
‘Hey!’ Liam called out. ‘What’s going on?’
Laura glanced his way and changed direction towards him. Becks was swiftly closing the gap. He noticed her holding one of their bamboo spears in one hand, the tip bright red with a splash of blood.
What the …?
He ran forward. ‘Becks! What’s going on?’
Closer now, he could see a long gash down Laura’s left arm, blood splattered across her bright pink sweatshirt.
‘Oh God! Oh God! She’s trying to kill me!’ Laura screamed. The rest of the group on the far side of the clearing, where a row of simple frames of wood had thus far been erected, were watching the scene in stunned, uncomprehending silence.
Finally Laura collapsed in a pile at Liam’s feet, clasping at her arm and looking back in panic as Becks strode forward. ‘She speared me!’ gasped Laura. ‘Just walked up and stabbed me for no reason!’
Becks came to a halt several yards away and looked calmly at Liam. She even smiled her faltering horse smile, lips slowly stretching to reveal a row of perfect teeth. ‘Hello, Liam,’ she said.
‘Jay-zus, Becks! Why’d you go and attack the poor girl?’
‘Mission priority. She has to be terminated.’
‘What?’
Becks nodded at the others standing just behind Liam. ‘All of them as well. The others, and you, Liam.’ He thought he detected a hint of regret in her voice as she said that. ‘After that, I must purge this area of evidence of human occupation. Then I must self-terminate.’
‘What? That’s crazy!’ said Lam.
‘Becks, listen,’ said Liam, spreading his hands slowly. ‘This is not necessary, all right?’
She took another two strides forward, reached down and grabbed Laura round the throat, and effortlessly lifted her up off the ground, her legs kicking in the air. Laura scrabbled and scratched at her face, one hand finally grabbing a fist of Becks’s red hair.
‘BECKS! STOP IT!’
Liam’s command halted her. She looked at him, confused. ‘It is a mission priority. We have already caused unacceptable levels of time contamination.’
‘PUT HER DOWN!’
Becks stared at him, but remained poised and perfectly still, Laura still dangling, kicking, struggling and slowly choking; the sharp ragged point of the spear held in Becks’s other hand hovered mere inches away from her throat.
‘THAT IS AN ORDER!’
Becks’s eyes slowly panned from Liam to Laura then back again. Her eyelids fluttered momentarily then finally she said, ‘Affirmative.’ She released her grip on Laura and the girl tumbled heavily to the ground, Becks’s red wig wrenched from her bare head, still clasped by Laura’s bloody fingers.
‘Now, put that spear down!’ snapped Liam.
She obediently released her tight grip and it clattered on the soft ground.
Laura’s breath chugged in and out in whooping gasps while the others stared in stunned silence at Becks and her bald head, already sporting a quarter-inch fuzz of dark hair.
‘Oh my God! She’s a complete freakin’ psycho!’ said Lam.
Behind him, Liam heard Jonah mutter, ‘Jeez … got that right, dude.’
Becks was staring at him. There was something in those cold grey eyes, something that looked like guilt, regret. Possibly even sadness. Like a scolded baby in that moment – that stunned could go either way moment – just before the face creases up and the tears and wailing come.
‘No,’ said Liam, ‘no, she’s not.’
‘She’s not a psycho?’ said Lam. ‘Sure about that?’
Liam nodded. He could see muscles twitching in Becks’s face. Confusion, desperation … her mind struggling to reconcile conflicting priorities: Liam’s direct order versus hard-coded mission protocols.
‘She’s just doing what she thinks is right. She’s following her programming.’
Franklyn