Without qualm, all twelve thousand members of Marshall Leitner’s rebellion throughout the country remained in their chairs, their eyes fixated upon their leader and their unlikely ally.
Chapter Three
The Development
A sickening thud, followed by a grotesque moan, emanated from behind me as Ian was slammed into a brick wall. Red dust rained down on him from above, covering his suit, giving it a bloody aura. We found ourselves surrounded, battling for our virtual lives in one of Cameron’s more sadistic simulations. Above us, an onyx sky, illuminated by a scarlet sun-moon hybrid reigned over a landscape riddled with hollowed-out brick structures. Day cycled into night every few minutes, throwing us from a sweltering heat into an arctic blast and back again like human boomerangs.
The inhabitants of Cameron’s nightmarish world were no less nightmarish. Men, women, and children, ravaged by the effects of war, trudged through the rubble, their soulless eyes boring holes into our own. Who the enemy was or wasn’t was lost in their emaciated forms, and was only revealed by an unexpected boot to one of our guts or some other programmed attack upon us.
Ian picked himself up from the ground and surveyed his attacker, a young boy no older than seven or eight. “This is seriously messed up, Cameron,” he groaned.
The brick-wielding boy lunged at Ian, who darted out of the way, narrowly avoiding him. Around us, more and more of the world’s residents began to turn, walking toward us at labored paces. If we didn’t act quickly, we would be overtaken and would most likely fail the simulation, a prospect that didn’t set well with me. I was in no mood to repeat this scenario for the fourth time today. With a sigh, I kicked the wall, collapsing it, causing a shower of bricks to bury the boy, ending one of our problems.
“Jeez, I thought women were supposed to have some innate maternal instinct,” Ian said.
“I think that comes with having your own children and not with some homicidal pixelation masquerading as a child. Besides, his red hair reminded me of Cameron and, well, can you blame me there?”
“Don’t piss off the simulation designer. You won’t appreciate the consequences the next time around,” Cameron’s voice came over my ear bud loud and clear.
“Oh, Cam, you know it’s all in good fun,” I responded.
“Yeah, I always knew you wanted me.”
Ian rolled his eyes, a sight barely visible from behind the mask that covered his face. “What’s the game plan?” he asked, surveying our impending threat.
“Don’t die,” I replied.
“Sounds like a real winner.”
“Isn’t it, though?” The angry mob drew nearer, their features growing more discernible. From the sweat trickling down their brows, to the buttons sewn on their tattered clothing, and the intricate strands of their hair, they could have been mistaken for the living had their bodies remained solid. Instead, flickers intermittently encompassed an arm, leg, or abdominal cavity, breaking their solid forms apart. It was a sign of too much data having been inputted into a program with too little memory to support it; a glitch, in a way. A glitch that not even Cameron could have foreseen as being beneficial to his program and his army of maniacal beings. For it was because of this glitch that each punch and kick delivered by Ian and I were rendered useless as our target flickered away from existence. It was also largely the reason for it being our fourth attempt at completing this particular simulation. “Well,” I surmised, “in every other attempt we’ve made so far, we were separated. Let’s stick together on this one. That way, if one of them fades away, there will be one of us there as back-up to take them out when they reappear.”
Ian nodded. “Agreed. Nothing like a little forced teamwork to get the job done.”
“Let’s get this show on the road, then,” I said as the beings came within only a matter of feet from us. “I want to get the heck out of here at a decent time tonight. I’ll go first, you follow behind me. Chances are, you’re going to have a lot of cleaning up to do.”
“Always taking care of your dirty work,” he laughed, readying himself for our attack.
“It’s now or never. Let’s do this.” I ran full-tilt at our assailants, making contact with the first entity with the heel of my boot, throwing him against a wall several yards away. “One down, too many more to go.” Behind me, I felt one of the beings—a male—jump on my back. He kicked me in the ribs with his steel-toed boots. “Agh!” I screamed in pain before Ian managed to rip him off me, firmly dispatching him in the process. “Curse you, Cameron!” I screamed, gripping my side.
“I thought these suits were supposed to protect us?” Ian grunted, throwing another one of our attackers over his head.
“I wouldn’t put it past him to have a program to override the suit.” I threw a punch at a dark-haired woman, who flickered out of existence before my fist could reach her face. My hand, making contact with air instead of a solid mass, threw me off balance and into another woman with the same build as the last. Grabbing her around the waist, I threw her over my head, watching as her body impaled itself on a jagged piece of wood. Next to me, Ian finished off the woman I had originally gone after when she finally flickered back into existence.
They began circling us, closing in on Ian and I as though their presence would be enough to suffocate the very life from us. “You know, I’ve always liked being the center of attention, but this is a tad too much,” Ian surveyed.
“Really? I would have guessed that you were feeling right at home right now. After all, the women here are just as dead inside as the ones back in Norfolk.”
“A crack at my love life. Didn’t see that one coming,” he grumbled.
“Oh, you know I love you in a don’t-ever-touch-me kind of way.”
“Ditto, partner.”
“All right, on my mark.”
*****
“Hey, you guys finally pulled it off,” Cameron announced after Ian and I left the simulation room. “I knew my brilliance would prove to be too much for you.” He leaned back smugly in his chair, while Drew rolled his eyes and continued typing on his laptop.
“You!” I exclaimed, startling Cameron enough to make his chair roll back, which practically caused him to fall out of it. “What the hell was that in there?”
“Someone’s busted,” Drew snickered, pulling the screen of his laptop down to watch the show.
“Why, whatever do you mean?” Cameron righted himself in his chair. A smirked formed on his face, a smirk I wanted to obliterate from existence.
“You know exactly what I mean,” I said, leaning over his chair, my hands firmly gripping each armrest. My face hovered just inches away from his.
“Oh, lighten up, none of it was real. It was all just part of the simulation. You’re not really injured.”
“What do you mean I’m not really injured? I felt the pain. That was real.”
“You also saw the entities you were fighting, smelled the stagnant air, and sifted through the remains of a fallen city, but was any of that real? Of course not. The simulation appeals to all of your senses, not just to sight and sound. Your brain registers that you should be in pain when assaulted. I just tweaked the simulation to trigger the appropriate response in your brain.”
“Wait,” Ian interceded. “So, you’re saying you can control our minds in there?”
“Your brainwaves are picked up by receptors in your helmet while you’re in the simulation, so, yes, in a sense I can control them. But don’t worry, I haven’t abused my privileges. I mean, Celaine still does have her clothes on, after all.”
“You son of a…” I lunged for Cameron, instantly feeling Ian’s arms wrap around my waist, holding me back. “Next time,” I warned him as Ian led me practically kicking and screaming out of the room.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he called out.
“Are you suicidal?” I heard Drew ask just before the door slid shut behind us.
“Next time, don’t pull me off him,” I admonished Ian on our way down t
he hallway to our rooms.
“Are you kidding me?” he snickered. “You just fulfilled every fantasy that kid has ever had. One inch closer to him, and he would have asked you for your hand in marriage.”
“How is it easy for you to laugh knowing what he can do to us,” I scowled, “that our minds can just be manipulated like that?”
“It doesn’t set well with me at all, but it’s not entirely Cameron’s fault. It’s not him who pulls the strings around here, it’s Victor. We’re just his puppets.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, because I’m nobody’s puppet.”
“Maybe you don’t think you are, but you still serve him in a way. Following him is the only way to get to The Man in Black, so he kind of has us, you know.” He was right, but the thought of not being in complete control over my own decisions didn’t set well with me enough to admit it.
“Well, this is my stop,” Ian said upon reaching his bedroom door. “I’ll see you in a little while for dinner?”
“Yeah, I suppose I should eat before heading out tonight.”
Ian raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’s time you just quit going altogether? I mean, seeing that can’t be easy for you.”
“Have you ever been in love, Ian?” I asked, pausing to gauge his reaction “And I’m not just talking about the fleeting kind of love; the type of love that even the gentlest of breezes could blow away. I’m talking about a love that transcends time itself. One so powerful its energy remains in the air long after you’re gone.”
A look overtook Ian’s face I hadn’t seen before, a thoughtful, almost stoic expression. “No, I haven’t,” he answered. “But I’d like to think that it will happen to me someday.”
“It will,” I said. “Now that you’ve admitted to yourself that it’s truly what you want.”
*****
Water trickled down the taut musculature of my arms, following the curvature of my body until it fell into the tub where it made its final trek down the drain. I rubbed the soreness away from my thighs and calves while the hot water soothed the cramps invading my shoulders. My body seemed to change every day. New muscles awakened with purpose, standing out to make their importance known. Gone were the days of any unnecessary excess body fat. Without a doubt, over the last several months, I’d developed a body that most would kill to have. But instead of pride, I felt like I was trapped inside a shell that wasn’t my own.
Stepping out of the shower, I quickly dried myself and put on my suit, which seemed somewhat looser. I hadn’t been eating like I should have been, and the excess adrenaline in my system was burning calories more than I could take them in. This would surely be cause for admonishment by Kara, who worried about me more than even my own mother ever had.
When I walked into the dining hall, I noticed the regulars had already assembled on their respective perches. Cameron, Kyle, and Drew sat at the far end of the elongated oak table in their own little techie huddle. Edwin and Lars, the scientists of the bunch, sat near the middle of the table. Marcus was missing from their group, but his absence was understandable as he was in the midst of a divorce. The doctors of The Epicenter rarely graced us with their presence anymore, save for Dr. Harris, who at least made an attempt at civility every now and then. At the opposite end of the table, away from everyone else, sat The Epicenter’s intelligence team. Lana, Brian, Inez and Caine mulled over documents and other materials—photographs, it appeared—that I could only assume were related to The Man in Black. It had been relatively quiet lately, and the lull in the action was most likely the culprit that contributed to the tension emanating from each of them. A pang of guilt struck me when I thought about the last attack made by The Man in Black; the last day of Blake’s life. And I couldn’t help but glance at the empty chair where his absence was still noticeably evident.
Kara was seated by herself a couple of chairs down from Blake’s empty seat. She appeared painfully out of place among the bunch, only perking up after she noticed me walking toward her. On my way over to her, I glanced up at the corner of the room near the entryway to the kitchen. There, Ian and Becca stood together. Becca had her hand on Ian’s arm and was laughing playfully at whatever it was he was telling her. Taken aback, I stumbled, nearly falling over the chair next to Kara.
“Are you okay?” Kara asked, her eyes following my gaze to the spectacle in the corner. “Oh, that. I’m not quite sure what that is. They’ve been over there for a while. Poor Colby has been performing dinner service solo.”
“I thought Becca was married.”
“Was is the operative word in that sentence.”
“Oh. Well, good for Ian,” I said, removing my eyes from the two of them.
“Hmm…I suppose,” she replied as she spread vinaigrette on her salad.
“What’s up with them?” I nodded in the direction of our intelligence crew. “Did new information come in?”
“No, actually, they’re worried because there hasn’t been any news.” Kara moved a cherry tomato off to the side of her plate with her fork, causing my stomach to growl in response. “Here,” she laughed, picking the tomato up and setting it on my empty plate. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.”
“So much for no news is good news.” Colby set a plate containing a chicken breast marinated in lemon pepper sauce, steamed vegetables, and rice down in front of me. “Keep it coming, my man,” I said to him, stabbing my knife into the deliciously juicy chicken.
“I see you finally showed up.” Ian patted me on the shoulder, taking his seat next to mine.
“I could say the same thing about you,” I said. A slight redness appeared across his cheeks, telling me all I needed to know about his covert conversation with Becca.
“When are we finally going to see some action around here, anyway?” he asked, attempting to change the subject.
“It appears as though some of us already have,” Kara mumbled under her breath. I unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh, noticing that Ian’s expression had hardened.
“Keep it up, ladies. I’m here all night,” he mused. “Seriously, though, it seems like all we’re doing is sitting around waiting for nothing. I’d like to at least apply some of what I’ve been training for in the real world.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” I replied.
Heavy footsteps resounded down the hallway, heading in our direction. Instinctively, I knew who those footfalls belonged to, as did Cameron, who stood up to greet Victor the second he entered the dining hall.
“Good evening, sir,” he welcomed him.
“He may as well call him master,” I said under my breath, which prompted a smirk from Ian.
“How is everyone this evening?” Victor started with the pleasantries, eyeing Ian and I as though we were parties to some super secret plan he’d concocted. “Any news to report from the front lines, Inez?” he asked, briefly removing Ian and I from his gaze.
“No. None at all,” Inez replied, almost disappointed.
“That’s a good thing, no? Perhaps things are finally beginning to settle down.” He made his way down the table to Ian and I, and I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread in his presence. There was something about the look in his eyes I didn’t like, and from his icy stare, I could tell the disdain was mutual. “Ian, Celaine, I trust your day has gone well. When you’re done eating, please see me in my office. There’s been a development that I need to speak with you both about.”
Chapter Four
An Unwanted Mission
“Have you ever been inside Victor’s office?” Ian asked me during our walk down one of The Epicenter’s less frequented hallways.
“Nope. To be honest with you, I wasn‘t sure whether he really had one. I just assumed he slithered back out of the hole he came in through, no onsite office required.”
“What do you suppose this new development is?”
“Hard telling,” I replied. “But if it involves the whereabouts and quick dispatch of The Man in Bla
ck, I’m all about whatever develops.” We reached the steel door to Victor’s private office in The Epicenter. Installed in the wall next to the door, just as in all the other rooms, was a thumb plate. Seeing no other way into the room, I pressed the pad of my thumb against the plate. Moments later, the door slid open, revealing a sight I was sure hadn’t been seen by many. Ian and I glanced at each other as though daring the other to enter first. Out of sheer curiosity, I cautiously stepped into the unexpectedly spacious office ahead of us.
If I had been asked to describe what I thought Victor’s office would look like, I would have been dead wrong. Replacing the dreary, grayish décor of my vision was the purity of a white backdrop; the harsh, black tile floor was traded for cherry wood flooring. Bare walls surrounded us, making the room appear even brighter. In one corner stood a filing cabinet, in another corner stood a bookshelf. On the bookshelf sat not books, but an odd collection of mechanical figurines, the likes of which reminded me of cyborgs, half human, half machine in nature.
And in the middle of the office stood not a throne, but an archaic desk with a simple leather desk chair. In that chair sat Victor, eyeing us thoughtfully. “Not what you had in mind?” he asked, sensing my confusion.
“You could say that,” I replied.
Victor chuckled. “Have a seat.” He pointed to two leather chairs situated in front of the desk.
Ian and I obediently followed his instruction. As I sat down, my eyes drifted to a small robotic figurine encased in glass on Victor’s desk. For the most part, the figure was human in nature; the head, torso, half of one arm, and the majority of both legs appeared to be made of artificial flesh and blood. The rest of its body, however, was sheer machine. Cold, lifeless steel entwined the bottom portion of the left leg from the knee cap down to the silver-plated foot. A steel shrug wrapped around each shoulder, extending out into both of the being’s arms. It was a harmless figure, really, but there was still something about it that gave me an uneasy feeling.
Vendetta Nation (Enigma Black Trilogy #2) Page 3