by Paul Teague
It was the time to act. He called Teanna and told her to meet him at the Fortrillium buildings. They’d both need to be armed.
He then made a call to Reevil96. He’d noticed that his contact was getting jittery – there was something in the air, everybody could feel that change was coming. Reevil96 responded immediately. After all, he had nothing else to do, there were no distractions where he was.
‘I want you to clear me a way through!’ Delman demanded. ‘This is your last mission now. You get me through this and you’re free. You get to see your family again, it’s all over. But you must get me through The Grid safely.’
‘Understood, sir, but Fortrillium is on complete lockdown. The Gridders are under massive scrutiny. I’m going to have to tread very carefully. If they detect me now, they’ll close me off and you’ll be at the mercy of Fortrillium.’
‘You have to make it work or you will never see your family again. You understand that, don’t you? If I come to any harm in there, I will activate the death codes, it will be the last thing I do. You have to get me through there, and you have to make sure the man Clay is unharmed, he will escort us through. Once we exit, finish him.’
‘Understood.’
Reevil96 thought through the options. As usual, there was no way out. Either he did as he was told or he’d never see his family again. The President had assured him he was protecting them all, that his actions were for the greater good. Reevil96 had believed that for many years, even though he’d seen plenty of evidence to the contrary. Block the exits to The Grid, assist the President, keep The City safe from plague, see his family again. It seemed simple enough, but nothing in The City was ever that simple.
‘This is the last time we speak, next time we’ll meet in person,’ Delman continued. ‘You get me through this and it’s all over for you, just as I promised.’
Delman seemed uncertain as to whether he was pleading or threatening, but he held the upper hand, all of the power was his. Reevil96 still believed the President’s actions were for the greater good, in spite of his way of going about things.
‘There’s one thing …’ Reevil96 began to speak just at the wrong moment. The feed was terminated, that was it, Reevil96 was on his own. This feed had been his only company for six years. He hoped he would soon be free to see his family and friends again. His sentence would be over.
Josh Delman made sure he was armed. He took two firearms and a knife. President’s privileges, he would not be without some form of self-defence. You could never be too certain.
He opened his safe and pushed the pages he’d torn out of Hunter’s copy of The Pact into his pocket. He left the rest of it, he wouldn’t be needing that. In his rush, he left the safe half-open. A car was summoned and Delman was driven to Fortrillium’s HQ. As he made the short drive to Hunter’s domain, he observed the presence of armoured vehicles and was not surprised to see the fortifications on the gates. He passed through them and saw Teanna standing by a wire fence, awaiting his arrival. It wouldn’t be long before Hunter came for him. A rebellion in motion, a lockdown on the Fortrillium facility, it was the perfect time for Hunter to make his move.
‘We’re going into The Grid. You know this is the end now, Teanna, don’t you? We get through this alive and you get to see your father again. We’ll put it all right.’
Teanna looked at the President. She knew she had no choice in the matter, but she still didn’t trust him. What had her father said? Not to trust Delman. They’d been his last words. Why would a father’s final words to his daughter carry a warning?
She’d got insurance: the Umbilica had been tampered with, she was armed, and she had her WristCom so she’d be able to access Hunter if she needed to. Hunter would be her guarantee, he’d do anything to be reunited with his family.
Delman and Teanna made their way through the corridors of Fortrillium. The Centuria were tense but they passed through without challenge. Delman was the President after all, ranking higher than Hunter, there was no reason to block his access.
They passed through many of the areas which Talya had seen on her tour of the Fortrillium penal facilities, but she had never got anywhere close to the heart which was where the President was heading.
He and Teanna moved closer and closer to the entrance to The Soak and the holding cells for the Justice Seekers. They passed the cell where, only days before, Joe, Lucy, Clay and the others had awaited trial. The guards acknowledged Delman with the respect a President commanded, but Teanna could sense their inquisitiveness. Why was the President visiting the heart of the penal areas? What business did he have there?
Delman strode into the Prep-Room.
‘Check our implants!’ he commanded the medics. There were three of them, a doctor and two assistants. They leapt out of their chairs, they had not been expecting a visit from the President.
Delman took out his weapon and shot one of the assistants through the head. He’d seen the look of enquiry in their eyes, he hadn’t got much time, he needed to get into The Grid and begin his final journey.
There was shock, stunned silence, then the doctor started to move. Teanna was startled. She’d seen that Hunter was capable of this irrational behaviour, but Delman had always seemed more calculating. He certainly got the reaction he was looking for.
The doctor ran a scan on both of them.
‘Both implants are fully operational, sir. Yours is a unique model of course—’
‘Give me an extractor!’ Delman demanded.
The assistant rushed to a safe in the wall, entered the codes and authorization, and handed Delman the unit. It could be held easily in the hand, it fitted in his pocket. Delman raised his weapon and shot the doctor and the assistant. Teanna gasped.
‘What did you think would happen, Teanna? You know what’s required here. We’ll need to get these cursed implants out as soon as we reach Centrum.’
Teanna did, of course, understand that in matters of security sometimes extreme action had to be taken. She knew they were in a rush, they had to start making their way to The Core, but had the deaths really been necessary? He was the President, they would have done whatever he wanted.
She kept quiet, not wanting to betray her disgust at what had just happened. She was going to need a stronger stomach whichever man she finally aligned herself to, Hunter or Delman.
She followed the President through the corridors to an area she had not been before. He went through the authentication protocols and they entered. It was empty, there were just electro-cuffs and shackles waiting for the next inmates. This was the transportation area where Justice Seekers moved from Fortrillium to The Grid.
It was bothering Delman that he’d cut off Reevil96 before he’d finished what he was going to say. He’d been in such a rush – he had to hurry, Hunter could begin to close things down at any time. He hoped it was something trivial. They had to move, he had to get to The Core.
‘Stand on the platform,’ he motioned to Teanna. ‘Draw your weapon, you might need it. Ask questions later, and any sign of threat, you eliminate it, alright?’
Teanna nodded and reached for her weapon. Delman touched his WristCom. He was trying to reach Clay inside The Grid. There was no response.
‘Damn him!’ Delman cursed. ‘Be ready for anything, Teanna!’
He went to the control panel at the side of the transportation area and keyed in the commands. It was a single function area, there was only one place to go. This transporter was taking them to The Grid.
The platform began to activate, and Delman stepped alongside Teanna and drew his weapon once again. It was bloodied from its recent use, he’d been close when he’d shot the doctor.
The transportation process was completed. They were in The Grid. Their implants had ensured they got in there safely, but whether they would survive was another matter entirely. They were in a cityscape – it looked very much like The Climbs. Delman was familiar with it, Teanna much less so.
Delman tried his WristCom again, c
ursing when he couldn’t raise a response.
‘We need to locate the Justice Seeker named Clay Hillman, he’s our guide through this place.’
As his words trailed off, Delman got the answer to two of his most recent questions. He’d been concerned about what Reevil96 wanted to say to him and also Clay’s whereabouts. The answer came in the form of two drones which came out of nowhere from among the rubble and high-rise buildings.
Teanna and Delman split off in different directions, both tracked by drones. Delman ran and fired his weapon. The drone dodged and weaved but kept on its target. Teanna tried to take cover. She ducked into an alleyway just as her drone shot out its needle. It hit the side of the wall, shattering and dropping to the ground. She thought she’d dodged it, pointed her weapon and took aim to shoot the drone. It flew over her head, came up fast from behind and shot a second needle into her neck. She was paralysed.
Delman was tiring quickly, he didn’t have the strength he’d had the first time he’d entered that terrible place. He shot several times, but his first weapon was empty, he had no time to stop and reload. It was only a matter of time. The device shot its needle. It missed and entered Delman’s leg. He gave a shriek of pain as he fell to the ground. The drone circled around him at a low level, trying to get a clear shot at his neck. It took a few moments until Delman tired, but it found its opportunity and shot the dart into his neck. He froze, unable to move.
Reevil96 had been trying to warn him about the Psyche-Mode that had been activated in The Grid. With implants fitted to allow them to get in and out of the arena, Delman and Teanna were subject to the same conditions as the other Justice Seekers, there was no seniority or special treatment. Delman had an implant too, it was different to the rest, it gave him all the access privileges President James Morgan had enjoyed. But it also gave direct access to his mind, something that should never have occurred for a man in such a senior position.
Delman had just made his darkest secrets available via his implant and there was one man in particular who was very keen to find out what those secrets were. He was sitting in his office at Fortrillium HQ wondering what to do next – and he’d just got his answer.
Chapter Eleven
Action
Talya’s address drew an enthusiastic round of applause from the rebels crowding round to watch and monitor the output on their screen feeds. After so many years in hiding, planning and waiting for their moment, it was amazing to be fighting back.
Talya was more anxious. She wanted reports back from the screens. She’d been playing with fire, she knew, and she didn’t want to turn The Climbs into a bloodbath. Already reports were coming in from the rebels who were based around the screening areas. The situation was tense. Some of the Centuria had been killed, seemingly by a form of remote access. They had fallen to the ground without warning, their hearts stopped by a sudden violent shock.
Many of the citizens had stepped up to the Centuria teams in a gesture of peace, and the majority had removed their helmets as a sign of solidarity.
But some had fired on the crowds, choosing to fight for Fortrillium. They’d regrouped and tried to make for the exits, but Fortrillium had closed the rusty iron gates which separated Silk Road and The Climbs. Nobody in living memory had seen them shut, it was assumed they were no longer functioning. It was a measure of how defenceless they all felt: the gates of their minds had kept them in their place as well as anything that Fortrillium could put in their way.
‘Do we have anything we can use to blast them open?’ Talya asked.
There was surprise in the room. So many years of plotting and planning, and now here it was. They were attacking. Finally they were fighting back.
‘I don’t know how strong they are,’ Leo began, ‘but we have one armoured missile launcher and two missiles. That’s it. The resistance has had the launcher since it was first procured by two former engineers ten years ago. It had been abandoned over here by Fortrillium and they renovated it and fixed it up. The missiles were recreated from empty shells. We don’t know if they’ll work, but there’s one way to find out.’
‘Let’s do it!’ Talya replied. ‘What level of resistance can we expect on the other side of the wall, Leo? Jody? Do you think the Centuria will work with us or against us?’
‘Difficult to tell. It all depends on how much threatening Hunter does. Our Gen-ID shield devices have kept our whereabouts concealed so at least he can’t take us down – for now.’
‘He’ll save that for a special occasion. If I were Hunter, I’d want to make the most of your capture,’ said Talya. ‘He’ll want to make a spectacle of it. Let’s get those missiles ready and assemble teams to head for the gates. We need to target the gate that’s closest to Fortrillium. I want the shortest distance for us to have to travel when we cross over.’
All around her, teams mobilized, grabbed weaponry and headed for the exits. She was aware that Wiz had been trying to get her attention. He’d been left with his tech team as silence descended on the ops area.
‘You did well with the hologram, Wiz, thank you.’
‘No problem, Talya. What’s the plan now?’
‘I need you to gather as much evidence and information as you can on Damien Hunter and President Delman. I want them put on trial after this, if we get that far. They need to answer for what they’ve done.’
‘We don’t have anything on the President, Talya. This all points to Hunter. There are just folders and folders of images, video feeds and documentation. Delman doesn’t figure anywhere.’
‘Okay, create a file on Hunter. What about the outside source? Do we have any idea yet where that’s coming from?’
‘I need to tell you something about Delman,’ Wiz began, ‘although I’m not sure it’s going to help us. He’s planning to enter The Grid, he’s going somewhere. Whoever is helping him is doing it under duress, he’s been threatening their family. I can’t find out what his plan is, but I think he’s in there already. Look!’
Wiz pointed to his console screen which was showing a looped replay of the feed from The Grid. It was only a short clip, but Talya could see what it was straight away.
‘That’s Teanna Schaelles, isn’t it? What’s she doing in there with Delman?’
‘They pulled the camera feed on them immediately, but if you ask me, all routes lead to The Grid, that’s where you’re going to find your answers. You need to get to Fortrillium and get inside The Grid.’
Talya looked at the clip again and thought a moment.
‘You’re right, Wiz. Everything we need is in The Grid, with the exception of Damien Hunter. He’ll be holed up at Fortrillium. We need to take our fight there. Is it possible to hack into that Comms line? Can you talk to our mystery friend who’s been chatting to Delman? If we can find their location, I think it’s going to move things on significantly.’
Wiz considered the problem and surveyed his new tech team. They were good, they knew Fortrillium’s systems and protocols.
‘We’ll give it a shot, Talya. There’s also the WristCom we managed to place inside The Grid – it would be a good idea to try to locate it. We can find Tom’s ID in the Fortrillium archives, and we may be able to poll the WristCom directly if we can get through The Grid firewalls.’
‘Okay, Wiz. Do it. I want you to stay in constant contact with me and keep me up to date with everything that’s going on here. We’re going to try to get inside Fortrillium. If we fail, it’s up to you to get everybody out of The Grid.’
Talya was on her way, joining the rebels who’d been swiftly mobilized for the attack on the security barricade. She watched the battered missile launcher making its way out of the underground parking area which housed the few vehicles the resistance had managed to salvage. She was unsure about the good sense of this attack. Was she sending people to their deaths? There had been enough of that in The City. But if they could overthrow Fortrillium and replace Hunter and Delman with some form of elected government, perhaps there really could
be a more just world within the walls of The City.
They were committed – Hunter knew who they were. He was killing Centuria. This battle would end in victory or defeat. If it was defeat, it could end any thought of rebellion for another hundred years. If it was victory? Who could tell what future awaited them?
There was something beyond The City, a place where Matt Parsons had found some sort of sanctuary, if the holographic image was for real. They had to push on, to discover the truth about their lives within the walls. The citizens were galvanized at last. There was no retreat for Talya, she’d committed them to action.
The rebels made their way through the streets of The Climbs, moving in small groups to prevent an attack. There were sporadic attempts at combat, but the Centuria were split up and divided into small groups. Within The Climbs they were outnumbered, but on Silk Road they’d have superior firepower and would be waiting for the rebels.
Talya was handed a weapon by Leo. The only time she’d ever used violence was with Max Penner. He was an innocent man and she’d tortured him. The Centuria were all coerced in one way or another – she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to kill them when it came to it. They were all guilty of turning a blind eye, they’d followed terrible orders and done things which terrified everybody living in The City. Yet they were caught up in a trap from which there seemed no escape, and underneath the uniforms they were still human beings, Leo and Jody had shown her that. Talya resolved to press on with the mission. They had to try, at least. If they were beaten, so be it, she would take the consequences.
It took some time to reach the security gate Talya wanted to attack. If they were able to break through that huge iron gate, they’d be able to get into Silk Road and move quickly on to Fortrillium.
Talya ran through her plan as the small groups of armed rebels came together at the gates. There were huge crowds gathering – civilians and Centuria without helmets. The mood was for rebellion, but there seemed to be little taste for blood so far.