Mitch reached out and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Ford said for you to get checked over this morning, just to be sure. If nothing else, they’ll give you a shot of V to get you back on your feet.”
Salvi savored the feeling of his hand on her cheek. Maybe there was a little drug left flowing inside her. She placed her hand over his. Then a thought hit her, and she gasped. She sat up, felt at her temples. “The neural devices? Where are they?”
“Relax…” He grabbed hold of her upper arms. “Hernandez took them last night. After you fell asleep. We didn’t want to take them off you before the…experience ended in case anything happened. Besides, they wanted you to take the ride so you could provide them with information. Once you were asleep I took them down to the street. Noble’s team are analyzing them as we speak.”
She exhaled with relief. “So we have the neural devices. Well, there’s that at least.” She looked back at him. “I’m pretty sure I’ve blown it with Chaney now.”
“You had no choice. Who knows what would’ve happened if you’d stayed there, Salvi. Fuck…” He ran his hand through his dark hair as though wiping away the thought.
She felt the sting of tears in her eyes and looked down at the sheets. “I kept thinking about Caine. Kept thinking, had he been standing where I was? Had he seen this too? Who took him there?” She looked back at him. “I got the tech out, but we’re back to square one now. We still don’t know who killed him, and I didn’t see any sign of the Chief’s daughter down there.”
“Look, we gotta go,” he said softly. “Ford’s itching for a debrief.”
She nodded, rubbing her face. “God, I feel awful,” she said, then looked at him. “No offence.”
He gave a soft smile. “It’s the comedown.”
She looked at him again. “I have a past, Mitch. I know what the comedown feels like. This… this is something else. This is a comedown with a large hole in my memory. Like, for a period of time I didn’t exist. Like my mind was separate from my body. Like it was erased.”
He nodded. “And it was.” He caressed her cheek again. “Your lights were on, Salvi, but you weren’t home. It was like being with another woman. You were detached, on autopilot like . . . like some . . .”
“Machine? Some robot?” Images of the android-like humans from Diabolique flashed into her mind.
He nodded. “Yeah.”
She nodded back and whispered. “I guess that’s the point of it.”
Salvi looked down at her body, wrapped in the sheets, and suddenly realized she was a mirror image of how she’d first found Myki Natashi.
Salvi took an autocab alone to the empty office tenancy building to meet with the Trident team, wanting to arrive separately from Mitch. She found a medic waiting with the team, who set about running a series of checks and injecting her with a strong dose of V.
Ford was patient, but as soon as the medic left she pushed Salvi for information, so she told them all she could remember: who she saw in the Ceiling – the Senator – then she described the basement club, Diabolique, how it was underground a couple of blocks from the main club, and how they’d used the old train tunnels to get there. She told them about the tech, the people trying to be like androids, the drugs. She looked at Noble.
“You got the devices, right?”
“Yeah. Good job getting them out in your state. Forensics is working on them as we speak, and Riverton will provide us with an analysis report soon.”
She nodded.
“You were a train wreck,” Kara said. “I made it to the Ceiling last night and saw you leave. But, girl, you’re tough, I’ll give you that. Lots of people would’ve collapsed into a pool of mush. Good job.”
Salvi tried to smile but it failed to reach her lips. “I’ve had a lot of practice at suppression.” She looked back at Ford. “What do I do about Chaney? He’s going to be pissed.”
“What’s your gut tell you?” Ford said. “You know him best.”
Salvi thought for a moment, realized the V shot was starting to take affect and she was feeling less like death. “I’ll go back. I’ll apologize for running out on him. Take it from there.”
“Not back to the basement, though?” Kara asked.
Salvi shook her head. “No. If I go back there, I won’t be so lucky the next time.”
“Stay away from Floor to Ceiling altogether,” Ford said. “Approach him at The Dream Bar. As far as we know it doesn’t have any dark, dirty little secrets like the other one.”
Salvi nodded, her mind turning over again. “Someone took Caine down there, but that wasn’t where they killed him.” She looked back at Ford. “The people in Diabolique were there for a good time. It made my skin crawl a little, but everyone wanted to be there. I saw no one mistreating anyone who didn’t want to be mistreated… I don’t think what Caine saw in Diabolique is what got him killed. It was something else. I think maybe he met someone there. I think this person lured him away somewhere else, and that whatever he saw or heard between Diabolique and the dock is what got him killed.”
“What are you saying?” Sorensen asked. “We need to send more people in to infiltrate Diabolique to find out who it was?”
“I can’t risk sending anyone else into Diabolique,” Ford said. “Certainly not alone. Brentt was lucky to have gotten out in one piece.”
“People are entering Floor to Ceiling and not coming back out again,” Noble said. “If this club is a couple of blocks away underground, maybe they’re using another exit? Maybe that can explain their disappearance?”
Salvi nodded. “Like the other night when you said you lost John Dorant in the area. You saw him enter a building, but never saw him leave. There could be a whole network of underground tunnels we don’t know about.”
“Exactly,” Noble said. “I need you to look at some maps and give us a ballpark area to search.”
“The trouble is,” Salvi said, “I didn’t see any other entrances or exits in Diabolique. Just the elevator up to the Ceiling.”
“Maybe it was somewhere else along the train tunnels?” Sorensen said, before he engaged his comms. “Riverton? Request street, sewer and subway plans for a ten-block radius around Floor to Ceiling.”
Ford checked her iPort. “Speaking of disappearances, when was the last time anyone heard from Bronte?”
“He wasn’t there last night?” Salvi asked.
“He was, but I got a message to him to stay put once you got out.”
Salvi checked the time, saw it was 11am. “He might still be partying.”
“If you see him, tell him to report in asap,” Ford said, grabbing her coat. “I’m going to check on forensics.”
Salvi stood in her makeshift apartment and checked her iPort. It was 7pm and the report on the neural devices had not been uploaded as yet. Earlier she’d spent an hour or so going over the plans with the Trident team, doing her best to guess the direction Chaney had led her when he’d taken her to Diabolique. Noble and the Cyber team were going to analyze possible alternative entries and exits, and place undercover officers to watch the area.
Salvi’s body had then yearned for more sleep so she’d headed back to her fake apartment, but found her mind wouldn’t let her relax until she’d cleared some of the debris from the night before. She’d made a call to Hernandez.
“Hey,” she’d said when he’d answered.
“How you doing?” he’d asked.
“Ugh…” she’d groaned. “Look, I just want to apologize for last night, in case I–”
“Salv,” he’d cut her off. “You’re like a sister to me… Let us never speak of this again.”
She’d sighed with relief. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” he’d said, and ended the call.
With that off her mind she’d lain down and finally fallen asleep.
She’d slept most of the day before finally rising to prepare herself to visit Chaney to apologize. Bronte had arrived back at the apartment around 4pm. Thankful
ly he’d checked in with her earlier to let her know he was okay. He’d left the club and had gone back to his new friends’ house to party, hoping to meet their tech dealer, this guy known as J-Dog. He did, but the guy turned out to be small time, dealing with friends only. Bronte tried to find out where this J-Dog got his supply from, but the guy wouldn’t tell him, and Bronte knew he couldn’t push.
So now Salvi bided her time until she could head back to The Dream Bar to try and speak to Chaney. She stared at the lights of the city outside the windows, as memories of the previous evening flashed through her mind. The people painted and tattooed to look like androids, the old man Hillier with his holographic ‘pets’, the people on the dancefloor with the VR headsets moving in a trance-like state, Erica and her needle, the statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace with its holographic head adorned with neural devices, Salvi’s glitching vision, the large white angel spreading its broad wings behind the Ceiling’s bar.
But another recent memory seemed imprinted across all of the others. The vision of Myki Natashi sitting dazed in her bed, post-Flyte, the imprints on the sides of her face. Knowing Myki had been seen leaving Floor to Ceiling the night Barker died, Salvi wondered whether Myki had willingly taken the drug and enjoyed a night with her boyfriend down in Diabolique, or whether the Flyte had been forced upon her intentionally to make her black out the night. Salvi recalled Myki moving away from her and begging: “No more… Please!” Did that mean it had been forced upon her? Or was she just horrified at having more after she’d slept through her partner being murdered. Erica said the shortest ‘trips’ lasted about four hours. Myki must have had it at Diabolique to have been sleeping it off around 12.30pm when Barker was killed, and then still very groggy when Salvi and Beggs had arrived at her apartment. Riverton said the footage of Myki leaving the club indicated she was inebriated. Had the killer simply seen an opportune time to erase Barker, knowing that Myki had had Flyte and wouldn’t remember? Is that why Myki was afraid? Because she really had no idea who did this? Or had something else happened down at Diabolique that made Barker take her home while she was still heavily inebriated? Had the killer confronted him there? Had Barker done something to offend the killer?
Salvi pictured the neural devices shining silver in Erica’s hands. Yet again, she thought of Subjugate-52 and residents of the Solme Complex; how the neural devices controlled them, and how the Complex made them forget certain aspects of their past.
“Hey,” Bronte’s gruff voice said as he exited his bedroom.
“Hey,” she said, turning around. “Don’t you need more sleep?”
He nodded. “Hell, yeah.” He ran his hand over his closely shaved head. “I just wanted to catch you before you left. You sure going back is the right thing to do?”
She nodded. “We have the tech but it’s not enough. I need to try something.”
“You’re lucky you got out unscathed, Salv.”
“I know.” Her face fell a little. “I’ve been thinking… What if the Chief’s daughter OD’d? I don’t want to be the one to tell him that.”
Bronte shrugged. “It’s part of the job, Salv. But first we gotta find her body. Until there’s a body, we have to consider her as alive.”
Salvi nodded. “And that’s why I’m going back in. To find out what happened to her, and to find out who killed Caine.”
She grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
“Be careful,” he said.
She shot him one last look, nodded and left.
Salvi entered The Dream Bar and looked around. The V shot had well and truly taken effect and she felt human again, but the last thing she wanted to do was have alcohol right now. She moved to the bar and her chatty barman, Dante.
“Hey,” she smiled.
“Hello, there!” he smiled.
“I don’t suppose Lance is in tonight?”
“I’m not expecting him. You got another message?”
“Do you know where I would find him tonight?”
“What’s today?” he asked himself, mind turning over. “Oh, he’d be over at Floor to Ceiling. It’s another one of his clubs.”
“Right,” Salvi said, feeling her shoulders slump. “Thanks,” she said, making her way for the exit.
As she stepped outside, she used her burner phone and called Ford.
“Yeah?” the detective lieutenant answered.
“He’s at Floor to Ceiling tonight. I gotta go back.”
“Brentt–”
“I got no choice,” she cut her off. “I can’t let too much time pass. I ran out on him. I need to apologize.”
Silence hung on the line for a moment.
“Do not go back into the basement.”
“I won’t. I won’t leave the first floor,” she said. “He can’t touch me there. There are too many tourists. Too many people who don’t know the truth about what happens on the Ceiling or in Diabolique. It’ll be safe.”
Ford sighed. “Do not leave the first floor bar,” she reiterated.
“I’ll contact you soon.”
Salvi hung up, hailed an autocab and climbed in.
“Floor to Ceiling, please.”
Salvi stared at the security standing in front of the red velvet curtain leading to the stairwell. She wanted to check if Chaney had left her clearance in place. He hadn’t. He’d shut her out.
“Can you contact him for me?” she asked the large man. He stared back at her but said nothing.
“Just call him,” she said. “If he turns me away, I’ll leave, but just call him first.”
He looked unimpressed but clicked on his comms and made the call.
“Yeah, there’s a woman here to see Chaney. Name is,” he looked at her.
“Sarah Parson.”
“Sarah Parson,” he said. “Does he want to see her?” The man listened for a few minutes waiting for the answer, then when he got it, he looked back at her. “He’ll see you on the Ceiling.”
Salvi stared at him. She swallowed. “He can’t come down here?”
“You wanna see him or not?” he snapped. “He’s a busy man.”
“Alright,” she held her hand up. He stood back and opened the velvet curtain. She looked at the staircase ahead of her. It was only the Ceiling, right? Ford didn’t need to know. What if Chaney was willing to forgive her? She had to take the chance, didn’t she? They might not find Caine’s killer otherwise, might not learn what happened to the Chief’s daughter.
She walked past security and began to ascend the stairs, picturing herself stumbling down them the previous night. She suddenly felt queasy again. She made the second-floor landing, tainted green with the Bio-Lume glow, moved to the elevator and waited. The doors opened, two people stepped out, and she stepped in. The doors closed and she was alone as it ascended. She swallowed hard, fighting the feeling of claustrophobia, the sensation of her stomach swirling. She caught her reflection in the mirrored ceiling and looked up. Her hair fell back a little and she saw no trace of the marks from the neural devices. She hated the fact they had controlled her the previous evening, had taken over her brain. She pictured Erica standing by her console, thought of the Subjugates at the Solme complex, of her evangelist parents, of how she’d sworn no one would ever control her again. And they had. Chaney had.
The doors opened and she stepped out into the Ceiling. She took a breath, exhaling her anger and softened her features. She walked forward, saw the large white angel spread out behind the bar, and scanned the lounge for him.
“Sarah,” his voice said from behind. She turned around and saw him walking toward her across the dance floor. Her eyes darted to the secret doorway in the corner of the room and she wondered whether he’d come from Diabolique or if he’d come from his offices upstairs.
“Hi,” she said meekly.
He stared at her but said nothing. She stepped toward him.
“I wanted to apologize for running out last night. I… don’t know why I did. I guess I just kinda freaked out a
bit.”
He continued to stare at her. “I thought you wanted to take a ride on the edge?”
“I did. And I still do,” she softened her features even more. “I’m so embarrassed… I just got taken by surprise. You left and then I was on my way to the bathroom and Erica just stuck me with the needle. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Yes, you were. That’s why you were in that room.”
His face was hard, his features unfriendly.
“I hope you’ll give me a second chance,” she said, adding warmth to her eyes along with a sexy smile.
“No,” he said, stepping forward and hitting the button to open the elevator doors. “It’s time you leave.”
She took another step toward him. “Lance, I–”
“What have you done with the devices you stole?”
“I… threw them out.”
“You’re a security breach. You signed the non-disclosure agreement. That included the return of all items used for disposal.”
“Oh, I… I can get them. Bring them back.”
He took her arm and guided her firmly back into the elevator. “You will not set foot in this club again. You will destroy the devices. You will never speak of what you’ve seen here. And you will never contact me again.”
He moved her further into the elevator, pressed the button again to close the doors, then walked away.
And as the doors closed her eyes fell on the ponytail guy, sitting in the lounge, staring at her.
“Fuck,” she muttered under her breath as she stepped out onto the street again and walked away. She supposed she should be glad nothing had happened to her, but at the same time she knew she’d blown her ticket with Chaney, and maybe even her chance at finding out what happened to Caine on the last night of his life. She glanced over her shoulder with lost hope to the door and saw the ponytail guy step out onto the street. He began heading her way.
She turned and continued walking, curious. After a while she glanced over her shoulder again and saw he was closer, eyes fixed on her. She reached into her purse and opened her power compact, then closed it again, initiating the beacon housed inside. She saw a corner up ahead and abruptly turned down it. The street was dark, but she didn’t care. She glanced back and saw Ponytail turning down the street behind her.
The Sensation Page 18
