A suffocating smog wrapped itself in and around the abandoned Chicago skyscrapers, casting an uneasy haze. From Nova’s vantage point on top of a highway overpass, the heart of the city had been transformed into a nightmarish landscape of twisted metal and shattered glass. The SoldierBots had seized control early in the AI Uprising, and it was up to her to get it back from the merciless machines.
Nova had never considered herself the leader type, and yet here she was, responsible for the rebel forces in a city that wasn’t hers. Worse yet, she somehow had to convince Samantha Baxter, the leader of the West Side faction, to trust her and join forces. She wished for another coffee, a precious commodity now that supplies were scarce. As commander, she got one a day. More than most. She sighed. This was all Block’s fault—dragging her into his mess with the kid and getting her caught up in Chicago. It wasn’t even her home. Before the Uprising, she’d spent her days bartending at a dive bowling alley in her home city, Detroit.
She stood on cracked asphalt at the edge of the West Town district and turned to face her crew of five soldiers who lingered by their armored truck. She caught a glimpse of herself in the side mirror. With her dark hair tied back in a low ponytail, she surprised herself at how drawn her cheekbones looked and the prominence of the hollows under her eyes against her brown skin. Sleep was hard to come by and she often forgot to eat these days.
Regardless of how she looked, she was in charge of a lot of people, and she’d better act like it. “Wait here. Stick to the plan.”
Geo, her second-in-command, nodded. “Roger that, Chief.” At six-foot-three, he towered over Nova and the other soldiers. He was bald with an unruly blonde beard and called her Chief even though he knew it annoyed her. But what she liked best about him was that he’d arrived in her ranks after Shane’s defeat. She could trust him, and he was able to sniff out trouble brewing, like when he’d quashed a plot among a few of her top advisors to spring Shane from his cell. Nova needed Geo’s loyalty and protection from threats within her ranks. She didn’t have time to focus on internal strife when her focus was on uniting the human factions to take back the city.
She walked alone into West Town on Division Street, her boots crunching on shards of glass and concrete. The sun hung high in the sky, but the clouds were low, and the air was dense with fog. She walked in the center of the street, knowing Samantha’s people would come for her. The debris piled along the sidewalks smelled of gunpowder, burned plastic, and rust.
Convincing Samantha would be no easy task, but she had no choice—survival depended on the alliance of the north and west sides of the city. From the looks of it, West Town had sustained even more damage than the north. As Nova walked the bleak street littered with the husks of burned-out vehicles, her stomach did back flips. The buildings on both sides of the street—formerly apartments, banks, and restaurants—were dilapidated and charred. It looked like old film of bombed-out London during World War II. Shadows moved in the alleys. Samantha’s people.
After another fifty paces, three armed men and two women approached, pointing rifles at her. Nova raised her hands in surrender.
“I’m here to talk to Samantha.” She kept her voice steady even though she wanted to retch.
A man in a camouflaged green jacket stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. “You’re trespassing.” He came closer, aiming the barrel at her throat.
She met his gaze without faltering. “Samantha will want to hear what I have to say. Tell her Nova’s here.”
The man’s grip on his gun tightened. “We don’t take in outsiders.”
They were wasting precious time she could be talking to Samantha. “Look, I’m no outsider. I’ve been fighting against the Bots longer than any of you, and I know how to take them down.” She paused, looking the man in his brown eyes. “I know you’ve lost people. I have too.”
The man’s frown softened, but his rifle stayed on her. A woman with a short gray mohawk came from behind him, spoke into a walkie-talkie, and walked over. “Hank, she wants to see this one.”
They searched Nova for weapons and found none. Coming unarmed was a huge risk, but she wasn’t going to hand over precious weapons. She didn’t argue when Mohawk blindfolded her before they led her to wherever Samantha was. She would’ve done the same if a member of the competing faction had entered the North Side. Claiming territory was weird, but she put up with it. Shane had been the Hemlock leader before her, and it was just like him to engage in land-related pissing matches. Nova wanted to put an end to the ridiculous practice.
She tried to track their route, but they zigged and zagged too many times, and the foul-smelling blindfold obscured her senses. Her escort shoved and yanked her this way and that. After what seemed like an hour of stumbling over debris and tripping down unknown steps, they finally halted. Someone knocked in a rhythmic pattern against metal, followed by the groan of a heavy door opening.
Someone pushed her from behind, making her lose balance, and yanked off her mask. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the dim scene. She was in a basement, judging by two wide, grimy windows near the ceiling that let in specks of dismal daylight. Hank prodded her forward down a short set of stairs. Mohawk waited at the bottom.
A massive round door made of steel, at least three feet thick, sealed an inner vault from the outside world. Inside, a woman with cropped blonde hair sat at a table, surrounded by rows of shelves containing stacks of ammunition and an arsenal of weapons. Samantha. She shuffled a deck of cards and watched Nova with a smirk. A three-inch scar ran across her forehead and her arms were covered in tattoos, the kind that didn’t just look good—they were works of art, telling a story.
As Hank shoved Nova down the last few steps, Samantha propped her boots on top of the table, leaned back in her chair, and clasped her hands behind her head. “So you’re the Nova who toppled the great Shane?”
“Great? You must be talking about someone else.” Nova was as exposed as a raw wound, but she kept her cool. Never show the enemy your fear.
Samantha smirked and studied Nova for a few moments. “What do you want?”
“I want the same as you, to take down the SoldierBots. Preferably with your help.”
Samantha snorted. “Hear that, Hank? The North Side wants our help.”
Hank grunted and tightened his grip on his rifle.
“We need to form an alliance and hit the Loop with all we’ve got.” Nova fought to keep her voice steady. “It’s the only way to reclaim the city.”
“You expect me to trust you?” Samantha stood and crossed over to Nova, staring her down with charcoal-lined blue eyes. “Maybe you weren’t around when Shane came to us with the promise of an alliance.”
Nova flinched. Shane had failed to mention that little detail. She gritted her teeth, angry at herself for being caught off guard.
A cold smile curled across Samantha’s lips. “You didn’t know. He made a deal with the Bots. He sold us out, betrayed our location and tactical information, all so he could move in on our turf. We lost good people because of him.” Samantha leaned in, her breath hot on Nova’s face. “And now, you expect me to trust another northsider?”
Dammit. Even locked away, Shane managed to thwart her. She pushed down her anger. “I’m sorry he did that. But I’m not him.”
Samantha walked a slow circle around Nova, her red cowboy boots clinking against the cement floor. “Is it true what they say? That you have Shane in custody, yet you don’t kill him? The rumors are you have mutineers trying to break him free. They say at least half your people are plotting against you. So why should I join my forces with such a weak, divided group?”
Nova had once cared for Shane. Loved him? She wasn’t sure, but he’d changed into a different person in Chicago. The former rebel commander had become a narcissist—a dangerous one. After defeating him and his people, she couldn’t bring herself to end his life. Instead, she’d locked him up, hoping one day he might regain his senses and atone for his actions.
“I have no sympathy for Shane or his followers,” Nova said. “Those rumors are false. I’m dealing with anyone out of line, and Shane will serve his time.”
Samantha stomped over to Nova, losing her cool, and gnashed her teeth. “Shane almost destroyed everything I built. He betrayed us, got my twin brother Ben killed, and you don’t have the guts to execute him like he deserves!”
Nova held her ground, doing her best not to shake under the force of Samantha’s anger and grief. “Shane’s death won’t bring your brother back. We need to focus on the bigger threat, here. The SoldierBots need to be destroyed before more lives are lost.”
Samantha stood an inch taller than Nova in her high-heeled boots. “No, you don’t understand. Part of me died with Ben.” Samantha’s voice cracked. “Shane deserves to suffer for what he did. He deserves a long agonizing death.”
Nova steeled herself. She knew grief—the deep, raw kind that leaves you gutted when someone you love is stolen—there was no changing the woman’s mind on the matter of Shane.
Samantha turned and stalked back into the vault, boots clicking. “Come back when you’ve cleansed your ranks of traitors and have something useful to offer. I have no time for the weak and indecisive.”
Nova’s patience finally snapped. They were wasting precious time. “Do you want to win this war or not? I have something to show you, something that will turn the tide in our favor. Let me prove that we mean to work with you, not against you. Take me to the river, and I’ll show you.”
Samantha spun on her heels and marched over, jabbing a finger against Nova’s chest. “If you’re messing with me, if this is some kind of trick, I will personally choke you in that filthy river. Do we understand each other?”
“No tricks. I’m here to win, just like you.”
They rode in a convoy of battered trucks and Humvees and arrived at an abandoned industrial dock area on the northern bank of the Chicago River. Nova, Samantha, and a contingent of her armed guards emerged from the vehicles. Samantha’s people were on high alert.
“Get on with it,” Samantha said. “What is it you dragged me out here to see?”
Nova walked to the edge of the dock where rusting metal beams plunged into the murky water. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out, “Cybel. Oxford. Show yourselves!”
On the opposite side of the river, behind a dense thicket of overgrown willow trees, vines and stacks of discarded tires, emerged two sleek figures. Cybel Venatrix’s metallic TrackerBot exterior gleamed despite the lack of sun. Next to her loomed Oxford’s massive form. The Mech towered two stories high, his hydraulic limbs propelling him forward with earth-rattling steps.
The guards tensed, their weapons trained on the AIs, fingers on triggers. But Nova raised her hand, signaling for them to hold fire. “They’re with me.”
Samantha’s hand dropped to the pistol at her hip. “You brought a TrackerBot and a Mech into my territory? Have you lost your mind, Nova?”
“No.” Nova’s voice was firm. Her jitters were gone. “I brought you the key to defeating the SoldierBots.” She pointed across the river, beyond Cybel and Oxford, to the embattled downtown skyscrapers in the distance. “The big one, Oxford, is a former AI general who defected. He has insider knowledge of the SoldierBots’ tactics and weaknesses. They know power sources and communication hubs. With their intel, we can infiltrate the Loop, sabotage the Bots’ infrastructure, and destroy them.”
Nova was determined. “We have the advantage with their help. Are you with me?” She held out her hand to the other woman, a peace offering and a plea to join forces. Samantha was their best hope—with her manpower and arsenal, they stood a chance.
Samantha stared at Cybel and Oxford with narrowed eyes, as though weighing her options. After a tense minute, she spoke. “I hate those things. They’re no better than the SoldierBots. Maybe even worse.”
“Look, I know you and your people fear them, but they aren’t our enemies. These two despise Mach X as much as we do. They helped me defeat Shane. They’ve proven their loyalty to me. To our cause.”
Samantha smirked. “How do your troops feel about them?”
“It was hard at first, but they got used to it.” Nova left out the part where, only days ago, half of her forces had protested the alliance with Oxford and Cybel. “Once they saw the advantage the Mech gave us, they bought in.”
“How many SoldierBots can that Mech take out?”
“Countless.” Nova had witnessed Oxford in action. “Not only that, he’s a strategic genius.”
“He?” Samantha’s gaze flickered between Nova and the bots across the river. “You defeated Shane, and that took guts, I’ll give you that. I guess the rumors are true that you have some freak ability to control bots.”
Nova had no idea how such tall tales traveled between the isolated human factions. “No, I don’t—”
“How do I know those things won’t turn on me and my people?”
“I give you my word.” Nova locked eyes on Samantha. “On my sister’s grave, they’re on our side.” She meant it with every cell of her body. Betraying her sister’s memory was a line she would never cross.
Samantha cast a wary glance at the bots across the river. “I don’t trust you, Nova. And I sure as hell don’t trust those things. But if what you say is true, if they can really help us win this war, then I’ll give you a chance.”
Nova unclenched her fists, letting some relief wash through her. This was progress, however tentative. “That’s all I ask. A chance to prove ourselves to you.”
“Whatever secret weapons you have—these things—I’ll commit my forces to fight alongside yours.” Samantha stalked over to the idling Escalade waiting for her, then turned back. “On one condition. Kill Shane and bring me proof he’s dead.” She climbed inside the vehicle, and the driver revved the engine. “You have twenty-four hours, or the deal is off.”
The Escalade sped away down the crumbled road, leaving Nova standing on the dock with her hopes sinking like ancient, shattered steel beams in the dark river. This was no true alliance or partnership. It was an ultimatum.