Page 64 of Violet Spark
What were they going to do to me to get the moths out? And—heh—would I survive it?
Questions I should’ve asked earlier. Not that it mattered, but still…
When the elevator door opened to a corridor even whiter and blanker and creepier than the lobby, Alling pivoted to step out, the cartridge clutched in his fist. Had he been about to unleash the rest of the bugs in the elevator with us if I’d done anything violent?
One thing at a time. Find Mom.
Jen 2.0 growled, “Don’t do anything—”
“Stupid. I know, I know.” I glared at him. “I didn’t try to zap you, did I?”
“They never do, at this stage,” he grumbled under his breath, almost too low for me to hear.
Wait…They? This stage?
My instincts screamed danger.
And my higher reason answered,no kidding.
But until I was with Mom, it didn’t matter. I followed Alling down the hallway.
Apparently bad guys came in all forms: self-serving ones like Brayden, lying assholes like Dane, and Alling’s paternalistic type.I don’twantto kill you, but it’s for your own good.
The corridor was long stretches of blank wall broken by even longer frames of safety glass windows offering a view into big rooms of incomprehensibly scientific-looking apparatus. All the rooms were brightly lit but—as far as I could tell—empty of workers. BantaMatrix might be one of those places that boasted about its 24/7 work ethic, but it wasn’t happening down here, at least not right now.
The intervening doorways had alphanumeric designations but no explanatory signage. Nothing labeledEvil Nanobot Infection Unit—or better yetEvil Nanobot Extraction Unit. Alling took a hard left down another corridor. Wait, was that the first turn we’d made, or the second? Shit, I hadn’t been paying attention, which was such a newbie mistake.Alwayscount the turns.
He strode through an open doorway—this one finally labeled. It saidLab.
Inside was a huge, open format space that was bigger than the lobby but segmented with columns and cubicle dividers. Against the far wall was a long array of blinking lights, and it took me a second to realize I was looking at a supercomputer. It was like something from an old sci-fi movie except so sleek and modern that I knew it wasn’t the leftover of some bygone era. Considering the amount of computing available in the average cell phone today, this much processing power was seriously impressive.
I swallowed hard. This was all so far out of my league. So much bigger than me.
Alling led the way to a partitioned room along one of the other walls. It was set up like a well-appointed doctor’s office. While Jen 2.0 took up a position outside the doorway, Alling gestured at the exam table. “Have a seat.”
I eyed the restraints ringing the pristine white paper. Not just wide straps for wrists and ankles but narrower ones for neck and forehead and one big one for around the waist. I shivered. “Mr. Alling…”
“Mo,” he said sharply. “I need to take some samples and do some baseline tests. Do you really want your mother to have to watch this? Are you going to make her hold your hand while you scream?”
I stared at him. “While I scream?”
“I thought you wanted my help.”
“I do.” Trying not to flinch or squirm, I settled my butt on the exam table. “I just don’t like doctors.” Even less so after all of Mom’s horrible experiences. “Or screaming, for that matter.”
“Nobody likes to go to the doctor.” Alling snapped into a pair of vinyl gloves with a puff of powder. “That’s one of the things we’ll get rid of when we perfect this technology. Imagine if everyone had their own customized nano biota, keeping them healthy and strong—maybe even immortal.”
I grimaced as he pulled out a specimen tray and picked up a really large needle. “Gee, and here I thought BantaMatrix was just offering foosball and free cookies.”
He laughed. “That too! Nanotech will revolutionize food science and technology from agriculture to product development, right down to how you absorb and digest. We could make cookies so good for you that you’d lose weight while snacking! And we might make VR gaming gloves obsolete.” He winked at me even as he stuck the crook of my elbow with the giant needle and pressed the plunger.
I didn’t bother restraining a wince this time, and he could attribute it to the pain of the prick rather than him being one.
If all of this was so great, why were we down here alone by ourselves in the middle of the night?
Probably because he didn’t think I’d survive whatever he was going to do, and he didn’t want a lab full of witnesses he’d have to kill.
He handed me a sixteen-ounce energy drink. “You’re looking a little faded. Gotta keep up your energy for the hive, or they’ll feed upon whatever they can find.”
