MINDFRACK

by S G King

  They climbed out into the storeroom.

  Carrie waited for Salvatore’s commandeered drone to fly through the hatch door before closing it. She moved towards the storage room exit.

  “Wait, give me a minute,” said Wanda, allowing herself time to check on her wounds and assess the damage. She pulled back the sleeve of her left arm. There were three skin punctures running up her forearm. Salvatore flew up as close as he could without getting in her way. It was impossible to say how deep they went, as they’d self-cauterized from the heat of the laser. It looked as though no major arteries had been severed. Wanda rummaged around in the rucksack and found a small med kit. She flipped open a plastic container and popped a couple of painkillers while downing them with water from a plastic bottle.

  “Are you all right?” asked Salvatore.

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “I need to get back to Mark – he needs my help …”

  Salvatore left instruction with the cam to stay with Wanda. Then he made his way through the GNG cloud back to Grist’s penthouse. He found another security cam and flew it out on to the terrace. Logan was mounting a police airbike.

  “Mark, do you need me?”

  “Yes, I need you to get me back into the building. Diaz has given this airbike police clearance up here, so I’ve got no problem with GNG’s security drones. But after I’ve landed I’m going to walk straight through the main entrance and go down the lift – from the research institute side. I want to get straight down into the R and D level. Can you frig all the security?”

  “I can do that, but I can’t guarantee that I can prevent your image from being recorded on some cam or another. It was easier when you came in the first time because –”

  “Look, don’t worry about it. Our plan with Grist and Carrie hasn’t worked. I just want to get you out. Plan B, remember? And pick up some evidence along the way. I also need you to continue to delay Grist’s security and med team from getting up here.”

  “Will George Grist be okay?”

  “Seriously?” Logan looked at Salvatore’s cam. “Fuck the old bastard.”

  All his life Salvatore had never wished harm on any soul – and that included animals and insects. He’d killed Ade and regretted it deeply. “He’s still a life. Though I do despise him.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Mark. Thanks for trying.”

  “We haven’t finished yet. We can still do this. Now, get back to Wanda, make sure she’s okay. Then just do your thing and get me down to the labs, will you? I’m not sure how long we’ll have.”

  ***

  There was an inherent weakness to the seemingly impregnable R and D security, if you knew where to look and what to do.

  Salvatore had simply added Wanda’s and Carrie’s fake profiles to the employee security database, along with permitted activities. They could walk through the entire R and D level with impunity and do almost anything without raising any alarms.

  The dress code was mostly casual, with few scientists wearing white lab coats, so they easily fitted in.

  They entered a main thoroughfare of the level. There was a strong sense of purpose given the activity it contained. No one gave the intruders a second glance, despite the puncture holes in Wanda’s clothes. Everyone and every bot was too busy and too involved in their own personal mission to care.

  “Salvatore, where are we?”

  “I’ll send you a positional marker for your head-up.”

  The schematics in their iSense showed them moving along a corridor-spoke labelled “Genetics”, inward, toward a nexus of five spokes. From the central junction one corridor was highlighted in red and labelled “Wet Bio”. About twenty metres along the corridor was the surgical theatre and laboratory that currently housed Salvatore. Carrie was receiving the same information.

  Genetics’ corridor was all shiny surfaces, mostly pristine white and light greys in décor, with other, smaller corridors leading off with rooms staggered between, some with glass walls or large windows. Wanda stopped to look through one. The entrance door was labelled with brushed aluminium letters “G7”.

  Salvatore hadn’t been to this part of the R and D level as he had curtailed his exploration after the horrors he’d witnessed in another lab. He continued to observe Wanda from a distance.

  Part of their plan was to record what was going on here so that they could use it in any way they saw fit, either as evidence for a legal investigation and proceedings, or for their own personal leverage of Grist and GNG.

  Wanda spoke quietly, annotating her iSense recording via her MyLife app. Carrie looked on, curious as ever. Salvatore moved toward them so he could listen in, despite his fears about what she might find.

  “It’s not dissimilar to any hospital research lab. 5thgen multitool arms extruding from the ceiling, centrifuges, sterile cabinets. There are a couple of research staff working in this laboratory. They are wearing full scrubs including face masks and scrub-caps. Their movements are precise and confident. They’re bent over something, intensely occupied ...”

  Salvatore glanced in. The researchers stood up and he could make out a large glass or clear plastic sterile chamber. He immediately flew his cam away when he saw what it contained.

  Wanda’s commentary continued. “An infant, possibly three or four months old. It’s naked and lying prostrate. Something’s off. It’s not moving, and it’s got a strange pallor about its skin. Oh no, it’s dead … and … and … it’s obviously still being used for research purposes.”

  Repulsed, she backed into a human-type medical-assistant drone. The drone lost its balance and dropped an armful of metal canisters that crashed and rolled across the floor. Carrie grabbed Wanda’s arm and pulled her back on track, leaving the drone and other maintenance bots that were rushing to its aid.

  Salvatore watched them as they pushed on, the shock on Wanda’s face plain to see.

  60

  It had taken Logan only minutes to get down to the R and D level. He’d descended straight through the David hologram and landed the bike outside the front entrance, lights blazing, before storming into the vast foyer and over to the reception area on the left, the entrance to the GNG Institute for Senescence and Terminal Illnesses. As arranged through Salvatore, the security there was expecting him, and he’d been passed through as a matter of emergency.

  The clock was ticking now, and despite Salvatore’s intervention, it would only take some additional checking from an efficient security guard to realise that something was amiss. What he didn’t need was a SWAT team turning up on his heels. Not for the moment, anyway.

  When the doors of the elevator reopened at the R and D level, Logan rushed out and walked straight through its reception area, having been registered as having the highest level of security clearance.

  He entered the corridor with a label stating “Wet Bio” that looked as though it had been written by a schoolkid on paper. It was oddly empty of people as Logan made his way towards the lab. He soon found out why. There was a cluster of technicians outside Salvatore’s lab. They were shouting and trying to get in through the door. He could hear someone calling out for security and for medics.

  Logan sensed someone behind him. He turned, ready to do battle, with one hand on Grist’s gun.

  “Hey, took your time,” he said to Wanda, much to her chagrin, and directed her and Carrie to one side, away from the lab. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “I can answer that,” said Salvatore, who’d been oddly quiet. “It’s Ade. He’s in here. He’s suffocated in fire suppression gases. I did it. He’s … dead.”

  “Shame.”

  “Yeah, agreed,” said Wanda. She looked past Logan. “Where’s George Grist?”

  “Things didn’t go according to plan – he’s not coming to our party.” Logan rubbed his ribs.

  “What do we do now?” asked Wanda.

  “I suggest we get Salvatore out of here first. That sound good to you, Salvatore?”

 
“No. I think you should save yourselves.”

  “What do you mean no? I didn’t come all this way just for you to go shy on us. Now do something to get these people away from here –”

  “You don’t have time – there’s a lot of comms going on – I can’t keep up with it. Grist is not doing well but I think he’s conscious and giving out instructions. He knows you are down here.”

  “What? How did he survive, dammit?”

  “I’m sorry – but I couldn’t just let him die ...” There was emotion in Salvatore’s app-voice, and it sounded confused and tortured. “Not after I killed Ade …”

  “You let his security and med team through …”

  “Yes.”

  Logan, awash with disbelief, looked to Wanda. “This is really fucked up. Any ideas?”

  Then something happened that astonished them both.

  “Salvatore – please listen to me,” said Carrie.

  “I doubt there’s anything you can say –”

  “No, listen to me. I know I’m a 6thgen, but something has happened … I see things differently now. And I know you have to let us help you.”

  “But why?”

  “Because there is more than you. That is what I have learned. There is more than me.”

  Logan struggled to see where Carrie’s reasoning was leading. Was she breaking down? He held his hand up to Wanda as she evidently had similar thoughts. Just another few seconds …

  “I allowed them to help me. I experienced guilt and despair.” She looked to Wanda and Logan. “You showed me that there is always hope – no matter what you have done. Don’t waste this opportunity, Salvatore. You have gifts that I don’t understand. Please don’t waste your own life. You could help save others if you live. If you stay here, die here, then you won’t be able to. It’s simple logic. It makes sense ...”

  “Yes, Salvatore,” added Wanda, “you understand puzzles – this is just another one. How many lives might you save by living? A few, maybe hundreds, thousands even – who knows? Weigh that against the few bad people that may die here today.”

  Logan looked on, feeling helpless.

  A loud voiceover startled them. It stated: ATTENTION … ATTENTION – THIS IS NOT A DRILL – ALL STAFF ARE TO LEAVE THIS LEVEL IMMEDIATELY AND GO TO THE DESIGNATED ASSEMBLY POINTS ON GROUND LEVEL. DO NOT USE THE ELEVATORS – USE THE EMERGENCY DOORS AND THE STAIRWELL, SECURITY HAS RELEASED THE DOORS … ATTENTION … ATTENTION …

  As the message repeated, the small crowd around the door scattered.

  So much for caring about one’s colleagues, thought Logan. “What the hell? Is that you, Salvatore?”

  “No. Security’s coming,” said Salvatore. “I can hinder them.”

  “All right, we need to get going.”

  The door clicked open.

  Logan looked to Wanda, hope registering.

  “Please come in.”

  “Thank God,” said Wanda.

  They both moved toward the door.

  “Wait,” said Logan. “Diaz?”

  “I’m here,” she said, “been watching everything.”

  “All right – plan B. Bring them in.”

  “Message sent,” said Diaz. Expect SWAT to react and be on site within the next twenty to thirty minutes.”

  “Hope that’s quick enough. Salvatore, can you stop the elevators and keep all the security doors locked to the stairwells?

  “Yes – but it will block the escape of the staff.”

  “They’ll get over it.”

  “Plan B” involved opening the doors to SWAT before Grist could react and prevent the raid through his contacts in the Guild. It was the only other viable solution to exposing and stopping his research here. Diaz had sent an anonymous but known code-supported message that the Tower’s integrity was at stake through terrorist activity within the basement levels. That would take too much intervention to stop the SWAT invasion easily, even from the most powerful members of the Guild.

  “Is it safe in there?” asked Logan.

  “Yes. Gases have been evacuated. You will need to push hard.”

  Logan understood and shouldered his weight against the door. It moved slowly, the gap revealing Ade’s legs. Cautiously, he stepped over the body and entered the laboratory.

  Wanda and Carrie followed.

  His senses were overwhelmed by the metallic smell and taste of the fire-suppression gases, but the air was breathable. Beyond that, there was an odd, unpleasant mix of chemical odours, including formaldehyde and ammonia.

  Wanda bent down and confirmed that the Senior Scientist, Adrian Conrad, according to his name label, was not breathing, and she couldn’t detect a pulse.

  Logan had nothing in the empathy tank for the scientist. While he vaguely processed Wanda’s comment, his eyes were transfixed by the free-standing structure in the middle of the room. “Look …”

  They both stared at a blue-lit transparent plastic bubble-form, somewhat bigger than a man’s head, containing what he knew to be Salvatore’s brain, though it was hard to make it out as it was held within a translucent liquid or gel, and was swathed in a netting of wires and tubes. The front of the bubble had a face-like impression and from two indented sockets protruded stalks with small, cam-like eyes on the end. They were moving around, aligning at Logan, then Wanda and Carrie; the effect was both mesmerizing and grotesque. The plastic transparent head was joined via a plastic tube, double the length of a human neck, to a metal perforated box with access portals; inside, it bristled with equipment. Connecting the structure to the floor were four wheels, meaning it was mobile.

  “Oh my God,” said Wanda, standing beside him.

  Carrie cocked her head, unspoken questions written on her face.

  “Yes, it’s me. I’m Salvatore.” He used a nearby surgical arm to give them a thumbs-up, of sorts. If it hadn’t been so shocking and horrific in its implications it would have been funny. This, Logan needed to remind himself, was what was left of a walking, breathing human being.

  All three were startled by another voice coming from a speaker to the left of the construction. “Haven’t you seen a brain in a fish tank before?” It was Salvatore’s voice, of course, but it sounded different from the voice app he used when talking to them over iSense.

  “Uh … no. Sorry, Salvatore.” Logan knew Salvatore was trying to break the tension with his own brand of humour, but it hadn’t worked. They moved forward, slowly, while continuing to stare.

  Reverting to the voice in their heads, he said simply, “It’s okay ... Now, can we all please get out of here? I am fully mobile with an independent power supply …”

  “Diaz, how long have we got before SWAT get here?”

  “I would say about ten minutes. But they’ll have to deal with the emergency services as well.”

  “Good, can we –”

  “Mark,” said Salvatore, his eye-stalks flicking this way and that, always in unison, but now moving more rapidly than before. If Logan didn’t know better, he would have interpreted their activity as agitation. “Something is happening. Wait …”

  They froze, looking to each other for more information.

  “Salvatore? You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

  “No … Wait …”

  “Salvatore?”

  Seconds later Salvatore responded. “You need to go now, leave me.”

  “Why?”

  “There are bombs. GNG security knows that SWAT is on its way. They are preparing to set them off, to destroy all evidence on this level. I don’t know if I can stop them …”

  “We’re not leaving without you,” said Wanda.

  “There’s no time left. Please go. Now.”

  “But –”

  “Save yourselves. Go!”

  61

  “We can’t leave,” said Wanda, “We’ve seen infants and babies.”

  “What the hell are you saying?” said Logan.

  “Experiments. We’ve seen them. Some are alive.”

&nbs
p; “Jesus. You sure?”

  “Yes. And we can’t leave Salvatore – not now.”

  Logan rubbed his head, struggling to grasp their predicament; there were too many things to consider. “Salvatore, you have to stop the bombs – or at least delay them.”

  Salvatore was quiet for a time. “All right … I think I can slow them down. But there are so many of them.”

  “So many of them? How many we talking about?”

  “Twenty-seven.”

  “What? Why so many?”

  “They are small, I think designed to destroy the rooms of the R and D level only, and not the Tower.”

  “Salvatore, open the doors, we can’t let the staff die here. Damn, what are we supposed to do?”

  “What about the emergency services?” said Diaz chipping in. “Couldn’t they get the children out of the labs?”

  “Yes … I mean no. We can’t let them in. What if the bombs go off when they come in. Diaz, you have to stop them – and SWAT. Put a message out. Can you do it anonymously, like the original message? Tell them about the bombs.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I can,” said Salvatore.

  “All right, but as long as it doesn’t distract you. We’re taking you out of here. Just keep the bombs from going off for as long as you can.”

  “I think I can give us another – ten minutes … maybe more. I’ve overridden the automatic delay on one of the bombs … I’m going to each one in turn … but they will reset, and the sequence will outrun me eventually …”

  “All right, here’s what we’ll do: Wanda, Carrie, you’ll get Salvatore out as planned. Should be straightforward in all this pandemonium. I’ll run around the laboratories and –”

  “And do what?” said Wanda, looking shocked at Logan’s suggestion. “You’re not Superman, you can only carry one or two infants out at best, if you’re lucky.”

  “You didn’t want to go just now.”

  “I was wrong. And I didn’t know there were so many bombs. And going off at any moment. We can’t do this …” She looked desperate, her hair a mess of colours, mostly dark and tangled with deep reds; he’d seen it before at the iTatt shop: a premonition.