Into the Violet Gardens

by Isaac Nasri

  Finally, the opportunity’s here.

  “How you’re feeling right now?” Ottoman asks her curtly. His glance reflects on one of the computer screens, and the cyborg can feel his hawkish gaze scan her like a ravenous vulture. Smoke snakes above the ceiling but gets dispelled by the lighting’s ray.

  Eva draws out her handle, unleashing the long blade, and she brushes the surface neatly against her bionic hand’s wrist. She thrums.

  “So it begins,” she says pensively. Eva wields her sword, glance blinking almost salaciously at the crimson waves blossoming on the edges before inserting the Neo-Oni away. “Are the PMCs on notice?”

  Chuckling half-heartedly, Ottoman replies. “Oh, they are, Moreci. And funny is that we had an unidentified virus come in on our servers yesterday.”

  She rubs the diamond on her temple, confused. So much unknown intrusion she’s heard of today. Eva has definitely missed much.

  “Technicians took care of the barren material.” Ottoman curls his lips, blowing away steam. “Whatever it was finding, no harm was done.”

  Eva’s attention locks on the SMART icons disseminated worldwide on the screen, but they fail to divert her bitter focus from what stood in the east of the United States map. Her hands press against her hips.

  “How long it will take you to activate the malware—”

  “Who said you need to wait?” Ottoman puts down the cigarette, and smoke slithers from his nose, obscuring his mouth. “Hm. You’re exactly where I want you, sweetheart.”

  Eva flinches to locks hooking within the door. The cyborg fails to process once she tumbles, grunting to an instant snag bending in her neural interface. Her nerves pound to raucous waves surfing in her brain. Aching, she glowers at Ottoman slipping his fingers from the intact remote and the viral signals alarm on the computer. He stares down at her with a cool superciliousness, as if laying eyes on a callow lizard wriggling on the ground, and his hunter counts until the animal draws its last breath.

  No! This can’t be!

  “Ah the wonders technology can do,” he muses.

  She bares her teeth as she jitters. “What…is—” Eva gasps to a convulsion. Blurry scars overwhelm her sight.

  “You and I are very far in value,” Ottoman says slyly. “But to come to think of it, I’m actually quite thankful. You’re a sharp tool, but my hands are too full to respect accommodations.”

  “How will they respect us? Then Ottoman…”

  Pain pierces into the flesh of Eva’s cerebral matter, and her fogged vision fluctuates. Hai’s words from two days ago boom like a storm roaring in the sky. That’s what he meant all along, and she missed every cue to it until now. Eva’s made a deal with an enemy far greater than whom she’s at war with, and she walked right into his den. She’s gone through too much sorrow and perfidy for everything she vowed to end like this.

  Ottoman lets go of the cigarettes, shaking off the scorching scrap at her before tossing it like bubble gum into the garbage bin.

  “Now, remember then?” he continues. He chuckles deviously as he straightens the knot on his gray necktie. “It’s my mission to terminate our American government and its puppets. Soon I succeed…time we open the doors to corps no longer being bound by empty mandates. I’m the TRUE boss now. Thanks to you and your expertise, I’ve made it possible.”

  Eva’s muscles constrict, rendering her stiff. She spots her sword’s handle underneath one of the tables and draws a hand. She bites her lip until the Virtual bolts to a voltaic fork hissing and its claws tear a hole on the floor. Her hand trembles. Eva looks up fearfully, witnessing the tube tucked in Ottoman’s hand and dark streaks envelope in her eyes. Sweat builds on her temple, and she flashes to the power pole descending over her. The wires lashed like octopus tentacles careening on their prey, shriveling her body in a ring of lightning and her skin scorching to the current. Her nightmare rears its grin. The panic in her melts, gradually forming into a vicious snare that leaves the fibers in her bionic arm to ignite.

  Damn you for this!!

  “I’d watch, Moreci,” Ottoman taunts.

  “You tried to…KILL me?!” she hisses. The cyborg’s voice breaks as if on the edge of slipping. Her veins protrude like tears around her eyes. A muffled voice calls out to her, but it’s suppressed by the agitation howling in her neural mind.

  He blows at the tip of his stun tube. “Oh, please. I’d be a fool to do so.” Ottoman returns his eyes on the computer, typing on the keyboards and the icons on the US map beam. “With you being the viral source, I’ve got your neural interface fused indirectly into this computer, and I’ll command the Infernal Python any minute from now. No limitations.”

  Eva’s mouth drops. She became Ottoman’s ultimate device now. The moment she came to this country, and she was blind to this? Meanwhile, she remains stunned in this room, enervated from the virtual linking while Ottoman unleashes her own craft at the Western regulators.

  You’re already a shell of scrap at this point,” he continues. Ottoman shakes his head. “Will be…I mean. You cyborgs can last but are disposable with a swift decision.”

  The face of Ottoman merges like synchrony with Soriana, Wayne, and the plethora of disingenuous faces and rioters she encountered. Her hometown, if it was home, was nothing more but an asylum that raised her until it found the chance to strike at her vulnerability. Clarity splashes at her like a clean breath of cold ice, waking her into the climate she walked on since her initiation a long time ago. The world loses its color, and red blankets her view, making her discover that she was surrounded by enemies disseminating further than a single degenerate unit at an exclusive and perverted hemisphere. Since she was a child, she always seemed somewhat peculiar from the rest, and Eva never knew why until then. What difference has she seen in her entire life? She had always been lectured to trust them, learn from these humans. But where did it lead her, and so many cyborgs? She couldn’t share the world with them. Ottoman was another regulator, and she would be damned to see him prevail.

  You’re no better than the rest. None of you in this place!

  Eva heaves, holding onto her head as the numbers and pixelated blocks rain continuously. A beat claps on the door, followed by a sudden break. She and Ottoman jerk to an intense screech, and Felix swoons. In a panic, Ottoman swings his tube, hissing a bolt of electric upward. The falcon evades the strikes and dives. Eva pants upon hearing Ottoman swear to talons gnashing at his face and the human staggers.

  While a furious Ottoman clutches to his right eye, Felix lands on the computer keys. The bird darts his beak at the remote’s central mark, and a small gush of euphoria swims inside Eva. Enraged, she slaps a hand to the ground and lunges. Claws spike at the tip of her knuckles as she glares at her enemy, but Ottoman bounces aside. Her body slumps against the wall, and she mounts a hand toward her sword. The Neo-Oni snaps in her possession, and she mauls the handle at the remote, shattering the piece. Stars twirl in her head, but obstinate she was as she summons the blade and swipes. Her efforts fail her once again, and her strike glides toward a chair.

  Felix flies over her, taking over and flapping his wings at Ottoman as he scurries his way out of the room. Sirens bark from outside, leaving Eva shivering in vexation. The haziness in her head obliterates once she raises her head upon her eyes temporarily glinting. A transparent cloud showers her, stabilizing her stance and bringing her glance at the vibration dancing in her fingers. The virus, now activated, has found its rightful owner, and a blaze seethes in her heart.

  Where are you?

  Eva’s eyes rise to a howl. Undoing the spikes and numbing her ears to the alarms, the cyborg staggers her way out and freezes to Hai sucking away the ninja stars out of the superior’s stomach. Ottoman’s back hits the ground, and he wheels. Bloodied scars dishevel his blue dressing shirt, and a vertical cut portrays over his right eye and cheek.

  Hai looms, visor lowered, and face moist. The two Virtuals maintain eye contact for two seconds until their gaze falls
on Ottoman. Eva gives Hai a nod, and he steps back once she stalks. The sword’s handle heats in her grip and a tear of sweat streams down the posterior of her ear. The blade rumbles. Her vision fluctuates into a crimson hue. Ottoman skids until his blood halts him, leaving him coughing to his wounds. Eva’s shadow looms over him, and she levels her to handle. Ottoman seals his lips, and the color surfs in his eyes upon trailing his focus to the crimson luminosity sliding all the way toward his tie like a snake.

  Eva halts her direction at the center of his chest and tilts her neck. Ottoman looks over the cyborg’s shoulder as if quietly seeking a plea until blood gurgles out his mouth. The Neo-Oni’s scorching blade drills into the fresh surface of his neck, and a small inferno slithers. Eva bends her knee halfway, pressing and twisting the katana further, seething and clenching her teeth at her newfound foe. Ottoman’s eyes bulge, and his mouth motions, causing him to utter silent gibberish. Eva ends his misery by thrusting the katana around his throat and draws it out angrily.

  The CEO’s head cocks sideways and gore squirts from the round gash in his throat. The red streaks disappear from his eyes and his right wounded eye seals halfway as the oxygen leaves his body.

  Eva utters a gasp, struggling to take her contemptuous glance off the corpse until she turns to a step behind her. Hai stands next to her, wiping his head and gaping toward what remained of Ottoman. The glow illuminates on his fingerprints. The alarm’s ringing inundates the space, and Eva closed her eyes, processing the vapor rushing in her nose. She couldn’t visualize her fate if Hai had not arrived unbeknownst to her.

  “Notified the network?” she asks.

  “They know.” Hai grimaces to the exact whitish twinkle ticking in his bionic fingers, and he twists his hand curiously.

  Eva falls quiet for a brief moment, letting her actions sink in, until she blurts, “Thank you.”

  She spots Felix gliding toward the two, followed by two UAE Virtuals and a Martial rushing from the bridge. Sunlight reflects from the windows, illuminating the android’s steely plates as they ran. The officers paused, laying eyes on the cadaver and trudging fastidiously. They advance forward like wanderers walking onto the frigid ice, tip toeing before the crack catches them. The Neo-Oni keeps intact in Eva’s grip, even as one of the foreign officers approaches the Virtual and her partner. The quaking in her hands continues.

  Ready when I signal.

  Okay.

  “What happened?” Martial questions urgently. He lowers his rifle, stepping foot back from the blood streaming toward him.

  Felix lands at the top of the bridge’s window, maintaining a sharp focus on the small gathering. Hai gazes at the two cyborgs without any word while his eyes flutter anxiously. A beat pumps in her chest, and the air loses temperature. The noise plummets, leaving her stone-deaf to whatever sound except the boom of her pumping heart. What doubts she had has incinerated like paper tumbling in the fire. Eva attracts Hai’s attention, and she nods.

  Eva nails the blade to the ground. The Martial has no chance to react as Eva walks and plants her hand upon the android’s lateral skull. Light slithers within her fingers as her grip deepens on the victim. The Martial staggers, wriggling to the scatter in its digital eyes. A shrieking Virtual attempts to aim, but Hai locks his hands around the cyborg’s neck in seconds. The foreign Virtual yowls to the blur raining in his eyes. Shooting a look at Eva, the last uninfected Virtual steps back and bites his teeth to what’s initiating. The officer bolts, but Felix swipes at him. Eva teleports her way behind him as he staggers and the Virtual gulps to the snap of her spikes.

  “I’m begging—”

  Eva closes a hand over his mouth, hushing him as she overrides the victim’s neural interface. The foreign officer convulses, patting a hand against her organic arm, and the strikes fall dead on her bones as she squeezes. She licks her lips to the final minutes of his agitation until the victim’s pupils fluctuate. Triple signals zap like blood flow into her brain, and Eva lets go. She witnesses the host raise his head gradually, and his expression congeals like a remolded Terminator at the hands of a brand engineer. The red washes away on his face as he turns toward his now infected allies.

  Eva’s nerves sharpen to the identities absorbing inside her brain. The three hosts stand sharply, fist clenched, and anticipating their next move. The Neo-Oni glides toward her possession once again, and she points toward the hall.

  “Follow.”

  The hosts do as told. Felix croaks. As Eva storms, she moves aside to her hosts, rushing toward one of their own Virtual officers. The uninfected cyborg pulls the trigger at the kneecap, and one of her victims staggers. His resistance fails to sustain him as two of the hosts tackle him viciously. The screams get muffled in five seconds as his body succumbs to the viral corruption, and they trudge alongside their newly possessed comrade. While Felix glides over the two like a phoenix, Hai returns, walking side by side with Eva. His azure eye gleams almost cruelly.

  The world’s finally going to feel our wrath.

  “Attention to the JOA Network!” she dictates. “This is from Eva Moreci, your new chief. CEO Aiden Ottoman has committed treason. Objective has been reverted and set for the Final Phase.”

  She gazes outside at the window to humans scramming from Gorillax pilots storming the bridge leading to the Al Noor Island feet below. Flares flash in the human’s direction, and visitors careen over the edge. An explosive shell rams and annihilates the Butterfly Pavilion’s infrastructure into a ball of scorch.

  Hearing the edifice and structure crumble, Eva continues, “The Infernal Python’s active in your hands. Now locate and compromise all Virtuals and Martials in the districts. I repeat…COMPROMISE!”

  The PMCs inundate the hall. Several of the marching JOA soldiers gloss over their shoulders toward her, nodding without question. A human visitor in a hijab drops her orange as she bolts down the corridors. The contractors catch up to her, neutralizing and riddling her body with plasma bolts. Blood flows down the staircase, and the fruit boils.

  Hai looks up at his pet, signaling a finger. “Try finding targets, Felix.”

  The falcon glides away, nonchalant to the shrill, and Eva draws a finger delicately to the blood in her blade. The two Virtuals approach an open elevator. The door closes, and the commotion amplifies as she descends.

  “Know who your enemies are,” her voice booms. “Know who’s left you for dead! Every human on sight is a regulator.”

  Gunshots and cries dance like lullabies in her ears as she snakes her soaked fingerprint onto the wall, portraying a kanji that stains saucily on the car’s glass. Felix dives in a circular motion, showering the place with his screeches. Prowlers lunge at several bearded visitors a floor below, and their fangs tear at the fabric of their gowns. An infected Martial descends five feet below, landing on top of a young man and thrashing its fists onto the human’s chest bone like an enraged primate. With each croak Felix elicits, another human descends many stories below.

  “The world is NOT your ally. Leave nothing standing in the regions!”

  Hai scans the chaos, squeezing his wrist and sighing underneath the visor’s glass as if somewhat unsettled. The elevator makes its halt, opening the door to a human supplicating randomly in his jargon. Eva scowls and plunges the Neo-Oni into the man’s mouth. Her victim repeatedly gurgles even as the blade sinks downward and the cyborg kicks aside the body.

  Choppers glide over the dome’s glass, and their shadow looms over the tension. Agents advance, rifles at hand as they rush behind her. A lean man struggles to carry an older woman, most likely his mother, toward the door until two gunshots plow behind him. The dead son careens in his mother’s arms, and she raises her hands. Eva storms quick enough to slash the horrified woman’s lower limbs before nailing the katana at the core of her temple. Blood squirts against her face, and Eva licks a piece of the clot on her lip as she moves on. Felix returns, falling into his owner’s shoulders again.

  The entrance shatters. What beca
me a band of her operatives storming transforms into a full-fledged stampede of not only the JOA, but her infected hosts storming the sunny platform of Sharjah. Eva’s shoulder jerks to the number of her allies bustling frantically. Missiles rain down at the edifices, and boats implode in the bay. Uninfected cyborgs in the grassy park field attempt to scurry, but hosts overpower and pounce at them with ease. Pedestrians rush to the streets, where callow drivers open their vehicle doors to fleeing. Gorillax mech pilots storm the streets, trampling them. No amount of police trucks coming forth held the goliaths back.

  “Moreci! Your gear set!” a PMC alerts her. An armored box swings in her clutch.

  Eva seizes the box from her, nodding. The sun’s heat flows like juice within her veins, and she espouses the rising temperature.

  “Let’s go,” Eva says to Hai. “Call forth the strike. Aircrafts and infantry ready for DC and the states!”

  “All set and clear,” he declares. “Our ship’s getting set!”

  Eva directs her katana at a mosque not far off. Cyborgs breach their way into the mosque, signaling in the wave of quad drones that flash fire at the plethora of humans rushing from inside. Whooshing echoes in the clouds, and Eva’s eyes trail to the jets bolting like hawks locating their prey. The turmoil surrounding her was tantamount to the scenery at view, almost like a façade tumbling like a melting glacier in the Arctic Circle.

  How tides turned so easily? How pathetic.

  Humanity has failed her in many ways, Eva couldn’t count, and she could no longer stand for their mendacity to continue while Virtuals and Martials yield to their partial policies. They will rise above this, regardless of their fears. History and the institutions were nothing but trivial in her eyes. What morality in them existed in the first place? They needed to be obliterated, buried for good alongside the pathetic politicians and the purported philosophers. Eva wanted no part of it, much less carried forth in the future. Her past was dead. The power of the Infernal Python was in her hand, opening her to the myriad of possibilities at store. She couldn’t cogitate of tranquility in the Violet Gardens coming close to existence if humans continue to walk on this earth. As long as she was alive, her enemies wouldn't see the light.