They force Nomvula, Muzi, Clever4–1, and Elkin’s body into a cramped supply closet. Clever4–1 lets out a cry that echoes through the vastness of this now empty network. Not quite empty. That odd feeling resurfaces, not one of hope, but of brutal betrayal. A virus makes itself known, a serpent made of ones and zeros. The serpent has coiled its way through every part of Clever4–1’s mind, and yet it doesn’t strike.
Instead it speaks with Clever4–1.1’s vengeful words. I really wish you hadn’t done that.
Chapter 41
Lyons
“We must stay vigilant,” Felicity Lyons says, still in her bedazzling concert ensemble, and in a voice commanding attention and respect. She speaks to the crowd gathered along the bridge of the Boardwalk, a vid bot slowly circling overhead, catching her speech from all angles. “These terrorists want us to be afraid. They want us to doubt our own eyes, our own minds. They want us to cower from these visions, from these hallucinations, but we will not. If we cannot believe with our minds, and if we cannot believe with our eyes, then we will have to believe with our hearts! We have not worked this hard toward unity to have it stripped from us by this cowardly menace. Together, we will stand strong! And we will fight back!” Felicity pumps her fist into the air. The crowd roars. Bioterrorism is such a tidy culprit, but in truth, she’s not sure what’s real and what’s not anymore. Her head is spinning from the implausibility of it all. Felicity blinks. Tries not to look directly at that woman in the crowd who’s starting to look a lot like a dolphin, or that guy who’s got a spray of iridescent peacock feathers rising out of his chinos.
The crowd’s allegiance goes quickly to panic, their eyes all darting up to the sky. Felicity turns and sees her—that demon and her devil spawn flapping their wings. Coming this way. Felicity steadies her stance, her resolve.
“Stay calm,” she says to the crowd and to the millions watching at home on television. “Stay vigilant. The only way they can hurt us is if we let them.”
It’s just a hallucination, right? But since when did hallucinations get wardrobe changes? As the demon nears, Felicity sees she’s dressed in a Brie Montblanc original now. How about that? And her minions appear to be Zed hybrid crosses—lion, rhinoceros . . . hawk, maybe? If Felicity wasn’t so scared for her life right now, she would have let her mind get tangled up in the violation of Parliament’s tight restrictions on the gene manipulation of big game animals. But ZenGen Industries has deep pockets and has funded its share of political campaigns. So when rumors start spreading about their tampering with protected species and even the human genome, people tend to look the other way. Though now, Felicity can only look forward, into the seven pairs of predatory eyes glaring down at her.
Closer.
All Felicity can see is talons and glitter, and then she’s scooped up along with her vid bot as the rest of the crowd scatters. Her stomach slips all the way to her feet as the demon rises with Felicity in her clutches. But she refuses to give in to terror.
“Nice dress,” Felicity says instead, though her words are ripped away by the wind.
“It’s quite lovely, isn’t it?” the demon says in return. “Backless. Perfect for the demigoddess on the go.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Felicity says, keeping the fear out of her voice as she turns to watch those wings flap, like hundreds of shimmering whips snapping at the cool air in unison. So either this is the most incredible hallucination she’s ever had, or this demon is for real. Felicity’s mind settles on the former, only because it’ll be easier for her to keep from passing out. “So you want something from me, I take it,” she says carefully. “Seeing that I’m still alive.”
“The people listen to you. I want you to be my voice so they can know the real me.”
“I think you’ve done a good job of communicating that yourself. Because of you, hundreds are dead.”
“A small price to pay for unleashing the truth.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t have agreed,” Felicity says, gritting her teeth. “Were you responsible for the attack on the township, too? Was that just another ‘small price’?”
The demon laughs, deep and throaty, and it grates against Felicity’s spine. “If I had that type of power, I wouldn’t need you to convince the people that I’m their savior.”
“Oh, so that’s all you want me to do? I imagined you had something difficult in mind.” Felicity feels the grip on her loosen. She starts slipping. “Okay, okay!” she shouts, clutching onto a manicured talon.
“If you only knew your true potential, you’d understand why I’m doing this.” The demon swoops down through a crowded street. Screams ring out in chorus. “The flock needs to be culled, the weak disposed of and the strong taught how to tap into the gifts they’ve been denied. Mediocrity can no longer be tolerated.” And with that, she lets out a whistle, and the Zed hybrid beasts break formation and plunge directly into the crowd. Felicity closes her eyes, but the screams penetrate her brain, bidding her to watch the carnage.
There’s blood. Lots of it, but none of it appears to be from human victims. The beasts target dik-diks meandering through the streets, striking out and clamping their fangs into their brown fuzzy necks, like programmed killers. Two crunches, and the dik-diks are swallowed whole, before the beasts move on. In the span of a few minutes, the streets are clear, not a dik-dik in sight—just a handful of petrified people.
The beast woman lands among them, and keeps Felicity drawn close, though Felicity is so wobbly on her legs right now, it’s probably a good thing. Thoughts are forced directly into Felicity’s mind, at first like a nudge, and then when she doesn’t comply, like a kick to the pulp of her brain.
Tell them of me, the beast woman says. Tell them of how I provided for them when their government could not.
Felicity winces as something pops inside her brain. She bites her lip. If her words really are as powerful as this demon woman thinks, as Mother thinks, then she’s sure as hell not going to use them for evil.
Fine. If you insist on doing this the hard way . . .
Extreme agony strikes, like Felicity’s got a dozen molten iron hooks clamping around her brain as the demon woman shoves her aside to the dark recesses of her mind, then takes Felicity’s body for a test drive.
The demon takes a wide, comfortable stance, tosses the hair out of Felicity’s face, then clears her throat.
“My people . . .” The words surge forth, rippling across Felicity’s tongue, but she has no control of them. “What you have witnessed is an act of benevolence. In a matter of weeks, all dik-diks will have been eradicated from the city at no cost except for your patience. And if you are thankful for this action, if you are grateful not to have to step carefully down the pavement, to not worry about being accosted by dik-diks while you sit on a park bench during your lunch break, or seeing your car insurance premiums skyrocket from hitting one of the buggers on the expressway . . . then please let your friendly neighborhood demigoddess know.”