Compile:Quest

Chapter 37: Tippie the Tortoise

Topaz's Apartment, Lower Southbridge,

Africa Dome

The elevator door opened to a wall of cloying, acrid smoke that instantly enfolded Topaz, eager to suffocate him. Choking, he lifted his shirt, using it to cover his nose and mouth as he stepped inside the basement level of his apartment block. He could rightly call it his — he was the only denizen in residence.

His waving hand failed to dissipate the smoke hanging in the air.

"Phoenix! Why haven't you extracted the smoke?" he yelled.

"The external ventilation system has been damaged by the heat. I have dispensed mech-bots to—"

"Use the elevator shaft you moron."

There was a pause.

Then, a soft click behind him. Topaz glanced around, shaking his head as Phoenix began syphoning the smoke through the elevator shaft. "This all forms part of your emergency protocol. Why the hell do I have to order you to execute your programming?"

He could hear the anger in his voice, but standing there, waiting for the smoke to empty out, he had to funnel his fear into something, anything, or risk implosion.

"Is Nankai all right?"

The pause before the AI answered made his skin crawl, but after a few seconds Phoenix's calm voice thrummed in his ears.

"The fire did not enter her enclosure. She exhibited symptoms of shock. I sedated her."

"So you're only a partial failure then?" Topaz snapped.

He strode forward as the vague outlines of furniture emerged from the smoke. Topaz reached out, expecting the invisible barrier. His fingertips brushed against gelid glass and he strode to the right, his fingers running over the containment wall until they stopped at the door seam.

"Open."

He slipped inside, glancing over his shoulder as the door rushed shut behind him. A few coils of dismembered smoke evaporated at the threshold.

Topaz took a draught of pristine, chilled air, dismissing the scantly furnished room. His eyes latched onto Nankai. She lay on the narrow bed, a coffee-coloured arm draped over the side, knuckles brushing the floor. Topaz sat beside her on the edge of the bed, reaching out to smooth away a strand of flaxen hair from the girl's cheek.

"Are you going to tell me what happened, Phoenix?" he asked.

His voice strained from the effort of civility. In the subsequent pause, he glanced over Nankai's body to the med-bot whirring away to itself by her shoulder. Was he imagining it, or did the med-bot look agitated?

"Phoenix?"

"I have been unable to locate the origin of the fire."

"It had to have started somewhere, AI, so where—"

"Performing diagnostic scan. Please wait."

"No, I won't wait. You've had more than ten minutes to make a determination. This place is under constant surveillance, and you want to tell me you don't know how something spontaneously combusted?" His voice echoed back to him. Topaz closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as his fingers pressed against the bridge of his nose. "I want a full report in five minutes, Phoenix, or—"

"To-paz?"

He jerked at the sound of Nankai's breathy voice. Topaz stared down at the girl's wide-eyed face.