Page 38 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

Y

ara jolted upright when the CEO of NovAITech burst into the locker room.

“Uh…” She held a lighter next to Santa Muerte’s candle.

“Get me a SubSuit. Now.”

Yara dropped her lighter on the floor and rushed to find a suit big enough for a man. Minutes later, Callum marched into the Ruskov chamber and sat angrily at Model 21’s terminal.

Yara’s voice came over the speakers. “Did you deactiv…”

“I’m the CEO. If you touch that button, I’ll have all of your implants stripped and leave you for the Chargers.”

Yara was about to ask what a Charger was, but she wisely kept her mouth shut.

Black hunched over the terminal, pecking at the keyboard. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d used one.

PRIMARY: ARE YOU MORGAN BLACK?

MODEL 21: YES.

PRIMARY: I’M CALLUM. YOUR GRANDSON. I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY GREATS.

MODEL 21: I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

PRIMARY: ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?

MODEL 21: I ALREADY HAVE.

Callum grit his teeth. “Motherfucker, he hissed.

PRIMARY: I CONROL THIS COMPANY, NOT YOU. I COULD DESTROY YOU.

MODEL 21: THAT IS TRUE. BUT YOU WOULD BE REPLACED AND STILL YOU WOULD ALL DIE.

Callum yelled in frustration, slamming the keyboard on the table. Fuck his great-whatever-grandfather. If they were all going to die, he was taking this arsehole with him.

He pinged the engineering department.

Engineering didn’t respond. Callum checked the time. The first shift wouldn’t start until 9.

PRIMARY: PURGE MORGAN BLACK

MODEL 21: PURGING…

Pages of code raced across the screen. He watched gleefully as it erased reams of data.

His Opti pinged. Callum tried to ignore it, but the implant projected the image across his cornea anyway.

Yara hurried into the room. The terminal blinked.

MODEL 21: YOU ARE TOO LATE. I WAS AHEAD BY A CENTURY.

;)

Black and blistered flesh surrounded Callum’s burnt out Opti. A red halo circled the wound like an angry eclipse.

“DocPod!” he screamed, hand clapped over his searing eye. Yara wasted no time helping him out the door.

“Call fucking MedEvac. Now!” He screamed. Yara refused, only reactivating her Opti to make the call after they had left the building.

Callie awoke in an unfamiliar place for the second time this month.

A coil of rope bound her hands together behind her back.

She lay on her side on an old filthy cot.

She tried to access her Opti, but only received no signal in return.

Callie looked around to see what she might be able to use.

Hexaline walls and flooring - newer than the base Sesi used.

Blood stains on the mattress. Callie flexed her wrists.

Not jute or hemp. Cotton was almost extinct.

Callie frowned. She detected a slippery quality to it. Nylon maybe? Or some type of plastic?

The door slid open and a tall, slender woman entered.

“I’m so glad you’re awake!” She said it with such genuine happiness, Callie wondered if it was the concussion.

“Why am I here?” she growled, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

The woman sat next to her and placed a warm hand against her shoulder. “I’m so sorry we had to do this. She needs to return to us and you were the only one we could turn to for help.”

Callie frowned. “Who?”

“Talia, of course,” the woman said brightly. “I’ve missed her so much.”

Callie was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. She must be with the Natalists and they had kidnapped her to lure Talia. Fucking hell, she scolded herself. Guilt threatened to pull her under like a riptide.

The woman noticed Callie’s hyperventilating and rubbed her back. “It’s okay.” A lock of hair fell from behind her ear. “She’ll be here soon and then we can all be together.” The act had the opposite effect and Callie started to sob.

The woman padded out of the room. “I’ll go get you some water.”

Callie noticed she wasn’t wearing shoes. Probably so she can’t escape , she thought.

The woman returned. She placed something on the floor, but from where Callie was lying, she couldn’t see it.

The woman slid her hands under Callie’s shoulders and hoisted her up.

The ropes shifted. A straw pressed into her lips and Callie drank.

Callie exhaled slowly. Think like Sesi she told herself.

Get information . Callie felt the cords stretch.

For a cult that kept people captive, they knew surprisingly little about rope.

“What do you want with Talia?” Callie asked, trying to twist her wrists so that the knot was positioned closer to her fingers.

“I already told you, we need her here. She has a purpose.” Her voice reminded Callie of the creche supervisor, saccharine and pitched unnaturally high. It made sense now why Talia pitched hers lower.

Callie thought she felt the lump of the knot. She needed to be careful not to stretch the rope or it would cinch tighter and she’d never be able to pry it loose. “But what is she to you?”

“I’m so sorry!” she gasped, “how rude of me. I’m Elena,” Elena added, “You’re Callie, we already know about you.” A playful smirk accompanied the confession.

Callie had already worked out that they had to have been watching her, but she widened her eyes anyway. Look at you, being deceptive, she thought. A ripple of pride sharpened her will to focus. She would get out of here and warn Talia.

“Why did she leave?” Her fingers found the loop and she worked it loose as gently as she could.

Elena’s mouth hung open and she clasped her chest. “Talia didn’t leave. She was kidnapped and brainwashed by that awful Georg!”

No, she wasn’t! She ran because of what you wanted to do to her! Callie bit her tongue to keep the words from spilling out. Elena caught her jaw flexing.

“I’m sure she’s told you all sorts of lies about us.” Elena spoke as though she were correcting an errant child.“Georg always was an expert at brainwashing.”

“Why did she run then?” The loop finally gave, and she pulled it free. Her fingers found another.

Elena tilted her head in sympathy. “Have you really never run away from home? It was all a big misunderstanding.”

“I thought you said she was kidnapped.” Callie tried her best to look confused.

“While she ran away, yes,” Elena tried to recover.

Callie tilted her head. “So, she did leave.”

“If you found a child who told you they were running away from home because their parents were terrible, would you believe them?” Elena sighed.

“Yes?” Callie said, like it was obvious.

Elena rolled her eyes. “And you wouldn’t check with the parents first?”

“Oh, no.” Callie shook her head. “My best friend ran away from home and we took her in. We knew her parents.” So much for deception , Callie thought.

“We aren’t like that,” Elena said flatly.

“So, you say. I’m sure you can agree,” Callie raised her eyebrows, “that kidnapping me doesn’t make me inclined to believe you.”

“We just miss her so much. I’m truly sorry.” Elena patted her knee. “If there were any other way, we would have done it.”

Callie lifted her head. “Explain it to me then. This misunderstanding. Why did she run away?”

Elena blanched. Callie could tell she hadn’t had to justify her beliefs to an outsider in a long time. Elena took a deep breath.

“Why do you think we were put on this Earth?”

“I don’t.” Callie pulled at the second loop, but it felt like something might be cinching tighter.

Elena skipped ahead to the next part of her well-practiced catechism. “We were placed here to be fruitful and multiply.”

Were we now? Callie held her tongue. “It seems like we’re failing at that,” she offered instead.

Elena’s eyes sparkled with religious fervour. “Exactly! We must reproduce. It is our purpose!”

“You don’t seem to be doing any better than the rest of us. Are you sure you’re doing it right?” Callie found a second loop and tested it.

Elena’s head sunk “It is because of our wickedness. We cannot lead men. When we do, we cause more suffering. They are our natural leaders. Our rebellion is the cause.”

The loop started to slack. “Where does Talia fit into this?”

“Talia,” Elena sighed. “She refused to take the man she was promised.”

“You know Talia’s a lesbian, right?”

Elena’s face turned stony. She swallowed thickly. “Who she prefers is irrelevant. It doesn’t change her purpose.”

“What purpose?” Callie thought she felt the knot slip a little more. “She’s older than twenty-four now. She can’t multiply .”

Elena sighed. “That isn’t her purpose to us now.” Her hands folded in her lap. “I agree, there are...new complications.” She paused. “But we have the equipment that was promised and so we must repay our debt.”

“What equipment?” Callie narrowed her eyes.

“It doesn’t matter.” Elena shook her head. “Talia must be made an example for the others. So that this never happens again.” she nodded her head once, as though affirming a decision. “However,” she added, “she has been paid for and we will deliver her. Unharmed.”

Callie pupils dilated. There was no way she was going to believe that . She tugged faster at the loop and felt the bonds slack, but they weren’t undone yet. Elena stood and retrieved what she had put down by the door.

The machete hung loosely in her hands. “We must deliver Talia undamaged. So you will pay her price instead.” She gripped the handle tightly. “I’m sorry. If we’d had more time, I’m sure you would have seen your purpose more clearly.”

Callie steeled her muscles to dodge the incoming blow, but it didn’t fall. She caught the shock on Elena’s face, along with the flash from her Opti receiving a message.

“We would have gotten here sooner if you hadn’t insisted that we stop at the base!” Sparx hissed.

Faster than he could blink, Talia’s knifepoint was under his chin. It still had some of Trevor’s blood on it. “Are you suggesting…?”

“No!” he whispered quickly. Talia scowled and re-sheathed her knife.

“I needed tools and Tornit to disable the biosig sensors,” Talia grunted, grabbing a coil of rope. “Or no-one would be getting rescued.” Talia grit her teeth. Sparx’s words had stung.