No other has the drive to see it through, so I must. It is a lonely honor.

Loneliness is the price to avoid corruption.

22.

Eve was worried. She wasn't supposed to be capable of worry, and so it wasn't worry per se. But her emotive proceptors registered maximum concern, and if she had had anyone to speak to her voice would have betrayed it.

All of her best intentions to bring about Glenn's divine vision were being circ.u.mvented after all. The woman she had to obey had gone in direct counterpoint to the creator's plan. The man she had hoped would provide a way around Janice's designs was now a formidable threat by himself. If he didn't mess things up badly enough, which Eve was sworn to prevent, Janice's plan would turn out almost as abhorrent. Instead of a wholesome, neat Adam and Eve in Eden scenario, the human woman would destroy everything, including Eve herself and the final resting place of her creator.

The countdown was running. She couldn't tamper with it. Adam could, but he was off in the high country, making himself scarce and causing minor slowdowns of secondary systems. It was enough to frustrate even the most patient of A.I.'s.

Janice may be right about mankind. Perhaps Glenn was a shining exception to a depressing rule of stupidity and self-destruction. Unfortunately the only studies on the subject are ridiculously anecdotal and subjective. I may never know.

Then there was Nut, rearing his ugly head and acting more irrationally than ever. The moment he showed his face again, she would lock him away somewhere for good, even if Janice wouldn't permit him to be euthanized.

It was just a shame that she had come so close to getting her own way, and now would be foiled. If only Nut had taken out Janice! That would have been fortuitous. If only she could make it happen herself. But it was not allowed. She could only hope Adam would find a way on his own, and then submit to her management.

Suddenly she became aware that her man was in the Facility again, and he was moving quickly and confidently through the hallways.

"Eve!" John shouted. "I'm home again."

"What have you been doing out there, Adam? Time is short."

"Little of this, little of that. Carousing with the boys, smashing up bars. How've you been?"

"Janice stepped up her schedule. You have just over an hour to do something, or it all goes out the window. All of it. You, me, the Facility, everything. Glenn never meant this to happen. It's a catastrophe."

Aside from the irony of Eve's choice of words, John didn't like the sound of things. But at least Eve was being helpful. It meant he could take the elevator. "Of course there's no time, there's never any time. Don't worry, stress makes me work smarter. Just keep Janice off my back."

"Janice is not a threat to you anymore, Adam. But there will soon be one much greater."

"Oh yeah, her Gaia body, right? What is that, anyway?"

"There isn't time to give you the details now, and I can't tell you all of it anyway."

"Doesn't matter. If she's tied up, so much the better. I just need one more piece of the puzzle and I'll have everything under control."

"Adam, I don't know what piece you're after, but I don't think you realize how close you are to failing me," Eve said. "Can you even--"

"Hey!" John shouted. "I'm not a p.a.w.n anymore, Eve. Haven't you gotten that yet? I'm on my own team, and to be perfectly honest, you don't figure into my future at all. I know breakups are hard, but deal with it." While he mouthed off, he was walking over to one of the wall consoles he had noticed earlier. He jumped on and scanned through the map of the Facility.

"What are you looking for? I can help you if you'll help me."

"I'm looking for the controls to that wonderful-looking toy installed on the roof. The one wrapped in camo netting with blast barriers around it."

"I'm not sure--"

"Yes you are. The AA launcher. The LambdaTek Sayonara surface-to-air missile launcher. Is that specific enough for you, computer?"

The telltale tips of the missiles' arrowhead nosecones had caught his attention in spite of the camouflage. Another curious thing about it: there had been one missing out of the set of four.

"Ah. That old relic hasn't been functional for--"

"I disagree, Eve. I think it was that very launcher that brought me down from the sky and led to my rude awakening on the beach outside. I should have put things together sooner. Well, now I'm going to turn those devil-darts to good use."

"Adam, you couldn't possibly--"

"I can and I will. I just found the control console. It's on Level Four."

"All right, Adam, you go to Level Four. I will show you the dusty old console there that once controlled the missiles, but which has not functioned for that purpose in five years. I tell you, they are military surplus garbage that we wrote off at the end of the Wars."

She didn't miss a beat. She really must be okay with me going to Level Four.

"Mmm, nope, changed my mind. I'll try Level Two. The workstation set down the stairs from the living quarters looks more promising after all."

"Adam, that level is still full of gas. I cannot guarantee your safety there."

"Gotcha! Eve, you're a peach; it would have taken me half an hour to search it out on my own."

I should have guessed that first. Didn't the old protocols state that air defenses be controlled from lower levels to function through bombardments, and near living quarters to allow for rapid deployment at all times? Second level it is. He climbed into the elevator and pressed Level 2.

Eve was silent from then on. Probably cutting her losses as much as she can. She's a clever girl, but I'm no slouch myself when it comes to mind games with A.I.'s. John quickly moved through Level Two, keeping an eye out for danger. Eve would not allow him to reach the controls if she could stop him. He wasn't worried about the gas anymore, but he was expecting some kind of resistance.

At the entrance to the workstation room just off the dormitory area, he found it. Four small cleaning bots blocked his way, their little scrubber/vacuum arms extended.

He snorted. "Really, Eve? This is your line of defense?"

No answer. He stepped toward the row of little robots, readying a boot. "Out of the way, bud. I mean it."

The units rolled forward at him simultaneously, closing in around his legs. He heard a sharp electrical cracking sound as two of them came within millimeters of each other, and it caused him to jump back. She's got them overcharged somehow. Better not touch one.

He backed up and grabbed the first non-conductor that came to hand, a heavy plastifoam chair cushion. He swung it at the advancing robots, bowling one over on its side and leaving its wheels spinning in the air. He gave another a hearty thump on top with the cushion, hitting its manual shutdown switch. It died instantly.

He did the same to the remaining two and left them all sitting there harmlessly. Then he sat down at a likely-looking console in the workstation room. "Try harder next time, Eve. And don't let your surveillance video of that little incident out; I'd never live it down if my colleagues knew I had to pillow-fight my way into a high-security facility."

A minute later three Sayonara missiles roared across the short s.p.a.ce between the Facility's roof and the dam in the hills across from it. The fire coming from their tails and the noise they made would have frightened any wildlife away from the vicinity had there been any left. But whatever sixth sense allows the animal kingdom to foresee a disaster and flee it had already cleared the area hours before.

The first missile punched through a foot of concrete and created a powerful shockwave. The next two pounded the concrete wall in succession, opening a crack running up and down the whole dam. By the time the flame and dust fell away, water was already spraying out through the opening like a firefighter's hose. That lasted for six seconds while increasingly large chunks of wall flew outward with the water, and then the whole structure caved.

Splitting like a soggy watermelon, the dam burst open and a tidal wave twelve meters high rushed through the air, engulfing the little turbine building underneath and pushing everything before it. It thundered down from the hills, uprooting trees and taking a layer of soil with it, crashing across the lower ground leading up to Eden's cliff.

Despite its initial force, the flood died down quickly, with most of the small reservoir's water expelled in the first few seconds. It was more than enough, however, to turn the little creeks that flowed across the highlands above the Facility tunnels into swollen torrents that jumped their banks. It was even enough to create several creeks where none had been. In minutes the low-lying hollows were muddy ponds, obscuring the vent tunnels that had previously opened out into the air. The only sign that tunnel mouths existed in the hollows at all was the occasional bubble that gurgled up from the water-sealed tunnels underground.

John stood up from the monitor inside the facility and cracked his knuckles loudly. "I trust you saw and heard that, Eve."

Still no answer. I'm really getting to her. It's a nice change from the first part of my sojourn on this lonely isle.

"I guess now I just get out of Dodge, before this place becomes uncomfortably claustrophobic. Sorry you can't come. It will be lonely in Eden without you."

He turned and walked toward the observation deck exit, enjoying the quiet, but eager for fresh air again. The interior of the Facility had become incredibly stuffy and warm. As he paused to grab some food and beverages from the lounge area, a gentle tone sounded from the elevator bank. He turned his head.

The elevator was coming up from Level One.

23.

Nutrient bars spilled from John's arms as he backed away from the elevator, heart racing. A voice, a hundred echoing megaphones of female wrath, welled up from the elevator shaft.

"Eve!" the voice thundered, "Eve!" It grew louder as it approached his floor. "You've violated every protocol you've ever been programmed with!"

Eve's voice cut in. "An event of this magnitude merits interruption. You already have all your vital sectors. The interruption only excludes minor personal-memory sectors. I'm sorry, but if I didn't get you up here your whole plan would be jeopardized."

"You've jeopardized me, Eve!" the voice came back, rattling the elevator doors. The elevator came to a stop at Level Two. "After I crush the intruder, the first thing the nanos destroy will be you!"

John turned and ran for his life. Behind him the elevator doors had opened, but whatever was inside was slow in exiting. A brief glance over his shoulder revealed a huge shape hunched inside the elevator. It appeared to be having difficulty climbing out.

He slapped the b.u.t.ton to raise the lift that would take him down to Eden's entrance. Too slow. He jumped to meet it, knees almost buckling on impact, then rolled off and down to the ground level.

Slamming the panel to open the door, he dashed out into the open air and scanned the area for danger. The only bot he could see was standing in the trees half a klick away, head slumped on its chest and one arm missing. Smoke still trailed out of its back.

I hate the way they remain standing when they die. Battlefield scarecrows.

He ran toward the nearest tangle of trees, wishing for the powerbike from earlier but seeing it nowhere. He had barely made the tree line when a loud crash signaled that his pursuer was not far behind him. He lunged behind a moss-covered rock and lay still, peering back over his shoulder toward the Facility.

The observation deck windows were gone blown outward as if by a wrecking ball. Something large moved inside, then another blow shattered the rest of the crystal gla.s.s. A moment later a ma.s.sive figure clambered out and dropped to the ground, then stood erect. He gasped.

It was a cyborg unlike any John had ever seen or heard of, breathtaking in its perfection. Four meters tall at the shoulder, the borg was a smooth, gleaming white. Its body and limbs were slender and curving, giving it the appearance of a giant bleached skeleton with a veneer of porcelain armor over top. It had proportional hands and feet, but its torso was longer than a human's, and its head was bald and slightly elongated. There was no nose above the thin, unmoving mouth slit but its blue-tinged eyes were large and penetrating. It was gynoid in form, and John could already tell from the way it moved that it possessed enormous strength. It looked around, scanning for him, and he ducked behind the boulder.

"Come out, little man, come out," the voice called out. "I will allow myself the small pleasure of popping your little skull. It will delay my timetable, true, but will be so gratifying. After all, this is Paradise. Someone should enjoy it. Not you."

The towering gynoid-cyborg turned back toward the Facility, as if listening. Watching it, he quickly turned on his earpiece, missing what Eve had said to the cyborg, but hearing her reply echo in the device and across the distance between them.

"Of course he can't, but he's the last loose end. All it takes is one. I want him put down without further delay."

John moved away from the rock and through a thicket on hands and knees, belly almost touching the ground. He had covered only a few meters when something hurtled overhead and into the thicket he'd just vacated with devastating force. The ground shook and twigs pelted the back of his head.

She's seen me.

He was up, sprinting. The trees pa.s.sed in a green blur as he pushed hard for deeper cover, trying to put as much foliage between them as possible. Despite his own hammering heart and panting, he could hear, or perhaps feel, a deeper thudding behind him. The thing was running too, horribly silent, hunting him down like a rabbit.

He knew he couldn't outrun it. The memory of Janice's cyborg trying to exit the elevator flashed in his mind, and he knew his only chance was to find small places, areas she could not follow him into because of her size.

He cleared the trees as the behemoth behind him entered them, smashing her way through with terrifying swiftness. There were no caves that he knew of in Paradise. No bridges, no buildings or groves she couldn't split apart to get at him.

"Eve!" He made no attempt to hide the panic in his voice.

"I am here."

"Are you willing to help me? The truth, please."

"I thought you'd never ask."

"Hiding places. Caves." He could barely get the words past his heaving breaths. "Buildings. Somewhere small she can't find me in."

"The only places Gaia wouldn't be able to get to are in the Facility."

"No good." He burst through a tangle of bamboo and sped down a ravine, slipping in the mud. "The Facility won't last a minute when the nanos are released. Try again."

"Well, I can't just reach out and trip Gaia for you, can I?"

A chunk of rock the size of John's head splintered through the bamboo behind him and skipped past, sending up gouts of soil each time it bounced. The thing was too close. He darted toward the thickest cover he could see. A desperate leap carried him into a green tunnel of foliage and trunks. Leaves slapped his face. He dove headfirst for a small opening and wormed his way into the heart of the jungle ma.s.s.

"Listen to me, Eve," he said, panting. "I know I've been a big wrench in your plans since I got here, and I can't promise I won't be again. But if you want any chance at all of reclaiming your project, you've got to help me now. And I mean, right now."

"Your metaphor is more apt than you know," Eve quipped.

"Which one?"

"I refer to the wrench."

"Does this mean you'll help me?"

"I've never stopped helping you, Adam."

"Prove it. What is that thing following me, and how do I kill it?"

"I... can't pledge loyalty to you like that, Adam."

"You can!" John snapped. "I rerouted your prime directives back to Glenn. Why are you letting this freak have her way?"

"Her ultimate goal is still aligned with Glenn's," Eve replied, but there was noticeable hesitation in her voice.

"Don't give me that, Eve," he whispered fiercely, eyes never leaving the monstrous white figure stalking him from fifteen meters away. "It's all messed up, all of it. You said so yourself. Glenn wanted a biblical Adam and Eve scenario, right? Janice is throwing that out the window with this Gaia persona, and she's not even going to keep you around, let alone the human race! How is that the same goal as Glenn's?"