Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(33)

An emergency cover slid over the open access port.

She coughed, rolling onto her knees, and clawed off her helmet to suck in a lungful of breath. The ship’s air tasted stale, as though it hadn’t been recycled for a while. That was a good sign. Abandoned, like Jax said.

Di got to his feet first.

“Thanks for that,” she gasped, taking his hand to help her up. She pressed the keypad to open the door to the small maintenance air lock they’d landed in and stepped into a corridor. “See? This is why we make such a good—”

The halogen lights overhead flickered on, humming.

“I thought Jax said the ship was running on emergency power,” she muttered.

“Perhaps there is an internal generator belowdecks.”

“Fancy.”

The halogen lights popped on one at a time, illuminating the long corridor. It was white, lined with silver doors glowing with red keypads. Locked. At first glance, the ship looked immaculate, but there was a thin layer of dust on the tiled floor, showing their boot prints as they traveled down the corridor.

“Where do you think we should start looking?” she asked, testing the nearest keypad. She punched in a random number, and it beeped red.

ACCESS DENIED.

“Hey, do you think you can override these locks?” When he didn’t answer, she glanced over her shoulder. “Di?”

He cocked his head, as if hearing something.

“What’s wrong?”

Slowly, his eyes slid toward the door in front of her, and he reached for his gun. Instinctively, she did too—

The door slid up, revealing a silvery figure, too tall and too thin to be human. It looked like Di, from the slats around its mouth to its polished chrome body—new. But Metals hadn’t been in production for twenty years. After the Plague, the Adviser stopped manufacturing them.

“Halt,” it said, voice deep and melodic—like a bell. “Put your weapon away, brother.”

Ana took an involuntary step back. Its eyes were red. “Brother? Di, does it know you?”

“It should not,” Di replied.

“And why are its eyes red?”

The red-eyed Metal answered instead. “You are not welcome here.” Then it aimed its Metroid at Ana’s head.

In alarm, Ana grabbed the Metal by its wrist and shoved its aim toward the ceiling. It fired, and a light burst above them.

The Metal turned its blazing red eyes to her.

A chill curved down her spine.

She twisted the android’s wrist to dislodge the weapon. But it wouldn’t let go. Instead, she slammed her foot up, connecting with the Metal’s jaw. It released its gun, falling back into the room it came from. Fuses hissed from its neck.

Ana quickly disarmed the weapon and threw it down the hallway. Her hands were shaking. “Jax said there weren’t any active Metals—why are there active Metals? And why are they attacking us?”

“I am unsure.”

The red-eyed Metal righted itself. “You are an intruder.”

“We’re only here for some answers!” She drew her Metroid and flicked off the safety. She aimed it at the Metal. “I mean it—I don’t want to hurt you. You’re not HIVE’d, so what are you?”

“Ana, I do not think it will help us,” said Di.

The red-eyed Metal lurched forward to attack.

She squeezed the trigger. One shot bit into the Metal’s right shoulder, then one into the left, but bullets didn’t stop it. She gritted her teeth and turned her aim toward its chest. To its memory core.

Her aim shook.

The red-eyed Metal reached for her throat.

Count your bullets, Siege had said. Remember where they land.

In a blink, Di grabbed the Metal by the arm. He twisted the Metal around, its back pressed against his chest, and jammed his hand into the center of its body—like he had done in Nevaeh.

But when Di pulled his hand out, it was empty, knotted with stray wires.

No memory core.

Without warning, the Metal hammered its elbow into Di’s face, sending him stumbling back against the wall. Ana aimed her pistol. But if she shot now, she could hit Di, too.

Damn it!

Di dodged as the Metal’s fist sailed past his cheek and sank into the wall. He planted his hand on the side of the Metal’s head and spun it under his arm into a headlock. The Metal didn’t even have a chance to parley before Di gripped it by its jaw and ripped its head clean off. Wires and fuses sparked, spilling out of its neck.

The Metal twitched once. Twice. Di let go, and it fell prone at his feet.

The cold dread in her stomach numbed her. “Why’d it call you ‘brother’? How did it call you brother? If it doesn’t have a memory core, then . . .”

“Without memory cores, Metals cannot function, so it is safe to assume it was a puppet,” he replied, testing the joints in his jaw where the Metal had punched him. “The signal that was controlling it is coming from the bridge.”

“The bridge? But the ship was dormant when Jax scanned it,” Ana said as Di began to go down the corridor toward the bridge. She followed, shaking her head. “I don’t understand.”

“Perhaps the signal is not from the ship but outside interference.”

“Outside? Like someone took control of the ship the moment we boarded?”