She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, softening them.
“I’ll do as you say,” she said quietly. “Please… just don’t hurt me again.”
Erica smiled. “Good.”
Salvi watched as Erica waved her hand over the door console; she too had her access tech inside her hand. Erica had given Salvi a light dose of painkillers for her throbbing head, had bathed her, adorned her in a bath robe and was now escorting her to more ‘comfortable lodgings’ to wait for Travis and her ‘trial run’. Salvi had done everything Erica had ordered her to do. Her compliance was a means to an end, as she was now able to walk the facility where she was being kept, able to seek a means of escape.
The door slid back, and she stepped into the plain white corridor with Erica by her side. Erica’s hand tightly gripped Salvi’s upper arm, though it wasn’t to aid her movement, it was to control it. In her free hand, Erica carried the data pane; her means to inflict pain, or pleasure, upon Salvi.
Salvi glanced behind them, with dizziness, to see that the room she had been in was the last in a corridor which ended with a set of double doors. She turned back to view the corridor ahead and saw another set of double doors at the opposite end. Along the corridor, to the left, she counted four more rooms beside hers. To the right there was only the wall.
They moved along at a careful pace due to Salvi’s slightly fragile state; her head was still getting used to being upright. The doors at the end of the corridor suddenly slid open, and a male nurse wheeled a bed with a patient toward her. Salvi caught her breath as she studied the patient. They were dark skinned and male.
“Bronte!” she gasped, as Erica squeezed her arm and waved her data pane toward her in threat. Salvi bit her tongue and eased off the tension in her arm, as she watched Bronte wheeled into the room beside hers. As she moved past, she saw he too had been given the implants. More tears blurred her eyes as Erica barked, “Move!”
They passed the next room and Salvi peered through desperately to see who lay inside. It was Kara. She was restrained to her bed, the sides of her skull as yet untouched, and she was awake.
And she saw Salvi in the corridor.
“Brentt!” she yelled, pulling on her restraints.
Salvi heard no sound through the closed room but could lip read well enough. She stared at Kara, struggling against her restraints, as they passed. Salvi fought to remain docile, though inside her body clenched hard. If she didn’t do something soon, Kara would be next to get the implants. Time was running out.
Erica swiped her hand again and they stepped through the double doors into another corridor, with an intersection down a short way. Salvi subconsciously quickened her pace now, as she became more alert. Desperate for information. Desperate to find a way out.
They approached another room on the left. Inside Salvi saw two men of solid build, wearing black uniforms and neural devices. One stood by the doorway watching them carefully, the other sat at a console watching security feeds. Salvi saw the feed showed several corridors, including the one she and Erica were in. As they passed, Salvi quickly darted her eyes over the men to check their weaponry. She saw something akin to a taser gun and digital cuffs, but that was all she could take in before they’d moved past the doorway. But it was enough. They had some security, but no serious weapons. Unless, of course, she counted the neural devices. They wouldn’t need weapons if the residents were controlled with implants, would they? She wondered whether the guards had any Fyte on hand. Chaney had told her the ghosts had built a small army around them. Was this it?
They turned right at the corridor intersection. Ahead Salvi saw another short corridor that ended in more double doors. As they moved along the corridor, they passed more rooms on either side, all with closed doors. As she passed some, she swore she heard heart monitors and generators and other electronic equipment. She wondered what was going on inside. Just how many people did they have trapped here? Working here? Was Clare Garrett here somewhere? Or the other missing girls that Dolson was searching for? Had Caine been here? Had Caine seen this?
They came to the doors and Erica swiped her palm once more. As the doors peeled back, Salvi paused as she realized they were moving into another part of the facility. The corridor before them had carpeted flooring and smooth neutral walls outlined with thin strips of LED lights. These were the ‘comfortable lodgings’ Erica had referred to. It had a hotel feel to it, and Salvi realized this was where the ghosts’ clients came to purchase their fantasies. Fantasies supplied by a workforce of drugged and neurally-controlled slaves.
Her heartbeat picked up pace, and her breathing quickened. Part of it was because she knew she was drawing nearer to her fate, but another part was the anger rising for what the ghosts were doing, what they were enabling people to do to those held neurally captive, and how others out there in the real world were turning a blind eye to it all.
She wanted to burn this place to the ground, and everyone involved with it.
They began to slow as they approached a doorway to their left. A small sign above identified the room as Suite 17. Salvi wondered how many rooms they had. Erica swiped her hand again, the door opened, and she pushed Salvi through.
Inside it looked like any other hotel room. There was a large bed, a small bathroom, but no windows. No
