by Ben White
"Calm down, they'll hear you. Look, I'm not cut out for field work, I'm barely 'support'. I'm not like you, Curls."
"So why are you here if you're so scared of field work?"
"Because I was worried about you, stupid! What did you think, that Mum and Dad and I were just going 'oh, we've completely lost Charlotte and she's not showing up on any of our monitoring equipment but oh well, I'm sure she's all right, we won't bother spending every waking moment searching for her or anything'."
I bit my lip. "Oh," I said.
"Hell, it was only desperation that convinced me to follow you here, we'd exhausted literally every other option. For all I knew I was gonna end up inside a mountain or something."
"You said the teleporter was perfectly safe!"
"And it is. But it was like you just disappeared after being rezzed and I couldn't explain that, not until now."
For a while after that I didn't say anything. I guess it WAS pretty brave of him to follow me through the teleporter when he had no idea what would happen to him or where he'd end up.
"But if you were brave enough to do that then you must be brave enough to help me now," I said. "There'd be hardly any risk to you—"
"What if they've got sensors tuned to the seventh field?"
I looked at him blankly.
"The seventh field, Curls—for hope's sake, you've spent enough time there, the pseudo-dimension we enter when we go out-of-phase, it's difficult and costly to build something that can detect entities occupying the seventh field but it can be done, it's possible that as soon as I stepped into that place they'd notice me."
"Oh," I said. Now that he brought it up it did seem as though 'the seventh field' was something I should know about.
"I thought you were supposed to have this 'perfect memory'," he said, "how on earth are you so forgetful?"
"It's only short-term stuff I'm perfect about!" I said. "Don't get down on me!" I took a breath and puffed it out. "But I understand if you don't want to help me, I understand if you're scared—"
"Hell yes I'm scared, and so should you be!" he said. "I mean, I'd be trying to convince you not to do this if I didn't know how bloody-minded you are—"
"I'm not 'bloody-minded'!"
"Are you kidding? You're the most stubborn person I know! Granted, I only know you and Mum and Dad, but still—"
"Daniel—"
"Look, I've got to contact them," he said. "Maybe if I can get far enough away from this facility I can get a connect to the greater net, how far have you gone before?"
"... not far," I admitted. "I haven't left the town."
"What? You've had a month, are you seriously—"
"Mind control, remember? I wasn't unaffected!"
"Okay, okay, whatever. I'm going to sneak down there and steal one of those trucks—"
"You can drive?"
"Oh, how hard can it be? Look, I know you're set on doing this, but could you just wait for Mum and Dad? This block they've got can't go too far, with a bit of luck I'll be able to contact them soon, they're on standby in the invisible jet—"
"You said that was a joke!"
"It IS a joke, it's not invisible—it's not even a jet, look, I'll explain all this later, all you've got to understand now is that you have to wait for them. Okay? I'd tell you to get away from this facility, but you're not going to listen to me about that either, right?"
"I guess I'm not," I said. "But I think something bad is happening NOW—"
"Just WAIT, for my sake, if Mum and Dad find out I tracked you down only to let you go get yourself hurt or worse they're gonna kill me." Daniel looked at me for a moment, then shook his head. "If you DO get in trouble send me an emergency signal, we should be close enough that I'll get it on my Opal even with this block in place. Okay? If you're in mortal peril, I'll come rescue you. But ONLY if you're in mortal peril, got that?"
I smiled at him. "Okay, I understand. I'm really happy you came to get me."
"Yeah, I'm happy I did too," he said. "Even if I'm not actually 'getting' you. Keep safe, Curls. None of us want to lose you again."
Then he left. I watched him drive away in the truck he stole until it was out of sight—although apparently no one else did, because it was pretty obvious it was the first time he'd ever driven anything—he IS kind of a genius though, I'm sure he'll get better as he goes. And Mum and Dad are coming, I'm going to see them soon! Until then, though, I can't just leave—apart from anything else it's probably safer to stay here up this tree than it is to try to get through the forest, I can hear the motorbike patrols pretty clearly from up here. So I'm just sitting here, watching, writing all this out, waiting for
...
There's a truck coming, for a moment I thought it might be Daniel coming back but it's not.
...
More than one truck, actually.
...
C2 is down there! The trucks were full of students from the school and C2 is one of them! They're going inside now but there are people everywhere, I'd get noticed for sure if I ran down!
Wait, the others—they're all from the self-improvement program. I recognise some of them, this must be the advanced program! They're taken here, why? What's going to happen to them, 'they never talk about what happened', C2, what are you doing here?
I have to get in there, I have to save C2, I know I should wait for Mum and Dad but my friend is in danger! I can't just wait, I CAN'T! I have to go in there now, RIGHT NOW ... sorry, Daniel. If you're reading this, if this is my last entry, just know ... you really couldn't have stopped me. No one could have. And Mum and Dad ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I don't regret a thing.
xx48.12.01 / 14:22 / Still Thursday
I'm REALLY glad the previous entry wasn't my last. I'm also glad because I found C2! I'd better tell it from the start; I have some time to write, this elevator is REALLY slow.
My infiltration began well. My observation of the guards' patrol routes paid off, because the gap I'd noticed let me climb up to the roof completely unnoticed. There are cameras outside, but because of the trees there are heaps of blind spots. There are cameras inside too, but hopefully they won't be a problem because of my disguise. I got lucky with my entrance—as I'd hoped, the trees on the roof are actually growing in little internal gardens, which DO have windows. I located one that opened on to a kind of locker room, and found appropriate clothing that means I can move around basically unnoticed; a lab coat and a weird kind of safety helmet, it's bright green and has a kind of sticky mesh on the outside. Still, even 'bright green' is inconspicuous when EVERYONE is wearing it, and this facility has a LOT of people working in it, all running around the place almost like they're panicking. I didn't have time to find out why it's so busy, though, and the activity helped make me even less noticeable—another good thing is that a lot of the staff here are younger, not much older than me, so I didn't stand out in that way either. Above ground there are only two levels to the facility, mostly big rooms with low ceilings filled with complicated-looking monitoring equipment being attended to by serious-looking people. The inside of the facility is very white, and very shiny.
To cut things short (because I think this elevator is FINALLY going to arrive at the bottom), I made my way through the upper levels, searching for C2. I found the 'advanced self-improvement' group in a room that was laid out like a science lab, they were sitting and listening to a woman in a lab coat give some kind of lecture. C2 wasn't with them, though. I'll go into more detail about what she did later, for now I'll just put that SHE found ME, and she's the one showing ME what to do now.
One more time: C2. Is. Amazing.
Elevator's reached the lowest level. Got to go. More later, hopefully.
xx48.12.01 / 15:57 / Still Thursday
Writing this on the run. Well, not 'run'. Brisk walk. C2 is leading me through the lower levels (which are more like a cave than a facility, a natural cavern maybe with mesh walkways). We have to stop to hide often—thank goodness for holo-keybo
ards and their non-clicky keys!
Lots of people up ahead arguing about something, the cavern is too echoey to hear them properly. We have to wait until they get out of the way. Time to explain about C2.
After our argument she made her choice, but it wasn't to come with me (obviously) or go home. It wasn't to 'get by', either. C2's choice was to be a hero, but in her way.
On her own, she went into the admin building. She didn't sneak, she just walked in. No one stopped her or even asked why she was there. With the number of students around the campus searching for me and for other 'unknown variables', simply being in uniform (instead of in black form-fitting sneaky clothes like me—yes, I snuck back to my apartment to change) was the best disguise she could've had. She found an empty office and she checked every computer until she found one that was still logged in. She went through the records and emails on it until she found out what was going on here—of course, they didn't talk about it directly, but it turns out C2 can get a lot from a little. Maybe that's ironic, considering her total inability to intuit another person's feelings. Then again, maybe not. In her own words:
"Something bad is happening, something related to the mental control of the students. Recently the control was increased. You should keep that helmet on, the mesh on the outside will help shield you from the influence of the broadcast. I found references to the advanced program and felt the easiest way to proceed was to become a part of it. This was easy; they're rushing students through. There are eight groups coming to this facility today, over a hundred students in total. Regarding the source of the psychic broadcasts, based on the communications and records I was able to read I am almost certain that it is not mechanical. References were made to something that must be biological; living and in need of care. The source of the broadcasts fell sick last week and required urgent treatment. Machines don't get sick."
I am SO proud of her. The noisy group's splitting up and leaving now, I think we can move forward.
More 'structured' corridors now. C2 has a keycard, I have no idea where she got that. We're through into an 'inner' facility. It's very quiet except for a low hum that's making my teeth tingle. I think possi
...
We had to hide, there aren't guards here but there are a lot of technicians. Some of them are armed. I think this place goes even deeper than this, and we're REALLY far underground already. It's warm, uncomfortably warm. These corridors aren't white, they're just unpainted metal. Now we're coming up to
...
The transmitter isn't small. What I saw up top, covered by that dome, is only the very tip. It extends all the way down here—even further down than we are now, it's narrow but so, so long, they've drilled down, I think, into this cavern, it's hard to see up but it looks like it widens a little down below, I think there's some kind of room down there and that's where the transmitter ends. No, that's wrong. Not where it ends. Where it begins. Whatever the biological source of the broadcasts is, it's down there.
C2 looks scared. I think I probably do too. More corridors now, along away from the transmitter, now down, now back towards it again.
There's a room up ahead. C2 notices something. Monitoring room, and the technicians at the monitors are definitely armed.
...
I almost just got shot. I'm really shaking quite badly and I'm not sure how to stop. C2 is trying to get the monitors to show something useful instead of meaningless numbers. I just beat up two armed men. I almost got shot. I wrote that already. Guns are really loud, much louder than in the movies and on TV shows and in the training room. It really doesn't do sound very well. They're unconscious now, the men I mean. Still breathing. That's good. I don't want to kill anyone. That's not very 'hero' after all. Knocking someone out is really scary. It's really different to beating up Virtual Bad Guys. Real people don't just grunt and fall down. They make noises that are much more disturbing. The way they fall isn't very nice either. I hope no one else comes. It wasn't difficult to beat these two men. Although I did almost get shot. But I don't want to have to do it again if I can possibly avoid it. I think C2 has
...
I'm having to write this very carefully. If I don't write this down right now, to help both focus myself and distract myself, I think I'd probably throw up. My hands are shaking badly, worse than before. It's not because of the men I beat up. It's because I'm looking at the monitor and it's showing the source of the psychic broadcasts.
It's a girl.
She's young. Maybe younger than me. She's strapped to a kind of frame, and the frame is connected to the transmitter, which is above her. There are drips feeding into both her arms, and I think ... I think she has a catheter. Two catheters. She isn't crying. She's just staring straight ahead and it looks like she's saying something. There's no sound on these monitors. I'm quite glad there isn't. I don't think I want to hear whatever it is that she's saying.
C2 is crying. So am I. This is the most horrible thing I've ever seen.
...
Someone came to the monitoring room, another technician. Maybe she heard the noise from when I was almost shot. She was unarmed, but that isn't why it was easier to fight her. I didn't knock her out. I didn't threaten her, either, not exactly. I just explained very calmly about my curse, about how I cannot lie, about how I always have to tell the truth, and then I told her what I would do if she did not immediately tell me exactly how to get to that girl and how to free her.
I'm writing this now on the elevator back up to the surface. I have no powers. I'm just an ordinary girl with slightly above-average strength and slightly above-average agility. But I hope someone else tries to stop me. I hope they all try to stop me.
C2 is still down below, trying to get to the girl, trying to free her. She has the guns from the technicians I knocked out, and also their stun-batons. She can't read the emotions of others, she has no instinctive empathy, no way of intuitively knowing how others feel. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care. In fact, the opposite is true. C2 cares so deeply about how others feel that she constantly checks herself, examines herself, her actions, her words, she has to ask if she's boring someone, if she has offended them, because otherwise she has no way of knowing, and if she IS boring them, if she IS offending them, then that hurts her so badly ...
C2 feels things far more deeply than people realise. Maybe too deeply. And just because she can't read emotions doesn't mean she can't recognise suffering when she sees it.
I hope she uses the stun-batons before she uses the guns. But I don't think she'd hesitate to use either, on those who knew this was happening and did nothing to stop it, on those who helped make this happen.
The elevator's almost at the top. It's time for me to do my part of things. Because the technician didn't just tell me how to get to the girl. She told me about Segregation.
Those weren't fireworks I saw at the gym yesterday. And the big game is tonight. Every student who qualifies for 'advanced self-improvement' is already at the facility, which leaves those who didn't make the grade in the gym. The gym which has only one exit.
I haven't slept in days, I've been running and hiding and fighting for hours, kick off is in an hour and there are miles of bad guy infested forests between me and the school.
But even without super-agility, I can run. Even without super-strength, I can fight. And even without phase-shifting, I can win.
I'm Charlotte Powers. I'm a hero.
Let's see them try to stop me.
[End Of Recovered File] (o_o')
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xx48.12.05 | 19:12 | Sunday
First things first: I didn't die.
Second: I'm writing this on a new Opal. I don't actually like it as much as my old one, bu
t ... well, I should start where things left off. It all feels like it happened a long time ago, but last Thursday isn't a day I'm going to forget in a hurry.
I wasn't stopped on my way out of the facility, and I evaded the patrols in the forest. That was the easy part. The hard part was what happened after I got to the gym, just minutes before kick-off. The doors were open and both the floor and the ceiling were retracted, turning the gym into an open-air rugby stadium; there was grass under my feet when I ran straight in, right to the middle of the field. I was too puffed to shout straight away and I needed to take a second to get my breath back. Everyone was staring at me; somehow, at that moment, I didn't care in the least. The gym was rigged to explode, probably with incendiaries so it would look like a fire. I had to warn everyone.
But before I could, Veronica Flux made her appearance. She was wearing shimmering white, a kind of bodysuit, and she smiled as she walked slowly towards me. We were the only two people on the field; the players had yet to come out.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away, hero," she said. "You escaped my flames last time, but this time there's NOWHERE for you to run."
But I wasn't running.
Not away, at least.
I had no other choice; powerless, I charged her.
She sent a gout of flames towards me; I rolled to the side to avoid it, but she'd anticipated this and blasted me again, a burst of flames that I just barely managed to dodge by diving forward. I was close to her now, and if I could just—
But I couldn't, just.
She let out an elated whoop as she brought both hands around, and she sent out a burst of flames that engulfed me completely.
Obviously, I didn't die. I'm writing this, aren't I? Here's something you might not expect, though; I wasn't even burnt. I could feel the flames all around me, I could see them, I could HEAR them, but they weren't hurting me. They just made my skin tingle a little, and I could see my hands glowing in front of me, surrounded by a pale aura of near-invisible light.