“I had to take a freight elevator!” Proto says. “I went through a lot of rooms! Trashbot, I created a bunch of waste for you to dispose of! But don’t go into the cafeteria! There is a woman there with salad tongs who is very angry! Car, your body is great! You can keep mine and I’ll keep yours! Is that okay?”

From the way Car rarfs back, I don’t think it’s okay.

Gina shakes her head. She looks like she could use a hot cocoa.

“Gina, check Nathan’s pocket for keys and free me from these cables.” ADA’s order is sharp and precise.

Gina snaps into action and finds a little flashlight jangling with keys in Nathan’s pocket. He protests and uses profanity when Gina takes it from him, but she ignores him and unlocks ADA.

“This building is swarming with uniMIND robots,” Nathan says. “We’ve got security drones. Autonomous tanks. Laser crawlers. You’ll never get out of this room.”

His voice remains calm, but his face becomes deep red. I did not know he was able to change the color of his face so much.

A high-pitched buzz draws my attention to the door. Three drones hover there, smaller than the ones we encountered on the highway but protruding with sharp points and things that look like the tips of missiles. They cast pencil-points of red light on our bodies.

ADA casts her gaze around the lab and finds an L-shaped stick. It is a stick for striking hockeys. Proto honks angrily at it.

“I will fend them off,” ADA says. “Gina, free Cog and Trashbot. And then devise a way for us to make an escape without Nathan interfering.”

ADA swats at one of the drones. It crashes into another one, and their rotor blades tangle. Both smash against the wall.

Gina removes my restraints and then uses Nathan’s keys to unlock the chain holding Trashbot in place. The chain gives me an idea. I grab the edge of a steel worktable and push. It barely scrapes the floor until Gina and Trashbot pitch in. As I loop the chain around Nathan’s ankle and lock it to one of the chair legs, he smiles his worst smile yet.

“I had no idea you were so devious, Cog.”

I look into Nathan’s eyes. “I learned it from you.”

The laboratory is a wreck. Alarms blare. Trashbot busies himself collecting pieces of chair, slabs of broken tabletops, shattered coffee cups. Of all of us, only Trashbot seems happy.

ADA is still batting security drones out of the air, her hockey stick whooshing in a blur. Her eyes are focused with an intensity that matches the drones’ lasers. Nothing gets past her. In the few seconds I take to watch her, I learn that she is wrong about what her purpose is. She thinks she is a weapon. But she is a protector.

“Let’s go,” she says.