“Isa,” Anders’ voice said through the wristband, “the signal is being routed from three locations. Once of those is at Syndicate Intelligence.”
Isa sighed heavily.
“At least now we know why the router drone was sent.”
“Isa,” Hana said as the men in the video picked the Elite off the ground and put him back in the chair, “they’re running searches, but there have been no missing prototypes reported.”
“No surprise. They weren’t paying attention,” Isa groaned. “Keep me updated.”
Kailynn was watching the children on the screen as they looked around, confused and worried, but not frightened.
“Our motives are simple and pure,” the man continued. “Humans were not made to bow to machines. Venus is the cause of the corruption in the Altereye System. All those not bound to her mainframe are forced to starve and receive no aid unless they agree to become slaves to her whim. We know that you are weaponizing her to destroy all planets that oppose you, disguising her as a protection program as a means to cover the destruction you plan to wreak.”
Isa’s eyes were sharp on the screen, trying to pick up anything she could about their location. Kailynn’s heart was in her throat. Remus walked into Isa’s office, slowly approaching the group.
“Our Brother, Colonel Amori, knew the dangers that Venus posed, and he sought to destroy her, but in an attempt to keep yourselves in power, you murdered him while he slept. But he did not die in vain. We have intelligence on you, on your movements, your habits, those you hold dear, and your weaknesses. We will finish what our Brother started. We will annihilate the Elite Syndicate and the Crescent Alliance.
“Golden Elite Isa,” the man said, his voice dripping with contempt, “we have a special message for you. We know that you were behind our Brother’s assassination, and we failed to avenge him when we Pulsed your chair. But, rest assured, we have other methods. Gihron blood spilt can only be repaid in blood. You are not safe. You never will be. We infiltrated your heavily-guarded Elite Academy, and took these mindless sheep from the confines of those walls. If we can get to them, you know we can get to you.”
Kailynn’s stomach was twisting sickly.
“Isa,” Hana said over the wristband, “their signals are jammed. They’re somewhere eighty kilometers away from the docking station.”
“Scramble every available military personnel to that area,” Isa ordered, her eyes never leaving the screen.
“Everyone should take heed,” the man on the screen continued, “this is only the beginning of the revolution. The Syndicate will die and Venus will fall.”
The man pointed the gun at the first prototype’s temple. The boy looked at the man, his eyes confused. Then, his eyes briefly turned back to the camera and the man pulled the trigger.
Kailynn could not stop the wail of horror when she saw the bullet rip through the Elite prototype’s head.
He fell out of his chair and to the floor, dead.
Isa closed her eyes tightly and dropped her head briefly, letting out a shaky breath.
“The Syndicate will all die,” the man said, moving to the next prototype as she stared at the dead Elite on the floor, her face filled with confusion. The man put the gun to her head.
“No!” Kailynn screamed.
Her cry was punctuated by the gunshot that killed the next prototype.
Isa grabbed Kailynn and pulled her close, turning her head so her tear-filled eyes were pushed against Isa’s uniform, away from the horrible scene playing on the screen.
Rayal lifted a hand to his mouth and turned away, closing his eyes against the tears.
“Elite Isa will die,” the man said.
He moved to the third prototype, who tried to move away. One of the other men darted forward and pulled the Elite back to the chair, where the gun was pointed at his head.
“Venus will die,” the man continued the gruesome countdown, ending the life of the third prototype. Kailynn jumped at the sound, her hands tightening in Isa’s clothes. Isa’s arms held Kailynn, though her eyes remained locked on the screen.
“And the Alliance,” the man said, pressing his gun to the temple of the last prototype, “will fall.”
The fourth gunshot seemed louder than the other three.
Kailynn was shaking violently, terrified as her tears overwhelmed her.
“If you wish to contain this bloodshed,” the man concluded, “you will dismantle Venus, you will turn over Golden Elite Isa to face execution for her crimes, and you will disband the Crescent Alliance. Otherwise, you will have a horrible, bloody war and we will kill every citizen of the Alliance. Make your decision.”
The transmission cut out and silence fell over the room.
Isa pressed her head to Kailynn’s, rubbing her back gently as Kailynn cried.
“This is an open declaration of war on the entire Alliance,” Remus said, turning to face Isa. “Not just us.”
“Fuck, Remus, they just murdered four children to prove their point!” Rayal snapped. “We’re past war. This is terrorism. They’re threatening the life of our leader and the entire alliance. This is a terrorist cell we’re dealing with.”
“How did they get them out of the Academy?” Isa asked, turning to look at Remus. The Silver Elite shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he sighed. “The security is top of the line.”
“Then there is concern that they can get to you,” Rayal said to Isa. “They can get inside the Syndicate Building if they can get into the Elite Academy.”
“The entire building is on biometrics,” Isa said, shaking her head. “If they’re not in the system, they can’t get in.”
“They have to get through the docking station, first,” Remus pointed out. “We would notice a large group of Gihron citizens arriving on planet.”
“Clearly, we wouldn’t,” Isa disagreed. “This is the only place in the Altereye System with Elites. They’re already on the planet. And they’re ready for war.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kailynn was unable to calm down after the terrorists’ message. That night, she continued to wake up in cold sweats, shaking, thinking about the kids being killed on the screen. One nightmare, she was sure that Isa was the one sitting in the chair with the gun to her head.
Isa woke up with the Significant each time, soothing her until she went back to sleep.
The next day, she and Isa got into an argument about safety and security before Isa left for the Syndicate. Kailynn was terrified that, the moment she let Isa out of her sight, the Elite would be assassinated. Isa tried to calm her and tell her that there was very heavy security around her and that she would be fine. However, worried about Kailynn’s safety, Isa told Kailynn to go back to Companion and keep a low profile.
Kailynn angrily opposed and declared that she was going to quit Companion that day.
She had not been back to Companion in what felt like years, and walking back into the lobby was a surreal experience after the life she had been living in Anon.
As the doors opened for her, she tried to remember how long she had been gone. She had grown accustomed to Anon Tower, to sharing a bed with the Golden Elite, to the comforts provided to her while in Isa’s care. Her time at Companion, and her time in Trid before that, seemed like distant memories from decades past.
The stark contrast between the light of the Syndicate and Anon Tower and the darkness of the lobby of Companion was alarming. Kailynn hesitated after her first step into the greeting salon. She felt as though she had entered a place she did not belong.
The Significants in the salon stopped their quiet conversations and turned to her. Kailynn recognized most of them as the highest-earning Significants of Companion. Considering the time of day, it did not surprise her that they were in the greeting salon, but she wished she had remembered the basics of Significant scheduling before storming back into the building.
“Oh my, we have been blessed,” Camilla said with a cold laugh, stan
ding from her position and walking forward. “It is Jacyleen, Significant to those in the highest echelons of society, even though she comes from breeding rats in Trid.”
Kailynn stopped, looking around as the other seven Significants in the greeting salon stood, surrounding her. She grit her teeth and turned to Camilla.
“Step aside,” she said sharply.
“Oh? Are you commanding me now? I guess that’s what happens when you spend so much time at the Syndicate. You start talking like an Elite.”
“I do not work with the Syndicate directly,” Kailynn said evenly. “I work for Syndicate Intelligence under Rayal Teleta.”
“Do you really believe we are so ignorant?” Harven asked, scoffing. “You forget who you speak to.”
“Well, you can’t blame her for that,” Mika said, her shrill voice setting Kailynn’s teeth on edge. “After all, she didn’t really spend any time among the Nobel Soirees or with others in the higher levels of society.”
“Any Significant worth their fee knows that Rayal Teleta is the former caretaker to Golden Elite Isa. And you were spending time with Isa…oh, sorry, I mean Tarah, Isa’s caretaker, when she was almost assassinated. You were in the house when that happened,” Camilla sneered, leaning forward as the circle closed tighter around Kailynn. “You seem to like Elite caretakers. I wonder if you set up that poor boy to turn over his own master to Venus for trying to shut her down.”
“What?”
“Umana, Maki’s caretaker in training,” Myin said, looking at her seriously. “The one who turned Maki over for treason. He was so distraught over it all they found him with a bullet in his brain and a gun in his right hand. Or have you not heard about that?”
Kailynn blinked, horrified by the news of the caretaker’s suicide.
“It would make sense that she did not hear about it,” Harven said with a sick smile. “She was probably wrapped up in the much bigger scandal about how Elite Isa’s Syndicate is crumbling around her, because we all know that Elite Isa was the one to pull the trigger and kill Maki. Now, the other Bronze Elites are scared of her.”
“Trouble in the Elites seems to happen whenever you are close,” Camilla noted, her expression filled with mock-confusion. “Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“The nobles know that Isa is keeping a Trid near her as an advisor,” Myin added.
“Perhaps…it’s more than that?” Camilla suggested.
Kailynn clenched her fists. She took a deep breath and tried to adapt an air of calm authority.
“You’re all morons,” she said simply. “I may not have known about Umana, but I did know that Elite Isa killed Maki, because Rayal was there that night, and he saw Maki break a wine glass over Isa’s neck. It was self-defense. And, as for the advising Trid, I have been asked questions about Trid by Rayal, however, she has another Trid that has been with her for a very long time. That is who she is getting her advice from,” she lied. She took another deep breath and shook her head. “I understand that you’re upset that I’ve managed to pull myself out of whoring my time to rich, entitled perverts, even being a pathetic, rat-bred Trid, but there is no reason to believe that I have any ties to the Elites.”
Kailynn tried to step forward, but three Significants held out their hands, pushing her back.
“We know that you’re close to Isa,” Myin snarled darkly. “We don’t give a damn what those fuckers want to do with their free time.”
“But when the leader of the planet is so distracted that she allows children to be killed as a declaration of war,” Camilla hissed, “then the problem involves all of us.”
“How could you think I had anything to do with that?” Kailynn asked, horrified.
“You are distracting the Golden Elite. Ever since the Pulse Virus, Elite Isa has not been a proper Golden Elite. You clearly have something to do with that. As soon as the rumors started about a Significant in the home of the Golden Elite, things began to change,” Harven said. “Business has been booming, but only because people want to know what Golden Elite Isa’s Significant has been doing. They call us to ask about you.”
“I am not Significant to the Golden Elite,” Kailynn growled. “Now get out of my way. I need to speak with Jak.”
“We do not answer to you,” Camilla snapped, shoving Kailynn backward. “You distracted her, you brought this war on,” she said as some of the other Significants grabbed Kailynn’s arms, holding her steady as she tried to struggle. “Because of you, four kids are dead. How does that feel? Having that blood on your hands?”
Kailynn lifted her knee into Camilla’s stomach, causing a surge of panic and chaos among those in the greeting salon.
Before Camilla could recover from the blow, the others were rounding on Kailynn, lifting their fists and punching her in the stomach and chest, a few blows landing on her face. She flailed against those holding her and kicked her legs, connecting with limbs of unidentified Significants, but in the chaos, there was little else she could do.
She continued to flail and fight back, yelling obscenities as fists and feet rained over her body angrily.
“Knock it off! Break it the fuck up!!!” an angry voice bellowed.
The movement ceased around Kailynn and several of the Significants backed away, nursing their own injuries. A few were on the floor, cradling broken fingers or noses that had connected with Kailynn’s flailing legs.
Kailynn managed to blink to pain of the blows away from her eyes and saw Jak approach her quickly, yanking her away from the other Significants.
“Are you all fucking insane?!” Jak yelled. “You decided to attack a registered Syndicate Intelligence employee?! Are you so eager to be executed?!”
No one spoke and Jak turned to look at Kailynn.
“You should never have come back here,” he said, releasing her and shaking his head. “With everything going on right now, Syndicate employees are under close watch. You’re going to make things harder for Rayal by walking around doing whatever the fuck you please. You work for the Syndicate now. There are rules.”
“I came here to quit,” Kailynn said, trying to breathe around the throbbing of her ribs.
“I accept your resignation,” Jak said quickly. “Just get the hell out of here, Jacyleen. And don’t ever come back.”
Isa was far more sensitive to things since Maki’s death, and her sensitivity concerned her more than anyone else. When she had seen Kailynn’s bruises from being jumped at Companion, she became almost-hysterical, silently pacing back and forth behind the couch while Kailynn tried to calm her down, telling her that she was fine and she would never go back there again. Isa continued to run her hands through her hair, trying to think, but nothing came to mind.
Thinking about how easily bad memories were resurfacing, Isa stood anxiously outside the cell door in the maximum security prison, trying to prepare herself for facing the criminal within.
The guards standing around her did not push her to enter the cell, though they did not understand why the Golden Elite was standing, still as a statue, staring at the closed door.
Finally, the Golden Elite nodded to one of the guards and he entered the security code for the door, opening it for the Elite. Isa stepped into the room and waited for the door to close.
The robots stationed around the prisoner turned to Isa and scanned her to be sure she was not a threat. When the screens of their eyes flashed green, Isa knew it was safe to move. However, she did not.
Instead, she looked over the woman in front of her.
The woman, Dienne Marvis, was the reason four Elite prototypes had been taken from the Elite Academy and killed during the broadcast that had become viral. But she looked pathetic, dirty and pale, confined tightly to the wall of her cell, her hair matted over her eyes. She was a heavier woman, but she also had a touch of beauty to her that was indicative of her Elite paternity.
“Golden Elite Isa,” Dienne said, her voice dripping with condescension.
“Dienne Marvis,” Isa greeted c
oldly. “Were you informed of the reason for your arrest?”
The woman pretended to think. “I think it has something to do with those four dead prototypes.”
“Then you do not deny it.”
“No,” Dienne snarled. “I don’t.”
“A guard said that he saw you bartering with someone near the gates of the Academy grounds. Was that for the sale of those four Elite prototypes?”
“Yes,” Dienne said, her tone bored and irritated. “Don’t you already know about all this? You had all your little birds run off and get information, didn’t you?”
“I want to hear you confess.”
“Confess…” Dienne chuckled brokenly, shaking her head. “Do you think you hold some sort of power over me?”
“I do,” Isa said sharply. “I am the Golden Elite of Tiao.”
“You are a degenerate that somehow managed to escape the filtering system,” Dienne sneered, pushing against her restraints. “You Elites…you think you’re so superior…you spend the first eighteen years of your life being kicked around by humans, you mindless fuckers!”
“There is no need to raise your voice,” Isa said, her voice calm.
“And you pretend that you’re so high and mighty now that you bow to the great Venus, but I bet if I were to yell “SIT!” you would try and find the nearest chair to obey the order!”
Isa stared at Dienne confidently, though her body did tense immediately at the command. Dienne chuckled.
“You never were one for rules, were you?” she said. “I never taught you, of course, and my father was out of the Academy when you were yanked from your incubational tank, but I heard all about you and your gang of merry misfits—destroying school property, organizing rebellions among the prototypes, hacking systems and trying to make yourselves out to be the next revolutionaries. I’m surprised you weren’t all taken out back and shot.”
“Dienne, I am here to discuss what you did, not what I have done in the past.”
“Do you know what happens when Elites have children?” Dienne growled. “All that shit, all those beatings, they continue. You’re programmed. You don’t rationalize. And you don’t change. You never do.”
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