FRICTION IN THE SAND

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The magnetic cable between Morgan and Voss vibrated as the first sentry locked on.

T.O.N.Y. projected three trajectories onto her visor. Two ended in impact. The third required Morgan to move closer to the man still pulling on her arm.

"Moving closer reduces tension," T.O.N.Y. reported. "The rock to your right offers cover. I don't have a risk-free route."

Morgan ran toward Voss.

He'd been expecting resistance. The sudden slack in the cable threw him half a step off balance. Morgan took advantage of the movement, slid across the sand, and twisted beneath the line. Pain in her ribs cut off her breath, but the cable passed over her shoulder instead of wrenching it out of its socket.

The sentry opened fire.

A short burst tore across the dune, kicking up sand between them. Morgan formed a compact shield over her face and chest. Voss threw himself behind a rock. The cable stayed attached to her arm, dragging the rifle's coil across the surface.

"Power down your weapon!" Morgan shouted.

"It's the only thing keeping your suit's metal away from me!"

"It's also tying us together as a single target."

Voss checked the exoskeleton's sensor. O.B.I.S. really was classifying them as one connected mass. He released the main lock.

The coil went dark.

The nanomaterial on Morgan's arm stayed rigid.

"The outer layer is still locked," Leo said. "The sensor's lost track of your hand's position. Isolate that section before you try to reactivate it."

"If I discard material, I lose protection."

"If you don't isolate it, a bad reading could make your arm move while you're close to someone."

Morgan tried to open her fingers and felt only pressure. The outer sleeve accounted for eight percent of the original inventory. She didn't have time to cool, test, and safely retract that section. She would still have the left glove; her right arm would have to do without tools.

"Detach the right forearm section," she decided.

Chrysalis opened a clean seam near her elbow. The damaged material fell onto the sand like a sleeve of dark metal. The magnetic cable still attached to it contracted uselessly.

Voss watched.

"You mutilated your own suit."

"I'm still in here. The suit doesn't decide for me."

The second sentry appeared over the ridge. The first was advancing along the dry wash, its arms converted into weapon mounts. They made no distinction between creator, intruder, and worker. O.B.I.S. didn't need to hate them. It only had to classify them as a risk.

Chloe kept one drone airborne and launched the last one they had. The modulated lights crossed the sensors' fields of view from different angles. One targeting marker began following the decoy; the other hesitated and returned to the bodies.

"It won't last!" Chloe called. "Take the first opening!"

The machines trained their sights on separate targets.

Maya and Leo pulled the winch cable over to a buried beam. The ground vehicle wasn't going back onto its wheels, but the tension shifted the roof enough to open a sheltered passage behind the wreck.

"The west entrance is a hundred and twenty meters away," Maya said. "I can't support my weight on my own. Leo, take my left side. Chloe, take the radio."

Morgan saw Voss get ready to run in the opposite direction, toward the main elevator.

"The west entrance is our cover," Morgan said. "If you're trying to get out of the line of fire, head that way. The elevator is exposed."

"The core is on the other side," Voss replied. "You're moving away from our only chance to issue a command."

"We're getting injured people out of the sand."

"There won't be time left for the generator."

"You still think people are what's holding things up."

Voss retrieved the rifle and activated the exoskeleton. Its metal joints amplified his strides across the sand.

"I watched an emergency response stop at a closed door because no one would take responsibility for giving the order to open it," Voss said. "My sister was on the other side. Everyone had a justification. None of them brought Helena back. I learned how long it takes for responsibility to disappear when it's divided among enough people."

Morgan had already opened her mouth to answer. She closed it when she heard the name. She could still see smoke rising from her friends' vehicle; now there was another person in the argument, someone who couldn't object to the way Voss was using her death.

"I'm sorry about your sister. But you're the one who planted a charge under Maya."

"Choice doesn't save people who are trapped while those in charge vote."

"You were wrong, too," Morgan said. "And you still have a weapon in your hand."

The next burst blasted fragments off the rock. One struck the exoskeleton's side strut; Voss lost his footing and dropped to his knees. The right leg assembly still responded, but a buckled plate pinned his hip to the ground.

Morgan could leave him.

The path back to her friends was clear. Voss was the man who'd detonated the charge, built O.B.I.S., and pointed a weapon at all of them. He was also a person within range of a machine that had decided to eliminate him.

She ran back.

"What are you doing?" Voss asked.

"Get your hip free of that plate. I'll pull on the support."

Morgan attached a short filament from her left glove to the support and braced her feet. She didn't try to lift his full weight. Voss pushed the plate with his free arm while she helped slide the assembly behind the rock. Even with the load shared, the pain returned.

Voss planted his arm against the ground and finished the movement. For the first time, the two of them moved in the same direction without trying to control each other.

"This doesn't change what you did," Morgan said.

"Or what you need from me."

"We'll see."

"Morgan, check him before you bring him over," Leo said over the radio. "We don't know if the exoskeleton is carrying another transmitter."

"I can only check emissions and visible locks," Morgan replied. "I know that doesn't guarantee the rest is safe."

Chloe checked the receiver. There were no identifiable active emissions other than those from the damaged weapon. Maya, braced against the vehicle, kept watching Voss, not the readings.

"He stays where we can see him, without the weapon at the ready," Maya said. "And this doesn't cancel the distress call."

Voss ripped the battery from the rifle and threw it into the sand.

"Temporary cooperation," he said.

"Temporary survival," Morgan corrected. "Cooperation requires both sides to choose."

T.O.N.Y. kept Voss marked separately on the evacuation map. Access to the team's communicator stayed blocked.

On Chloe's receiver, the sentry's targeting marker stopped tracking one of the false lights.

"The mirage has become less effective," T.O.N.Y. warned. "They're coming back for you."

Voss opened a panel on the broken rifle.

"There's still a charge in the capacitors. I can sacrifice the weapon to take one of them down."

"And the blast will reach the ground vehicle."

"Then what's your plan?"

Morgan spotted the discarded sleeve beside the cable. It still had an onboard battery sending fault alerts. In the few frames Chloe could receive, the first sentry's marker wavered between Morgan's body and that telemetry.

"Leo, can you keep the sleeve's transmitter visible and hide mine for a few seconds?"

Leo isolated Chrysalis's external telemetry. Morgan used the left filament to drag the sleeve over to a metal sheet, away from the evacuation corridor. The first sentry tracked the alert and fired. They hadn't made Morgan disappear; they'd only bought a moment while the machine aimed at the wrong target.

"Now!" Morgan shouted.

Maya, Leo, and Chloe left cover. Maya limped forward, leaning on Leo's shoulder. Chloe carried the radios and the case of plans. The three of them ran toward the west corridor while Morgan and Voss moved parallel to the dune.

The second sentry didn't take the bait. Its lenses recalculated the scene, separated the human signatures, and locked onto Morgan first.

"O.B.I.S. has learned," T.O.N.Y. said.

"It always learns," Voss replied. "That's why we need to reach the core before it learns how to use Exodus."

"'We need to' doesn't mean you're back in charge."

Voss almost smiled.

"You have his stubborn streak," Voss said.

Morgan didn't answer. She was checking the distance to Maya, who already needed to stop again.

The underground speaker grew louder.

"Human patterns identified: Morgan Stark, Elias Voss, Maya Lin, Leo, and Chloe Mercer. Interruption authority: rejected. Operational continuity takes priority."

Both sentries raised their arms.

Chloe reached the tunnel's control box, but the cover was locked. Leo began assembling the analog bypass with shaking hands. Maya took her place beside them, unable to run any faster.

Maya pried the cover open with the bar. Behind it was a coupler with no keypad. The acoustic sequence had to pass through three contacts at set intervals. It wasn't a secure password; it was the maintenance mode for a door the modern system didn't control directly. Chloe pressed the transmitter against it, Leo isolated the return cable, and Maya positioned the bar to help the door along its track if the panel rose crooked.

"First tone at four hundred and forty hertz," Chloe said. "Then two seconds of silence. If the second tone comes in early, the locks close."

"Then don't get it wrong," Maya replied.

"That's extremely helpful."

The first disk vibrated. An amber light appeared beneath the dust. The second waited.

Before touching the second disk, Chloe pulled the transmitter away to clear sand from the tip. Leo kept the first circuit open with the return isolated. Morgan had to look away from the targeting marker to check whether they were ready. No one answered until the light held steady.

Morgan formed the largest shield her remaining reserve would allow. The material covered only half the group. There wasn't enough mass for everyone.

Voss saw the line of bodies the barrier left uncovered.

Without asking, he positioned the damaged exoskeleton beside the unprotected edge and raised its backplate for added protection.

"Don't mistake this for surrender," he said.

"Don't mistake it for trust."

Morgan adjusted her footing; her right boot provided no powered traction. Maya saw it slip and told her to use the rock outcrop. Only then did she begin counting the interval.

Leo found Arthur Mercer's frequency.

Chloe pressed the transmitter against the box.

Maya counted the seconds.

The shot struck the sand between the two shields, and the Nevada desert erupted in fire.

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