Another look of mild surprise from her, but she didn’t argue nor countermand his direction.
“That sounds solid. Hide in the stairwell.” Dr. Sonberg flipped back to her confident, always-in-charge self. It was a good direction, so he obeyed without comment. From the stairwell, a small window showed him the hall and the doctor rapping on the door.
No immediate answer.
He detected movement, so the occupant heard the knock, but would she open the door? Dr. Sonberg’s knocking became more persistent. Her heart rate increased, and a thin line of perspiration formed on her hairline.
He heard scurrying inside. The sound of something falling to the floor, not fragile. Then the door opened. From his vantage point, he could only observe the doctor, but from her reaction, the contents of the apartment were surprising and slightly abrasive. He focused his energies on hearing the interchange to gauge the best time to emerge.
“What do you want?” The words were not clear, but he filled in the blanks with probabilities.
With the door ajar, he could pick up more info on the layout and contents of the dwelling. The apartment was empty of other entities. It was a wide space, cluttered with objects, spoiled food, overturned half-empty bottles of alcohol, and at least five weapons hidden in various places. One lay in the open in the kitchen dining area.
“I said, ‘what do you want?’.” The officer’s words were slurred and slightly incoherent. No longer the brazen, loud, overbearing officer, but a woman with an extremely high blood alcohol.
“My daughter is missing.” Dr. Sonberg went with a direct approach again.
He hovered in the doorway of the stairwell, ready to advance if the need arose.
“I’m not on duty. Call the station.” She pushed the door, but Dr. Sonberg thrust her boot-clad foot into the opening.
“She’s with your Chirag, and no one can find him. Please. I—” The words seemed hard for her to say, as if she had an obstruction in her throat. “I need your help.”
Officer Mattu snorted air through her nose. “Chirag? Well, that makes no sense. Wait. Are you that girl’s mom? The one with the fleshie?”
“I am.”
Another exhalation. He could sense her hand move, and he tensed, in case she was going for a weapon, but instead, her hand found her scalp and pushed her long, loose hair back repeatedly. “Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn you to hell, Chirag. Why am I in the middle of this?”
“You know where he lives.”
“I can’t. You need to leave. Chirag would never... I don’t think he… No. He would never. Go, or I’ll report you.”
“Can you at least contact him? Find out if he still has her? Make sure she’s okay. She’s my only daughter.” Dr. Sonberg was keeping her composure and using empathy to her advantage. She really was clever.
The officer’s vitals jacked up. Adrenal glands pumped sluggishly due to her level of intoxication, respiration shallow and withheld. He focused all his energy on reading the woman’s intentions. Should he intervene? He decided to wait. With her responses retarded, he would still have time to exit the stairwell and approach before she denied them entrance.
“Come in.”
Dr. Sonberg cut a subtle look in his direction and made a smoothing motion with her hand, low and behind her back so Officer Mattu could not see. He deduced that she wanted him to remain where he was. His emotional circuit tightened his extremities.
Odd.
He had never experienced this sensation except for Ionia. He was concerned about Ionia, but this seemed to be centered on the doctor’s safety. How did humans function with so many emotional impediments and attachments?
When the door closed, he lost most of his sensory feedback. He scanned the coms again with no results. If he tapped directly into the building’s coms, he could pick up an audio channel from the apartment. But that would involve risk.
The coms system had various degrees of security. This system didn’t seem to be shielded beyond the casing that surrounded it. He placed his hands on the walls and mapped the circuitry just below the surface until he sensed where a hub resided, and then punched a hole into the wall. He interfaced with the coms system directly.
The sound of a thousand voices being transferred from tower to tower flowed into his system. A pure feed from thumb signals to the mainframe—no encryption. He closed his eyes to shut out optical feedback and focus all his resources on finding one apartment.
Infants crying. Business deals. Sales and service communications. He peeled apart the intricate weave of voice patterns a hundred thousand times until… There. 3B. He turned on the audio feed from Officer Mattu’s apartment.
“—you understand?” The officer’s voice warbled.
“Yes, just try. It’s all I ask.” Doctor Sonberg’s voice—tentative, tense, terse.
He sensed movement in the apartment, but only a vague brush, as all his attention was on holding onto the signal.
A link opened with an alarm and a report that the coms system had been compromised. The message didn’t go far. He sent a tracer signal that stopped its progress. His intrusion would be detected soon, but he hoped not before he gained a lead to Ionia’s location.
A wave opened from the apartment. “Chirag. Hey, I don’t know why you aren’t answering me, but I can’t cover anymore. Someone’s here about their daughter. Wolves at the door.” She laughed in a low non-humorous way. “I don’t know what you’re doing. In the old days, I would have trusted you, but now… Everything’s different. You’re different. And not just the outside. Call me. Now.”
The tracer bounced back and hit his processor so hard, he released the hub in the wall and took a step back. The call had gone within the building. First floor.
“What are you doing? What happened to the wall? Aren’t you the cute creeper from the lobby?” The preteen and some of her companions pinned him with judgment in their eyes. His hand stuck in the wall and a pile of rubble at his feet. The evidence was damning. He scoured his database to find some logical response.
“I’m calling security,” she said.
Before he could act, the girl had opened a channel to an emergency link. She had amazing reflexes for a human. He blocked the line, but it would not hold unless he stayed stationary, and that could not happen. They finally had an excellent lead on Chirag and therefore Ionia. Standing in the hallway, waiting for the enforcement to arrive, would not service their needs. He sent a wave to Dr. Sonberg’s coms device.
I have run into…complications.
The girls stared at him and hugged the opposite side of the hall, seemingly entranced with his fist buried inside the wall.
The stairwell door flew open, and Doctor Sonberg erupted onto the landing. She jerked her shoulders up and skidded to a stop to observe the situation.
“What in holy hell—?”
“They ran across me while I was obtaining information and have called the authorities. But that doesn’t matter. I believe Ionia is in this building.”
“She’s here?”
“From the evidence, I have uncovered. Yes. I will lead the way.”
He removed his hand from the direct feed. His auditory sensors detected an enforcement vehicle in full alarm mode approaching at seventy-five kpm.
They moved as a unit down the stairs, leaving the girls open mouthed and protesting.
Doctor Sonberg didn’t seem upset by the adolescents or by his destruction of property, but her intense focus was targeted on sprinting down the stairs, again at speeds that belied her age and even physical predisposition.
Some humans said they cared for another verbally or demonstrated it with acts of kindness. But Anabel Sonberg seemed to show her love in a very practical and dynamic way. Very droid-like.
He continued to follow the signal, futilely scanning before them to gauge if Ionia was indeed in Chirag’s apartment. The lower level was just as bad as the sky rise, and Chirag’s location was the most heavily shielded of the entire complex.
The
sound of sirens grew as the enforcement approached. “The scanner reports that the officers are in transit and armed, preparing for a hostile intruder. The building’s internal security will also come online in seconds.”
“Then we have to get there sooner. How many more levels?”
“Twenty.”
She snorted and kept sprinting. “I can assist you to quicken our pace. Or I can go on ahead. “His batteries were at full charge. Carrying her would tax his system very little.
Her steps hesitated, but she kept moving, shaking her head. Three flights later, her breath was coming in pants, and she motioned for him to assist.
He knelt for her to climb onto his back, and then he flew down the stairs two and three at a time, holding the doctor so she would not fall off. She didn’t protest. He was finally going to locate Ionia. His emotional center buzzed, sending waves of happiness. They may not be able to be together, but at least she would be safe.
Chapter Fifteen
The world drenched in a shocking shade of red. Blood coated the table, most of Ionia’s body, and her aunt’s hands. Ionia didn’t realize someone could bleed that much and still be alive. But obviously, she could. And she was.
“Chirag, move her to the back, and put her in one of the containers.”
“Which one?”
“Your old one. The shielded one you used when you were healing.”
“But she’s aware.”
“I’ll put her out later. I can’t put her under with this much blood loss. It will take time, and we don’t have that.” Sera moved out of Ionia’s line of view, but her voice still echoed through the room, confident, professional, removed. “ETA on enforcement?”
“Less than fifteen minutes, using average speed and traffic patterns.”
Terror crept through Ionia, electrifying her skin. She heard frantic movement, and the rustling of polyplastic near her head just out of her vision. Was Aunt Sera going to kill her or put her in storage and kill her later?
“Are they coming for us?” Chirag asked.
“Of course they are.”
Chirag, wearing a medical cover over himself, lifted her. Like a ghost in a shell, she pushed to move, to slap the asshat who held her, to at least scream. But nothing.
Thoughts scrambled. But one central idea kept repeating. Why had her aunt done this to her? Her heart fluttered and seemed to jerk. Her breathing hitched.
She itched to shield herself, to jump, to escape. She fought inside with all her strength. Everything from her toes to her fingers remained immobile.
Chirag pushed a panel in the wall, and a drawer slid out. It was around the size of a large casket, and fear dug dirty fingernails into her chest. Was he going to put her inside that? Her heart expanded and slammed against her ribs until it hurt.
She couldn’t seem to take a breath. She willed her arms and legs to move. Fought the paralysis that held her. This was worse than freezing to death on the tundra or even choking to death at the hands of a mad man. Slowly draining her blood and locking her in a coffin?
Sadistic. Her limbs didn’t respond as he laid her gently in the box and pressed the button. The lid slid shut.
Blackness. The walls of the drawer seemed to move inward with every second. A weight pushed on her chest, making each breath a conscious choice.
She was going to lose it. And it wouldn’t matter if she was found or escaped or her aunt came to her senses and released her, she’d be insane.
She willed herself to breathe like Zee had taught her. Tried to use her breath to steady her heart. The wild tingling in her hands that she imagined was her nervous system’s desire to shake from either panic, or the paralyzing drugs grew less intense.
Alarm bells sent her moment of Zen on a permanent vacation.
“What now?” She heard her aunt’s voice as if she were directly next to her. Maybe because all her other senses were now dulled her hearing felt enhanced.
“Open the door.” The voice from the coms was soft, but Ionia could just make out the words and the voice. She knew the voice, and her heart jumped.
Mom.
“We know you’re in there. We picked up one of your waves.” Her take-no-crap voice had never sounded more beautiful.
Chirag’s heavy steps moved quickly away from Ionia’s location. “What can I do for you? I am in the middle—”
“Where’s Ionia?”
“Who?”
“The girl you kidnapped. I’m in no mood to play games. The enforcement is on its way. Or I could have my droid just rip off this door.” Droid? Droid! Den was here too. Her happiness redoubled. They were going to rip her aunt and that cyborg a new bunghole, and she would love watching.
“We have information that Ionia Sonberg is here, and we want to see her. Now,” Den said.
“Chirag. It’s time. Let them in.”
Mom and Den, together and looking for her. She was going to have to hear all about that story.
Den’s presence made her calm. And even if they had hidden her, Den would find her. Den always came through. Her aunt’s insanity would be discovered, contained, and squashed, and they could go home. Den wouldn’t mind if she looked strange or bad. He had come for her again. He loved her.
And her mom. Well her mom would hunt the world over until she found someone to fix whatever her aunt had done. But all that didn’t matter. She just wanted to feel their arms around her. To see the light and their faces.
Her enhanced hearing picked up the sliding of the door and their footsteps.
Ionia heard a gasp that sounded like her mother. But her mother didn’t gasp. Nothing surprised Anabel Sonberg.
“Belle. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t want you to see this.” There was a true note of pity in Sera’s voice, something that made Ionia feel like a cloud had floated between her and the sun.
“Sera. Why are you here? I’ve been trying to contact you for hours. Why are you covered in blood?”
“Chirag is an old patient of mine and knew Ionia was my relation. He found her writhing in the streets in pain. He knew our situation.”
The way she said situation made Ionia think of someone who was denying responsibility. Someone washing their hands of a problem they created. As if it had nothing to do with her. Ionia’s stomach did a full twist in revulsion.
“He knew what the discovery could mean for my family and me, so he sent a wave. And I tried to save her. I just couldn’t… The nano—”
“Dr. Hebbar is covered in Ionia’s blood.” Den’s voice shot an arrow into Ionia’s heart. She had not heard him sound so machinelike since his activation.
Jesus. No. Jesus. She couldn’t. Sera was her family. She wouldn’t. But she was.
Her aunt was going to pretend she was dead. Really dead. But Den would know. Den would scan and find her.
Please find me. Her chest compressed as if an elephant were sitting on her. She needed to make noise. She needed to move. Damn the capsule. Damn the drugs. Damn her aunt.
She heard the breathing first—harsh panting. Like someone was going to cry. But her mother didn’t cry… or show weakness. Her mother hadn’t cried when her dad died or when she’d been kidnapped and tortured by a psycho. It wasn’t in her. But Ionia heard the whimper, like a dog that had gotten kicked one too many times.
“It’s not true.” Her voice hoarse and barely a whisper, she said, “Show me the body.”
Shuffling of feet, then Ionia heard a door open and close. They were in the exam room not more than a meter away.
“This is all that’s left. The nanobots rejected the implant then started rejecting all of Ionia’s own cells. They ripped her apart.”
Silence. A distant engine rumbled by the complex, the sound of approaching police a low hum in the background.
Ionia focused on her hand with every ounce of power she had.
I’m alive, Mom.
Sera couldn’t do this to her. She willed her hand into a fist. Finally. Some feeling returned.
Her hand tw
itched.
She tried to pound on the coffin, but she was infant weak. If there was someone up in heaven, they’d better hear her now. She’d take anyone. Dad. God. Anyone. She struck out, punching the lid of her coffin. The impact came out as a slight scratch against the metal. She kept a slow, steady scratching against the metal. Maybe Den would hear. He had to hear.
Please, hear.
***
Den’s system narrowed down to one pulsing repeated message. His main reason for being, no longer existed. A physical impulse of pain moved through his wiring like a slow data virus that would wipe his CPU.
He wished that it would.
The fact of Ionia’s death appeared irrefutable, but he could not force his emotional circuit to accept it. Didn’t want to take the logic to its conclusion.
Dr. Hebbar turned to her sister, grasping her shoulders tightly. Dr. Sonberg cringed and tried to pull away, but Sera Hebbar held her. “When you speak to the authorities, you need to assure them that Ionia had a preexisting condition. I need time to—”
“Cover up the reason for my daughter’s death.” Her voice expressed exactly how Den was feeling.
Dulled. Weary. Like his battery pack had lost all its energy. The pressure inside his chassis built and would have to be released eventually, but not now. He needed to process the events. Why had the designers allowed such heinous emotions to be added to his system?
“You know I did everything I could to help her. She lasted seventeen years. Without me, she would have been gone when she was five. They’ll send me to jail if they find out about the nanobots. We just need to tell them it was a legal transplant gone wrong.” She blurted this soliloquy out in one breath, her vitals spiking off the charts.
Chirag, as ever, was hidden from Den’s sensors. But he didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered anymore.
Dr. Sonberg didn’t reply. Den analyzed Dr. Hebbar’s voice. Something didn’t register in the truth range. But what? Again a dead end path. None of it mattered.
Vagabond Souls: The Ionia Chronicles: Book 2 Page 25
