by Pond, Simone
“Mom, you should know that things are different back home.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot to catch up on,” Ava said.
“There is, but we need to get back before Dickson tracks us and Faraday terminates me.”
“Do you know what to do?” Ava asked.
“We need Christian to open up a portal––just like the one that brought me to you. He can take you back.”
“You mean us, he can take us back.”
“He’ll need to deliver one file at a time to make sure the “data” goes to the right location. And you’re going first.”
“I can’t go first, Grace. I can’t leave you in here alone. Not even for a second.”
“You don’t have a choice. Right now, you getting out is more important than me getting out. I can’t do anything from the containment cell. I don’t have access to anyone. But if you go first, you can talk to the council and get more time for me. Then we can prove Faraday is guilty.”
Ava held Grace’s hands. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“I know. It’s risky, but this is the right thing to do. There’s a better chance we’ll both live if you go first.” Grace paused, knowing the next words would be tough to digest for both of them. “And even if you can’t convince the council to let me live, we still need someone to fight against Faraday and Sullivan. You need to prove they’re behind the attack and get them locked up before they do any more damage to Seattle. You have to think beyond us, Mom. This is for our people. For the natives.”
“I’m tired of sacrificing myself for others. I want my life back—to spend time with my daughter and husband without constantly worrying if the world is coming to an end. I don’t want to do this anymore. Screw Morray. Screw the whole damn thing.”
Grace pried herself away and stepped back, staring at her mother. “That’s not true. You don’t mean that. I know you, Mom. You’ve spent the last eighteen years protecting freedom. It’s in your blood to fight for justice. I know that because it’s in mine too.”
“I’m just a product of Dickson and Morray. I’m not even a real human.”
“Wow. Your brain got fragged in this place. It doesn’t matter that you were “created” by other humans. Something much larger created them. Have you ever considered that your existence is for a reason? Look at your track record––you can’t help but save the world.” Grace kissed her mother’s cheek.
Ava wiped away a tear and straightened up. “My smart daughter. I raised you well.”
“I need to concentrate on connecting with Christian.” Grace closed her eyes, focusing on images of the boy. She pictured his bright twinkling eyes and how he gazed back at her with so much love. “Christian. We need your help. I’m overriding the current programming code. This is a command. You must retrieve Ava Rhodes Strader, 06-14-2310, and return her to her physical location inside the Seattle City Center.”
Grace and Ava held hands and waited in the stillness. After a few moments, the edges of a door began to formulate. A green door. Grace had never seen one like it. She hoped it would be a portal out of the mainframe and not a ploy to take them to another location.
Ava reached for her daughter’s face. “If anything happens and we separate again, I want you to know how much I love you and admire your courage.”
Grace bit her lip to keep it from trembling. This was no time to get weepy. “I love you too, Mom.”
They hugged one last time.
“Well, isn’t this a tender moment?” A voice came from behind, abruptly interrupting their goodbye. A voice Grace remembered well. She turned around to see Morray, his powerful presence beaming. Trepidation spread across Ava’s face and Grace needed to extinguish it immediately. She stepped in front of her mother, blocking Morray from her line of vision.
“Go, Mom. Go now!”
“I can’t …”
“That’s what I was counting on.” Morray smirked and walked over. He grabbed Grace by the neck, threatening to snap it. Ava lunged forward, but Grace lifted her foot, warding her off.
“Don’t come closer, Mom. Think beyond me. It’s for our people. It’s for the innocent natives in Seattle. You have to go. Go now! Before it’s too late.” Grace wriggled around, but Morray’s grip grew tighter.
“I won’t leave you alone with him.”
“I don’t plan on staying in here,” Morray scoffed.
“You don’t have a body to go to!” Ava yelled.
“Not entirely true,” he said.
Grace quickly glanced at Ava, then Morray. Was he planning on taking the portal back to her mother’s body, leaving them trapped inside the mainframe forever? She couldn’t let that happen. Nothing, not even Morray, would get in the way.
Grace pleaded with her mother. “If you don’t return, I’ll die out there and so will thousands of others. Don’t let Morray manipulate you, Mom. If you don’t leave now, he’ll go and upload into your body. Then we’ll both be stuck inside the mainframe, unable to do anything, while he destroys everything you’ve fought so hard for!”
Morray yanked Grace around and leered into her eyes. “Please stop talking, child. It’s a lost cause.”
She spat at Morray. “I’m not a child, asshole.” Glancing over her shoulder, she saw her mother coming to her rescue. “Stop, Mom. I’ve got this. Just trust me for once in your stubborn life!” Her warrior instincts took over. Grace slammed her foot down on Morray’s shiny black shoe, causing him to lose his balance. She elbowed him in the gut, then flipped around and kicked him in the chin. As he fell, he grabbed her ankle and pulled her down with him. Grace’s head slammed on the floor, causing her vision to blur and flicker. Morray punched her in the face and she dropped back, losing her sight completely. A cacophony of sounds filled the space: pattering of feet, Morray’s grunt as he hit the ground, knuckles against skin, boots scuffling, and heavy breathing. She blinked her eyes repeatedly, trying to get her sight back so she could help her mother.
“Help me, Christian. I need you!” she yelled.
Heat radiated from Grace’s stomach. A bright beam of light shot up from her insides and lifted her to her feet. She could now see Morray and her mother. Ava was underneath Morray, struggling as he choked the air out of her. Running forward, Grace dove and pummeled into Morray. Ava moved away, coughing. Grace slammed her elbow into Morray’s eye socket and he dropped back, screaming in pain. In the distance, the green door started to fade. Her mother needed to go immediately. Grace jumped up and ran over to Ava, pulling her from the ground and dragging her over to the door. Morray came from behind and yanked Grace’s hair, then grabbed her neck. He had her in a choke hold and she couldn’t move. Ava crawled toward Grace. The portal continued shrinking out of existence. Grace stared at her mother, memorizing the way she looked at her. It was the same way she looked at Christian––with a mother’s eternal and protective love.
She centered herself and took in a deep breath. In one continuous motion, Grace flipped Morray over, rushed to her mother and thrust her foot into Ava’s stomach, knocking her backward into the green door. Her body morphed into shimmering waves of light as she disappeared.
“I’m always with you!” Ava called out.
“No!” Morray crawled after Ava, but he was too late. Her entire essence meshed into the streaming illumination of code. Grace smiled as her mother ascended to her long-awaited freedom. The green door rippled shut, then blipped out of existence.
“You little brat.” Morray jumped up and dug his fingers into Grace’s arms, shaking her.
She laughed. “Sucks, huh?”
He let go and pushed her away. “You have no idea how badly this will suck if you don’t help me get out.”
“Hmm, let’s see … Do I choose between saving my life, or saving the world? Pretty easy answer. You’re not going anywhere. You can remain the all-powerful leader of the white space, Chief Morray.”
He grabbed her neck, his eyes bulging and his face turning red. “I’ll kill you.”
“Do it,” she grunted.
He wouldn’t go through with it. Grace was his only hope of getting out of the mainframe. He didn’t have the capability of controlling the coding. She had a gift and Morray would cling to the possibility of her sharing it with him. He released his hands and stepped away, smoothing back his hair. “We can work together. You help me, I’ll help you.”
Grace laughed again. “Help me how?”
“From what I heard, you’re having trouble with Faraday. I’ll take care of him. His sole purpose is to serve me.”
“You really think that’s gonna work on me? I might be young, but I’m not a fool. Besides, you don’t have a body to go back to.”
“Not entirely true,” he mumbled to himself.
“Look, dude. I know you’re used to getting your way, but it’s not gonna happen with me. If you think my mom is stubborn, I’m way worse.”
“Your mother isn’t as stubborn as she seems. Months upon months of being in here with me does whittle a woman down …” His eyes glinted.
“You’ll never break me down, Morray. Not in a million years of infinite nothingness. You will never break me down.”
He walked over to Grace and gently stroked her cheek. She clasped his wrist and tried to pull it away, but he grabbed a handful of her hair, bringing her face close to his. “Never say never.”
Grace kicked Morray in the groin and he doubled over.
“Your shit games don’t work with me, Morray. I’ve got the torrent on my side. Christian––a little help over here!”
A few feet away another portal opened up. Instead of a door, it was a circle of shimmering blue that reminded Grace of the lake near her cottage. She didn’t waste another second on Morray and dove into the blue, not knowing where Christian was taking her, but trusting she’d be okay wherever she ended up.
33
A beam of light shot into Ava’s eyes and she tried to move, but something held her down.
“Easy, Mrs. Strader. Take a few breaths,” someone instructed.
“Where am I?” Her voice was dry and cracked.
“You’re in the medical lab inside the Seattle City Center. You’ve been unconscious for quite a while now, but you’re back home.”
“Home.” Ava released a sigh––Grace had done it! It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust and the room to come into focus. A woman wearing a light blue lab coat stood over her, smiling.
“It’s good to have you back, Mrs. Strader,” she said.
A few more medical examiners approached the lounger and stared down at Ava, clapping in celebration of her return. She tried moving her limbs, but they wouldn’t budge. Panic starting building. She needed to get to the council before Faraday went through with Grace’s termination.
“I can’t move my arms or legs,” she said.
“It will take a few hours before your muscles acclimate.”
“I don’t have a few hours. I need to get to my daughter immediately!” she yelled at the team of medics.
“You need to calm down, Mrs. Strader. You’ve been unconscious for over a year. You need to go slowly.” The woman in the lab coat took out her digi-pad and typed away.
A rush of warmth ran through her veins. “What was that?”
“It’s something to settle your nervous system. We don’t want you to go into overdrive.”
“I need to talk to someone from the council. Get President Jordan and bring him here immediately,” Ava ordered.
“Ma’am, President Jordan was killed during an attack upon the city center,” one of the assistants informed her.
The news shocked Ava. Grace hadn’t mentioned that bit of information. What other details had she left out? Ava was about to request another council member, when someone burst into the medical lab and rushed over to the lounger.
“Mrs. Strader! You’re alive. You made it out!”
The young female wore a dark blue uniform and had her black hair pulled into a bun at the nap of her neck. She stood tall and broad, peering down at Ava with her crystal blue eyes. It took Ava a few moments to recognize the Officer: the girl she had trained to do mainframe searches had grown into a fine young woman.
“Blythe,” she whispered.
“Good to have you back,” she said.
Ava tried to maneuver out of the lounger again, but an assistant held her down. “Grace is in trouble. We need to stop Faraday. Can you help me?”
Blythe looked around at the team of medical examiners. “All of you are dismissed,” she commanded.
“But, Officer, we can’t leave Mrs. Strader unattended. She’s going through a very intense transition.”
Blythe towered over the head examiner. “Mrs. Strader is fine. We need to have a few moments of privacy. Wait by the door. If anything goes wrong, I’ll call for you.”
“Will you be okay?” the head medic asked Ava.
“Absolutely. I’m in good hands.”
Once the team exited the room, Blythe pulled up a chair and sat next to Ava. “What do you mean Grace is in trouble? How’d you know that?”
“I saw her inside the mainframe. I had to leave her behind so I could get back here to stop Faraday from going through with her termination. He set her up. He was working with Sullivan, something about a false flag to initiate a war with the natives.”
Blythe’s face tightened and anger flickered in her icy eyes. “I knew that bastard was behind this bullshit. But how’d Grace get to you inside the mainframe? She’s been in lockdown all week.”
“Christian helped her. He was able to manipulate the cell walls and distribute her into the network. She found me and helped me out. She wanted me to get back here to convince the council to hold off on her termination, giving me time to gather evidence against Faraday and Sullivan. Grace thinks he used mercenaries, and if that’s the case, we just need to get access to their internal chips. We can search their recorded conversations.”
“Mrs. Strader …”
“What is it?”
Blythe lowered her head, staring at her boots. “Grace is dead.”
The words shot through Ava’s body like a bullet, ricocheting off every single organ until it exploded into a burst of flames in her heart. Grace is dead. How could her daughter be dead when they were just together? She was too late. Sobs raked through her body and poured out into the room. How could Grace be gone forever from this world? She would never hold her daughter again. Never see her smile. No more arguments at the dinner table. No more trips to the city to watch a movie together. No more anything. Grace was gone. Her existence wiped away.
Blythe reached out and held Ava’s limp hand. They both let their tears flow for a few minutes in the silence of the medical lab.
“When?” Ava choked out.
Blythe looked to the ground. “This morning.”
“You have to get me out of this lounger and take me to see her. Right now.”
“I’ll do my best, but Faraday put her in a quarantined containment area. Nobody gets in without his permission.”
“Then you tell that bastard that Grace’s mother is back and wants to see her dead daughter.”
Blythe jumped to attention and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m going to need your help, Blythe. Can I be sure you’re on my side?”
“Absolutely, Mrs. Strader. Only reason I’m here is because of you. You can trust me. I promise.”
Blythe left the room. The medics returned and began running tests on Ava to check her vitals. She stared into oblivion as they poked around and moved her limbs for reflex response.
Grace couldn’t be gone for good. She had just been with her inside the mainframe, which meant her consciousness was still alive. Ava knew Morray and Dickson had been able to exist inside the mainframe without physical bodies for several years. There was still hope. She could have someone create a new biometric body and upload Grace’s identity matrix into it. The same thing Morray had planned to do with his son, Phoenix. She couldn’t give up. No
t yet.
*
Blythe returned to the medical lab. That time she brought Lucas, who was still recovering from the attack. He glided over to Ava’s lounger.
“You don’t know me, Mrs. Strader, but I loved your daughter. She was a huge inspiration for me. Blythe told me you’re going to set the record straight and clear her name. Her innocence isn’t even a question. It’s just a matter of proving Faraday did it.” He started crying and covered his face.
“I can see how much you cared for her.” Ava rubbed his shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I just can’t believe she’s gone. She was such a strong force. Stubborn as all hell, but that’s what made her so special. Her conviction and commitment. You did a good job raising a strong woman, Mrs. Strader. I can’t imagine how difficult it is coming back to all of this. I’m sorry about …”
Blythe stepped in. “Okay, Officer West, we gotta take care of business now. I’m sure Mrs. Strader appreciates your sentiment.” She escorted Lucas to the door and whispered something that Ava didn’t catch.
Blythe returned. “Prick-ball Faraday agreed to let you see Grace, but we need to go now. Doctors, get a glider chair for Mrs. Strader.”
The head medic shook her head. “She’s not in any condition to go anywhere.”
Ava pushed herself up. “You’re going to get that glider and I’m going to go say goodbye to my daughter. Understand?”
The woman nodded and motioned for one of the assistants to bring over a glider. “Please be careful. Any strenuous exertion could strain your neurological system and cause permanent damage.”
“Least of my concerns,” Ava said.
The assistants set Ava into the glider and Blythe escorted her out of the room to the nearest transporter.
“I know this will be tough, but you need to stay calm. Don’t let Faraday know you’re onto him. No matter how emotional things get. I don’t know how much Grace told you, but he’s moved up the ranks. He’s a hair’s breadth away from becoming President of the Pacific Northwest.”