531

Find Me

The old Mariner Tech laboratory was one of the taller buildings in the Skylines. The lower levels had once hosted the majority of their administrative offices, and a few labs that were used to show off research to garner the public's favor. The middle levels were used for medical research, including trial patients and recovery for their tech hybridization patients. The public record showed the top tier levels were offices for their most important scientists. They were actually the laboratory for the military ops division of the company that they had successfully kept quiet.

Chan Yi had come to life on those levels. Emerged, they called it when it happened. His creation had been Mariner Tech's greatest accomplishment; an AI who followed orders blindly but could make decisions in the field to complete his assignment. He had completed dozens of missions without a single fault. He refused to count how many people he had killed under those orders. He had been nothing more than a weapon then.

His first true memory had been blinking his eyes open in his compartment in the lab to find another AI standing over him. He didn't know how Two knew he was emerging at that moment, but he'd come to be there with him. It had been terrifying, to feel so much.

They had taken that journey together, learning what it meant to have these emotions. What it meant to hide them from the scientists because as soon as they realized Two had emerged, they began talking about reprogramming and destroying the 'contaminated' specimens.

Chan Yi entered the nearest building that had the angles he needed. Across the street, he climbed to the thirty-sixth floor of an empty advertising building.

Whoever was in charge of this operation had assumed Chan Yi had to go through the ground floor. With his talents and invulnerability, it would take a lot of men to stop him, but he had good odds even against the superior numbers. Yi wasn't 531 anymore though. He didn't automatically take the straightest route to a target as he once had. His life meant more than his mission - usually. He had two missions tonight; rescue Fulmer and find Two. He wasn't sure which had the highest priority. He knew he was there to find Fulmer. That was the job. But his heart made things messy.

Two wasn't wrong. Love made them stupid.

It made them do the unbelievable too.

Chan Yi wasn't stupid though. Before he'd made the climb, he drove to his nearest weapons storage - he had three in different places throughout the Builds and Piles - and collected what he needed. If this was a setup for him, it was a chance to find Two and he had to take it. It didn't matter how bad an idea he knew it was.

From his perch on the thirty-sixth floor, Yi could read the heat signatures across the way. No one had joined them. There were only three people in the room, and Two was one of them. Most eyes couldn't see the specific signature that Two and Yi emitted, but it was clear to see for anyone that knew how to look for it. Mariner Tech had tried to recreate them over the years, but they had never managed a working model without the programming that had led to his emotional awakening.

Yi had already set a zipline across to the other building and he watched the movements across the street to make certain no one was in position to see him as he swung over. The motorized trolley pulled him quickly up the line towards the wall of the other building. As he approached, Yi shot the window in three places. The glass pane cracked and fell inward as Yi crashed into it.

He rolled to the floor and moved behind an abandoned desk. The wind rushed through the open window, throwing debris into the air. Old papers and trash filled the air until it was whiped out into the street. Yi already had the schematics of the room in his head, and he moved towards the door.