Terminal

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Terminal Page 26

by Adam Thielen


  Courtemanche stuck her finger in Ajay’s face as they ascended the building. “Don’t fucking lecture me, driver. I stand between you and a fucking bread line.”

  Ajay shook his head. “I’m with you because I believe in what you do. You need me, and you know I’m right.” Anne seethed silently in response, allowing Pisha to continue. “Your plan to grab another seer was a good one. Broadus came through, so make sure you compliment him.”

  Anne nodded. “They are hooking him up to the machine now. Finally, we can unravel the mess she’s made.”

  As they exited the elevator, they could hear struggling, groaning, and verbal protests coming from inside the lab down the hall. Inside the room, security chief Broadus oversaw the procedure.

  “What is this?” whimpered a thin young man with olive skin and thick eyebrows, dressed in only boxers. His body was marked with red and purple, and his head had been shaved bald. “What are you doing to me?”

  A man in a lab coat handed Anne a tablet as she approached the machine. It consisted of a helmet, bio-sensors hooked up at various points of the body, a series of screens for visual output, and restraints. Courtemanche skimmed the document on the tablet then stepped in front of the man, his wrist restraints connected to handrails forcing him to face a large screen in front of him.

  “Varun,” said Anne, interrupting the man’s babbling. “Varun, listen to me. You’re going to be fine. We just need you to find some things for us.”

  “Find? I can find nothing. What would I find?”

  “You’re very lucky,” she continued. “The helmet you wear will allow you to expand your mind and use your powers like you never have before. It’s going to be very simple. I’m going to put a series of faces on the screen, and you will focus on them. You will find them, and you will tell me what they are doing, what they have done, and what they will do.”

  “O-okay,” he stammered. “I don’t understand. Please don’t kill me.”

  Anne turned to Broadus. “What the fuck is wrong with him? He already thinks we are going to kill him.”

  Broadus straightened. “As I anticipated, we met heavy resistance. We had to put down many of the mages there.”

  She turned back to Varun. “Hey, hey, it’s alright. That won’t happen to you. We need you. Just follow our instructions. It’s simple. You’re going to be fine.”

  Varun calmed himself and nodded. “I-I’ll try.”

  Anne nodded to one of the technicians, and Taq’s face appeared on the screen.

  * * *

  Desre Somer was in a race against time, and only under diamond-forging pressure did she realize that she had always been in that race, or at least placed on the track. No one had told her to run, and now she had to sprint if she was ever to catch up with the world that had been moving around her.

  But when they hooked her up, they didn’t know that she had once worn a crown that had acclimated her to a similar enhancement of her abilities. In an instant, she saw the world as the giant moving machine it was, with all of its tiny cogs interconnected. She used it in subtle ways previous seers could not.

  The first problem became very clear to her. There were too many moving pieces. She had to ignore them and focus on her friends. Look for a way to reach out, she thought to herself. Do not let them use you without repercussions, without paying dearly.

  She had done well, so she thought, by seizing a disruption in the local grid to escape her cell and activate the helmet, going on memory alone of what she had seen the technicians do. She knew that eventually she would be discovered, and had to contact the most capable being she knew, her friend Tsenka.

  Her first instinct was to call her for help, but the larger picture of corruption and persecution haunted her, and by the time she found a way to reach the NRI agent, she decided that there was much more at stake than her safety. And so she began weaving her web of deception, placing her goals above all else, including the trust of her friend.

  It will be worth it, in the end, she believed. And then she saw it. Another seer entering the game, threatening to nullify her abilities. Desre knew she had to move fast to nip that thread in the bud before it undid all she had worked toward.

  * * *

  Varun’s eyes widened as the helmet dumped the world onto his lap, putting him in a virtual space that resembled a never-ending worm composed of overlapping spheres. Each sphere was filled with stars and lines connecting them, and as he looked upon the image of the mage Taq Jones, his mind involuntarily zoomed into one of the spheres. He saw his target, frozen in time, sleeping inside of a dingy room.

  Varun walked around the room, then the building, and what he saw was displayed on-screen for Anne and the technicians to monitor.

  “There he is. Go outside,” demanded Courtemanche.

  But Varun didn’t understand what he was doing or why, and suddenly the previously frozen scene began to move. The mage woke and rose and then his motion and those of his strange fellowship began to move faster until the scene became a disconcerting blur.

  “Stop,” Anne said, placing a hand on Varun’s shoulder.

  The scene stopped and Varun, attached to his target, stood outside of a black van in the middle of the road. He looked around at downtown Mumbai, stopping to stare at a skyscraper with swooping balconies towering high above all other structures.

  “That’s us,” said Courtemanche. “Where is this? When is this?”

  “I-I don’t,” he replied, his head throbbing from the cold produced by his powers.

  Anne took a deep breath. “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re doing fine. Just try to spot a billboard or clock somewhere.”

  But Varun couldn’t move, and the ambient lab noises he had been hearing while injected into this strange reality had ceased. Desre appeared before him, wearing a helmet matching his own.

  “I know you’re scared and confused right now,” she said. “My name is Desre Somer, and I’m a seer, like you. The people that grabbed you, they only want one thing, and that is to kill us. I’m sorry, Varun, there’s nothing that will change your fate. Whether you give them what they want or refuse to, they are going to kill you. This is something you know deep down, and it’s time to face it.”

  “N-no, please,” he cried. “You have to help me. It isn’t fair! They just grabbed me. I was just a student there. I don’t want to die.”

  “I know how you feel,” she said. “And I know it’s scary, but if you help me, I can stop them from hurting others.”

  “Please, save me,” begged Varun.

  “I will give you the only salvation I can,” she said. “But you must do as I ask.”

  “H-how?”

  Desre held out her arm. “Take my hand, and follow me. Together, we will show them what we want them to see.”

  Varun considered trying to free himself from this mind meld, but something in him felt that this confusing world placed in front of him would somehow make sense if only he went on a journey with the mysterious woman, and so he accepted her offer and took her hand.

  The world zoomed around them and they came to a stop right outside the Cepheid tower as the fellowship of outcasts battled against a well-armed security force. The scene moved forward, and Taq’s body lay on the ground motionless with a small pool of blood under his cheek.

  “What are you doing?” asked the technician.

  “What is this? Is he dead?” Courtemanche stepped closer to the screen.

  “Tell her you feel faint,” said Desre, and Varun complied.

  “Take him out of the machine, we’ll try this again later,” directed Anne.

  “That didn’t work,” said Somer. “Let’s try something else.”

  The world that Varun had thought was real, the one that existed outside the four-dimensional worm, rewound itself.

  “What is this? I don’t understand,” he said.

  “I’m just going to try another path,” she said. “Hold on.”

  Varun felt his body pulled taut, an unpleasan
t sensation that caused him to fear that his limbs would be torn from his body. The world lost its color and buildings collapsed around him as time flew by. When they stopped, the city was in ruins. Fires blazed in the distance and smoke filled the sky. Automatic weapons fire filled the air, and bodies lay dead in the street.

  Anne and the lab techs stared in awe at the scene. Broadus shook his head in disbelief, but Anne gazed stoically.

  “This is a trick,” Anne said. “She’s gotten to him.”

  “Maybe,” said Broadus. “But she’s only showing us the truth. We need to stop this, all of this.” He stepped closer to the screens, his lips parted.

  BANG!

  Broadus’s left temple splintered outward, and he fell to the ground. Anne lowered her revolver and turned to the technicians.

  “This is what she does,” shouted Anne. “She is a trickster, a manipulator. I cannot suffer weakness. This is a time to be strong.” She looked down at Broadus. “I will not let her stop us.”

  The scene froze.

  “Nahi… nahi,” whimpered Varun. “Please, I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Calm, Varun,” hushed Somer. “He’s not dead. Well, not yet. Though, it might be beneficial to have him out of the way. But no, we can do better than this. Stay with me just a little longer.”

  The world rewound again and the psionic duo traveled away from the city and across a vast ocean. Slowly the world came to life, displaying a new scene in front of Courtemanche.

  “Why are we here?” she asked, touching the screen with her finger. “Is he there?”

  “I am just following him,” Varun said, parroting Desre’s words. He looked up, capturing an image that made Anne audibly gasp.

  “Is that—?”

  “Sure looks like it,” said Broadus.

  Light from the image bathed the room. Anne and the team watched with pride.

  “It worked,” she said with a triumphant smile. “He must be heading there. All roads lead to the same destination. It’s done then. Nicely done, Varun.” She turned to the lead technician. “Compile this imagery and have it ready by noon.”

  “What are you planning?” asked Broadus.

  “We finally know that we are on the right track,” said Courtemanche. “I have to show the others, prove it to them.”

  “Congratulations are in order,” he said.

  “Ey, she didn’t kill him this time,” said Varun, relieved. “What did we show them? Was that the future?”

  “That was both the truth and a lie,” Desre stated. “They believe it, and that is what matters. You’re a hero, and the next time we meet, things will be different, I promise you.” Desre faded from view, and the simulation ended, ejecting the seer back into the physical world of the present.

  “Can I go now?” he asked Anne.

  She did not respond to him but instead turned to her security chief. “We can’t chance any further alterations. Take care of him.”

  Broadus sighed, and as the technicians began to process and transfer the recorded feeds, he pulled a dagger from his belt. Desre watched with tears in her eyes as the chief stepped behind Varun, placed the blade to his throat, and sliced it open.

  Episode 15: Angel of Death

  “I c-can’t believe I l-let you t-talk me in-in-into this,” said Kate Jones, sitting on a padded slab in the middle of a large sterile-looking white room. She stared at her husband, who was making a very poor attempt to keep from blubbering.

  “I’m sorry,” he lied. “I don’t want you to go through this, to be scared.” In truth, it was he that was scared. Terrified, in fact, that at any moment she might change her mind. He knew he had to keep the focus on her ordeal, and not his own, in order to keep her from backing out. As the moment drew near, the mage had become convinced that it was his life that, as he knew it, would soon end.

  “In l-less than an hour,” she said, “I’m going to c-close my eyes, and I m-may never open them ag-gain. Th-this could be the last t-time I see you.”

  Taq wrapped his arms around her body, feeling its subtle twitches. He sobbed uncontrollably. “I love you,” he said as his own tremors subsided. “You’ll be fine. They just need a little more time to figure this out. We have no choice. I’ll visit you every day, I promise. I love you.”

  “I d-don’t want to d-do this,” she sobbed. “We could s-spend the week together, doing whatever y-you want.”

  “At the end of that week, you’d regret it, and I’d hate myself,” he said.

  “I wo-wouldn’t,” she insisted.

  “We had a great couple months, didn’t we?” asked Taq. “But we’re here now. Everything is ready. We have a plan.”

  “Ow-our last m-meal…” she started.

  “I know,” said Taq. “That fucking waiter.” He forced the edges of his mouth up, looking almost sinister in contrast with his furrowed brow.

  Kate calmed and shook her head. “I l-left so much unfinished.”

  “You were the NRI,” said her husband. “No one will doubt that. And in a few years, you can get back to it again.”

  “I l-love you, too,” she replied, seeing the team of doctors enter the room. “If th-things don’t wor-work out—”

  “They will, I know it,” he interrupted.

  “Find s-someone,” she continued. “Be happy. D-don’t wait until your j-junk stops working.”

  “Jesus, dear,” he replied, looking back to see how close the doctors were. “I… I will be fine. I will be happy, I promise.”

  She grabbed his hands as the doctors huddled around her and the slab. They pulled a cart with needles and tubes and machines and monitors, and a surgical assistant wheeled in a large cryogenic capsule.

  As they began feeding the drugs intravenously, she said, “Every day?”

  Taq nodded.

  The lead doctor lowered her flat onto the slab and her eyes began to lose their focus. Her breathing quickened and her body tensed. Her mouth moved as she attempted to speak, but managed only one word; “Taq.” Then her body relaxed and her breathing became slow. The doctors lifted her into the pod and began running diagnostics on its air seals and automated systems.

  Taq watched as they lowered her body temperature until her bodily functions, including her heart, ceased. A mist inside the chamber would transfer needed oxygen at a slow rate, and while her synapses were frozen, they would still fire, just at a much slower rate. Years would pass in the time it would take for her to experience a short dream.

  Kate’s eyes closed, and Taq began to sweat and fidget and found he could not draw enough breath. His heart knew that his life would never be complete again, and it revolted against him, attempting to break free from his chest. The room spun and after an admirable resistance, Taq collapsed onto the linoleum.

  * * *

  Jones woke for brief periods over the next two days as Daria watched over him, refilled his intravenous bag, and changed his sheets. Once per day she crushed one of the pills he had taken and let it dissolve under his tongue, unsure what they did but deathly afraid it was important.

  On the second night, he woke in darkness and sat up. The mage conjured a small glowing dot he called a wisp. An old turned-over milk crate sat beside his cot, and a small com waited on top of it. He picked it up and went through the setup, creating a new com ID, then sent a page to Tsenka that went unanswered.

  Jones took his wisp and surveyed the hideout. He found closed doors to what were once side offices where he assumed the others slept. He stopped to use the bathroom, inconveniently located on the opposite side of the warehouse from his room, then continued his circuit, coming to a small shrine with candles and incense and a distressed poster of two men in strange black and white face paint. He shook his head. They’re even over here, he thought, before completing his journey back to the cot in his room.

  The urge to read struck him, and so he looked up his own books, of which there were two. He opened the first, his new com projecting the image onto his retina of a book floating befo
re him. Finished shortly after gaining his freedom from the university where he had grown up, the book was filled with fanciful theories about the nature of the Ethereal plane and the future of spellcasting.

  Reading it for the first time in decades, Taq barely recognized the author and didn’t recall much of the content either. After a few chapters, including one about experimental casting he specifically wanted to remember, he had sated his nostalgic craving and drifted back to sleep.

  When he woke next, he saw Daria sitting against the side of the cot. As he stirred, she scooted out of the way and turned toward him.

  “Morning, sunshine,” she said, following with, “Ya betta yet?”

  Taq sat up. “Does this establishment have room service?”

  “Har,” she responded. “I got some old naan around here somewhere. We tend to be careful about how we come and go, and now, well, we gotta be real careful.”

  “What is all this?” asked Taq. “A club, a gang?”

  “We ain’t got numbers for either,” she replied. “We’s just rejects. Couple of us run a bit off, couple of us have too much work done. UTI doesn’t want cyborgs or anything else impure. The others want to bomb stuff, get even. I don’t see the point. A couple attacks and they gun us down and the world will keep spinnin’. I want to do something that will matter.”

  “Why don’t you just leave India?”

  “Sounds strange, but this place feels like home to me.”

  “Sometimes you have to fight for home,” Jones said, rising to his feet. Daria followed him up.

  “You fight for Kate?”

  Taq furrowed his brow. “How do you know her?”

  “You tossed lots,” she said. “Kept sayin’ the name. She your wife?”

  “She was—is,” he said, then frowned. “I fought for her, but not for her.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  Looking at Daria, Taq felt less shame than he would with someone who knew him, or worse, knew Kate. He inhaled and decided to be as blunt as possible. “I betrayed her. I lied to her and guilted her until she did what I wanted. Kate just wanted to be let go, to end her suffering, but I talked her into cryo. I told her I was sure they’d find a cure, but that was a lie. I knew they wouldn’t, but I just couldn’t let her go. I was too afraid of what it would do to me.”

 

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