Synthetica (33 page)

“
NO!”
Anais screamed, and threw herself towards Skye. She grabbed hold of
Skye's wrist and yanked her forward. The man's aim went wide,
missing her bright blue hair by a fraction. The man started forward
again, his blank stare completely fixed on Skye. Skye screamed.

“
Run!”
Anais shouted, trying to tug her away, but Skye was still looking
over her shoulder. Anais glanced over her shoulder to see what she
was looking at, and gasped.

Clay had come out of nowhere, and had tackled the man with
dreadlocks to the ground. He slashed viciously, but Clay grabbed his
arm and twisted it hard so the man's hand was forced to open. The
man didn't even flinch. The knife dropped to the ground and was
kicked away by the horde around them. The attacker began to claw at
Clay's face and neck, his eyes still blank, as though he was
performing a simple act that he'd done a thousand times before.
Although the people who flowed past them gave them edgy glances and
gave them some space, nobody stopped to help. The man with
dreadlocks managed to get hold of Clay, and threw him off. Clay
rolled onto the ground, looking pained.

Anais dropped Skye's wrist and ran forward. The man with dreadlocks
was getting to his knees. With a swift kick to his stomach, Anais
made sure he stayed down.

“
Clay!”
Anais reached out a hand and helped Clay clumsily to his feet. His
cap had gotten lost during the fight, and his hair looked even
wilder than normal. “Are you okay?”

“
I'm
alright,” Clay said gruffly. “Look out!”

She turned to see the attacker getting to his feet, making his way
mindlessly towards Skye, who was trying to push her way through the
mass of people to get away. Anais lunged for him and managed to grab
his arm. Swiftly, he turned and there was a sharp pain in Anais'
stomach as he punched her hard. She doubled over, winded. The man
delivered another blow to the side of her head, and she fell to the
ground, dazed. She heard Clay yell, and then the two men were on the
ground again. She clutched her stomach, gasping for air. She
couldn't believe someone could hit so hard. Pain was throbbing in
her head, making her vision blurry. But beyond Clay and the
attacker, through the feet and legs of the people around them, she
thought could see something else...someone with purple hair fighting
with a woman. For a second, she couldn't comprehend what she was
seeing – the pain in her head must have messed with her eyesight
somehow – but she blinked, and the vision came into sharper focus.

“
No,”
she managed to gasp. “No, wait -”

She was trying to yell, trying to tell Xander to run, but the pain
in her stomach made it impossible for her to shout. Gritting her
teeth, she clambered to her feet and pushed her way through the mob,
keeping her eyes fixed on Xander. Out of the corner of her eye, she
could see the fight going on between Clay and the man with the
dreadlocks. Skye had now joined in, pushing the man as hard as she
could off Clay. But Anais could only focus on Xander. She had to
reach him. She could not let him die like Dalla. She would not allow
the past to repeat itself, not again.

The woman Xander was fending off had lime green hair, tied up in a
knot. She held a dagger in her hand, slightly longer than the one
Skye's attacker had used. She was slashing and jabbing at Xander,
who seemed unwilling to hurt her. But she gave a particular vicious
slash and Xander grabbed her arm, pushing her out of the way. She
didn't even seem to notice.

She raised the blade again, staring blankly at Xander. Anais had
almost reached them, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. She
was whirled roughly around and she found herself almost nose to nose
with Officer Nox.

“
You,”
he hissed. “I should have known you'd be here.”

“
Get
off me,” Anais shouted, trying to break free, but he held her
fast.

“
Whenever
there's trouble, you can count on little Miss Finch being there. I
know you were at Civitas last night,” he spat. “You're not
getting away this time.”

“
You're
deluded,” Anais said, still struggling to get away. “Let me go!”

“
No!”
Nox's eyes gleamed madly. “Not this time. You may have Alice
wrapped around your little finger, but I know better. Wherever you
go, chaos follows.”

It took Anais a second to realise he was talking about Officer
Hughes. Nox held her arm in a grip of iron, as his other hand fished
a set of handcuffs out of his pocket. Anais threw an agonised look
at Xander, who was still trying to fend off his attacker.

“
Nox,”
she said. “I'm sorry about this.”

Nox looked up. His lips opened to form a question, but he never got
to ask it. Before he knew what was happening, Anais had pulled her
free hand back and had delivered a hard punch straight to his face.
Nox howled and reeled backwards, releasing her as he clutched at his
eye. The handcuffs dropped to the ground. Anais swooped down and
picked them up. Just as Nox regained his balance, Anais snapped one
of the electric handcuffs around his wrist; the other one she
snapped onto the arm of a passing man, who stumbled at the
unexpected weight. Both Nox and the man tumbled to the ground.

She turned away from them, searching for Xander. She spotted them
near the riverside, still fighting. Xander's top had now been
slashed several times, blood dripping over his clothes. Before Anais
could think, she threw herself at the woman, sending them both
falling to the ground. She heard Xander's shout, but the force of
her attack had thrown them into the crowd, causing several other
people to trip over them. Any pain from the fall was dulled as
adrenaline pumped through Anais' veins. She rolled onto her back,
shoving a man off her, looking around for the woman with the green
hair. She spotted her a few paces away, struggling to get up.

Anais crawled towards her. The woman was still holding the dagger
in her hand, and she was slashing it at the people who had fallen
around her as they impeded her way. Anais grabbed her wrist and
gripped it as hard as she could, trying to get her to drop the
weapon. The woman was still lying on the ground, and she used her
other hand to grip Anais' arm, gripping the skin so hard, she drew
blood. Anais cried out.

But she refused to give up. Anais lifted the woman's hand and
smashed it down onto the pavement. The dagger rolled from her grip
and Anais snatched it up. She raised it, ready to stab, ready to
defend herself, ready to defend Xander, when the woman looked
straight at her.

Her brown eyes were just as dead looking as every other murderer
Anais had been unfortunate to encounter had had. She didn't know
what she was doing. She was simply following the Hacker's terrible
program. That's all she was now, a robot. And she was going to die
for it anyway, once she'd done the deed she'd been programmed to do.

Anais struggled with herself, as she kept the woman in her grip
with one hand, the other still poised to strike. She couldn't let
this woman kill Xander. She couldn't lose someone else close to her.

With a cry, Anais grabbed the woman's head and brought the dagger
down.

He looked around at the chaos, and laughed.

It was fascinating how these people thought, how they reacted
when they were told that the one thing they wanted more than
anything was a lie. Well, welcome to his world.

The speech in the video had been a tad dramatic perhaps, but he
thought he got his point across well. And now they were all besides
themselves as they tried to run from danger. He had told a little
white lie on the video; he had told them to run, but in reality
there was nowhere they could run to. There was nowhere they could
run where he wouldn't find them.

He watched the madness unfold, watched as one Civitas employee –
which one was he? He couldn't remember, but he didn't particularly
care so long as he was dead – fell to the ground, shot dead. The
increased commotion throughout different areas of the crowd told him
where the other Civitas employees were meeting their timely ends.
And, best of all, news cameras and reporters were pushing their way
through the mob now, as hovercraft from all the news channels
circled in the air, recording this perfect moment forever.

Well, it was almost perfect. He just had one more gift to give
Civitas first.

As he surveyed the chaos he had created with satisfaction, his
eyes were drawn to a particular fight in the crowd. Everyone around
them was rushing to get away, but there was a man with purple hair
fighting off a woman with green hair. So far, so good. Only...

His eyes widened.

That girl. The girl with the pink hair had tackled the woman to
the ground.

“
No!”
The throaty cry escaped his lips before he could stop it. He made
his way through the crowd, making sure his hood still covered his
face; shoving people out of the way as hard as he could. His eyes
were fixed on that pink haired girl – the one who had almost
caught him before. She had been there, sniffing around at every
turn. There was only one option. She had to be eliminated. She had
to go before she brought everything he'd worked for crashing down.

He briefly considered re-programming the green haired woman so
she'd kill the pink haired one; before he remembered that his
transmitter didn't have that kind of functionality. He made a mental
note to make sure all his future inventions planned for every
possible scenario.

He stopped short. The crowd flowed around him, paying him no
attention as they tried to save their own sorry lives. The pink
haired girl had managed to get the dagger. She was pinning the older
woman down, the dagger raised as if to stab her. He watched as she
hesitated, her hand trembling. The man with the purple hair, the
original target, was fighting his way through to her, yelling her
name.

And he watched as she brought the dagger down.

Twenty-one

The dagger found its target.

Anais forced the woman's head to the side, and began to do
something that made her stomach churn just to think about. But she
had no choice – already the skin around the woman's ID chip was
red, the chip turning black as the virus began to activate.

She made a small cut in the woman's neck, made all the more harder
by the fact that the woman was still struggling and clawing at every
bit of Anais she could reach. There was a shout, and Anais looked
briefly up to see Xander crouching down in front of her. Without a
word, he took hold of the woman's arms and pinned her down. She
began to fight harder as she registered who it was that was in her
eyesight – the one person she'd been programmed to kill.

“
You
sure this will work?” Xander asked, as he tightened his grip on
the woman's arms.

“
Nope,”
Anais said, focusing all her efforts on that tiny cut, widening it
slightly. Blood was beginning to pour out of the wound and Anais
fervently hoped that she hadn't hit an artery by accident. Taking a
deep breath, she inserted a finger and a thumb into the cut, trying
not to think too hard about what she was doing. She pinched the tiny
picochip between her thumb and forefinger and drew it out, wincing
as she felt something small snap in the woman's neck. The woman
stopped struggling.

She dropped the bloody chip onto the ground, and immediately turned
her attention to blood that was now pouring out of the woman's neck.
Her RetCom had helpfully highlighted the cut, and informed her that
the woman was suffering from substantial blood loss. Anais glanced
down at the woman's clothes, and began to tear off a strip of fabric
off her top. She worked as quickly as could, wrapping the strip of
fabric as tightly as she dared around the woman's neck without
choking her.

“
That's
all we can do,” Anais said, sitting back on her heels. Xander
cautiously let go of the woman's arms, and she lay still. Anais
leant forward slightly, relieved to see the woman's chest moving –
she was still alive at least. The makeshift bandage wouldn't hold
for long though; already spots of blood were beginning to seep
through the fabric.

“
The
medi-cab is on its way,” Xander told her. “We should get out of
here.”

He stood up, and held out his hand to Anais. She took it and hauled
herself to her feet.

“
Wait...”
she said, remembering. She picked up the bloody ID chip off the
ground and slipped it inside the woman's pocket.

Just as she was standing back up, a cold breath danced across her
neck, sending a shiver down her spine. 'Someone's walking over your
grave,' her mother would say.

She tensed and whipped around. But there was no one there. Just the
mass of people that were continuing to battle their way down the
street. But she could've sworn, just for a second, that someone had
been watching her, or reaching out to her. She couldn't describe it
properly...she only knew that whatever it was, hadn't been good.

“
Anais?”
Xander was looking at her strangely.

“
Coming,”
Anais said, still distracted. She looked around the crowd again, but
no one stood out.

“
Anais,”
Xander said more urgently. Sirens were filling the air as the
medi-cabs began to arrive. Securibots were still making their way
through the crowds, breaking up fights between the Civitas traders
and the people who were demanding their credits back. Anais had been
slightly incredulous that no one had noticed that she'd managed to
cut out someone's ID chip in the middle of the street – but she
could see now that mob mentality was being to take over. Not only
were people still pushing and shoving each other in the race to get
home, some bright spark had begun to throw rocks at the Civitas
building and an alarming number of people were beginning to follow
suit.

Anais glanced back down at the woman who was in serious danger of
being crushed. She was tempted to leave her there, but her morals
won out.

“
We
can't leave her here,” Anais said to Xander. Xander glanced
around, but they were too far from the riverfront to carry her. He
spotted a securibot a few metres away.

“
Hey!
Hey over here!” he shouted as loudly as he could, and Anais joined
in as she realised what her was trying to do. The securibot stopped,
and swivelled in midair towards them. It bobbed towards them, and
it's sensor began to flash red as it picked up on the woman on the
ground. Anais saw several other securibots beginning to float
towards them to cordon off the area.

“
Let's
go,” she said, grabbing Xander's hand and pulling him away.

She had thought that the mass of people was beginning to thin
slightly, but as they made their way towards Civitas, Anais realised
that wasn't true especially since more and more people were
beginning to flow towards the great building, shouting and jeering
and throwing whatever they could get their hands on. The glass
around the bottom of the building was holding up well, but Anais
could see small chips and cracks beginning to appear.

“
Clay
and Skye should be around here somewhere,” Anais shouted at Xander
above the increasing noise.

As they moved through the crowd, she tried to call Skye on her
RetCom, but none of her calls were answered. She was about to send
her a message instead, when she heard her name being shouted. She
turned to see Clay walking towards them, his eyes flicking furtively
around. There was a small scratch on his head, but other than that,
he looked unhurt.

“
Clay!
Where's Skye?” Anais asked, raising her voice.

“
Civitas,”
was his one word answer.

“
What
happened with the man who tried to attack Skye?” Anais asked, but
Clay simply shook his head, still glancing edgily around. Anais
heard a bleep as a message came through on her RetCom and she opened
it, slightly surprised to see it was a message from her dad.

A, where are you?? Just seen news
about the parade. Are you ok? Are you hurt? Dad

Her father's anxiety was obvious through his words. Anais felt a
slight pang of guilt at everything she'd done over the past few
days, how much danger she'd been in but she hadn't been able to tell
her parents any of it. She resolved that the moment she got back
home and both of them were there at the same time, she'd tell them
everything. They deserved to know what their daughter had been
involved with, however much she didn't want to be. She messaged him
back, her attention on what she was writing, not on the conversation
that was taking place between Clay and Xander.

I'm fine. Still at Civitas. Trying
to get out of crowd. A xx

Her dad's reply came back almost instantly.

Come to the factory. Being sent
home early for a few hours til everyone knows what's going on. We'll
all go home together. Dad x

Okay.
Will be there as soon as I can. Xx
Anais
replied.

She turned her attention back to the conversation, just as Xander
was raising his voice.

“
-
you said you'd help us!” Xander was shouting angrily at Clay.

“
What's
wrong?” Anais asked, astonished at Xander's anger. Xander had his
fists clenched by his sides and he was glaring at Clay. Clay was
looking as stubborn as ever.

“
Look,
kid, I told you I'd only help you on the condition you let me go
whenever I wanted. Well, I want out now. It's too dangerous, for me
and for you. I ain't gonna stick around and wait for someone to come
after me next,” he said.

Anais gaped at him. A hot, twisting feeling was rising fast inside
her. She was in such disbelief that it took her a moment to realise
it was fury.

“
So
you're just going to abandon us now, are you? You're going to save
your own skin, after Skye almost died? After Xander almost died?”
Anais said, her voice rising with every word.

“
Exactly,”
Clay retorted. “How long before I'm next? Or you? I'm not gonna
stick around and wait for some madman to kill us all. How many of
those goddamn SLPs do you think were sold today? More than I care to
know about, thank you very much.”

“
But
– but -” Rage was making it hard for Anais to speak coherently.
She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. “But
you can't leave now! You're the one we need! How else are we
supposed to stop that man, the Hacker, if we don't have a hacker of
our own?”

“
Fat
lot of help I can do you right now,” Clay said, nodding towards
what was rapidly becoming a riot in front of Civitas' doors. “Look,
Annie, the best thing I can do is to lay low. If anyone catches me
with you, you'll be in trouble too. I can meet you in a few days,
when all this hubbub has passed. Maybe it's best for you all to lay
low too, especially him, after all that.”

He nodded towards Xander, who was still glaring at him.

“
And
how do you know it'll just be a few days?” Anais challenged him.
“The Hacker is probably going to be planning even more attacks -
you heard what he said.”

“
I
heard him when he said he's got people on the street,” Clay
retorted. “So why don't we all just go home, and wait for things
to calm down and then we'll
all
be out of harm's way?”

Anais could only look at him, speechless with anger. She wanted to
scream at him, force him to stay; but she knew that the harder she
pushed him, the more he'd be likely to resist. So she settled for
glaring at him instead.

“
I'm
sorry, kid, but it's best if I keep out of Civitas' hair for a
while. There's too much at stake if I get caught.” He glanced up
at the glass building, where the red logo grinned down at them. He
turned back to Anais. “Don't worry, Annie, I promise I'll be back
soon.”

He hesitated for a moment, before awkwardly reaching out and
patting her on the shoulder. Without a second glance, he pushed past
Anais and Xander and moved off into the crowd, keeping his head as
low as possible. Anais and Xander watched him go, Anais' hands
curled into fists by her sides.

“
What
a stupid...bloody...
bastard,
”
she spat. “Can you believe him? He chose to save his own skin over
helping us! Who does he think he is?”

She was half expecting Xander to try and calm her down, but he,
too, was staring after Clay, with an ugly look on his face.

“
He's
a coward,” Xander said bluntly. “He'll hide away until all the
action is over, and then come crawling out again. Isn't that what
he's been doing all these years? Hiding from the truth?”

Anais looked at him, surprised. Xander never normally had a temper.

“
Are
you okay? I thought you didn't mind him,” Anais said cautiously.

Xander blinked, and gave her a small smile.

“
Well,
let's just say after being almost killed today, I've made up my mind
about a lot of things. One of them being, we need to find the man
who's doing all this and stop him. Fast.”

“
Didn't
you want to stop him before?” Anais couldn't help pointing out,
and Xander gave her another smile, one that made him look more like
his normal self.

“
Well
yeah, but now...” he trailed off, gazing at the crowd around them.
“Look at what he's done. This isn't going to get any better, not
for a long time.”

Anais was still being buffered by people, but instead of fleeing
for the train station, a lot of them were now chanting and jeering
outside the Civitas building. The mob was beginning to build up, and
they were becoming dangerously close to being swallowed into it.

“
We
should get out of here,” Xander said. “I'll take you home.”

Anais was about to agree, when she remembered her dad's message.

“
My
dad wants to me to go to the picochip factory, so we can all go home
together,” Anais told him, and Xander nodded.

“
I'll
come with you,” he said. “Let's go.”

He took hold of her hand. She held it gratefully as together, they
began to battle their way out of the streets and towards the
picochip factory.