She saw movement beside her and flicked her face to see Mitch in a chair beside her bed, startled from sleep.
“Salvi?” he said, through groggy eyes, moving forward. “Salvi, it’s okay! You’re in hospital.”
“Where are they?”
“Who? Bronte and Kara? They’re here. They’re going to be okay.”
Salvi stared at him, stunned, trying to get her bearings, and with each second of being awake, her head hurt more and more.
“We’re safe?”
“You’re safe,” he nodded, moving closer to her slowly and placing his hand on her arm.
“What about the others?” she blurted. “In MasterSlave?”
Mitch held his hands out calmly to her. “We’ve cleared out MasterSlave. We found the Chief’s daughter and most of the missing girls. Dolson, the PI, has ID’d them all. They’re free.”
Salvi’s eyes darted around the room, her knees still clenched at her chest.
“Dancer?” she asked, looking back at Mitch, although she knew the answer.
He shook his head.
A tear rolled down Salvi’s cheek. She knew it was so, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. “He helped us get out of there.”
Mitch nodded. “I know. Kara told us everything.”
Salvi stared at him. “Tom Bradley. That’s his name. And Travis, and Kelvin, a-and Edward, and… and Ellis! They’re the ghosts. Did you get them?”
“The guys in the photo with Caine?” he said. “No. We haven’t identified them as yet. At least, Kara hasn’t.”
Salvi felt a dread wash over her. “They got away, didn’t they?”
“Aside from Tom and Travis, we don’t even know they were at the facility, Salvi,” Mitch sighed. “Even if they were, and they did manage to escape, their pictures are now on every wanted bulletin across the globe. They’ll never be able to show their faces again.”
“But they got away,” she said, clenching her jaw.
Mitch moved closer, slowly. “Salv, we’ve shut down MasterSlave. We’ve arrested a bunch of people who will hopefully give us information to track the others down. We’ve freed a lot of people. That’s huge. You, Bronte, Kara, you did good.”
His hand touched her arm again, and carefully he moved to sit on the bed beside her, running his hand around her back and hugging her. Salvi took a moment, her body shaking, but slowly she unclenched and softened into his hug.
There were a thousand things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t get her mouth to move. Eventually Mitch offered her some water then moved to take his seat by the bed again.
“Where were they keeping us?” she eventually asked him. “Where was the MasterSlave facility?”
“Just outside the city. As soon as Riverton picked up your signal, it diverted every drone in the nearest quadrant to your location.” Mitch gave her a funny look. “That wasn’t protocol but Riverton did it anyway. Analysts are looking into it. They’re not happy an AI used initiative outside of its standard parameters, even if it was on Ford’s orders.”
Salvi stared at him, not sure what to say, but a knock on the door saved her anyway. Ford entered, folded her arms, and gave Salvi a sympathetic smile.
“It’s good to see you, Brentt,” she said, her voice softer than normal.
She nodded. “And you.” Then her face crumpled into confusion. “How’d we get out of there?”
“The drones surrounded the place and held it until our high-speed chopper got there to haul you out,” Ford said. “Anyone left in that building was arrested. We need to get your statement about what happened.”
“We need to catch the ghosts,” Salvi said. “Them and their network. They’re still out there.”
“We will,” Ford said. “In time.” The detective lieutenant studied her carefully. “Have you seen the doctor yet?”
Mitch shook his head. “She just woke up.”
“So she doesn’t know?”
Salvi looked between them. “Know what?”
Mitch gazed at the ground, but Ford looked her in the eye.
“About the implants,” she said.
Salvi raised her hands to her face and felt the devices molded to her skin. She nodded. “When can they remove them?”
Ford sighed and looked to Mitch.
“They can’t,” he said quietly.
“No. They were lying,” Salvi said, shaking her head. “Someone put these on me, so someone can take them off, right?”
“They’re not on you, Brentt,” Ford said. “They’re in you. Wired into your brain. If they take them out, there’s a risk of–”
“Brain damage…” Salvi stared at her. “But they put them in, and I’m fine. So they can take them out again? Just like they did with people after The Crash.”
“It’s too risky, Brentt,” Ford said gently. “What they put in you is a more advanced model than what they had before The Crash. What they gave you was meant to be permanent. It was a one-way ticket. I’m sorry but there’s nothing we can do.”
Salvi stared at her. “No…” she said. “No, I want them removed!” Mitch reached out and grabbed her hand, but Salvi pulled it away. “No!” she said.
Another knock on the door diverted their attention. Chief Garrett entered.
“Chief,” Ford nodded, dropping her folded arms and stepping aside.
“Detective Lieutenant Ford. Grenville. Brentt...” He stepped closer to Salvi. “I just wanted to come by and personally thank you for what you did. My daughter is safe now, because of you.” His eyes studied the neural implant devices on the sides of her face. “I know it wasn’t easy, and that it came at a cost. A cost I can never repay.”
“But we still don’t know who was involved. Who really killed Caine?” she said, looking at Mitch. “Did we get access to the MasterSlave systems? Their database?”
“Riverton hacked the systems but most of it had corrupted by the time it got through,” Mitch said. “They’d planned for this. They’d planned for the day they got found out and raided. But we think the Ghost Network had Dancer steal the tech from Neuricle Corporation. We think they also stole the details for the Subjugates’ drugs too. There are similar elements to both.” Mitch ran his hand through his hair. “It seems Caine found out about MasterSlave and went there as a client. The Chief’s daughter told us he asked for her
