Relief is immediate.
We lie back down. She settles against me, and I wrap her up in my arms. I rub my cheek against her neck and shoulder. The sensation of her skin on mine blows my mind—I can’t get enough of it. I hold her tighter and inhale her sweet scent.
Pheromones.
If I think about it hard enough, I can feel her scent run up into my brain, interacting with the implants that have so much control over my actions. I lick my lips and let out a short breath. I don’t care if this is all some kind of chemical reaction designed to provide my obedience. As long as she’s here with me, it doesn’t matter.
“You said you felt lonely,” Riley says as she turns her head to look at me.
“Sometimes, when you aren’t here.” I tilt my head up to meet her gaze but keep my cheek against her shoulder. “As long as you’re here, it’s okay.”
“I’m always here,” she says. “I’m here when you wake up, and you’re usually asleep before I walk out the door.”
“Maybe it’s just the thought of being without you,” I suggest. “I’ve woken up a few times before you got here.”
“That’s not really supposed to happen,” she mumbles.
I pause and think for a moment.
“Because the drink you give me at night is drugged.”
“It’s just to help regulate your sleep,” she says. “Otherwise, you might be awake for days at a time. Your body doesn’t need sleep, but mine does.”
“I’m drugged so you can go home.”
“Essentially.” She rubs her lip with her teeth. “When you’re awake, I should always be here to make sure you’re all right. I don’t ever want you to feel alone. If you are waking up before I get here, something is wrong. I may need to make some adjustments.”
If she increases the dose, I may not remember my dreams.
“I don’t think you need to,” I tell her. “It’s only happened a couple of times.”
“Well, let me know if it happens again.”
I start to tell her that I will, but I can’t say the words. If I told her, she might find out about my dreams, and I can’t risk that. I don’t want to forget again, and anything I say would be a lie. I can’t seem to bring myself to lie to her.
“I’m glad you stayed,” I say instead. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Riley says. She sighs. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”
“I don’t. I want you to stay. Fuck the laundry.”
She chuckles, and I hug her against me.
“I guess I can save a little money if I don’t bring in the hookers.”
“Good. I don’t like them.”
“I thought it would help.”
“This helps more.” I tuck my nose against her throat and inhale her scent. “It isn’t the same with the others. Being with you is different. I don’t ever want another hooker brought to me. I want it to always be you.”
“I…I don’t know, Sten.”
“I’d make it worth your while,” I say with a sly smile. “I’ll make sure you end up as satisfied as I am.”
“You took care of that pretty effectively, Sten.”
“I mean it,” I tell her. “I’d do anything. Anything you’d ever want me to do, I would do.”
“I know.” She looks away from me, her expression pained.
“Why does that upset you so much?”
“You’ve said before that you are drawn to me,” Riley says.
“The chemical reaction between the components of FOG and whatever you take to complete the interaction.” I remember talking about this some time ago.
“Exactly. This will only enhance that feeling.” She opens her mouth to say something else but then quickly closes it again. “I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do. The closer you are to me, the more you will look to me for guidance.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“It depends on who you ask.” Riley shakes her head slightly. “Mills thinks it’s advisable. She says it will strengthen the bond you have with me already, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” I tilt my head and focus on her face. “Isn’t that the whole idea of this chemical reaction? It seems like a tactical advantage.”
“Maybe it is,” she says, “but I feel like I’m…like I’m taking advantage of you.”
“I really don’t mind.” I chuckle.
Instead of laughing, like I expect, Riley presses her lips together and scowls.
“You don’t know if you mind or not.”
Chapter 8
My solitary instruction in a virtual training center is complete. Today, I’ll meet some of the others like me, and we’ll begin to work together.
This also means I’ll be leaving the medical facility for the first time. We are going to be transported to an outside training area near a military base on the edge of the city. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m anxious to find out.
“You are doing so well,” Riley tells me. “You are officially at the top of your class, so to speak. I can’t wait to see how you all perform together.”
Riley tells me about the plan for the day as I dress in black fatigues, a dark T-shirt, and a pair of sturdy boots.
“You’ll be working with two other specimens,” she says. “Most of the missions you’ll conduct will be in groups of three. You should find them very easy to work with—you’ve all been given the same programming to help you work together. You’ll each get your tactical assignments, and your skill sets will complement each other.”
“You’re really excited about this.”
“I am.” Riley smiles. “We’ve worked so hard for this, Sten. You’ve been through so much. This is the first real demonstration of what you are capable of doing. There will be a lot of higher-ups watching your performance through the closed circuits. If everything goes well, you’ll be looking at your first real assignment within the next thirty days.”
“What would the assignment be?”
“Military intelligence has some objectives for you,” she says. “I don’t have the specifics. We’ve had some trouble on the eastern border with the Carson troops. They infiltrated one of our new farming communities last month. All those who lived there were either captured or killed. God knows what’s being done to those they took prisoner.”
“I thought Mills didn’t have much agriculture.”
“We don’t. There are only a small number of communities. Their focus is on the plant compounds we can’t recreate easily in a lab.”
I don’t know why we can’t grow actual food instead of this crap.
The voice in my head is familiar, but I can’t figure out why. There’s a brief flash of a dark-skinned man with closely cropped hair and a flannel shirt, but the image fades quickly. I shake my head to clear it.
“Why would Carson take farmers as prisoners?” I ask.
“Disruption of supply lines. We have so few with farming skills. Taking any of them out of the equation can have a huge effect on the overall process.”
Information about supply lines and the best ways to disrupt them flow into my head: destruction of a key point in the route, elimination of transport vehicles, removal of key personnel—strategies feed into my head from the implants placed there.
When I’m dressed and ready, Riley leads me out of the lab and down the hallway to the left. I’ve never gone in this direction though much of it looks familiar based on the virtual mission I’d done before when I was trying to get Riley out of the facility. The main difference is the people. I have encountered almost no one since I’ve been here, and the number of people we pass makes me tense.
I stay close to Riley’s side, slightly behind her. I’m on edge, and I don’t miss the looks I get from the people we pass in the hallways. Most of them are dressed in lab coats, but there are a few in military uniforms. Before turning a corner and heading to a large set of double doors, we pass a pair of men with mops and buckets, dressed in coveralls. We stop in fron
t of them, and Riley enters a code into the keypad on the wall.
The doors open, and we walk through them into a fenced yard. Ahead of us are two other men dressed in the exact gear I am wearing, each with a woman in a lab coat standing next to him. I see Captain Mills behind them, standing with two uniformed men. At the far side of the yard is a large helicopter.
The entire time I have been here, Riley has been my only companion. Aside from the guard escort in the beginning and the brief visit from Captain Mills, I haven’t encountered anyone at all. Though it’s better than the number of people inside the building, the nine people in the yard, including Riley and me, feel like a crowd.
I follow Riley to the other specimens and their doctors. The first one, a woman with long, straight black hair and caramel-colored skin turns to Riley and smiles.
“Good to see you again, Dr. Grace. I’ve heard a lot about your specimen.”
I glance between the women, feeling a little like a showpiece on a shelf. The specimen with her is standing just behind her right shoulder. It’s the same position I’ve taken up behind Riley.
“I’m very pleased with his performance,” Riley says as she shakes the other woman’s hand. “I know there was some doubt about the methods, but I think you’ll see how much they’ve paid off.”
Riley turns to me.
“Sten, this is Dr. Shweta Rahul.”
I nod toward the woman but say nothing. She doesn’t address me, just looks me up and down before turning back to Riley.
“I’m sure he’ll work well with Isaac.” She reaches out and takes the man beside her by the hand, guiding him next to her. I tense as he shortens the gap between himself and Riley, and my attention sharpens. I don’t want him too close to her. From the look on his face and his squared shoulders, he doesn’t want me near Dr. Rahul either.
“Specimen seven-two,” Dr. Rahul says, “this is specimen fourteen.”
We look at each other before slowly reaching out and shaking hands. He’s my height with a similar build, sandy blond hair, and a scar over his left cheek. He doesn’t make a move to touch Riley, which is good. I don’t want his hands on her. If he made a move toward her, I might kill him, but he doesn’t.
The doctors take a step away from us to speak with each other. The other specimen’s shoulders drop slightly, and we both relax when the women are a few steps away from us.
“She calls me Isaac,” he says, nodding his head toward Dr. Rahul.
“Sten,” I reply, and he raises an eyebrow at me. “It’s an acronym for Seven Two Eight Nine.”
He chuckles and leans in closer to me.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve been named after her cat.”
I grin even as I fight to ask him if he knows what his real name is. Somehow, I don’t think he does. I’m getting the impression that something is very different about the treatments I have received, and I wonder if that’s why I have the dreams.
The other specimen and doctor step forward, and Riley introduces me to them.
“This is specimen forty-two,” she says. “His doctor is Helen McCall.”
“Pike,” he says as he shakes my hand. He’s taller than me by several inches with dark hair and eyes like mine.
“Are you seeing any adverse effects from your deviations?” Dr. McCall asks Riley.
I scowl at her. I don’t like the tone of her voice.
“Nothing that wasn’t expected,” Riley says in clipped words.
“I’ll definitely be on the lookout for any surprises,” Dr. McCall says. “This is an important exercise, one that will mimic their first real assignment. If all my work is jeopardized because you can’t follow protocol, I’ll take it up with Captain Mills.”
“Captain Mills is well aware of the steps I’ve taken,” Riley replies.
“Probably bribed,” Dr. McCall mutters under her breath as she walks away, but I don’t think Riley heard her.
“What’s with her?” I narrow my eyes in Dr. McCall’s direction.
“Ignore it,” Riley says. “She’s been pissed since med school about a grant I won and has always had it out for me. She’s looking for any way to discredit me, but you don’t need to concern yourself with that.”
She touches my wrist and runs her fingers up the inside of my left arm.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” she says again.
I nod and relax.
We’re loaded into the helicopter, and I take in the view as we rise into the air and over the city. Though there is information about the city of Milton and its layout already in my head, seeing it is completely different. I can see the destruction of outlying areas. There’s data in my head regarding the attacks by the Carson Alliance against the city of Milton, and I can identify those areas that have never been restored.
Everything is very…grey.
The sky is grey. The buildings are grey. There’s no green area at all—just building after building after building surrounded by cement and steel. A single flag appears on top of some of the buildings, and it is also primarily grey. I know the flag. It represents the Mills Conglomerate and displays a black-and-white image of a circuit board across the back and a bright red medical symbol in the center. Aside from that small splash of red, everything else is dull and nondescript.
The helicopter flight is a short one, and soon we are descending into the center of Mills Sanctuary Four, the primary military establishment in a five-hundred-mile radius. As we lower into the compound, I watch several dozen uniformed troops head to the edge of the city and fan out along the nearby streets.
We exit the helicopter and head straight for a small platform set up like a stage. Captain Mills and the uniformed men join a few other military-types on the stage as the doctors gather with their specimens.
“All right,” Riley says as she steps in front of me. “This is going to be a little different for you, but think of it as being in the virtual center. Instead of having images and sounds created in your head, this will give you the tactical information you’ll need for the training exercise.”
I nod and turn my head to the side so she can reach me better. I brace myself as Riley pulls a small disk out and places her fingers against the side of my head. To my right and left, I can see the other doctors and other specimens doing the same thing.
“Ready?” Riley asks, and I nod. She places the disk up behind my right ear. She holds it there for a few seconds and then takes it away.
Inside my head, there is a brief surge of information. I understand that I have been given command of the mission. Isaac will cover tactical, and Pike will be responsible for defense. I close my eyes for a moment to process it all and then look to the other men. Isaac nods at me, but Pike doesn’t look my way.
“You’ll be on your own during this,” Riley says. “You’ll be able to communicate with me every step of the way, just like in the simulator, but it will just be the three of you.”
Captain Mills steps up to the lectern at the center of the stage, and the rest of us gather around. A vibration runs through my arms and legs; I’m anxious to get started.
“Gentlemen,” Mills says, “this is nothing more than a glorified version of capture the flag. The map is already loaded, and you should have no trouble locating your objective, but there will be some challenges along the way.”
She opens a file on top of the lectern and continues.
“Our military has been stationed between here and your objective. You will have to get around them either by stealth or by elimination. The method is up to you.”
One of the men in uniform approaches us, and each specimen is handed a long rifle. At the tip of the barrel, there is a glowing green light.
“The weapons you have been given are designed to shoot a low-intensity laser. If you hit a target, or if you are hit, there is no true damage. However, you will feel the impact as if you had been wounded. If you take out a target, the mark will be considered incapacitated and no longer a threat to the completion of your assignme
nt. You, of course, are expected to go on. Your implants will send pain impulses through your system, mimicking the sensations you would experience as if you had actually been hit.”
“Sounds like fun,” Isaac mumbles. His voice is so low and his words are so quick, I doubt anyone is able to hear him other than Pike and me. I glance at Dr. Rahul, but she doesn’t look at her specimen.
“How else would they be able to evaluate our performance?” I keep my voice at the same frequency as his, and Riley doesn’t seem to notice.
Interesting.
“I guess we better do well,” Pike says. “First one hit buys the drinks.”
I grin, and Riley glances at me, her eyes narrowed. I keep looking at Captain Mills, feigning ignorance, but Riley looks between Pike, Isaac, and me before muttering herself.
“Stop it.”
I look at her sideways and see her suppressing her own grin. I know she hasn’t heard our words, but she’s well aware of what we’re doing. I shuffle my feet back and forth and focus once again on Captain Mills’ words.
“You will be traveling through the streets of Milton,” Captain Mills says. “Though we’ve removed non-essentials from the area, you will pass civilians during this mission. If any of these civilians is harmed in any way, the consequences to this project would be dire. Though the weapons you carry are not lethal, each of you is. Don’t forget that. If a single person is harmed, your continuation in this project will be voided.”
I wonder exactly what she means by that, and I glance at Riley.
“Voided?”
“Nothing to worry about,” she says quietly. “It won’t happen.”
“What does she mean?”
I don’t get an answer before Captain Mills is speaking again.
“Your objective is literally a flag inside the Yost Financial Building. I stress again: no civilian casualties. Find the flag inside the building and bring it back to base. Good luck, gentlemen.”
I’m fitted with a cross-shaped harness. The black square in the center is activated and glows with a set of green lights, the same color as the tip of the rifles. Riley adjusts a control on the side of it, and I sense the connection between the box and my implants.