The simulation lab 

The cybernetic interface had a mind of its own and had been designed to protect the user from all dangers. However, since it was just an AI, it couldn't distinguish between an empty threat and actual killing intent.

Shane just wanted to threaten Kevin and assert his dominance by pointing his laser pistol at him, but Kevin's interface had interpreted it as a real threat. According to its understanding, the soldier needed to be neutralized immediately.

Though Kevin had never been one to get into unnecessary scuffles, his new cyborg body had changed not just his appearance, but his personality as well.

He had become a lot more impulsive and hot-tempered now. It wasn't all due to the system. A lot of it came from past trauma as well. He saw the whole world as a hostile place now.

Despite feeling an urge to break Shane's limbs, Kevin decided against it. His cyborg body was about to go into full combat mode and choke the guy to death, but Kevin pulled away at the last moment. Even though he had manual control of his exoskeleton, it took tremendous willpower to stop the AI from triggering a finishing move.

The pressure applied to Shane's chest caused him to spit out blood. If Kevin had held him against the wall any longer he would have broken more than a few ribs.

Red-faced and struggling to breathe, Shane walked away without any further arguments. Everyone knew that it was Shane's fault and he got what he deserved, but Kevin's actions caused quite a few technicians to doubt his motives. This brutish display of strength left them feeling so scared that they didn't even dare to look at Kevin.

It was Suzy who broke the icy silence. "I hope you slept well, last night. Come on, I gotta show you something," she said, making her way through the crowd.

Kevin followed Suzy and her mother to the surveillance room located just behind the simulation lab. All the video footage from the research facility could be accessed from here.

Dr. Stacey verified her credentials and put in a special passcode to open the folder marked, 'public video footage.' She browsed through the folder and selected the date and time to open up a specific video file.

The video recording from last night appeared on a 52-inch holo-display screen.

The time was 3:45 am and the corridor was mostly empty. Even the V-54 cleaning bots and server bots had gone into sleep mode. Just as the timer displayed 3:47 am, a person wearing a white lab coat was seen approaching the hardware lab.

Access to the hardware lab was highly restricted and only a handful of people had the passcode to unlock the door. All this made it seem like one of the researchers was involved in this incident.

"A total of 10 people have access to the hardware lab," Dr. Stacey said, gazing at the screen. "Apart from me, Suzy, Dr. Zhao, Dr. Cassandra, Shane and Tyler, only a few of my interns and weapons experts know the passcode to this room."

"Did you try interrogating your team?" Kevin asked.

"I trust my team. I can't just go around hurling baseless accusations."

"Kevin's right though. They have easy access to the hardware lab. I think they should be on top of our list of possible suspects," Suzy added.

"They were all asleep in their quarters when this happened. None of them stepped out of their rooms last night. I checked the recordings from the cameras placed outside their quarters," Dr. Stacey replied.

"Do you think someone from your team could have leaked the passcode for the hardware lab?" Kevin asked.

"Leaked it to whom?"

"Perhaps to someone living in the Residential District."

Dr. Stacey shook her head. "The people living in the Residential District are mostly resistance fighters and their families. All of them hate modern technology and the use of robots and AIs. I don't think they'd be interested in a modified XL11 blueprint."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Suzy. "Mom, what if someone from the Residential District wants the blueprint to find out Kevin's vulnerabilities."

"What?"

"You know they hate machines and Kevin is a cyborg. It's possible that one of those nutcases is planning to harm Kevin."

Suzy's words caused Dr. Stacey to knit her eyebrows. She knew those people in the Residential District had always been averse to the idea of getting cybernetic implants, and now that they had a full-bodied cyborg walking among them, it was going to cause quite few heads to stir.

After thinking about it for a while, Dr. Stacey wiped her face with her kerchief and replied, "The service elevator connecting the Research District to the Residential District is reserved for a special few. If unauthorized personnel were to enter, the alarms would go off and all the supervisors would be notified."

"Shane has access to the elevator," Suzy replied.

"He is the leader of the resistance. He'd never stoop to something like this."

Suzy rolled her eyes in disbelief. "You just saw what he is capable of. He pulled out a freaking gun on Kev!"

"I agree he shouldn't have done that. But he is an impulsive man, not a planner. He is more of a rush head-first into battle kinda guy. If he had the brain to try and steal the blueprint, he'd never point a gun at Kevin."

Shane Gibson was the leader of the human resistance or at least what remained of it. They consisted of not just trained soldiers and cops, but also ordinary civilians who had sworn to push back the robots.

After the machines took over, Shane and his loyal band of followers managed to put up quite a fight. They had blown up more than a dozen robotic convoys, destroyed scores of XL11 robots, and even shot down a Phoenix attack chopper.

When news of their exploits had reached the Prime Android's ears, she had dispatched her best fighting units to track and hunt down these reprobates.

Hounded by the killer robots, Shane and his companions had been compelled to flee into the subway network and knock on Dr. Zhao's door for help. Though Shane didn't care about the other lab coats, he had a deep respect for Dr. Zhao. It was highly unlikely that he'd try to stab the supervisor in the back.

Kevin had been slowly mulling things over in his mind. There were a couple of possibilities that emerged in his head.

"What if the elevator had been hacked? What if the video recordings have been tampered with?" he asked.

"It would take an expert hacker to do that, someone with a deep knowledge of level 3 security protocols. It's a long shot, but I can't dismiss the possibility," Dr. Stacey replied. "I'll personally go through the system logs for the elevator and ask Edna to scan the video recording for signs of tampering. And Kevin, I'll make arrangements so you can stay with us in the lab quarters. It's not very safe for you out there."

"You don't have to worry about me, Dr. Stacey. I'll be just fine," Kevin said, trying to re-assure her.

"There's just way too much going on!" she sighed. "First there were those drones in the security tunnel and now this. I thought we could hide here and stay safe from the robots, but it seems even this place isn't safe anymore."

"We should stop hiding then. We should fight back!" Kevin declared. "They are just stupid machines. We can do this!"

"We neither have the men nor the weapons to fight back," Dr. Stacey replied. "We have to find out more about our enemy before we can make a move."

"I'll do that for you. Let me go to the surface and—"

"You're not ready yet. First, you need to get used to your new body and learn what your AI is capable of. The surface is their world now. There are machines everywhere. You're gonna need a lot of training before you can go to the surface."

Kevin nodded in agreement without revealing anything about his secret plan with Cassandra. He was tired of just sitting here and waiting. He wanted to go out there and see for himself what had happened to the world outside.

After transferring a copy of the video footage to her Zen watch, Dr. Stacey closed the recordings folder and accompanied Kevin and Suzy to the door.

When they came outside, Dr. Zhao was waiting to have a word with his wife. Suzy thought it best to give them time alone and asked Kevin to follow her to the simulation lab.

"If you want to go to the surface some day, you have to train your new body and learn how to deal with different types of threats," Suzy said to Kevin.

"It's not like I can just do a hundred pushups to bulk up. How do you even train a metallic exoskeleton?" Kevin joked.

"This interface was designed to fight and that's exactly what you need to do," Suzy replied. "Your AI will unlock a whole slew of new features when you have acquired sufficient combat experience. It will also help it guide you better during future combat scenarios."

"There's not much to fight here, except those replicas in the training room. I don't think that's gonna be helpful," Kevin shrugged.

"Last night, I programmed some special combat instances for the simulation lab. If you're up for it, you can give it a try right now," Suzy said.

"I already destroyed the drones in the security tunnel with ease," Kevin replied. "I think I can handle some basic training."

Suzy nodded. "What you did back there was great. But that was just a small test of your potential. Your cyborg interface can fight a lot tougher battles. I wanna know if you're up for a real challenge now that you have so many upgrades installed."

"Just bring it on. I'm dying to get in some practice," Kevin replied with an overdose of confidence.

Squeezing through the throng of lab technicians, the two friends walked over to the simulation lab. Tapping lightly on the lab door, Suzy spoke out clear instructions. "Grant simulation lab access. Suzy Wang plus one guest. Code 6655Y."

As soon as she spoke the words, a tiny lens emerged from behind a small glass panel attached to the door. It performed a quick retinal scan to verify her identity, before granting her authorization to enter.

Since Suzy had mentioned that she was with a guest, Kevin didn't need to pass any security checks before entering.

The simulation lab was a spacious circular room made almost entirely of glass. Only the floor and the door were metallic.

Unlike the other labs they had visited so far, this one was completely empty. There were neither any workstations nor any furniture.

Swiping her fingers horizontally across the air, Suzy instructed, "Access holo-panel."

Immediately, a holographic control panel with several keys and icons popped up before her. She quickly typed something onto the keypad and then clicked on a revolving gun icon on the top left of her display screen.

// Level 1 Hybrid Combat simulation selected!

Custom location 1 selected!

Preparing room for training...

All non-combatants are advised to exit. //

"You will face different types of targets here. Try to take them down without sustaining critical damage. Use all the weapons and utilities at your disposal as and when required. There is no time limit here, but the enemies are going to be challenging, to say the least," Suzy explained.

Kevin nodded meaningfully. "Got it. I'm ready for this."

"Good luck, then. I'll be seeing you on the other side," Suzy replied, heading for the door.