Unchipped: The Resort: (Book Five in the Unchipped Dystopian Sci-Fi Series)

by Taya DeVere

  Luna finishes her breakfast, drinks the rest of the coffee, and wipes her hands clean. “You heard me. A power switch. It’s connected with the Chip-System in the city. And not just any city, the headquarters. City of Finland.”

  Kaarina crosses her arms on her chest. “Luna, can you please just pretend that we’re all Owena’s age and tell us what it is you found.”

  “It’s basically the city blueprint. The design work, coding, plans… Once I’ve gone through this all, I can read the city like an open book.” She twitches with excitement. “And then… I can reverse it. I guess we can’t really know how broad the shutdown is and what it includes. Or how the ones with a functional brain implant will react when it all goes down… But this way, the capsules might not have to be opened manually. Not if I can enter the code into the system. The capsules would still open, and the people inside would get a chance to escape. No need to open each stasis capsule individually with a memory stick. If they can walk, I mean. Hmm.. I’ll need to think about this. Because sure, we can get the pods open, but is it safe? And coming out of stasis must be the worst hangover anyone’s ever experienced. I mean, unless the capsule heals all of that too…”

  “Luna, slow down.”

  “And of course a lot depends on whether they have a backup set up or not.”

  “Lu, hold on—”

  “Now that I think about it… I don’t think they have a backup. Because this is the backup. In case of a catastrophic emergency in the city. Like someone turning off the Chip-System in City of Finland. Or a serious glitch in the system, or, or…”

  “Jesus on a—”

  “Ha! Yes! I guess they wouldn’t see it coming. Interesting. Either way, it’ll still take hours of programming to get into their database and the servers, but if the system is down, all their cyber-terror experts will be busy bringing it back up. Maybe we can even destroy the system for good. If I hack into the super-computer that holds the nano—”

  “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!” Bill raises his hand. “Take a fucking breath, girl. Before I tie your nerdy ass into a knot.” He leans against the metal counter and lets his head drop. “You’re telling us you can shut down—what—Doctor Solomon’s computer?”

  Luna reaches for a second sandwich. She picks out two slices of vegan-egg, setting them aside on the table. “Not just that,” she says, still investigating what the bread contains. Then she looks up, her burning gaze flickering from one face to another.

  “I found a switch to shut down City of Finland.”

  CHAPTER 3 — AVA

  The tennis ball hits the ceiling and bounces back into Ava’s hand. A steady rumbling sound—her empty stomach—fills the room and makes her twist in discomfort. The food is just outside the door. On a tray, cold for sure, but ready to be eaten. But to give in to her hunger and accept the peace offering would mean that she approved of what the others have decided to do. The shittiest, craziest plan Ava has ever heard.

  She tosses the tennis ball again. On its way back down, Ava becomes distracted by a shadow outside her window. The ball hits her in the face.

  “Pig-ass-motherfff…” Rubbing her face, she gets up and walks to the window. Annoyed and hungry, she flings the curtains aside. When she sees what stands outside, all trace of anger leaves her body.

  “Here horsey-horsey…”

  The white horse lifts its head from the bushes. Eyes soft and friendly, it stares at Ava while it continues to munch on dead leaves. Ava climbs onto the writing desk. Slowly, she opens the window and sits down on the sill—only a few feet away from the chomping animal.

  “You alone out here, friend?”

  The horse snorts and keeps eating.

  “Makes two of us. Is your herd somewhere nearby? I bet you have a lot of friends, pretty girl like you.” The hooves wander closer to Ava. Soon, the animal is close enough for her to reach out and touch. Ava sits still, hugging her legs against her chest.

  “I’ve got a herd too, I guess,” she whispers. “But one that has gone bloody bonkers.”

  The horse looks up, its long white forelock covering most of its face. Ava can’t resist any longer, she reaches her hand to move the rough hair out of the horse’s eyes.

  “There. Is that better? Don’t you guys even groom each other? Take care of each other’s coats and that sort of thing? I think I saw it on the telly once. Or was it apes…”

  The horse’s soft muzzle fumbles Ava’s arm, tickling her bare skin. She huffs, scratches the horse on its neck.

  “Sucks, huh? Not having someone to take care of you. I mean really look after you.” Dirt and sand now cover her fingertips and lodges under her nails, but Ava doesn’t care. She keeps scratching. “I mean I have Markus. He’s like the big brother I never had. But that’s not what I mean. I mean, you know, a guardian. Don’t get me wrong, she was crazy. Do you know what that means, White—Can I call you that?”

  The horse pulls her head back, pokes Ava in her side, and goes on searching for dead leaves under the window.

  “Yeah, White. Enyd was a nutter. But she did take care of us. Like nothing else ever mattered. As long as we were safe, she couldn’t care less about anything that was going on in the world. I mean, she would beat us, White. Drug us. Blackmail us to behave. But still… sometimes, I miss…”

  The knock on the door startles White. Ava curses under her breath. “Shh, it’s okay,” she whispers. “If we’re real quiet, I bet they’ll—”

  Another knock. The horse snorts, turns around and takes off toward the fields that begin right outside the yard.

  Repeated knocking. “Ava?” Markus’s voice.

  Who else? This is the second time he’s come knocking. The second time she’ll ignore him.

  “Ava, you need to come soon. They’re all in the basement waiting. Kaarina wants you there. We all do.”

  Ava drops her leg off the windowsill but doesn’t jump down. Her anger bubbles back to the surface.

  “Oh yeah? Well, tell Kaarina it’s not a good time. Besides, why do they need me for anything at this point? We voted already. So bring on the dead dictators. But I’d rather stay locked up here while those who decided to set the world on fire roam around the hotel.”

  “It’s not just the capsules. This is about something else. They found a switch.”

  “A what now?”

  “Can you please open the door, Ava? You’ve been in there sulking for—”

  “Don’t tell me what to do, Markus! You’re not my dad!”

  “Ava, I’m five years older than you.”

  Ava jumps down and reaches for the tennis ball on the bed. She throws it—as hard as she can—against the door. “Then stop treating me like I’m fucking five years old!”

  For a while, nothing happens. Then Markus’s footsteps echo against the corridor walls as he walks away. Ava throws herself on the bed and pushes her face into a pillow. After a muffled scream, she reaches her hand out for the phone. She keeps it turned off—not because Kaarina told her to, but to save the battery. She can borrow the charger, but is always afraid someone will notice it missing. Margaret will text her any day now. Ava knows she’s alive, she has to be. She’s too important, too smart to be anything but.

  Under the pillow, Ava holds the smartphone’s power button down for three seconds. She knows she shouldn’t have the device with her; it’s still connected to the Chip-Net. But if Margaret is kept prisoner somewhere, pumped full of blockers… No, the phone must stay. And it’s not like anyone in the city knows she still has it. Only Enyd had known, and she’s as dead as operation Kinship Care.

  Dim yellow light appears on the screen. She taps the envelope icon.

  0 NEW MESSAGES

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

  Ava hurls the phone against the wall. It bounces off and lands neatly next to her on the second pillow. Margaret’s last message is now open on the screen.

  SENDER: M.

  KEEP THEM SAFE. DON’T FIGHT THEM. I’LL COME FOR YOU.

&nb
sp; ***

  “Ava? You in there? Open up. We need to talk.”

  Yeti’s voice. Behind her door. She must have fallen asleep after her outburst at Markus. A pink color rises on her cheeks; she shouldn’t have lashed out at Markus. Other than Ava herself, he was the only one smart enough to vote for safety. And not to wake up the ancient, blood-lusting maniacs downstairs.

  “Ava, we’re in this together. All seven of us. Like it or not.” Kaarina’s voice.

  Whatever.

  “I found out something really cool, Ava.” Luna. “You’re going to love this.”

  She presses the pillow harder against her ears.

  “Please, Ava,” Markus says. “We’re a team.”

  Behind the door, a bag of some sort rattles with what sounds like an endless supply of tiny glass bottles.

  “What’s that sound?” Ava can’t help but asking.

  “I found a motherload of mini bottles of booze in one of the hotel rooms,” Micky says.

  “What kind of booze? Got anything sweet?”

  “I mean, sure. Mint chocolate and blueberry shots, but Ava, you’re underage—"

  The door flies open. Micky murmurs gracias and walks in while Ava returns to sit on the bed.

  “What is it? What’s so important?”

  They all crowd in; Bill, Kaarina, Yeti, Markus, and Luna. Ava pokes something hard on the bed. Before anyone can see the forbidden device, she tucks the smartphone back under the pillow. Bill grabs the tennis ball and sits in the gaming chair. With one leg thrown over the armrest, he bounces the ball against the wall.

  Micky walks to the writing desk against the wall, sets out seven plastic cups and a series of tiny plastic bottles of booze. One by one, they all walk over and pick the flavor they like. Feeling Markus’s burning gaze at her back, Ava walks over and picks out two mint chocolate shots. Markus is the only one who hasn’t visited the stash.

  Luna raises her glass to Ava and smiles. “We have something to celebrate. Let’s toast.”

  Ignoring everyone while they open their bottles, raise their glasses to one another, and pour the alcohol down their throats, Markus leans against the door. “Luna’s found something,” he says. His voice is calm, friendly. There’s not a trace of the bitterness or frustration Ava would feel if someone had been a dick to her the way she had been to Markus earlier in the day.

  Luna approaches, sits next to Ava on the bed, and produces a blinking purple CS-key. Ava winces but doesn’t turn away. Instead, she empties her second bottle of mint chocolate, doing her best to hide the fact that it burns her innards unpleasantly on its way down to her stomach. “While hacking into the Happiness-Program and the founder files to find instructions for the capsules—”

  “The death-capsules,” Ava corrects Luna.

  “Yes… those. While searching for more information and instructions, I got brief access to the supercomputer at the headquarters. The nanotechnology behind the chip—”

  “Luna, please.” Ava tilts her head. “Spare me the nerd-talk. Just tell me what you found.”

  “Right. I found a switch.”

  Ava looks at Luna. Then at everyone else in the room. Most of them are nodding, tossing empty mini bottles into the trash can by the desk. A crooked smile on Yeti’s face tells her that whatever this nonsense is, it shouldn’t be a bad thing. But then again, this crew—Ava’s herd—has proven its madness before.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What does this switch do?”

  “It turns off City of Finland.”

  Ava looks at Yeti. His muscled arms crossed on his chest, he grins like the maniac he is.

  “Turns off… I don’t get it. Like a power outage? I’m sure they have generators and shit over there.”

  “No, no. Not just electricity. But the AR-reality. The glasses. The capsules. Tiles. All of it.”

  Ava stares at Yeti and shakes her head. Then she closes her eyes and hears the memory of Margaret’s voice in her mind. Keep them safe.

  “Why would we do that? Is it safe to do that? I don’t know… I mean, how does turning off their city really benefit us in any way?”

  “Think about all those people they use down in the basement,” Kaarina says. Her words have started to slur. She must have already been drinking before the group came here. For some reason it surprises Ava to see Kaarina knock back shots just like everyone else in the room. She must be under a lot of stress, or something. “Ava, what if we could set them free? Help them get their lives back? We could create a whole new city of our own, with no mind control, or pills, or brainwashing. Something real and safe. If we got those people out, there’s no way the city could put them all down at once. There are thousands of people plugged into their CS server. Maybe millions.”

  “And where are they supposed to go once they wake up naked and alone? Hop out of their prison and fly… where? Here?”

  “If they’d like. Yes.”

  “And how are you going to bring them over?” Ava bites her lower lip in frustration. “I mean it’s a nice thought and all. But you’re risking all of us for just that. For a nice thought. What if they’ll see who pulled the switch? What if they can see where we are?”

  “Obviously we’ll need to make sure—”

  “Nothing seems to be obvious to you! You haven’t thought this through at all. How do we even know that shutting off the server will open the capsules? It could just power them down and end the life support for the people in there. No, we need to wait for Margaret. She will know what to do. Any moment now, she’ll contact me—”

  “We can’t put all our eggs in Margaret’s basket,” Kaarina says, shaking her head. “I know the plan is not perfect…” Ava gives her a dirty look. “At least not yet it isn’t. There’s a lot more research to be done, of course. But we can build on this. We’ve got skills. Talent. I mean, look at what Luna’s figured out, all by herself! She’s studying the programming of the world’s most powerful system. The more files we access and research, the more we understand. And the more we understand, the better we will be able to take down the sick world Solomon has created.”

  Yeti huffs. “Besides… We’re telling you that we’ve found a way to take down the most powerful city in the world and release all the people there the Chipped have ever captured… and you’re telling us it’s not worth it?”

  Markus’s hands wave in the air, gesturing for a truce. “Okay, okay. Ava has a point. What if it’s not safe? It’s great that Luna has all this information. And sure, let’s dig some more. Why not? But it took them years to build the city. Hundreds or thousands of programmers to build the CS. To learn only a fraction of this technology will take time. A lot of time. And we still might not understand it all. I’d love to close down the city and get those capsules open as much as you would. That would be a fair payback for everything they’ve done to you…” Markus clears his throat. “I mean to us…”

  Yeti cocks his head. “Oh, is that what you’re saying? You don’t think this concerns you, do you? Chip-Head?”

  “Of course it concerns me. Just because I’m properly Chipped—”

  “Oh, and we’re not proper?”

  Markus closes his eyes, clearly counting to ten. It must be hard to be the only sober person in the room. Kaarina steps between him and Yeti. “We don’t use those… titles here. And need I remind you, Markus is not the only Chipped here. Plenty of people with Chips in their brains, some worked back in the city, some didn’t. And we’ve all found a way to co-exist. So what difference does it make now? Solomon used us all as pawns equally while she played God.”

  “Of course you would take his side,” Yeti says and nods at Markus. “Ever since the beginning, you’ve chosen him. No matter what he says.”

  A short laugh escapes Markus’s lips. He stares at Yeti, then at Kaarina, then back at Yeti in disbelief. “She chose me? How drunk are you, exactly?” He huffs a bit, tucks his chin. Kaarina and Yeti exchange a nervous look.

  Luna throws another empty bottle into the tras
h can. The CS-key rests screen-down on the bed. “So… anyway,” she says. “It’s a no-go then? The kill switch?”

  “That’s not what I said,” Markus huffs out. “Just that we shouldn’t rush into anything.”

  “And we won’t.” Kaarina gives him a half-smile. “We’ll be careful. But timing is everything. We do need to act before Solomon finds out we have all this information.”

  Bill shrugs and palms the ball. Several empty bottles lie on his lap, but he seems oblivious to them. He spins the gaming chair so he can face the rest of them. “I hate to be a party pooper… but you do understand it would mean war? It’d be like us releasing their war prisoners.”

  “What else is new?” Kaarina asks. “We’ve been at war with them ever since we fled. And Luna says they can’t track us. This is just a way to get back at them, lots of pros with no cons. Attacking her city would leave Solomon vulnerable. Those who wanted to leave the city could do so. There’s no way they have enough guards to hold thousands of people. They’d all get a fresh start.”

  A ringing sound in her ears, Ava closes her fists around the bedsheet. “You’re insane! What if they all die like Sloboda did?”

  “Ava, Sloboda was so sick that the only thing keeping her alive was the capsule.”

  “You don’t know that! And who cares what happened, she’s dead! You know shit! And what do you mean, there are no cons? Even if the pods open, all those people will wake up in a dark pod somewhere, naked and terrified. Nothing about this is safe!” The anger is becoming too much to bear. Missing her mother, missing Margaret… it’s slowly driving Ava mad. And now, these fools want to mess with the only thing that’s good in her life: Iceland. Her safe haven.

  “She must pay for what she’s done!” Everyone in the room turns to stare at Kaarina. “She must!” It’s the first time ever they’ve witnessed her raising her voice like this. Drunk or not, it’s unnerving to see her this way.

  “Hey…” Bill has recovered from his surprise first. “We all want the same thing here, Kay. We’ll figure this out. Just chill. Have another drink.”