by Hugo Huesca
As soon as I wandered inside the familiar lobby, I realized the place had closed long before today. The receptionist’s desk was vacated and covered with dust, the furniture was nowhere to be seen, and the fountain was turned off—dry, with moss covering its edges.
But it was not empty. Security guards were waiting for me close to the doors. Five of them, dressed in white business suits without company logos. Odin was, after all, supposed to have been disbanded during the Corporate Wars.
I saw myself reflected in their sunglasses (seriously, sunglasses indoors?) while they marched toward me. They had heavy pistols on smart-holsters strapped to their chests, and I realized their shirts were actually bulletproof meshes. I had worn one like that the first time I had met Keles.
They patted me down without saying a hello, so fast I couldn’t help but feel vaguely assaulted. “Easy, boys, it’s my first time with a group!”
It lasted only a few seconds. One took my phone away and crushed it with a gloved hand.
“You’re paying me back for that,” I told him.
He didn’t even look my way.
“Madam Dervaux is waiting for you upstairs,” another one said. “Please don’t make any sudden movements. The security drones have been downgraded to old models and their threat-detection system is known to be faulty.”
“Isn’t that nice,” I muttered.
Two guards marched a few steps in front of me, another two covered my flanks, and the last one walked behind me while making sure I couldn’t see him. No way I was getting away from them, even if I planned on to.
Last time I’d been inside Xanz, my friends and I had faced against Nordic’s CEO. He had been a nasty man who hid the Signal behind the Rune videogame, and the person guilty for the death of my friend Kipp’s parents. His name was Seitaro Ogawa.
In the end, he had tried to do to us the same thing he did to them and paid for it with his life.
Charli Dervaux was better guarded than Seitaro Ogawa in his own building. After we stepped out of the elevator, I realized the upper levels of the skyscraper were filled with guards, mercenaries, workers, drones, engineers, even scientists.
Bulky power cables ran from the interior of reworked offices where most of the non-combat personnel concentrated. As I walked past those offices, following the route of the cable lines, I felt waves of heat coming from them, mixed with industrial air conditioners trying to keep the heat to manageable levels.
From the corner of my eye I saw men and women working on computers the size of a fridge, without any of the sleek aesthetics of the decade; instead, they were silent gray blocks that spewed smaller cables from their entrails and sprawled out of my view like dormant worms.
In fact, almost every surface was covered with cables from different sizes. It was clear that the installation had been refurbished. The floor was dirty with the passing of hundreds of pairs of footsteps.
We walked past Ogawa’s office, now filled with holographic screens and half a dozen of people in white coats examining an overwhelming amount of data that danced around them. I saw lines of software reflected on the glasses of a man that briefly looked at me and then turned away with his expression guarded.
In fact, everyone I saw tried to pretend I wasn’t there. So, they were aware of what they were about to do. And Dervaux had taught them well.
Hell, perhaps if she had been in charge of Nordic from the beginning…
We passed the spot that had once been the beta tester’s section and finally reached the end of the way. Most of the cable lines disappeared into the half-demolished walls next to what could only have been the meeting room. It was guarded by a heavy door made of wood covering a metal slab so it could serve as a panic room in case of an attack.
The guards opened it without any fanfare or ceremony and I was ushered inside, followed closely by them.
The meeting room had been replaced by a combination of heavy machinery and supercomputers that could only be described as HP Lovecraft’s version of the Device that existed in the Puente del Diablo’s laboratories. All the fragile components were left exposed and I could see parts spinning so fast that it was clear they could turn my hand into mincemeat by accident. The machinery was strewn with barely any organization or sense, but in the middle of it all I saw a plasteel operating table with straps for arms and legs, and a VR-Brain waiting innocently on a tray next to it. A cable thicker than my arm connected the VR-Brain to the rest of the machine.
This half-Device occupied most of the space in the room. Behind it were only the window panes that overlooked San Mabrada. We were high enough that I could see the city clearly even in the dying twilight. Lower Cañitas, downtown, the industrial district…and sprinkled between the mix of buildings and highway overpasses were dozens and dozens of plasteel fires with their clouds of black smoke.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” asked a woman’s voice somewhere to my right. “That’s why I picked this spot. Besides giving Caputi the slip, of course. My previous research shows that the subjects of brain scanning produce better results if they’re at ease. Here’s a familiar environment for you, and a pretty sight.”
I turned towards her while the guards closed the doors behind us. Charli Dervaux was sitting like a queen on her throne in the middle of her court.
She appeared to be in her thirties and was painfully beautiful in that eerie way that several anti-aging operations cause. Her red hair looked ablaze thanks to the polluted sunlight that still remained and fell down her business suit in a way that was more effective than a million dollars in jewelry.
“That’s so kind of you,” I drawled sarcastically but without much bite. I knew that she was the mastermind behind a lot of pain and suffering for many people, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate her.
It was the eyes. They were so far away from human warmth that hating her would be akin to hating a flood.
When people talked about how absolute power corrupts absolutely, they would be thinking of Charli Dervaux.
She was sitting in a leather-bound seat that could’ve only belonged to Ogawa. It was the only furniture in the room. At her feet were laying old versions of security drones. They looked just like wolves, but their skin was gunmetal and their eyes were red crystal. They looked at me and growled softly. Dervaux passed distractedly a hand over their metallic frames.
A team of scientists was positioned around her. They were focusing on operating the complex controls of Odin’s device. One of them added a bright blue coolant to a pump while avoiding eye contact with anyone.
Charli Dervaux smiled at me. White teeth framed between perfect red lips devoid of happiness and warmth. “It’s the less I could do, my dear. After all, you’re here to allow me to atone for my mistakes, are you not?”
“Keles,” I said.
The guards positioned themselves next to the doors and by the window panes in a way that let them cover the room without putting each other in their lines of fire by mistake. The door closed by itself and turned on an electronic lock.
“Keles,” Dervaux's voice almost sang the name. “I should have seen it coming. Really. I never thought that he would turn the scanner on himself after seeing first hand what it did to his own test subjects. Of course, I expected even less that it would work on him. Seems like his delirious of grandeur weren’t quite so delirious after all.”
“You’re wrong,” I told her. “It didn’t work. Your shit fried his brains. He’s dead. Whatever the fuck is roaming the Signal right now has more in common with a virus than a human mind.”
That’s what you get for going with the knockoff versions.
“Ah, did he die, now? I’ve heard that argument many times now, that digitalization kills the human mind and merely creates a copy. Because it lacks… continuation of consciousness,” she was talking placidly. As if we had all the time in the world and she was the hostess at a brunch for her rich friends. “At first, when I was younger, I even agreed. I was so…small minded! To base the definition of
human in something as droll as consciousness. Consciousness! We can’t smell it, we can’t touch it, nor can we taste it. I can’t even be sure it exists beyond my own or everyone else is an extremely well programmed biological drone.
“No, my dear Cole, I now think that only our legacy is the measure of our lives. As long as a version of ourselves is still around to continue our work, only then we can be said to be alive.”
“You mean, I’m going to make you the proud owner of a couple thousand drones,” I told her.
“That’s a happy accident. I would’ve taken them for myself, but the only way to get the States to trust Freya was to break all connections with them. I genuinely never thought this day would come until I heard of the PDF massacre. Doctor Wily left enough evidence after his hasty departure that it was no problem figuring out about the vulnerability. Isn’t life strange? An accident of fate and here the two of us are, ready to make history. Keles will descend into madness and die soon enough, Wily’s plane already suffered a tragic accident mid-flight, you…well, you know. Don’t worry. You will leave behind a worthy legacy indeed.”
“You’re a fucked up b—”
One of the guards behind me suddenly flashed forward and punched me solidly on the kidney. All air rushed out of my lungs and my knees wobbled under me. I fell to the floor with the taste of blood in my mouth. “Careful, scum. That’s Madam Dervaux you’re talking about.”
“And they say chivalry is dead.” Dervaux gestured in the direction of the operating table. “But please, if you may. We sadly don’t have time for philosophy.”
A strong pair of hands held me under the armpits and dragged me toward the operating table. I was too stunned to resist.
But even though I’d come here for this, I tried to fight back. After all, I made Van a promise.
My first kick only hit air and the second didn’t connect solidly against the guard’s chest. The man handled my attempt at pushing away from his grab with ease and I got a punch square in the jaw for my troubles. I saw stars and lights went out.
I woke up with the feeling of my head being split open. Someone was closing the last strap of the table around my ankle. They were medical-grade restraints, though, and struggling was useless.
“Everything is ready, Madam Dervaux,” one of the scientists by the controls announced. “We’re waiting for your command.”
She nodded in the direction of someone I couldn’t see. I heard very well the noise of the VR-Brain being picked up from its tray. It was as clear as day.
“As I said, dear Cole. No time to lose. History’s in the making.”
I realized the next thing I said were going to be my last words.
“Charli? You have a zit on your chin. All the time you were talking I could see it under your makeup. I thought I’d let you know.”
For one sweet half of a second, Charli Dervaux was speechless.
Then she laughed, “Hah!” and nodded appreciatively like one may do while watching a tennis player score a competent return. Then it was gone.
The VR-Brain covered my eyes. The dirty crystal of its visor muddled my vision.
I’d say something about Dervaux. She was a good winner. She let me have the final word in the end. Someone turned on the Device.
And the world faded to black.
21 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SEA
A BEING unlike anything else I’d ever seen was being born right in front of me. Threads of data extended, found each other, threaded. Dead bytes were reorganized in clusters that blazed to life around the shape of the new virtual body.
The process started slowly—like Francis was unsure of how to proceed—but it became faster by the second. In the end, it was a blur of light and data that swirled and shifted, searching for itself.
Then it was done. The man in front of me couldn’t have been more than half a decade older than me. His skin was smooth like a baby’s and his eyes were a digital green that reminded me of Rylena’s implants. He was tall and slim and wore a black duster jacket over skin-tight spandex. It was the outfit of someone dressed and ready for a cyberpunk movie marathon. He even wore combat boots.
He also had the slightest resemblance to Kipp Patel…that had to be Francis’ own self-image in action. I choked back tears.
“Huh,” the man raised one arm and examined it like he was admiring the craftsmanship. “It itches.”
“Francis?” I asked. The man looked in my direction with a shy, sad smile. “Terrance?”
“Yes and no,” he shrugged. “Sorry, bud. It was the only way. Francis’ memories are still around, they weren’t deleted. Same for Terrance. Most of them, anyway. His life from before the scan wasn’t recoverable. Probably gone forever.”
He glanced down at the dark sea. “This is a graveyard. Funny how I didn’t notice it before.”
“David,” I decided with a nod. There was little time to grieve. “Can you stop him, then? Keles?”
David flashed me a dangerous grin. “You’re not going to like what comes next, Cole.”
“Dude. My entire day could be reduced to that phrase. Fuck, my entire year.”
“The shortest, oldest story in existence could be ‘and then it got worse.’ ” David gestured at me to follow him. “Don’t worry, there’s still time left. Your sister and our friends are beating the everloving shit out of the Keles army out there. For now, at least.”
I briefly wondered how he could be sure of that. Probably super-AI mindfuckery.
“You told me we shouldn’t get close to it,” I told him when I realized where we were headed.
“Just don’t take a dive. That’s the virtual equivalent of a city’s sewers. But, instead, the city is the entire Signal.” He made a gesture at the black sea.
Waves of red light as tall as a house traveled over the murky surface. And, far underwater, red tubes of energy pulsed and shifted, rhythmically, as if they were sleeping giants.
Not house-sized, I thought distractedly. I have no idea how far I am. They could be… much bigger. An entirely different category of size.
“This is how we’re getting rid of Savin Keles,” David said. “We’re flushing the shit down to the sewers where it belongs.”
“How?”
“First, we have to reach the Core,” David said. His face was grim. “Then we turn it off.”
“What?”
After all the effort we’ve gone through to keep it going?
“That’s what Keles is going to do anyway!” I went on.
“No, he’s going to overwhelm it,” he said. “If we turn it off, it could be brought back online again. Someday.”
“Can you do that?”
He shook his head. “That’s beyond any of us, Cole. The people who built the Signal are not around anymore. We’re pretty much stumbling in the dark with tech-support sleeping on the job.”
“Just…let’s just destroy him.” I told him. “Last time, I was able to break him down with my bare hands, it’s like he’s made of air. Point me to where he is and I’ll handle it from there.”
“He’s inside the Core,” David said. “Feeding. There’s no human power that can get him out of there.”
I felt like a baby who had gotten his candy stolen from a stranger.
“Then we’re doomed. No matter what.”
“Let me tell you a story,” said David. “A story that I found out as David Terrance not long before I started my permanent residence in my lovely condo in the Stack. There are things going on here. Echoes. Sometimes things are not as dead as they seem. You hear stuff. If you pay attention, you can see traces of the structure they used to have.
“This sea is bigger than we could possibly fathom. It’s not infinite, though. It has a bottom. And at the bottom layer are what little remains of the minds that ended the Signal’s original civilization.”
I brought myself a couple thousand feet higher just to be sure. “How do you know this?”
And what the hell does this has to do with a
nything?
I bit my tongue on that. This guy may look like someone else, but Francis was still there. I could trust him. He was my friend.
“I put it together in time,” he explained. David smiled with fake pride. “I used to be very good at my job, you know? Before the scan. I think I was a…programmer. But also a kind of detective. I even had a partner, we fought the Corporation’s crime together…”
He frowned with effort, trying to remember. “Ah, no use. It was a lifetime ago. Well, I’m used to solving data mysteries. That’s how I survived for so long, by practicing on my own configuration.”
The frown turned to a neutral expression, but I could see his lips tremble slightly. Something precious had been taken away from him and he knew he’d never get it back.
“All the evidence is right there in the sea. The currents sometimes shift stuff around, bringing data from the depths for brief periods. You can also get close to the typhoons and take a look at what they unveil.”
A shiver went down my spine. Just how crazy had this guy been? He had done all of this while dying from data corruption.
“What happened?” I asked, thinking of minds older than the human race that had died before we had even crawled out of our own primordial ocean. “Are they the creators?”
“No idea,” David said. “They could be. Or someone else who lived in the same age. I don’t think it makes much of a difference. Can you take a guess what happened?”
“I’ve heard about it,” I realized. During my last Translation.
The Visitor had talked about it. How all the civilizations were vulnerable to Keles. How he was a sickness in our Core. A sickness that could spread. And they were much more dependent on Signal technology than we were…“It was the same with them. It’s all happening again.”
Even after all this time.
David nodded. “You can’t create a free-access network with near limitless processing power and then hope every other civilization out there will have as good cyber-security culture as yourself. It only takes one to mess up.”