Portal Jumpers
Page 53
“Where is Jesse?” Cassie asked. Mab shook her head.
“Locked in a room somewhere. It will unlock when I die. They all will.”
“Why did you do this?” Cassie asked.
“It was the only way. And he deserved it, anyway. He took everyone away.”
Cassie felt bad, looking down at Mab’s tiny frame. With the power imbalance between them, Cassie had never noticed how slight Mab was until now.
“What does that mean?”
Mab frowned.
“He didn’t tell you?” There was a bitter smile. “No, no, of course not. He took everyone away, and then he ran, like a coward. I was the only one who beat them.”
“What does that mean?”
“The consciousness was his pet. He made it as a lab assistant, kept it secret. But it got away from him. All of us with brainports were infected… the ones without brainports…” her face clouded and she sucked on her lips. “Had them installed against their will.” There was deep anger there, and pain, almost so intense that Cassie couldn’t watch. “They took over the planet, took all of us prisoner, and he just ran away. When it was all his fault.”
“Not you,” Cassie said.
“No,” Mab said, anger deepening. “Not me. I beat it. But it’s here… it never goes away. It hears everything I think. Tells me what to do.” She looked at Cassie with exhaustion. “I can’t beat it much longer. I can’t contain it much longer. And I can’t let it out.” This came out as a plea. “Promise me you won’t let it out.”
Cassie nodded.
“I promise.”
Mab shook her head again.
“And then Midas.”
“Who is Midas?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know,” Mab said. “He just wants Jesse. Keeps saying Jesse’s the guy. I told him Palta are tricky, that trying to control Palta is always a bad plan.” There was a bitter grin. “We always get you, in the end. But that was what he wanted. Made me bring him here.”
Cassie was alarmed.
“What is he going to do with him?”
Mab shook her head.
“I wouldn’t worry your pretty head about Jesse. He’s slippery.” This, she sneered. “He always gets away.”
“I’m sorry,” Cassie said. Mab’s shoulders were slumping lower and lower. She didn’t have much longer.
The woman reached up, and Cassie moved away. Mab dropped her hand with resignation.
“No, of course. You think…” she sighed. “You think I’m this.” There was a moment of brutal clarity, when she looked like a beautiful, tired young woman, without anger or pain. “I forgive you. I brought you here to free me.” She took another long, slow breath and nodded even more slowly, as if in time to her heartbeat. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry,” Cassie said again. Mab looked up at her.
“He shouldn’t be alone.”
“What?”
“Jesse. I don’t want him to be alone.”
“After all that… Why do you care?”
“He deserved what he got,” Mab said, her voice fading such that even the flicker of venom couldn’t revive her. “But I don’t want him to be unhappy. I don’t want him to be alone.”
“Who are you?” Cassie asked, but Mab was gone.
It took her a while to find Jesse.
She searched the locked rooms, one by one, carrying Mab’s body. He deserved to see it, whoever the woman had been, and Cassie couldn’t bring herself to leave the slim corpse on the floor, there, by itself. She was so tragic, in the end.
Jesse was standing in the center of a very large room. Three of the walls were dark, maybe wood paneled, and the ceiling was too high and too shadowy to see. The fourth wall was obsidian black, and would have been reflective, if there had been any light to reflect. It didn’t appear he had realized that the seal on the room had unlocked.
“It’s done,” Cassie said, laying Mab’s body on the floor.
“What happened?” Jesse asked, alarmed.
“I hunted her down and I killed her,” Cassie said. “Exactly the way she meant me to.”
He frowned at her.
“Are you Palta?”
“I am. I don’t know if it was random chance, but she needed me to be Palta to kill her, so she shot me full of viruses to make me Palta.” Cassie took a step away as Jesse stood over the body. “She’s been planning this for a long time.”
Jesse sighed.
“She has so much blood on her hands.”
“She told me about the consciousness.”
Jesse looked at her sharply.
“What about it?”
“That it was your thing.”
This broke him, and he knelt, shoulders hunched.
“I would have taken her with me, but her mother insisted she get the brain implants when she was little. I couldn’t risk that monstrosity getting out.”
“Jesse, was she your wife?”
He swallowed and looked up at her.
“No. She was my daughter.”
Cassie turned away, stunned by the grief in his voice, and to hide her shock. How old was he? She’d thought he was just a child, himself.
“I’m sorry.”
“I was the one who killed her. I killed all of them the day I decided to go against all of the regulations on self-writing software and built it.”
“She beat it,” Cassie said. Jesse nodded.
“She was the cleverest girl. If anyone could do it, it was her.”
“I’m so sorry, Jesse.”
He stood.
“But why here? Where are we?”
“She said someone named Midas lives here. I don’t know. I haven’t seen any sign of him.”
Jesse looked around.
“It’s over then.”
Cassie let the question hang for a moment.
“Yeah.”
“We should get back.”
Cassie shook her head, stooping to lift Mab.
“No,” she said, putting Mab across Jesse’s arms. He waited. She’d known this was what was going to happen, before she’d killed Mab. Sitting there for all that time with the hyperactivity of her Palta mind, she’d known.
“I have some things I need to figure out,” she said. “I can’t just go back there and pretend like the life I trained for, or even the life I had with you, is what I’m going to keep doing. The universe got a lot bigger, when you turned up, and I’m not trapped on that planet, any more. I need to take some time, and figure out what that means.”
He didn’t look as surprised as she’d expected.
“Don’t take too long,” he said. She kissed his cheek.
“It’ll always be home.” She paused, looking down at Mab, then back up at him. “I’ll see you soon.”
The room was empty.
The male Palta had left with the dead female Palta. The live female Palta was wandering the rooms of the house.
The black wall rippled, and Midas started putting together a new plan.
THE END
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About the Author
I'm Chloe and I am the conduit between my dreaming self and the paper (well, keyboard, since we live in the future). I write paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, and whatever else goes bump in the night, I also write mystery/thriller as Mindy Saturn. When I'm not writing I steeplechase miniature horses and participate in ice cream eating contests. Not really, but I do tend to make things up for a living.
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