The Significant (88 page)

      
He reached out his hand and covered the
mouth of the first figure, pulling her back quickly as she let out a startled
cry.

      
“Don’t you dare scream, you little
bitch!” he snarled, pressing the gun to her back. “Get out of the bed.”

      
“What the fuck are you doing?!” she gasped,
quickly trying to move away from the gun. She got to her feet and started
toward the door, but Colonel Ikan grabbed her arm and violently yanked her
back, wrapping his hand around her neck.

      
“Where the fuck do you think you’re
going?” he hissed, tightening his hand. She grabbed at his wrist, trying to
pull it from her neck.

      
“Let go of me!”

      
“Oh, no,” Colonel Ikan chuckled. “You, my
dear, are very important. You see,” he tightened his grip, “you are going to be
the best way to get that bitch Isa to comply. Therefore, you will come with
me.”

      
He struggled with her as she threw her
entire bodyweight into fighting, her elbows flying behind her in an attempt to
hit him.

      
“You are a feisty one, aren’t you?” he
laughed. “I like them with a little bite. Maybe I’ll enjoy you a little before
I take you to General Decius.”

      
Kailynn brought her fists together,
moving her hips out of the way and angrily jamming her elbow into Colonel
Ikan’s side. He doubled over and she took the opportunity to grab the gun from his
hand, smashing the butt of the gun into his nose.

      
“Don’t you even think about it, you sack
of shit!”

      
As Colonel Ikan held his nose, his eyes
tightly shut, Kailynn pointed the gun at him.

      
“Get on the fucking ground!” she ordered.

      
“You bitch! Who the fuck do you think you
are?!”

      
“I think I’m the one holding the fucking
gun, so get on the fucking ground before I shoot you and put you there myself.”

      
“You think you can kill me, little girl?”

      
Kailynn dropped the gun down and pulled
the trigger, shooting Colonel Ikan in the leg and causing him to crumple to the
ground with a shout of pain.

      
“I told you I would put you on the
ground.”

      
From the open bathroom door, Rayal walked
out with his gun pointed at Colonel Ikan. He approached him slowly, Tarah peeking
out from the bathroom to watch, her own gun lowered at her side.

      
“Colonel Ikan, you are under arrest,
charged with attempted abduction, attempted rape, treason and espionage,” Rayal
listed. He lifted his wrist to his mouth. “Execute arrest order.”

      
Further into the Golden Elite’s level of
Anon Tower, General Decius finally found Isa’s office, where her NCB chair sat
proudly in the center of the room. He climbed into it, pushing his head back
into the cradle and tapping twice on the startup button under his finger.

      
It took only a few seconds for the chair
to boot up and General Decius immediately went to the programming for the
Syndicate, choosing to use the chair’s credentials to enter Venus’ mainframe.

      
The mainframe began to load when the
chair’s soft whirring wound down to a dull hum, and the holograms that were
beginning to come up from the mainframe disappeared. The upper ring of the
chair began glowing red.

      
General Decius hesitated, his eyes
glancing around him as he tried to pull his head out of the cradle. However, he
was locked into place.

      
He urgently tapped the startup button
multiple times, trying to get the chair back online, glancing up occasionally
at the red ring, the color causing his heart to race as he realized there was
something wrong with the chair.

      
He glanced up once to see a figure in
front of him, her tall frame illuminated in the red light, her hands clasped
behind her back.

      
“What the fuck have you done?” he
demanded.

      
“The chair has a defense mechanism,”
Isa’s calm voice stated as she took a measured step forward. “I programmed it
so that, anyone who is in the chair that does not match my DNA, will cause it
to go into emergency shut down,” Isa’s bright blue eyes were unnerving in the
red glow of the NCB chair, “and destroy anyone trying to hijack it.”

      
General Decius’ eyes went wide.

      
“That’s illegal,” he whispered. “You
can’t weaponize an NCB chair.”

      
“You were about to,” Isa pointed out.
“You were about to access the mainframe, get what information you could, and
then infect the chair so that it would kill me the next time I used it.” She
shook head. “You and your brother are very alike, in that respect. Except that
your brother managed to briefly weaponized the greatest artificial intelligence
that ever came into being.”

      
“You bitch. Are you going to kill me?
That won’t stop anything. You have already killed my brother, and if you kill
me, more Gihrons will come for vengeance.”

      
“You’re wrong,” Isa murmured. “Your
little coup was poorly planned and even more poorly executed. You have just
been caught committing acts of terror. You would normally be stripped of your
title as leader of your planet, detained on Kreon, and the Alliance would take
over your planet in your absence.”

      
“Why are you making this a hypothetical?”
General Decius asked darkly. “You said yourself that you do not deal in
hypotheticals.”

      
“That would be the situation if you were
to survive tonight, General Decius,” Isa said darkly. “However, you ordered
that my Elites be killed, that the person I love be killed, and you were going
to hack Venus and then kill me. I cannot let you survive.”

      
General Decius was about to protest when
the chair gave a shudder and electricity pulsed through the Gihoric leader’s
body. His muscles strained, his skin crackling as the continuous pulsing raced
along his nerves. His eyes were wide, focused on Isa as she watched the Gihoric
leader shake. He watched as she remained still and unwavering in front of him.

      
Then his body went slack and the chair
immediately turned off, a small chime sounding.

      
“Unauthorized
access to classified information. DNA match possible threat. General Decius
Touren of Gihron. Threat neutralized.”

Chapter
Forty-One

      
Isa called Vanessa shortly after the
Officials had hauled away Colonel Ikan and the body of General Decius. She
asked the older woman to carefully handle the news of what happened between
Gihron and Tiao so that Isa could keep as many allies as possible when the
truth was discovered.

      
However, she did not have time to discuss
much with Vanessa.

      
She quickly gathered the bags that they
had packed the previous days and hurried to one car with Kailynn while Rayal
and Tarah went to another vehicle.

      
They were executing Plan Maki—go into
hiding to shut down Venus.

      
Kailynn clamored into the car with Isa,
who had already altered the car for the journey they would have to take under
Venus’ radar. Isa got into the driver’s seat and inserted the chip she had
programmed for their destination. Kailynn did not know where they were going,
and when she asked Isa said that she would not say until they were there
safely, just to be sure Venus could not find out where they had based their
operation.

      
They pulled out of the garage for Anon
Tower and sped toward the rising sun.

      
“Are you alright?” Isa asked, turning to
Kailynn.

      
“For the moment,” Kailynn tried to joke.
“I feel like I’m dreaming right now.”

      
“Things did happen very quickly,” Isa
agreed. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes before turning to Kailynn and
taking her hand. “Kailynn,” she started slowly, “I want to tell you something.”

      
“You’re making me nervous…”

      
“There is no guarantee that I will
survive this,” Isa murmured. “As I told you, shutting down Venus requires
destroying her source codes, which will kill me. But I was not entirely
truthful.”

      
“What do you mean?”

      
“I hold the other source codes,” she
said. She placed her hand over her heart. “I already have them. There is the
stationary processor that holds her source codes, and I am the backup. Every
Golden Elite before me has held Venus’ source codes for the last hundred years
or so.” She squeezed Kailynn’s hand as the former Significant stared at the
Elite, trying to understand. “These codes are contained in a processor that is
connected to my heart, which is surrounded by a casing in my chest.”

      
“How in the hell…”

      
“No one knows, except Venus,” Isa said.
“The doctors that performed the surgery to change these codes from Gattriel to
me are all dead.” Isa took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Dr. Busen has
done every scan possible and all the research he can, but he does not entirely
know what he will be faced with when he tries to remove the processor and
casing.”

      
“He’s going to operate on you while we’re
hiding in a bunker in the middle of nowhere?” Kailynn choked.

      
“Yes,” Isa said. “He, Paul, and the other
Elites of the Syndicate have been transferring everything to that location for
months. They’ve tried to prepare for everything.” She lowered her eyes.
“However, there is still a high risk of this killing me.”

      
Kailynn blinked at Isa, trying to let the
words sink in, though they continued to bounce around in her brain. She was
unable to consider the possibility that Isa could die.

      
“If you die…” she choked on the words,
“what will happen to the planet? Venus might be shut down, but then…”

      
“Then Remus and the Syndicate will do
everything they can to bring the planet back online and move forward,” Isa
whispered. “I have had threats on my life since I was a child,” she murmured.
“I had become so desensitized to it, and for a while, I even welcomed the idea
of one of the plots succeeding, but now…this is the first time I’ve ever been
truly afraid to die.”

      
She reached forward, resting her hand
against Kailynn’s cheek.

      
“I used to be afraid to go through with
this plan because I did not want to leave the planet without a leader, and I
figured if I was going to fuck up the planet so horrendously, it was my
responsibility to repair it. But now,” she shook her head, “I know that if I
were to die, Remus and the others would do a fine job leading the planet. What
I’m afraid of is not being able to be with you.”

      
Kailynn reached up and took Isa’s hand,
holding it tightly and turning her head to press it to her lips, trying to hold
the tears back.

      
“My life has been dictated by Venus,” Isa
continued quietly, “and even though I rebelled slightly, I was still a part of
her, I was still obedient. Now, I would throw all of that away if it meant I
could be with you as I should be, without the fear of death on both of our
shoulders.”

      
“Isa,” Kailynn whispered, sniffing back
her tears and clearing her throat, “you survived your life up to this very
moment,” she said. “You even managed to bounce back after throwing yourself
into the control room of the Syndicate.” She tightened her grip on Isa’s hand.
“Do not let this be the thing that brings you down.”

      
She released Isa’s hands and took her
face, looking into her eyes.

      
“You will survive this. I know you will.”

      
Isa closed her eyes and leaned forward,
kissing Kailynn gently.

      
For seventeen hours, the car drove them
over the continent, crossing bridges that spanned the seas and going through
cities that Kailynn had never heard of. Most of them looked like Anon, clean
and white with no one on the surface streets, but cars whizzing around the
underground roads.

      
As they were driving through yet another
large city, the windshield of the car darkened and turned into a screen where
the word “advisory” flashed on the screen.

      
In the next moment, the word disappeared
and Kailynn’s picture flashed on the screen. Next to her picture, was the
advisory notice. Kailyn was able to read most of the words, but she did not
need to read all of them to understand.

      
Jacyleen
Lynden. Height: 170 cm. Weight: 53 kg
.

      
Kill
on Sight—by Order of Venus.

      
Report
any information.

      
Isa stared at the picture and the words next to
it as Kailynn gasped, staring at the words that seemed to stab her in the gut.

      
Kill
on Sight
.

      
“Once she is disabled,” Isa started,
“stay close to me.” The Golden Elite turned to Kailynn, her eyes dark with
anger. “Until we can get Anon up and running again, you will remain a Kill on
Sight target. Once the Official computers are back up and running, we can
remove the order.”

      
“How much longer until we get there?”

      
“Two hours,” Isa answered. “We’re taking
a longer route.”

      
“Can Venus kill you even from here? With
the processor and everything? Can she just stop your heart?”

      
“No,” Isa assured. “She has been sending
little attacks at me all day. They just haven’t been enough to hurt as much as
her previous ones. As I continue to move, she has trouble finding a strong
signal to the processor in my chest. Once we stop moving, I’m sure the attacks
will become severe.”

      
Kailynn took Isa’s hand once more.

      
As the night began darkening the skies,
the car slowed and pulled off the road, driving out of the town into barren
land where small, sharp brush grew in the fine sand where nothing else could
live.

      
Isa opened the control panel of the car
once more and activated manual controls. A joystick protruded from the center
console and the car began to slow. Isa moved her foot forward to the front of
the car to rest on the sensor that would keep them moving.

      
“Why are you turning it on manual?”

      
“Because we’re about to leave the road
system.”

      
“What?” Kailynn gasped. “You’re going to
drive this thing over dirt?”

      
“Yes,” Isa said, a small smile taking
over her lips.

      
Isa slowed the car and turned off the
road. The car beeped at her twice, telling her there was a problem, but as soon
as they were off the road completely, the alarm silenced and the computer for
the car shut down, leaving Isa to direct the vehicle over the rough dirt path
without interference.

      
Kailynn, confused and unsure where they
were or where they were going and increasingly nervous about the darkening sky,
remained quiet. There were no lights so far away from the city, making it very
difficult to see.

      
Isa continued to drive toward a large
mound of rocks and finally slowed at the base of it. She tapped the car lights
twice and a small red light could be seen in the crevice between two large
rocks.

      
One of the rocks moved backward, showing
an underground passage that allowed the car under the rock.

      
“Where are we?” Kailynn asked as Isa
drove forward.

      
“The outskirts of Saera.”

      
Kailynn turned to Isa quickly, surprised
to recognize the name.

      
“Saera?”

      
“Venus’ main processor was placed in a
remote location just outside of the city,” Isa said with a nod. “Since food
production is protected across the Altereye System, previous Golden Elites began
projects to terraform Saera into food production.” Isa sighed heavily, glancing
ahead of her, though she could barely see in the short tunnel that led them to
an underground lot where other cars were parked. “That protected Venus’ main
processor.”

      
“But, when Colonel Amori attacked Saera…”

      
“The city was leveled,” Isa whispered,
“because Venus’ processor was so close to the generators. The processor was not
damaged, it was never in range. However, it provided a lot more power to the
Charge Blast that destroyed the city.”

      
Isa got out of the car, Kailynn in tow,
and grabbed their bags of food and supplies. Everyone was bringing some rations
to hold them through the process of shutting down the super-computer.

      
Isa typed in a code to the only door in
the underground lot and they both walked into the cavernous, hot room. Rayal
and Tarah were already there with half the Syndicate, Paul, and Dr. Busen.
Tiana, Paul’s dog was also there, and ran forward to greet them.

      
Kailynn was too distracted by the enormous
pillar in the room to notice Tiana at first.

      
Standing in the center of the metal-lined
dome was an enormous pillar of light. Small strands of brighter yellow and blue
would occasionally flicker in the grooves of the sparse metal casing around the
light, but the white light remained constant and unwavering.

      
“Is that…”

      
“That’s Venus,” Isa murmured, stepping
forward to greet Dr. Busen.

      
“Glad to see you’re here safely,” he
murmured.

      
“You as well,” Isa agreed, taking Dr.
Busen’s hand before hugging him briefly. She also hugged Paul. “How is it going
here?”

      
“They’re still trying to disable the
monitoring system,” Paul explained. “They can’t figure out how to turn it off.”

      
Isa walked to the Elites crouched around
the base of the pillar as Paul and Dr. Busen turned to Kailynn.

      
“How are you holding up, Kailynn?” Paul
asked.

      
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” she laughed
nervously. “I don’t know, this seems a bit…”

      
“Surreal, I’m sure,” Dr. Busen said with
a nod. He took a deep breath, averting his eyes to the ground. “Did Isa tell
you about the procedure?”

      
“Yeah, sorta,” she said, her stomach
flipping in fear. “But you managed to help her after everything with Colonel
Amori. I’m sure that everything will be fine.”

      
“I promise, I will do everything in my
power.”