Mind Games (27 page)

Is it…is it…

Yep. That’s me, Luna. Or what’s left of me. A brain in a Think Tank. Aren’t I gorgeous? I think unplugging me isn’t going to be quite like you thought.

45

Our link is suddenly broken. Is it the shock? Gecko is gone, and not only that, without the link I’m completely here now – not in the VeeDub any more. Frantic, I search for him inside, but nothing.

Tears are running down my face. I sit on the cold hard floor, arms wrapped around myself. Is this what happens to all the interns? Do they train us up in world manipulation, separate us from our bodies, and trap us in a game world to run…forever?

Has this happened to Hex, too? Is he in a tank in another one of these rooms, along with all the other interns in his group? I try to remember them, and can only get some of their faces and names linked together.

And my group: Marina, Sparky, all the others. Are we next?

I have to get word of what they’re doing here out. I have to. This has to be stopped.

Tempo will know what to do. I need to find a PIP, and do it now. They’ll still be busily checking all those alarms we set off, but sooner or later, they’ll make it to this one.

Pull yourself together, Luna
.

I wipe my face on my sleeves. Stand up. I push the door open a crack, and peer through. The hall is, as before, dimly lit, silent. I guess the occupants of these rooms don’t need a lot of lighting.

I move as quick as silence allows to the end of the hall, where a door leads to a junction. There are stairs ahead, and doors to the left and right. Which way now? The left door is the one I came through to get here. I try the right one. It’s locked, but a swipe of the staff ID, and it opens.

It leads to a large open room, with some sort of hulking technical equipment lined up in rows, and a massive lift on the opposite wall. I start to walk along a row, then hear voices in the far corner. I duck down behind one of the pieces of equipment. That’s when I focus on it closer, and almost stop breathing.

No
. It couldn’t be. Could it? It’s a tank? I glance around me. There is row after row of gleaming tanks, just like this one – and they’re
all
biological support tanks. Not like Gecko’s Think Tank. They’re bigger, much bigger.

I should get out of here before someone sees me, but suspicion and dread are trickling through my gut.
I have to know what is inside these tanks
.

Footsteps echo across the floor. I scrunch down further, and risk a look down a row. There are two techs; their backs are towards me as they walk towards the lift. They reach it just as the lift doors open. They pull some of the tanks into it, and get in with them. The doors shut. The numbers start changing; it is going up.

Am I alone in here now? I stay very still, and listen. One minute, two – the only sound is my heart beating.

I move towards one of the tanks. I swallow; my head is light. I tap the view screen, and struggle to make myself focus. Recoil when I see what is inside.

A body.

My feet want to run, but I rotate the view, and the face, the eyes, are all still there – the room spins when I recognise him. It’s Zippy, from Hex’s group. The back of his skull is missing; brain removed. He’s all carefully hooked up, heart still beating, lungs still breathing. Kept alive without a brain. His eyes blink and I almost scream.

I stagger backwards into another tank, and jump forwards into yet another. Tanks, surrounded by tanks. All with…bodies? Without brains? Are they alive, or are they dead? Panic is rising inside. There are more of them than just Hex’s group, many more. Were they all interns? Is this some sort of transplant bank; do they wait here until they’re needed, then disappear into that lift?

There is a whirring sound. The lift – it’s coming back down. The doors will open. I dash blindly across the room, out a door on the other side.

I’m not trying to be quiet any more. I’m running. It registers that this isn’t part of the hospital. The hall looks like the one our rooms are in, but more lived in – pictures on walls, shoes in front of doors. I slow, stop. Try to control my breathing, and think.

Is this staff housing? It’s very quiet.
The surgical staff are all exhausted
, Rafferty had said. Have they been busily separating Hex’s graduation class from their brains?

Taking more care to be quiet now, I creep down the hall. I continue past silent doors, then a dining hall, and – bingo. A recreation room.

And there they are, along the back wall: a row of PIPs. Some of them are occupied, with a red light over the door. Playing games while they sleep?

I find one that is green.

The door is locked, but I put the staff card in the slot –
beep
. It opens. Fingers crossed they haven’t found him yet, or noticed his card is missing. But best not chance it. I access my silver grid, use the channel to PareCo to find this PIP, and scramble the ID code. Maybe that’ll stop them from tracing it later. Just in case it doesn’t work, I put a pingback on the general security logs. Anything unusual, and it will ping an alert to me.

The ANDs I took before must have worn off by now. I plug in, and dive out of my hallway and into the void so fast that the nausea doesn’t have time to hit.

Tempo first. In case anything happens to me, I
have
to tell her what is going on here.
I’m sorry, Gecko: I’ll be there soon
.

I call the silver arrows, start to follow them, and then—

‘Luna?’ Hex’s voice. Via my Implant. But it’s still off…?

I
can’t
not answer. I can’t. ‘Hex?’ He appears in front of me.

Tears rise in my eyes. ‘Are you…have you…’ My voice trails away; I can’t make myself ask the question. Are you missing something, like, say, a body? Sounds harsh.

I force myself to keep walking, following the silver arrows to Tempo.

‘Luna, are you all right? I had to commit a mighty hack to get around your Implant disabling and bring it back online.’

I’m warmed that he sounds impossibly smug, like he usually does. Just the same. It helps me try again.

‘Hex, what are you?’

He raises an eyebrow. ‘Let’s see: an impossibly gifted Hacker. Extraordinarily handsome.’

‘OK, given, and given. But
where
are you? The rest of you?’

His face is serious now. ‘Ah. So you’ve worked it out, have you? What Think Tanks really are?’

‘Has it…are you…’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh, Hex.’

‘Don’t look so appalled. It’s the best thing
ever
. Think about it, Luna. It’s like you control your entire world, forever. If you’re trusted like I am you’re not trapped in one world; you can roam the Gateway and do what you like. Forever.’

‘Forever?’

‘Sure. You live forever; you control as many worlds as you can manage. What’s not to like?’

‘You mean you
wanted
this?’

‘Of course. Who wouldn’t? Luna, this is a way to move beyond physical limits, to become
more
.’

I shake my head, still walking, still following the arrows: I see Tempo in the distance. ‘I’ve got to go, Hex. Bye.’ I disconnect.

Tempo waves; Crystal is with her. I wipe my tears away. It is time to be tough.

They start to say hello; I interrupt. ‘Listen up. I’ve found out what happens at Inaccessible Island, what happens to the interns.’ I explain it all, holding nothing back. Wanting to reach out to Crystal when I tell them about Gecko, but as if she knows my hand wants to creep up and find hers, she shakes her head, moves away.

Tempo nods. Not surprised? Somehow, she
knew
. So why did she need me to come here as a spy – to confirm suspicions?

Crystal’s eyes are both bright and hard, like meltwater on ice.

‘Is it legal if they consent?’ I ask.

‘No. Completely prohibited under NUN law,’ Tempo says. ‘Though there are jurisdictional issues on Inac.’

‘Why would anyone consent?’ The horror on Crystal’s face echoes my own.

‘You can live forever. In virtual.’
Like Hex
, I add silently.

Hex, who hacked my Implant to call. Hex, who said he is trusted by PareCo…? Did answering him make me traceable? The last time we spoke, I told him my suspicions about PareCo. Is that why Rafferty moved my surgery up?

How could I be so stupid! I curse inside, and look around us. While we’ve been talking, the flickering void lights have decreased without my noticing.

‘We’re in trouble,’ I say. And it’s not just the lights – the winds of the void are dying. This isn’t void – this is becoming less than void. True emptiness.

‘It’s a trap,’ Tempo says. ‘Quick, Luna, spin. Spin before the silver is completely gone.’

I’ve started before she’s finished the sentence: spinning, arms and hands outstretched over my head. There is so little silver left. I spin, and spin, and call it to me, bit by bit. The silver in my hands grows until it is bright.

‘Don’t collapse it,’ Tempo calls out to me, her voice feeling light and distant. ‘When you have enough, thrust it out.’

I spin faster, and want to take in more and more, not throw it away – but her voice is insistent.

Reluctantly, I let go. It spins out in a bright arc, and connects with something – I don’t know what. For a second it is bright, defined by the silver – a sphere all around us. It’s holding?

Crystal flings bolts of ice at the edges and the whole thing shatters.

We run, out into the void. Normal void.

‘Listen to me, Luna. Go to the MD Gateway. Spin and collapse the Gateway – it’s linked to all of the PareCo worlds. It will destroy them.’

‘What about the Council of Scientists? What did Media say to do?’

‘There’s no time to go to COS over this. You have to do it now.’

‘It will destroy the PareCo worlds? All of them?’

‘It’s the only way. The only way to stop them. Crystal? Go with her. Defend if necessary.’

‘And you, Tempo?’ Crystal says, looking at her strangely.

‘I’ll do what I can to stop them from following you. Go.’

I focus on the MD Gateway:
take me there
. Silver arrows waver. I focus, and they are stronger.

I run, Crystal by my side.

46

‘It doesn’t look that impressive,’ Crystal says, as she surveys the inside of the MD Gateway.

‘No? It is only a link to every PareCo world, ever. But what about everyone in the worlds?’

‘Escape code. They’ll get dropped back into their hallways. Do it, Luna. It’s the only way to stop PareCo. Tempo is right: it has to be done.’

I try to spin, to gather power, but it’s not working.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I think this only works properly in the void or S’hacker spaces. This is too closed off from it.’

Crystal throws ice at the wall between two doors: it coalesces into a sheet of silver. She flicks it, and it shatters. She smiles. ‘How about if there are windows to the void? I’ll make more. Keep trying.’

I raise my hands, close my eyes. Spin. This time it starts to work; silver starts to draw through Crystal’s window, then another and another as she makes more of them.

Silver, and more silver. More than when we escaped from the PareCo trap. I’m pulsing with it. It’s in me; it’s part of me. Just a part, but becoming more and more. I’m growing. A wave of silver surrounds me now – like Gecko’s tsunami.

Gecko? I frown. What about Gecko? He hasn’t got escape code, and even if he did, he has no body to escape to.

What about Crystal? And everyone else in the void?

Like a distant fly buzzing, somewhere I can hear voices, blows, screams. Crystal? Some of the Gateway doors are opening. Monsters are coming out to try to stop us, and getting caught in Crystal’s ice. But there are too many of them, coming from all sides. They can’t get me; I’m too strong. I try to flick at them, to catch them in the silver wave to protect Crystal, but it is hard to do that and spin at the same time, to grow and grow in power.

This is what Tempo wanted all along. But is it what Astra wanted me to do? She was training me to spin, to fall with the void. I can destroy: is this why she said I was
special
?

I can return chaos, and claim my S’hacker name:

I could claim Anarchy.

A final scream. Crystal? She’s fallen, then she is swept into the silver. Becomes part of it.

No.

Silver tears blur my vision. Tempo sent her. She knew she’d die, didn’t she? Crystal did, too. She came anyway.

I sigh, breathe out silver. I’ll die, too. I can only take in so much power before I’ll die. Somehow I
know
this is true.

And it is comforting somehow. Dying is better than being a brain in a tank, a puppet of PareCo.

What about Tempo? She went somewhere safe. Crystal knew that, too. She meant for us to die, and for her to live?

I’m slowing now. Some of the silver is bleeding away, back to the void where it belongs. There is a jumble of doors and worlds all around me in what is left of the MD Gateway. I leave for the void through one of Crystal’s windows.

My hands are silver, beautiful silver. I stare at them in wonder. My body also. I’m still spinning, but slower – just enough to hold power now, neither growing nor diminishing. But I can’t hold it in for long.

And then I realise the mistake: escape code won’t work, not in a collapsing VeeDub. It was never designed for this scale of destruction. Anyone in a VeeDub that is destroyed will be spilled into the void. Everyone in the void will die if the void collapses, won’t they?

Another tear drops from my eye, and splashes down: a silver tear.

Dr Rafferty appears in front of me. He smiles kindly.

‘Luna, you are so very much more than you appeared. What are you going to do now?’

‘I don’t know.’ I’m still spinning, slowly; somehow he is moving with me so his face is always straight ahead.

‘Join us, Luna. You can help sort out this mess you’ve created. Then join your friend Gecko in his world. Be together forever there. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

I sigh, silver bleeding out from my lungs. ‘For a while, maybe. But not forever.’

‘Poor Luna. You could have stayed safe at home if you were still a Refuser. But once you started coming to the void, you were far too dangerous to leave alone.’

I could have stayed at home? Nanna was right – about not plugging in, about everything. It was Gecko who told me about ANDs, but it was Tempo who pushed us together. He didn’t know what would happen.

I shake my head. ‘But it’s too late to go back to being a Refuser now.’

‘Yes. And in case you need extra incentive to stop this crazy destruction, I have it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Listen. Listen very carefully.’

My silver ears listen: they can hear the entire void. A cacophony of cries of the lost, distressed and broken worlds. Hidden inside it, one little tug?
My name
. It’s faint, but I focus, closer and closer.

Luna
… A familiar voice, calling my name.
Luna
?

Jason’s voice.

‘Jason? Where is he?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not as good as you are at finding people in the void.’

‘He’s in the void?’

‘Lost, and alone.’

I’m angry. I spin and reach for Rafferty, to pull him into the silver wave, but he laughs when my hands pass through him. He’s a projection? From where?

Luna, help me!
Jason’s voice again. It’s wavering; he’s scared.

It’s a trap. Isn’t it? Even they wouldn’t put a ten-year-old in the void, would they? But I can’t risk it. I have to try to find him.

I sense rather than see them. Rafferty and others, camouflaged and waiting, in a ring all around me. They’re waiting for me to stop spinning; then they’ll have me.

One last thing:

One last spin:

I throw silver into the void above. It becomes a fiery meteor shower. It catches Rafferty and his friends by surprise; fending off the flames keeps them busy.

Silver words form in the sky:

Run, you clever girl, run.