Synthetica

by Rachel Pattinson

  “No,” she managed to gasp. “No, wait -”

  She was trying to yell, trying to tell Xander to run, but the pain in her stomach made it impossible for her to shout. Gritting her teeth, she clambered to her feet and pushed her way through the mob, keeping her eyes fixed on Xander. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the fight going on between Clay and the man with the dreadlocks. Skye had now joined in, pushing the man as hard as she could off Clay. But Anais could only focus on Xander. She had to reach him. She could not let him die like Dalla. She would not allow the past to repeat itself, not again.

  The woman Xander was fending off had lime green hair, tied up in a knot. She held a dagger in her hand, slightly longer than the one Skye's attacker had used. She was slashing and jabbing at Xander, who seemed unwilling to hurt her. But she gave a particular vicious slash and Xander grabbed her arm, pushing her out of the way. She didn't even seem to notice.

  She raised the blade again, staring blankly at Xander. Anais had almost reached them, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. She was whirled roughly around and she found herself almost nose to nose with Officer Nox.

  “You,” he hissed. “I should have known you'd be here.”

  “Get off me,” Anais shouted, trying to break free, but he held her fast.

  “Whenever there's trouble, you can count on little Miss Finch being there. I know you were at Civitas last night,” he spat. “You're not getting away this time.”

  “You're deluded,” Anais said, still struggling to get away. “Let me go!”

  “No!” Nox's eyes gleamed madly. “Not this time. You may have Alice wrapped around your little finger, but I know better. Wherever you go, chaos follows.”

  It took Anais a second to realise he was talking about Officer Hughes. Nox held her arm in a grip of iron, as his other hand fished a set of handcuffs out of his pocket. Anais threw an agonised look at Xander, who was still trying to fend off his attacker.

  “Nox,” she said. “I'm sorry about this.”

  Nox looked up. His lips opened to form a question, but he never got to ask it. Before he knew what was happening, Anais had pulled her free hand back and had delivered a hard punch straight to his face. Nox howled and reeled backwards, releasing her as he clutched at his eye. The handcuffs dropped to the ground. Anais swooped down and picked them up. Just as Nox regained his balance, Anais snapped one of the electric handcuffs around his wrist; the other one she snapped onto the arm of a passing man, who stumbled at the unexpected weight. Both Nox and the man tumbled to the ground.

  She turned away from them, searching for Xander. She spotted them near the riverside, still fighting. Xander's top had now been slashed several times, blood dripping over his clothes. Before Anais could think, she threw herself at the woman, sending them both falling to the ground. She heard Xander's shout, but the force of her attack had thrown them into the crowd, causing several other people to trip over them. Any pain from the fall was dulled as adrenaline pumped through Anais' veins. She rolled onto her back, shoving a man off her, looking around for the woman with the green hair. She spotted her a few paces away, struggling to get up.

  Anais crawled towards her. The woman was still holding the dagger in her hand, and she was slashing it at the people who had fallen around her as they impeded her way. Anais grabbed her wrist and gripped it as hard as she could, trying to get her to drop the weapon. The woman was still lying on the ground, and she used her other hand to grip Anais' arm, gripping the skin so hard, she drew blood. Anais cried out.

  But she refused to give up. Anais lifted the woman's hand and smashed it down onto the pavement. The dagger rolled from her grip and Anais snatched it up. She raised it, ready to stab, ready to defend herself, ready to defend Xander, when the woman looked straight at her.

  Her brown eyes were just as dead looking as every other murderer Anais had been unfortunate to encounter had had. She didn't know what she was doing. She was simply following the Hacker's terrible program. That's all she was now, a robot. And she was going to die for it anyway, once she'd done the deed she'd been programmed to do.

  Anais struggled with herself, as she kept the woman in her grip with one hand, the other still poised to strike. She couldn't let this woman kill Xander. She couldn't lose someone else close to her.

  With a cry, Anais grabbed the woman's head and brought the dagger down.

  He looked around at the chaos, and laughed.

  It was fascinating how these people thought, how they reacted when they were told that the one thing they wanted more than anything was a lie. Well, welcome to his world.

  The speech in the video had been a tad dramatic perhaps, but he thought he got his point across well. And now they were all besides themselves as they tried to run from danger. He had told a little white lie on the video; he had told them to run, but in reality there was nowhere they could run to. There was nowhere they could run where he wouldn't find them.

  He watched the madness unfold, watched as one Civitas employee – which one was he? He couldn't remember, but he didn't particularly care so long as he was dead – fell to the ground, shot dead. The increased commotion throughout different areas of the crowd told him where the other Civitas employees were meeting their timely ends. And, best of all, news cameras and reporters were pushing their way through the mob now, as hovercraft from all the news channels circled in the air, recording this perfect moment forever.

  Well, it was almost perfect. He just had one more gift to give Civitas first.

  As he surveyed the chaos he had created with satisfaction, his eyes were drawn to a particular fight in the crowd. Everyone around them was rushing to get away, but there was a man with purple hair fighting off a woman with green hair. So far, so good. Only...

  His eyes widened.

  That girl. The girl with the pink hair had tackled the woman to the ground.

  “No!” The throaty cry escaped his lips before he could stop it. He made his way through the crowd, making sure his hood still covered his face; shoving people out of the way as hard as he could. His eyes were fixed on that pink haired girl – the one who had almost caught him before. She had been there, sniffing around at every turn. There was only one option. She had to be eliminated. She had to go before she brought everything he'd worked for crashing down.

  He briefly considered re-programming the green haired woman so she'd kill the pink haired one; before he remembered that his transmitter didn't have that kind of functionality. He made a mental note to make sure all his future inventions planned for every possible scenario.

  He stopped short. The crowd flowed around him, paying him no attention as they tried to save their own sorry lives. The pink haired girl had managed to get the dagger. She was pinning the older woman down, the dagger raised as if to stab her. He watched as she hesitated, her hand trembling. The man with the purple hair, the original target, was fighting his way through to her, yelling her name.

  And he watched as she brought the dagger down.

  Twenty-one

  The dagger found its target.

  Anais forced the woman's head to the side, and began to do something that made her stomach churn just to think about. But she had no choice – already the skin around the woman's ID chip was red, the chip turning black as the virus began to activate.

  She made a small cut in the woman's neck, made all the more harder by the fact that the woman was still struggling and clawing at every bit of Anais she could reach. There was a shout, and Anais looked briefly up to see Xander crouching down in front of her. Without a word, he took hold of the woman's arms and pinned her down. She began to fight harder as she registered who it was that was in her eyesight – the one person she'd been programmed to kill.

  “You sure this will work?” Xander asked, as he tigh
tened his grip on the woman's arms.

  “Nope,” Anais said, focusing all her efforts on that tiny cut, widening it slightly. Blood was beginning to pour out of the wound and Anais fervently hoped that she hadn't hit an artery by accident. Taking a deep breath, she inserted a finger and a thumb into the cut, trying not to think too hard about what she was doing. She pinched the tiny picochip between her thumb and forefinger and drew it out, wincing as she felt something small snap in the woman's neck. The woman stopped struggling.

  She dropped the bloody chip onto the ground, and immediately turned her attention to blood that was now pouring out of the woman's neck. Her RetCom had helpfully highlighted the cut, and informed her that the woman was suffering from substantial blood loss. Anais glanced down at the woman's clothes, and began to tear off a strip of fabric off her top. She worked as quickly as could, wrapping the strip of fabric as tightly as she dared around the woman's neck without choking her.

  “That's all we can do,” Anais said, sitting back on her heels. Xander cautiously let go of the woman's arms, and she lay still. Anais leant forward slightly, relieved to see the woman's chest moving – she was still alive at least. The makeshift bandage wouldn't hold for long though; already spots of blood were beginning to seep through the fabric.

  “The medi-cab is on its way,” Xander told her. “We should get out of here.”

  He stood up, and held out his hand to Anais. She took it and hauled herself to her feet.

  “Wait...” she said, remembering. She picked up the bloody ID chip off the ground and slipped it inside the woman's pocket.

  Just as she was standing back up, a cold breath danced across her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. 'Someone's walking over your grave,' her mother would say.

  She tensed and whipped around. But there was no one there. Just the mass of people that were continuing to battle their way down the street. But she could've sworn, just for a second, that someone had been watching her, or reaching out to her. She couldn't describe it properly...she only knew that whatever it was, hadn't been good.

  “Anais?” Xander was looking at her strangely.

  “Coming,” Anais said, still distracted. She looked around the crowd again, but no one stood out.

  “Anais,” Xander said more urgently. Sirens were filling the air as the medi-cabs began to arrive. Securibots were still making their way through the crowds, breaking up fights between the Civitas traders and the people who were demanding their credits back. Anais had been slightly incredulous that no one had noticed that she'd managed to cut out someone's ID chip in the middle of the street – but she could see now that mob mentality was being to take over. Not only were people still pushing and shoving each other in the race to get home, some bright spark had begun to throw rocks at the Civitas building and an alarming number of people were beginning to follow suit.

  Anais glanced back down at the woman who was in serious danger of being crushed. She was tempted to leave her there, but her morals won out.

  “We can't leave her here,” Anais said to Xander. Xander glanced around, but they were too far from the riverfront to carry her. He spotted a securibot a few metres away.

  “Hey! Hey over here!” he shouted as loudly as he could, and Anais joined in as she realised what her was trying to do. The securibot stopped, and swivelled in midair towards them. It bobbed towards them, and it's sensor began to flash red as it picked up on the woman on the ground. Anais saw several other securibots beginning to float towards them to cordon off the area.

  “Let's go,” she said, grabbing Xander's hand and pulling him away.

  She had thought that the mass of people was beginning to thin slightly, but as they made their way towards Civitas, Anais realised that wasn't true especially since more and more people were beginning to flow towards the great building, shouting and jeering and throwing whatever they could get their hands on. The glass around the bottom of the building was holding up well, but Anais could see small chips and cracks beginning to appear.

  “Clay and Skye should be around here somewhere,” Anais shouted at Xander above the increasing noise.

  As they moved through the crowd, she tried to call Skye on her RetCom, but none of her calls were answered. She was about to send her a message instead, when she heard her name being shouted. She turned to see Clay walking towards them, his eyes flicking furtively around. There was a small scratch on his head, but other than that, he looked unhurt.

  “Clay! Where's Skye?” Anais asked, raising her voice.

  “Civitas,” was his one word answer.

  “What happened with the man who tried to attack Skye?” Anais asked, but Clay simply shook his head, still glancing edgily around. Anais heard a bleep as a message came through on her RetCom and she opened it, slightly surprised to see it was a message from her dad.

  A, where are you?? Just seen news about the parade. Are you ok? Are you hurt? Dad

  Her father's anxiety was obvious through his words. Anais felt a slight pang of guilt at everything she'd done over the past few days, how much danger she'd been in but she hadn't been able to tell her parents any of it. She resolved that the moment she got back home and both of them were there at the same time, she'd tell them everything. They deserved to know what their daughter had been involved with, however much she didn't want to be. She messaged him back, her attention on what she was writing, not on the conversation that was taking place between Clay and Xander.

  I'm fine. Still at Civitas. Trying to get out of crowd. A xx

  Her dad's reply came back almost instantly.

  Come to the factory. Being sent home early for a few hours til everyone knows what's going on. We'll all go home together. Dad x

  Okay. Will be there as soon as I can. Xx Anais replied.

  She turned her attention back to the conversation, just as Xander was raising his voice.

  “ - you said you'd help us!” Xander was shouting angrily at Clay.

  “What's wrong?” Anais asked, astonished at Xander's anger. Xander had his fists clenched by his sides and he was glaring at Clay. Clay was looking as stubborn as ever.

  “Look, kid, I told you I'd only help you on the condition you let me go whenever I wanted. Well, I want out now. It's too dangerous, for me and for you. I ain't gonna stick around and wait for someone to come after me next,” he said.

  Anais gaped at him. A hot, twisting feeling was rising fast inside her. She was in such disbelief that it took her a moment to realise it was fury.

  “So you're just going to abandon us now, are you? You're going to save your own skin, after Skye almost died? After Xander almost died?” Anais said, her voice rising with every word.

  “Exactly,” Clay retorted. “How long before I'm next? Or you? I'm not gonna stick around and wait for some madman to kill us all. How many of those goddamn SLPs do you think were sold today? More than I care to know about, thank you very much.”

  “But – but -” Rage was making it hard for Anais to speak coherently. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. “But you can't leave now! You're the one we need! How else are we supposed to stop that man, the Hacker, if we don't have a hacker of our own?”

  “Fat lot of help I can do you right now,” Clay said, nodding towards what was rapidly becoming a riot in front of Civitas' doors. “Look, Annie, the best thing I can do is to lay low. If anyone catches me with you, you'll be in trouble too. I can meet you in a few days, when all this hubbub has passed. Maybe it's best for you all to lay low too, especially him, after all that.”

  He nodded towards Xander, who was still glaring at him.

  “And how do you know it'll just be a few days?” Anais challenged him. “The Hacker is probably going to be planning even more attacks - you heard what he said.”

  “I heard him when h
e said he's got people on the street,” Clay retorted. “So why don't we all just go home, and wait for things to calm down and then we'll all be out of harm's way?”

  Anais could only look at him, speechless with anger. She wanted to scream at him, force him to stay; but she knew that the harder she pushed him, the more he'd be likely to resist. So she settled for glaring at him instead.

  “I'm sorry, kid, but it's best if I keep out of Civitas' hair for a while. There's too much at stake if I get caught.” He glanced up at the glass building, where the red logo grinned down at them. He turned back to Anais. “Don't worry, Annie, I promise I'll be back soon.”

  He hesitated for a moment, before awkwardly reaching out and patting her on the shoulder. Without a second glance, he pushed past Anais and Xander and moved off into the crowd, keeping his head as low as possible. Anais and Xander watched him go, Anais' hands curled into fists by her sides.

  “What a stupid...bloody...bastard,” she spat. “Can you believe him? He chose to save his own skin over helping us! Who does he think he is?”

  She was half expecting Xander to try and calm her down, but he, too, was staring after Clay, with an ugly look on his face.

  “He's a coward,” Xander said bluntly. “He'll hide away until all the action is over, and then come crawling out again. Isn't that what he's been doing all these years? Hiding from the truth?”

  Anais looked at him, surprised. Xander never normally had a temper.

  “Are you okay? I thought you didn't mind him,” Anais said cautiously.