Override (Glitch)

by Heather Anastasiu

  “Juan’s cello music will help us all relax and connect to our emotions. Empty your mind and try to be at one with the present.”

  Doc positioned herself back on her own cushion and rang the bell. Almost simultaneously Juan put the ribboned stick to the strings, and the most aching sound moaned out.

  My eyes widened. Music. I’d heard of it but had never actually heard it. When I was still a drone in the Community, they used to play long tones over the Link during Scheduled Subject Downtime, but it was nothing like this. After a few moments of listening, entranced, the beauty of the sound made my chest expand outward.

  The buzzing in my mind seemed to vibrate in response to the rising notes of the instrument. It was both scary and exhilarating to feel the power build so quickly. I knew Juan could affect moods with his music—maybe this was finally the key to gaining control.

  My power responded. I felt the shape of the entire room and everyone in it inside my mind. Nine heartbeats, no, ten. A small fluttering one. The baby. I could feel Molla’s baby. My breath caught.

  Then instead of one long weeping note after another, Juan put the ribbon to two strings at once in harmony. The music swept me up beyond the room where we were all sitting. I was disoriented by how quickly it expanded.

  Suddenly I could feel everything, not just the shape of the room or the hallway outside. I zoomed outward like a lens readjusting. I could see the entire compound. The two main hallways of the Foundation ran like little tubes, with rooms between and branching out to the sides. I could feel the level below ours too, and the main elevator that led up to the air-transport deck. One second I could sense the complex components that made up the engine of the transport and smell the oiled metal, then the next moment I’d zoomed out again even farther this time.

  It was going too fast. I was starting to feel dizzy. Quick as the moment it took for another breath in, I could feel the shape of the whole mountain above us, the canyon stretching out beside it, and the mountain range beyond.

  And then I was hurtled into the sky.

  Panic spiked through me. I wasn’t in control. Not at all. I was being dragged outward helplessly into the endless sky. No shape, no contour. It just went on and on forever. The sky had always terrified me, and now I spun recklessly through it with no tether holding me to the earth. I couldn’t sense my own body anymore at all. I was going to get lost.

  It was exhilarating and terrifying.

  I had to pull it back, had to get control. The instrument hit a high, vibrating note that thrummed straight through me. I tried to hold on to the sound to pull myself back. I quivered with the note and tried to trace it back to the source, back to the center of the rippling vibration.

  Suddenly the quiet music was ruptured and I was drawn back into my body so quickly it felt like I’d been ripped in two—part of myself still floating somewhere above in the sky, the other half sitting in a room under the mountain. I blinked hard. I was back in the room, and it was all of me, my mind as well as my body. But the same moment, the cello vibrated and burst into pieces in Juan’s hands. Everybody screamed and tried to shield themselves.

  Juan’s beautiful instrument was gone, replaced by a cloud of dust that filled the air and filtered down like ash above our heads. Silently, all heads turned in my direction, their mouths forming the same perfect O.

  “I’m so sorry!” I said, stumbling to my feet, still disoriented by being back inside my body. It felt too small, like my skin was on too tight.

  Juan coughed a few times and wiped the dust out of his eyes. “I should have seen that coming,” he said. “I could feel the intensity coming off you in waves.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I babbled again, tripping over my own words. I hurried over to his side. “It was just that the music was so beautiful and I lost control of my telek, I didn’t know where I was—”

  “It’s okay, Zoe,” Juan said. He tried to smile, but I could see he was upset.

  “Everyone’s fine,” Jilia announced. “Lights up,” she said and the lights slowly brightened around us. The dust that had been Juan’s cello covered the floor. A couple of people coughed.

  “She ruined your cello!” Molla said, rising to her feet and speaking up for the first time since I’d come to the compound. “Just like she ruins everything else!” Her high-pitched voice echoed around the small space. “She’s dangerous. What if that—” she pointed at Juan’s ruined instrument, “had been one of us?” She put a hand on her stomach, took one more searing look at me, then stomped out of the room.

  Rand let out a low whistle after she left. Everyone else was staring at me. Once again I felt the weight of all their expectations and, even more crushing, their disappointment. Adrien steadied my arm as I stood there.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again, feeling that empty space at the bottom of my stomach widen. I’d thought today was a new start, that maybe I’d be able to finally get control. But Molla was right. Here I was again, ruining everything I touched.

  “Well,” Rand broke the stunned silence, dusting himself off and cracking a grin. “At least we know if the Chancellor tries to kill us with stringed instruments, Zoe’s got us covered.”

  Chapter 10

  I SCOOTED A LITTLE CLOSER to Adrien as we watched Tyryn and Rand demonstrating some attack moves. It was four days later and the air-filtration system had finally gotten finished this morning. I’d been able to get out of the suit and change into a normal tunic. I took Adrien’s hand, marveling at how amazing it was to be able to touch his skin again.

  Tyryn aimed a swift punch, but Rand’s forearm shot up and blocked it.

  “Good,” Tyryn murmured, then turned to the rest of us sitting in a circle in the training center. “It’s all about repetition and building muscle memory, so that in a fight it just comes naturally and your reflexes are lightning quick.”

  I was trying to pay attention to the lesson, but I kept wishing Adrien and I could have stolen away somewhere to kiss for hours. Adrien glanced over at me and shared a secret grin as if he knew exactly what I was thinking about. We’d only been able to share one quick kiss before class and I could still feel the heat of it on my lips.

  “This is ridiculous,” City said, standing up. “I can electrify anything in a fifty-foot radius. I’m never going to need to know this.”

  Rand, who hadn’t sat down yet, crept up behind City while she spoke. In a blink, he’d swept her legs out from under her and had her back against the padded floor. “Oh yeah?” he said with a sideways grin, one hand a little below her neck, holding her firmly down.

  She let out an infuriated sound and tried to get up, but Rand easily kept her trapped. Then her face turned to a sweet smile. She raised her hand and touched a pinky to Rand’s forehead. I didn’t see the spark, but he jumped off her, swearing loudly.

  “Crackin’ hell, Citz!”

  She smiled and stood up, smoothing down her hair in the same motion. “My point exactly.”

  “Enough,” Tyron barked. “Filicity, take your seat.”

  Rand grinned.

  “You too, Rand. That kind of cockiness can get you killed in a fight. You can’t always see the threat before it’s on you.” He walked back and forth, making eye contact with each of us. “The Chancellor is building her own army of glitchers, and you can bet they’ll fight dirty. You have to be smarter. You have to be stronger. And most of all, you have to work as a team.”

  “But it’s not just glitchers we’ll be up against,” Xona said. “We have to learn how to take down Regs.” She glanced over her shoulder at the four ex-Regs who stood silently along the wall.

  “That’s why we will also be spending an extensive amount of time with weapons training,” Tyryn said. “There are a few ways to disable a Reg.” He clicked on a 3-D projection cube at his feet. The illuminated projection of a Reg filled the space, taller and bulkier than Tyryn.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the ex-Regs shuffle uncomfortably. The sandy-haired boy, Cole.
/>   “But how do you kill it?” Xona’s voice cut across the space.

  “There are a few weak points in a Reg’s armor, but a kill shot is next to impossible.” Tyryn waved his hand and the illuminated Reg swiveled around. “Aim at the joints, especially the knee caps. If you’re lucky enough for a Reg to turn its back to you, aim at the small of its back, right here at the waist.” Tyryn shone a laser at a small area to indicate where he meant. “The armor here is thinner, to allow full dexterity of movement. This is the one place that, with repeated fire with the highest velocity laser weapon, a Reg can be killed.”

  “Stop it!”

  We all turned at the sound. Cole stepped forward. Usually the ex-Regs’ faces were completely placid, but Cole looked visibly angry. Heat flushed his cheeks.

  “We shouldn’t be training to kill Regs,” he said. “We should be trying to save them.”

  Xona let out a disgusted noise. “The only safe Reg is a dead one. Look at its arm—it was made for killing.”

  Cole dropped his arm, hiding the double-barreled weapons embedded in it behind his back as if he was self-conscious.

  “It’s not our fault,” he said, his face flushed. I was shocked to see an ex-Reg displaying so much emotion. “You have no idea what it was like when our V-chips were destroyed. We woke up to find that our lives had been stolen from us and that hardware invaded every inch of our bodies. But underneath all this,” he pointed to the metal plate on his chest, “is still something that deserves saving. We deserve as much of a chance at a normal life as you do.”

  “You could only be rescued because you were young enough to handle the destruction of your V-chip architecture.” Tyryn’s voice was calm, gentle even. “Unfortunately, that’s not possible for full-grown adult Regs. We can’t save them. In a fight, they’ll be coming at us to kill. Deactivating them is the only option, getting a kill shot if possible.” He continued his presentation with the laser on the 3-D model. “Now, like I was saying, if you hit here at just the right angle—”

  Heavy footsteps interrupted him. Cole strode from the room, slamming the door button with his heavy fist and stomping through it when it opened.

  “Good riddance,” Xona said under her breath.

  I looked back and forth between the door and Xona, then over my shoulder at the three other ex-Regs. They didn’t looked fazed by Cole’s anger. Their blank expressions gave me a chill.

  “Now line up,” Tyryn said, ignoring the interruption. “You’ll each take turns with the laser-round and continuous-fire-stream weapons.”

  * * *

  Adrien wasn’t at dinner that night, but as we were finishing, he sent me a message over the com in my arm panel.

  Ginni held her hands to her chest. “That’s so romantic. I wish I had a boy to send me messages to meet in the middle of the night.” She sighed dramatically.

  “It’s seven o’clock,” Xona said. “That’s hardly the middle of the night.”

  “Well that part doesn’t matter. All that’s important is that they can have some time alone.” She lifted her eyebrows significantly at Xona and leaned in. “They haven’t had a chance to be alone since she’s been out of the suit.”

  “I am sitting right here, you know.”

  “Oops, I’m getting carried away again.” She looked down and put her hands in her lap. “Professor Henry warned me not to do that.”

  I looked over at Xona, wondering if she had any idea what Ginni was talking about now, but she shrugged. I looked at the message again.

  “Do you guys know where the security hub is?”

  “Security hub?” Ginni asked. She looked at Xona with a frown. “I’ve never heard of it. How have I never heard of it?”

  “Oh never mind,” I said, looking at my arm panel. “He sent directions.”

  Ginni smiled again. “If he’s telling you to meet him in some part of the Foundation we’ve never heard of, it’s definitely because he wants to be alone with you!” She reached out and took my hand. “Promise you’ll tell me all about it? Best friends share all their secrets.”

  Considering how Ginni usually handled secrets, I wasn’t too excited about sharing mine, but I still returned her smile.

  As I walked down the hallway, I couldn’t help getting swept up in Ginni’s giddy enthusiasm. He wants to be alone with you. My face broke into a grin at the thought. I looked at the directions lighting up my forearm and hurried down the main hallway, then cut across to the east wing by the training center.

  Right before the boys’ dorm rooms was a door labeled TO SUBLEVEL. I pressed my thumb against the panel at the side and it slid open, revealing a stairwell leading down. Of course. If there was a room Ginni didn’t know about, it had to be in the military level of the Foundation.

  I went down the stairs and followed a short hallway until I came to the door Adrien had indicated. I stepped into a room with a wall covered in projected monitors, floor to ceiling. There was a bed in one corner, and Adrien sat in the middle of the room at a console desk that curved in a large C around several chairs. A boy I’d never seen before sat beside him.

  My heart sank. We weren’t going to be alone after all.

  Adrien jumped to his feet when he saw me. “Zoe, I’m so glad you’re here. This is Simin,” he gestured to the other boy. Simin was dark-haired, with big round cheeks. He didn’t look up when Adrien introduced him.

  “Simin.” Adrien nudged the boy in his shoulder.

  “No point,” Simin grumbled. “She’ll just forget.”

  “You know what the Professor says. Repeated exposure could help you stick longer in people’s memories.”

  Adrien turned back to me. “Simin’s the glitcher whose power keeps the Foundation invisible. I think maybe I told you about him before?”

  I frowned. It seemed like I had heard something like that, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the specifics.

  “Did I catch you in the middle of dinner?” Adrien asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I was just chatting with Xona and Ginni.”

  “Ginni?” Simin finally looked up at me. He seemed to be about our age. “Did she mention me?”

  “No, she’d never heard of this place. Which surprised me, since Ginni seems to know everything and everyone.”

  Simin looked down, and I could see the disappointment clearly on his face. “Not everyone.”

  “Simin’s a top-notch techer,” Adrien said, patting his shoulder. “He’s been helping me with something. It’s about your older brother, Daavd.”

  I felt my eyes widen. That was the last thing I’d expected. Unbidden images from my old nightmares flashed in my mind. My brother running in a forest. Swarms of Regulators charging through the trees after him. Him on the ground, broken, his eyes frozen on me, his little sister who’d raised the alarm. I swallowed hard.

  “What about Daavd?”

  “We’ve been hacking into the Community subject records for known glitchers.” Adrien gestured for me to sit on the empty seat beside him. “Mostly we’re looking for information on the glitchers we suspect the Chancellor is trying to recruit and the ones she might already have under her power. But we’ve been practicing our hack codes on older records that are less guarded and won’t raise alarms in their systems. So I thought I’d look into Daavd’s files…”

  He started tapping on the console in front of him and opening several directories in the screens on the wall. He clicked through a few more screens then pointed. “The report says they were never able to discover how your brother got past Regulators, much less how he got you to go with him.”

  He turned to me. “At first we thought maybe he was able to hack their security systems, but then Simin came up with a different theory. What if Daavd’s power was something similar to what the Chancellor can do?”

  I shook my head. I might not remember him, but Daavd was my brother. There was no way he could be anything like the Chancellor.

  But Adrien persisted. “Think about it, Zoe, why didn�
�t you turn your brother in much sooner than you did when he escaped with you as a child? Your first instinct under V-chip control would have been to report him to the Regulators, but you went along with him quietly. What if he could compel you to do what he wanted?”

  “But then why didn’t it work?”

  “Well,” Adrien’s voice had turned softer. He knew how much guilt I still felt about it all. “Maybe he had trouble with his Gift like you do, and it didn’t always work right. Just an instant of his losing control over you would have been enough time for you to call out to the Regulators and get him killed.”

  “But the Chancellor has the same power.” A horrible thought struck me. “Are you saying that we’re somehow related to her?”

  “No, no,” Adrien waved a hand. “Not at all. We just think that Daavd’s power is similar to hers and that the small dose of your early exposure to his power is why you can resist her now. There’s something unique about your body chemistry. It seems to work like your allergies do.”

  Adrien turned to Simin. “You want to explain this part? You’re the one who made the connection.”

  Adrien pushed his chair back a little so I could see across him to where Simin sat.

  “So we know your extreme allergic reaction to Surface allergens is due to your earlier exposure as a child,” Simin said. He clicked through his console while he talked and didn’t look up at me. He sounded bored, or maybe he just wasn’t comfortable being around other people. “Your body created antibodies against a specific allergen the first time you were exposed, so the next time you encountered it, your mast cells went crazy, releasing histamines to protect against what they registered as a dangerous substance. This sent you into anaphylactic shock.”

  I shuddered. He recounted it so scientifically, but I remembered the horror only too well. Gasping for air, my throat swelling shut.

  “But what does that have to do with why the Chancellor’s power doesn’t work on me?”

  “Histamine-releasing neurons are also found in the brain,” Simin continued. “Neural interaction between the hypothalamus and amygdala are at the heart of what makes glitcher powers possible. If your unique immunological response triggered a similar release of histamines in the hypothalmus due to childhood exposure to glitcher compulsion, you could have built up protection against that particular kind of power.”