The Significant (65 page)

      
She dropped the bag heavily to the floor
and walked slowly around the safe house, glancing around the walls and
furniture, her head in a fog.

      
Kailynn wandered into the bedroom,
turning on the light and staring around the room.

      
She flopped on the bed and heaved a sigh,
letting the frustrated, frightened, and pained tears overtake her.

      
The moment Isa appeared at the Syndicate
Building, she was surrounded by people, operators and Elites alike. Remus
pushed through the crowd and put his arm around her shoulder, guiding her
through the crowded hallways, barking at everyone to back off. Isa closed her
eyes tiredly and let Remus guide her.

      
“Everyone to the main control room,” she
said quietly.

      
Even though there had been a lot of
commotion around her, everyone heard the order and obediently followed her. Isa
stood near the center platform, waiting for everyone to file in around her.
Remus stood at her side, his arm around her shoulders until she nodded and
gently pushed him back.

      
She took a deep breath and stood
straight. She was trying to mask her weakness and the trembling of her agonized
body.

      
“Good morning, everyone,” she greeted.
The operators and other human employees of the Syndicate Building heard the
shaking in Isa’s voice and thought she was merely tired. The Elites who had
been in the Syndicate for years knew that Isa was in pain.

      
“I understand that, when you came in this
morning, you were unable to access any information in the mainframe. I already
know what happened, and I will work on resolving it. Until then, please respond
to messages and orders from Syndicate Elites
only
. Do not respond or process any request or order that appears
to be submitted by Venus. A virus was released in the mainframe and is
masquerading as Venus.”

      
There was murmuring among the human
employees. Tia blinked in surprise. She turned to ask Chronus how they were
supposed to know which messages were real and which were the virus, but when
she saw the way her mentor was watching the Golden Elite, she hesitated,
glancing around the other Elites. They all had a knowing look in their eyes.

      
That was when she realized Isa was lying.

      
“I routed all messages from our military
and troops through her backup communications board, which appears to be clean,”
Isa continued. “Please treat these messages with the highest priority and let
me know of anything that needs immediate attention. Until we get her mainframe
operated optimally again, we cannot let Gihron, or the military, know that she
has been infected.”

      
“Was it Gihron?” one operator asked,
hatred in her voice.

      
“I do not know,” Isa said, shaking her
head. “Please return to your workstations and access the secondary panel. The
instructions on how to do so have been sent to you on your handheld devices,”
the Golden Elite ordered. “I will keep you updated on the progress in the mainframe.”

      
Hesitantly, the operators left the
control room, muttering to one another.

      
The Elites remained still, staring at
their Golden Elite as Isa leaned back against the platform, her eyes sliding
shut as she let out a shaky breath.

      
When the control room had been silent for
five seconds, Isa opened her eyes again, though her gaze remained averted to
the floor.

      
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Hana breathed.

      
Isa nodded slowly.

      
Tia was unable to hide her surprise, but
since she was standing in the back of the group, no one reacted to her shock.

      
“What do you want us to do, Isa?” Anders
pressed.

      
Isa heaved a sigh, her body shuddering
once.

      
“We cannot let Gihron know what is going
on,” she said as strongly as she could manage. “I realize that this was a horrible
time to do this, but…” She lifted a hand to her head. “I’ve made a decision.”

      
Everyone remained quiet, waiting for her
to elaborate.

      
“We will defeat Gihron,” she stated. “We
will defeat them. We will come to an agreement, and we will deal with the
threat they pose with great tact and care. Regardless, we will not bow to the
terms that they want Venus dismantled.” Isa looked at all of them. “We will
dismantle her of our own accord when we reach a peace settlement.”

      
The Elites stared at their Golden Elite,
apprehensive, but not surprised.

      
“You’re really going to do it?” Aolee
asked.

      
“I made a promise, didn’t I?” she
breathed. “I promised you, I promised Aren, I promised Maki…” Her eyes turned
to Chronus, who lowered his eyes at the mention of the other Elite’s name. “And
I intend to fulfill that promise.”

      
“Have you figured out how?” Hana asked.

      
Isa lifted a hand to her head, closing
her eyes.

      
“No…not exactly…” she said. She cringed.
“My apologies for my appearance today…” She took a deep breath and steadied
herself. “I have a team working on it,” she said. “And I want all of you to
join that team.”

      
“How close are you to figuring it out?”
Anders pressed.

      
Isa turned to Chronus.

      
“How has the work been coming?”

      
The other Elites turned to him, surprised
that he had already been working on dismantling Venus.

      
“Maki did most of the work,” he said. “I
think, if we all put our heads together, we can finish it.” He looked at Isa.
“But…I haven’t found a way to keep your heart beating…”

      
The Bronze Elites whirled around to look
at Isa, confused and worried by the statement. Only Isa and Remus knew that
Isa’s life was tethered to Venus in a lethal, one-way bind. If Isa died, Venus
would keep operating. If Venus died, she would kill the Golden Elite.

      
“I have a brilliant doctor working on
it,” Isa said with a wobbly smile. “If you can figure out how to wire the Aren
System to the main areas of the planet where we will need to reprogram
everything, and you figure out how to destroy her codes, he’ll find a way to
keep me alive.”

      
Her eyes caught Tia’s surprised and
confused ones. She smiled shakily.

      
“Welcome to the Syndicate, Tia,” Isa said
with a broken chuckle. “It might not be around much longer, but this is it.”

      
Tia looked at the older Elite and a smile
broke over her face. She shook her head.

      
“I heard all the stories about you,” Tia
said. “You’re a legend at the Academy. The Elites talk about the way you
rebelled, how you didn’t take the abuse, how all of you started asking
questions and realizing that things needed to change.” Her smile widened.
“Chronus asked me if I would stand by you if Venus were no longer around when
he interviewed me to replace Maki. I told him that, if anyone could do it, you
could, and I would be honored to assist you however possible.”

      
Isa looked at Chronus, surprised that the
Bronze Elite, even after the trauma of having Maki murdered for sedition and
treason, would know to find a replacement that was ready to revolutionize the
Altereye System.

      
“I am honored to hear that,” Isa said.
She took another deep breath, her eyes closing as her body began swaying. Remus
stepped up to her and put his arm around her once more. She leaned against him,
relieved that she did not have to keep her head up on her own. “Chronus, if you
could handle the details…”

      
“Of course.”

      
“I don’t want to worry any of you,” Isa
started, “but Venus has been attacking me for the last—” she threw a glance at
the clock, “—four hours. I’m afraid that I will be unable to operate an NCB
chair while like this. I need you to fill in for me as best as possible.”

      
“Honestly, if you tried to climb into an
NCB chair right now,” Anders chuckled, “I would lock you in the Pipes to be
sure you could not access a chair.”

      
Isa laughed with the others, her eyes
remaining closed, exhausted.

      
“I don’t think I can be in an NCB chair
for a while anyway,” she admitted. “It would be too easy for Venus to access
me.”

      
“I’ll find a way to rig your chair
outside of her mainframe,” Remus assured, rubbing her arm.

      
“What about Kailynn?” Chronus asked. Isa
opened her eyes briefly before shaking her head.

      
“She’s in hiding,” Isa said. “That is all
I’m going to say. I’m not the only one Venus can access.”

      
A loud crack sounded above them and the
lights flickered as sparks rained over them. They looked up quickly, hearing
the groaning of the control room. Isa flinched, her hand gripping at her
uniform at her chest as she curled forward. Remus wrapped both arms around her
to keep her upright.

      
The monitors and screens around the
control room changed from their normal monitoring systems to show the image of
Venus’ head, her cloak covering everything but her nose and hard-set mouth that
never moved. The image flickered angrily, trying to find a way to operate
correctly around the virus ravaging her system. Some screens went black for
several seconds before Venus regained control of them.

      
A piercing whine surrounded them and
caused them to cover their ears, gritting their teeth in pain.

      
Isa screamed in pain, her body convulsing
and falling limply out of Remus’ arms.

      
“
You
will yield! You will submit! You will obey!
” Venus’ automated voice
recited, barely audible with the high-pitch screech in the room.

      
Isa screamed once more, her back bowing
off the floor as she grabbed at her chest.

      
A few monitors began flashing with the
warning code that there was something wrong with the Golden Elite. The emitter
chip in her body sent out several calls for help, including to the Syndicate.

      
The Elites surrounded Isa, trying to keep
her still, though it was impossible. They watched in horror, waiting for the
EMU team to arrive, though Isa passed out before they made it into the control
room.

      
When Isa came to, there were three sets
of worried eyes on her. It took her several moments to recognize the faces of
Paul, Dr. Busen, and Remus. Even when she did, she could not focus on their
features with the blinding pain behind her eyes.

      
One of the machines beeped and Isa
groaned as the sound bounced around her skull. The sound of her own voice was
also too loud, and the vibration of her voice in her throat felt like thousands
of needles piercing her muscles.

      
Garbled voices sounded around her.

      
“Look at that activity,” Paul said,
motioning to the screen that was showing her brain activity in real time. “She
has signals misfiring all over the place.”

      
“Her blood pressure is rising,” Dr. Busen
said. “With that activity, this spike…” He quickly went to the bedside table
and grabbed a prepared syringe. “Isa, I’m going to give you something for the
pain. Try to stay conscious.”

      
Isa was acutely aware of someone’s hand
taking hers, and even though it hurt to close her fingers around his, she did
so. She tried to focus on her breathing, though each movement was agony.

      
It seemed to last forever.

      
The talking continued around her.

      
“This is only the second day,” Remus
said, his hand holding hers. “And she’s already this bad.”

      
“Stress has lowered a lot of her immune
functions,” Dr. Busen noted. “And, it would appear, Venus is making the pain
even more excruciating than necessary. But we know that, when Isa underwent the
pain-resistance degeneration test, she not only passed, she exceeded
expectations. She has a higher pain tolerance than the average Elite.” He
nodded to Isa. “Venus is going to have to deal some severe damage to keep this
up.”