“Is that-” Peter looked at the statue.
“Salem?” Ally finished.
The statue was made of a smooth cream-coloured marble, and depicted the figure of Salem on a pedestal almost ten feet above them. The sculpture replicated his denim jacket being swept behind him as his arms were raised upwards towards the sky. In one hand, a stone flask was clutched like a holy relic, while the other raised a single middle finger.
“That’s different,” Persephone said, approaching the statue.
“Is this like some kind of VR?” Prime said, circling the new construct.
“Look,” Ally said as she crouched down beside the base where a caption was carved in the pedestal.
“Welcome to my nightmare,” Ally read. “To escape, you will need to work together and separate your signals.”
“We figured that out already. This is just Salem having some kind of ego trip,” Persephone sighed.
A low rumble seemed to emanate from below them. The land to the cliffs' sides began to crumble into the ocean, shrinking the space they stood.
“It stands to reason that if we are in Salem’s mind, then he can control what happens here,” Peter said.
“In other words, don’t piss off the master of this universe,” Prime said, glaring at Persephone.
The rumbling subsided, and they heard the sound of stone moving against stone as the statue slowly moved into a crouching position, the figure pointed at the engraving as the words shifted and scraped.
“The scary hologram guy says to separate, and you will need to stop thinking,” Ally read the new message.
“Does he mean Yuri?” Prime asked.
“And what does stop thinking mean?” Ally shrugged.
“That could work,” Peter nodded. “If we can render each of us momentarily brain dead, one by one like turning off a light switch, we should return with a reduced chance of entanglement.”
“You’re saying we all need to die to come back?” Ally raised a doubtful eyebrow.
“I think that’s the idea,” Prime nodded.
“If you think I’m letting any of you kill me, then you are very much mistaken,” Persephone said.
“We aren’t actually killing each other, just dropping our mental activity to minimal levels,” Peter explained.
“What would you suggest?” Ally said to her.
“How about I kill the three of you?” Persephone said. “I’m not going to let any of you kill me. Let’s be honest, I’m the only one here who the three of you wouldn’t want coming back, so I won’t risk my life first.”
“So you’d be the first one freed too,” Ally hissed.
“True, but what other choice do you have?” Persephone smiled.
“We need a means of all dying at the same time, then coming back one by one,” Prime suggested.
“If there were a way, that would be the only ideal scenario,” Peter agreed.
“How exactly would we do that anyway? Kill ourselves, I mean,” Ally said.
The ground beneath them shook, throwing them off balance as a fracture began opening in the ground. A chasm in the earth opened between them, a hole that sank to the ocean below. Beside the gap, a small wooden sign grew up from the earth with a small white stick figure posed like a diver jumping from a board was engraved in the wood.
“Is he trying to tell us to jump?” Prime asked.
“It stands to reason that if we jumped, then our minds would assume the worst,” Peter said.
“The whole ‘if you die in your dreams’ thing?” Ally suggested.
“Exactly, our minds would, in theory, pause just long enough to stop the signals,” Peter added.
“In theory,” Persephone replied.
“And if we all jump together, then it’s what, a race to see who’s the first one to come back?” Prime said, looking up at the others.
The long silence hung in the air around them, filled only by the crashing of water in the cavern below them. Prime saw the subtle twitch as Persephone’s fists clenched moments before she acted. Whoever jumped first would have the best chance of returning to the real world before the others, and Persephone knew that would be her only advantage. She lunged forward, throwing herself towards the chasm.
“No!” Ally shouted. But Prime had already braced himself, jumping across Persephone’s path and slamming his shoulder into her chest.
“Go now!” Prime called out as he fell to the ground with Persephone.
Ally and Peter looked at each other; both stepped forward simultaneously. On the ground, Persephone was struggling with Prime, crawling towards the cliff’s edge as he desperately tried to pull her back. Ally’s feet left the ground a moment before Peter’s, as Persephone twisted her body and rolled both her and Prime into the chasm, still grasping at each other as they fell.
Chapter Seventy-Four
Salem
“I think they’re coming,” Salem said.
Jacob had laid the bodies of Ally, Prime and Persephone across the floor with the help of Bella, despite her injuries. The three bodies looked as though they were asleep, the rise and fall of their chest’s shallow.
“Are you sure?” Jacob asked, “if we turn off the receiver and the signal are not separate, then there is no telling what damage could be done to their minds.”
“Well, I can’t hear any of them anymore, they were fighting, but the voices have all gone silent now. So, if you’re going to pull the fucking plug, now is the time!” Salem spat out, his eyes darting around the room.
“Very well,” Yuri said, his hologram flickered for a moment as he deactivated Salem’s Arch receiver.
Suddenly, Salem’s entire body relaxed. Not only had Yuri deactivated the boosted signal, but he had also turned off the whole receiver that Salem had lived with all his life. Muscles that had been tense for years were suddenly relieved. As his senses had returned to the room, a small smile crept across his face.
“Are you okay?” Bella said, seeing the change in his demeanour.
“It’s so quiet,” he whispered, not wanting to break the feeling.
He had always had the signals coming into his mind, not just audio and video signals, but the background white noise of electronics and the constant hum of power lines that filled the airways. In a city filled with technology, a non-stop barrage was always present. Even in the VR world he escaped to, a distant droning always lingered.
“It’s so peaceful, like a calm. Is this how everyone feels?” he asked, looking around the room.
“I can’t believe the technology lasted this long,” Jacob said, watching Salem, “do you remember anything of the laboratories?”
Salem looked up at him, a puzzled look on his face. “No, I don’t remember anything before I was on the street.”
Jacob nodded, a sombre expression crossed his face. “You ran away from us almost as soon as we activated the receiver, you went feral, we presumed the influx of signals was too much, and you lost all control. To see you now, it’s-”
A loud shout interrupted Jacob as Ally lurched upright, gasping for breath.
“Oh, god!” she breathed heavily.
“Ally!” Bella shouted, rushing towards her.
“One moment,” Yuri said, drifting to her.
Ally reeled back from Yuri.
“How the hell did that happen? Why was I in there?” she asked, keeping her distance.
“That is something I would like to discover as well, no doubt something to do with your TNDA pulled you into the connection,” Yuri said.
“Oh no, you aren’t experimenting on me! Not again, I haven’t forgotten what happened at CyBio!”
Jacob stepped between them, “I understand your apprehension, but Yuri is possibly the only chance we…you have of understanding your.”
Another gasp came from beside them as Persephone awoke. Immediately, she stood and moved towards the large control panel Koenig had been working on before the others could react.
“I hope you don’t expect me
to honour our agreement after that!” she hissed at Yuri.
“Agreement?” Ally looked at her.
“Oh yes, didn’t they tell you? You see, these two wanted to have you for their little experiments, in return for assisting me with my plans.”
“Do you really think we would let you take control of the city?” Yuri replied. “Whatever you’re about to do, I suggest you don’t.”
Jacob moved towards Persephone, pulling a small compact device from his pocket.
“While you were unconscious, we took some extra precautions,” Yuri explained. “A small explosive injected into each of you, just an assurance you wouldn’t stand in our way.”
Persephone paused for a moment, watching Jacob carefully as he raised the device in his hand, searching for signs of deception. Ally turned to Salem and Bella, her eyes asking the question.
“They…they could have,” Bella apologetically, “I was trying to keep an eye on Salem, I didn’t see them do anything but…”
“You’re bluffing, you can’t kill us, and you’ll lose all your experiments, Yuri,” Persephone laughed.
“Let’s all just calm down,” Salem said. He was still getting used to the quiet inside his head and got to his feet. Looking around the room, then outside the window at the deserted streets below, in the distance, the muffled sounds of the fighting at the bridge crept into the room. “No-one needs to kill anyone.”
“Actually,” a voice said, “I think someone’s already died.” The body of Prime was getting to its feet.
“Peter?” Ally said, looking at him.
“I’m afraid not,” the man spoke, then tilted his head as though thinking, “and not Prime either.”
“What?” Ally walked towards him, and he held up a hand, indicating her to stay back.
“I’m…not sure,” he said, looking at the hand he’d raised.
“Yuri?” Jacob said, glancing at the hologram.
“It’s possible there’s been a merger. We couldn’t predict what would happen to the two minds in one body when the receiver cut off.”
“You mean Peter and Prime have become one?” Bella asked.
“It looks possible,” Jacob nodded.
“How do you feel?” Ally said, still keeping her distance.
“I feel…powerful. All the knowledge and thoughts of two separate lives that were very different from one another, yet entwined. Things seem clearer now,” he looked up at Persephone, “I even understand what you’re doing now and why.”
Persephone smiled slightly, “Good, it’s about time you understood. At just the right time too,” she smiled and glanced up towards the doors.
The doors on either side of the Nucleus opened. From one, Koenig stepped in. A machine that looked like a rifle in his hand was illuminated with a deep purple glow. Koenig fired, and a projectile of light flew towards the hologram of Yuri. Instantly the image froze before flickering and fading from view.
“Yuri!” Jacob turned to stare at Koenig and saw another man step beside him.
“Hello, Jacob! I’m sure you remember Razz, yes?” Koenig smiled as the larger second man looked around the room.
From the other door, Faust charged into the room with three different copies of himself. They surrounded Jacob, circling him, while he tried to work out which was a hologram and which was real. A hand snatched the metal device from Jacob. “Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated,” he laughed as the copies vanished, leaving one version holding the device and backing away to Persephone’s side.
“What the hell is going on?” Ally shouted.
“It’s time to get things back on track,” Persephone said, “are you with me?” she looked over at the man who once was Prime.
The man looked around the room at the others, the puzzled looks on their faces staring back.
“I…I think I am,” he said, walking towards her.
“Prime!” Ally shouted.
“I told you, I’m not him anymore, and I’m not Peter either,” he replied softly. “I’m sorry.”
Salem looked around the room. It was clear they were outnumbered but currently not the centre of attention. Grabbing Bella’s arm, he motioned towards the door. She nodded but looked back at Ally.
“I’ll get her,” he whispered.
Razz had stepped into the room, frustration in his face, “Koenig, what the hell is going on here? You said we were here to help Ally!”
“Ah, I’m afraid I had to bend the truth, no? Yuri was just in our way, but thank you so much for your assistance in creating the disrupter,” he smiled, raising the rifle.
“Damnit, I should have never trusted you!” the large man shouted.
Ally looked over at Razz, their eyes catching for a moment. A flash of light illuminated the room as Yuri reappeared, his hologram crackling with electricity and lag. He took a step towards Jacob, his hand extending before him, before a flash of energy exploded from his finger, throwing Jacob towards the window of the Nucleus, the glass cracking from the impact but held as a spider-web pattern spread across the pane.
Salem ran for Ally, grabbing her arm, but before they could move, the hologram faded and reappeared instantly beside them.
“She’s…mine…” Yuri’s fragmented and distorted voice shouted. Another explosion of light threw Ally towards the same window that Jacob was leaning against. As she hit the glass beside him, the cracks spread like lighting bolts.
“Ally!” Salem was moving towards her, but it felt like things were happening in slow motion. The glass gave way, as Ally and Jacob's bodies were pulled through. Their limbs thrown forward like ragdolls they were pulled out into the city. A moment later, they were gone, gravity pulling them out of sight and tumbling towards the Neon Boulevard below.
Cold, crisp air rushed into the Nucleus as the assembled crowd stared at the empty window frame. The hologram of Yuri faded slowly like a ghost.
Bella got her senses back faster than the others and grabbed Salem by the collar. He was still looking at the window as his feet moved to follow Bella. Razz was stood in the doorway, blocking their path.
“If you’ve any sense, you’ll come with us,” Bella said. The large man nodded, his eyes meeting Salem’s, and recognition washed over him briefly.
“Don’t you give me that look too. Come on, big guy,” Salem said, pushing him towards the door.
Behind them, Persephone, Koenig, Faust, and the man who had once been Prime glanced at them leaving.
“Let them go. We have work to do,” she said, turning to the computer terminals. “And somebody get a shutter down. There’s a draught.”
Chapter Seventy-Five
Xander
Xander had left the MPD precinct with a small group of officers. His conversation with Dramarti had enlightened him to what had happened with the corporations and left a bitter taste in his mouth. The thought of them all hiding in their bunkers beneath the skyscrapers in Giga didn’t surprise him but disappointed him all the same. The suits loved the power and control that their credits bought them, but they’d never wanted to get their hands dirty.
One thing had piqued his curiosity though; the Sliders had always been in an ongoing conflict with the MPD, and no matter how many times they took them down, they always continued to thrive. The conspiracy theorists among the MPD always suspected there was a larger game at play, the Sliders seeming to become more prevalent in areas of unrest. When Dramarti had told Xander about Reavers' death, the leader of the Emergency Services Corp on the Boulevard at Persephone’s hand, it sounded like a blatant show of power to the other corporation leaders, but Xander felt there was something more. His mind began seeing threads in the events. In the weeks leading up to Persephone’s appearance, the leaders of many Slider factions had been murdered, and that was what Prime had been investigating, along with their connections to Persephone herself. The factions had slowly become aligned under Persephone’s takeover, just like the gang that had attacked him, Ava, and Mollie at the apartment complex. Per
haps, Xander thought, the murder of Reavers wasn’t just a show of power. Maybe the Sliders had a corporation backing them that Persephone had discovered, and taking him out was another move in her control of the Boulevard.
Xander shook his head. Regardless of the meaning behind the actions, now wasn’t the time for theories. The bridge was still under attack, at least he assumed from the sounds of gunfire that still echoed through the empty streets, and he needed to help in any way he could. Dramarti had given Xander authorisation to access the complete MPD network, allowing him to send an encrypted S.O.S. alert to every precinct, car, and officer in the city. The alert told every able person on the force to head for the bridge immediately with any weapons they could get out of the police storage. The carte blanche access had also given him the ability to release several higher registered weaponry that only a precinct’s chief could usually access.
The crowd of armed officers had steadily grown as more joined them, including the group lead by Quartzig and Mike who they had gathered from nearby precincts as they made their way to Blackwater Bridge. They now consisted of almost a hundred officers and Xander tried to ignore that the number should have been ten times that, but with officers having been lost in the initial attacks, or taken over by prisoners the numbers had dwindled.
As the bridge came into sight, an audible gasp echoed across the crowd.
Smoke and fire glowed across the bridge, and from their location, Xander could see a mass of people clashing on the bridge. He knew that amount of prisoners incarcerated on Blackwater, he had even seen the first wave beginning their assault, but seeing them all from this distance was awe-inspiring in all the wrong ways.
“How can we stop that,” Mike whispered from beside Xander.
“With everything we’ve got,” Xander replied, continuing to walk towards the bridge. Deep down however, he was starting to consider a plan he should have acted on earlier.
Neon Blood (Neon Helix Universe Book 3) Page 30
