The Republic of Miracles

Chapter 10, in which Caitlin tells Nan about the new planetary order

Followed by Nan and Caitlin, Arnaud rushed to the upper floor as soon as they heard the noise coming from the entrance of the bunker. As they walked down the corridor leading to the parents' bedroom, he glanced behind him. The humanoid showed no reaction, didn't even try to see inside the room. She passed emotionlessly by the closed door and followed him to the bunker entrance. She accepted the new world order without question, which both suited and baffled him at the same time. But what did he know about robot psychology anyway?

His priority at that moment was to find out who was banging so furiously on the door. The three of them stood at the foot of the spiral staircase leading to their level and looked up at where the blows were coming from, wondering how long the wall would hold. Each impact dislodged countless dust particles that danced in the cold light of the lamps.

"Someone must have seen us enter here, for sure," he said. "But who?"

"There's a way to find out," Nan replied.

She came back inside, into the room that served as storage. She was active for a few seconds in front of the large screen, summoning a holographic keyboard into the corner of it. To their amazement, an image formed on the monitor, full-size and in three dimensions. A muscular young man, armed with a sledgehammer, was hitting the wall and making good progress in breaking through the stone covering, exposing the metal partition beneath. The camera must have been at the level of the landing. However, the presence of several pairs of booted feet at the top of the screen indicated that at least ten people were accompanying him and standing on the upper floor.

"Can we get another angle?" Arnaud asked.

Nan fiddled with the holographic keypad and the display split into twelve smaller images, ten showing each room of the house, and two showing scenes from outside. One of them was mostly obscured by a grayish and indistinct mass. Arnaud eventually realized that wasps had once built a nest on the wall supporting the camera, now abandoned, and its remnants had spilled over onto the lens, covering it almost completely. As for the other scenes, most of the ones inside the house showed empty rooms. But one of them, depicting a bird's eye view of the hallway, was the most interesting.

"Can you enlarge that one?"

Nan brushed the image, which quickly filled the entire screen. They saw a group of boys and girls watching the one with the sledgehammer working. In the center of the group, an old woman sat in a chair that must have been brought there specifically for her. Arnaud was struck by the natural authority emanating from her despite her worn clothes, muddy shoes, and shaggy hair. She clearly liked to command, and she knew how to make herself respected. Her hand rested on the head of a child, a boy with a keen look, kneeling beside her, whom she absentmindedly stroked the hair of as she would a dog's head. Arnaud believed he had met her before, but the camera angle didn't allow him to be certain.

"I knew these surveillance systems existed," Caitlin said, "but it's the first time I've seen one that still works so well."

"At the Sécurpol office, we had one once, but it's been broken for a long time, and the parts are nowhere to be found, of course. The old technician who could repair it passed away a few months ago, so... I'm afraid we'll have to learn to do without it. Tell me, Nan, what do we need to do to contact these people?"

"It's simple. To hear them, you just press here. And to speak to them, it's this command here."

"Got it," he replied, turning to Caitlin. "So what do you want to do? What do you want to tell them?"

"To get the hell out, obviously. I was here first, so it's mine now."

"Have you seen their arsenal? They seem ready to fight."