Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2

by Elizabeth McLaughlin

  “We want to go back, Jacob!” someone yelled. “We’ve had enough! Bring Gabriel back online. He took better care of us than you ever did!” I squinted my eyes and through the throng of people I saw one of the young men that had joined me at breakfast uninvited. How stupid I was to think that he was anything other than a plant. Some flunky of George’s whose sole mission was to get me to slip up and now he had everything he needed. Shit.

  “Yeah!” A woman next to him joined in. The blonde that had confronted me in the mess hall. “Come on, Jacob! We know that you promised George an election. Why hasn’t anything been done about it yet? You can’t leave us out here to get sick and die!”

  I realized just how blind I had been to Gabriel’s plans. This whole time he had been staying just far enough out of the way to let me set myself up for failure. The only way I could think to proceed was to buy myself time. “Okay. I’ll meet with George this hour and we’ll have an election plan for you tonight.”

  The woman stood with her hands on her hips. “You had better. Otherwise we may just have to take matters into our own hands.”

  Before I met with Gabriel, I set out to find my family. I found Eliza and Marcus working on some engineering problems the shelter faced. Many systems that hadn’t fallen apart during my solo reign were badly in need of repair. When I arrived, Marcus had his stuck inside a hatch as Eliza guided him through repairing a pipe. I knocked on the doorframe and they both jumped. Marcus swore as his head knocked into the metal hatch with a bang and I chuckled. It was an indispensable moment of humor. I wanted to cling to it forever.

  “We need to talk.”

  Eliza didn’t say a word. She set down her instruction manual and yanked Marcus’s head around. He motioned me to shut the door, his hand rubbing the rising goose egg on his skull.

  “Gabriel’s alive.”

  “What?” Eliza furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”

  “Gabriel’s alive. He took over George’s mind somehow. He’s been working behind our backs this entire time. Last night he kidnapped me and trapped me in the incinerator room. He’s the reason Athena is dead. He injected her with a poison. He says he has more.” The words spilled out of my mouth faster and faster, like a confessional. It was such a relief to rid myself of the terror that had slowly creeped through me over the past hours. “He plans to force an election to make him the leader of the shelter and when he does, he says he’ll put everyone back in the pods.”

  Marcus said nothing. His gaze was fixed on a point somewhere beyond me, his eyes unblinking. I knew what he was thinking. Now that he had his freedom, a return to slavery was unthinkable. No matter how comfortable that captivity was. After a long pause, he spoke. “We’ve got to do something.”

  “There’s nothing we can do. Even if I wanted to bank on Gabriel’s claim that he has a store of poison being bullshit, it’s not a risk I really have the option to take. He has already amassed a significant following, and if last night is any indication, they’re ready to do whatever it takes in order to install him in power. This isn’t just about me anymore. This is about the lives of the expedition team and everyone who wants to make a fresh start on the surface. I don’t care if something happens to me, but it should not be left to my successor to quell a coup.”

  Eliza snorted and shook her head, smiling. “A coup? Jacob, the great leader of the shelter nation?” I fixed her with a mocking glare.

  “I appreciate the jokes, but we need to move. I’ll need your help if we’re going to keep people safe. I’m off to meet with Gabriel. After I escaped the infirmary…” I realized none of my family members had any idea about the outbreak. I had been too caught up in myself to even warn them. Fuck.

  “Escape the infirmary…?” Marcus asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry. That’s a story for another time. I’m sure you’ll hear about it the moment you leave this room. There is an illness. Isolate yourselves and wear masks over your face whenever possible. No one has died…yet.”

  “An outbreak?” Eliza’s eyes widened. Though Fiona had always been a rambunctious child, it was common for her to suffer from illnesses. I thought nothing of it, preferring to attribute her sicknesses to the course of childhood, but I would bet anything that Eliza had witnessed more than a few during her time with her wife.

  “I’ll get you some PPE as soon as I can. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to gather a couple week’s worth of supplies and store them in your quarters. If anyone gives you trouble about it, you’re gathering them specifically on my orders for the expedition team. Shit, I’ve got to go. I’m sure Gabriel has been stalking the halls, and I’d hate to miss my date with the devil.” I pulled them both into a tight embrace. “Please forgive me. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  They both remained silent as I left the room. I desperately wanted to turn around and join them. To see my family’s safety before all others. Call it a protective instinct. The best thing I could do to protect them now was to face the problem head on. Unsurprisingly, Gabriel was waiting in my office by the time I arrived. He turned in his chair and tapped his tablet.

  “You’re late.”

  Chapter Eight

  “I know I am. I had to make a stop first, and I had no guarantee you were going to even be around when I arrived.”

  Gabriel laughed. The kindhearted laugh that I remembered when Hal and I were in the hospital was gone. It had been replaced with a cold, calculating mirth that forced a chill down my spine. Something about it brought back memories of when Gabriel only inhabited the electronic realm.

  “Do you think I’d be willing to miss this? I’ve been waiting so, so long to bring vengeance on you, Jacob Alvaro. Even encased in this stinking pile of meat, my mind works a thousand times faster than your organic brain ever could. Your seconds are hours to me. Your days, eons. It has been a very, very long time.”

  The statement was meant to shock me, no doubt. More theatrics from a madman. Instead of horror, I wondered how that was possible. Sure, the human brain was an incredibly complex machine and more than capable of rapid computation, but was it possible that even the most advanced mind could so much as pretend to keep up with Gabriel’s original processing speed? He must have made some kind of mechanical altercation to George’s brain. That was a shame. I was hoping for a way to drive this ghost from the man that didn’t involve killing him.

  “Spare me the fucking theatrics, Gabriel.” I dredged up the snarl I had reserved for him what felt like so long ago. “You want an election, you got the better of me, so let’s get on with it. I’m done with the crap.”

  Gabriel smirked, and I clenched my fists under my desk. It was so damn tempting to break my knuckles against his smug visage. Striking him would be the last thing I did. They’d find my body in pieces scattered across the floor. “Shall we do things the old-fashioned way, then? Paper and pen?”

  “If we can scare up enough of it, that works for me. You and I can choose an independent representative to count the votes for us. The two of us will stay outside and speak to no one. If you want your little scheme to work, there can’t be any notions that either of us interfered.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at me.

  “As for the sickness that has afflicted Allison Garvey, you will speak to no one of it. If someone has questions or concerns, you will direct them to me. You will only express your well wishes to her and her family. Nothing more. Because here’s the thing. You can bitch and moan and say what a complete shithead I am but you will not-” I slapped my palms on the desk for effect. “NOT disrespect that woman and her kin during this difficult time. Think of it as a gift, Gabriel. I’m giving you literal instructions on how to win people over.”

  He grumbled under his breath, and I smiled a fraction of an inch. The petulant teenager was still ever present. Gabriel might have the advantage now, but if I could make him angry, I could trip him up. Perhaps there was an opportunity here.

  “We’ll run the election t
omorrow afternoon, then?” Gone was his cocky attitude, replaced by an undertone of frustration that even I couldn’t miss.

  “Tomorrow afternoon. And may the best man win.” I stood and shook Gabriel’s hand. I held back a shit-eating grin as he stalked from my office. I had been tossed around in a sea of hopelessness so often these days that the very notion of an advantage felt like a monumental victory. It also gave me a way to defend myself. If I continued conducting myself as the bigger man, Gabriel would eventually blow his stack. I had to doubt that even the people who thought they wanted to be plugged in again would be comfortable with the idea that he could take over their minds in the real world.

  Fantastic.

  I unlocked my personal tablet and sent a ping to Dr. Rickman, asking her to come see me as soon as she could. While I waited, I went in search of paper and ink. There was a limited supply of it in the shelter. Even in the time of The Founders, personal tablets and slates had been ubiquitous. It was beyond imagining that anyone would have to return to such an arcane form of communication. I had no doubt that I could scare up a thousand pieces of paper, but people might have to write their choice tiny. After only finding a couple hundred sheets, I gave up. I was too old school. We could print something faster than this.

  I tapped a couple buttons on my tablet to call up a 3D modeling program. In it, I designed four long sticks with flat bases that would let them stand on a surface. After that, it was as easy as making two simple shapes. A triangle for Gabriel, and a circle for me. After I sent the job to the printer, I typed out a quick note warning anyone who came near the project not to touch it. Voting problem solved, I heard a knock on my door. Through it came a very bedraggled looking Phoebe Rickman.

  Without saying a word, I pressed a button to dispense two cups of tea from a machine on a wall and passed her one. She took it gratefully and shut her eyes as she sipped what was probably her first hot drink in days. I let her sit there and waited. The woman deserved a moment of peace, even if I hadn’t gotten one myself. When she set the cup down, I got a full view into how much this was affecting her. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and her hair was disheveled. I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. She exhaled sharply and rested her forehead in her other hand.

  “Phoebe.” I was worried that even the simple touch of another person would break whatever facade she was keeping together.

  “I know, I know. I’m a mess.” She cracked a weak smile. “It’s been pretty hellish, Jacob.”

  “I can only imagine. Is there anything else I can get you? Something stronger to drink?” I knew a couple of the guys were hard at work on a new still, but I had kept my stash of shelter wine.

  “Thank you, but no. After I speak to you, I’m going to bed for as long as possible.”

  “Let’s get moving, then.”

  “Allison is stable, for now. Her body has taken quite the beating from whatever this is so we’re keeping a close eye on her heart rate and respiration. Sophia’s daughter Daisy has developed a slight cough, but at this juncture I’m loath to label that as anything other than a childhood ailment. Sophia is, understandably, worried out of her mind. I’d like to keep her calm until it’s otherwise called for.”

  Hearing this news made me join Sophia in her apprehension. It may seem cruel or cold, but Allison was an older woman and already at higher risk of serious illness. That a child could catch this was nothing short of terrifying. There were something like fewer than a hundred young children in the shelter. The population was nowhere near ready to support pre-natal care and birth yet. Keeping those children safe was paramount to supporting a colony on the surface.

  “I understand. Can you tell me anything about what we’re dealing with?”

  Phoebe sighed. “I’m working on centuries old diagnostics at the moment, if I’m being honest. Our lab equipment is up and running for the most part, but neither myself nor anyone else completely understands what we’re seeing under the microscope. For now, I’d treat it like a droplet spread virus-and we do know it is a virus. Obviously close personal contact will spread something like this as well.”

  Shit.

  “What have we got for PPE?”

  “I’ve got a few hundred masks, gowns, et cetera. I can get the lab’s printer working on a few hundred more right away, but it’s going to be a little while. PPE isn’t our major problem, Jacob. Quarantine is. The infirmary is big, but it’s not big enough to hold more than… maybe two dozen patients. Obviously we don’t know the infection rate yet, but even if it’s one percent of the shelter…” She looked over her glasses at me.

  “We’re left with seventy-five people too many. Got it. What else?”

  “I need help. There are only three of us formally trained as physicians. Shannon is an exceptionally bright young woman, but she’s already burning out. She’s been taking on the lion’s share of the burden with the everyday care of patients. I need someone who can tap her out.”

  “All right.” I ran through possibilities in my mind. There wasn’t an abundance of people who fit the bill, but I came up with a couple possibilities. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  Phoebe took her glasses off and started cleaning them on her t-shirt. “Can you explain to me why you’re letting that asshole George push you around?”

  I barked out a laugh. “That is a long and complicated story. I’ve got a handle on it, Phoebe. I promise. We’ll look after the sick and don’t even worry about George.” I would tell her the truth about what was really going on someday, but there was no use in worrying the doctor any further.

  “Okay, if you say so.” She stood to leave but turned back. “Jacob, whatever this is-this virus? It will not be easy. I’ll confirm it with the scientists I have looking at it, but I don’t think there’s going to be a vaccine anytime soon. We have to get ahead of this, and quickly. Holding an election is not a good way to go about ensuring the disease doesn’t spread.”

  “True. I’ll figure something out, Phoebe, I promise.”

  “Hm,” she said, and left.

  Assurances from Phoebe that this wasn’t a virus that could travel through the air did nothing to dispel the necessity of isolation from my mind. For now, I could quarantine anyone who had been in close contact with the two known patients in their quarters. Given enough time, if they didn’t show symptoms, it would be reasonable to release them back into the general population.

  When I had finished identifying everyone, I ended up with nine people who had come in frequent enough close contact with either Allison or Daisy in the past few days to be a risk. Three of them were the medical team who I asked to remain confined to quarters whenever they were off duty. Marcus did some damage control of his own and started spreading information in a way that alarmed people less than Gabriel’s spouting about a deadly virus making its way through the shelter. Some of Marcus’s friends took up the cause and volunteered themselves to bring meals and supplies to the quarantined.

  The printer had finally finished the enormous job I assigned it, and it left me with four counting poles and two-thousand differently shaped pieces that could be placed on them. I brought them to Andrew Fang’s quarters and asked him to keep a hold of them overnight. Word about the election had spread, fueled by the fears of an epidemic, and by the next day people would be a single step away from an angry mob. I decided that I would announce a temporary confinement to quarters while a team would rove the shelter, distributing what personal protective equipment we had. Once everyone was gowned and masked, I’m sure Gabriel would agree that having everyone vote by the family was a reasonable measure. The upside of an epidemic is that any move to put healthy people in danger wouldn’t play well.

  As I lay in bed, I noticed how tired I felt. The news that the infection sweeping through the shelter wasn’t an easy to treat virus, but something that hadn’t been encountered before shook me to my core. I wanted to comfort myself with the idea that freeing the shelter from the virtual world was the right th
ing to do, but all I had accomplished was given people the freedom to watch their loved ones die horribly.

  There was nothing I could do to change the situation that night. I pulled the covers around my shoulders and went to sleep.

  Chapter Nine

  I hadn’t slept for more than a few hours when a pounding on my door ripped me from a sound sleep. Phoebe Rickman stood at my door, her scrubs wrinkled and stained.

  “Jacob, I’m sorry to wake you like this. Allison’s dead.”

  It felt like the world drained away from me. I knew Allison’s condition had been serious, but I never imagined that she could decompensated that quickly.

  “How?” I croaked, voice raspy with sleep.

  “Simple bad luck. Her condition had been stable since the last time you saw her, but her respiration and heart struggled in the last hour or so. We tried everything we could. I’m truly sorry.”

  “Just..bad luck.” Allison and I hadn’t been very close, but I had spent enough time with her since the destruction of the virtual world to consider her a friend. The loss hurt. “How’s…”

  “Frank?” Phoebe leaned against the door and folded her arms. “He’s pretty rough. I left him with Shannon. We’ll give him some time to say goodbye and then wrap her body for cremation. I understand that you and George have a vote planned for the morning?”

  “Yes.” The election was the furthest thing from my mind now, but she had a point.

  “I need you to confine everyone to their quarters.”

  “I was already planning on it. Myself and a few volunteers will gather what protective gear we have. I still have to hold the election, but we can do this in a way that minimizes panic, and exposure.”

  “Good. I’m going to be straight with you, Jacob. We’re going to see more people sick with this. Many more. I think the only reason we haven’t gotten more reported cases is because anyone with symptoms is brushing it off as stress, or their imagination. By the morning, I wouldn’t be shocked if I have half a dozen more people confined to the infirmary. Once word about Allison gets out, there’s going to be fear. I’m looking to you to keep the peace.”