by Tracy Korn
CHAPTER 10
The Beginning
Jazz
"What do you mean it wasn't him?" Eco asks, narrowing his eyes at Calyx.
"I gave Liam and Jack the DNA archives and the access ports to the virtuo-cine network in exchange for them building a code that we could eventually use to get our message out," Calyx says, frantically typing something onto the floating red keyboard that Eco has returned to her. She sighs in frustration and starts all over again when the screen suddenly refreshes.
"Are you split? Do you know what you put at risk by opening that door to non-Seam members?" Eco says, getting to his feet, clasping his hands behind his head in amazement.
"Do you actually think this was my decision alone? Damnit! Answer your page, Skull!" Calyx says through her teeth as she starts typing again.
"I'm the one who told Jack how to get in touch with Skull, then he dragged Calyx into this," Lyden says. "There was no choice. It's like Arwyn said…we had to keep our brothers out of Gaia, and we knew Jack would want to keep Jax and Jazwyn out too."
"So you jeopardize nearly a decade's worth of work for your own short term goals? How is it possible that Skull agreed to that?" Eco says, the now red and white lights on each side of his face pulsing faster.
"Because it wasn't just for their selfish goals," Calyx says. "Like I said, in exchange for the access ports to the virtuo-cine network and the DNA strands that they knew would get their code to graft, Jack and Liam built something that The Seam could repurpose."
"No one else is going to stop Gaia from experimenting on people, especially not when it's funded by Biotech Global and Carboderm funneling people to an overpriced port-call system," Liam says.
"Which could all be reversed by making port-carnate tech mainstream—that's been The Seam's goal all along, hasn't it? That's why you leaked the port-carnate tech in the first place?" Ellis asks, nodding like he's just figured this out, and I remember Liddick talking about this in the Rush.
"Yes, and it would have caught on organically if enough people had access, it was just a matter of—"
"You know that would never happen because the port-cloud industry makes too much money for Biotech Global and Carboderm," Liam interrupts. "You've seen the public service announcements designed to make everyone afraid of port-carnate transfer," he adds, holding out a hand to his side like he's waiting to physically throw more proof at Eco. "We can't just wait for things to run their course anymore. What would have happened if we hadn't intervened to get Lyden and Arwyn out of the Phase Three testing queue?"
"Uh, you mean if Calyx hadn't intervened…"
"My point is that sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty," Liam narrows his eyes at Eco, locking his teeth in place on the final word, and I can feel his conviction tightening in my veins and pounding in my chest.
"Calyx has more than just her hands dirty now because of you. Gaia has already been sniffing through her server login records. I've sponged them three times!"
"It's fine, Eco. We take care of our own; you know that," Calyx adds, still pounding on the holographic keyboard. "And Gaia doesn't scare me."
"They should," Eco huffs, then flips his hair out of his eyes as red and white lights jet over his cheekbones.
"She must be working for them somehow—for Gaia, or one of their affiliates," Arco whispers to me. "That has to be what she does normally," he chuffs an abrupt laugh and shakes his head. "Everyone here is someone else."
I start to tell him that at least she's on our side, but Myra's voice suddenly washes over everything.
"How did the corporations get Gaia involved in all this? How long has this actually been going on?" she asks Calyx, who is now too busy furiously typing to register the question.
"It's the other way around," Arwyn answers. "Gaia approached Biotech Global and Carboderm—they both had the same vested interest…money. It started when The State put out the first topside stability reports about fifteen years ago…that's when Gaia started working on their genetic engineering initiative so that anyone who was willing to pay for the procedure could transcend their environments—they could spend the summers in space, the winter on the ocean floor; they could take random weekends straight into the center of the earth thanks to genetic transmutations."
"And in the meantime, Biotech Global and Carboderm had the promise of a constant source of income in the port-cloud because Gaia would singlehandedly make port-carnate transfer seem unsafe for those who couldn't afford the secret genetic surgeries. What better authority than the center for recruiting and placing the top minds in diplomacy, science, and technology to lead that charge?" Lyden adds, trying to sound compassionate rather than alarmist.
"But the port-cloud is killing people…it's killing the topside environment and everyone in it. Didn't the last report say there are only something like five more generations it will support?" Jax says.
"They don't care," Arco adds. "They're not going to be around to suffer it, and neither are any of their families. They can transcend everything with the genetic mutation surgeries. They can go anywhere…it's the ultimate Skyboard North fashion trend, only it's not just iridescent eyes and bar-wedge teeth anymore," he continues, looking from Jax to me. "This is survival of the richest now."
"This is all beside the point," Eco says, the lights from his temples flickering red and white again. "We've been building evidence against these people for over ten years. You can't bring down the most respected educational facility and the two biggest corporations in the entire American Preserve without having all your pieces in place. We don't have that yet!" Eco starts to yell, then closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before resetting. "Our contacts at The State and within Gaia are still in harm's way. If this news breaks now, they'll be compromised. That's just one of the problems here."
"No one is arguing with you," Liam says. "We just have to—"
"Skull! Finally…something has happened. We need to meet," Calyx cuts Liam off, pushing the holographic keyboard away from her knees. It disappears, and she gets to her feet. I can't make out the face on the screen because it's rippling like water after a rock…no, after five rocks have been thrown in.
"I'm not in range until tomorrow. Do you have the packages?" the man says. His voice is hard, even though it's muffled like it, too, is underwater.
"No, that's why we need to meet. Boneyard?"
"Tomorrow. 2:00 p.m."
"Thank you," Calyx says, then reaches out for the keyboard that reappears in front of her. She pushes a series of buttons, then it and the wall-sized screen in front of her both disappear.
"What's this going to accomplish?" Eco asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
"This is beyond what we can do on our own now. I just tried to pull up the message we encrypted on the back end of the neural thread you used," Calyx answers. "It's incomplete too. Whatever put holes in the message to Liddick also put holes in our message. If this neural thread code is evolving like Arwyn said, Jack is the only one who can stop it from the outside. We need to patch the holes in The Seam's message, and we're running out of time." Calyx looks over her shoulder at Arwyn, who reluctantly nods.
"I can try something if you can get me access to the virtuo-cine entry port. Maybe I can slow it down," Liam says, coming out from behind the couch to stand next to Lyden.
"Don't you think you've done more than enough?Whatever you programmed onto that neural thread in the first place just figured out how to work its way into the neural channels of any half-empathic person out there. Do you realize that you and Jack are responsible for the impending insanity of thousands of people once they see these flashes of the real world nightmares going on under their noses right now? Not to mention, you've created a time bomb that will obliterate our undercover connections with the insiders we have at Gaia and The State? You've put the whole world at risk!" Eco nearly shouts, the lights on either side of his face a steady stream of red now instead of a pulse.
"Don't you think I know that?!"
Liam yells back, taking a step toward Eco. "Let me try to fix it!"
"Stop, we can't fix anything tonight," Calyx says over them both. "It's not his fault, either. The materials are volatile to begin with—it's engineered human DNA, Eco."
"And you! Who else knows from The Seam? Were you ever going to tell me about this?"
"Besides the people in this room, only Skull and I knew. I didn't tell you because it was a need-to-know basis. We couldn't risk the plan leaking," Calyx answers, then pushes her hands through her white, erratic hair. "We have a bigger problem now. If The Seam's incomplete warning message gets out, not only will some people lose their minds, several won't. Several will be subliminally convinced that our top scientists are trying to save everyone through gene splicing, and that the port-cloud is actually helping to fund that research for everyone."
"That's the opposite of what's happening…" Arco says.
"Exactly. The holes in the message couldn't be more precise or damaging than if someone put them there on purpose."
"Then this is the beginning," Eco says, quietly now and withdrawn. "We're not ready, Cally."
"I know. That's why we need to talk with Skull," she answers, then looks to Liam. "We can't stop the message on our own, and if we can't find Jack in time, we'll have to patch it manually."
"What does that mean?" Arco asks.
"Get some sleep," Liam says. "We may need to send you into the Grid."
CHAPTER 11
Cracks
Liddick
Zoe is several feet ahead of me, her arm still hooked in Dez's. Azeris and Jack are going back and forth about something just in front of me, but I can't focus enough to make out what they're saying. What's happening to me…I think, then close my eyes hard until I see little flecks of white. It helps to push down this…what is it, panic? Fear? Guilt? Maybe a little of all three. I was supposed to be the one figuring out how to deal with Phase Three, not Jazz, at least not without me. None of this is going the way we planned…is it getting colder in here?
"How much longer does this stupid thing go on?" Tieg asks too loudly, and I accidentally bite my tongue when my teeth start to chatter.
"Still no readout, so the ice must still be pretty thick," Azeris says.
"Do you see the lines of brown in the ice now, though?" Cal says, pointing to one of the milky blue walls. "Those are dust layers. It means we're getting close to the outside."
"Finally," Tieg says.
"I didn't say we'd be out soon. Being close will still take awhile."
"So this lets out where we came through the first time? The desert with the scrub everywhere?" I ask, then remember the branch that punctured Jazz's lung when we were fighting the tunnel shark. The memory squeezes my chest until it's almost hard to breathe.
"Close enough," Dell says. "We'll need to be ready to fight as soon as we cross the perimeter. That's no place to rest."
"Because of the tunnel sharks?" Dez asks over her shoulder in a small voice. Dell nods, and I know in that second she cracks—the memory of the tunnel shark attacking her, of it almost taking her leg off—and then I know the ice pours into her too. I press my teeth together to keep her feelings out, but it doesn't work.
"Hey…" Azeris says, suddenly at my side. I jump and bite my tongue again.
"Damnit!" I yell. Azeris's eyes go wide, and I blow out a breath. "Bit my tongue. Again. Where the hell does this thing end?"
"What's going on with you?"
I glare at him, then realize my expression and stop. I feel his confusion and concern, and I just don't care about any of it.
"You mean aside from being stuck in an iceberg that's six miles deep inside the planet?" I ask, trying to justify my volume by forcing a laugh.
"Nothing you haven't seen in the virtuo-cines. You're starting to spin."
"Get out of my face, Azeris. You don't know anything about me."
"I don't? I'm the only person who probably does. Except maybe your girl," he says quietly, and with more patience than I deserve.
"She's not my girl. Just do something to your mapping unit and get us the hell out of here," I say just as Jack slows enough to walk at my other side.
"Is your throat dry?" he asks. I narrow my eyes at him.
"What?"
"Do you feel like it's closing up?"
"No. Why?" I lie.
"If you're dehydrated, your chances of pressurization problems in the blood increases. Are you shaky? Feeling like you're going to crawl out of your skin?"
"I'm fine; I just need some space. Can you both just give me some space?" I say, holding out my hands as if I could push them both away. Jack nods to Azeris, and something inside me lights. "What was that exchange? I said I'm fine!"
"All right, let's stop and rest here for a bit," Jack says. "Just have a little water."
"We need to keep moving—we need to get out of this ice and contact Calyx," I insist.
"We have time, and we won't get there at all if you lose your head down here; you need to hydrate. It won't correct the pressurization in your blood if it's off, but it will help slow down the symptoms."
Azeris nods at me in agreement with Jack, and I know even if I were to press on, I'd be going alone. We need to stay together down here. I sigh in resignation and pull the water jar out of my satchel, then throw the bag to the ground and sit on it.
"There, happy?" I say, holding up the water before taking a long swig. Everyone follows my lead. Zoe still won't look at me. Anger starts rising up from my stomach, but I'm too exhausted to do anything about it. I roll my eyes and drink more water.
"Everyone who has just been treated needs to take a little personal inventory right now. You all received blood stabilizing nanites at Gaia Sur, which went out of range after you left. They reinitiated when you got in range of Phase Two, but we may be getting far enough away now that they are starting to glitch. The treatments, we've seen, aren't as predictable as they apparently were your first time, so you may be experiencing symptoms of Decompression Sickness with the varying level changes down here," Jack explains. Now he has my attention.
"Symptoms like what?" Tieg asks, quietly for once.
"Pain in the chest, headache, disorientation, paranoia and anger…some of you have been getting a little edgy, which is understandable, so this is just a precaution. Over exertion also increases the chances of an imbalance, and we can't take the chance if you're nanites are glitching," Jack adds. "Is anyone feeling any sharp pains?"
I look around at everyone, but they're all just shaking their heads. I don't know if the sharpness in my chest is physical or just the backlash of everyone's fear and frustration, so I keep my mouth shut.
"All right, well that's good news then," Azeris says, nodding.
"But if the nanites stop working…" Dez starts. "I mean, if they stop entirely…we'll die?"
"We're not going to let that happen. That's why we're resting, staying hydrated. The Vishan DNA will also help…but if my guess is correct, it will just take time for it to reach its potential. Until then, you're at risk for a pressurization gap. We need to play it safe," Jack answers.
I take another swig of water and try to imagine staring a line of fire through the ice wall—something to channel my focus to anything other than this new fever of anxiety Jack just dropped on everyone, making them all doubt and question now. If feels like I'm going to drown in it.
"What are they doing up there, do you think? What were we supposed to do when we transferred with them?" I ask, not looking at Jack or Azeris at all.
"Calyx would have met us at the hub bridge, and probably taken us back to a safe house," Jack starts to answer. "We would brief her on what happened those last few hours in Phase Two, and she'd likely take us to the Boneyard to meet with her superior—he's the one your brother, Lyden, connected me to back when we were trying to keep you and your group out of Gaia," Jack answers.
"So The Seam has a plan to stop Gaia's experimentation? They have something in place to bring down th
e port-cloud?" I press, but now look directly at Jack, daring him to keep something from me.
"Not exactly," he says, to my surprise. "At least not yet. In exchange for the DNA samples I needed to get the bio-code to work—the code that facilitated the messages you received in the virtuo-cines, at least in part—I promised to build in a sleeper system for the code to evolve, to reach everyone who went into a virtuo-cine, not just nascent—untrained—Empaths like you and Jazz were. When everything was in place, The Seam was going to activate that sleeper code, and then the world would know what Gaia, Biotech Global, and the Carboderm Corporation were really doing. I imagine that is still the intention."
"So our job is done? Jazz and the others are at a safe house just waiting for The Seam to pull the trigger on that sleeper code?" I ask, wondering if Azeris's old partner Grisham is still working with them to get rid of the port-cloud.
"That would be my guess, but they wouldn't pull the trigger until we get there too."
"And how do you know that?" I ask.
"Because I'm the one with the gun."
CHAPTER 12
The Boneyard
Jazz
It seems like only ten minutes have passed when I open my eyes to the sound of someone rustling. I blink, then see the white walls, the brushed metal cabinet and counter space in the kitchen just a few feet away. Eco is pulling down square, white cups from the open cabinet just over his head and putting them on the counter next to the matter board. Arco is still asleep just behind me on the couch, his long arms crossed over his chest, and I notice the long, ragged cut on his shoulder through the tear in his dive suit. That must have happened when we were fighting the tunnel shark, I think, and my stomach sinks at the memory of falling on something sharp, then slipping out of consciousness…of slipping into the strange, bent reality of Vox's consciousness through the Vishan's neural connection tool…The NET, or whatever it was called. I look to my left out of some instinctual pull, and Vox's yellow eyes are already staring at me.