Downtown Victoria, British Columbia - June 15, 2043, 8:04 AM
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Victoria was dead.
Alice walked the downtown drag, passing an outdoor shop with a four-pointed star and a broken glass window. It looked like it had been looted, both recently and in the past. L5-1 pointed and made a hand sign. Alice peered inside but couldn’t see anything.
She was supposed to be powering up.
She’d been powering up, but not the way SHOCKS wanted her to. Not the way she wanted to, either. Lots of combat skills, but no Mergewalk. If it wasn’t Mergewalk, as far as SHOCKS was concerned, it didn’t matter. And if it didn’t help keep Li Mei down, it really didn’t matter to Alice.
SHOCKS had a pretty good idea of what Claire had been doing when she got her Mergewalk power, and Alice was supposed to be working on a similar Inquiry. But it hadn’t worked at all in the last week, and today, she was on patrol with Lambda-Five.
Again.
“L5-6, check it out,” L5-1 said.
She nodded and stood perfectly still, raising her mental walls until she was confident nothing could possibly smash through them. Her ‘soldier’ compartment was new, but she was already growing comfortable inside of it. It made sense. It was just a performance; if she said and did the right things, she fit right in—as usual. Besides, the ‘soldier’ persona gave her strength. So much strength. Enough to face Li Mei and bring her to heel.
She lowered the walls around the infovampire. Li Mei surged forward, but she was already there, countering the anomaly’s escape and grabbing her by the conceptual throat. Tell me if there’s any information worth eating in this building: people, security footage, anything like that.
Silence.
Dealing with Li Mei was never pleasant. Alice hated sharing her mind with the monster, but she was getting used to it—especially since she was in charge now. That helped. Not much, but it helped.
She tightened her grip. What’s in there?
Nothing, Li Mei replied. Nothing of real value, and only a little else past that, bestie.
Ignoring the infovampire’s attempt to make nice, Alice pointed to the sign and nodded slightly. The text disappeared almost immediately, and the infovampire burped inside her mind. “She says it’s clear. You can check it if you want.”
L5-1 nodded. “2, 3, get in there and scope the place out. Bring any survivors out, but if you encounter anything past Geren or anything unknown, pull back. L-6, head in there with them.”
Alice waited for the two Marine-looking guys to go first, then held her pistol in both hands like she’d been taught and followed. She wasn’t a shooter, and she knew it; her strengths were in her powers and her ridiculous Infohazard Resistance. If the RST troopers ran into anything they couldn’t handle, she was screwed.
Li Mei said it was safe, though, and the infovampire didn’t want Alice dead. She wanted her under her control, yes, but not dead.
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
The troopers moved quickly, leaving Alice behind in the main room. Clothes and backpacks lay scattered everywhere, and she started searching as the soldiers moved into the back. Something about it poked at her brain, but it took her a minute before she even knew where to look.
Claire was here, Li Mei said suddenly.
That was it. Alice saw it now; she’d taken care of her sister for long enough to see the signs. The way some of the clothes were thrown around. The boots that were completely unlaced down to the last eyelet. And the torn and tattered old hoodie in the dressing room. Claire had definitely been here before—but that would have been weeks ago.
I hate her, Li Mei continued. She ruined everything.
“I don’t care, Li Mei,” Alice replied. The walls went up around the infovampire in her mind, and she picked up the hoodie and shoved it into her backpack. It was hideous—cut into a thousand pieces and covered in rotting plant goop—but Alice knew it was Claire’s. Whether her sister wanted it back or not, she’d…want it back. Claire never left behind a perfectly good, body-obscuring hoodie, and Alice had been looking after her sister long enough to know that.
“Contact!”
The shout came from outside, along with a hail of gunfire. Alice screamed—but at least this time she screamed quietly as RST Lambda-Five tore apart another 389-T-13/2I. They’d been seeing a lot of them here, and apparently, these were the things Claire had fought at West End High. Alice had no idea how her sister did it.
Alice clutched her pistol to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. Lambda-Five could handle this. Her job was to use Li Mei’s hunger to check for thinking anomalies, people, or working electronics. Their job was to fight.
She really didn’t know how Claire did it.
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Lambda-Five was still on the move an hour later. Their contact back at SHOCKS Headquarters, Command-Two, had reports of something happening near the cruise ship docks southwest of them, so the Recovery and Stabilization Team was backtracking. According to Command-Two, holding the docks would allow for civilian evacuations to…somewhere.
According to James, that was bullshit.
[There’s nowhere to go. They’re lying to you, Alice, and you need to understand that. You can trust them to do certain things—keep you alive, put you in situations where you can grow, and treat you well—because they need you and your sister. But you can’t trust them to do the right thing for other people. Their concern is the world, not survivors in Victoria.]
She didn’t want to believe him.
She didn’t want to believe him.
But at the end of the day, she didn’t have a choice.
The docks were empty. Completely empty: no ships, no people, no cargo getting loaded to supply the cruises that came up the coast on their way to Alaska or the North Pole or wherever they went. Nothing but two gigantic flat concrete jetties jutting into the ocean.
“L5-6, are you picking up anything?” L5-1 said.
No. Li Mei would have shaken her head if she could, but Alice wasn’t about to give the infovampire that kind of control—not when she’d been slipping out of the driver’s seat a week or so ago.
“No. She says it’s all clear,” Alice said.
[I’m running additional scans. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing Li Mei would consider informational, but…there’s something by the lighthouse. It’s deep, but it’s there.]
“James says there’s something out there,” she relayed.
The Breakwater Lighthouse wasn’t anything like the towering, multistory lighthouses she’d seen in dozens of horror movies, with the spiral staircase leading up to a massive room filled with lenses, lights, and mirrors. This one was barely twenty-five feet tall—little more than a funny-shaped spike out at the end of the harbor’s protective breakwater.
She pointed at it, and the rest of Lambda-Five watched.
Nothing happened.
Something should have happened. In all the movies she’d half-watched with Edric, something always happened, and she always jumped. Every. Goddamn. Time. He’d liked to make fun of her for it in the few weeks they’d dated before Dad found out.
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But nothing happened. The water stayed still, and L5-1 marked the location on his HUD. As he did, it appeared on everyone else’s, too. “Command-Two, we have a possible aquatic merge location or something that’s escaped detection methods. It’s close to our URA line, and I believe neutralizing it is in our best interests.”
“Acknowledged. Attempt to identify the anomaly, then proceed from there,” Command-Two said.
Alice gritted her teeth. They should be leaving sleeping dogs alone. Poking the…whatever it was…would have consequences. She wanted to avoid those. She’d avoided them so well up until the moment she graduated.
“Three, Four, head to the breakwater. Take mobile URAs and the dive-bot with you. We’ll set up here. Two, Five, you’re on heavy weapons. Six, keep your ass safe,” L5-1 said.
The Lieutenant didn’t have to tell her twice. As the rest of RST Lambda-Five burst into action, she stepped back, putting the half-assembled heavy machine gun between her and the lighthouse.
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James kept calling the monster that had erupted from the water and engulfed the lighthouse’s base a Fungal Lord.
It was bigger than the single-family homes Alice had always wanted to live in, covered in sheets of half-rotten, half-drenched mold and spores that sloughed off like a jacket sliding off a classroom seat. Meatball-shaped, sort of, with three tentacles. And eyes. Massive eyes the size of beach balls.
Three and Four fled across the breakwater, fungus building on their uniforms and breathing masks over their faces. Both had their rifles over their backs. Alice couldn’t blame them; compared to the monster chasing them, they might as well be mosquito suckers.
But the heavy machine gun was opening up in ten-round bursts that ripped at Alice’s ears and heart every time L5-2 pulled the trigger, and the rounds burned into the Fungal Lord’s sloughing mold-skin. Chunks flew off into the water as the gun belched a burst of fire two feet long.
They’re not accomplishing anything, Li Mei said.
Alice paused to watch more closely.
In fact, that thing doesn’t care about them at all. Look. It’s not even pursuing the other team members.
Li Mei was right. The bullets were only setting fire to the outer layer, and it was so wet they only smoldered instead of lighting the whole monster ablaze. Worse, it looked like it was regenerating spores more quickly than Lambda-Five could damage it.
But it also wasn’t moving to chase.
Instead, it seemed to be scaling the lighthouse. It was hard to tell, given that it was twice the size of the miniature breakwater lighthouse, and its bulk sagged over each side of the stones below it, but…yes, it was trying to climb it.
“What is it doing?” Alice whispered.
[This behavior matches what Claire saw on May 31, the first time this anomaly was encountered. I’m Analyzing.]
Alice waited, eyes locked on the monster. James spent a lot of time Analyzing, and he usually had good information afterward. The machine gun kept firing, but she could tell that L5-2 was getting frustrated with the lack of damage—not to mention burning through their ammunition. Meanwhile, the Fungal Lord had almost completely surrounded the lighthouse; its massive eye stared out across the harbor directly at them. It blinked slowly, and Alice shivered.
[Analysis complete. Stop firing.] James’s voice shifted, becoming more computerlike like it did when he talked to SHOCKS directly. [There’s a strong likelihood that the Fungal Lord is not actually intelligent—that is to say, it’s closer to a jellyfish than a deer. Based on Li Mei’s lack of reaction to it and its lack of response to us every time we’ve encountered one, I believe it is completely encased in fungus with the exception of the tentacles and eye.]
“Is it a threat?” L5-1 asked as the machine gun stopped and silence filled the air. The sound of waves crashing on the breakwater slowly replaced the ringing in Alice’s ears.
[On a long time scale, yes. Its fungus has adapted to the underwater conditions, and it is causing long-term damage to the local biology. It will need to be dealt with eventually. However, it is not an immediate or deliberate threat to SHOCKS or the cruise ship docks.]
Alice couldn’t help but stare at the thing. It wasn’t a threat? It wouldn’t hurt her? That didn’t make any sense; the thing was obviously alien—more alien than Claire or the infovampire in her head. Of course it was a threat. Of course it was dangerous. Even though it didn’t care about her, her whole chest felt like it was about to clamp shut—like a bear trap closing around her lungs.
But L5-1 nodded. “Fine. Five, load up a tracking drone. We’ll ram it right into the thing; that way, we’ll be able to deal with it later, once this all blows over.”
Something about that tickled Alice’s funny bone, and she burst into laughter.
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By the time Lambda-Five’s truck pulled into SHOCKS Headquarters and rolled to a stop in the garage, Alice smelled like eight different kinds of death. But the infectious people in Sooke had agreed to conditions for continued quarantine.
She stepped out of the truck and into a stream of greenish disinfectant spray that burned like acid; she could feel her skin drying out and cracking, and she was almost out of moisturizer. Then L5-1 nodded. “Dismissed, troopers. Tomorrow is another day.”
Every day was another day. It never stopped. It hadn’t stopped since she agreed to act as a ‘second Claire.’
She fled the garage and retreated to her room before anyone could see the dark look on her face.
The current compartment Alice was pulling from—the soldier—did everything in a businesslike, serious manner, so the shower she took when she was finally alone got her clean enough in record time. She bunched her hair up in a towel like Mom had taught her to, pulled on a bathrobe, and sat in front of her makeup table. The brushes were precisely where they needed to be, and if she was running low on her favorite foundation, so be it. She had others.
And the makeup ritual had to be respected.
Alice hadn’t killed anyone yet. Technically. L5-2 had taken the actual shot that exploded that man in a puff of fetid air. And honestly, he’d probably been dead before either of them fired.
But she’d meant to kill him. And that…didn’t bother her as much as it should.
The makeup ritual commenced. Foundation, eye shadow, lipstick so pink she could drown in it through the mirror. She applied her favorite blush quickly, with the confidence of someone who’d done it a thousand times before. And as she did, the soldier went back into its box next to Li Mei’s prison.
In its place, Alice became a student again.
Student Alice hadn’t tried to kill anyone. Student Alice had a full-ride scholarship to the University of British Columbia—just across the Strait of Georgia. It’d be close enough that she could get home but far enough away to be separate. The perfect distance. Claire could take care of herself for a while. She was certainly capable of it now. Alice was ready to move on and be her own person. To double-major in telecommunications and journalism. She had it all planned out.
She was not here to be a killer. She was here to ride out whatever her sister had done, to get Li Mei out of her head, and to move on with her life. Soldier Alice —and Anomalous Alice—were both necessary evils, but she’d shelf them forever the moment college started.
If college ever started. September looked like an impossibility right now. L5-1’s insistence that they’d be able to deal with the Fungal Lord once “all this blew over” felt the same. Planning for an uncertain and unlikely future.
But Student Alice had always planned for unlikely futures, and she’d always made them happen.
So, first, get rid of Li Mei. Then, conquer the world.
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SHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - June 15, 2043, 1:51 PM
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Lambda-Four’s not looking so good.
The therapists have decided that Daley’s not in any shape to enter another reality right now, and neither is Rodriguez. She’s furious. Absolutely furious. If she could blow up Director Ramirez with her mind, she would—and he keeps looking at her like a puppy dog she just kicked.
But the therapists are right. They both went through hell yesterday, emotionally and mentally, and they don’t have my resistance. And with Munroe out for…basically ever, unless SHOCKS can grow legs back, it’s looking like this mission is just Strauss and me.
Director Ramirez is determined to make this work, so Strauss is, once again, hooked up to my back with a strap and carabiner. The drone’s a lot simpler this time. Ramirez doesn’t think we’re here to hunt a Voiceless Singer. He just wants to target the right reality this time—to prove that his system’s controllable and able to land us where we want to go. That’s fine with me. He can think whatever he wants to think.
I’m happy to pair up with Sergeant Strauss, though, because he’s a rule-bender.
And because I am here to hunt a Voiceless Singer. I’ve got the tools now. I can hurt them. And if I can hurt them, I can kill them—or bring one in.
Like that one movie, if it bleeds, I can kill it.
SHOCKS needs them to try to stop Merge Prime. I just want to know the Truth, and they’re either the ones who know it or they’re standing in my way. Either is fine. Either way, I’ll get stronger.
Strauss nods. “L4-3, you and me again.”
“Yep.” The last time we were paired up, we didn’t get along so well. Our missions were…aligned, but not exactly complimentary. He was opposition, but not an enemy.
Also, he shot me. With a stun bullet.
I’m willing to forgive him for that, though.
“L4-5, you’re in command of this mission. Do your best to keep L4-3 in one piece,” Ramirez says. “The goal is a quick hop into a different reality to confirm it’s the target destination, then a return here. If it works, we’ll repurpose Lambda-Five for future merge incursions and put Lambda-Four on local Victoria security.”
“Understood,” Strauss mutters.
I get it. Lambda-Five’s not Lambda-Four, and I don’t trust them. From what I’ve seen of them, they’re the second-rate team—they were doing security in Sooke, and they were supposed to catch the burning man, but neither of those things went well. I get the feeling Strauss doesn’t trust them, either.
“L5-3, you have the discretion to attempt a capture or post-destruction recovery of any Voiceless Singers you encounter in this reality, provided you tell us before you engage so we can give you a merge to fall back through. Your priorities are keeping yourself alive, keeping Sergeant Strass alive, and capturing or killing a Voiceless Singer, in descending order. Understood?” Director Ramirez asks. He’s gotten so much more serious, and there’s a hint of anger in his voice.
“Got it,” I say.
“Good. Stand by for deployment.”
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Li Mei hadn’t eaten so well in weeks.
But Alice was still starving her.
Something had to change. But no matter how hard she struggled against her prison, it only grew stronger around her.
What could she do?
She had to do something. Anything.
Something had to change.
For now, all she could do was hoard her strength like a miser with coins. But soon. Soon, an opportunity would present itself.
And when it did, things would change.