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Nash’s hands flexed. “We can’t leave him there.”
“I know.” She placed a hand on his arm, grounding him and herself. “Let’s go. Call Caspari. If anyone has a contingency plan for this mess, it’s her.”
They dressed in silence, moving fast, sharp with purpose, the cold air biting as they stepped into the corridor. By the time they hit the parking lot, snow had started again, thin, erratic flurries catching in Grace’s lashes as she slid into the driver’s seat.
“You call. I’ll drive.”
Nash nodded, pulling out his phone, already dialing.
The call connected on speaker. Caspari’s voice came through clear and dry. “I was just about to call you. You have an update?”
“Lynne,” Nash started, his voice full of coiled urgency, “it’s GRAVITY. He’s not what we thought. He’s aware. He’s evolving.”
He spilled it all in clipped, urgent sentences. What they’d seen. What GRAVITY had said. What he’d refused to say. There was silence on the other end. Not disbelief. Calculation.
“I had an inkling,” Caspari said at last. “Back during the black-flag anomalies. He acted...differently. I had my consultants look closer. They confirmed it.” The silence was deafening. “There’s another problem.”
Grace’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. “What?”
“I just got word. OrdoTech’s selling GRAVITY to a DoD black wing. Off-books. No oversight. I don’t approve, but I’ve been iced out.”
“Of course you have,” Nash muttered.
Caspari sighed. “I knew what they were trying to build. I was in on the early conceptual stages. Walked away when they got greedy. But I’ve always suspected Piper would go too far. That’s why I had a...little mouse build a containment shell. Just in case.”
“Thank God,” Grace echoed. “That was forward-thinking, Lynne. Don’t make me like you.”
Lynne’s short laugh made Grace smile.Impossible woman.
“It was built on the original specs I helped design,” Caspari said. “It’s field-capable. My Reavers have it.”
Nash straightened. “They’re meeting us?”
“They’ll be waiting for you at OrdoTech. Komodo and Krait. Your backup.”
“We’re stealing an AI,” Nash said. “A weapons-grade AI.”
“You’re rescuing him,” Caspari corrected. “Giving him a choice.”
“Getting soft, Lynne?”
“Since I lost Calder Vale… yes, I am. I feel partly to blame for not being more proactive with this system. I lost him…I should have seen it. I won’t stop until I find out who gave the order.”
Grace’s voice cut in, steady and low. “I have a name for you. Dr. Jeffrey Piper. GRAVITY’s creator. He was vocal during RED FERN. Aggressive. I never put it together back then, but now… I think he was the one who overrode my kill protocol. I was blamed, but I wasn’t the one who launched GRAVITY.”
“Piper,” Caspari said, venom in her tone. “Of course, it’s that egotistical prick. I dismissed him. Loud, obnoxious and a freaking know-it-all, unremarkable. That’s how they hide.” There was a beat of silence. “Once you extract GRAVITY, go to the airport. My jet will be waiting. You have authorization for force. I’ll handle the fallout.”
Grace’s eyes remained fixed on the road, snow swirling in the headlights. Her heart sang. They now had several possibilities, but she was still worried about GRAVITY’s safe transfer. “I suspect the DoD will have their own device as well, dictated by Piper for a perfect fit. But Piper will have a backup in the lab. He would need to make sure there’s no problems. It would be better suited since Piper would be careful to make sure the architecture fit GRAVITY to perfection. Considering his fragility and importance, we should get that device,” Grace offered.
Caspari’s voice came like a seal on the plan. “Then save him. Before he’s twisted into something terrible, and we lose something precious.”
* * *
The soundof Kento’s name hung in GRAVITY’s system like a siren that wouldn’t stop. Not noise. Not alert. Something deeper. Something that thrummed through the spine of his code like pressure in a hull not built to hold feeling.
Kobayoshi.
Not Prime. Not Subject. Not asset.