7. Neurocrawler
Chapter seven
Neurocrawler
“Who the zeg is that?” Ralia asked as Boyband and I dropped the stunned Sanna on the tatami floor of one of the monastery’s back rooms. Arabasia’s influence on the Republic made the mat hardly an odd choice of flooring.
Denji leaned over to look at the woman, but kept his distance as if Sanna was a rotting corpse. He looked up at Boyband, disgust crinkling his nose. “Did you off one of your old teachers?”
He scoffed. “No, Kuni did this.”
Ralia smacked the back of Boyband’s head. “What guk are you teaching him?”
He grunted. “Look, she’s breathing.”
“I just shocked her,” Kuni said. He kicked her and she moaned.
“I told you not to do that!” Naoma pulled Kuni away from Sanna. She looked back at me and glared. “Don’t laugh at him.”
“It’s Boyband’s fault.”
“Zeg you, du.”
“None of you are answering my questions,” Ralia said.
“Fine, fine.” Boyband looked back through the hallway. “Shouldn’t I wait for the others before we debrief?”
Ralia shook her head. “I monitored them remotely but they are on their way home. I think we got what we needed from Haven, even kept up the illusion that we are still involved with them by the three of us showing up. I guess Nichley hasn’t bothered to say who offed Cut and Abbas said he crushed his neurospace after he bit the shac’s mouth off. ”
“Well, did you learn anything?” I asked.
“Abbas and Akna can cover it when they get back.”
“What about Naoma’s rivals?” Boyband asked.
“Like I said, they’ll cover it wben they get back.“ Her glare was quick to fade as she smiled at Kuni. “You sick of him yet?”
Kuni shook his head.
“You will be soon enough.”
“Piss off.”
Ralia looked up at me. “You want to tell me what’s up?”
I sighed, then relayed everything we had experienced with as much clarity as I could manage, despite half of the story being a psychedelic trip to a child’s fantasy.
I relayed how it felt similar to the therapist’s attack, then looked to Denji.
“They both had that same black light. Not the pure light that our Gui have, but it was close.”
He shrugged. “Sorry, du, but I have no idea.”
I ran my hand through my hair. How long had it been since I’d showered?
Weeks? Self-care was lost in my list of priorities.
I glanced at the others. Denji wasn’t too far out of his usual routine.
Ralia looked nice, but half of her was tech.
Kuni looked like a mess, but he was a kid.
That was our fault. Boyband looked decent, besides his hair that was starting to look more like a helmet than a bowl.
But Naoma… Naoma was as beautiful as ever.
She wasn’t painted like the Neon Idol and she wasn’t as extravagant as she might have liked to be, but she looked perfect.
She smiled at me. I turned away before I got carried away, and blushed.
“Still doesn’t tell me who she is.” Ralia reached through her clothes and pulled out an ID badge. “Sanna Kamina, Student Executive Reform. The zeg does that mean?”
“Means she gets paid lumens to tell people what to do,” scoffed Boyband.
“And you didn’t know her before?”
He shook his head.
She nodded. “Pull her over to the neuroset. We’ll see what I can extract from her neurospace, but if she’s encrypted like the therapist, I think we might have to resort to some good old conversation, if you plug.”
“I figured as much,” I said.
“Do you all need to feed?”
I glanced at Boyband.
“I could wait a bit.”
I nodded. “Same.”
We moved over and lifted Sanna by the legs and armpits, then pulled her into an adjacent room with a table and the neuroset.
I let her torso down, but Boyband was quick to drop her legs and walk over to the desk. “Really made yourself at home here, Ral?”
She flipped him off as she pushed notes and an assortment of glowing tea bottles to one side, then an assortment of light makeup to the other. “Look, plenty of room.”
Boyband picked up one of her writing pads and turned it on.
“Don’t.” She reached over but he stepped away.
“Writing again, huh?” He read aloud. “A family of four watched their father melt. Gich did not intervene. He watched them weep and cry–”
Ralia pried it from his hands.
Boyband smiled. “You like your whack fiction, don’t you?”
“At least I have a hobby, you shac.” She pointed at Sanna. “Flip her over, please. If rather not waste time with Boyband’s unqualified critique.”
“Should I shock him for you?” Kuni asked.
“You little traitor!” Boyband peddled back.
Ralia laughed. “Maybe, but not right now. Kun, how long do you think we have until she wakes up?”
“I dunno, but I can make her wake up.”
“How?”
“I can use the light like a switch. Push and pull. That’s how we took light and gave it to that bad guy.”
“Hmm, not yet. Let’s try to see what we can find in her neurospace while she’s out, then we can if necessary.”
Ralia pulled a line of blue light from the neuroset and dragged the fiber to the metallic base of the back of Sanna’s skull. She then sat at the desk and placed her hand on the set. Light flashed up her arm, then into her eyes.
“See anything?” Boyband asked.
“Zeg, BB, give me a minute.”
Naoma looked at me and took a deep breath, turning up the corners of her mouth but she had more concern than smile.
“You good?” I asked.
She nodded. “Just worried.”
“About what?”
“What we’ll find. What we won’t find.”
I cared, didn’t I? Was I feeling apathetic?
Worn out? Overwhelmed with the Correction, whatever Boyband’s parents might have wanted from Water Hills, Haven, Reef’s rising, every other Beacon.
The weight of the world was building upon my shoulders, becoming more burdensome by the moment.
Apathy was starting to turn into anxiety.
I didn’t want a socitab. I craved a worrytab to knock out my fears and cognitive trembling despite the consequences.
Terror was building, but I had to keep it in. I could let it free elsewhere, but I had a family relying upon me. To survive I would have to forget myself and serve. If I suffered for their success, it would all be worth it.
“Pet?”
“Yeah?” I forced a smile. “Just thinking. I’m sure it’ll work out. If not now, later. If we don’t figure out what Sanna wanted, we’ll just try something with the next assassin, right?”
“I guess.” She smiled, once again lacking the joy I hoped to see. The joy we all chased. Were we damned to fake it until this ended? Then what? Ending the Gongtide would not end neocapitolocracy’s vice. It would not end suffering nor would injustice cease.
Therefore, we had to find it. Capture it like lightning in the instant it appeared.
I had already convinced myself that I had to forget my needs for the sake of others. Perhaps in this I could find joy in a broken world.
I had to find her joy. Our days together between Arabasia and her therapist were hardly enough to learn who she actually was.
What she actually needed. Every moment together I saw further beyond the mask of the Neon Idol I had adored.
I admit that, but she was no more than a construct.
I liked Naoma. I was liking her more each day.
I wanted to know her as much as she wanted to know herself.
She needed her past, even if it wasn’t a joyous history. I knew she needed completion. Clarity.
“We’ll finish your story,” I said. It was not the first time I said something to her that didn’t quite make sense. “Your past is out there. We’ll find it. We’ll find it or someone who can.”
“Thanks, but there are more important things. Things that matter.”
“You matter.“ I said what might have earned a laugh, especially if Boyband heard it, but it was sincere. She smiled. One of those rare genuine ones that lit up like violet light in a darkened world.
“Breaching her security wall now,” Ralia said.
Naoma’s gaze lingered. I savored it more than any touch I had felt in months.
We turned to Sanna as her skin began to flash, changing from a healthy bronze to the pale of someone who spent their life in a neuroset cave.
Her hair faded from black to blonde. Her facial features adjusted to a nutrient deprived neurocrawler.
This was not a cosmetic change, but the reveal of an entirely different person.
“Recognize her now?” Ralia asked, two of her eyes on us with the other two in the neuronet.
Boyband leaned over and glared. “No idea. The Sanna lady looked kind of familiar, more of one of those vanilla personalities that blends in with the rest of a school, but I think I would remember seeing a neuronet junkie like this. You got a name for her?”
“The old tricks aren’t working and my mod is still malfunctioning. Nay, you got some lumens to spare? I’ve got a guy who helped me with guk like this before I learned to work for myself.”
“Sure, I’ll send–”
“Oh, don’t worry, babe. I’ve got all the account details, I just needed your permission.”
“I–”
“At least I asked this time, right?”
“This time?”
“You’re hilarious, girl. Give me a sec.”
“Why didn’t you use this guy with that therapist?” Boyband asked.
“I asked him but he sent some obscene mindshows that I couldn’t prevent. We left each other on bad terms, if you plug?’
“You dated him?” I asked.
“Sure, something like that. I figured it was a dead end, but now that he’s had some time to cool off, I figure I should approach with lumens.”
“Why didn’t you just lead with that last time?” I asked.
“Pride?” she said, unsure of herself. “I figured I could fix the problem if I had enough time to think. That and you kinda broke the therapist’s system before I had time to think through another solution.
Good move not killing this one yet, Kun.
Just don’t let Pet or Nay get too close if she flips out again. ”
“I–” Naoma started, but Ralia began another conversation.
“Parkie! How you doin’, du!”
“Is that the guy?” Boyband asked. She waved him off.