“We will be getting out of your hair soon, Estrella,” Piper said.
“Good.” Estrella rubbed her hands together, making her pentagram shaped jewelry jingle. “Hiding four wanted people in my apartment is making me paranoid, yo.”
“Thanks for letting us crash here by the way,” Ray said to her.
She said nothing, just looked at him then back to Piper. “You taking Ray?”
Piper shrugged. “That depends.”
“Oh, I’m not sitting around waiting for my name to get cleared.” Ray sat up quickly from the futon. “If you’ve read my previous news articles, then you’ll know I’m a truth seeker. Finding Arianna isn’t enough for me. I want to know exactly what is going on and why. The world has a right to know.”
Estrella crossed her arms and faced him. He almost forgot the left one was sliced off days ago. “Guess that means you haven’t found her?”
Ray pulled out his tablet, waving Estrella to sit next to him. She did, a bit too quickly, making the futon bounce him. She looked at his screen and the results of his hacking.
“Nothing yet,” Ray said. “But I connected with old hacking partners from around the world. They’ve all reported that the Federation has an APB on Arianna. She’s alive and they know it.”
Estrella nodded, the glow from her eyes reflected off the tablet’s screen. “And like you, she’s got the data they want.”
“I’m just an easier target to get to,” he said. “Whatever that data is …”
“Didn’t you say something about having a part of it copied into a memory sphere?”
“I lost that sphere after the crash. We don’t know exactly what’s in my head, other than it involves the development of a weapon.”
“And as I said before,” Piper chimed in, her body wrapped in a black and brief lace outfit leaning against the wall, “my creation was the last project they worked on, before they started what’s in your head. So, my cyberware is also the foundation for it.”
“So,” Estrella mumbled. “We’re looking at a weapon that could enhance the power of an IW, making them just as deadly as they were during the war.”
“Or worse,” Ray said. “Nobuo spoke of wanting to free IWs worldwide.”
“That’s going to be your next mission then, Piper?” Estrella said facing her. “Find Arianna?”
Piper nodded. “Most likely. We find her and we can learn exactly what she discovered and maybe get the data out of Ray’s head so he can sleep well at night.”
Bashiir broke his silence from the couch he was sitting on. “The Federation and Yoshida have no idea where she is. How do you plan on doing that?”
“Still working on that part …” Piper said, wincing.
“We need to find Arianna’s father, Norris,” Ray said. “He went missing the same night Arianna returned to the Alliance. The two must have made contact, which led the Federation operatives to their house.”
Estrella concurred with a nod. “We find the people holding Norris, and hopefully Arianna.”
Ray faced his tablet, bringing up the partial download he got from Yoshida. “And maybe get an insight into what this avatar project is.” Ray had only got the names of the people on the list. Yoshida purged everything else when they took control of the towers. He flicked through them again, unable to understand why Arianna and her father were on it, and unable to understand why everyone was an unregistered telepath. “Still don’t know why Yoshida cares so much about them.”
Piper wandered to him, eying the tablet screen. She made a face, and Ray saw it. So did Estrella. Piper knew something, she faced Theo and Bashiir. “I think it’s time we told Rodriguez and Partington.”
“I guess …” Theo scratched his head. “They’ve already gotten in this deep.”
Piper’s heels took her a few steps back, leaving Ray and Estrella alone sitting on the futon together. The two looked at Piper and her team watching them.
“Tell us what?” Ray asked.
“There have been some things we didn’t share with you,” Piper said. “About us and the IWs on that list.”
Estrella spoke up with raised eyebrows. “Such as?”
“There’s more to us IWs apart from being registered or unregistered.”
Ray snorted. “So, tell us then.”
“That’s going to be a rabbit hole you might not leap out of,” Piper said. “Are you sure you want to go down there?”
“Yes,” Ray said without a second thought. He powered down his tablet, tossing it beside him on the futon. “I am and hope you do too Estrella?”
“Nobody can know what we’re about to tell and show you,” Piper said. “Not even those in Yoshida or the Alliance, even though they’re in clear conflict with our enemies. Understand?”
Ray nodded. “I understand.”
He glanced to Estrella sitting next to him. She looked worried, fidgeting her lace-gloved hands. She sank them into the futon’s soft mattress. Her response was taking too long, and he wanted to know why. He hoped it had nothing to do with the limo ride home Estrella took. Ray glimpsed her walking away from the limo moments earlier when he hacked the building’s surveillance.
Did Yoshida get to her?
Ray faced her. “Estrella?”
“Okay, I’m in,” she finally spoke. “What’s this secret world that’s being kept hidden from us, Piper?”
Epilogue
Ashford
The tower the Federation IWs hit was still undergoing repairs, twenty-four-hour ones at that. If the construction workers wanted to have jobs tomorrow, then they needed to answer the call Yoshida made. Case in point, it was after 9 p.m. Darkness had fallen over Los Angeles and the dazzle of neon glow and expensive hologram ads came back to life.
Ashford stood in his office watching the sights unfold. His office was in the tower furthest away from the attack. Nobody in the corporation knew of his involvement, and those that witnessed him, in that tower, aren’t able to speak anymore.
He took a puff of his cigar. He’d been waiting for this moment since Arianna had returned to the Alliance. It was the smoke of victory. His phone rung, its ringtone giving sound to the silent and dark office, as he stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows watching the repair team work.
He put the phone to his face, audio-only. Understandable.
“Report.”
Ashford gave his report while eying the reflection of Ray’s memory sphere sitting on his desk behind him. “We found Mr. Partington’s memory sphere in the wreckage of the medivac and have extracted the memories on it.”
“Excellent.”
“It’s not everything that was in Mr. Partington’s head, however. About thirty percent if that. We’ll still need to find him or Ms. Kounias, if she’s even alive, for the rest of it.”
“Maybe, maybe not. They took her father alive for a reason, bait to capture her.”
“We cannot remotely connect with her brain. But we now know what the Federation had contracted Zhang Industries to build. We can now get started on reproducing their findings.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
A sigh came from the phone. “It will take us years to get to the level of development they were at before Arianna destroyed it. They might restart the project and beat us to it.”
“I’m diverting every resource we have into fast-tracking this.”
“Will it be enough?”
“It fucking better be! I’ve scrapped a lot of promising projects to do that. Give us three or four months, and we should have something we could test. From there, with a bit of luck, we might catch up. Though, if we can find Mr. Partington or Ms. Kounias, that’d be better.”
“Ms. Kounias …”
“We can’t connect with her mind. She’s no longer an avatar at this point, just Ms. Kounias.”
“Have you come up with a contingency plan if Ms. Kounias isn’t alive? Didn’t you say someone buried the memories in Partington’s head?”
“We’ll
need a top tier S ranked telepath to deep scan Mr. Partington’s head. Something we don’t have, but the Federation does.”
“Then we need to get that.”
Ashford laughed. “Good luck with that. It’s clear the Federation has been training IWs for warfare in secret, while we in the Alliance and the rest of the world sat around playing fair and following the rules. There is no high S ranked IWs in this country that isn’t a black op agent working for the Federation, let alone telepaths.”
“Make it happen, Ashford. I’m counting on you.”
“Of course,” Ashford said. “I won’t let you down … Mr. President.”
The call ended.
“That sounded promising.”
Ashford faced away from the window, locking his gaze on the sultry figure of Avatar 33, known by her birth name Portia Blanchard, sitting cross-legged at the edge of his desk. He owed her a lot for getting out of that tower alive.
He grinned and puffed his cigar. “It is, Avatar 33, it is.” His hands stroked her white hair, and his nostrils inhaled the fragrance of her perfume. She was a doll that did whatever he asked of her. “You’re the top avatar now. Find Mr. Partington or Ms. Kounias, and,” he held his phone out, loading a picture of an RW that caught his attention, “Lady M hired this RW to investigate us. See to it she doesn’t get far.”
Portia glared at the image. “What’s her name?”
“Estrella Rodriguez.”
Afterword
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review, and help another reader discover this and experience the same ride you did. The more people picking this up means I’ll be able to release future books in the series faster.
This book was something that I spent decades on, admittedly, I spent most of that time not working on it. I came up with the idea for it back in the early 2000s when my hair wasn’t turning gray. I miss those days. When I made my publishing debut back in 2016, I wrote Splintered Galaxy and shelved Cyber Witch, thinking it was something I’d never publish.
Since I was convinced Cyber Witch wasn’t coming out, I poached several ideas from it, incorporating them into Splintered Galaxy. Those that read it might have noticed the similarities between psionic abilities and the abilities featured in Cyber Witch. Never mind the fact there were several cyberpunk moments in the Splintered Galaxy Universe, the ideas I had for Cyber Witch inspired some of those moments.
Even Contaminated Souls borrowed ideas from Cyber Witch. My original vision for Piper’s character was that she would be a feisty Japanese woman who had past links with the Yakuza. If you read Contaminated Souls, you’d know how familiar that sounds. Reika from Contaminated Souls was the original Piper from Cyber Witch. The Piper we got in Cyber Witch had to be completely rewritten.
And now, here I am putting out that book series I said I’d never do. A lot of changes to the original story had to be made, so it wouldn’t seem like I was just recycling story ideas, when in reality, I had been taking ideas from Cyber Witch, which was at the time, an unpublished story of mine.
Well, that’s enough rambling so I’ll stop it there. Once again, thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a review.
Next time on Cyber Witch: 2082
Estrella and Ray continue the search for Arianna after Piper reveals the secret world around them. Meanwhile, in the Federation, someone wants answers for the actions of Nobuo. And if they have to travel to Los Angeles to get it, they will.
Next up: Specter Protocol - Cyber Witch: 2082 book 2
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Also by Eddie R. Hicks
Cyber Witch: 2082
Cyber Witch
Specter Protocol (February 2020)
Digital Coven (TBA)
Psychic Rush (TBA)
Contaminated Souls
Kiss of the Demon Girl
Wrath of the Demon Girl
Awakening of the Demon Girl
Deception of the Demon Girl
Nemesis of the Demon Girl
Liberation of the Demon Girl
Splintered Galaxy Universe
Splintered Galaxy
Celestial Ascension
Uprising of the Exiled
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2
Edge of the Splintered Galaxy
The Siege of Sirius
Celestial Incursion
Unsanctioned Reprisal
Hallowed Nebula
About the Author
Eddie R. Hicks is a Canadian author known as a man of many talents, and for good reason. He’s educated in media arts, journalism, and culinary arts, and now he writes dark and sexy science-fiction thrillers such as the Splintered Galaxy series.
If he’s not working with skilled chefs in the restaurant industry, baking an epic red velvet cake for the hell of it, or playing video games, then he’s in front of his computer doing what he always dreamed of doing since he was a kid: storytelling.
Cyber Witch Page 36
