23. Sheer Power
Sheer Power
Isaak
She’s special. How am I not going to fuck everything up with her, with my track record?
He stayed on the monorail until London Bridge, where he changed for an intercity rail to Brixton.
The night air smelled of booze and cigarettes, and rang with the wreckage of still-ongoing merriment in the streets of his neighbourhood.
Laughter, shouting, and chatting, any blanks filled by techno music whose volume made it hard to ignore and even harder to identify.
Neon signs were the only source of lighting.
All the lamp-posts had been malfunctioning for a while, the council unable to source funding to fix basic problems.
He walked through the dishevelled streets, and up the six flights of stairs to his flat, biting through the pain in his bum knee, just wanting to get through the door.
So much on his mind today, but still something from the day before refused to leave him alone: the Second Revivalist statue he saw in the Boulevard, of Eltarc Romly.
He hadn’t even spoken to Dylan about it yet.
I’m sure she’s terrified of them, like me…
It was common sense nowadays that the people’s welfare was for the greater good, but it wasn’t back when those people had showed up.
The Revolt helped free the world of them.
Eltarc was killed, and the Revivalists disbanded.
But that statue…? Maybe they were never really gone. Just hiding in plain sight, following the new laws, eating plants and making plans. Who knew?
Settling into his black chair, his thoughts of the Revivalists turned into thoughts about the Book.
Their primary product, StreetSocial, was not only the largest social network in the world, it was now effectively the only one.
The thought of the Tapeworld becoming another victim of the Book’s endless hunger sickened him.
The reasons he wanted the Tapeworld to remain independent, hidden from the general population, an invitation-only place, free of government regulations, were very different from the reasons that a wild-eyed mob like the Second Revivalists would want it, but the idea that he’d agree with those people over anything left him shaken.
Isaak swiped through the contacts on his phone.
His index finger hovered over Astrid’s avatar.
A vision of her, naked, flashed in his mind.
He shook it away, but he couldn’t help thinking of all the gigs he’d done for her, until inevitably he saw in his mind the face of the man he’d shot.
His chest tightened and the pit opened up in his stomach.
Something threatened to come up and he ran to the small bathroom, leant over the toilet, and retched.
He only left the bathroom after puking what felt like his whole guts up, belly and throat aching.
Fucking hell. I was used. Stealing from the Book, shooting a…
He still couldn’t convince himself it was a bot.
Fuck. He did the best he could to clean himself up.
Get it together. After a quick shower and some fresh clothes, he sat back at his black desk chair.
The white Lazarus tee hadn’t made it out of the episode unscathed, and he tossed it into the bin.
He didn’t know if that was the last one he had and he didn’t care.
Already he longed to get back into the Tapeworld, demand answers from Astrid.
He could hear Dylan’s voice in the back of his mind. Telling him to rest up, to take care of himself, propping and hyping him up.
She’d been brilliant today. The sheer power with which she’d run with him through the woods, and Sacha liked her too. Who wouldn’t? She pushed him when he needed pushing, reassured him when he needed reassuring. What had he done to deserve that? He was just a loser.
He buried his face in his hands. He thought of her smell, like strawberry and peach. An unexpected delight of the Tapeworld, that it carried through your scent. She’d smelled the same at the coffee shop in real life.
He grabbed his phone. Struggling with what to say, remembering how much he’d enjoyed hugging her and holding her, he typed out a message, each tap heartfelt.
@isaak: i’m home. hope you are too? sleep well xx
Send.
She replied almost immediately.
Good. She was safe.
He turned his lights off, pulled off his jeans, and landed in bed.