by HD Smith
He took a step back, his holo-vid blurring as he stepped through the construct, which was when I noticed her arms had moved.
“Um,” Dexter said, “does anyone know why Naked Barbie’s arms went to ten-and-two?”
The construct’s arms were at sixty degrees on either side of her head. I wanted to close my eyes and start this day over, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t an option.
“Why do you look like Mason Murdoch?” I asked. “Not that it’s the biggest question on my list, but it’s distracting and weird. We’ve already got an Eleanor Delicious, you know.”
Dexter shrugged and switched to a twenty-something guy with a green mohawk wearing baggy jeans that didn’t fit and a white tank top. “Is this better?”
“On so many levels,” I said. “No, not really.”
I swiveled my legs around to sit in the chair correctly, picked up the canister I’d dropped on the floor, and consumed two more water pods as I sat there thinking. My life was over. The girl I’d been for the last twenty-three years didn’t exist anymore—not if I wanted to be free.
I had to get out of there.
I looked up at Dexter. “I’m not a prisoner here, right?”
“How the hell would I keep you here?” he asked.
“Good. I’m leaving,” I said. Standing, I headed for the door.
“Wait,” Dexter said, “where will you go? And what about Naked Barbie?”
“Not my problem,” I said, and opened the door.
“Hello, beautiful,” a man who’d been standing at the door, prepared to knock, said.
Without waiting, he pushed his way in, forcing me to back up. He was at least 6’5”, which dwarfed my 5’ 8” frame. His skin was a nice even bronze, with only one visible House tat near his right temple. His face was handsome, but something about his smile didn’t sit well with me. His piercing green eyes and short cropped blond hair gave him an air of respectability that I didn’t trust for a minute.
“Jameson Wyatt, you aren’t allowed in here,” Dexter said. “Leave.”
Wyatt ignored him. Scanning the apartment, his eyes widened when he saw the construct. Then he saw Liam lying on the floor.
Dexter’s avatar started frantically moving his hands as if he were using an old school keyboard.
Wyatt flicked his hand toward Dexter’s avatar, and it disappeared.
I stepped into his path. “Who the hell are you?” I asked.
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. Stepping around me, he went to examine Liam. “What happened to Anderson?” Wyatt asked.
“He’s fine,” I said. “Emergency Services are on their way. You need to leave.”
Dexter hadn’t wanted this guy in the apartment. I didn’t know Liam, but I assumed he wouldn’t want someone taking advantage while he was unconscious.
Wyatt laughed. “Do you make it a habit of lying to health professionals?” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “I live in this building. Emergency Services would have called me first had you notified them. Nice hair, but the eyes are a bit overkill, don’t you think?”
Fucking hell. The hair and eyes were going to be a problem.
“You’re a doctor?” I asked. “Prove it.”
Wyatt swiped his finger over the back of his left hand. A medical tat displayed for a second then disappeared. He then touched the single House tat on his temple. I could see now that it was the same. He was a doctor.
Dexter’s avatar reappeared in the room. “Get the Lucy-damn-hell out of this apartment,” he yelled at Wyatt.
Wyatt held up his hand to push away the avatar, but this time Dexter stood there with his arms crossed. Wyatt’s trick—whatever it had been—didn’t work a second time.
Wyatt stood and turned to face me. “Myst levels in the building have been fluctuating for the last hour. Care to explain?”
I shrugged. “I just got here.”
Wyatt held his hand out toward the construct.
Dexter stepped between Wyatt and the construct. “You don’t have the authority to ask.”
Wyatt smiled. “I’ve lived in this building for seven years, and I’ve never even felt a dip. Now the myst levels can’t be stabilized.”
Dexter stared with no indication he was planning to respond.
Wyatt pointed at the construct. “This is the cause. What the fuck is it?”
Susan9 stepped forward to answer, but I cut her off.
“Susan,” I said, looking her straight in her projected eyes, “he doesn’t get any answers, understand?”
“Of course, Gen,” Susan9 said.
Wyatt narrowed his eyes at Susan9. He flicked his wrist at her, but nothing happened.
“Interesting,” he said.
“Nothing here is any concern of yours,” Dexter said. “If you don’t leave, I’ll call the authorities.”
Before Wyatt could answer, a flare of blue electricity arced from me to the construct, and this time I noticed as her arms dropped. Bloody hell.
Wyatt laughed. “Dude, you’ve got an unconscious man in your living room, a tricked out fully autonomous holographic, a naked whatever the fuck she is, and a House Cortez overwatcher with Zar Pink hair and violet eyes. You aren’t calling anyone, and we both know it.”
I touched my hair. I needed to find a spell to hide it. Then I realized what else he had said. He’d called me a House Cortez overwatcher. I glanced down at my lab coat. Above my name was the House Cortez insignia. Dammit! It wouldn’t take him long to notify the right people if he chose. I couldn’t stay here. I had to get the hell out of this apartment and away from these people.
I thought of the hallway outside the room and prepared to take a step. As I raised my foot, I remembered Wyatt had said he lived here. For that split second before my foot fell, I thought of his apartment.
My world shifted, and I stepped from Liam’s apartment into one that was virtually identical. Only this one was littered with medical gear. Dammit.
I thought of the hallway again, then decided to think of the front door to the building. I didn’t know where it was, but I hadn’t known where Wyatt’s apartment was either, and now I was there. I picked up my foot to step, keeping the front door as my destination firmly in my mind this time. When my foot fell, I didn’t move. I was still in the apartment.
I put my hand to my head. I felt woozy again. Was this a consequence of using too much energy? Did I need to regain my strength between jumps, or was the myst level affecting my power?
I turned to the door, but came up short when I tried to open it. Something was blocking my exit.
“Susan9, are you here?” I said.
“Yes,” Susan9 said, as she partially materialized in the room. “But I am not welcome.”
“I need to leave. What’s wrong with the door?” I asked.
“It’s protected by wards, which is why I can’t fully appear.”
“Fuck.”
“You cannot go yet,” she said. “You are tied to the construct. You must complete the transfer before we leave.”
“Are you serious?”
She nodded.
“Turn it off,” I said. “Disconnect me.”
“I don’t know how,” she said. “The process started when I tried to install Miko in the construct. Instead it latched onto the partial core I took over to make me better. It’s eating me now from the inside. If I could turn it off I would.”
I stared at the bane of my existence. “If we survive this, and by this I mean every Lucy-damn thing that has happened since the day I met you, we’re going to have a long talk about boundaries.”
“Understood.”
I heard beeping from a room toward the back of the apartment. Was that a myst sensor? Why would Wyatt have a myst sensor in his home? I headed toward the beep.
“Where are you going?” Susan9 asked.
“To check on the beep,” I said.
“Why?”
“I can’t jump yet, which means I can’t leave the apartment until I gather enough
myst to activate the travel spell. And that alert sounds like a myst sensor.”
I stuck my head in the room with the beep. It contained a state-of-the-art med bay, and it wasn’t empty. What kind of doctor has patients at his house?
I looked through the viewfinder of the med bay, and I saw a man with three bullet holes in his torso, all being repaired by nanites. I turned away, my stomach queasy from the blood.
“What is this place?” I muttered.
“Jameson Wyatt, also known as the Underworld Doctor, is believed to be a man who’ll take any patient for the right price. His work is kept confidential. His clientele is mainly criminals and politicians.”
Of course he is. “Good to know,” I said.
A valve near the med bay opened, and a small burst of myst entered the room. The beeping stopped. I immediately felt better as the dots of myst infused air touched my skin. It wasn’t enough to allow me to travel yet, but every little bit helped.
Susan9 was pacing, which was just odd.
“Where was I born?” I asked, to give her something to do.
Susan9 stopped pacing and looked at me. “According to the encrypted data on your chip, you were born on Aratus,” she said. “Would you like for me to show you?”
Before I could answer, Wyatt came busting through the door to his apartment.
“Who the fuck is in here?” His loud voice bellowed over the unmistakable sound of a blaster charging.
“Hide,” I whispered to Susan9.
She disappeared.
I raised my hands and stepped out of the room with the med bay.
“You!” His eyes narrowed. “How the hell did you get in here?”
Without warning, a blue arc shot out of me toward the hallway. Fuck.
He raised his eyebrow and sighted me with the blaster.
“Are the hair and eyes real?” he asked.
“Don’t answer that,” Dexter said from the hall.
Wyatt flicked his hand toward the door, and it closed in Dexter’s face.
“That’s a handy spell,” I said.
He nodded. “It’s tied into my wards.”
“I see.”
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“Don’t talk to him,” Dexter yelled from outside the door.
“Ignore the kid,” Wyatt said.
“The kid?”
He pointed his thumb back toward the door. “Anderson’s virtual assistant is nineteen. The holo-vid overlays are all fake.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know either of them.”
“Are you fucking with me right now?”
I shook my head.
Wyatt lowered his blaster. “Who the hell are you?”
“That’s complicated,” I said.
“Okay, who’s the construct?”
“That might be more complicated,” I admitted.
“Don’t tell him anything,” Dexter yelled.
Wyatt snarled at him through the door. “You don’t run things here. Run back to your daddy.”
“Screw you, jackass,” Dexter said.
Wyatt twirled his finger in the air and pointed it at the door. A series of glyphs appeared on the door, and the apartment quieted. In the blink of an eye, the spell was absorbed by my magic and added to my spell library. As had happened before, my magic wanted me to use it right away. When I felt the glyphs appear on my arm, I willed it to disappear. Instead, the spell migrated to my palm, and I was forced to use it—a problem I really needed to solve. I twirled my finger and aimed at the ceiling. Similar to what it had done when I transferred the healing spell to Liam, an iridescent shadow left my palm and shot toward the ceiling. Just as Wyatt turned back around, it melded with the surface panels.
I felt the spell activate, but the room was already silent, so Wyatt didn’t notice.
“Now we’re alone,” he said.
“Did you disappear his avatar again?” I asked, although after absorbing the spell I knew exactly what it did.
“No,” he said. “I just made the walls soundproof.”
I heard a release of air from the room behind me. I hoped it was another blast of myst being released, because without it I couldn’t travel out of here.
“Who are you?” I asked.
I knew what Susan9 had said, but I was curious what his answer would be.
“I’m Jameson Wyatt, the doctor. I patch up people for money. Liam Anderson bought this building yesterday, because my jerk of an ex-landlord is a bastard.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Now he brings you and yours to our quiet little corner. You’re sucking down myst like you breathe it. You’re somehow tied to that construct. And your holographic is the closest Lucy-damn-thing I’ve ever seen to a functioning AI. Let’s not forget you folded space like a PK without armor. So, Gen of House Cortez, who the fuck are you?”
“Why do you care?” I asked.
“You’re hanging out with a very bad man. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I barked out a laugh. “Unlike you? Mr. I Fix Up Criminals and Corrupt Politicians.”
“Your boy had a meeting yesterday with the head of the underworld. Blythe Donovan doesn’t meet with just anyone. Then today he’s got you.”
“I told you, I don’t know the guy, and Dexter said I’m free to go, so I’ll decline your protection.”
He raised his blaster again, just as another release of air sounded behind me. My body relaxed as the myst hit my system.
“That’s not an option,” he said, aiming at my torso.
I quickly searched my spell library for a shield, and a glyph popped up. I manifested it on my arm and activated it, then thought of Liam’s apartment and stepped back into the void.
Wyatt pulled the trigger. The blast thumped into my shield and fizzled out as I fell through to the other side.
I returned to Liam’s apartment, coughing as if someone had just punched me in the chest. Rushing to the door, I closed it. Trying to run from this building now wasn’t an option. My connection to the construct needed to be tied off, and Wyatt had to be neutralized first. Maybe I had a House level forget me spell.
“Fucking hell,” I cursed, rubbing my chest where that bastard had tried to stun me.
I checked the impact site; the spot was sore but undamaged. A blaster set to kill would have tried to bore a hole through my chest; a stun setting would have latched on and sent out tendrils of energy to shock me unconscious. The shield had prevented it from latching on, but only suppressed the impact. I’d still have a bruise tomorrow. I guessed I should be glad he hadn’t tried to kill me.
“Susan9, show yourself,” I said.
“I’m here,” she said, materializing in the room.
“Get Dexter back and tell him to lock down this place.”
“This is an excellent plan. Shall I kill the Underworld Doctor for you?”
“Um … is that an option?” I asked, surprised.
Her avatar shrugged. “The archive that I consumed first and integrated with my existing personality was an assassin in her former life. I believe I have all of her skills.”
“Let’s hold off on killing anyone until we know what’s happening,” I said, not really wanting to have a discussion about how my non-corporeal illegal AI holographic would tackle that problem.
“If you think it is wise.”
Dexter reappeared in the room. He swiped with his hands in the air, and the building’s internal security flared to life. The doors locked with a clang, and the walls lit up with hundreds of glyphs.
Lucy help me, I thought as glyphs started bombarding my senses.
“He’s not getting back in here now.” Dexter looked at me. “Unless someone opens the Lucy-damn door for him.”
I held up my hands palms facing the wall. “Give me a minute,” I gasped.
“What the hell?” Dexter said.
I took a deep breath as feather-light touches hit my arms. The glyphs of Liam’s wards were frantically adding themselves t
o my library and appearing on my arms for everyone to see.
“What’s going on?” Dexter asked.
“Susan9,” I said, “any way to stop these from activating?”
“Shut them down,” she said. “Imagine a wall that they are unable to pass through, then put them back in the library.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Live Ink manipulation is predicated on your mental interface with your VF,” she said. “You do not have the practice needed yet. Imagining an impenetrable force will help you learn how the mental interface feels. Eventually it will be second nature.”
I took several quick breaths and mentally slammed a wall in front of the spells that had already started flying from my fingers, though seven or eight of the spells broke free before I could stop them. Once the wall was in place, I shoved the spells back in the library. I lowered my arms once I sensed that my skin was now clear of spells.
I spotted the canister of water pods and reached for them. It was empty.
I headed for the kitchen. Dexter followed me.
“What just happened?” he asked.
“It’s the Live Ink. It wants me to store any new spells I encounter. I don’t have a lot of control yet,” I said, opening one of the cabinets.
“Glasses are in the one over the sink,” he said.
I opened the cabinet over the sink and found what I was looking for. I took one of the glasses and filled it with water. Then pounded two full glasses before I started feeling normal.
“You memorize any spell you see?” he asked.
“Yes, but the spell also wants to be used right away, which can cause issues when I’m bombarded with a hundred wards.”
“There’s nothing easy about you, is there?” Dexter asked.
“Not lately, but for the record, I didn’t know Wyatt would be standing at the door.”
“True,” Dexter said. “But you knew he was in the room when you decided to use JumpNav tech and leave.”
“I’ll admit that wasn’t my best idea,” I said.
“Does he know—” Dexter started, then stopped. He held his finger to his lips.
A message popped up on my VF.
