Athel Read online

  Kael lets out another caw, farther away this time. The droid freezes and then whirs, its pistons releasing a long hiss.

  Athel! Lukas messages. Get outta there now!

  I look up and see the paneled underbelly of the droid lowering, the chute about to open and dump its fresh load of dirt. I dive between two legs, but the stabbing point of a third leg tears through the hem of my shirt and pins me to the ground. The big bot bends over and yanks me off the ground, squeezing my waist with its big metal fingers.

  The world spins around me. The M4 lifts me, its lenses bulging at me.

  Relax, I think. As long as its hands are digging into my flesh they can’t shoot me.

  Talk about the bright side.

  The wire I’ve coiled around the droid’s legs comes loose. Enraged, the big machine shakes me in the air and crawls up the wall of the gorge. It’s so focused on destroying me that it doesn’t notice Wes hopping up and down and waving his hands to attract its attention. Wes, on the other hand, is too frightened to come closer and try harder to distract the droid.

  Up at the top, Lukas jumps to his feet and screams. He holds his data feeder like a drowning man clinging to his lifesaver.

  Helpful friends I have.

  “Dude!” I yell, kicking my legs in the air. “Think of something!”

  “Flash drive!” he shouts, tossing a little cube at me. I stretch forward trying to catch it, but droid whisks me away before I can snatch it. The drive skids off the edge of the mesa and down into the gorge.

  Still clutching me in its right hand, the droid darts after the flash drive, scraping chunks of rock as it plunges down the cliff. I feel like barfing, but the view of the steep walls opening below has me frozen in terror.

  This is not exactly the kind of death I’d envisioned.

  “The flash drive!” Lukas shouts from the top of the mesa. “Get it before the droid does!”

  Right. My top priority at the moment.

  The droid skids down to the bottom and comes to a halt as the flash drive bounces right between its legs and lands at the foot of a sapling.

  And then the unexpected happens. Wes darts out of the aspen grove yelling at the top of his lungs. He swoops to catch the flash drive and then runs off again, sprinting past the droid like a gazelle with a burning tail. The M4’s movement sensors immediately track him. It lowers its entire body, tosses me onto one of the piles of dirt it pooped minutes earlier, and gives chase, the useless wire I wrapped around its legs dangling behind. I grab one end of the wire as it flies past me, dash around a large boulder, and manage to get the wire stuck underneath the rock.

  The droid gets caught in its momentum and stumbles. The wire rope tenses and then snaps, causing the droid to slam forward onto its face and hands. It comes down with a huge thud, sending flaps of carbon resin flying through the air. The diodes on its back start blinking, a few wires buzz. Smoke hisses out of the sides of its head.

  “The flash drive!” Lukas yells. He tucks his precious data feeder back into his satchel and rushes down the cliff.

  “What’s up with the freaking flash drive?” I shout back at him, wheezing.

  Wes doubles back, pounding hard on his titanium blades. “Guys! They’re coming! The other droids are coming!”

  I turn. The ground shakes. A cloud of dust rises in the distance between the walls of the gorge.

  Oh, shit.

  The M4 on the ground rattles. Its long legs tweak. Lukas tumbles down the last bit of incline, shouting, “Get the flash drive into the droid now!”

  Wes screeches to a halt by the droid’s massive frame and looks at me dumbfounded. I don’t know what Lukas’s up to, but at this point it’s not like we have many options. So I dart over to Wes, snatch the flash drive from his hand, and climb over the big robot piled up on the ground.

  “Where, Lukas?”

  Lukas reaches the bottom of the cliff and scuttles over. He’s short of breath, his gaunt face flushed. He points to the side of his head.

  Right. Find hole in droid’s head. Gotcha.

  I make my way over the solar panels tiling the back of the M4 and clamber all the way to its head. The droid is far from knocked out. Its limbs jerk, a fan deep in its belly whirs. I straddle over its shoulders and grope for a USB port, hoping the thing won’t decide to explode right under my ass.

  The ground rumbles with the galloping rhythm of the fast-approaching scavenger droids still in the gorge.

  “Have you found it yet?” Wes says, his voice cracking.

  How the hell do I know which hole’s the right one?

  USB port on the right side, Lukas messages me. Right below the nanotube ears.

  I find a port that seems close enough to his description, grab the cubic flash drive and shove it inside. A tiny light bulb next to it turns on and flashes. I hold my breath and turn toward the gorge. The cloud of dust grows bigger, filling the space between the facing walls of rock.

  The droid stops twitching.

  Damn it, Lukas, this thing ain’t—

  “Whoa!” I yell, as the M4 suddenly jerks up. I slide backwards and hang on to the edge of one of the solar panels. Lukas and Wes clear out of the way, screaming.

  “Lukas!” I call. “Is this all you could come up with? Revive the droid?”

  The M4 staggers back up and wobbles toward the mouth of the gorge. The diodes on its back are blinking like crazy, and the droid’s movements are erratic, as though the algorithm running in its head is stuck in a loop.

  I dangle my feet until I find a spot to leverage and climb down its back. As soon as the droid stalls, I leap back to the ground and run. The pack of scavenger droids that’s come to the rescue reaches the mouth of the gorge and stops. They all stare vacantly at the disoriented M4 with Lukas’s flash drive stuck below its ear.

  I jog to the aspen grove where Lukas and Wes are now hiding and hiss, “Is this your fantastic plan?”

  Lukas looks up to the droids and shrugs. “The drive contained a Trojan horse. It’s supposed to cause a system shutdown and cut off all communications with the other droids. That’s why they’re all staring at one another not knowing what to do. They came here activated by the M4’s emergency call. But the call’s now been deleted, and—”

  The M4 staggers backwards and comes crashing toward the aspen grove where we’re hiding. We leap out of the way and run.

  “When’s the shutdown supposed to happen?” I yell.

  “I don’t know,” Lukas replies. “I designed the Trojan for the old M3 model.”

  Freaking Kawa, now he tells me. If I weren’t busy escaping a massive droid, I’d seriously consider pounding that data feeder on his head.

  Crouched behind a large sycamore, we watch the pack of droids return to the gorge. The M4 sways from side to side, as if about to collapse. Instead, it raises a hand to the USB port, plucks the flash drive out, and tosses it to the ground.

  “My flash drive!” Lukas yells.

  I grab his arm and stop him from running back to retrieve it. Which turns out to be a good idea given that, once the flash drive has been removed, the M4 is as good as new. It shrugs its shoulder panels and darts back into the gorge as though nothing has happened. In a few seconds, all that’s left of the droids is a yellow cloud of dust.

  As soon as the thuds of their distant steps die, Lukas runs off to retrieve his drive.

  I snap a small branch off an aspen tree and toss it in the air. “Damn. We lost one thousand pounds of graphene, carbon resin, lithium batteries, and fifty petabytes of RAM. And what does he think of? His flash drive.”

  Lukas blows dirt off the little thing. “It’s not just a drive,” he says. “Now that I’ve seen the new models, I can perfect the Trojan horse. I can make it work next time.”

  Wes shrugs and picks up the bits of wire rope the droid has left behind. I wrap the pieces into a coil and drop them into my backpack. “We’ll never get another chance like this,” I gripe.

  “Yes, we will,” Lukas replies.<
br />
  “How?” Wes asks. “We just leave a carrot by the gorge and wait for the next droid to be stupid enough to come for the bait?”

  “Wes,” I start, then close my mouth, as a new thought creeps into my head.

  Maybe not a carrot …

  Chapter Two

  Akaela

  I haul the last bale of hay into the stable and then lean against the stack to catch my breath.

  “Last one,” I say, exhaling. “Twenty-five bales of hay stored away thanks to my awesome brother who conveniently forgot to show up for the work.”

  Ash, our kitten, hops on top of the stack and attacks one of the hay strands poking out of the bales. I pick him up and rub his belly. “Where do you think that flaky brother of mine went, Ash? He always finds the best excuses when there’s work to do.”

  Taeh returns from the paddock and stands in front of the barn door, her black silhouette framed against the white sky outside. She canters inside, head low and hooves dragging, and nestles her muzzle between my neck and shoulder, her nose soft and damp. I stroke her strong cheeks and whisper, “I know, baby. I miss her too.”

  Taeh hasn’t been the same since her younger sister Maha died in the gorge a few weeks ago, snatched away by a powerful flood. My friend Wes almost lost his life, too, in what turned out to be a failed attempt to save our fathers. Little did we know, the men were gone already, murdered not by our enemies, the Gaijins, but by one of our own instead. On the brink of extinction, our people deal with death every day, yet never before have Athel and I faced so much sudden loss.

  Ash hops down from my arms to chase loose strands of hay across the floor. I gently push the horse away and reach for the broom. As soon as I start sweeping, Ash leaps after the broom, his back arched and his tail as straight as an exclamation point. My stubborn horse, however, has a different idea. She walks by the riding gear hanging from the wall and stomps her hooves.

  “We can’t go riding until Athel comes back,” I say.

  My brother was supposed to help me shovel manure and store away hay bales, but it’s been over two hours, and he hasn’t shown up yet. Our trained falcon Kael is nowhere to be seen either, which means that Athel’s up to something and conveniently failed to mention it.

  Taeh nudges me, pulling my shirt with her teeth. I pat her and cup her muzzle in my hands. “You know what? You’re right. Who cares if Athel’s not here yet? Let’s go for a ride, you and I.”

  I haven’t been riding much since we lost Maha, and getting back into old routines like dressing and saddling feels surprisingly cathartic. I hum as I brush Taeh’s shiny coat and then fit her with the underpad.

  “You’re beautiful, girl,” I tell her. “You know what? Why don’t we ride all the way to the cliffs? I’ve been cooped up in the stable all day. I could really use a long, steady glide.”

  After Yuri and Cal broke my gliding sail and snatched it off the frame, my mother made me a new one, lighter and faster. Riding the thermals with my new sail feels a bit like taking revenge on the two brothers.

  Ash sits in a corner and watches me fit the bridles around Taeh’s muzzle. When I’m done, I make sure the kitten stays inside the stable and step outside.

  Warm air blows against my face and ruffles my hair. Taeh swats her long tail at the flies swarming around her rump. I climb on the saddle and we wade through tall, yellow grass, the monotone cadence of crickets hammering my thoughts. Where’s Athel? Did he come up with one of his crazy ideas that are too good to share with his baby sis?

  I check the wireless network but once again fail to find him within receiving distance.

  Humidity hangs in the air like a cloak. By the riverbank, men and women clean the fishing nets and haul the catch of the day into buckets. Half a mile farther, the river widens and rice farmers stoop knee-deep in the murky water to check the stalks. The summer breeze carries their voices like a distant lullaby.

  Taeh and I gallop along the shore for a few more minutes, then, just as I get ready to veer and cross the river, something catches my eye. Two figures move past the edge of the solar fields and vanish into the forest. I pull Taeh’s reins and bring her to a stop.

  I’ve seen those two before. The glint coming off their faces gives them away.

  Metal Jaw and his wimpy brother Cal.

  It’s not the first time I’ve spotted them sneaking into the forest, gingerly looking over their shoulders.

  Jerks like those two are always up to no good.

  I rein Taeh around and make her sprint toward the forest.

  “Change of plan, girl.”

  The ancient woods that sprawl beyond the solar fields are no ordinary forest. The vegetation grows over the ruins of Astraca, the city our patriarchs built. It was destroyed during the riots of 2065, when the AI bots rebelled against the humans who’d built them. One hundred and fifty years later, oaks and cedars clasp their roots around broken walls, while ferns and wild vines crawl over what once were paved streets. Pinnacles and maimed statues jut out of the ground, broken arches lead to nowhere, and tunnels are filled with dirt.

  Narrow trails snake around old foundations. I dismount and proceed on foot, carefully looking for footprints, snapped branches, or crushed leaves.

  Taeh follows at a distance, even though I keep shooing her off for fear she’ll give me away. It’s hard to be unnoticeable with a horse on your heels. When I finally hear Yuri’s voice, farther down the trail, I urge Taeh to stay where she is and not move. I keep low among the fern leaves and proceed slowly, mindful not to step on twigs or dry leaves.

  “Why can’t I go?” Cal says.

  “Because you’re still a baby,” his brother Yuri—Metal Jaw—snaps.

  “Quit whining, you two.”

  The third voice catches me by surprise. I shift between trees to get a better view and realize there’s a third person with them. I recognize him from the many times I’ve seen him standing next to Tahari during public announcements. The tall man flicking his fingers at the two boys is Hennessy—Yuri and Cal’s father, and one of our Kiva Council Members.

  A bout of jealousy gnaws at me as I duck under the fern leaves. Cal and Yuri still have their father. Athel and I don’t. Why wasn’t Hennessy sent as an Ambassador? Why did it have to be our dad, Wes’s and Lukas’s instead?

  I snatch a handful of moss from around a tree root and crush it in my fist.

  My brother keeps telling me that I have to come out and tell the truth about what those two did to me the night Uli tried to kill me.

  No, I won’t report them, Athel. Because if I do, all they’ll get is a few days of Wela. Their nanobots will be temporarily deactivated, they’ll fall into a vegetative state for a few days, and then snap right back when it’s all over.

  Yuri and Cal ambushed me while I was gliding and then viciously attacked me. They deserve a lot more than that.

  Cal drops his chin and crosses his arms. “Why am I the one always staying behind? Why can’t I go with you guys? Nobody comes into the forest this time of the day, anyway.”

  Hennessy leans closer and squeezes Cal’s chin between his thumb and index finger. “You saw what happened last time,” he hisses. “Your brother almost killed a man.”

  What I just heard makes me gape in disbelief. I lean closer and perk my ears.

  “That was an honest mistake,” Yuri protests. “The dork walked into my shooting path.”

  Hennessy stretches his lips into a thin smile. “That dork was looking for something, Yuri. You haven’t figured that one out yet, have you?”

  Yuri’s metallic jaw hangs open.

  “What was he looking for, Dad?” Cal asks.

  “I have an inkling,” Hennessy replies. “And if I’m right, we’ve got to find it before he does.” He stares pointedly at the two boys. “Remember what I’ve been telling you. What happened with Uli was just the tip of the iceberg. Traitors lurk among our people, evil minds trying to overturn the power of the Kiva. We need to be vigilant. Stay here and watch out
for anyone nosing around. You know what to do if you spot something.”

  “But, Dad—” Cal starts.

  “It’s an order.”

  Hennessy turns away and Yuri flashes a victorious grin to his disappointed brother. Crouched in my hiding spot, I watch Metal Jaw and his father wade deeper into the forest until I can no longer hear their steps crunching along the trail.

  Cal sits in the small clearing and balls his fists.

  Who was the man Yuri almost killed? Why didn’t he report them?

  I try to shift closer, but as soon as I move, the rustling of leaves around me makes Cal jerk his head up and look in my direction. I duck deeper into the vegetation. Cal doesn’t see me, his eyes quickly straying away.

  A jay screeches, a dove hoots. My brain reels. Cal is all by himself, doing nothing. I could catch him by surprise and get away with it. Big on the fact that both of their parents are Kiva Members, the two brothers have bullied us kids since we were little. More than once they’ve come after Athel and me simply because we refused to oblige their arrogance.

  A subtle vibration shakes the ground close to my hiding spot. I bite my lip, recognizing the soft rhythm of Taeh’s hooves thumping up the trail.

  Oh, no, Taeh, go away!

  But unlike my brother, Taeh can’t receive my thoughts wirelessly. It doesn’t take long for Cal to hear her. He jumps to his feet and shuffles down the trail to see what’s making the noises. I take the chance and crawl after him, hoping Taeh’s steps will camouflage my own.

  As soon as he sees the horse, Cal swats a hand in the air and yells, “Go away!”

  The screaming unnerves Taeh. She shakes her head and widens her nostrils, searching for my scent.

  Please stay put and don’t give me away.

  Cal stoops down, picks up a rock and lifts his arm. “I said, go away!”

  The threat sends blood pulsing to my head. I leap out of the vegetation and throw myself at the boy, taking him down. “If you hurt my horse, I’ll kill you!” I shout.

  We roll in a bed of dry leaves and grapple, Cal flailing his arms and legs at me, and me clinging to his back like a monkey. He jabs an elbow into my stomach and jerks backwards, slamming me against the ground. As he readies himself to sprint back to his feet, though, he finds Taeh’s muzzle in his face and freezes. Blinded by pain, I take advantage of that moment of surprise and shove a hand at the back of his head. Before he can react, I grope for his deactivation button and put him out.