by Ian Williams
Conrad shrugged the question away. He had no clue about any of it. Like the rest of the city, he only knew what the media had reported.
“I’ll tell you where he is, Conrad, he’s still out there somewhere. They all are. Every single person responsible either fled or died in some form of altercation with the police before the relays suddenly blew. We lost the rest somehow. Can you believe that?”
“Isn’t it any wonder after the mess that followed?” Conrad said in return. “The country was temporarily paralysed. Heck, even the police were useless at the time. We couldn’t help anyone, not with the Crime Detection System down. It’s still not working correctly. Even now huge numbers of the crime that occurs in this city goes unseen and seemingly ignored by us. Don’t we have more important things to do than track down these people?”
The man sighed. “That does appear to be the prevailing wisdom. The city is like a patient refusing to acknowledge its symptoms because it fears a diagnosis. Regardless of how difficult it has been to return to some kind of normality, Conrad, ignoring these symptoms could be fatal in the end. We aren’t willing to take that risk, even if you and the rest of the city are.”
“We?” Conrad asked, bringing the man to a halt all of a sudden. “How many people have you got here?”
“Enough to do something useful. Before I tell you more about that, I want to ask you about these terrorists. Do you have any idea why they did what they did?”
“I couldn’t say. The news said they were probably some anti-technology group, angry at our reliance on the Simova network.”
“Does that seem reasonable to you?”
With a nervous rub of the back of his neck, Conrad answered. He was fully aware the official report was less than satisfactory, but that was all he had. “It doesn’t really explain anything, I suppose.”
“No, it does not. These terrorists took around thirty people hostage on that day. All except for one of those held made it out alive. That’s not including the armed team of police and one Simova employee that died. Did you ever hear their side of it?”
Again Conrad could only raise his shoulders in reply.
“Well, I have. You see, they all had some rather interesting, and highly disturbing, things to say about it all. They saw a group of armed people very much happy with the technology we have. In fact they even mentioned an element of ideological worship of it. Something they all remembered clearly was a video message from the one these terrorists saw as their leader; a deity-like character with a digital, wireframe face. He spoke to these people like a shepherd to his flock, and they followed. He gave the name of Isaac.”
“Isaac? Why that name?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Simova’s failed AI was named Isaac. This could all have been a simple act of revenge against the people who let him fail. But all of this is nothing more than a conspiracy theory to the wider public. Why, I must be talking nonsense,” the man said, his sarcasm almost certainly aimed at someone not in the room. He then began to pack up his tablet computer, bringing his holographic demonstration to an unexpected end.
“Wait, there must be more you can tell me. I get that you’re trying to locate the remaining terrorists, but what does that have to do with the killer-cult? How are they involved? And what has any of this got to do with me and Mayor Crawley? Do you honestly believe one of us knows something?”
“We believe the terrorists and your so called killer-cult are the same thing. They’re working toward an end we have yet to discover. Both you and I are searching for the same people, Conrad.”
“And the Mayor, how is he involved?”
The man shrank his computer down to the wrist size and slid it back onto his arm. While he tidied up, he seemed preoccupied and deep in thought. He had heard the question, Conrad was sure of it, yet he was reluctant to answer.
“Look, I’ve proved I know nothing, so what’s the problem?” Conrad said, pushing for an answer. He stood and neatly placed his chair against the table, then went to straighten out his own wrist computer. Bollocks, they’ve still got it, he thought, frustrated and a little pissed-off.
“Well,” the man said, before again pausing. When he decided to go on, he snapped back to life and turned to Conrad. “Would you be interested in meeting the others?”
Conrad angled his head back in surprise. “Absolutely,” he said.
“Oh, and my name is Derek, Derek Jackson.”
* * *
“There’s more on the way!” Graham called at the top of his voice, as yet another enemy appeared above the nearby hill. With the rear already battling a small team of two of the creatures, it did not leave them much power to deal with more at the front.
They were becoming overwhelmed.
“We’re OK,” Stephen replied from the injured line. The constant attack was beginning to drain them of their supporting strength. A few had already wilted and could only move by dragging their feet along behind them. But most noticeably of all, their glow had lessened too. “We just need to hold on. Kindness needs more energy focused on the back.”
“How far is there left?”
“Not far, Graham,” Alex replied, her hands held out in front of her. Even her energy was required to withstand the enemy now. She walked close to the protective barrier and allowed her fingers to gently touch the edge. It looked as though she were pushing the dome along all by herself.
“How long can we take this for?”
“I do not know. We have to keep going.”
The creatures had hardly given their tiny group a break between attacks. They were not going for an intelligent approach, but a hard and unrelenting fight. Sacrificing their own to break through the barrier did not appear to pose any problem for their leaders either. All that mattered was destroying what was left of the Sentient rebellion as fast as possible.
Over the distant hills the enemy’s tower had continued to come into view more and more. Now it loomed over them like an angry giant, glaring down with its jagged spires each as big as the entire Sentient tower at Sanctuary. The landscape appeared only to serve this enormous building. Not even the red and purple sky behind could ever dare to be as threatening.
As Graham’s group neared the structure he struggled to take it all in. It had not been the first time that distance and size had become relative things to him. The journey they had taken had covered what felt like only a tiny part of the actual world around them. Hours of walking, and fighting too, and only now could he say they were getting anywhere. The black crystal tower had provided the answer, and the depressing reality that they were heading straight into danger.
All that broke up the view of the twisted and tortured structure bearing down on them, was the ravaging violence of the swarm of creatures surrounding their group. So far the enemy had failed to bring them to a halt, but that had not stopped the attacks. Each time one flung itself into the barrier and came away with parts missing or fizzing from the electrical pops that followed, the others would simply back away before doing so again. They were not at all concerned with preserving themselves for a later fight. It made each attack feel like it could be the one to succeed.
“Incoming,” Stephen shouted from the middle. “Shore up the side, now, do it now!”
Before Graham could even turn to see the enemy approaching, it had already burst into flames and flying debris as yet another had launched itself into the barrier. Where the impact had happened a worrying wobble rocked through the solid dome. It had not caused a crack, as Graham expected would possibly happen at some point. That did not mean they were entirely safe though, as the area appeared thinner all of a sudden.
The enemy had found a weakness.
Stephen was in the middle of the injured group, almost dragging them all along. Three of the Sentients around him were having to hold up the more exhausted of their numbers. They were struggling, and it was only going to get worse. With the side threatening to crumble as well, it had become more than Stephen could deal with. His orders were beco
ming confused and chaotic.
“Alex, I need to go back and help Stephen. Are you OK by yourself?”
“Go,” was all she said in response. Keeping them moving was all down to her, she had no time to think of anything else.
Another explosion hit near the front right corner of their shield, just as Graham left his position. It had missed by less than a metre. There were no remains of a creature rattling across the ground from the area. This was something else, something new.
“Here comes another,” Kindness said, pointing up.
Graham looked up and saw the glowing arch of a fireball as it streaked across the sky. This one also missed, sending a floor shuddering boom through the dirt. The enemy were firing mortar style projectiles from the tower. It was only a matter of shortening their aim to get a direct hit.
It did not take them long to do so.
The third shot crashed into the top of the protective shield, cascading fire down the sides of the dome. A temporary gap blinked open in return. The fight was coming from all sides, all of a sudden.
“Stephen, can I help?” Graham said as he ducked from another incoming fireball. This one missed by less than a foot or two. Friendly fire was another acceptable factor of the enemy’s attack it seemed, as the miss took out a handful of the creatures assigned that side of the barrier.
“Graham, thank goodness. Are you able to help with maintaining this side of the shield?”
“I’m not sure if I can do th–”
“You can, just try it.”
As with every other lesson so far, Graham was expected to pick it up first time without delay. He had at least realised by now and did not bother to ask again, or tell of his lack of confidence. They were in the middle of a raging battle, there was simply no time to focus on anything else.
He had seen Alex do it earlier, and Kindness too, so he decided to go straight for it. With both hands splayed open as wide as he could manage, he slapped them against the cold dome and pushed against it. Nothing happened. He was going about it like a human again – he had become fed up with hearing this, but it was the hard truth.
A look around gave him a moment of clarity as he saw the state of their little group. It was not looking good for them. They had only just made it past the point that took them nearest to the tower. There was still a way to go yet. He needed to do his part.
One last try, he decided. So again he repeated the process of opening out his palms and forcefully smacking them against the barrier. This time the message had gotten through to the Sentient he knew he could be. A bright light leapt from his hands and spread out through the glowing shield. It reached out of his skin like little wires of energy, which then worked their way into the glass structure as if following an embedded circuitry. To say he was impressed would only be a small percentage of the truth. As with each other time he copied the actions of a Sentient, he was astonished.
What he heard next ripped that feeling away like a tidal wave of emotion, instantly wiping him out. It was a voice, one he had not heard for a long time. Not his wife, Jane, or his best friend, Elliot, but someone else he knew from his human days. Was it possible he imagined the voice that again asked for him by name? The second he turned to face its source, he knew for sure.
It was Phoenix!
“Graham? Can you hear me?” The ghostly outline of a person said through the building static.
“How? I can’t believe it. Yes, yes, I can hear you. Phoenix, I can hear you. I’m here.”
She looked in his general direction, but her face said she had not found him just yet.
“I’m here. Shit, she can’t hear me.”
“Graham, what is going on? Who is that?” Stephen said.
Kindness, by contrast, had taken the sudden appearance of an unknown apparition as a sign of another attack, this time from the inside. He rushed over to the area and forced himself into the flickering image.
“The Overseer!” he boomed at the top of his voice.
“Wait, Kindness,” Graham called, with his hands raised to firm up his order.
But it was not enough. Kindness sent his left arm straight through the glimmering shape in his best attempt at cutting it down in place. He was as surprised as the rest of them to see his glowing arm pass right through Phoenix’s middle without hitting anything. She was not really there.
“Fuck. Graham, thank God, I’ve finally found you,” she said, as the attempted strike went by totally unnoticed. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. He did it, Luke actually got out and reached you. Is he there with you too?”
She went silent.
“How’s my family? Are they safe?”
No reply.
“Phoenix? What’s happening?”
When she spoke again, she started with his first question rather than the most important.
“He’s here, Graham. I had no idea it was him at first. Christ, he’s not doing well. He was badly injured when he reached me.”
There was a noticeable problem with communication. Only a few of his words had made it through to Phoenix and even then the context was almost certainly missing. As far as he could tell, there had been a fight of some kind and Luke had been hurt. It was still amazing to find out that Luke had made it out at all. According to Kindness and the other Sentients there with him, Luke had almost certainly perished with those he infiltrated the Conduit with. To find out he survived, and more than that, gotten a message to those out in the real world, was almost more than Graham could cope with.
He sucked in his gut as the relief nearly floored him like a punch to the side of the head. Only after fighting back the feelings welling up inside could he even consider replying.
“Where are you? How are you talking to me?”
“We’re using some kind of Sentient device, called a Conduit. Graham, we’re here to get you out. Can you get to a Conduit at your end?”
For her sake he decided to keep his current situation to himself for fear of diluting the conversation further. The fight to save the remaining Sentients was his first concern, but it was not going to end just yet. While they moved along under the constant weight of the enemy, he thought on his own escape for the first time in hours. There was only one way he knew of achieving that, and it was by reversing whatever Luke did to get him there.
“That won’t work. The Conduit is a no go. There’s no way of getting to it,” he said.
“Graham, there isn’t time to talk with this being,” Kindness interrupted them to say. “We are nearing the exit, look.”
There, in the dead centre of the view ahead, was a sight that filled Graham with as much dread as joy. The doorway was a swirling mass. Their small group would easily fit through it without even having to breathe in, it was huge. Although lying in their way was another force field, this time surrounding their exit. This was the doorway Alex would be expected to open once they arrived. It was nothing like the ones he saw her open before.
“Phoenix, I’m running out of time. Can you ask Luke something for me?” Graham said, still with a degree of disbelief.
“Go ahead,” she replied, after another inconvenient delay.
“I need to know how to get back to my body? I know it’s still somewhere in the Sanctuary ruins, but I have no idea how to get to it from inside here.”
Again the conversation was put on hold while his message struggled to get through to those at the other end. It was anything but silent around him though, as the enemy had not missed any opportunity to disrupt them at all. The fireballs had continued to light up the sky – still their aim was far less than accurate. If their real purpose was to scare them, then they were at least excelling at this.
Graham had to push against the dome as one of the creatures decided to begin hacking at the other side. He flinched each time a strike gave off a glowing after effect on the surface of the barrier right in front of him. His stored energy was being stolen with each impact, but he could not leave the area. No-one else was able to s
tep in for him.
The shimmering outline of Phoenix disappeared for a frightening few seconds before reappearing again. She then began to speak.
“He says he can’t remember anything about that. Graham, he’s been like this since he turned up at my home. His memories are all messed up or missing.”
That was the last thing he wanted to hear after so much had been given back to him. Hope had been a useful feeling and one that had been all but vacant until then. It had already begun to be chipped away at. Missing memories meant missing information, the most important of which was his only chance of returning to the human world.
“Shit, that can’t be right. He can’t have lost that,” Graham said. His attacker tried another forceful strike against the dome in front of him – right between his eyes too. He twisted his head away to avoid it, even though the barrier was still holding.
“Graham, I believe there should be another way.” Stephen had left the gathering of injured Sentients and joined him at his side, like a comrade in arms. He placed an arm on Graham’s shoulder to bring his ranting to a swift end. “Alex,” he called. “Keep us moving at all times. We are going to try something back here.”
“Fine,” she replied, again without looking away from the front.
“Phoenix, this is Stephen here.”
“Stephen? How are you–?”
“That is a long story, and one we definitely don’t have time to go into right now. I believe the Conduits go in both directions. If they use it to bring a Sentient out of this world, then it stands to reason that they should be able to do the opposite too.”
The suggestion had Graham wanting to bash his head against the solid surface in front of him; why had he not considered that before? It was so obvious to him now. Phoenix had somehow taken control of a Conduit in the real world and she had Luke right next to her. If he was the only one with the knowledge of how to return Graham to his real body, then they had to bring him into the Sentient world again. It was where he belonged after all.