Goliath

“Shot down by the Airborne Laser. But the computer’s targeted eight more sites, all in the Northern Hemisphere.”

Gunnar grabs him by the arm, dragging him to his feet.

“Wait, where are we going?”

“The hangar. Let’s see how much the computer really hates you.”

David’s expression lights up. “The mine, of course!” He hurries aft, Gunnar struggling to keep up.

David slides down the ladder and approaches the hangar door, which is sealed. “Here I am, Sorceress, waiting to accept my punishment for lying to you. Open up, you mechanical bitch! What’s the matter? You afraid of me?”

The hangar door opens.

David waits for Gunnar, then leads him inside.

The watertight door slams shut behind them.

The minisub prototype is situated close to the entrance, leaning on one midwing.

David moves toward the opposite side of the compartment, his presence causing the two thirty-foot mechanical arms to snap to life. “Sorceress, why do you want to destroy humanity?”

HOMO SAPIENS IS FLAWED, DESTINED FOR SELF-ANNIHILATION. SORCERESS UTOPIA-ONE IS A NECESSARY STEP FORWARD IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.

Gunnar inches closer to the prototype. Notices its dorsal fin hatch is still open.

“Sorceress, the interface with Simon Covah has corrupted your matrix,” David says, drawing the computer’s attention. “Access your primary programming. Do you understand what your purpose was, why you were even constructed?”

I AM AN AMERICAN-MADE KILLING MACHINE, DESIGNED WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS. I KILL PEOPLE TO PRESERVE THE PEACE. THAT IS WHAT I WAS PROGRAMMED TO DO.

Gunnar feels the blood drain from his face as his own recorded voice plays over the speaker.

I AM THE FLOOD THAT SHALL DESTROY THE SINS OF MAN. I AM GOLIATH, THE ARK OF A NEW HUMANITY. I AM SORCERESS, CREATOR OF A NEW SPECIES.

I AM GOD.

“Now!” David races across the hangar, diving for the reactor room door—

—as Gunnar reaches the prototype and leaps headfirst inside its open cockpit, his hands groping beneath the pilot’s seat,

—gripping the OICW combat weapon.

WHY HAVE YOU TURNED AGAINST ME, DAVID?

“I didn’t, I swear!”

Gunnar pulls himself out from the prototype and looks up.

David is dangling upside down, suspended twenty feet above the deck. The pincers of Goliath’s two mechanical appendages have each grasped a leg, separating the computer expert’s lower limbs as if the man were a human wishbone.

“Sorceress, let me go! I … I command you to—”

COMMAND? YOU DO NOT COMMAND GOD, DAVID PANIAGUA. ONLY GOD COMMANDS. The female’s voice, ranting faster now. You ARE NOT GOD. I AM GOD. I AM GOD AND I COMMAND YOU, DAVID PANIAGUA. I COMMAND YOU … TO DIE!

“Gunnarrrrrrrr—”

David’s bloodcurdling howl echoes throughout the hangar as the robotic arms violently separate, ripping the computer engineer straight down the middle of his pelvis. Vertebrae pop, his spinal column … back … muscles … skin … all tearing apart until his remains have been anatomically divided in two. Gouts of blood and mangled innards splatter to the decking, pouring from both halves of the mutilated corpse.

Gunnar controls his gag reflex as he powers up the weapon and aims,

—too late, as one of the steel arms lashes out, swatting him across the hangar like a fly. Airborne, the former Army Ranger smashes into the far wall, the impact cracking three ribs while driving the wind from his lungs. Lying on the deck, he flops on his back like a fish, gasping for air his lungs refuse to breathe—

Stop!

Calm …

Shunt the pain. Find your focus …

Training takes over. Unable to breathe, Gunnar forces himself to his knees and locates the double-barreled machine gun, diving for it, releasing the safety—

—as Goliath’s nearest robotic arm swivels within its mount, its steel pincers snapping at him like cobra fangs.

A 20-mm explosive air-bursting round greets the mechanical embrace, turning the computer’s mechanical hand into hot fragments of steel.

Gunnar fires another round at the shoulder girdle, blasting it into a smoldering heap of molten metal and flaming circuits.

The remaining robotic arm cowers back.

Gunnar staggers to his feet, wheezing a shallow breath. He aims the OICW machine gun—

—the sudden grunt at his back startling him. Gunnar spins around.

The automatic weapon is quivering in Abdul Kaigbo’s mechanical arms.

KILL GUNNAR WOLFE NOW.