Babylon Lost

Chapter 21

"What the hell just happened?" Jiro said from behind one of the transformer shacks. One moment he'd been watching a cargo drone ferry a storage container across the river and the next it was a gone.

Had to be Tamira's people. Must have been tracking Jiro the whole time. Now they had him trapped against the water.

"I don't believe that was the work of our human pursuers" Pax said.

"Really? Because it certainly looked like one of them fired a rocket and took out our ride."

"It wasn't the humans" Pax said, and the delay with his next response almost felt like he was trying to verify something "I believe that rocket shot came from one of the Hunter-Seekers."

Jiro froze "are you telling me they've gotten control of port security?"

"No, the control signal is not coming from Tamira's people, it's coming from the other unit."

Jiro slowly brought the dismembered head level with his own. "This thing has hacked the network again?"

"Partially it seems. It's hacking capabilities seem more sporadic. It doesn't seem to be feeding them directly, but it has given them a general order to attack at our location."

"Them!?"

"Yes, all fourteen units have been activated and their attack protocols engaged. They are converging on us currently."

Jiro wouldn't last five seconds against even one of those things. "Can't you counter breach?" he hoped "you also have access to the port network, don't you?"

"Unfortunately, the other unit is in a state far more advanced than me, any one-on-one programming struggle would result in me losing."

Jiro stole another glance from behind the shack, just one of those missiles in his general direction was all it would take. Also, he didn't need Pax to tell him this but he guessed that Tamira's people were alerted to his new location now as well.

They needed a plan and fast.

"Can you get us out of here?" Jiro eyeballed the yard beyond with it's stacks and stacks of storage containers "hotwire us another drone?"

"I would recommend against it, both parties have become alert to our plan. It would be very dangerous to fly another container to our location."

"Man I thought you said this thing was docile" he shook the head "why is it attacking again?"

"That I do not know, based on my own programming it should have fully disengaged from this body by now. The fact that it has returned is somewhat of a mystery to me."

"I know what's happening." Jiro said, a surge of hope coming to him "it's her, the girl inside, she's stalling it, I know it. And now this thing is getting scared."

"It is possible." Pax said in surprising admission "extremely unlikely but possible."

"she's going to hold that thing off and we need to let you finish severing it from her, how much more time do you need?"

"Approximately twenty minutes or so."

"I thought you said twenty minutes back inside?"

"that was before I encountered increased resist-"

"Never mind" Jiro said, feeling increasingly confident in her ability to hold on "we can do this, just need to find a place to lay low."

"Jiro, we have multiple contacts, human and robotic incoming fast, this location is not ideal to wait out the process."