Insomnia

46

Esme laid 412 to rest. The combat bot was crumpled on the floor outside of the security office. Its legs had given out after taking a final barrage of bullets for her.

"Okay," she muttered. "Let's get in there."

They had restored Oz's access to the internal network and he'd locked the Knightmare out from the building's systems, but they'd been unable to unlock the doors from this end.

Devoe stepped forward and punched the metal door. It dented. Another blow. A hole opened. She ripped up the edges of the opening like an orange peel, making a human sized gateway. Esme stepped through.

Oz was slumped in a single office chair in front of several screens, each displaying the view from a security camera. He swivelled towards them, eyes wide and relieved.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" he exclaimed.

"Start talking," Esme said, folding her arms. She'd already made up her mind not to give him any show of feeling. Not anger, not relief or compassion, nothing. After what he'd done, she'd be damned if she gave him anything more than a cold stare.

Oz's face grew grim.

"Alright. Where do I begin?"

"Who are you?" Esme asked. "What do you have to do with any of this?" Her face grew hot with anger as she spoke, but she kept her features neutral.

He sighed before getting up from his chair. "It'll be easier if I show you."

They walked through the hallways. Through a wide glass window, Esme could see the long sweeping lawns hundreds of feet below them. Making it to the top of the tower had been one of the most grueling experiences of her life. Her shoulder stung from where 412 had sewn her up. One of the stitches had come undone.

The remains of combat bots littered the once clean hallways. Devoe had stacked some of them in neat piles to use as barricades as they fought their way to the top. Burn marks from missed electric pulses marred the tiles. They were careful not to step on any of the glass shards.

They reached a pair of double doors at the far end. Oz bent down and placed his eye in front of the retinal scanner. It whirred for a few moments before unlocking. They walked through. The lights in the ceiling activated automatically. A long hallway connected to a series of small rooms. Through the windows, Esme could see reclining chairs - like the ones in old dentist offices. Attached to the headrests were helmets with wires jutting out. Most had been cut, several were singed at the ends.

"The real lab," he explained. "Where I did my actual work."

"Are those Somnus receivers?" Devoe asked, pointing to the helmets.

"Yeah. Kind of. We had a localized, smaller version of the system in our servers here. For testing new features."

He stepped into a conference room. There was a whiteboard on the far wall. Esme could make out a few smudged words.

Id.

Memento Mori.

Trust.

Fear.

Betrayal.

Oz sighed and left the room.

"You saw my files I assume," he said. "Back at my house? On the original purpose of Somnus?"

"Yeah," Devoe replied. "To heal psychological damage. A kind of therapy."