The Girl in the Machine (Leah King Book 3)

by Philip Harris

  Leah looked out across the lake. Her salvation was out there; she could feel it. She stepped onto the first platform. It was rock solid beneath her feet. The blue pulses came again, and as they faded away, another platform rose up adjacent to the second. Leah walked toward it, and this time the next platform didn’t appear until she was standing on the third one.

  As the platform rose, she peered into the gloom. It was hard to focus, and her eyes kept being drawn to the pools of light, but there did seem to be an island out there, and the platforms were heading directly toward it.

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  Leah kept up a steady pace as she walked along the pathway. For the most part, the platforms rose quickly enough that they were there for her to step onto when she reached the end of the previous one. Occasionally, they would divert left or right, as though they were avoiding some unseen obstacle. But the path soon returned to its original route, leading Leah steadily toward the island. She was sure she could see it now—a cluster of rectangular blocks rising up out of the lake.

  One of the platforms failed to appear until Leah had reached the end of the path, and she was forced to stop. The platform rose slowly out of the blackness. She found herself getting impatient. She could feel the island calling to her.

  As she waited, the hairs on the back of her hand shifted and rose. The air gained a bitter, metallic tang. A flicker of color off to her right caught her eye, but when she looked, it was gone.

  She looked back toward the steps, expecting to see the long trail of white platforms behind her, but most of the platforms were gone. Only five remained, and as she watched, the farthest one sank out of view. Leah’s impatience was replaced by the beginnings of fear. Her father had taught her to swim in case she fell in a river, but she’d never been good at it. She doubted the black liquid was water, anyway.

  The next platform was almost in place now, and Leah stepped onto it. Her feet skidded on the slick surface. The next three platforms rose quickly, but Leah checked over her shoulder. The platforms behind her were falling away just as rapidly.

  She caught another flicker of color. It disappeared beneath the surface of the lake before she could get a good look at it, but it reminded her of a snake. A neon-red snake cutting through the black.

  Leah willed the platforms to rise quicker. The path began to extend ahead of her as though sensing her desires. The platforms appeared in clusters of threes and fours, and she could increase her pace. Another of the snakes, this one blue, broke the surface to her right. A wave of static rolled over her. The sensation was so unexpected she almost fell over the side of the platform.

  The snake disappeared beneath the surface, leaving behind a scattering of blue and red cubes before they, too, sank out of sight and the lake returned to its mirror-like smoothness.

  Distracted by the snake, Leah didn’t realize the next platform hadn’t appeared. She noticed just in time and slid to a halt, inches from the path’s edge.

  Another wave of static hit her. She whirled around and saw three snakes, all of them red. They were sweeping through the lake directly toward her. As they reached the platform, they dived just below the surface. Leah could see them through the white glow—three slashes of color. As they passed beneath her, glass-like shards of electricity pierced the soles of her feet. Leah cried out. The snakes reappeared on the other side of the platform for a moment then dived out of sight.

  As the pain in her feet died away, Leah pictured the path stretching out ahead of her, all the way to the island. Her vision blurred, and a deep throbbing formed at the base of her skull.

  A scattering of white octagons appeared in the lake. One by one, they rose up, connecting each other and leading back to Leah. There was still a gap to the next platform, but she could see two more snakes making their way toward her. She leaped across the space. The landing sent fresh splinters of pain through her feet. She ignored them and ran toward the island. The route zigzagged across the lake. Stunted little side paths led off here and there, but the main route was obvious.

  She charged along the path, not daring to look behind her. She had to jump another gap, and when she landed, she skidded on a puddle of the black liquid and almost went down. She let her momentum carry her forward and half jumped, half fell onto the next platform.

  Three of the snakes rose up out of the depths, their undulating forms bright even beside the harsh white of the platform. They were swimming alongside her, matching her pace.

  The path turned sharply left. Leah followed it, but the island was close now, and she was moving away from it. She willed the path to change direction, and a fresh line of platforms began to appear. They led straight to the island.

  Leah jumped onto the new path. The platform was barely visible, and as she landed, she felt it shift beneath her feet. The snakes darted ahead of her, cutting beneath the next platform. As Leah ran across it, she felt the remnants of the electrical charge that marked the snakes’ passing.

  The platform shifted, tipping sideways. Leah ran onto the next. The blue glow that accompanied her footsteps rippled away from her. In its wake, the platform turned red and broke apart into dozens of the cubes.

  Leah jumped to the next platform. As she landed, her foot sank through its surface. She stumbled. The platform turned red and shattered. Leah lunged and threw herself toward the next one. It was red before she even landed on it.

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  Leah felt the platform give way. She plunged face first into the lake. Sudden, extreme cold surrounded her. She managed to clamp her mouth shut and close her eyes, but the freezing black liquid flooded her nose and ears. The chill suffused her bones and turned her blood to ice, locking her muscles tight.

  A roaring sound, like a rushing waterfall, filled her head as she sank into the lake. She rolled head over heels in a slow-motion tumble. She could feel her lips freezing together. Even her heart seemed to be succumbing to the cold, each beat coming slower than the last. Her mind was filled with a sudden vision of her body encased in a block of ice, floating endlessly down into the darkness.

  She kicked out with her legs, but they were sluggish and slow to respond. Then the realization hit that she’d lost all sense of direction and might actually be driving herself deeper. She stopped kicking and stretched her arms out to either side. The somersaulting stopped, but she couldn’t tell whether she was still sinking. She opened her eyes to find out.

  Tiny blue motes danced around her, darting about like hyperactive fireflies. She flinched away and felt something brush against her hair. A tiny ripple of electricity traveled down her spine. She opened her mouth and let out a breath in surprise. The bubbles hung around her, but she thought they were drifting up, just slightly. She swept her arms down, driving her toward what she hoped was the surface. The movement was agonizingly slow. It felt like she was having to break her arms free from blocks of ice to get them moving. For all she knew, she was.

  She felt one of the blue motes brush her cheek. The burst of electricity sent pain knifing into her skull. She started kicking again. Her lungs were burning. Orange and yellow stars had joined the blue motes, but these were floating across her vision.

  A red snake zigzagged across in front of her. It was a couple of feet away, but still she felt the static charge wrap itself around her. A fresh image occurred to her, this one of her skeleton lit up like a light bulb.

  Blackness seeped in at the edge of her vision and began swallowing up the stars. Leah looked up, hoping to see the pale glow of a platform. She saw nothing but blackness. Even the blue motes were gone. Desperation drove her to kick out again, but her muscles were tired. The cold had drained all the energy from her limbs.

  Let go, her mind whispered. Let go, and you can sleep.

  She swept her arms down in one last stroke then closed her eyes again and hung motionless in the lake as her body burned the last of its oxygen.

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  Memories crowded around Leah.

  The photograph of her mother from her father’s bed
room. Leah and her friend Cait trying to catch a stray kitten in an alley in Columbia. Sunlight streaming in through a window. Derricks laughing with her in the indoor market. The red wooden dollhouse her father had built her. A bird pecking seeds from the windowsill of her room.

  Isaac falling to the ground after Katherine shot him.

  Her father leaning against a rock, dying.

  And then the images were gone.

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  Leah’s face touched something that felt like a thin layer of rubber. It draped itself over her, blocking her nose and mouth. Adrenaline flooded her system as her body’s desire for self-preservation kicked in. She reached up and clawed at the rubbery skin. It stretched away from her face, creating a pocket of frigid air. Leah pulled in a breath and felt tendrils of ice expand through her lungs like the roots of a plant.

  She raked her nails across the skin. It stretched again then split apart, and her fingers broke through. Pulling apart the skin, Leah forced her head into the open air. Bright lights burst across her vision, and her lungs ached, but she was alive and breathing the strange odorless air again.

  Summoning what little strength she had, Leah started swimming. The island was less than a hundred feet away, but each stroke was a test of her determination. Her limbs were sluggish, and her waterlogged clothes seemed to be trying to drag her back down into the depths. Her teeth began to chatter, and the feeling that her limbs were turning to ice returned. As her hands slashed through the lake’s rubbery coating, it broke apart, and the pieces sank down into the blackness.

  The smell of ozone hit Leah. She almost screamed as one of the snakes swept through the water a few inches from her face before darting off into the darkness. Static electricity flowed through her body. She could imagine them all around her, circling like sharks. Any moment now they’d strike, and she’d be electrocuted.

  Her fingers brushed against something hard. She lunged forward, and her knuckles scraped along a rocky surface. The pain drove away some of the chill. She grabbed at the rock and pulled herself out of the lake. She rolled onto her back and lay there, panting while her relief drained the terror from her limbs.

  Unconsciousness began to wash over her again. She fought back, imagining the heat of a life-giving sun on her face. Her cheeks did indeed begin to feel warmer, but it did nothing to dispel the icy chill of her clothes. A shudder ran through her body.

  Leah conjured thoughts of Alice lying dead in the hospital bed. The idea that Westler had killed Alice twisted her stomach into a knot. Westler would pay for what she’d done. Leah grabbed ahold of that thought, drew strength from it, and hauled herself up onto shaking legs. She couldn’t feel her toes. The cold had turned her fingers to claws.

  The island was made of black rock. It was roughly circular, and the surface was covered by clusters of jagged boulders. Leah’s vision was uneven, and the rocks around her were fading in and out of focus, but she could see a black cube in the center of the island. If this place held anything of use to her, that was where it would be.

  Leah took a hesitant step forward, then another. The numbness in her feet made it difficult to judge where the ground was, but slowly she made her way between the boulders to the cube.

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  The cube hung in the air, suspended by some unseen force. Geometric patterns of light seemed to float just beneath the cube’s slick black surface. Leah could see her wide-eyed, pale reflection in the gaps between the lights.

  Still, the cube was the answer, she was sure of that. It would show her the way off this island and out of the VR. It would lead her back to Alice, who would be lying in the padded chair—alive. The cube would give her answers, too.

  Leah frowned. Answers to what questions?

  She reached out. Her fingers brushed against the cube. It was unexpectedly warm. The heat spread along Leah’s arms and into her body, and the ice that had been weighing her down melted away. Her senses came alive. There was something else nearby. She looked around the island, but it was empty. She hadn’t expected anything less. The presence she felt wasn’t with her on the island. It was somewhere else.

  She pressed both hands against the cube. The heat grew stronger until it was almost too much to bear. Part of her wanted to pull back, but another part insisted she keep her hands exactly where they were. There was something hovering at the edge of her consciousness, and she needed to find out what it was. It felt like a gentle tickling sensation, but it was inside her. It emanated from the base of her skull, where her VRI port was, and then stretched outward. The sensation spread through her mind, feeling like a thousand tiny spiders rampaging across the surface of her brain.

  The urge to pull her hands away grew too strong to resist. She lifted her palms off the cube but kept her fingertips pressed against the increasingly hot surface. The tickling sensation vanished. Leah felt the limits of her consciousness peeling away like the opening of a flower’s petals.

  She could feel the steady digital pulse of some sort of machine and the intelligence that drove it. Beyond that lay a vast network of data. Every piece of information Transport held was there, including the key to her escape. All she had to do was reach out and touch it.

  A dozen connections snaked out of the machine and into Leah’s thoughts. She could feel them burrowing into her mind and seeking out every piece of experience, every trace of knowledge she had locked away there.

  She reached out and guided her will toward the connections, hoping they would take her into the machine. It was a clumsy attempt. Her concentration kept slipping. Her rational mind fought against the abstract concepts she was trying to embrace. There were no wires connecting her to the machine, it said. There wasn’t even a cube. This was all being generated by a bank of computers back in the Transport facility.

  More connections flowed into her mind. They swarmed like snakes through her memories. She could feel them plucking at her thoughts. Sure this was her way out, she tried again to follow the connections back into the machine. Pictures raced through her mind—thousands of bodies being washed through the tunnels beneath Columbia by a wave of blue fire. The screams of the dying crashed over her. The air smelled of burning flesh.

  Leah fell to her knees, but she kept her fingertips pressed against the cube. She was desperate to let go, but she couldn’t. Alice’s face appeared in front of her. It was the face of the woman who’d found her sleeping on a hill in the wilderness, not the woman lying dead at Transport’s hands. Leah held on to the image, clinging to it like it was a life preserver in a storm-tossed ocean.

  A flurry of images bombarded her senses. They felt like memories, but she recognized none of the events. She ignored them. Something Alice had said was suddenly very important. She fought to remember what it was, but her concentration was being shredded by the onslaught of imagery.

  The machine’s connections wormed deeper. She could feel them digging through her mind. The machine was examining her memories, taking the information it deemed important and discarding the rest. The realization that it was attacking her slammed into Leah like a truck. And with that realization came a single word.

  Siren.

  The fragments of the conversation with Alice dropped into place. There was no exit here, no answers to the question Leah couldn’t quite remember. This was a trap, pure and simple.

  Leah pulled her hands away from the cube. A vicious burning sensation swept up her arms. She cried out and fell back. Her head hit the hard surface of the island, but the pain was distant, as though it were happening to someone else. She rolled onto her front.

  She could still feel the machine hanging over her like the sword of Damocles about to drop and pin her to the ground. She dragged herself forward a few inches, but the strength in her arms had evaporated. Or perhaps the sword had already fallen.

  The black waters of the lake seemed a hundred miles away, and she could imagine the neon snakes waiting for her in its depths, but it might be the only way for her to escape the machine’s clutches. She tu
rned her attention to the tendrils still wrapped around her mind. They were holding her back. If she could break even one of them, maybe she could make it to the lake.

  The sense that she was fighting against the only thing that could get her back to reality gnawed at her. She ignored the feeling and instead focused on breaking the machine’s hold over her.

  The machine sent another influx of images. This time, she saw dozens of wolves streaming through a triangular doorway toward her. The image felt so real her blood ran cold, but she forced it away, deflecting it as though it were a physical thing.

  Another image formed, and another. Each time, she pushed them back. Step by step, she drove the machine out of her mind. She felt a surge of elation as the machine’s grip loosened.

  Pressing her advantage, she conjured her own images—her father presenting her with the dollhouse, sleepovers with her friend Cait, the sweet smell of freshly baked bread. The connections weaving through Leah’s mind began to retreat.

  Leah sat up and pushed herself backward. Her arms and legs were still weak, but her energy was returning. She backed into a boulder. Pain shot down her spine but only served to sharpen her focus. She abandoned the images and instead pictured the silver wires she imagined had been burrowing through her mind evaporating under her will. The sensation of being invaded dissipated.

  She felt the last of the threads pull itself free, and the machine’s presence was gone. She was alone again, leaning against a rock on an island in the middle of a black lake.