Nightfall

by Christian Kallias

  I can’t blame her.

  The countdown on the device seemingly stops at thirty-seven seconds. There are flames around me that look suspended in time. They still move but so slow it’s a tantalizing view and are a result of the multiple rockets exploding outside the shield cover provided by the overlapping drones.

  I am still unable to think straight, and the injection of the cocktail of drugs allowing my brain and reflexes to be drastically augmented don’t help me at first. But, I do have more time to think now, no matter how lost and strange I feel.

  I wonder if Vassiliki can talk to me in bullet-time like Tanya can. I can feel her still working to diffuse the device’s mechanism, now with improved accuracy thanks to bullet-time. I wonder how long I have. And I wish I knew whom I could trust right now. My world has been flipped upside down, and I don’t know who or what to believe at this point.

  Of all the way things could have gone wrong today, this feels like the worst possible outcome since I can’t even trust myself. My heart is telling me that Vassiliki is telling the truth, and my brain is telling me I’m being used to do the terrorists’ bidding. I wonder if by the end of the day I will have an answer. I’m not sure I’ll like it either way, but it would be nice to know what the feck is going on. Because right now, I feel trapped in an LSD-infused nightmare gone very, very wrong.

  I’m still here, Vassiliki says.

  How?

  You must at least have figured that one out, Cole. The only way I can talk to you is through a backdoor to Tanya’s programming. I once worked with you at Rewind where I designed her for you. I’m her creator, Cole. Just like you, I thought I was fighting horrible men intent on killing innocents. And while there are still some out there like Ahmed, today this is not what that is about. While you stopping Al’Hasi is important, we’re trying to get some of our freedom back. The world has been conspiring against us for as long as I can remember; our parents and their parents too. So on and so forth, Cole. It all started in the first half of the twentieth century. Governments found a way to subjectively take control of our lives, one idea at a time. The human psyche is both strong and weak. It can easily be influenced and manipulated, and when television came to being, well, a high-placed, controlling group of men went to work to exploit it to achieve their nefarious goals. Through television and misinformation, they convinced us war was okay.

  Why do you think that news presenters and influential people are pretty, Cole? That’s because our brains are programmed to trust handsome people. So it didn’t matter what these people said, as long as they repeated it enough times, hammering the information in, it eventually sank into our subconscious minds and became truth.

  I feel like a battleship is hammering into my skull. Some of what she is saying rings so true that my entire being tickles and trembles at the implication of it all.

  So, what are you saying? The world has gone to shit, so you want me to team up with you and rebel against it?

  In a manner of speaking. It may certainly seem so from your perspective, but you’d simply be freeing yourself from a system that has vowed, long since you were born, to control everything you do. What you eat, what you think, and what you want in life.

  What about Al’Hasi? Is he trying to help with this goal?

  At one time I thought so. But Al’Hasi has lost his way. Once upon a time, he wanted that change too, but now he’s willing to kill millions in order to trigger that change. And that provides the mega corporations with a perfect opportunity to use him, so he does their bidding.

  He told me he works for you; maybe not in so many words, but he clearly implied it.

  And on some level, he probably thinks he is. The mega corporations approached him, and now he thinks he is using them to free the people, while they are manipulating him instead.

  So what do I do with him and his goons?

  That part of your mission you can still complete, which I encourage you to. Ahmed has become a dangerous zealot. His armed troops are nothing but thugs thinking they’re freedom fighters while, in reality, they are working for this rotten system.

  Okay, so let’s say for the sake of argument that I believe you. You need me to blow up that EMP, which could very well be a nuke. How can I trust I’m making the right choice here?

  This IS a nuke, Cole! Make no mistake about that. The mega corporations have sent it here. They want to make New Geneva an example for the rest of the world, especially now that there is a new resource crisis looming, so eradicating a city would mean fewer mouths to feed. More and more people are fed up with eating protein bars, working ten—to twelve-hour shifts six days a week while others live in luxury. The mega corporations know they’ve pushed us too far, Cole. We’re almost ready to rebel now, and so they want to use fear in order for people to fall back in line again. It’s the same cycle over and over. But since things are bad and the general population is feeling that it can’t go on like this for much longer, they need to send a strong message, and that is what this nuke is all about.

  I get the picture. But if this is a nuke, why would you want Tanya to stop what she is doing?

  She only needs to load in the data chip you grabbed from Ahmed. That will turn the nuke into a massive EMP weapon strong enough to fry every electronic system in the city. We have power-downed our own server farms in shielded areas around the city. When the system restarts, it will no longer be connected to the United Nations of the World’s central neural net. It will no longer recognize the credit currency; local resources will be shared among us all equally, and we will start building a world without outside interference.

  If this is a trick to make me blow the very bomb I’ve come to stop, then I can tell you already: if any of this is true, they won’t let you. They’ll come at you with everything they have.

  Perhaps. We’ll give them a good fight though. We can’t let this go on forever, Cole. We have agents in three other cities right this moment, just like you. They will be deployed to try and regain control of other cities in time. So whether or not we succeed in New Geneva, it’s not really our only hope. It’s a systematic attack on the nerve center of those who’ve enslaved humanity.

  This world is unfair. That much I know deep in my bones.

  I have one more question. Why send me back through time? My mission, after all, was to stop the nuke, but you’re telling me their mission is to make sure it blows up. Something doesn’t add up here.

  Tell me something, Cole. In the future, before you time jumped back, had you physically been to the site of the explosion you’re supposed to prevent? Have you seen the nuclear blast with your own eyes?

  I felt it. I saw fires in the distance. I saw the news.

  Yeah, all of that could have been fabricated. I think what happened is that we managed to detonate the EMP and that’s what they want you to prevent, even if it means nuking the city instead of losing control over it. Were you driven to Rewind through the underground tunnels? The old shielded tubes?

  I was.

  Why do you think that is?

  To avoid radiation exposure, I presumed.

  No, Cole. We hunted them; we disabled most of the city, and they sent you back in time to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. They’d rather lose the entire city than have it fall out of their hands. You either do what they tell you, or they’ll silence you; that’s what it has become to be human in the year 2175. It started a long time ago, little by little, but today, they don’t take chances anymore. Believe me, Cole, if a nuke had really detonated, do you think you would have survived?

  I did ask myself that same question. I thought we were lucky distance-wise.

  No, Cole. Especially under the domes, there is no such luck. A nuke will incinerate the entire city before you have the time to say ‘What happened?’

  I begin to shake and feel the anger rising inside of me. If she is right, then I’ve been manipulated my entire life, and I’m enraged.

  If I make it out of here alive, I’ll rip the Rewi
nd facility with my bare hands.

  I understand how you feel, but it would be more beneficial for us to seize control of it. That way, we can undo whatever retaliation they have in store for us.

  Are you seriously considering using me again? Without my knowledge? What do you plan to do? Tell a nice tale to my present self and ask for his help?

  No, Cole, we’ll do the same as Rewind has been doing to you all this time. We’ll transfer your consciousness so it can benefit the present you, which is unaware of all this. But we’ll do it with both your knowledge and consent if you think it’s a good idea.

  I hate the idea of this charade continuing, but, under the circumstances, I have to admit she is making sense.

  Well, let me think about it.

  You need to decide now, Cole, not about your future post-mission, but about releasing the EMP instead of the nuke. Tanya is almost done. She has disconnected the nuclear core of the device, and she’s about to stop the countdown. You need to have her enter the data chip in the device instead. It will release the citywide EMP and fry every computer, every television, holo-vision, and other propaganda machines this world uses to control the masses. People will feel afraid and lost without these at first; they’ve lived under this rule for so long they’ve become dependent on their tech. But by cutting their access to the source of misinformation, perhaps, over time, we can build a better world.

  Who doesn’t want a better world? One where words like justice, equality, peace, and happiness are at its center. I long for this new world. On a subconscious level, I always have.

  Time to take a leap of faith.

  Tell me what to do? I say, my decision made.

  You know what to do, Cole. Give your life meaning. Do what you feel you must in your heart.

  Her image vanishes, and I am left looking at the countdown. Eighteen seconds remain.

  I take a long, deep breath.

  “Tanya, stop at once!” I say.

  “Are you insane, Cole? I’m almost there.”

  “Listen to me, Tanya. Give me back control of my body.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Tanya says. “And we definitely don’t want the entire population of New Geneva to burn in flames.”

  “They won’t. You might not know it, but you have already disconnected the nuclear core. All we need to do now is insert the data chip we took from Ahmed. It contains a program that will turn this device into a massive EMP.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Cole? How do you know this?”

  “She told me.”

  “She is an illusion! A desperate attempt to make us fail in our mission. Can’t you see that?”

  “Give me back control of my body. That’s a direct order.”

  “I can’t, Cole. You are not thinking straight; your judgment has been compromised. I will finish this mission on my own if I have to.”

  “Tanya, give me back control, now!”

  “I’m sorry, Cole, I can’t comply. You’ll thank me later.”

  I still can’t move a muscle. I have to find a way to regain control of my body. I need to stop this before it’s too late.

  “Vassiliki, help me.”

  Her face appears again in front of my eyes. “Here’s the override code for Tanya, Cole. Good luck.”

  I see an alphanumeric code and repeat it in my head. Something happens, and the effect is immediate. I can move again.

  “No, Cole! What are you doing?” shouts Tanya.

  “What needs to be done; for all of us.”

  “Cole, you’re not thinking straight. You’re being manipulated. Please don’t do this.”

  I can feel how much Tanya believes what she’s saying. She doesn’t want anyone to die, but neither do I. Well, at least I don’t want innocents to die. As for the ones responsible for turning this wonderful planet into a massive mind prison, using me as their pawn, I look forward to ripping their hearts out of their chests. I’m going to take care of them in my next life if there is such a thing for me.

  But from what I understand, whatever makes me who I am will still be recovered, and my consciousness will be transferred to my other self. The self that sits home at this moment, oblivious to everything I have learned today.

  I grab the data chip and slide it into the data port of the device. The countdown turns blue, and “EMP” starts flashing on the screen next to the numbers. I’m still in bullet-time, and only a few seconds have passed. In all this time, I’ve learned more about my life and the state of the world than during an entire lifetime. How ironic.

  “What is this? What did you do?” asks Tanya.

  “This will blow a massive EMP.”

  “And that’s a good thing how exactly? Won’t it affect us? I might get erased in the process, and you could lose all your augments. How will you defeat the people firing at us?”

  “All good questions, but I have seventeen more seconds to figure it out. In bullet-time that’s nearly an eternity.”

  “Except you’re going to exit bullet-time in three seconds, Cole.”

  “No, I’m not. I need to stay in bullet-time at least until the EMP blows.”

  “That would kill you, Cole, and in doing so, it would also kill me.”

  “I’m dead anyway, so we’re doing this my way. We’re going to make this world a better place. I thought I could take the time to explain it all to you, but we don’t have that luxury now. I promise you, though, we’ll get through this.”

  “I knew you were not up to this mission the moment you told me about your dream. I should never have let you time jump in this frame of mind.”

  “Yet you did. And I thank you for it.”

  “I don’t want your thanks, Cole; I want to continue to exist.”

  “These aren’t mutually exclusive, Tanya.”

  “Yes, they are. The second that EMP blows, it will wipe my memory banks, and you know it.”

  “Not if the drone’s shields are still protecting us when it detonates. It will take a fraction of a second for the EMP to affect the shields and we might survive the blast in that fraction of time.”

  “Except we’re inside the blast radius. So how exactly does that help us?”

  “That’s why I need bullet-time prolonged. A moment before the EMP goes online, I’ll have the shield refocus on us instead.”

  “How do you expect to survive the constant firing being thrown at us? When the shields drop, we’ll get shot or incinerated or both.”

  Unless I thin the herd. Since the nuclear core has been disconnected from the device, normally even direct explosions on its encasing shouldn’t set it off, which means I don’t have to be subtle about what I’m gonna do next. The thought of it makes me smile.

  “Watch and learn.”

  With my mental link, I reacquire my starfighter that’s still hovering outside. I close my eyes so the blasts and explosions don’t distract me, and I target everyone on the floor firing at us. I lock my targets and open fire. It all happens very slowly, but it has a beauty of its own. Plasma fire streaks through the air impaling Ahmed’s goons, spilling their guts and blood everywhere. Large chunks of concrete are torn off the walls, and glass walls explode into a million shards. It’s like a Fourth of July fireworks display but indoors, with red the predominant color of the festivities.

  When the countdown is down to six seconds, there isn’t a soul breathing on this level. We are still hit due to the holes in the ceiling, so I target the men on the roof and send the ship in autopilot to get rid of them.

  I walk outside the range of the device the moment I hear my ship opening fire on the soldiers. I drag the drones mentally with me and program them so that they shield me, no matter my movement.

  “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Cole.”

  “We’re about to find out.”

  Five

  Mission completion time: T minus 12 minutes

  Primary objective completed.

  “Cole, if this is our last talk—”

 
“I’ll have none of that, Tanya, this won’t be our last talk.”

  “Please, Cole, I’m trying to tell you something here.”

  I think I know what she’s going to say, and I’m not sure I’m ready to hear it. I don’t even know for sure that I can trust her anymore. I want to. I mean she’s a part of my life. This morning I would have jumped off a cliff had she told me my life depended on it; that’s how much I trusted her. But now I have to wonder if Rewind hasn’t programmed intimate sub-routines in her to exploit me with them. Perhaps I’m seeing evil everywhere now; I should at least give her the benefit of the doubt.

  “I’m sorry, Tanya. Go ahead.”

  “I know you’re practically the only person I talk to every day, the only one I interact vocally with, so it’s probably weird, but . . .”

  Funny, even though Tanya on some level may have manipulated me, I don’t think her personality matrix is flawed or fake. If there has been a manipulation, I’m sure she isn’t aware of it. And as much as I doubt her now, I can’t help but feel she is too big a part of me. She genuinely likes me, as I genuinely like her in return, no matter how much a pain in the ass I can sometimes be. There will be enough time later, once my memories are transferred to my other body, to check on her code and see what’s what. She has been my right arm, my best friend, and more. So I should show her the respect she deserves.

  “I love you, too,” I say preemptively.

  “What? You—You’re shitting me, right? It’s one of your sick jokes?”

  “Nope, isn’t that what you wanted to say? Before you hesitated?”

  “I—well—yes, but . . .” She seems to struggle to find her words.

  “But what? You’re inside my head, you know all my secrets, and you don’t judge me when I go haywire and do something morally questionable or plain insane even when your very existence is on the line. You try to give me advice whenever you can, you’re there for me when I need you, and you forgive me even when I mistreat you. You’re any guy’s dream, honey. You just need your own body, and then we’re cooking.”