The Electoral Center

7 Days to the Sixth Attraction

"John, we are hours away from Round 31, already near the end. Can you imagine?" The CNN anchor wasn't hysterical, she was mature and moderately dressed.

"Yes. Only four players remain in play, and we are a little more than a week off from the end of what may well be the world. Here is what Marilyn had in mind last week." Billions watched as the following names scroll on the screen.

Round 31: Semi-Final 1

President Emilio Sanchez - 2,665 points

Laurent Lapierre - 2,620 points

Round 31: Semi-Final 2

Marie Lalancette - 2,201 points

Ji-Ing Po - 2,200 points

"As you can see, Marilyn told us she has two semi-finals planned for us today. The rankings and points make it clear: even if Laurent and Emilio fail to hook-up to Electoral 2072, they still will face each other during the final. No one disputes that anymore. The game has long ceded way to a much more relevant story." To those able to read the text scrolling below the screen, the news was otherwise very dire. Boulders were dropping from the sky, creating unprecedented havoc. In some places, city blocks were destroyed, cities were pulverized, and volcanoes were erupting in many places, but each time, most of the population was absent from the damaged area and the death toll incredibly low. For the few unable to have been naturally protected by the Great Curvature, the God Virus sleeping inside of them completed the miracle and brought the toll down to zero.

"Let's go to Milly live in the Competition Center. She is in the game room surrounded by the action of today's game."

"Thank's guys," began the mars-based reporter. Milly was wearing a beautiful pink blazer over dark pants. Drones had seen to her makeup and in the room over fifteen flying cameras buzzed around. "Here, the excitement is palpable. Sophie remains in her strange coma, but this time, all experts believe she will be back if she must. Her awakening minutes before Round 29 was no coincidence, she is somehow connected to this. Remember, there was a strange echo from the Underworlds or the Multiverse, and the poor girl's mind went somewhere."

Milly walked around in the room, introducing the different pieces of technology. "In this cradle, in minutes, Laurent will play. Next to him, a bed has been set up for Sophie just in case she remains silent. Everyone here has refused to split the pair. On the stage, there are two Rho chambers. The President will be playing from his Tower in downtown Berlin or from Paris; we are unclear where he is at present."

Doctor Shin, watching Milly broadcast from the Command Room, worried, but as a medical expert, remained calm. She was alone in the room looking after the strange Lapierre family. Without a word, Susie pulled a little golden crossed necklace from under her shirt and kissed it before lifting the girl's body. The first time Sophie left this reality, she returned more than a week later. The next time the Attractor traveled to the Underworlds, her voyage passed in the blink of an eye. The eyes of the world were on the Doctor, and she did not care.

"How is the girl?" Marilyn asked Milly caring over both Sophie and Laurent. "The game is about to resume. Round 31, I don't really need her consent to hook-up Laurent. She gave it last time but I would rather . . . ."

"Miss Monroe, I cannot say." The Doctor was simply unable to address the computer by her first name. "They are both stable. Sophie is still . . . absent."

"We need Laurent in the auditorium. Do you want Sophie to be there next to him? We have prepared a set of adjoining beds."

The doctor hesitated. She refused to split the pair; she had custody of the entire family. She looked at both, immobile in their cribs or beds. "If Mr. Lapierre needs to move, I would rather move Sophie to keep an eye on both."

"Please do so. The other two players are ready."

Little robots rolled into Sophie's bedroom. The strange mechanical constructs lifted the Attractor and placed her, like her father, in a bed. The pair were conveyed into the game auditorium under the watchful eye of Milly and more than eighty percent of the human population. Susie walked carefully next to the pair. The Korean woman's eyes never met anyone and remained focused on her patients or the floor.

In the room, about a hundred of defeated contestants remained silent. Sophie and Laurent were rolled in as if they both were on their way to heart surgery. There was a dense air in the room, laced with a mood of solemnity. Marilyn did not try to change the emotional status quo and remained silent as both of the Lapierres arrived.

"Well, we are about thirty minutes from the game," spoke Milly to her audience in one of her microphones to break the silence in the darkness of the situation. The young girl was gone, and her calming Rho waves were no longer soothing a human race a week from extinction.

Doctor Shin opened her bag, in it were many tools but more importantly, an old picture. The lady wasn't about emotions. She'd spent years making sure patients saw only the best of her. She was at the height of her professionalism, but in rare cases, when she needed comfort, instead of praying, she would slide her father's picture below the pillow of a patient. Sophie needed the image of her father, a priest tragically taken by a rare type of cancer. All cameras caught the Doctor as she bent the young patient's head forward, tear barely visible in the corner of her eyes and gently placed the item behind the forehead of the Attractor. She then put the white plush toy, the dog Oscar, under Sophie's arm. The sight was painful to watch in the context of any competition.

The doctor kissed the deformed body of Laurent with equal affection.

***

Nothing was harder to watch than a generally stoic human finally showing vulnerability. Susie returned to Sophie's side and whispered something in her ear. Only Marilyn caught the words. The computer refused to translate to the audience.

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"Sweet one, they don't deserve you. Stay there, you are safe."

As if her prayers had just been answered, Sophie opened her eyes wide.

She stood up, and with the low gravity, the push on the bed was enough to send her up several feet in the air. She quickly caught her balance and returned down. Immediately her brain waves resumed their continuous subconscious transmission, but something was off.

The Oldest was also back in her head as colors and images returned to normal. He needed to act quickly, and Sophie was visibly distressed. "Sophie," Liam said as politely as he could, "can I help?"

The young girl's heart rate began to accelerate from a resting sixty to more than two hundred. Marilyn's detectors all turned to red. Every screen started to flash in warning as the girl's mind began to amplify itself in conjunction with Electoral's commensurate buildup of ready energy. Power was building fast; Sophie had returned. In a fraction of second, in her head, she heard the Oldest murmur softly, "Sweet Sophie, please try to stay calm."

"No!" She yelled at the world in no particular direction. She spoke out as if she was half-awakened from a nightmare and was trying to cast aside demons. Speaking out loud, she snapped, "I won't do it! No!"

The level of panic in every breathing human was increasing rapidly as the girl was sending floods of strange new Rho waves. Everyone was waiting, like scared animals ready to be pushed in the slaughterhouse.

After a moment, her mind returned, and she was finally able to lock eyes with the Doctor, "Doctor, leave this room, bring my dad," she pointed to the door as if to protect her from what would come next. Her voice was Command. The Doctor needed no other convincing and began to roll Laurent's cradle out. Sophie was distressed, everyone could feel it. There was power, blended with pain.

She was preparing something.

Time began to slow. The Attractor stood up and looked around the room as if searching. Her gaze took forever, she was no longer the fragile guardian of her father. She was power, judge, and jury. A small blue shine began to appear in her eyes.energy was building.

"Sophie, darling," Marilyn said bravely, trying to diffuse the tension.

The words had the reverse effect. The young girl's expression darkened as she heard the voice of an enemy and locked on it. The glow in her eyes shifted to red. She slowly moved her body and mind to the digital creature on the screens of the stage. Sophie was upset, dark. Her eyes were stained with rage.

Invisible to the girl and those in the room, Marilyn still took the time to illustrate on screens for all of mankind to witness the Rho waves now pouring out of the girl. They were ordinarily invisible but using her digital skills, everyone was able to see the young girl fully powered like a hurricane ready to thunder down upon a beach. At first, the images were seen from within the room, then the computer zoomed out until every human could see the power she was generating. The core of the invisible hurricane was about the size of half the Solar System. Sophie's father wasn't being protected from it, he was being flooded by the waves. Like the isobar lines of a magnet, the structure enveloping her was intricate and multilayered. The flow of power, like the rock layers of Mall-ik's real body, were rolling and overlapping in strange ways, creating a set of rings of power. The rings locked deep below the planet's surface.

She pointed at the image of Marilyn on the screen, a shaking finger in the air. "YOU . . ." the waves spiked and grew, "SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!" The words were those of a mother to her misbehaving child. There was a long silence as the Attractor decided what to do next. The power rings jumped in size, continued their growth, and locked inside the sun instead of a single planet. She was bleeding away power from below the surface of the star. The Attractor was draining energy from the sun itself. Rings of electromagnetic radiation crashed into the computer system, short-circuiting some of the images.

The next words echoed in the very fabric of the world, "YOU HAVE," the tone appeared to ring false in the girl. Sophie stopped herself, stopped talking, and shook her head. She was trying to shake the power off, to calm herself. It took a moment before she completed the warning, ". . . vexed her." The words did not echo and drip with sheer might, as before. Marilyn's expression on the monitors in the room looked at Sophie with disbelief. After a deep pause and accompanying breath, Sophie added, "The music. Don't ever send it to the other worlds again. Leave the Nexus alone."

Marilyn's expression was genuinely surprised. Days ago, Marilyn had celebrated the arrival of the Great Curvature with the music of Frank Sinatra sent out through the Dot, into the Nexus. With Marilyn's modifications, it had reached all of the portions of the Multiverse. The digital creature was in disbelief. This was it, the music?

In a heartbeat, the power of the Attractor was back. "Listen to me, you must never send music or any other noise in the Nexus. It hurts her. Promise?"

"Of course," she answered genuinely. "I could not know." Sophie was trying to calm down, she was sweating and grimacing with stress. The energy appeared animated by its own intent. She needed help to calm down.

Her mentor spoke to her, "Think of Oscar, your dog, focus on him and close your eyes," said Liam in her mind. "Close your eyes." She did. "Now see yourself picking him up and squeezing him. Feel his softness against your skin." Liam's invisible efforts were working. The red light below her closed eyelids turned to orange then yellow. Sophie closed both fists. Mankind saw, after nearly a minute, the power around the Attractor begin to shrink and recoil. Liam continued, guiding her internally. Her fists were closed, her lips shut so hard as to turn them white. The screaming vortex of Rho waves began to draw back as if she was trying to reabsorb the energy. Like a deck of cards, the energy folded upon itself several times centered on her. In a matter of minutes, the enormous tide of power had returned to its standard size, creating a bubble the size of the Electoral Center. However, its density on the screens had increased by millions. This was raw power, it needed to go somewhere, she was ready to explode.

Marilyn expected the blast and braced.

Nothing happened, the power simply blinked out of existence inside Sophie's chest. Finally, the girl opened her eyes, and Marilyn was there, on all screens wearing a curious expression.

The doctor was back, she handed Sophie a towel to wipe her forehead. Sophie looked at the screens and concluded in a much kinder tone, "You really pissed her off."

"What did she ask you to do?" demanded Marilyn. The creature was bracing for the worse. Sophie was about to answer with her usual frankness but stopped herself.

"I was asked to take over your toy, Round whatever, and deliver a message from her to everyone watching."

"And?" asked Marilyn, curious.

"Do I look like a messenger?"

"You are the Attractor."

"No. All this stuff is none of my business. This is all stupid, and I will not be manipulated by you, by my father, by adults or by the Multiverse herself. This is not my story, not my business." Her tone was stern. She was unhappy, and this story could go to hell. Other anti-heroes could all sit in the back of her bus, she was ignoring the plight of the Multiverse, her own race, and even everyone she loved.

"Doctor, connect my dad so he can play, I am going to study. I am months late with my classes." Sophie, under the shocked glare of billions, walked out on the Multiverse, the Cold, and even the game. She seemed to be sporting a headache.

Then, as she passed the door's edge, she stopped and looked back at the baffled expressions in the room. She was thinking, and an idea was germinating.

She winced from the pain. "Liam?" She asked out loud to the creature in her mind.

"Yes, Sophie," he answered only to her.

"Do you know what the Multiverse asked me to do?"

"I have no clue."

"Perfect. Then you take over. I want you to humble them," she said to him and to all out loud, waving her hand as if she were dismissing an insect.

As the doors closed behind her, Sophie's energy flowed like a shape-charged explosion. The Indian image of Liam appeared on every screen in the world as the energy moved into the computer in a heartbeat. He was now in full control.

This was Attractive power.

In his mind's ear, Liam heard the voice of Marilyn just say, "Dear Lord."

Liam knew precisely what he needed to do. He was in charge and humanity now needed to stop on their proverbial seatbelts.