Conduit - Season 2

Ch. 21

The android hadn't seen us. Thank God. They turned back and faced their companions, slowly two-stepping in place. It was like a group of zombies from old movies, staring up at the sky without moving, with no clear direction, no motive. I prayed murder wasn't on their minds. If they still worked as programmed.

"Can you connect to them?" Victoria whispered to Ezekiel, then looked back at me. "What about you?"

I raised my brows for a second before looking back at the disoriented group of machines. Their signal was faint, each of them obviously malfunctioned at some point in their travels, but I couldn't tell to what extent. Judging by their condition, their time before today was rough. I hoped that wouldn't fall back on us, we were just passing through.

"I can't," I said. I tried to sync to three of them. Each brought back a dull response. Faded static with buzzing residuals, it was like an old radio trying to scan stations while powered with dying batteries. I frowned. What happened?

"You?" She looked back at Ezekiel. "Can you connect?"

"Maybe I can." He nodded, stepping back closer to me. "but if I do, I'll give off our location."

"Because you're connected to Daniel?" Frank's voice piped up, a mix of anger and concern.

Ezekiel glanced behind, at us, and narrowed his gaze as he nodded. "Right," he said.

"So, you were planning to—"

As Frank raised his voice, I quickly turned around and touched his shoulders. I needed him to relax. If we weren't going to let Victoria scream, he couldn't either. "We're not doing this right now, okay? Save it," I whispered to him before looking at Ezekiel. "Where do we go from here? Clearly, we need to get around the androids, but when we do, then what?"

Ezekiel cleared his throat as he looked back at the androids. They were obvious to our location—thank God. Each android continued their dance, eyes to the sky. Maybe the rain was refreshing and it calmed their thoughts.

"Reggie is a mile ahead," Ezekiel said. "He isn't alone, but there are only two androids with him. We can get him."

I nodded. Two androids shouldn't be a problem if each of us played a part in this rescue. I worried that his captives harmed him. If he was damaged in some way, I wouldn't know what to do. Victoria and I spent so much time repairing him, and upgrading his systems beyond his Worker Personal build.

"We just need to get past them." Ezekiel pointed ahead.

Judging by their movements, I contemplated just running past them. Maybe we could outrun them. Their external, visible injuries could've meant they were hindered, slower, and possibly easy to lose.

But what if I was wrong?

"I got it." Frank slightly back before quietly walking off to the neighboring building across the street. I watched him, curious, but when he walked around the side of the grey building and jumped to grab the bottom of the emergency escape ladder, I flinched.

"Woah, woah, hey," I hissed, "What are you doing?"

With his newly enhanced, cybernetic arm, Frank was able to hoist himself with ease. In less than five seconds, he was on the first-floor side balcony, leaning over the metal railing with a grin on his face. The twinkle in his eye said cocky. I wasn't sure if I was surprised or angry.

"What are you doing?" I repeated.

"A distraction," he said as he leaned back, both hands still holding the side of the balcony.

"A distraction?" My brows shot up.

"Frank, we need a calculated plan," Victoria said as she shook her head. "Becoming a distraction, like human bait, isn't a strategy we're willing to take."