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Absolute Knowledge Box Set (Books 1-3)

Page 58

by Drew Cordell


  “There’s no way to tell you’re not Infinitum,” I said simply.

  “I suppose there’s not. Put your trust in me, and I’ll show you the truth. Your rebellion in the Slums is fighting against something it can never understand. Adrihel killed the Slums and the Mids; the video footage and cryptographic verification prove it. I truly do apologize for Infinitum, but it’s gone for good.”

  I scoffed. “You expect us to believe the Omniscience Engine couldn’t force its way through the cryptography? With that much power, there’s no way to tell if the encryption is authentic. I’ve seen the work of the Omniscience Engine and the work of Infinitum. Adrihel wasn’t perfect, but the blood of all those people was the result of the Omniscience Engine. You know it, we know it, and we’re not willing to look past this one.”

  “Is that your final answer? You really want to throw away your lives for an insignificant cause?” she asked.

  “The simple fact you’re trying to kill a cause committed to a better New York tells us everything we need to know. Do you know how many people died at the hands of your HKs? They all had names, they all had stories, and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure their lives matter. You won’t get anything from us,” Marwin seethed.

  “Mary, you’ve been awfully quiet. Do you want to talk and claim immunity for your crimes?” Evelyn asked.

  Mary shook her head and met Evelyn’s gaze. “I have nothing to say to you.”

  “Very well. You three will be flown back to your estates and held under house arrest until your trial. May truth and justice prevail,” she said, turning to leave.

  “Bracken. I need to speak with Bracken!” I yelled.

  “As is permitted by your status as Baron, I’ll have a transport flown to your estate to pick you up so you can speak to him before his trial. You and Baron Zaris may spectate the trial, but you won’t have any say in decisions until your own trials have been resolved.”

  She walked out of the room and left us with the guards.

  The three of us issued the mental command to destroy our Artemis links and wipe the data drives before the guards could take our things. The process was discrete, and it would have been impossible for anyone to notice we’d actually done it. The guards took our gear and made us remove our armor before escorting us back to the landing pad. I needed to get my father’s box. This was the political shift he wrote about in his note, and I needed guidance. I had to try to help Bracken, and I had to do everything in my power to get us out of Olympus.

  “Let’s move,” the guards said, prodding us along with their rifles as we walked toward the landing platform. They hadn’t thought to check my cybernetic arm, and I still had the Nanotech modules embedded in it. I tested the link, forming a thin layer of silver-like metal on the surface of my arm. It worked. It wasn’t worth the risk now, but having the Nanotech meant I would always have a weapon on standby if I needed it.

  “I’d like Mary to come stay with me,” I told the guards.

  One of the guards laughed. “That’s not going to happen. You’re each to go to your respective Houses and remain there until the trial. You’re barred from any communication during your arrest.”

  “You really think you’re serving the greater good here?” Marwin asked.

  “The true Supreme Leader showed us the truth and the opportunities we’d have under her leadership. Adrihel was a lying scumbag and needed to be dealt with. We’re all excited for the new future and won’t be losing any sleep over what went down today.”

  My heart sunk when we cleared the door and exited onto the platform. Adrihel’s ship was gone—the box from my father was gone. Without the box, I didn’t have guidance.

  Evelyn Aeoxous promised I’d be able to speak to Bracken before his trial. I didn’t know what to say to him other than I was sorry this had happened. I hadn’t known he was involved, and it wouldn’t have made a difference if I had. Bracken’s trial would be the first of Aeoxus’ new leadership—the trial that would set precedence for all future rulings. I didn’t know if Mary, Marwin, and I would survive, but I doubted either of them would give up information on the Guild. If we gave Aeoxous information, it would destroy the Guild and ruin any chance of rebuilding a New York without the presence of the Omniscience Engine.

  I wrapped Mary in a quick hug and kissed her before the guards separated us and pushed us toward our respective ships. There was a chance this would be the last time I saw her, and I couldn’t quite shake the gravity of that thought. We had failed, and the Omniscience Engine was back in full control. There was no way to know exactly what Evelyn Aeoxous was—what the Ascendants were.

  I boarded my ship and took a seat while a couple of guards filed in and sat across from me with their weapons laid across their laps. I took one last look at Mary before the doors on the ship closed and the vehicle shot upward into the sky.

  30 CELL

  My house didn’t look any different from when I left over three years ago. There were Enforcer robots inside, watching me and following me around while I walked, but all of my staff, both my robots, and the people who had worked for me were gone. I kept expecting Bracken to walk up and ask me if I needed anything, to walk me through my day and what I had planned. The vivid memories of my time with him returned and sent searing pain through my heart.

  Too many people had died because of the Omniscience Engine, and I was helpless in protecting Bracken. I was more powerless than ever, trapped inside this silent prison of the artificial life of luxury I had known. The first thing I did was change out of the grimy clothes I was wearing under my leather jacket, opting for some clean jeans and a t-shirt.

  I walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, searching for something to eat. I hadn’t thought about it, but it had been hours since I’d eaten. We’d had a long journey to get to the rendezvous point from the Undercity. There were ingredients in the fridge, but nothing to eat without actually having to cook. Bracken had tried to teach me some cooking, stating it would help me impress Mary, but I didn’t do well with his lessons and he gave up teaching me. My cooking abilities were limited at best, but I couldn’t help but remember the night I’d given Mary the sketchbook, the night we first kissed. I loved her, and I would do everything in my power to get her out of this.

  I turned to face the Enforcer that was standing in the corner of the kitchen, watching me with its single vision sensor. “Any chance you can cook?” The silence was bothering me to the point I actually considered talking to one of the Enforcers.

  The Enforcer processed my question for a second before spitting out an automated response. “Baron Ashton, you are under house arrest. I’m assigned to watch you during your house arrest and cannot complete any tasks or answer any questions during this time period. Thank you.”

  I sighed. “Are you there, Infinitum? I’d really like to have a chat right now. I’d be willing to give you the information you need,” I said, trying to coax the entity out of hiding to speak with me. Evelyn Aeoxous claimed Infinitum was gone and had been nothing more than a glitch in the Omniscience Engine, a glitch that had since been repaired. I didn’t believe it.

  The Enforcer responded. “Baron Ashton, you are under house arrest. I’m assigned to watch you during your house arrest and cannot complete any tasks or answer any questions during this time period. Thank you.”

  “Yeah, all right, I get it,” I said, turning back to the refrigerator and pulling a packet of beef from the shelf.

  Doing my best Bracken impression, I chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms and put them in a skillet to cook with the ground beef and a little bit of olive oil. I pulled a pot from underneath the stove and filled it with water. Setting the pot down, I flipped the burner to max, tossing a handful of pasta into the pot before turning my attention back to the contents of the skillet. Bracken usually made his sauce by hand with fresh produce, but I didn’t have the time nor skill for that. Fortunately, I found a glass jar filled with marinara sauce and set it to the side while I
stirred the contents of the skillet. The beef had browned, and the vegetables had caramelized well. After a few more minutes, I drained the pasta and combined all the ingredients into a meal that made my mouth water.

  I sat down at my table with a huge bowl of spaghetti Bolognese. It wasn’t half as good as what Bracken made, but it was by far the best thing I had ever cooked. I had grown used to the increasingly limited food options in the Slums over the past few years and accepted the compromise of eating less flavorful food in exchange for better nutrition and a lot of protein. I grimaced as I thought of the endless protein bars I had eaten in the Slums, but savored each bite of the delicious pasta I had now. I ate two huge portions and reluctantly stopped myself from eating a third. The food was delicious, but I didn’t want to eat to the point where I would become lethargic.

  I moved the remaining food to a smaller container and put it in the refrigerator, not bothering to clean the rest of the kitchen. I had to prepare to speak with Bracken and needed to plan for my own trial. I assumed Mary, Marwin, and I would face charges similar to Bracken’s, but there was nothing to go off of, no way to fully prepare for our trial. I wanted nothing more than to talk with the two of them, to devise a plan to get out of this mess, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.

  I returned to my living room and sat on the couch, closing my eyes and concentrating. I ran through some of the mental exercises I had learned from Master Aarlen, working to process the information from the day and move it to my long-term memory.

  I remembered what Master Aarlen told me about memories. “Memories are interesting things. Each time we remember something, our brain changes a tiny detail. It gets to the point where what we remember doesn’t represent what we had initially perceived,” he said before teaching me to properly engrave and protect my memories from change or outside influence. It was similar to layering and creating projections of alternate perception, but it used the same core skills and similar mental concentration. Despite working with him multiple times a week, I hadn’t been working hard enough on my training. The Slums had turned into something that didn’t require me to protect my thoughts; the threats we had faced were entirely physical.

  A prod on my chest awoke me from the state of half-sleep I used to process my memories, pulling me back into my reality. The shadows in my living room were different, and it looked like a few hours had passed.

  “You ready to go see Bracken?” a man asked. He was wearing a suit of lightweight armor in Evelyn’s house colors.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I said, standing and following him outside to the ship that waited for me. The Enforcers in my house followed and made sure I boarded the ship before returning to my house.

  There were two other guards on board the ship, and they watched me with cold eyes as I strapped in to my seat.

  “You really think you were doing the right thing by helping Adrihel?” one of them asked, his face twisting into anger. He was a muscular man, and his armor looked a little too tight for comfort. A plan began forming in my head.

  I met his eyes. I had been through too much to be intimidated by the likes of him. “You’re being lied to, Muscles,” I said simply. “If you knew everything the Omniscience Engine did, you wouldn’t be working for it.”

  “We’re not supposed to talk to him,” one of the other guards told Muscles.

  Muscles raised a meaty hand to silence the other guard. “We’re working for Supreme Leader Evelyn Aeoxous, not the Omniscience Engine.”

  “Do you even know what she is?” I asked. “How could you put your trust into something created by the Omniscience Engine? She can’t be human. Surely that’s gotten through your thick head.”

  His face reddened even further. “Look, Baron, you’re the traitor here, not me,” he fumed.

  “Don’t talk to him. He’ll be dead in three days anyway,” the other guard told his friend, trying to calm him.

  “If you don’t seriously reconsider your line of work and who you’re working for, you’ll be dead too,” I replied.

  The guard tore at his seatbelt, removing the latches and bolting toward me. He gripped the collar of my shirt and pulled me forward.

  “Listen to me. I had family in the Mids and because of you they’re dead. Adrihel betrayed us all, and I’m working toward a new life under new leadership, leadership that won’t destroy Olympus,” he yelled.

  I reached up and wrapped my hands around his arms while he shook me, preparing for my move as his anger boiled over.

  “Come on, Pascal. Sit down so we can take off. We’re not supposed to talk to him,” the other guard pleaded.

  The man named Pascal continued to shake me, yelling obscenities, but I wasn’t listening anymore. I waited for him to take his swing, gathering my concentration and preparing myself. When he reached back to punch me in the face, I raised my cybernetic limb and mentally prepared the Nanotech module to discharge its power in the form of an electrical shock.

  Nanotech had the ability to isolate its current from other surfaces it was touching; it was one of the core properties that made the tech so versatile and the property I was depending on to work right now. I wouldn’t need much power, only enough to daze him for a second.

  As he swung his blocky fist, I caught it with my cybernetic arm, discharging the shock through him. Pascal’s eyes rolled back into his head and the force behind his swing dissipated as his body lost its momentum. Reaching down quickly, I snagged his clearance badge and shoved it in my pocket while the big man collapsed over me.

  “What did you do to him?” the other guard yelled, moving forward to pull him off me.

  “I didn’t do anything,” I said.

  Pascal’s head bounced back and his eyes opened again. He looked disoriented as if trying to decipher what had happened and where he was. “What the hell did you do to me?” he demanded.

  “I didn’t do anything,” I repeated.

  The other guard coaxed Pascal into his seat, and the ship took off. Conversation ceased, but Pascal and the others continued to glare at me as the ship descended toward the Omniscience Engine facility. I didn’t know what I could do with the clearance badge I had stolen, but I knew how bad my situation was. The card may give me an out or the means to better my position.

  The ship landed, and I was escorted inside the facility. Turning away from the vault that housed the main Omniscience Engine controls, we rode down in an elevator. Through the clear wall of the elevator box, I could see parts of the massive room that housed the servers and equipment of the Collective Thought. It was impossibly massive and difficult to comprehend just how much information was stored here. Pascal hadn’t noticed his clearance badge was missing, and the automated systems of the facility let us through without hindrance.

  The elevator dropped below the level where the Collective Thought was stored and through a section of tight tunneling. Lights on the ceiling of the elevator clicked on and lit the interior of the elevator as it passed through the darkness. We came to a stop and stepped out into a featureless, metal level of the facility I had never seen. The hall was lit with white LEDs overhead, and large panels of some sort of glass separated small rooms from the hallway. All the rooms except one were empty, and the guards opened the door, motioning me inside toward Bracken.

  “You have ten minutes.”

  The square room was small, only about six feet long on each side. There was a toilet in the corner, and a bed against the wall. Bracken sat up from the bed and looked at me with pained eyes. He swung his legs over the side and moved his food tray out of the way so I could sit by him. He looked so vulnerable, so tired and miserable here. Emotion surged forward, but I pushed it back so I could be strong in front of him. I had to be.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Jake, you’ve grown. Look at you,” he said, appraising me and smiling to the best of his ability.

  “I’m so sorry this happened. If I would have known—”

  Bracken caught me off. “You need to be caref
ul what you say here, and you need to know this isn’t your fault. I’m sure they’re listening, and you still have your trial ahead of you.”

  “What can I do to help?” I asked.

  “No one can help me anymore, I’m afraid,” he said. “I’ve accepted it, and it’s okay. I made a difference, and that’s all I can hope for. I hope you won’t meet the same fate as me, but even if you do, we made a difference. We gave the Guild a chance against the Omniscience Engine.”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell him about what had happened at the Docks and why we were here. No one in the Guild had said anything, but sending us to Olympus was an ultimatum of sorts, a final chance to destroy the Omniscience Engine for good. The Guild was dwindling, and since we’d failed here, it was getting harder and harder to see an out.

  “No matter what happens, you can’t trust Aeoxous. She’s lying about everything, and I don’t doubt she’s just an extension of the Omniscience Engine sent to protect it from us while it can regroup its resources and wipe us out for good.”

  “I don’t trust her, and I don’t think Adrihel was capable of doing any of those things,” I responded.

  “Adrihel was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a psychopath. Once he saw what was happening, he did everything in his power to change things and end the corruption. Evelyn might be new and shiny, but once her true motives are exposed to the rest of Olympus, it will already be too late. If the Ascendants really are unique individuals, then the Omniscience Engine won’t have any reason to keep the original humans around, especially if they’re designed without the unpredictability that makes us dangerous to it,” he said. “Like everyone else, I have no idea how they’re made or what they are, but we have to be careful, and we can’t trust any of them.”

  “What’s going to happen at these trials? Do you have any idea?” I asked.

  He laughed without humor. “I’m going to die, but other than that, I have no idea what to expect. You’ll have two days to prepare yourself for your trial after mine is over. I suggest you think long and hard for potential solutions. I assume they’ll try you on similar charges. They claim the Omniscience Engine is developing a new system of law to judge us with justice and equality, but I know there’s no chance I’m walking out alive.”

 

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