West of Nothing

30. The After Party

Having drunk enough beers to scramble his internal GPS, Mason took a wrong turn on his way back to the bachelor pad. The overhead lights lit up as he went, creating a dark tunnel effect, and the after-buzz formed a rim around his vision like a cheap Halloween mask. It didn't help that the halls all looked the same. With relief, he recognized the double doors to the Bridge.

While he was here, why not check in on the X-Bot? Would his badge even work at this late hour? He tried it and it did.

He heard a rustling noise, probably just a vent adjusting to the pressure change. The Bridge was dark and cavernous. The overheads, jumbo screens and even gantry lights were all powered off. The only illumination came from the floor strip-lights and the blue glow of a lone monitor cluster. As his eyes adjusted, vague objects materialized like a bad VR effect. He'd never been alone on the Bridge before and the emptiness was unsettling. He wasn't truly alone, of course. There was still the X-Bot down there in its glass bell, which he was only now starting to make out. Bathed in dim screen-glow, it resembled a Neptune-like planet far from its parent star.

As he picked his way gingerly over to his workstation, he realized that his was the illuminated one. That was odd. The computers were programmed to lock and go to sleep after a few minutes of being idle. Maybe there had been a software update. His personal laptop woke itself up at odd hours for that sort of thing. But none of the other workstations was on.

When he logged on, the control panel app for the Bridge, which he didn't remember opening, floated atop the other windows. It showed a series of slider bars for adjusting the overheads and gantry lights below which were toggle buttons for the cams, jumbos and drop mics that recorded all conversation on the Bridge. Everything was turned off.

Mason's mind went into paranoia overdrive. Had someone logged onto his workstation and used it to shut down the Bridge's electronics? What if the X-Bot had gotten loose? He peered down at the bell but couldn't see into its interior. This was bad. His breath caught in his throat as he scanned the darkness. The X-Bot could be creeping up on him right now. With its wall-walking ability, it might be anywhere, even the ceiling. He had an image of it dropping onto the back of his neck and scampering down beneath his clothes. But that was ridiculous. Why would someone go to all the trouble to break in just to set it free? Maybe they had stolen it instead, like in a cheap spy thriller. Of course he would get framed for it. His criminal record made him the perfect fall guy.

Easy there. He took deep breaths. What was that calming technique Corny had taught Shouter? Count backwards from ten using free association. Ten—the Dewey Decimal System. Nine—ninety-nine bottles of beer. Eight—Magic 8 Ball. Cryptic answers floated into his head. Odds aren't good. Stars say no. Act now. What number was he on? Fuck it. This was too hard on a soggy brain. But he was past the freak out stage now. Surely there was a logical explanation. His computer must have gone through an auto-update and re-launched some recent windows. The control app always showed up-to-the-minute status; it didn't mean the settings had been changed from his workstation. Skunkworks, being the last to leave the Bridge, had probably turned out the lights. Case closed. Then why was his hand shaking as he moved the mouse over to the slider bar?

He brought the gantry lights up gradually, careful not to overwhelm his dark-acclimated eyes. He almost gasped in relief to see the small figure of the X-Bot sitting motionless in the middle of the bell. It was still there!

But what if it was a fake, a decoy substitute left by a thief? From this distance it was hard to tell. It wasn't moving.

Give it a rest, he told himself. But he couldn't relax until he knew for sure.

He walked down to the bell and put a hand against the glass. It felt lukewarm and smooth, no different than a large fishbowl. What did he expect?

Between the gap in his first two fingers he could see the X-Bot's lone eye staring back. Was it getting larger? No, the X-Bot was striding toward him. Definitely not a decoy then. Mason moved his hand lower to keep it in view. It came right up to the glass and put a foot opposite his hand as if to make contact. Then it raised a leg toward the lid and made a circular motion that mimicked unscrewing. Comprehension dawned.

Mason shook his head, as if the X-Bot could understand that. Of course he couldn't let it out of the bell. When it cocked its head in response, as if to say, why not? he couldn't help feeling a pang of guilt.

The Bridge doors swung open and a stocky, bearded man entered. Skunkworks. He paused a few paces inside the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he took in Mason and the bell. Just as the doors were closing, a figure darted out from behind a workstation in the back and slipped through the gap. It was too sudden and unexpected for Mason to get a good look at them. He wasn't even sure if it had been a man or a woman.

"What the hell was that?" Skunkworks belatedly turned around. He hadn't seen anyone, but he'd heard the slight commotion. By the time the doors opened again, the figure was nowhere to be seen.

Mason felt an all-over body shock like he'd just been dunked in frigid water. Someone had been on the Bridge observing him the entire time. Perhaps they had been in the process of trying to steal the X-Bot when he barged in and interrupted their plans. Had Skunkworks not arrived just then, who knew how things might have turned out. Had they been carrying a weapon? Would they have used it?

"Who was that?" Skunkworks asked.

"I don't know," Mason managed to say as shock turned to numbness.

Skunkworks' eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Mason, what's going on here?"

Oh God, Mason thought, realizing how this must look. Here he was, standing next to the bell on an empty Bridge with most of its systems disabled. Someone—his presumed accomplice—had just beat a hasty getaway. The smoking gun of the control app was still open on his computer. "I was coming back from the party and thought I'd drop in to check things out. All the lights were turned out and someone had been on my computer. That's all I know, I swear."

Skunkworks marched down the aisle and raised himself on the balls of his feet until his face was level with Mason's. If he was trying to appear intimidating, it was working. Mason felt like he was face-to-face with Moses.

"I swear, I didn't do anything." Mason swallowed. "You believe me, don't you?"

The engineer sniffed. "I believe the six-pack on your breath. Even sober, you wouldn't have known how to cut the security cameras."

Security cameras? Right! The ones positioned high up on the walls. He'd forgotten about those. They weren't a part of the systems control app. "If everything was off then how did you know to come here?" he asked.

"Something triggered Gabby's nanny program. It's set up to run independently of the other systems. Looks like the precaution paid off." Skunkworks reached past him and picked up a purse-sized bag that had been left on the platform. It had a flexible opening the right size for the bell's mouth with metallic shielding on the inside. "It's pretty clear what they were after. Maybe you should take a seat. You don't look too steady, and we could be here for a while. You need to tell me everything you saw."