“Yes, let’s talk to Jill. I need to ask her about some addresses in this town I’m sure she knows.”
“What do you have in mind?” Ivy asked with a half smile and a soul filled with anticipation.
“A little help for our dear friend Apocalily” Ike replied. “I figure we owe her that much.”
“So, how is it going?” Allison asked her engineer.
“It’s done.” Bonnie announced. “All minds in Condor City have clear instructions to capture Lily Master and everyone with her, in case they set foot in town, kill them if they resist.”
“Okay. You may release the children.”
Bonnie typed some commands on the keyboard of her workstation. In the Awakening room, all needles, tubes and straps tying up the children were remotely disconnected.
Amy’s cell phone rang.
“Hello.” She answered it.
“Well done, my dear.” Allison spoke on the other end. “You may go back to your room and resume your rest.”
“Very kind of you” Amy said sarcastically and finished the call.
“Can I bring Sally here next time?” A four-year-old girl asked.
“She’s too young for this kind of thing, Jenny.” Amy answered.
“Please! I promise she’ll behave.”
“Alright, but she’ll only watch us.”
“Thanks.”
“Now we can play a little game the three of us, what do you say?”
“Wee!”
“They are back in their rooms.” Bonnie said.
“Make sure to lock all doors.” Allison spoke.
“I’ve already done that.”
“Then I guess we can call it a day.” Allison stretched. “I’ll be at the cafeteria. Please send to my cell phone all logs containing the mind instructions exchanged between Amy and the people under our control. I want to analyze them. You may go home when you’re done.”
“Yes, Ally.”
Allison Forrester was sitting on a stool by the counter, enjoying a rare moment of relaxation. She had a glass filled with cold and delicious lemon iced tea in her hand. She was satisfied and feeling on top of the world.
Allison skimmed the logs on her cell phone screen. She said to Bonnie she was going to analyze them, but actually she was merely curious about the logs. After all, mind control could prove to be a rather interesting topic. Something called her attention, though. She rolled down the screen to read it again.
Allison gazed at the cell phone, eyes wide open, like she had seen a thousand ghosts.
“What the hell!” She murmured.
Forrester put the glass on the counter, almost dropping it. She nervously touched the screen to close the logs and access her contacts list.
“Bonnie?” She said on the phone. “Where are you?”
“I’m walking to my car” was the answer.
“Go back to the war room. I need you to analyze something for me. It’s urgent!”
Devasta Land walls rose just ahead. The truck circulated the perimeter until finding a way into the woods. A narrow trail led the vehicle deeper into what could be considered the back of the giant terrain.
Over there, industrial walls gave room to homemade walls. The old manufactured constructions surrendered to time-related wear, with vegetation invading the interior. The truck stopped by stone gates with a half moon and sun painted on it.
“We need to make our presences known.” Zomboy said.
“I forgot to take a bath this morning.” Lily replied. “Maybe they notice my smell.”
“That won’t make any difference around here.”
Then, Lily opted for the didgeridoo honk. A few seconds later, the heavy gates rolled open, pulled by natives inside. The truck went in. The doors were closed and the vehicle reached the entrance of a cave. The Australian drove about a mile before a water stream cut their path. Joshua stood on the other side. Lily stopped the truck.
“We walk from here.” Zomboy announced. “Any kind of smoke could jeopardize the work of our dear fireflies and bacteria.”
Everybody climbed down the truck. As the watercourse was not deep, they crossed it. Zomboy shook hands with Joshua.
“You guys go ahead.” The young corpse said. “My friend and I here will join you shortly.”
The group walked deep into the caverns, leaving the two alone.
“I thought you would never leave these caves, boss.” Joshua said.
“Me too” Zomboy responded. “But then, Lily came back to my place, something I never imagined it could possibly happen. And she told me about this crazy plan of hers, so crazy that it might actually work. And, ah, you just can’t say no to her. She wanted a clean operation, but I thought my people and I could have the Board of Directors and guards for supper, as long as we spared the employees and residents. She didn’t exactly love my terms, but it was the only way to have us guest starring in her little production. Besides, I needed to work on my tan.”
By the entertainment room door, the group was greeted by Slim and Dylan.
“Glad you’re back.” Slim came straight to Lily. “We need to talk. I guess we took a little payback for your stunt out there.”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“Our scramblers were reduced to pieces by some shells,” Dylan responded “typical artillery stuff.”
“You were attacked?” Mate asked surprised.
“Well, not us.” Slim replied. “Lucky there was no soul near the damn equipment when they blew it to kingdom come.”
“I got to hand it to them bastards, though.” Dylan continued. “Their precision is amazing. Only the scramblers were hit. All antennas are still standing, not a goddamn scratch.”
“Of course” Hank said. “They need the antennas in case they want to send another Tornado signal.”
“Do you think they’re going to do it?” Lily asked.
“Why would they destroy our scrambling equipment then?”
“So, they know about this place.” Mate whispered.
“And I believe they’ll raid this area right after the signal hit.” Slim spoke. “You’d better not be here when they do.”
“Is it possible for the signal to reach the undergrounds, too?” Lily asked.
“It is, if they increase the amplitude.” Hank answered.
“And I bet my horses that’s exactly what they’re going to do.” Dylan said.
“But then, it will take them longer to set it up.” Hank pointed out. “The Tornado consumes a hell lot of energy.”
“How long?” Lily queried. “Can you estimate?”
“Ten to twelve hours, give or take.” Hank responded. “We have to assume they’ve already started the works and the worst possible scenario. That means we got less than ten.”
“Then let’s get to it.” Lily said.
“And what exactly are you planning to do?” Dylan asked.
“Find the main office of this whole deal and a certain Awakening room I was told about.” Lily replied.
“And then?”
“I didn’t plan that far ahead yet.” Lily spoke.
“Do you think they’re going to bomb Condor City, too?” Mate asked.
“Why would they?” Hank said. “All they got to do is manipulate the residents’ minds.”
“Yes, I forgot about that.” Mate admitted.
“Besides, eventual targets over there are dangerously close to Gingerbread Dam and the power plant.” Hank proceeded. “They wouldn’t be so stupid to blow up their main source of electricity.”
Lily’s eyes got wide open.
“Their electricity comes from Condor City?” The Australian asked.
“Condor City powers up this entire quadrant.” Hank answered. “We are all in the same grid.”
“Do people in Condor City know they are furnishing power supply to their enemies?” Mate asked.
“It makes no difference if they do.” Dylan responded. “They can’t cut the power to the Undertakers without cutting their
own electricity.”
“Zomboy said that you borrow energy from the Undertakers.” Lily recalled.
“That’s right.” Hank replied. “We know where the underground cables are.”
“What if we cut only the cables that power the Undertakers?” Lily proposed. “Can they do anything without electricity, including Tornado signals?”
It was Hank’s turn to open his eyes a lot. They almost fell off the sockets.
“That might work!” He said.
“We have a few problems, though.” Slim said. “For starters, those power cables are too damn thick, hard to cut.”
“Do you happen to have a chainsaw?” Mate queried.
“We got the next best thing.” Slim replied. “But the grid maps we have are powerfully outdated. It will be tough to find the right cables to cut. We’re talking about miles and miles of underground and submarine cables.”
“Would it be easier if we got you the coordinates of the main office and the Awakening room?” Lily asked.
“That’s for sure.” Slim responded.
“I don’t want to rain on your parade, buy they must have generators, in case of a power shutdown.” Dylan spoke.
“That’s a good point.” Slim agreed.
“Once the power is down, how long before the generators kick in?” Lily asked.
“Even if this main office is huge, no more than fifteen minutes” Dylan replied.
“We have to be quick then.” Lily said.
“Quick to do what?” Slim questioned.
“To bring the whole place down before they send the Tornado signal.” Lily answered.
“Alright” Slim said. “How are you going to do that?”
“I’m glad you asked!” Lily replied. “I have no idea.”
“And don’t forget you got less than ten hours before they turn us all into corporate zombies.” Hank reminded her.
“Hey Benson” Lily called the Comedian. “If you could, please, take us to the most likely location of the solitary confinement.”
“Everything for a lady” Benson replied.
“Get your cell phones ready.” Lily said to Hank, Slim and Dylan. “We’ll get back to you in nine hours and thirty minutes.”
“How do you explain these readings?” Allison angrily questioned her engineer, pointing a forefinger at the monitor.
“I can’t.” Bonnie had to admit.
“How Amy sent messages to Lily’s brain if we don’t even have her brain signature? How come no instructions reached Nancy’s mind, except for this song? And I don’t remember saying anything about Pink Floyd!”
“I’ll have to look into it.” Bonnie murmured.
Allison took a deep breath and walked around the room. She returned to the workstation and said:
“When we sent the first Tornado signal, remember you said there were one or two insignificant glitches?”
“Yes.” Bonnie answered.
“Are the glitches in the logs?”
“They are.”
“Access them. Let’s see what they are about.”
The engineer initiated a search, using the corresponding date and time as parameters, and she found the requested log. She double-clicked on it and the content appeared on the screen.
Allison faced the monitor with furious eyes.
“That sneaky little brat!” She said.
In her quarter, Amy was engaged in an online role-playing game with the other children. But she paused the program when Allison stormed into the room.
“Why, Amy?” Allison asked.
Amy put the joystick aside and faced the lady.
“After everything I said about the great importance of this project, even so you worked against me!” Allison said.
“I did everything you asked.”
“No, you did not. Somehow, you shielded Nancy from the mind instructions you sent. You knew something was wrong in Brokenville, but you didn’t say anything! You mentally told the other children not to say anything. And how did you reach Lily’s mind without her brain signature?”
“I can see you talked to your engineers.”
“Yes, I did. And we found your little glitches. Now answer my questions, missy!”
“I stayed with Nancy and Lily long enough to get their brain signatures without the need for any signal. If I shield one head in a million, it appears in your system like a meaningless glitch. If I had tried to shield more brains, you would’ve known what I was doing.”
“Very clever, sweetheart.”
Allison walked near the girl and looked her in the eyes.
“You let me down.” Forrester said.
“I let you down?” Amy blurted out. “As if it’s not enough that I have to live with the sins of my mother and how badly she hurt grandma, you tell me I let you down? What about you?”
“What about me? I’m surprised you even ask! I fixed each and every mistake your mother made. Haven’t I always been fair to everybody, giving them a fair treatment, even putting my ass on the line to do so?”
“Congratulations, you just did your job!”
“I kept Nancy as your nanny despite she’s black!”
“That was grandma, not you!”
“Give me a break! I’ve fought for all of you! I’m still fighting!”
“What about the people, the world population, the ones you betrayed?”
“I didn’t betray anybody! As I see it, you did all the treason here! This planet was being drained resource by resource. It would be bone dry if it wasn’t for this initiative! I brought peace and stability to everybody!”
“Now you’re talking like the rest of your corporate pairs. You play God! You enslave people, using children to do so. You used me! And for what?”
“Watch your tongue, young lady. You’re way out of line!”
“Profit, power and the mad quest to turn this world into a playground for the pure and the pretty, that’s what we get down to, isn’t it? You don’t care for people! You’re just a corporate climber who loves to brag about a fancy title in a multinational corporation!”
Allison narrowed her eyes like a coin slot.
“This conversation is over.” Forrester said. “And so are your privileges. A second Tornado signal is being set up, and this time there’ll be no room for glitches. Every little thing you do will be closely monitored, every command and instruction you send verified. You defied me for the last time!”
“Do what you have to with me, but leave the other children alone.”
“Of course, my dear. As you know, I always try to be fair.”
Allison turned her back on Amy, nose in the air, and she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Five minutes later, all lights went down in Amy’s room. No more TV, internet or videogames. All fun had already been revoked. Amy was pretty sure she would not be getting any food so soon, either. Amy’s quarter had become a reclusion cell.
Benson led Mate and Lily inside the large building in the centre of the huge complex.
“Ah, damn it!” Mate shouted, pulling his head back from a garbage bin, trying to resist an urge to vomit.
“Why everybody always has to peek inside that bloody thing?” Benson asked angrily. “If you want to see decomposing body parts, all you got to do is look at me!”
“I can say the smell here is even worse than Nancy described.” Lily said.
They reached the curtains to the laboratory. It smelled like detergent, which was surely a big improvement.
“I wonder why Amy sent that song to your head.” Clark spoke.
“Actually, the song was always there.” Lily pointed out. “She just brought it to the surface, playing in a loop.”
“Yes, but why?” Clark asked. “There got to be a reason.”
“Maybe she was trying to show me what is happening.” Lily conjectured. “All minds controlled by a bigger force, everybody is comfortably numb…”
“I guess is more than that.” Mate said. “There is no pain you are
receding, a distant ship smoke on the horizon…”
They went downstairs and into eerie passageways.
“We have to do this fast.” Lily spoke. “We don’t have much time.”
“Piece of cake” Clark replied. “How many solitary cells can there possibly be?”
“A lot!” Lily gasped, stopping at a corner.
“There you have it.” Benson said.
Along a corridor that stretched as far as the eye could see, several metal doors on both sides reflected the dim lights from the ceiling.
“Now what?” Mate spoke discouraged.
“Now we knock on those doors one by one and say hello, is there anybody in there?” Lily responded.
“You’ve been declaiming a lot of Pink Floyd lately.” Mate complained.
“Amy didn’t give me any other choice.”
And they tried all doors as fast as they could.
“I don’t like this.” Mate said. “What if the women are sleeping, dead or too weak to respond?”
“Then we’ll have to find the key to those doors and look inside.” Lily replied.
“Yes, let me guess, one by one.” Mate grunted. “Assuming a single key opens all doors.”
“If the women died, they will snarl.” Benson said.
“Good point.” Clark agreed. “Let’s just hope they didn’t.”
“We’re here!” A very fainting voice echoed slightly through the walls.
“Bingo!” Lily said. “Where are you? Can you speak again?”
Apocalily Series (Book 2): The Almighty Lady of Tomorrow Page 23