Velvet Dogma About 3300 wds

by Ochse, Weston

  "Follow me please," said Singh.

  She ignored him and halted before the closed door to 42C. She watched as he continued on, trying to gauge if he'd do anything. He didn't even seem to notice where she was. She opened the door and slipped inside. But as she went to close it, a hand kept it from closing.

  "What do you think you're doing?" Singh stepped between the door and the jam. He pressed his lips together and glared at her as if she were a child. "You need to follow me, Ms. Mines."

  "But this is her room." She blinked innocently.

  "Yes, but before you see her, we need to annotate some information." He was smooth, but not so smooth that Rebecca didn't notice his nervousness. Annotate information my ass! She thought.

  "Tell you what, Mr. Singh. I'll have a word with my grandmother, then swing by for that." Her next words cut-off any argument. "I'm sure you understand. I haven't seen her in twenty years."

  He knew when he was beat. She could see it in his eyes. He let go of the door reluctantly and nodded his head once. "You do that, Ms. Mines. I'll be waiting down the hall. We're expecting you." Then he was gone.

  She pushed the door shut and pressed her back against it. Whew, that was close. She wondered where that little man had planned on taking her. Was there a squad of Black Hearts waiting in a room down the hall? It didn't even matter. She had no intention of keeping her appointment with him.

  Now that she was in one of the rooms, she was able to examine it more closely. The windowless walls, ceiling and floor were a slick composite. Five beds were in a row along the left hand side. The right wall held a bank of display screens. Red, blue and green lights blinked off and on at intervals. She spied her grandmother's name and walked to the monitor. Gobbledygook code scrawled across the screen. Seven green lights and one red. What was that one for?

  "Becky? Is that you?"

  A thousand chocolate chip cookies. A hundred presents. A million kisses and love you promises. An age-spotted hand on her shoulder as her books lay scattered on the dining room table while she struggled to learn geometry, chemistry and algebra. The smell of her house sweater after it came off the clothesline. Lilacs.

  "Grandma?"

  "Yes, dear." The old woman's voice sounded tired and strangely muffled. "David said you'd be by to see me soon."

  Rebecca turned and took in the sight of her grandmother in the bed. Her mouth opened slowly and tears filled her widening eyes. Her grandmother lay in a bed like none she'd ever seen, nor ever wanted to see. In fact, it wasn't really a bed at all. It was a platform with raised sides, into which some sort of plastic gelatin had been poured, clear enough so that Rebecca could see every detail of the old woman encased in the curious slime. Even her head was held beneath the gelatin. A facemask covered her mouth, fed by tubes that disappeared into the gelatin beneath her. The only thing above the surface of the gelatin were the twin PODs resting over her grandmother's eyes.

  "I take it," came her disembodied voice, "that David didn't prepare you for this."

  Rebecca's voice caught as she tried to speak. Affixed to the wall above her grandmother's head was a finger-long video camera angled towards her. A speaker was embedded in the wall beneath. "Why?" was all she could muster. Her emotions had been overloaded. She could barely breathe.

  As she stepped closer, Rebecca noticed more detail that she'd missed earlier. Her grandmother's body was naked except for small machines affixed in several places, each coinciding with a major organ. The only empty spot was above her left abdomen which held nothing but a scar. Green lights blinked from the tips of each baseball-shaped machine.

  "You've grown into a splendid woman."

  "What have they done to you, grandma? Rebecca had watched her grandmother's throat move as she subvocalized into the mask, the old woman's words broadcasting through the speaker. She looked from the camera to the old woman and back, wondering which one she should address.

  "You'll want to know that it doesn't hurt a bit."

  "Not even—"

  "Not at all. I'm happy here."

  She swallowed. "How can you be happy?"

  "I'm fed, taken care of, and these PODs take me away from here and put me in a place where I'm a pirate queen. Can you imagine? Pirate Agnes." She laughed. "It's so much fun. I can even feel the wind in my face."

  So much fun. Rebecca felt as if she'd taken a hit of acid and followed the white rabbit down a pirate hole. I'm a pirate queen. What had happened to everyone? Were they crazy? So much fun. Or was Rebecca the crazy one?

  "What are those things?" Rebecca's breathing had returned to normal, but she still couldn't put a coherent thought to words.

  "Transceivers that broadcast the status of my remaining organs to nodes. Green is good. Red is bad." The camera angled towards her own body. "They took my left kidney last month. I don't even notice the difference."

  Rebecca swallowed. She needed to get hold of herself. She didn't know how much time she had. Maybe all that Singh had wanted was to prepare her. God knows this wasn't like anything she'd expected.

  "Grandma," she began. "I—" She couldn't finish.

  "I'm not what you expected to see, am I?"

  "No..."

  "David should have told you."

  "David's dead." As abrupt as it was, she couldn't think of any other way to say it.

  There was ten seconds of silence, then emotion poured into the woman's voice "David." Finally she managed to continue. "What happened to him?"

  "Oh, grandma. Everything's gone wrong—people are dying all around me. It started with David." Standing at the foot of the bed, Rebecca hung her head, closed her eyes and pretended she was back in her childhood home, standing in front of her grandmother in her paisley chair. She told her about Kumi and the organs, David's stroke, about the Black Hearts, the police and subsequent escape with the help of the gravBoarders, and finally Olga's death. Through it all the old woman remained silent, listening as her granddaughter poured out her heart. When she finished, Rebecca kept her eyes closed. She'd created a place where she could speak to her grandmother without being reminded of the body encased by the monitoring bed.

  Finally her grandmother spoke. "At a time like this I wish I was out of here so I could hug you. Oh dear Rebecca, life has been so hard on you. First prison for doing what you believed in, and now this." She sighed. "Now this."

  "What should I do? Where should I go?"

  "They're going to chase you forever, you know. You need to find out why they're after you. Let me ask you, do you think it's because of what happened when you were arrested?"

  Hacking? All she'd done was send out some exploitation programs. She'd been trying to get information, not hurt anyone. No, it couldn't be because of that. "No."

  "Then look at those who died and figure out what they have in common. The answer is there in front of you."

  "I suppose you're right." Rebecca opened her eyes shattering the illusion. "Do you think David died because of me?"

  "No, No." Rebecca could imagine her grandmother shaking her head.

  "Do you think he was murdered?"

  "What do you think?"

  "I think so. I don't know how, but it was just too much of a coincidence."

  "Sherlock Holmes didn't believe in coincidence."

  "I wish he was here to help me."

  "You'll figure it out, dear. You're smarter than all of us."

  "I don't feel smart."

  "It doesn't mean that you aren't."

  Rebecca had needed this more than she'd known. She felt her grandmother's love and goodwill wash over her, scouring away her self-doubts and recriminations. To speak with her meant so much. Even as she was nearly less than human, her grandmother was the only one alive who loved Rebecca unconditionally. And it was this sense of belonging that empowered Rebecca.

  She giggled suddenly.

  "What is it?"

  "Oh, nothing." She wiped tears that had crept into her eyes. "It's just...that I came to rescue you, grandma."

>   Rebecca could almost picture the old woman smiling. "Rescue me from what?"

  She gestured around the room with her hands. "From this place."

  "But I don't need rescuing. I want to be here."

  "I don't pretend to understand."

  "You don't have to. It used to be that old age came with aches and pains. The mind slipped away. Friends died. But not anymore. This is the finest retirement I could have. I don't feel any pain. My mind is clear. And instead of living out my days as old dumpy Agnes Navarro, I'm a Pirate Queen sailing the Barbary Coast, scourge of the sea and feared by all." She finished with a chuckle that Rebecca eagerly joined. "No. Don't rescue me. Rescue yourself."

  Andy suddenly burst into the room. He held the door open. "Come on, Bec. We gotta go!" He wore a POD over his left eye and immediately began subvocalizing commands.

  "Andy?" The camera swiveled to see the door. "Is that you?"

  "Hello, Ms. Navarro. Sorry, but I need to take Rebecca away from here now."

  "You take care of her for me?"

  "I'll do that."

  "And Andy?"

  "Yes Ma'am."

  "I'll see you on the high seas."

  "Arg, Mam.”

  "Yes. Arg."

  Chapter 11

  After a hurried goodbye, Rebecca ran to the door. She followed Andy down the hall for twenty feet, then dodged into an empty room. He shoved the door shut behind them, then broke off a piece of metal affixed to the ceiling light, and wedged it under the door to keep someone from opening it. When he turned to her, he was a little wide-eyed.

  "We're about sixty seconds from an alarm sounding, the result of some friends of mine hacking into the system to render their internal transceiver nodes useless. When it goes, security vids will transfer to external control. That gives us a window of opportunity to get the hell out."

  "Why'd they hack in?"

  "So that they can't track you by your organs. You're a wanted woman, Bec. Panchet was monitoring global traffic and several alerts were broadcast about you. As of now, everyone who's anyone knows you're here."

  "Oh, hell."

  "Yep."

  He stared at her as the seconds ticked. One eye normal, the other POD.

  "What was up with that pirate thing?"

  Andy smiled self-consciously to himself. "I told you that David and I would sometimes pop into her inDrama and goof around. I'm a reoccurring character. They call me One-Eyed Hoke."

  Rebecca cracked a smile at the image of Andy with an eye patch and pirate garb. "You've got to be kidding."

  "Nope. It's a blast. Maybe one of these days you can try it."

  "Who was David?"

  "None other than Wild William Bonny. He was quite the swashbuckler. He liked those old Errol Flynn movies, you know. Your grandma's inDrama was a way for him to live the life of daring do."

  Rebecca imagined her brother swinging from a mast rope, throwing himself against a horde of boarders. He'd probably loved the hell out of it. David had always loved sports, but he'd never been particularly athletic. InDramas were the perfect escape for someone like him. By the look on Andy's face, she could tell they'd had great times. Getting to know her brother in ways like this made her miss him even more.

  A shrill alarm interrupted, pulsing short crisp bursts of sound from the ceiling.

  "That's our queue." Andy turned, manually adjusted his POD, and gripped the door handle. "Follow me and stay close."

  He slipped out the door and padded down the hallway, moving away from the entrance they'd used and towards the rear of the building, looking for a back way out. Rebecca hurried after him, but only got a dozen feet before she felt a hand grasp her wrist.

  "You aren't going anywhere." Singh snarled like a Miniature Doberman.

  "Let me go!"

  "I don't think so. You're wanted, you know." He actually tsked.

  "That's none of your business." She tried to pull away.

  "I'm making it my business."

  Bad choice. Her face flushed with anger. No way was she going to allow this little twerp of a man to stop her as if she were a child. She jerked her arm once, then twice. His grip was strong. Suddenly she brought her heel down on his instep and watched as his expression collapsed. He jerked away and went down, cradling his foot. She left him rocking back and forth.

  People began milling in the hallways, trying to find the cause for alarm. Twice Rebecca stumbled into someone, each time barely keeping her balance as she sought to push past them and catch up to Andy. Once she sent an elderly woman reeling to the floor. Rebecca didn't have time to stop and help her, but she did anyway. By the time she helped the woman to her feet grumbling about whippersnappers running in the halls, another sound intruded upon the cacophony of the sirens—that of booted feet.

  Lots of them.

  Glancing back the way she'd come, Rebecca saw a platoon of security guards running two abreast down the hall. Each carried a wicked-looking rod at port arms and they were closing fast. Andy had seen them too. She sped towards him trying her best to stay on her feet. She risked a backwards glance and saw the elderly lady she'd helped get trampled beneath their booted feet, her screams lost in the sound of their approach. Andy gestured for Rebecca to hurry, then ran ahead. They'd almost reached the end of the hallway. Andy reached it first and turned left.

  She looked back again and regretted it immediately. The security guards were only feet from her. They marched in orderly formation, carrying batons which, now that they were close enough, she saw had electric sizzle emanating from their ends. Holy crap! She glanced forward again just in time to turn the corner, and as she did so, she ran right into an overturned cart, her shins making her howl with pain as she tumbled to the floor.

  She rolled onto her back. They were too close for her to do anything but scream, but she was damned if she would. Instead, she lashed out with her legs, kicking and snarling, hoping to get one in the shin, maybe bring him down close enough for her to punch, even bite. By God, she wasn't going giving up without a fight. She kicked again but missed—

  Impossible.

  Then they were upon her. She lashed out with her arms and legs, wind-milling them in a furry of blows, but none of them landed. Not even a nick. Nothing!

  And all around her the legs of her attackers stood still. A foot ran through her chest and another pierced her leg, but she didn't feel anything at all. She reached over and grasped the ankle above her chest, but her hand met no resistance. Ghosts. No, some kind of projection.

  "You've got to be kidding me," she gasped.

  She struggled to her feet. As she did so, the guards nearest her turned towards her movement, reaching out with ghostly arms. Although she couldn't touch them, nor could she feel them, she found herself flinching away from the electric batons and avoiding eye contact. They might not be real, but they were creepy.

  She saw Andy down the hall with his back pressed against the wall. He held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. Someone, or something, had caught him. She couldn't see who, because they were in the other hallway facing Andy.

  But she had an idea. She took three steps towards Andy, and sure enough, the guards around her took three steps with her. She took three more steps and they stepped with her again. The phantom guards might not be real, but they sure looked real. More importantly, she was camouflaged by the hulking men. She took five more steps before she saw movement from the hall entrance. She stopped and peered through a sea of legs.

  "Where did she go?" demanded Singh. A real security guard with an electric baton stood at his side. They drew closer to Andy, taking in the twenty guards standing next to him. Singh examined them for a moment with suspicious eyes, then grinned. "Scared of a few guards, are you?" He waved his hand through one of the guard's faces. "See? Not real."

  Andy glanced towards the fake guards and Rebecca saw him imperceptibly shake his head. If he meant that as a message, she was going to ignore it.

  "Now tell me," Singh demanded, "
Where is she?"

  Andy refused to answer.

  Singh waved his hand. "Hit him."

  The baton came down on Andy's shoulder. A sharp zzaap was followed by Andy's grunt of pain. Smoke rose from where it'd touched his T-shirt.

  "Where is she?"

  "Fuck you!"

  "Again."

  This time Andy howled, the baton burning through his shirt and into his chest. He tried to ward off another blow, but his hands were beaten away by a blow from the baton.

  "Tell me where she is and I'll stop." Singh's voice was emotionless, cold.

  "No!"

  "Again."

  Rebecca took two more steps and launched herself, catching the baton with the side of her arm as it descended. Instead of striking Andy, it struck Singh in the center of his forehead. He tried to scream, but his entire body went rigid. She fell hard to the floor.

  As Rebecca scrambled to her feet, she found the security guards had come to protect her. They'd surrounded her once again, their hulking bodies hiding her from view. She took the opportunity to kick out with her legs at the shin of the real guard. This time she connected. He wobbled; she kicked again and he toppled to the ground. She crab-walked towards him, but was beat to the punch by Andy, who'd snatched control of the baton in the melee. He hit the guard seven times, and each time the guard's body leapt from the ground as electricity pumped through it. After the seventh blow, Andy stood back and let the guard tumble unconscious to the ground.

  Rebecca was the first to her feet. "Come on, Andy! Let's go."

  He followed her, still clutching the baton. She spied an exit ten feet away. She tried the push bar, but it wouldn't budge. She took Andy's baton, pressed it onto the door handle, and squeezed. An arc of electricity formed between the two, pushing against the baton. She held it in place for as long as she could, then dropped the weapon.

  Leaning back, she brought her foot up and kicked the door handle. The door crashed open to an alley, the sounds, smell and relatively fresh air of the outside a welcome change to what had become a stifling and nearly deadly interior.