I threw the rod in my hand at the Architect, even as I reached for my rifle and pulled it forward. Lisa had jumped into action as well, leaping all the way up to the Architect and swinging her sword horizontally. Mika on the other hand retreated back as she crouched low to the ground, her hands at the spheres on her hip.

The female Architect knocked the rod I’d thrown away with the brush of a hand. Her other hand was used to catch Lisa’s incoming sword. From my position I could see her arm bulging as all her muscles were used to stop the attack, and the Architect’s eyes widened as she stared down at the sword.

“Qualified physique,” the Architect said as she managed to push Lisa’s attack away from her.

Lisa fell back to the ground, her sword still in her hand, and a look on her face that was a mixture of anger and surprise. “Dad, I don’t think this is a drone.”

My rifle was aimed at the forehead of the Architect, but I hadn’t fired yet. “Clearly. With that strength she’s not an executive, she’s close to manager or coordinator.”

The Architect rose from her seated position, standing on top of the portal as though it was commonplace to do so. She glanced at Mika and Lisa, before her eyes focused on me. What she said next almost caused me to drop my rifle in surprise.

“I appeal for a deliberation.”

Aside from the drones, I’d encountered hundreds of thousands of Architects during my personal crusade, and during that entire time there was one thing they’d never used. “Did you just say I?”

My daughters, who’d been quite ready to fight the Architect, both glanced at me with lifted eyebrows. The Architect on the other hand let out a small laugh as she hopped down from the portal. “Practiced usage of determiners, prepositions, and conjunctions is common for me.”

I didn’t lower the rifle that I had aimed at her head, and since the shell was mechanical I didn’t have to worry about fatigue buildup that’d normally happen. “Since when do you use the word I?”

“When I affiliated with Samara,” the Architect answered as she remained perfectly still.

“Father, why isn’t she attacking?” Mika asked from my left.

“That’s what I want to know as well.”

The Architect lifted her left hand up very slowly, in what could only be called the least threatening movement possible, and placed her fingers against her chest. “I am Manager Rosalind. I desire assistance.”

From my past experiences I knew that Architects tended to not lie, and at her words I shouldered my rifle. “Fine, but we need to leave before Babus recovers. We’ll move to the next floor first, you join us after sixty seconds. If you try anything funny we will kill you on the spot.”

“Satisfactory,” Rosalind said as she stood rigid in front of the portal.

My daughters and I carefully walked around her and went to the other side of the portal, and once again we prepared to move on to the next floor. “Mika, go first,” I told her as I gripped Lisa’s hand, “that way if we get disrupted mid-transfer there’ll be two of us here.”

Mika nodded her head and put one hand against the portal. “Be careful,” she said right before she vanished.

Rosalind on the other side of the portal made no move, nor had even turned in our direction. Instead she remained stock still to the point that one might mistake her for a statue. Lisa put her hand against the portal, and as we both watched the Architect for any sign of attack the transfer was initiated.

Floor 54

Into The Depths

The sand beneath my feet sank, and I had a hard time keeping my balance due to the sudden change. All around us was what amounted to a small island in the middle of a vast ocean, with no life on the island itself. The sun was gone, and a curtain of stars glittered along the horizon.

“Mika, Lisa, stick close to the water in case this turns into a fight,” I told my daughters, “but don’t attack unless the Architect does.”

“We should just punch her when she appears,” Lisa said, though she did as I said and walked to the edge of the island.

“No.” I turned that idea down as fast as I could. “We need to know what’s going on. If we walk into an ambush or an army on the next floor we won’t stand a chance.”

Precisely one minute after we’d arrived the female Architect showed up. She appeared where we’d been standing, but after appearing she made no move to do anything. Instead she looked at the three of us and waited.

“Alright, Rosalind, why are you asking for help?” I asked as I crossed my arms.

Rosalind frowned at my question. “Certainly assisting me would be a long-term profitable investment?”

If I hadn’t been in my shell I would’ve rubbed my eyes. “People don’t just help strangers, let alone Architects, due to some sort of favor they can get later on. Explain why you’d beg us lower beings for help.”

“Lower beings?” Rosalind couldn’t hide the surprise on her face. “Why use words of supremacists? Is that how you know us?”

“Supremacists?” I murmured to myself within the control room, and then I spoke into the microphone, “I know of you from my ancestors. They warned us of your kind and how you will spread and enslave everything.”

Rosalind hurriedly shook her head. “No! Samara followers not supremacists! We do not follow teachings of the restructurer!”

“Restructurer?”

Rosalind flinched at the one word question. “Restructurer Helim. Millenia past led Architect society and enforced supremacist mentality.”

Alerts started to appear on my end of the system, warning signs about how my blood pressure and heart rate had spiked. I ignored them all and focused on maintaining a neutral tone. “What happened to him?”

“The Destroyer,” Rosalind said as her voice went quiet, “Helim claimed him lesser, but it appeared and killed almost everyone.”

As she spoke her words the impact they had on Rosalind herself were obvious, as she wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. My daughters glanced at me, though they wisely chose not to comment on how I was viewed historically.

I uncrossed my arms and motioned with one hand at Rosalind. “So this Samara leads a group of you Architects that go against Helim’s teachings, because you fear this Destroyer might show up again?”

Rosalind shook her head. “One inferior being destroyed entire society of alleged supreme beings, how are we supreme?”

I choked back my laugh, as it reminded me of what Markov had told me long ago. He’d come to the same conclusion as these Samara followers after meeting me, and that was before I’d even started killing Architects. “So why are we being attacked by drones then?”

“Reparations possible,” Rosalind said as she offered her hand in my direction, “we Samaran’s don’t control central relay station fifty-five.”

I dismissed her offered hand with a wave of my own. “If you don’t control the relay station why are the Architects not attacking us anymore?”

“Eon controls communications station at fifty-five. Intercepted and disabled alarm from fifty. Coordinator Dalton oblivious.”

“Fine, so exactly what do you want our help for?”

“Executive Samara imprisoned on sixty-two.”

That was all I needed to hear to know what she’d expect from us. “So you want us to drag your friend out of the prison. I’m going to take that to mean you don’t have a lot of people in your group?”

“Samaran’s roughly twenty percent of operating forces,” Rosalind told me, apparently not afraid to share what I’d consider confidential level knowledge, “spread across dozens of floors. Coordinated maneuvers would expose us.”

“Operating forces?” Mika inquired from the side.

“She’s talking about the Architects that do all their military work, the others are just like regular people,” I told her, before I talked to Rosalind again, “basically you can’t move your men to help because you’d be caught. So you saw us show up, saw what we could do, and now you’re asking for our help?”

“Correct.”

“No.”

“Negative? Why!” Rosalind asked, unable to hide on her face how much my answer had upset her.

“The only way I’m willing to risk our lives helping you is if you can promise a partnership between our groups.”

Rosalind’s face crunched at that. “Only Executive Samara can do that.”

I shook my head. I stood and thought for a few moments, and then finally spoke again “How about you help us take the relay on fifty-five, get us past any security on sixty and sixty-one, and we’ll help you rescue Samara on sixty-two.”

“Dad, come on, we don’t need her,” Lisa said as she glared at the Architect.

I glanced at her, but I didn’t bother to respond. Soon enough she’d start to realize that her body had limits. “What do you think, Architect?”

“Contract acceptable. Verbal agreement should be sufficient?”

“Not like I’m carrying around any paper,” I said, and then I waved at my daughters, “stand down. We’re on the same side now.”

Mika relaxed as soon as I said that, though her eyes lingered on the Architect. Lisa on the other hand started to grumble as she turned and looked at the ocean. She’d have to get over it, since I didn’t want to risk fighting millions of Architects.

I also expected that Rosalind truly did want our help, and that this wasn’t an elaborate trap. The Architects would’ve known next to nothing about us, so they wouldn’t know who I actually was. On top of that if they’d wanted to ambush us they could’ve done so already.

“Whatever,” I muttered to myself in the control room. I directed the shell to turn and move into the ocean, as I focused on where the compass pointed. Worrying about Rosalind betraying us could come later, otherwise we’d be stuck forever on the fifty-fourth floor.

My daughters followed along after me, having pulled out small objects from their packs. They were rebreathers, or rather mouthpieces that’d allow them to breathe underwater.

We descended into the ocean at a slow rate. The water was clear, even deep beneath it’d remain flawless to see through. Large towers of rock raised up from a distant floor, a floor so deep that all any could see was darkness. Fish of various colors flitted about in the ocean, and with our arrival they scattered and swam away as fast as they could.

As we swam near one of the pillars it seemed to quiver, and then it flexed and twisted around to try and slam against Mika. She could only burble in surprise as her rebreather came free, and Mika raised her hands to ward off the eel’s attack.

Once again I pulled out the rifle and aimed for the giant eel, pulling the trigger as soon as I could. The beam pierced into the center of the monster and passed through, dark blood that seemed similar to ink pooling out into the nearby waters.

Nearby Mika swam and grabbed her rebreather, putting it back into her mouth. Lisa hurried over to join her, her sword at the ready while she held out one arm in front of Mika. The wires that Mika had enjoyed creating would prove significantly difficult to use in the ocean.

Above us Rosalind had started to descend and upon seeing the giant eel she began to swim toward it. I continued to fire my rifle, but each shot was like a pinprick against the titan we faced. However even if the injuries were small each shot produced blood. Soon enough the waters between the eel and I had turned into a sea of red, obscuring my view of the monster.

It burst out of the cloud of blood a few seconds later, a mouth far larger than my shell opened and ready to devour. Before it could eat me Rosalind came from above, her fist driving down into the top of its head. Her blow seemed solid enough, but with our fight being underwater the impact was only enough to temporarily stop the eel.

“Get clear of it!” I shouted, using the shell’s mechanical nature in order to make my voice discernible.

When I aimed my rifle at the eel Rosalind’s eyes widened, and she gave a nod even while swimming away from the monster. I gripped the bottom of the rifle and pulled it back, an audible hum happening in response.

Before the eel could recover from its surprise at Rosalind’s attack I’d already fired my next shot. While the bullet wasn’t as fast as the beam it was instead a large ball, and when it connected with the eel the energy rapidly expanded.

There was a flash of light as the ball fully exploded, and chunks of the eel were sent in all directions. The vast body of the monster began a slow fall toward the bottom of the ocean, vanishing into the shadows below.

I watched to make certain that the eel didn’t revive in some fashion, as I’d seen a similar thing on other floors before. Once I felt that it was safe to continue, I returned to swimming to the portal.

We remained eel free for the rest of our swim, and the portal loomed ahead of us after twenty minutes of swimming. In one of the pillars of stone that rose up from the ocean floor the portal could be seen. The hole in the rock was barely large enough to hold the sphere, and so we went in and touched it one at a time.

Lisa went first, and then we had Rosalind go next, before Mika held my hand and touched the portal. The ocean vanished around us as she initiated the transfer, and then the next floor’s information appeared in our minds.