It would not be long before Gustav returned with more men and Kelly knew she had to make a decision before that happened. She had just changed her shirt and was making her way downstairs where Dunstan and the others were waiting. Santiago knelt beside Penelope, he hadn’t spoken to Kelly yet but his mind was now completely focused on tending to a scrape on Penelope’s arm. Bernard sat at a table and checked their weapons, and Gracia sat beside him. They were all uninjured, save for a few cuts and bruises.
“So uh, what happens now?” Dunstan asked.
Kelly used a napkin to brush some broken glass from the bar, and pieces of broken whiskey bottles crunched under her boots as she selected a drink for herself. “What a waste,” she murmured, unscrewing the bottle. Then she noticed that the glass case containing Dunstan’s Colt army revolvers had been hit in the firefight and they now lay on the floor behind the bar.
“We should go after them,” Bernard was saying.
“Meet them on the open road?” said Gracia. “No. Gustav has more men and better weapons. We hold the advantage if we stay within the town.”
“The cult will always have more soldiers,” said Bernard. “Aside from Gustav’s private forces there are also Anton’s followers, brainwashed by that… that interface the Lieutenant was talking about.”
“They can be persuaded to follow but not necessarily to fight,” Dunstan pointed out. “The cult’s level of control is very delicate. So long as Anton’s followers believe that he is a prophet and the AI in his brain holds the highest and utmost authority, well, I can’t imagine he’s persuaded them to take up arms.”
“Then it’s Gustav’s forces then, enough to take the town sooner or later, we cannot hold it,” Bernard argued.
“And we can’t ask civilians to risk their lives attacking Gustav out there,” said Gracia. “You, me, the Lieutenant, and Dunstan, but not the others.”
Dunstan raised his hands. “I’m just a computer analyst, I wouldn’t group me in with you three, let alone the Lieutenant.”
“Suppose we take out Gustav?” Gracia suggested.
“Assuming we had time to formulate a plan—and it would be one hell of a fucking plan—there’s no guarantee it would accomplish anything. The Lieutenant said it herself, Gustav’s mercs are on a short-term contract with the Harrell’s, even with the big man dead his boys will still want to get paid.”
“Is there… is there anything we can give them?” said Dunstan. “There’s plenty of valuable data we’ve recovered from the cult so far, something here could be useful?”
“I’m against bargaining with mercenaries unless I have no other choice,” said Gracia.
“We may have no other choice,” Bernard pointed out.
“Quiet.” Kelly spoke for the first time. She was receiving a radio message from an unknown contact. She answered.
“So I guess we’ll talk then,” said Gustav Lynwood.
“Sure you don’t want to attack us again?” Kelly replied.
“What’s the use? The Harrell’s want you dead but I wonder if a bargain can be made.”
“And what could you possibly want?”
At the mention of his daughter’s name Santiago’s eyes flashed up.
“Let’s talk, face to face.”
“If we meet face to face,” said Kelly, “one of us will end up dead. I don’t have any reason to trust you.”
“You have a VR?” Gustav asked. “I’ll text you a server code.”
And then he ended the call.
Icy salt water washed over Kelly’s bare feet and the ocean spray brushed coldly over her face. Rain pattered softly from a dark blue sky, the colours unnaturally warped by the VR system attempting to place her mind into a meta-physical rendition of the world. This was undoubtedly her beach, but she had never seen such a storm here before, it was always so tranquil, peaceful. She closed her eyes and imagined herself wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella. Then she began to walk. Smooth round pebbles crunched under her feet. Her beach was endless, she knew, but in a moment the beach would break down and she would enter Gustav’s server.
Dunstan had been against her going in from the moment Gustav suggested VR. Everyone knew the risks of entering an unknown server; for one thing Kelly was alone in a world where her enemy held most of the power, and if she was careless Gustav could trap her and interrogate her for data; secondly, unstable servers were known to glitch, and glitches carried the risk of damaging the mind.
Right on cue the waves tumbling onto the beach folded into white light and the world surrounding Kelly was unmade piece by piece, to be replaced by a meadow of ghostly white lilies and a misty haze. Kelly began to walk, slowly, and dew clung to her ankles. She came to a tree that arched overhead. There was no wind, and no sound but the chirping of insects. The place was stunning.
“We meet at last,” said a deep gruff voice.
Gustav was old but formidable, with a dark grey beard and thick swept-back hair, muscular arms and a broad chest, and a cold stare. As a reflex he stood with his arms spread evenly apart, right foot back, right hand hovering close to his hip.
“The room is unexpected,” Kelly said.
Gustav glanced around, a trace of a smile touching his lips, this place seemed familiar to him, almost comforting.
“An old memory,” Gustav said.
Kelly nodded slowly. “It’s nice.”
“We should discuss how we plan on getting ourselves out of this situation,” said Gustav. “Do you have something to offer?”
“I have plenty to give. What do you have to offer?”
“Safe passage out of Arizona.”
“And Anton agreed to that?”
Gustav hesitated, and in that brief moment something became very clear to Kelly.
“You and Anton don’t want the same thing,” she whispered, then said to Gustav, “Okay, I’ll tell you what I have. We have a neural interface filled with encrypted data belonging to Julia van Buren. We have a girl whom the cult subjected to early interface experiments—”
It was impossible for Kelly to miss the gleam of interest in Gustav’s eyes, the flexing of his fingers and straightening of his back. She made a mental note.
“And I guess last of all what Anton wants is me… dead.”
Gustav stepped forward. “And the girl, is she safe? Is she alright?”
“She’s fine, no thanks to you. Why do you care?”
“She is precious… valuable to Anton and his research,” Gustav spoke quickly.
Kelly nodded. “Right, and she’s also non-negotiable. I’ll give you Julia’s neural interface in exchange for passage out of Arizona for myself, my team—including the girl—as well as the civilians.”
Gustav shook his head. “One out of three isn’t good enough. I can still take your life. Give me the girl. That is non-negotiable.”
“Then we’re back where we started,” said Kelly, shaking her head. “Do you know how much Julia’s interface is worth? Can’t I just persuade you to take it and run?”
“What’s the girl worth to you, exactly?”
Kelly watched his eyes carefully. “She’s a friend,” she said. “I care for her. I won’t have her separated from her father, not again.”
“Her father…” Gustav murmured. His expression hardened. “Then it is inevitable. You have twelve hours to give up the girl and the interface. Out of courtesy I’ll let you leave this server unhindered, but if you try anything on the outside, I will not be so generous.”
As he finished speaking Gustav flickered out of existence, as if he were whisked away by a gentle wind. Then Kelly heard Dunstan in her ear.
“Lieutenant? I saw everything, looks like things didn’t go too well.”
“Looks like.” Kelly gazed upon the tranquil meadow one last time. “We need a new plan. Get me out of here.”
“There is something else,” Dunstan said. “I found something, on Julia’s interface, you’ll want to see it.”
Could this new piece of intel give Kelly the edge she needed to get past Gustav. She could only hope.
“Okay, send it my way.”
“Uploading now. I’ll have to warn you… Have you ever simulated a memory before? Used a memory deck?”
Kelly shook her head. “No, why?”
“This might feel a little weird but just go with it. Try to relax.”
In the typical virtual reality fashion the world folded in on itself in blocks of pale light and Kelly closed her eyes and let her new surroundings envelop her. The meadow disappeared one block at a time and Kelly found herself in a very different world.
Something felt wrong. Kelly sat at a long wooden table, but she couldn’t turn her neck or move her arms, not even wiggle her fingers. She was completely paralysed. But also not. Her body was moving but not when she wanted it to. And her vision seemed different, a tinge of blue, the occasional stream of data appearing as if she wore a tactical visor.
It’s a memory, Kelly realised, both intrigued and amazed, and a little weirded out. At the head of the table, to Kelly’s left, was Anton Harrell, leaning forward with his hands clasped together in front of his mouth. His brows were furrowed, as if he were thinking. To Anton’s left sat Marcus, and Cherry. To Kelly’s right was Johnathan, and then Gustav.
Gustav seemed younger but only slightly, young enough to make Kelly wonder how old the memory was at least. His beard was darker, his eyes less wrinkled. He sat apart from the rest of the company. He bowed his head subtly. His hands were folded on the table.
Anton seemed tired as he sat, totally unmoving, at the end of the dark table. His eyes glowed just as Kelly remembered but she noticed a twitch in the corner of his eye every now and then.
“Are you alright?” Kelly heard herself say, but it was not her voice.
Anton looked at her and smiled, and spoke quietly. “Every waking moment an angel speaks but I am too small to hear it. Her voice remains hidden in this plethora of information and it is… frustrating.”
“We’ve come this far. Upgrades often have bugs, you know this. Have faith, it’s only a matter of time.”
Anton nodded and cleared his throat, then addressed the table. “Today we must decide if our dear friend Gustav Lynwood is to have a place among our committee. May I remind you that Gustav has served us faithfully before and has proved his loyalty to the cause on several occasions.”
“As a contractor,” Marcus pointed out. “All the same, I support him. He’s valuable.”
“And he is a part of the family now,” Kelly said, again feeling strange as the words came out of her mouth.
“Beautiful ceremony, by the way,” said Cherry. “Claire looked stunning in that dress. How is she?”
“She’s good,” said Gustav, speaking for the first time in his usual gruff voice. “We’re expecting a baby, you know, but I’m sure she’s already told you.”
“She did,” Cherry beamed. “I’m so happy for you.”
“By marrying a member of our community Gustav has shown his commitment and proven his faith,” said Kelly. “I for one support the decision to include him at the table.”
“So do I,” said Cherry, excitedly.
Everyone at the table looked at Johnathan, who leaned with his hand pressed against his cheek.
“Son?” said Anton.
Slowly, Johnathan nodded. “Why not? I say let him in.”
“Then it is agreed,” Anton announced. “I will give him the honours of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.” Anton extended his hands towards Gustav. “Today your path truly begins, old friend. Welcome to the family.”
The large table folded away into blocks of light and Kelly emerged into crisp hospital ward. Her brain simulated the aroma of sanitiser and coffee. She felt the paper cup, warm in her hand. She stood behind a large window looking into a sterile room and a crib with an infant inside. This was the first time Kelly had ever looked at her own reflection and saw another person’s face staring back—the feeling was unsettling.
But the child—who was she? And why was this memory so important to Julia?
Anton approached slowly from behind, Kelly saw his reflection in the glass, and he stood beside her.
“I heard Clair’s injuries were… substantial,” he said gravely.
“She will be lucky if she survives,” said Kelly.
“And Gustav—” Anton began.
“Not well,” Kelly replied.
“What of the child?”
“She’s hanging in there. It’s hard to say so soon I suppose but I believe that she will survive.”
“So too, then, will Gustav. The child ties him to the family, she is, by birth, one of us.”
“He’s stronger than you give him credit for, and more loyal.” Kelly paused and leaned a little closer to Gustav. “We may have a… special opportunity here.” Anton looked at her and she continued. “A chance to test the full capabilities of the Neural Interface on an unsculpted mind. Imagine a woman with a gift as natural to her as being about to see or touch. Her mind would bond with the device far better than yours or mine.”
“A child guided by the voice of an angel,” Anton whispered. “Gustav would never agree.”
“Gustav would never need to know.” Kelly sipped at her coffee.
“Would you raise her? Care for her?”
Kelly nodded. “Like my own daughter. She’ll be a special child. Great things will come of her, when the time is right.”
Kelly leaned forward and stared at the little infant in her crib, small, innocent, unknowing.
Another transition of light. Kelly manifested, again as Julia, in an elegant house, where she poured herself a cup of tea over a marble countertop layered with a glass screen. It was night, and tall windows cast a reflection of Julia, beyond which Kelly recognised the porch and the bar and the balcony where Julia’s life would one day end.
She heard crying. Kelly tapped a button on the counter and a video display appeared on the glass, a live feed of the child in her crib.
So Julia did take Gustav’s baby, Kelly thought. But could it really be Penelope?
Julia went into the baby’s room and picked her up, and holding her against her bosom Kelly rocked her gently and carried her out into the living room. Julia had seemed so formidable when Kelly had first met her, frightening even. She had a reputation as one of the most dangerous and powerful women that Kelly had ever met. It was odd to see her so at peace in the quiet of her home, treating something as fragile as Gustav’s baby with such care. Kelly began to wonder if there was anything she could have done to save Julia that day at her estate. Kelly reminded herself not to feel guilty, that Julia’s death was of her own doing.
As she tended to the baby she began to notice signs of recent surgery, but they were subtle, expertly done, like the faint line along the back of the soft skull, and then another around her eyes, and again one more along her torso. Had Kelly imagined the tiny bump under the skin behind the baby’s ear?
So it’s true, Kelly thought, as she returned the now quiet baby to her crib. They’ve really changed her. Penelope…
Kelly returned to the living room and then, without warning, the lights cut out. All of her tech, too. Kelly looked around. “Computer,” she said, but received no response from her Neural Interface. She tried a few manual switches. Nothing.
Her Neural Interface automatically adjusted her vision to the darkness and she could see almost perfectly, as if she were wearing low-powered night vision goggles. Her hearing intensified as well, and focused on the sound of multiple footsteps somewhere downstairs. Kelly reacted quickly, stepping to the locked safe hidden behind the mirror on the wall. She retrieved a compact handgun.
By the time Kelly made it back to Penelope’s room the intruders were on the second floor and coming through the hallway. Kelly turned, and while her vision wasn’t perfect, she spotted a small green glow across the room and fired at it.
Penelope stated to cry again.
Someone yelled “contact!” and then “tossing a flashbang”.
The little cylinder of the grenade spun across the floor and the next thing Kelly knew she was blinded by a searing white light and a concussive ringing in her ears. She fell to the floor with her hands pressed against her temples, the optical HUD of her Neural Interface going haywire, and then she remembered the gun. She couldn’t see, or hear, but she could shoot. Maybe she’d take a few down.
Moments later she felt a weight on top of her, holding her arms behind her back and pinning her torso against the ground.
She thought she heard someone say “target in custody” but the sounds were fuzzy as her Interface tried to re-balance the audio. And behind dark splotches that marred her vision she saw figures marching towards Penelope’s room. Someone in full SWAT uniform came out carrying a bundle in his arms. He flipped his night-vision goggles up and inspected the baby.
“Stop,” Kelly said, or rather she thought it, as her lips didn’t move but she heard her own voice this time. In that instant, time slowed to a halt and the figure carrying Penelope stood like a statue in the dark. “Dunstan, can you clean this up at all? Just this image, restore Julia’s vision as best as you can.”
The dark blotches slowly faded and a mysterious light filled the room so that everything remained dim but Kelly could now clearly inspect the details in the room. There was no doubt about it—the man carrying Penelope was Santiago. Julia took Penelope from Gustav, and then Santiago took her from Julia.
“Gustav must have found out somehow,” Kelly told Dunstan. “He doesn’t care about us, he just wants his daughter back.” Kelly stared at the younger rendition of Santiago for a moment longer and thought about what all of this would mean. “Okay,” she said, “bring me out.”
“Dunstan?”
Nothing happened. Maybe it was a problem with the memory deck. Kelly stood frozen inside the dark room, staring at Santiago and the little bundle in his arms. Normally to exit VR a user would have to imagine a command key or be pulled out by someone else. It took a moment but Kelly’s command key finally registered and she found herself leaving Julia’s memory.
Only to wake up on her beach. Grey and windy. Alone.
“This… is wrong,” she said aloud. “Dunstan, are you hearing me? Do you copy? Time to wake up now.”
She took out her phone and opened up a command prompt screen, continually pressing the EXIT SIMULATION button. Nothing was working. She had never been in this situation before. What does it mean if you can’t exit a simulation? Should she be worried?
Then she heard cracking in her earpiece, so painfully loud that she almost ripped it out, but within the noise she picked up Dunstan’s voice. “—lly! Are you —ere?”
“Dunstan? What’s going on?”
After a few seconds the audio became quieter and clearer. “It was a trick,” Dunstan began. “Gustav wanted to —id of you. He’s launched a second assault and the hotel’s —taken. He did something —you were in VR. I couldn’t pull you out. —sorry.”
The rest of Kelly’s attempts to contact him ended in static. She sat down on the pebbly sand with her legs crossed and tried to think. Ten minutes passed, and then without a word from Dunstan the exit sequence began.
Kelly was yanked from the VR deck the moment she opened her eyes. One of Gustav’s soldiers held her arms behind her back while another stood a few paces away with an assault rifle. Kelly’s sidearm and knife were missing. No one else was in the bar, but outside, through the open double doors, she saw a handful of Gustav’s soldiers taking positions around the town. Where were Dunstan and the others?
Just then bursts of gunfire erupted somewhere in the town, Gustav’s soldiers shouted and retaliated, one of the Hotel’s front windows shattered, and the man holding Kelly’s arms stepped back and reached for his pistol.
Kelly wasn’t sure what was going on but she saw an opening and went for it, closing the gap between herself and the man holding her at gunpoint just as he turned his head towards the window. She grabbed the barrel of the rifle, yanked it over her shoulder and kneed the soldier in the groin as he was pulled forward with the gun. Kelly spun around the wheezing soldier and used him as a shield, reaching around and firing his weapon twice into her other captor. By now the enemy personnel standing outside had caught onto the fight and were trying to line up a shot on Kelly, but they were being suppressed by gunfire somewhere else. Now Kelly wrestled with the soldier for control of the gun but she couldn’t pin him down. He twisted and turned, wrenched her away and threw her towards the bar. If Kelly hadn’t been able to roll back onto her feet she might have been shot then and there. The assault rifle was deathly loud in the confines of the tavern and splinters and dust shot up all around Kelly as she dived over the bar top and took cover.
Above all the noise of gunfire Kelly tried to keep a clear head and analyse the situation. She was pinned, outnumbered, and unarmed. The door to the gun safe hung open on its hinges, empty. Glass stung her bleeding forearms. Dunstan and the others were supposedly still alive but she couldn’t rely on them. She didn’t even know where they were. She looked around. How to get out…
Then her eyes fell upon the pair of 1892 Colts laying on the floor, and the gun safe still had boxes of ammunition—
Another burst of machinegun fire.
“Mother fuckers,” Kelly mumbled as she rolled onto her side and loaded both revolvers, tucking the second one into the back of her pants.
She crawled to the edge of the bar, swung around the corner and gunned down her opponent in two quick shots. This was her opportunity for escape. Her heart thumped, her movements fluent, like a dance, her eyes and ears scanning for threats. A door creaked upstairs. Footsteps. Kelly spun around and took out a shooter as he appeared from the second floor, two shots, and his body jolted and tumbled down the stairs.
Now Kelly ran to the front window, right beside the door, and finally the scene unfolded before her. Only two of Gustav’s people remained in cover behind a barricade of sandbags and corrugated iron on the far side of the road. One more lay wounded behind them, and two were strewn upon the road, dead. To Kelly’s left, further down the street, Dunstan and Bernard hid behind the brick wall that surrounded the town centre. There was someone else there although Kelly couldn’t see their face, but they weren’t moving and Kelly feared for the worst. The thought that a civilian had died because of her mission, because of her fight, she became flush with remorse and anger, either towards the ones she was fighting, or herself, she didn’t know. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped her weapon.
She leaned over the window sill and fired. A cloud of dust erupted from a sandbag.
“She’s escaped!” she heard a voice say.
Dunstan cried out, “Holy shit, it’s Kelly.”
One round left in the first Colt and Kelly was about to take it when at last Gustav presented himself, and from some hidden place he yelled, “Lieutenant! Stop this!”
All at once the world went quiet. Kelly leaned against the wall under the window and listened to shuffling feet somewhere on the road outside, but she couldn’t look up, not yet.
“I pegged you for a man of your word,” said Kelly. “Guess I was wrong. That was a real dick move.”
“You know as well as I how to do whatever it takes to complete the mission,” Gustav replied.
“And what is your mission, Gustav? Why don’t you tell us all why you’re really here.”
He didn’t reply, and Kelly tried something else.
“Dunstan, are you alive?” she yelled.
“Yeah!” Dunstan called back from down the street. “It’s been a hell of a day, hasn’t it Lieutenant.”
“Who’s with you?” Kelly asked.
“Just Bernard and Katie, but Katie is injured. We decided to run. Gracia has the civilians.”
Kelly paused for a moment. The three of them maybe had a chance of defeating Gustav’s people in a gunfight, be she didn’t want to risk losing Katie in the process.
“Gustav,” Kelly said, “let Dunstan move my girl get to safety, I know you don’t care about the civilians here or you wouldn’t have let them leave. You want me dead, right? Let’s settle this, here and now—”
“Kelly!”
The sound of Penelope’s shrill voice sent a shiver down Kelly’s spine. She lifted her eyes above the ledge of the window. Gustav crouched in the middle of the road with Penelope in front of him and a gun to her head. One of his soldier’s stood on either side, both armed with handguns. Penelope squirmed to get away from Gustav but had little hope.
“Do you think I’m playing?” Gustav spat.
Kelly kept her weapon aimed at his head, but her heart pounded in her chest and her knuckles whitened. She pursed her lips and quietly said, “Gustav, think about what you’re doing.”
“You’re weapon, Lieutenant, place it on the ground, slowly.”
Tears streamed down Penelope’s cheeks and Kelly knew without doubt that she could not take any risks. If something happened to that little girl…
Kelly raised her hands, lifted her finger from the trigger of her Beretta and slowly placed it down at her feet, then she kicked it towards Gustav. She looked at Penelope.
“Everything is going to be okay,” she said. “I need you to be brave, he won’t hurt you.”
Gustav jammed the pistol harder against her head and she squealed. Kelly reflexively stepped forward and Gustav’s two men raised their guns a little higher. Kelly stopped, hands still raised. She took a deep breath and looked Penelope in the eye.
“He won’t hurt you,” she said again, and looked at Gustav. “Will you, Gustav. You’re not going to shoot her. You’re not retrieving her for Anton. She’s your daughter.”
Gustav’s eyes were locked on Kelly. “You found out.”
“So what happens now?” said Kelly, noticing the fatigue in her voice.
“You know I admire you, Lieutenant Jade. You’re a good soldier, but you’ve stepped into a world where you don’t belong, and now you’ve lost. I wish I didn’t have to kill you—”
In that moment, just as Gustav raised his gun towards Kelly, Penelope latched onto his arm and yanked it towards her, and she kicked and scratched him and screamed.
Kelly knew the odds. She stood in the sights of three handguns. She knew this might be it for her, but she refused to die. In a manner of seconds she drew the Colt from the back of her pants and fired. Gustav’s head snapped back in a violent jerking motion. Kelly swung her arm to the left and fired a shot at one of Gustav’s men—she didn’t know if it hit or not—then she fired at the man on the right, but not before she felt a bullet rip through her torso. She gasped and stagged back. The two men were wounded but still standing. The man on the left shot at her but missed, a cloud of dust kicked up at her feet. As Kelly fell backwards she shot the man two more times and he went down. The man on the right had fallen to his knees. Kelly emptied her last round into his neck.
No sounds were heard after the firefight other than the crackling echo of gunshots. A terrible heat spread through Kelly’s chest. She took short sharp breaths and positioned herself onto her back. The sky above was a wonderful and vibrant shade of blue, but the sun was so unbearable bright. She closed her eyes.
Somewhere far away there was yelling, and the sound of footsteps crunching on dry gravel.
ns 172.70.126.3da2