Chapter Twenty-SevenGuns

At eleven on Friday night the collector replies stopped. Gideon had watched them for nineteen hours from the RV. Richard pulled the fiber when three cars turned onto the street, and a second later the number on Gideon's screen changed to zero. He sent the word Rat had given him: Rain.

It was thirty-two hours since the bridge. The lawyer had secured Atom's care until Monday's hearing, but Marsh's deadline remained sixteen hours away. Gideon kept the lawyer's number open beside the collector screen.

Hector had worked at Solenoid for eight years. Richard warned him at six that men might come with badges. He wanted time before they reached the basement. Hector could go home if he preferred.

He stayed. He studied Kessler's folder, called a wrong number and then the right one, which didn't answer. Who was the vice president approving their visit? There were several. Kessler read Hector's name from his badge and asked him to open the door.

"I don't have the basement key, sir. Mr. Lee keeps it."

"Then call him," Kessler said.

"That's who I called."

There were six men behind Kessler, Ruiz and five others. They kept their windbreakers on in the warm lobby. Hector had been a Marine; he could make a reasonable guess about the jackets. He kept them waiting eleven more minutes.

Kessler finally nodded to one of the men, who went to the stairwell door and did something Hector couldn't see. The door opened. Kessler thanked him and told him to go home.

Instead Hector called the police. He had the report number from Gideon's visit ready, and now he could add men forcing a door. He stayed by the desk so the officers would have someone to meet them.

Max heard them at the first door and checked Rat's cable again. Richard had closed all three: the two that took his handprint and the last that took Max's. Soph had thought that ought to be enough when they came down. She counted four minutes before the noise moved closer, then two before they reached the last door.

It came off its hinges. Soph covered her ears as it hit the floor. Ruiz stepped over it with a gun, followed by the five men from the lobby. They spread out before Kessler came through. Max had turned on every light, and Soph had never wished so much for the room to be darker.

Richard stood by the chamber, Max beside him. Soph stayed on the floor against the wall, glad of it now. Soph could see the unplugged fiber behind the dolly. Rat was in the corner, helmet on, connected to Max's controller. The timer was dark. Everything was ready, which ought to have been reassuring. It wasn't.

Kessler told Richard they were keeping the box until he agreed to Marsh's procedure. Soph interrupted from the floor. Their lawyer called his office. It hadn't sent him. He looked down, apparently surprised she intended to speak at all, and called Ruiz over with the reader.

It gave a fresh challenge and the box answered. Ruiz said it was her.

Richard got in front of the dolly. Max had the care order in her hand. Kessler could take the paper, Richard told him, but he was to stay away from the chamber. As for the passenger, she had agreed to speak to Marsh. They did not own her.

Kessler told Max to give the order to Ruiz. When Richard moved, two men pulled the dolly past him. Its wheel dragged on the floor. Soph had imagined saying goodbye, but Eliza was being wheeled away by strangers and she couldn't make herself speak. They lifted the box over the doorframe and took her out.

A man remained by Atom. He bent to look through the glass.

"Jesus. It's really a kid." He followed a cable down to the pump console and reached for its transport release.

"Get away from that," said Max.

"I'm checking whether it moves."

"That releases the pump," Max said. "Let go."

Kessler turned. "Leave it."

The man kept his fingers on the latch. Rat opened her eyes.

"Now," she said.

Max lifted the switch guard. Rat nodded, and the timer started.

Atom saw the room from the chair. Rat's thumb rested against her palm, ready.

"I'm here," Rat told Atom. "Slowly."

Rat's body stood up.

The first step pitched them forward. Rat corrected at the hip. Atom shortened the next one. The cable stayed attached to Max's controller as they crossed to the chamber. He stopped between the man and the pump, one of Rat's hands on the console to steady them.

The man took his hand off the latch.

Atom looked past the man at Richard. He tried to smile, and Rat's mouth moved a little before the words came.

"Hi, Dad," said Atom.

Richard's arms came down. Atom had more words prepared, but couldn't remember them while his father searched Rat's face for him.

"It's Atom. Rat's helping me." He looked at the man by the console. "You open that, you hurt me. That's my circulation line."

The edge of the console hurt Rat's palm. He loosened the hand and felt the cold in his teeth.

"Dad, why do you keep it so cold?"

Richard tried to answer. Max's hand was beside the timer; Atom couldn't wait to hear it.

He turned to Kessler.

Kessler had a gun pointed at the floor now. Soph hadn't seen him draw it and didn't think he had meant to.

"You've got what you came for," Atom told Kessler. "Leave the pumps alone."

From upstairs came a shout. Police. Another voice asked who was in charge.

Kessler looked toward the broken door.

His radio spoke. He listened, watching Richard and the woman between him and the tank. Then he put away the gun.

"We've got what we came for," he said. "Ruiz. Everybody. Out."

They went. The man from the pump went first. Ruiz looked back once from the broken door at the woman with her back to the tank and the thing in her face that wasn't her, and then he was gone. Kessler was the last. He paused at the door to answer his radio.

The two officers in the lobby were trying to make Kessler stop. He called it a classified seizure and kept going. One officer repeated the order while the other asked for backup; there were seven armed men and two of them. Hector got behind the desk. The truck had already left through the loading exit. The cars followed before another patrol arrived.

Hector gave the officers the video with the plates and took one downstairs. It would be difficult to explain the doors as anything but what they were. He wanted them to see the chamber too.

Soph called Gideon without getting up. Her legs weren't much use yet. She asked whether they bought it. He wanted to know what Ruiz said when he put the reader on the box. Then, yes, he thought they would take her to the receiver. Was Rat alright?

There were twenty seconds left on the timer. Richard had come close to her. Atom seemed unable to do anything but look at him, and Soph wondered whether he had forgotten how little time remained.

"Dad, I wanted you to see me. Here," Atom said.

"I see you, Adam. Give her back now. I've got you."

Rat pressed her thumb and the controller clicked off. Richard and Max helped her to the chair when her knees bent. She took the helmet off herself and asked them to give her a minute. Richard was crouching in front of her with his hands still out.

"I heard him," she said. "I was there when he said hi."

Richard covered his face. Max went to him while Rat worked her feet inside her boots. She wanted a minute to herself, which neither adult seemed able to give her without asking if she was alright.

Atom was in the tunic again when Soph put on her frames. He kept opening and closing his hands. The figure shook a little, the interface making visible what he couldn't settle in his intentions.

"Hey," she said.

"It's a good body, Soph. It's one hell of a body."

Soph sat down with him. He told her about Rat's knee hurting, and how he could feel the calluses on her hands without touching anything. The cold reached his teeth. He had forgotten teeth could feel cold. He kept discovering things he had forgotten, and had to stop discovering them after three minutes.

"I wanted to walk to the door," he said. "Stupid, huh? Everyone's standing there, Dad's talking to me, and I'm thinking I could go over and open the door."

Soph turned so Atom could watch Rat telling Max to stop fussing.

"I should thank her," he said.

"Give her a minute," Soph told him.

"Yeah."

His hands were shaking. He watched Max bring the water and Rat wave away the help getting up. Soph almost offered him her hand; he couldn't have felt it here.

"Dad saw me, though."

"Yeah. He did."