Project LOSS

Chapter 21

Crows cawed and circled the angry grey sky, eager to swoop down and feast on what remained of the fallen as Onaiah followed her tormenter, her heart echoing the bland hues of the overcast evening. Fortunately, the boy seemed satisfied that she was still dancing to his tune, as entangled in his puppet strings as any other agent at PAVE. Passing a metallic wall, Onaiah’s reflection showed sallow skin and listless eyes, sunken into dark circles. The boy-thing didn’t appear to have noticed these indicators of her mental state. If he really were running the PAVE organisation alone as he claimed, his energies would be spent on controlling and maintaining the enormous system, leaving little time for mundane observation.

“You think me cruel?” The boy asked quietly.

I think you’re evil, Onaiah thought but said nothing.

“I’m not cruel for cruelties sake; I simply do what I must. If you shared my breadth of understanding, you would see it’s all for the best.”

Onaiah though he was talking rubbish but bit her tongue. It would be a damn shame to reveal her position after all the sacrifices that had been made to keep him in the dark.

“If you could have ultimate power, knowledge and immortality, would you? Even if you had to kill everyone else to do so?”

Onaiah shook her head.

“Hmm,” he nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“Who are you?” Onaiah whispered. She mentally kicked herself for her curiosity, afraid she’d given herself away. It was true what they said about curiosity killing the cat. PAVE agents did not, as a general rule, address their superiors in such a casual manner.

“You can call me the High Commander.” He did not appear to have noticed the transgression. He slowed and looked Onaiah in the eye. For once he was not grinning. “You didn’t mean to ask who I was, did you? You want to know who this face belongs to.”

Onaiah’s breath caught in her throat. She could only nod.

“I was a seventeen-year-old high school dropout named Keith Roman. It’s of no consequence. The past isn’t real. The future isn’t real. This moment is the only moment that exists.”

Onaiah seriously hoped he was wrong on the last point, for this was not a moment she was cherishing.

She wanted to ask what had happened to make him this way. What he meant by everybody having to die. She had so many questions, but she had said too much already.

On entering the building, The High Commander curtly bid Onaiah farewell and disappeared into a sea of blank faces that paid him little attention, most likely unaware of his station. Onaiah breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe for the time being, but how long could she keep up her façade? With no instruction beamed into her brain, it was only a matter of time before someone noticed she was no longer in the loop. An invader inside the hive.

I either make exceptional efforts to appear assimilated or leave and be hunted.

Having no idea what to do for the best, Onaiah wandered the maze-like halls aimlessly, careful to not stray far from the exit. With none of her internal computer systems functioning, she had no mental map of the building. Although she had clocked endless hours in the winding mess of corridors, she’d never bothered to pay them much heed. Why bother when the mapping function was on hand to do all the work for her?

The option of staying looked bleak, but where would she go if she left? The memory of her exchange with Vrethie flashed before her mind’s eye.

Would you help me?

Running out of time and options, she decided to leave and make her way towards the home of Vrethie and Kai. As soon as she made the decision to go to Vrethie her heart raced. She had made this journey a great many times, but this was the first time she would travel with a companion—hope.