Showdown

The Electro Magnetic Pulse suddenly caused the collar to charge, sending the guard holding it into convulsions, who then went tripping over Dr Fisher.

Dr Fisher’s disguise dropped – he had been a guard in a holosuit, all along.

Seconds later, my red bonds fell from my hands. I smashed into Olsen as hard as I could, meeting his bony face with my fists.

He wriggled out from under me and charged towards the door, the faux Fisher guard intervening. While I wrestled with him, Blue took the now dead metal collar and whacked him on the side of his face. He collapsed like a sack of spuds.

“I enjoyed that. Let’s go!”

I followed her out. We saw Olsen making for a cabin towards the corner of the complex. But more guards came our way, looking menacing and ready.

“Distort!” I called. Light bent around us, reflecting us into multiple positions. That bought us precious little time. We got closer to the cabin, bullets whizzing round our heads. “Stay out here, hide!” I said to Blue. I slammed the door open, waited for as long as I dared and entered.

Olsen aimed a pistol.

“You go right ahead and shoot. I told you, I came for –”

Blue entered the cabin. Olsen now pointed the gun right at her!

“Oh seriously, why couldn’t you be a good little girl for once!”

“Someone’s got to save your ass.”

“Nobody’s saving anyone,” Olsen coldly retorted. He gripped the trigger.

Two armed guards came in. “Ah, finally! You took your sweet time –”

One smashed Olsen square in the jaw, knocking him back. Olsen unloaded instantly, the bullet embedding in the wall behind me. The other smaller guard charged into his legs, just about managing to take him off his feet. Olsen fell face down, howling in anger. Blue then piled in as well, jumping on his back while the first guard produced some red electrowire and wrapped it round Olsen’s wrists.

The two guards deactivated their holomasks. Robbie was grinning at me, while Steph looked as fearsome as someone so cute could ever hope to do.

I laughed. “You guys – you’re insane.”

“Damn straight we are!” Robbie slapped Olsen. “I’d love to do more to you.”

An idea came to me.

“Olsen, I told you…I always wanted to talk to the Sect. But you couldn’t talk to me. I don’t think you understood my point of view. Maybe you can’t.”

Olsen was growling at me. “You won’t convince me!”

“I don’t want to. I never did. I can’t help you if you don’t try to get behind my eyes.”

I took the button from my pocket. “Grow.” It became the size of a watermelon and hovered in the air.

“Assign! Attach!”

Olsen’s eyes flickered.

Let me show you the world behind my eyes.

“Total Transfer!”

Both of us started reeling, shared consciousness established between us, the short time before I had awoken, all the pain, everything I had been through: the feelings, the anxieties, the love. My unfiltered senses and my feelings, internal thoughts, all that went with being human. Everything I had seen in other people, everything they had seen in me. Not belonging and yet belonging. All in seconds, powerful seconds.

It finished. I fell to the floor; Olsen lay still and limp.

Robbie was whacking Olsen, and Steph and Blue were rocking me, talking to me, willing me back. “You can’t quit on us now, you dummy!” Blue commanded.

“Moron,” I spluttered out.

We could hear sirens. The police had arrived. Officers secured the area and arrested all the Guards. As they took Olsen away, who had a faraway look in his eyes, he focused on Blue.

“So much pain…and love…He…really, really loves you, you know.” Tears trickled down his cheeks. And then he looked at me, like a long-lost brother, trying to find the words.

“It’s okay. We’ll talk soon, Damien. You’re going to be okay; I’ll make sure of it. And the rest of the Sect will, too.”

He nodded, quietly. “I know you’ll find a way.”

He was ushered out the door, leaving me with mixed feelings.

Important-looking police offers appeared. Robbie went to his mom straight away.

“Silly boy! You really thought a mom wouldn’t be able to find out what her teenage child had been searching for on the internet?” She pulled his ear, then smiled at me. “I worked out what was going on, once I did a bit of detective work into Stephanie. I got in contact with Dr Fisher, who filled in the rest of the gaps.”

Dr Fisher. Maybe we owed him an apology. Maybe.

“We got quietly mobilised. We knew you’d be somewhere off-grid. I had noticed the Sensoback was gone – and thought it would be a matter of time before it would lead us to you. And trouble. All we could do was wait. The EMP pulse was more than enough to bring us here.”

She looked again at her son.

“You should have told me.”

“We didn’t want Blue hurt.”

“You’re my son. I’m a mother before a cop.”

She hugged him.

“How did you know to come here?” I had to ask him.

Steph replied for Robbie: “My contacts in Makime City. Remember I said the Sect weren’t all on the same page? I’d mention Olsen’s name, and people would either clam up or would become very happy to help. We finally spoke to someone who had been to this camp, then we travelled here, using the hologear that you left behind.”

“But I left only one suit behind.”

“Yes…we used that to go to the Facility and get another set!”

Robbie carried on: “Then we got here this morning, heard there was going to be some sort of recording in the main yard. It was all set up for you, they had hacked the regional coms stations, and it was going to go run live on the most popular media. But then it all kicked off before – I knew it would be because of you, you eejit, and yeh, we saw you running towards a cabin and started running too! Bullets everywhere! As soon as we got to the door, we told them we’d handle it, back off. And we did –”

“– Yes, we did!” Steph cuddled into Robbie.

Robbie’s mom shook her head. “It’s something your father would have been proud of. Well. I’ve had enough for one day.” She put her hand out. “The Sensoback. Give it here.”

I did.

A mini-Telepod was set up and we piled through. It returned us to the facility where Dr Fisher, Bobbi and the rest were waiting for us.

***

A week passed. Blue stayed close by – she had been given indefinite leave. I was busted up badly, but I totally healed, thanks to the top-notch medical care. A scar remained on the back of my head, where I had been bashed with a truncheon. I refused to have that altered – I needed at least one scar, as homage to my previous body.

It was just my packaging. But it felt like my packaging now, and I was faintly proud of it. I guess we had finally bonded through our shared experiences!

Dr Fisher came to see me. He was slightly guarded, as usual. One day, I knew, either he would tell me what he was hiding from me, or I’d find out myself. I asked him about his future, and he mentioned he was considering early retirement.

I didn’t see much of Robbie. He was busy with the band. He had hired out the Day and Night for my fast-approaching birthday and was determined to play a perfectly imperfect gig with me. “They’re your songs, you can just wing it, right!” was his reaction to my panic. Steph didn’t see much of either of us – she was very busy compiling a detailed documentary into what had happened around Blue’s kidnap. The Media was in full overdrive, especially given my viral Sensoback recordings.

The Sect felt an opportunity and, now with the Radicals silenced, they came forward, saying they would hold private talks with me once I was recovered. I received handmade gifts in hospital from many of them, and cards stating their hopes: some even apologising, some telling me of their life stories and how Utopia wasn’t maybe quite so peachy for them.

It’s amazing what people can tell you when they feel that you’re genuinely listening.

I was really looking forward to meeting them, but this time without hologear. I finally felt myself. I would stand in truth, no matter what that truth was, and no matter if I had created it or not for myself.

My reintegration was just a minor part in the whole continuation of Sochiro Kazikawa’s efforts to inevitably heal and evolve the planet. That’s how we’d get an ultimate harmonic future – was it possible? Well, we had to aim somewhere.

That’s what being human was all about.