Matilda’s own reaction to the new domain is suitable, concise and succinct. “Whoa.”
James points to the structure in the distance.
“Can you teleport us closer to… that?”
Matilda puts out her hand and strains. Nothing happens.
“I… I can’t. It’s like this place is… I don’t know… apart from the System, or something.”
James frowns at this information. He glances at Matilda, and notes that the troubling red glow has left her eyes.
“Well, close enough, I guess. Let’s just take it one step at a time.”
Matilda laughs. Somehow, it is tinged with a slight sadness.
“Yeah, okay. But let’s pick up the pace, Gramps.”
Step by wary step, they make their way to the bunker in the distance.
At the entrance, they find a misshapen sofa, seemingly made out of the clay-like material. Reclining on the sofa is Donovan Craze. He is flanked by two of his guards. On the ground next to the sofa is the strange pilot’s helmet from Donovan’s menagerie.
Taking notice of Matilda and James, Donovan jumps up and briskly straightens his white suit. Content with his appearance, Donovan slowly claps his hands as the Scry and Taciturn approach.
“Well done. Well done indeed. I’m not going to lie – when you started off, I figured you’d only get through Virginia. Maybe Hank. But all three?” He bows. “You two truly are remarkable.”
Exhausted, James simply points to the golden card around Donovan’s neck.
“Give me your key, Donovan. It’s time to end this.”
Babylon’s ruler pouts theatrically.
“That’s how you greet me? No ‘Hey Donovan, great to see you’? Or, ‘Hey Donovan, thanks for helping me find out who I really am’? For Christ’s sake, I’d settle for a ‘How the hell did you get here before us?’” He kicks the pilot’s helmet, sending it rolling past one of his guards. “God knows I’ve been waiting long enough for you two.”
James reaches for his pistol, but the guards raise their rifles in unison. Donovan smiles and pulls out a strange device from his own jacket. The device crackles and pulses with electricity.
“Easy there, James. You came all this way. It would be a shame to end this before you find out what she really is.”
James slowly moves his hand away from his holster, glancing with confusion at Matilda.
Donovan laughs. He lowers his device.
“Seriously, James. Why do I keep telling people you’re the smart one? Then again, you may have been too busy killing everything in sight to actually stop and think about things for a second.”
James glares at him, at a loss for words.
“I know she has part of the System in her. But that doesn’t change what we came here to do.”
Donovan smirks.
“Is that right?”
He casually gestures to Matilda with his weapon.
“Did you know her name real name is Alice? Alice Burrow?”
The unbridled shock on James face can’t be hidden. It only makes the smile on Donovan’s face widen.
“Yes, James. Alice Burrow. Beloved daughter of Johnathan Burrow – the head, founder and CEO of Fall Water Lake. Everyone’s boss, at one point. Didn’t it seem a little too coincidental that we all had some information on her? Some random Scry from the wastes? Jesus, James. You worked at the company. How much of the past do you try to forget?”
Before James can scrape together any kind of a comeback, Donovan continues. “You remember, right? His poor girl getting hit by car, and Jonathan disappearing for months? All the rumors that he went crazy and locked himself in his house? You can imagine how surprised we were at the board meeting, when he finally turned up with his concept for a virtual world that humans could transfer their minds to. We all thought it was brilliant. He left out the part about him doing it to try and save his daughter.”
Matilda speaks in a cracked, sad whisper.
“But I died. I died that night.”
Donovan gives a sneer.
“Oh, honey. I know you don’t remember your dad, but I sure do. He had enough money to do whatever he wanted. Keeping you alive was one of them. Sure, you were in a coma, but your neurons were still firing away in that little head of yours. Of course, it was pretty banged up. Technicians said it would need some AI assistance to fill in the gaps. Didn’t matter to old Jonathan. As long as he could pretend to have his daughter back.” Donovan turns to fix his gaze on James. “He made Alice the building block for the entire System.”
James shakes his head.
“I worked on the prototype System. I would have known. I would have seen something…”
A piece of the strange, floating clay travels towards Donovan, and he bats it away.
“Yeah, except you didn’t. And you know, I’ll be honest: Neither did we. Not until right before we transferred into the System. We realized what she was, and what she could do. Jonathan had turned the entire endeavor to save humanity into a goddamned vanity-project for the sake of his daughter. Of course, we tried to delete her from the System, but hell, she is the System. So, we removed what we could before setting ourselves up. We thought we were fine until these pesky manifestations kept popping up, trying to ruin everything. When we understood what they were, we came up with a pact to destroy them. But I started thinking that, with all the keys, maybe I could put an end to it permanently. I wasn’t lying when I said the System wants to get rid of us humans, James. I’m trying to stop it once and for all.”
Matilda looks from James to Donovan, and back to James. She takes a step forward.
“No… I would never do that.”
James takes a step forward himself.
“What do you want, Donovan?”
Frustrated, Donovan points his weapon at the Taciturn’s head.
“I’ve said it from the beginning. Change. I want change. And now we can do it. With all the centers of power down, it’s just Babylon to pick up the pieces. We can finally bring order to the Cyberside.”
He suddenly shifts his aim, pointing the weapon squarely at Matilda.
“Unfortunately, in order to do that, it means I have to say ‘fuck you’ to the System. Regrettably, darling, that means you – and since we’re in this place, and you can’t really stop me—”
Donovan fires his weapon, and a searing bolt of energy strikes Matilda down. James lunges for her, catching her as she falls. Desperately putting a hand to her stomach, he tries to staunch any bleeding, but the ugly wound is already cauterized by the blast.
Matilda’s body shudders in his arms. She grins weakly.
“Don’t worry, Gramps. This is… the way it needs to be. You have to finish what we started… you need to restore it…”
Donovan bellows at her, enraged.
“Restore it? Seriously, fuck you. You have the chance to finally get rid of us all, and you expect us to think you won’t do it?”
Donovan fixes the Taciturn with his pleading stare.
“James, please. I know you like her, I get it, but she’s not real. For Christ’s sake, remember that she’s a Scry. She’s been the one manipulating you this whole time, not me. Not anyone else. This world isn’t as bad as she says it is. We just need to fix some things, and who better than an engineer of your skills? Don’t throw away humanity’s last hope for some stupid computer bitch.”
James grips Matilda’s hand tightly, frantically searching her face.
“Come on, Matilda, hang in there. You can push through this.”
She smiles. It is the same smile she first gave him, back in Homestead.