“Yeah, sure, Eli,” Lulu said. She took her finger off the button. “I’ll look you up all right.”
The screen abruptly went black.
“What are we going to do?” Sam asked.
“Roger,” I said, “before we even figure out what sort of plan you have, I want you to send out honeybees and kill any RMI soldiers that are fighting those hiding out in the wilderness. Bring the people here. Do you understand?”
“This will tax our already—”
“Do it,” Lulu said.
Roger seemed to think on it for a minute. “Very well, but it appears most of these drop ships are falling out of my range.”
I met Rosita’s eyes, and I sighed. “Do what you can.”
“Very well. I am sending them out now. But now please pay attention. I need to tell you of my conversation with Bastet.”
Chapter 38
Adrone opened the door from outside, walked in, and placed an object on the counter before turning around and walking out. It closed the door again. The unit smelled of fire and ash.
Betty Sue let out a tentative cluck.
Roger hovered near the object. It was something metal about the size and shape of a small book. “This is the communications governor for an Apex Sniper unit. While I was unable to make direct vocal contact with the Bastet Sniper, it wasn’t until I was directly behind her that I saw her method of communication. She used the unit paint feature to add a coded message to her fuselage. She suggests that we upload every video and photograph we have to this module, and tomorrow during the fight, we switch out the governor with the one with the loaded data. If we put it in the proper format, it will be automatically downloaded to her personal account.”
A moment of silence followed.
“That’s it?” Lulu asked.
An overwhelming sense of disappointment washed over me. That unraveling feeling continued to undulate in my chest. It was like I was falling, and I couldn’t breathe.What did you expect?
“Seriously, that’s it?” Lulu repeated. “What is that going to do?I’ve already uploaded a ton of stuff. The worst stuff other than our chats with Mr.Plastic Suit are already on the other side of the net. I can email her right now and tell her where it all is.”
“I agree,” Roger said. “In addition, an unfortunate side effect of last evening’s discussion with Droog is that now all media related to this campaign is suspect, especially when it comes from our side. Not a thing will be trusted because they are aware we can now upload simulacrums.”
Goddamnit,I thought. I knew I shouldn’t have been surprised, but for some reason, I’d felt this huge amount of hope. But the more I thought about it, the stupider I felt. What could they have possibly done for us? That group, Persimmon, had already “sued.” There was going to be some governmental hearing in a week. Maybe they could get a mech or two to fight on our side, but what difference would that make?
We were a cause to them, and causes were these floating, nebulous things that lived on screens and online forums. A ribbon one could put on their profile picture. They were something one could wear like a pair of sunglasses or a new jacket, a way to present themselves to the world, a way to say,Look at my halo. Look at how much I care.
“Did she at least shoot other mechs for us?” I asked.
Roger clicked. “No, I believe she didn’t want to get in trouble. She did shoot some RMI soldiers out in the hills, however.”
I turned my attention back to that thing sitting on the counter. I’d never felt more alone than I did in that moment, looking at the goddamned piece of useless metal sitting on the table.
They didn’t care about us, the actual people on the ground. We’d already been written off. It was all about the outrage, about being the loudest at the protest parade.
How would that help us when we were already dead?
We had less than twenty-four hours to come up with a solution.
Remember rule number ten.
I looked at Lulu, and an overwhelming sadness flooded me. I turned toward Rosita, and our eyes met. Regret filled me. Regret at what could’ve been.
“What about a bomb?” Sam asked. “What if, instead of information, we load up the Sniper with boom stuff? It gets sucked up into thePinnacleor whatever, andkerblam!”
I shrugged. “I was thinking the same thing earlier, but it’s too late. If we’d wanted to do that, we should’ve done it with tonight’s attack. And that ship is huge. It would have to be a really, really big bomb like one of those nukes he was talking about. If Bastet survives tomorrow and goes back to their ship afterward, it won’t be until it’s all done. And we don’t even know if they’re going to bother taking the mechs all back tomorrow. It’ll be the end of the season. There’ll be no reason to bring them back. Hell, it would probably be cheaper to just keep them on the surface.”
