Where was this place?
Was this just a dream? Another aspect of the afterlife?
There were pyramids on the blackened horizon, their triangular bodies reflecting the sparse blue light of the star.
He tested his feet, found he had weight in this place, and—as if by instinct alone—started towards the pyramid in the distance.
4
Nico had been lying with his back against the steel wall for hours. Ira hadn't moved from her seat either. It was no use trying to convince her to let him out; she was dead set on getting a confession out of him. In a way, this was exactly what he’d feared would happen if Ira and Ramirez got too close.
The fact of the matter was, when the fog of his panic attack had left his mind, when he’d stared at Ramirez's bleeding throat and realized what he'd done, he’d felt glad.
He smiled.
In a way, he knew Ramirez had finally gotten what he deserved.
His thoughts were disturbed by several knocks on the door to the brig, and Nico sat up attentively. There was another person in this equation. Someone had hit him from behind. Who would it be?
He watched Ira get up and cross the room, open the door.
"What is it?" Ira said.
"I need to talk to him."
It was Lena's voice...he clenched his teeth. Now was not the time. If he could help it, he'd get out of this cell without having that information come to light.
"He's busy," Ira said.
"Look," Lena said. "It's really important. I won't let him out or anything..."
"Is there a problem?"
He recognized that voice, thin and nasally; Mathias.
"Lena says she needs to talk to Nico," Ira said.
"Alone," Lena said.
"I'm afraid that we can't do that," Mathias said.
"Well, I don't want her to hear," Lena said.
"Why's that?" Ira said. "Got something to hide?"
"Yeah, and it's private," Lena said.
"What if I take Ira's place?" Mathias said.
"Are you serious?"
"I'm not one for spreading gossip, trust me—as long as you had nothing to do with Eddy's death."
They seemed to go quiet for a while, but every now and then Nico heard Ira raise her voice at Lena. Eventually, he saw Ira leave the room—shoulders hunched, a scowl painted on her pale face.
Lena and Mathias came in.
Mathias carefully descended into Ira's chair and opened up a tattered book, started reading.
Lena came forward. Her face was a bit pale, her short blonde hair was more messy than usual, and she was clutching her stomach.
Oh no, he thought.
"Nico," she said.
"Don't you dare say it!" Nico found himself clutching at the bars.
"Why the hell not? What? Is it too inconvenient for you?"
"You know damn well why you shouldn't!"
She crossed her arms, her eyebrows creased. "I'm pregnant."
Mathias's head perked up at that, then he quickly went back to reading. Maybe he'd have the sense to keep quiet?
"It could be Hugo's." Nico walked back to his bed, stared at the wall.
"No, I haven't slept with him in three months."
"Tell him it's his anyway, he's dumb enough not to notice."
"See, that's the kind of shit that got you tossed in a cell!"
"You and I both know I didn't kill him. What I did was an accident."
"Yeah? So, why don't you tell them all what you were really doing in that room?" She placed her hands on her hips, arched her back. He turned to face her. "Go right ahead and tell them you were busy fucking my brains out on a gurney!"
"Shut up!"
"Why don't you want it to get out, Nicola? Why? Are you ashamed of me?"
"You want the honest answer?"
"Oh, this should be good."
"Because it'll upset morale."
"Oh, it'll upset morale! Is that all?" Her eyes shot open wide; he could almost feel the anger radiating off of her like flares from the summer sun. "You sure you're not worried about what a certain traitorous little sister of yours is gonna think about it?"
He avoided her eyes.
"I knew it."
She stormed for the door and Ira let her out.
"Your brother's an asshole," she said.
Nico rested his head on the bars, listened to Ira enter the room and switch places with Mathias.
"What was that about?" Ira asked.
"Nothing," Nico said. "Just drama."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mathias rapped gently on the door and Hugo took his sweet time answering.
Hugo cracked the door open. "Yo, what do you want?"
Mathias barged past Hugo, clasping his hands behind his back. "I have some rather distressing news to share with you, my friend."
"Man, we ain't friends." Hugo turned around and crossed his arms. "Me and you have shared maybe one word in all the time I known you."
"Yes, my fault entirely."
"Say what you got to say and get the fuck out here."
"Well, that makes this much easier. The others didn't want you to know, they thought you might do something foolish with the information I'm about to give you."
"Get to it."
"It's about Lena and Nico."
Hugo's eyebrows came together, his tiny lips creased. "What about them?"
"There's no easy way to say this." Mathias let out a dramatic sigh and sat down to add to the effect. "Lena's pregnant."
Hugo stood there for a while, clenching his fists, his eyes darting about the room.
"I'm sure you've guessed already that it isn't yours."
Hugo screamed and punched the wall. A sound not unlike a wooden fence snapping into pieces bounced off of the stone walls. Hugo dropped to the floor, clutching his bloody hand. He let himself fall into the fetal position and started sobbing like a child.
Mathias observed his behavior. His expression: completely neutral. He knelt down before Hugo and held his injured hand.
"I'm no doctor, but you definitely shouldn't have done that," Mathias said.
Hugo retrieved his hand and buried his face in the sleeve of his long johns. "Just leave me, B."
"I don't expect you to do much with the information I just gave you," Mathias said. "But, I'll tell you one thing, if it were me that Nico had done this to—well, I don't know what I would do. I mean, come on, we aren't savages or cavemen! And here he goes acting like your typical alpha male, stealing another man's woman!"
Hugo stopped sobbing for a moment, let one reddened eye focus on Mathias.
"I can see you understand my point." Something caught Mathias's eye; it was a fantasy novel featuring a massive dragon and a single warrior wielding a sword, and it looked as though it'd been read over and over and over again since Hugo had found it. "Were you always into bargain-bin fantasy?"
Hugo shook his head. "Used to beat the shit out of people that read stuff like that."
"And now you enjoy it?"
He nodded.
"I suppose escaping into a fantasy world would be quite comforting for any of us, given our reality. But, ironically, you find yourself being abused by one who feels he's superior to you. Maybe it's a poetic justice?"
Hugo's eyes widened. Mathias could almost feel the anger wash through him as understanding washed over his face like a damp rag.
"Unfortunately for you." Mathias slouched back against the edge of Hugo's bed. "You're a coward. You'll cry yourself to sleep in here, maybe end things with Lena, and seclude yourself from everyone else. Maybe you'll just try to ignore it, stick your face in this book for the thousandth time to escape."
Hugo buried his face in his sleeve again.
"I was once a lot like you, Hugo. Much smarter, less crass, but I too was a coward at one point. You'll grow out of it, perhaps, but only when you snap, and do something you might regret." He paused. "This place can be maddening, can't it? The cold concrete walls, the tunnels,
the hum from the environmental systems, and the careful footsteps of your so-called friends, lovers, monsters, who steal from you, and lie to your face. Quite maddening."
"Mathias, come in." It was Ira's abrasive and sassy voice, calling over the CB; Mathias leaned over, plucked the receiver from his belt.
"Yes?" Mathias said.
"I thought it over last night," she said. "And I think it's a good idea."
"I'm afraid I don't follow. What's a good idea?"
"I need help analyzing the logs." There was a quiver in her voice. "So, I thought you could handle that job, while I check the security cams for any sign of Eddy. What do you say?"
Mathias smiled. "Of course, just call my CB when you'd like to get started."
"I figured we could get started right away, actually. There's no time to lose."
"Right, I'll be right up to join you."
"Thanks, Ira out."
The buzz from the CB went quiet, and Mathias rose from his crouched position.
"Well, it appears as if I have a job to do," he said.
Mathias made for the door, leaving Hugo to sob himself to sleep.
2
Ira didn't have to wait long for Mathias to arrive. Within ten minutes of cutting the chatter with him on the CB, he'd arrived and asked how he could help. She only had the one laptop, but there were lots of spare computer parts around the facility, and she'd managed to scrounge enough parts together that could be assembled into a new machine for Mathias to do his searching on—which she'd found an hour earlier in one of the storage rooms down on one of the basement levels.
Mathias’s gangly legs carried him into the dim glow of the mainframe room; his sharp brown eyes cut a line straight to the computer parts lying on the tarp she'd laid out on the floor.
"I hope you know how to put a PC together," she said.
"Of course," he said.
"Then get to work, I've collected all the parts you'll need, but I don't have time to assemble it for you."
"You've done enough already."
She watched him sit down cross-legged in front of the collection of parts and begin rummaging through them to find the ones he liked best. There was an empty case waiting for whatever parts he chose. She took her seat at her laptop, took a sip from her coffee mug, and began calling up security feeds.
"Have you slept?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I passed out for an hour while keeping watch over Nico. Not sure that counts."
"Hardly." She glanced over to him and saw that he'd put together a motherboard with an onboard CPU and video card, and was fitting it into the case. "Speaking of which, what do you plan to do with him?"
"Assuming he's actually guilty?"
"You have doubts?"
She sulked, took another sip of her coffee, and nodded. "He said he was having a panic attack when Eddy snuck up on him. We live in a dangerous world now...some part of me has to realize that it's possible that Eddy just got up and wandered somewhere he shouldn't have and got lost."
"Very unlikely, considering how Lena had him doped up."
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it." He inserted several sticks of RAM into the motherboard. "He was so doped up with morphine and pain killers, it would have taken a miracle for him to get up and walk away without some form of help. And I don't believe in miracles. Nicola claims it was an accident, but I think he was caught cutting Eddy's throat, and had to make arrangements to ensure his survival, albeit temporarily. And once Eddy was alone in the med bay, he was able to make his move and finish the job."
Ira stared at her screen and held herself. The though that her brother could even be capable of something like that was very hard for her to process.
Whatever the case was, she couldn't help but feel that something was off about the whole thing.
"I still have hope," she said.
"Hence why you continue to search," he said. "But I wonder if what you're searching for is confirmation, rather than a sign of life."
"Just say it, just say I'm searching for a body."
"Sorry." He shook his head, rubbed his eyes. "I didn't mean—"
"You did mean to." You cold-hearted bastard.
She paused for a while, allowing herself time to process what he'd said. Her eyes scanned over the security videos, one at a time.
One of them showed Lena in the medical bay, still cataloging their equipment. Her hand resting over her stomach.
The next feed showed Hugo, curled up in his quarters, clutching his hand.
Wonder what's eating him, she thought.
The next feed showed nothing but a blank hallway, and the one after that, an empty corridor, like the one where she'd seen that...no, she couldn't think of that.
It had only been a hallucination anyway. Something from her nightmares. That was all.
She switched to the next feed; it featured an empty experiment chamber with a vertical deprivation tank at the center. And no sign of Eddy still, just emptiness.
No bodies, living or otherwise.
"But, you're right..." she said. "I need to know one way or another."
But can I live without him?
Mathias nodded, connecting the last of the cables inside the case, then closed it up.
"Where shall I set this up?" Mathias asked.
She pointed to another corner of the room, where she wouldn't have to look directly at his face while he worked. "Over there."
"Ah, excellent."
He stood up and meandered where she’d pointed, carrying his newly built tower.
She heard the sounds of him scuttling back and forth, grabbing a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, to complete his setup. Then came the inevitable booting noises that the machine made. He returned to her side, a question no doubt on the edge of his lips.
"Yes?" she said.
"The disk is blank, do you have a copy of your OS?"
"I'm insulted you had to ask." She dug around in her laptop bag next to the chair, retrieved a few thumb drives, and thought long and hard about which one to give him; she picked a black and yellow drive out, and handed it to him with only a faint grin. "Take this one, it's Linux, but you should be familiar with the interface."
He took it and lumbered back to his station, completely unaware of the malware on the drive. The drive had a special background virus that would infect his machine along with the installation of the OS, and would allow her to see everything he was doing. She may have needed his help, but she still didn't trust him for shit.
Ira had no doubt in her mind that Mathias thought that he was greatly superior to her, but he had no idea how stupid it was to boot anything straight from a thumb drive.
She'd learned that basic bit of info when she was a kid, before the war, when cyber warfare was in its infancy. But even when she was in college, it had been a common problem for unknowing students to spread malware through interacting with other machines with their thumb drives. She shook her head. It was like a mechanical STD chain, for which there was no cure, except abstaining from using school-owned machines altogether. Later, she'd use that little trick to infect the systems of large companies to get a look at their files and their bank information. She'd done some stupid shit after college, and a lot of it could have landed her a one-way ticket to a detention camp or a prison cell, but goddamn was it fun.
She opened up a tab on her system, a virtual machine that would serve as her window into what Mathias was doing. She could see that he was already fully set up, and was looking through the experiment logs.
She couldn't help but smile. It made her feel like her old self.
"Hmm." Mathias's voice echoed through the chamber. "Ira, this is curious."
"What is it?" She asked.
"Come here, I want to show you something."
She got up and made her way over to him, making sure to keep her blanket tight around her body. When she was next to Mathias, she peered over his shoulder and pretended to be surprised at what he was looking at.
"It appears as though we don't have admin access for the system," he said.
"Yeah, the account I’m in is one of the lower tier ones. Why?"
"Wouldn't we be more secure if you took advantage of the admin status?"
Her pierced eyebrow raised. "I was thinking about it before Eddy went missing, but I haven't honestly had time to take over. And I'm not sure how Lena or the others would feel about everything being coded to my biometrics and voice authorization."
"You should do it." Mathias smiled wide, and in the dim blue light of the mainframe room, she thought his teeth looked a bit yellow. "After Nico and Eddy, you're the one with the most survival experience, and should be the leader here."
"We are so fucked."
His smile faded. "I wasn't kidding."
She went quiet for a moment and allowed the gravity of their situation to fully sink in.
"I'll prep the system," she said, and returned to her seat.
She called up the interface that would allow her to gain access to the admin profile for the facility. First, she'd have to actually crack into it. She already had associate access in the security system, but this would allow her total access to every system in the facility, and she would be able to assign a status to everyone based on their skills.
That part was a comfort, given the growing amount of distrust she felt for the others.
The rainbow tables had tried several combinations to gain access to the admin profile, and all of them had failed.
At first, she thought it could be hopeless...but then, she remembered that Doctor Weber had been the admin, and she'd had all sorts of windows into what sort of man he'd been.
Maybe the password wasn't random, but something personalized? It sounded stupid. Everyone knows not to use a personalized password.
Would Weber be arrogant enough for that?
His logs weren't filled with anyone in particular; he never mentioned friends, family, or even coworkers who worked with him on the Mind's Horizon project. But there was one person whom he admired and couldn't shut the hell up about.
She stopped her passcode cracker, and typed into the password field: JOHNCLILLY
That was rejected.
She tried again: JOHN C LILLY
Failed.
Again: Mind's Horizon Lilly
Failed.
Mind's Horizon Page 18