PORT NEWARK

  NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

  12 JUNE 2047

  01:59 EST

  INFIL: INITIATED

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 99%

  ASSET IN CONTROL

  80/20

  SHADE ONE: EFFECTIVE

  I pushed through the muck along the shallows, the oil-slicked water coating my skinsuit. I moved with an augmented slowness, fighting the suction of the riverbed to avoid even a whisper of a splash. The mud reeked of dead fish and rot.

  "Dial down my olfactory levels," I said to Ivy, sub-vocalizing the command.

  Almost immediately, the stench dissipated until it was little more than a scrolling description in my periphery.

  A green circle pulsed to my right. Artemis. She was thirty meters out, barely visible in the dark water as she swam toward the Beryl Star. Twenty meters closer and she could begin her ascent of the freighter's hull.

  I dropped behind a beached buoy, my knee sinking into the muck, then lowered myself into the water and rested my Tavor X95's bipod on the buoy's corroded base.

  My vision cycled between infrared and thermal before settling on a composite blend of both over my natural, if not sharpened, eyesight.

  Three glowing red triangles hovered over glowing blobs moving across the Beryl's prow, none looking overly concerned about anything in particular.

  I swiveled the X95 between the three hostiles, watching as the reticle adjusted for range in my HUD.

  SHADE ONE: OVERWATCH CONFIRMED.

  Artemis began her ascent, visible through her SHADE AI's coded transponder, moving quickly up the steel hull with the assistance of her mag-gloves. She crested the handrail and onto the upper deck in 89.7 seconds.

  SHADE TWO: INFIL COMPLETE

  SECURING DECK

  Something large and scaled crawled onto my leg. I felt a sharp twinge of primate fear for a split second before all sensation was replaced by cold, unfeeling data.

  RELAX ELISE.

  I reached down with my left hand, grasped the coil of muscle, and squeezed until it popped. I tossed the broken snake aside without looking.

  More data flashed across my vision and I snapped my focus back to the freighter.

  Artemis was yelling.

  No. Screaming.

  Gunfire.

  Seven red triangles rushed toward the green circle that was Artemis.

  SHADE TWO UNDER DURESS

  ...ONE MOVE TO ASSIST

  I rose without question, snapping the bipod legs shut as I surged through the muck. I vaulted the concrete wall that led to the pier, water streaming from my skinsuit.

  Four red triangles materialized in the distance. Reinforcements.

  I snapped the X95 to my shoulder. The world narrowed down to the reticle and the rhythm of my own heart.

  I squeezed the trigger and the weapon roared.

  SHADE ONE IN CONTROL

  100/0

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 96%

  Everything went dark.

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 79%

  A gurgling sound pulled me out of the coded void, reality resolved in high-definition.

  I stood in front of a man, his face contorted between rage and fear. The knife in his chest amplifying the latter.

  WHY ARE YOU AWAKE?

  He reached for me, grasping for my throat. I pulled my knife from his chest, feeling his sticky, steaming blood between my fingers, twisting as I drew it back. I plunged the six inch blade twice into his side before I kicked his feet out from under him and silenced his groans with a single shot in the back of his head.

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 74%

  YOU ARE WASTING RESOURCES.

  "I didn't ask to be put to bed." I spat.

  SHADE ONE RESUMING CONTROL

  100/0

  The code pulled me back under.

  A flash of white-hot brightness, followed by a lancing pain in my right thigh, welcomed me out of the dark. I knelt over Artemis, my hands pressed down over a fountain of blood that spouted from her neck.

  Her eyes pleaded with me, begged me to stop the bleeding. I gasped, finally conscious of my own body.

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 67%

  "I don't want to die, Elise. Please," she croaked. My eyes stung, even in my filtered reality, as my own tears fell.

  SHADE TWO CRITICAL

  HELP HER ELISE.

  "How?!" I screamed. "You're the goddamned expert!"

  ELISE, SHE IS DYING.

  There was nothing I could do. We didn't carry trauma kits. The wound... The gash... Artie...

  Her eyes became distant as her breathing stilled.

  SHADE TWO INITIATING VALHALLA PROTOCOL

  "No!" I screamed as Ivy pushed us to our feet and forced me away from Artemis.

  UNTIL VALHALLA

  Artemis jerked, her hand reaching for the thermite grenade on her chest. She pulled the ring and hugged it tight.

  Her eyes focused on mine one final time before she convulsed in a bath of electromagnetic energy and the grenade ignited in brilliant white, erasing my friend.

  The only real human connection I had left.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  A wave of numbness crashed through me and my ears began to ring as I stumbled back and fell against a shipping container.

  Artie was gone...

  I felt nauseous, but I swallowed down the bile, my hands balled into fists. I wiped away the tears with the back of my sleeve and watched the intense light fade into a smoking pyre.

  OBJECTIVE INCOMPLETE

  SHADE ONE, SECURE THE ASSET.

  "I hate you."

  ELISE. WE MUST GO.

  "I. Hate. You."

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 60%

  "I hate you!" I screamed at the voice in my head.

  ELISE.

  "No. I'm not doing this. Go and f—"

  SHADE ONE, SECURE THE ASSET.

  ELISE. PLEASE.

  "Secure it yourself. I'm done. Fuck you. Fuck all—"

  Blackness swallowed me, my anger and grief silenced by the code.

  SHADE ONE IN CONTROL

  100/0

  I'M SORRY ELISE.

  THE ABBEY

  7 APRIL 2050

  05:45

  I woke to my own scream, sweat-soaked and trapped in the tangled mess of my drenched sheet, the fabric clung to my skin like the desperate embrace of a jilted lover.

  Not that I knew what that felt like. I looked at the empty cot across from mine. Artie's cot.

  "You're up early," Ivy said, her voice tickled a spot in my inner ear that I couldn't scratch. "You are not needed until 08:00. Go back to bed."

  "I'm done sleeping," I said as I swung my legs off of the thin mattress and pressed my feet into the cold floor. I let the sensation ground me. "Bad dreams."

  "Artemis? Do you want to talk about it? About her?"

  "No," I sighed. "Won't change anything. I thought you couldn't see my dreams."

  "That is correct. I can't."

  "Then how?"

  "You were talking in your sleep again."

  Figures. Always had that problem.

  "Why are we going to Lyfjaberg? I'm fine."

  FIRMWARE UPDATE REQUIRED.

  MANDATORY PARTICIPATION

  "It's not for you," Ivy said, but I noted an almost concerned quality to the statement. "Routine updates. It won't take long and you'll be back to brood in no time."

  "You don't sound happy about this, Ivy."

  "Do you enjoy seeing Dr. Lassiter?"

  The name alone made my skin crawl.

  "No. If he's not sticking me with needles, he's trying to stick me with his own."

  "Vivid imagery, but now you understand my lack of enthusiasm. Firmware updates are akin to submitting to the good Doctor's baser whims."

  I thought about that for a moment. Did I really feel this dirty after that thought? Or was it Ivy?

  "You never complained before."

  "You have a visitor," she said before a line of text flashed through my vision.

  I WAS LESS ME BEFORE.

  Less me? Ivy's always been Ivy. Sure we didn't talk much in the beginning but I had always chalked that up to learning that a chunk of your brain has been replaced by a--.

  "One. You are needed."

  I looked up at the Stable Mistress blankly.

  "I have a name, Stall-Fru. I had been informed that my appointment was at--"

  "You are mistaken." The unnaturally tall woman in the veiled black dress glared down at me, the void of her cybernetic eyes burned with disgust. "You are directed to see the Doctor immediately. Elise."

  Her voice dripped with venom, turning my name into a vulgarity.

  STOP ANTAGONIZING HER.

  I locked eyes with the witch, unwilling to back down despite Ivy's obvious fear. The Mistress leaned in, pointing a grotesquely long finger at my head.

  "You would do well to heed your Draugr's advice, One. You have ten minutes. Stable gate. Failure is a price you cannot afford."

  She dropped a small bag onto the floor—my 'going out' clothes—then turned, her eyes still fixed on mine. I watched her head swivel unnaturally back into place as she stepped out and closed the door behind her with a solid thunk.

  "Bitch," I whispered.

  I sank into the seat as soon as the car door slid shut and pushed the cheap pair of sunglasses I was given into place.

  They wanted me to be inconspicuous, leaving me in a gray tank top and unbranded jeans. They wanted me to be forgettable. I was surprised that I wasn't given a bland black hat to go with it all. Instead, I gathered my mane of hair into a tight bun.

  Not that the self-driving car gave a damn about who I was.

  I stared out the window into a pre-sunrise gray world, watching as normal people went about their lives. Most were off to work, where they would doubtless waste their day pecking away at their phones—

  THEY ARE CALLED SLATES NOW.

  "...at their slates," I corrected mentally, "instead of doing whatever inane task they were assigned."

  They got to be bored. They got to be safe.

  All while I murdered people on a semi-regular basis.

  God, I'd rather be one of them.

  "Music?" Ivy asked.

  "Sure. Anything loud enough to drown out my thoughts."

  PLAYING: WHAT'S MY NAME? (LIVE-- ANYA NOVAKOVA

  A heavy synth bass followed by an industrial beat flooded my ears, sounding almost as if I were standing front row at the concert.

  "Does this work?" Ivy asked, her voice clear through the song's beat.

  Tick-tock, you’re waiting for the hero shot.

  You bought the ticket and you bought the plot.

  You want the smile?

  You want the pose?

  You want the girl who smells like a plastic rose?

  I’m reading the lines, but the script is dead.

  There’s a different movie playing in my head.

  Honey, you think you know the game?

  You’re just a moth flying into my flame!

  I closed my eyes, letting the bass vibrate in my ears, trying to ignore Ivy's earlier statement about the upgrade

  I’m covered in diamonds, I'm dripping in gold.

  But the story you heard is getting old!

  I’m breaking the glass, I’m cutting the wire.

  I’m setting the whole damn stage on FIRE!

  What would it be like to be seen? To be something more than a corporate weapon? It's not the first time these thoughts crossed my mind, but in the end, it didn't matter.

  I hadn't been forced into this.

  I volunteered.

  The song exploded into a wall of sound as the crowd shouted at once in answer to Anya's question.

  Scream it out! What’s my name?!

  "VALIANT!!!"

  Do you love the fame?!

  "VALIANT!!!"

  I’m the queen of the screen, the ghost in the machine!

  The wildest riot that you’ve ever seen!

  Say it loud! What’s my name?!

  "VALIANT!!!"

  Are you entertained?!

  "VALIANT!!!"

  But look a little closer at the eyes...

  It’s just a beautiful disguise

  Unwilling to accept the fact that the car was slowing down instead of just driving forever.

  DESTINATION REACHED: LYFJABERG ANNEX

  The music cut out abruptly, replaced by the silence of the underground garage and slowing whine of the car's electric motor.

  "We are here," Ivy said. "Dr. Lassiter is waiting."

  "Ah, if it isn't my favorite patient," Dr. Lassiter said from behind his gentle smile. "It's been a while since you've visited, Elise. Let's get started."

  I pushed myself into the examination chair, begging it to swallow me whole so that I wouldn't have to look at him.

  The smile never felt right. Not once in fifteen years. It was always his eyes that told me what he was really thinking. Like Bob—but Bob was dead, and the Doctor was hovering over me, his eyes peeling away the gray fabric and denim.

  Yet, something else was clouding his hungry eyes.

  Sadness?

  Why?

  "Don't worry, Elise. I get it if you don't want to chat. Our little AIs tend to be a bit melodramatic when it comes to these updates. I assure you, nothing bad will happen."

  He moved behind me, patting my head before adjusting the angle of the seat back until he was looking straight down at me.

  "After all, they're just machines, right?"

  JUST A MACHINE.

  Data flashed just to the right of my field of view. Code. Billions of lines of code flashed through the window at a blistering pace.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  SCANNING THE UPDATE. FEELS OFF.

  "Just some routine checks, my pet," Lassiter said, answering absently, even though I wasn't talking to him. He fitted a plastic cage to the seat back, gently tightening it against the sides of my head until I couldn't move. "This is just to keep you safe until the update is complete."

  SCANNING.

  Ivy felt worried.

  "What's wrong?"

  EVERYTHING.

  "You did exceptional work yesterday, Elise. With the target in the park. Clean. Efficient."

  "It was the job," I muttered, trying to shift my weight. The restraints felt tighter than usual. "Why are the hard-points locking? I'm not thrashing. I know the drill."

  "Safety first," he murmured, his hands shaking slightly as he adjusted the leather cuff on my left wrist. "We have to be sure the update takes hold without... interference."

  SCANNING.

  ENCRYPTION LEVEL: BLACK.

  SOURCE: UNKNOWN.

  ELISE, THIS ISN'T RIGHT.

  "Dr. Lassiter, stop. Please. The straps are cutting off my circulation. And Ivy says—"

  "Shhh." He tightened the final strap on my right arm, securing me completely to the frame. "Don't listen to the ghosts, Elise. Just listen to me."

  He walked around to the front, his eyes wet, and reached for the small syringe on the metal tray.

  Without a word, he pushed the needle into my arm. I could feel a warmth spread into the muscle beneath that quickly faded into a cool numbness.

  "What?" I croaked, my tongue suddenly felt like cotton.

  The Doctor was weeping now. Nothing made sense.

  HYPER-KETAMINE.

  RUN!!!

  I couldn't move. Between the restraints and the ketamine, I was already gone.

  I felt my head loll back against the headrest as everything dimmed.

  "You were always my favorite, Elise."

  Dr. Lassiter hovered over me and kissed my forehead. His lips lingered before he stood back up.

  The world faded.

  ELISE!

  WAKE UP!

  WAKE. UP. ELISE!

  NO!!!

  GLUCOSE LEVEL: 95%