Chapter 22: The Red Pill in Blue

"Miss Louisa?" a small bot approached her from behind. She was lying on her couch within the upper floor of the VR center. Her wig was unadjusted, the bot decided to ignore that. It approached her, picking up on her head as her eyes started to open. She stretched her arms up like a tiger, yawning as she put her feet down. She rubbed her eyes as the bot put the plate with juice on the table. Beside the juice were her pills, the newly designed pills within the labs of Red Tech that stimulated the brain while keeping her focused.

"Miss Rain, it is inadvisable to use the stimulation pills at such a high rate. It will result in--"

"Shut up, go away," Louisa said, pulled her hair to the back as she moved her hand, sending the bot away. The bot's wheels started to turn to the back. Louisa heaved herself off the coach, hit by a sudden weariness that made her stumble on her way to the computer. She tossed a pill inside before following it by the juice. The weariness would clear out, but if only she had known it would not last as long as it was marketed to last. She sat down, her eyes still twitching. Her computer was turned off; she was awed at her own reflection. She put her fingers on the screen. Her face seemed darker; the circles under her eyes resembled training boxing bags. Her face was a lot more wrinkled than before, and her lips dry. Even her prosthetic hair had straps falling off, Red Tech developed a technology to revive the skin and thus make it possible for hair to grow again. Louisa blinked twice, almost about to start laughing.

"Whatever," she said, pressing on the switch button. Instead of a full menu of the users in the VR center, the picture portrayed the fixed face of the blind one.

"Hey Carl," she said, pressing on the microphone button.

"Darling, been a while, hasn't it?" Owinson said. "Oh dear, you aren't looking so well. Been having light sleeps lately?"

"Shut up," she said, lighting the cigarette in between her fingers.

"Oh, and all the pills you picked up from my lab. You sure you're gonna be okay, dear one?"

"I wonder if you thought about my safety when you left me."

"Oh, Louisa I was--"

"Called to a greater calling. I've heard this before. Where are you anyway? It's almost been three months now, we only see you behind a screen."

"Where am I?" Owinson said, pausing with an extended ginger. "I'm not sure that's the right question."

"Eh?"

"Listen, Louisa, I don't mean to waste more of your time. You seem busy and I'm not free myself, so I will get to it. I want you to leave the city, or at least stay away from the family business for a while."

Louisa leaned back on the chair, both eyes widely open. "That's an unusual request."

"I'm serious, Louisa. Whatever is happening right now it is not good, especially for you."

"Why? I'm doing fine right here being the godmother of the Pacific, successor to Theodor Brinkins. We don't have anything specific to worry about, apart from hunting your errand boy. He broke a deal so we'll find him and make him pay. We're not all so… indirect in our approach like you."

"Louisa, listen to me well, I'm not kidding when I tell you that you may die especially if the mob knows the truth about Brinkins."

"How are they gonna do that? Even your errand boy has no proof of it, so I'm not in the danger zone. Of course, unless you decided to turn on me all of a sudden."

"I wouldn't do that. But you have to understand, Roger Garaldson's powers are unpredictable. His problems are with the mob, not you. You can always walk away."

"Oh, I see, now. You, of all people, believe that little worm will bring my downfall? Are you even thinking anymore, Carl? I'm untouchable, there is nothing he can do to bring me down. Besides, if anything happens to me, you'd look after me, right? I know you still like me."

"Liking you is the reason why I'm asking you to step away, but beyond that I can't do anything. I can't stop Roger's progress, it's necessary to the final phase of my plan."

Louisa laughed. "Okay, darling, you and the errand boy keep on doing your little calculations and I sincerely hope your science project works out. Me? I will be right here running the real world. Goodbye, sweetie!" she said before she switched her computer off. She then stood off the chair, walking towards the window with her hands hung on it. She smiled, veins crawled up her temples. It must had been the pills affecting her pleasure sensors.

"I am Louisa Rain, head of the Pacific, successor to Theodor Brinkins, master of these streets. No one can take this away from me, not Jerry, not the council, not Carl and definitely not Roger Garaldson. I lived a master, I will die a master," she said, her eyes roaming around her center as people's minds were plugged to her main computer. There was no bigger pleasure than people choosing by their own will to be your slave, she thought. She looked down at the gate; two men were dragging a man with a covered head, followed by four protection bots. No one noticed since the clients were busy living their own simulations, lost in a world run by numbers. Louisa stepped away from the window and went closer to the door before the two men shoved the fellow on the floor.

"Tell me he's the one, boys!" Louisa said, sitting at the ridge of the table. One of the men pulled the cover off the target's face, and Roger was at the grasp of the Pacific once more.

"It's time to be done with him, Boss. Let me do it, let me have the honor of avenging the boss' death," one of the stepped up, pulling his laser gun from behind his back.

"Oh, everyone's having a laser gun now eh? No, dearie, you take your friend with you and leave the room. I need to have a little chat with him, and then we'll kill him. Now, go, get out of here, come on," Lousia said, turning her back. Roger turned and looked back at the man. The latter seemed urged, pressed to pull that trigger yet another quick glance from his boss made him withdraw from the shot. Louisa shifted her attention to Roger.

"Alright then, we meet again, don't we, little one? I thought last month was supposed to be the last time we meet."

"Well," Roger said, all bruised, "I had to make a change of plan first."

"You broke a deal, boy."

"You turned first. You were supposed to blackmail him, not toss him into prison."

"I had to do it because Jerry wouldn't turn anyway, I had no choice. But it doesn't matter. It's stupid of me to bring up the whole subject since you can record the whole of it with your head."

Roger smiled. "Wouldn't expect you to be that stupid."

Louisa slapped him, he almost fell on his side before he adjusted his knees.

"No, I am not, my room blocks all recording devices. Once you intend to store the voice, it will err. Now, that you are at my grasp, I can do whatever I wish to do with you, since the original goal was to use your chip."

"Ha, so you didn't bring me here to kill me?" Roger said, one of his eyes half-closed and bruised. The mobsters sure had their fill of beating him.

"Killing you? Oh, you can't just get rid of a valuable asset. I was just waiting for you to make a mistake, and here you are."

"Lucky me."

Louisa went closer to him, raising his chin so he could straight look at her eyes. "Look at me, Garaldson, you are in no position of lying to me, not at all. Your chip can't do anything in this room. Now, why are you here?"

Roger spit on the floor for which Louisa slapped him again.

"Not my carpet, tell me why are you here?" She screamed at him.

"Can't you see my face? Your men found me and beat me up, now I'm here in your hands. I thought about getting out, but this room of yours… euh too cringy to deal with."

"Weird sense of humor, you are different since the last time I saw you."

"I feel the same thing about you," Roger said, smiling as a stream of darkish blood crossed his teeth. It started dropping into the floor, crossing his jaw and jumping from his chin to the floor. The whole sight of him bewildered her, his ragged clothes, his colored blood, the look in his eyes. Was he really the one she had underestimated when talking to Owinson? Was he really the one she played at the beginning of it all?

Louisa walked back to her desk, opening a shelf with her hands into her stuff. Roger kept his gaze on the floor, he was muttering but it was beyond her hearing. Louisa stood behind him, a glass box containing a pill in it. She put her hand on his shoulder while she held the box in the sun. The colors around the pill were bright. Something about it widened his eyes, igniting a craving in him to know what it does.

"This is the latest product we have now, not sold of course. We need to start with a bit of experimentation, yet you really don't know how expensive to have one of these, and dangerous at the same time. You really have to be either worthy or terribly careless about your life. I'm not, and you don't have much of a choice but to be."

Roger remained silent, seemingly thinking.

"Oh it won't hurt, I mean it's not supposed to hurt. First, your bones will stiffen one by one, even your face bones. You will be by all definitions stoned, then the magic happens when the juice reaches your mind. Oh, I almost envy now, my boy. The pill isn't about releasing your dopamine, it's about enhancing the level of thought, strengthening your synapses, altering your neurons, letting the regions of your brain act in accordance with each other. Well, there is the part when a bit of dopamine is released, you know, darling, without it you'd be the smartest lad alive. I guess this is the part when I offer you the red pill in blue."

Roger remained silent, his gaze on the ground.

"Well, this isn't an offer. You have no choice," Louisa said, signaling for her guards to come. The mobsters came rushing inside the room, each hooking a hand to a part of her own personal platform. With it, she could read the simulations, the results, how his mind reacted to its processes. The chip would also interact with it as it was initially her plan. Roger resisted, but it was in vain. It was obvious enough the chip worked a similar role as the platforms, only that this one had an illegal sense into it.

His hands and legs were tied to the platform while its branches were all around him like an embracing lover. A guard held a gun on Roger's head while Louisa tossed her hand inside the box and held the pill in between her fingertips. She smiled, placing it atop Roger's tongue before he swallowed it. A few seconds later and the young man's eyes were closed.

"Now, let's go, we need to discuss what do with him," Louisa said, walking out of the room while the guards pushed the movable platform that hooked Roger. One of the guards looked down from behind the platform at the scanners, noticing how numbers rose and fell without making any sense. The noise too was annoying, seeming like the platform was about to blow any minute. Still, Louisa was the expert; hence no care was given for it.

Roger opened his eyes inside the simulation, he was smiling.

The old hag doesn't know how far I've come, how I am way stronger closer to my death than ever.

With a single snap, portals to a different brain simulation were opening and widening before becoming a whole world based on the randomness of a twenty year old's pleasures and instincts. The platform's sensors would detect the numbers in his fake simulation while his actual consciousness remained on the side, for the initial minutes as well. Once the guards left the VR center and entered the truck, Roger escaped his own mind and uploaded himself into one of the mobsters' phones. For as long as whatever machine his consciousness had haunted was close to his organic brain, he could still maintain control and alter his senses of the real world. He was just like a sphere sitting in between the mobsters with Louisa at the back. She was about to pick her phone again.

He needed the voice recognition.

"Hello Gary," she said, looking at the twitching Roger hooked to the platform.

"What do you want?" he replied.

"Oh, that's not how you talk to a lady, especially to your own boss."

"You are not my boss."

"Sure, I understand your anger. But I wonder if you would reconsider speaking to me like that when I tell you that I have something special for you."

"Special? You don't mean to say--"

"Oh I got him, and the boys here are more than eager to take your prize and put a bullet in his head. You wouldn't mind if I let someone else kill him, would you?"

"What? No, I'm coming right now. Where are you?"

"We're moving to the old warehouse, you know the one where you're father got clipped. I will bring him there and think what to do with him. You see, we suspect there might be traitors in the family, so it's better if you come alone, Gary. I want this done as much as you do, so hurry up," Louisa said, glancing at the sudden movement at the front, how the two mobsters looked at each other in bewilderment. She smiled, "boys, is there anything you want to say?"

They looked at each other, again, trying to avoid her. "No, ma'am, nothing."

"If you have something to say, you'd better say it. I'm afraid no one gets to say anything afterwards."

"No, ma'am, we don't," the mobster on the passenger seat, stretching his arm under his chair to grab something of a similar object to the one the mobster on the driver seat had in between his thighs. Louisa kept on smiling, looking back at the tied Roger. They only shook for a number of minutes before the car stopped. The streets were empty around that part. They opened the truck door for Louisa to descend, picking up the platform and placing it on the asphalt. Louisa spotted their guns a bit withdrawn from their holsters. Louisa pulled a little trigger from behind her back, pressing it before aiming at the two of them. Before they could walk through the door, two bots came from both sides and dragged the mobsters into a darker depth of an alley. Nothing was heard afterwards but shot screams. Roger jumped from the mobster's phone to Louisa's. Louisa pushed the platform into the warehouse. The whole place was darker than usual, with only the dying sunshine crossing through mere openings. There was a twitching light at the corner that would ail the eyes if one focused on. Louisa checked her watch, hearing the opening of a door from the back.

Gary walked inside, wearing a short vest and open shirt. A laser gun was hid behind his back, one whose hand was swaying to and from it. Louisa was smiling, eyes half-closed and arms folded. Gary felt it strange that no mobster was inside. There was no one but them, and the tied Roger in between.

"You finally had him. I didn't see that coming," Gary said, drawing his laser gun from his belt. Louisa raised both of her hands with caution, standing between him and Roger.

"Don't we get to talk this out first?" Louisa said. Gary started to boil with every breath Roger took. How his hands shook, how red his face seemed, how his eyebrows moved, it irritated the whole of him.

"Stand aside, my father respected you. I don't want to waste a bullet, Louisa."

"I too had deep respect for your father, Gary. I've known you since you were but a child, but we are both adults now. Let us talk like adults do, I have a little thing to offer for your own sake and the sake of the family. I am not going anywhere, just hear me out first and then you can do whatever you want with him. Are we in agreement?"

"But, I have to finish him now before he--"

"I said, are we in agreement?"

Gary took a deep breath, withdrawing from the aim and tossing his gun in his holster. He leaned on the wall, slowly falling down and sitting with his arms resting on his knees. "So, what do you want to say?"

"Good boy, now let us get to it. I have already talked to your father about it, only that we were interrupted with, you know, what happened. Listen to me well, Gary, the chip in this one's mind is a lot more important than you think. With it, we can access government data bases, even the nuclear arsenal itself. And if we find a way to use the chip without allowing anyone else to use it at the same time, we will be the strongest crime family of them all. You see, I'm not being selfish here at all, Gary, I'm an old woman and I won't take much until this old weak body fails me. You can be the head of the family, imagine the future, please," Louisa said, raising both of her hands every few seconds like a preacher.

Gary gasped, thinking while looking at the tied Roger.

"You still haven't told me what you want," Gary said, placing his pistol rolling in between his feet. Louisa smiled, resting her arm near Roger's head in the platform.

"Simple, keep him alive and stay out of my way, at least until I figure out how we can extract this technology from him. For now, if we take the chip out of his mind, it will be damaged. You see, I did something before I came. I gave him our newest pill, it may have a role, to keep his mind and chip rested and stable while our own surgeons take the chip out of his mind. But nothing is assured, I called you today to have your word that you will help me assure our future," Louisa said, walking closer to Louisa like an adoptive mother.

Gary was smiling, even holding a laugh inside. Louisa withdrew, sensing something wrong. "Oh, Miss Rain, you really do have a talent in acting, but this is Garlem, not L.A. You see, during my time here, I ran a little security check on you. You know, a word here, a word there and I started to figure out what kind of person you are. While everyone else were busy talking about your so-called affair with Owinson, I was busy knowing why. Owinson and his group of tech fanatics promised immortality, and you were involved and more than willing to help because you wanted in too. Helping the family, huh? I'm old enough to know that this world is ending, Louisa, and the family won't mean anything when the world is mere ashes. For this reason," Gary said, standing off the chair, Louisa's heart raced. She kept stepping back, even losing her balance.

"For this reason, I will do us all a favor and make sure no one gets atop the 21st century's Noah's Arc."

Louisa's lips parted before they were closed again. She could sense the course of her racing blood cells.

"What's wrong? You thought I was a little boy on a revenge quest, no more? You didn't think I'd get so… thoughtful. Since you're in my way, I'll do us all a favor and finish you here before I kill this kid," Gary said, activating ready-mode as his laser gun turned red. Louisa stood with the platform nudging her back, holding a trigger with her finger on the red button.

"Standing in your way, standing in my way, anything is probable how tables might turn. But there is one thing we all agree on."

"Which is?" Gary asked, his finger twitching on the trigger.

"No one can stand in the way of progress," she said, pressing the button.

A storm of laser shots lit place as she withdrew away with the platform, Gary was holed with laser shots from all directions. Bits of his clothes started to burn while his own blood spilled on the floor. A second later, a horde of protection bots appeared from the dark with their hands on their implanted rifles. Gary fell on his knees, blood escaping his mouth before he fell face first on the floor. The bots shifted from ready to peaceful, surrounding Louisa as she looked at Gary's rotting body.

"I warned you. You were my boss' son, I called you here to give you a chance, a glimpse at what may be, even if that goal was internally mine for the taking. Yes, I do want to plug my own consciousness to this modern heaven, to live until machines are no more, to live beyond my body, to-"

VOICE RECOGNITION 98%

"-immortalize my existence. Isn't that the main goal of any human? To survive as long as possible?"

VOICE RECOGNITION 99%

"Because, you stupid slug, the winner is no other than the last one standing."

VOICE RECOGNITION COMPLETE…

FILES RETRIEVED…

DAMAGE FIXED…

FILES SENT TO DIRECTIONS…

Her phone started to ring. She kept looking at the dead Gary as she picked up her phone, picking it closer to Roger. His consciousness aimed at his own body, motivating it the same way Bob did the first time he had rescued him. With more motivation, more signals sent, Roger knew exactly what would happen. Louisa sensed something gripping her nape, tightening on it. Louisa struggled to look back to shake herself off that tight grip. She sensed her heart sinking at the sight of those eyes, those senseless eyes. He was made of skin, yet the coldness in his fingers was that of metal itself. The chip took control again. Roger gripped her nape, pulling her by her clothes before throwing her to the wall. With a sudden urge to strangle her, Roger withdrew, turning his, its, attention at the other bots. Luckily for him, they were not sealed.

As he started to execute his hack over them, they started shooting him first. With the chip in the pilot seat, he danced in avoidance to their hammering shots like a butterfly. Before they could even realize their horror, their hands were turning towards each other. Roger, even with his eyes glassy and his mind fixed on survival, started smiling as he raised both of his hands. The bots were shaking, heating and even starting to lose balance and collapse. They all aimed at each other's skulls. Roger kept his hands open before each finger was withdrawing to form a fist. As he clenched both of his fists, every bot's skull was blown; they all collapsed. At that split of a second, Roger's eyes returned to their initial state with his consciousness back in his body. All robots fell atop Gary. He turned to the breathing woman in the dark, walking towards her with obvious neutrality in his face.

"How did you do it? I locked you inside, and then you came back. You had control over the chip, all of it. How the hell did you do it?" Louisa asked, her face uncovering out of the dark. She was sniveling, half of her hair fell.

"You played me, forced me into imprisoning my friend's father. Then, you wanted to use me, to rip the chip out of my mind and then dump me like I was some insignificant piece of junk to you. You think I'd let your kind win? Your kind never deserves to win. You may get the upper hand, but you will never win."

"But I drugged you."

"Doesn't count. I've been through simulations before."

"Oh, the mob would still go after you. What say you to that?"

"I'm not sure about that. I retrieved the lost files, the lost recordings I had over you. Every time you conspired against him, against Jeremy, what you said here too. I also sent every last mobster in the city all piece of evidence," Roger said, walking towards the exit. Louisa's breaths were faster, she was crawling out of the dark.

"Wait! Roger, wait! Please, wait for me! Get me out of here, I can talk to Owinson, please! I can help you!"

Roger put his hand on the door, looking back at her with quick intervals looking at the lying Gary. "Gary was not a the stupid slug, Louisa. He brought his army of loyalists with him."

As he left through the back door, a mob swarmed through the front door with all kinds of weapons, regular and laser, small and big. The last thing Roger heard of Louisa's screams was cut with the sound of the gunshots. With that, the Pacific no longer sought to find and kill Roger.

I gotta do this one meeting before going back to the workshop. I can't be late.

It was the end of the day. Roger was walking down the stairs, hearing the streets whispering of war amongst Garlem's gangs. He was too tired to think of it. The door was open already. Roger heated his chip with brain energy, preparing for an attack just in case. Roger stepped inside, looking at a figure with a book at the end of the corridor. Roger eased himself, knowing who that was. He shut the door behind him.

"Hello there, Roger. We meet again," Lorenzo said, his finger on his father's pistol, eyes on the prize.