by Vanessa Muir
“Of course, it was, Spade,” Levi said, shaking his head. “I warned you.”
“Thanks for the lecture, Daniels,” she snapped, “but that doesn’t help us now. I need to know that you can get me in. For all of us.”
“I can,” Levi said, at last. “But what about your associate here? What’s his part in all of this?”
“I’ll be working with SSG behind the scenes,” Eli said, smoothly. “See, I’m the only one you have now who can really help you get what you need. Information on what their next moves are.”
Charlie’s brow wrinkled. “Eli, it’s not like they trust you with that type of information. You’ll have to work to get it for us, and then you’ll have to be very careful delivering it to us. Any hint of what you’re doing and you’ll be taken in.” And God knew what they would do to him.
The State’s legal processes were supposed to be fair and free, but then, everything Charlie had discovered of late had been corrupt, a lie to hide the truth about what was really going on.
“I’ll manage.” Eli smirked.
“Then, I can—” Levi was interrupted by the opening of the door behind them.
Nathaniel entered the diner, grinning from ear-to-ear. Absalon Shamood strode in after him, very much alive, with two eyes and two thumbs. They walked down the aisle and stopped next to the table.
A crowd of agents and officers entered the diner behind them, guns out and aimed at the party.
Levi struggled upright.
Charlie reached for her weapon.
A cold cuff closed around her wrist, and she tugged on it, but it was already too late. Eli’s smile eclipsed her vision.
“I’ve been waiting too long for you to screw up, Spade. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to arrest you myself.”
“That’s enough,” Nathaniel said. “Take them both away.”
16
Her arms were bound above her head, suspended from the glass ceiling. Looking up afforded her a view of that misted glass, the smooth bands of it that arced downward and held her in place. Struggling would bring her closer to the needles on either side of her half-naked body. They had stripped her down to her underwear but had left the SSG watch, to taunt her.
Charlie squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to think clearly.
There were no logical next steps.
She had been betrayed by her partner. She had allowed him in when she should never have. She had outed Black Mars with that foul decision-making, and it was over, now. All of it. With Levi captured, they’d surely be able to force the location of Black Mars out of him, and any and all rebellion would be quashed.
What little she did know hadn’t taken her far. They were doing something to the populace, MemXor wasn’t safe, yet it was still sold as a commodity. And memories were being used too. Saved and used to help the State.
The soft hiss of her prison door opening brought Charlie back to the present. Her arms ached; her toes scraped the naked steel beneath them. She opened her eyes and witnessed Absalon Shamood’s entry into the cell.
He wore a long robe in rich red and a smile that said it all. “I’ve been waiting for so long to meet you,” he said, looking down his hooked nose at her. “Your father told me so much about you, but he didn’t do you justice.”
Charlie pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth. Don’t speak. Don’t give him what he wants out of you—a reaction.
“You’re a great disappointment to him,” Absalon continued. “But you will be our greatest aid, now, and that will surely help him realize his true purpose for you. Poor Nathaniel.” He strode toward her and halted. “I hope you don’t plan on hurting your father any more than you already have.”
She resisted the urge to spit in his smug face. “How?” she asked after a beat.
“Oh, how am I alive?” Absalon asked. “Simple. I had a clone killed. One of the many clones I’ve grown and kept for public events or for dangerous situations. We needed a way to get you into our grasp, to keep you close so we’d be ready to step in when you slipped up. Thankfully, you delivered, handsomely on the slipping up part.” Another snarky smile. “You didn’t really think that the State would entrust someone like you, a lowly SSG investigator, with the most important case known to mankind? It was a trap, and you were too stupid to see the false case and evidence in front of your eyes.”
Except she had seen it. She’d suspected and followed up and wound up here. Not because of her stupidity when it came to the investigation, but because of her stupidity when it came to trust.
Absalon clicked his fingers and the door opened again, allowing a female in a white lab coat into the cell.
“Prep her,” Absalon said.
“Prep me for what?”
“For the truth. Ever heard the old adage? It will set you free. That’s what you’ve wanted all along, isn’t it? Spade? The truth. Oh, how ironic it is that you’ll be the one delivering the truth to me rather than the other way around.”
“What are you talking about?” she snapped as the woman drew closer, carrying a tray in both hands. There was an assortment of things on the silver platter—pills, syringes, silver objects that were definitely torture devices.
“You’re going to tell me what I need to know,” Absalon said, raising a hand, balling it into a fist. “Or you’re going to be hooked up to a machine and have your memories wiped. We’ll replace them with new ones. We’ll turn you into a drone of the State.” He laughed. “The daughter your father always wanted.”
“Fuck you,” Charlie spat.
The female tech grasped her by the chin and squeezed hard. She proceeded to shove pills into her mouth, then flushed water into it from a small hose. She stroked Charlie’s throat like she was a cat, forcing her to swallow.
“What are you doing?” Charlie choked.
“You have two options, Spade,” Absalon said. “You can do this peacefully, tell us what we want to know, and we won’t have to hook you up to a machine and find the very specific memory that will tell us the access code to the cloud folder Jones prepped for you. Or, we’ll do exactly that.”
The technician force-fed her more pills, and Charlie’s stomach heaved. It was MemXor. They were feeding her MemXor. The same drug that had driven others crazy in high doses. And it gave them strength. Maybe if...
“Now, it would be terribly annoying to have to trawl through your memories to find the right one, but we’ll do that, gladly. The decision is yours.” Absalon nodded, and turned on his heel, walking for the door.
“Wait, when do I—"
But the woman tech had already picked up the syringe. She pressed it into the side of Charlie’s neck, and searing pain traveled from the point of contact through her muscles, toward the center of her chest. Charlie shrieked, the heat too much to bear. She slammed back against nothing, but the glass binding held her in place.
Slowly, the cell dropped out of view. Her eyes closed, and Charlie was gone.
17
“You have done nothing but disappoint me since the day of your birth, Charlotte,” her father’s voice echoed in the chamber.
Was it a dream? No, she’d had no dreams, only pain with a backdrop of blackness. Charlie opened her eyes to the cell, her mouth dry, her throat aflame.
Nathaniel stood just inside the room, his back to the door, dressed in his smart suit, as always. He reminded her of the devil, his hands clasped behind his back, the flecks of gray at his temples pronounced by the sharp lights above.
“You killed your mother. You were born female. You defied all my rules and all my expectations, and now this. Allied with the rebellion. Allied with those who seek to bring me and what I have created to its knees. Have you no shame?”
The drugs will make you strong. They gave you too much.
It hurt to think, not only because of whatever they’d given her, but also because of what he’d said. All her worst fears realized. The truth worded plainly. All the hard work she’d told herself was for her had actually be
en for him. To prove herself, and it would never have worked.
He would never be proud. He would never be good.
He was Nathaniel Spade, and he didn’t just resemble the devil. He was the devil.
Find a way out. A way to save Levi.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, the words raw against her throat.
“I could ask you the same question. Why ruin everything I’ve built?”
“You want to hurt them,” she said. “The people. You only care about yourselves, about the State. The memory removal process...”
“Is flawed, as is any other, but it works. And it is what our society needs.” Nathaniel said it with such conviction that it was almost believable. He lifted his arm and checked the timepiece there. “It’s late. I should not have come. I wanted you to understand what a failure you have become.” He turned his back on her.
“Wait,” she said, thinking on her feet. Or rather, off them. “Is there any way I can... redeem myself?” The word was disgusting on her tongue. Redeem herself to him? There were at least two deaths on his shoulders, and countless more she hadn’t investigated.
And Levi. What had happened to Levi?
Nathaniel exhaled, slowly. “I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do, child. They would have had your head if it wasn’t for me. Your relationship with me has saved you.”
Charlie trembled, a low bubbling of rage starting in her belly. She despised him for this. For the fact that he had all the power to do the right thing, but had done wrong instead. And she hated that she’d let herself be drawn into that.
“I could have your head on a plate if I wanted it,” Nathaniel said, drawing it out. “I could punish you endlessly for your betrayal. Your fate rests in my hands. How does that make you feel?”
Charlie struggled against her pride, against that anger. She had to do this. Only way to get out.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and the tears gathered naturally. “I’m sorry I disappointed you.” Each word was as bitter as the last. “I didn’t want to. I just wanted to make you proud... somehow.”
“Make me proud,” Nathaniel said, after a beat. “Hmm. There’s only one way you can make me proud.”
“I’ll do anything,” Charlie said softly. “Anything. I’ll work at Mem Store. I’ll be the perfect daughter. Whatever you want me to be.”
Nathaniel narrowed his eyes at her. “Anything?” He came forward slowly. “You’ll give me the codes, right now? The ones you’ve been keeping from us?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. “I’ll type them in for you, if you have a terminal nearby?”
Nathanial licked his thin lips, and it was clear there was more to this than Charlie had anticipated. “Now,” he muttered and checked his watch again. “But it must be quickly. I have a meeting with Absalon soon, and he wouldn’t like it if...” He cut off, clearing his throat.
So, that was it. Absalon and Nathaniel weren’t as close as they seemed. They were vying for power, and these codes were a bargaining chip. Charlie had power. A tiny amount.
“Yes, now. If you free me, I’ll give them to you. Please, Father.” It was her last resort. A push toward the freedom that he had to grant her now, if he wanted the codes for himself.
“Good. Then come.” Nathaniel stepped forward and touched the sides of the glass tubing holding Charlie in place. Immediately, it released her, and she fell to the ground. Nathaniel didn’t help her, but tapped his heel. “Quickly.”
Charlie rose from the crouch, power pumping through her muscles and her veins. She was refreshed, no longer aching from the injection or the drugs, and the anger she’d held back roared through her.
“This way,” Nathaniel said, stepping toward the exit. He clicked his fingers and the doors slid open. Two guards entered. “Help me with her. Down the hall, to the experimental chamber. Quickly. And not a word of it to anyone.”
The men came forward, two hulking shapes, armed only with truncheons.
Charlie saw her opportunity.
18
The men reached out as one, hands strong, and Charlie acted. She moved fast, using the training from the SSG with the strength the MemXor had given her.
Her hand closed around one hairy wrist, then another. She twisted, bringing the arms behind the guards’ backs, then driving them to their knees in front of her. The guard on the left, balding, let out a surprised grunt, the one on the right lifted his truncheon.
Charlie kicked it from his hand immediately. It skittered across the metal floor.
“What are you doing?” Nathaniel cried. “Get up. Detain her, you fools!”
Charlie released her grip on their arms, grabbed their heads, and slammed them together, once. A fantastic “thunk” of flesh and bone meeting. The men slumped to the floor, out cold. Charlie had no doubt that she’d be able to kill them bare-handed.
That ripping off fingers or gouging out eyes would be easy, but she wasn’t interested in murdering men. She had to use the time she had to get Levi out, to run and hide before they found the truth she’d been keeping and did not yet know herself.
Charlie charged across the room toward her father.
Nathaniel stumbled back, reaching under his suit jacket for something.
She reached him before he got it out and grabbed him by the lapels. Charlie lifted her father effortlessly, shocked at her own strength, but refusing to show it.
“Now, you’re going to do what I ask,” she said.
“He gave you MemXor,” Nathaniel choked. “He was going to do it, then. He was going to take the memory before I’d approved it. Don’t you see, child? I didn’t want this to happen to you. The drug is unstable. In high doses..."
“Trust me, I know," Charlie replied. “I want the keycard to Levi’s cell.”
“Please, don’t do anything rash,” Nathaniel replied, grasping at her wrists. “You’ve got to understand, everything I’ve done has been for us. For the world. I—the MemXor drug is dangerous. Absalon wants to use it to—"
“The keycard,” Charlie repeated, cutting across her father’s bullshit. There was no guarantee he’d say anything real now. She couldn’t trust him, but she could trust the information Jones had saved for her.
The only way to access that was through Levi.
“I don’t—”
She shifted her grip and placed a hand around her father’s throat. She squeezed, increasing the pressure until the veins stood out in his neck, and he kicked his legs.
“Please,” he choked. “It’s in my pocket.”
“Good,” Charlie said but didn’t release her grip.
He punched at her arms, but it was like feathers brushing her skin. It didn’t hurt, didn’t make a difference to her, whatsoever. Likely, the MemXor would wear off and the pain of those punches would grow, bruises would show blue against her skin. But that was a worry for later.
“L-et me go.” Nathaniel’s eyelids drooped and finally shut.
Right away, Charlie released her hold on his throat and reached into his coat. She searched for the keycard, a small square that would grant her the access to Levi’s cell, and likely the clearance to move through this facility—wherever it was. Whatever it was.
Charlie let her father, unconscious not dead, down to the floor, then tucked the keycard into her pocket. She considered him, for a moment, then bent and turned him over. She stripped off his jacket and slipped it on, for a method of cover while she roamed the halls. Then, she removed her SSG watch and stared at it for a long moment.
Her connection to all she’d been for the longest time. Her decision to take the job, to serve so that she could impress both herself and the man at her feet.
Charlie dropped it on his chest, then hurried for the exit.
She let herself out and into the hall beyond. The aesthetic here was the same—plain white and steel, misted glass fronting other rooms. She moved down the hallway, checking the codes and tags next to each doorway. The hall was empty for now, but she couldn’t trust that it
would stay that way for long. The guards would come soon. The ones in her cell would wake up and sound the alarm.
Subject 32345 Jonas Pringle
Another tag, but not the one she was looking for. Charlie jogged from one side of the corridor to the other, barefoot, her throat still dry, and blood rushing in her ears, then dying down, rushing again, like the ebb and flow of her very makeup had been changed.
Subject 34589 Levi Daniels, Highest Priority
Charlie’s heart leaped into her throat. She lifted her father’s keycard and swiped it against the tag. The doors opened with a hiss, and she entered.
Levi hung from glass tubes attached to the ceiling. His eyes were closed but snapped open as she stepped into the room. “How?”
“Does it matter?” She was at his side in a moment and swept the card over the contraption. It dropped him from the tubing. She caught him under the arms and held him upright. “We have to go, fast, before it wears off.”
“What?”
“The MemXor.”
“They gave you the drug?” Levi struggled upright, pale and bleeding at the sides from where his struggling had pressed him up against the needles on either side of the glass tubes. “You’ll need help.”
“What do you mean?”
“The dosage had to be high if you’re strong. Was it just the MemXor?”
“They injected me with something else. I don’t know what.”
Levi straightened but stumbled forward. She caught him under the arms.
“There’s a lab at our headquarters,” he said with a stuttered breath. “We can help you, whatever they did. We can try to reverse it.”
Charlie nodded. “We’ll have to make it out of here first.” She slipped her arm around his body and lifted. He was muscular, but thin, tall, as well, yet she didn’t struggle with him at all. “Let’s go.”
They set off for the door together, just as an alarm sounded throughout the facility.
19