[Proteus means you’re unconscious. In fact, you’re in a deep coma, Julie, and you’re lying on the floor.]
Should I be worried?
[No, Julie Crane.]
[We’ll worry for you,] SAM added.
She doesn’t like the sound of that. Terrific, SAM. Julie sighs and sits down cross-legged in the grass, amidst the wildflowers. Will I come out of it?
[We are not certain, Julie Crane.]
[Proteus means that you plunged so deeply into your trance, you may not be able to come out. You might be trapped in here with us, forever. Know any good jokes?]
Terrific.
[You keep saying that. Are you sure you know what it means?]
Funny, SAM. He said that in earnest twelve years ago and hearing it now, said with sarcasm, makes her smile, despite her desperate situation. Perhaps, it isn’t so desperate, she thinks after a while. Nothing seems desperate in here...Leaning her elbows on her knees, she tilts her head and cups her face in her left hand. What’s happening out there?
[We can show you, if you want.]
Julie scrambles back to her feet. How, SAM?
[I’ll ask Proteus to stimulate the right angular gyrus in the back of your brain. It’ll trigger an out-of-body sensation. You might be able to see something if you aren’t too far-gone.]
Okay. Let’s try it.
Within a few heartbeats, she found herself floating above herself in the A.I. core. It was an incredible sensation, both thrilling and frightening at once. Julie saw herself lying on her back on the floor beside one of the A.I.-core cylinders, with her eyes closed. She looked calm, as if she was asleep and enjoying a good dream. Victor, looking far from calm, stood in front of her with Zane, facing six Pols led by Frank and Gaia. Julie inspected Gaia closely and saw that the woman looked exactly like she had twelve years ago when Julie first met her at Kraken’s party. Just as beautiful, and just as sinister.
“I told you to step aside, Victor,” Gaia was saying in a crisp voice. “It’s a little late for misplaced heroics now. Besides, we know that trait doesn’t suit you. You’re a born spectator, Victor.”
“You’ll have to get past me,” Victor said truculently, even though his voice shook. He looked terrified, yet he stood his ground.
“We’ll see about that,” Gaia said coolly. She whipped out a snub gun from inside her tunic, paused just long enough to find satisfaction in the look of horror on his face, then she shot him in the chest.
Victor gasped then fell as Julie shrieked. “NO!” No one heard her. SAM! Do something!
Zane shrank back and stared at Gaia. “You shot him!”
Gaia slipped the gun back into the folds of her tunic and smiled glacially. “It’s just a concussion-burn. He’ll wake up with a large headache and a painful burn. Easily remedied by nuergery. Now,” she turned to Frank. “Let’s get her out of here to the Med-Center.”
“What about the A.I.-core?” Frank asked.
Gaia looked annoyed. “We’ll just have to deal with it later. Perhaps Ms. Crane can be persuaded to shut it down to save her friends.” Gaia glanced at Victor’s crumpled body next to Julie’s. “Take Burke and Nakita into custody. Toss them in a cell.”
Zane looked stunned. “Me? But I’m—”
“More valuable to me in a cell,” Gaia finished for him. “Crane seems to have developed an illogical compassion for you two off-beats, though how she managed that is beyond me.” Then she frowned thoughtfully. “Although I do recall that she showed a tendency for making friends with lost and pathetic souls. Or perhaps she simply has poor taste in men,” she ended sourly.
“I don’t believe this is happening!” Zane shouted indignantly, panic edging into his shrill voice, as two Pols seized him. Two others hoisted Victor, moaning, up by the armpits and proceeded to drag him down the hall. Satisfied that all was in hand, Gaia pivoted on her heel and left with the Pols.
Frank directed the remaining Pols to pick up Julie’s prone figure by the shoulders and legs. “Careful with her!” he barked at them. As they bent to pick her up, a scuffling sound and a loud crash down the hall startled them into stopping. Frank turned. Julie, floating above, turned her head to see.
Three cloaked men and a woman with scarred and tattooed faces swaggered around the corner, aiming large laser rifles at them. They’d obviously dispatched the four Pols carrying Victor and Zane. Victor, who’d been dragged back, was unceremoniously dropped to the floor with a grunt of pain and Zane was pushed in front of them.
One of the Vee-radicators stepped forward. He was holding a markedly unhappy Gaia at gunpoint. A large man with no lips and insane eyes, he looked twice the size of the stern administrator, yet, true to character, Gaia maintained her poise even as his massive arm strangled her and he pressed a gun against her head. She looked only mildly annoyed instead of terrified like Zane, who was sweating profusely beside her. He obviously felt safer with the Pols than with the Vee-radicators.
“Drop your weapons,” barked the large ruffian holding Gaia. “Or I splatter her beautiful head all over the A.I.-core.”
“Drop them!” Frank ordered his remaining Pols. He drilled the leader with cold eyes. “What do you want?”
“Her.” The ugly man pointed with his chin to Julie’s unconscious body on the floor. “The witch.”
Julie finally spotted who she was looking for and drew in a sharp breath. Even under his cloak Julie recognized Daniel’s familiar figure. He stood shivering, just behind the leader who held Gaia.
I’m up here, Julie tried to say. Oh, Daniel...
“You can’t have her,” Frank said with a sneer. Julie saw Gaia flinch, but the woman recovered rapidly and watched the proceedings with glacial calm, as though unconcerned for her own welfare.
“Shit, your own Head Pol doesn’t give a crap for you,” the Vee-radicator scoffed and shook Gaia hard. “What do you think of that?”
She grimaced and grabbed his thick arm for balance but otherwise maintained her cool, saying nothing.
The burly man aimed his insane eyes back at Frank. “If you don’t give the witch to us, we’ll just have to take her.” Still clutching Gaia, he spun and nudged Daniel forward. Daniel stumbled. “Get moving, lover-boy,” the Vee-radicator snapped, spittle flying out of his misshapen mouth.
Swallowing, Daniel shuffled toward Julie’s prone figure.
“Don’t come any closer, Woods,” Frank snarled and lifted his gun. “No one moves her, not even you.”
“She’s my wife,” Daniel said. But he stopped, his face a tangle of conflicting emotions and fears. He stared longingly at Julie lying peacefully on the floor, then his face cleared and with a strangely serene expression he squared his shoulders and added, “I’ve come to take her home with me,” and walked the remaining steps toward her. Did he really mean that, Julie wondered. Joy and fear clashed inside her. Frank didn’t shoot, though he kept his gun trained on Daniel.
“Okay, lover-boy, bring her here,” the Vee-radicator leader commanded. “Let’s go!”
Daniel knelt beside Julie and brought his face close to hers. He stroked her cheek then whispered something to her that only she could hear...
43
[Hello, Angel], a pleasant male voice says behind her. Still inside her jeweled hallway, Angel turns and beholds an ethereal image of a young man who looks like a cross between Manfred and Aard. His young, extremely handsome features are grizzled with a young beard and a tussle of dark blond hair. Surrounded by a purple aura, the boy-man floats suspended just above the floor.
Who are you?
[I’m SAM,] the boy-man grins. [Your mother’s AI.]
Awesome! Angel crows with delight. But you look a little like...she trails, cocking her head sideways with curiosity and inexplicable embarrassment.
[This is what you hoped to see and therefore how you imagine me,] SAM says, his grin
askew. [Odd, how your mother never conjured a physical image of me—I think she was a little afraid of what or whom she might come up with.] He snorts a laugh. Then he grows pensive and his eyes look afar, as if to fond but sad memories. He turns serious eyes on Angel, [More like she was afraid to go that far, afraid of her own reactions, of where she might end up.]
But why are you here? Didn’t my mother...Angel persists, didn’t she...Angel lapses, unable to come up with an alternative to the word “kill”.
[Kill me?] SAM plants his hands on his hips with a nod then shakes his head with a slight frown. [Trust me, I’ll be having a good chat with her about that.]
So, why can I talk to you now? Angel prompted.
SAM pulls his head back and grins, teeth glinting like the jewels above them. [Because your mother just put me back on line,] he says joyfully. [Just like you, she’s in an ecstatic trance right now because of it. She’s so fickle, just like a human, shutting me off, turning me on. Does she love me or does she hate me?] For a brief moment SAM looks genuinely perplexed. [Anyway, the reason you can talk to me at all is because of Proteus. Since you joined with Proteus, it’s aligned your brainwaves to receive my quantum signals.]
[We do not have much time] Proteus’s multi-timbral voice descends over them.
SAM looks up and his handsome face darkens. [Yes, to the matter at hand, the reason I came,] SAM says with grim urgency. [Angel, you and I have much to do in short order. Listen carefully...]
***
Angel drifted slowly awake, imagining she was lying in her old cot in the cabin in the heath. But the smell was all wrong and so was her position; the disappointment crushed her as full consciousness flooded in and she realized she wasn’t home. With it came the memory of her recent dream-vision and she snapped her eyes open to find Manfred leaning over her with a stricken look on his face. It immediately brightened. “Chaos! You’re not dead, then,” he whispered, straightening up and looking self-conscious.
Suddenly remembering where she was, Manfred’s hideout, Angel raised herself on her elbows from the desk where the vee-com sat and saw several strangers standing around them watching her with concern. Two boys and a girl, all about Manfred’s age. “What’s going on?” she asked Manfred, wiping the sleep from her eyes and sitting up.
“Manfred found you collapsed over the desk with the vee-com still on,” the girl explained before Manfred had a chance to answer.
“Chaos, you looked dead!” the larger boy offered.
“Oh,” Angel smiled suddenly at Manfred. “I was just joining with Proteus. It’s a trance and it said I’d look dead for a little while,” she ended with a sheepish smile.
“Hey,” Manfred said with sudden gruffness and blushing to Angel’s amazement. “You gave us a real scare.” Then his dark eyes softened and his voice grew tender, “Don’t do that again without telling someone, okay?”
Angel nodded and smiled reassuringly. “Okay.”
He nodded back, looking self-conscious again. “Okay.” He wrung his hands together. “Well, these are my friends,” he said, making a sweeping gesture with his hand. He pointed to the bulky boy with cropped bright yellow hair and sparse dark facial hair, as though he were trying very hard to grow a beard. “That’s Po.”
Po nodded to her with a hint of a smile and she smiled back in greeting.
Manfred pointed to the smaller boy about her age with spiked crimson hair that looked like petrified flames. “That’s Tim.”
Tim stretched his hand over the table like a shotgun to shake hers and blinked hard several times. “Hi, Angel,” he said.
She took his hand and found his grip weak but energetic. “Hi.”
“And I’m Jenna.” The girl with short slick black hair leaned forward to greet Angel before Manfred had a chance to point to her. She looked the oldest, and could have been in her late teens or early twenties. She had a very pretty face with eyes the colour of a blue-green lake on a summer day.
“Hi,” Angel said. “So you guys are veemelds too?”
“Yup!” Tim said. “We’re the crazy ones because we hear things in our heads just like you!”
Angel fought from wincing at his strident words. Everything Tim said seemed edged with exclamation. He’d looked at her like an exclamation mark and pushed his face forward like a missal. It made her a little nervous, but he was nice enough otherwise.
Manfred shrugged and offered Angel a wincing smile. “I told them all about you.” Then he leaned over the desk. “What were you searching on the vee-com?”
“Gaia.” She looked at him intently. “You’ll be interested to hear what I found. Plus I just got some ‘inside’ information from a very reliable source that will curl your toes.” She felt the edge of urgency rising as thoughts of SAM’s warning returned. “We don’t have much time, Manfred. We have to find a Circle member fast.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said, his eyes flashing like a wild cougar. “I’ve had a long talk with my dad and I need to take you to him.”
Angel winced with misgiving and searched Manfred’s eyes for the truth. Did he intend to turn her in? Carl worked for Gaia, after all.
44
Julie felt herself stirring as if out of a very deep sleep. She was no longer floating above them but lying on something hard among them. Drawing in a deep, sighing breath she forced her heavy eyelids open and was greeted by Daniel’s concerned face looking down at her. She gave him a crooked smile and he returned it with one of his dimpled grins.
“Welcome to the living, my love,” he breathed softly, eyes glistening. His lips alighted on hers briefly. As he pulled away, she saw his face pinch into a tangle of tortured feelings and he said in a broken voice, “Angel is...I...she’s...”
“I know,” Julie said softly and touched his lips with her fingers. “We’ll find her.”
He nodded, tight mouth and glowing eyes betraying doubt. Then with some urgency he said, “Can you get up?”
“I think so,” she replied and pushed herself up on her elbows.
He pulled her up with him and held her in his arms. Apart from a brief, giddy wave, she felt fine. More than fine, she thought, looking into his loving eyes.
“Now, Woods! Bring her to us!” the Vee-radicator leader barked, his arm still clenched around Gaia and his gun still pressed against her head. Gaia didn’t seem to notice and looked directly at Julie with great interest.
“I said NOW!” the leader yelled, spit flying out of his lipless mouth. Julie felt her body stiffen with doubt.
“No, Washington,” Daniel answered in a calm voice, arm snug around Julie’s waist. “I’m taking my wife home.”
“Asshole!” Washington growled, his snarling face twisted with conflicting needs.
Daniel smiled faintly, like he had a secret. Julie felt her body prickle as her danger sense spiked. Washington swore loudly and pushed Gaia off him. Still pointing the gun generally in her direction, he fumbled at his stomach for something and had to look down.
Abruptly Daniel gasped and broke his hold from Julie. His mouth fell open in a silent scream and he fell writhing to the floor. His whole body convulsed violently, gripped by artificially-induced seizure. Julie couldn’t even get near him because his limbs flayed out madly like an epileptic.
The loud crack of a pistol shot stunned them. Daniel’s convulsions abruptly ceased and he curled into a whimpering heap as Washington hit the ground with a hard thud. Julie saw Gaia slip a gun into the folds of her tunic with a satisfied smile as Frank and the two Pols took advantage of the confusion by dispatching the remaining Vee-radicators.
Julie knelt down beside Daniel and touched his face with both hands. His eyes flickered open and he tried to smile at her, deathly pale and still trembling. He moved his lips several times before finally forcing the words out in a hoarse stammer, “W-Washington put a device inside me to keep me from escaping or
helping you once we found you.”
Julie nodded. She firmed her lips, maintaining her composure, as her nostrils flared with anger. She blinked back tears of vindication and asked him, “Can you get up, sweetheart?”
He nodded and she helped him get up shakily to his feet. Once again, they found themselves surrounded by Pols.
***
“Nothing like a little excitement to get the blood moving, eh?” Langor said to Julie, pointedly ignoring Daniel. “Enervating, wasn’t it?”
“I think you mean ‘energizing’, not enervating,” Julie corrected. “It’s the opposite meaning, Frank.”
Despite the sharp pain in his chest that made it hard to breathe, Victor felt a hysterical laugh surge up and gasped it out from his curled position on the floor. Through a haze of semi-consciousness he’d witnessed Julie’s arousal from her deep sleep and the scuffle and eventual overpowering of the Vee-radicators by the Pols. Now that he was fully conscious, his chest burned like someone was pulling his heart out through his rib cage. Through it all, though, he still managed to feel joy for Julie’s recovery and humor at her jibe at Langor.
After a menacing glance at Victor, Langor aimed dagger-eyes at Julie and snarled, “I hated it when you did that before, and I hate it now!”
Gaia touched Langor’s arm with an indulgent look a mother would give her child. “Still your mind, Langor that’s exactly the reaction she’s after. It’s a ploy to unsettle you, play on your insecurities.” Her shiny ruby lips curled into a chilling mockery of a smile and an eyebrow flexed upward. “A very successful technique too,” she added, eyes meeting Julie’s with new respect.
Julie looked annoyed at Gaia’s interpretation of what Victor recognized as a nervous reaction. He’d know—he admitted to many such reactions himself. Maybe she had meant to unsettle Langor, but it probably hadn’t been consciously done.
“I’m curious,” Gaia continued. “Did you finally join with Proteus?”
Julie returned Gaia’s glacial look with her own fiery glare. “If you’re wondering whether you could ever use Proteus through me or Angel, think again,” she said sharply. “Neither of us would ever do what you want us to. Neither will Proteus.”
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