All she needed to taste ice cream was a tongue. And here, Councilman Harring offered her a tongue, as well as the lungs, guts, flesh, and heart that came along with it.
That tongue used to belong to someone else, though. Someone who will never taste ice cream again.
Tera raised her gaze from the nude girl to the holographic councilman. Her brow furrowed in anger as she thought everything over once, twice more. The smug smile remained on Harring’s digital face; he had no idea what was going on in her mind.
“What will it be?” he asked.
“No,” Tera said.
“No?”
“That’s right,” the woman replied. “You can go to hell. I’m never telling you what you want to know.”
Councilman Harring sighed, looking down at his feet with an expression of impatience.
“That’s your final answer?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “You’ll get my final answer when the People’s Union come and pull your plug.”
Harring smiled like he had been challenged by a child. “You may think they’re coming for you, but you’re wrong,” the councilman said. “Your little revolution will fail and we will kill all of your friends. There will be no one to come to your rescue. Then you’ll wish you had taken my offer while it was still on the table.”
“You better watch your back,” Tera said. “You and all your rich friends. We’re coming for you. One day, you’ll ask yourself how you ever thought you’d stand a chance.”
“I see that I’m getting nowhere with you,” Harring started, “but I’ll offer you one last deal. Tell me where the People’s Union are located and who runs their operations, or be locked into an eternal nightmare. If you don’t tell us what we want to hear, you’ll be put in a simulation designed to torture you for as long as the power stays on. Have you ever wondered what it felt like to drown forever, but never die? I can show you. Have you wanted to know what it felt like to be hungry, to be thirsty? I can simulate whatever I want you to feel, Ms. Alvarez. I could make you experience a thousand rapes, a million immolations, a billion skinnings. I can make your worst dreams come true — if you choose to hold out on us.”
Tera clenched her mechanical jaw, looking from the blank-eyed meat puppet to the holographic tyrant.
“What are you waiting for, then?” she asked. “I’m not telling you anything. Bring on the simulation.”
Councilman Harring scoffed, a look of incredulousness on his face. It was clear he didn’t expect Tera’s answer to be so firm. When he saw that she was resolute, a solemn look crossed his holographic face.
“Very well,” he said. “Just wait — bring in the — nicians and get you — ked up.”
Councilman Harring’s hologram flickered as his sentences became choppy. A confused expression took over his features as they flashed in and out of existence. He looked at Tera with accusatory eyes.
“What — ”
All of a sudden, like the plug had been yanked, Councilman Harring’s hologram went out. The chamber became dim and quiet as Tera was left alone with the lobotomized girl. It was quiet for almost a whole minute, during which Tera tried to listen for any clues as to what was going on. Then, without warning, a light shone from the doorway. Illumination washed over the I.I. and the naked woman as a form stepped through the opening.
Tera tried to look through the glow but found the light too bright. She raised her arm and stared at the silhouette until she thought she recognized it.
“Gauge?” she asked, looking at the bodyshell who had just entered the study. “Is that you?”
“Tera!” Gauge replied. “We need to get you out of here. There’s no time for questions.”
Godliness
King Hum’s eyes reflected the impossible black of what lay beyond the door. Part of him felt like he could see something churning within, like a vortex waited past the threshold for fresh prey. His robed doppelganger smiled and said nothing.
“Where — where does it go?” the young king asked. With some difficulty, he was able to peel his gaze away from the void and at his mirror image.
“To the next stage, Hum,” the spirit replied. “Walk through this door, and you will find yourself immersed in the collective joy of the planet’s spirits. You’ve never experienced such pleasure — such power. It can all be yours, young king.”
Hum looked back at the doorway, but didn’t step forward.
“I sense your hesitation,” God said. “It’s an understandable reaction. I would be worried if you didn’t take a moment to consider the path that lay before you. That’s what makes a good leader. But now is the time to make a call on faith. Do you trust your own devotion? You must believe in yourself before you can believe in me.”
“I do believe,” Kin Hum replied. “I am just uncertain — and that frightens me.”
The robed Hum smiled like a fond parent. ” ‘Every newcomer to Paradise is a skeptic, for the joy they feel exceeds belief,’ ” he quoted.
The young monarch recognized the verse. It was from the Foundation of Faith, the religious text that established the Holy Kingdom of Opes. Not only was it a moving and relevant passage, but it was Hum’s personal favorite line from all the scriptures.
Did he know what the verse meant to
