She turned back to view the church, staring at the BioLume cross protruding from its roof. She thought of the BioLume lights inside, then thought of the BioLume smudges found at the crime scenes. She suddenly wanted to go back inside and take another look but couldn’t risk being seen by Kevin. She hissed quietly, then activated her iPort and lenses.
“Hello, Detective Brentt,” Riverton answered, in its golden, bald, androgynous form.
“Riverton, I need a drone to survey the inside of a building.”
“Yes, Detective. Please give me your location.”
Salvi authorized Riverton to access her geolocater.
“It’s the Church of Connectivity,” Salvi said, reading the sign over the doorway.
“Parameters?”
“I need all traces of BioLume. Particularly on the floor. Anywhere it can be stepped in.”
“Drone 10 on approach.”
Salvi looked up to see one of the overhead drones swoop down. She quickly moved for the door of the church and opened it enough to allow the drone to enter. Several minutes went by before Riverton appeared in her lenses again.
“Appraisal done,” it said.
Salvi pulled the door open again and the drone flew out. She quickly walked away as data began scrolling up her lenses. BioLume was registered among the row of lights near the altar and in several other spaces within the church, but none was detected on the floor or anywhere it could be stepped in.
“Shit,” she muttered.
“Is that all, Detective Brentt?” Riverton asked.
“Yes. Item closed. File archived.”
“Yes, Detective.”
Riverton disappeared, as did the scrolling information. Salvi turned her lenses off and looked around again. She moved her eyes from the church to the SlingShot station to the road ahead where the area known colloquially as the “Sation”, short for “Sensation”, was located. It suddenly dawned upon her that she was literally standing at the intersection of the Mission and the Sation. And right there on the border between the two was the SlingShot station and the Church of Connectivity.
She reconnected her lenses again.
“Riverton?”
“Yes, Detective Brentt.”
“Can you tell me who owns or runs the Church of Connectivity, at the location the drone just scanned?”
“One moment,” Riverton said, pausing as it assessed her request.
Salvi tapped her iPort, clearing the view in her lenses. Standing on the sidewalk outside the SlingShot station, she scanned everyone who walked past her. Eventually Riverton came back onto her lenses.
“The Church is owned by a company called Neuricle Corporation.”
“Who are they?”
“According to my records… Neuricle Corporation is owned and chaired by Mr Attis Solme.”
“Solme?” Salvi said, pausing.
“Yes. It is the same corporation behind the Solme Complex.”
Salvi felt her heart race a little with the information. “See what else you can find out about them, Riverton. Have it in my case file by morning.”
“Yes, Detective.”
She ended the call and stared at the church again.
Why was Attis Solme running a high-tech church in the city? The Solme Complex was high-tech, yes, but Attis voluntarily lived in Bountiful. He was a strong supporter of the Children of Christ, a church, and community, that vowed to live tech-free. If the Children of Christ considered tech sinful, then what would they think of this Church of Connectivity?
She wondered whether Preacher Vowker knew what Solme was up to here in the city. And if he didn’t know, what would Vowker do if he found out that Solme was dancing with the devil behind his back?
Although, the truth was, at the Solme Complex, Attis was already dancing with the devil. Lots of devils, in fact. Devils dressed in beige uniforms with silver halos pressed against their skulls.
She thought of Kevin Craydon again. Did he really come into the city to attend lectures? Or was he secretly working for Solme? Again, she wondered what Preacher Vowker would think of this; the young Kevin entering this pit of sin on the regular and indulging in all this technology. Even if it was just to bring people to God. Was this where Kevin had brought Tobias and Sharon? Could that have somehow led to Sharon’s death? What about Rebecca Carson? Did she fit into this? Did this even have anything to do with the Bountiful murders?
She exhaled heavily, feeling less sure what to do now than ever. The plan to give her mind a break from thinking about the case was so far not working. Rain began to sprinkle down again, and she looked around for somewhere to seek shelter. Drawn by the blinking neon LED lights of the Sensation, she moved toward it, wanting to drown herself within.
As she walked, she passed a Silo Disco, a club where people stood on their own with earphones and danced the night away in their own little partitions – a way to go out dancing but not having to deal with other people. There was a high-tech gym where people stood in machines that made their muscles work for them – a way of getting buff without the sweat. Whorehouses openly displayed their wares through their long glass windows. Whatever you wanted they had it: women, men, robots, VR, AR. Several people milled about out front, enjoying whatever they could see for free – as their options stood on an elevated platform waiting to be chosen for a sale. Salvi paused in front of a male whore. Shirtless and handsome enough, he approached the glass and bent down to her face level. He smiled and raised his finger, beckoning her inside with a smile. Tempted, she considered it briefly. That would certainly take her mind off things, even if it was only for a few minutes. But images of Sharon Gleamer’s and Rebecca Carson’s bodies were fixed in her mind. She turned and walked away.
Her eyes fell on an establishment called the Dream Bar. Located beneath an erotic art gallery, the soft blue cloud holo-sign, smacked with red lips, caught her attention and drew her inside. She took an elevator with mirrored walls and blue neon lights down to the basement. When the doors opened she was greeted with more soft blue neon lights, and a wide space with a mirror ball dance floor on one side and a long bar down the other. In between the dance floor and the bar sat sunken circular tables, each half-buried in the floor like hot tubs and also glowing a neon blue. She found a table right in the middle and ordered the most potent drink she could find on her table’s inbuilt menu, then sat back, trying to let the loud music, a mesh of electronica and metal, and the dim lights envelop her.
Her drink came quickly courtesy of a scantily clad waitress in a chainmail dress with a sleeve of shining silver tattoos. Salvi gave a nod of thanks, took the drink and had a long gulp, feeling the liquid warm her from the inside. For a moment she understood Mitch’s drinking. He was using it to numb his pain. To numb his emotions, his thoughts. And now here she was trying to do the same.
Just like she’d done many times before in her past.
Running. Hiding. Burying herself.
Pushing herself to the limits. Wanting to punish herself.
Maybe she understood Mitch better than she thought she did. Maybe she was just as screwed up as he was. Maybe she was just better at hiding it.
Or denying it.
Maybe she’d just had more time to perfect the camouflage.
But she didn’t want to think about Mitch right now. Or what Stan had told her. Or the way Mitch had touched her lips. And she certainly didn’t want to think about what Hernandez had suggested.
She glanced about at the bar’s clientele. All the women were in short, tight dresses or skirts. She looked down at the black suit and white button-up shirt she wore and decided to take off her jacket. She rolled the sleeves of her shirt to her elbows, exposing her iPort, and opened the first few buttons to mid chest.
She finished her drink and ordered another. She eyed a couple at the sunken table next to hers. The woman wore the thinnest material of a dress, which sat delicately on her large, fake breasts. The man sat with his shirt open all the way down, sitting back with his arms u
p on the raised floor around them as though he really were sitting in a hot tub. He saw Salvi watching them and smiled, as the woman placed what looked to Salvi to be a narcotic on her tongue, then snuggled into his side, kissing his neck and sliding her hand between his legs.
Salvi looked away as a shirtless waiter arrived with her second drink. The kid looked about eighteen years old in face, but his body was clearly enhanced as though he’d been using the machines at the gym down the road. She felt a little guilty for admiring the kid’s chest and arms, as she took the drink and gulped immediately. The memories were swarming over her now. Of her youth. Of her rebellion. Of her determination to do everything she’d ever been told not to. It was coming back to her, and as she pictured Vowker’s face in her mind, she felt the urge to rebel again. To push back. To fight against them.
“Well, I didn’t expect to see you here,” she heard a familiar voice say. She looked up, annoyed, wanting to be alone. It was Levan Bander. He was dressed in civilian clothes, smelling of aftershave.
Salvi glanced around the bar, then looked back at him. “I didn’t expect to see you here either.”
“May I?” he asked, motioning to the other side of sunken table.
She paused a moment, then nodded, and he stepped down into the sunken circle and took a seat.
“You’re a long way from Bountiful,” she said.
He nodded. “I like to get as far away as I can on a night off and the SlingShot helps things,” he said, sipping the drink he carried in his hands. “When you live onsite for days at a time like I do, it sometimes feels like I’m one of the Serenes too. I like to remind myself that I’m not. That I’m normal, and I can do normal things.”
Salvi sipped her drink, eyeing him. “And would Attis Solme approve of you coming to a place like this?” she asked. “It’s not very Godly.”
“No, it’s not.” He smiled. “But I won’t tell if you don’t.”
She stared at him but didn’t respond.
“Besides,” Bander said as he leaned on the table between them, placing his glass down and folding his arms, “after the funeral today, I wanted to live a little, you know?”
Again, she said nothing but continued to analyze him.
“Look, I get a little wound up sometimes,” he said. “When you spend your days with criminals, it’s bound to affect you. Harden you. But it’s part of the job. When I’m at the Solme Complex, I’m the ‘caretaker’ and I fulfil that role. But when I’m off duty, I’m Levan Bander. Just a normal guy. That’s why I try to get away from Bountiful when I can. Stay the night elsewhere.” He chuckled. “I don’t want to end up a weirdo like Remmell. He never seems to leave. Besides, I can’t exactly invite a date back to my lodgings at the Solme Complex, now can I? They’d run a mile.”
Again, Salvi didn’t respond. She just stared at him trying to figure him out.
“You come here often?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“So why tonight?”
She shrugged. “Felt like it, I guess.”
He nodded, sipped his drink.
“Do you come here often?” she asked.
“I’ve been here once or twice,” he said looking around. “I like to mix things up though.”
She nodded.
“Listen,” he said, “I wanted to apologize for earlier today. When I got the baton out I was just trying to demonstrate my authority over the Serenes. It wasn’t meant to be threatening you.”
“I didn’t take it as that.”
“I think your partner did.”
She shrugged. “He’ll get over it.”
He nodded. “So. Two women now. Are you any closer to finding their killer?”
“You think I could tell you if I was?”
He smiled. “I guess not. I hope you sort it out soon, though. It’s getting Attis and Remmell all edgy.”
“In what way?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re worried you think it’s one of the Subjugates. They’re on edge. You’re threatening all they hold dear.”
“I’m not threatening anything. Yet.” She sipped her drink as he stared at her.
He smiled again. “You’re a hard woman to read, Detective.”
“So I’m told,” she said, then decided to shift his focus. “Do you have any theories about the killer?”
He shrugged and glanced around the bar, his eyes lingering on the couple making out at the sunken table beside them. The woman was now straddling the man, tongues firmly down each other’s throats. Bander moved his eyes back to hers.
“You talk to the boyfriend?” he asked.
“Whose boyfriend?”
“Sharon Gleamer’s. Tobias Brook. You speak to him?”
Salvi nodded, sipping her drink again.
“Those kids,” he said, then paused and smiled, “they’re not as holy as they make out.”
“What makes you say that?”
He shrugged, wrestling with something he wanted to say.
“I’m all ears,” Salvi said, encouragingly.
“Kids these days,” he shrugged again, “they’re smart. Smarter than we ever were. They find loopholes in everything. Don’t get me wrong, they believe in God and being good, but… they’ve found a way to indulge, but to also technically be good.”
“What are you talking about?”
Bander studied her. “You heard of U-Stasis?”
Salvi thought for a moment. “Heard of it but don’t know much about it. It’s a connected AR roleplaying world, right?”
Bander nodded. “Utopia-Stasis is the full name. It’s all about creating your own perfect world and making it the norm, you know? Somewhere you can escape to. Some kids access pre-existing worlds and take on grand quests of adventure and puzzle solving, all pretty innocent, but some kids go on there to experiment in stuff they’re not allowed to in real life.”
“So how do you know about it?”
“I’d heard one of our Subjugates talking about it in his therapy. It’s where he used to groom his victims. Then I found out from my brother that my niece had been playing on it. He said she just did dragon quests, but I warned him about what I’d heard. About these virtual drug labs where they can get off their minds without actually physically taking drugs, and then there’s these sex rooms where you can do all sorts of things. You need passwords and stuff to access the hardcore areas, but they’re easy enough to hack into if you really want. Like I say, kids these days are smart. They got a good hold on technology that we don’t have. Well,” he shrugged, “I’m alright, ’cause I’ve worked in security most of my life, so I had to deal with a lot of that stuff. Anyway, I offered to go on there and check it out, make sure my niece wasn’t doing something she shouldn’t. So, I did.”
“And you saw Tobias Brook in there?”
He nodded. “And Sharon Gleamer.”
“Don’t people use avatars and fake names on those things?”
“Yeah.”
“So how do you know it was them?”
“Some people use these rooms to find real dates. After I went on and couldn’t find any obvious trace of my niece, I got curious, wanted to see who from Bountiful was on there.” He smiled. “Tobias and Sharon were so naïve, they didn’t pick randomly assigned avatars, they had ones created from their own likeness and they went by their initials.”
“But how could you be so sure it was actually them?”
He smiled again. “I may have done a little hacking to find out their details to be sure.”
“Are you admitting to illegal activities, Mr Bander?”
He shrugged. “I was already in that part of the program checking if my niece had any other accounts set up.”
“What did you witness them doing? Tobias and Sharon.”
“I saw them walking out of one of these rooms holding hands.”
“The drug rooms or the sex rooms?”
“Sex. I don’t know if they just did a voyeur tour or whether their avatars got involved i
n stuff there, it was an AR room after all, but they were definitely in there. That’s when I realized, these kids, they’re liars.”
“Why are they liars?”
“Because they claim to be Children of Christ and pure and free from sin, but then they dabble in that stuff on the side.”
“Pure?” Salvi questioned his use of words.
“Yeah,” he said, staring at her. “They claim to be holier than thou, and think if they don’t actually physically touch, then they’re not doing anything wrong. So, they go into these rooms and let their avatars do what they can’t. Then they pray afterwards and think that makes everything alright. Like it was just impure thoughts or something.”
“Isn’t that a little hypocritical?” she asked. “You make sure the Serenes and Subjugates toe the line, preaching about God and praying, and good clean lives and clean minds, then you come to a bar like this?”
He smiled again. “And find you here.”
She stared back at him. “I’m not preaching about the good Lord and clean living, though, am I?”
Bander shrugged. “All I’m saying, is that Tobias was clearly having impure thoughts about his girlfriend. And for all I know engaging in these thoughts too. Whether she gave him a hand job with a haptic glove or in real life, it’s the same thing, isn’t it?”
“Tobias having impure thoughts just makes him like any other guy his age,” she said. “That doesn’t make him a killer. And it doesn’t explain the second vic.”
“Maybe he got a taste for it? And Sharon was gone, so?”
“Why are you so keen to pin this on Tobias?”
“I’m not,” he said. “You asked me for my thoughts and that kid, the dead girl’s boyfriend, is clearly a liar. I’m just saying you should never judge a book by its cover. You look at the Serenes, see how good they are now, and then you see their past crimes and judge them. Then you look at someone like Tobias Brook, assume he’s a good kid because he goes to church, and then you look at what he was doing in his spare time…”
The Subjugate Page 21
