“It may be harsh, but that’s protocol.”

  “Well, how do we turn it over? The guardbot doesn’t have hands.”

  The hatch on the capsule slid open. “Put it in the capsule. Once it’s returned to me, I’ll let you go.”

  I glanced at the bot. If he could order it to shoot me, that meant it had to have a command interface. I quickly tapped in its address, smiling when I was able to connect into the bot’s operating system over the network. Quasar hadn’t been kidding about bad software security.

  “Fine,” Matt said. “What’s our punishment for taking it?”

  “I’m thinking maybe head maintenance for a month is a good start. Maybe a year, if you live that long.”

  At least it didn’t seem like Grist could see us through the bot, or he probably would have had it blast me because I wasn’t bringing the phone over to the capsule. I found the networking commands for the guard bot and where to set a password.

  “Is it in yet?” Grist asked.

  “Just a second,” I replied.

  “Hurry up. I’m not going to give you another warning.”

  I typed in a new password, knowing Grist would lose his connection as soon as I enabled it. “It’s in,” I said. “Bye Sergeant Grist.”

  “Enjoy your—” Grist’s voice vanished as I set the password, knocking him offline. He would probably assume he had lost the connection, not that he had gotten dumped, and since our business was supposedly done, he wouldn’t try. The inner airlock hatch opened and the capsule moved down through it.

  I turned to Matt. “We’ve got about twenty minutes to make something happen.”

  CHAPTER 13

  “Twenty minutes isn’t a lot of time,” Matt replied.

  “No,” I agreed, tapping out commands on the phone. “We need to go get Quasar and Shaq and make our way to Deck One. We can take the emergency ship there and head for the surface.”

  “And then what?”

  “Remote control Head Case?” I suggested. “Once we’re in range, we should be able to bring the ship to us. Then we get the hell out of here.”

  “It’s a plan, maybe,” Matt said, his tone of voice reflecting his uncertainty.

  “What other choice do we have? Stay here?”

  I glanced at Matt before entering a new command inside the guard bot’s system. It stepped forward menacingly, causing Matt to flinch before it circled behind us and fell in at our backs.

  “What did you do?”

  “Apparently, it has something called a huddle algorithm. That’s what the live guards use when they come up from Deck Five to defend themselves from the inmates. We only have one bot, but it’ll defend the identifiers I entered into the system. Yours and mine.”

  “And here I thought the only thing you learned to do with Head Case’s interface was give Asshole a little more personality.”

  “That’s actually more complicated than this. The user interface on the security slab just accesses the command line interface within the bot’s software. Come on. Let’s move.”

  I started toward the blast door at a run, Matt quickly catching up. A sense of dizziness threatened me, and I gritted my teeth against it, fighting the urge to slow down. Exiting the guardbot’s interface, I entered the command to open the door again.

  It moved slowly, allowing Matt and me to enter the corridor ahead of our protector, turning left and racing for the elevator. The other inmates glared at us as we ran past. One of them stuck his foot out in front of me, catching my ankle and sending me sprawling, the phone flying from my hands and skidding across the deck.

  “Asshole,” Matt snapped, rushing to pick up the phone. I moved to my hands and knees, looking over my shoulder as the inmate who tripped me tried to close on me for the kill.

  The guardbot moved out from the capsule room, lights flashing when it spotted the guy coming after me. The other prisoners in the corridor ducked and covered, falling into crouches or onto their bellies, facing the bulkhead. Too intent on killing me, the guy who tripped me didn’t notice the bot’s approach. I looked away as the plasma bolts tore into him, cutting him down.

  “Come on,” Matt said, holding out his hand to help me up. Back on my feet, he passed me the phone and we rushed to the elevator, the other cons in disbelief at the way the guardbot had protected me.

  We reached the elevator, and I frantically tapped on the call button to bring it to our deck. Three minutes had passed already, time dwindling quickly. The guard bot caught up to us, stopping right behind us and turning its torso to face the other direction, where a few curious inmates were following us. They ducked away, changing their minds about getting too close.

  The elevator doors slid open, the cab fortunately empty. We hurried inside, the guardbot joining us without turning back around. Matt directed the lift to Deck Forty-nine.

  We stopped for the first time on Twenty-four. When the doors opened, the inmates there jumped back at the sight of the bot.

  “Private cab,” Matt said. “Stay off.”

  They didn’t argue, watching as the doors closed again and we continued the ascent, pausing twice more before we reached our stop.

  The elevator doors opened.

  Tattoo, Baldie, Shield, and a dozen other SFH Family goons waited just outside. At first, they looked like they were just chatting amongst themselves, hanging out innocently near the elevator.

  “There they are,” Baldie said, all eyes turning our way. “We knew you’d have to come back some time.”

  I stepped out of the cab. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

  “Oh yeah,” Tattoo said. “What are you going to do about it? Once that guardbot that rode up with you moves to patrol, you’re dead meat.”

  “Sure thing. Have you seen Quasar around?”

  “Heh, we chased that bitch and your little blue squirrel into her cell,” Shield growled. “They aren’t so tough after all.”

  “You mean when it’s twelve against two?” I replied. “Yeah, you’re really tough.”

  “You little shit,” Baldie said, stepping toward me. The guardbot rotated toward him, lights flashing. “Oh, hell no.” He jumped back, putting his hands up. “I’m good. No problem.”

  “How the hell did you do that?” Tattoo said, glaring at me.

  “A magician never reveals how he does his tricks,” I replied, grinning from ear to ear. Matt and I hurried away from the stunned soldiers-for-hire, finding Quasar in her cell, Shaq on her shoulder.

  “Ben, Matt,” she said, rising to her feet. “You’re back. The SFH are looking for you. They—”

  “Yeah, we already crossed them coming off the elevator,” I replied. “We came to an understanding.”

  The guardbot stomped up behind us, causing Quasar to flinch. “Uh…”

  “It’s okay,” Matt said. “He’s with us.”

  “We have about fifteen minutes to get off this station before Sergeant Grist realizes we didn’t give him back our phone,” I added. “We’re going for the emergency ship, but we need to get there before—”

  I was cut off by the sudden loud blaring of klaxons, followed a moment later by the first communications I had heard from the live security guards on the station.

  “Attention all inmates. Attention all inmates. Return to your cells at once. Persephon station is entering lockdown. Return to your cells at once.”

  “What the hell?” I said.

  Quasar stepped out of her cell. “Maybe they figured out you lied to them a little sooner than expected.”

  “How could that be? Grist had to wait for the space elevator capsule to get back to the surface.”

  “If there’s nobody in the capsule, they can move it a lot faster.”

  My jaw went slack. “Oh. Shit.”

  “He probably knows you didn’t return the phone. They might be sending someone up to get it.”

  The loud thudding of the deck’s guardbot drew my attention as it practically ran into the block, coming toward us. Before I could react, my guardbot started to flash.

  “Come on!” I shouted, moving behind it back toward the elevator.

  My bot opened fire on the other guardbot, catching it completely off-guard. Within seconds, it had reduced it to a smoking mess of metal slag.

  We nearly collided with the SFH troops as we made our way back to the elevators. They cleared a path for us, unwilling to upset my guardbot.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” Tattoo said on our way past.

  I slowed, an idea sprouting in my mind. Probably a bad one, but it seemed logical enough at the moment. “We’re getting out of here,” I said. “Do you want to come?”

  “What do you mean getting out of here?” Baldie asked.

  “Escaping,” Matt snapped. “Do you want a diagram?”

  Baldie made a face, while Tattoo nodded. “If you can get us off this station, the Family will owe you one.”

  “Then follow us.”

  CHAPTER 14

  We piled into the elevator nearly fourteen strong plus the guardbot. The fit was so tight I could barely move my hands to work with the phone and navigate to the elevator controls. We needed to get to Deck One, impossible without either the right security clearance or direct access to the equipment on the network.

  “Send it to Deck Six,” I said. “I’m working on access below.”

  “You got it,” Tattoo said, hitting the elevator controls.

  “How are you doing all this?” Shield asked. Pressed tight against my shoulder, he leaned over to look at the phone’s screen. “Where’d you get that slab? I haven’t seen one like that before.”

  “It’s mine,” I replied. “Persephon Penal Security confiscated it when they sent me up here.” I connected to the elevator’s operating system as it began descending toward Deck Six.

  “How’d you get it back?”

  “I stole it,” Matt said.

  “So you’re the one who kicked the Jagger’s nest,” Baldie said, drawing Shaq’s attention.

  “You know he’s a Jagger, right?” Quasar said, reaching up to pet Shaq’s head with her index finger.

  “What? No, he’s a blue gastrid,” Baldie argued.

  “Idiot,” Shaq buzzed.

  The elevator stopped on Deck Six, reaching the lowest accessible floor before I could finish circumventing the security lock. When the doors opened, a crowd of inmates waited, the continuing blare of klaxons deafening behind them. Most of them looked frightened and eager to get back to their cells before the guardbots decided their time had run out. They backed away in a sea of confusion at the sight of my guardbot and all of us crushed in around it.

  “I think I’ve got it,” I said, entering the command to take us to Deck One.

  The elevator doors remained open.

  “Well?” Matt said.

  “I don’t know what happened. Hold on.” I entered the same command again.

  Still nothing.

  “It’s not working, bro,” Matt complained.

  “Really? I couldn’t tell,” I snapped back, confused by the failure. I had entered the command correctly, and in checking the device list, it appeared… “Uh, does anyone here know if there’s more than one elevator?”

  “Of course there’s more than one elevator,” Quasar replied. “There’s a backup on the other side of the deck. You know, for redundancy. The only thing is, that one’s kept locked down.”

  “I think I gained root access to the wrong one,” I said.

  “Are you serious?” Tattoo whined. “I thought you knew what you were doing?”

  “Yeah, I mean there are only like a thousand devices on the satellite’s network,” I shot back. “How could I possibly guess the wrong one?” The doors began to close. “I didn’t do that.”

  “Stop it from closing!” Quasar shouted. Baldie shoved himself between the doors, which pressed tight against him and didn’t retreat like I expected.

  “Why did I just do this?” he groaned, pushing back against the doors.

  “Look at the panel,” Quasar said. “It wants to go down.”

  “So?”

  “So who wants to place a bet there’s at least one guardbot waiting to board, along with at least one live guard.”

  “We’re like fish in a barrel,” Matt said.

  “We’ll cross to the other elevator,” I decided. “I’ve already got access to that one.”

  “What if they already came up on the other elevator?” Tattoo asked.

  “Then we’ll have to get past them, but at least we’ll have room to maneuver. I can’t even breathe right now.”

  “You and me both,” Shield agreed.

  “If we encounter another guardbot, pass me its identifier and I can most likely take it offline at least.”

  “Most likely?” Tattoo said. “That’s not reassuring .”

  “You’re welcome to stay here and take this ride down. Or you can get off and get left behind.”

  “I thought you were soldiers?” Matt questioned.

  That seemed to have the effect he was going for.

  “Druck, scout ahead. If you spot a guardbot, get its ID.”

  “You got it,” Baldie replied. “Someone hold the door.”

  “I’ve got it,” Quasar said. “Go.” Druck squeezed out. Quasar caught the door, pushing it open between her powerful arms. “Everybody out.”

  Tattoo ducked under her left arm, Matt under her right. The other soldiers for hire exited past her. Unfortunately, the guardbot wouldn’t fit.

  “Matt, grab one side, I’ll hold the other one open,” Quasar said.

  Matt did as she told him, straining to keep the one door open while Quasar braced the other, appearing as if it were hardly an effort at all. The guardbot stepped off the elevator and they finally let the doors close.

  “We’re going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place real quick like,” Tattoo said.

  “Move!” I snapped, urging them across the deck.

  “Hey, skinny guy!” Druck said, running back toward us. “You better do something quick; there are four bots on the other end of the deck.”

  “Did you get their IDs?” I asked.

  “One one eight. That was one of them. One six four, I think. Two four seven. And…I forget the last one.”

  I looked in the device list as we started a brisk walk across the floor. I found PSS-118 right away. The others didn’t appear to exist.

  “Well, one out of four is better than nothing,” I said, tapping in the command to connect it to the network.

  We neared the entrance to the gym. The inmates who hadn’t already reached the elevator streamed toward us, unaware of the guards about to pincer them from both sides of the deck. As long as they stayed out of the way, they could hopefully avoid what I knew was about to become a messy situation.

  My hands shook as I connected to PSS-118 and began entering my identifier, trying to take over the guardbot before it made an appearance. I could hear the heavy thuds of its feet further down, and a quick glance revealed an adjacent corridor where I expected the guards to emerge any second now.

  The first guardbot moved out from the corridor, torso turning to face us as it cleared the wall. It was too far away for me to see its identifier clearly. It didn’t matter. There wouldn’t be time to send the huddle command to PSS-118, disconnect, and enter another long address to claim another guardbot.

  Two more bots flanked the first. The first live guard I had seen moved with them, dressed in body armor similar to the spaceport guards and carrying a rifle. I don’t think he knew the prisoners Grist was looking for were on this deck. From the way he glanced over us at first, it seemed he was more concerned with why the elevator had gotten stuck.

  His neutral posture didn’t last. He moved his rifle from a lax position across his chest to a ready state, head swiveling to look at the only prisoners moving away from the primary elevator instead of retreating to it.

  “You there,” he shouted loudly through his helmet’s speakers. “Stop where you are and put your hands up.”

  We all froze in place, but we didn’t have time to stand around.

  Especially because the lights on the bots surrounding the guard began flashing, save for the bot in the rear. My bot. PSS-118.

  “Get down!” I shouted, noticing the entrance to the gym on my left. I threw myself toward it, a step behind Quasar as Tattoo and the others threw themselves onto the deck.

  Crouching behind the safety of the bulkhead, I watched the chaos unfold and resolve in a matter of seconds. My first guardbot, identifying the other side as a threat to me, didn’t waste time with a warning. It started shooting, plasma sizzling over Druck’s head and digging into the lead security guardbot. Meanwhile, PS-118 opened fire on the other two bots from the rear, catching them completely by surprise. The shocked guard, realizing what was happening, threw his rifle onto the deck and crouched with his hands over his head.

  My two bots calmed down, leaving the other three guardbots a smoking mess. Tattoo jumped up and ran across the deck, aiming to scoop up the guard’s rifle.

  “Wait!” I shouted, coming out of hiding. “It’s only assigned to protect me. If you pick up that gun, it’ll kill you.”

  Tattoo froze, her hand inches away from the rifle. “Are you serious?”

  “Dead serious,” I said, running to where the guard had hunched over. Quasar, Matt and the other soldiers followed behind me.

  “How?” the guard asked, looking up as I arrived and scooped up his rifle.

  “Your network security sucks,” I replied. “Stand up.”

  He got to his feet.

  “I don’t really want to take a hostage, but…” I pointed the rifle at him. “Matt, take his helmet.”

  Matt circled the others to lift the helmet off the guard’s head. I was surprised to see he was around my age, and he looked nervous.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. “I just need to get off this satellite.”

  “You aren’t getting out of here,” he replied. “Nobody escapes. It won’t be any different this time.”

  As if on cue, my two guardbots slumped forward, lowering their guns as they powered down.