“I told you, I can’t. If we try to remove them now, there will be brain damage. The electrodes are wired into biological components that fuse into the brain. We take it out, we’ll have to cut away brain tissue to do it. The surgery took hours to perform. We can’t just undo it.”
Salvi felt a rush of heat as her stomach threatened to make her vomit. She started to breathe heavily to try and control it.
“No, no, no, no...” she chanted weakly, tugging uselessly on her restraints as she stared into the mirror at her neural implant devices. She turned her face away and saw drops of dried blood on her pillow.
“Are you ready for a test run?” Erica said. “They’re keen to put you to work.”
Salvi looked at her through blurred tears.
“She’s ready,” Erica spoke into a microphone stem that protruded from the console she worked at.
Salvi’s head pressed back onto the pillow, as a tear rolled down the side of her face. She felt the sting of it as the tear hit the healing wound where the neural device was latched onto her skull.
“Not everyone gets such a high-profile guest for their test run, you know,” Erica whispered to her. Salvi blinked her tears away as the mirror cleared, and she saw a figure standing on the other side of the glass wall. It was Tom. Dark blonde hair, blue eyes, like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He smiled at her.
Salvi was going to fucking destroy him.
He moved to the door, swiped his hand over a panel and it opened. She saw no tech adorning his hand or wrist, which meant the tech was inside his hand.
He entered slowly, casually, as though he were walking around a showroom perusing which car to buy.
“How’s the patient?” he asked.
“Disillusioned,” Erica said. “She’s having trouble accepting her new reality.”
Tom turned his smile to Salvi. “She will soon enough.”
Salvi glared at him, her eyes pooling with venom.
He chuckled. “I know, I know,” he said. “It’s brilliant, right? Who would ever suspect me as being behind all this? But that’s why this was so perfect, isn’t it? I’m just out of college. Everything thinks I’m young and dumb, right? Wrong! Oh, I play young and dumb. And rich and handsome, but no one can believe that I have brains too. I’ll tell you this, my IQ is through the roof. Yeah, that’s right. I got it all. Money, looks, brains, and friends in high places.”
“And all it cost you was your personality,” Salvi said through gritted teeth.
He laughed again. “Ouch. Well, I’m not alone. Me and the guys, we all felt the same way. Nobody would treat us with the respect we deserve, so… we took it. We pooled our fortunes, gathered our resources, and we grew our empire on the back of unfulfilled desire.” He looked around, holding his arms up, motioning to the complex around him. “And here we are. Kings! Here, we are treated with the respect we deserve.”
“So is it mummy issues or daddy issues that brought you to this?” Salvi asked.
He laughed again. “I’d say it was societal issues, actually. The generations before us fucked things up. First, they felt sorry for the underprivileged, tried to give them what was rightfully ours, then they tried to take away our freedoms. Our money, our tech, our power, our desires, our respect. So, we decided to take them back.”
“Putting people into slavery is taking back freedoms?”
“Yeah,” he said as though it were obvious. “The people who threaten our freedoms, who threaten our power, must be stamped out or controlled.”
“Did John Dorant put you up to this?”
“Dorant?” he chuckled. “You think we’re his bitch? Hell no! We own Dorant. He’s our bitch. Just like everyone else around here, he never saw us coming.”
“Where are the others?” she asked, as Bronte and Kara flashed into her mind.
“Don’t you worry about that now–”
“Where are they?” she yelled viciously, but instantly regretted it as a wave of throbbing rolled through her brain.
“I said don’t worry about that now.” His voice and eyes grew dark. “They’re paying their dues, just like you will.” He looked to Erica, his face now devoid of emotion. “Let me know how the test run goes.” He looked back at Salvi. “Travis won the trial run. Bastard. So good luck, MasterSlave-24. You’re going to need it with him. Did I mention he handles all our security? He’s always liked a good fight.” Tom gave another smile and left the room laughing.
She looked over to Erica. “Please!”
Erica turned back to the console, ignoring her. Salvi tugged and tugged on her restraints, but it was no good.
“Please, Erica!”
Erica tapped at her console and Salvi felt the world turn again. She gasped.
“That’s your last warning,” Erica said. “Every time you disobey or annoy me, there will be repercussions. So, you do as I say, or you will be hurt. Now, we need to move you to a more comfortable room and get you ready for the test. So, are you going to comply, or must I knock you out again?” Erica picked up the data pane and poised her finger over the screen.
Salvi stared at her, chest rising and falling with fear and exertion. She did not want to be knocked out again. She needed to stay awake, to keep her wits about her. It was the only way she would find Bronte and Kara. It was the only way they were going to make it out of there alive.
“So?” Erica asked, eyebrows raised in question, finger still hovering. “Are you going to behave, or am I going to have to use your new neural implants against you?”
Salvi looked away from her. Tears stung her eyes once more as she felt the neural devices either side of her skull, thought of the dried blood. The violation. Her eyes turned hard with anger, but she quickly closed them
