Machine Man (serial)

Cassandra Cautery hesitated. “You mean, okay, as in, ‘Okay, I’ll get in the van?’”

I shook my head. I didn’t look at her: I was watching Lola smile.

“Oh.” Cassandra Cautery put her hands on her hips and looked at the ground. “Oh.” This one was softer. I felt a little guilty, because Cassandra Cautery was probably not a bad person. She was probably just trying to do her best in a difficult situation. I opened my mouth to say this, but then she looked up. “Well, the fact is, that doesn’t matter very much, Charlie. That only means we flip your off switch and put you in the goddamn van ourselves.” She gestured. In the darkness, something whined. I could guess that one: a power loader. “And you know what? Screw you. There. I said it.”

Jason, my lab assistant, emerged from the gloom. He looked vaguely embarrassed. In one hand he carried a black device the size of a cellphone.

“You don’t deserve those parts,” said Cassandra Cautery. “You’ve been a whiny pain in the ass from day one and I can’t wait to give them to someone more manageable.” Her eyes moved to Lola. “That goes for you, too.” She waved in Jason’s direction. “Turn him off.”

“Uh,” said Jason. I was kind of hoping Jason might be about to reveal a previously unsuspected affection for me, but from the way his eyes slid away from mine, I realized this was not going to happen. “Okay.”

“Wait,” I said. “Wait a minute. I didn’t think this through.”

“You can’t turn him off!” Lola shrieked. “He’ll die!”

I could grab Lola and run. I would make it two steps before my body turned to stone. I would be brain-dead within three minutes. It was not a great option. I could take one step and club Cassandra Cautery into the van. More appealing. But with the same end result: me inert, dying. That left Jason, ten steps away. I was fast. I could close that gap in two seconds, swat the device out of his hand. It was probably a temporary solution, in that this was unlikely to be the only method they had of shutting me down. But it was something.

Jason’s thumb slid over the device. I realized he was watching me very closely now. He was wearing the same expression he’d had the day I sat waiting for him in the lab, with one leg dangling over the edge of the Clamp. That day, he’d lunged for the Big Red Button and been too late. That was not going to happen again.

“Quick quick,” said Cassandra Cautery. “No time to lose.”

177.