Neurovance

Chapter 67

Melanie was quiet on the walk to NeuroWell, which I was grateful for. Ever since orientation, when she’d ridiculed Milo for tripping and making her spill her drink, I’d disliked her. The fact that she was taking me away from Milo in a moment when I knew he needed me wasn’t helping her case.

I needed to get rid of her.

She walked stiffly ahead of me, and I bit my lip to keep myself from barking at her to hurry up. Fiddling with my chilli pepper keychain, I did my best not to spiral.

Would Milo be okay if I wasn’t back before he went on stage? I knew he hated public speaking. The idea of him standing in front of a sea of people, blinking his big, innocent brown eyes as he searched the crowd for me—only to find I wasn’t there—was making me nauseous.

I was so deep in thought that I barely processed the fact that Melanie had already led me through the deserted MTR floor to the elevator that led to The Cave.

She glanced over her shoulder at me, her gaze dropping to the enamel pepper keychain that I was still nervously rubbing between my fingers like a cursed worry stone.

Her lips pursed.

I moved to brush my arm against the keypad to call the elevator, but to my surprise, she beat me to it.

A look of cold satisfaction curled across her face as she passed the delicate white sleeve of her blouse over the black sensor. It lit green, and the elevator let out its chime-like ding as it arrived to collect us.

She had an… implant?

My brow furrowed as she stepped into the elevator, gesturing for me to follow her.

What did that mean?

Fuck.

The doors closed behind me, and suddenly, I wasn’t irritated anymore.

I was on guard.

Something wasn’t right.

Why the fuck would Luke have given Melanie an implant?

When had that happened?

I eyed her warily, and she gave me a contemptuous smirk. She reached out and boldly tapped my chilli pepper keychain, her sharp fingernail pinging sharply against the enamel.

“You know, I saw you two in the game store the day he bought you this,” she said, her voice low and soft. “I had my suspicions before that... but then Sebastian was all over him that night at the Memory Tap, so I wasn’t sure…”

“Ms. Larson,” I growled in warning, my blood turning hot at the audacity of her thinking she had the fucking right to spy on us like this.

She flicked her eyes up to meet mine, that infuriating little smirk playing across her lips.

“Of course, that’s why Luke implanted Seb with the new model first. He was sure Seb was the one fucking him…”

“What?”

The elevator dinged as we arrived at our destination.

“I wasn’t fooled, though. Somehow, I just knew it was you he was getting on his knees for. How else would someone that fucking pathetic secure a position in your lab from day one?”

The burning rage that was roaring through my veins nearly blinded me as I processed what she was saying. My fists were clenched at my sides so tightly my nails cut into my palms.

“Not that I blame him. It’s not like I would have been above it… Unfortunately, it turns out I just didn’t have the right… equipment to entice you… Luckily for me, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

“Ms. Larson. You’re fired. Effective immediately,” I snarled, the words slicing like glass over my tongue. It was taking everything I had not to throttle this bitch, but… I wasn’t about to assault an employee, no matter how out of line she was.

She laughed lightly, tossing her long, glossy hair over her shoulder and stalking out of the elevator and into The Cave.

“Unfortunately, no. You no longer have the authority to fire me, Mr. Reynolds. I outrank you. Now come, we don’t want to keep Dr. Grey waiting.”

The burning feeling in my chest iced over as I blinked through the all-consuming anger to take in my surroundings.

My anger quickly morphed into cold, sharp fear as I realized who was waiting for us in The Cave.

“Hello, Mr. Reynolds. So glad you could join us.”

Dr. Grey’s cool voice echoed off the dark concrete walls. He was standing next to the testing chair, flanked by two armed men in full SWAT gear.

They were holding automatic weapons, and the top halves of their faces were covered in tactical goggles, hiding their eyes from me.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I growled, recoiling away from the armed men.

Melanie moved to stand next to Dr. Grey, crossing her arms over her stomach and shooting me that cocky little smirk again.

“You think you’re so much smarter than everyone else.” She laughed, shaking her head in amusement. “Did you even read my resume?” she asked.

I didn’t respond. I just glared at her, my mind whirling a mile a minute.

I needed to get out of here.

I needed to get back to Milo and somehow get him off campus.

However, the second I tried to back away, both of the armed men immediately pointed their guns at me, and I froze.

“If you had,” Melanie continued, smiling at me as if I weren’t currently being held at gunpoint, “you would have known that I majored in Software Engineering with a double minor in AI and ML systems. Which might have made you a little more wary about leaving your phone lying around. Remember that one time you deigned to allow me to work on the manipulator with you?”

Icy terror shot through me at the idea of this fucking psycho going through my phone.

“What did you do?” I rasped, feeling like I was going into shock.

My fingers were freezing cold, and my tongue felt swollen in my mouth.

With two automatic weapons pointed directly at me, the Director for DARPA, and apparently the most evil fucking entry-level psycho on the planet, all watching me, panic like I hadn’t felt since the day I’d learned my father was killed welled through me.

“I hacked NOVA, of course. She was really the only thing standing in Luke’s way after all.” Melanie examined her perfect nails, looking so smug that I wanted to put her fucking face through the wall.

“With NOVA out of the way, Neurovance’s new and improved AI can take over operations, courtesy of yours truly… When I pitched TECHA to Luke, he was very… generous, with my reward.” Her eyes glittered as she glanced up at me, cocking her head to the side in amusement.

“Like I said… there’s always more than one way to skin a cat.”

“I don’t… what the fuck do you want?”

“From you? Nothing.” Melanie shrugged. “We don’t need you to get the manipulator up and running. Not when we have Milo… though Luke has made it clear that you’re to be punished for your… treasonous behavior. “

Dr. Grey chuckled, shaking his head.

“Mr. Stevens has always had a taste for the dramatics, I’ll give him that,” he muttered, picking up a large syringe from the surgical table next to the testing chair.

“Enough chit chat, Mr. Reynolds, if you could please have a seat so we can begin? Once Sebastian’s mind has been manipulated, you are to be our next test subject. We’re expecting everyone shortly.”

“Wait… what?” I shook my head, stumbling back toward the elevator, only to freeze again as the armed men cocked their guns.

“Enough questions, I am running out of patience. You can either get in the chair willingly, or I can have my men put you in it. You decide.”

“This is… this is fucking insane! This isn’t ethical!” I shouted. Every inch of my body was humming with panic. I knew if I got in that chair, it would be over. There was no telling what sort of sick shit they would do to me if I complied.

But… it was either that, or get fucking shot.

If I got shot, I couldn’t save Milo…

Just then, NOVA’s voice blared through the speakers of The Cave, and more blood drained from my already pale face.

‘Violation of zero-tolerance bullying policy detected. Several incidents of the use of the term ‘Murphquake’ have been detected in the Cortex.’

“Fuck!” I barked, suddenly not giving a shit about the guns trained on me.

Milo needed me.

Without stopping to think, I jerked back into the elevator and ducked left.

There was an explosion of gunfire, and I hugged the wall next to the sliding doors to avoid the spray of bullets that exploded into the back wall.

With shaking hands, I slammed the ‘close’ button repeatedly before covering my ears against the deafening gunshots.

Slowly… so fucking slowly, the doors began to reach for each other.

Come on, come on!

I could do nothing but stare as I pressed further into the corner. My body was literally vibrating with anticipation as I willed the doors to close fucking faster.

They were mere inches apart when another voice rolled through the speakers.

“TECHA online. NOVA terminated.”

The doors stopped, and so did the frantic pounding of my heart.

NOVA…terminated?

No… No, no, no, no!

The doors to the elevator rattled, and for a moment, it felt like the earth stopped spinning. This was a nightmare. This wasn’t happening…

But it was.

The black steel doors groaned, then began to open back up as the new AI took over the operating system I’d built with my father. I stared in horror as one of the armed men stepped calmly into the elevator.

He looked down at me. I couldn’t see his eyes. Only my reflection stared back at me from his goggles.

“No…” I whispered, but he didn’t listen. He reached out with a gloved hand and peeled me off the wall, shoving the barrel of his gun in between my shoulder blades and forcing me out of the wrecked elevator.

Dr. Grey tutted his tongue as his man corralled me toward the surgical chair. He flicked a syringe filled with some mysterious, clear liquid to distill any bubbles as I approached.

“We’ll need to work on your ability to follow orders, Mr. Reynolds,” he chided me, and I shook my head, pushing back away from the chair, only to have the other man grab my wrists and force me forward.

“Don’t worry. By the time we’re done with you, you’ll be a model soldier. It’ll just take a little bit of time.”

“Get the fuck off me!” I shouted, now fully fighting both men. I kicked and screamed and thrashed in a desperate attempt to get away.

My body was in full fight-or-flight mode, but nothing I did helped.

They easily manhandled me into the chair, and before I knew it, I was belted down and helpless.

Dr. Grey chuckled softly as I continued to thrash and buck against the restraints.

“Now, we just need to wait for your lover to get here with the manipulator. Then we can get to work.” Grey smiled. Melanie came up to stand next to him, and I snarled at her as she reached out to lazily toy with the chilli pepper Milo had given me.

“Here, let me hold onto this for you. Trust me. Any… reminders of your little boyfriend will only be… counterproductive,” she cooed sweetly, and I could do nothing but yank desperately against my restraints as she slipped the lanyard off my neck.

I felt the loss of the small enamel keychain as if they’d removed an entire limb.

The memory of the day Milo had given me that silly pepper swam across my mind. It was the first day we’d spent together as something… more.

It was after he’d let me touch him for the first time. Really touch him… after years of not being allowed to touch anyone.

‘Uhm, here. I got you this.’ His little cheeks had turned that warm, shy shade of pink that I had become hopelessly obsessed with.

‘It’s not much..’ he’d whispered as he handed it to me, his large brown eyes full of trust and affection. ‘Not much,’ he’d said… but couldn’t he see that it was everything?

He was everything.

Watching Melanie hold the one piece of him that I’d had to carry with me always between her cold, bony fingers made me so angry I wanted to fucking scream.

What were they going to do to him when he got here?

If they touched him, I would find a way to destroy every single fucking person involved… I didn’t care if it took the rest of my days on this earth.

I would ruin them all.

“If you fucking hurt him, I will kill you,” I hissed, but Melanie just laughed.

“Worry about yourself, Mr. Reynolds. You’re not exactly in any position to be making threats right now.”

I opened my mouth to tell her exactly what I planned to do to her if I ever got free, when the wrecked elevator dinged, and the mangled doors screeched and groaned closed.

The little green arrow pointing ‘up’ lit up, and my body locked up in horror as I realized what was happening.

“Hm… they’re earlier than I was expecting,” Grey mused, glancing down at the needle he’d yet to stick me with.

Melanie shrugged and leaned her hip against the chair, and I watched as she fastened Milo’s chilli pepper to a key chain next to a fob for a brand new Neurocar.

She caught me staring and jingled the ring mockingly in my face.

“I told you Luke was generous with my bonus. My new N-car is only one of the perks of my new role as COO.” She winked at me, and I clenched my fists as the elevator began its descent.

The green ‘up’ arrow was now red, and I knew it would only be a few more moments before Milo was down here with me, and there was nothing I could fucking do about it.

“You should kill me,” I growled, meeting Melanie’s gaze head-on as the rage I’d worked so hard to keep locked in my chest since the death of my father finally broke free. “Because if I ever get out of here, I will fucking destroy you.”

“Oh, Mr. Reynolds. You’re not going anywhere…

Isn’t that what you always told Milo?” she asked, leaning in close enough that her hair brushed over my chest, and I shuddered with revulsion.

She gave me a hateful smile, and I snarled at her, imagining what it would feel like to wrap my hands around her delicate throat and squeeze.

“You’re never leaving here… and neither is he. Together forever. How romantic,” she beamed, and I lunged for her, ignoring the burn and tear of my skin against my restraints in my desperation to break her fucking neck…

Then, the elevator let out that sickening ding again, and I froze.

“J-jay?”

Ice sheeted over my flesh as the voice of the man I’d been foolish enough to fall in love with rolled through the room.