12
Nancy rubbed her temples with her fingers and tried to fend off the stress headache that Vax, Gorb, and the dozens of panicked patients were giving her, but it wasn’t working.
“You texted Lyra, right, Vax?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, what did she say?”
“Nothing. She didn’t reply, she just asked how many patients we had.”
They were now out of hospital rooms. Nancy had tried paging Grayson, but so far no killjoy. She chuckled at her own joke. It was just that kind of a day. In fact, the only good thing she could really say about today was that none of the crazy ghosts wreaking havoc on the rest of the space station had made their way to the hospital.
Screams in the waiting room alerted her to a change in the situation. She rounded the corner and froze. There, in the corner, was a see-through, exact replica of the intergalactic movie star, Heath Leopard. Only instead of smiling and mugging for cameras, he was carrying a battle axe.
Ghost Heath swung the battle axe, drawing another burst of screams from the crowd, who got out of their seats and ran toward the patient rooms. Nancy stood frozen, keeping her eye on the armed apparition.
“Gorb?” Nancy asked.
“Yes?” he answered her without looking at her, he kept his eyes on the ghost as well.
“Is this the first ghost of the day in here, or is this just the first time I’ve seen one?”
“First time for all of us in here,” he said. “This is new. New and bad. I wish Lyra were here. Or Macro.”
“Me too,” Nancy said. “Where is that little robot?”
Vax came around the corner, saw the ghost, and drew his sword. “Well,” he said, “I guess it was just a matter of time. The ghost wounds are real enough, the ghosts might as well be too. I wonder what’s holding up Lyra?”
“Well, to be fair, her boyfriend is being held hostage for execution,” Nancy said, watching Vax aim the sword at the ghost, who for now stayed put on his end of the room. “But I don’t know how much longer we’re going to be able to hold out. I’ll text her again and ask her to hurry.”
Lyra placed her hand on the doorknob. She hoped fervently that Ian was, in fact, behind door number one. She took several deep breaths and then turned the handle.
The door opened into what looked like another world. The world of the new live studio feed of Fear Zone Universe. The room was unbelievably large and unrecognizable as part of the space station.
It must be the magic, Lyra thought, because this room should not fit here. Everything in the room looked exactly like it did on television, right down to the evil ginger ghost and the throne and the ticking clock. And Ian.
“Ian!” She crossed the room quickly to where he was. They met in the middle and hugged. So far, none of the dozens of ghosts milling around the room seemed to care or notice. Weird. Lyra wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
Ian looked worried and shook his head. “Lyra, you shouldn’t be here.”
“You texted me. A bunch. Asking for help.”
“I mean, you shouldn’t have come alone. This ghost girl is crazy. Now you’re trapped too!”
“Finally!” Aquila’s voice reverberated around the room. Lyra turned to see her rise from her throne.
“Look everybody, it’s the hot girlfriend he keeps going on and on about.”
“What do you want?” Lyra asked.
“I want what everybody wants,” she said, walking toward the two of them, “world domination. Only the good kind.”
Normally, Lyra would go for a stalling type of strategy, but a quick glance up at the clock revealed that Ian only had about seventy minutes left.
“The good kind of world domination?” Lyra couldn’t help but ask.
Aquila was close enough now to hold a hand out and touch Lyra’s face.
Lyra took a step back.
“I must admit,” Aquila said, “you are even prettier in real life.”
What’s really going on here? Lyra thought. I swear if she asks me to be her assistant, she’s in big trouble. She balled a fist. “What in stars name do Ian or I have to do with world domination?”
“Oh, you? Nothing. And the good kind of world domination means the internet. Fun, entertaining, endless. Regular world domination would just be tedious and boring. Killing people and ordering them around, and endless work, work, work. Plus, this way I sort of get both. And I get to be famous. Win-win.”
“Tell you what,” Ian said. “You can have Fear Zone Universe. It’s all yours. You keep the show, take over the internet, and do your thing. Just let Lyra and me go, okay?”
“Nice try but it’s not going to happen,” Aquila said. “I’m in charge now. Of everything. I don’t need your permission.”
“I don’t know where you found this one, Ian, but she’s really getting on my nerves,” Lyra said.
“She found me. And kidnapped me. You just remember that, okay?”
“I think I’ll digitize you too, Lyra. Make you my personal, immortal slave.”
“Hard Pass,” Lyra replied.
That made Aquila laugh, a rolling, simulated sound that went on too long.
“You have no idea how powerful I am. Or what I know. Even if I’m not strong enough now to rule the universe, I will be soon. And the only people powerful enough to stop me wouldn’t dare. I know too much.” She cackled again.
“What is she talking about, Ian?”
Ian shrugged.
“If you’re so powerful that you’re taking over everything,” Lyra said, taking a few steps forward to get a good look at Aquila, “why take the time to kidnap Ian, to broadcast his web show live?”
“Attention.”
“Yeah,” Lyra said. “I got that, but why?”
“I do not seek the attention you think I do. But the show had high enough ratings to push past the threshold I needed to get the attention of the politicians. It is a means to an end, I assure you. A means to an end with style. One has to get off on the right foot if one is going to rule for eternity.”
“Sure,” Lyra said. “One certainly should.” She gave Ian a sideways glance.
Aquila straightened, like she was thinking for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and opened them again. “Well, they’re here and all set up.” Aquila smiled. “It’s almost time. Oh, this is going to get exciting people, don’t turn that dial.”
Lyra narrowed her eyes at Astrid. “Who’s set up? Why can’t you make sense? Are you using some king of ghost logic or something?”
Aquila’s smile got bigger. “The Intergalactic Police are here, Lyra. Don’t worry, they will save you all.”
Lyra didn’t know Aquila very well, but she recognized sarcasm when she heard it. “You don’t look scared,” Lyra said. “Ian, why doesn’t she look scared?”
Lyra decided that if it was true and Aquila was right, and the Intergalactic Police were here to shut her down, she was going to do everything in her power to help them do it. Even if they didn’t scare Aquila. Her new goal was to make her afraid.
She remembered Astrid’s magic. Maybe it could get her out of the room as a ghost. Very powerful, but for a short period of time.
If she went full spirit and sprinted through the wall to the other side, there wasn’t anything anybody could do to stop her. In theory.
But there was still Ian. She doubted the magic bean could get them both out at the same time. The only thing she could do was to hope that Aquila was a ghost of her word and would wait until the countdown clock ended to kill him. That would give her the time she needed.
She turned to Ian and gave him a worried smile. “Ian, I’m sorry. I have to go. I’ll figure this out, I promise.”
“I’ll be counting on it. You just needed to see what she’s got. Figure out her plan, right?”
“Right.”
“I told you,” Aquila sneered, “neither of you are going anywhere.”
“Haven’t you ever been wrong before?” Lyra turned
and asked her.
“No. I haven’t.”
Lyra grasped the small pebble sized object in her pocket and smiled. “Good, there’s a first time for everything.” She popped the magic bean in her mouth and thought ghost thoughts. Fast-moving ghost thoughts. By the time she knew it had even worked, she was out of the room and back out into the recognizable part of Celestica.
Once out of the room, she expected to hear Aquila shrieking or screaming or something in response to her unlikely escape, but she couldn’t hear anything at all. She put her ear to the wall. Still nothing. Weird. Must be some sort of ghost sound proofing or an alternate dimension or something.
That’s when she realized that she wasn’t alone.
Callista was still standing close by. Behind her was Grayson, and at least a dozen armed Interplanetary Patrol Officers, just like Aquila had said.
“I’m sorry, Lyra,” Grayson said. “I held them off as long as I could. They would have never let you inside that room.”
“Actually,” one of the Intergalactics said, stepping forward toward Lyra, “you’re now under arrest for purposefully interfering in an Intergalactic Code Thirty Security Matter.”
Lyra stepped back. “Hold it right there, skippy. So close. You had me right up until the knowing part. I obviously didn’t even know you guys were here until now.”
The Intergalactic attempting to arrest her stopped and glanced at one of the officers who was wearing a blue hat.
The guy with the hat held up a hand for him to stop.
“Oh,” Lyra said, “I guess you’re in charge then. You weren’t going to stop him from arresting me. You were just going to stand there unless I objected even though you knew you had no grounds. Interesting.”
“I’m Lt. Jarvis. I’m in charge of this operation. And make no mistake, I’ll arrest anyone and everyone who gets in my way. And I assume at some point that will be you, so I was attempting to save us both some valuable time. You see, I’ve been at this awhile and I can spot the troublemakers from a mile away. And you’re it.”
“I don’t like you either,” Lyra said, “but there are such things as laws,” Lyra said. It was interesting to her that Lt. Jarvis had the pear body shape, sort of like a jar. He looked human, mid-sixties, with a small amount of dark hair chopped badly into a buzz cut.
Callista shifted her weight from foot to foot, but never said anything. Lyra made quick, glancing, eye contact with her trying to communicate the fact that she thought that was a really good idea. The last thing these soldiers needed to know was that the space station had a powerful cyborg vampire on their side.
Lt. Jarvis made a face. “Not really. Trust me, here. In the event of a Code 30 involving Intergalactic Security, I can basically do whatever I want.”
“Great. You’ll get along wonderfully with the ghost ginger megalomaniac in there,” Lyra said, pointing at the wall behind her. “Why don’t I just open up this door here, and let you two have a picnic and work out your differences, for the good of Intergalactic Security, of course.”
“I think you should dial it back, Lyra,” Grayson suggested. “In their own way, I think these guys are here to help. After all she’s one of theirs who got away, and now they look stupid.”
A dozen weapons turned toward Grayson’s head.
“That information was classified,” Jarvis said. “Consider this the very last warning any of you Celestica yahoos will ever get. I have a job to do.”
“Great,” Lyra said. “So what’s the plan?” That’s when Lyra remembered that as annoying as these guys were, her plan was still to help them stop Aquila, but man they were really annoying.
“The plan is for you people to disperse and stay out of my way and away from this area.”
“That’s a stupid plan and it doesn’t work for me,” Lyra said. “We need something serious to stop her. Besides, you people started this. You brought this creature, or whatever she is, to life,” Lyra said.
She started to think through the sequence of events. “Then you tracked her here. It’s the only way you could have gotten here this fast. Or you sent her here, on purpose, once you lost control of the situation. Way out here, where your little experiment will do the least bit of damage. You just didn’t count on her internet gamble with Fear Zone Universe, did you? Now everybody knows she’s here. Oops.”
Lyra was on a roll, and the look on Jarvis’ face told her that she was on the right track, yet she had this awful feeling that she was forgetting something. Ian!
“Hey,” she said excitedly, pointing again, all sarcasm gone from her voice, “there’s a hostage in there! Ian, the star of Fear Zone Universe and my boyfriend. Your experiment is going to kill him, and soon.”
She waited for the soldiers to jump into action and use those weapons for something useful. Nobody moved. Lyra searched the soldiers’ faces and landed on Jarvis. He already knew. Because of the internet. He knew and he didn’t care.
Lyra deflated. “Well if you’re not here to help us, then why are you here?”
“They’re going to contain the threat, Lyra,” Grayson offered. The guns swung in his direction again. “What? My guess as to your dumb game plan can’t be retroactively classified, can it? You’re awfully sensitive considering you’re the guy in charge, you know.”
Jarvis thought about it for a minute. “I don’t care if you like the plan or not, but I assure you we’ve got reinforcements coming, and an interdisciplinary plan to contain the subject.”
Lyra balked. “That sounds purposefully vague, fluid, and generally unhelpful. I don’t suppose any part of your plan is going to happen within the next seventy minutes, is it?”
“That’s a negative. These things take time to set up properly.”
“What you’re saying is that you’re going to let him die. Live. On the air.”
Jarvis shook his head. “Oh, no ma’am. We’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to cut the live feed.”
Lyra’s mind raced. There was no reasoning with this guy if he was already ok with Ian getting killed. And getting herself arrested wasn’t going to help either.
She needed a plan and she needed it fast, and whatever she came up with, Jarvis was just going to get in the way. She was going to need all the help she could get. She knew she was going to mobilize anybody who would risk arrest and death to help Ian.
There was one more question nagging at her, though. The rest of the space station. “I assume, as part of your multidisciplinary plan, that you’ve started an orderly evacuation of Celestica?”
Jarvis shook his head. It was all that she needed to know. He was going to let us all die to contain the threat. What was this experiment gone wrong anyway? And she knew what Jarvis didn’t. That Aquila had dirt on the politicians.
He wasn’t here to take her out, poor sap, he was here to die along with the rest of us, along with any of the evidence. He just didn’t know it yet.
Lyra, satisfied with the answers, turned to leave, but then turned back.
“One more thing, Jarvis, you do realize that she’s not physically confined to the space station, right? She’s a ghost. She can escape through matter and she’s threatening to become part of and rule the internet. What good are your guns and plans against that sort of experimental threat?”
“Multi. Disciplinary,” he spat out in response. “They will have a containment plan in place soon, and I’m going to carry it out to the letter, whether it’s to your satisfaction or not.”
Sure they will, Lyra thought. Good luck with that.
“Alright. Let’s go, Grayson. Might as well get a few drinks down the hatch before we all take one for the Intergalactic team, right?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Grayson said, as he and Callista followed her down the hallway.
As soon as the trio was clear of the soldiers, Lyra started bolting toward the hospital.
Grayson caught her by the coat. “Don’t.”
“What are you talking about, Grayson? We hav
e to get back to the hospital and warn everybody. And then get them to help us.”
“One, you promised me a drink,” Grayson said. And then, because he could tell she was going to try to bolt again, he hurried “and two, I can assure you that they have the hospital, our offices, and our apartments bugged.”
“Oh yeah,” Lyra said, stopping in mid-bolt and standing there. “You’re probably right. What, then?”
“We’ll go with your original, genius idea,” he said. He always knew what to say to make her feel a little bit better. “Text everyone and have them meet us at the Frenzy. And include that little communications nerd, Ben.”
“Why?”
“They’re spying on us, we may as well return the favor and know what they’re up to,” he answered.
Lyra kissed him on the cheek. “You’re the genius. You’re right. If they don’t know what our plan is, we might still have a chance to save Ian. Especially if we know what they’re up to.”
“Hey, why were you so quiet the whole time?” Lyra asked Callista. “Trying to keep your identity secret?”
“I was busy blocking them out,” Callista said. “They spent the whole time scanning me and trying to hack into my neural network. Whoever these people are, they’re not normal Intergalactic Troops like they say.”
“What do you mean?”
“I scanned them back. And also downloaded their official handbook. These people are nothing more than highly paid, highly equipped bounty hunters thrown into military uniforms.”
“So, you’re saying that what we have aboard are a bunch of lawless, violent, super-armed men with badges equipped with the latest in groundbreaking weapons technology?”
“That’s right. And they’re going to do whatever they’re told no matter what,” Callista said.
“And when it’s all over, they’re one hundred percent expendable. Because they’re not even real military or police, they never have to show up on a report. Those guys have no idea, but they’re in as much danger as we are.”
13
The Frenzy bar was, of course, packed. Especially since nobody on Celestica was allowed to evacuate. There really wasn’t anything else to do.
Digital Ghosts: Book 2 of the Space Station At The Edge Of The Black Hole Series Page 11