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  “Julian!” Ally was running towards him, she had seen the light moving sporadically and had ran to help.

  She tried to release the hand’s grip by pulling at the fingers but they were too strong. Julian's eyes bulged out as he struggled for breath. From behind, Ally felt a sharp impact on the back of her head. Turning to look and keep her balance, she saw the woman she had been comforting moments before, standing over her with a metal rod.

  “Sorry,” she said with venom, before swinging the rod towards Ally’s head.

  Ally ducked the swing and jumped to her feet, a second later, she performed a roundhouse kick directly to the rod. Her shin connected to the metal with a loud clang. The vibration shot down the pole, causing the woman to drop it from pain, as the vibrations reverberated through her hand. Her face stunned, she squared up to Ally.

  “Metal shin pads,” she said with a wink, and bounced into a fighting stance, “always have to be prepared working at a bar.”

  “It doesn’t matter, your friend is ours now,” the woman grinned back.

  Ally glanced behind her and saw two men in suits coming down the other side of the back street. They were pulling Julian away from the body which had released it’s grip on their command.

  “Let go of him!” She shouted, running towards them. They nodded to one another, and the closest turned to face her whilst the other continued dragging the unconscious Julian away. In the distance, Ally could see a car waiting for them at the far end.

  “Shit!” She looked behind her as the woman approached. They surrounded her. Not that that mattered, but she wasn’t sure she would have time to get to Julian.

  She ran full pelt towards the man in front of her. Jumping forward she landed a drop kick, placed perfectly in the man's chest. They both dropped to the floor. Ally was back on her feet within seconds, ready to run towards Julian. As she set off, a metal pole landed square between her shoulder blades like a javelin. She crumpled forwards from the impact and rolled over to see the woman bearing down on her. A look upwards from her laying position, she could see Julian being bundled into the car.

  The woman yelled a manic scream, raising a boot up to stomp down on Ally’s face.

  She rolled sideways to avoid the boot and, pushing herself up, performed a sweep with her metallic shin pads, connecting with the woman's ankles. The crack echoed down the street as the woman fell, howling in pain, her left ankle shattered. The man, who had regained his feet, hesitated on his approach towards Ally but before he could back away, she had performed a kip-up and was on her feet. Diving, forwards she swung a punch to the bridge of his nose, dropping him instantly.

  She spun to look back just in time to see the car speed off.

  A police car pulled up at the opposite end of the street, sirens blazing.

  She’d lost Julian.

  CHAPTER 15

  Ally

  She'd only known Julian for a few hours but couldn't help but feel the need to help him. They both been pulled into the trap for whatever reason.

  Two officers had attended the scene and one was talking to the people who attacked them. She walked up to them.

  “Are you OK Miss?” one of them asked her.

  “A friend of mine just got kidnapped, those two were helping them,” she explained.

  “She's crazy man! She attacked us!” The man shouted, looking scared as she approached them.

  “What?! Are you serious?”

  “Please step back,” the police officer stood between them.

  “They tricked us with that body,” she pointed at the bundle of clothes, “and attacked my friend before kidnapping him!” She could barely hold her anger in.

  The second officer was checking over the pile of clothes.

  “Some dead Scanner it looks like,” he shouted back.

  “Ok I will have to take you all in,” the officer said.

  “You're kidding me?” Ally shouted.

  A shot rang out, the officer near the clothes fell to the floor. His face was a mask of blood as the back of his skull exploded, the bullet had gone directly through his eye socket. Ally ducked down behind the car and the other officer ran to the same cover.

  “Stay down and out of sight,” he ordered. Ally had no intention of standing up.

  The other two were running now, away from the scene as fast as they could.

  “Hey, get back here you wastes of space! Where'd they take him?!” It was no use, they were too far gone. Ally kept her head down as the officer with her tried to get to his radio in the car.

  Another shot. The officer's hand disintegrated in a mist of red. Screaming, he crumpled back behind the car. The shot was from an ionic laser, although obliterating the hand, it cauterized the surrounding tissue so there was no bleeding. A surgical gun used for precision.

  A beeping sound rang in Ally’s ear, she took a moment to realise it was her phone implant, someone was calling her. She tapped it to answer out of habit.

  “Hello?”

  “Good evening Ally, I suggest you move a few centimetres to your right,” a voice chirped.

  “What?”

  “Move now!” The voice said more aggressively. Ally did as it said out of fear. A millisecond later an Ion shot blasted through the car, the beam causing a burnt hole in the door.

  “… Thanks?”

  “You’re welcome, now listen and I will get you out of here safely.”

  After the shot, she had no reason not to believe the voice, she looked at the policeman.

  “What about him?” She asked, assuming whoever she was talking to could see him.

  “He’ll be fine as long as we get you out of here, you are the target at the moment.”

  “OK, what do I do?”

  “In a moment you need to run to the left, see the trash cans there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Run towards them, and stay behind them, then on my next cue head down the street. The angle the shots are coming from suggest that they cannot see more two metres down that route.”

  “Suggest? You mean you aren’t sure?”

  “I’m not omnipotent Ally!” The voice said sarcastically.

  “Well, I don’t even know who you are?!” She shouted back.

  “Did Julian not tell you about me? Typical,” The voice sighed, “I’m Quartzig, now run!”

  Surprised, Ally slipped as she got up to run. The officer shouted at her to stay down and tried to pull her back, but she avoided his grasp. She rolled behind the trash cans and curled up as small as she could to reduce the chance anyone could see her.

  “Good, now wait… wait… I can’t believe he didn’t tell you about me… wait… GO!”

  She spun out from behind the trash and went full throttle down the street. A shot burst out and Ally was showered with debris from the impact on the wall next to her head, but she kept moving and was several metres down the street before she slowed.

  “Am I clear?” She asked.

  “It appears so, well done,” Quartzig replied.

  Ally took a few moments to let her heartbeat slow down and catch her breath. She heard a scream from back down the way she had come.

  “I may have miscalculated the officers survival chances,” Quartzig whispered. “But at least you got away.”

  “Who are you?” Ally asked, feeling remorse for the officer but glad of her own safety.

  “Quartzig, I am Julian's roommate. Well, I’m his Artificial Intelligence who lives at his apartment. Fully functioning and free developing.”

  Ally had a rough idea what that meant.

  “So, you can learn and adapt at your own pace? Become smarter?”

  “Correct. When I first came into being, I was just a voice-activated light control. Over time, Julian increased my coding and abilities until I could construct my own neural pathways. So here I am. Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you too Q, how did you even find me?”

  “Julian asked me to record the whole occurrence from when he walke
d down that back street. I saw it all happen from his eyes, but when he was put in the back of the car, my connection was severed. That has never happened. Ever. So either that car had some seriously high grade shielding software, or Julian switched off the connection, or he’s… offline,” Quartzig found the concept of death hard to process.

  “Right, we need to find him Q, any ideas where he may have gone?” Ally wasn’t sure how to comfort an upset AI.

  “… Well, I set up a search for a vehicle of that description, so I will attempt to track it but so far I’ve got nothing.”

  “OK, let me know if you get anything. I’m going to head back home and change. I feel this could be a long night.”

  She headed back down the street to the Boulevard, not sure what she would do. She'd been working on the Boulevard for several months now and was finally saving enough to get her own place nearer the Giga outskirts, but for now she was still in Mega. She would head back to the apartment and see if there's anything she could do from there.

  CHAPTER 16

  Xander

  Cortex Guided Release

  That was what Ava had called it, Xander wished he’d asked a few more questions about it before he’d agreed.

  He was lying on a bed in Donovan’s apartment, the body of the synthetic nurse still crumpled on the floor of the living room. Donovan sat in his wheelchair next to the bed and Ava was sat between the two, on the edge of the bed.

  “I will have to connect you to the Cortex Hub, which is embedded in my systems,” Ava said calmly. “Think of it like connecting two devices up to your computer and transferring files,” she smiled at Xander, after seeing the look on his face.

  “Darlin’ I don't even know how to put a song on my phone,” his nerves showing as his voice slipped into his old accent.

  “It won’t hurt, I promise.”

  She placed her hands together and pulled at a blemish which was located on both her wrists. From under them, long wires emerged as she pulled. The mole itself sliding into a small disk as she did.

  “Why exactly are you able to do this?” Xander asked as he watched Ava attach the right-hand disc to Donovan's temple.

  “Sometimes, a hard wire connection is beneficial for optimum integrations or bio-diagnostics,” she explained. "When Max wanted to back up my memories, I would be hardwired into the secure database at our apartment. It was more secure, away from wireless eavesdropping.”

  She was now attaching the left-hand disc to Xander’s temple.

  “You will enter Donovan’s mind in a moment. You will be inside the construct that his consciousness had been locked inside. Once there, you will need to take him to the exit, which only you can open due to it’s nature,” she described. “You need to get him through the door so he can be freed.”

  “And what about me? Do I need to go through the door? What happens if I get stuck there? And what will the construct be?”

  “Calm down Alexander, you will be fine. To leave safely, you will also need to go through the door, however you can eject manually, but it is not recommended. The construct will be whatever prison they have placed Donovan into, but remember, it is only cyberspace, none of it is real.”

  “So, we can’t die or anything in there?”

  “Well, not die. However, your mind will believe it to be real regardless, so a trauma suffered in there will undoubtedly have effects here as well. Remember, this was a prototype, there isn’t a lot of research to fall back on.”

  “Great.”

  “Ready?” Ava looked at Donovan first, his eyes blinked, she took this as a yes and turned to Xander.

  “I don’t really have a choice do I? At least give me a countdown.”

  “Very well. Three, Two…”

  At two Ava blinked faster than humanly possible as she began the transference.

  .

  .

  .

  .

  .

  Xander leapt to his feet, looking around him he could see…

  Nothing.

  Complete darkness all around him.

  He was standing, but that was the only detail he could know for certain. He looked in every direction possible, but there was only oppressing black, which felt like it was forcing itself on his eyeballs, as they painfully strained to see anything.

  Then there was a light, faint at first, like a match had been struck in the distance, but being the only light in the abyss, it was like a beacon to Xander. He squinted at it, trying to make it out.

  Was this the construct?

  The light grew in size as it seemed to get closer to him. Closer and larger. Suddenly the speed at which it seemed to move, made Xander’s heart pick up pace, from a firefly to a freight train, the light seemed to move at such a speed that if it hit him, Xander knew that it would crush him. He needed to get out of its way.

  He ran, ran to the side in what he hoped was out of the path of the ever growing light. No matter where he ran, it seemed to come directly for him. It was only a matter of seconds now before it consumed him. A moment later and the light was around him, rushing like a hurricane. The motion made Xander physically sick, like travel sickness turned to a million.

  He threw up, as his eyes tried desperately to focus on something within the light which was a blur passing his eyes. Between retches, he couldn’t help but look at the light. The more he did, the more he was sure there was something within it. It wasn’t just one light around him, but a whole mess of lights; almost as if he was traveling down a road at an unbelievable speed, all the lights were street lamps and headlights. The more he thought about it, the more he felt his focus clearing. As if the speed was slowing down.

  He dry heaved once more and doubled his efforts to focus. Slowly but surely, the lights slowed down. One by one he saw them for what they were. A repetition of several lights, as if they were all one room. He closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them.

  This time, he could see that the lights were not rushing past him, but circling him, as though he was spinning on the spot. It slowed further and he could make out certain aspects of the room. A table and chair were also present. A bed. A sink. A metal toilet. This was a prison cell, Xander realised, in each top corner there was a fluorescent light bulb which flickered and then the spinning finally slowed to a stop.

  Xander dropped to his knees, the feeling waned within his stomach. He took a moment to feel better. He’d dealt with spinning rooms many times due to alcohol, but this was the worse by far.

  He walked over to the sink and ran water to wash his mouth out and splash cold water on his face and the back of his neck.

  When he felt more human, he noted his surroundings. The prison cell was typical of any other, apart from the four lights. Three walls were a dull beige colour, and the fourth was predominantly metal bars. He strained to see outside the bars but there was nothing he could make out through the black void.

  “... hello?” A voice came echoing into the room.

  “Hello?” Xander replied.

  “Xander, is that you?” Donovan’s voice rang out, it sounded like it was coming from behind the wall.

  “Donovan?” Xander recognised the voice. “Where are you?”

  “In a cell, probably the same as you. Sounds like we’re in the same prison now.” He said, sounding defeated.

  “How long have you been here?” Xander was searching the cell now.

  “I… I don’t remember. I was investigating the Owens murder and was on my way to Cy-Bio to get answers when I blacked out. Next thing I remember, I was here.”

  “Well, it’s time we got you out.”

  “I don’t think that’s possible Xander. When I got here, I tried everything.”

  “I’ve had some help, this is a construct made to contain your mind Donnie, you have to have someone here to get you out,” Xander explained, hoping it made sense, as he still wasn’t sure on the details.

  “A mind cell? I’ve heard of these, the MPD was looking into using them for prisoner
s. Wow,” Donovan went quiet for a moment.

  “So you must have something to allow us to leave right?” He finally spoke.

  “I guess, but I don’t know what,” Xander had found nothing in the cell that might help.

  “You’ve got to find it Xander, or we’re both stuck here!’

  CHAPTER 17

  Prime

  Reilly opened his eyes.

  Looking directly at him, from centimeters away, was a pair of metal goggles with red lenses.

  “Is ‘e still breathin’?” A female voice called out.

  “Think so,” the goggles replied, in a rasp and looked around his face. “ ‘is eyes are open.”

  The goggles moved back, revealing the face attached to them. It was marked with fading face paint and scars. Reilly tried to get up, but the pain shot down his spine and he fell back.

  “I wouldn’t try to get up or anythin’ mister,” the eyes spoke, the voice was soft but jagged. “You took quite a fall,” the voice in the background whistled, imitating a missile falling and crashing.

  “Where?” was all Reilly could manage.

  “In the Underpass you are,” the eyes replied.

  Reilly looked upwards towards where he thought the window would be, expecting to see the guards chasing him. Instead he couldn’t see anything other than the opening of a large tube.

  “Don’ worry about up there, you came down through th’ garbage.”

  “I was being chased,” Reilly said, telling himself as much as anyone else.

  “They won’ follow you out ‘ere,” the goggles moved back now, revealing the person they belonged to. A scruffy-looking man was grinning down at him. He was wearing a long brown trench coat with a threadbare jumper, which was more string than jumper. His hair was spiked in several places.

  “Where?” Reilly asked again.

  “I tol’ ya, in the Underpass,” he grinned, revealing a set of half metal and half brown teeth. “Here is where we live, and die,” he laughed with a cross between maniacal and serious.