Dahlia pulled up the camera feeds. An array of several dozen monitors came alive. Every square inch of her control room had a screen or a panel to operate them. She checked on Gregor. She smiled as the sleeping hacker tossed and turned in his sleep. Her plan in exacting revenge on Josephine Smith and April–that little bitch of a cyborg, and the Cabal was the result of months of careful preparation. She checked the feeds that revealed the Dark Angels’ base. The drone she had hijacked from Doc Chop was coming in handy.

I’m getting my revenge, and the Cabal will be blamed.

Dahlia smiled at the thought. She opened a drawer and placed a mirror on the table. She squeezed her left temple. A small hatch flung open, revealing several tiny LEDs and an interface port. She removed a thin clear cable, inserted one end into the computer in front of her, and the interface port in her head. Several menus resembling blocks appeared before her. With a virtual hand, she picked up one labeled “Core” and dragged it to an icon that looked like a human body.

“System core dump in progress. Your available memory is seventy-nine point eight percent, and you will have twenty-nine point seven percent remaining after inputting all data. Do you wish to proceed?” an electronic voice inside her head echoed.

Dahlia confirmed the choice and waited while her neural interface sucked in all the data from her mainframe at the chateau. If she was going to take on Mr. Chen and the rest of the Cabal, she needed her archives at the ready. Dr. Clemmant had warned her about overloading her newly-implanted memory interface. She was careful not to overload the synapses as she downloaded Black Iris’s entire information core.

“Where can I find the kitchen? I cannot hack on an empty…” Gregor trailed off.

The hacker was wild-eyed and tried to take in everything at once. His head bobbed between the monitors and the interface to her mainframe. Dahlia chided herself for letting the hacker sneak up on her. Moments later, the data transfer ended. She hit a few keys, then all the monitors faded to black.

“You’re a cyborg?” Gregor said, astonished.

“It’s a long story, and I’d rather not get into it right now,” Dahlia said as she disconnected from the terminal.

Dahlia motioned for Gregor to follow. She could feel his eyes on her. She pulled up the camera feeds for analysis and decided to review them over breakfast. She entered a small kitchen area and made two servings of instant oatmeal and black coffee.

“So, are we working out of here or going to New York?” Gregor asked.

“We’re heading south, but I think we need to pay Mr. Chen a visit.”

“Who’s that?”

“The leader of the Cabal; he spearheaded the collapse of the internet and set Jeremiah’s plan into motion. Now we need to undo it all.”

“How did they bring down the internet backbone? I’m impressed,” Gregor said.

“Nigel helped them.”

Gregor winced as he rubbed at his head.

“Headache?” Dahlia asked.

“I’ve been having these strange visions, even while I’m awake. I’m sitting on a throne and people are calling me Lord Aldoor.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Ahh, he activated his programming—good! “That sounds distressing.”

“It’s driving me mad.”

“Can you work?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good, because I’m counting on you, Gregor. You’re the key to restoring the internet.”

After breakfast, Dahlia led Gregor to a garage with a futuristic-looking vehicle. It was made of aluminum and had many sharp angles.

“Whoa, what is this?” Gregor asked.

“It’s a prototype that I acquired. It’s outfitted with snow tires and is ready to take us to the airport.”

The inside of the vehicle was even more impressive than the exterior. An array of displays and controls that resembled a fighter jet seemed to impress Gregor, who crawled into the passenger seat. Dahlia synced her cybernetic interface to the vehicle’s control system. Moments later, they were plowing through the forest. Mowing down several small trees while traveling. Dahlia maneuvered the vehicle with precision, her cybernetic enhancements overlaying the best possible path to the main road. All she had to do was steer. A slope that led to the main road came into view. She slammed the accelerator. The vehicle rolled effortlessly up the embankment. It caught air briefly before slamming its four tons onto the pavement. Several vehicles tried to avoid the tank-like car, but hit it anyway. Other vehicles slammed into each other.

“Holy shit, you should pay attention to your driving. It’s like bumper cars out there. I like this game,” Gregor chuckled.

“Sorry for the mess, but we’re in a hurry. I’m sure the local news crew will show the film at eleven. That is if the local news is still a thing.”

About thirty minutes later, Dahlia smashed through the gates of the Foxcraft airstrip. It was a small airport with a single runway and two hangars. Like the towns they drove through, the facility was deserted.

“I don’t think there’s a single plane left,” Gregor said.

Dahlia drove into the largest hangar and shut down the vehicle. A small corner office was the only visible structure, and it appeared to be ransacked. Papers, maps, and paper cups were strewn everywhere. It looked like a tornado had swept through. Dahlia strode to the building and surveyed the damage. Other than an overturned desk and a broken chair, a lone file cabinet was in the corner. Its drawers were open, and their contents added to the mess before her. She removed the top drawer and searched the backside of the cabinet.

“I don’t get it. What are you looking for?”

“It’s here somewhere. I need to find…”

The room vibrated. Gregor cried out and steadied himself on the desk. The wall behind the file cabinet slid to one side about two feet. A round hole was visible just behind the filing cabinet. Dahlia removed a tiny flashlight from her jacket and, with the assistance of a ladder, descended into the darkness.

“Hey, wait. What’s down there?” Gregor asked.

Dahlia’s foot came into contact with the bottom. A moment later, Gregor clumsily made his way to her.

“If you want to stay in my employ, you’d better keep up.”

“There’s always an angle with Black Iris. What are we looking for?”

“Ahh, I just found a way out of this frozen hellhole,” Dahlia said.

Gregor gasped when Dahlia’s light shone on two human-sized tubes. She opened the nearest tube and a flight suit and gigantic backpack were waiting for her.

“What are these for?” Gregor asked.

“They’re experimental, but will allow us to intercept a plane.”

“How?”

Dahlia rolled her eyes and spoke slowly so Gregor could understand.

“These are rocket booster suits. They will allow us to be propelled into the air so we can intercept a small plane. We just have to find a working radar, then we’re all set. Just follow my lead.”

Gregor looked at her as if she were talking about taking a trip to Mars. She watched him fumble with the suit. Gregor grunted as he tried lifting the jetpack. “There’s no way I’m picking that up.”

Dahlia activated her newly implanted cybernetic arm and hoisted the jetpack from its resting place. She found a cart to store the equipment and helped Gregor move it into the next room, which resembled a staging area. Several computer workstations and giant screens came to life as she flipped a giant switch next to a panel. At the far end of the room, there was a massive circular area that reminded Dahlia of a missile silo. But instead of a missile, there was a platform.

“Help me get ready for launch,” Dahlia said.

They worked quickly and soon a set of concentric circles and some dots appeared on the screen.

“Is that what I think it is?” Gregor asked.

“Indeed. Now we just have to wait for a suitable aircraft to fly overhead. Then we’ll have some real fun,” Dahlia said, laughing.

She smiled as she watched Gregor’s look of confusion turn into horror as the gravity of the situation sunk in. She never got tired of taunting a subject during torture or putting an insufferable man in his place.