Veil (82 page)

Suren clinched her eyes and shook her head in
an attempt to reorient herself—luckily, it worked.

Inside the Veillusion, her head turned and
she was suddenly looking at Ken. Instinctually, she put her hand
out to touch him, although consciously she knew it was futile. It
was only a Veillusion, albeit an incredibly accurate Veillusion.
She was astonished. She became emotional but would not allow
herself to cry. She held tears back with every ounce of strength,
even going as far as resurrecting the full extent of the Great
Widow Tsay persona she long since buried.

Inside the Veillusion, she found her thoughts
and emotions—the thoughts and emotions of the Suren she was back
then—were replaced by a vague blurring of those two senses. The
young girl obviously wouldn’t be able to know what was in Suren’s
mind or heart at the time, and it would’ve been offensive if she
made up those things and fictionalized them. Instead, Peyton
created only impressions of how one would assume someone in that
situation would feel, and in place of Suren’s thoughts were
narrative structures that were necessary to propel any story. It
was a story after all; it was only a Veillusion. But, everything
was there: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the sensations.
Everything.

Suren opened her eyes. The girl was a
commanding Veillusionist. There was no doubt about it. She looked
at Peyton and smiled before closing her eyes again.

Initially, Suren couldn’t imagine how the
young girl got so much information and detail Suren didn’t
understand how the girl could know enough to recreate the
experience so accurately. As the scene played out, it slowly dawned
on Suren how the lives of the Tsay Trustees were at one time the
object of so much intense attention, examination, and scrutiny. It
wasn’t far-fetched to imagine someone could piece together nearly
all the lives of the Trustees with all that information floating
around out there. Even so, Peyton’s Veillusion of the history and
story of Veil was devastatingly clearer and deeper than any
Veillusion Suren experienced. Near the end of the ten minutes,
Suren realized how that achievement was possible and why the young
girl came to see her.

She struggled to pull herself away from the
seduction of the Veillusion and had to force herself to remove the
collar before the ten minutes ran out.

Suren slowly and gracefully placed the
vCollar on her lap. When she spoke, she was looking down at her lap
and not at the young girl. Suren spoke with a steady, firm
voice.

“You want to store it. You want to store
neuroelectrical patterns so you can make Veillusions like this, but
you knew how us Tsay Trustees felt about that. You know our
position on it. Everyone knows our position—which is why you
created this particular Veillusion. So we would see. So we would
see our story and ourselves. So we would change our minds.”

Taken aback by Suren’s tone and candor,
Peyton struggled to explain.

“Hon—honestly, yes. In a way. But, that’s not
the only reason. It’s also because of these.”

She reached for the duffle bag. One-by-one,
Peyton pulled out four other black boxes and set them in her lap.
Each box was inscribed with a name of a remaining Tsay Trustee.

Suren’s eyes darted up and met Peyton’s.

“You see, I wrote the same Veillusion from
each Trustee’s perspective. I presented each of your stories. The
details of all five Veillusions inside these boxes are identical,
except each Veillusion comes from a different perspective. Each box
tells the entire story of Veil from the perspective of a separate
Trustee—as much as possible. The world could experience the history
of Veil … the entire Veil story, Ms. Tsay … through the lives of
all the Trustees. All of you.”

Not usually one to tip her hand so easily,
Suren let out a small gasp and quickly covered her mouth. Her mind
was racing.

Hell’s bells and buckets of blood, did that
girl really, really know how to dress things up.

Peyton continued to argue her case. She
became confident, relentless, impassioned. She began to remind
Suren of Ken.

“You saw how much detail I was able to
include. You saw how much depth it could have. I can give them
almost the real thing. The real story. All of it.”

“I—I don’t even know what to say.” Suren
bowed her head and shook it. She looked at Roy for some support or
guidance; however, he dozed off while the Veil was taking place and
neither of them noticed.

“Well, I know my mother and my grandmother
and billions of people around the world want this story. They want
this experience. And I guess I finally reached a point where all I
could do was take this risk and show you how it could be given to
them. Yes, you’re right
.
I took that risk
for the exact reason you said. But the point’s the same.” Peyton
picked up the black box marked “KEN” and shook it. “
This
is
what Veillusion could be, damnit. This is what I want to be able to
create. It’s like who I am. Who I was meant to be. Right now, I
can’t do it. And, no offense Ms. Tsay, but I can’t do it because of
you
.”

“Answer one question …
young lady
,”
Suren lowered her voice. She said the words ‘young lady’ in a tone
she hadn’t meant. The words came out too harsh, too punishing, too
frightening.

Peyton dropped her hand into her lap. Ken’s
box tumbled off her palm and onto the seat. She eyed Suren. The
poor girl looked defeated.

“Ok.”

“What are you asking me for? What do you
want? Let’s get right down to it.”

“I want to be able to store artificial
neuroelectrical patterns to create Veillusions. But that’s all. I
agree that’s all that should be allowed to be stored. And only for
Veillusions. Ms. Tsay, I want to store artificial neuroelectrical
patterns, so I can give the world Veillusions like the one you
experienced.”

Suren rested her head back in the chair and
stared at the ceiling. The time had finally come. They always knew
the wolves would be back for Veil and the time had come: the wolves
were at the door. The girl wasn’t a wolf by any stretch, but she
was a harbinger of what was inevitably to come. They always knew it
would happen.

They knew it would happen at that one
particular moment: after Suren died; after Hunter died; after Roy
died; when the Trustees were gone; when the Tsay Legacy was gone.
When no one was left to fight against it, the Veil Apocalypse would
come. Thing was, Suren figured, Peyton gave the best argument yet
for cracking open the floodgates to release some of the
pressure.

The flood was going to come; even Ken saw
what was coming. Thirty-plus years ago he saw it coming for Veil.
Thirty-plus years ago, Ken told the world how the Veil Apocalypse
would come for them like a flood.

Veil’s floodwall will crack; it will
crumble; it will one day tumble down.

One day, the Veil Apocalypse will come and
drown.

Maybe the young girl was giving them a way to
delay that. Maybe she presented Suren with a way to release some
pressure from the dam and allow the Legacy time to devise a
strategy. Even if for entirely selfish reasons, Suren wanted what
that girl was offering. Suren wanted what was in all those little
black boxes. Yes, yes, she desperately wanted to devise a plan.
But, she really wanted what was in those dang boxes.

“Can you leave this here with me?” Suren
lowered her head and asked the young girl in a near whisper.

“I—I can if you need me to,” Peyton bubbled
as she fought back a smile.

“Please, leave the vBrain and two of the
boxes. My box and the box for Ken.”

“Ye—yes ma’am, I can do that,” she smiled as
she stood up and collected all her other belongings. She handed
Suren the box labeled “KEN
.
”

As the girl’s arm got closer, Suren could
make out the tattoo she noticed earlier. It was a picture of Nina
Simone. Suren smiled broadly but quickly erased it. She frowned and
shot at glare up at Peyton, as if doing so from over the rim of a
pair glasses, like a schoolteacher.

“You’re not, under any circumstances to
network any of these. If you do, the vNet will detect them, and
they will be disabled.”

“I understand. And so will I. So will my
port.”

“Yes, you will. It’s automatic, and the
technology will be detected instantly. Not
eventually—instantly.”

“I understand.”

“Return tomorrow at the same time. You and I
will discuss the terms of how we will proceed. If I decide we will
proceed.”

“Thank you Ms … Suren … thank you.”

Suren grinned and nodded her head.

“You can see yourself out.”

“See you tomorrow!” Peyton shouted as she all
but skipped out of the room, leaving behind the artificial brain
and two black boxes.

“Roy … Roy!”

“Uh … uh…” he mumbled as he slowly regained
consciousness and stretched. “Yeh—yeh—yes?” he stuttered in that
old Roy way.

“I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure thing,” he said through a yawn. What he
meant was,
I’m yawning. So I’m obviously tired. So that should
tell you that I don’t want to do you any favors. So don’t ask
me.

“I need you to go get Hunter tonight.”
I
already know you’ll do anything I ask, whenever I ask.

“He … he won’t come. You know he won’t come.”
Don’t make me go over to that man’s house. Please.

“He’ll come.”
You’re going, Roy.

“He won’t.”
Please don’t. I’m a good man.
Please don’t do this to me, lady Suren.

Suren did feel a little bad. She knew Roy
didn’t want to go over there. Who would? It was Hunter. No one in
their right mind willingly subjected themselves to that man. Half
of the enchanting magnetism he once possessed, which outweighed his
abrasive personality, died with Ken. The other half died with
Brock. Now Hunter was only abrasive and repellent.

Still, Suren needed him and she knew Roy
would go get him. Some of the Great Widow Tsay must’ve still been
bubbling up in her, because Suren was unrelenting.

“He’ll come. Tell him I’m dying. I’m dying
soon. He will come then.”

“Uh … uh, ok.”

“And before you go will you get the oxygen
tank out of the guest room? He always picked up on all the little
things.”

“Sure thing.”

“You always did have a flair for the
annoyingly dramatic,” Hunter huffed and shook his head. He rolled
his eyes and huffed again. Too curious to resist, he got up from
the chair to inspect the artificial brain and little box Suren just
pointed out.

“You’re one to talk,” she wheezed and
coughed. She knew the box with Ken’s name on it would seal the
deal.

“What is it?” he asked as he picked up the
little black box and examined it from all sides.

“You’ll have to Veil it for yourself.”

He turned his head in her direction, if only
so she could see him roll his eyes.

“I don’t have time for stupid little
games.”

“Hunter, just take it with you and you’ll
see. You’ll come back, and we’ll talk.”

“How can you be so sure? That I’ll come back,
that is.”

She reached under the covers as she told him,
“Because, you’ll want to see this.”

He squinted and read the name on the box
Suren was holding. She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist actually
seeing Ken again, even if it was through
her
eyes. In that
little black box, he was taking the perspective of Ken home with
him, but that wouldn’t really let him see Ken. She was willing to
bet her entire house that Hunter came back for that and that
alone—even if it was to see Ken through
her
eyes.

Hunter picked up the glass skull and the box
marked with Ken’s name. He headed toward the bedroom door.

“Don’t be so sure of that. Why would I want
anything with your bitch of a name on it? By the way, next time you
want to put on a little death play, you might want to make sure the
oxygen tank isn’t empty. Dumbass.”

As Hunter walked out, Suren shouted his
name.

“What!?” He poked his head through the
door.

“We need to come up with a plan,” she
frowned.

Yup, he knew it
.
He
knew there was a reason. She could’ve sent Roy to deliver whatever
the fuck that thing was, instead of beckoning him over there to
look at her old stank ass.

“Ok, I’ll humor you. What do you mean?” he
rolled his eyes again. They were starting to hurt from all the
rolling. The ache reminded him that he needed a drink.

“For the wolves. For the Veil Apocalypse. To
stop it all from happening. We need to come up with a plan.”