The Duality Bridge (Singularity #2) (Singularity Series)

by Susan Kaye Quinn

  Marcus fusses with the monitor he used to induce the fugue. “I don’t know why you’re having such an extreme physical reaction. I’ll recalibrate again, see what I can do about that. It’ll be difficult to make progress if this is debilitating for you.”

  He moves to place the monitor patch on my head again, but I block him. It’s a ridiculous attempt—my hand is a shaking mess, and he has ascender strength on his side—but he hesitates, frowning at me.

  “Way…waay…t,” I manage to get out, then drop my hand.

  Kamali steps between us. “Can’t you see he’s had too much of your device? He needs to recover.”

  Marcus looks past her, narrowing his eyes at me. “Do you have Diocles’s key?”

  “Not… s-sure,” I lie. “Just… need t-t-time.” Already the shakes are calming a little.

  He frowns but eases back. “I have a med bot on standby. Perhaps you should return to your—” He cuts himself off and whips his head to the door. It’s still in place, and I can’t hear anything, but his expression is full-blown panic when he looks back to me. “I’m locking you in. Do not let anyone in the door while I’m gone.”

  Before I can ask, he disappears with ascender speed, hesitating only for an instant by the door as it winks out of existence. The door reappears after he’s through.

  “What…?” is all I can get out.

  Kamali lunges to my side, her hands landing on my shoulders and holding me upright in the chair. My arms and legs are all curled up and shaking.

  “I don’t know what’s happening,” she says, but her eyes are glued to the door. “He must have heard something or maybe an alarm went off.”

  A terrible sound reverberates through the flooring: it’s screaming metal and the sound of things breaking. Large things. Like the entire apartment.

  I know that sound. “Ss-sentries,” I say.

  Kamali’s eyes go wide. She moves from holding me up to standing in front of me. As if she’s going to block a six-foot tall killing machine with her dancer body and the force of her will.

  “Kamali,” I gasp, flailing at her with my non-functional hands.

  She turns back to me. I force my hand to unfurl and hold it out to her. She takes it. I pull her close. She has to kneel next to me because that’s all the farther my body can reach.

  “You… do not…” Man, I’m a mess. I take a couple panting breaths and try to calm the jitters enough to speak clearly. While I’m doing that, more screeching sounds of death come from outside the door. I swallow down the fear rising in the back of my throat. I don’t know what’s coming, but I need to speak before it gets here. “You do not have my permission,” I say, slowly, but at least it’s clear, “to die. Before me. Get back.”

  “Are you kidding?” she says with a grim smile. “My plan is to throw you at the door first. Then possibly the bed.”

  I cough a laugh that nearly chokes me to death. When I recover from my spasm, I sputter out, “Good plan.”

  The humor drops off her face, and she throws a glance at the door. I can see the shudder making her shoulders quiver. “What is it?”

  “It’s coming for me.” I don’t know this for sure, but it’s a safe guess. “Not you. Get behind my chair.” I try to shove her away, but her grip on my hand is strong. And she’s not moving.

  “I told you before,” she says, looking in my eyes. “I’m not afraid to die.” Then her eyes go wide as the door starts to wail. That’s quickly replaced by a pounding, rhythmic and fast. Then that cuts off and leaves silence behind.

  I’m holding my breath. Kamali’s fingers dig into my hand.

  The door blows.

  The shock wave tips my chair back. Kamali and I are thrown together on the floor, a tangle of limbs and shock. When I open my eyes, I’m blinded by a blue light that sweeps the room, coming from the door. I shield my eyes with one hand and hold tight to Kamali with the other. She edges closer to me on the floor, so I don’t think she’s hurt. Maybe.

  The light cuts off.

  I drop my hand and peer at the door. A mountain of mechanized death fills the doorway, but it’s not moving. A second later, Lenora strides past it and into the room.

  She grabs hold of my hand and pulls me up before I can think. “Eli, are you all right?”

  I’m not, of course—I’m a shaking mess. She realizes this as soon as my knees buckle. Her ascender-strong arm is under me before I hit the floor. I loop my arm around her shoulder just so it’s not so ridiculously awkward that she’s lifting me to my own feet.

  “What did Marcus do to you?” Her voice could freeze steam.

  “I’m okay.” My voice warbles. “Just… the fugue.”

  “Kamali, what happened?” she demands. The tone makes me cringe. “Does he need a med bot? Or can we move him?”

  Kamali comes around to shove her thin shoulder underneath my other arm, on the opposite side from Lenora. I’m sure Lenora doesn’t need help carrying me, but I like having Kamali under my arm a lot more than her.

  “He can move,” Kamali says quickly. “Where are we going?”

  “Out,” Lenora says sharply, then she moves, too fast, ripping me away from Kamali’s support.

  “Wait,” I gasp out, but we’re already out in the hallway.

  Lenora pauses and looks down at me.

  “Kamali,” I huff out. There would be a lot more anger in that word if I could just get my mouth to work right. Light footsteps patter behind us. While we wait, I look ahead: Marcus’s bodyform is in at least three pieces. It looks like he was blown apart, but it could simply be the work of a sentry. There are pieces of bot everywhere. Marcus must have had a sentry of his own. Maybe two.

  “Is he dead?” I’m not sure what answer I want to hear.

  “I doubt it,” Lenora says, looking over her shoulder. Kamali has caught up to us, with the sentry at her back, following. “I’m sure Marcus is resurrecting somewhere.”

  She nods to Kamali, who returns it. The three of us flee the apartment—this time Lenora goes slow enough that Kamali can keep pace. The sentry watches our back. In the rooftop hanger outside Marcus’s penthouse apartment, Lenora’s ship waits for us. The parts of another sentry litter the concrete while a functional one stands guard by the door of the transport.

  “Get the ship started,” she instructs the sentry, then lifts me through the door and deposits me on one of the luxury hover chairs inside. The sentry clomps into the cockpit behind the wall-sized screen.

  “Watch him,” Lenora says to Kamali, who nods and kneels next to me, her hands keeping me upright.

  Lenora moves so fast, I hardly see the blur, but a screech of metal pierces my ears—Lenora and the sentry who just liberated us are fighting. Only the fight is over a split second later as blue light crackles across the surface of the sentry, and its head rolls away from its body. Then she disappears again, and something rocks the ship. A moment of screeching is followed by Lenora re-emerging from the cockpit. A trail of smoke follows after her.

  “Now that the sentries are disabled, they’ll be coming for us,” she says.

  “They who?” Kamali asks, wide-eyed.

  Lenora shakes her head. “I’ll explain on the way. Right now, we need to move. Strap in.” She disappears into the cockpit, and Kamali searches for something under my seat. She comes up with a white, stringy webbing and wraps it around me. It sticks everywhere, mating up with the ascender-tech cloth of my toga, like it was designed to do that. Then she scrambles toward the other hover seat a few feet away. We lurch into the air, and she falls to the misty flooring, then drags herself into the chair and webs herself in. The ride isn’t merely bumpy—it’s a series of loops and turns that feel like we’re pulling g-forces human bodies can barely withstand. I don’t know where we’re going, but I hope we get there before I black out. Our furious escape jars to a stop, but the ship is still vibrating, so I think we’re still in flight. I swallow down the nausea and peer at Kamali. She has a hand pressed to her mouth.

&nb
sp; “You okay?” My muscles still ache from the cramping, but at least I can talk now.

  “Yeah.” She follows it up with a nod, but her face is ashen.

  One more sudden swoop lurches my stomach, but then Lenora emerges from the cockpit. We must have landed. With her help, I hobble from the ship, my legs getting stronger by the minute. We’re in a cavernous building, apparently having arrived through the roof, which is closing overhead. The ship is still cloaked, so as soon as the door materializes behind us, I can’t see it anymore. Lenora hurries us through the facility. It’s half slick-black storage crates and half inflatable pods—glowing white ones like the ascenders had in the Resistance camp. At the far end is a suite of glassed-in rooms bathed in blue light—it looks like an expansive med bay, with a dozen beds lined up, each in their own private section.

  I try walking on my own, so I don’t have to lean on Lenora.

  Kamali follows right behind us.

  “Where is everyone? Is my mom okay?” I have a dozen questions, including why Lenora destroyed her own sentries, but getting my mom and Cyrus and the others to safety takes top priority. Especially given my mom was still recovering from her last gen tech treatment when the camp was attacked—I have no idea how she would last long under any kind of imprisonment, much less torture.

  Lenora grimaces but doesn’t slow our hurried pace. “I brought you here because I want you in a med bay right away.” She’s completely dodging my question. “I’ll explain everything while the med bot checks you out.”

  “You’ll tell me now.” I stop in my tracks. Kamali’s hands wrap around my arm, bolstering me and my still unsteady legs. As far as I can tell, it’s just the three of us in the building—half the place is powered down, and the rest is cast in this eerie blue glow. “Why aren’t they here? How did you escape without them—” I cut myself off, my eyes going wide. “You’re the one who betrayed us.”

  Her hands are up. “No! Eli, I promise.” She grimaces then takes in the fact that Kamali and I are holding on to each other—separate from her. It’s clear who I trust and who I don’t. Lenora’s skimpy ascender outfit reveals her skin flushing with a torrent of purples intertwined with black wisps. She’s a mess, emotionally at least. “Please understand, this was my only option.”

  Somehow, I doubt that. “Let’s hear it.”

  “The camp was betrayed, but it wasn’t by me.” She sends an agitated glance toward the med bay like she wishes we were there. “We spotted the attack ship in time to activate the camp’s shields in addition to the cloaking barrier, but it was clear the ship already knew exactly where we were. Everyone was taken. At least, the ones who weren’t killed by the blast that took down the energy shield.”

  “How many are dead?” Kamali asks. Her voice trembles a little.

  Lenora frowns like she’s annoyed at being interrupted. “Fifty? That was the count in the transport. After that, I don’t know.”

  Kamali grows quiet, but her hold on me is even firmer.

  “What about my mom?” I ask, tensing. “And Cyrus?”

  “They’re alive.”

  I sigh in relief. Of course, Marcus showed us vids of them being tormented, but for all I know, those could have been virtuals. A sudden weariness washes over me. I nod toward the med bays and start walking with Kamali’s assistance. Lenora has the good judgment not to try to help.

  “How did you break free?” I ask. “And how can we get the rest out?”

  Lenora hesitates. Just as I’m about to berate her for holding back, she says, “I didn’t break free, Eli. Your father let me go.”

  “What?” I stop again, my unstable legs nearly pitching me face-first into the concrete. “Wait… did you say my father?”

  “Yes.” More black swirls are dancing all over her body.

  Marcus’s “enemy” is my father—although it makes me sick to even use that word. The ascender who manipulated my mother into carrying his experiment—me—in her womb, trashing her heart in the process, isn’t any kind of father. And now he’s hunting me, just like Lenora warned. “My father’s the one who attacked the camp. And captured everyone. But he let you go? Not my mother. Or any of the others.” I have an insane need to strangle something.

  “I made a deal with him,” she says, very quietly. “To bring you back.”

  All the air goes out of me. I lean back and cast a quick look around. Kamali’s grip is painfully tight, and she’s edging away. Lenora moves with ascender speed to my side again, landing a hand on my shoulder.

  I flinch away.

  She pulls her hand back. “I lied to him, Eli. I would say anything, do anything, to keep you safe.”

  There are no sentries popping out of the dark corners of the facility to capture us. That, plus the fact that she could easily be hauling me off somewhere right now if she wished… I’m dragged into believing her, even though I don’t want to. The fervent, almost hurt look on her face helps. A little.

  I still scowl at her. “So you’re not here to bring me back to him?”

  “No. That’s why I had to destroy the sentries. They were our escorts—to make sure I brought you back. But I’m doing no such thing. I promise. Everyone suspected that one of the ascenders betrayed the camp’s location, so I pretended to be the mole. And I volunteered my services to your father so I could get to you before he did.”

  “And he just turned you loose with a couple sentries for guards?” This story isn’t quite holding together.

  “It’s not like he and I don’t already know each other. Quite well.” Her face is grim, and I wonder what she means by that. “When we discovered Marcus had accessed your father’s security feeds, we both knew Marcus must have you. And that it was only a matter of time before he would destroy you. I convinced your father that all I cared about was you—which is the truth—and that I could retrieve you without an army of sentries tipping off the entire ascender world. He agreed. But any minute now, as soon as he discovers what has happened, he’ll be scouring the city for you.” She motions me forward, toward the med bay again. “We can’t stay here long—he knows this location; he’ll find us—but I need to make sure Marcus hasn’t harmed you before we go into seclusion. And this is the only place in New Portland where I have access to a med bot for humans—outside of your father’s keep.”

  “Stop calling him that,” I say, harshly. “He’s not my father.” But Kamali and I are both moving forward again.

  Lenora hesitates. “His name is Augustus.”

  I wrinkle up my nose. “As in the emperor? You’ve got to be kidding.”

  She slowly shakes her head. “He’s more powerful than any emperor in history. And more dangerous.”

  “All right, whatever. We’ll do a quick med scan. But then we figure out how to rescue everyone from Augustus, the ascender with an ego measured in light years.”

  Lenora frowns. “We’re not going to be able to rescue them, Eli.”

  “Well, we have to try, Lenora.” My anger is surging back.

  “We’ll be lucky if we’re not caught before I can get you out of New Portland.”

  Kamali squeezes my arm. “They’re going to be looking for you. This ascender, Augustus… he’s the one who made you, right? Sounds like he’s got more reason than most to want to control you.”

  Lenora flicks a look between Kamali and me. It’s obvious Kamali knows a lot about what’s going on. Probably more than Lenora, in some ways. At this point, I’m tired of keeping secrets.

  “Kamali knows about the experiments,” I say to Lenora, but that also tells Kamali that Lenora was involved. “And she’s been helping me reach the fugue state. I’ve been seeing things, Lenora, just like you planned.” I can’t help the last part sounding bitter, but Lenora’s eyes go wide and a flush of pink runs across her chest.

  I shake my head. This is such a mess.

  We reach the med bays—each is a separate room with a window into the main part of the building, which strikes me as a really odd way to set up a med ba
y, but whatever.

  I gesture to the door so Lenora will gain us entry. “I need to sit down. This is going to take a while to explain.”

  Lenora liberates a med bot from its storage spot in the wall.

  It quickly scans me, then asks permission to dose me with a muscle relaxant and pain reliever. This sounds like a small piece of nirvana, so I say yes. It works almost instantly, and the relief makes me slump back into the pillow. The bot raises the head of the bed so I can converse with Kamali, who is staring pensively at me from the foot, and Lenora, who is urgently gesturing to the med bot. While it carries out her transmitted commands, I talk.

  A lot.

  I think the muscle relaxant is working a bit like the truth drugs.

  Either that or I simply don’t care anymore. I tell Lenora all the things she missed while Marcus was forcing the fugue on me. And that there were previous fugues, the ones Kamali knows about, although I don’t go into a lot of detail about my visions. I’m already a freak, I don’t need them both knowing I’ve dreamt about them and the end of times. Or seen them in their altered forms.

  Okay, maybe I still want to keep some secrets.

  Kamali’s eyes grow more round as I explain, and Lenora’s electric skin color gets more and more excited. All this talking isn’t going to work out well for me. I try to rein it in.

  After a long pause, Lenora asks, “You can access it through meditation alone?”

  I’m beginning to feel like her lab rat as well as Marcus’s. “Partially,” I hedge, glancing at Kamali. She’s not looking at me anymore, just playing a game with the ascender-tech blanket at the end of my bed. She pushes it; it bunches up; it flattens out; she pushes it again. Even with the muscle relaxant, my stomach ties in knots as I watch. I can’t imagine what she thinks of me now. I look back to Lenora. “Meditation seems to slip me in easier, but I think Marcus’s device is stronger, so I go in deeper. Maybe? I’m not really sure how it all works—sometimes the after-effects are worse than others. There are a lot of different modes to this thing. Most of the time, I can’t control it. Like at all.”