Halcyon System 3 Chapter Twenty-Five

No plan survives contact with the rest of a group project.

That’s the Truth.

Capital T.

I hated group projects in school. Even when Sora and I worked together, there was always someone else, and they were always one of two kinds of people. The deadbeats were hard enough. They’d just sit around and do nothing, or worse, tell me they were working on something, provide a quarter-assed piece of shit a day before the deadline, and then I’d be up all night writing their part of the project.

But at least they weren’t the overachievers. They were worse. Always. And no matter what I did, it wouldn’t be good enough for them. They’d be calling my aug at 3 in the morning the night before the project, telling me they’d done my part and not to worry about it.

Even though my part was a solid B. Maybe even an B+.

◄▼►

SHOCKS Black Sector, Location Unknown - June 23, 2043, 7:20 AM

- - - - -

It’s not as easy as just getting the coordinates and going, of course.

For one thing, there are two targets, and the bombs have to be delivered to both of them. Doctor Twitchy’s very insistent on that, and that means the Halcyon System is getting one, too. Which means I need to convince someone to help kill themselves.

Sort of. It’s complicated, and it all depends on whether James is real, or whether Sidney is the real James—or if neither of them is. It’s a headache and a half.

But anyway, James needs to be fully onboard with the mission. That won’t happen if he knows what’s coming. Which means I need to lie to him. That’s one piece of complication. Another, much less important but still risky, problem is that between Daley and me, there just aren’t enough Recovery and Stabilization Team members to do what we need to do. The researchers could work. But I’m not confident they can do what they need to do, and undertrained troopers are dangerous.

Like Strauss said, way back when…Greenies become Reddies.

I’m not interested in getting people killed unless they have to die. I’ve only killed a handful of humans, unless you count…uh…leaving Victoria and not trying to save more people. But I don’t want to tell these science dorks they need to suit up and fight who knows what. Not unless there’s no other option. And the realities we’re going to have to visit might be even more hostile than ARC.

Luckily, there is one other option, but I’m not sure how able she’ll be.

Anyway, the plan. We were up all night—again—discussing how best to execute. We’ve got a ‘coordinate’ of sorts. A reality. It’s one the researchers—and the black sector’s JAMES Unit—say SHOCKS has never made direct contact with. A place that’s as removed from ‘real’ as Reality 404, but in a totally different way. They only know about it from other realities that merged with ours, and that have stuff from realities that merged with that one—third-hand information. We don’t know what we’re up against there, but we do know more or less what we’ll need to do to get there.

I can’t deliver straight to that reality, since I’ve never been there. No previous visit, no direct jump. But I have been to a reality that should border a reality that should link up with it during our window, which means we’re racing through at least two realities to get to possible thinnings and break through.

It’s going to be a shit show. And worse, the researchers keep trying to gather data during the run. They want me carrying all sorts of sensors and equipment. I’ve put a stop to that, though.

This is going to be tough enough as it is.

◄▼►

SHOCKS Olympia Administrative Wing, Washington, USA - June 23, 2043, 8:05 AM

- - - - -

James is the first person on the list. And he’s going to be the hardest to convince, because I’m going to have to lie to him.

So, the moment I step out into the hall and reactivate my augs, he’s there. [You’re planning something. I want to know what, exactly.]

I close my eyes and sigh. He’s an avatar of the Halcyon System, and I can’t trust him. But goddammit, he’s also the—literally—closest friend I’ve had for the last month. Even Sora can’t compete with someone who sees everything I see, knows everything I know, and is everywhere I am. And I’m about to lie to him and get him to betray himself in the name of saving our reality.

“Like I said, it’s a bomb. Doctor Twitchy and I found a path to the reality that Merge Prime came from. We’re going to deliver it today, but the trip’s going to suck. We’re looking at R-3109 to R-22, and from there to what we’re calling R-Alpha.”

[Bad pathing. Both of those realities are going to kill anyone you bring with you almost instantly, and then they’re going to rip you apart while you wait for a merge between them. They’re highly volatile, nothing we’ve seen in either of them is less than Xuduo-Danger, and they don’t merge quickly.]

“It’s the best pathing we could come up with. If you’ve got a better idea, you’re more than welcome to share,” I shoot back. That’s partially true. If we had more time, I could build a safer route. But with less than two days, this is where it’s at. The last-ditch effort to strike back and force this whole mess to stop. “If not, I need your help. Are you in, or not?”

[Claire,] James says. He pauses. It’s an almost human-length pause, so I know he’s really trying. Then he keeps going. [You’re going to need me if you want to pull this off, so I’ve got a few rules. First, before you go, I want full access to the black sector. I want to know exactly what’s going on in there, exactly what your plan is—everything. It’s important. If I don’t have good information, I can’t make good calculations.]

“Agreed,” I say. I’ll figure out how to disguise the second bomb later. [I can give you that access soon.]

[Second, I want uninterrupted access to your augs for the whole mission. No black-outs like you’ve been doing, no interruptions—nothing. From the moment you leave SHOCKS, I need to see it all.]

“I can do that.” I don’t plan on turning him off during this. Aside from being my friend, he’s a second pair of eyes. He’s too valuable to turn off—at least, until the very end.

He pauses again. I almost think he’s trying to find another rule for me to follow. Then he clears his throat—digitally, of course. [I’ve plotted your course, and you have a major problem. The window from R-0 to R-3109 closes three hours before the first possible window to R-22 opens. No one you bring to R-3109 will survive three hours there. Even you might not.]

“Do you have a better idea?”

[Yes. You won’t like it, though. Neither will I.]

I wait, still standing in the hall right outside the door to the black sector. When he doesn’t say anything for a while, I clear my own throat. That gets him moving. [It’s a physics-less reality—an information-driven world. You’ve been there before—sort of. But you won’t be able to walk directly to it.]

“It’s where Li Mei is from, isn’t it?” I ask.

[Yes.]

◄▼►

In the end, I agree to it. It means our route is R-3109, a barely-survivable thirty-minute ‘layover’ there before we can transfer to R-81, and then a timer-controlled leap out of there into R-20. R-20 is marginally safer than R-3109, according to James, so we want to spend more time there and less in the first place. Ideally, we wouldn’t spend any time in any of them, and this would be a quick in-and-out mission, but this is the simplest solution.

It also makes my second recruit even more important.

When I walk into Alice’s room, the TV’s on, but there’s nothing on the screen. It’s not that it’s black or staticky. All the shapes are correct for ‘News Talk Show.’ But the faces are blank, there’s no ticker tape of breaking news, and the voices are silent. It takes me only a second to realize what’s going on.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

Alice’s crimson and jet-black eyes flash for a second. I stand my ground, though; I wasn’t scared of Li Mei, an infovampire with decades of experience hunting and killing. I’m not afraid of my sister, either. I’m afraid for her, though, and I wait, not saying anything, until the color fades from her irises and she calms down.

I’ve seen her putting a mask on before, and I’m sure I’ll see it again.

“I’m fine, Claire. How are you feeling? Surviving okay without me?” She doesn’t ask about the Mindscape or Madame Baudelaire. I’m thankful for that; I’ve kept that part of me a secret from James for this long, and I’d like to make sure it stays that way.

More interestingly, though, there’s no compulsion to answer. When Li Mei asked questions, there was always a compulsion, and while Alice isn’t as powerful as Li Mei was, she shouldn’t have control over her infovampiric powers. There’s something happening here, and I’m curious what it is. “I’m hanging in there,” I say. It’s a non-committal answer. “Be honest, dumb-butt.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “I said I was fine, Claire. I’m fine. In the end, the solution wasn’t to try to fight, that’s all. It was to learn to live with it.”

We talk for a while. Apparently, she’s embraced that she’s got a bond with Li Mei—who’s very dead, or at least very out of the picture. It took her long enough. I’ve been embracing my bond with the Revolver, and the powers that come with the Halcyon System, this whole time. But it’s only while she was in the Mindscape that she figured it out.

It’s her personas. Her masks. They’re the key. Li Mei—or what’s left of her—wants out. So, if Alice isn’t keeping her in her box, that’ll be her default persona. But she’s got others: Mom Alice, soldier Alice, whatever she needs to be.

“Masks,” I say.

“Yeah. Masks.” Alice hesitates, and I realize I don’t think I’ve ever called them masks around her.

“You always used masks. Now it’s just real.” I take a deep breath. This is the second recruitment. The moment of truth.

“Whatever you’re planning, I can help.”

I stare at my sister—my perfect, stupid, liar of a sister. How dare she assume I need her? “Why do you think I’m up to something?”

She’s in full Mom Alice mode, though. Her arms cross, and she gives me the look. It makes her look exactly like Mom did in my memories, and I can’t keep eye contact with her, even though they’re brilliant baby blue, not the red and black of an infovampire in human form. “Claire, I know every one of your tells. I’ve known them for years. And, no offense, you’re a pretty bad liar. Now, what are you trying to do?”

In a way, it’s a relief. I don’t need to spend time convincing her. She’s just in. Just like that.

But in another way, it’s terrifying, because she’s never just committed to something like this. Something’s changed, and I don’t have time to figure out what it is. “Are you good?”

“Good to move? Yeah. I’ve got everything I need. Or I will, once I’m armed.”

“Great. Meet me here in half an hour. I’ve got one more person to talk to.”

◄▼►

The last person on my list isn’t happy to see me.

I’m not surprised, but I am disappointed.

“What do you need, Claire?” Sora asks from the door to her family’s open containment cell.

“Why do you think I need something?”

I already know the answer, but she tells me anyway. “Every time you’ve talked to me recently, you’ve needed something. If you don’t need anything, you don’t even see how I’m doing. And I’m not the person you need doing whatever it is you need me to do. Get one of the SHOCKS agents to help you, or Mrs. Nazaire. Someone else.”

The door starts to shut, and I stick my hand through the gap before it can get all the way there. It’s heavy, and it hurts a little, but I don’t flinch much. I’m too tough to flinch from a door slamming on my arm anymore. “Sora, I’m sorry. This is the last time, but the fate of the whole world is at stake.”

“The fate of the whole world is always at stake. It’s never just a small problem.” Sora sighs. “Claire, I love you, but this isn’t something I can handle. Whatever it is, it’s way beyond me.”

“This time it’s not.”

She sighs again. “What is it, then?”

“I need you to walk through a door with your aug running in about thirty minutes, turn around, and walk out.”

“That’s it?”

I nod. That’s it. It’s part of my conditions for getting James on board. He wants access to the black sector, and I don’t have time to give him a tour. He’ll know what to do with the few seconds he has, and the JAMES Unit in the black sector should be fine. Thirty minutes will also give SHOCKS time to get their stuff figured out, delete the files they need to delete, and cover their tracks.

“That’s really it?”

“Yes. You don’t have to stay on the phone with James. You don’t have to try to sabotage SHOCKS while I’m gone. All you have to do is this one thing, and you’re done.”

She sighs a third time. I’m asking a lot. For her to get herself further into this mess I’m stuck in. And she doesn’t need to be. She could just wait it out in SHOCKS Olympia; it’s probably the safest place in the world right now. Not that it’ll matter in the long run. If we don’t do this, the world is gone. Destroyed. Over. There won’t be anything to wait for, just the end.

Sora doesn’t need to hear that, though. I could use her, or the Lansdowne teachers, or anyone. Instead, I’ve got Alice, James, and somewhere, Sidney. Daley, and maybe Doctor Twitchy, if I can trust him. Neither of them can go with me, though. Neither can Sora, but it’d be nice to leave someone behind who wasn’t James. He couldn’t stop Li Mei back at SHOCKS Victoria, and he had a full staff. With a skeleton crew, I feel really exposed.

I’ve been alone for a long time. Everyone’s been lying to me, whether it’s about something important or something trivial. Sora’s the only one I can trust. Sora and Keith, and Keith’s not here. I need Sora. I need her on my side.

But she can’t bend much farther before she breaks.

I take a deep breath. “Will you do it?”

“Yes. Yes, Claire, I’ll do it. I’ll walk through your stupid door, and then I’ll walk out,” she says.

“Thank you.” There’s a pause. It starts long, then goes to what books call pregnant. Then, past that, it gets awkward. Too awkward. “I’ve got a truth to share,” I say after almost a minute.

She sighs a fourth time. It’s getting ridiculous now. But she says the magic words. “Speak your truth.”

And just like that, the Truth Club is running again.

◄▼►

It feels good to be able to tell the Truth to someone.

In the aftermath of me confessing my Truth to Sora, she doesn’t say much. There’s not much to say. I mean, what can she say to that?

So we dance through the ritual, and I get to hear her Truth. It’s her usual one. Not the one about her brother and his drug problem and almost failing English and missing graduation. The one she tells about being afraid for her future. That architecture isn’t the ‘one true love’ of her life, but just another academic fling. How she feels like she’s running out of time.

I can’t help but see the book on the single shelf in the Itos’ containment cell. It’s a Frank Lloyd Wright photo book. She packed that damn thing all the way here, like a lunatic. I would have ditched it before I even left Port Angeles.

It feels rote. Like a script. Something’s missing. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s a script we’re both comfortable with, and my Truth is overwhelming enough that I understand why she defaulted to her safe one.

My confession, though? It’s necessary. Because I am scared. I’m terrified, and I’m glad that I got to tell someone that before I left.

The walk from Sora’s room to the black sector goes quickly. I almost think about trying to recruit Lieutenant Rodriguez, but she’s in no shape to be fighting a war like the one we’re about to fight, and I know it. She’s the most competent member of SHOCKS I’ve met—aside from Director Smith or maybe Sergeant Strauss, who are both dead—but none of that matters.

Alice is waiting outside the black sector. Between her and James—who’s been silent this whole time—the ‘away party’ is all here.

Doctor Twitchy, Daley, and the research team are staying here. James is right; they can’t survive this trip. Their deaths wouldn’t even help us accomplish anything.

[Reality 3109 will be in range to merge with Reality Zero in four minutes, fifty-two seconds, Claire,] James says. [It’ll remain in range for about ten minutes, so there’s not much of a window. Once you’re there, you’re committed. We’re committed.]

“I know.”

[There’s no time to adjust the plan. You’re going to hop through two known, lethal realities and one that either contains an anomaly that wants you dead or something that’s killed her. I’ve got reservations about this whole mission.]

That doesn’t matter. We’ve been committed this whole time. I take a deep breath. “Alice, kill your augs. Let’s get this thing started.” Then I hand her a handful of pills, shut down my own augs before James can protest, and wait for my own anti-nausea medication to kick in.

The operation’s in full swing, and there’s no turning back now.