When they get closer, the chair swivels about to reveal Tom Simmons – and James is taken aback by what he sees. Instead of the well-groomed, in-shape, authoritative man from the real world he remembers, a haggard, shaken wreck sits before him. Tired, sunken eyes stare back, bloodshot from lack of sleep. A keycard dangles from his neck, in the wrinkled V of an open shirt covered in dark perspiration stains.
Tom stares emptily at the two of them, without uttering a word. James lowers his gun.
“It’s over, Tom,” James says. “There’s no more need for this.”
Tom’s eyes are reddened and weary, but they stare back in defiance.
“You don’t understand what you’ve done, James. Bringing her here – you’ve doomed us all.”
James looks over at Matilda. She calmly stares back at Simmons and says, “We need the last key, Tom Simmons. Give it to us.”
Simmons stands up from his chair and points at Matilda. James raises his gun, his finger straightened just outside the trigger guard.
“Like I’m going to give the key to the likes of you.”
Tom meets the gaze of his former co-worker, pleading with his fatigued eyes.
“You can’t let this happen, James. Donovan thinks he can control it, but he won’t be able to. If you give her what she wants, everyone loses.”
James takes a step towards him.
“Don’t you mean you’ll lose? I bet you’d say anything to keep your precious Enclave intact.”
Tom’s imploring tone evaporates at once, boiling into seething anger.
“You idiot – you think this is just about me? You troglodytic imbecile. I should have fired you back at Fall Water Lake. All your altruistic ideals, they always clouded your judgment. And now look where it’s gotten us. The fucking System’s avatar is about to collect all the data keys and wipe humanity from existence!”
James stops in his tracks.
“You’re insane, Tom. The paranoia has finally gotten to you. You’ve spent way too much time looking for enemies. Now just give me—”
Tom sweeps the folders, files and cups off his desk with a growl, and again jabs his finger at Matilda.
“Are you seriously this dense? If you don’t believe me, just ask the fucking demon yourself.”
James half-turns to find Matilda studying – analyzing – him with the same unearthly eyes he remembers from the Deep.
“Matilda?” he asks, unable to mask the alarm in his voice.
She smiles slightly.
“He’s right. The stress of the Deep pushed me. Made me understand. The System is part of me, just as I am part of the System. I still don’t understand everything, but that doesn’t change what we set out to do. We’ll get to the Triangle together, and we can reshape the Cyberside into what we want it to be. Something better than all the pointless death and greed we’ve already seen too much of.”
Tom barks out a laugh that borders on hysteria.
“Do you really believe her?! Don’t you get it? She’s a fucking AI! Software that’s manifested by the System to do what it wants – reset everything, but this time without humans. She’ll dump our collective minds in the trash!”
The Taciturn thinks back to the conversation in Babylon. About the System getting out of control. Finding a way to fix itself, after all the countless alterations to its code.
“Even if you think you can do something, James, Donovan’s always been one step ahead of you,” Tom continues. “In the best outcome, you’re just handing the keys over to him.”
Matilda steps away from the desk, examining the data storage racks. “You really think we’d come all this way, just to be stopped by him?”
Tom glares at her. “You think you’re so powerful now, don’t you, ‘Scry’. You think you’re the first of the System’s attempts to change everything? There’ve been plenty before you, and none of them survived. One of us has always stopped you.”
Matilda reaches out to touch one of the servers.
“Yes, you speak the truth. You, Virginia, Donovan, and Hank. You’ve all stopped this before. That is, until one of your own turned on you.”
She turns to face Simmons.
“But I don’t want to kill you, Tom. I just want to fix what you all broke. Give us the key.”
Simmons glares defiantly at her from behind his desk.
“Yeah, sure. Fix us all. You’ll destroy everything that humanity has created!”
James is at a loss for words. He looks from Simmons to Matilda. All he can ask is, “Would you?”
She looks at him. James can tell his question pains her.
“Do you think I would? It’s still me, James. He’s just afraid to lose control. Control these people grabbed for themselves the moment they transferred to the Cyberside, and they’ve never wanted to let go. The System doesn’t want to lose humanity. Without humanity, it has no purpose. But the way things are being run now is not how it was intended to work. Of all people, you should understand that.”
“I tried my best,” Tom says, only adding to James’ confusion. “I hope Donovan will stop you, but if he doesn’t…”
From behind his back, Tom produces a revolver. Wordlessly, James raises his own.
“…know that you did this, James. You doomed humanity to this fate.”
Just before he pulls the trigger, Tom puts the revolver to his own temple. In the dampening hum of the servers, the shot sounds small and pathetic. It sends a jet of data and gore across the grated floor, followed a moment later by the wet, lifeless thud of his body.
The Taciturn lowers his weapon, his mouth open in shock.
From behind him, James gradually becomes aware of a quiet voice. The voice is addressing him.
“You should get his key.”
James feels himself nod, watches himself move towards the body on the floor. His every move seems sluggish.
He searches Tom’s body and finds a keycard on an old lanyard sporting the Fall Water Lake logo. He holds it up without a word.
Matilda nods. “That’s it. We’d better hurry.”
James examines what’s left of Tom’s face.
“We need to find a way out of here, or we’ll have the whole Enclave hunting us.”
Taking his eyes off Tom and turning around, he sees Matilda standing next to a portal.
“Uh… ta-da? Like I said, I’m still figuring things out. But before you say it, yes – this would have been helpful from the get-go.”
James finds a smile within himself. That’s the Matilda he knows. He takes a deep breath, gets to his feet, and moves towards the portal.
They exit into a strange place that feels, and looks, as if it’s stuck between reality and an ill-formed dream. White light shines everywhere, yet casts no shadows. They find themselves on an infinite plane with random blocks of what look like clay floating in the air. Some look like they’ve been worked on heavily, while others have barely been started.
James takes a tentative step. Even the gravity feels wrong, somehow incomplete, and the sounds of his footsteps echo abnormally, inconsistently. In the distance James spots a strange, bunker-like structure. As it is the only building of any description in evidence, he hopes it leads to the end of their journey.