F U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The 2nd Novel )
Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© May 2015 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 37 - "In The Heart And The Head"
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This chapter is Rated: EVERYONE
As I will still in a bit of a daze from Darceon's arrival, he repeated. "Here." and pointed to the signature line.
I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what I was signing as I most definitely couldn't read it. I looked up at him. I thousand questions were running in my mind. He was ready for this.
He put his arm around my shoulder, not really comfortingly, "Dev, if you don't sign this contract now, I'll take both devices and leave you here. They don't belong to you anyways, and I'll return to the Gate and you'll never see me or them again. Then how will you rescue your beloved Tyr from Arkos ?"
I nodded, exhausted and trapped. He was right. I signed my first name and it was eerie to see the ink be bright red from my own blood. It wasn't enough for him, however.
He scowled watching, "Full name, Dev Borne. No tricks now." And to emphasize his point, he held one of his fingers in front of my sight and I watched as the needle on it quickly darted in and out. I had no doubt they held deadly poison in them, but would he murder me here in my own bedroom ?
He had obviously done his homework on me by knowing my full name. I sighed and added my last name. He snatched the paper and looked at it carefully for a moment before rolling it up and sticking it in a tube. Then he smiled wickedly and took the clear pen away as well.
"Okay, now it's my turn." he said and began what he set out to do.
He leaned over my computer and rapidly started pressing keys on it. So fast it was a blur. The needle appendages to his fingers didn't seem to hinder him at all, in fact, I imagined they darted out occasionally clicking the keys to help him speed his keystrokes.
"Who are you ?" I finally asked perplexed by everything I had seen thus far.
"Darceon. That name is unimportant to you." he said absently while continuing to type. He typed a moment more. The screen changed and I could see he was accessing the internet, acquiring information from secret government bases cracking every one with unseen passwords to access citizen records, birth records, everything.
He nodded satisfied, having learned who I was, when I was born, who my parents were, where Tyr was found as an orphan, who her parents were, and where mine and her parents worked. I gulped in fear as he laid out my entire life for him to read like a book.
Then he opened up a fresh template and went directly inside SIM recalling everything that had happened to it. He smiled occasionally reading the screen as every single word that both me and Tyr had entered into it from the beginning. All were carefully recalled and printed on the screen for him to read.
As the text appeared, it showed a video window of what SIM saw when we used him. The first time we created the barrier forcefield cube on the floor, when we tricked Scant to punching it, when she created the duplicate watch in the jewelry store, Tyr's silly dance to get her telekinesis, everything.
I listened to my own voice as it spoke through the speakers, "I need you to integrate yourself into ME. It's the only way to protect you. And it will ensure I can make use of you whenever I need it. -" As he listened he turned to smile at me. Was it such a childish wish of mine ?
I also felt sick at my stomach realizing that anything that ever happened, SIM had carefully recorded so it could be played back later by its master, apparently, Darceon, not Darvin, as I thought earlier. Or was Darvin Darceon ? My head hurt trying to think about it.
Then he looked at me quizzically for a second before typing out carefully a single complex command line:
SIM> XFER> SYSOPX> LF02: LOC: 388993.213905.00345> CMD:TELEPATH PW:587349 Perma^0.0.0.
"Ready ?" he said suddenly.
"For what ?" I asked and held my hands up confused.
"Your part of the agreement." he said smiling wickedly and pressed the ENTER key. Suddenly my body froze and the telltale yellow grid appeared over me. Then colored laserlines blasted all over my body.
Silver filaments of spectrumed razor thin fragments of data were shot directly through my skin, flesh, and bone. Small burn lines appeared on my skin and the blood seeped out of my pores.
If I could gasp in pain I would but I was frozen by SIM's reintegration process. Like a kaleidoscope of holographic stitching the very fibers in my body were woven around this new internal data. Little white lines appeared on my skin refabricating it, removing both the blood and burn lines, healing me. It even restitched the fabric of clothing I was wearing.
It darted up my chest and hit my head. When it did. My own computer suddenly kicked to life going onto the internet and pulling up charts on the screen about cranial structures and advanced state-of-the-art brain surgery. Holographic grid templates appeared on the sides of my head that spanned out in dire complexity.
And Darceon was not idle himself. He was looking at the grids and furiously entered in figures on the keyboard which shot them into the blank fields. There were hundreds of them and he was typing so fast on the keyboard that it looked like the numbers were being woven in midair.
The laserlines moved around my head so fast now that it appeared a wave of illuminated and colored liquid was just washing over my forehead and around the sides. What I knew at the time was absence of thought. I knew no time had or was elapsing during this reprogramming of my human brain.
Finally Darceon went to computer leaning closely over it and whispered something unintelligible into the microphone.
The screen went black and both plugins vibrated suddenly and then scorched like they were being hit with a powerful laser. They glowed with a piercing and blinding illumination that even Darceon had to step away from to not be blinded. The glowing pieces fell on the desk and left terrible burn marks there sizzling in the wood.
Everything winked out and I was suddenly released from SIM's stasis field. Darceon was there to catch me gently and whispered in my ear holding me tightly, "You're fine, Dev. You have what you want. I must leave now. Call to SIM when you need him. I will see you again later and I will expect payment then. We have a contract, you and I, do we not ?"
And he held his hand out so I could shake it. I did so, weakly, and he gripped it, hard, popping my knuckles in the process with his gloved grip. I could tell he was intently serious about this agreement.
He then reached in his pocket and pulled out a small smooth silvery remote and tapped the button on it. The Gate reappeared with a burst of cold air and he spoke as he stepped through it.
* * *
"We have a contract, Dev. Don't break it." Then the gate vanished once he was clear of the entry.
The room was silent with only the faint scent of negatively charged and ionized air as my brain tried to fathom what just happened. Then I cried out in pain. Or tried to. My brain wanted to scream in agony but when it tried to concentrate on where the hurt was, it couldn't find any. I looked to my arms which burned with ... nothing ?
My legs itched as well so I looked to ... just normal legs ? The odd sensation vanished after a moment and I started to feel normal again.
I puzzled for a second, then looked to see the b*****d had apparently tricked me and taken both plugins ! They weren't there ! Oh, and I fell for it, and signed some stupid contract to boot ! Now there was no way I could rescue Tyr.
I put my head in my hands and wailed, "Oh SIM ..."
Active.
I heard his voice clearly in my ear but nothing appeared at all on the computer screen. Was I dreaming ? Where did that come from ? I spoke again, with more bravery. "Sim ?"
Active, Dev.
"Where are you ?"
As my creator requested, I am inside you, and I cannot be removed. Only you can activate me now, no-one else can, under any means possible.
This is exactly what I wanted ! But I had to wonder about the stranger that appeared from the future. What was his name ? Darvin ? No ! Darceon ! Why did he help me ? What was in it for him ? What did I owe him ? Payment ? What was it Cheani said ? The destruction of Earth ? Well, not now !
I would save it from that !
Because NOW I could do anything I wanted. ANYTHING !
I was curious about something though, "SIM, do I have telekinetic ability ?"
Dev, you have everything.
So I laughed, long and hard. I had SIM inside me ! I could have anything I wanted at all now ! Anything !
I giggled, insane with power and almost salivated as I spoke, "Sim. Create me a teddy bear, right here." and I looked down to the floor for a second, concentrating for a moment on exactly the size, shape, softness, and appearance of what it was to look like.
For a moment I saw laser-lines appear to create a teddy bear, precisely as I instructed him, cute and cuddly to my every specifications, but then it winked out of existence suddenly and unexpectedly. What happened ?
SIM answered my question before I could verbally ask it.
Unable to comply. I require time to integrate with this new host to create or affect elemental control of Ee En Vee zero-one consciously. You will be notified when the process is complete.
So I just had to be a little patient. The world was at my feet ! But I had to be careful of others seeing me talking to thin air. So instead of speaking I thought the words with a smug smile, "Tell me when you're ready, SIM."
Security override.
"What ?" I said aloud and frustrated at the limitations of this power.
Integration does not include command ability to access interface without verbal instruction. This was a deliberate limitation placed by Darceon during integration. Additionally, I must shutdown momentarily to work on code finalization.
"D****t." I said and pounded my fist on the bed. That's weird about not being to access except by speaking out loud, I thought to myself. Then I bit my lip and whispered quietly, "Ok, SIM, shutdown for now."
Goodnight, Dev.
I nodded, glad it could hear me whisper anyway. And I was ready for bed. It was a long day. BOY was it a long day ! What with the horrible nightmare I had, the strange visitor, a weird contract I signed, the new power I had, the mission that lay ahead, and Stefani !
I finally remembered her name, oh I was going to get her GOOD ! But right now I was so sleepy.
And where was TEEPO !?
"Mom !" I called.
"Yes, dear ?" she replied as if she had been silently listening all this time from downstairs in the kitchen.
"Have you seen Teepo ?" I said a little sadly, still missing the comfort of my furry friend.
"No dear ! Didn't you bring that over to Tyr's ?" she paused for a moment realizing that the police were all over the evidence there, "Odear, honey, we'll get you another teddy bear for your birthday, will that be alright ?"
"No." I said quietly, but I think it wasn't loud enough for her to hear me.
She replied nonetheless like I did agree, "That's a good boy. You have school tomorrow. Better tuck yourself in now. Pleasant dreams dear !"
I slumped in my bed feeling lonely without him. I turned out the lights and looked for a moment at my glow-in-the-dark Captain Circumference poster smiling broadly at me. As I looked, it seemed to change shape, his face snarling at me, as if angry at the contract I just made.
Did I just sign my soul away to the devil for mere pittance ?
The more I thought about it, the sleepier I got until I finally lost consciousness.
Well, it wasn't a nightmare, but it wasn't an entirely good dream either. There was this beautiful woman in it, and I think I was older, like 20-years old. She had aged a little herself, in her 30s. While she dressed dazzlingly luscious, age was setting in on her slowly and she had some delicate wrinkles around her eyes.
I looked to myself in the mirror in a bathroom. I looked a little like an overgrown Keebler elf on steroids.
I guess we were married as I had a funny gold ring on my left hand. She held my hand wherever we went and we took an elevator which somehow went down and then showed the night sky with stars in it, which didn't make any sense. It was beautiful but somehow I didn't see that. There was an ice cream parlor and I ordered a milkshake for me and her.
I reached in my pocket to pull out strange coins to pay for them and then I looked to them for a second. They said ARKOS on them. For a moment, I found myself crying looking at them. As if by having them in my fingers it told me a terrible story that was already in the past.
A nightmare in the palm of my hand.
I continued to have this strange, disturbing dream until morning, when my Mom came in to wake me up. I realized with a start that Tyr was still missing. It was my mission and Lilly's to find her ! But first, it was a regular school day.
At least I knew I wouldn't be walking to school alone and I could talk to Lilly about our plans - to break into ARKOS !
END OF CHAPTER 37
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