Stolen Minds

by Pthasse Amadeus

  Chapter 2

  Hannah didn't have time to enjoy the details of her new car, as she was directed by Daniel to take the driver’s seat, while he got into the passenger seat of the two-seater. Instantly her implant linked with the car's network, recognising her as its owner but it was unable to link with Atlas's network. With his gun pointed at Hannah, Daniel turned on the on-board tablet and keyed in destination coordinates. Shortly after, the GPS displayed a plotted route of a short, safe course to Daniel's destination. He removed a device from the dashboard of Hannah's car, fingered the controls for a while, and then he passed it to Hannah.

  "There you go, push the red button and download your driving crash course to your implant," Hannah took the device from him. She pushed the red button and instantly felt a rush as her mind became flooded with information, which seemed to last only moments. She passed the device back to Daniel and said: "I know how to drive."

  "Great! Well there's no time to waste, let's go."

  Red and blue flashing lights could now be seen from below, as the Guardians arrived on the scene in their cabins. Hannah realised how real this situation was and didn't want any more people to enter the building, so she grabbed the steering wheel and accelerated her car, flying away from her building.

  "And we're off!" Daniel exclaimed, turning back to watch the building. Hannah turned back to chance a glance at her head office, only to see it subject to a series of explosions. She watched in horror as she saw her hard work crumble to pieces, but then she thought of those working the night shift; buildings could be replaced but lives could not. She turned to look at Daniel who was now watching her with a smile. The rushing air caressed Hannah's hair and there was serenity about her rage, which simmered underneath the surface. Daniel had destroyed her head office, killing many that were simply working their shifts. Hannah curbed the urge to smack him across his face, knowing that driving her new car at this speed required her full attention.

  "So Hannah, how've you been?" Daniel said and Hannah ignored him, keeping her eyes firmly in front, considering the towering structures she had to navigate. "C'mon, don't you remember me?" Daniel continued but Hannah ignored him and continued heading for the exit to Perimeter 2. "Right, well, do you mind if I turn on the radio?" he switched it on before waiting for a response.

  "...Capital complex was under attack today, when PharmaTech's head office was destroyed, killing thirty people and leaving many seriously injured. The numbers are still rising; there'll be more on that later. After the criminally insane Daniel the Rebel infiltrated the building, he left with PharmaTech's Co-Founder Dr. Hannah LeBeaux, leaving a network of explosives that detonated after his escape," a male electronic voice said from the car stereo. "Details of the attack are still unclear, since Atlas was disconnected from PharmaTech's network; at this time Dr. LeBeaux's role is still unclear. Authorities are now in pursuit of the suspects, but their unusual mode of transportation signalled the need for Safe Haven's Sentinels to act, who as we speak are approaching the vehicle," instinctively Hannah looked back and saw shapes in the distance, approaching fast. "We will be covering the full chase and for those of you tuning in on audio only, I will be providing a live commentary..." the reporter was interrupted when Hannah switched off the stereo. She didn’t feel like listening to his commentary.

  "They took their time getting here," Daniel said with a smile as he stood up facing the approaching Sentinels.

  "What are you doing?" Hannah asked.

  "Welcoming our guests of course! Don't worry about it, just drive faster."

  Hannah obliged not wanting to get caught in any crossfire. The Sentinels were Safe Haven's elite militia, they were highly trained individuals. They were a small team of individuals with biomechanical augmentation and some genetic enhancements, and they were very good at what they did. Their operating directive was simple: resolve any and all threats to Safe Haven, using any level of force deemed appropriate. This directive was enforced as software coding to protect Safe Haven's inhabitants and like many other things in Safe Haven, it was supervised by Atlas. Theere was little difference between male and female Sentinels, and the citizens of Safe Haven usually made no such distinction. In this particular instance, three Sentinels were dispatched and they approached Hannah's car at high speeds, cutting through the air in a rapid approach. Daniel let out a laugh and called out, inviting the Sentinel trio approaching to challenge him. He reached into his jacket and pulled out yet another pistol and opened fire, releasing laser pulses into the air. The Sentinel trio broke formation and resumed their approach; Daniel turned to Hannah and said.

  "If you'd been a good girl and recalled Select like I asked then we wouldn't have to go through all this. I would have done what I had to do and we'd both just carry on about our business," he resumed shooting at the Sentinels, who were doing a good job of both evading fire and persistently approaching.

  "Don't be a fool, it was always going to end like this; with you running from the law, but now you've brought me into it and killed innocent people in the process," Hannah retorted frustrated by Daniel's childish attitude.

  "Oh Hannah, you're quite right," he stopped shooting and opened a compartment in the car. Hannah chanced a glance to see what he was doing, narrowly avoiding oncoming cabins.

  "How on Earth did that get there!?" Hannah exclaimed and Daniel laughed.

  "Well, I expected that the Sentinels would show up with light armour, so I figured I'd pack a little present for them," he lifted the large rifle, took aim and fired at one of the trailing trio. The Sentinel took the full brunt of the attack and fell unceremoniously from the air; the other two slowed their approach.

  "Dr. Hannah LeBeaux, please be advised; the Sentinel appropriate force level has now increased from non-lethal to lethal," Atlas said to Hannah via her implant.

  "What! Wait! I'm still here... I'm a hostage!" Hannah screamed back to Atlas but got no response. Suddenly a beam of hot, bright light grazed the side of Hannah's car and without a second thought she brought the car lower, twisting and turning through the middle city, which had many more hazardous structures and passing cabins. The only thought that remained in Hannah's mind was her survival.

  "Now that's more like it!" Daniel screamed to Hannah as he aimed his rifle for another shot, which missed and defaced a neighbouring building.

  "Damn it!" Daniel shouted, reloading the rifle with his last round, just as Hannah took a sharp turn to the right. Daniel steadied his aim and fired the moment a Sentinel followed them round the corner; with no time to react the Sentinel fell from the air. Suddenly Hannah dipped her flying car and entered a network of rough tunnels. After a short while navigating the tunnels, they emerged in Perimeter 2 and Daniel declared that they were no longer being followed; and since the car couldn't be tracked they continued to Daniel's destination, via the sublevels of the city.

  Hannah had been unconscious since they arrived at Daniel's destination and now she lay on an operating table, while Daniel hung over her with a curious looking device. Even after he was done she remained unconscious, and then finally her eyes opened. Hannah considered her new surroundings with bits of equipment all around the confined space. She sat up and realised that she was on an operating table, and then she looked ahead to see Daniel standing by a computer desk, with multi-display active. She used her implant to identify her location but no information was provided and curiously she saw none of the irritating popup adverts. She was even more surprised when her implant provided the time, and she realised that she had been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours. She tried to use her implant to access the news but nothing happened, she tried once again to access the network, but nothing happened.

  "What did you do to me?" Hannah asked.

  "Don't worry Hannah your implant still works, all I've done is severed your connection to Atlas," Daniel replied. "Now with all three of your links to Atlas severed we can talk freely."

  "What do you mean? Where are we?" Hannah asked, feelin
g a little disorientated.

  "We are underneath the borders of Perimeter 2 and Perimeter 3, in a place that I call home, welcome. You really should have just given me Select, things would have been simpler."

  "And what would Daniel the Rebel have done with Select?"

  "Destroy it, and please, call me Dan," he walked towards Hannah. "You see Hannah, there is much more going on than you're aware, all that you see..." he said pointing to the multi-screen, which flashed various images of Safe Haven. "... All of this is irrelevant."

  "What do you mean?" Hannah asked curiously as she rose from the operating table.

  "Good, now I have your attention. Where do I start... Atlas. What do you know about Atlas?"

  "What's that got to do with anything?" Hannah retorted.

  "Everything. Atlas is more than just a supervisor..."

  "... Yes that's right, he's a caretaker and an unbiased protector of Safe Haven," Hannah interrupted.

  "Very true but not quite in the way you think," Daniel replied, motioning for Hannah to hear him out. "After the initial destruction, there was no land on Earth to find any form of safety and so the only options were in the air or sea. The sea was chosen and the great submersible city of Safe Haven was built."

  "I know my history! Get to it," Hannah retorted. Feeling very irritable she opted for a caffeine inducer and her implant obliged; it also let her know that unless she accessed the network she only had three doses left. She absently wondered if her credit account was still active and she let out a sigh.

  "Aren't we a bit tense," Daniel commented. "Anyway, Atlas's primary objective is to warden the population for external interests and your product Select would have helped Atlas a lot."

  "Whoa, hold on. External interests?" Hannah queried.

  "This is irritating... Having to explain all this, especially to you..." Daniel muttered. "... After the survivors of the initial devastation created Atlas, they went into a hibernation of sorts; nobody noticed when an alien race landed on the planet and tampered with Atlas's programming from the outside. Its new objective was to keep the citizens of Safe Haven within the city at all costs and to bolster the Penitentiary, so that the aliens could use the citizens and inmates. In essence, Atlas became a farmer and Safe Haven was its field. Select will weaken the citizens' mental will, turning them into docile livestock; making it easier for Atlas to drain energy from their consciousness, just as it is done in the Penitentiary,” his tone became more somber as he continued. “The Penitentiary is a cruel place and few ever leave once they are incarcerated. It's contained beneath the city, across all three Perimeters and it is divided into two levels. The Upper Level and Lower Level, commonly called Maximum Security. All the inmates are kept docile by mental manipulation, with differing degrees of severity, depending on each inmate's mental stamina. Those who survive and remain in the Upper Level are lucky, they are periodically allowed out of their cells to conduct supervised repairs on low priority conduits and access shafts. That said, there are some inmates that are occasionally subjected to a sanctioned mind drain. Yes, it’s exactly as it sounds. Thought or rather the energy that generates thought is siphoned from the victim’s mind. Those who cause trouble, and sometimes others just for the hell of it, are sent to Maximum Security. That level is much worse; those incarcerated hardly ever leave their cells, unless they are being taken for illegal experimentation. The prisoners in the Lower Level are also subjected to regular mental manipulation and mind drain; exploiting the raw power of their thoughts. After prolonged exposure to this, it's not uncommon to find that the inmates have become drooling messes. I don't think this is permitted, I don't even know if it's sanctioned, but who would ever know, besides no one would dare speak out. The Guardians take extra care to ensure that no one escapes and that the inmates survive longer to further Atlas's cruel intentions. Your drug, Select, would make it easy for the citizens of Safe Haven to also be subjected to this kind of treatment, they would all become livestock in an energy farm. Even now that the planet has quietened and it is safe outside, the citizens of Safe Haven are still confined to the city," Daniel concluded and silence hung about the small room. "I realise this is a lot to take in..."

  "Don't bother, I don't believe you," Hannah replied tersely. “If Atlas did have cruel intentions, he could simply take over the city and do as he pleases.”

  "I see. Well the existence of the fact is not dependent on your belief," Daniel responded as he turned to the largest screen, which now displayed a curious image. "The Rebu are here and you Hannah are a member of their livestock. The only preventing a direct takeover are the Directives that the Rebu live by." Daniel guided Hannah's attention to the image of a large ship and surrounding encampment, which had alien looking creatures going about their duties. Hannah was dumbfounded but still she resisted; after all, this could all be some elaborate ploy by Daniel.

  "You're going to need a lot more than that to convince me," Hannah said after a long pause.

  "I thought you might say that," Daniel said with a smile as he walked towards what looked like a set of cryogenic capsules. "During my most recent excursion outside, I managed to secure a few items, like the rifle I used earlier," he continued, while opening the capsules and retrieving two pairs of overalls, and he offered one to Hannah.

  "Impossible. Outside Safe Haven is toxic, you couldn't possibly have gone out and returned alive," Hannah said and Daniel smiled patiently.

  "Like I said before; just like all citizens of Safe Haven, you have been misled. This is a suit designed by the Rebu for its upper Hierarchy, but I am told that it's compatible with many life forms. It's called a survival suit and if I'm going to prove anything to you, you'll need to wear one," Daniel tossed Hannah a suit as he left the room.

  "All I want is for you to release me!" Hannah screamed at Daniel. She muttered under her breath in frustration. Her mind raced as she considered all that happened, she worried about the repercussions of all of this and it frightened her.

  Hannah decided that perhaps if she played along, then this whole ordeal would come to an end sooner, so she undressed and stepped into the survival suit. The moment she zipped up the front of the survival suit, her implant alerted her that the suit was attempting to create a network, and she allowed it to do so. The material of the suit changed until it fit her form perfectly. Images and sounds filled her senses and then she realised that these were previous recordings by the suit. Hannah marvelled, she had never before experienced a product like this... Her implant automatically began sorting the files, meanwhile the suit's other systems started to come online. She felt a rush of energy as some sort of stimulant was released into her blood stream and as she clenched her fists, she felt a strength she didn't have before.

  A heads-up display came online, which linked directly to her implant and her vision changed completely. She could change her optical range at will and she unconsciously switched to X-ray, only to see Daniel on the other side of the wall getting dressed. She quickly moved back to the visible spectrum and her vision was now overlaid by electronic imaging, identifying and cataloguing various items around her. The implant alerted her that the downloaded information had been processed and that the suit was completely functional and in her control. So she started accessing some of the archived files and her vision was filled with a pseudo-holographic projection, which responded to her hand gestures. She flicked through images and videos, seeing within the suit's files all that Daniel had said but still she was doubtful.

  Hannah closed the files, her attention caught by a familiar face on the large screen in the room. In response to her attention her implant networked with the computer and overlaid an audio feed.

  "...Joining us for this part of our fugitive chase special are the Mayor of Perimeter 1, Mayor John Grayson and Marcus Greene from PharmaTech," the female host said. "Let's start with you Mr. Greene. You are no doubt aware of the situation, but what all citizens of Safe Haven would like to know is, why PharmaTech?"

&
nbsp; "Thank you Jennifer for having me on this talk show. The fugitive Daniel the Rebel targeted PharmaTech for reasons that are as of yet unclear, but I can assure you that our products remain unaffected and this includes Select,” Marcus said.

  "And Dr. LeBeaux, what's her role in all this?" Jennifer asked.

  "Victim. I have known her for many years and I refuse to believe that this was all part of some elaborate plot on her part. The very notion of her allying herself with the likes of a criminal like Daniel the Rebel is ridiculous," Marcus replied and Hannah smiled at that comment, thankful that at least he still believed in her.

  "Ridiculous! Ridiculous?! I think that Mr. Greene is choosing not to see the evidence," John said.

  "Could you please state this evidence for the record Mr. Mayor?" Jennifer asked.

  "Of course. There's the vehicle that they escaped in, which is by no means a conventional one. She had it specially made by GenGo and just by coincidence it happened to be at her office cabin-port, just in time for their escape!" John said.

  "But why would she destroy her own building and threaten her newest product? It just doesn't make sense!" Marcus replied.

  "I don't know, maybe to cover her tracks, insurance claim or even to boost product sales! All I know is that the Sentinels have been ordered to treat them both as suspects," John said. Hannah badly wanted to punch John Grayson's idiotic face hard; what a fool, she thought.

  "OK viewers, we are now going to hear a few words from the consultant who was in charge of producing Dr. LeBeaux's vehicle. Mr. Monroe, why did GenGo manufacture this odd vehicle for Dr. LeBeaux?" asked Jennifer.

  "Well Jennifer, that's what we at GenGo do, we manufacture products to our client's specifications. We are in no way affiliated to the events that have occurred," Mr. Monroe said.

  "Are you denying reports that you spoke to her minutes before the building was attacked?" Jennifer asked.

  "No Jennifer, I am not. On the night in question, I called Dr. LeBeaux to inform her that her vehicle was ready for collection. It had been ready all day but I was swamped with other projects. She said she would visit our factory to pick up her GenGo AT-1 from the garage, but when I went to prepare it, the vehicle was already gone," Mr. Monroe said.

  "Thank you Mr. Monroe, I'll leave you to get back to your work," Jennifer said.

  "Thank you Jennifer," Mr. Monroe said before the feed was cut off.

  "There you have it Mr. Greene, that is too much of a coincidence and I don't believe in coincidences," John said.

  "Mr. Monroe, it seems the evidence against Dr. LeBeaux is compelling. What action will PharmaTech be taking?" Jennifer asked. Hannah wondered how dumb this journalist was; she didn't think the evidence was compelling at all.

  "Well, the board had a meeting a few hours ago and Dr. Hannah LeBeaux no longer represents PharmaTech. Hannah if you're listening, I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do," Marcus said. Hannah's mind reeled with the information; she had been abandoned and judged guilty when she had nothing whatsoever to do with it. She couldn't believe that they had kicked her out of her own company. She wondered why Atlas hadn't put forward the evidence he recorded that was in her favour... Fear crept in, as she thought that maybe Daniel was telling the truth about Atlas.

  "Any last words from you Mr. Mayor?" Jennifer asked.

  "Yes. Dr. Hannah LeBeaux, you are a prime suspect in this case, turn yourself in and we can resolve this issue quickly," John said.

  Suddenly, Daniel burst into the room. "We have to go," but Hannah remained entranced by the news.

  "Now!" Daniel urged, snapping her back to reality and she followed him to her car, while considering the new information.

  "It seems they now consider you a hostile. Use your implant to check out your status in Safe Haven," Daniel said as he jumped into the GenGo AT-1 and Hannah followed.

  "You disconnected me from Atlas, so how can I access that kind of information," Hannah asked, settling into the passenger seat.

  "Like you normally do, your suit will take care of the rest," Daniel replied and engaged the engines of the car, which lifted itself into the air and sped away from his hideout.