With his finger, Don etched a digital inscription in the air, which immediately appeared on the snowman they built for Minds users to see. He wrote ‘Don and Candy are free.’
"You did what? Why? They'll find us right away! Are you crazy?"
"Fuck it, that's for whoever comes here after us."
Anxiety caught up with them.
"I don't want to die… I don't want to end my life like this," Candy said.
He came closer and just stood there for a while before holding her. "It won't be happening anytime soon, if it's up to me. Trust me. You'll have to trust me, even if you think what I'm going to do isn't in your best interest, okay?"
She nodded and wiped the tears that froze as they formed. She was also freezing.
***
The two trudged back to the Neocar and took off for Minds headquarters, while their hearts remained there, in clouds of hope.
"Hello, Daniel Kaminsky, report please," said the automated voice which identified them as soon as they entered the central Minds compound.
"I'm escorting a detainee," Don responded matter-of-factly, "old ident code: Candy Metal. She escaped from the facility. We need to question her about what happened there. End of report."
"Confirmed," the voice responded.
Don shoved Candy lightly toward a red circle of light that shone before the entrance. A magnetic field enveloped her and forced her to stay put. She looked at Don, frightened as the field pulled her inside. He watched her go with the most indifferent expression he could muster, and just barely heard the door to the interrogation room close behind her.
Don's plan, for now, was to gather as much information as he could in order to understand how the network operated. But in the meantime, he was still standing there, at the nerve center of the organization, whose design adhered strictly to a black and white theme. There was scant need for personnel in an age when machines did people's bidding. Very few white uniforms - Minds employees wearing an orca inspired set of shoulder padded jackets and matching gloves - were moving around the place.
Four Seasons
The Four Seasons interrogation room was located at the end of a white corridor. It was also white, and unfurnished. The interrogated who checked out could testify that their stay was not pleasant during any season. The four walls were turned into a broadcast center, and the first thing that caught the eye when entering the room was the lack of seating.
Each of the four walls projected the huge image of a virtual interrogator, all named after seasons: Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall.
Summer was the 'good cop.' She had compassionate eyes, and a soft voice that instilled hope in Candy.
Winter was the hard knuckle, 'bad cop' interrogator. His facial features were unreadable and his white hair carefully drawn back. He used his thick voice to undermine Candy's confidence with cynical remarks.
Fall was the stoic one. An expressionless man, with a square robotic face that spoke in a monotone and to the point, and whose job was to cut in and stabilize the interrogation whenever things got out of hand.
Spring had been modeled after a young female interrogator who Candy could identify with, if only because of her age. The four together bombarded her with volleys of questions and remarks that kept coming at an insane rate.
"Go on, tell us about your pathetic plan," Winter demanded angrily.
Candy silently stood in the center of the room, defenseless.
"Ignore him," Summer interfered. "Tell us a little about your negative experience."
Candy still said nothing.
"You'll have to spill it out sooner or later, you know," said Spring. "One way or another, they're going to find out what they want to know."
"You don't really want to be playing this game," said Fall.
Candy said nothing.
The four disappeared. Loud background noises of natural events played in the room; falling leaves, loud wind, crashing waves, breaking ice. Candy shut her eyes in panic, covered her ears and grimaced.
Hours passed. She knew they could make her talk whenever they wanted to by using more violent means, and wondered why they had not done so already. The anxiety of expecting it to happen sooner or later caused her enough mental strain.
Every passing minute was a long torture. Slumped on the floor, hunger and fatigue started weighing on her, chipping away at her core with bodily demands for past comforts. She continued to shut out the voices of the interrogators, closed her eyes and imagined a huge stage and herself on it, giving a once-in-a-lifetime show to roaring applause.
She had already lost her sense of time, but when she burst into tears from hunger and exhaustion, she realized too much time must have gone by. For a second, she tried to stand up, until her knees gave out and she sat in a corner of the room, crying. A tray slid out of the wall, bringing her nano-mulberry soda and candy. She sprang at it, but was immediately thrown back by a magnetic field that blocked her inches from the food. She stood for a second longer, before her knees gave out again and she returned, defeated, to her corner.
"You'll have to tell us something to get that," Summer told her from a lit screen, and Candy nodded. The tray moved toward her and she snatched the candy and drink and gobbled them down. The screens displayed a slideshow of natural images, the last of which was accompanied by the crashing sounds of a waterfall that crescendoed in her ears.
"Enough! Stop this racket and let me out of here!"
"Come on, what are you, a three-year-old?" remarked Winter, who also appeared on the wall. "You've been sleeping the entire time. And stop it with the crying, shut up already!"
"He didn't mean it," Summer apologized. "Work with us, it will be better."
"I understand you," Spring intervened.
"Let's start with the day you escaped the facility. How did that happen exactly?" Fall asked.
Candy still did not answer and just looked at them with rage.
Their faces faded out, the light in the room dimmed, and the wall suddenly displayed an image of her mother, who spoke to her. "Candy, your father is very ill. I know we haven't spoken in a long time. We were angry about everything, but that's past now. All this stress affected your father a lot. If we could only turn back time… but we can't. I hope you're alright and that they're taking good care of you there."
"Mom? What are you doing here?" Candy asked and approached the wall with a shaking hand. For some reason, she did not remember even having parents lately. Strangely, it was like hearing them for the first time in her life.
"Minds contacted us and said that they found you, and a scan verified you’re our Candy. My child, you don't have to live like a Nevermind. You have a home now. You have a family. I'm waiting for you. Father’s very ill, and he wants to see you."
"What happened to Dad?" Candy asked, crying. "What happened to him?"
The broadcast stopped.
"He's in good hands," Fall said in almost a whisper. "The sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can all be out of here, and you can go see him."
"Put her back on and leave me alone! What's all this interrogation about?"
"Candy! Candy!" she turned and bumped into Parguin, whom she had left behind. Candy got closer and touched the feather ball. "Hey, I'm here..." tears fell from her eyes. "You look well. They're taking good care of you, yeah?" her fingers ran through the thick energy field that made up his flickering image.
Jeffrey Star appeared on the wall. "Candy, we had a misunderstanding. You're still Candy Metal as far as I'm concerned, the one and only."
"Jeffrey?"
"Forget it, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry for how we treated you. The audience misses you. I want to sign you to a better contract when you get out. The world’s waiting for you. Your marvelous, delightful voice will be heard again. Like in the good old days."
Her tears gushed out. The second chance she waited for was there. She could sing. She imagined the new life that was waiting for her and her crying intensified.
"It will all
be alright," Summer said in a comforting voice.
"This has nothing to do with you! Stay the hell out!" Candy shouted. "What did the Neverminds ever do to you? I remember the day I connected, I was so happy. All my life I was nothing, and you let me shine out to my fans. I was never so loved. But then something happened. I can hardly remember any of it. Just being nothing, no one, a forgotten memory. The world kept turning and no one could see me. I had to start everything over again, and you know what? I pulled through. And you, instead of letting us be, you turned people into potted plants! You're sick! And the world’s going to find out!"
"We don't know what you saw, but we're not in the business of turning people into plants," Fall declared with certainty. "That's a sick thought."
"Very sick, and the sign of an unstable psyche," Spring added in a worried voice.
"Candy, stop making up stories," Winter cut in.
"I know what I saw."
"The plants you saw were gifts for outstanding Minds users," Summer finally said. "Their features are modeled after users, and it's a symbol of the connection between us, all of us. But murder? Are you insane?"
"Features?"
"Simmer down," Winter barked at her. "Control yourself. I'm losing my patience."
"So where’s Robin, my friend, and all the other Neverminds?"
"They were taken to their homes," Fall answered, "and you simply missed them. The events of the past several weeks fried your brain's neurochemistry."
"But his clothes were there, in a pile. You're playing with my mind, that's what you're doing."
"We're on your side here," Summer said. "What did they tell you happened?"
"I wasn't told anything."
"What could you have seen?" Winter retorted. "You said you ran away."
"I assumed it was a malfunction. Luckily for me, when my turn came, the robotic arm stopped working when it was supposed to implant the component. Where’s Robin? Is he alive?"
"Sure, he's alive," Summer said. "He's waiting for you on the other side."
"Oh, yeah? Then let's see him. You showed me Jeffrey and Parguin. Here's a new challenge for you: show me Robin and I'll tell you what I saw."
The projections turned off.
Candy was left alone with her thoughts for a while.
"Candy? Why are you sleeping like this?" a voice called from behind her.
"Robin?! I can't believe this," she spoke to the three-dimensional image that flickered in front of her. "I thought they murdered you, and turned you into a bonsai plant."
"What made you think that? I'm alive and kicking," he said, glowing.
"I can't believe it - you're alive! I'm so happy!"
"Yes, I'm alive! I was never more alive!" She recognized tending owls flying around him. "What about you, and where are you? Why aren't you home already, jacked into Minds?"
"I don't understand this… you disappeared on me that day, I saw your plant."
"A plant? I'm alive, blooming, and very much human. Life is great, Candy! Just great. I almost forgot how good it was to be connected. It's like leaving a dark place and coming into the light. I'm in the middle of a new book, about all my experiences of being a Nevermind. People are hungry for stuff like this. After all, how long can a person keep bullshitting about light and love? I feel like I found my own voice at long last, after hiding for years. There's also a chapter in there about you."
After they spoke for a while, Robin disappeared and the interrogators were back on the walls around her.
Candy felt like it might have all been her imagination playing games with her, and that Robin was alive and well.
She told them everything, from the moment she arrived at the facility and leading up to the escape.
***
In the end, a red light led Candy out of the room.
She was searching for Don, but saw no one.
"There was a guard who arrested me," she called out to a passing sunshine.
"Yes, he's currently elsewhere," the sunshine answered. "What do you need him for?"
"Uh, I wanted to thank him personally for everything."
"I’ll let him know," she answered with a smile.
The gates opened, and the magnetic field carried her to a waiting neocar. She climbed in and took the window seat. A tray slid out of the car wall and offered her what looked like a chocolate health bar. She ate it greedily as the car drove itself up to the sky. She recognized the mountains they came from. Sunlight penetrated through the windows. She looked at the sun and remembered Don. A yearning welled inside her, but she realized she would have to bury the past. She was about to start a new life.
The neocar gained altitude and zoomed out into the great blue expanse. Candy sighed in relief. It was a serene, pastoral view.
And then it hit her. Robin's faded shirt. How could he have worn it in the interrogation room if she saw it laid out torn in a neat pile next to his trousers, his shoes and the bonsai plant?
She started moving uneasily in her seat, looking out in every direction, all the while feeling her eyelids becoming heavy. Her vision was blurry. A succession of faces flashed past her mind's eye; the parrot, Jeffrey, the interrogators, Robin. It all spun around. A Candy Metal song was playing in the background. She remembered the jumping orcas, and drifting back to the day she sang to her parents, a little girl with a pure silvery voice.
All of a sudden, she recognized the structure she escaped from. With her fingernails digging into the black leather upholstery, her remaining window of consciousness was closing, and, to her horror, she was acutely aware of it. In the end she blacked out. Right in the song's refrain.
***
Don watched the mountains through a huge office window. He narrowed his eyes to focus on a tiny speck moving in the sky, until the sun blinded him.
"Daniel, are you coming to Alaska's wake at the Funeral Home Mindsphere?" a Minds employee asked the person he assumed to be Daniel Kaminsky. "We all have to be there. Don't be late. Fabian doesn't like it when people are late, you know."
"Yes, of course," Don answered, though he had no idea who Fabian or Alaska were.
"Fabian was so attached to her. She was a sweet thing and followed him everywhere he went. It really pains me to think of it," the employee added and walked over to light Don a virtual health cigarette that let out a blue plume of smoke. "Did you ever keep a neopet? Nothing beats their loyalty, their love and devotion..."
"You just talked me into having one," Don responded.
"Well, I'll see you there, Kaminsky!"
Don scanned Brainz, the collective brain database, and located an open invitation to the funeral. He confirmed his attendance with a nod. He knew he'd have to put in an appearance soon, if he was going to keep his cover intact and not raise suspicion, just like he had to deliver Candy. It was a delay he could have done without. He was in a rush to find a way to get to Candy and get her out without raising all hell.
***
The funeral arranged for Alaska, the seal, was magnificent and emotionally loaded. The cold hall was pure white and had a simulated sky dome ceiling. At the center of it stood an igloo, and musical seal voices played in the background, arranged and orchestrated by Fabian himself. The attending audience watched him march into the hall wearing festive white clothes, Alaska's body lying limp in his arms.
"Thank you everyone for coming," he said in a trembling voice, and his eyes locked on Christoph, who was whispering something in Nicola's ear. "We are here today, gathered in memory of Alaska. I'm afraid she didn't survive the most recent communication failure. With your permission, I will say some words about the most precious gift of all. She used to look at me with her great black eyes and crawl happily to me. She jumped around to cheer me up when I was sad, and put her head on my knee to comfort me. She would sometimes paw me with her little furry feet when she wanted to get my attention. At first I thought she was so dependent, but, in truth, I was the one depending on her."
He looked at her and choked on
his tears. His hands were trembing.
"Alaska, I'm sorry for all the times that I didn't look at you when you wanted to show me something, when you cried and I kept doing my own thing, when you crawled to me and I didn't pay attention. You only wanted to be there for me, and I let you down."
The crowd stood in respectful silence, eyes respectfully down.
Sunshine looked at Christoph, but he ignored her and kept whispering to Nicola, who occasionally nodded.
Fabian snuck another tortured look at Christoph, and continued. "I won't forget you, you pure thing. You were a symbol of everything that is beautiful in the world. You were soft, pure, clean. I only wanted to shield you from my work, but it so happened that you fell victim to the great failure - a failure for which I am responsible. You rushed toward me like you do every day, with a big smile, and then you dropped. Your eyes closed and you collapsed. Nothing will ever melt my heart like you did. I am yours forever. Goodbye, Alaska."
A True Friend
As his friends and relatives came up one after another to deliver their eulogies, Fabian kept his eyes on Christoph and Nicola, who were leaving together early. The two walked a distance, until their silhouettes were reduced to a black speck against the horizon. Fabian could not take his eyes off that speck. The light outside blinded him, but he stubbornly kept his eyes peeled and watched them climb into a neocar and disappear. Fabian could not help himself and started sobbing. Everyone around offered their condolences. They thought the man was in shambles for losing Alaska.
An hour passed, and Don saw an incoming thought on his retina, which opened into a message that ran on the wall in front of him:
"I know who you are, and I know exactly what happened to your father. Who I am doesn't matter - we have a common interest. I'm going to need you on my side, so, for now, you’re safe. There are more important things on the line than your life or mine. The fate of humanity is in your hands. There’s something you need to do for your father, for all the Neverminds who are now dead, and for the future. To the world, you are now Daniel Kaminsky. Keep your head down. We'll be in touch."
Netopia: A Thrilling Dystopian Novel (Science Fiction & Action) Page 27