The Significant (81 page)

      
Isa was just trying to hold onto what was
left of her sanity.

      
One day, Maki walked into her office,
smiling gently when he saw her sitting at her desk, with her head in her hands.

      
“Still have a headache?” he asked
lightly.

      
She lifted her head, nodding.

      
“When is your next appointment with Dr.
Busen?”

      
“Next week.”

      
“Do you want me to call and see if we can
get you in today or tomorrow?”

      
“No, it’s alright,” Isa assured. She
forced a smile. “What can I help you with?”

      
“Well,” Maki started, “I wanted to show
you something.” He walked to Isa’s desk, setting his tablet down in front of
her and leaning over to point to certain parts of the screen. “Here’s what I’ve
been able to find about Saera,” he said. “First, this generator was hit, but
the damage on the generator showed that it was not an internal problem. It was
hit by something from the east side,” he motioned with his finger, “which
struck it, caused damage to the casing, allowed oxygen in, and caused the first
explosion. But the second reaction, the one that hit his central generator, the
damage was not as severe to the casing, meaning it wasn’t as powerful. It was a
Charge Blast, likely fired from the Uran-East Bunker, which is the closest
place where a Charge Blast could still be used.”

      
“I see…”

      
“What is strange is that, when I traced
the Charge Blast records from the Uran-East Bunker log, I found that there was
an override the day before the explosion that disabled its safety codes. The
override was coded in Gihoric.”

      
Isa looked up quickly, her eyes wide.
Maki was watching her carefully.

      
“…what are you trying to say?” Isa
whispered.

      
“That maybe you
didn’t
appoint the wrong Elites to your Syndicate,” Maki murmured.
“And you need us to figure out what is going on so that we can help you.”

      
Isa swallowed hard, a small glimmer of
hope sparking in her chest. She let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes.

      
“I need help, Maki…” she breathed.

      
“Tell me how to help,” Maki said. “Keep
researching? Or something more drastic?”

      
“This is a very dangerous situation,” Isa
whispered. “Please, keep quiet, but do what you can.”

      
Maki’s hands suddenly shoved everything
off the desk, grabbing the edge and turning it over.

      
Isa let out a startled cry, scrambling to
her feet and running out of the office.

      
She knew, immediately, that Colonel Amori
had triggered the microbionic cells. Soon, all the Elites would be swarming
around her. She knew that the moment she revealed that she needed help, Colonel
Amori would remind her how powerless she was.

      
“Isa! Isa! Wait!” Maki said, his voice
betraying his confusion. “I don’t know what’s going on!”

      
Isa darted out the door, slamming the
close button and going to the staircase. Maki pried his hands into the door and
forced it open, bending it with his altered strength.

      
“Isa!” he bellowed.

      
Isa tripped half-way down the stairs and
tumbled to the stair landing, her breath forced from her as she landed on her
back. She tried to get up, but her body was weak and shaking. She forced
herself to sit upright, but only had time to back against the wall before
Maki’s hand grabbed her neck and squeezed.

      
“I’m sorry…” she whimpered. “I’m sorry…”

      
Maki’s fingers relaxed immediately and he
backed away, looking at his hands in horror before looking over his Golden
Elite.

      
“Isa…” he whispered. “Isa…I’m so sorry,
I-I don’t—”

      
“Get away from me!!” she bellowed,
curling forward and tucking her knees into her chest. The other Elites, who had
run toward the stairs to get to her office when the cells were triggered, stood
still at the bottom of the landing, watching the Golden Elite sit and shake
against the wall while they could only stare and wonder what had possessed them
to run to her.

      
Maki was determined to get an emergency status
raised in the Syndicate. He continued to submit reports to Venus stating that
there was clearly a problem that needed to be addressed, but the messages were
never replied to, and when Maki tried to find them again, he could not. They
had been deleted.

      
Maki rallied the Bronze Elites, telling
them that they all needed to try different avenues to get a message to Venus or
to other planets for assistance, explaining to anyone that their leader was
being held hostage. However, still, they could not send transmissions to other
planets.

      
That was when the Syndicate realized they
were being primed for a planetary invasion.

      
They worked diligently, trying to keep
their work secret while still discussing what they had found. The more research
they did into the Colonel, the more they believed that he was the culprit.
However, they needed proof, and a means to reach Venus.

      
Isa would walk by the Elites, sharing a
silent look with them. Now that they were looking, they could see her silent
plea for help.

      
One day, Isa received a call from the
Colonel at her work.

      
“I’ve been working very hard on a
surprise for you,” he said when she answered the phone.

      
“I hate surprises.”

      
“But this is a very important one,” he
said. “Your Elites have been trying to order my investigation and arrest.
Naturally, I’ve stopped all their transmissions to her, but their constant
attempts have given me much information about the way the Syndicate Building
works. It’s really an impressive feat of engineering, and it gives Venus a nice
base to branch out to the whole city.”

      
“Venus’ codes are not here,” Isa said
darkly. “I have told you a thousand times.”

      
“Yes, you have,” he agreed. “But I’m not
talking about her codes. Just her network. You know, if properly programmed,
she could be quite the weapon.”

      
Isa hesitated, the words causing fear to
settle in her gut.

      
“What?”

      
“You really should go look downstairs,
Isa,” Colonel Amori whispered. “Your surprise is waiting for you.”

      
Isa stood, walking out of her office and
downstairs to the main control room, not sure what to expect, her anxiety
increasing with every step.

      
However, there was nothing outside the
ordinary in the control room. She glanced around, ignoring the eyes of the
other Elites on her as they tried to concentrate on their work. Whenever the
Golden Elite came around the other Elites, everyone got nervous.

      
The phone in Isa’s ear beeped. She
connected the call but said nothing.

      
“Further down.”

      
Isa walked out of the control room and
went to the operator’s center.

      
When she walked in, she immediately
noticed how quiet it was.

      
She descended the final steps, nervous,
and looked around slowly. The robots and drones were moving around as normal.
But every human was still, slumped over their desk or fallen on the floor, their
eyes wide, their faces pale.

      
Isa let out a choked cry and backed up,
her hand covering her mouth as she pressed her body against the wall.

      
“I wouldn’t stay down there too long,”
Colonel Amori said in her ear. “Carbon monoxide will kill you if you’re exposed
too long.”

      
“How did you…what…”

      
“I told Venus that the operators were
plotting against her that they were the reason for all the viruses in her
mainframe, and then I gave her the codes to reverse her air filtration system
for this level to neutralize the threat.”

      
Isa’s heart stopped.

      
“…you weaponized her…”

      
“I did,” Colonel Amori said with a
chuckle. “This is just a little reminder of who you really obey. Don’t let your
Bronze Elites do anything stupid. Once I have her reprogrammed, this planet
will be mine.”

      
Isa quickly ran up the stairs, darting
through the control room and to her office. She immediately went to her NCB
chair and issued an official order for evacuation of the building due to
noxious gas.

      
As the alarms began sounding, alerting
everyone to exit the building in an orderly manner, Isa ran to her desk, her
breath short. She grabbed the gun from under her desk and checked the
ammunition. Then, she put it under her uniform and ran to the stairs, entering
the control room only to take one of the hidden exits before anyone could see
her.

      
She got to her car and anxiously sat in
it as it sped toward Anon Tower. She acutely felt the gun at her side, but it
solidified her determination. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the various
dead, pale faces of the operators and human employees of the Syndicate. She
felt a strong sensation tightening her stomach and chest, making it hard to
breathe. Her eyes felt hot as she stared at the road ahead.

      
When she got to Anon Tower, the car immediately
went into her car elevator for her level, and she sat and waited as the car
ascended, the door finally opening to the hallway outside her home. She walked
out and continued down the hallway until she reached the other elevator,
pressing the button for the level she wanted.

      
By the time the doors to the elevator
opened, revealing the hallway of apartments within Anon Tower, Isa’s vision had
become tunneled.

      
She walked directly to the door of
Colonel Amori’s quarters, overriding the lock and walking in, her eyes sharp
around the room.

 
     
However,
he was not there.

      
She checked every room before moving to
the room next door, where his delegates were staying. She had suspected that he
had sent the delegates back secretly to Gihron so that they would not interfere
with his plans of taking over. She now figured that Colonel Amori was hiding in
the other room, always watching her.

      
She overrode the lock and the door
opened.

      
She was immediately overpowered by the
horrific stench. It was thick and heavy, turning her stomach over repeatedly,
but it was a stench she knew from her distant times in the lab where Elites
were made. It was the smell of death.

      
She pulled the gun out, preparing to
attack as she walked further into the living room.

      
The horror within was nothing she could
have prepared for.

      
The delegates were dead, all four of them
hanging from a beam in the ceiling above overturned furniture and scattered
plaster. They were naked, their skin dehydrated and cracked from weeks of
decay, their faces contorted in gruesome expressions.

      
In the skin on their chests were deformed
words, carved into the skin.

      
“Death
to Tiao.”

      
One word for each body, the fourth body
bearing the planetary symbol for Gihron—a circle with a twelve-pointed star.

      
Isa retreated behind the corner again,
pressing her back to the wall and sliding down, her legs giving out from under
her. She closed her eyes tight, but the image was seared into her brain.

      
She lifted the gun and pressed it to her
temple, pushing hard against the skin of her forehead, cringing in a pain she
could not describe. She felt the barrel of the gun against her head, her hand
shaking as she pushed it harder against her skull.

      
Her entire being was shaking, sitting in
the silence, trying to make sense of what her reality had become.

      
Isa let out a pained sob and dropped her
hand, shaking and choking as her body reacted to the stress without tears.