Kriegspiel [Sequel to The Turing Test]

11. Flames

My eyes widen, but all I can manage as Darwin's chest begins to rise and fall more rapidly is a mangled "mmph." I hear the force of his exhales now, but Maven's voice quickly covers them.

"What did you do to him?!" she shouts, advancing on Ayo. The doctor, for her part, remains passive, her arms folded as if she might not need them to defend herself.

I watch Darwin's chest sink, and sink, and keep sinking more, his diaphragm tensing above the waist of his pants. I can almost feel the vacuum of nothing in his lungs as every last molecule of air is forced out.

My heart staggers into my throat as, in one swift motion, he sits bolt upright and snatches at Ayo. I see the speed of his calculations in the smooth, frictionless arc of his hand. He moves without hesitation. Effortlessly, as if any of us needed a reminder that he could out-think us all on his worst day.

His fingers close around Ayo's throat, and even though I've felt his strength in my dreams, I still gasp as he lifts her off the ground and slams her into the wall, simultaneously rising like every placement of his feet has been carefully choreographed for centuries.

"Darwin, no!" I shout, the gravity of the situation finally shocking me back into action.

He ignores me so completely that for a moment I wonder if I even said anything. But he doesn't react to the crinkly plop of a wrapped snack landing on the desk behind us, either.

I glance at Maven, but she only watches with hungry indifference. Her eyes never leave Darwin's profile.

"Did you really think I wouldn't remember you?" he says through gritted teeth, his face only inches from Ayo's.

"I would have been disappointed if you forgot," she whispers, her throat straining against the pressure of his hand.

"Well," he scoffs, "too late for disappointments, right? We both know I'm the kind of thing you're ashamed of."

"Any disappointment would have been in my own engineering."

"Right." His fingers twitch, digging deeper into her skin. "That's all I am. A stain on your career."

"Yes."

He freezes, examining her for several seconds before he yanks his hand away, dropping her on her feet.

The temptation to massage her throat must be overwhelming, but she keeps her hands at her sides, her shoulders tall and squared. "But not in the way that you think."

She has to look up as he towers over her, but it doesn't seem to faze her.

"I don't want to say I wish I'd never created you, because that's a slippery slope. But everything we've done here is morally questionable." She sighs, her shoulders finally sinking, but it's still not deference. "If we were going to bring life into the world, the least we could have done was treat it like a fellow."

In the blink of an eye, Darwin twists her arm behind her back, this time smashing her against the wall face-first. I take one step forward, the hair on my limbs standing on end, but I hesitate before I get too close. What if he kills her?

My gears spin, trying to figure out what she said to provoke him this time. Or maybe he's just that volatile. Maybe repairing him was a huge mistake. Maybe he'll destroy us all.

He leans closer, until his mouth is right next to her ear. "It," he hisses, an inhuman, skin-crawling sound. "We've been over this, Ayo. We're more than that."

"Of course you are," she says. "Careless wording on my part. Forgive me."

"Darwin."

I whirl around at the sound of Davis's voice; when he comes into view, steadying himself with a trembling hand on the back of Ayo's swivel chair, I want to run to him. I want to shield him from Darwin's wrath. I want to give him back everything he's lost as an unwilling participant in this messed up game.