by Jae Vogel
Looking out behind us, I saw the barrier of entry to the private gate of Solis HQ was closed once more.
As it turns out, the gate at the entrance to Solis HQ is proportionately pretentious to the company’s public image. The gate operated like a portcullis, and though the car had certainly bent a solid section of the gate’s downward spikes — the gate itself had not been destroyed.
From the looks of it, the tracking that raised the gate up and down had been damaged by the force of the vehicle. The force that held it down was gravity itself, and the several tons of ornately carved steel that held the Solis Insignia in its coils.
On the other side of the barrier, there was a swarm of mixed service vehicles. Some police, and some private security. None of them could enter, and all stood glowering at us through the gate. There were no armed guards. As a matter of fact, there were no signs of life on our side of the gate at all. Overhead, a helicopter rose up over the hill, but the police team and the Helicopter were in the same situation.
From the trunk, I heard the broken sound of laughter. Frederick, the man who had given us the code that inadvertently saved us from the police apparently found the sudden anti-climax incredibly amusing.
“Spit it out, Fred.”
“We made it through the gate, didn’t we.”
I nodded.
There was no way for him to know that I nodded. I doubted if he would ever see again after what I did to him, but I nodded nonetheless.
“It’s the Solis Sovereignty Clause in action… I never thought I’d see it happen.”
The immediate and unfortunate irony was not lost on him, but he didn’t bother to express himself.
“Sovereignty?” Rae asked, his face painful for me to see at this point.
The answer from the trunk was only a maniacal laughter. I didn’t need Fred to make it any clearer than he already had.
“The Police don’t have jurisdiction here, Rae,” I said. “Solis wanted me to come…”
Chapter 20
“Turn yourself in, Rae. And you can take dickhead over there with you.”
I saw the pain on his face through the stray hairs and caked blood. He wasn’t in any condition to move forward, and both of us knew it. I got out of the car and began to stretch, working out the tightness in my back.
The megaphones, helicopters and general police presence was a little surreal. The idea that there was literally a whole squad of cops ready to fuck me in every non-sexual way possible, not forty feet away from me was a tense feeling. The fact that I could stand as I pleased and walk off a car crash was absurd, but I wasn’t complaining about it.
“Sovereignty,” I laughed. “This is what you want with your government?”
The cry was directed toward all of the supposed keepers of the peace on the other side of the fence. Whatever their problem was, they were too timid to do anything about it. I felt like a fallen angel — enlightened and bitter, standing above the timid race that had spawned over this planet.
I continued to stretch, daring them to shoot me.
“You going to tag me with another one of you’re RF bullets? Gonna put a tracer in my ass? I bet that’s not the only thing you’d like to put there!”
Juvenile, I know, but for a moment, we had won, and I wasn’t about to squander the opportunity. The crowd grew unruly, but the fence stood strong and tall. There was nothing for them to do, or they would risk supreme consequences from their Lord and Master - Solis.
Of course, the entire victory I was flaunting was a charade, and nobody saw that more clearly than me. Especially not Fredrick. Nobody was coming down to capture us, because we were trapped. There was no escape once we crossed the portcullis. There was nowhere else to go, and it was likely that our two options at this point were imprisonment, or death.
“Rae, you’ve got to go. There’s nothing else for you to do here. The kidnapping story is going to come out, and you’re going to be a fucking hero. You know how much the voting public likes a good rescue story. You’re solid, but you can’t get your hands any dirtier than they already are. So fuck off.”
The words hurt, I could tell, but we both knew that they were accurate. He would get slapped with some shit, and he would get put into treatment. Gratis would probably lay more trouble in over his head than he needed, but the good that he got out of it might be worth the exchange. For one thing they would take care of his nose.
“The most important thing is that you haven’t actually done anything wrong. You can just say I put a gun to your head, and that you were interested in rescuing your boyfriend.”
I winked at him, and he smiled. I could tell that he wanted to help me out, but the push toward sensibility was too strong. I had been murdering people. Not him. I had challenged Solis, and I had raided a major hospital, effectively compromising confidential information for the sake of righting a wrong that basically amounted to conspiracy theory.
I walked over and gave him a hug, and then pushed him toward the line of cops waiting at the entrance. If there was no resistance at this point, I doubted there would be anything until I got to the top floor of Solis HQ. I took a deep breath, and started walking across the expansive courtyard which lead to the high rise office building.
The whole landscape leading up the the building was a level of surreality that I wasn’t quite prepared for in that everything that came before this point was chaotic and messy. There was nothing out of place in the entire scene before me. The rows of grass and small flowered planters which cascaded down the steps toward the main entrance of the building were perfectly in place.
The strange thing was that there were no insects around the plants that I could see. Everything looked like it was placed there perfectly; like the painting of some commercial masterpiece. Each step was ridged with a full brick plating and even the mortar that was placed between each brick was bleached white.
My back hurt still from the crash, and each step forward was halting, as pain shot through the muscles along the back of my body. I walked with a slight limp in my step, and I realized that just now, all of the cumulative damage I had suffered in the last few days hadn’t really been given a chance to heal. I was tired, and needed a place to sit and rest. Maybe for a solid month before I would feel anywhere close to normal again. I reminded myself that this sort of rest wasn’t going to be a thing that actually happened. I was here because something wasn’t right, and I needed to make a change.
The only bargaining chip I had was that somewhere inside of my brain, somewhere beyond my immediate consciousness, was the information necessary to put things to right. The information that I had stolen from the hospital records. The proof that I had been viciously attacked by a man who wanted nothing more than to dominate me and exert his own incompetent form of violence against me was sequestered in the mind of Luna. Damning proof against the indulgences of someone who had an intimate understanding Solis Intellectual Property.
As far as I was concerned, the problem had nearly been blown wide open, thanks to the efforts of Rae, the girl, and myself. At some point, the defense of plausible deniability wouldn’t be good enough any more, and the public would begin to question the value of permitting Solis to retain that much control over their lives.
I couldn’t be sure if that moment had occurred yet, but my only hopes lay in that direction. Every other possibility that my mind arrived at pointed in a direction where nothing else seemed to matter. Nothing else seemed like a viable route toward righting whatever wrongs had occurred, and making sure that they never happened again. With resolve in my mind once more, I opened the thick glass doors that led into the first floor lobby.
No music played once I was inside of the building. Only one person was present in front of my vision. She was a young, and demure looking secretary who looked like she had stepped off of the front page of some high fashion magazine. A few strands of hair looked like they had been intentionally tousled along the side of her face, but the overall composition of her attire and
make up led me to believe that even those stray hairs had been intentional.
She looked down at her paperwork, refusing to acknowledge me until I stood in the center of the room, trying to get my bearings. After a moment, she finally acknowledged my existence.
“Jayne Daux, I presume?”
Why was I not surprised? I stared at her blankly, wondering what strange world I had stumbled into. No doubt some queer looking glass variation of reality, where none of the standard rules seemed to apply. Was this woman so disconnected with the real world that she had no idea that my face was plastered all over town on wanted posters? Did she have no idea that this very moment, news channels and police officers from the entire city waited just outside of the gates of Solis HQ — complaining under their breath about the legislative loopholes that were so flagrantly in place for any and all to see, as long as they gave a damn about political and legal exceptionalism?
The answer was most assuredly, no. Not in the slightest.
It was at that moment that I realized the raw power of the woman sitting before me. Among her co-workers, she was nothing more than an administrative pleb. Compared to the rest of us, she was a Goddess amongst humanity, choosing whom to admit, and whom to reject into the inner sanctum of the very corporation that made the cogs of our city turn one way or the other.
“Mr. Phallon will see you now. Third elevator to your left. Top floor.”
She pointed down the hall, and immediately went back to whatever paperwork she was busy pushing around at the moment. She could have been playing solitaire for all I knew, but she looked damned important while doing it, so who was I to second-guess how efficiently she did her work?
I didn’t nod, or respond in any way, and I don’t imagine she cared much regardless.
The rugs beneath my filthy shoes were at least two inches thick, and were embroidered with rich Persian designs. The colors, both gold, and crimson saturated my mind with visions of affluence and luxury. I did my best not to be distracted by the ideas that came into my mind.
After pressing the button to call the elevator, I realized that though the building was decorated, it was all an extension of the marketing of the company brand. Even the receptionist was an extension of their marketing efforts. There was nothing here that was outside of the domain of intentional design.
Comfort took me then, and I drank it up for all it was worth. The overall impressions of my senses were being manipulated by the wealth of Solis. A peaceful realization came over me, causing the intentionally rich environment to fade into the background.
I may not have been in control of the sensory information which was presented, but I was free to respond to that information in any way necessary, provided I valued my response enough to remain conscious. A chime signaled the opening of the door, and I stepped into the elevator.
I had discovered the calm in the eye of my personal storm.
Chapter 21
Our self-esteem relates to how we value our own existence.
The inextricable lie, hidden within all of that, is that our opinions of self are constantly rebounding off of one another, trying to understand what about ourselves the others like and endorse. Forms of support can be emotional, such as a friend who is there why you need them. Support can also be physical, as in the touch of a lover, or the physiological drive toward addiction.
What struck me as wrong about the entrance into Phallon’s office, was that everything appeared to be structured for the purpose of feeding his own grandiosity.
There was no entrance chamber, or separate hallway. Instead, the elevator itself seized as I approached the final floor. The light overhead came on, indicating that I had arrived, but the door did not open. After a moment’s pause, the pleasant tone of the elevator’s arrival dinged, and the doors opened. Before me, sprawled out into a glass windowed infinity was the very essence of posture and elegance. I let out a breath, and it seemed inadequate and harsh compared to the space I approached.
In spite of the apparent serenity of the office, there was something uncanny and anxiety ridden about the experience. Those windows. That infinite skyline. The way that it felt as though I was walking on the very lap of luxury — it reminded me of tension, fear, and the sensation of falling. I couldn’t put my finger on the location, but I didn’t need to.
“Great isn’t it?”
The voice came from behind me.
The man walked up close beside me, and reached out a hand to brush up against my ass, up my back, and then over my shoulder. I stiffened, feeling immediately objectified. I was being evaluated to see whether or not I fit into this place, and the overwhelming response within my own mind was to say that I in fact was not.
He stepped back, and allowed me to view him.
One of the handguns from the car crash was still in my hand.
It was loaded.
I could have killed him then and there, but there was something preventing me. I didn’t understand who this person was, or how he related to the suffering that had made its mark across my life over the last month. I couldn’t reach out and strike a man dead just for having poor taste.
Or could I?
“Cognitive Enhancements and Artificial Intelligence have been the focus of high technology for the last decade. One of our proudest achievements here at Solis is the integration of extra sensory perception into an integrative format where a man can take the world as he sees it, and synthesize that information alongside a set of perceptions he would not have been able to see beforehand.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Someone like you, I would imagine, has the closest understanding to what I am talking about. The sort of sensory data that must come to you, seemingly by intuition itself — this is unique. As a matter of fact, it is revolutionary. Have you told anyone that your mind contains Genius?”
“Genius?”
“In the Greek sense of the word. The Daemon. The Genius. The very Spirit of Guidance which thrives symbiotically within your consciousness. Genius.” He nodded to himself, standing before me.
As a man, in and of himself, he wasn’t terribly impressive. However, every single aspect of his wardrobe, as well as the entire room spoke to a pretension that was beyond what regular perceptions might have granted him. The appearance of greatness — all of Solis was a testament to this man’s potency.
I forced my breath through my diaphragm, and looked him straight in the eye.
“Not sure I know what you’re talking about.”
He laughed, and a light in his eyes glinted before me.
“You didn’t come here to lie to me, Jayne. You came here to understand what is happening inside of you. You came here to understand why you — a useless junkie, a whore, were given the ability to storm Gratis, wipe the servers on the top floor, and then walk out with barely a scratch.”
“I came here because you kidnapped my friend’s family, and ruined my life.”
He brushed the words off as though they were nothing more than bothersome flies. A look of disgust passed across his face, and he admonished me.
“You’re talking like one of them. Don’t you dare stoop to that level. Come here, I have something to show you.”
He walked over to the window, but I stood my ground.
“You like the idea of your blood sprayed all over that window?” I asked, bringing the weapon up in my hand.
The question startled me, but only in its boldness. The thought itself was hardly surprising. I had yet to find one redeeming quality about this man, and everything beyond our initial point of interaction seemed to indicate that he would not find redemption in my eyes any time soon.
“And what would you do, should you succeed?”
“I imagine someone is watching this office right now. Watching me hold this gun up toward you. I imagine that somewhere on stairwells, there are teams of privately contracted para-military waiting for you to give the word on the kill shot. Perhaps your biggest mistake is that you haven’t ordered them to
do so, yet.”
He nodded, sticking his bottom lip out as though he were appreciating and weighing the authenticity of my words. The muscles in my arm twitched, and slowly moderated my breath. I didn’t want to lose him from my sights. He was a portly man, but I wasn’t exactly a seasoned professional with a gun. I suspected that some element of truth was within my perceptions. He wouldn’t have allowed himself to be so vulnerable in front of me, without some sort of card up his sleeve. The question was, what was his ace in the hole?
“Why did you welcome me here?”
I began to feel noticeably uncomfortable in my own skin. My adrenaline system was picking up and I could feel my pulse growing within my chest. I tried to catch my breath, and focus, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.
Panic.
Fight or flight.
Remain focused.
“I already made that clear, Jayne. I don’t think you’re going to get a better answer from me, and I’m not the type of man who likes to repeat himself.”
“So, what, you want to study me? How do you know I’m not just schizophrenic?”
He shook his head.
“Schizophrenia is mental disorder which is diagnosed based on a lack of ability for the individual to acclimate themselves to society. From my experience, a person possessed by Genius, has a considerably more acute means of interfacing with the world around them.”
He began to walk toward me.
“I don’t think you are going to shoot, Daux. If you were, you would have done so by now. It’s clear to me that you need me if you’re going to understand what has happened to your mind. Frankly, I don’t see you as having any other choice, other than to cooperate. The sooner you come to this decision, the sooner we will be able to start finding answers that the both of us are satisfied with receiving.”