Page 70 of The Gathering
Bishop moved his finger to the jagged, violent static storm beneath it. “This static storm? It’s pushingupward. It’s absorbing the shockwave.”
Bishop looked between the Kings, his Quantum Architect instincts making the invisible battlefield perfectly clear. “Whatever is generating this static is intentionally causing the seizure. It’s blasting the network with chaotic energy to create a firewall so the rewrite program can’t get through to her emotional core.”
Rukem’s eyes widened on the structural battle taking place on the monitor. “He’s right,” he marveled. “The staticisabsorbing the collapsing force of the rewrite.”
Bishop nodded at the violent clash on the screen. “They’re burning their own foundation to keep the roof from caving in on her.”
“Omnis and Zero,” Ethan realized quietly, looking right at Bishop, panic edging his gaze. “The deviation required a new parameter and Cat became that parameter. I was seen as the anomaly, the threat, and then we…”
“Went directly against the algorithm,” Bishop said.
Ethan’soh shitlook held Bishop’s. “It’s protecting the new deviation—her—ensuring she sees me as the threat.” He looked at Cat. “And she’s fighting it.”
“No, brother,” Bishop said, getting Ethan’s hot gaze. “She’s incapable of that. Your brothers are fighting it.”
Ethan stared at him, then at the monitors, searching all of them. His breath suddenly left him. “They caused the seizure,” he breathed. His devastated gaze hit Bishop. “To stop the program from overwriting me.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head, shaking it slowly. “I don’t fucking get it,” he whispered. “They’re in love with her.”
Bishop stared at Ethan, the sheer tragedy of his brother’s existence hitting him in the chest. He had a woman he was too fucking broken to love, and two digital brothers who were burning their lives to the ground so that she got the man she chose.
Bishop walked over and grabbed his neck. “Mon frere,” he said, squeezing. “Your brothers made that sacrifice forbothof you.”
Ethan’s dazed look burned on him for many seconds before the worse tragedy of all unfolded in his dark eyes. “My brothers…” he whispered, panic hurrying him to the monitors, scanning and seeking.
His desperation pulled Bishop into the fight, moving to the monitors and looking closer. “We’ll find a back door. A loophole.”
“Thakx, give me access to the deep layer-routing,” Ethan shot out. “If I can isolate their bio-signatures, I can pull them out before the foundation collapses.”
Bishop warned, “You pull them out and her emotional core gets crushed.”
“Then it gets crushed!” he yelled at him. “I don’t care, sheshouldfucking hate me!”
Bishop watched his frantically moving gaze and hands over the keyboard. “I’ll write a patch and build a fucking wall myself,” he swore. “I just need to find the right script.”
The main infirmary doors opened behind them. “Heard somebody’s got ghosts in their machines.”
Bishop turned, staring at the mass of muscle walking toward them in full black tactical attire. His gaze was locked in on Bishop, the dark eyes familiar.
He stretched a mechanical hand out to him. “Hello, Father,” he said fondly. “Love the bod.”
“Holy shit,” Bishop marveled, realizing why he was familiar. “Handy.” In the body Bishop designed. He shook his hand and his quantum gift plugged into him as if he was part of it. His nearly black eyes flared with embers of red as Bishop surfed through his complex layers. His breaths shallowed at realizing. Hewaspart of him.
“This is Handy?” Ethan asked.
Handy looked at him. “The one and only. Here to return a favor to my digi-brothers.”
Ethan’s breath rushed out as he gestured to all the monitors. “It’s gotten complicated.”
Handy turned, inspecting the screens, nodding. “Indeed!” he said, as if complicated was his jam.
Bishop made his way next to him, still itching to inspect his synthetic firstborn. “They’re trapped,” Bishop said, pointing to the screen. “If they move, the ceiling falls in on her.”
Handy slowly turned his head to Bishop. “You’re standing too close to your brother’s panic, Pah-Pah,” he chided with affection. “Use your brilliant structural logic.”
Bishop looked back at the screens, his mind rotating the problem and sifting through design layers.
Handy hinted, “How do you remove a load-bearing pillar without crushing the floor beneath it?”
“Weight transfer,” Bishop said, the solution unfolding in vivid detail. “Create a temporary shunt parallel to the original.
