Tick tack, the time continued on, without any change or new individuals appearing.

Charlotte had kept on monitoring the signals to see how things were faring, it was already past ten and she was getting increasingly worried.

“Hey, I just found an issue.” She said while looking at the screen.

“Yeah?” He didn’t turn back.

“I think there’s a report being sent every minute, and that’s not the worrying part. From that report, I can see it’s being resetting itself each ten, so, that, I can’t hack it for too long of a time.” Taptaptap, the keyboard continued to sound as she answered.

“Can you not take it down?”

“Of course! But the government will notice after the timer isn’t reset, it would be weirder if they didn’t, no?.”

Gut thought for a moment before decisively saying:

“Let us get closer without it noticing us. From there you do your thing without resetting it and we go in before the ten minutes mark.”

“Your feet?” She looked at him up and down.

“I can put it back together faster than normally done but it will come with a bit of a backlash for not tuning it correctly.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

Even if she had some worries regarding it, she knew that was the only option they had right now. He put on his mechanized foot and went down the building with Charlotte following close behind, laptop in hands.

Gut strode along the sideway hugging the buildings, closer to it with each passing step, trying to keep its sight out of that piece of junk, Charlotte followed suit. There wasn’t much to it as it was not sending information of what it saw and she could easily replace what was kept in its memory to another, earlier record, once she had hacked it, that is.

Getting to the closer building before the fifty meters mark he had surmised before they stopped at around 60 meters away from it. Charlotte put the laptop on the floor and started playing with the keyboard with her magic hands. After getting everything ready, she looked at Gut and saw him looking back at her, which made she become a bit giddy on the inside.

Don’t look while a lady is working! she shouted in her mind and made an angry expression at him.

Not taking notice of it, Gut sat beside her and started taking off his legs. Once he had taken both of them, he looked like a homeless man with a new suit sitting on the middle of the street. They were on the shadow of the building, though.

Once with both legs on her hands, she connected them to the laptop with some cables Gut had produced on them, making it look like a horror movie if one didn’t know they were fully mechanized. With everything ready, she looked at the time: 22:37:52.

From what she could infer, it would reset at 22:39:30. It was to leave all mechanisms functioning for 30 seconds in automatic before sending the information of being anew. She could be wrong in her hypothesis so she would want until it was 40 minutes sharp to start her little gimmick.

At 22:39:30, she breathed in and started to work. Her face much more serious than whatever Gut had seen before, she wasn’t in that blank state she did occasionally when resting nor she had her easy to go expression she kept showing him these last few days. Her brows were a little wrinkled but not too much, showing she was not having too much trouble. Her body was tense but not shivering, which meant she was not scared.

Looking at her, Gut felt a bit fascinated by this new side of hers.

22:40:00

*tap

“! Go!” she said weakly but strongly, as if there was someone spying on them, after pressing enter for everything to start.

Why she said that was a mystery to Gut, he had to wait for his legs!

She looked at him after not sensing any movement from him, and noticed he had no legs…

Oh, right.

Blushing a little, she immediately disconnected everything and handed him his legs. She had also put a program that used the war-robot’s own system to sustain itself so there was no problem if she logged off right then. She had devised that program in the short amount of time they stayed in the roof.

He only needed a minute to put on his feet and be ready to part. He started walking while limping a bit, which caused Charlotte to snicker at him. He looked back at her which caused her to stop immediately, he was not angry but still serious, his seriousness reminded her that they were in a precarious situation.

They kept on walking, not giving a second glance at the war-robot. Once they were going past it, they heard someone shouting behind them.

“Eyey! That’s no fair! Let’s follow ‘em!”

Charlotte immediately looked back, with a bit of surprise in her face. She then looked at Gut and saw him shrugging. It was not their problem if other delinquents escaped with them, if anything, it was the government that had to deal with them. After getting behind the doors of the dock, they heard a new commotion on the outside.

*Bang bang

Charlotte paled at this sound and looked again at Gut.

“T-there’s something important I didn’t tell you before…”

“… What could it be?” He said resignedly, how come someone could forget some important information at this kind of time.

“E-even if it’s put to a rest for ten minutes, it’s a rest of not d-doing what it was programed to do… It can still answer to threatens if it’s attacked, so, uhm, I think, they will, uhm…” She stammered and couldn’t continue speaking, she felt as if she had done something wrong.

“Oh… Then, it is not your fault, it is theirs for doing whatever they want with something dangerous.” He sighed in relief, he had thought it was going to chase them after the ten minutes mark or something like that!

“B-but if they, they see a commotion after the ten minutes mark, w-what will they do?”

“Right, then, if Kent is in, we will tell him to part, if not, let us go on our own. You can take their systems, right?”

“I… I don’t know, maybe?” she looked at him skeptically.

I didn’t hear of this before!

“Let us go.”

They continued on to the designated place, there were four yachts on the private port so it was easy to spot the one Kent had told them.

Number 3… Green Peace, huh…

Charlotte read the name inscribed at its side, she couldn’t help but giggle at the irony, where it was going was the total wrong direction, if it wanted to be peaceful.

“That’s the one, right?”

“Yes.” Gut confirmed.

In the surrounding area of the city of Gercy were a hundred similar ports which housed private yachts of the rich or governing people. Kent was apparently one of the four hundred most wealthy ones in the Capital. His yacht had three stories over the water, she speculated there were more underneath. On the upper part, it had its antennas and cabin, and from what she could see, it was dark blue. The bottom part was dark green. The line between the two colors was faded, making it seem like the blue diluted on the green, or vice versa.

They walked to the boarding stairs, where they saw one of the two brawny men they had seen on Kent’s little cottage. Since the moment he noticed them, he kept starting at them. When Charlotte was sufficiently close to look at his face, she saw he had a bewildered expression.

“What? Never seen people before?” She said as she was getting annoyed.

There still remained 13 minutes until the allocated time, so they were on time.

“Sorry, sir. Our Lord said no one was coming but that we still had to guard. It seems he was wrong…” The brawny man said in apology.

“Is it still going to part?” Gut asked when the man finished, if they were not expecting anyone, then that could mean they were aborting the operation.

“Of course, it’s just for pretentious sake that I’m here.” The man answered, reassuring the duo.

“May we?”

“Right away, make yourselves at home.” The man walked to the side and kept guard in case anything extraordinary happened, allowing them entry.

Once they climbed the boat’s stairs, they saw the missing individual, lying on top a sun chair, gazing at the clear sky of the night. He was still in his open shirt and unbelted pants. He didn’t have shoes, though, with some slippers under the chair.

“Hello there,” he said without looking at them, “You two are the first ones to arrive, and I believe the only ones who are attending today’s party hahaha.”

He was in total contrast to the day before. His face relaxed and without worries, as if taking the sun on a relaxed trip, it was in the middle of the night though.

“We parting in a couple of minutes, sit still.” He motioned to the sun chairs at his side.

There exactly were two, and a man dressed with a tuxedo was bringing a table from the inside. It was evident that he made one of his clerks bring them when he was told two of his guests had arrived.

Looking at the new placed seats, Gut did as told, going to the nearest one, the closest to Kent. Once in his seat, he motioned at Charlotte with his eyes, urging her to sit beside him. She followed the instruction without making a sound, like a trained puppy.

“Tell me, you two, how were you able to bypass that toy.” He was smiling, still looking at the stars.

“We got through its systems, denying it of any action for a while. Though the ones who followed us were foolish enough to attack it.” Gut answered fluidly, not allowing a word of his companion.

“I see… That’s a shame. They won’t survive then, though it looked like tranquilizing guns to the public, they were modified to have real bullets instead.” He finally lowered his gaze, looking down at Gut first.

After studying him for a moment, he shifted his gaze to the kid at the other side. Nodding to himself in comprehension, he continued.

“We’re moving now. I keep things on a tight schedule, so I won’t wait for anyone else. Truly a shame, there were good ones in those ones. The government always does unpleasant things…” He stood up, not sparing more glances at the pair. “You can stay here, or go inside to your assigned room, he will show you around if you so wish. I’ll assure your safety, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

He put on his slippers and walked to the closest door on the deck and went inside without spouting any more words. Soon afterwards, the yacht turned on its engine, waiting for the moment to depart. On his stead, the white haired and wrinkled faced man approached them. Though the age was apparent on his surface, his body was well maintained and packed with muscles, something that was visible under his vest. His tuxedo was completely black and his hands were covered in white gloves, only exposing his upper skin.

“Is there anything you wish?” The elderly said with a raspy voice.

“We shall wait here and see how things fare.” Gut answered without a beat.

After a moment, the bulky man standing guard down on the stairs came in. He touched a screen beside the entrance and the stairs started going up, placing themselves on the deck, silently and without any commotion. After making sure nothing was wrong, the bulky man approached the duo who looked at his work. Gut was seeing if there was something amiss while Charlotte wondered how the man was so dexterous with technology while being so big.

“I suggest you at least take your things to your room,” the bulky man said once he was at hearing distance of the duo, “that way you should be freer if something unexpected happens.”

Bowing a little, he followed his master’s route, entering the cabin. The old man bowed again and went to stand next to the door.

“Why won’t we go in?” Charlotte finally asked in puzzlement, tilting her head.

“I do not want to miss any ensuing action that might take place while leaving Gercy, I said before.”

“Are we not safe already?”

“One never knows, it is better to be prepared instead of being overly complacent.”

Hearing his answer, she nodded a little and continued exploring the deck with her eyes. On it were two small vessels, probably emergency ones, the three chairs of which they were using two and one was left alone and the table. There was nothing else that she could place her sight on, it was so dull and boring she had the urge to take out her gaming device and wait until he finally decided to go in. Her head still worked properly so she didn’t.

The boat started to move five minutes later when the time indicated twenty-three hours and five minutes sharp. Charlotte stood up and went to the side, wanting to see how things were on the private port’s entrance.

She saw the bulging war-robot’s lonely figure in the distance, unmoving and nothing else that she could distinguish, they were too far for her to get a clear sight, even after straining her eyes. She felt Gut standing behind her. Looking back, she noticed he was holding on to a binocular, she mouthed her thanks, taking them and turned back at the port.

She looked at it for five seconds, freezing on the spot. She didn’t have any desire to continue looking so she just lowered it and gave it back to Gut. After attempting to take a step, she felt the desire to throw up on the spot. She braved herself and gulped the escaping fluids down her throat. She had decided on her path and there was nothing much she could do now. To just keep on walking until she arrived at an outcome she was satisfied with.

I-I’ll have to see more of this from now on… I can’t stammer at this kind of thing now, not now nor ever, get a grip, Charlotte!

She kept on telling to herself while she stood there. At some unknown moment, she found she was being hugged by Gut from the front. Her head resting on his chest.

“It is okay,” he started, “we are too far away for something like that to happen to us now. We can get in now.”

Hearing his words relaxed her body a lot, nodding at him, she stayed still for a moment more, feeling his warm for the first time.

What she saw was a picture she had only seen in gory movies, games or on pictures of the past wars. She could only see five bodies in that short amount of time, but she was sure there were more.

The first one lied next to the war-robot, on the side of its tripod extremity. He was just lying there, without any wounds, but his face was pale and had a bewildered expression, without any movement to speak off.

The next one was some meters away from the first, on him was an evident hole on his head, he was looking at the sea, and Charlotte couldn’t help but shudder remembering his face, feeling as if was looking directly at her.

The third and fourth ones were together, but their lower feet were gone, as if being incapacitated to be killed later. They were holding hands, something she didn’t notice. But being together was enough for her to realize that they could have been friends, lovers at most, as they were a woman and a man.

The last one she saw and the reason she stopped looking, was halved, only his lower part was left, with all its viscera scattered in its surroundings.

How the machine did it was a nightmare for her to think about.

After getting herself a little bit calm, she motioned for Gut to stop holding her.