Ultimate Nyssa Glass, H. Burke [cat reading book .TXT] 📗

“We have a pentelegraph in your study, sir,” Aito said. “Do you want me to get it?”

“No, I will.” Rivera stormed out.

Aito paced out of the room into the laboratory.

Nyssa picked herself up and rubbed her bruised ribs. “Hart, you can’t—”

“Nyss, do you know Morse code?”

She blinked. “Y … yes.”

A line of dots and dashes flashed onto his screen. —. . - / .… .. — / -— ..- - Get … him … out. “Who? Aito?” she whispered. “How?”

In response, Hart played the same pattern.

Nyssa slipped out of the computer room into the office. Aito stood in the doorway between the office and the workshop, the one controlled by the big, metal doors. She drew a deep breath. Maybe I can push him out if I catch him by surprise, but he’s got reflexes like a cat … and a soft spot that doesn’t necessarily want to harm me.

“Aito,” she said, forcing her voice into a whimper.

He glanced back. “Huh?”

“I’m in a lot of pain.” She scrunched up her face. “Do you think there’s a bottle of salicylic acid anywhere nearby?”

Aito glanced around and cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I don’t know.”

“Please, my ribs really hurt.” She tightened her arms around herself. “Could you check the washroom? I saw a medicine cabinet there. It might have some.”

The man hesitated. He then called out, “Hey, Jamison!”

One of the guards strolled into view.

“Watch the door for a minute,” Aito said. He strode out of the office … and the metal doors clanked shut behind him.

Muffled shouts echoed through the metal.

Nyssa rushed back to Hart. “Did you do that?”

“Yeah.”

“But they’ll be able to get it open again, right? It’s just a stall tactic, like last night?”

“Last night I didn’t lock it. I didn’t see a point because … well, you’re trapped in here now, with me, and I can’t get you out of the house.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that’s a problem.”

“But it buys us time. I couldn’t let him hurt you like that. Do you know what it is like seeing someone do that to someone you love and not having so much as a finger you can lift to do anything about it?”

Nyssa opened her mouth, then shut it. “No, I guess I don’t. How long do we have until they get in?”

“Until they get in isn’t an issue. They can’t cut through that door. It’s electric and tied into my circuits. If they try, it’ll send a jolt through my wires and likely fry my program which means they’ll never get the information they want. They won’t risk it.”

“But can’t they just bring you back? I mean, last time, when Ellis and I surged the power through these wires and used the crash codes, it knocked you out, but Rivera was still able to recover you.”

“He was able to recover my backups from another computer. No, what’s left of me is isolated in these systems. An electrical surge will destroy everything he wants to get his hands on, and he knows it. You’re safe for now.” His screen flickered. “The problem is, you have water, but nothing to eat. Eventually, I’m going to have to open the doors or you’ll starve.”

She sat down on her cot and pulled out her handheld. “It won’t come to that. I’m going to find a way out of here first.”

Chapter Eleven

The hammering on the other side of the metal door grew louder and more frantic. Nyssa ignored it, instead assessing her situation. The wash sink was where Aito had suggested. She had her tools. That left food.

After a moment’s thought, she darted out into Dalhart’s office. There she found the stack of crates with canned food inside. Relief swept through her. “It looks like I won’t starve as long as I’m willing to live off canned green beans and corn.” She returned to the lab and placed her satchel on the small table. “What about you? Is it possible for Rivera to mess with you from outside this room? Cut off your power supply, maybe?”

“Not without blacking out most of New Taured. The Professor wanted to be sure I could function no matter what occurred. I have power lines going out to multiple sources, from the New Taured city grid to the back up steam-generators in the basement. Maybe, with a lot of work and persistence, Rivera could take them down one by one, but I’d guess it would take him weeks.”

She laid her tools out on the table beside the satchel. Lockpicks, wrenches, her goggles … everything a girl could need.

“How do you think he found out about Ellis?” she asked. “It must’ve been in that message he got.”

“I suppose. Do you think Ellis is coming after you? Maybe someone saw him in New Taured.”

A thrill of hope shot through her followed by a touch of dread. “Maybe, but if he is here and Rivera knows it … we need to find a way to warn him.” She took the handheld from her pocket and stroked the smooth metal casing. “He’s smart, though. I’ll have to trust he can look after himself until we can make contact.”

“If I were him, I wouldn’t give up until I found you again,” Hart murmured.

She shot him a smile. “Hey, don’t be sad. We’re going to get out of here somehow. Both of us.”

“Really? You’re just going to have two versions of your boyfriend around? The human one and the electronic one?”

She shrugged. “More Ellis is never a bad thing.”

“Am I Ellis, though? I’m not exactly human.”

Nyssa sighed. “I don’t know, Hart. I’m an electrician, not a philosopher. You seem a lot like him to me, though.”

She examined the handheld. The dial on the front had numbers from one to ten with marks in between to represent decimal points. The amount of possible codes was mind-boggling, but at the restaurant, Ellis hinted that she should be able to figure it out. Ellis had once told her that