by CC Bridges
“I may look strange,” Jeff told Kayla. He squeezed her shoulder, which felt odd through the gloves. “Don’t be scared.”
“I’m fine, Dad.” Kayla grinned at him. The smile slipped from her face. “Be careful.”
Jeff nodded and closed his eyes. He hit the switch on the arm of his chair and then felt his belly roil as he exploded into thousands of bytes of data, his mind drawn into the swirling vortex of the web. Most people panicked and hit the kill switch right then, unable to deal with being broken apart so thoroughly. Only a few who did make it through could actually do anything besides just ride the net—the hackers. At one time Jeff had been proud to call himself one.
Bodies meant nothing. The biggest mistake was thinking of himself the way he looked in the physical world. Jeff knew better than to limit himself like that. Jeff formed his avatar around himself, picturing a vehicle, something sleeker and smoother than his truck but with the same hover engines. The shield surrounded him like a digital skin, protecting him from errant programming on the net. He could feel everything that skimmed along his armor, as if he owned the cyberflesh of this borrowed form.
It was dangerous to reveal too much. Even among his hacker friends, Jeff had gone by another name, carefully concealing his true identity from most of them.
Now that he’d shielded himself, Jeff could let himself sink into the net. The streams of information blew past like a rush of wind, a storm gale he willingly steered into. He wanted to stretch out his arms and dive into the nodes, let the sheer joy of the code stroke him to a completely mental orgasm.
No one could understand this, how numbers could laugh and tease him, each with their own unique personality, or how the song of the web tasted. Jeff had fallen into this addiction once, caught up with finding the next rush, learning the next secret.
He needed to focus. Gabe and Kayla were depending on him. Hank and Ian downright expected him to be there and guide them through the demon fortress. Jeff couldn’t let himself be lost in the sea of information. Not again.
“Ian?” He tapped directly into the wire, zipping through the splash of code that led to Ian’s port. Jeff followed it through the grid, honing in on Ian’s signal. The net had no physical presence, but it helped to give it one in order to navigate through the chaos. It had always resembled Old Trent to Jeff, the latticework of blocks and buildings a perfect way to keep track of it all. Now, however, the net looked like a much larger version of the junkyard to him, piles of junk representing familiar nodes of information.
“We’re just coming up on the complex. Waiting for your go-ahead.” Ian’s voice translated as blue to him, and it felt like leather, smooth with a soft sheen. Jeff would recognize that signal anywhere in the net.
Now came the tricky part. He had to disable the sensors as Ian and Hank passed through the main gate to the heart of the city so the demon guards wouldn’t know about the weapons they carried. However, he had to make it look like the sensors were still functioning. Jeff needed to have a little talk with them.
Jeff could see Ian in the net, thanks to the implant that connected him without pulling him inside. Hank showed up as a warm green and seemed to complement Ian’s signature perfectly. They were waiting in the line to enter, the gates lighting up in red.
It was Jeff’s gift to see things as they were, their vulnerabilities and their structure. It was what had made him so effective as a hacker. Jeff could then tweak them by changing their very being. So the demons’ security couldn’t stop him. The code meant nothing to someone who could see the center core and speak to the elements inside.
The gates saw him as another programmer, one of their masters. They opened their code eagerly at his approach, hoping to please him. Jeff asked them to simply not see the weapons. This was easier than doctoring the scans and data itself, which he could fuck up if it didn’t match what the programmers expected to see. To the sensors, the weapons didn’t exist.
“You’re good for the first gate,” Jeff sent to both Ian and Hank, speaking without a voice. So easy to do that while he admired the demons’ code, the way the metal bent and warped around itself, which was how his mind translated it. They’d had someone good compile their security, but Jeff was better.
“Got it. Where are we headed?”
“Checking.”
Hank and Ian would claim they were there to retrieve Mattie’s body. Jeff felt an ache at that, but he knew Mattie wouldn’t mind being used in such a way if it meant saving Gabe’s life.
Jeff needed to find out where they were keeping Gabe. That would be more complicated than asking the sensors for a favor. He had to avoid setting off any alarms, so he couldn’t merely target the cybrarian in charge of organizing Luca’s information. The only way he could do that was by making it look like he belonged behind the demons’ firewall. Jeff had to change his avatar, make himself look like just another bot relaying information down the wire.
It was almost too easy to do that. Jeff slipped through the wall like he was meant to be there, breathing a sigh of relief that the mask held. It had been years since he’d shifted his skin like that. Either his skills were just that good, or Luca was being extremely lax in security. The demon probably thought himself untouchable. Once Jeff was in, he called up a map of the entire demon complex, the kind of thing someone who was lost would want. Then he asked for the sensor input on all living people inside it. Demons lit up in yellow, unmodded humans in red. A single pulse of blue-green blinked, and there, that was his angel.
It would take a little time to translate this in a form Ian and Hank could understand. Jeff pressed for more information beyond the grid coordinates. A pulse of energy sent him tumbling out of sync, a pounding against his armor that pushed him out of the information streams. Jeff scrambled, unable to see in the wake of the attack. Despite the pain thudding on his shields, he pulled himself together and sent out his senses, trying to find what had attacked him. He’d been in, dammit. The demon security shouldn’t even have noticed him. It would be just his luck to get stopped by some errant code.
“What are you doing here, Werth?” Chase’s voice, and it scraped over Jeff’s nerves like a hundred tiny needles. Jeff couldn’t see an avatar for him. Chase must have his highest security up, which would make sense if he were poking around in Luca’s network.
Jeff pulled back the code he’d readied to defend himself. He must have run right into one of Chase’s programs. “Not trying to grab your territory,” Jeff sent. “Just looking for Gabe.”
“I’m sorry, Jeff.” Now Chase’s avatar revealed itself, that youthful-looking kid Jeff knew was an illusion. Chase was good—he could appear exactly as he wanted, his armor and shields not visible unless you were looking for them. “I can’t let you find him.”
It took Jeff a moment to process that, since that was the last thing he expected Chase to say. “Chase? What the hell?”
“Nothing personal, Werth. It’s the freakin’ God AI. And I get to dissect it.”
“What did you do?” Jeff had trusted Chase. He’d told Gabe he could count the other hacker as a friend. Dammit, Chase had owed him. Jeff hadn’t expected their friendship to die once Jeff had freed him of the debt.
And for what? A chance at the God AI? Something that probably didn’t even exist. Chase had never been satisfied, always looking for the next big thing. Now Jeff and Gabe would both pay for it.
Jeff felt the rise in energy, those stinging needles pummeling against his senses again. He’d relaxed his shields when he’d learned it was Chase, and now Jeff struggled to get them back up, to push out his own offensive attack. Everything began to spin, data streaming into his consciousness and not making sense.
“No offense, Werth, but I was always better than you.” Chase’s voice dripped through him as Jeff tumbled without control, the net swirling around him.
Jeff jerked back into his body, staring at the screen in his workshop, his hands clutching the arms of his chair. He sucked in air, his lungs aching as if h
e hadn’t been breathing the entire time. But Kayla should have been watching if his vitals dipped.
Kayla. Where was she?
Jeff pulled off the gloves and tugged the cord out of his port. “Kayla?” He pushed himself out of the chair and into the junkyard. A light wind brushed his hair, bringing with it the smell of metal burning. It stung his lungs and Jeff coughed, leaning over with his hands on his thighs as he caught his breath.
When he straightened up, Jeff wasn’t where he’d been. The workshop wasn’t right behind him, and his house wasn’t in view. He was surrounded by piles of junk, hunks of metal and cartons filled with circuit boards. But for the life of him, Jeff couldn’t figure out exactly where in the junkyard he was, and dammit, he knew every inch of this place.
“Jeff!”
That voice. It almost sounded like…. Jeff stiffened, unable to move. He didn’t want to turn around and ruin the illusion.
“Jeff?” The soft whisper rolled over him like petals drifting from a tree branch.
Jeff turned, his lungs aching like he still hadn’t gotten enough air. Leah stood there within arm’s reach. She looked exactly as he remembered her—reddish brown hair flowing in unruly curls, freckles speckled across her nose, and her wicked smile revealing one chipped tooth. When she threw her arms around him, she even felt the same, so warm and soft, the sweet smell of her bringing him back to five years ago, when they were still a family and the junkyard only the beginning of their world.
He touched her hair for a brief moment and let himself pretend this was real, that somehow she had been brought back to him. Jeff kissed her forehead. His lips stung, as if she’d left something behind. Damn you, Chase.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “So sorry.” Jeff had to force himself to push her away. It was hard to ignore the hurt in her eyes. She looked exactly like Leah.
But dammit, that wasn’t Leah. It was an image from his memory, made into an illusion so perfect his own mind was fooled into thinking he had flesh here, when this was nothing more than electrons and wires. Chase was damn good, making Jeff think he’d left the net but trapping him inside this simulacrum of home. Jeff couldn’t be fooled. He had to start looking for a way out.
He closed his eyes and tried to reach beyond himself, to remember that he wasn’t flesh. But he felt the dirt beneath his heels, the wind rustling through his hair, and still smelled the perfume of Leah’s hair. Chase had locked him in, and Jeff didn’t know how to get out.
“Jeff, what are you doing?”
Leah was dead. Had been dead for five years. Jeff forced himself to remember that. Gabe and Kayla were counting on him right now. He couldn’t get lost here.
Jeff lifted his head and shouted, “I’m not stupid, Chase.” He had to throw himself out of this illusion, take control of his own mind once more. “You can’t make me think this is real.”
“No,” Leah said, causing him to turn back toward her, startled at the sneer on her face. He’d thought her nothing but a construct, an illusion like the piles of junk. “But I can make you see and feel anything I want.”
“Chase….” Jeff realized the hacker had taken his own role in this fucked-up illusion. He held out a hand, hoping to end this. They had been friends, once. “Stop this, please.”
His words didn’t seem to make any difference. Leah faded away, and there went any chance of reasoning with Chase. No, now Jeff would have to fight his way out. The ground lurched beneath him, and Jeff had to fight to keep his balance. It shouldn’t feel this real, he thought, as his hands met the ground, rocks slicing open his palms.
When the world stopped moving, Jeff found himself staring down at the blackened crater that used to be the center of the junkyard. He didn’t understand what Chase hoped to accomplish. Jeff hadn’t been fooled by Chase’s version of Leah, so why would he be caught up with this?
Out of the corner of his eye, Jeff saw a figure, small and crumpled on the ground. He pushed himself to his feet, unable to stop himself from running toward her. No, please, no.
“Kayla!” he screamed, rushing to his daughter’s side.
He’d forgotten the smell of her blood. It had risen thick and metallic in his nostrils, obliterating everything else. Jeff went to his knees beside her small form, as if he couldn’t stop his body from doing what it had all those years ago.
Only this Kayla wasn’t five years old. She looked exactly like she did now, as he had left her at the workshop. Her legs ended with stumps where her knees should be, electrodes and wires blending with the congealed blood. He cradled her in his arms.
“No.”
She hung limply, no sign of life in her body. Her tiny face was pale and slack. Jeff brought her to his chest, ignoring the tears spilling from his eyes. “No, sweetheart, no….” His baby, all he had left of Leah, his life, was still and cold in his arms.
“That’s what happens when you don’t hold up your end of the deal. Dig, Werth?”
Jeff looked up, not knowing when Nazaro had appeared. The past and the present collided in this nightmare Chase had constructed.
The demon’s eyes glowed, his wings taut and broad behind him, and he gestured with clawed fingertips. More demons were spilling into the junkyard, more than Jeff had ever seen in his lifetime. Two of them carried a figure wrapped in barbed wire, and it was only at a second glance that Jeff recognized Gabe.
They’d stripped his angel, the wire on his body slicing into pale skin so blood dripped, staining the ground as the demons hauled him forward. Gabe’s wings hung heavy and low, dragging in the dirt.
He looked at Jeff with bloodshot eyes. “Why, Jeff? Why did you betray me?”
Jeff clutched Kayla’s body even tighter, knowing there was no way he could respond to that. There was nothing he could do, no way he could defend himself against all of these demons. He heard the loud rumbling of a motor starting and turned just in time to see a demon hefting a chainsaw, the blade coming to life.
“No!” Jeff cried, but they ignored him as another lifted one of Gabe’s wings, holding it still as the saw cut through it, leaving behind jagged bits of metal.
Gabe screamed, a high-pitched noise that cut right to Jeff’s heart. He kept screaming. The demons finished with his wing and then pulled out one arm. Jeff was trapped here, doomed to watch while he lost everyone that mattered to him, watch Gabe being tortured to death over and over again.
GABE DIDN’T know what would happen the moment the halo clicked into place. He gritted his teeth, prepared to fight for his memories, chanting Gabe, not Gabriel in his mind, hoping to hold on to that much at least. He would not go back to being nothing more than Heaven’s pawn. Jeff, he added to his mantra, desperate not to forget the man he loved like he’d forgotten Rocco once before.
The connection snapped into being, filling that space in his mind that had been empty since he first woke up in Jeff’s home. Warmth and light flooded him as thousands of angels reacted to his presence, startled to find him alive. They’d been his brothers once, the only family he’d known. Part of him wanted to rise up and answer their call, become one with the commune of angels again.
“Gabriel 1089!” they called for him, a cacophony of voices demanding an answer.
“No. Gabe.” Even that wasn’t his true name. Gabe had forgotten that, lost it to time. He pulled himself back, away from the other angels, ignoring their cries of loss. Gabe couldn’t take all of their voices, unable to filter them out. Get out of my head.
Blood pulsed against his forehead, and the pressure built to a crest. Just when Gabe thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Luca swept through, using Gabe’s mind as a bridge to slide into the Angel Network as if he were one of them. No demon should invade this sacred link. Gabe couldn’t even warn them, silenced as Luca’s mind took over the connection.
For a moment Gabe couldn’t separate his own thoughts from the demon’s. They became one, connected too intimately. Where Gabe expected darkness, he found Luca’s mind filled with hope, searching for somet
hing beyond himself. Apparently demons weren’t any different from most humans. Gabe wished him luck, knowing exactly how hard Luca would need to fight to get past the thousands of angels to reach the God AI. He pulled away from the demon’s mind and the Angel Network, desperately trying to be alone in his own mind once more.
Desperate for some damn quiet, Gabe fled and slipped into a warm silence. Luca and the angels had disappeared, and Gabe didn’t understand. What happened? Where was he? He tried opening his eyes, only then discovering that he wasn’t anchored to his body anymore. He pushed against the darkness, not even comprehending what he did as he abruptly found himself someplace else.
He spread his wings and flew, no longer constrained by his body or caught up in the Angel Network. This, this had to be the Demon Network. Gabe had never explored it. He’d never jacked in as the hackers called it—become nothing but energy and code.
Jeff had told him once that he had become lost here, so caught up that he’d lost track of the real world. Gabe hadn’t completely understood. The Angel Network couldn’t compare. It had been a structured place of numbers and grids, allowing for nothing that deviated from its purpose. This network, however, swirled like chaos around him. Colors ticked off the hours, zipping past him so quickly.
Who was he here? Gabe held a hand in front of his face, surprised he could move. His real body was still bound in the chamber, still a captive of Luca and his demons. Could he get truly lost here, become nothing more than energy while the demons kept his body alive?
“Gabe! Gabriel!”
Jeff. He’d come for him, somehow.
Gabe followed the voice, flying through the net more easily than the atmosphere. His wings weighed nothing and beat faster than they had any right to. He moved closer, Jeff’s presence echoing within him like a song. Jeff shone in the darkness of the net, something bright and rich, calling to Gabe, and he was helpless to do anything but answer.
“Jeff.”
He reached out for Jeff, as if Jeff were another angel, someone he could connect with mind to mind. It was the only way Gabe knew how to speak through the net. He could feel Jeff’s fear, a stab of ice cold that marred the beauty of Jeff’s soul. Gabe rushed to him, to cover his lover with his wings and protect him from whatever threatened in the dark.