The door slid back, and she stepped into the plain white corridor with Erica by her side. Erica’s hand tightly gripped Salvi’s upper arm, though it wasn’t to aid her movement, it was to control it. In her free hand, Erica carried the data pane; her means to inflict pain, or pleasure, upon Salvi.
Salvi glanced behind them, with dizziness, to see that the room she had been in was the last in a corridor which ended with a set of double doors. She turned back to view the corridor ahead and saw another set of double doors at the opposite end. Along the corridor, to the left, she counted four more rooms beside hers. To the right there was only the wall.
They moved along at a careful pace due to Salvi’s slightly fragile state; her head was still getting used to being upright. The doors at the end of the corridor suddenly slid open, and a male nurse wheeled a bed with a patient toward her. Salvi caught her breath as she studied the patient. They were dark skinned and male.
“Bronte!” she gasped, as Erica squeezed her arm and waved her data pane toward her in threat. Salvi bit her tongue and eased off the tension in her arm, as she watched Bronte wheeled into the room beside hers. As she moved past, she saw he too had been given the implants. More tears blurred her eyes as Erica barked, “Move!”
They passed the next room and Salvi peered through desperately to see who lay inside. It was Kara. She was restrained to her bed, the sides of her skull as yet untouched, and she was awake.
And she saw Salvi in the corridor.
“Brentt!” she yelled, pulling on her restraints.
Salvi heard no sound through the closed room but could lip read well enough. She stared at Kara, struggling against her restraints, as they passed. Salvi fought to remain docile, though inside her body clenched hard. If she didn’t do something soon, Kara would be next to get the implants. Time was running out.
Erica swiped her hand again and they stepped through the double doors into another corridor, with an intersection down a short way. Salvi subconsciously quickened her pace now, as she became more alert. Desperate for information. Desperate to find a way out.
They approached another room on the left. Inside Salvi saw two men of solid build, wearing black uniforms and neural devices. One stood by the doorway watching them carefully, the other sat at a console watching security feeds. Salvi saw the feed showed several corridors, including the one she and Erica were in. As they passed, Salvi quickly darted her eyes over the men to check their weaponry. She saw something akin to a taser gun and digital cuffs, but that was all she could take in before they’d moved past the doorway. But it was enough. They had some security, but no serious weapons. Unless, of course, she counted the neural devices. They wouldn’t need weapons if the residents were controlled with implants, would they? She wondered whether the guards had any Fyte on hand. Chaney had told her the ghosts had built a small army around them. Was this it?
They turned right at the corridor intersection. Ahead Salvi saw another short corridor that ended in more double doors. As they moved along the corridor, they passed more rooms on either side, all with closed doors. As she passed some, she swore she heard heart monitors and generators and other electronic equipment. She wondered what was going on inside. Just how many people did they have trapped here? Working here? Was Clare Garrett here somewhere? Or the other missing girls that Dolson was searching for? Had Caine been here? Had Caine seen this?
They came to the doors and Erica swiped her palm once more. As the doors peeled back, Salvi paused as she realized they were moving into another part of the facility. The corridor before them had carpeted flooring and smooth neutral walls outlined with thin strips of LED lights. These were the ‘comfortable lodgings’ Erica had referred to. It had a hotel feel to it, and Salvi realized this was where the ghosts’ clients came to purchase their fantasies. Fantasies supplied by a workforce of drugged and neurally-controlled slaves.
Her heartbeat picked up pace, and her breathing quickened. Part of it was because she knew she was drawing nearer to her fate, but another part was the anger rising for what the ghosts were doing, what they were enabling people to do to those held neurally captive, and how others out there in the real world were turning a blind eye to it all.
She wanted to burn this place to the ground, and everyone involved with it.
They began to slow as they approached a doorway to their left. A small sign above identified the room as Suite 17. Salvi wondered how many rooms they had. Erica swiped her hand again, the door opened, and she pushed Salvi through.
Inside it looked like any other hotel room. There was a large bed, a small bathroom, but no windows. No glimpse of the outside world, no chance of escape. She saw a data pane sitting in a frame on the wall. It looked to be showing a menu of some kind; toys, tools, even some smaller weapons like knives. On the ceiling and attached to the bedhead were digital cuffs. In the far left corner an elaborate bar was set up with just about anything someone could want to drink. To the right, along the wall, was a bench with a series of drawers, and she wondered what they contained.
“This is the most basic of our rooms,” Erica said, noticing Salvi’s curiosity. “Travis isn’t one for costumes and accessories, though we do keep some basics in the drawers for those who change their minds. Anything more elaborate needs to be ordered through the menu. Now, sit on the bed, face the door.”
Salvi eyed her, unmoving, her mind desperately thinking of escape. Erica scowled and tapped her data pane. The world turned again, and Salvi fell down to her hands and knees.
“Sit on the bed and face the door,” Erica said again firmly.
Salvi, panting, pulled herself to her feet. She had to get that data pane out of Erica’s hands or she would not be getting out of there.
Erica opened a drawer and pulled out a syringe filled with a red liquid.
Flyte.
Glitched memories swirled in Salvi’s mind of leaving Diabolique that night, and her stomach turned in synch. Memories of no memories; of someone controlling her and leaving no evidence; of seeing the bruises on Mitch the next day; of things she’d done but her mind wasn’t there for. Again her stomach turned.
“I’m going to be sick,” Salvi said, sliding her hand over her stomach.
“Sure you are,” she said testing the syringe.
“No, really…” Desperate, Salvi did everything she could to try to make herself throw up. Anything to stall. She started pulling her stomach muscles in, she opened her throat, she made dry-retching, gagging movements. Anything to buy her time or get Erica to move closer to her and maybe put the needle down.
Salvi gagged, and Erica paused to watch. Salvi worked up the saliva in her mouth and spat it out on the floor, still lurching.
“Shit…” Erica muttered. She placed the syringe down, pulled a champagne bucket from the bar, and held it out to Salvi, who now had a line of drool hanging from her mouth. Salvi grabbed the bucket with both hands and moved it to her mouth as though she were about to throw up. Panting, she tensed her body, gripped the bucket firmly, then smashed it hard into Erica’s face.
Erica cried out in pain and dropped the data pane as her hands rushed up to the blood gushing from her nose. Salvi lunged upward and smashed the metal ice bucket into her head again and again, until Erica fell back against the drawers, holding her arms up to block the blows. But Salvi didn’t stop. Time was short and lives were on the line.
Erica tried to pivot around Salvi and reached for the data pane on the floor, but Salvi dropped the bucket and threw her arm around Erica’s throat and pulled her back from it. Erica reached back with her hands, clawing at Salvi’s neural devices. Salvi screamed in pain and began punching at the side of Erica’s face. Erica relinquished her grip of the devices and Salvi grabbed her right arm, twisting it high up her back, then slammed her into the wall, then down to the floor. Throwing her weight on top of the woman, Salvi reached out for the metal bucket once more and smashed it into Erica’s head, again and again, until she stopped moving.
Salvi
stared down at the woman’s bloodied head, as her own throbbed heavily and her stomach swirled, and this time she vomited for real. She wiped her hand across her mouth, still panting, as fresh blood dripped down her face from where Erica had clawed at her neural devices. She winced in pain as she glanced around. She didn’t have much time before Travis would arrive. She had to get back to Kara and Bronte and get the hell out of this place. She spied the syringe on the table and quickly leapt up. She grabbed it and stabbed it into Erica’s neck, to ensure the woman, if she woke, would not be in any position to raise an alarm. Once the syringe was emptied, she threw it aside and stepped back.
Now she had to get out of here.
Salvi glanced down at the robe she wore and swiftly tore it off, then set about putting on Erica’s clothes, grateful the dark red nursing uniform hid the blood splatters upon it. Once dressed she used her robe to delicately wipe the blood from around her neural devices. She would not be able to walk the corridors with blood dripping from her temples. She moved for the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She suddenly realized she needed Erica’s access pass.
And that was inside her hand.
Salvi glanced about the room frantically, then she remembered the menu on the wall. She moved it and, with bloodied fingers, tried to order a knife, but it required some sort of access code to confirm payment.
“Fuck!” she hissed, and glanced around again, head still throbbing. She spied the data pane on the chest of drawers, grabbed it, and smashed it down upon the benchtop until it broke into shards. Then she grabbed a shard, clasped it in her fist and moved back to Erica.
She saw a faint scar on her palm indicating where her access device must have been inserted. She pressed the shard into Erica’s hand and cut around until she found the chip she was looking for. Fighting another wave of dizziness and the urge to vomit, she pulled it out, then moved for the door.
But as she did, she caught sight of herself in a small mirror on the wall.
Her neural devices.
She’d wiped the blood away, but there was no hiding the devices themselves. None of the nurses she’d seen with Bronte or Kara had them. Only the security did.
“Shit!” she hissed, looking around frantically again. She shoved the access chip in one pocket and the large shard of data pane glass in the other and began searching through all the drawers for the base stock of costumes Erica had mentioned. Eventually she found a single long dark wig in a drawer. She snatched it out and put it on, crying in pain as she pulled it over her neural devices, which tugged and snagged at her skin, sending a wave of tears down her face.
She moved back to the mirror and checked her reflection. She saw fresh blood smeared near her ears and quickly wiped it and her bloodied hands on her discarded robe, then turned back to the door. She took two deep breaths trying to steady her mind and her body, she had to appear calm, then swiped Erica’s chip over the console with shaky hands.
The door slid back, and Salvi carefully glanced out. She was sweating from the fight with Erica, trying to control her breathing. The corridor was empty, so she slid out and moved swiftly toward the double doors that lead to the back of house rooms she’d awoken in.
She walked with her face tilted down, trying to look cool, calm and collected, in case there were security cameras watching her. As she reached the doors, she took Erica’s chip and swiped it over the console, and they opened. Salvi stepped through, and as she did she saw two figures enter the corridor at the intersection ahead, heading her way. One was dressed in the black uniform of security personnel, the other in civilian clothing. She paused briefly in panic, then swiftly moved to the nearest doorway, swiping Erica’s chip on the panel. As she did, she glanced back at the men, saw the guard looking at his cell phone, but the one in civilian clothing looked right at her.
She saw the gamer tattoo on the side of his face and realized who it was.
Dancell Marks, a.k.a. Dancer.
He had some kind of electronic device around his neck, and another around his ankle and she wondered what they were for, but as the door before her slid open, she quickly stepped inside the darkened room. As the door slid closed, she glanced once more at the approaching men. She saw Dancer staring at her with a furrow in his brow. He’d seen the recognition in her eyes and was trying to place who she was.
The door closed and Salvi’s heart hammered in her chest as she waited a moment to give them time to pass, hoping they would not soon be knocking on her door.
When no knock came, she carefully swiped and opened the door again, to peer out.
She saw Dancer and the guard moving down the corridor. The guard still appeared oblivious, eyes fixed on his cell phone, but Dancer glanced over his shoulder and saw her peering out. Salvi’s breath caught, wondering if he would raise an alarm. He turned to look at the guard, paused briefly, then turned to face the front again and kept on walking like nothing had happened. Salvi’s eyes fell to the device around his neck, then his ankle, and she knew then that Dancer was just as much a prisoner here as she was. If he thought she was up to something, he wasn’t going to stop her. At least, not yet.
“Who are you?” a strange voice behind her said, as white glowing lights blinked on in the darkened room. Salvi spun around.
A woman stood there staring at her, beside a bed with turned back sheets.
At least, it used to be a woman.
It took Salvi a moment to realize the figure in front of her was in fact human, but she’d had a number of modifications made to her body. Not only did she have the neural implant devices on her shaved head, but the rest of her body was covered in various kinds of hardware and shell casing so she looked like what Salvi could only describe as some kind android.
Salvi suddenly turned her eyes to another bed in the corner of the room, surrounded by various machines where lights danced across the consoles. It took her another moment before Salvi realized a second woman lay there hooked up to the machinery. Or was she part of those machines herself? This woman was even more modified than the other, covered almost head to toe in hardware and connected with various cables to a machine beside her bed that seemed to be keeping her alive.
“Who are you?” the android woman asked again. Salvi couldn’t help but stare at her robotic movements – the way she tilted her head. Even her voice sounded stilted, electronic. They had done something to her vocal cords. Salvi couldn’t hide the horror that washed over her.
“W-what did they do to you?” Salvi’s voice came out in a whisper.
The woman straightened her head, but seemed confused by her statement. “I am improved,” she explained, staring at her with a vacant expression. “I am special.”
“You’re a slave,” Salvi blurted.
“No…” the woman clasped her hands in front of her waist. “I am desired.”
Salvi glanced to the woman in the bed, more machine than human, who stared at her equally vacant.
“We are … special,” the machine woman said with her altered voice, between ventilated breaths. Salvi felt awful to think it, but the word ‘monster’ appeared in her mind. These women were no longer human.
Salvi felt more tears prick her eyes as she stared at the machine-meshed woman. She looked back to the standing android woman again, at her neural devices, and Salvi’s head throbbed in empathy. “I’m going to get you out of here. All of you.”
“Why?” the other woman said from the machine-encapsulated bed.
More tears stung Salvi’s eyes, as she wondered just how long these women had been here, how long they had been tortured and brainwashed. She turned back to the door. She had to get to Kara and Bronte, so they could shut this place down.
She peered out. The corridor looked empty. She stepped out and moved swiftly again, remembering the path Erica had taken her before.
But as she neared the intersection, she heard footsteps.
She once more darted to the nearest door, swiped and slid inside again. She glanced behind her, but
this room was empty of people, though it showed signs of being lived in. Salvi wondered where the occupants were, whether they were stuck in the front of house rooms with clients right at this very moment.
She opened the door again to peer out and saw Travis had just walked past the room. She quickly closed the door again and swallowed. In just a few minutes he would discover Erica’s body. She had to move faster.
She opened the door and watched as he disappeared through the double doors into the front of house again. As soon as the door closed, she slid out and moved to the corridor intersection. Seeing it was clear, she turned down the corridor to her left and saw the next set of double doors ahead, which led back to Bronte and Kara.
Then she heard raised voices up ahead, coming from the guard room. She raced to the nearest door again, swiped and slid inside, closing it behind her.
Before her sat a young man, maybe seventeen years old. He wore only a pair of shorts as he sat on his bed staring at the wall. His arms and legs were missing, and in their place were metal replacements. His face turned to hers; his head was adorned with the neural devices, and his eyes held a look of morose acceptance.
Behind her, Salvi heard running footsteps in the corridor. She was sure it was the guards. As soon as they passed she quickly opened the door to peer out and confirm it. She saw the two guards turning right at the intersection in the corridor. It was then she noticed lights flashing overhead.
A silent alarm.
Travis had found Erica.
“You can’t escape,” the young man’s voice said, sounding melancholy. “I’ve tried.”
Salvi glanced back at him, at his metal limbs. “I’m going to get you out of here,” she said firmly. “I promise.”
He stared at her unmoved. “No, you won’t. They’ll just make you regret you ever tried.”
The Sensation Page 27
