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AN ONSET OF NAUSEA GREETED IMARA when Takara’s mansion came into her view. She hadn’t expected to feel anything since she only saw the inside of the mansion last time she was here. But standing in front of those doors triggered a painful reminder that burned in her ribs.
After tucking those memories neatly into the stack of things she never wanted to think about for the rest of her life, she traipsed up to the door and knocked.
Next, she looked straight into the security camera and said, “I have Marco Santini’s location. If you want it, open this door.”
It took eleven seconds before the door opened, and even that seemed surprising. Imara, Keiko, and Husani were ushered inside by silent taggers, different from the ones they had encountered earlier. The taggers motioned for them to sit on a couch, and then they stood guard at either end of the room.
Several minutes later, Takara burst through the front door with three drones hovering over her head like hummingbirds.
Her eyes fixed onto Imara’s. Her arms shook while every vein in her hand popped out. “Did you know where he was when you were here before?” she asked.
Imara ignored the question and tapped her ring. “Do you want the location or not?”
At that moment, the silky-haired woman seemed to notice her daughter sitting on the couch with them. Her eyes narrowed at the short, amber hair that no longer matched her own.
Imara opened her mouth and pushed the words out, desperate to keep the woman’s mind off her daughter. “The only thing we ask in return is our safety.”
Takara’s eyes jumped back to hers, and a throaty laugh bubbled out from her throat. “The only thing you’ll get in return is your life, and even that isn’t guaranteed.”
Imara thought about protesting, but knew better than to argue with Takara. Rather than engage in more conversation, she tapped her ring and pulled up the location tag Abe had sent earlier. She scrolled through her contacts until she found Takara’s face.
The woman’s nose twitched with a smile as Imara sent the information to her. She nearly drooled as she gazed at the location tag. But then, her face warped, and she jerked her head toward them. “How do I know this is real?”
With a tap, Imara showed her the picture featuring Marco Santini and a little hut in a snow-filled landscape.
The expression that overcame Takara’s face was difficult to describe. If she could have bottled the glee a serial killer felt at claiming a new victim, it would have been that times ten. Plus, a smattering of grotesque curiosity.
The look was so vile, Imara had to turn away. She wasn’t surprised to notice Husani and Keiko had done the same.
Takara tapped on her hologram, scrolling through different apps as she mumbled to herself. She tapped her hologram screen one last time, and then turned off her ring. Just then, the drones above her crackled with electricity.
“Time to clean up,” Takara said as she waltzed away.
The nearest drone reached out for Husani. He called out to Keiko, panic lacing every syllable.
Keiko tapped furiously on her hologram screen. “You’ll have to dodge it for a couple minutes. I have to find the breaker box for the house,” Keiko said.
Husani jumped off the couch, and Imara wasn’t far behind. Two drones circled her while the third zoomed toward Keiko. She threw herself in front of the girl and waved her hands attempting to get the drone’s attention.
Luckily, the drone turned toward her only a moment later. She dodged the second drone and threw a pillow, trying to hit it out of the air. Before she could search for the first drone, she noticed the two taggers who had been standing guard by the door. They covered their heads, each wearing a look of terror.
“She left us. The drones are on attack mode; they won’t know not to target us,” one of them whispered.
A black blob flying through the air pulled Imara’s attention away. Husani had thrown a large, black blanket over the drone and was now trying to wrestle the drone to the ground.
It seemed like a pretty good idea until Keiko’s voice rang through the air. “That blanket still conducts electricity, you idiot. Let go before it kills you!”
He dropped the blanket faster than a cobra strike just as a rush of blue sparks shot through it.
Imara’s attention turned to the first drone, which she avoided by running and dropping to a crouch before the drone could react. It hovered for a moment, scanning the room to find her. A second later, the fight was on again. Most of her energy was spent dodging and weaving. She threw a vase at one point, but the drones were better at dodging than she was.
More taggers entered the room with eyes on the front door, probably trying to escape. She ducked to avoid the blanket-covered drone, but at the same time, saw another wrapping its arms around one of the taggers. The woman barely had time to register its presence before shocks jolted through her body.
“Stop it!” a man screamed. “She’s one of us. She’s a tagger!”
But then, another drone wrapped its arms around him, and he was dead on the ground a second later.
Screams broke out as they all realized what was happening. When Takara had said, “Time to clean up,” she had meant everyone. Including the taggers.
Imara chucked a pillow toward the closest drone, which threw it off balance just long enough to protect another tagger. More taggers ran for the front door while the rest of them kept fighting.
Two drones headed for Imara. She ducked behind the couch to hide, searching for anything to use as a weapon. She jerked her head to one side and pulled back when she noticed Keiko centimeters from her face.
“I need the breaker box,” Keiko said. “She’s powering the drones through this mansion. If I can cut power to the entire mansion, it should cut off power to the drones. That’s my theory anyway.”
“On it,” Imara said with a nod. She hopped over the couch and slapped a drone away with her bare hand. Soon, she was in a familiar hallway, which caused a shot of nausea through her stomach. Clenching her stomach, she headed straight for the door she wanted least to go inside. Even still, she knew that room would be her best chance at finding the breaker box.
A tagger woman stood outside the torture room with heavy tears streaming down her cheeks. Imara took careful steps forward, but as soon as the woman noticed her, she pulled a gun.
Rather than fight, Imara tried to think what Abe would do. “Help us,” she said. “I need to find the breaker box in order to stop the drones.”
The woman wrinkled her nose with disgust, but she didn’t shoot either. “You killed Carlotta,” she said through her teeth.
Imara locked eyes with the woman and tried a little smile. In a soothing voice, she said, “I didn’t. I know you’ll never believe me, but I promise I didn’t. But even if I did. Is this what you want?” She waved a hand down the hall toward the whirring drones and strangled shouts. “Taggers are supposed to stop criminals like Takara and Sef, not be led by them. Is this what taggers believe in? Mass murder?”
They were both still for several moments. The woman’s mouth turned into a frown, and she began to glare. But a second later, the gun clattered to the ground. The woman took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She tapped a code into the door opener and pointed to a metal box built into the wall.
Before Imara could enter the room, the woman had disappeared. Imara tapped her ring as she marched toward the box. When Keiko answered her call, she said, “It’s in the room down the hall on the left. Can I do anything before you get here?”
Before Keiko could answer, a shower of sparks appeared out of the corner of Imara’s eye. She turned and saw not one, but two drones coming straight for her. She backed up against the padded chair in the middle of the room, and a rush of heat tingled through her. She pivoted to back up more and promptly tripped over a box of magnets. She kicked it, ignoring the familiar shiver up her spine. What did Takara use those magnets for?
Imara ducked behind the padded chair as the drones drew closer. She grabbed a plastic tray off the nearby hover cart and chucked it at the drone.
When that didn’t work, she tried the knives. The first knife hit against the drone with its hilt. She huffed and threw another. This one hit the drone with its blade squarely in the belly. Rather than damage the metal, the knife only bounced off, heading back for her.
She pulled her arm in front of her face and jumped to the side. Apparently, knives wouldn’t work either.
She glanced down at the box of magnets near her feet. She grabbed a handful as she backed into the corner. The nearest drone stretched its arms toward her, but her eyes fell on the whipping blades keeping the drone aloft. She glanced at her handful of magnets, when an idea popped into her mind. But it was too easy. Surely the drones couldn’t be beaten like this.
The mechanical drone arms reached forward until one brushed across her shoulder. The time to think had passed. Maybe it would work and maybe it wouldn’t, but there was only one way to find out.
She threw a magnet, aiming for the drone’s propellers. Within seconds, the magnet attached to the blade, which immediately threw the drone off balance. The arms reached for her again, but the drone veered to the left until it crashed into the floor in a puff of smoke. By the time she aimed for the second drone’s propellers, it was already zooming back outside the door.
She stuffed as many magnets as possible into her pockets, then headed to the metal box.
“Here she is,” Husani said through the doorway.
Keiko rushed in a moment later shaking her head. “We thought you were upstairs. We went through three rooms before we...” Her voice trailed off as her eyes landed on the breaker box. She had it open a moment later and tapped into the nearby keypad.
“How’d you do that?” Husani asked when he spotted the broken drone on the ground.
Imara grabbed a handful of magnets and dropped them into his hands as she explained how to throw the drones off balance with them.
Before she could finish, two drones zoomed into the room.
“Anytime now, Keiko,” Husani said as he ducked behind the padded chair.
Keiko flashed her teeth and glared. “I’m working on it”
Imara gripped a magnet. She had just narrowed her eyes to aim, when the power in the house went out. The first sound she heard was Husani tripping over the box of magnets with a grunt. The next was the whir of the two drones.
“The drones are still active,” she said. “Is it going to take a minute to work?”
“That should have worked,” Keiko said with a growl. “They have an internal power source, but the attack command has to come externally. Once I shut off the external commands, the drones should have powered down. Without...” her breathed hitched and she whispered, “It’s got me.”
Without a thought, Imara lunged in the direction she had last seen Keiko. With the lights out, she wasn’t sure it was the right way until her hands made contact with Keiko’s face.
Imara ran her hands down Keiko’s arm until she felt the drone’s arm. She ripped it away as she blindly threw one of the magnets. “RUN!” she screamed.
With only the shuffling of feet to guide her, it was hard to tell where the others were. She waited until both of them seemed to be out of the room before she started running too. A line of metal brushed across her arm. She ducked and chucked a magnet over her shoulder, hoping it would hit a propeller.
Keiko screamed, but Husani must have saved her because she thanked him a moment later. When Imara finally got outside the darkened house, she noticed Keiko gripping Husani around the waist. He held her head against his shoulder. When Keiko noticed they weren’t alone, she quickly pushed Husani away and said, “I’m fine now.”
Husani looked ready to fight it, but there was no time for that now. “Look,” Imara said, pointing to the nearby road.
People filled the streets, many of them screaming. At least half wore a tagger T on their chests. Every few feet, dead bodies lay unmoving. And just ahead, with its arms reaching for the next victim, a drone hovered.
Imara’s feet pounded against the road as she pulled a magnet from her pocket. It was still too far to aim properly, but the drone was ready to electrocute, and she couldn’t stand by and watch. She chucked the magnet, which fell short and bounced against the road.
She had been so focused on grabbing another magnet that she didn’t hear the drone behind her until it gripped her around the shoulder. Maybe it was stupid, but she aimed and chucked another magnet at the other drone first. Then, she grabbed another magnet and aimed for the propeller of the drone now gripping her.
A shock began to go through her, causing her body to seize. But her magnet pulled the drone off balance, and it disconnected from her body a moment later. She dropped to her knees and gasped for air.
“Careful!” Husani said as he helped her to her feet a moment later. “Abe will skin me alive if anything happens to you.”
She nodded absently as she turned to check on the other drone. It was gone, and its victim lay on the ground, completely still. She clenched her jaw and felt a sting in her nose as tears started forming.
A man leaned over the victim with tears in his eyes. Both the man and the victim wore a tagger T on their chests.
Her breath hitched as she tried to swallow. Tingles danced in her fingertips, and fear gripped her. But she knew what she had to do.
She glanced toward Husani and Keiko and said, “We have to work with the taggers.”
