James Patterson - Toys

In fact, I was grimly pleased-the shock and pain might make her more cooperative.

That was when I heard a familiar little voice scream, “Stop hurting Mommy!”

Just then, something completely unexpected and unrecognizable came hurtling through the air, smacking me in the face. It was something furry and wiggling, and it was making cheerful arf arf sounds.

It took me a second, but then I recognized it as the girls’ robot dog, Fuzzy! Yet another demonic toy in our house.

April, with her face scrunched up by tears and panic, was swinging him by the tail and flailing him at me.

At the same instant, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my ankle.

Flabbergasted, I looked down to see my little sweetheart, Chloe. She was sinking her teeth into me just as hard as she could.

“Human!” My daughter screeched the dreaded H-word.

“Woof! Rarf! Woof! Rarf!”

The robotic little mutt kept snuffling happily and trying to lick my face as April proceeded to batter me with the toy. Luckily for me, it was programmed so that it had to be affectionate-at least Lizbeth hadn’t modified that too. Meanwhile, Chloe was still chewing on my ankle.

The nightmare I’d tried to shield the girls from was officially in session. Now it was down to damage control-getting them out of this horrifying mess and keeping them safe.

But how could I do it without manhandling them and making things even worse? It didn’t seem possible. So what next- would I have to harm my own little girls?

Then Lizbeth stunned me in a way I never would have expected. She took my side.

“Girls-stop!” she said sharply. “Your father’s not hurting me. Metallico went crazy, and Daddy saved me.”

The girls backed away, their bewildered little eyes taking in the robot’s torn-off arm that pinned their mother to the wall, his sizzled remains that lay on the floor.

Suddenly, April smiled through her tears. “Daddy, you’re better!” she squealed. Then both girls rushed into my arms as if everything were back to normal.

For a few seconds, it actually was. I could have wept. “I am much better, honeys,” I said. “Now go to your room and wait for Grandmere. Everything is going to be fine, I promise, and you know I always keep my promises.” I try to anyway.

Fuzzy had trotted over to Metallico, sniffing and snuffling curiously. I grabbed him before he got zapped, and scooted him off after the girls.

With my heart aching, I watched their bedroom door close behind them. “Don’t think for a second I did that for you,” Lizbeth snapped. “It was for them. I love my children.”

“Lizbeth, I know by now that you wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire. I’m just surprised that maybe you’ve got a shred of decency.”

“I’ll come quietly. I won’t fight you, Hays. No more trouble in our house.”

“Thanks for saying that. But I still trust you like I’d trust a scorpion. Probably less.”

“As you should.” She smiled and nodded. “Just remember your promise-to the girls.”

I jerked Metallico’s hand loose, drawing another gasp of pain from Lizbeth. Then I knotted a towel around her upper arm. Next, I opened the refrigeration unit and swept its contents onto the floor. The unit was just about the size of an old-fashioned coffin.

“What are you doing? ” Lizbeth, ever the neatnik, asked.

“Get in,” I said. “In!”

Lizbeth’s murderous glare returned, but she obeyed and crawled inside the empty fridge.

I snapped the door shut, hoisted it onto my shoulder, and headed for the rooftop garage. Once up there, I had to ram the thing through the rear window of our family wagon to fit it inside. It still stuck halfway out, looking like the fin of a marauding shark.

Lizbeth started kicking and pounding, and I could hear her muffled yells.

“Quiet down or you’ll run out of air,” I yelled at her. That seemed to work, at least for the moment, as Lizbeth did the math in her head.

If there was one blessing in all this, it was that I didn’t have to endure the sight of her crying. I took the station wagon airborne and flew out of New Lake City-fast and low-on the most important mission of my life. Or anybody’s life, for that matter.

I was the one entrusted to save an entire civilization, wasn’t I?

Everything was coalescing now. Or perhaps coming apart at the seams-it was impossible for me to tell. Lucy had given me a rendezvous spot in the desolate, wooded outlands to the north. As I got close, I could see that the dark glen below was gloomy and silent. So much so that I became afraid I’d made a mistake in navigation.

But the coordinates checked out, so I landed the car cautiously in the thick cover of a coppice of evergreen and spruce trees.

The instant I stepped out of the vehicle, it was like someone had flipped a switch. The forest started moving. Shadowy shapes suddenly appeared from behind tree trunks, dropped down from branches, rose up out of the brush.

Humans! I realized with a start.

They came striding toward me with assault rifles in their hands-except for a few who held short bows and had quivers of arrows slung over their shoulders. One of them bared his teeth in a wide, fierce grin.

“Hays Baker!” shouted the man.

“Tazh Khan!” I roared back. “You’re here to fight. So am I!”

As we clasped forearms, he sniffed the air and his face turned serious and concerned.

“Blood of you,” he declared. “You hurt?”

“It’s nothing. Hand-to-hand combat. I’ve been hurt a lot worse. By you, matter of fact.”

Tazh Khan kept sniffing, then jerked his head toward Lizbeth’s prison cell, aka the family refrigerator, where she remained concealed.

“Other blood there.”

“She’s OK. For the moment. I’m keeping her on ice, so to speak. It’s my wife. Where’s Lucy?”

“Come.” He and some of his men took off in a loping run. By now I’d realized that they weren’t the only soldiers here. The forest was filled with moving shadows-an army of tens of thousands, men and women both, stretching as far as I could see. They must have been converging for days, landing at remote locations and traveling here covertly. Suddenly, I felt like I was in one of the World Wars that the humans once fought-I, II, or III, take your pick.

My pulse quickened with both anxiety and, strangely, pride. Humankind might not have much of a chance against whatever outrage the Elites had planned, but their courage was inspiring. It really was.

I hoisted the refrigeration unit up onto my shoulder and followed Tazh. Almost immediately, Lizbeth started to cry out, but it made no difference to me. I was committed to this betrayal.

I felt like I was carrying the weight of the world-and in all probability, that’s what I was doing.

I was escorted to the human army’s fleet of vehicles-armored cars and a few tanks, which were camouflaged in the brush. A cluster of jeeps and trucks had been pulled together to form a command post.

What a sight when I stepped inside! The station was crowded with the human leaders of the world-faces of those whom I’d last seen dying under ruthless Elite gunfire in France, not knowing that they were clones and all part of a master plan to fight back, to survive somehow.

And survive not just here-all over North America, Europe, Asia.

The leaders went silent for a second-then they burst into excited conversations as they realized who I was and what I was bringing to them: Lizbeth.

The real Chantal Dugare came hurrying toward me, looking even more stunning and imposing than her double had. “Hezz! How nice to really meet you!”