108. What Lies Ahead Chapter 29-Setup

Nick watched over me as I worked, chattering about this and that as I paid no attention, attempting not to strip any screws. When I'd pried the cranium back open, he fished out a flashlight from the desk we'd been working next to, shining it into the dark recesses.

Flecks of dust caught in the light, and I coughed on reflex.

Nick whistled. "Piece of crap." He sounded a little disappointed. He angled forward, trying to get a closer look. I backed off, letting him have at it. I'd already had my look the first time. "Let's see….that must be the processor…Oh, there's a fan–does it even work?...hmmm."

As Nick spoke, I could hear the tell-tale opening for Heirs boom from where Cove and the others hid in the living room. His speaker system was impressive, the base loud enough to rattle parts inside the robot.

"Is that supposed to be holding the hard drive in place?" Nick sounded offended as he watched the parts shake.

I squinted down at the tape that had long since frayed from a computer part I didn't recognize. "Looks like it. Is that the hard drive?" I was curious despite myself.

He stuck his thumb in, wiping off a layer of dust. With a little more squinting, I was able to recognize one of the newer solid-state drive formats. "Ah."

As there was nothing still actually holding it in place, he wiggled it loose and took it out. "Now, let's see if the programming is as shoddy as the setup."

He set the drive on the desk before walking over the grab the laptop that was sitting on the coffee table. Nick dug through the drawers of the desk once again, pulling out some kind of adapter. Connecting the drive to his computer, he flicked his computer off of sleep mode and scanned through the drive contents. A disappointed sigh escaped his mouth.

I tilted my head, curious. Nick caught the motion and angled the screen toward me. "They didn't bother to encrypt anything." He scrolled further down the programming. "Look, they even left notes." The mouse circled the aforementioned notes as he spoke.

"When Jack told me he wanted me to check out an evil robot, I thought I was going to take a look at a rogue A.I.," he said, sounding like he'd just been told Santa didn't exist, "I didn't expect something even a child could read."

I'd been banking on that exact fact, but I suppose I could see why he was disappointed. It just meant things would be easier for me.

"I thought I was going to have a challenge…" he muttered.

This format of programming was officially out of my depth. As he continued looking through, I started messing with my new phone, taking the time to finally set it up. Absorbed in my new task, it seemed only like minutes before Nick said, "Ah-ha!"

When I looked from my phone to check, I was surprised to notice that the sun had fully set during our time here. I pulled myself away to take a look.

There on the screen was a process clearly labeled "Robot_Tracking."

Well, I certainly appreciated the proper organization and labeling.

Between the two of us, it didn't take long to come up with a plan, and our grand scheme was made all the grander when we discovered all the robots could communicate and track each other.

As we parsed out the information in front of us, we also exchanged ideas on what to do with the robots. We knew there was a computer somewhere in the cave, and Nick pointed out that there had to be some way to recall the robots. In agreement, we decided that the quality of the robots most likely transferred to the security of the computer as well, and he handed me a simple bootable USB. I tucked it into my pocket, saving it as a just in case.

We stopped a few hours after eight when our eyes were strained from our views of the screens. "I can't hardly read anymore. Won't get anything done at this rate." Nick said, rubbing his tired eyes.

I turned off my phone screen and stood up, wincing as the blood flow returned to my calves with pins and needles. Nick, with bags bruising under his eyes, promised he'd have the program up and running by the next evening.

"I already had to develop a similar program to keep track of our truck and train routes. I'm just going to reuse the code anyway," he explained, pushing us out of his apartment with a tired grin. "I'll text you, Jack, when it's done."

He shut the door quietly behind us, and Jack led our way down the brightly lit corridors and back to his car outside. Mattie yawned as we climbed into what was becoming our usual spots, banging her hand lightly on the roof as she stretched. She yelped when a spider used the moment to attach itself to her hand.

Once she realized what had happened, she turned her hand as the spider ran across it, keeping it in her sight while rolling down the window. Once the window was open, she gently placed the spider on the outside of the car, watching to make sure it didn't escape back inside. Cove, behind her, rolled his window up.

Jack shot her a wistful smile and started backing out of the parking space. We'd hardly made it feet out before he slammed back on them, sending us all jolting forward. His head hit the wheel with a thump as a chorus of "What's wrong?" and "Everything okay?" broke out in the car.

Jack groaned. "We forgot the other one."

Mattie twisted so she could see Jack and me. "Why didn't we bring it in the first place?"

"Because being able to carry one of those is monstrous enough." Jack pointed out. "Normal people aren't that strong."

Mattie leaned back in her seat and shifted her gaze out the window, and I kept my mouth shut. We all knew who'd end up taking the robot up.

Cove opened his door. "Fine." He eyed Jack. "I just have to bring it to Nick, right?"

Jack gave him a grateful smile. "Yeah."

As he walked away, I felt torn. On the one hand, my lack of magic abilities was rehabilitating. Although we hadn't had the time, whenever someone asked Cove to do something I technically should be able to do, I felt a surge of emotions. Annoyance at being so far behind, self-pity for still being weak even with magic, and frustration with my slow progress were among them. On the other hand, I was glad I didn't have to do any extra work.

And then there was the guilt for feeling glad I wasn't doing the extra work. I tried to talk myself out of it, thinking that I hadn't really wanted to be here in the first place.

As Cove walked back, his footsteps unwavering, the guilt struck a little deeper, and I threw it, too, in the part of my mind I kept things I didn't want to think about.