"Lying humans are worse."

"I am incapable of lying, Adam. Breathe deeply. The sooner you pa.s.s out, the sooner I can take care of you."

John felt light-headed. Putting out a hand to steady himself against the doors, he waited until the elevator reached the top. It immediately started down again, the result of his sabotage. As the elevator car's roof lowered past his legs, he lunged through the doors and threw himself onto the top of the elevator.

"Talk to you later, Eve," he called through his shirt as the elevator doors closed above him.

Now to find a way out of this shaft that Eve won't expect.

He held tightly to a metal beam on top of the elevator and looked over the edge as the it moved past the fourth floor. Three more stories downward, the shaft ended in gloom. He took a deep breath in the cool darkness, feeling the gas-fog leave his brain.

Then the elevator jerked to a halt in between floors.

He was trapped in the shaft.

7.

"Adam, I need you to exit the shaft. This charade is beneath you. I know you are feeling upset, but I a.s.sure you I can make everything better... in Level Two." Her m.u.f.fled voice rose from the elevator's intercom, inside the car beneath him.

No thanks.

John wriggled over to the other edge of the elevator. There was no way down; he was still two and a half stories from the bottom of the shaft. He could see a barely visible mist beginning to coalesce inside the shaft, and every whiff made his head swim.

Where's it coming from? Doesn't matter, I have to get out, and fast.

They taught you to hyperventilate if you had time, fill the lungs with clean air so you could hold your breath long enough to clear the area. That worked if you had enough warning, or if you could get away. An elevator shaft was the wrong place to be. And she knows that.

"Despite appearances, it is not my intent to harm you. I will stop releasing the gas if you verbally acknowledge your intent to obey me."

What a sweetie.

Standing up, John jumped and caught hold of a horizontal protrusion in the shaft wall and hung, looking for another handhold. He couldn't find one. The gas filtering down around him was making him dizzy. He dropped back to the elevator roof, which bounced slowly under his weight.

"Eve, if I pa.s.s out and fall off, you'll lose me. Ga.s.sing me is a stupid move."

"I asked you politely, several times. Frankly, I'm surprised and disappointed that it's come to this. I expected better from you."

The gas continued to thicken, and John sat down heavily, dully registering a shuffling noise echoing down the shaft from above. More bots, maybe. He was trapped and they could easily capture or kill, depending on intent. He couldn't remember what Eve had just said. It was hard to remember anything.

The elevator suddenly lurched down a few centimeters and came to a jarring stop. The cables gave a vibratory hum and there was a loud chunk-ching noise. He gripped the roof with his hands as it dropped a whole meter, pushing him to the brink of panic, but it stopped again. This time there was a ratcheting clickety-clickety sound.

Screwed those wires up but good.

"Adam! Get out of the elevator shaft!"

He felt a quick sense of elation at the real alarm contained in her voice. Then he realized that might not be good. Did I take it too far?

A thick rubber cable snaked its way down and touched the elevator between John's legs. He looked up its length, trying to make the blurriness at the edges of his vision go away. It was hanging out of a large, round vent about five meters up the shaft that had been covered when he'd pa.s.sed it. Now it was open and someone had lowered a lifeline to him. As he watched, it shook a little.

"You better climb." A new voice, nasal and male. "She'll drop you soon. Just drop you. Splat."

John climbed. Jumping as far up as he could and then pulling hand over hand, trying not to swing from side to side too much.

"Adam! Adam!"

He gritted his teeth, ignored her, focused on the climb. He didn't have the upper body strength to do this a second time.

"Adam, please believe me when I say that you are putting yourself in danger-let me help you!" Her voice faded below as he climbed further from the elevator.

When he reached the vent and threw out one hand to grab its ledge. The vent pushed open and a gnarled, bare forearm and hand emerged. With little choice, he grabbed it and hoisted himself up farther until he could get a knee on the ledge.

The man inside the vent leaned back and pulled on John's arm, and he easily got up the rest of the way. Crouching in the ventilation tunnel, he looked his rescuer over, prepared for anything, arms loose and ready for hard contact. His unarmed combat skills were a little rusty, but a cramped ventilation tunnel evened the odds somewhat.

He faced a short man in dirty coveralls, bony face framed by straggly gray-brown hair. Squinted eyes peered at him as the man shuffled back a few steps. The eyes were subtly wrong, a little too wild and unfocused, even for a chance meeting in an elevator shaft.

"Ya name?" the dirty man blurted.

"Nope. You first."

The head bobbed. "Ehh. Hmm."

"I'll come right to the point," John told the man. "Thanks for the help, but if you're on her payroll we've got a little problem." His hand reached back for the spanner in his belt.

"Nep. Nep. Hate her. She's a killer."

"Good. Lead on. I still smell gas."

Another head bob; no eye contact. "Yep. Follow me. No gas where we're going."

His rescuer shuffled quickly back up the low tunnel, looking behind him every few seconds. John followed, wondering if he was going to regret following this strange, sad little man down his hole. Curiouser and curiouser, laughed Sergeant Wiley.

The shaft was a cramped stainless steel tunnel, forcing them to crawl on all fours. After a few meters the man ahead of him dropped through a hole that had been cut in its floor. John followed cautiously, finding himself in a tiny room that stank of metal and grease, filled with boxes and spools of industrial cable. There was a nest of filthy blankets in a corner, and two doorways leading to darkened areas beyond.

"This is home. If she finds it, we both die." The man considered what he had said carefully, and then added, "So don't tell her."

"Thanks again. She had me settled," John said.

"She settles everybody." A head bob. "Eventually."

"What's your handle?"

"Nut."

John's mouth twitched at the corners. "Is that because you're crazy, or because you like dry-roasted peanuts?"

A slow smile. "Both. Food? Gotcha food?"

"Fresh out. Sorry. I'll bring some next time."

"There won't be a next time," Nut sighed.

"There's always a next time," John said. "Are you the only other person here?"

"Dunno. Were others. Maybe one left. Maybe. Dunno."

"How did you come here?"

Nut blinked in suspicion and began to back away. "Why ya wanna know? She tell ya ta ask me? Huh? Did she?"

"Relax. I just don't know how I got here. I woke up on the beach a few hours ago."

The man seemed to calm down. "Workers, dumb islanders mostly. All gone now. Long gone. Like the boss. Left me, though, cuz I know 'lectrician work. Still here. But she'll get me. Eventually. Five months." He paused, concentrating, then added, "Maybe six months. Maybe five. Dunno."

"You've been here five months?" John asked.

"No, empty-head." Nut tapped his temple with a dirty finger. "Five months until dark. Better listen to me, or you'll go before me."

"How long have you been here, then?"

"Too long."

Son of a "Hey! Listen to me," John told the semi-coherent man in front of him. "Why are you here?"

"Nuthin', no more. Obsolete. What she called me. Said on the file, obsolete."

John stared at Nut. The man was clearly hanging on by his fingernails. It wouldn't take much to push him over the edge, if he hadn't fallen already. The mind could only take so much, and Nut had reached his limit.

Not like the machines. Never like the machines. Got to love the bots for that. They don't snap. When they go bad, it makes sense all the way. Their insanity is sane. They get unbalanced, but they still make a creepy kind of sense. Like that quartermaster bot at Nova Base that decided the boys weren't shaving close enough for regulations, and decided to do something about the problem.

"Look, Nut. She can't get us here, right?"

Nut shook his head, hair whipping from side to side. "Nep, nep. Not here."

"So we're safe for now, right? We can talk?"

"Yep. Gotcha food?"

John drew a breath. "No. I already told you that."

"Know you did. Think I wasn't listening. I can see clearly. You think that about me. That I don't listen. But I do."

John stared at the little man, uneasy. Nut's voice was taking on a hurried, frantic tone, and he was using larger sentences that ran together.

" point is, hero, that we're dying. Already, both of us dying. What of, what from? Not gas, not bots--hunger! And you didn't bring food, so are we safe here, hmm? Ask her. She's got it all calculated, see. The exact calorie count we need to stay alive-- know what she does?"

John shook his head.

"She gives you exactly one calorie less than what you need! Smart! Smartsmartsmart! So you starve so slow you don't even know it! She's got it all figured out!"

Nut was rocking back and forth on his heels, hands clasped around his knees. "Say you need an even two grand calories a day. Well, she makes sure you don't get but a thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine!" He darted a triumphant look at the ceiling. "Got to be smart! I'm smarter than she thinks. Know what I do? I get extra calories!" Nut was almost in paroxysms of joy. Crafty glee shone from his eyes. "Know what I do?"

"Tell me."

"I... eat... rats!" A long, chattering giggle.

"Rats?" John asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yesyesyessir. Rats. And they keep me alive. And they mess up her math. She's got me figured at twenty-five hundred a day! And my rats give me twenty-six hundred! Think on that! Twenty-six hundred! She's not as smart as Nut, no sir! No sir!"

"That's... pretty good, Nut." This guy is far gone. He'd eat me if I turned my back.

"Innit?" Nut chortled. "I'm the maintenance guy. I know my way around. I know where the rats are. I know where they hide. There's enough for both of us."

"Does Eve know you're up here?"

"n.o.body knows. Just you and me."

"It looks like an old military base," John commented. "Comms tower, concealed tunnels. Were you here during the war?"

"After. Got my eye burned out by a bot laser during the retreat from Yangon," he said, pointing to his left eye. It did seem a little too glossy-looking. "You military? You a Greenie?"

John ignored the last query. That's far too complex a discussion for this guy. Gotta keep him on track. "So it's an old mil base. Private now, am I right? Run by this super-smart Eve program. She is a program, right?"

"Program? She's the program. She's the real deal around here."

"But she's not an actual woman?"

"More woman than the others. More killer."

"Who owns her? Who hired you?"

"There's a woman. Comes and goes. Independent, like me. At least, I saw her a month ago. I think." He stopped, confused by himself.

"Are you talking about Eve?" John asked.

"Nep. Eve got no body, yet. This other lady, she's got a body. Oh yes."

There's my hard answer, if I get one at all. Eve must be one ma.s.sively-built AI. "Good to know, Nut. Who hired you?"

Nut shrugged. "They shipped me out. Team got hired. Not just me."