Ascendant Unrest

by Matthew S. Cox

  The little girl having a meltdown angle would have to work. She’d pretend to obey but be unable to. She was only nine years old. They couldn’t expect a kid her age to smoothly lie to the world like that with a straight face. Maya clutched the tablet in guilty rage. She had lied to the camera for years, but all those lies she’d told about Ascendant’s drugs had been abstract things, distortions of facts from dry scientific papers. Back then, she’d never looked into the eyes of a Fade victim. Even a child like her could read a script about overstated medical benefits or omit any mention of side effects. Did it count as lying if she didn’t know about the side effects until after she recorded an ad? But to lie about the Brigade? About people she’d met? About people she’d watched die fighting for a better life? Thinking of Binks’ cremation, a man who’d been killed trying to protect her, Maya gripped the rug with her toes, trembling from anxiety. Sarah gave her the okay to defy Vanessa no matter what happened to her. Intellectually, it made sense. One girl’s life for all of society—but with each second passing, betraying her became a greater crime.

  Paralyzed with indecision, Maya caught herself about to cry and thought of how angry she’d been with Brian to stop herself before her makeup ran.

  “Aww, honey,” said Amy in a sweet tone. “I thought you were an old pro?”

  “I am. It’s not the camera I’m afraid of,” muttered Maya. “They don’t want me to sell drugs this time. They want me to kill people.”

  “Oh, sweetie. You’re taking it a bit too far. This is only a happy announcement that you’ve been found and brought home.”

  Maya shot her a flat look, holding up the tablet. “You didn’t actually read this, did you?”

  Amy fussed at Maya’s hair. “You are so pretty.”

  “All the toppings,” mumbled Maya.

  Amy tilted her head. “What?”

  “I’m a genetic pizza,” deadpanned Maya.

  An electronic bong emanated from the elevator, which meant the production people and Vanessa had entered the little hallway outside. She didn’t bother trying to calm down or think distant thoughts. Maya wanted to be emotional, unfocused, unusable for a PR video.

  She shivered at the pssh of the front door opening. Via the reflection in the blank television screen, she watched Vanessa walk in, followed by two blueberries, a man and a woman, in armor. Behind them, Benson and two other not-quite-as-big men in black suits entered, then a handful of people carrying equipment boxes, cameras, lights, microphones, and such.

  She stared at the two Authority officers. “Blueberries? Really?” muttered Maya. “What does she think I’m going to do, pull a gun out of my butt and shoot her?”

  Sarah got a case of the giggles and failed at hiding it.

  The female blueberry turned her gaze toward Maya, the blank-faced blue-and-silver helmet accusing. A nameplate over the left breast read: ‘OFC Davies, M.’ Maya fidgeted, but the woman didn’t stop staring at her. What had Vanessa told them about her? These two probably remained loyal to her, mere corporate thugs without a scrap of actual care for the law. A sick whirlwind started in Maya’s stomach at the idea they’d been brought here for Sarah. Of course, Vanessa wouldn’t get her hands dirty. She wanted to run over and hug her as-good-as-sister, but the weight of the female blueberry’s stare pinned her to the cushion.

  Maya cringed. Everything about that woman’s body language said she couldn’t wait to hurt someone.

  Two skinny men with frizzy black hair ran about the living room searching for ‘the best’ place to set up a background screen while eyeing the ceiling lights and complaining to each other.

  Benson and his two associates headed to the kitchen.

  The production crew ran about opening their boxes and running cables around. Vanessa spent a few minutes having Amy check her makeup and royal-blue gown before approaching the sofa. She gave Sarah a glance of mild disdain, which slapped the mirth right out of her.

  “You,” snapped Vanessa, “stay out of the way and be quiet.”

  Sarah scrambled to her feet and ran toward the bedroom.

  Vanessa turned toward Maya with a smile more plastic than a Hydra tray. “Now, this will be just like you’re used to.”

  “’Kay.” Maya stared down, flicking her thumbnail at the edge of the clear tablet.

  “You are worried about your friends, aren’t you?”

  Maya raised her arms off her lap, showing off her shaking hands. “Just a little.”

  The female Authority officer took a position by the left end of the couch, her attention still locked on Maya, as if expecting the tiny girl to attack Vanessa at any second.

  Maya sighed. “Why aren’t you just using fake video of me like you did before?”

  “That wasn’t false video. We used one of the androids. Computer animations are not perfect, and they cannot project the same authenticity in their emotions.”

  CG has more emotion than you do. Maya gave Vanessa a scathing glare but shrank away as Officer Davies loomed closer.

  Sarah returned in a pink angora sweater and white pleated skirt. She eyed the production crew with narrowed eyes, the same way she always looked at locks she meant to attack. Alas, between Vanessa and a blueberry so close, she gave the sofa a wide berth and took a seat on a chair by the far wall. Having her friend perch so far away rather than next to her ramped Maya’s fear up from shaking hands to full-body trembles.

  What’s she going to do to Sarah if I mess up?

  Finally locating a place where the ‘light contamination’ didn’t bother them as much, the frizz-haired men extended aluminum poles and unrolled a green-screen background.

  A woman and three others set up recording equipment and ran even more wires among them while the AI directed them to the nearest wall outlets for power.

  “I trust you’ve studied your lines?” asked Vanessa.

  “Yeah. Do we have to do this today? I’m still upset over watching my real mother die—and being kidnapped twice. I don’t know if I can say all this stuff without crying.”

  Vanessa gestured dismissively at Sarah. “You’ll just have to rely on your acting coach.”

  Maya glared at Vanessa, which caused Officer Davies to edge closer. She shot the armored woman a ‘go to hell’ look and muttered, “Like I’m going to do something.”

  “Testing one,” said a man, his voice thundering across the apartment at the head of a wave of feedback squeal.

  “Fuck!” shouted an Asian guy kneeling in front of the bank of electronics as he tore off his headphones. “Gain! Down on the gain!”

  Vanessa scowled. “You people have done this before, have you not? I hope this won’t take all day. I’ve an important meeting in two hours that I will not be late for.”

  Maya grinned mentally. She’s gonna storm out after two bad takes.

  “You look quite pretty today.” Vanessa fussed with her hair while gazing into a hand mirror. “Make sure and put on a nice big smile. I don’t foresee much reason to involve you with too many more media presentations. Marketing is already working on a new mascot, a cartoon character of some sort, I believe. One of those nauseatingly high-pitched ones with the big eyes. Japanese something-or-other. Much easier to manage an advertising face that can’t think for itself or develop crises of conscience. For now, I still need you to help restore the Citizens’ faith in Ascendant. Once they see how happy I am to have my beloved daughter back, things will return to normal.”

  Maya looked away and gagged.

  Officer Davies scoffed.

  Vanessa blinked as if slapped. After a momentary glare, she stepped up and got in the woman’s face. “I’m sorry, did you say something? Are you forgetting your place, officer? Do you have some kind of problem here?”

  Benson and the other two bodyguards drifted out of the kitchen, observing the exchange.

  Despite the woman’s apparent hostility, Maya felt sick having to watch an Authority officer kowtow to her ex-mother.

  The officer bowed her helmet. Vane
ssa started to turn back to Maya with that smug smirk of sanctimonious victory, but the officer lunged forward and drove her fist into Vanessa’s jaw. The tall, reedy woman slammed into the floor in the blink of an eye and slid halfway across the living room before taking out one of the poles holding up the green-screen background.

  “You’re damn right I have a problem,” said a digitized, crackling woman’s voice over tiny speakers. The blueberry took a step closer to Maya. She reached up and removed her helmet, letting long dreads bedecked with wooden beads unfurl down her back. “You took my daughter.”

  Genna’s hard expression softened to concern.

  Maya dropped the transparent tablet, staring open-mouthed. Her brain jammed, unable to believe what her eyes tried to tell it. Tightness gripped her middle. It took her four seconds to draw a breath.

  “Oh, shit,” whispered Sarah.

  “Mommy!” screamed Maya. Her muscles refused to move. She clutched her hands at her chin, shaking from a tidal wave of emotion too titanic to fit into her small body. Unable to process anything, she burst into tears.

  25

  Rightful Place

  The production crew all froze, their expressions a mixture of shock, horror, and awe. Amy screamed. Benson ran to the semiconscious Vanessa, while his two pals stared at Genna.

  “That bitch ain’t a real officer,” said the bodyguard on the left.

  Both men charged.

  “Mommy!” Maya started to leap off the couch, but Amy grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. Her chest ached from sobbing so hard. The rapid torrent of emotion from the depths of fear and surrender to shock and elation had left her too weak and uncoordinated to wriggle free.

  Genna rolled under the left man’s incoming fist, trapping his arm into a jujitsu toss. She flung him to the rug and sprang upward out of the maneuver, driving her hand into the second man’s throat. His feet shot out from under him, and he landed on his back. The first man got to his feet and grabbed for Genna. She spun with a rapid double-punch, one to the gut, the second to the base of the neck, leaving him gurgling and convulsing before grabbing his right arm and flipping him to the ground again. As soon as he landed on his chest, she twisted the limb up and braced the elbow against her knee.

  Benson dove at her; Genna abandoned her intent to break the arm and dropped in place, rolling to the side as the big guy careened overhead and landed on the rug.

  Four of the production crew sprinted to the kitchen while two ran for the front door. Vanessa hadn’t moved since she’d slid to a stop. Maya reached one arm toward Genna but couldn’t find the strength to put up a real effort to get away from the frantic, clinging Amy, who had dragged her around to put the couch between them and the brawl. As the reality of seeing her mother alive sank in deeper, her legs turned to jelly.

  Genna traded punches with one of the men, showing little effect from his strikes, but knocking the wind out of him. Benson pushed himself up, growled, and jumped upright. Three men surrounded her, hands twitching like cowboys from a movie.

  If not for Amy holding Maya up, she would’ve fallen to the floor. She kept reaching for Genna, wanting to touch her to make sure she really existed.

  Sarah ran over and clung to her side, grinning.

  “Ugh.” Vanessa moaned. “What happened? Why am I on the floor?”

  The bodyguards and Genna blurred into motion. She elbowed Benson in the gut with her right arm before spinning into a knife-hand strike to one of the smaller men’s throats that pummeled him to the floor and left him gagging. The third man punched her in the back and grabbed her arm, but she reversed and dragged him around in front of her to absorb a roundhouse kick from Benson that knocked him senseless. She tossed the semiconscious man to the side.

  Benson snarled and tried to knock her head off with his huge fist. Genna caught his arm, taking a single rearward step. Her eyes flared wide in shock at a woman pushing him back. His face reddened, veins rising in his forehead. “Y-you’re just s-standing there?” He gurgled at the other blueberry, who looked bored. When the man didn’t react, he glowered at Genna. “The fuck are you so strong for a bitch?”

  “494th Night Terrors,” said Genna in an eerie, calm tone. “Special Operations. I’ve had a little work done.”

  She switched from pushing to pulling, dragging a startled Benson into a chokehold that forced him to his knees. Bodyguard Two sat up; she kicked him in the face, knocking him flat. “You damn lucky I know your asses is hired help.”

  “Benson was kinda nice,” blurted Maya. “Please don’t kill him.”

  Genna grunted and squeezed until the tall man passed out.

  “Holy shit,” said Amy. “She just… she just beat up three men.”

  Maya pulled away from the shocked woman and ran to Genna. “Mom!”

  “Baby girl.” Genna scooped her up.

  “Mom!” Another wave of joyful sobs came on, leaving her babbling and clinging. “You’re not dead. I saw you get shot!”

  Genna whispered, “Had a vest on. Knocked the shit outta me, but I’m okay.”

  Vanessa, dazed and flat on her back, shoved the green-screen post away and stared up at them. “That’s not your mother.” She shook her head before rolling around onto her knees and standing. “That woman abducted you for a ransom. You endeared yourself to her as a survival mechanism, but that’s all. This is your home.”

  “At first.” Maya pressed herself against Genna, shying away from the approaching Vanessa. “Since you weren’t going to help me, I had to do something. But she wasn’t like the others. She wouldn’t let them hurt me. You told them to kill me and didn’t even flinch. You’ll just make another one, right? No mother would ever say that. You’re not my mother!”

  “What?” Vanessa blinked. “I thought you were smarter than that. This criminal couldn’t possibly offer you even a quarter of the life you could lead here, the life you deserve. Y-you’d prefer to live in filth with those cockroaches than take your rightful place at the top of my society? I am bringing our country back into a new age of prosperity. A country you will eventually inherit. Do you honestly expect me to believe you don’t want that?”

  “Yes,” said Maya.

  The instantaneous response seemed to stun Vanessa silent. Two thin trails of blood leaked from her nose, dripping from her chin.

  “This is my mother. She could’ve run for her life, but she got in front of a soldier with cyborg arms to protect me. When you took me far away and put me up in this tower, she could’ve given up, like I did, and walked away, but she came for me. My mother actually cares about me, not about how much I’m worth to the company.”

  Vanessa narrowed her eyes at the still-placid male officer. “You don’t understand anything. You’re a spoiled child who doesn’t realize the full depth of the position she’s in.”

  “No. I understand perfectly what position I’m in. I’m a prisoner. If I don’t do what you want, you’re going to hurt people I care about. As soon as I’m no longer useful, you’ll probably kill me too.”

  Genna snarled at Vanessa.

  “You are right about one thing. I don’t understand how a mother could be like you.” Maya glared. “Thirty-seven percent of my DNA might be from you, but you’re not my mother. You didn’t even want me around until I was old enough to walk. I saw those emails.”

  “This.” Vanessa gestured at the TV and game system, then the rest of the penthouse. “You are serious? Here, you have everything. You want for nothing. You have comfort, security; you never have to wonder where your next meal is coming from.”

  Genna tried to set Maya down behind her, but she refused to let go.

  “Security?” Maya blinked in disbelief. “Really? As soon as you get tired of having me around, we die. If I say the wrong thing, you hurt Sarah. If I try to escape, you said you’d kill the kids in our building. That’s not security. And I don’t have everything here. If you put a flower in the most expensive flowerpot in the world, give it the most expensive dirt in th
e world, and water it with the most expensive water in the world, it will still wither away without sunlight.” She looked down.

  A brief sign of impressed surprise flickered from under Genna’s glower. She clenched her fist and leaned closer.

  Vanessa took a step back, her expression more blank than Maya could ever remember seeing it. “All right then. Fine. If that’s what you want. Take the ungrateful little thing and get out of my sight. Stupid child. Only a fool would walk away from what I can provide to go live in a rat’s nest. Those snakes trying to wrest control of Ascendant away from me aren’t going to stop until they kill you. If you’d rather take your chances out there without my protection, then go.”

  The blueberry’s helmet turned toward Genna.

  “Well. Go on, leave if it’s what you want.” Vanessa waved dismissively and started to walk toward the bathroom.

  “You’re forgetting something,” said Genna.

  Vanessa stopped and glanced back.

  “She’s scared,” said Maya a hair over a whisper. “She’s not giving up too easy. She knows you can kill her and doesn’t want to die, but she can’t admit it so she’s gotta act like it’s her idea.” Her voice rose to normal volume. “I don’t think I’m worth enough to waste money on revenge. She’d have had to have loved me once to hate me, but she only thought of me as a company asset. All she loves is power.”

  Vanessa narrowed her eyes.

  “Ouch,” said the blueberry.

  “Why are you just standing there like a useless tit, watching this woman attempt to abduct my daughter?” snapped Vanessa. “I should have you dismissed. Dismissed and charged as an accessory.”

  “Sorry, ma’am. You’re not my boss.” A man’s voice answered, clipped short by the static pop of helmet-mounted speakers. “You’re a Citizen like anyone else.” He tilted his head side to side, stretching his neck. “Not sure if you got the memo, but Ascendant doesn’t own the Authority.”