by Franklin, TG
"Not entirely. He won't have control of the web, but there are other technologies and projects he does control. As to how important they'll be after the wave hits? Who knows. Depends on the extent of the destruction."
"I don't care about after. Hadrian killed my parents, and who knows how many others have died on his orders. How many have blasted and not survived because he coerced the government into banning A? How many controllers have burned out? How many have died at the wall?"
She turned and watched the squids ride past them. "Are you sure he'll come after me?"
"Yes. If he doesn't get you at Sensations, he'll wait for you at the old prison. Don't kid yourself, the place will be heavily guarded, and Hadrian's men will try to shoot all of us in order to deliver you to Hadrian and the prisoner."
"Stupid on his part to go that way. What makes him think I'll cooperate?"
"Won't you? Jonah will be at a control comp. You may not care about me, or the others who will be with you, but you love your brother. Hadrian will use that against you. At least until he gets the codes and Jonah inputs them. Once the web is fully functional, he'll terminate both of you."
"Not if I kill him first."
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "Are you certain vengeance is what you want? His blood on your hands?"
"It's all I've got left."
Dex started to say something, but stopped and stepped to the other side of the sidewalk, next to the creek, "What's happening down there?"
She followed his gaze and saw everyone gathered around the barber shop, trying to see in the windows. "Don't know, but it can't be good."
A lone rider broke through the crowd and within seconds screeched to a halt next to Jonah's bike.
Ella left the bike running and vaulted off the seat. "Jonah, Stran's yelling for help out of the window." She pointed to the two-story building where Stran and Corene flopped. "He says Corene is having a brain blast."
Jonah raced to his bike, started it up. As he turned the bike around, he called over his shoulder to Dex. "Do your thing and meet me there."
She grabbed hold of Dex's arm. "What did he mean for you to do your thing?"
"Activating the nanites, and I've already sent the commands." He starting running and in a few seconds had caught up with the motorcycle. She'd never seen anyone, mech or not, run as fast.
Ella mounted the bike she'd rode down on and offered the bitch seat to Mary, but Mary turned down the ride. "No thanks. I'll walk." She couldn't do anything to help. Plus, she needed the extra few minutes to think. Dex had taken a risk showing up at the park today, in the Dragons' den, so to speak. But if what he'd told them was true, it was a risk worth taking. She still wasn't sure if she believed him. Didn't even have the entire plan. He managed to give them the big picture without divulging specifics.
Instinct led her to believe Dex, or maybe she needed to believe him. Hope, she discovered, made her desperate to believe they had a chance to make it through the wave alive.
Gang members crowded the door of the barber shop, and she tucked the drive into her bra as she pushed her way through. Didn't want to risk it falling out of her pocket.
At the bottom of the stairs, she heard Dex's voice above the din. "Stran, get the hell out of here! You're not helping."
Footsteps pounded above her, and she barely made it out of the way before Stran charged down the steps. Red. Everything red. His face red with rage. His clothes covered in blood. His eyes bloodshot and filled with tears.
He stopped two steps below her, as if he'd just registered her presence, and turned toward her. "Mary, they won't let me stay. I need to stay with her. Protect her." He looked at his hands and flinched. "Oh, God. What do I do? Please, Mary, tell me what to do." Sobs racked his body, and he grabbed the banister for support as he crumbled. His hands left dark, red smears of blood on the rail.
She crouched beside him. "Everything is going to be all right, Stran. Jonah and Dex will take care of her." She motioned to Michael. Thank goodness he and Ella hadn't left yet. "Mike's going to take you out of here. Get you cleaned up, okay?"
With Stran firmly in Michael's grip, she bolted up the remaining steps and through the door. The first sight of Corene, curled in the fetal position, knocked her back a step. Her friend looked dead.
They'd left her eyes open. Irises shrouded in blood. Blood pooled around Corene's head. The coppery stench of it mixed with the sharp odor of urine, wasn't a brain blast humiliating enough, and coated Mary's throat. She turned away, gagging.
"She's not dead." Dex's voice registered through the buzzing in Mary's head. "Not yet, but she's close."
"Same as you if you don't get the nanites doing their thing," Jonah said.
"Something is blocking the signal. The towers on Sharp's Ridge, maybe. I don't know." Dex brushed past Jonah. "I've got to get her out of here. Even if I get clear, the signal to the nanites might not reach her." He picked Corene up, cradled her against his chest, and headed toward the back of the building. "Jonah, get over to the surgeon's. I'll meet you there once the nanites are activated and Corene's out of danger. Mary, round up the riders and Ella and get to Sensations. The virus must be uploaded before one o'clock in order to have enough time to propagate through the system to the controllers."
"Wait!" Jonah caught up to Dex. "You expect us to just leave? Pretend like Corene's not dying?"
"That's exactly what I expect you to do," Dex answered through clenched teeth. "Or would you rather we all stay here, hold hands, and die together?" He walked to the door, kicked it open, and started down the hall. "Don't forget to give the doc's address to David," he yelled when he reached the back stairs. "I'll meet you there." He disappeared through the broken door.
Her brother, red-faced and shaking with rage, reared back and punched a hole through the wall. "Son of a bitch!" He jabbed a finger toward the door. "That cold-blooded, heartless son of a bitch."
It seemed as if he'd been nothing but angry as long as she could remember, but she'd never seen him so furious. So out of control. "Jonah." She whispered his name, laid her hand on his arm. "What happened five years ago?"
"He blasted, okay. And died." Tears pooled in his eyes, and he swiped the back of his hand across them. "He died in my arms. We didn't know much about blasting back then, but even if we had, we couldn't have helped him."
"Wait. What? He died?" No. Her brother was talking crazy. Dex hadn't died. Obviously.
"I couldn't' help him. He'd made me promise that when he blasted, I'd finish the job before he got...like Corene. But I couldn't." He didn't try to wipe the tears away now, and they trailed down his cheeks. "He was the closest thing I had to a brother. I couldn't let him die."
"Jonah, what did you do?"
"There was this clinic we used, you know, for the mech implants. Hadrian owned all the mech clinics back then, but there was this one doctor. He'd do the mech work for the gangs after hours. He had a taste for heroine and girls. We fed his addiction, and he worked on us for free."
"Christ, Jonah. You let a drug addict work on your arms? And you pimped for him?" She didn't try to hide the disgust in her voice.
The tears dried up, and Jonah absently scratched his face. "It wasn't like that. The girls weren't underage. Come on, Mary, you know I'd never do anything like that, but there were lots of ladies willing to do the doc for free med treatment. We'd set up these parties. Invite the drug dealers, the women, the doc, and provide security. We did what we had to do to survive. I won't say I'm sorry for it. To you, or anybody else."
Maybe she shouldn't expect an apology, but it left her wondering what else her brother had done. Doesn't matter, she told herself, and tried to make herself believe it. "Doesn't matter," she repeated. "What about Dex?"
"I took Dex to the clinic. Went right through the front door with him in my arms. Demanded to see Doc Kistner. A nurse led us back to a room, but it wasn't Doc Kistner who came in." He let out a choked laugh. "It was one of Hadrian's boys, straight up
. Strode in wearing his long, white coat. Damned thing was pristine. Not even a wrinkle. Stood at the end of the bed, hands in his pockets, nasty smile on his face, and told me how Doc Kistner had overdosed, and how Hadrian, in his generosity, had rehabilitated the good doc."
"Did you ever find out what really happened to him?"
"Hadrian's boy told us. All smug while I sat on the bed holding Dex. Said how he, Hadrian's boy, personally detoxed Doc Kistner and implanted the controller mech. No more cravings, illegal or otherwise, for doc Kistner."
"Is that how Dex became a controller?"
"Honestly, I don't know how it happened. Dex flatlined while the guy was talking. I lost it, sis. Grabbed the guy, threatened to break his neck if he didn't call for a crash cart. He did, and told the nurses to bring him some blood thinners. That's the first we'd learned about them helping a brain blast. He worked on Dex for about fifteen minutes. Seemed like forever. Jacking the blood thinners straight into Dex's carotid, doing the defib. I've never seen anything like it." He stopped and took a deep breath. "Dex pulled through, and I stayed with him for hours afterward. He came to, but he was still delirious and talking out of his head. Kept saying 'I see it' over and over."
"What did he mean? What did he see?"
"No idea. At the time, I thought he was brain damaged or some shit, and he'd end up in a church. Maybe he'd seen the white light and the great beyond. I don't know. I tried to calm him down, but the more I tried, the more agitated he got. And creepy. He'd look at me and scream, but his eyes weren't focused, and it wasn't me he saw. The nurses rushed in, pumped him with sedatives. Told me I shouldn't be there when he woke up, so I blew. Went back the next day and no Dex. Not at his house, either. Finally caught sight of him about a week later. He had the controller tech and was in the company of Hadrian's men. Never got an explanation. Never even got the chance to talk to him." Jonah looked down at his hands. "I didn't want to believe he'd joined up with Hadrian, not at first. Had to be a con. But we kept tabs on him. Heard how fast he'd moved up Hadrian's ranks, how he'd volunteered for the experimental mech, and I knew he'd betrayed us."
"Do you believe him this time? About the wave and us?" she asked.
"I believe he'd do anything to save his own ass, including turning you over to Hadrian." He let out a loud sigh. "But I'm not getting the bad vibes." Jonah moved away from the wall and walked toward the stairs. "It doesn't make sense, though. Him coming back now."
"Maybe it does." She stepped in front of him, blocked his path. "Did Dex go psychic?"
"No. The doc got to him before he blasted. Plus, he went controller right after he blasted. Controllers' minds can't handle the psychic shit. So, even if he had gone psychic, the controller mech would've fried the psychic circuits like it does the emotions."
"Has Dex ever stimmed?"
"How the hell should I know?"
"C'mon, think. He's been high profile, and you said you kept tabs on him. Try to remember. It might be important."
"No," he answered after a moment. "Dex never stimmed."
"Good. If it means what I think it means, I'm pretty sure we can trust him, but don't ask me why. It's only a feeling right now. I need to think it over some more, and if I'm wrong...well, I just hope I'm not. Things are going to get worse. A lot worse, and you'll be with Dex while I'm making my way to the prison. Promise me you'll remember that Dex never stimmed." She waited until her brother nodded his agreement and went down the steps, careful not to touch the railing where Corene's blood stained the wood.
David waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. He still looked a little pale. He'd traded the hoodie for a t-shirt and leather jacket. The thick material hid the twitching caused by the mech, as well as the cuts on his arms. As long as they drained enough to get through security, no one in the bar would know he was mech. The face tats might make people suspicious, but if David didn't set off the security alarms, the people in the bar would probably think her and David were wannabes.
"How are the arms?" Mary asked.
David flexed his fingers. "Don't feel anything from the cuts. Figure there's some nerve damage there. The pain in the muscles throbs like a bitch, but everything works. I'll be able to ride and keep the bike steady when you jump, but if something goes wrong and you have to baton back to me? I can't promise we'll stay upright."
She gave him a teasing grin. "I'd take you with two bum arms over a squid any day." She pointed to the window. "Those the guys you picked?"
He followed her gaze. "Yeah. The best of the squids."
"What did you tell them?" Jonah asked.
"That we had a new job. High risk. And if they fucked up, I'd personally rip the mech out of their arms."
"What about Ella?"
"Told her she'd be riding with Michael, and her part was to make mech security think she was Mary. She's ready. Didn't even wince when I told her about the shoe polish on her hair. Went straight to the building, darkened her hair, and changed her clothes to match Mary's."
"Great. Looks like we're all set. You go on out, get everyone ready to ride, and give me a minute with Mary, okay?"
"Sure." He held his hand out to Jonah.
Jonah took the doc's address out of his pocket, smacked it in David's hand, and pulled him into a one arm around the shoulder hug. "Good luck, man."
"Don't need luck when you got the skills." David pulled back, went to the door. "Don't worry, I'll keep her safe."
"You'd better," Jonah yelled as the door closed behind David, "or I'll personally rip the mech out of your arms and beat you senseless with it."
"Jonah!" She gave him a light jab with her elbow. "Stop being the big and bad, overprotective brother. We'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about."
"Me? I got the sweet end of this deal. I get to sit at a comp and input a few codes while you do all the dangerous shit."
"With controller mech, and we both know it's a lot more dangerous than the devil's footsteps." She buried her head against his chest and finally let the tears flow. "Jonah, I'm scared. After losing mom and dad, I don't think I could bear it if you looked at me the way Dex does."
"The way Dex does?"
"Without emotion."
He took hold of her shoulders and leaned back. "Look at me. That will never happen. You hear me. Never. As soon as the web is fully functional, I'll go back to the doc, make him take the controller mech out."
Snot clung to her upper lip, and she let go of his hands to rub her sleeve under her nose. "Promise?"
"I promise." He laid a soft kiss on her forehead.
"It's not fair. I should be the one getting the mech and the cushy comp jockey job. You ought to be riding into danger and breaking into creepy old prisons."
"Yeah." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at his shoes. "Guess Dex has his reasons."
"And probably good ones. I just wish I knew what they are."
"Better quit wondering and get to riding. Don't know how long David's arms are going to hold out."
"Crap! Why did you let me stand here blubbering?" She threw her arms around him and gave him squeeze. "Love you."
"Love you, too, sis. Be careful out there, and don't take any stupid chances."
CHAPTER TEN
Corene rolled onto her side, covered her ears, and curled up in a ball. Moans, screams, and the laughter of the mad echoed around her. Must be what hell sounds like, she thought. No relief from the constant torment of those in pain.
Or the smell.
Piss and vomit and blood permeated the air around her, and she twisted on the thin mattress trying to cover her mouth and nose as well as her ears.
It didn't help.
Somewhere a door opened and closed. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The only light in the room came from a stained glass window. A scene of the ascension maybe. Lots of angels. It scattered macabre shadows on the yellowed wall opposite the window. Where the paint had peeled, it looked as if one of the angels had a gash across its heart.
N
ot in hell. One of the churches. This area of the fringes is lousy with them, and she had no way to know which one he'd brought her to. There were at least half a dozen around the park. People flooded to them during the early years. Then, during the bad years, the riots, people had abandoned their faith. Hell saw an opportunity and seized it. Fire consumed their minds, and hands that once folded in prayer turned violent. They even destroyed the funeral home behind the duck pond.
Dex's choice of church didn't matter. They were all the same.
Welcome to the First United House of Holy Horrors. A sanctuary for controllers too junked on artificial stimulation to function, and the poor souls who didn't quite recover from a brain blast. They weren't dead, but trapped in the terror of psychic nightmares, because their minds couldn't accept their new extrasensory abilities.
She clenched her fists so that her fingernails dug into her palms. "Damn you, Stran. You promised!"
"Don't blame Stran." Dex's voice carried from the shadows. "I'm responsible for you being in the church, and I'm already damned.
"How long have I been out?"
"About two hours. Jonah should be at the surgeon's office by now, and Mary and David are probably walking into Sensations, or getting ready to."
"What about Stran?"
"After I dropped you off here, I went back and told Stran you died from the brain blast."
"He believed you?"
"I'd told him something was blocking my signal to the nanites. You were already half-dead by the time I got there, so it wasn't a hard sell." In two steps, he stood beside her, his hand out to help her up. "He didn't take it well, but he's still riding with the Dragons to meet up with Ursula and Niko."
With Dex's help, she stood, noticed that someone had replaced her bloody clothes, and gave a silent prayer of thanks that she didn't have any serious injuries. Still a little shaky, she grabbed Dex's forearm and took a few tentative steps toward the door. "Okay, good. That's good. And in case I forget, or change my mind later, thanks for everything."
