Dragon's Mind

by Ehsani, Vered

  Great. Now I was being framed for attempting to murder my own mother. Add that to the list.

  The guard nodded sagely. When she finally exited, my shoulders sagged. I breathed out.

  “Did you know this?” I whispered to the sensor unit in my arms. “That I’m being framed?”

  “Of course.” He sounded amused.

  I wasn’t.

  “And you didn’t think I should know?” I fumed. I decided dropping the unit wouldn’t be enough. Maybe throwing it against a brick wall would knock some sense into it.

  “No.” Dragon’s voice was firm, unapologetic. “By the end of the day, there will be several more lies told about us. We can’t afford to get distracted.”

  He meant we couldn’t afford for me to get distracted.

  He was right. I didn’t have to like it though.

  “Fine,” I grumbled in a clearly not-fine tone.

  The elevator door slid open with a sigh. We’d arrived.

  Show time.

  I approached the first security check leading to the inner zone. A door requiring a retina scan and the card pass.

  “Dragon,” I whispered.

  “I’ve got this.”

  I couldn’t understand how. Surely the hologram wasn’t that sophisticated? Could it really fool the scan? Or was he playing around on the other side?

  “I replaced the records of Lacy’s biometrics with yours,” he answered my thoughts. He had that habit: guessing what I was thinking.

  I allowed myself to be slightly impressed, even though I was still fuming about the lack of information sharing. “So the scanner will read my eye and the records will show it as Lacy? Huh. Slick move.”

  “Thank you.” He was gloating. “Before you go in, remove the Taser.”

  I frowned. What Taser?

  “Remember?” he prompted. “The security guards in the games room.”

  Oh yeah. Security might not be too impressed at seeing that. I opened Lacy’s bag, pulled out my jacket and hesitated. If I left my jacket on the floor, wouldn’t someone notice it?

  Dragon must’ve come to the same conclusion. “Take it in, but leave it on the coat hooks inside the security room.”

  Why had I kept that stupid Taser? I crunched my jacket against my chest. Stuck the card into the slot by the door and placed my eye in front of the scanner.

  “State name,” a computerised voice ordered. It was part of the security system designed only for this zone. It was independent of the systems used in the rest of the building and the city. It was supposed to be independent of Dragon and his influence.

  A bead of sweat stung my eyes. I blinked.

  “It’s alright, Myth,” Dragon reassured me. “Your voice is also part of the biometrics I swapped.”

  That brain thinks of everything.

  I wondered how he’d accessed the inner security system. I gulped. From this stage on, I’d have to talk for Lacy. He’d explained why, but the reason was water vapour in my brain at that moment.

  “State name.” The inhuman voice was disinterested, unemotional.

  I tried to make my voice normal as I stated her name. The various locks of the door disengaged. The door swung open. I gaped at it. I hadn’t remembered until now how solid that thing was. The slab of solid steel was several inches thick.

  It would take a week and a nuclear bomb to break that door open.

  We entered a small, cold room with white, glowing tiles, white-painted walls and a ceiling covered with a metallic grid through which light beamed down. The chairs and one table were shiny metal. Across from us, on the other side of the room, was another metal door. It was closed.

  Several armed guards in black riot gear stood up, watched us. Watched me being Lacy. The door behind us shut with a thud that echoed in my chest. I aimed for casual. I hung my jacket on one of the hooks on the wall, next to a leather security vest. I squeezed the sensor unit against my abdomen.

  “Steady, girl,” Dragon murmured in my ear. “Say as little as possible. Speak slowly so I can keep up with the hologram’s mouth.”

  I gritted my teeth. I so wanted to make some snarly comment. Starting with: I’m not a girl; I’m a woman. Ending with, I don’t need a babysitter.

  I kept quiet. One of the guards approached while the others shifted their weapons casually. Nothing casual about those weapons. I’d been here a few times before. I didn’t remember this number of guards.

  “ID, ma’am,” the guard requested politely.

  A dribble of sweat slid around my ear, down my neck. It tickled, begging to be itched. I left it and showed Lacy’s ID.

  The guard looked at the photo, glanced up at me, looked down again. Did that several times until I wanted to scream. Did the hologram image flicker? Was he noticing something? Feeling my guilt? Smelling the sweat collecting under my armpits, the back of my neck? What? What was it?

  The guard smiled, handed back the ID and gestured for me to continue. A screening device squatted in the middle of the room, a large metal bug and just as ugly. My tongue was like Velcro against the top of my mouth. I pulled out my water bottle and drank. Didn’t help much. I dumped the bag on the conveyor belt. Watched as it rolled into the gaping mouth. I hesitated. If I placed the sensor unit in there, would the hologram still work?

  “Ma’am, that can’t go through,” another guard told me.

  I breathed out, my shoulders relaxing. He indicated for me to put the unit down on a table.

  “Please leave it there,” he ordered. “You can retrieve it on your way out. Step into the body scanner.”

  “Ah…” I tried not to frown or make any sudden facial movements. “I need this unit,” I said. “It’s for maintenance. Part of my job. It has to go in.” Tried to say that slowly. Not sure I managed.

  “Sorry, ma’am.” He shook his head. I heard a couple other guards shift around. Probably aiming their guns at my back, wondering if I was going to cause trouble. “No electronic devices allowed in. That includes your cellphone and earpiece.”

  Great. Just great.

  “And your water bottle as well.”

  Huh? I stared at him. Last time I checked, water was not an electronic device. I kept that piece of snark to myself.

  “What about this?” I pointed at the small cart with tools on it.

  The guard lifted the cart onto the conveyor belt and into the mouth of the scanner. Just tools. Nothing overly sharp or explosive or watery. He checked under the cover, took pieces out, and inspected them one by one. Took his sweet time about it. We didn’t have a lot of time. Eventually, he nodded.

  “You know what to do,” Dragon whispered. “You’ll be just fine. I know you can do this.”

  I could barely hear him. He was trying to tell me I could do this all on my own, trying to make me feel better.

  It wasn’t working.

  “Remember,” he continued. “Her shift in the room is scheduled for one hour. Any longer than that, the guards will investigate.”

  Brilliant.

  “And Lacy will probably start waking up about then as well,” he reminded me.

  Wow, can this get any better? I gritted my teeth.

  I yanked out the earpiece, almost snapping it in half. Tossed it on the table. It landed beside the sensor unit, my phone and my water bottle with a metallic ping.

  I was on my own.

  Chapter 15: Myth

  Stiff and breathing loud, I shuffled toward the body scanner. It looked like a metal shower cubicle. As soon as I entered, the hologram image dissolved.

  They couldn’t really see me. I kept telling myself that. Just checking for weapons, metal, chemicals and whatever else I might be trying to hide. Obviously, not my water bottle. What a lethal weapon that was. Good thing they found it and confiscated it. Might have spilled it on the tiles and caused someone to slip.

  I kept my face down, letting my hair swoosh over. Good thing Lacy also had longish hair. Pretended my shoes were really fascinating. Maybe they should’ve confiscated
the shoelaces. I could use those to strangle someone.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” a security guard said.

  I stepped out the other side, still keeping my head lowered. I couldn’t tell if the hologram was up again. Couldn’t take that risk. I grabbed Lacy’s bag, pushed the cart ahead of me and stood in front of the second door.

  This time, the door unlocked with a scan of the other eye and my thumb. As soon as I entered, it gently slammed shut. I was in the central control room.

  For all its importance to the city, the room itself wasn’t that impressive. Small, with the same glowing white tiles and metal grid overhead. A panel of screens, a couple computer stations, an array of digital monitors keeping constant records on how MindOpS and all the city systems were functioning. Thousands of parameters were measured every second. In one corner, tucked between two life support pillars, was…

  “Hello, Lacy,” Dragon greeted me.

  My eyes widened. There was hope after all. I jumped forward, about to say something. Stopped.

  He’d called me Lacy.

  In the quiet, I tried to remember what other security measures there were. Squinted in thought. Remembered. My eyes widened even further. There was an audio feed from this room to the guards. My hands smacked my face to cover it. Ouch. That cleared my memory further. There was no visual feed, to prevent a guard from giving away the secrets of this room. No way for anyone else to learn what was done and how.

  No way for them to see my real face.

  I let go of my breath. I was safe. For now.

  “Hello, MindOpS,” I replied, my voice neutral, uninterested. The way you’d talk to a microwave or TV, if you’re in the habit of talking to inanimate objects.

  I approached the tank in the corner. It was so insignificant looking. Amazing to realise that what was inside that fish tank controlled the systems of an entire city, with the assistance of various software.

  Fish tank wasn’t really a good description. Most fish tanks weren’t made of a flexible, jelly-like material and covered in thick, bullet proof, metal plating. The small, palm sized window left uncovered had a layer of bulletproof glass as thick as my arm, just in case.

  I couldn’t even bring a bottle of water inside, forget about a gun.

  I peered through the window. Inside the metal casing and the flexible surface of the tank was the centre of the control centre. Thick, clear solution cushioned the home of Dragon’s amazing mind: the brain. It floated in the middle of the aquarium.

  Like the room, it wasn’t large. It didn’t have to be. Seven probes stuck out of the grey, wrinkled mass. Those probes connected the brain to the world outside that tank. Touching the jelly-like surface, they pulsed bits of electronic information to the network of fibre wrapped around the tank, underneath the metal. Like a network of veins. That network condensed into the control panel on the surface of the metal, before jumping to the panels of the control room and out to the city.

  The tank sat within a portable unit built into a cart. If it was disconnected from the main control panel, it could still broadcast Dragon’s commands within this building. If it was disconnected from the life-support pillars for any reason, it had an internal support system. According to the manufacturer’s tests and modeling, this internal system could function on its own, keeping the brain alive for several months.

  Since Dragon had been installed, it hadn’t been tested for more that a few minutes at a time.

  I was about to change all that.

  Installing the tank had taken a team of scientists and lab techies several hours. I glanced at the digital clock on one of the screens. I had just under one hour to uninstall. Unlike that team, I’d been trained by Dragon himself. Still, only one hour…

  I started with the alarm. Figured that was a good idea, right? Once I disconnected the external support system, an alarm would ring. Part of the security system that was out of Dragon’s control.

  I kept glancing at the clock. Time dissolved faster than cotton candy in the mouth, but not as sweet. Alarm done, forty minutes left. Minutes mutated into seconds. I wiped at my damp face with a sleeve.

  Was it hot in the room, or was it just me? I could sure use that water now.

  I started on the life support pillars next. Those were surprisingly easy, considering they were keeping alive the brain of the city. Still, it took almost half an hour. Fifteen minutes left.

  I checked the readings on the tank. Internal support system operating just fine. Self-sufficiency reading: three months, fifteen days.

  I sent up a silent prayer we wouldn’t need all that time. While I was praying, I added one for Sana’s emergency backup systems because we were about to seriously test those, too. Assuming we managed to escape from the building. Once outside, the portable unit wouldn’t be able to transmit orders unless it was plugged back online again.

  And that might not happen. Then again, we also might not escape.

  I went to the main control panel and initiated a disconnect with the tank system.

  Request denied.

  I glared at the message beeping at me. How could my request be denied? All I wanted to do was remove the brain operating every important (and a few unimportant) systems in the city. Why would anyone deny me such a reasonable request?

  Hey, it was either sarcasm or scream.

  I figured the guards might be alarmed if I suddenly screamed.

  Manual it is then.

  I marched back to the tank. It would take longer but it would get done. Just wasn’t sure it could get done in (glancing at the clock) thirteen minutes.

  I kept my eyes away from that clock. My fingers flew over the small control panel, over the plugs and cables and other bits connecting Dragon to everywhere and everything.

  One last piece remaining.

  “Ma’am. How’s it going in there?”

  I jumped up, slapped my hands on my face to hide my non-Lacy-ness. I was still alone. I glanced towards the door. A small, wall speaker crackled slightly. They were waiting for my response.

  “Fine,” I gasped. “Uh… just another minute. Without my unit, taking longer, you know.”

  The speaker went quiet. The clock ticked off another minute. I pushed my tool cart into the corner in between the two life-support pillars, the tool box tucked into one of the shelves. Not quite tank-like, but enough if anyone took a quick glance inside. They’d see a cart and hopefully would assume it was the correct cart.

  I placed the tool cart covering over the tank’s portable unit. Stood up. Tried to breathe. Tried again. That worked better. I still sounded like I was about to have a heart attack. I rolled the covered cart towards the steel door.

  “Goodbye, Lacy,” Dragon said, his tone flat.

  “Thank you, MindOpS,” I replied.

  My voice wobbled. The guards would definitely hear it. Maybe one of them had already realised that Lacy’s voice sounded strange today. Maybe they were waiting for me, in that small white and metallic room, weapons at the ready, facing the door.

  Shut up and move.

  Eye and thumb scan. The door swung open. Kept my head down, hair flopping. Had the sensor unit reactivated the hologram? Maybe, but I couldn’t risk it.

  Staring at the floor, I grabbed the earpiece, shoved it back in.

  “The hologram is on.”

  I had difficulty hearing him, he was so quiet. Plus a phone was ringing. Even still, I wanted to laugh and cry and hug the sensor unit.

  I scooped up my phone, my dangerous water bottle and the unit. Hugged the unit discreetly. Headed for the door, grabbed my jacket. The cart rolled ahead of me. Put my other eye to the scan, slipped the access card in.

  “Ma’am,” one of the guards called me. “Just one minute. Could you sit here please? This won’t take long.”

  “Oh no,” Dragon whispered.

  Oh no? What does he mean, ‘oh no’? We can’t afford an ‘oh no’.

  “Myth, don’t listen. Get out that door. Now.”

  I softly stat
ed Lacy’s full name.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw a guard approach, his weapon swinging towards me. Not so casual now. “Ma’am, get away from that door.”

  Dragon’s voice continued. He sounded as close to frantic as he could sound. “They’re about to lock it down. Jasper tracked Lacy through her cellphone. They know you’re an imposter. Run.”

  Chapter 16: Dragon

  The door swings open. I can’t make it go any faster. Myth doesn’t wait for it to open completely or for the approaching guards to grab her. Shoving the cart through the narrow entrance, she runs.

  This floor has no service tunnels, secret or otherwise. It is below ground, so it has no windows. The entire floor is earthquake, fire and bomb proof. The only way out is the way we came in. They will try to shut down the elevator. First, they have to override my system with the independent one.

  I won’t make it easy for them. But I can’t stop them, and they’ve already initiated the protocol.

  “Myth, we have three minutes and ten seconds to get the elevator to the ground floor,” I say, trying to keep any trace of concern out of my voice. I don’t want her to panic any further.

  An alarm blasts through the building.

  “Really?” she pants as she slides around the corner. I hope my tank is tightly secured to that cart. “A whole three minutes and ten seconds? And here I was thinking we were running out of time.”

  Sarcasm. Teenagers.

  She careens into the elevator as I initiate movement. The doors slide closed right behind her. She doesn’t seem to notice we’re going up. She keeps punching at the ground floor button.

  “Sarcasm isn’t necessary,” I tell her. “Neither is demolishing that button.”

  She opens her mouth to retort back, probably with another snarky comment. The elevator lurches to a halt. The cart with my brain slams into Myth. She groans, bends over, almost drops the sensor unit.

  “Myth, are you hurt?” I’m now experiencing another unusual emotion: regret. I shouldn’t have involved her. I had no choice, but still, she shouldn’t be here.