Owen’s looked up in shock.
“Who is that?”
“A young man who had been meddling, trying to find out what happened to you it seems, but that’s beside the point. He has many augmentations and implants that I believe him to be a wonderful subject zero for the dispersal system.”
“I see,” Owens was running a bioscan of the body already using the tables internal scanners. “You’re right he does, with his systems connected, he would be able to spread the poison to almost ninety percent of the boulevard within minutes.”
“Not poison, elixir,” Jacob corrected.
“Sure Jacob, sure,” the defeat was audible.
“Don’t be so downhearted Owens, this is what you always wanted, a way to reach the whole population and have an influence on their lives,” Jacob said.
Owens just nodded and continued his work.
“I shall return soon, I need that code complete and ready for testing within the day,” Jacob turned to leave. “I’m counting on you.”
Owens waited until Jacob had left, the door closing and locking behind him, before letting out a long and heavy sigh. He couldn't help but continue to work.
Jacob had returned to the church in time to see the arrival of Mr Tombs.
“I assume you have returned as you have located the clone and wanted to tell me the good news in person?” Jacob said, sarcasm dripping.
“I’m afraid not Father, we traced him to Razz’s radio station, but he got away again. We believe the Razz has assisted him in getting them away.”
“That damned hippy. I should have killed him years ago,” he took a breath and composed himself. “Do we know where he may have gone?”
“Unsure at the moment, we’ve got people searching the area in a sweep to try to get a lead,” Tombs replied.
“I feel we may have underestimated this one, it may take a more direct approach in order for us to find him. Be ready to leave in five minutes.”
“Where are we heading?”
“To the beginning,” Jacob replied. “We will need the original.”
Tombs nodded and left to arrange the transport. Jacob walked to his office and opened a safe which lay in the wall. Inside, he pulled out a key, long and metallic, it was the kind that could have been used decades ago in large ornate doorways. Attached to the key was a long thread which Jacob used to put the key around his neck, hiding it under his shirt and out of view.
He exited the church where Tombs was waiting in a car. Tombs would have to drive as the autocabs didn’t venture out as far as they would be going.
“Are you ready sir?” He asked as Jacob entered.
“Yes, let us waste no time, things are in motion which cannot be stopped, and this needs to be sorted to avoid interruption,” Jacob replied, and the car pulled away.
The journey wouldn’t take long but it would take them to the outskirts of BitVillage, just beyond the main border and close to the barren lands which lay past them. No one ventured into the barren lands anymore, the radiation was too high for anyone to survive for long, even with specialised equipment.
The houses became more and more sparse until all that was around them was the occasional shack. The residents were people who had succumbed to radiation poisoning and their descendants, as such they had various biological defects. The roads became smaller and soon only dirt roads, a sparse landscape surrounding them. A low mist clung to the ground, hiding the dead vegetation which refused to grow.
Jacobs and Tombs hadn’t been out this far since they began the work at the church, when Jacobs needed test subjects for the initial versions of the elixir.
They pulled up to a shack just before the danger zone of radiation. It stood alone and abandoned from the others, a green-hued mist filled the air, an aftereffect of the radiation seeping into the world. There wasn’t anyone about but they couldn’t help but feel they were being watched from somewhere.
Tombs opened the door to the shack and stepped in first, followed by Jacob. Inside there was little of notice, a few wooden floorboards and an old decaying table was all the room offered. As far as any of the locals would see ,it was abandoned. On the far wall however, a small hole at chest level was slightly out of place, Jacob headed towards it.
He pulled the key from under his shirt and inserted it, one turn and a click echoed in the room. The wall shifted and fell inwards as a hidden door opened, revealing a staircase heading down.
Until now, neither man had spoke, the silence of the place was claustrophobic, oppressing, any sounds felt like an insult to the surrounding air. Jacob spoke in a hushed tone when he turned to Tombs.
“Wait here, I won‘t be long.”
He began his descent until he arrived at a large glass window, inside was a bed, a bathroom and a desk. Laying on the prisons bed was a man, whilst not unhealthy, he had the look of someone who hadn’t eaten a decent meal for a long time.
“Hello Peter,” Jacob said.
It took a moment before the man raised his head, looking around him as if he was trying to see if the voice was from a real person or someone in his mind again.
“I’m here Peter, it’s Jacob,” his voice soft.
“Why?” Was all Peter could say.
“I, need something from you Peter,” Jacob spoke as if talking to a child.
“No, no more. You’ve had everything from me,” Peter got angry.
“I know, you have given so much already Peter, but this is the last thing I will need from you.”
“Then I can be free?” Peter asked, half mocking as he doubted this to be the case.
“I can promise you freedom Peter, freedom from this prison,” Jacob said, looking around the room. He saw the tubes which Peter had to inject into himself to receive sustenance via automated dispensers which were hooked up to another shack.
“You left me here to die Jacob, why should I help you?”
“You know why I had to do it Peter, your mind was becoming too unstable to keep you safe.”
“My mind which you sabotaged,” Peter banged his fists on the glass, glaring at Jacob.
“I know Peter, and I’m so sorry for all that has happened. This isn’t what I wanted,” Jacob got closer to the glass.
“When we started the process, we thought we would revolutionize the world.”
“My mind, sometimes I still get fragments seeping through.”
“They could be fragments, perhaps small memories of before.”
“No, they’re new, I know it.”
“Well, that’s why I’m here, I need you to connect again Peter, we need to trace one.”
“Which?” Peter said.
“The first, Prime. He’s escaped and I worry he might be starting to lose control.”
“Prime? He’s lasted this long?” Peter’s eyes widened.
“Yes Peter, you remember him don’t you? The first we created, after we cut your mind out of the loop, he continued to function perfectly. He took to the new artificial controller without a hitch. But now it seems that there is something wrong, and he continued to keep memories. He must have felt so lost and afraid, he ran, and we are worried he may have killed.”
“Like I did, perhaps he is becoming like me. If the underlying personalities are still there, buried inside, he could be just like me!”
“Exactly my worries Peter, which is why I need you to connect again, regain the control and find him before it’s too late.”
Peter had stood up and was pacing the room, his mind had kicked back into gear after being stagnated in the cell.
“We need to find him, if he has even half of my psyche then he could be extremely dangerous out there.”
“Excellent, I knew you’d understand Peter. If you are ready, we’ll get you out of here and back to the facility.”
Peter nodded.
CHAPTER 29
Julian
Julian woke, his internal immune systems had processed the sedative Jacob had injected.
“Where the hell?�
� He said as he focused on the ceiling above him, it was all stone with a large light centred above him.
“Ah hello,” a voice came from across the room. “Glad to see you’re awake.”
Julian moved his head to the side, his limbs were still stiff. He saw a man working at a computer.
“Who are you?” Julian asked, testing his legs.
“Good question, it’s complicated,” Owens said, walking over to help Julian stand. “But I’m as much a prisoner here as you are before you think I’m your captor.”
“Jacob,” Julian said,
“Yes, now he is your captor, and mine.”
“Why?” Julian asked.
“Why you? Well, he wants me to test a new dispersal method of anti-technology toxin on you and if it’s successful, to use your implanted connections, which we’ll bypass in the toxin injection, to increase the dispersal into the airwaves so it can reach maximum population density. And why me, because I can use the biological sequencing which he had developed into the toxin and recreate the same effects in a digital code which will infiltrate anyone with tech that has been synced with their biology, which, lets face it, is pretty much everyone."
Julian just stared at Owens.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been cooped up in here a while now and I hate not being able to talk.”
“And who are you?”
“Like I said, it’s complicated, but in here,” he tapped his head, “I am Maxwell Owens, but I have no idea whose body this is.”
“Maxwell Owens? Of CyBio?” Julian asked.
“Yes, that’s right,” Owens smiled at being recognised.
“But you’re dead? I was tracking down your body.”
“Ah yes, that’s the complicated part. Jacob, I think, killed me, but saved my mind and put it inside a cloned body to force me to work on this code for him.” Owens was surprised how simple it sounded when he said it out loud.
“Right…” Julian was processing the information.
“I think that brings us up to speed here,” Owens said.
“Wait wait,” Julian was just catching up. “What does this code do?”
“Oh, see it forces the body's immune system to reject all forms of foreign body, such as implants and the like.”
“Shit, that’s… powerful,” Julian couldn’t describe it any other way.
“It is, and dangerous. This will bring the whole population back decades of evolution,” Owens agreed. “Which is why I’m trying really hard to find a loophole I can exploit in this so Jacob won’t win. If I don’t create the code, he’ll destroy any hope I have of getting my body back. Well, a clone of my own body at least.”
Julian rubbed his eyes with his hands as he listened.
“Have you tried to communicate with anyone?”
“Of course, but this place is completely locked down for all signals. He must use the same dampeners we had at CyBio to prevent external attacks on our systems.”
“That’s what Yuri must have had in the car,” Julian said to himself.
“Yuri? You spoke to him?” Owens grabbed Julian's shoulders.
“Sure, he kidnapped me to ask for help to find your body.”
“Really?!”
“Why is that surprising?” Julian asked.
Owens walked away from Julian and paced the room.
“Yuri wouldn’t normally leave the office unless something was seriously wrong. I guess he has been alone since my death.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yuri is our resident AI at CyBio, that’s what makes him such a great P.R. Man, he can see trends in data and analyze them at speeds no human ever could. We gave him a body so he could literally interface with people and be the face of the company, but he never existed outside of the main servers.”
“Wait, so the guy who kidnapped me was, what, a robot?”
“Kind of, we call them synthetics, there were only a couple we had made so far, Yuri and Ava. Yuri was the first AI integration synthetic whereas Ava we had implanted memories from my deceased wife.”
Julian had only just got used to the idea of Owens being inside a cloned body's. Now he had to imagine the possibility of AI controlled synthetics,
“Quartzig, man I wish he could hear this,” Julian said.
“Who?”
“My AI, Quartzig, I developed him myself, he’d love to have his own body.”
“Well, unless we can stop Jacob, there will be little Bio-Tech integration anywhere. What did Yuri tell you?”
“Not much, he gave me all the details of your death and the movements of your body which I traced to here. Other than that, he told me about the upcoming conference for the nanotech reveal. Oh, and he gave me this,” Julian pulled the metal cube from his pocket and handed it over to Owens.
“Oh, my god!” Owens shouted as he looked at the cube.
“What is it?”
“Something that will come in very handy right now,” Owens tapped various sides of the cube until it hissed and expanded. “This, Julian, is one of our NanoCubes, the initial set which are needed to integrate the new technology.”
“The nanotech?”
“Exactly, Yuri told you about the reveal at the conference right?”
“Some details,” Julian decided it wasn’t best to say he’d been investigating the conference through some drunk employees.
“This dose of nanotechnology will allow the CyBio database to integrate with your body and in doing so, it can create augmentations programmed wirelessly without the need of direct contact. Let's say you lost a finger in an accident, we can send a signal to the nanobots in your blood stream to replicate and create a new finger in place of the old.”
“That's incredible,” Julian exclaimed.
“It is, and this little cube is all you need to get it started.”
“How can that help us now?” Julian asked.
“Well, I might just be able to get this to work if I’m fast enough. The toxin is based on targeting the implants that are connected directly to the biological systems, they will bypass the nanobots as they are dormant until they receive a signal from the HQ. In theory, they will be left alone, if we could program them to purge the bloodstream of the toxins before integrating, we could erase the toxins from the body that has been infected.”
“In theory?”
“Yes, I mean, until it’s tested there’s no guarantee.”
“And the person who is being injected will have to have all their augmentations removed by the toxin until the nanobots can connect to HQ?”
“Yes, that is also true.”
“And you’re thinking I will have to be that person aren’t you?” Julian was catching up to Owen's plan.
“Yes, I’m afraid so, it’s the only way I think we can get out of here. On the plus side, the procedures will remove all traces of the T-Pox I can see forming in your blood stream,” Owens said, as he scanned the results on his monitor.
Julian sat back down on the table, his mind spinning.
“Will it hurt?”
“I’m not sure, maybe?” Owens lied.
“You better get started then,” Julian closed his eyes and sighed.
CHAPTER 30
Xander
Xander had been following the woman for the last three cycles of the construct and his patience was wearing thin. Each time he got closer to her, she vanished and appeared further away, this repeated each scene until he restarted at the courthouse steps once again. She was the only anomaly in the entire construct and he knew he had to find the reason she was there.
He walked slowly now towards her on the steps and watched as she looked at him.
“Come on Ava, you’ve got to give me something to work on here, what do I need to do?” He shouted out, but even now, as he got closer, she disappeared as he got close.
He was back in the office, looking at the answerphone.
He stabbed the play button as he always did and let the messages play.
“Erm..hello? Is
this Alex Draven? I want to hire you to show my husband who is really in char..”
“Angry Wife, nope,” Xander said as he hit the next button.
Message Deleted
“Hi Mr Draven, we need security for the fight late…”
“Security, nope,”
Message Deleted
“Listen to me, it’s important ok. You want some escape then this is how you do it…”
His hand paused above the delete button, he’d assumed it was just a call from the escort agencies. He let the message play;
“You need to find the television in Donovans apartment, turn it on and we can talk properly. Hurry Xander, we need to get out of here before it’s too late!”
Xander was stunned, he realised it was Ava’s voice; she was talking to him like she knew him already, but at the time he listened to the answer phone, they hadn’t met.
He snapped out of the thoughts and cycled through the construct to Donovan’s apartment,
Donovan was in the wheelchair in front of the television watching the old movie as Xander made his way over, looking at the television now rather than Donovan.
Xan…der?” Donovan struggled to let the words out.
This time, Donovan’s words were said in time with a woman on the screen, he turned the volume up and the sentence continued as if in sync with Donovan’s words.
“Xander, it’s me Ava, you need to listen carefully, your brain is trapped but not gone."
“Brain… gone…” echoed Donovan from his seat.
“Your mind is still inside, and I’m still locked in with you,” the on-screen Ava continued, “I need to connect with CyBio but I can’t without your help.”
“Mind. Lock. Cybio,” Donovan stuttered out.
“You need to get to a radio, within the construct. I’m still linked to the network and can transmit to a particular wavelength. A radio within the construct will have a two-way signal so it can update the date files within it. I can’t send anything from my mind as it’s in sync with yours, if I try to disconnect in order to send an external signal, it will wipe your mind in the process. If I can connect back to CyBio, then I can attempt to remove the lock remotely. Donovan has been compromised by Yuri, he’s developed a nanotechnology that can take over people! He’s the one that did this. Watch out for the Nurse!”
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