Leoben grins. ‘Told you she wouldn’t like that.’
Cole’s brow tightens. ‘I’m just saying, it isn’t going to be safe. There could be traps. He might have weapons we have no defences for.’ He nods at my arm, where a handful of cobalt dots are glowing from beneath the bruised skin of my wrist. My new panel is starting to initialize, but only a few apps have finished installing. ‘Are any of your other apps working yet?’
I look down. ‘No, but there’s a rough interface. The healing and VR modules should be starting soon.’ I blink, summoning a few lines of black text into my vision, reading the scrolling log of installation messages. Within an hour, maybe two, I’ll be able to use a full VR interface, to code without a keyboard, to plunge myself into VR worlds. And soon, according to the text in my vision, I’ll be able to access all the data Dax found backed up inside my spine.
Those terabytes of data aren’t backups from my genkit. The dates I see scrolling across my vision are from years ago. The names and file types are clear – these are personal files. I’m still carrying everything that Jun Bei once kept stored inside her arm.
Every scrap of code. Every stored recording. Lachlan didn’t wipe it when he changed my DNA. He left it all in there, waiting to be found. Jun Bei’s life, stored in comms and documents, is still locked inside me.
Cole doesn’t know about that yet.
If I tell him, he might realize what it means. He might think it through and see the full scale of Lachlan’s plan, the same way I’ve been seeing it since we started driving. He would see that we’re still just chess pieces being pushed around a board.
If Cole knew what I was planning to do once we get to the lab, he would leave me behind.
Leoben veers us off the road and along a muddy driveway that rolls down a hill and through a winding creek. A single memory flutters through my mind – the chill of water splashing up my legs as I run in the dark – but it’s lost as we pull through a patch of trees and into a grassy field.
The breath rushes from my lungs. The lab looms before us – a square, three-storey building jutting from overgrown grass. The whitewashed concrete walls are stained with rust and mould, and the flat concrete roof is lined with cracks that have sprouted weeds. The windows are broken, most of them covered with iron bars, and there’s a peeling Cartaxus logo painted above the door.
I wrap my arms around myself, staring at it. Vague memories filter back – of dimly lit hallways, wooden bunks and scratchy grey blankets. Of laser scanners, deadbolts and snarling, genehacked dogs.
This is a place of nightmares.
‘Home sweet home,’ Leoben mutters. He pulls the jeep up on the gravel remains of a parking lot and kills the engine. Behind us, Cole’s empty jeep trundles across the grass and circles round to the other side of the lab to form a two-point perimeter.
‘There’s one person in the back of the lab,’ Leoben says. ‘I’m pretty sure it’s him. He’s badly wounded, from what I can tell. He’s having trouble breathing. There’s a shitload of satellite data beaming up from here. I think this is where he’s controlling the crazy-people code from.’
‘So how do we block it?’ I ask. ‘He could turn it on the moment we get inside.’
‘That’s my job,’ Leoben says. ‘You two are going in on your own at first. I’ll stay out here and use the black-dome chips in the jeeps to block his connection. He’ll be cycling his frequency, and the jeeps suck at matching it. I’ll help them out, but I need to maintain physical contact. I think I can hide the fact that I’m blocking him for five minutes, maybe ten, but eventually he’ll figure it out, and once he does, I won’t be able to stop him. You need to get in there and blow whatever he’s using to control the code – could be a server bank, could be a bunch of genkits, which is kind of Lachlan’s style. Once you disable the connection from inside, I’ll come in and we’ll deal with the old man himself.’
‘Can Cole stay out here and block the connection instead?’ I ask.
‘Negative,’ Leoben says. ‘Cole sucks at this stuff even more than the jeep. You and I were the only ones with any real skills.’
Cole turns to me. ‘Why do you want me to stay outside?’
‘Because I think he’s going to use you against me somehow. He could have killed me during the procedure, but he didn’t. He could have run away, but he’s still here. He left a backup of my old panel inside me, even though he must have known I’d find it in the decryption.’
‘You think he wanted you to remember?’ Cole asks.
‘Of course he did,’ I say. ‘Why else would he have sent you to find me? This is all part of his plan.’
Leoben snorts. ‘It’s a stupid plan, then. He’s going to get himself well and truly murdered.’
‘No,’ I say, ‘it’s a genius plan. I still don’t know what Lachlan is trying to do, but I’m almost certain that he needs my help. I think Sunnyvale was some kind of test to see if he could control people with the vaccine. That’s why he didn’t activate the orange panels in everyone. But his plan will be bigger than that – Lachlan didn’t do this to drive everyone crazy. You think you’re in control right now, but we’re all still pieces on his board, and he’s moving us around. Whatever his real goal is, he’s been waiting for us to get here, and I’m pretty sure it’s because he needs my help.’
‘But there’s no way you’ll help him now,’ Cole says. ‘Not after what he did to you.’
‘I don’t want to help him, but I might not have a choice.’
‘But he has no leverage, not once we block his connection. He can’t make you do anything.’
‘Don’t you see?’ I whisper. ‘He’s made me remember you. Your body is full of his code – I saw that when I hacked your panel. I’ve seen it every time your eyes go black. If you walk in there with me, he’s going to find a way to hurt you, I know it. Then I’ll do whatever he says. He made me remember my past so that he can use my feelings for you to control me. That gives him all the leverage he needs.’
Cole stares at me, his brow pinched. There are shadows around his eyes, and his cheeks are hollow. He looks weaker and more exhausted than he did when he was shot. I can’t bear the thought of losing him again. I won’t watch him get hurt. He’s spent every minute since he arrived protecting me, and now it’s my turn.
He stiffens as he realizes what it is I’m planning. ‘No, you’re not going in there alone, absolutely not.’
‘You have to let me do this.’
‘There’s no way in hell.’ Cole’s eyes blaze. ‘I just got you back. I won’t risk losing you again.’
‘It’s not up to you.’
Cole freezes. He can read it in my face before I say it, and he throws his hands out, reaching for my mouth.
But he’s too late.
‘Recumbentibus.’
The word hits him like a bullet. He slumps, coughing, then falls back in his seat.