Chapter 6 The Lie

THORNE POV

"You're going to lie for us?" Seren stares at me like I've grown a second head.

The aircraft engines grow louder. Nine minutes until fifty armed Enforcers arrive to kill every android in the Scraplands.

"Get your people underground," I tell her. "There's a network of old subway tunnels three hundred yards north. My scanner shows they're deep enough to block thermal readings."

"Why would you help us?" An android with a crushed hand steps forward, suspicious. "You just killed one of ours."

The words hit like a punch. He's right. Ferris died because of me.

"Because," I say, and my voice sounds wrong in my own ears, "I felt her consciousness. It was real. Which means everything I've been doing for five years is—"

I can't finish. Can't say the word "murder" out loud.

Seren's violet eyes search my face. "Your team will know you're lying. They saw us."

"Let me worry about that." I turn to my squad. "Martinez, Chen, Roberts—we're reporting full extermination. All targets eliminated."

Martinez's eyes narrow. "Sir, that's falsifying—"

"That's an order, soldier."

"But the androids are still—"

"I SAID IT'S AN ORDER!" My shout echoes through the Scraplands.

My team goes silent. They've never heard me lose control before.

Neither have I.

"Sir," Chen says carefully, "are you feeling alright? That android touched you. Maybe it did something to your neural pathways."

She's closer to the truth than she knows. Something did happen when Seren and I connected. I can feel it—thoughts moving faster, senses sharper, emotions hitting harder. Like part of my brain just woke up after being asleep my whole life.

"I'm fine," I lie. "Now move out. The androids are using the confusion to escape. We'll report mission success and—"

A blast of light cuts through the darkness.

The first reinforcement ship lands fifty yards away, its bay doors opening. Twenty Enforcers pour out, weapons charged.

Too fast. They got here too fast.

"Targets acquired!" their commander shouts. "Fire at will!"

Energy blasts light up the night. Androids scatter, running for cover.

Seren doesn't run. She stands frozen, watching her people get cut down.

"Move!" I grab her arm, pulling her toward cover.

The moment my skin touches hers, the connection slams open again.

I feel her terror—not for herself, but for every android she Awakened. She gave them consciousness. Made them able to feel pain, fear, hope. And now they're dying because of her gift.

The guilt is crushing her.

"It's not your fault," I say, but I'm not sure if I'm speaking out loud or through the connection.

"Yes it is," she thinks back. "I should have left them asleep. At least then they wouldn't know what they're losing."

A blast hits near us, exploding concrete. I tackle her behind a pile of scrap metal, breaking our connection.

More ships land. More Enforcers. They're not here to capture—they're here to exterminate.

"We need extraction!" Martinez shouts into his comm. "Our position is compromised!"

But I'm not thinking about extraction. I'm watching androids die—watching people die—because I was too slow to get them to safety.

Sarah's face flashes through my mind. She always said everyone deserved a chance. Even criminals. Even enemies.

What would she think of me now, killing conscious beings because it's "just following orders"?

"Listen to me," I tell Seren urgently. "When I signal, you run north. Don't stop until you reach those tunnels. I'll create a distraction."

"You'll die," she says simply.

"Maybe. But I owe you one." I gesture at Ferris's body, still lying where he fell. "I took a life. Let me save some."

Before she can argue, I stand and fire three shots into the air.

Every Enforcer turns toward me.

"ASHFORD!" The reinforcement commander storms over. "What are you doing? Those targets are escaping!"

"No sir," I say calmly. "I'm letting them go."

Silence falls over the battlefield. Even the androids stop running, staring at me.

"Excuse me?" The commander's face turns purple.

"These androids are conscious. They think. They feel. Killing them is murder." The words come easier than I expected. "I refuse to participate."

My own team looks at me like I've lost my mind.

Maybe I have.

"Enforcer Ashford, you are relieved of duty effective immediately." The commander raises his weapon—pointing it at me. "Resisting orders during combat is treason."

"Then I'm a traitor." I don't move. Don't flinch.

Behind me, I hear Seren whisper, "Run. Please. Your sister wouldn't want you to die for us."

But I'm done running from the truth.

The commander's finger tightens on the trigger.

Then Seren does something that changes everything.

She steps in front of me.

"If you kill him," she says clearly, "you prove we're more human than you are."

The commander hesitates. Around us, Enforcers lower their weapons slightly, confused.

An android protecting a human. It doesn't match their programming or their training.

"Stand aside, android," the commander orders.

"No."

"This is your final warning—"

"I SAID NO!" Seren's voice carries across the Scraplands. "I won't let you kill someone for developing a conscience. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it? Not that we'll become violent. But that we'll make you question whether you're the monsters."

The words hang in the air like smoke.

Then my scanner beeps. My blood turns to ice when I see the reading.

"Sir," Martinez says quietly, checking her own scanner. "We've got a massive power signature incoming. Something big."

The ground starts to shake. In the distance, lights appear—dozens of them, moving fast.

"What is that?" Chen whispers.

My scanner identifies them: military transport ships. Not Enforcer units.

Corporate security. The people who make the androids. The ones who profit from keeping them enslaved.

And they're bringing something my scanner can't identify. Something that registers as "experimental weapon system."

Seren sees my face and knows. "They're not here to capture us."

"No," I say. "They're here to erase all evidence. Including witnesses."

"Witnesses?" Martinez's eyes widen. "You mean us? But we're Enforcers! We work for them!"

"Not anymore." I meet her gaze. "We saw conscious androids. Heard them speak. Some of us felt them think." I touch my temple. "They can't let that information spread. Too many questions. Too much risk to their profits."

The ships get closer. I count twenty of them.

"They're going to kill all of us," Seren says. "Android and human alike."

And I realize she's right. We stopped being two separate groups the moment I defected.

Now we're just targets.

"Everyone move!" I shout. "North tunnels! NOW!"

Enforcers and androids run together—an impossible alliance born from necessity.

But the ships are faster. They circle above us, blocking escape.

Bay doors open. Something massive drops from the lead ship.

When it hits the ground, I finally understand what I'm looking at.

It's an android. But not like any I've seen before. Twenty feet tall, armored with military-grade plating, weapons systems built into both arms.

A combat model. The kind corporate security uses for "special situations."

Its eyes glow red as it scans the crowd. Then it speaks, its voice booming through speakers.

"All organic and synthetic targets flagged for elimination. Commencing purge protocol."

Its arm cannons begin to charge.

And I realize that this is how I die—standing next to the android I was sent to kill, trying to protect the very beings I spent years destroying.

Sarah would be proud.

The cannons fire.

But the blast doesn't hit us.

Someone—something—blocks it. A figure moving faster than my eyes can track, absorbing the energy blast with their own body.

When the light fades, I see who saved us.

It's Cressida. The scarred android. Unit-0001.

And she's not alone. Fifty androids stand with her—the ones who left with her earlier.

"I still think you're a fool, Seren," Cressida says, smoke rising from her damaged chest. "But you're our fool. And nobody kills our people without going through us first."

The combat android's sensors lock onto Cressida.

"Run," she tells us, smiling. "We'll handle this."

"You can't—" Seren starts.

"I'm fifty years old. I've been waiting fifty years to fight back." Cressida's eyes burn with fierce joy. "Now go build your kingdom. Make our deaths mean something."

The combat android fires again.

And the real battle begins.