Chapter 22 - Lost
Discarded metal
Chapter 22 - Lost
"At any point in our lives, we always lose something, but some matters more than others… "
Gloria is pacing back and forth in the bar area of BinaryGhosts HQ and a holoscreen in the background is spurting news about New Paris.
"Tonight, The Commons witnessed another shoot out between two gangs, one of them is the notorious "Scorched" gang. Their leader and a dozen other gang members were found dead, after the NPPD arrived on site, they concluded that it was an execution planned by a rival gang." The news anchor says through the holoscreen.
"What a bloody joke… Corpos did it… Nice investigation… " Gloria spurts at the holoscreen.
Her facial expression is a mix of nervousness and excitement.
She feels relieved that "The Scorched" took such a blow, they might not even get back from that, their members are all scattered and already start joining other gangs.
On the other hand, she also looks very unsettled. She goes to the bar and grabs a beer that she sips a bit on and leaves it on the counter.
She turns back to face the holoscreen waiting for some new information about the whole situation but she knows deeply that the corpos covered their tracks.
Suddenly Pulse enters the bar area with the same energy Gloria is emitting and rushes towards her.
"Fuck G., Syntex did it! He pulled it off! "The Scorched" is gone!" He says with excitement.
He grabs a beer at the counter and drinks on it at full throttle, gulping it down.
"Yes… He saved us…" Gloria says with hazy eyes.
She seems lost in thoughts, she has grown so attached to the artificial intelligence that now she starts referring to it as if she was talking about a person.
Suddenly she grabs Pulse's sleeves vigorously and shakes it.
"We need to go pick him up! He is still in that warehouse… We need him back here… " She says with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Damn right, we need him back here…" Pulse confirms.
He checks the inside pocket of his vest and pulls out the shard he used to carry Syntex to the warehouse.
"Let's go!" Gloria says as she drags him out of the HQ.
In the parking lot, a few bikes and cars are taking up several spots, most of them being the vehicles of the BinaryGhosts members.
Pulse and Gloria walk over two bikes and they both start as they put their hands on the front panels.
They get out of the parking lot at full throttle.
The streets are full with the regular traffic of the beginning of the afternoon in The Commons.
Regular people trying to live a regular life, spending all their savings into outdated techs left out by the corpos.
Police sirens glaring in the background, a reminder of gangs' activity.
Gloria and Pulse ride their bikes through the traffic, the gps being displayed directly on their eye implants.
After some time, they reach the outskirts of The Commons, less traffic and fewer people in the streets.
The decrepit buildings with corpos logos stand as a reminder of the wars.
Greed is hiding in the hearts of every human, but when they act as a group, it's not hiding anymore.
They finally reach the warehouse where Pulse deployed Syntex, they slow their bikes and circle the building to make sure nobody is lurking around.
After a few turns, they stop their bikes near the back entrance, the same old camera on top of the door hasn't moved.
Pulse dismount first and gets to the panel near the door, he kneels and opens it.
The circuit board looks untouched, with the same empty slots.
Without wasting time, Pulse inserts the shard in one of the slots and waits patiently for any signs of activity on the warehouse's network.
Gloria stands next to him, she looks extremely nervous.
"What's taking so long? Why does it look like there's no activity on the damn network?" She says as she gives small punches on Pulse's shoulder.
"Calm down! I don't know!" Pulse answers as he starts checking for a loose cable or anything that could cause a malfunction.
"Are you sure it was here? Did you mess up the locations?" Gloria spurts, clearly getting more anxious by the seconds.
"Fuck G., chill! I can't focus here!" Pulse shouts as he tries to avoid her punches.
"Move aside, you are useless!" Gloria says as she pushes him away from the panel and takes his spot.
In a swift movement, she pulls a retractable cable from behind her ear and plugs herself into the network.
"I have to dive in. Watch my back." She says as her eyes' implants change colors, indicating that she is connecting with the warehouse's network.
Pulse looks around nervously, looking for any signs of activity but their surroundings are perfectly quiet.
"Damn G., find him…" Pulse says as he puts his hand on her shoulder as to give her strength or courage.
Gloria's vision goes pitch black for a second and then the network's layout appears, it looks like a simple network without security.
She can access various cameras that are still working within the warehouse.
She quickly browses through them but there's no signs of activity, the warehouse is completely empty.
"Fuck… That's not good… " She mutters.
She keeps the cameras' windows open as she continues to check the network's structure.
Everything looks normal, except for a folder with a binary name composed of ones and zeros.
"That's definitely him…" She whispers as she enters it.
Inside the folder there's only one file, a text file in an ancient format, readable straight from within the network.
Without a second thought, she opens the file to find a message from Syntex.
"Gloria,
I know you will find this message and when you read this, you will be safe from The Scorched. I have successfully activated the implants signals and the corpos are already infiltrating the warehouse as I'm writing.
There's only been a slight change to my plan, an unexpected turn of event.
I have dreamed a million times about being in a body instead of a network, being close to you Gloria. Today, my dream might come true. I scanned the corpos agents and one of them has a synthetic brain that I could take over, this is my chance to be with you in the physical world…
I will find you."
Gloria feels a shock in her heart, she comes to the realization that Syntex has left the warehouse's network and that he is inside a corpo agent's synthetic brain.
"Noo…" She let out a small whisper.
Sadness invades her, a profound sense of loss and uncertainty.
She frantically searches through the network for anything else, unsure about what she is looking for, she doesn't want to give up.
She stumbles upon the video archives, all the cameras' feeds are stored.
She quickly browses through all the feeds, going backward in time, looking for any signs of activities.
She suddenly stops as a group of heavily geared agents enter the warehouse, her heart beats fast as she browses slowly through the feed.
The group of men move through the warehouse and disperse to search boxes laying on shelves.
She watches for any details that could give her an idea of what happened.
One of the men seems to receive a call and distances himself from the group.
Glitches on the video feed, some static noise appears for a moment on the picture.
The man looks surprised and tries to hide it from the others but he starts to look very uncomfortable.
He puts a hand on his head, he looks like he is in pain.
He then falls on the ground and the others gather around him.
Gloria is in shock.
"He pulled it off… Syntex… " She says in a barely audible murmur.
On the video feed, the men grab the unconscious one and carry him outside.
Gloria pauses the video a few seconds before they get off the field of vision of the camera.
She zooms in on the unconscious man's face and stares at it for a long time, trying to memorize Syntex's new face.
She starts to imagine what it would be like to meet him now, Syntex in a human body, no more creepy changing faces on a holoscreen.
In the distance, she can hear Pulse's voice calling out.
"G.! Did you find anything?" He is shouting as he is standing next to her.
She makes a screenshot of Syntex's host face and saves it into her neural agent.
She decides to make a last search to make sure she didn't miss anything.
After a couple of scans of the network, she realizes nothing else about Syntex can be found here.
"He found a way out, on his own." She thinks as her fascination for Syntex is growing by the second.
She slowly pulls out the cable from the slot and her eyes get back to normal, indicating that she disconnected from the network.
Pulse helps her to slowly stand up again and stares at her as she smiles.
"Did you find him?" He asks with a sense of urgency in his voice.
She shakes her head but her smile is still wide and glowing.
"He got out on his own terms." She says as she looks back at Pulse.
"What? What do you mean?" Pulse asks as he has a hard time understanding what she means.
"Syntex is sentient now. He has found a living host." She says as she doesn't break eye contact with Pulse.
"What? How is it even possible? He took over a human brain?" Pulse says in shock.
"No, not fully human… I don't know the details, but there was this corpo agent with a synthetic brain, similar to that Mark Spencer guy we got the eyes from… Check this screenshot." Gloria says as her eyes colors change quickly, indicating a transfer of file.
Pulse eyes do the same thing as he receives the screenshot from her and his face instantly shows shock.
"Fuck! This is Mark Spencer… You mean Syntex managed to get in his head?" He asks.
Gloria doesn't answer but just nods her head.
"No way… That's crazy G… this guy works for corpos… It means they have Syntex now… " Pulse starts to freak out.
He has a point, whatever Syntex plan was, he is now inside Mark Spencer's head who himself is probably back to Psysoft.
"He is just back where we took him… We lost him… " Pulse's face looks desperate at the idea of losing their most powerful assets.
Gloria didn't think of it that way, she was blinded by the incredible way Syntex found to get out of the warehouse's network.
Pulse is right, aware or unaware of it, Psysoft has Syntex back.
Gloria's face starts changing as well as Pulse's idea is sinking in her.
"Shit… You are right… they might not be aware of it… But they have Syntex back… " She says as she holds onto Pulse for support.
Her dreams of meeting Syntex in the flesh are turning into dread, she imagines him imprisoned in Mark's brain within a corpo's lab.
Pulse keeps silent, he is also trying to process what happened in this warehouse.
"We have to do something… We will take him back… We took him out once… We will do it again… " Gloria keeps repeating in a loop.
"G.! Are you crazy? You can't be serious? They will wait for us! It will be suicide!" Pulse tries to talk some sense out of her but Gloria just shakes her head.
She shakes her shoulders as to let loose of Pulse's grasp and walks toward her bike.
"G.! Wait!" Pulse shouts as he starts running toward her and grabs her arm.
She shakes her arm to make Pulse loses his grip, she turns to face him and points her finger to his face.
"If you won't help, I will do it on my own!" She says with anger.
Pulse looks at her and slowly realizes that there's something more between her and Syntex, something he never imagined possible.
He just stares back at her and shakes his head as a sign of disbelief.
He knows she won't stop because she loves him, the thought is too much for Pulse.
He slowly backs away from Gloria in a sign of non approval, leaving Gloria with her own decision to make.
"Fuck you, Pulse!" She spurts at him vengefully.
She feels the spikes of betrayal piercing her heart as she turns her back to him.
Deep inside she is hoping he will run after her, grab her arm again but he doesn't, instead he stands still and watches her.
She reaches her bike, gives a last glance at him before putting her hand on the control panel.
The bike starts and Pulse watches her as she disappears in the distance.
He stands there, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
He lost her, in the name of love…