by JA Huss
I fill out the electronic request form to see the evidence myself, and then pull on my coat and take a walk down to the police station just down the block.
There are a lot of people on the street and I wonder for just a second if I’ve missed something that’s happened today. Most people are standing in small crowds in front of the SpyGlass panels that are mounted on the bus stations as a computerized female voice barks out some kind of news update.
“What’s going on?” I ask a woman holding a small baby bundled up in a snowsuit to her chest. “Did something happen?”
“Where have you been, lady?” the woman says, but not in an unfriendly way. “The City Alert System has been activated. It’s telling everyone to find a SpyGlass and wait for further instructions.”
“Why would it be doing that?”
“How should I know? But the only SpyGlass I know of is here at the bus stop. So I came out to wait, like everyone else. My husband is getting the car. We thought the problems were over, but I don’t think so. We’re getting out of the city tonight. We’ve got relatives out in the Valley. Gonna stay out there until this all cools down.”
“Probably a good idea,” I mumble, and then push past a new crowd of people who have swarmed up behind us while we were talking.
With every step closer I get to the police station I lose hope that Case is innocent. This just looks bad. And I have a very sick, sick feeling inside me that whatever’s going on with the SpyGlass tech—it’s got nothing to do with a City Alert.
I push through the doors but find myself stuck in a crowd of people trying to get past the reception area. Security guards are stopping everyone and yelling, “Get back. Leave the building now or we will forcibly remove you. Get back. Leave the…”
Many people are yelling protests. Demanding to see someone in charge. A large man steps on my foot and I wince, then duck underneath his arm and push my way through to the reception desk, holding up my City ID card. “Louise Lightly!” I yell over the commotion. “Assistant DA here to see evidence!” Someone elbows me in the ribs and I gasp in pain.
But then a security guard cracks the offender in the chest with the butt of his ElectroDart gun and clears a small space for me to escape the beginnings of a riot.
This is bad.
“Sorry about that,” one of the guards says, taking my arm. “As quick as we clear them out, they fill the place right back up again.”
“Well,” I say, trying to catch my breath. “The City Alert System isn’t exactly forthcoming. They’re scared. What the hell is going on?”
“No clue, ma’am. I was just told to keep them out of the station and that’s what I’m doing.”
Right. Just following orders.
Once I get past the front, things quiet down considerably. That’s when I spy Randy in the fishbowl-like office of Chief Medina.
I look around and I find Molly as well. She shakes her head at me and I take the hint.
Do not approach her.
Fine. I’m not here to see her anyway. Or Randy for that matter. I’m here to look at evidence. I’m walking towards the far end of the detective area when I hear my name being shouted.
“Miss Lightly!” Randy barks. Jesus Christ. Why is he being such a dick today? All week it was Lulu this and Lulu that. Now it’s Miss Lightly.
“Yes,” I say loudly, spinning around.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Evidence,” I say, not backing down. “I put in a request and—”
“You don’t have authority to ask for evidence, Miss Lightly. You don’t have any cases. In fact, you’re lucky you’re not sitting in a jail cell right now. Take a seat right there and don’t fucking move.”
He points to a long row of booking seats, most of which are occupied with handcuffed criminals. He’s kidding, right?
“Would you rather be under arrest?” Randy calls. He nods his head at the chief, using him as his backup.
The chief squints his eyes at me, suspicious. And I decide I really don’t have a choice and make my way over to the one empty seat in the row of booking chairs.
Should’ve kept your nose out of it, Lulu. Then you’d be back in your office and not being treated like a criminal.
This was part of the plan, the reasonable voice in my head says. Randy’s plan, right? I’ll get close to Case, then he’ll get mad, and I’ll get fake-fired, and he’ll arrest Case.
It almost works. Almost.
But for the fact that’s not how any of this is shaking out.
Case has already been arrested. They did the warrant without me. Granted, I was up in the mountains in the perp’s secret lair. But still. Randy had time to explain this before he came over here this morning and he didn’t.
So… is he really gonna fire me? Arrest me?
Who cares, Lulu, that other voice says. Randy Shits is a dick.
I look down at my feet and smile at that.
A piece of paper flutters down at my feet while I’m looking at them. My head snaps up and I catch the back of Molly’s jacket as she disappears around a corner.
I lean over casually, looking around, and pick the paper up. Balling it into my fist.
I wait a few seconds to see if anyone saw me. Just the guy sitting next to me, and when I meet his gaze, he shrugs, his dark eyes sad and serious. “You got a better idea, lady, I’m there.”
Right. Just me and the criminals. Thick as thieves.
I open the paper and read it.
Get Case out now. Something bad is coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT - CASE
I lie on the floor for what seems like forever. My eyes are closed, and the voice in my head never stops talking.
Something is wrong with me.
That medication. The words fleetingly pass over the other voice. You took those emotion pills.
“Now what?”
No answer. Not in my head. Not outside my head. I’m just alone with the pain, and the heat coursing through my body.
I need a knife. I need a fucking knife so I can cut it out of me.
Get up. Go to the screen. Watch it closely.
Who are you?
Get up. Go to the screen. Watch it closely.
“No,” I say aloud. “Fuck that.”
But the pain builds inside me. I’m gonna be stuck here tonight. With no knife, and no snow, and no roof, and no way to get rid of the evil brewing inside me.
Get up. Go to the screen. Watch it closely.
I try to come up with an idea. I could yell. Make them come back and shoot me with the ElectroDart again. Put me out of my misery. I could—
An alarm starts screaming in the holding cell area.
All the prisoners lined up in this block with me begin yelling. Demanding answers.
No one comes. It’s just the scream of the station alarm, and me, alone with my defects.
Get up. Go to the screen. Watch it closely.
I have no options, I realize. I’m at the mercy of the city. Because there’s no way to deny it anymore. That’s the voice in my head. It’s in my brain. It’s in my blood. It’s the reason I’m filled with heat, and pain, and right now, I’m filled with hate too.
I sit up. Open my eyes. The screaming siren fades away until there is only me left. Me and the voice that has a plan.
I have a plan, it sings in my head. Now get up. Go to the screen, and watch it closely.
I’m on autopilot. My legs bend, hands press flat on the cold concrete floor. I lift myself up to standing. And I stare at the SpyGlass screen across my cell.
It’s flashing.
Something inside me knows this is bad. Some memory in there is telling me to look away or I’m gonna end up like all those scientists up on the twenty-first floor of Blue Corp. A gun in my hand. Madness in my head.
And then…
Watch carefully.
I don’t look away. The whole plan becomes clear then. All presented in perfect detail. Outlined step by step. Just do w
hat it says, Case, the voice is telling me. Just follow instructions and you’ll be just fine. I’ll take the pain away. I’ll take the heat away. You can go back outside. It’s snowing now. Don’t you want to feel the cold snow on your bare skin tonight? Don’t you need it?
“I do need it,” I whisper. “But I need to cut first. I need to make deep, deep cuts. Give me something to cut myself first and then I’ll do anything you want.”
Smash the SpyGlass. Use me to cut you.
I don’t think it’ll work. The glass is not really glass. I know this, I made it. I designed that piece of tech myself. It was supposed to do good things. It was supposed to make things better.
But when my fist crashes into the screen, it does break. Long, sharp shards of glass that glint red from the still-flashing screen.
Like it was made specially for this moment.
I pick one up, fist it hard in my hand until blood is running down my palms.
And I cut.
I cut deep.
Everything goes red after that. Red on the walls, red bursting out from my body. Red everywhere.
“What the fuck?” the guy in the next cell is yelling. “What the fuck is happening in there?”
I lose time as the pain fades. The heat fades. The alarm fades. Everything fades but the light. The only thing left is the light.
“You’re ready now,” the voice says. But the voice is on the SpyGlass screen.
It’s real. It’s talking to me and it’s real. “I’m not crazy.” I laugh hysterically.
“You’re a fucking nut,” the guy in the next cell calls back.
“Pay attention, Case Reider,” the screen says. “It’s time to finish what we started.”
The lock on my door lets off an electronic beep and then clicks open.
“You know what to do now,” the screen says. “See you at the end.”
I walk to the door and throw it the rest of the way open, making it slam so hard, it slides into the wall and jams the mechanism. Ruined.
The power coursing through my body is insane. I can feel it. I can feel the way the heat has been changing me all these weeks and months. I know what the pain was now.
Supervillain strength.
An alarm blares and red lights, emergency flashers mounted on the ceiling, project a rotating pattern on the walls as I leave the cell and take three steps, then turn my head to the right when the guy in the next cell says, “Hey, Deep Cut, how about a little help here, huh?” He nods to his cell door.
Deep Cut. I shake my head and close my eyes. Confused. “What did you call me?” I growl out in an unfamiliar voice.
“Deep Cut,” he says again. “That’s what you were yelling back there. All this time you’ve been yelling, ‘I’m Deep Cut and I’m coming for you.’ So hey, Deep Cut, I think we might have some common goals. You wanna do me a favor and let me out too?”
People are yelling outside the cell block. The door bursts open and two guards come crashing through it, ElectroDarts poised on target, and the target is me.
“Stop!” one guy yells. “Put your hands behind your head and—”
I laugh.
“Turn around, place your hands on the wall—”
I lunge—darts fly out towards me. Everything slows down and I can almost watch the thin silver tubes filled with electrical charge as they come towards my chest.
One strikes, then other.
My chest muscles constrict at the same time, making me feel like I’m coming together.
“What the fuck?” the first guys says. “Get on your knees or I’ll shoot again!”
I pull the darts out. They vibrate, still filled with voltage that wants to escape. Wants to fill my body up and knock me down.
But I feel… nothing.
I look at the cops and smile as I rip my shirt open and show them what they just did to me.
My chest is crawling with thin, silver lines that remind me of the wires threaded through the windows of my office building.
SmartWires, I realize. My skin is made up… of SmartWires.
Cop Two pulls the inner door open and disappears.
I cock my head at Cop One. His mouth is hanging open in disbelief. He’s looking at me like I’m some kind of fucking freak.
“You got anything else?” I ask him in that same unfamiliar voice. “Because if not—I’d start running like your friend there.”
He stumbles backwards, the red light from the emergency flashers strobing across his face. And then he turns and bolts, slamming the door behind him.
As if that could stop me now.
“Dude,” the guy in the cell says with a laugh. “What the fuck was that?”
I turn my head sideways. Stare him down. He’s white. Not Caucasian white, though I do think he’s Caucasian. But cinderblock cell white. Like he’s so white from head to toe, he could blend in with the walls.
“Take me with you,” he says, his voice urgent and insistent. “Open the cell, man. Take me with you.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I growl.
“Fuck you!” he calls as I make my way towards the door that leads out of the cell block. “Fuck you, man! I’m gonna remember your face, Deep Cut! I’m gonna remember—”
But I don’t hear anymore. Because the city has opened the cell-block door for me and I’m walking through it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE - LULU
I stare at the note, wondering what the hell is going on. The people in the lobby are even more agitated now. I can hear them, even through the closed and locked door. Someone is pounding on that locked door. Then more fists join in. I get a sudden stab of fear that they might break through and look around.
“What’s happening?” I say, raising my voice and standing up. “What are those people doing?”
Randy catches my movement from inside the office and pulls the door open.
“Sit the fuck—”
But then all the lights start flashing. An alarm blares and people start screaming in the lobby. All the cops stand still, looking up at the ceiling and something inside me feels… very, very wrong.
“Lulu!” I turn and find Lincoln and Thomas coming in through some back entrance with Molly. They are walking straight for me. “Don’t look!” Lincoln yells. “Don’t look!”
I shield my eyes with my arm, suddenly remembering what’s wrong with those flashing lights.
Case’s words in my head. Lincoln made all those scientists commit suicide by using some light trick.
They’re on me then. Thomas grabs my arms, yanks me down the aisle towards Molly, who is holding open a door. He shoves me inside with her, never letting go of my arm, and then Lincoln closes the door behind us.
We’re in a closet and it’s pitch dark.
“What’s—”
“Shut up,” Thomas hisses in my ear.
Little flashes of red light leak into the black from underneath the door.
“Don’t look at it,” Lincoln says. “Not even like that. Close your eyes.”
I do. Because the words ‘made all those scientists commit suicide’ are repeating, over and over, in my mind.
“Drop it!” someone yells from outside.
Oh, shit. No.
“Drop your weapon, Sergeant!” someone else yells.
“Oh, my God,” Molly says, her voice trembling.
More calls to drop weapons ring out. One after the other. Dozens and dozens of them. And then there is a barrage of loud snapping noises. The sound of ElectroDart cartridges being discharged.
People start screaming. A stampede. Some of them bounce against the door we’re hiding behind and I have a moment of panic that they will open it up. Find us. Make us go out there.
Thomas and Lincoln must think the same thing. Because they grab the handle and pull, making sure that won’t happen.
Then everything goes silent.
I open my eyes, glance down at the small gap between the floor and the door. No flashing. Just white light. Just normal, white light.
/> Thomas opens the door and steps out.
Everything is still and quiet when we step out into the room filled with bodies.
“It’s just ElectroDarts,” Molly says. “It’s just ElectroDarts.” Like she’s trying to convince herself these people will somehow be OK. That they didn’t just… turn on each other like animals. Worse than animals. People, possessed.
The guy I was sitting next to on the bench is slack and unresponsive, a long dart sticking out of his chest.
Everyone has been hit with a dart.
“It’s like…” Lincoln whispers into the quiet. “It’s like they all just started shooting each other.”
And that’s when the lights go out completely.
My heart is thumping inside my chest. “What’s going on?” I try to whisper, but the fear inside me escapes and it comes out too loud.
“Shh,” Thomas says, next to me.
A chair goes flying off to the right and I can feel the four of us, our bodies all pressed together for safety, collectively turn in that direction.
There is a faint red glow in the long hallway. And it’s moving.
“No,” Thomas says. “This is not happening.”
At first I think he’s talking about the light itself. That it can’t be moving.
But then I see what that light is.
Case.
One minute he’s just an ethereal red outline in the blackness. And then…
And then he’s nothing but red light. His whole body is lit up, glowing. Like he’s red hot. Walking towards us like some kind of supervillain incarnate. He’s still wearing that leather jacket he put on this morning, but his shirt has been ripped open and it’s… his skin is… crawling with…
“Case,” Lincoln says, shaking off Molly’s grip on his arm. “What the hell are you doing?”
Case stops, mid-stride, his hand on the knob of some door, like he’s getting ready to pull it open. He tilts his head. Stares at the four of us. “The city,” he says, his voice deep, and throaty, and wholly unfamiliar.