Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📕

Chris sighed. “I’m sorry, Abigail, this is important. Could we reschedule?”

Not his wife then. Girlfriend. I couldn’t feel much sympathy right now; we had bigger problems to worry about than interrupting a date.

“Work again?” Disappointment laced her words, but she smiled. “I’ll see you later.” Giving me, Dan, and Agent Smith a curious look, she made her way past us and gathered a coat and purse from a hook rack mounted on the wall.

“Thanks, Abigail, you’re the best.” He gave her a quick hug.

“You better remember it.” She blew him a kiss and left.

The moment the door closed, Chris’s demeanor changed. He straightened and moved closer to Dan, studying my friend like he was an insect under a microscope. “Where did you find the cyborg?”

“The rogue AI sent it after Viki,” Agent Smith said.

Chris took a step back. “Is it still under the rogue’s control?”

I moved between him and Dan. “Not anymore.”

The scientist looked uneasy, but he gestured down the hall. “My house has an electromagnetic pulse generator installed,” he warned Dan. “One word from me, and you’ll flatline, so don’t try anything.”

Dan tensed. I took his hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze for comfort. He squeezed back, and we followed Agent Smith together.

Chris led us to the living room. It was small, with a wall-sized viewscreen at one end, windows across from the door, and a couch flanked by two armchairs against the other wall. A coffee table sat in front of the couch, topped with a metal tray of tea, mugs, and cookies. Chris dropped into an armchair in front of the television. The cat perched on its arm jumped down and curled up in his lap, just like Halle did on my computer screen. Swallowing hard, I sat on the couch beside Dan.

Agent Smith took the other armchair and crossed his legs, his clipboard resting on his knee. He tapped his pen on it. “Have you had any luck in tracking the other stolen cyborgs?”

“None. They could be anywhere at this point.” Stroking the cat, Chris nodded at Dan. “Mind explaining why the rogue targeted your intern specifically?”

I held my breath, worried Agent Smith might mention Halle, but he simply shook his head.

“We aren’t sure why she was targeted, though it might be because she is part of the investigation.”

Chris frowned. “Why her, though, and not you?”

Agent Smith tugged on the brim of his fedora. “I’m not sure.”

“It might be better if we deactivated the cyborg, then.”

Dan shrank back against the couch. I leaned forward with a glare. “He’s not dangerous! Ta—the rogue doesn’t control him anymore. You can’t just switch him off like he’s a machine.”

“‘He’ is a machine.” The scientist studied my face for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. We might learn something useful from it.” Still petting his cat, he looked at Agent Smith. “I assume that’s why you brought it here.”

“Yes. It is possible this cyborg has information related to the rogue AI’s plans. If that is the case, I want you to extract that information and help us put an end to this before something else happens.”

“But—” I bit off the sentence. Halle had already looked into Dan’s mind and didn’t find any such information. Otherwise, it would have mentioned it to me.

Or would it? What if it had kept something from me? Had it known that Dan might attack me? I wished Halle was with us.

“I’ll give you any information I have,” Dan said. “But I don’t know anything about its overall plans. I was supposed to…” He glanced at me and winced.

I edged closer to him on the couch and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “The rogue AI ordered Dan to attack me, but he fought off its control. It wouldn’t have told him the full plan.”

“You had no idea of its plan for her until the order was given?” Chris asked Dan.

He shook his head.

“Then there could be other orders buried inside your memory as well. Come with me.” Chris got to his feet.

Agent Smith stood as well. “Where are we going?”

“I sometimes bring my work home with me.” Chris walked out of the living room, Agent Smith right behind. “Not strictly legal, but there’s too much to do to get it all done during office hours, and a few days of sleeping on a cot in my office makes my back hurt.”

I shared a look with Dan. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

He nodded, biting his lip. “Not sure I have a choice.”

I lowered my voice. “We could go back to my house, see if we can find Halle—”

“Viki,” Dan cut me off, his voice gentle. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. If the rogue did trap Halle in your house…it’s gone.”

I shook my head. “No. It can’t be. It survived Agent Smith’s attempts to capture and kill it before, it can escape another AI.”

Dan rested a hand on my shoulder and opened his mouth to say something.

“Viki! Dan!” Agent Smith barked at us. “Come here, we don’t have time to waste.”

I pushed myself off the couch, marching toward the living room door. I refused to meet Dan’s eyes as we followed the men to a small room just down the hallway. Halle wasn’t dead. It couldn’t be.

The room we entered looked like an electronics store had exploded. Parts, wires, and computer monitors were scattered across every flat surface. Agent Smith leaned against a wall, watching Chris shove things aside to make room on the table for a computer. The scientist turned the machine on, then pushed a few buttons, fetched a cable from a pile of identical cables lying nearby, and plugged it in.

“Cyborg, come over here,” he said, gesturing impatiently.

Dan folded his