Clicking heels come to a halt, bare centimeters away. He looms over me like a wrathful deity.
“I was planning to teach him, guide him gradually, give him scenarios with much less destructive goals, allow him the freedom to find himself, understand my plan and embrace it. I was going to let the board think they would always have him on a leash, until we were ready to wield his full power. But you had to interfere, distract him, set him against me… you manipulative little cunt.”
Just another encounter. Another psych-sec. This fucker just has to talk, and that’s keeping you alive. For now. Engage him.
He’s close enough that I try to swipe my hand at him, hook his heel and drag him down, but he steps out of the way easily, my arm flopping weakly across my lap.
“I caught him sneaking around in my archives, doing your work, looking for hidden secrets in the haphoods I designed, designed for him. Looking for gummie bases and… testing mishaps. Looking for things that would embarrass me, give the board another chance to deny me.”
He almost screams the last words, glaring at me. I glare back, but his anger shifts suddenly, tone now gloating.
“Thanks to you, though, his snooping attracted my attention. Gave me a chance to act first. I couldn’t let the board pull the plug, not when we were so close.”
He spits, momentarily distracted.
“They thought they’d control him, pick the targets, declare the attacks. They loved that idea, taking the CCA apart from the inside out, but only if they didn’t risk anything—only if they could sell more trinkets afterward. Cowards. I made sure he dealt with them once they approved the final stages.”
For fuck’s sake, either shoot me or give me a tourniquet. That explains Jase’s last message though.
“Why would Ham kill off the board? Does he even know them?”
He refocuses on me.
“Right now, my son thinks he’s in a Game scenario, one I was forced to design too quickly thanks to the need to rid him of your influence. He’s under attack by the entire planet. Everyone hates him—but I ensure certain enemies are regarded as more dangerous than others. There is no sanctuary to be had but what he makes himself, and he’s fighting to regain control of the scenario. He’s already taken care of the board, and a certain petro rig outfitted with hapchambers. You were lucky to escape.”
Flashes of blood and fire echo through my mind, a charnel house floating above the poisoned sea. Sawyer, gasping out his last breaths.
I wasn’t lucky, I’m the fucking best. Just another encounter. Giving everyone what they want. I feel myself drifting. Focus. Keep him talking. If he’s doing that, he isn’t killing you.
“You fucking animal. You’re turning Ham into a monster.”
I remember reports of disturbances across the globe, socials going crazy over the past couple days, pieces of a puzzle I didn’t know existed finally falling into place.
“Murdering the world, millions of people, and for what?! You’re not saving your son—you’re destroying him. Even the gummies and their ‘savior’ are better than you.”
“You little bitch—how dare you question what I’ve done for my family!”
He gestures with one hand, and another bullet crashes into my leg, barely missing my shin. I hiss at the sudden shock, keeping my screams bottled in. The blank-eyed Gamer gazes dumbly at nothing, pistol steady in his hands.
Shit. He’s going over the edge. He’s going to kill me slowly…
“I have done everything! Sacrificed everything! My son is the future. I have made him the future.”
His breath catches, and he turns away. More blood pulses through my hand, hot, wet, sticky. Throbbing counterpoints beat through my veins.
Not good. You’re losing a lot of blood. Something has to happen. Make something happen.
“The future? An eternity trapped as your slave?”
He ignores me, gazing into the distance.
“His future is… everything.”
“Bullshit.”
Fanatic eyes snap back onto my own.
“He can ghost anything. Anyone, because he has no body to hold him back anymore. A being of pure intellect, untethered by… humanity.”
An ugly intensity enters his eyes.
“He, who has never walked, will now be able to stride the entire globe, using any pair of feet he wishes. He, with his withered fingers, will build an empire, a singular concentration of will and desire, all hands working toward one overarching goal. He will be the guiding light to lift everyone else past their petty grievances and stupidity. He will be perfect. And he will have any woman he wants.”
What an asshole.
I clench my fist.
“I said bullshit. You don’t care about the world. You don’t care about Ham. He’s only perfect if he obeys you.”
“Watch your mouth, bitch.”
So fucking tired of this. So tired of shitty men with shitty dreams.
“Fuck you. He’s your lab experiment. Your invention. Your intellectual property, a twisted silkie bullshit fantasy if I’ve ever heard one!”
His face turns red, but I’m not done.
“You never asked him if this was the future he wanted—if he wanted to be something other than your perfect little soldier. You never stopped to listen, to care. To love him for who he is. And when he found someone who really does love him, you trapped him in a nightmare, one you created. He’ll never forgive you.”
I pound weakly on the dead drone.
“I saw the messages he sent me, begging for help, begging me to stop you. I saw him, in there, thrashing in that tank. He hates what you’re doing, who you are. He told me.”
“You whore!”
He takes a quick step and kicks me in my gunshot leg. I can’t help myself. The pain is too much. I scream. The Gamer twitches, an incongruous ripple passing through his entire body, like stone trying to will itself into life.
“You think you know anything?”
Another kick. Another scream. Another twitch.
“My son will have everything, and he will thank me for it!”
Another kick. My vision grays, and I try not to pass out. Another tremor from the Gamer, feet shuffling minutely side to side.
“I will destroy you… no, I will make him destroy you, and the instant before you die, you’ll realize your ‘love’ meant nothing! That it was never real!”
He kicks me one last time, and I lose track of the world for a moment. When I come to, he’s standing by the brain-addled Gamer, rage-lines still creasing his face. He places a hand on the Gamer’s shoulder.
“You see her? Your greatest rival, the one you were never strong enough to kill? I have made you strong. While she lives, you risk falling to her again. Do what you’ve always wanted to do. Defeat her.”
The Gamer’s finger tightens around the trigger, his body almost vibrating.
Is this finally it? My last encounter? Too bad the stakes were so high. I wish I could at least see the others. Wind. Slend. Brand. I wish I believed the gummies.…