BERD FROWNED, UNSURE if she had heard right, but in the moment that passed between them, he seemed only more upset. Charles grasped her hand. “Come!” he ordered, and hurried her towards the elevator. His palm was unnaturally warm and damp.
Confusion washed through her. “But didn’t you want to come here to find the settings?”
Charles did not answer. As if he were still recovering from his ordeal, his feet dragged. He swung his arms as if to give impetus to his movement, his face so ashen she shuddered with worry.
“Charles, please, what’s wrong—”
He swivelled to stare at her, and the eyes that gazed at her were fully silver. Tiny sparks of electricity glinted on his lashes.
Suddenly, his body tensed as if he had received a huge shock. His skin shimmered as if he was being devoured alive from the inside by molten metal. His eyes were silver.
“Charles!” She was sure she smelt smoke.
She reached out to support him just as his grip on her other hand tightened. Belying his previous weakness, he began to crush her hand. Tears sprang to her eyes. She attempted to yank herself free from his grasp, but her hand was caught in a grip as tight as a vice.
A thin wail erupted from her mouth. She had made a mistake. Charles was like every other man. “You’re hurting me.”
But he continued to squeeze.
“Charles, please!” The bones in her hand were grinding together, skin giving way in hopes of saving what lay beneath. Tears ran down her cheeks at the pain.
Berd reached her free hand back and slapped him, hard, so hard the sound of her palm on his cheek reverberated around the room, making the water jump. But it worked. He staggered back and released her.
“How dare you! How dare you hurt me!” Holding her injured hand to her chest, she backed away.
Charles blinked then shook his head as if waking from a dream, horrified contrition on his face. “What’s going on?” he asked as she bent forward and cried, cradling her fingers to her chest.
“My lady, please accept my humble apology. I do not know what came over me. I cannot express the deep regret I feel at my actions.”
Berd stared up at him, barely able to see through the tears. His eyes had returned to their normal iridescent blue, now wide with anguish. His right hand was open in a gesture of conciliation. He took a step forward and she took a step back. At that, he dropped his hand.
Something was responsible for this aberrant behaviour. Whatever it was, it terrified her. “I’m not staying a moment long—”
The ground swayed beneath their feet.
As she stumbled, Charles reached out to grasp hold of her. She slapped and shoved at him but he was stronger than her and determined to hold her still.
“Let go! Let me go damn it! Stop this!”
At first she thought she was causing the shift, but it was strange, because he was as powerless as she against the earthquake motions of the book stack. They rolled together, slipping and sliding along the water-strewn floor, water from the walls splashed onto them.
“Calm down, my lady, please calm down!”
He was trying to protect her after attacking her. This did not make sense.
In moments, the jerky movement of the book stack walking settled into a gentle rhythm. He released her then, and she scrambled to the opposite wall to get as far away from him as possible. There, she glared at him, still clutching her injured fingers.
Charles remained on the ground; he made no attempt to reach her. “Gine’s causing the book stack to move. It’s his way of stopping us from leaving the stack.”
“Why?” she asked, suspicious.
“To remove me as far as possible from the Mill.” His voice was a whisper.
“I thought you wanted to go to the Output.”
“I needed to go to the Mill so I can reprogram him. The reason I gave regarding the settings was true. I do need them, but it was also an excuse to get close to the Mill.”
She stared at him, the meaning hitting home.
“You can reprogram him?” From what she understood of computers, that was impossible. “How can you reprogram a computer unless you first turn it off?”
Reprogramming a computer required taking out physical components and either rearranging or switching them out for something else entirely, or else swapping the operational cards, which was why they had to be turned off. “If you turn an engine off, especially this one, don’t we perish?”
He smiled bitterly. “Do you understand the term bootstrap?”
“When a computer is turned on, it has only one instruction: to load its operating system. So in analogy, if a computer were a human being, it would be the equivalent of inserting its brain.”
“Exactly. Hence the term bootstrap. Because it is such a difficult operation, it is likened to a man lying prone, attempting to raise himself up by his bootstraps.”
“But once a computer has loaded its operating system and in turn loaded the application program it wishes to execute, the program runs until concluded, correct?”
“In the earlier prototypes they did. Gine, however...”
She exhaled heavily, seeing where he was headed with this conversation. “Is at the cutting edge of technology,” she breathed out.
He snorted. “I am too clever for myself. I saw the benefits of reprogramming the Engine as it was running. Even better, the Engine stores all its old instructions. The book stacks are not what you think they are, my lady. They are the Store, but they don’t just hold the current stack of instructions, they also hold old programs. Every single program that Gine has ever executed is in storage here.”
So that explained why there were so many book stacks. Despite her anger, she understood the impact of such an invention. “That’s brilliant. So when you turn the computer off, it won’t lose its memory.”
“I certainly thought so at the time. Auxiliary memory I call it. Permanent memory.”
Permanent memory as compared to temporary memory! That was indeed a breakthrough. She had never heard it done before. For a moment, the pain in her hand was gone, lost to the swell of epiphany.
He lifted his chin. “So to explain my erratic behaviour ... in the book stacks are parts of me.”
“I don’t quite understand.”
“Do you remember when we were running towards the book stacks and we were being ‘attacked’ by bits?”
She had never seen Charles so disgusted with Gine before. “But Gine wasn’t really attacking us. He was just being childish and trying to surround you with energy in the vague hope that you would imbibe some of it.” She was stunned to find herself actually defending Gine!
But if Charles hadn’t really sacrificed himself for her, then why had he pushed her away?
“It was foolish and dangerous of Gine. Do you not remember what happened the last time it occurred?”
She nodded, recalling Charles’s bloody nose after the attack of the bits and how she had been injured. She was surprised how quickly she had forgotten. But the world was all madness now, so one piece of confusion was easy to overlook.
He rested his elbows on his knees and gazed up at her through his dark hair. “I called out something to you then.”
“Something about me not taking any energy ... about how the energy changed you.” She found herself staring down at his chest, watching him breathe.
He followed her gaze. “The leather from my outfit is from the battery beasts. They were black once, but because they imbibed the energy, it changed them. Do you understand? It changed them.”
Her skin prickled. “I understand.”
“They began to take on some of Gine’s being. I can’t quite call it characteristics or traits or even emotions. Their beings merged. They became part Engine while he became part them.”
“So are you saying that...”
He couldn’t look her in the eye as he spoke. “I am part Gine and Gine is part me.” His voice cracked, and he dropped his head to his hands.
Charles had never accused Gine of being anything other than good because it was as good as accusing himself. He’d attacked her because the energy was affecting him.
“But Gine’s a child. You said so yourself. Surely we could reason with him.”
Charles exhaled heavily. “Pray Gine stays a child.”
That stunned her. “What do you mean?”
“Have you ever asked yourself why Gine keeps playing games?”
It was true. Gine had been playing game after game since she’d entered the Engine. “Why?”
He lifted his head as he gave an ironic smile. “How else does a child learn? It’s when he stops playing games we must worry. He’s grown, and at his most dangerous.”
And Gine was learning how to imitate people…
“Why did Gine rescue me?”
Charles’s back stiffened, his shoulders tensed and his hands closed into fists. Back on the train he’d done the same; she had received answers then, only it had made the situation worse. But she had to know.
“We saw you. Remember before the explosion?”
She had thought then that she had seen an angel and a devil with the same face. Berd looked away, and when she glanced back their eyes locked. His were wide and defenceless. And then she understood.
“So did you fall for me then?” she asked, the words out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Or did you simply feel desperate for someone to save you?” Was that when he had fallen in love with her? Only … was Charles in love with her...? Her heartbeat quickened. “What are the three reasons Gine created the forest of trees? I know the first was to distract you from me. And the second was to distract me from the Mill. But what was the third reason?”
“The first two reasons were to distract, but the third…” He stared at the floor. “The third was to attract.”
“Attract what?”
He exhaled slowly. “Not what. Who.”
She knew the answer, but she needed to hear him say it.
“You,” Charles answered. “He doesn’t want you to leave. When you first entered the Engine, he produced a swathe of buildings to make you feel at home; to impress you. He wants to keep you just like he wants to keep me. Here, in the Engine. Forever.”