CHAPTER TWO

2112 CE

The heart monitor underscored the solemnity in his voice. “It was the best day of my life. Before it became the worst.” 

Julian Nassar leaned back into his inclined medical seat. I watched the blood flow from his arm into the intricate tubing that collected the inner matter of our subjects directly into our processing machinery. It was a cold, inhuman room but I felt at home in it. That’s what bothered me the most. How did this man make me feel at home in a place like this?  

“I’d been waiting to join the Special Forces my entire life. This meeting was supposed to be…I don’t know. A moment of triumph. And he was supposed to be there, that’s what got to me. He’d only been called away at the last minute on assignment. And he never came back.” Julian winced, as I paused the blood processing system to run a check on his vitals. “My father had been in the line of fire his entire life, but he still felt invincible to me. He had been my mentor. My rock. He always made sure I didn’t feel less than because my mom wasn’t around…” 

Check-up cleared, I restarted the machine. Each day in this first phase, our Sigma 3 program drew a specified amount of blood from our test subjects. Phase two then involved introducing our special genome sets into the cells, before phase three placed the altered cells back into the body of the subject. It was arduous, but Julian never complained. In fact, the whole thing made him more open and vulnerable than I had ever expected from our head of security, a man otherwise defined by his fortitude and sense of duty. 

“I never found out what happened. The details were buried in some black ops file somewhere, way above my clearance even by the time I made Captain. The men who served with him told me it was a worthy death, but…” Julian’s eyes found my own. He cracked a sad smile. “Sorry, I’m blathering on here, aren’t I? You’re not my therapist.” 

“No, it’s…it’s fine. Whatever helps keep your mind occupied.” I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to tell him how right he was, to have held so tightly to his father’s love. The way that Julian spoke about his father endeared him to me. While he’d had one parent, at least, that lack still ached within his heart. The same pain that I had often felt in my darkest nights. 

Until the Keepers had found me.

And the Keepers, I tried to remind myself, were why I knew Julian Nassar at all. That was why I sat by his side. Not to connect with him, but to study him. To learn why my handlers thought he was so important. 

Why his blood was important.

Julian was drawn back into the past. “I served my time, but…my passion was gone. It was Barclay who convinced me to look into Sigma. Sorry, like you know him, I mentioned the two of us had played football together in undergrad—“ 

I answered too quickly, embarrassing myself. “And you were both in officer school together, sure. I remember. You told me at our last session.”

Julian held my look until I turned back to my instrument panel, hoping I wasn’t flushed red. What the hell was wrong with me? 

“That’s right. Good memory. Anyway, it felt like Sigma might be a chance to move beyond the morass that consumed the Federation and geopolitics and everything else. I’m just a grunt, really, but if I can be useful here?” Julian gestured around at the equipment. “That’s gotta be worth something, right?” 

The flow of his blood slowed, as that deep intimate red was whisked up into the impersonal machinery I ran for my superior, Dr. Clive Cullin. “We can only hope.” 

“I appreciate you putting up with me, Doc.” 

I blanched at the formality. 

“Sorry,” he responded. “I should say doctor.” 

“No,” I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve never felt any variation of the term really fit me.” 

“Hey, you put in the time. ” he winked. “That’s why you still gotta call me Captain, even though I’m technically your patient.” 

I wasn’t a fool. I knew sly flirtation when I saw it. And I knew how to cautiously defuse it. But with Julian, that carefully programmed process always seemed to glitch. In the close quarters of the processing room, it was like the two of us were cocooned together in a liminal world, both toeing the edge of some unspoken cliff. 

But if I leapt, I feared the abyss that awaited me below. 

“Well, Captain, you’re all done for the day. Thanks again for your patience.” I buttoned my attitude back into its most professional form as I unhooked him. My fingers brushed the tender skin of his inner arm when I removed the needle. Our eyes flicked toward one another yet again. Like instinct. 

I turned away. “I’ll let you collect yourself.” 

“Same time tomorrow?” His tone almost seemed sad. I realized that I had never let him properly finish his story about his father’s death. But it was too late now. I half turned around and nodded before I fled the scene. 

That evening, alone in my studio stacked deep within the dense, interior honeycomb cityscape of Sigma Central, I dialed into my transmitter. 

SUBJECT NASSAR nears completion of Phase Two. 

He has been cleared by Cullin for the experimental RRG Genome Set.

No further anomalies of note detected. 

After encoding and sending my latest message, I fell back into bed, thoroughly exhausted from what had been an eighteen hour shift. The time I had volunteered to assist with the test subjects was wearing me down, but it was essential that I keep up appearances. Julian was the only subject in which the Keepers were interested, but our Sigma 3 program had a whole fleet of subjects being prepped for genome set interaction. 

I had been at Sigma 3 for a year at this point. While my injuries from Los Angeles still flared with pain on occasion, I was grateful that I had not failed my handlers too catastrophically in my prior mission. I would stop at nothing to ensure no such failure occurred again. And just in case such an opportunity dropped another F5 tornado in my lap, I had made sure to incorporate plenty of appropriate knowledge into my arsenal. I promised myself that I would not be taken off guard again. 

The Keepers had me placed as a research associate beneath Dr. Clive Cullin, a brilliant but anxious prodigy within the Sigma apparatus. Sigma 3 was devoted to revolutionary genetic studies, intended to strengthen both the greater biome and the human body itself in the face of the Brink. Cullin’s genome set project was an ambitious bid to hijack human DNA and accelerate its development within living subjects. 

That would be Julian’s fate, as a subject for the Recovery Rate Genome, or RRG. As he was already a powerful physical specimen, such an enhanced genome could potentially turn him into an unstoppable operative. But that’s not why he was selected. 

I chose Julian because his initial blood test revealed something to the Keepers. Something unknown even to me. As I started work under Cullin and began processing applicants for his program, the Keepers’ instructions were to spirit away microsamples of each person’s blood. These were a collection of some of the greatest minds and most accomplished soldiers, astronauts, and pilots in the Federation. I thought many were surely viable–hell, it wouldn’t have surprised me if there were adherents of the Code somewhere at Sigma Central. But the Keepers sought something infinitesimally smaller. Some biological or genetic signal that only they knew of… 

At least I finally knew that Enoch wasn’t a vampire. My childhood rival Scotty had been one such selection, chosen for this genetic marker. They were searching for something specific and now I was chosen to help them seek it out. 

When only one sample came back positive–the blood of Sigma 3 Security Chief, Julian Nassar–the Keepers passed to me the next stage of my mission. I urged Cullin to enroll Julian in the Genome Set program. Right away, I could tell that he was reluctant to do so. Cullin and Julian shared a bond, and he might not want to put a friend at risk.

Luckily, I had cultivated a friend of my own in Marilyn Sumner. Cullin’s partner in both research and love, she was a woman of startling vitality. She reminded me of my childhood friend Kate, though even Kate lacked Marilyn’s sly charisma. Cullin had only made his name with Marilyn’s help, as his advocate who helped justify the exorbitant costs of his research by selling them as the keys to saving our future. It certainly helped that her family background was enmeshed with the world of the elite, giving her a direct line to the decision makers at Sigma. “The top brass,” Marilyn teased late one night over drinks. “I think they have a crush on me.” 

But Marilyn’s devotion was to Clive Cullin alone. It amazed me, her faith in a man whom otherwise seemed slightly feeble and despairing, despite his sizable stature and impressive intelligence. 

“We all need someone to believe in us, Lilla.” 

I shrugged at Marilyn’s suggestion. “I’ve done well enough on my own.” If the look she gave me could kill…

Did I really believe that? Do I still? It was Marilyn who forced me to confront the inarguable fact that I was alone. Maybe you don’t believe me, but it was never something I had given much thought to before this point. And it was Julian’s face who kept appearing in my mind, unprompted. I could tell myself it was because he was my mission.

That Subject Nassar was a man loyal to the cause. That he loved and missed his parents, concealing a wounded heart. That he was an American of the twenty-second century–with Arabic, Spanish, and English in his background. Culturally he was raised as a Muslim but he put little stock in any holy book. He preferred his gut instincts. 

I could tell you that I memorized all of these things simply because the Keepers asked me to.

But that would be a lie. 

Already three sheets to the wind, Marilyn stood up from her collection of records with a look of triumph. “You’ve seriously never heard Earth, Wind, & Fire?” 

I watched the expression on Daniel Reed’s stony face remain defiantly unchanged. “No.” Reed was our dedicated neurosurgeon in Sigma 3, a man in his early thirties who thought he was wiser than everyone else in the world, and who looked down upon Cullin’s dalliances in other fields such as quantum physics. Reed was also a man who never looked at me at all. 

Marilyn was so full of jubilance that even Reed’s dour nature couldn’t keep her down today. She spun the record and danced her way over toward me as I awkwardly made conversation with Cullin. “You’re a lucky man, doctor.”

“Don’t I know it.” Assured of so little, our fearless leader did seem to grasp enough gratitude for his union with Marilyn earlier that day. Attended only by myself and Julian, who had procured rings made of meteorites–how does he do it?–my heart felt so full for my friend as the sun set and she became forever bound to the man she loved. We were now all gathered in the apartment she shared with Cullin, with a fantastic view of the Great Plains–though it looked more like an endless sea this late in the night. 

Marilyn swung herself into Cullin’s arms, alleviating me of the need to make further small talk with the man. Unlike Reed, he seemed to respect my capabilities, but there was little else to talk about. I still felt a deep insecurity about my guarded secrets and Cullin lacked the empathetic drive to plunge any deeper into what makes Lilla tick. That was fine with me. 

But as I stepped away from them, I nearly spilled my drink onto Julian’s high-end suit. He claimed it was an heirloom from his father, lovingly tailored and restored each year. Such an old style should’ve made him look like a little boy playing dress up, but no, like everything else…Julian Nassar made it work with effortless aplomb. His perfection annoyed me. At least that was one word for the sensation. 

“Sigma 3 sure gets rowdy, huh? Even my favorite doctor’s looking tipsy.” 

Clearly a joke, as most of the scientists milled about, intermittently grooving to the music. 

“I can hold my liquor, Captain.” 

“Well I know a few drinking games if that’s how you like to roll.” 

I usually tried to avoid Julian outside of our sessions in blood processing, but he wasn’t wrong. I was a little drunk and just a look into his eyes brought my anxiety over our last meeting to the surface. “I’ve been meaning…to apologize. I felt that I was rude to you a few days ago. You were talking about your father but I never let you finish.”

Julian waved it off. “Please. I’m a blabbermouth. You’re not paid to listen to me.”

Oh, how wrong he was. “But that wasn’t nothing,” I reassured him. “To be honest, it was refreshing. I find it difficult to talk about personal matters.” 

Julian raised his eyebrows, obviously inebriated himself. “Maybe it’s because you use words like personal matters.” 

“Okay…” I blushed. Damn it. “What word would you suggest?”

“I dunno, maybe…my shit. My baggage. My crazy, twisted childhood. Things like that. Helps you blend in with the cool kids. Sound all mysterious.” 

A few minutes later, we had found a corner away from all the noise seated closely together. Somehow, without my noticing it, Julian turned the tables on me. “Anyway, I bet your story is more interesting than mine. No matter how many people I ask…you remain an enigma, Lilla.” It was unusual for me to be caught off guard. I realized how much I had let myself slip before him. I considered taking out my pendant, closing my eyes, and steadying myself. Shutting myself off from him until he stepped away. Until he saw that I was something he would not be able to fully understand. 

But instead, I swallowed the last of my champagne and told him some truth. Regardless of the danger, I wanted him to know more. Everything. But that was impossible. So these words would have to suffice. “I was raised in an orphanage.” In my experience, I had found that the truth sometimes repelled interest from potential suitors. Even the ones who supposedly wanted to hear it. Maybe Julian would be the same. Maybe that would protect me from the way he made me feel. 

And he did sit back in his seat, trying to find some semblance of sobriety in which to seriously consider what I’d told him. But he didn’t get up. He didn’t run away. No. He asked me a question. 

“What was that like?” He wanted to know more. 

Over the next two hours, I told him what I could about the HAST. About our unique upbringing. My friend Kate. My teacher Devi. And before I could catch myself, I told him about the Code.

“Wait, I’ve heard of the Code…that’s the Velari, right?” 

I was always taken aback whenever someone else brought up the Velari. Of course, they were an international society of adherents, far from underground, yet the Code and all it meant held such a deep, private meaning for me. 

“So…your teacher inducted you into a cult?” He must have seen the offense on my face. “I mean, like a good cult! Right?”

“Ha-ha,” I deadpanned with a grin. I explained to Julian how few other adherents I had ever actually met in my life. “Devi wasn’t deeply involved with the Velari beyond the Home, but I suppose one of them must have inducted her as she inducted me. I’ve only ever met one other member of the Velari outside of Devi.”

“And who was that?”

Shit. Nice one. “I didn’t know him well. Just in passing.” I took the pendant’s chain from beneath the neckline of my dress. “He had this too. And…he knew the words.”

“What words?” When I met his eyes again I saw that he was genuine, the mirth fading beneath something else. Curiosity. True interest. 

“...good ones,” I said. “About capability. Improvement. Strategy. The pursuit of knowledge. And that…we are always stronger together. For a long time, I guess I’ve felt alone in that sense…but maybe we’re not so rare after all.” 

“Mhm,” Julian nodded, agreeing with me. Our heads nearly touching now, dipped low in the quiet induced by our unconscious feelings. “Maybe we just have to find each other.” 

I kissed him. So I wouldn’t have to think through the implications. So I wouldn’t speak. There was something blasphemous about this sudden claim to me, of…our equality. But what shocked me most was how obviously true it was. We had found each other. 

Now who would we become? 

Testing of Clive Cullin’s first genome project took place last night.

Subject: Dr. Daniel Reed

Hazardous procedure. Results still unknown.

I felt the weight of sleep upon me, a specter leaning on my back, but I took another sip of coffee and hid my transmitter away. The Sigma Mu mess hall was quiet and empty. This experimental wing was where the patented genomics of Cullin’s program were stored and administered, alongside many other speculative risks that Sigma bet huge sums of their budget upon in either scientific ambition or blind hope. I don’t think any of us knew what we truly believed at the time. All was in flux. Anything was possible. 

And yet Daniel Reed remained unresponsive in the surgery hall. Our Sigma 3 project’s future hung in the balance. The Mind Enhancement Genome was meant to unlock the limits of Reed’s intelligence and empower his full potential–but when the activation vessel was opened, Reed did not move. His eyes were open in a wide stare, yet they eventually started blinking and rapidly shifting, as if he was in a REM state while partially awake. His brain scans were troubling and a medical team was prepared to induce coma should his condition remain in this state for much longer. Cullin’s hypothesis held that the long treatment process would have reduced risk at this final stage, but that’s the problem with theory– it does not always bear out. 

For three hours, we had sat vigil over Reed from the observation room: myself, Marilyn, and Cullin. Cullin had finally persuaded Marilyn to take a break, as she had a meeting on the upper levels later that day. “This is my responsibility. My cross to bear.” Cullin turned away from her when he spoke those words, looking instead to me. I refrained from telling Marilyn of the fear I saw in her husband’s eyes. There was no reason all of us should reside in such tortuous ambiguity. 

With Marilyn gone, Cullin told me to take my own coffee break. He probably sought a moment alone in which to completely lose his cool so I graced him with the chance. When I’d reached the mess hall to take his prescribed break, I saw the early shift of the developmental weapons lab pass me by and realized it must be dawn. 

There were no windows here, buried beneath Sigma Central. Mu was an isolated facility that could only be reached by a deep underground rail system hidden within one of Central’s towers. There were two exits, one at either end of the facility which stretched horizontally. These security checkpoints were monitored by the Mu AI, a limited digital entity that maintained the secrecy of this place, missing from any and all Sigma blueprints. Hidden from prying eyes.

Except for mine, I suppose. 

For those whose projects brought them to Mu, we each received a keycard that provided access to our assigned lab–and our lab alone. Only security leads were given the module that communicated directly with the AI, allowing them access to all rooms. This also meant that any time I wanted to enter or leave, it was Julian who escorted me. 

Technically, I wasn’t allowed to speak of the gritty details of our project–even though Julian himself was a subject for our Recovery-Rate Genome set. One might imagine him nervous, but you would be wrong. He remained collected as always. I couldn’t yet tell if it annoyed or impressed me, but he was consistent. Even in the few moments when we could steal away together, he was a calming presence. I realized how vulnerable his state of being made me. I was lulled into a place without discipline, where my words were not chosen carefully but freely given, be they about my lonely years as I worked for my PhD or the arduous recovery I made in the wake of the Los Angeles storm. All of my lowest moments were met by his careful eyes and gentle touch. 

But Julian wasn’t with me. He lay in our lab at the opposite end of Mu, undergoing the second phase of preparation for his future RRG test. I wasn’t able to sit with him as I had been needed during the Reed test. The second phase of the genome injection process was more invasive, so Julian was put under–and thus had no idea of the emergent situation suddenly on our hands. His sub-lieutenant Jacobs was currently in possession of Julian’s security module.

I got up from my table at the mess and disposed of my trash into the automated compactor. As it chirped at me, I walked away and turned on my comms. 

“Hi, Dr. Pearson, apologies for the bother…” I buzzed to the transfusion lab. “I’m checking in on Julian Nassar’s progress.”

Dr. Pearson’s empathetic but direct response was as expected. “He’s fine, Lilla. Don’t let the situation with Reed freak you out. Julian’s signs are all positive, we’ve got about an hour to go. Now go tell Cullin to do some yoga or something. Science always has its risks.”

I paced the mess hall after Pearson cut the line. I kept seeing Julian’s smile as he laid back into the chair and the drugs made his eyes heavy. Not a trace of concern to be seen.

“Aren’t you…nervous?” I had taken him aside before I left the observation room. “You have a different genome set swirling in your system, but…” 

“I trust you. I trust Clive.” Julian shrugged. “At least, I better. Because whatever comes, I’m next on the menu.” 

Only hours later, I realized that I actually missed him. How ridiculous was I? Even when I took hold of my pendant and tried to seek momentary peace, Julian was there too. In my safe haven, as if that was where he had always been, just out of sight.

I raised my comms again. “Jacobs, come in.” No answer. “Jacobs?” I exited the mess hall and turned down the hall toward our transference lab. My steps echoed through the emptiness. Irrationally, my heart beat faster. Or was it something else? A sense of what lay around the corner… 

By the time I turned into the lab, my instincts were fully coiled, luckily enough. As it often does in events of high adrenaline, the surreality of the violence played out in slow motion. Jacobs was stumbling backwards, a surgical tool jammed into his neck, blood spurting. The first cacophonous boom took him in the chest and Jacobs crumpled–revealing Reed, gun raised. A laugh escaped from him, full of surprise and horror. 

In split seconds, I mapped out my motions and took action, diving forward as Reed fired again. The bullet caught my shoulder, only flesh, barely missing my clavicle. The force and surprise were enough to send me sideways. 

And that gave Reed the time to level his gun on me properly. 

“Hello Lilla. If it’s any consolation for Jacobs, I did take him by surprise.” Despite the quiet smile on Reed’s face, there was something deeply wrong about him. Small micro adjustments to his stance and his eyes–still flickering like they had when he wouldn’t wake up. As if he was seeing things that no one else could.

In the corner of the room, I spotted Cullin’s legs sticking out from behind the activation vessel itself. 

“He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re wondering. I waited for Clive specifically to come check on me. I knew it would take some time to get him out from behind that observation glass, but once he was alone in there…he entered the lab and leaned down close. I took him around the neck. A choke hold. I learned that in high school gym, can you believe it?”

“Believe it or not, I can.” It was too much to even take seriously. Reed wasn’t a murderer. He was an arrogant asshole, certainly, but he had passed all the mental health evaluations to reach this point. “You killed Jacobs.”

“He walked in as I let Clive down easy over there. I told him our great leader was in trouble and Jacobs rushed right over.” As Reed gestured, I noticed that he held something in his other hand. Julian’s security module. “As soon as Jacobs turned his back, I plucked up the blade and it was as simple as that. I slipped the gun from his belt as he stumbled back. It’s funny. I was acting…on instinct. It felt…incredible. Though…” Reed softened as he looked at Jacobs’ fallen form. “Jacobs didn’t deserve to suffer. One of the few here who don’t.” 

From his tone, I gauged that I was one of many who did. 

Looking back, it was during that particular monologue when I should have struck, but anything’s a risky prospect with a gun to your head. Reed must have sensed something building in me because he just shook his head, leaned back, and plugged the security module into the lab’s command-access port. All of the lights in Sigma Mu shut off, before being replaced by a deep emergency red. 

“Lockdown.” Per Reed’s instructions, the Mu AI was now under his control. Whatever scientists remained were now sealed into their laboratories. All of us under the thumb of a mad man–including Julian, down the hall. Unconscious and unaware. 

“Okay.” My heart rate was steady. This was no time for fear. If Julian’s life was on the line, this was now the most important moment of my life. “Impressive. Now what the hell are you thinking?”  I tried not to let shame sneak into my voice. Reed had never stood out to me as a threat. I would have known. Should have. Until it struck me. When I finally looked up at him, Reed laughed. 

“Congratulations, Doctor. The treatment worked.” He pointed to a nearby screen. The last scan of his mind before he must have torn free from the activation vessel. It bloomed with wild activity, as if his traditional neural pathways had suddenly been unlocked. It looked like chaos. Like pain. But Reed seemed pleased with himself, despite his twitches and ticks. “I can see it now. What I am truly meant to solve.” 

I scanned the room, but Reed was too far to strike before he could fire. Reed dialed a command into the holoscreen that projected from the module. “The world is ending. Sigma has told us this for our entire lives. And they’re not wrong. That’s why we have handed over to them unimaginable power. Oversight beyond any known before, and secrecy deeper and more tangled than any nation state’s. Here we stand now. Mu marks the spot. Don’t you find it strange, having to lie to people that we see everyday about the existence of this place? Living their lives, believing in the good fight…and yet death brews beneath them. Unbeknownst but inevitable.” 

I snorted in disgust. “We tried to make you functionally more intelligent…guess we overshot the mark and turned you into a philosopher.” 

Reed’s tongue flicked across his upper teeth, before he caught his flare of emotion and tucked it back under control. “I could hear you. All of you. Trying to revive me. Debating what to do with the corpse you’d made. But I was very far away. Time was no longer a constraint to me. I wasn’t sure I would be able to make it back. But once I realized it…I had no choice. This self…this new self. It was created in the black heart of this organization. The organization I dedicated my life to. And now…I’m going to purify it.” 

Purify. For a word built to mean one thing, it often means quite another in practice. 

“The AI will let me into the weapons lab. Do you know what they’ve been developing down there? Multiple weapons with capabilities that could level small cities. Tell me, Lilla, what does that have to do with the Brink? How much of Sigma’s budget is being siphoned for such projects, and…who is really giving the orders? The oligarchs, who want the tools to put down any resistance that rises against them. Who will save our world only to rebuild it in their own image. You can see this too. I know it.” 

It wasn’t that I disagreed about the flaws of the Sigma system–but I knew there was something higher than Sigma. And I was its agent. “You’re slipping, Reed. You’ve experienced a serious neurological trauma. Sit back down in the transference chamber. You haven’t gone too far. Not yet. We can fix this.”

“I agree entirely. That’s exactly what we are going to do.”

“Reed, this is wrong–” 

“Certain means, certain ends. I know you understand what I’m conveying. Lilla, you’ve always been a strange one. But it wasn’t until today that the pattern began to emerge. The depth of your lies. This facade you wear. I know you can’t imagine this, but the way I see the world now…is from a dimension higher than our own. I can see around corners of time and possibility, I can mathematically predict with near certainty – ”

It was anger, not instinct, that made me strike out. His bullet landed less than an inch in front of me. Had I not stopped short I would be dead. Reed smiled again. “See? I didn’t even have to think. Isn’t that something?” 

“You are Mu, Reed. Even the fact that you’re doing this–” 

“It proves my point, doesn’t it? We are all Pandora, ever curious. Ever reckless.” 

I was wasting time. He was a lost cause, not worth winning over. I had to pivot. With the AI under Reed’s command, every security system in the facility was now targeting any and every form of life that remained. The workers in the weapons lab. Another secret project across the hall. And Julian, in the phase two transfusion lab. “Fine. We all deserve to die. ” I couldn’t help but make my disdain apparent. What was the point in arguing with a man who knew everything? I had higher priorities now. “I suppose you’ve made that decision for us.” 

“Yes. I have. The name Mu will be known. The weight of this tragedy will make this facility’s secrets–and its dangers–quite evident. I will be despised. You, and the rest, will probably be valorized. But the truth will be released. And then…the people can decide for themselves what’s worth preserving. And what must be excised.” Reed took careful aim at me. “You’re not a bad person, though you are a mysterious one. I should kill you now. Almost certainly that would be cleaner. But…” Something struggled to the surface of that broken man. Whatever humanity was left. “I must admit I do not want to be alone in this endeavor.”

It arose in my mind quite easily. The Keepers needed Julian. Therefore, in this moment, he was everything I needed to save. Even if it meant every other life in this lab. Even if it meant my own. “You’re going to the weapons lab.”

Reed considered me. Nodded his assent. “There’s a way that all of this ends without unnecessary pain.” He flicked his gun, ordering me up on my feet. I followed him, relaxing my musculature and trying to show him–I give up. 

Reed dialed in a final order at the command port, removed Julian’s security module, then pointed me toward the door–as it slid back open. The hall was empty, quiet as a tomb and lit with the red glow. I exited and Reed followed. “So what happens next?” I asked directly. 

“They’ve developed one chemical compound that reacts with another. An aerosol. Together, they turn oxygen into an instant furnace. A wild inferno that reacts ever outward, igniting the atmosphere for up to a mile and a half as long as traces of the aerosol are present. And that’s just what they’ve managed so far.”

A chill settled over me. The air suddenly weighted with new context.

“From the weapons lab, we can unseal the internal doors of Mu, but leave the perimeter checkpoints secure. The aerosol will spread and stop at those boundaries. Then all we do is ignite the compound and…” 

“I get the picture, thanks.” If there was any leniency left within Reed’s distorted mind, now was the time to move. “I don’t like arguing with zealots. Clive, me, the weapons researchers…sure. Our minds created dangerous contingencies. Like you.” 

“As I stated. I cannot be allowed to survive. I see that much quite clearly. You recognize brutality in my choice, but this is compassion for the world.” 

“You judge us unworthy. Fine. But Julian’s not like us.”

“Julian?” Reed’s confident steps faltered for just a moment, but I caught it. 

Everybody loved Julian, even the prickly Dr. Reed. I think he always wanted to impress him. Boys playing amongst the jungle gym of the masculine hierarchy, the same as it ever was. “He’s undergoing his phase two injections on the opposite side of the facility. The transfusion lab.” 

“...I…wasn’t aware of that.”

“It’s why Jacobs was on duty. You would have had to put a bullet in Julian’s heart instead.”

Reed cringed at the memory. “Jacobs was a necessary price. He didn’t deserve it.”

“And here you go. If Mu has to go up in flames–if all of our minds are too ambitious and unconstrained–there’s still one undeserving person left in the crossfire.” 

“Hm…” 

“He’s the type of person Sigma actually needs. That the world needs. He’s not creating weapons. He’s not playing God. He’s trying to help people do the right thing, even if…he can’t see the greater context. Or the lurking shadows. If you won’t spare the rest of us…please. Spare him.”

Reed slowed. He wanted me to turn and face him. “Tell me the truth, Lilla. For once. Tell me why you truly want him to live.” 

I felt the hot tear fall down my face, wishing Reed couldn’t see it. Wishing he couldn’t see me. He didn’t deserve it. He hadn’t earned the right. “Because I love him.”

“See? Honesty. That’s what we need to bring back to Sigma. To the world. If I grant your request…you walk side-by-side with me into the lab and help me do what I need to. Is that a deal?”

I swallowed the hot hatred in my throat. “Yes. That’s a deal.” A deal with the devil I helped make. We neared the weapons lab. 

Reed scanned the stolen security module at the panel. The robotic voice of the Mu AI greeted him. “Authorized security personnel.” The doors ground open. A terrible scent emerged from within. Smoky. Raw. Desperate. Even Reed hesitated. 

The fruit of your labors, I thought, but kept it to myself. He must have ordered the purge back in the transference lab. Only the aftermath remained. Reed and I walked into hell.

It was dark within the weapons lab, the emergency lights illuminating a trail deeper inside. Shaped like an oval, the lab surrounded a central atrium lowered one floor down. That was the workshop, divided from us by a rounded wall of glass, where Reed’s hated tools of death were built. 

Soon we saw the bodies, strewn through this upper level. The terrible whine of the mechanized security turrets still growled like feral animals as they scanned the space for further threats. 

“You’re cleared for passage, unless I give the order,” Reed told me. “But stay in my line of sight.”

I stepped over a body–no, a person. Still breathing. Barely. A wheeze, their eyes empty as they stared at whatever awaited on the other side of life. “Okay. But you fulfill your end of the bargain now.” I pointed to the nearest command access point. “I want to know Julian’s lab is safe from what comes next.” 

Reed was a man of his word. I watched on the holoscreen as he unlocked every door within Mu, except for Julian’s. 

“The air supply. Put it on the backup system,” I ordered. “I don’t want it connected when you flood the floor.” 

Reed nodded. “Yes, yes, I know…” Like he was annoyed with my petty thoughts. So far behind his evolutionary curve. He accessed the weapons lab’s particular system and routed a tank full of their experimental aerosol into the general air filtering system of the facility. “It will take a few minutes to fully saturate. But Julian’s room is secure. The rescue workers from above will find him…safe and sound. He’ll awaken from his slumber…” Reed eyed me. “And know that it was you who must have saved him. Does that make your heart flutter, Lilla?” 

No, but it lifted the weight from my shoulders. My contingency was in place. I pointed down to the floor below. “The chemical station. I see it. I’ll keep you company, Reed, but let’s not get too chatty, shall we?” 

I edged close to the burning center of his rage, but he contained it. I could tell he was still buzzed by the velocity of his own thoughts. Distracted only for a few milliseconds at a time, but I was almost sure–the hinges were well and fully off now. 

We approached the doorway that led down into the workshop. Reed scanned his module and it opened. “Ladies first.” 

I descended, taking my time. Not because I was nervous–but focused. I scanned the room. I saw where the chemical compounds awaited, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. 

Reed sniffed the air. “I think…I can smell it. It’s light. But yes…almost like…pine trees.” 

I encouraged his wandering mind. “Did you grow up near them?” I stepped down into the workshop. Reed was a few steps behind. 

“No, but I always loved them. My parents took me once, on vacation. To the Olympic Mountains.” While I had stopped in place, Reed moved past me. He pocketed his module and lowered his gun, confident that the turret above was defense enough. 

One word, Lilla. Remember. That’s all he needs. 

Reed approached the chemical compound station. He browsed their labeling. He pointed to a small flask of emerald liquid. “This is it…” 

I breathed in. Thought of Devi. Of Julian. Of the future I still wanted. I moved counter to Reed, edging out of his sightline. My adrenaline finally kicked in. The seconds slowed. Reed wasn’t wrong. This was it, the moment that truly counted. My vision shook. I thought the world might be beginning to come loose. I heard a rattling, like screws falling from their place, dry and sharp. Deeper in my mind, I heard the roar of the F5 tornado that had nearly consumed me years before. 

But no, what I actually heard was human whimpering. Under his blood red spotlight, Reed twitched, almost convulsive as hollow sobs issued from him. “We never know what we are inside. That’s the tragedy of it. My entire life, I felt like no one understood me. But no…it’s worse. I never even understood myself. Isn’t that right? We don’t know what we’re capable of.” 

“Maybe you don’t know. But I do.” My hand finally dropped to my pocket, where I concealed the slight weight I had been hoping Reed wouldn’t notice. He wasn’t entirely wrong in his apocalyptic worldview. I loved Julian, and he loved me, but there were things that he didn’t know. Like this. 

I took out my own Mu security module, cloned from Julian’s months ago. Reed opened his mouth, trying to remember the word he was supposed to use that would turn the turret’s deadly armaments upon me–but he was too late. I slammed my module into this floor’s command access port on the wall. “Override prior command point. Checkpoint lockdown, emergency control required.”

“No - !” Reed croaked, as he flung out his own hand for the emerald flask. 

“Threat detected. Daniel Reed.” 

The turret smoothly swung away from me and blasted a single round into Reed’s head. My first kill, with a trigger pulled by an automated finger. 

Reed fell against the chemical station, and the volatile flask was knocked loose–wobbling toward the edge of the table. I dove forward, over Reed’s fallen form, and snatched the flask before it smashed against the ground. 

I held the flask close, cradling it like the precious commodity it was. I examined Reed. His eyes were wide. Awestruck, as if he had finally caught sight of that hidden god which compelled him to madness. My first kill, it seemed, was a merciful one.

So yes, Daniel Reed was right. Death was here today. But forgiveness was too. 

And love. As the end results of our first genome project bled out across the floor, my thoughts were only of Julian. 

I purged the air system of the experimental aerosol and erased all logged security footage before relinquishing control of Sigma Mu. I called in the emergency and went to sit by Julian’s side in the transfusion lab–in the same chair where I had spent hours getting to know him in the first place. 

When his heavy eyes slowly opened, he smiled. But then the checkpoints opened and the entire wing was stormed by Sigma military police. 

I was the only one who could tell the whole story. And here it was:

The MEG procedure went terribly wrong. Dr. Daniel Reed lost his mind–yet at the same time gained a highly advanced and dangerous coordination between his brain’s accelerated inner workings and his physical responses. In a sense, Cullin’s theory had been right–but we had not anticipated the paranoia that overtook Reed. 

After killing Jacobs and taking control of the AI, Reed took me hostage. I hewed close to the truth. Reed was still human. He needed company in his terrible deed, so convinced that the fate of the world rested on the destruction of Mu. In the end, I was only able to overtake Reed and take back control of his stolen module by chance alone–and the flaws of an egotist’s genetically enlarged ego. Although his mind’s processes had greatly increased, it also led to a fast burnout. 

“I’ve learned from experience–those who think too much often don’t pay much attention to the world around them,” I reported when it came to my triumph. “And Reed had never paid me much mind at all.” 

My version of events was accepted by Sigma’s top brass. The Keepers received a fuller portrait of the truth. My handlers even offered me a rare commendation for so deftly and selflessly ensuring the safety of Subject Nassar. 

But there was only one person I truly cared about convincing. Only one I feared might question my story.

Once we were both cleared by medical, Julian and I returned to my small apartment. I wanted him to come to bed, but he waved me off. “I’ll be there soon.” While I got settled, Julian remained on his tablet. I couldn’t read his expression, only his focus illuminated by the bright light of the screen. 

Finally, he came to bed. “What were you doing?” I asked.

“I checked the Mu security admin logs. I noticed an inconsistency.”

I waited for him to go on. 

“When you took back control of the module from Reed…the serial number logged as the administrator isn’t right.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not the number assigned to my module.”

I kept quiet. Playing possum, I suppose. 

“Each module issued has a unique identifier. It should be recorded into the system log each time it’s used, regardless of the user. When Reed took command, it was my module. When he issued the order to…execute the researchers in the weapons lab…that was my module too.” Julian finally looked directly at me. “When he ensured my lab was sealed off from the air filtering system…that was the same module. But when the turret turned against him…when you took back control…”

“I’m telling you the same thing I told them down there. Reed was distracted. I went for his pocket. I found the module. Whether it was yours or not…I mean, what are you implying?”

We looked at each other in that silent, loaded moment. I waited for it. For it all to fall apart. For his love to fade away. For him to finally see through me. 

But I learned something about Julian that night. I learned that with his love came his trust, the unconditional kind. I learned that this was what I respected about him most–and that it was his greatest vulnerability too. Because at that moment, when only a few more tugs of the thread could have unwound my story, the only thing Julian Nassar did was lean forward, take me into his arms, and kiss me. 

“I don’t care how you did it. But you saved us, Lilla. You saved my life.”