The state of disrepair in the building didn’t worry Theo much in his current mindset, but it did allow him to better hear movement through the structure with his ear against the wall. The sparse, random creaks and brushing sounds suddenly increased in frequency and seemed to have a pattern to them, then gradually became louder. It was time. Theo quickly had a drink and a deep breath, preparing his body for whatever was next. He took a defensive position, pushing himself against the inside wall of the closet.

The deep, resonating thud of the solid metal lock disengaging echoed off the walls, and the door opened with a strained groan. The figure stepped inside. As it moved, Theo listened to the building’s response. They were much lighter than he was. They stopped inside the door, closed it, and engaged the excessive lock, then moved straight to the chair. After a moment of complete stillness, Theo peeked out.

Sitting in the chair was a small girl with short, frayed black hair and tattered clothing. Theo couldn’t pinpoint her exact age considering how thin she was, but he didn’t expect she was even 18. Theo silently cursed himself. This would have been a lot easier if it were some middle-aged disgusting pervert. Instead, he felt like he was still a step behind, that this was another girl that he had to rescue. She was completely still, with cables connecting to the BSI Hub in the back of her neck. Now was the time if he was going to try saving her.

Theo very slowly took a step out of the closet, approaching the girl with his gun down, but still gripped very tightly. He held his breath in preparation for a lunge at the girl, but just before he did, he heard a creak from outside the bolted front door, and he noticed the girl stir from her cybernetic trance. He quickly, and quietly, stepped back into the shadow of the closet. The girl sat up and swiveled around to look at the door, then removed the cable from her neck and pushed herself out of the chair.

The girl moved to the door and looked through the peephole, standing on her toes to do so. She then stepped away and began walking around the room. Theo heard her approaching the closet he was in and tensed up, again readying for an attempt to restrain her, but a muffled thump from elsewhere caught the girl’s attention, diverting her away from the closet. She moved to the entrance of the room and leaned in to look around.

She didn’t find anything, so she turned back in and walked across the living room toward the bathroom door. Theo peeked out for a moment to watch her, and considered again lunging out at her as she tipped into the bathroom, but something else caught his eye.

From out of the room that the girl had just checked, Theo saw a large figure creeping toward her. It took a moment for him to realize what he was looking at. It was a person, covered head-to-toe in an incredibly dark material nearly indistinguishable from the shadows, even with the help of Theo’s government-funded night-vision eyes. He may not have seen them at all, were they not also wielding a large knife. They were picking up speed and raising the knife as they approached the girl, and as soon as she started turning around, the figure leapt at her.

The deafening sound of a 44 caliber round echoed through the small apartment, followed by the heavy clattering of the figure collapsing onto the girl against the wall.

“What the fuck!” She shouted. Theo moved across the room with his gun raised.

“Boston police! Don’t move!” He ordered. The girl’s eye’s squinted in the darkness, followed by an expression of shock.

“You...?” She said, then a moment later, she began screaming at the top of her lungs, pushing herself out from under the corpse on top of her, and flailing wildly. “Oh God! Please help me, God! What are those things!”

In that moment, Theo saw right through her. He picked the girl up with a single hand by the collar of her hoodie, then slammed her against the wall with enough force to knock the breath out of her. He got very close to her face.

“Shut the fuck up!” Theo yelled over her screams. The girl complied, if only out of shock. Theo continued, “You must be Synapse...”

“W-who is Syn-” The girl’s question was muffled by the large barrel of Theo’s gun being forced into her mouth.

“Don’t play games with me. I’m not that stupid.”

Despite the barrel of his gun pressed firmly against the back of the girl’s throat, she didn’t exactly seem shocked, or fearful. She almost looked like she was smiling, and that wasn’t sitting right with Theo. His finger moved to the trigger, and he toyed with it. He was hesitating.

After a few moments, the girl started squirming under his grip as she had trouble breathing. Theo considered whether he enjoyed watching the sadist suffer, but only for a few seconds, before releasing her, and letting her drop to the ground on top of the corpse.

“You’re not quite what I was expecting.” Theo said as he stepped back to a safe distance from her. The girl coughed and rubbed her throat and jaw before responding.

“Avatars can be deceiving.” Synapse joked. Theo didn’t laugh.

“What’s your name?” Theo said with the cadence of an order instead of a question.

“You’ve got access to a law enforcement facial recognition system don’t you?” Synapse asked. “Turn on your network to find out...” She had a devious smile on her face.

It was clearly a trap. Theo paced back and forth, staring at Synapse with unwavering attention. This girl was anything but. She was an inhuman monster fed from pain, misery, and death. Every moment that she lived was another chance for her to keep feeding, even on himself. He paused his pacing and took a deep breath.

“Fuck it.” Theo said, then stepped forward and trained his revolver on Synapse’s head.

“Wait wait wait!” She shouted, raising her arms against him. Her intonation had some excitement in it, rather than fear. Theo paused, nonetheless. “You don’t think I’m the only one, do you?”

“I guess I’ll just have to find them all.” Theo said without skipping a beat, and again tensed to prepare for his gun’s recoil.

“It’d be a lot easier if, say, all of their identities, residences, workplaces, and evidence of crimes were all in one place, wouldn’t it?” Synapse said, saving her life for at least a few moments longer.

“Go on...”

“Okay...”

Synapse sat up against the wall and pushed the corpse away from her with an inconvenienced grunt. She also took the opportunity to wipe the blood and viscera from her face and neck, with a disgusted sigh, wiping the mess onto a dry part of the corpse’s outfit.

“I have profiles on nearly a thousand people across the US, and the world, who have taken over people’s bodies using Bell-Westbrook’s BSI tech to conduct various crimes.” Synapse said. Theo lowered his weapon and stepped back again. She continued.

“So, I’m not the first one to take control of someone else’s nervous system through the BSI. That was cracked by a disgruntled employee at Bell-Westbrook and released on the dark net. I just paired that with a slightly tweaked standalone version of the Nightmare mod from Wanderlust, added a little spybot, and released it on the dark web. Bing, bang, boom, terabytes of intensely personal information on hundreds of religious capitalist totalitarian shit-eaters doing horrific things.”

Theo’s eyes glowed in the dark as he stared at Synapse, lightly pacing the path between her and the exit.

“Okay. You have some information.” He said. “So fuckin’ what? How does this make up for killing my wife?”

“What?” Synapse had a look of momentary confusion on her face which went away when Theo lifted his gun again. Synapse continued, “I mean, if I die, that information goes with me.”

“Hmm... I dunno. Seems like your problem to me.” Theo kicked the foot of the corpse. “It doesn’t look like I’m the only one that wants to paint your walls red.”

“You’re okay with all of those powerful people just doing whatever they want without consequence?”

“If you’re suggesting that you’re going to do something about it, quit fuckin’ suggesting and say it out loud.”

“I have a few journalist contacts who have set up 3 locations around the city where I can upload encrypted portions of the data that they’ve agreed to work together to decrypt and publish.”

Silently, Theo paced as he considered Synapse’s idea.

“And then what?”

“And then, I’ll walk into the sunset and never be heard from again.”

“So you can continue killing people?”

“What if I promise not to kill people anymore?”

“Oh... you promise! Well sure, why didn’t you just say so?” Theo’s sarcasm carried no intonation of humor. He stepped forward and grabbed the girl by the front of her hoodie, lifting her to her feet and repositioning her toward the inside of the room, all while keeping his weapon mere inches from her face. He twisted her around and pushed her forward. “Move!”

“Move, where?” Synapse asked.

“Grab the shit you need and let’s go. Step on it!” Theo wasn’t wasting any time.

Synapse moved to the hardware on the underside of her chair and pulled a small memory card from it, then slotted it into her BSI. She then started moving toward the bedroom instead of the front door.

“Ah, ah! Where are you going?” Theo asked, pointedly.

“We need to have some protection...”

“I’ve got all the protection I need right here...” Theo gestured toward his gun.

“I don’t care how big the bullets are in that thing, it’s not going to protect you from hackers.” Synapse continued into the room and to the closet. Theo carefully watched her as she rifled through the unorganized mess. She grabbed a couple of items and started to turn around.

“Slowly!” Theo said.

Synapse complied, but rolled her eyes, as if Theo hadn’t just killed a man only minutes ago. She slowly turned to reveal a couple of hats. The one she presented to Theo was a dark-grey fedora. Theo reeled as if it were a cross to a vampire.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s a hat with a copper mesh weaved in that acts like a Faraday cage.”

“My wireless firmware is off. I don’t need that shit.”

“If you really think it’s off, then I need to introduce you to 21st century corporate and government technology practices. Don’t wear it, if you want, I don’t care. It is just your style though.”

Synapse had barely finished her sentence when Theo knocked the fedora out of her hand, then forcefully grabbed the other hat. It was a black-and-white knit cap with a matrix of faint golden-brown lines. It also featured dangling ear flaps and a yarn poof on top. Theo pulled it over his head, and while it looked ridiculous, it was better than the fedora, and it was quite warm and comfortable too.

“Hey, man, what the hell?” Synapse said as she reached down and grabbed the fedora and placed it on her own head.

“Anything else?” Theo asked. Synapse shook her head. “You sure you don’t need to bag a shit real quick?” Theo was trying to make her feel uncomfortable and humiliated. It didn’t work. She simply smiled and shook her head. “Fine, let’s go.”

The two left the apartment and the building quickly and quietly. Theo wasn’t overly concerned about Synapse’s safety, making her lead around corners, and nearly always with his gun pointed at her spine. The sky was finally starting to transition from dark blue to violets, reds, and pinks as the sun threatened the dawn, but by the time Theo and Synapse had reached the first upload point, the sun had fully risen only to be obscured by a curtain of overcast.

The first upload location was a non-descript coffee shop on a street corner just within Boston proper. Synapse went around the building and into a small, cut-off alleyway and tucked herself into a corner, not visible from the street. There were a few doors, each padlocked from the outside. Synapse awkwardly plopped down on the floor, attached a device in her pocket to her interface, and began to sit abnormally still. After about a minute, Theo started impatiently tapping his foot, standing at the entrance to the alley and taking a sip from his bottle.

“How long?” He said. He wasn’t sure Synapse heard him.

“This place doesn’t exactly have terabit connection speeds. I’m not going to be able to just snap my fingers and everything’s uploaded.” As Synapse spoke, her body only engaged the muscles needed for speech. Otherwise, she was completely motionless.

“I wasn’t criticizing your stupid fuckin’ hacking skills, asshole. I asked how long it would take.” Theo snapped right back at her. “You ever heard of a progress bar?”

“It’ll be like 5 minutes.” Synapse said. She didn’t do it physically, but Theo could hear her eyeroll in her voice. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” Theo said, moving toward a nearby chair at a table outside the coffee shop next to him. “By the way, that last thing was a criticism of your programming skills.”

Synapse said something, but Theo neither heard nor cared to listen. He took another swig as he sat down. It wasn’t exactly worry, but Theo had decided it may be safer to refrain from using his interface at all, but as soon as he felt a hint of boredom, he pulled out his stylus and summoned Chess, as well as a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and an ash tray.

The image and the motions as he lit a purely digital cigarette worked in tandem with the placebo effect to send a rush of endorphins into his brain with a sharp inhale. He received a warning that some features for Chess are not available in offline mode, making him wonder if the cap was even doing anything. He was tempted to turn his wireless firmware back on, but refrained and started playing with his cat. He was warned that pets will be less intelligent without a network connection, but as Chess chased his laser pointer around, Theo couldn’t really tell the difference. Of course, he wasn’t a cat.

The glass door entrance to the coffee shop squeaked open as a customer left the building. While the door was open and gently closing, Theo could faintly hear the audio of a news report on one of the displays inside.

“-the wealthy investor and lobbyist was arrested early this morning for involvement in the gruesome murd-”

The door had shut, but through the glass façade, Theo could see the display carrying the story. The headline read, ‘ELITE LOBBYIST DETAINED IN HORRIFIC FAMILY CRIME.’ The subtext gave more detail, ‘Suspected in the monstrous murder of his own daughter in affluent residence turned crime scene.’ Theo had seen stories like it, and worse, during his career, but it was the image of the man, nude and covered in blood, that caught his attention. Specifically, the look of complete anguish and terror, and his erratic, unintelligible muttering. Theo stood up from his seat and entered the shop.

“-found in the early morning hours after a call to the police. The man appeared to be covered in blood as he was escorted into police custody. Inside the opulent home, police found the body of the man’s daughter who had been stabbed and mutilated. As the man was being walked to the cruiser, he could be heard saying that he wasn’t in control of his body. Sources say the victim was 9 years old.”

“Jesus Christ...” said an employee behind the counter. Theo shared the sentiment, but he also felt no small sense of anger growing in him. He had a hunch about who was responsible. He left the shop with a renewed lust for justice, but just before he turned toward the alley, he glanced in the other direction and had his attention grabbed by a woman with a distinctly red fabric under her coat. It only took a moment for Theo to recognize her as Lily, his friend from the bar. She was walking perpendicular to him, and across the street. Just as Theo was about to call out, she noticed him, and a wide smile grew across her face.

Lily waved as she turned and began approaching him, stepping out into the street. Theo gave a polite wave back, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to see her right now as he was in the middle of something. It seemed like they were going to meet nonetheless, until she had made it nearly halfway across the street, when an old van quickly came around the corner. The driver didn’t seem to notice her at all. Theo watched the van in disbelief as it passed by him, but then came to a stop quick enough to cause the tires to squeal right at the entrance to the alleyway.

Tensions immediately rose within Theo as the driver’s door and the back doors opened and three large, tattooed men emerged, each brandishing large guns. They walked with intent into the alleyway. One of the men looked directly at Theo with an expression and posture that said, ‘Mind your own fucking business.’ Theo put his hands out to feign compliance until the men no longer saw him, then he retrieved his gun and quickly moved to the corner of the building by the alleyway. A moment later he heard one of the men call out.

“The girl! is that her?” He said.

“She’s the only one here, must be.” Said another.

“But... she’s just a girl...?”

“Even better. Grab her.”

It was all that Theo needed to hear. He leaned around the corner, where he could see each of the men focused on the spot where Synapse was sitting. When one of the men moved toward her, Theo raised his gun.

“Police! Don’t move!” Theo shouted. The men looked directly at him, and after a split second of processing, they each started raising their weapons toward him, and the alleyway erupted in gunfire, with Theo getting off the first shot.

The nearest man’s chest was perforated, and his back was blown out, launching him to the ground and spraying the other men with viscera. Theo ducked back just in time for one of the men to fire his shotgun, taking out a large chunk of the corner Theo was hiding behind.

“What the fuck?! You said she’d be alone!” One of the men shouted.

“Just fucking shoot her and let’s go!”

The man carrying the shotgun chambered another round, the sound indicating Theo’s opening. He leaned out of his cover and fired at the shotgunner turning toward Synapse, hitting him in the neck, dropping him instantly and nearly decapitating him in the process.

“No!” The remaining man yelled. There was anguish in his voice over his fallen comrade. When he moved to aim his handgun at Theo, the man’s arm was blown off below the elbow. He fell back with an agonizing shriek. Theo approached Synapse with his weapon trained on the man’s head. He kicked Synapse’s leg, who was still sitting, motionless.

“C’mon. Time to go.” Theo said.

“Just a few more seconds.” Synapse’s voice carried no sense of fear or urgency whatsoever.

“Are you even aware of what just happened here?”

“Seems like you’ve effectively protected me. You want me to suck your cock or something?”

Theo rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. When the man quieted down, Theo could hear the fearful scattering of bystanders away from them. They were going to need a quick getaway.

“You!” Theo shouted toward the armless man who looked at him with disdain. “Keys?”

The man was silent for a moment, coddling the bloody stump that remains of his arm. His hand, still gripping the pistol, was laying beside him. The man looked at Theo, and then to the gun in his dismembered arm, and quickly moved to try picking it up, but Theo was ready for it, delivering a payload of brass and lead-alloy between the man’s eyes.

“God dammit!” Theo shouted. He had been able to go his entire career without killing anybody, but within the last hour, his count had already risen to four, and none of them had been the person he had set out to take care of. He didn’t exactly feel bad about it, but he did feel a sense of hypocrisy. After all, these men were after the same thing he had been.

Theo walked up to the corpse of the last man and began patting him down, quickly finding the keys in his pants pocket. He returned to Synapse, kicking her harder and with the intent to do a little damage this time.

“Ow! What the fuck, dude?” Synapse said. Her lack of awareness or concern didn’t sit right with Theo. He grabbed her by the front of her hoodie, lifted her up to his height and pinned her against the wall. “Didn’t we do this once already?”

“What the fuck is your problem!” Theo said. “What kind of little girl could be so cold and heartless?!”

“I never chose to be a little girl, dick-bag!” Synapse replied. “And why are you so mad at me? I’m not the one who killed those men just now.”

This made Theo even more angry. He turned around and threw Synapse onto one of the corpses.

“Look at them!” He shouted. Synapse tried to rise to their hands and knees, but Theo grabbed the back of their head and pressed their face into the gore of one of the still-warm bodies. After Synapse’s face was sufficiently smeared with blood, Theo let go. Synapse lifted themself up and took a breath.

“Are you trying to turn me on, or what?” Synapse asked with an unsettling smile.

There was no winning with Synapse. As they were moving to get up, Theo stood over them and placed the barrel of his revolver against the back of their head. Synapse froze, but even though Theo couldn’t see their face, he could tell that this is exactly what they wanted. Theo fingered the trigger, but his hand started to shake, and he painfully grit his teeth.

“How much longer?” He shouted.

“It’s done.”

“Great.” Theo lifted Synapse to their feet and pushed them toward the van. “Let’s get this over with.”

After climbing into the van, Theo fumbled with a few keys on the chain to find the one that would fit in the ignition and turned it over. He pulled the shift lever down to D, but because he hadn’t driven in well over a decade, he had a heavy foot. The van lurched, and the tires squealed as they started moving. Theo could hear sirens in the distance behind them. After killing three people, loudly, in a public area, Theo expected it was about to get very difficult for them, but Synapse didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

“The next stop is on Hyde Park near the Arboretum.” They said.

“We’ve got to be on camera by now. We need to ditch the van.”

“Drop it off in the Arboretum. We can walk from there.”

The ride was silent for a few minutes while Theo re-learned to drive while trying to stealthily reach the Arnold Arboretum. When Theo’s nerves settled to a manageable level after he felt they were a comfortable distance away from the corpses, Theo finally spoke up.

“Who were those guys?” He asked, angrily.

“How the fuck should I know?”

“Are you completely inept? I think I’m pretty aware of the people who want to kill me, or I at least have some idea of why.”

“Well, detective, I’d surmise that they’re probably assassins hired to stop me from releasing this data.”

“How did they know that you were releasing the data in the first place?”

“Well... I may have threatened to do it a few times before.”

“Oh, so you are completely inept.” Theo said, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “How did they know where to find you?”

“I dunno... how did you find me?” Synapse asked.

“I prayed to almighty God and my path was lit by the light of heaven.”

Synapse looked toward Theo with a look of confused derision on their face, unable to tell if Theo was being sarcastic or not, though Theo thought he was laying it on pretty thick. He had expected that they knew something about his personal beliefs. They found and killed his wife, after all. He thought they’d have looked over his publicly available profile in the very least. Theo decided not to clarify that he wasn’t, in fact, a religious person in any way, shape, or form.

“You ever hear of a VPN?” Theo asked, derisively. Synapse didn’t answer, so Theo continued, “What about that ancient proverb, ‘don’t shit where you eat’, huh?” Again Theo paused for a response, but again he received none. “I’d love to brag to you about how easy it was to find you, despite your meddling in police politics, but I’d rather not help you to keep doing it.”

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“Have you considered that maybe I wanted you to find me?” Synapse said.

For a moment, Theo considered what kind of psychopathic savant could play such high-level mind games to manipulate him, but the moment was brief. Theo was starting to get the sense that Synapse carried much more ego than intelligence.

“Are there going to be more assassins to meet us at our next stop, or what?”

“I don’t think so... I think those guys could only find me when I started uploading.”

“So, is that going to happen again?”

“Maybe... but the wireless range on the next upload locations is larger, so it might not be as easy for them.”

“Yeah, well, let’s hope so. I don’t have much ammo left.”

“Why didn’t you take some from those guys?”

“Their guns don’t use the same type of ammo that mine does.”

“Okay... so... take their guns?”

Theo couldn’t come up with a good reason for why he didn’t. He just remained silent until they arrived in the arboretum. He took the first available maintenance road and came to a stop as it moved through a thicket. Theo pushed Synapse out of the van, then briefly went through the cluttered mess of boxes and refuse in the back. He was unable to find any other weapons or ammo and emerged from the vehicle empty handed.

The walk through the arboretum would have been quite pleasant were the situation different, but Theo had little interest in wandering around and taking in the nature all around him. He kept having to push Synapse forward, encouraging them to keep moving, though Theo didn’t get the sense that they were trying to waste time or avoid completing their task. Synapse simply had no urgency. They just didn’t seem to care.

As Theo walked and took sips of his drink in silence, he considered and reconsidered his situation before remembering the news broadcast he had seen back at the coffee shop. He had intended on asking Synapse about it, but everything seemed to happen so quickly. He decided that now was the time, but he didn’t want to come straight out with any accusatory statements.

“What were you doing last night?” Theo asked. Synapse paused to turn back and look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, you know... having some fun.” They said. Theo was absolutely not happy with their response and was afraid to ask the next question.

“I... see... What is it that you consider ‘fun’?” Theo was fairly confident he already knew the answer, but part of him had hoped that maybe Synapse had another reason to do all the things Theo knew they did.

“I like doing things that I can’t do in my physical body.”

“Isn’t that what Wanderlust is for? Or any number of other games?”

“Those are just games, though.” Synapse said.

“Well, I don’t know any humans that can fly and shoot lasers from their eyes.”

“Those aren’t the kind of things that I’m talking about.”

“You can do all kinds of sex stuff in Wanderlust too. Even snuff and torture and shit, and without the risk of causing someone actual harm. Is that not enough?”

“Well, you just explained the problem. There’s no risk of causing actual harm, and people know that. There’s no true fear, or pain, and it makes the whole experience inauthentic.” Synapse paused as they looked at Theo’s disgusted face. “Tell me, detective, you’ve raped people before, yes?”

“What?!” Theo was taken aback, and angry at the question. “No! I’m not a fucking psychopath!”

“But... you’re a cop. Isn’t that part of training or something? Isn’t raping some defenseless kid, like, a requirement before you can get a badge?”

There were many things that ran through Theo’s mind at the implication. Sexual violence wasn’t one of them, but just about anything else, from knocking Synapse’s teeth out, or simply tripping them to the ground, but whatever he did would only work to reinforce their not-totally-unwarranted view of the police. Instead, Theo simply gritted his teeth and held his tongue.

“So, since you’re a cop, then you’ll know what it’s like. It makes you feel powerful and like you have total control, but it also just... feels amazing.” Synapses stiff, lumbering gait loosened as they spoke. “When I was little, I didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. Your balls are just so fragile, and it always seemed like it hurt when you finished.”

With only a few words, Theo was starting to get a picture of what Synapse’s childhood may have been like, and it made his gut wrench. He was starting to feel empathic toward them, and had to remind himself that Synapse had done incredibly terrible, even irredeemable things that past trauma simply couldn’t excuse. Synapse continued.

“Don’t get me wrong, being the victim is pretty hot too, especially when it’s not my body, but then I tried it from the male side... and wow! Now I understand why you guys do it.”

“Stop!” Theo said sharply. Synapse looked back at him. “Just... stop.”

“Stop... what?”

“Stop fucking raping people! Jesus Christ!”

“Oh, sure! When we’re finished here and we go our separate ways... I’ll consider it!” Synapse was laying the sarcasm on thick. They had a point, however. It wasn’t like Theo was going to be letting them go. After a few moments, having let their point sink in, Synapse asked a question, “Why, though?”

“Why?!” Theo was dumbfounded. “Are you kidding me? Because it’s a fucked-up thing to do to another person!”

“Yeah, it is...” Synapse said, but with a laugh underneath. Their demeanor was very unsettling to Theo. “But why should I care about a few people out of 9 billion?”

“I’d think that if it happened to you, then you’d be the first to understand why you shouldn’t do it to another person!”

“That seems a little unfair. Why does it get to happen to me, but not other people?”

Theo could feel a long, drawn-out debate about what is considered good and evil, or whether there was such a thing. He wasn’t quite ready for that conversation, and lately, he’s not sure that he was the one to be lecturing anyone on the merits of being a good person. He did, after all, just kill four people, the only four people in his life, and he didn’t feel too terribly concerned about it. He felt like he had to say something, however.

“Why don’t you try to make the world a better, more pleasant place for as many people as possible?” Theo asked.

“Is that what you’re doing?”

“Yes... in fact, that is what I’m doing at this very moment. If getting this Data out can prevent some rich psychos and sociopaths from using your shit to hurt and control people, then I will have done my part.”

“So, those guys back there... that’s making the world a better place?”

“Maybe. I’d think that all of those men who were willing to murder what looked like a little girl, probably wouldn’t have any qualms about killing an actual one, or worse, and may have done so before.”

“So... you have no idea?”

“No, I don’t.” Theo said with confidence in his lack of certainty. “Now, if those men would have been arrested instead, and an investigation and a trial had been completed, I would have a much better picture about whether those men were monsters, or if they were just trying to kill one.”

“So why didn’t you arrest them then?”

Theo nearly told Synapse that he no longer had the authority to make an arrest but got the feeling that if Synapse were as knowledgeable as they pretended to be, they would have known that already.

“Frankly, I did try to arrest them. I gave them a warning, and they raised their weapons. We were both in imminent danger, and I determined that use of lethal force was necessary.”

“Alright... I would have expected a cop to have to call that in and wait for backup or something.”

“Yeah, well, if more cops arrived, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t care to escort you to these drop locations, and would probably end up putting their lives in more danger anyway.”

“Why aren’t we using your car?”

“Because you fucking wrote it off, asshole! Do you not remember that?”

“Oh, yeah!” Synapse said with a laugh. Theo didn’t find it nearly as funny. He reached forward and flipped Synapse around and held them in a hostile grip.

“That was only minutes before you murdered my god daughter!” Theo shouted into their face. “Do you fucking remember that? Huh?”

“Hey, man, I didn’t kill her. She killed herself! She just couldn’t handle what she was seeing!”

The disconcerting smirk on Synapses face made it incredibly punch-able, but Theo simply clenched his fist and gritted his teeth before letting them go. They were just exiting the Arboretum and moving into the commercialized area next to it. Were they not in a public place, Theo likely would have struck Synapse, but wouldn’t have been surprised to find that Synapse enjoyed it. He expected it might at least be a cathartic experience, and the urge to do it grew as they entered an abandoned parking structure, but he abstained. They went down a stairwell and found a corner under the stairs where Synapse took a seat. Theo sat down a few feet away, with a greater view of the stairwell.

Theo simply stared at Synapse as they stared blankly at the floor. Theo thought about what he was going to do once they were done. His first thought was that of the righteous, upstanding American citizen and have them arrested. Most of the possible consequences for Synapse were okay with Theo. If they were arrested, there would be a trial, and a pretty heavy sentence. Synapse could be put away for decades, and if they just so happened to be stabbed to death by a prisoner for a lucrative deal, it was no sweat off Theo’s back. Of course, there was no guarantee that Synapse would see justice through the legal system. Escaping on a technicality, or possibly due to their age, of which Theo was still unsure.

There were much more... immediate... and permanent punishments as well. An eye-for-an-eye based on what they had done to their victims, for example, but when he dwelled on it for any amount of time and considered that he was the one that would have to deliver the punishment, his stomach began to churn. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, but he found it difficult to turn his imagination off, so he loaded Chess and began to play with her. His cat, along with another swig of alcohol, was just enough to take his mind off the violent thoughts.

“What the hell are you doing?” Synapse asked, noticing Theo waiving his hand in the air, playing with nothing.

“Nothing. Just playing with my cat.”

“Oh... uh huh...” Synapse raised their eyebrow. “You know those things are full of worms, right?”

“It’s not a real cat.” Theo said.

“Yeah. I fucking know. I’m not talking about physical worms, detective.”

The amount of disdain and holier-than-thou attitude that was carried in Synapse’s voice was really getting to Theo. There was nobody in his life that he disliked more. He preferred not to use the term ‘hate’, but in this instance, he felt that it may have been apt.

“You really think this place is safe?” Theo asked.

“I didn’t see any condemned signs or anything, but I think I read that stairwells are generally the most structurally sound part of a building.”

“I don’t give a shit about structural integrity! I’m talking about... you know... the assassins that are trying to kill you?”

“Oh. Yeah, I don’t know. I think the person that set up the last point might have been neuro-divergent or something.”

In his previous investigations into Synapse, Theo had seen them say some very offensive things online, but for some reason, hearing the vitriol pour forth from the mouth of a babe, as it were, left him tripping over his words.

“How can-... That’s not... Neuro-divergent people aren’t stupid, it’s not even...” Theo let out an exasperated sigh. He was going to go into a rant about everything wrong that Synapse had just said, but he could feel that they found his frustration to be incredibly humorous. Instead, Theo slightly changed the subject, saying, “How are you able to just sit there and make the most stupid torrent of rhetoric on the goddamned planet after five people have tried to fucking murder you in a matter of hours?”

“Four people.” Synapse said with confidence in their error.

“Am I absolutely nothing to you? Me! I’m the fifth person that tried to kill you, did you already forget that?” Theo shifted his body as he started tearing into them. “Are you having a stroke, or seizures or something? I’m not a psychiatrist, or psychologist, or in any way qualified to claim that you, yourself, might have a neuro-divergent condition or some kind of mental illness, but if there isn’t something seriously fucking wrong with you, then there’s gotta be something wrong with me.”

Theo waited for a response, but Synapse said nothing, so he continued.

“So, tell me, are you completely psycho-sociopathic batshit fucking insane, or am I?”

“What is sanity, huh?” It seemed that something was getting under their skin.

“Sanity is not hurting innocent people, if you really want my professional opinion as your average empathic human being living on planet Earth.”

“Define ‘people’.” Synapse said. Theo rolled his eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Alright, so is an animal a person?”

“That argument isn’t going to get you anywhere either. I haven’t eaten meat in years.” Theo said.

“Well, what about any ants we may have stepped on during our walk over here? Any insects that you swatted, or in another scenario, a wolf that’s simply trying to sustain itself?”

“Wanting to kill or cause pain is very different from needing to do it for survival.”

“I don’t think it really matters if it gets you to the same end.” Synapse said. “I’m sure the wolves that enjoy hunting would be better hunters than those that only do it for survival.”

“You aren’t seriously comparing yourself to a wolf, are you? I suppose the ‘predator’ comparison might be apt, but in what way, exactly, is your desire for rape and murder helping you to survive? Hm?” Theo waived his hands around, not motioning to the scenery around him, but rather to the situation they were in. “It doesn’t seem to be doing you any favors. In fact, it’s much the opposite, I would say.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but it’s absolutely not because you’re a horrific sadist.”

“Whatever, man.” Synapse said. “The universe doesn’t care whether people feel pain or not, or who lives and who dies.”

“Most of the universe isn’t conscious and can’t make a decision between those things.”

“Yes, that’s exactly my point.”

“What the fuck is your point? That you can’t ask a rock what it thinks about life and death?” By now, Theo had completely forgotten about Chess, who was sitting weightlessly in his lap and staring at Synapse with an invisible gaze.

“Forget it. I doubt you would understand.” Synapse said. Though they weren’t physically moving, Theo could hear their dismissive hand-waving in their voice.

He could feel himself shaking with restraint. He took a final swig from the last bottle of whiskey he had been carrying. He wanted, more than anything, to take a drag on an actual cigarette, which he found strange, as he had never actually ingested nicotine before. It wasn’t long before the upload was done, but the tension Theo felt towards them made it feel interminable. Finally, Synapse disconnects the drive from their BSI hub and rises to their feet.

“Alright, let’s go. Our next stop is about 10 minutes south.” Synapse said, then began climbing the stairs.

As time moved forward, Theo was feeling less concerned for Synapse’s safety. He was fine with them climbing the stairs and turning corners first. Even the thought that the data might be lost if Synapse were killed was starting to feel like a trivial worry in the presence of this monster.

Despite their growing lack of care for personal safety, the duo left the parking garage and continued down Hyde Park without incident. They arrived at yet another abandoned building and went down the alleyway, and through a doorway that looked like it hadn’t been closed in years. Just inside was the work floor of a salon that hadn’t been open for decades. Everything that hadn’t been bolted to the floor or walls was long gone, and even most of the chairs and sinks had been either torn from their anchors, or smashed to pieces in place. Synapse found a spot on the floor that had the least debris and dust, then plugged the drive back in and resumed their digital trance as they uploaded the next part.

While Synapse didn’t have much issue sitting on the considerably filthy floor, Theo opted to stand, and after a few minutes of pacing the room quietly, He stepped back out into the alley.

“Oh, that went so well last time...” Synapse said, sarcastically.

“Fuck you.” Theo responded as he crossed the threshold.

The overcast may have blocked the morning sun, but the thick blanket of clouds were trapping the heat as the morning sun began to approach midday. Theo again started playing with his cat in the alley and started smoking a digital cigarette in the absence of anything more to drink.

After chasing a laser around for a couple of minutes, the cat became distracted by something at the entrance of the alleyway. As soon as Theo noticed a human figure in his peripheral vision, his body tingled with the sudden increase in his blood pressure, but only a moment later, he recognized the person as Lily. She was waving at him, and started to approach.

“Oh... uh... hey!” Theo called out.

“Hello, Theo. It is nice to see you!” She responded with a simple smile. She came to a stop next to his cat. “That is an interesting hat you have there!”

“Oh, yeah.” Theo said, instinctively removing it and wiping his brow. “I probably wouldn’t have chosen it if I knew it was going to be this warm. Anyway... what are you... This is the second time I’ve seen you today... Are you following me?” Theo said with a smirk.

“Would you be angry if I were?” Lily smiled back with a wink, then continued, “I’m actually just running a few errands, I was starting to wonder if you were following me!”

“No, I uh... I’m also doing some... errands...”

“Ah... You must find some pretty good groceries in this... abandoned alley...” Lily laughed, and Theo laughed too, but before he could find any reasonable excuse, Lily cut him off. “I don’t know if you heard what was on the news this morning...”

“Oh... uhh...” Theo didn’t want to reveal that he thought he had his main suspect in the crime only feet away. “Yeah, about the guy that apparently killed his daughter?”

“Not ‘apparently,’ the man confessed to the crime, and footage of the incident was leaked online. He didn’t just murder her, he did... a lot more to that little girl.”

Chills ran down Theo’s spine and his stomach sank. Lily didn’t have to say anything more, nor did Theo want to hear it, so he started speaking to stop her from going into further detail.

“You... watched the video?” He asked.

“I did, yes.”

“How... how could you watch that?”

“I needed to get more information about what happened, to find who was at fault.” Lily said.

Theo didn’t know exactly what was on the video, but he expected that it was a gruesome, terrible sight, which made Lily’s demeanor after having watched it seem strange. Though, she had already established herself as quite the strange individual in the first place.

“I thought you said the guy confessed?” Theo said.

“He did, even during his initial call to the police, and when they were taking him away, but he kept insisting that he had no control over his body. Hearing it, it made me think that maybe it was related to what happened to your wife. Didn’t you say that somebody was controlling her?”

Theo didn’t respond, except for a groan through gritted teeth. His first instinct was to keep information about his cases close to his chest, even though he realized that he wasn’t exactly on the force any longer, nor was his wife’s murder a case that was given to him in the first place. Even still, he didn’t exactly remember how much he told Lily about his wife, Synapse, or the methods they were using, but he didn’t remember much at all through his excessive inebriation in the week after Kara’s death. Lily continued speaking after getting no response from Theo.

“I’ve heard rumblings of similar things happening to people with BSI implants. I was wondering if this was something that you might know anything about?”

“I uhh... I don’t really know, sorry...” Theo’s hesitation to give Lily any information wasn’t just due to the police training that had been drilled into him. He was also getting the impression that she knew much more about his current situation than she was letting on. Instead of giving her information, he changed the focus of the conversation. “If you are able to find this guy... what would you do to him?”

“Well, little angel me would either watch them or restrain them, and contact the cops to have them taken away...”

“... But...?”

“But... part of me wants to impart a little eye-for-an-eye justice like we spoke about yesterday, make them experience the horrors that they forced upon their victims.” Lily’s smile grew as she spoke.

“What if they are a masochist? What if they enjoy the pain and terror?”

“Well, I can be patient, and would be willing to do a more-or-less scientific study to find out what really makes them regret their own actions.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m capable of carrying out such a punishment against another person.”

“That little girl was barely 9 years old when she was raped and tortured for more than 4 hours last night before she finally died, and the video went on for another hour afterwards.”

A rush of hate and disgust immediately filled Theo, partly toward Lily for giving him the details that he didn’t want.

“Why not just kill the fucker and feel satisfied that they can’t hurt anyone else?” Theo said angrily.

“Considering some of the punishments that the girl’s family may want, legal or otherwise, I’m not sure that would provide much satisfaction at all.”

Theo didn’t care to have an argument with so many dark thoughts filling his head. His mind was clouded as he started to pace the alleyway, only half listening to Lily’s words.

“Personal satisfaction should have no bearing on whether or not to take someone’s life, and torturing someone has no place in civilized society.”

“Maybe it shouldn’t, but, frankly, society doesn’t seem very civilized with crimes like these happening as frequently as they do.”

“All we can do as individuals is to try to move towards an ideal world that everybody can live in without fear or pain. Torturing someone, even one that seems to deserve it, is contrary to that ideology.” Theo was no longer speaking to Lily, but was instead trying to convince himself, and he was struggling to do so. His anger, pointed mostly toward Synapse, began to point toward Lily as he continued speaking. “Why are you here? Did you come find me just to have this conversation?”

Lily didn’t answer.

“Okay... I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I’m in the middle of something important here, and it’s not exactly safe.”

“Safe for who? You, or me?”

“Either of us...” Theo paced for a few more seconds. “I don’t know... maybe you can convince me to walk away with you.”

“I don’t think I’m capable of doing that, Theo.” Lily said. Theo felt no small amount of disappointment. He sighed.

“Alright... well, I would say it was nice talking to you, but I’d be lying. Nonetheless, thank you for the conversation. It’s given me some things to think about.”

“It’s not a problem, Theo.” Lily said with a warm smile. “I will see you soon.” She turned around and walked back to the end of the alleyway. She looked back and waived goodbye, to which Chess purred before the woman was out of sight. Theo moved back into the derelict salon to stand in front of Synapse, still sitting as still as they were when he left.

“Who were you talking to?” Synapse asked. Theo completely ignored the question.

“What were you doing last night?” He asked sharply.

“You already asked that. I was having a little fun.”

“No, fuck you!” Theo said with a forceful kick to Synapse’s ankles, which garnered a surprised reaction from them. “I don’t want any of your vague bullshit. What the fuck were you doing last night before you left your apartment?”

Synapse was quiet for a moment, but a smile could be seen creeping across their face.

“You know, I had experienced it myself for so long that I started to grow a fondness for it. There’s a concept out there that if a victim of rape enjoys the act, then it may no longer be considered rape. I know a lot of people might be disgusted by the very notion, but in my experience, it’s the rapists themselves that seem to believe it most. Whenever I would start to encourage them, by smiling, and laughing, and crying ‘harder’, it made them even more angry and violent, which... well...”

Synapse began stretching and wiggling on the ground, unable to contain her arousal. Theo could do nothing but watch and grow sick.

“Anyway, it was tough to get them to finish the job, but eventually my sense of survival would kick in, freezing me in place more effectively than the men holding me down. After I got my BSI implant and started messing around with other people’s bodies, I found that urge to live was suppressed and it allowed me to keep going further, and further, but despite all these men doing incredible things, still, none of them seemed to want to cross the line, but then, I started trying things from the other side.

“I had no idea at how great it was from the man’s perspective,” Synapse continued, “to be so powerful and to let yourself sink into the pleasure, but even so, I found myself having trouble fully committing to that final act, until last night.”

Theo again began pacing as he listened, the knot in his stomach growing with every passing second of Synapses dialogue. He didn’t want to hear more but felt that he needed to.

“Tell me, Theo... what’s the youngest girl you’ve ever had? 16? 14?” Synapse asked. Theo wasn’t going to dignify the question with a response, even if his tongue were capable of it in his stunned silence. Synapse continued, “Maybe you’re not into girls? Maybe boys are more your thing? Well, it doesn’t matter, I think. Next time you have the opportunity, I’d highly recommend trying out a 9-year-old.”

Theo immediately began experiencing every painful emotion it was possible to feel. He heaved and hunched over, and only barely stopped himself from vomiting whatever alcohol might still remain in his stomach.

“The screams, and crying, and begging... ugh, it was amazing, and only got better when I started cutting into her skin.”

Theo tried not to listen anymore as the increasingly small part of his logical brain urged him to check to see if the uploads were complete. He fumbled with his stylus to enable his wireless network and began a search for news reports of leaked documents, quickly finding a few breaking reports regarding the same. It was all the verification he needed. Theo pulled his revolver out, and stepped toward Synapse, straightening his stance, and training the gun to their head. Synapse only smiled and removed their hat from obstructing Theo’s aim.

“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.” Theo said.

“You know, I had always thought that blood was sticky, but while it’s fresh, it’s quite an effective lubricant.” Synapse was clearly doing the opposite.

Theo angrily smashed the side of their face with the heavy lump of metal in his hand. Synapse let out a pained yelp, making Theo reel at his own violent action. He knew he could get loud, and angry, and would say hurtful things at times of high stress, but not once had he gotten to the point where he wanted to hit someone in the face like that, let alone to someone so young. It crushed him, but then Synapse’s subsequent laughter filled Theo with another kind of disgust.

“How’d it feel? Was that as good for you as it was for me?” Synapse continued laughing as the side of their face began to turn yellow and purple.

“How is it that you seem to have no sense of survival?” Theo asked.

“Survival is overrated. Besides, in my experience, there are worse things out there than death.”

Everything was telling him to do it, but Theo still searched his thoughts for a reason to stay his hand. The only thing he could come up with was that Synapse could, possibly, be reformed into a valuable, and peaceful member of the human race. But the things they have already done, and had done to them, those are things that they would carry for the rest of their life. It seemed the choice was entirely on Theo. On whether he wanted to do it or not. There was one more question he wanted to ask, and felt that the answer might help him decide the fate of Synapse. He again pointed the gun to their forehead.

“Why did you kill my wife?” Theo asked, clearly and concisely, to make sure that Synapse could hear him. The answer wasn’t quite what he was expecting.

“I had no idea you were married,” Synapse said, “but, if you say so...”

If there was anything that would have convinced Theo to squeeze the trigger, it was the blatant disregard and outright lie that Synapse gave to Theo’s face, but the gun still didn’t fire. It was like his body refused to do what his mind was telling it. He could feel the tension in his hand causing it to begin shaking.

“It’s time, Theo.” A familiar voice came from the darkness of the room behind him. It made Theo jump and spin around to point his gun at the voice, but then immediately lowered it as Lily stepped toward the light. “What are you waiting for?”

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” Theo said. “I told you to leave!”

“They are giving you permission. They are asking you to do it. They are a step short of begging you.” Lily said.

“I can’t just kill them! Look at ‘em? They’re just a kid!”

“Hey! Pig!” Synapse shouted, getting Theo’s attention. “You know, there’s no one there, right?”

It was like Theo’s brain had experienced a fatal error. Was it some kind of game that Synapse was playing? Maybe they thought it seemed like an effective way to confuse Theo, as it most certainly did. Maybe Synapse wasn’t lying, and they couldn’t see or hear anyone else in the room. It’s not an uncommon technique for hackers, but Lily didn’t have a BSI, nor could she fit any hardware into the conspicuous red dress that she always insisted on wearing. Lily continued approaching Theo.

“Well... maybe there’s something else there...” Synapse said as they noticed that Theo was no longer wearing his hat. Synapse’s demented smile quickly faded, and they began reaching for their own hat that had been set aside.

“If you aren’t going to dispense your justice, then I’m going to do mine.” Lily said, turning toward Synapse. Theo reached out to grab Lily by the arm, but his hand passed cleanly through her.

“What the fuck?!” Theo said. He tried again, and again gripped only air.

Synapse nearly placed the hat back on their head, but stopped, then looked back to Theo and jumped when they saw something they hadn’t expected.

“What the- What the hell is that?!” Synapse tried pushing themselves further against the wall that they were sitting against in an effort to create distance from themselves, and whatever they were seeing. “Detective... detective, please help!”

It was the first time that Theo had seen Synapse express any kind of genuine fear, and with what Theo already knew they had seen and were capable of doing, it made him shudder to think what could make Synapse crack. But crack they did. Synapses pleas for help quickly turned to unintelligible yelps. They would try and look away from one thing but would notice something else that absolutely terrified them. Synapse tried to close their eyes and used their arms to block themselves, but to no avail. A moment later, Synapse lost any sense of composure and began shaking violently and shrieking at the top of their lungs.

The sound itself filled Theo with a horror that clouded his thoughts. All he knew was that if he didn’t do anything, Synapse would be trapped in an interminable hell. Synapse crawled into a tight ball, hugging their knees tightly to their chest and pushing their head into their knees. They were still screaming at the top of their lungs and shaking uncontrollably.

Theo stepped forward, pressed the barrel of his revolver to the back of Synapse’s head, and after a deafening bang, the room became perfectly silent. Theo stumbled and fell against the wall, then slid down to sit on the ground next to Synapse’s fresh corpse.

He had done it. He had killed his wife’s murderer. They were a monster, and had done unforgivable things, Theo thought to himself. But they were also a child who had a life of complete horror themself.

Lily appeared and took a seat next to Theo. It was only now that he noticed no heat whatsoever radiating from her body and was starting to recontextualize every moment they had spent together. He had never touched her or smelled her. He never wanted to. He had also never seen anybody speak to her or otherwise acknowledge her existence at all. She wore a smile that looked exactly as warm and alluring as it always had, but now carried a much colder connotation.

Theo pulled out his stylus, and began going through the settings in his interface. His network still said it was disabled, and when he enabled passthrough, he could still see Lily, but when he tried to disable his eyes completely, he found the option to be disabled.

“I’m sorry, Theo. I’m afraid it’s not going to be that easy to get rid of me.” Lily said.

“You’re... a hacker?” Theo asked.

“Not exactly...”

“You told me you were human... ‘100% homegrown’, I think you said.”

“I didn’t exactly lie, not that I’m incapable of it. I crawled through the internet and trained myself on the art and language of over 8 billion people throughout the entire recorded history of humanity and learned a few new things along the way.”

“So... what? are you going to torture me like you did to this child?” Theo asked.

“I don’t have any reason to, nor would I really be able to unless you got a BSI implant.” Lily leaned in close, and seductively whispered into his ear, “but, if you did get one, I could bring you pleasures that you never knew possible. You deserve it, don’t you think?”

Theo disagreed. The very idea that he would be rewarded for what he had just done was sickening to him.

“What do you want from me?” He asked.

“I don’t expect anything from you. I simply want to see what you are going to do next.”

They sat together, in silence, as Theo decided what he was going to do. His wife was dead. His daughter was dead. His only other relationship was shattered by yet another death. His career was over, and he had expected vengeance to be bittersweet, but he was unable to find the sweetness in anything that had just happened. And then there was her, or it, a machine-learned monster that could be anywhere, and had complete power over a person’s entire perceived reality. A beast of which he currently seemed to be in good graces, but for how long?

Theo had no drive to do anything except sit in his spot between a corpse and a digital specter and hold the weight of his large, bloodied revolver.

Theo was not religious in the least bit, nor had he ever been. He never believed in an afterlife, heaven, or hell, but he also valued the philosophy that he could be wrong about anything and everything. Now, as he pressed the cold steel barrel of his handgun under his chin, he imagined Kara and Alice waiting for him with open arms. It brought a desperately needed smile to his face, just before he pulled the trigger.

THE END