2036 chapter 12: The End.

 

Chapter 12: The End.

“Understand what’s going on around you. You are in a state of war. And you have precious little time to save yourselves.”

“There is a slow process which we call ‘Active measures’. The first stage being Demoralisation. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralise a nation. The next stage is Destabilization. What matters is the essentials. Economy, Foreign relations, defence systems. The next stage is crisis, where the violent change of power, structure and economy lead to Normalisation. This is what will happen in the United States if you allow all the shmucks to put a big brother government in Washington DC, who will promised loads of things, Nevermind if the promises are fulfilled or not.”

“The timebomb is ticking. With every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer.”

“But the danger is real.”

-          Yuri Bezmenov, KGB defector.

00:02, May 24^th, 2036.

“On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…”

“Felix, are you there?” They said.

“Yes.” I responded.

“Are you at the location?”

“Yes.” I said again.

“Do you know your objective?”

“Locate the remaining members of the terrorist cell, responsible for the attack on the UISC western bank. Intel suggests this site is where the remaining two members of the group, Elod Unger and Lilian Wood. Current directive is to capture both men alive for questioning.”

“Negative, your orders where to eliminate both targets.”

I mustered up the courage to protest.

“But what if they’re linked to other terrorist cells. Shouldn’t we bring them in to see what they know.”

I suddenly felt the device in the back of my head whir. They were readying the needles. I cringed to myself, praying to God that they were just trying to scare me into submission.

“You have your orders, Felix. You should probably follow them.”

“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry.” I said, bluntly.

“Yes, you are sorry.”

…

As I walked up to the centre, I felt something strange in my gut. Something I hadn’t really felt before. It wasn’t fear, I’d taken entire rooms of people out, this was just a kid and an old man. It wasn’t sadness, IO had made sure I didn’t get attached to anyone in the group. The only one I really got to know was Carmine, and she was probably dead now. IO made sure of that. No, it was something else.

Now, I realise it was dread. It wasn’t really the dread of what would happen to them, but the dread of what IO would make me do to them.

Not having complete control over my body was… weird. It’s not like all of my actions are completely controlled by IO, just a few. I could still blink, breathe, walk and speak like I used to, but whenever IO gave me an order, I just followed it. Or else that migraine-machine planted into my skull would start whirring. I had to go through with it. It was also weird having cybernetics all throughout my system. The palm knives where pretty uncomfortable, and I felt like I had to be incredibly careful with things, or else I’d lose some fingers. The new spine was weird as well. I couldn’t lay on my back anymore, and sitting down was pretty painful.

But hey. Not like I wanted any of this.

…

I began moving forwards, towards the centre. I still had a slight limp from where Rhys shot me, but I couldn’t feel it. IO had cut some of my nerves so that I couldn’t feel pain. I felt the rain splatter against my hood, where I felt the sudden urge to put my hand out. See if it was really acidic. I decided against it, or rather, IO did. They needed my hands to be in fully working order. I felt my hands reach for my pistol strapped at my side. The area was pretty remote, so no suppressor was needed. I was also using a gun with a lower calibre than my Desert Eagle. Even though the area As I came to the door of the centre, I checked my palm knives. I held my hand out flat and jerked them backwards, and two 4-centimetre knives slid out of my palms with a click. I jerked them forwards and they slid back in with a click.

Well, time to engage.

“IO, am I clear to engage.” I asked.

No response.

“IO, requesting permission to engage.”

Still nothing.

That was odd. I hadn’t made a real decision as an IO operative since… I’d never made a real decision as an IO operative.

So I decided to engage.

I walked into the darkened building, seeing how different it looked during the night. We’d only met here during the day, so seeing the centre on a rainy night felt like a trip to the uncanny valley.

I flipped on the lights, and then instantly regretted it.

The layout of the place was the same. Six large pillars in two rows. A circular plastic table, like one you’d see at a party. 5 metal chairs. It was almost like we’d left it yesterday.

The only difference was who was sitting in one of those chairs. 

I saw a beaten and bloodied body of someone sitting in that chair, slumped forwards and breathing heavily. His breathing sounded laboured and painful, like he’d just ran 500 miles, but also muffled. He wasn’t tied to the chair, but he was sitting on it like he was. His hands where twitching like a dying cockroach. But that wasn’t the strangest part. He had an old TV screen strung around his belly, switched off. That could only mean one thing.

This was a message from someone.

It took the guy 10 seconds to look up at me, and that’s when I saw it was Lilian. He had a bruise the size of a baseball on his right eyebrow, which reduced his eye to a small slit. His other eye was bloodshot and wide, like he’d just seen a ghost. His nose looked like it had been bleeding for a long time, judging by the dried blood on his shirt. His mouth was sealed shut by a thin piece of grey duct tape.

This didn’t make sense. First IO’s comms go down, and now Unger’s tech guy had been beaten half to death, and had a TV strapped to him.

“Lilian… what happened.”

He didn’t respond. All he did was move his hand up to the TV and switched it on. An image of Unger standing in front of a whiteboard, like he’d done so many times before, flickered onto the screen.

“Hello. My name is Elod Unger. If you’re watching this, that means IO has sent out an order for mine and Mr Wood’s execution. And your name is Felix Anon DeBlanc.”

I felt my skin crawl.

“You may be wondering why I know this. Well, it’s because the heist failed, and my plan worked. I understand you may be confused. Upset. Angry, at me. But it was what I needed to do. There was no other way.”

“To put it in layman’s terms, this wasn’t a heist.” He said. “This was a coup.”

What? I thought to myself.

Suddenly the screen flashed to show an emergency broadcast from the news, dated to today. The host was looking down at his script in both shock and horror.

“Yes, we… we do have reports… that Chairwoman Brie Kieran has been assassinated, along with many other members of the UISC’s congress… this includes Samantha Burgundy, CEO of the IO police corporation. It seems to be that… somebody hacked into the secure computer network used by each cabinet member… and overclocked their computers to the point of them… exploding. Robert Peele, CEO of GodsEyes law enforcement... has released an official statement… stating that they are putting the UISC under martial law. Oh my god.”

I expected myself to be overjoyed that I wasn’t being controlled by IO. But I felt myself feeling scared that any second now, I would hear the whirring of GodsEyes drones that would swarm the building and shoot me, like they did all those months ago.

I saw Lilian was trying his best not to cry. Then it hit me.

Unger didn’t need Lilian for the heist. He needed him to do something a lot worse.

When the TV turned back to Unger, he was wearing a reflective interrogation mask. Only this one had a small machine around the mouth.

“Don’t you find it strange that the CEO of the GodsEyes corporation has the same name as the founder of the first official police force in the world, and that unlike Burgundy, he hides his identity behind a mask and scrambler.” Said Unger.

The voice scrambler made him sound like Robert Pelle.

Oh.

Oh no.

“You see.” Said Unger (if that even was his name), taking off his mask “I never cared about the money. I just needed to send the UISC into a panic. First, a bank in San Francisco blows up, then the entire cabinet of the UISC is killed, also including my competition. And the best thing is… I have culprits.” He picked up four pictures. One of Lilian, one of Carmine, one of Rhys… and one of me.

“It’s funny what people will do for the promise of freedom. I wish I didn't have to do this to you all, but hey. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. My omelette is almost complete, and I can guarantee you, it’ll be a tasty one. The only thing left to do now…”

I heard the door open behind me.

“… is to discard of the eggshells.”

Before I drew my gun and fired blindly in the general direction of the doorway. I heard the shots of a 1911 and a Taser pistol from the two figures who’d just walked in. I took cover behind one of the support pillars, and so did they.

I quickly drew the conclusion that these weren’t GodsEyes agents.

It was Rhys, and someone else.

“You’re gonna pay for what you did to Carmine you prick!” He shouted.

“Wait, Rhys! We’ve… we’ve been manipulated from the start! Unger was using us to…”

But you can never leave.

My heart sank. I felt my body moving automatically. I felt the machine in the back of my head whirring.

It wasn’t IO controlling me this time. It was Unger.

My hands reloaded my gun at a terrifying speed. I knew what was about to happen. So, I said through gritted teeth, “Run.”

“What?” said a woman’s voice. I immediately recognised it as the woman who’d caught me. The one who’d chased me when I’d just shot Captain Shinkawa. Sarah.

Using all of my energy, I painfully shouted “RUN!” before my legs began moving forwards, then breaking into a sprint directly towards the pillar.

Rhys moved out of cover, pointed his gun at me. But he hesitated, and I drop kicked him in the chest, sending him about 10 feet backwards. My right hand then threw my gun to my left, and I fired two shots at Sarah’s head, barely missing her. I was using all of my power to try and miss my shots, and I was succeeding.

My body jerked upright, and my hand pointed my gun at Rhys, who had been winded by my attack. I tried to move my hand to the left, but then it happened. Everything suddenly went incredibly bright, and my head felt like it was going to explode. The migraine had begun.

Sarah punched me in the head, and my hand instinctively slashed her cheek with its palm knife. She screamed and fell backwards. My head jerked towards Rhys, who was grabbing his gun. Before he could fire, I tackled him to the ground, and I felt my hand try and stab down into his head, but he grabbed it. I tried to resist the mind control, but it was harder now. My other hand punched the back of my other, and the knife went directly into his eye. Rhys let out a blood curdling scream, and I tried desperately to pull my hand out as my head felt like it was full of lava.

I then felt a burning feeling in my back. Sarah had tased me. My body started vibrating violently, but not before I pulled my palm knife out of Rhys’s eye socket, as he let out an equally disturbing scream.

I fell onto my side and my body pulsed violently. In my peripheral vision, I saw Sarah grab Rhys’s gun. I tried to tell her to stop, but she was pointing the thing at me.

Rhys cried out “STOP!!” while clutching his now empty socket. Sarah shouted back at him “WHY! Think of how much death this guy has caused! Now I’m gonna do what I should’ve done 5 months ago!”

My hand grabbed her gun and pulled it downwards, causing Sarah to flinch and fire a shot. My other hand delivered a gut punch, then stood up, grabbed her entire body and threw her into a pillar. I heard something metallic (probably her spine implant) break as he grunted loudly.

My hand took the gun from hers, and aimed it at her head. I tried all I could to move it away, but my migraine just got worse. I then did something really stupid.

I pointed the gun at myself.

Using all of the energy I could muster, I used my other hand to grab the one still being controlled, and pointed the gun at my neck. 

“You’re not in control!” I bellowed. “I AM!!!”

Then I heard a gunshot and a metallic clank. From the back of my head. The migraine stopped. I felt my body stop running automatically.

I was free.

I held my hands up and shouted “Wait! He’s not controlling me.”

“Throw your gun away.” Said Rhys.

I did, and turned around.

“How do I know your not lying?” he said. He was holding my gun in one hand, and was covering his eye with the other. The bullet had only disabled the machine, and hadn't harmed be in any way.

“Because otherwise, Sarah would be dead.”

He seemed to take my word, and threw his gun down.

I heard Sarah behind. She cursed under her breath about her back.

I couldn’t think of anything to say other than “Sorry.”

“No… no it's alright.” She said. “You didn’t do it and… I’ll live.”

I heard Lilian let out a muffled laugh.

At that moment, I was glad that I wasn’t being controlled anymore, but also, I felt… clueless. I’d just stabbed someone in the eye and broken someone’s back, and now… I had no idea what to do.

It looks like Unger’s plan hadn’t worked entirely. The eggshells where still here.

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“Well.” Rhys said. “We should probably head back to the hospital.”