8. Digitize me Cap’n
Chapter eight
Digitize me Cap’n
Kalacia awoke with a series of expletives and eyes wide as she took a moment to catch her breath and reorient herself.
It didn’t help that Boyband crouched over her, still cut and bruised from their educational encounter.
Boyband patted her cheek as her eyes started to focus. “So, are we gonna start with the false identity or your little joyride with Veren first?”
“W-what?”
“No more acting. You’re mine now.”
“He gets a kick out of this, doesn’t he?” Naoma whispered.
I shrugged. “Not sure I feel good about him liking it, but he does what he needs to.”
“Where–” Kalacia began.
Boyband cut her off with an indelicate pat on her cheek. “We’re out of the school, ma’am, which means I’m the one that gets to quiz you.”
“I’m so sorry, Mister Elcaine, this is all–”
He slapped her. “Okay look, we’ve moved past your show. Your name is Kalacia. You found a way into my old school because you’re a creep who heard where I was going. You had a contract for us and the reward is…”
Her eyes were wide and her jaw agape.
“Do you really need me to help you along? The reward is admittance to…”
Her eyes flashed. A second later, she convulsed and groaned as she reopened her eyes, no longer flashing.
“The zeg was that?” Boyband laughed.
“She tried to retreat to the neurocore,” Ralia said. “I blocked her and chose to not let her out without a little seizure.”
“Looks like it had a kick.” He patted her cheek. “Well, zeg, looks like you can’t run away.”
“Look, I’m just a researcher trying to move up!”
“Are we really going to revert back to that? You weren’t even a teacher.”
“I never said I was! Believe me, I did what I had to, to move on to the next step.”
“And what is that step?”
She whimpered, biting her lower lip.
“Let me help you with that.” He gripped her jaw with one hand, fingers digging into the gap between her teeth and lips.
He jabbed the other into her mouth as he pulled it open, then ripped out her front teeth.
He showed her his prize, raised his eyebrows, then popped them in his mouth.
She shrieked and trembled, unable to move her unbound arms. I could hear Boyband’s exaggerated crunching over the sound of her crying.
He laughed.
Zeg, I hated that woman for trying to kill us.
But still.
Laughter. Laughter In the face of torture and pain.
However corrupt this woman was, she was doing what she believed was good, even if that good only benefitted herself under the weight of the world suffering.
Perhaps she was now realizing her mistakes. None of that mattered. Guilty or not–though I knew well how guilty she was–there was no need to rejoice in her pain.
I felt this. Understood this on some level, yet the carnal man won.
I smiled along with his laughter.
Here we all were, vile beings forced to do what we thought good.
How did we differ from her?
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want to face that reality, even though I had already accepted that the survival of the world was contingent on the savagery we pursued.
“I’m pretty hungry, Kalacia. Do I really need to take more?
Or is this one of those ‘they’ll hurt me worse than you ever could if I tell you’ situations?
Still not pumped to answer? Fine, let’s start with something adjacent.
Who the zeg is Veren? Let’s act like we’ve already discussed my parents, even if you don’t care about them.
I know that mecha-lady was on the PTA with them, so if you two are connected, there must be a reason. ”
She spat out blood and stopped her gums bleeding with the edge of her sleeve.
Her blood gleamed over the violet-lit gems. The gaps in her teeth made it harder for Boyband to maintain a serious composure as she spoke.
“She was an and placed in by an outside company after seeing your parents probing activity. When they died, she took the helm.”
“Other company my ass. Who?”
“I don’t know! Someone who works with… the… um.”
“Your boss?”
“No, it’s–”
“The Correction,” I said.
She furrowed her brow. It looked like recognition, but that wasn’t right.
Maybe something that led to it? It all had to be connected one way or another.
Even if she had no Gongtide ties, Gongtide had its tentacles in every part of the world: Education, Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals, Government. We were only at the cusp of it.
“Pure Knowledge,” she said, as if it wasn’t a statement but rather a title or thing in itself.
“Explain,” Boyband said, then picked his teeth with bloody fingers.
“It’s… a concept. An ideal… it’s hard to explain. It’s something core neurocrawlers speak of, but few pursue.”
“I’ve heard of it,” Ralia said.
“Are you a neurocrawler?”
“Deeper, ma’am. I don’t limit myself to titles, and by the way, Pure Knowledge is a zegging myth.”
“Say what you want.” Kalacia smirked.
“Don’t get all cheeky with me.” Boyband spat on the ground before her. “Is that what the admittance was for?”
She stared.
Boyband laughed. “You can lie with a false face, but you’re terrible now. Why do you need to kill one of us to get in?”
“It’s the Correction,” I said.
“You sure?” he asked.
“It has to be. They find out we’re looking for them and two assassins come? It’s got to be Gongtide, regardless.”
He shrugged. “Guess we’ll see.” He pointed at Kalacia. “I’m going to ask you about that other assassin, so start thinking about your answer.“ He then pointed to Ralia. “What makes this Pure Knowledge thing a myth?”
“It’s mind they believe they can tap into–”
“An essence,“ Kalacia corrected.
Boyband eyed me. I shook my head. I doubted it was Neon Essence, yet everything was connected enough for it to not be such an outlandish idea.
“Elaborate,” I said.
“All wisdom, information, knowledge condensed into an accessible core. We might all have neuronet access, but everything you see is manipulated by someone trying to sell you something or make you hate what they hate. Knowledge is preserved. Truth. It’s out there.
Once you tap in, you have access to everything that has ever happened and everything that is happening. Complete unrestrained knowledge.”
“And you gain access to it by killing one of us?” Boyband asked.
She shook her head. “That only grants access to testing.”
“Testing?” he asked.
“To see if you are worthy of Pure Knowledge.
“And what is that testing like?”
“No one knows.”
He laughed. “So you follow this mess of a trail for just a chance? Why the zeg would you have to kill someone to gain access?”
“Because the Pure Knowledge administration identified your group as impediments to its perpetuation.”
Boyband scoffed. “Definitely Gongtide.”
Kalacia looked unsure. From what I could surmise, she was just another hopeless self-proclaimed scholar caught up in something larger than she understood.
“Let’s take a step back. Pet. Tell her about the therapist.”
I began to recount the experience, leaving out most of the personal details to highlight my experience with the pseudo-past.
“And there was a black presence around it,” I said, “just like you had.”
“Just like you had,“ she replied. “You’re all using Light Leeches, too. I saw the light emanating from you in our little encounter. I have no idea how you got yours, but–”
“How did you get yours?” If she believed that we had one of her false Gui, we might as well let her. She didn’t need to know anything more about us.
“It was a reward for one of the first steps. You can’t just apply for Pure Knowledge testing with a simple bounty. Each step of this path is an endeavor of its own.”
“You didn’t answer my question. How did you get yours?”
“You pass a chameleon test. Prove that you can blend into society as a reputable person with advantages. You can’t just pass with the look, but you need the knowledge and personality, as well.”
“So you posed as Sanna?”
She scoffed. “No. That was only a way to get to you. I was an insurance broker. I worked for a month to help a client of Pure Knowledge evade taxes and launder lumens without a trace. Help the Knowledge, they help you, but it’s not a one-time ordeal.
Once I passed that, they implanted me with a Light Leech and the associated education needed to use one, hoping that I could pass this step. ”
“Which you failed,” Boyband said.
She glared at him.
He laughed. “So that mind-molesting therapist used a Light Leech against my dear friend?”
“I supposed so. Every Light Leech is integrated into your body and neurospace via a brainstem implant. That is the same, but the abilities vary.”
“And where do those zegging light ghosts come from?”
Her eyes shifted from side to side.
“You have no idea! You put some zegging ghost into your mind for the promise of knowledge when, for all you know, it might be changing everything you see and take it to be its truth. Truth isn’t relative, ma’am.
There is one truth and then there are those who choose to corrupt it.
I might look like a kid to you, but who’s to say I’m not a Finian and that ghost of yours is changing everything you see? ”
“Where did this side of you come from?” Ralia asked.
He continued without acknowledging her. “You’re just contributing to this cloud of misinformation that you–sorry, I forgot you weren’t actually one of them–that Water Hills forces upon kids!
I used to make fun of those kids who had android teachers at home, but maybe they were right for not contributing to this mess!
That’s what you want, isn’t it? To be another one of those dominating minds that decides what is Pure Knowledge and what should be ignored, or scorned, because you disagree with it?
It happened to the Cross followers but look at them!
Still standing despite the guk the world has thrown at them.
Zeg you and your prideful idea of knowledge!
I shit on it and hope you choke on it while you eat up their shit, too!
That’s all it really is. Truth eaten by a monster, shat out, and shaped into that image these tyrants want the world to see. ”