Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [164]
"That's . . . ridiculous." Tasia's voice trailed off as pieces fit together in her mind. Her superior officers had pleaded ignorance as to what had damaged EA, claiming they had simply found the compy with her memory wiped. But they had given Tasia plenty of reason for distrust, and she certainly wouldn't put it past them to install a spying device in EA.
"A human scout ship tapped into this signal and acquired information about the hydrogue citysphere in Qronha 3," the robot continued. "Therefore, your Listener compy is a threat to us."
"That conclusion could be correct," EA said. "After my memory was wiped, something was planted inside me, like a parasite that I could not identify. I expect it was some sort of extremely low-level recorder-transponder, masked by white noise and scrambled. Supposedly undetectable except with specific equipment."
Tasia stepped between the looming black machine and the compy, thrusting her chin forward. "It doesn't matter. If the EDF installed surveillance, their purpose was never to gather information about hydrogues or Klikiss robots. They did it to spy on me." She flashed a hard glance at Robb. "Probably hoping I would reveal the names or locations of Roamer outposts. Bastards!"
The robot was unimpressed. "We cannot allow it to continue." An articulated arm shot out from the black exoskeleton and seized EA's silvery arm with a clawed hand. "By removing the spy, we remove the threat."
Tasia grabbed the compy's other arm in a tug-of-war. "No! She's my compy. EA is--"
"Do not allow yourself to be injured on my account, Tasia Tamblyn," EA insisted in a voice that sounded calm, even resigned.
Not listening, Tasia tried to pull her compy free, but the Klikiss robot knocked her sprawling with another powerful mechanical arm. Robb rushed to her side and helped her up, but her mind had only one focus. "EA!"
"We hate our Klikiss creators for what they did to us," the robot droned. "However, their methods of torturing us for their own entertainment are quite applicable to our dealings with other betrayers. We learned much from them. We learned to enjoy inflicting pain, on both a large and small scale."
"Maybe we can disable the spying function!" Robb suggested.
The black robot dragged EA away. "We will disable it. Permanently."
The compy turned her head and looked directly at Tasia with flickering optical sensors. "I was unaware of this until now. I do not remember. I did not intend to betray you, Tasia Tamblyn."
"Of course you didn't!" Tasia lunged one last time for EA, but she could not get a grip on the slippery polymer skin. "Leave her alone!"
The little compy could not resist as the Klikiss robot pulled her through the membrane into the extreme high-pressure environment of the hydrogue citysphere. The captives peered through the transparent membrane in horrified anticipation.
"At least they didn't take one of us," Keffa moaned. "They just wanted the compy. At least the robot didn't touch us!"
"Shut up!" Tasia cried.
"We've seen them take humans for experiments before," Keffa continued. "They slice and cut and torture!"
A woman named Belinda seemed frantic. "What are they going to do with the compy? That poor compy--"
As if emerging from pools of congealing lead, six hydrogues took humanoid forms. They looked exactly--excruciatingly--like her lost brother Ross. From media footage, Tasia knew the drogues usually manifested themselves as her brother, for some incomprehensible reason. The emissary that killed Old King Frederick had looked just like Ross. All of these here in the citysphere did the same whenever they chose to mimic a human form. Tasia felt ready to explode. The drogues had killed Ross, destroyed his skymine--that was what drove her into joining the EDF in the first place.
Hateful bastards! Why would they bother taking a human shape deep in