Implanted (The Ascension Series Book 2) Page 5

  Fran harrumphed. “Yeah. Nice consolation prize, huh?”

  Doc pointed a finger at Fran. “If the diary proved convincing enough to make you a believer, it’s possible right now, at this very moment, a handful of underground residents might be on their own what if? journeys.”

  As if sensing another squabble emerging between Fran and Doc, Chan interrupted. “How did you do it, Wolf?”

  Fran turned a puzzled expression to her mentor.

  “Share the Reader’s feed?” He added. “How did you do it?”

  “Oh,” she shrugged. “I just used a Data Jump.” Fran slinked back into her chair. Her head began to throb again. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Chan’s voice sounded far away.

  “Nice work. I wish I would have thought of that.”

  “Yeah, well, your mind wasn’t exactly—” Fran’s eyes shot open when she realized what she’d almost said. He had succumbed to the Beast, but saying it somehow felt rude. As if implying he’d been weak.

  “It’s okay, Wolf. I get it. Nobody can escape it.”

  Fran sighed and continued rubbing her temples. “Nobody born inside the city, anyway.” As the words drifted from her lips, her head whipped in Doc’s direction. Their eyes locked. The name eased from her lips on an exhale.

  “Retter.”

  Chapter 10

  FRAN

  Fran jumped back up and moved over to Doc. “It makes total sense.” Her brain moved at warped speed. “Sure he doesn’t know how to get around the city, but we’d teach him! Right, Chan?”

  Doc continued silently staring at his hands, fingers weaved between one another.

  “Chan?” She silently urged him with a flip of her chin.

  Chan cleared his throat. “Doc, would you mind explaining in more detail how this Nanobot tracking works? How is it they actually track us?”

  “Excellent question,” Fran said. “How does it work?”

  Doc let out a worn sigh. With slumped shoulders and deep lines, he wore his age like a Superior. That’s what he would be back inside the city. A Superior. The same status as Marcus. Royalty. And here she was, sitting across the table chatting it up with the original Superior. Weird.

  “As you’re aware, cameras line every hallway,” Doc said. “They are also tucked into every nook and cranny of the city.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We got it,” Fran snapped.

  Doc ignored her. “These cameras are actually scanners …” Doc stopped, hands gripped tightly in front of him so Fran could see the bulging muscles and veins beneath his lined skin. Strength despite his years.

  He moved in closer and with a look of intensity said, “Let me back up.”

  “When we first created the bunker, and long before the War of Annihilation, the reigning government began implementing electronic tattoos.”

  “Hang on a second. Electronic tattoos? Please explain.” Chan rubbed the eagle inked along the length of his neck, and Fran’s Wolf suddenly felt itchy, almost like the buzz when a Graphie appears.

  Doc nodded. “Sure. These tattoos were bar codes, really, and connected to a database that contained the personal information of each citizen. Social security numbers, taxes paid, birth certificates, medical histories, hobbies, anything and everything—fixed documentation that followed a person and his or her descendants. Making it possible to extend lives with early detection of inherited medical conditions, for example.” Doc raised his hand and exposed the backside.

  Fran didn’t notice any lingering ink. She moved in for a closer look. With eyes squinted, she just barely made out some squiggly lines. “Wow. I just thought those were veins or something.”

  Chan moved in and examined for himself. “Yeah. Ink fades over the years.”

  “Exactly. Ink fades.” Doc pushed back from the table and stood. With hands clasped behind his back, he began to pace as he continued the history lesson.

  “After the war, when we put together our own government, we decided to borrow pieces of the technology. If you look at the hands of all First-Gens you’ll see the markings.”

  Fran snorted. “Kind of hard to find any First-Gens in the city these days.”

  Doc nodded in agreement. “After a few years of underground containment, slightly bored, and with ample opportunity to play around in our labs, we brainstormed and tested all types of innovative technologies. And, hey, we were the cream of the crop—the biggest and the best biologists, chemists, geneticists, and techies.”

  Doc wore a boyish grin which morphed him into a younger man. “We moved into an era of supreme scientific enlightenment.”

  “So then they made the Nanobots?” Fran wanted to get to the important parts, like how she would ever truly be free from the Council’s clutches.

  And Pete.

  “We had to first birth the idea of genetic tattooing,” Doc said. “Once perfected, it allowed us to etch complete familial and financial histories onto each person’s unique DNA. In actuality, it was a brilliant way to preserve facts for the history books once the New Earth became habitable.” He nodded to Fran. “The Bots were then born to be carriers—a way to get the programming sequence into the host.”

  “The tracking system?” Chan asked.

  Doc nodded. He resumed his seat at the table, cleared his throat, and held his mug to Ema. “Would you mind a refill?”

  “Tracking came later,” he said after taking a sip of tea. Ema sat back down by his side. “Once the Council realized they could deliver just about anything they wanted into each person using the Nanobot science.”

  “Here’s something you might find amusing.” He nodded to Fran. “At one time real, live security guards roamed the hallways of the housing sector as well as the Agora.”

  “What? Like thugs?” Fran asked.

  Doc shrugged. “Sure, we’ll call them thugs. Unfortunately, since Impervious remained a weapons-free zone, these thugs didn’t offer much threat to the transgressors. Therefore, the Bots were programmed to include receptors that would circulate throughout the bloodstream without losing potency. Staining solutions and Nanobots were added to the water supply, and scanning equipment hung on every wall inside the city. The security team morphed from thugs to Graphies.”

  “To not-so-scary techies schooled in the science of interpreting the scans,” Chan said. “So, how did it work? The scanning process?”

  “Well, the new camera images only showed blobs of color and ID markers. No faces. No personality. To the new security team, each person was nothing more than a blob and a statistic. But with the Bots tied into the fibers of their nervous systems, individuals could be temporarily paralyzed with the swipe of an icon on their imaging screen.”

  Fran felt a wave of revelation wash over her entire body. Then again, dodging security Graphies had been her full-time job once upon a time. All for nothing?

  A sense of madness bubbled up from her chest, and Fran thought it was about to spill over like molten lava. It seemed the deeper Doc went, the stranger this whole story got. As far as she was concerned, it was time to stop talking and start doing. Time to cut to the chase.

  Chan drummed his fingers on the table and Fran suspected he was feeling the same impatience. “Doc, if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying that if a person had no receptors, bots, stains, or whatever, then security wouldn’t see them at all?”

  Fran’s palms began to sweat. Yes! Yes! Yes!

  “That is correct,” Doc said.

  “Not only that, someone without Bots tied to their neurological fibers would be unaffected by security’s measures, right? So Wolf’s right. Retter is virtually invisible and invincible.”

  “Yes, that’s also true.” Doc closed his eyes and rubbed the lids. When he reopened them, he let out a heavy sigh.

  “You’re both right, and I’m light years ahead of you.”

  Doc nodded to Fran. “Why don’t you go find Retter? We’ve got a few things to iron out.”

  “What?”

  Doc waved her off
. “Nope. Go find Retter. Then we’ll finish this discussion.”

  Chapter 11

  FRAN

  Fran rushed from the cottage to the central fire, the best place to start searching out Ret. She saw Tanya working with Edam and the evening crew.

  “Have you seen Ret?”

  Tanya tossed a log she just split onto the growing pile of firewood. She pushed back a stray hair which had fallen from her brown braid and motioned over her left shoulder. “I saw him taking the river trail. He may be fishing.”

  Fran dashed down the trail, the running threatening to bring on another throbbing headache. The trees at least created a compassionate canopy from the direct sunlight. Besides her lingering headaches and occasional nausea, she felt pretty well-healed from her detox. Especially compared to Chan. She still found it hard to believe how much Chan’s muscles had atrophied since his decline and release from Impervious.

  Fran found Ret squatting by the bank not far from where he previously rescued her. He focused on the still water, fishing pole in hand, seemingly unaware of her arrival. She picked up a stone and launched it over his head like he had shown her, and it splashed three times before sinking. Ret sprang to his feet, yet without even bothering to turn around, he greeted her.

  “Hello, Wolf.”

  Did he anticipate her arrival? Had he been thinking about their battle with the river? Was he thinking of her? The thought made her feel strangely light-headed. Her legs also felt a little shaky reminding Fran that the detox still nipped at her heels. She put a hand to her head and sat down on the mossy soil.

  Retter moved to her side. “Hey. You okay?” He lifted her satchel and placed it into her hands. She took a swig of the icy liquid and allowed the coolness to snake down her throat. Once it landed in her belly, her head began to clear.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” She offered a weak smile. “Thanks.”

  Now that she sat face to face with Ret, could she really ask him to risk his life for a bunch of people he didn’t even know? She hugged her knees to her chest. A breeze rustled overhead. The islands of mossy patches dotting the soil felt soft like fur when she swiped a hand across their tops.

  “Hey, Ret, I have a question …”

  He answered with a nod.

  “Um, what made your parents different?” She couldn’t do it.

  Ret barked out a quick laugh. “Different than what?”

  “Different than everybody else underground. Different enough to head out into the vast unknown when your Mom was pregnant with you.”

  Ret shrugged. He picked a flat stone and tossed it across the river. Fran watched as it lightly skipped across the surface, drawing gentle circles in the water.

  “It was planned that way.”

  Fran waited for a better answer and nudged Ret to continue.

  “Good versus evil. Son of the creator. Sound familiar?”

  Fran shook her head. “I’m not tracking.”

  “Mm. That’s right. Couldn’t talk about it on the inside.” Ret stood and walked to a nearby tree. He returned and dumped a book at Fran’s feet.

  “What’s this?” She touched the leathery cover and brushed her fingers across the fancy etched lettering.

  “It’s what led my parents. You can take it with you. I have others.”

  Fan tucked the book to her side and a splash in the water caught her attention. She peered toward the riverbank just as a fish flew up and out of the stream. The glistening silver belly of the carp hovered and glinted in the sun a brief moment before plopping back into his freshwater home.

  “Flying fish,” Ret said.

  “Totally weird,” Fran replied, while thumbing the pages of the book.

  Ret lifted a single brow in a familiar expression from another place, and for a split-second, the essence of Pete stared back at her. Pete could practically speak whole sentences with his eyebrows alone. She hadn’t felt the sucker punch in almost a day, and drew in a slow breath until the pain in her belly eased.

  Pete. Was he still alive somewhere in that underground prison?

  “So, am I being summoned?” Ret asked.

  Fran squinted at this strange guy. How did he always seem to know?

  “Yes.” She answered directly. “Are you ready to see my world?”

  Chapter 12

  RETTER

  “Well. Let’s do this, then.” Ret stood and moved toward the trail, knowing she would follow. When he reached the steep ravine, he turned and offered a hand to Wolf, which she waved away. He shrugged and continued the climb, mindful of the crunching of sticks and rustling of leaves as she scrambled behind him. Having made this climb hundreds of times, Ret navigated the hill with ease. Although concerned about Wolf’s shakiness, his smile grew as he listened to her labored movement. She’d get it soon enough.

  Once they reached flat ground, Ret slowed his pace and soon Wolf was walking by his side. Although he maintained a cool exterior, his mind raced with questions about the mysterious city of Impervious. He turned to Wolf.

  “So tell me a little about this place you used to call home. What was it like living there?”

  “Well.” The corners of her mouth curled into a devious smile. “Imagine multitudes upon multitudes of people swarming through the center of a city. Imagine a crowd so thick, so intense you have to fight your way in and out of a human current on a regular basis.” She motioned behind them. “Like the rapids that almost took me down.”

  Her imagery was sending a claustrophobic ripple down Ret’s spine. “And the best way to navigate this river?” He asked, sticking with her metaphor.

  Wolf shrugged. “You just kind of move with the flow.”

  “Fair enough,” Ret agreed. “So, what do people do there, exactly?”

  “Well, I spent a lot of time in the air system, of course. And that …” she closed her eyes and walked with her hands out in front of her. “Felt like a blind man with his eyes closed.”

  Ret heaved a sigh and shook his head trying to get the gist of a tunnel, but Wolf had already moved on.

  “In the Agora, you could choose from restaurants that serve every kind of food you could ever possibly imagine. My mouth used to water at the smells that came through the vents. But now, after being outside, that food seems so … plastic maybe?”

  She went on to describe the way food trollies deliver meals, people speak on com devices, ride elevators, and allow moving walkways to move them when they didn’t feel like walking. She squirmed as she described the itch on her skin when the Graphies were near.

  “Graphies?” He asked.

  “Oh, sorry.” She rolled her eyes. “Roaming holographs.”

  “You know prickliness comes from the electrical currents given off,” Ret said. “Now that would be something interesting to experience.”

  “Sure, whatever,” Fran muttered. “Hey, look. We’re here already,” she added, while moving away from Ret. Must have hit a Wolf nerve, there.

  They cut behind the village center to avoid the evening gathering and entered the back of the cottage, where they found Chan alone at the table. He waved them over.

  “Doc and I were just putting together a map of the city.”

  “Where is he?” Ret asked.

  Chan waved his hand toward the doorway. “He went to get more tea, or use the toilet or something.”

  Fran pushed a strand of sweaty hair from her face. “Thanks for that image.” She placed the book she’d been carrying on the table in front of Chan. “Ever see one of these?”

  Chan brushed a glance over the book and shook his head. “No. Looks cool, though. What is it?”

  “I guess it’s our game plan.” She lifted her brows at Ret. “Right?”

  Ret woofed. “Well, yes. But not really. How about you just read it? I’ll get one for you too, Chan.”

  Wolf picked up the book and fanned the pages. “That’s a lot of reading,” she muttered.

  “So, what do we have here?” Ret moved over to the table and the three huddled
around the sketch, as Chan explained his drawing. His hand trembled as he added varying degrees of detail and pointed out gathering areas, housing sectors, and the pathways between.

  “However, you will travel via the airway express.” Chan drew a snaking river throughout the map. “Otherwise known as the ventilation system. It can take you to any location in the city.”

  Ret scrutinized the drawing. “So, you’re telling me even though I can move freely and undetected by security, I should still move through the air system?”

  “Well, yes.” Chan’s hand hovered over the sketch. “At least to get past the Ranch.”

  Wolf chimed in. “They keep the doors to the Ranch locked. I’m guessing so the residents don’t wander out—”

  “Or nobody stumbles upon their secret,” Chan interrupted.

  “True,” she agreed. “And without ID, you’d be denied access.” She eyed Ret up and down. “You don’t look much like a regular guy, either.”

  Ret lifted a brow. “How’s that?”

  “I mean, a regular Impervious guy… the way you look … ”

  Ret enjoyed watching Wolf’s cheeks redden.

  “It might confuse people.” Chan finished. He tapped his chin while assessing Ret. “Too thick. Definitely too healthy.”

  “He’ll need a makeover,” Wolf said. “Do you think we should line his eyes like a trendy West Winger?” She jabbed Chan in the ribs.

  “What’s this?” Ret asked.

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Chan agreed. “Maybe it would dial down his … oomph.”

  Ret brushed his bulky forearm with the palm of his hand. “Too much oomph?”

  “Hey no worries, Bro.” Chan said, giving Ret a punch on the arm. “The girls are going to love you.”

  Ret looked at Wolf. She ignored Chan’s remark and drummed her fingers on the table, but Ret was amused to see her blushing.

  “So anyway,” she said. “After entering here, you’ll hop into this vent, and then follow this trail.” She ran her hand along the river that snaked through the city. She shared her method for memorizing the layout and using turns and counting hand taps. “It’s all very logical once you get the hang of it.”