These people have destroyed her.
Riva and Ai look the same, both their bodies on the brink of starvation, a spaced-out expression on their faces, almost as if they too don’t believe that it is me.
A wheezing noise spits out of my mother’s mouth, her lips quivering as she extends her arms. She can’t even speak. She can’t even walk forward, the weight of all the pain she has endured making it too hard to even lift her feet.
But I know that glow in her blue eyes.
And I can see the happiness in her yellow, rotten teeth that form a smile. Riva and Ai look the same way, the three of them on death’s doorstep, easily aging thirty years in the span of months.
The moment my feet connect with the ground beneath me and I realize this isn’t some sort of simulation or mirage, I drop the cube. Luckily Anika’s mechanical hands are right there to pick it up before it hits the floor.
Even though I should be having a bunch of alarm bells going off in my head right now, for the moment I let it all slide. I should be worried that the Syndicate forces have disappeared and even more worried that the one thing I have been fighting for this entire time is standing in front of me, almost as if they planted it there.
But the shock and fear don’t compare in magnitude to the love and excitement that flows through me. And I let those emotions take over.
“Samuel, stop this, this is a trap!” Anika yells, but she doesn’t have it in her to bring her hands to stop me.
I run forward, wrapping my arms around my mom, the hug I never thought I’d get to experience again finally encasing my being. The warmth of her body brings me the greatest joy I have ever experienced. It’s a high I thought would always be just out of reach, a comfort and love that seeps into my core and acts as a medicine to dull the pain of the hell I’ve been through.
And from the weight of her body in my arms, I know she’s been through hell too.
She cries into my shoulder, the words “I missed you so much” barely making it off her lips before Riva hugs me too. The feeling of her body and her beautiful aroma instantly take away the stench of blood and feces that has stained my nostrils.
Eventually Ai joins in and it turns into one large mosh pit of love surrounding me. With them, I feel safe. With them, I feel as if the world is okay, as if the Syndicate is nothing more than a distant threat, and as if the entire world is in my arms.
But I’d be wrong.
When I open my eyes after hugging them for a solid two minutes, I see why Anika has been screaming at me nonstop for the last minute.
They have surrounded us.
The walls have opened up beneath the screens to reveal an army of hundreds of humanoids, all with their guns pointed directly at me.
We have no force field.
We have no way of shutting down Maga X.
There is no way we are making it out of this one alive.
Chapter 27
The moment the screens turn on, Ai, Riva, and my mom cower in fear. Just the image of the man that appears on the screen is enough to strike up mountains of trauma within them that crumbles their strength.
I want to run.
I want to end their pain that roars out of them in a series of violent screams, but it’s too late.
Even Anika has stopped fighting. We all know that the second we move one of our arms, they will shoot a bullet right through our head. We will die and they will have this cube forever.
They have already won.
All the exits out of the room have closed, the cement walls of the compound boxing us in with hundreds of armed humanoids marching towards us. The sound of their metal boots pounding against the floor is deafening, but it’s the terrible static noise that blasts from the speakers in the hundreds of wraparound screams in the room that hurt the most.
The specific frequency of the noise has a way of cutting through my ear drums, making it hard for me to even stand up without feeling the pain of the sound tearing into me.
Anika glances at me.
We both know what we have to do.
We have to create a nuclear bomb that will explode this place before they can ever touch the cube. But saying that simple command to the cube feels like the evilest thing I could do.
After all these years, to finally be reunited with my mom, and to then rip her away from the world for good seems so unfair.
But that may be the only answer.
“This is great.” The person on screen chuckles. Most of the features of their face are invisible, but from the masculine tone of voice and broad shoulders, I can tell that the person on the screen is a man. It only takes me seeing their black robe and the white mask on their face to realize that this person is on the council of the Syndicate.
They finally have me right where they want me.
I fell into their trap.
Now it’s time for me to die.
“If you say a word, we will one by one shoot every one of you,” the voice mumbles, but with the volume of the loudspeakers, each word still has a way of hurting my face. The humanoids are quickly closing in on our position, the closest ones in the army of thousands already approaching within a few dozen feet of our location.
With their automatic aiming systems powered by some of the most advanced artificial intelligence systems in the world, we will be dead the very nanosecond the council decides it’s time for our days to end.
But knowing them, they won’t want this to end anytime soon. They will want to watch me struggle and force me to surrender all my dignity to them before they can finally let me die.
I’m a fucking idiot.
I feel like hitting myself, never mind I feel like straight up killing myself after knowing that I fucked up this bad. This entire time Justin was nothing more than a pawn meant to bait me into the Syndicate’s trap. Anika is likely just an extremely advanced humanoid, a robot designed to look vaguely like a human but programmed to do whatever the Syndicate desires,
And then there are my loved ones.
The people that are supposed to be dead.
And the thing is, they still very well could be. They too could be nothing more than advanced humanoids, all planted here to make me believe as if they are still living, even though they are chained, dead, to the wall in the next room over.
As the man on the screen continues to laugh, each chuckle sending shivers down my spine, I want to say so many things. I want to tell him that he is a piece of shit. I want to straight up bomb this entire place. But as the same mechanical fingers that Anika used to take the cube from me place it back into my hands, I find myself frozen.
The specific twinkle to my mother’s crisp blue eyes is not something anyone can replicate. The aroma to Riva’s body and awkward way in which Ai walks are all things that no humanoid can display.
There is something distinctly human about these figures, something that makes me stop to think about whether taking this risk is really worth it. The pain their screams exude as the terror overcomes their writhing bodies on the ground is a trauma so vivid that only a human who has been through years of emotional and physical abuse can display.
As crazy as this is, I am convinced that the people I hugged only seconds ago are the last people alive that I love.
Ad I can’t do anything to hurt them
I can’t do anything that will take even more away from the little life that they have left.
So I keep my mouth shut, each muscle in my body frozen as the fast-approaching army of humanoids stops only a few feet away from me.
The rhythmic stomping of the army halts, an eerie silence filling the room as the screams of Ai, Riva, and my mom die down to a scared whimper. When I look down at the three most important women in my life, the three strongest people I have ever met, I am horrified at their expressions.
They all look up at the man on the screen as if they are nothing more than defenseless puppies.
Every ounce of confidence has been sucked dry from their beings, the ugly, menacing monster of the Syndicate
taking hold of their consciousness.
“You ended up right where you were supposed to be,” the man says, his voice low and cold. I don’t waste my time trying to figure out which member of the council he is. From the night of induction on White’s Island, I have always known that each man in his position is nothing short of an addict for power.
In his current state, he must feel more powerful than ever.
“You thought you could stop The Last Migration? You thought you could shut down Maga X?” He laughs again, each chuckle shaking the foundation of the room. “No one ever beats the Syndicate. No one ever stops us. We are the ones who makes the rules. We are the ones who create everything. And soon the world will realize that. Soon the world will be ours for good and we will make everyone like you, everyone who has ever doubted us, pay for the rest of eternity. We are just missing one piece.”
He pauses. Sweat pours down my face as my eyes jump between his face that appears on the hundreds of screens in the room and the thousands of assault rifles that the humanoids have pointed at my head.
“We need what is rightfully ours. We need the Chimera Cube.” Just at hearing those words, a deep rage springs up within me. The Chimera Cube should never be allowed in their hands. The Cube is rightfully Isaac Savery’s, and he passed that down to my father.
This organization has nothing to do with it.
This organization has only taken from me.
“Instead of just taking it from you, we want to make a deal. We could kill all of you in a blink of an eye, before you could even command the cube to blow this place up.” He pauses, almost as if he is teasing me to try the idea and see if I can survive.
Part of me is tempted to. I know that he is probably right. By the time the Chimera Cube produces the bomb, I will be dead. But by the time anyone can diffuse the bomb and grab the cube, this entire section of the world could be destroyed for good.
But doing that would mean killing my mom, killing Riva, and killing Ai. Doing that would mean destroying the cube. And that feels like treason.
Anika eyes me, screaming at me with everything but her words for me to do exactly that. And she’s probably right. Doing so would save the world from Maga X and set back the Syndicate years in their operations.
I could be a hero.
But that’s where this plan goes south. I’m not a hero. I’m just a desperate guy in a shitty situation. And I didn’t do any of this save the world. I did this to win. And the biggest prize ever are the three people on the ground right at my feet.
I can’t destroy them.
I can’t do it.
“But since that’s probably a bad idea for all of us, we have another idea you might like better.” The voice booms back over the loud speaker, the white mask taking up most of the view on the screens. “We want you to hand over control of the Chimera Cube to us. And in return, we will allow the people you came here for to live.”
I don’t say anything in response, but if the man could see my expression, it would of disbelief. The last thing I’d ever trust the Syndicate to do would be to keep my loved ones alive and well. I don’t doubt that they will let them leave this compound, but the moment they all return to the world, they will likely have hit men and gangs stalk them for the rest of their lives.
The hell will never end.
“We always hold up our end of the bargain.” The man chuckles. “They will get to live long, healthy, happy lives. They will get to be free in the world, without ever worrying about the nightmares, the experiments, or the Syndicate again. All you have to do is give us that cube. All you have to do is relinquish control of the thing in your hands and we will give you everything that you have ever wanted.”
“Don’t do this,” Anika mutters under her breath, just low enough for none of the humanoids to hear.
“And we won’t be getting rid of you either. We will make sure you have a home in Moosehorn for the rest of your life. After all, we always make our doubters pay.” He laughs again, this time the laughter sounding wicked and forced.
“Don’t say a word.” His voice is firm. “You have ten seconds to place that cube on the ground, or we will kill you. We will kill everyone here. Ten, nine, eight…”
I stand frozen as the countdown begins. The image of the man on the screen fades as large red numbers appear.
Ai, Riva, and my mom remain on the floor, their bodies in fetal position as they scream. I can see the trauma in their eyes and feel the pain in their sharp screams.
The moment I look at them, I know what I need to do.
I know that the logical side of me will say that this is stupid, and from the deathly glare Anika is shooting in my direction, I know she will be furious. But whatever is left of my being when this world is done will forever regret if I don’t make this decision.
My heart beats so fast that I can feel its pulsations jumping out my throat as the surge of the adrenaline causes the blood to feel like fire running through my veins.
After all these months of fighting, and the decades of work my father put into his dream, it all comes down to this moment. After sacrificing everything to try and defeat the Syndicate, this is my last chance to end their Last Migration plan for good.
The clock ticks down to three, the red font of the number on the hundreds of screens jumping out at me. It is the final warning I need to act.
Jake gave his life so that I could live. It’s time I do the same.
I take a deep breath, and when I exhale, I let my sweaty hands drop the cube. I watch as it hits the ground, Anika staring at it in shock, her red eyes shifting to a bright purple color as the cube clanks against the ground.
Even she doesn’t risk moving her hands to pick up the cube. By the time she can grab it, we will all be dead from the thousands of bullets that will be shot at us.
But when the Chimera Cube hits the cement floor, the eruption of gunfire that I feared would happen never occurs. The entire room is filled with a deafening silence that is even more frightening than if the entire army of humanoids had broken into boisterous screeching. Each of the humanoids, their bodies covered in bullet-proof metal plating from head to toe, lowers their guns to the sides.
Then the army closes in on us.
It all happens too fast for me to hug my mom one last time or say goodbye to Riva—the only lover I’ve ever had. In an instant the countdown on the screens turns off, the screens shifting to display a gray static. The noise that booms over the loudspeakers splits through the silence and only adds to the chaos of the moment.
Riva cries out, her hands grabbing my ankles. When I look down and see the tears in her eyes, a part of my heart breaks. She will be happier this way. She will be better off this way.
“Sam, no!” My mom claws at me, the desperation in her voice enough to make me rethink everything. Even with all the trauma she has been through, she still understands what is happening.
I am sacrificing myself to the Syndicate in order to save them.
I am giving them the Chimera Cube, the most powerful technology in existence, so that the people I love can have a second chance at life.
But from her wide eyes and shaking arms, it is obvious that she would have preferred I kill us all. She’d rather me run as far away from here as possible and never come back.
She knows the hell that I will have to endure.
She knows the endless pain that will take over my life.
And she doesn’t want that for me.
But part of me knows that I deserve it.
Part of me feels like my rightful place is at the bottom of a cellar, my body chained to the wall as the Syndicate performs incessant experiments on my mind and body. I deserve to feel just a fraction of the pain that I’ve caused in the lives of others.
And when I feel the cold, metal hand of one of the humanoids grip around my wrist, I know that the pain is just about to begin.
The swarm of humanoids pick up the Chimera Cube from the floor, its beautiful, glowing exterior dis
appearing into the mass of bodies for good. The swarm of humanoids have taken up every inch of space around me, knocking Riva away from my legs and separating me from my mom and Ai.
I catch one last glimpse of my mom, who is still screaming at me to leave and to run away as fast as possible. But it’s too late for that. Before the swarm of humanoids absorbs me for good, I glance one last time at Anika. Her bionic arms are shimmering in the industrial lighting, but her eyes are narrowed at me, an expression of disappointment on her face.
She will likely have to go through the same hell as me.
We will both have to go through the same pain.
“Keep fighting!” I yell, locking eyes with Riva for the final time. “Don’t let them win!”
Right as I manage to spit the words out, the sea of humanoids absorbs me, each one tugging on me, pulling me through the web of thousands of humanoids. I have no doubts about where they are taking me.
Within minutes I will be locked up in a prison cell, the Chimera Cube in the hands of the Syndicate as my loved ones are set free. Of course, I have no way of knowing if the Syndicate will hold up their end of the bargain, but taking that risk is something I had to do.
I needed to give them the chance to live a better life, even if it means destroying my own life—destroying the world.
Because that’s the thing—I won’t let that happen.
As I am pulled out into the hallway, the industrial lighting switching off in the room and the static reaching a new mind-numbing intensity, a surge of determination overcomes me.
I don’t feel like I lost.
I don’t even feel scared.
The Syndicate thinks they won.
But they have no idea that I am coming for them. Whether it takes me weeks, months, or even years, I will survive the hell in this place. I will do whatever I need to do to live. And once I’m out of here, I will be back stronger than ever.
The Chimera Cube is theirs for now. This entire world will be theirs soon. But one day their global dominion will fall, and I will be the person who rises on top of the shattered empire.
Soon, the Chimera Cube will be mine again and Riva will be safe and sound in my arms. Soon, the world will be a brighter, better place.
The Conspiracy Chronicles Boxset 2 Page 76