Read The Machine's Child for Free Online Page B

flat mechanical voice.
    “Yaaaay! It works, Father.” Joseph shook his fists above his head. “We’reup and running. This ought to do until your transmitter decides to come back online. Boy, I’ve really missed conversation, you know? If it wasn’t for Abdiel and the folks down at the Pelican, I’d have gone nuts by now.”
    “What Is The Pelican,” the voice asked.
    “Oh . . . just a local bar,” Joseph said, looking guilty. “I sneak down there sometimes, when I feel like mortal company.”
    “Security Risk,” the voice said.
    “I know. I’m sorry,” Joseph said. After a moment Budu extended his left arm and placed his hand against the wall of the tank. The electronic voice continued:
    “You Met Abdiel,” it stated, or inquired. “The Defective Who Keeps These Places. You Did Not Disable Him.”
    “No. I didn’t need to,” Joseph said. “He’s easy to fool and anyway, if I’d taken him out, who’d do the maintenance on the other bunkers?”
    “Good,” said the voice, “I Lied To Him, Too. The Company Would Notice If He Were Offline. You Found All The Other Bunkers.”
    “Yeah.” Joseph nodded. “I finally accessed your damn code. That wasn’t what got me in trouble, though.”
    “What Got You In Trouble,” Budu said.
    Joseph was silent a moment before he swallowed hard and said: “A friend. His name was Lewis. He meant well, he was only trying to help me find Mendoza, but he made a couple of mistakes. The Company set him up and took him out, and almost took me out, too. It was dirty, Father. It was the dirtiest thing I ever saw. He was a good operative. He didn’t deserve what they did to him.”
    “Who Is Mendoza,” Budu said.
    “My daughter.”
    “Ah.”
    “I’ve been searching for her since 1996,” Joseph added morosely. “The worst part is, even if I found her I don’t know that she’d be glad to see me. None of the kids I rescued ever cared for me much. Not like your children, Father.”
    There was another long silence. Budu’s head moved slightly, twitched from side to side, but he was still unable to raise it.
    “One Of My Children Did This To Me,” he said. Joseph’s eyes widened.
    “Victor. Yeah, he told me. Jeez, Father, how? He’s a little guy like me, hecould
never
have taken you on. What happened? You didn’t really—” He halted. Then he summoned his courage and pushed on: “You didn’t really start that cabal within the Company, did you? Those bastards spreading plagues among the mortals? Tell me you didn’t.”
    “I Did,” said the expressionless voice. “And I Paid For It.”
    Joseph didn’t say anything in reply, but he sank back on his heels. After a moment Budu continued:
    “After I Disobeyed Our Masters I Was Arrested And Taken From Antioch For My Hearing. I Disabled The Security Techs And Ran. The First Thing I Did Was Remove My Datalink To The Company.”
    “But—I had to have mine removed surgically,” Joseph said. “You didn’t cut open your own face! Did you?”
    “I Did What I Had To Do. That Was In 1099. When I Had Healed I Ran As Far As I Could. I Searched And Found The Bunkers. I Saw What Our Masters Had Done To My Men. I Broke The Numeric Location Code And Found Their Names. They Were All In The Bunkers Except Me And One Other.”
    “Who?”
    “Marco.”
    Joseph seemed to draw into himself at the name. He shivered and said, “The guy who started all the trouble?”
    “He Had Been Assigned To A Place Designated As Options Research. Have You Heard Of It, Son.”
    “No,” Joseph said. “It doesn’t sound good, though.”
    “Not Good. I Stole A Temporal Cargo Transport And Went To See Him. Our Masters Keep Him To Punish Preserver Class Operatives Who Disobey. He Can’t Kill Them, But He Tries. I Told Him To Join Me. He Would Not Leave That Place. Punishment Has Become His Work. Do You Understand.”
    “I guess so,” Joseph said. He had gone pale, was shaking. The voice continued:
    “I Left Him. I Lay Low In Europe