A voice called out from Quartzig’s arm, where a speaker appeared.
“Xander? You there?”
“Yeah, I’m here Salem, got Mollie and Quartzig here too,” he replied.
“Great. Listen, me and Bella are going to start trying to gather as many people as we can. We figure the best place for them is the Underpass, some guy called Razz offered to help coordinate with the people down there.”
“Razz?” Mollie shouted out.
“Yeah, you know him?”
“I do!” she said, smiling. “I’ll be heading back to the Underpass with the Krovoz anyway. I’ll catch up with him and help get things organised.”
“Great, sounds good. Xander, Dramarti said you guys spoke?”
“Silverstone? Yeah, we did. He gave me full control of the MPD and some other services in the city. If you’re moving people around, you’ll need escorts, and we need to start rounding up these inmates.”
“Do you think that’s even feasible? There’s thousands of them!” Salem replied.
“I...I don’t know, but we need to try. I figure with the access I’ve got, it’s on me to do something about it,” Xander answered.
“If you don’t mind, I’d happily have a look at the systems,” Quartzig said, “I can scan through quickly, see if there’s anything we can use?”
“Go for it,” Xander passed Quartzig the tablet.
Pulling a cable from his arm, Quartzig connected to the tablet and began processing the data.
“Where are the others? Prime, Ally and Ava? Any news?”
A moment of silence followed.
“Prime’s gone, something happened, and I think he’s turned. Peter and Prime merged or something,” Bella tried to explain.
“Damnit,” Xander cursed.
“And Yuri threw Ally off the top of the Nucleus with Jacob; we’ve searched down here but haven’t seen a body or signs of one. I think they might have survived, somehow,” Bella continued.
“No news of Ava?” Xander asked.
“I think she’s alive,” Mollie said, filling them in on what happened with Yuri. “But I don’t know where she is.”
“We’ll start a search for them all once we’ve regrouped and worked out what we’re doing,” Xander sighed.
“I believe there are some options available to use,” Quartzig said, unhooking the tablet and passing it to Xander.
On the screen, the words ‘prototype’ and ‘classified’ flashed red. Underneath were the details of a project.
“Jesus, are we sure?” Xander said, taking a long draw on his cigarette.
“What is it?” Bella asked.
“It looks like the AI Judges had some kind of army in the works. Something controlled solely by them. A potential robotic replacement for the MPD.”
“You’re fucking kidding me!” Salem shouted. “That does not sound wise!”
“It doesn’t, but have we got any alternative right now? According to this, there’s around a hundred prototype units already manufactured.”
“They are locked with some type of encryption. If I can bypass it, I may be able to take control of them,” Quartzig suggested.
“I’d trust you in charge of them more than the damn AI Judges, that’s for sure,” Salem shouted again.
“Agreed,” Xander nodded. “Get to work on it. If you can get them up and running, they might be what we need to help take back the city. Until then, we’ll start gathering what’s left of the MPD.”
Mollie looked at the Krovoz who were starting to gather around them, most were slowly healing, though not at the speeds they were used to, and their faces betrayed their desire to be leaving.
“I think it’s time I took these guys to the Underpass,” she said. “I’ll get in touch once I’ve caught up with Razz.”
Xander nodded, then put his hand out to shake. Mollie pushed it away and leaned forwards to give him a hug.
“I’ll be okay,” she whispered into his ear.
“I know, just be damn careful,” he replied.
Holding on for a moment longer, she released him and turned to the crowd.
“Okay, you guys, follow me. We need to get back to the Underpass!” she shouted.
A few nodded and sighed before unenthusiastically picking their weapons.
“Brothers! You will obey our new Queen as you would have obeyed Vladamir! Today’s battle may have been lost, but she will deliver us to victory in the coming war!” Gregor’s voice boomed out.
The Krovoz let out a loud cheer and stood a little taller.
“I guess I need to work on my speeches,” Mollie smiled sheepishly.
After hugging Quartzig, she led the Krovoz away.
“Alright then, let’s get to work,” Xander said to Quartzig before turning to the remains of the Metropolitan Police Force.
Chapter Eighty-Two
Ally
“Is there any communication access on this thing?” Ally asked, looking at Jacob.
“Of course,” he replied.
“I need to know if my friends are okay, they were at the bridge!” she demanded, looking at the smoking ruins of the Blackwater Bridge through a window on the Ark.
“I’m afraid that won’t be an option,” Yuri answered. “We can’t risk any communication being intercepted by Persephone or whoever is up there now. The risk is too high.”
Ally stood, facing off the hard-light hologram of Yuri, her eyes fixed on his.
“This isn’t a negotiation, Yuri. You want my help. I want to know if my friends are still alive, dammit! You let me find that out, and make sure they’re safe, and I’ll help you, otherwise-”
“There’s no need for idle threats,” Jacob said softly, reaching over to the console on the craft. Several displays lit up, showing cameras from across the city. “We can locate your friends using the city’s network. We just can’t send a signal to allow you to speak with them.”
Ally glanced away from Yuri to look at the screens.
“Can you see them?” she asked.
“I’m searching. It might take a while. Perhaps you’d be more comfortable taking a seat,” Jacob replied as he sat down in a chair at the console.
“I’m okay standing,” Ally replied, still half-watching Yuri.
“It’s a waste of time, regardless of if they are alive or dead. We need to work fast to develop countermeasures, or the city will be lost anyway,” Yuri said.
“You are right,” Jacob said, “but I understand Ally’s need for answers. Ah, look!” he pointed at a monitor.
Ally moved closer, looking at the image, which displayed what appeared to be a crowd of people at the end of what had once been the entrance to the bridge. A sharp feeling stung her neck.
“What the-” she moved backwards as her hand felt for the source of the pain.
“Apologies, but as Yuri explained, time is of the essence,” Jacob said, holding a palm-sized needle as his voice growing distant as her vision began to swim.
A second later, she lost control, her body falling limp as Jacob caught her. The last thing she saw was the screen, she could just make out Xander and Mollie as she blacked out.
*
As she woke, Ally could feel the bindings on her hands and feet. The smells and sounds were familiar, the musky scent of incense and echoing sounds of a large building. The church of St Damascus, Jacob’s church in the slums.
“Welcome back,” a voice called out as she tried to move her head. A restraint stopped any motion, pinning her head to the cold metal table below her.
“You may remember this room,” Jacob laughed to himself. “Do forgive the restraints; we weren’t sure how amicable you would be once you came to.”
“Get these off me!” Ally growled, pulling against the bindings. She could see a little to either side of her. It was the same room that Julian had been experimented on, something that seemed a lifetime ago.
“That isn’t going to happen,” Yuri’s face came into view above her as he leaned over. He was no longer a hol
ogram; he appeared more solid, more real. “Just remember, we’re trying to save the city, and you are a key component of that,” he said, his face stretching in what approximated as a smile, a synthetic body, Ally realised.
She concentrated, trying to use her powers to access any tech within the room, though without direct contact, she wasn’t sure it was possible. She could only sense a distant feeling, something just out of reach.
“You may recall, that the church was built to block all technology and signals from passing through,” Jacob said, almost as though he knew what she was doing. “It will protect us from any outside interference while we work.”
“Enough talking, let us continue,” Yuri said, revealing a blade above Ally’s face, “With no technology in here, we also have to resort to more physical means of experimentation.”
Ally closed her eyes, trying to will her power to access something, someone, anything, as she felt the cold blade contact her skin.
Chapter Eighty-Three
Epilogue One
Ava’s systems had been deactivated for several hours.
She recalled being carried through the streets of the city by the man who called himself Manifold. They’d arrived in an area she didn’t recognise but looked like a scrapyard somewhere on the outskirts of the Boulevard. Once there, the man had said he needed to put her into stand-by to protect her central units while he worked. Ava hadn’t had a choice as her vision faded, and her senses shut down.
Now, as she powered up, she could see that her body was stood upright. Information started to pour into her sensors, a diagnosis telling her that she was fully limbed again, the damaged arms and legs of her body had been restored. Something was different, though; they were not as they had been.
“You’re back online, good,” the slightly whispered voice of Manifold came from Ava’s left. Turning her head, she saw him stood inside what appeared to be some sort of terminal, several wires hung from the ceiling and attached to his skull. Seeing him properly for the first time, she saw that only the left side of his face from his chin up to his eye was still human; the rest was metallic. He was a cyborg, she realised, created from several parts that had been welded together using a mismatch of metals and technology.
“Where am I?” Ava asked.
“Home. My home,” Manifold replied. A clunking hissing sound echoed as the wires detached from his skull, withdrawing into the top of the terminal. Charging cables, Ava assumed. “The scrap yards on the edge of the Bitslums to be more accurate,” Manifold continued.
“Why, why bring me here?”
“You were damaged. If I had left you, your systems would have become corrupt and lost. I wanted to save you.”
Ava turned her head to follow the man as he walked in front of her. She felt something above her head. Looking up, a feeling of confusion crossed through her mind. Wires hung like snakes above her, attached to her head.
“What…What have you done to me?”
“There were a lot of damaged parts. I do not have synthetic materials, however, I had to use what I have here, what I use for myself.”
Ava’s system anomalies finally made sense. Lifting her right hand to her field of vision, she saw, instead of her human-like synthetic-skin hand, there was a dull grey and segmented metal representation of a skeletal hand. Despite being a computer, in essence, her mind had several emotional triggers that kicked in. Panic, shock, and horror filled her senses.
“It’s not perfect, I am sorry,” Manifold whispered, turning away from Ava as he saw the look on her face.
Ava took a breath, deactivating the emotional triggers in her mind and letting the human feelings slip away from her like erasing a file.
“It’s okay. Logically you did what was right in order to save me. For that, I thank you, Manifold was it?”
Manifold turned back, and a smile dared to curve the human side of his lips. “You’re welcome,” he whispered.
“May I see my complete body?” Ava asked, wondering how to disconnect from the cables above her.
“Of course, simply think of leaving the terminal, and the connections will retract. A mirror is behind it.”
Ava nodded as instantly the cables clicked away from her skull with the feeling akin to her hair being gently pulled. Rotating on the spot, she turned to see a full-length mirror positioned on the reverse of the terminal. Her torso was almost no different from what it had been before, but each of her four limbs had been replaced by an assortment of items. Her shoulders and upper arms consisted of a red-tinted metal that Ava believed to be from a factory drone. Her right hand was the dull metal she saw already, while her left was the blue and white of a medical surgeon’s augmented hand. Her legs were both sheer black and modular, made up of multiple discs that spanned her thighs to her feet which were both a similar grey metal as her right hand. Finally, her head, though shaved, was still primarily synthetic skin. Only her left eye that had been destroyed in her fall had been replaced. A glowing red orb glared back at her, the light reflecting off the mirror.
A sound crashed from further ahead as a man rushed into the room.
“Hey, Manifold. Woah, I didn’t know you had company. Is that…”
Turning, Ava, a man she vaguely recalled but didn’t know from where.”
“Yes, it’s Ava,” Manifold told him. “She was critically damaged by Yuri. I fixed her, though I have removed your alterations, however.”
“Alterations?” Ava asked, puzzled.
“Ah, yeah, sorry about that,” the man replied, shaking off the black cloak on his back. “I hate that cloak,” he cursed, throwing it onto a ripped and ancient-looking couch.
“Ava, this is Faust; he was the one that reprogrammed you to be an unknowing spy for Persephone.”
“Yeah, about that. Persephone isn’t…well, she’s still alive, I think, but she isn’t herself anymore. Peter, or Prime, or whoever the hell he is, has taken her over. We need to stay low, out of sight for a while,” Faust explained as he removed the rest of the suit he wore. Under his elaborate suit he was dressed in a basic jumpsuit that was lined with wires and components that controlled his holograms.
“Very well. You are both welcome to stay here. Ava, I recommend you take some time to adjust to your replacement limbs.”
Ava looked back at the mirror, at her mismatched body. If her emotional controls were still active, she might have felt something akin to sadness at the loss of her body, the one created by her husband, Maxwell Owens in the likeness of the real Ava. But with her emotions off, she simply turned back to the others and nodded in agreement. She would remain with them for now, but she knew that Persephone had been the one who had killed Owen’s and used her as a spy against her friends. She would get her revenge on her somehow.
Ava considered the fact that she felt anger and a desire for revenge despite her emotions being disengaged. That would be something she would need to investigate further.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Epilogue Two
Issak stood looking back at the city, the fog had faded now, and he could see the dark void where Blackwater Bridge had once stood.
He had heard the announcement warning of the bridge’s destruction when he and his group had been working their way through the prisoners. Having been too far from the city-side, they had ran across and ended up on the island. The explosion now leaving them cut off from the city. After the detonation, the fighting had stopped, neither the prisoners nor the Krovoz seeing any need for it as they were now all stranded. From what he could tell, the civilians had barricaded themselves in the prison, while the prisoners and Krovoz had begun building camps.
“Issak!” a voice called out from below. Looking down at the rocks that lead to the water’s edge, he saw Kiero, one of his Krovoz brothers, waving a hand at him, literally. The dismembered appendage hung limply as the vampire jerked it back and forth while climbing up towards him.
“What is that?” Issak hissed as Kiero arrived.
“Look,�
� the man opened the hand’s swollen palm, revealing a spiral tattoo, one that Issak instantly recognised.
“Vladamir…” Issak’s eyes widened.
“His body has washed up on the shore; it’s not in a pretty state, must have beem on the bridge when it blew.”
Issak took the hand, turning it around. Traces of blood still wept from the open wound where it had once joined a wrist. A smile crossed his face as he squeezed the damp and dead flesh to release more blood.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? That’s been in the water; you know it’s toxic, right?” Kiero said, stepping back.
“Oh, I think it should be safe enough. Regardless, someone needs to take control of the Krovoz.”
“But, Mollie has already done that?”
“Can you feel the signal from her? No?” Issak laughed. “It doesn’t reach this far, and she may even have died in the explosion anyway. I need to take control here. Blackwater Island will be mine, the prisoners and the civilians can be turned, and we’ll have our own army,” Issak smiled as he lifted Vladamir’s hand above his head and let the chemically-infused blood drip down his throat.
“All hail the new Sire,” he rasped as the burning sensation of the synthetic blood rewrote with his own.
Chapter Eighty-Five
Epilogue Three
The process hadn’t taken long.
Koenig had managed to connect Persephone’s neural pathways into the computer terminals, accessing the work he had done on her brain previously. Once set-up, it was a simple task to allow Alpha to access and assimilate her mind, combining her knowledge with his.
“So much anger,” Alpha said, as her thoughts became one with his own, adding her memories to the others. He looked at the comatose body of Persephone that sat in a chair beside them, wires erupting from her scalp where Koenig had installed the connections.
“She had much to be angry about, yes,” Koenig nodded, starting to wind down the system.
“It’s a shame, she managed to gather so much knowledge and information, but we would never have been able to work together,” Alpha walked to her body.
Neon Blood (Neon Helix Universe Book 3) Page 33