"We're hungry."
"Yeah. Really hungry."
"Can we have something to eat, Daddy?"
"Yeah! Daddy!"
Ben backed away, bumping into the dresser. Their little voices called to him, repeating that word over and over. Daddy? Fear was his initial reaction until he saw only hope in the sea of green eyes that looked to him for guidance and love. He did not know about the guidance part, but he certainly had enough love to go around. Ben knelt down and took some of them in his arms as the others gathered around to hold onto him. "Okay, boys. I will go make you some food and find you clothes and medicine. I noticed some of you are sniffling or have cuts."
"We all have cuts." They turned around and lifted their shirts to reveal the scars that crisscrossed their backs from their bony shoulders to the tops of their pants.
Ben covered his mouth. "What happened?"
"Mean aliens with whips."
For another one of the countless times that day, Ben's heart shattered. "It's okay now. It's okay. Get up on the bed, everyone. I need to talk to you."
The boys jumped onto the bed and waited there on their knees, all staring at Ben as he sat on the pillows.
Ben cleared his throat as he thought of the right words to say to them. Speaking was never his strength, but he had gotten better at it from addressing the rebellion. This, however, was another thing altogether. He started with a smile to let them know he was on their side. "All right, boys, listen to me. You can relax here. You're not in trouble. You've done nothing wrong. My name is Ben. You can call me that or you can call me Daddy, if you want to. I'm going to take care of you from now on."
"All of us?"
"Yes, all of you. Each and every one. I will feed you, clothe you, bathe you, play with you, and most of all, I will love you. I'm making you my number one priority. Nothing bad is going to happen to you again."
Their eyes grew incredibly large as they leaned closer. "You promise?"
"Yes, I promise. What are your names?"
They answered in unison. "Nemo."
"Right. I forgot about that. Well, in time, I will give each of you a name that I feel fits your personality, okay? I know that you will each have your own strengths and your own passions once we undo all the brainwashing that those mean aliens did to you."
"And you will be our daddy?"
"Will you love us?"
Ben placed his hand over his heart. "Of course I will. I will love each of you. You're safe here. This is as much your room now as it is mine. You are free to roam around the ship and talk to my friends. They are all good people who won't harm you. If anyone tries anything, you are to come here to me and tell me immediately. Okay?"
They all nodded their heads.
"Good. Now, I am going to go make you some sandwiches. While I'm gone, can you pick up the wrappers from the chips and-"
Before he finished talking, the boys had all obediently and automatically jumped into action with fear written on their faces and in their body language.
Ben clapped his hands to stop them and get their attention. "Slow down. No one is going to hurt you if you take your time. I'm not angry. I will never lay a hand on you. Ever. Please don't be afraid of me."
The boys continued their frantic work, not seeming to understand what Ben had been trying to tell them. They crawled around the room on their hands and knees, their eyes cast down to the floor. They flinched as if they were about to be hit when Ben walked past them.
Ben stopped in the doorway to watch them for a moment. This was going to be harder than he thought, but he was eager to do it. They needed him. And in a way, he knew he needed them just as much.
Chapter 8
Rav brooded. He stared out through the front window of his house without saying a word to Helen or Vance. He drank from a bottle of vodka. He grumbled under his breath at everything that passed the window like a senile old man.
This was not working. How was he supposed to stay there, sitting around all day while those insane aliens tortured his son? Would they even stop hurting Nemo if he did obey?
It all came down to the same argument Rav had with Vance on Dualictum. Even if Vance had managed to save Ben's life, there was no guarantee that Tirlmayn would ever stop using him as bait, as leverage to make Vance do his bidding. How was this any different? It wasn't.
Rav tossed the empty vodka bottle to the side then trudged into his bedroom. "Vance, can I talk to you?"
The blond Australian looked up from where he was tinkering with the television. "Uh, sure, mate."
He sat on his bed and waited for his friend to join him in the room. "Shut the door, Vance."
"What's this about? Did I do something wrong? If this is about the hair in the bathtub, yes, I shaved my legs just to see what it felt like."
"What? No. I don't even know what to say about that. Anyway, I need to ask you to hack something."
"Hack something? I'm not a hacker, mate."
Rav raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure about that? Come on, Vance. I know you."
"Okay, fine. What do you need hacked?"
He looked up at the ceiling. "This. Everything."
"Uh . . ."
"I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but I'm not. Vance, you have to promise me that you won't send me back to the hospital. I'm not losing my mind."
"Have you been taking your pills?"
Hell no. "Yes, of course."
"Then you're not crazy. Go on."
"You're the best hacker I know. If anyone can do this, it will be you. Listen to me and try to follow along. We are in a computer program. It's a virtual reality that has been created out of my memories, and my consciousness is now trapped inside. I want out."
Vance fell back onto the bed with his arms behind his head. "Okay."
"Wait. You believe me?"
"Why not? Sounds about as probable as anything else."
"You're high right now, aren't you?"
"Not really." Vance snorted. "So, what's the plan? How can we access the programming?"
"I'm not sure. I've never worked on anything of this magnitude before. I've always dealt with the hardware side."
"Then we need to figure out where those components are, don't we? If we can find the hard drive or the processor, then we should be able to locate the other areas from there. We get some tools from work and borrow a Geiger counter."
"You mean steal one?" Rav frowned. "Why don't we just use your alien eye? It'll glow."
"Right. See? We all know you're the smart one, mate. Well? What are you waiting for? Let's go shut this big boy down. I'm looking forward to seeing if you're right about all this. So, does that mean I'm a program too?"
"With some pretty advanced AI. You're so much like the real Vance. It makes me miss you."
"What happened to the real me?" Vance sat up to look at him. "Is that what you were talking about earlier? That I tried to kill you? Did the real me try to kill you, Rav? What happened between us?"
"Do you know that anger that has been building up inside your chest?" Rav asked. "That fury that has been growing since you were a young boy? The real Vance let that take over. He lost himself to it, and he became a monster. He threw me into a lava pit."
Vance looked like someone punched him in his face. "No! Not me . . . I mean . . . not Vance. He loves you."
"He betrayed me."
"I'm sure he had a reason. That doesn't sound like something I would do. You're my best mate, Rav. You always have been. Look at all we've been through together. I would die for you. You have to get out of here and go talk to him. Please. Fix this."
"I don't know if I can. He's my enemy."
"I'm not your enemy." Vance stood then took Rav's cheeks in his hands and looked into his eyes. "Rav, no matter what I have done in whatever reality we're in, you have to know that I would never harm you if I did not have a reason. The real me, the me you know in that world? He's crying out for help, and you're the only person who can help him . . . who can help me. Don
't give up on me."
"I don't know what to do. I have to stop Vance or he will destroy the universe."
"He will listen to you. I know he will." Vance patted Rav's cheeks. "I will listen to you."
Rav squinted and tilted his head to the side as the shrill blaring of a siren filled the city outside the house. Panicked screams came from the passersby who ran past the windows. "What's that?"
"I don't know." Vance went to the window and pulled the blinds apart, letting in the red flashing emergency lights. "Get your boots on. Find your backpack."
"Why? What's going on out there?"
"Tech Police are getting out of armored vehicles. They've got guns, Rav. Oh, hell, mate. They're surrounding your house."
That was all Rav needed to hear. He cinched his combat boots tightly then slung his leather backpack over one shoulder before running out into the hallway. Would his gun still be in the same place it was last in this house? He went into the kitchen and kicked over the trashcan, sending paper plates, crumpled napkins, and half-empty cans of lime soda sprawling across the tiles. He picked it up and caught the .44 magnum revolver with the orange fiber optic sights and the thin knife hidden below the barrel as it fell.
Soft footsteps came up behind him as a female voice spoke to him. "I told you to obey us, Rav."
He spun around to see his wife not two feet from him, but something was wrong. It was her body, but not her inside of it. Rav held up the revolver. "Stay back."
"We tried to do this the easy way, but you just wouldn't have that, would you? I should have known that you would use your training and your work experience to undermine all that we have created here."
"Brooke?"
"Yes, Rav. It's me again. Dalan, do it."
Rav's hands trembled around the grip of his gun as the audio of Nemo screaming played overhead. "Stop it."
"No, I don't think I will. I'll have Dalan continue sending shock after shock through that tiny boy's bound body until his heart stops."
"Don't!"
"Maybe hearing your only son being electrocuted to death will bring you back to your senses. Dalan, let the boy speak to his daddy."
Nemo's screaming died down as the buzz of electricity stopped. He was crying and blabbering through his words while Dalan tried to get him to speak.
Dalan spoke to her again, sounding concerned. "Brooke, the boy is having some kind of seizure. I think the electricity messed him up. What do I do?"
Brooke simply crossed her arms and grinned darkly. "Turn the electricity back on."
"No!" Rav pleaded with her. "Don't do this. He's a child! Brooke, I'll do whatever you want. I'll stop."
"Too late now, Rav. I'm done playing games with the kid. Dalan, finish him off."
Rav squeezed the trigger, firing four times into the body of his wife. As Brooke fell back onto the kitchen counter, Rav took off running out the front door. His son's screaming continued, scraping across his ears as the worst sound he had ever heard. Hearing the person he loved most in life being in such agonizing pain was like someone tearing his stomach open with a dull spoon and shoveling his intestines into a garbage disposal.
"Rav, wait for me!" Vance called out to him as he joined his side where he had stopped in the spotlights. "Oh, hell."
Rav's mouth went dry as he stared down the barrels of the assault rifles that were aimed right at him. Twenty Tech Police officers in riot gear knelt behind sturdy riot shields, two helicopters hovered overhead where the scopes of sniper rifles glinted in the light, and soldiers in red and black camouflage rushed into the street to aim their laser pistols at him. He held up his hands and took a step backwards as the red dots from the sniper rifles danced across his chest.
A man's voice came over a loudspeaker. "Rav Tillman, you are under arrest for rebellious activities and threatening to overturn the Odyssian government. Stand down and drop the weapon."
Rav gritted his teeth as he lowered his arms. He was not about to stop now. If Nemo was being tortured to death without mercy because Rav decided to fight back, then he would continue fighting. It was done now. The best he could hope for was to break out and stop it before more harm was done to his son. The worst? He would find Nemo's body and give him the funeral a little boy deserved.
"Put those hands back up, Rav Tillman. We have been authorized to use lethal force."
"It's not real. It's not real. None of this is real." Rav repeated that over and over as he pushed the sleeve of his leather jacket up. He ran his fingertips over the tattoo of three interlocking gears on his right forearm. He thought to what Rage had told him during that time that seemed like so long ago. The mark of logic could interact with computers in various ways. Rav had not tried anything for fear of messing something up, but now he was facing a do or die situation.
The man over the loudspeaker shouted again. "Put your hands up. Rav Tillman, surrender or face the full force of the Odyssian military."
"Vance?"
"What's up, mate?" Vance asked.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"This." Rav grabbed onto his friend and slammed his mark of logic onto Vance's forehead. He focused on the energy he could feel rushing in his veins like he had that day. Much to Rav's surprise, the AI program flickered and turned to static before leaving a metal and silicone frame behind. The remaining shell fell to the pavement and remained lifeless. Without wasting another moment, Rav took off running as fast as he could.
The popping of gunfire rang out behind him as the soldiers shouted. Bullets collided with the pavement and ricocheted off of the light posts lining the street. Rav cried out when one of the bullets ripped through the left shoulder of his jumpsuit, throwing him from his feet. He caught himself as he fell on the back of a hovercar. He did not have time to stop and check his injuries. The splattering of gunfire only grew more rapid. There was no way he could avoid all of it.
Thinking quickly, he took hold of the back bumper and slid under the thin gap between the hovercar and the pavement. With his chest pressed up against the underside of the vehicle, Rav took a moment to catch his breath. While the lead and laser beams collided with the body of the hovercar, merely inches from Rav's head, he reached over to touch the radiating pain that shocked through his system. How did that happen? Wasn't this supposed to be all fake? The grinding agony and the hot sticky blood pooling around him certainly was not only in his mind.
Rav tried to stop the bleeding, but the flow around his fingers told him it was too deep to remedy so easily. The spotlights landed on the pavement around him, sending the speckles of crimson that dotted the pavement shining. He was cornered. This was it. But then he had an idea. The hovercar. In his years of working at CyrinoTech, Rav had modified some of the computers that controlled the vehicles. His mark of logic had worked on Vance. Maybe it would work here too.
He reached up with both hands, despite his pain, to tear away at the wires and panels on the underside of the hovercar. Rav shoved his hand up into the interior components where the computer was located. Once again, he let the energy culminate in his mark of logic. A beeping sound answered him back as the rows of Vitalanum cores began to glow brightly. Rav rolled to the side, out from underneath the hovercar just as the engines roared to life and it raised up from the sidewalk.
Rav dove into the open top of the hovercar just as more shots were fired at him. He put it in gear and sped out through the city. The wind whipped around him, carrying with it the sirens that echoed through the side streets and over the tops of the rundown Under City buildings. He drove as fast as he could, leaving the sweet metallic scent of burning Vitalanum behind him.
For fifteen minutes, he avoided the spotlights by weaving through the back alleys and keeping his distance from the checkpoints. However, he was running out of road. In a completely enclosed cavern with levels above and below him, there was no way out. Rav turned once again down a side street, but he slammed on the brakes as two men in black trench coats stepped out of the shadows with s
leek silver laser rifles drawn. For a split second, he thought about flooring it and running them over, but when one of the men removed his fedora, Rav's mouth fell open.
Blond hair. Mismatched eyes. High cheekbones.
"Vance? Vance, get in here. Come on."
"Aye, aye, captain." Vance ran to the passenger side and hopped into the seat. He waved at the other man. "See ya, yobbo. Shoot him, Rav."
Rav fired into the trench coat, sending the pseudo-person crumpling to the ground. Sitting there for a moment, he turned to Vance. "Why are you wearing that? How did you even get here?"
"I can transfer my AI and appearance to any of these data points. I had to come find you again. I want to help."
"But that means that you have a controller outside of this program, right?" Rav asked. "Who is controlling you?"
"I don't know, but whoever is controlling me is on your side. I only go where he sends me."
"So you're not on the side of the Olonictians?"
"Of course not, mate. If I was, they could use me to kill you. But the person controlling me has managed to hack into this program. I get it now. You were right. So? What's the plan, mate? How are we gonna shut this stuff down?"
Rav slammed his fists into the leather-covered steering wheel as sweat beaded up on his forehead. "I have no idea. These soldiers will continue hunting for me until I'm driven into a corner. I don't think they'll actually kill me because Brooke wants me alive to help her do whatever it is that she needs me to do. But they're not playing around." He slid his hand under the collar of his leather jacket then pulled it back out to show the dark blood covering his fingers and dripping down his arm.
The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10 Page 33