by Rayya Deeb
“Daddy,” I muttered under my breath, like I was a little girl again. The last time I saw him I was just barely a teenager, and now, I was practically an adult.
My friends didn’t say a word. They all looked in through the glass, and then back at me, in total silence, respecting the fact that this was no small moment. I tried to speak and the sound that came out of my mouth sounded like gibberish, “Aghoostoblichash— blughblugh— ohhwhumm.” Horrified, I looked to Anika and frantically shook my head. Then, I quickly looked back at my dad. I didn’t want him to disappear from my sight.
Dom stepped in to hold my arm. “What’s happening to her?!”
Anika maintained her calm. “I’m not surprised. Your speech has been intercepted.”
“They’re relentless,” Dom added.
I stared at my dad. He rubbed his hand along his jawbone, staring back at me, processing a moment that probably hit him like a ton of bricks. I plastered my hand on the glass. He started towards me from the other side and the scientists behind him looked on, intrigued and confused.
Anika grasped my head with her hands and turned me to face her, scanning my eyes with her red-framed flexer glasses. When she let go, I flung my gaze back to my dad walking towards me.
Anika spoke up louder than her normal calm self, “Just what I suspected. You’ve got a hardware visitor in there that’s overriding the master in your flex implant to block the language center of your brain.”
“Christ!” Dom shouted.
“Keep your cool, Dominic.”
“This isn’t looking good, you guys,” Reba added with a shaky voice.
I tried to speak again. “Meeuulipp-aaahhraa!” My frustrations flared. My dad was only several feet away from me, but on the other side of an incredibly thick clear wall. I could see him, but I couldn’t reach him. I was on the verge of hyperventilation. I felt it climbing up my legs…
Dom took my hand. “Don’t panic, we’ll figure this out.”
Anika launched a screen in front of herself. “I’ll see if I can get a read on the signals that your flexer picks up so we can understand the blocks going into your brain.”
My long-awaited reunion with my dad was burdened by interference and obstacles. He reached the glass and his eyes searched my face, looking for his little girl. But there wasn’t a little girl here anymore. I could see his inner dialogue just by looking into his eyes. Mine were the same as his, just a different color. It was clear he knew there was a heavy backstory just in the fact that I was standing before him, and he could also decipher that his little girl was being manipulated. My dad was no fool.
His lips mouthed, “I’m sorry.” Even though I heard not a sound, his words hit me hard. I heard them in his arms hanging at his side with his shoulders rounded forward and his palms facing me, his clenched brows and quivering lips. Face-to-face with my dad, his nerves washed over me. He looked helpless, apologetic, but also overcome with joy to see me.
The echo of my heartbeat was the only intelligible sound my body could produce while a bucket of words filled up at the top of my throat, unable to come out.
Booming alarms suddenly pierced the quiet and the lights went out. I threw my hands to my ears. My friends all covered theirs, too. I looked through to my dad; his side of the glass was still lit up. He started yelling, and his colleagues began to scramble for help. I’d never seen my dad so intense. Blood filled the whites of his eyes. There was no sound, but the veins bulging in his neck and forehead were loud enough. This whole time I couldn’t hear him, but I understood him completely.
Then the lights went out completely. My dad was gone.
20
I WAS BEING transported upwards at an alarmingly high speed. Nothing was touching my body yet I couldn’t move. My eyes weren’t covered with a blindfold or anything, but I couldn’t see a thing. Just black. I blinked, hoping for something to appear, even those annoying little flashes you see after a light shines in your eye. Anything, literally anything would be good to see. But there was nothing. My heart pounded out of control and my throat started to close as I imagined this could be permanent: blind and mute forever. My ultimate punishment for defying the law and order of S.O.I.L. But I didn’t even know for sure that it was S.O.I.L. that had me. I just knew that someone had me. Someone that didn’t like that I’d found my dad.
Some forces out there were intentionally keeping me and my dad apart. I would not rest until I found out exactly who they were and why they didn’t want us to reunite. I had failed at reaching my dad and I couldn’t be mad at anyone but myself for being so naive to the dangers of the flex implant and for thinking I could outsmart anyone who got into my flexer. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. “What’s done is done…” they say, and now I was just scared.
I tried to keep calm but my heart had a different plan. It pounded like a deep bass drum in a hollow cave. Every sound reverberated. A pressure built up between my eyes and extended up to my forehead and down between my ears.
Was this also happening to the others? I could neither see nor hear them.
We stopped.
I recognized the gentle swoosh of an acoustic carrier door opening. I was moved into it by a set of large hands that suddenly gripped my upper arms. I flinched and we were off.
We traveled about three minutes before we came to a stop. The hands pushed at my back, urging me to walk again. I did. Until I could see, hear and speak again I was going to do exactly what was requested of me. Well, maybe not exactly everything but I was going to choose my battles to the best of my mentally-compromised ability.
This walk only lasted a few moments and then I was brought to a stop, and moved into a seat.
I suddenly got a cranial flex. Doro?! Are you getting this?
Dom!
Dom, help me, I can’t see anything! I flexed back at lightning speed, not knowing if my flexes could be sent off because I couldn’t speak and I wasn’t sure if this attack on me affected words from coming out of me altogether, even in thought form. But I tried anyways.
Try not to freak out, I’m your eyes for now. They’ve got us all in a room. You, me, Anika, Giancarlo and Reba.
Okay, it worked! I could send and receive encrypted messages through cranial flexes, but I couldn’t speak my thoughts. Thank goodness Dom had that flex implant too so that we could communicate virtually in these crucial moments.
Who? Who is here?! I flexed Dom.
Dom fired back: Three men in black— S.O.I.L., I’m sure. And now someone else is coming into the room.
I can’t see or speak! What is happening to me?!
I have no idea. But we’re going to fix this, we’re working on it—
Work fast, Dom, please work fast! Claustrophobia was setting in like I had been buried alive inside a wood coffin.
Dom didn’t reply and that didn’t make this any easier.
I was there for a long time, as the sound of my speeding heartbeat clashed with the sounds of a muffled debate between several men and a woman. It was literally like I was buried below layers of sand and mud and Dom was above me furiously digging.
What is happening, Dom?
Dom?
Dom!?
21
A SCANNER MOVED across my eyes. It was familiar. Before I had the chance to move, I knew I shouldn’t. I was back in a BioNan. I would never forget my first and last time, in Anika’s secret chamber of techno-medicine at her ranch in Virginia. Everything was a blur in my brain. But then I saw the light— literally! I started to try and put together what was happening but no sooner than that I was being ejected from this beautiful machine.
As my body made its way out, I looked up to see Anika. I was so glad it was her, and beyond relieved that I could see again.
I immediately got a flex from Dom— Don’t move. It said.
I didn’t. I could see in my periphery that I was on a portable BioNan island in a large, dull metallic gold room. My mind was emerging from a muggy fog, but I was perfectly aware of e
verything that had happened to me leading up to this point.
Dom had extreme efficiency with his flex delivery. Giancarlo got us in here by convincing the higher-ups that you were in grave danger with your implant and if they didn’t oblige, you could die and their lives would be on the line.
None of this was making sense. I needed to get my mind and body back stat. I don’t understand.
They know you’re John Campbell’s daughter, Doro. And John Campbell, as you guessed, is really important around here. If anything happens to you while you’re under their watch, they’re as good as dead to Seneca.
This was insane. I mean, one octillion percent beyond insane.
Why am I in a BioNan?
Anika wiped your operating system and rebooted to purge the malware that was messing you up.
I furrowed my brow, feeling slightly violated even though I realized it needed to happen. No sooner than I had the thought, Dom flexed me again.
We had no choice, you were completely under siege.
He was correct, and I did feel quite relieved, however— Something doesn’t feel right, Dom.
I know. This is obviously way more complex than a simple reboot, and Anika will talk to you about that, but we right now we just need to get out of here—
How?
The guys and I are going to rush them, you and Anika run.
I looked around and realized Dom, Reba and Giancarlo were sitting at a long rectangular table right behind me. Three S.O.I.L. men in black were directly behind them. I could sense that something was about to happen. Reba looked terrified, Giancarlo was blank. I knew this wasn’t right. I had to act fast.
Dom, it won’t work, you won’t be able to get the door open.
I’ll steal their flexers, I’ll make it happen.
Flexers. Flexers! That was it. The three men in black all had Flexer watches. I had to get into them.
Don’t do it. I flexed Dom quick.
We have no other choice! We have to get out before we meet our next fate.
Sit tight. I replied.
I looked to the flexers on the men in black. Dom saw where I was looking and understood where I was going with this. We gave each other a knowing look. He nudged Reba. Reba already knew. He nodded at me.
I powered up my FlexOculi and ran my sensor to pick up the signals from the three flexers belonging to the men in black. It gave me a rush that my system was back in order and I was jumping right back into my groove. I ran some coding and broke into their most basic functions. I scrolled cranially to their flexer command centers, to the morph command, and activated liquid handcuffs.
I shifted my attention back to the three men as their watches turned to handcuffs. Bingo!
They started yelling in Spanish and tried to get control of their flexers but they couldn’t. The control was all mine now.
Back to my FlexOculi. I commanded the cuffs to slowly tighten.
The men started shouting as the cuffs squeezed their wrists. They dropped to their knees, no longer shouting but squealing in pain and trying to break free from the cuffs.
I stood up. “Open the door,” I ordered.
“Never!” One of the men screamed through spit and gritted teeth.
I remained calm, looked to my friends and nodded— they all stood by my side. I went back to my FlexOculi and commanded the cuffs to tighten more. I looked back to the men on the ground. One of them threw his arms in the air and begged for me to make it stop, but instead I just tightened it a notch more, cutting into skin…
“Command open door or you lose your hands in three… two…”
“Okay! Okay!” The pleading man writhed in pain as the other two were curled over their own hands.
Through a whimper the man commanded, “Open door.”
22
LESS THAN A hundred seconds after we had escaped through the door, Dom, Reba, Anika, Giancarlo and I were riding an empty acoustic carrier. Everyone sat dead still with stoic looks, but Dom was anxious. His knee bounced up and down and he just couldn’t keep still. I didn’t know what the immediate plan was, but along with my friends we would find the way. I had lost faith in me by myself. I’d danced with defeat. But these people lifted me. I put my hand on Dom’s bouncing leg. “Try and chill.”
Dom stopped moving and looked at me resolutely. “They know Anika is not a Senecan and were prepared to take care of her. There is no way I can chill.”
I understood. Anika meant the world to Dom and his family.
The acoustic carrier stopped and opened to a twelve-by-twelve version of the safe-deposit room at the bank.
Giancarlo got off first and walked up to a glossy gray panel on the wall. He put his flexer up to it and illuminated buttons instantly appeared, with numbers and symbols like those on a classic keyboard. We stood behind him as he tapped twelve different buttons in the air. The wall with the panel on it then disappeared, leaving us looking out over a massive power grid.
The five of us stepped across a slim metal walkway toward a set of stairs that led down into the field of panels. Not just any field, but like many football fields, with a circumference I couldn’t determine because my eyes couldn’t see that far. It was incredible!
“What is this?” I asked. Ahh, my first words since the brain invasion!
“It’s our way out,” Giancarlo said.
Dom and I looked at each other puzzled. Dom asked, “What goes on here, Giancarlo? We’ve never seen a place like this in our hub.”
Giancarlo waved us along. “I will tell you about it as we go, but we need to keep moving.”
The five of us hurried down the stairs and onto a pathway through the power field. Giancarlo gave us the lowdown as we ran along the sleek cement. “There are five Dynamo Zones in Seneca hubs around the world and each has emergency ascension domes for evacuation to the Aboves.”
“What exactly happens in these zones?” Anika asked.
“They are harvesting energy from Earth’s core,” Giancarlo replied.
“Come again?” I asked, a little short of breath as we ran between the glossy black, airplane-sized panels that towered over us. I could feel something brewing underneath by way of the warm, vibrating ground.
Giancarlo kept going. “The earth has a molten layer in its outer core and the theory is that in Seneca we transfer the energy that comes from that into power.”
Impressive. Earth’s resources were being used on a whole new level here. I hated Seneca, but, man, did I love Seneca.
Reba didn’t look too surprised, so I had to ask, “Did you know about this?”
Out of breath and sweating like crazy, he nodded.
I stopped in my tracks but kept moving all in the same stride, “I can’t believe you knew about this and never said anything.”
“I have a certain type of clearance, Campbella.”
I scoffed. But then again, I bet my dad would say the same thing. I had to learn to not be mad at my loved ones for their obligatorily clandestine behavior.
Anika stopped and hunched over. “Can we take a breath?”
Dom helped hold her up. “You alright, Anika?”
She tried to stand and make it look like nothing was wrong, but her skin was clammy and pale. Still, she assured us, “I’m fine.”
The two Intuerians didn’t give off the vibe that we were fine though, and I fed off of that. Giancarlo motioned for us to keep going. “We can’t stop.”
Dom’s adrenaline was cranking. “I’ll carry you,” he said to Anika. He bent down for her to climb on to his back, but she was too weak and looked like she was about to pass out. Reba helped hold her up by one of her arms and said, “She’s dehydrated and her blood pressure is really low. We need to get her out of here.”
I knew that help was not coming from inside this hub considering Anika wasn’t even Senecan. Anika was an alien here. She’d probably get thrown in some crazy isolation chamber only to be left for dead. Under no circumstance could we let Anika get caught, but more importantly, I c
ouldn’t leave. There were more questions now than there were when I set out to come here. There was a reason for this level of secrecy and attempts to control the flow of information inside Seneca. It was no longer a question as to whether or not my dad was here, but now I couldn’t leave before speaking with him, face-to-face. As much as I cared for Anika, I couldn’t let my mission end because of this situation.
Reba and I helped her up onto Dom’s back. He held tight onto her legs as she hunched over his shoulder. We jogged a hundred yards more to the entrance of the emergency ascension dome as my mind raced through ways to say what needed to be said— that I couldn’t go with them.
Anika mustered enough strength to barely open her eyes and look at me and me only. A fluttering inclination told me that this would be the last time we would ever see each other. I remembered having that feeling with my grandmother in her hospital bed, and then she passed a few hours later. My heart was heavy and my mind was running fast. It was almost too much for my body to handle.
“What’s going on here is something truly exceptional, and it’s up to you to ensure it’s on the right trajectory,” she whispered to me.
“I will do my best.” I meant it. I didn’t find my purpose. My purpose found me.
She went on, “It won’t be easy. Where there is knowledge, there will always be an evil force out there trying to control it. And that force will stop at nothing because knowledge is power.”
Anika suddenly got woozy.
“Anika—” I took her arm. It was crazy to be on the opposite side here. I was used to Anika looking out for me when I was messed up. But right now she was hanging on by a thread. “Don’t worry, you’re almost out of here. The guys will make sure you are okay. I am grateful for you, Anika. I never would have made it this far if it wasn’t for you.”
Anika smiled as her head swayed. Dom’s mind was set on getting her to safety, “Let’s do this!”
Reba, Giancarlo, Dom and Anika boarded the carrier. My feet stayed planted right where they were. I recalled what Jadel said to me when I first met him and it all made sense to me now. “Worry is an illusion and what will be, will be.” I knew I couldn’t stop seeking answers and knowledge because problems might arise.