“I think that’s where we need to go,” I said, pointing at the tube. “It looks familiar, at least.”
“What is it?” Lisa asked, pulling me forward by the hand toward the jutting tube of plastic and mesh metal. “And I’m glad you stopped whining about all the blood.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “You look tough. Maybe the next guy who shows up trying to kill you will think twice.”
“Next, you’ll be suggesting I mount the heads of my enemies on pikes outside,” I replied as I wondered once again if Donovan might be right about Lisa. Then again, Donovan was just my hallucination. Everything he said was really just me, right? No, that was crazy. Lisa was fine, and I was just jumpy.
I glanced down at my blood-stained fatigues and sighed. Being covered in sticky, cold blood was gross. I was taking a shower the first chance I got. I didn’t even care if it was warm. See, I was adaptable. On my own terms.
“I wouldn’t mount any heads anywhere. It would imply your enemies know where you are, and well, we don’t want that.” Lisa smiled at me as we approached the elevator. “But something has been bugging me. How come the flit didn’t take over me again or Roberto for that matter? I mean it probably goes without saying, but Roberto is way more physically impressive than Troy. If I was going to try and kill you, I’d take him over in a heartbeat.”
I shrugged, mostly because I had been wondering the same thing. The flit should have taken over Roberto and crushed me to death. Hell, even Tom would have been a better choice, he could have pressed a button in his secret lab and had me shot full of holes or gassed or something. Either of them were far better choices than Troy. Then again, he hadn’t seemed super concerned with actually abducting me. Besides, what the hell had happened to Roberto, anyway? What turned him into a zombie? Was that the flit? Had it incapacitated him somehow?
“Well, you better figure it out because if the flit comes back, you’ll want to be ready for it.” Lisa pressed the button next to the elevator without even checking to make sure it was safe. Thankfully, instead of blasting her to ash, it began to glow. A big wheel lit up overhead and started spinning.
“I’d be more curious to know why it left instead of taking one of you over when I killed Troy,” I said as the doors slid open with a hiss to reveal a black metal grate. I shot her a look that I hoped meant, “be careful,” and stepped inside.
“Well, nothing blasted you. That’s good right?” Lisa said, joining me on the platform a minute later. The doors shut with a rush. Green light burst from the floor, filling the tiny space for a split second and making multi-colored spots dance across my vision.
“Where would you like to go, Abigail?” said a voice from a speaker above my head. It sounded like a higher-pitched version of Gabriela’s, and just hearing it made a chill slide across my skin. I craned my head up toward its source to see the holographic image of her face staring down at me with an overly cheery smile.
“That’s creepy,” Lisa said as she glanced from the face to me and back again. “Though I can see the resemblance.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, shrugging my shoulders and doing my best to avoid my holographic biological mother’s intimidating gaze. “So uh where do you want to go?”
“To wherever all her tech is, or at least somewhere where we can figure out how to neutralize the flit before it decides to take one of us over again.” She gave me a smile that made me think she was hiding something from me. It was the same one she’d used when she replaced one of my dead goldfish without telling me. I’d wound up thinking the damn fish had lived for almost a whole month, and when I wanted to throw it a ‘thanks for living’ party, she’d broke down and told me the truth. Mister Fishy was apparently Mister Fishy the third…
“You heard her, holo-mom,” I told the hologram, ignoring the bad feeling crawling over the back of my neck. This was Lisa, my best friend. If I couldn’t trust her, who could I trust? “Take us to the tech.”
“There are forty-seven rooms associated with ‘tech.’ Please be more specific,” the voice intoned, facial expression still too cheery to actually be pleasant.
“Is there a directory or a central hub?” Lisa asked, but the hologram didn’t respond. Lisa sighed. “I think you need to ask her.”
“Can you take us to the central hub?” I asked, feeling a little silly. “Or wherever it is that can tell us what gadgets are in this place?”
“Very well.” The elevator shook before falling down through the ground. I barely had time to gather my wits when we came to a stop in front of a pair of royal blue doors.
“Central repository and directory,” the voice intoned as the doors swirled outward, disappearing like we were in one of those science fiction movies.
“Sweet,” Lisa said, releasing my hand and scampering into the room like a kid in the candy store. I sighed. I really needed to teach her caution before she was blasted into road kill. Speaking of which, why had nothing accosted us? I was pretty sure this place had to have some automated defenses. Was it because of me? Was the only reason we hadn’t been blown to smithereens because I was here?
I took a step into the small, metallic space and stared at my hand. Why had Lisa been holding it all this time? I’d like to say that we were that close, but really, I don’t think she’d ever so much as given me an awkward hug. So her holding my hand for what must have been several minutes was odd, to say the least. Then again, I hadn’t exactly stopped her, either.
I knew why I hadn’t. It was because I’d wanted the comfort. I’d liked the idea of someone who wasn’t blaming me for everything, and if anything, Lisa wasn’t blaming me. She had fixed her sights on destroying the flit, despite the fact that it apparently was like being filled with concentrated goodness. It was a little weird. If it was really like she said it was, most people would be trying to get more, right? Not try to smash it into atoms…
“Abby, I think you need to log in for it to let me access anything,” Lisa called from her perch in an overly large leather chair. It sort of seemed out of place in the otherwise Spartan room because it wasn’t even a computer chair. At least it didn’t look like one. It resembled one of those plush lazy boy recliners. Besides, what kind of computer chair didn’t have wheels?
“Why do you think that?” I asked, my footsteps echoing on the metallic floor as I crossed the space between us.
“Um… because it’s asking for you to verify your biometrics?” Lisa pointed at a blue screen with a glowing handprint in the center. “I don’t think the system thinks I’m supposed to be here. If you want me to figure this out, you’re going to have to log in and give me access.”
“How do I do that?” I asked, placing my hand against the screen. It warbled, emitting a high-pitched shriek before cascading into a shroud of colors every color of the rainbow.
“How can I help you, Abigail?” the voice of my mother spoke behind me. I spun, my heart racing, to see a hologram of her standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. Her expression reminded me of a Valkyrie the moment before it plucked you from the battlefield and carried you off into never never land.
“I need you to… um… give my friend Lisa access to the system,” I told it because I wasn’t sure what else to do.
“Are you sure?” Gabriella asked, quirking an eyebrow at me in a decidedly human gesture.
“Um… yeah, give her access to anything she wants,” I replied and beside me Lisa smiled. The smile sort of freaked me out a little. Maybe giving her full access to my mother’s tech wasn’t such a good idea. What if she did something with it I didn’t agree with? I shook away the thought. This was Lisa. The girl I knew bottle-fed stray kittens when we were growing up. She wouldn’t hurt anyone. I swallowed… well except for when she blew away Stephen in cold blood… but that didn’t count, right?
“How long would you like the access to last?” the hologram asked, and for some reason, it seemed like it had picked up on my sudden discomfort and given me an out. I was pretty sure that hadn’t actually happen
ed, but it sure seemed convenient. Then again, for all I knew, it had done precisely that.
“Um… how about for the day,” I replied with a shrug. Lisa glanced at me, but I shrugged again. “Unless she gets taken over by the flit, then strip away her access.”
“Very well,” the hologram said, turning toward Lisa. “Please place your hand on the scanner to be granted access to the system.”
Lisa nodded once, a strange frown plastered on her lips. With an exaggerated effort, she placed her hand on the scanner. Colors cascaded out of it before fading away completely.
“Computer, display the parameters of the flit on the main screen,” Lisa said, and even before she finished speaking, the wall above us turned black. Data began to scroll across it in bright green letters that hurt my eyes and made me look away.
“Do you have any idea what that means?” I asked with a sigh. “Because it just looks like gibberish to me.”
“Not yet,” Lisa replied, cracking her knuckles as she slid into the chair. “But I will.”
She glanced at me. “Um… why don’t you go see what’s up with Tom and Roberto. I’ll probably be here a while.” She stopped speaking, biting her lip in the way she did when she was trying to decide whether or not she wanted to keep talking. Evidently, she didn’t because she turned back toward the screen and ignored me. Nice.
15
“Just because Lisa doesn’t want you around while she goes through all of Gabriella’s files, doesn’t mean you’re one hundred percent useless,” Donovan said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully between his thumb and forefinger as we rode back up the tube toward the cavern where the truck was docked. “Oh wait, yes it does.”
“Thanks,” I replied and shut my eyes because it was infuriating enough without actually replying to my own imaginative figment. Somehow, I always seemed to fail at that, though. It made every occurrence that much more frustrating.
“I was originally going to say it made you only ninety-eight percent useless, but I felt I should go for it.” I opened my eyes to see him leaning toward me with a smug grin on his face as blood dripped down his chin and fell to the ground where it didn’t splatter so much as it disappeared completely. “You should always go for it, Abby. Always.”
“Okay,” I said, determined not to speak to him anymore. But then a sudden thought occurred to me. “Why are you such a jerk to me?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Isn’t there supposed to be another one of you, an angel, who gives me good advice? Instead, it seems like all I have is the devil.”
He shrugged at me, his smug grin infuriating me so much I was about to smack it off his face when the door opened. So I just walked past him. That’d show him, I guess, sort of. Whatever.
I stomped out into the cavern and made my way toward Tom’s semi-truck. As far as I could tell, neither him nor Roberto had made it outside. Then again, I wasn’t sure why that mattered very much. I approached the truck, careful not to move quickly enough to set off some kind of defense mechanism and knocked on the back door. It had sealed after we left and apparently had remained so.
Or maybe not, who knows.
When it didn’t open immediately, I growled at it and smacked it with my palm. There was a weird sort of whoosh like the semi was breathing on me before the driver’s side door swung open and Tom stepped out. He skin was still covered in blood, but he was wearing clean clothes. And sunglasses. I wasn’t sure why since we were inside and the lights in here weren’t that bright, but for all I knew, they gave him x-ray vision.
I unconsciously crossed my arms over my chest as I made my way toward him. “How’s Roberto?” I asked.
“Better than Troy,” he replied, voice chillier than a glacier.
“Awesome,” I replied, letting the emotion fade from my voice. “So what happened to Roberto?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. He’s still in that weird catatonic state.” Tom shrugged. “It’s strange because Roberto was supposed to be immune to the flit. I’m guessing whatever it is that makes him immune worked but fried his brain. Hopefully, he wakes up soon.”
I swallowed and my stomach twisted up. “He’s not brain dead, is he?”
“I have no idea, but I somehow doubt it.” Tom moved past me and began making his way toward the elevator. “I think his brain is rebooting itself.”
I spun and ran after him, and he actually sped up so he wound up reaching the elevator before me. “Why do you think that?” I asked as he pressed the button down with his thumb. It was a little weird because most people did stuff like that with their index finger.
“Well, the flit is based on Gabriella’s tech. Presumably, she had some kind of immunity developed to it. Stands to reason that’s why Roberto was so confident. I doubt the Agency has had enough time to crack that. My best guess would be that his mind went into some temporary internal ‘panic room’ to keep the flit from gaining access.” The doors opened, and he stepped inside. When I followed him, he gave me a look I was pretty sure he usually saved things stuck to the bottom of his shoe. “It’s not the best solution, but the flit has never really been fully operational.”
“So what’s to keep it from taking you over too?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“The flit can only take control of a person once.” He shook his head. “My daughter thinks I don’t know what it’s like, but I do know what it’s like to have the flit control you. That’s why I haven’t killed you for what you did to Troy.” He shrugged as though the gesture explained everything.
“What do you mean you can only get controlled once?” I asked even though the urge to ask him how and why he’d been taken over was so huge I could barely ignore it.
He cracked a smile as he pressed a keycard to the panel in the elevator, and the space filled with emerald light before we rocketed upward. “The way our brains work allows the flit to take over exactly one time and not for very long at that. Eventually, your mind will force the flit out and seal off the way it got inside. Think of it like your brain automatically patching a back door.”
“So why wouldn’t the flit just find another way inside?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “And where are we going?”
“It probably could, given enough time and development, but remember, it has just become operational after years of work. Changes like that don’t happen overnight.” He stared up at the ceiling of the tube which, thankfully, was not filled with Gabriella’s face this time. “I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever is running the flit is patching bug after bug right now. It’s probably why you’ve only seen it in very limited bursts. They probably have to fix a ton of garbage that doesn’t quite work how it should. Problems like that won’t arise until it’s actually put in use no matter how much simulation you do.”
“So sending it after me is what? The beta test?” I asked as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a cobalt blue room the size of a large walk-in closet. Lab equipment sparkled on the steel counter in the center. Behind it stood a storage unit that reminded me of the frosty section of a supermarket where they stored ice cream. Only this one was filled with tubes of liquid every shape and color.
“I’m going to let you in on a secret,” Tom said as he stepped past me and pale blue lights came to life, illuminating the room just a skosh better. “Software never really leaves beta. It just gets good enough to ship without catching someone’s cat on fire. The real test begins when the users start to break it.” He touched something I couldn’t see, and the door began to shut. I wedged myself in between the doors, and they shuddered to a stop. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“Whatcha doing in my mom’s super-secret spy base?” I asked as he shot me a look that could have melted sand into glass.
“Nothing, now go away,” he replied, and this time, I saw him press the button by the elevator again. Only I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to close with me standing halfway through the doorway. Pretty sure…
“Look, Tom, I might be willing to let Lisa gallivant through the mainframe on he
r own, but I don’t know you. And even though you have a shiny keycard that gives you access, I can’t be certain you are on the up and up.” I would have said more but his face had taken on a sort of haunted quality as he processed what I’d said.
Without warning, he leapt back inside the elevator and slammed his keycard furiously against the panel. “Computer, take me to my daughter!”
“What’s going on?” I asked as he grabbed me and pulled me inside along with him. The doors slammed shut, and we were sent rocketing downward.
“You can’t leave her alone with access to all of Gabriella’s technology. You don’t understand what she’s like…” Tom shook his head, beginning to pace in the tiny space.
“Um… she’s my best friend. I’d like to think I know her a little better than you.” I crossed my arms over my chest petulantly. “Absentee father, much?”
“Whatever has happened to my dear, sweet daughter has changed her, and not for the better. She tried to convince me to destroy the Agency. When I tried to explain how much collateral damage would be involved, do you know what she said?” He was staring at me so hard that it was making me uncomfortable.
“No?” I offered.
“She said she didn’t care. My daughter did not care about collateral damage, and you just gave her the keys to one of the most powerful arsenals on the planet and left her alone. Please tell me how that seems like a good idea?” Fear flashed across his face before he pushed it away and took a deep breath.
Why had I been so stupid? Even if Tom was outright lying to me, I had no idea what the Agency had done with Lisa prior to using her as a hostage. They’d been able to change Stephen, why not Lisa too? For all I knew, she was some kind of deranged sleeper agent waiting to jump me when I wasn’t looking. How could I be so blind?
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