Page 105 of Amethyst Flame
To my butterflies, who sent the image back to me along their chained network connection, Will was a simmering supernova of molecular energy.
“Shit.” His hive seemed so much bigger than mine. So much stronger.
I kept my butterflies active and humming, although I wasn’t sure what I’d do with them. A [shield] command? Use [gather] and try to grab Ruskin and any other hostages I could? Some [attack] command to try to take out Will immediately?
As we hurried down the industrial gray halls, I noted the cheap posters in nice chrome frames. Mostly advertisements with the Teller Labs logo that ended in “Ask Your Doctor.”
At another set of huge bay doors, I paused. “This is it.”
“Damn, I was hoping for a basement, maybe two,” Dane said.
I slanted a glance at him. “Now you have a sense of humor?”
“Just trying to remind you it could be worse.”
“You having a sense of humor is worse.”
But the buzz of panic in my blood quieted enough that I was able to take a full breath. I spread my hands in front of me to deploy a faint cloud of butterflies. At my delicate [shove] command, they pushed open the door.
The interior looked like what I imagined a med lab would look like, all white and sterile work stations crowded with computers and topped by hood systems. I wondered if there was some miracle drug for Mom here. But I locked my attention on the frozen fivesome clustered near a huge transparent cistern segmented into honeycombs and churning with bubbles—like a high-tech dunk tank full of oversized bubble wrap and club soda: his father’s hive containment.
Will stood to one side. He looked…bad. Really bad. Not as bad as the dead guards but not that much better either. His skin was blotchy.
What in the nano-bugging hell was he doing with more bugs? If he took them on, his deterioration would only accelerate.
“Stop right there, Mo,” he rasped.
Next to the weird tank, Ruskin was seated on a stool, half slumped against a microscope. She’d apparently been doing something science-y before Dane and I busted in. But she didn’t look so great either. Her green eyes were ringed in red.
An older man hovered on her other side. His face had the same angles as Will’s plus a few decades. His dark, worried gaze locked on mine—frantically trying to communicate something. Probably “help me!”
Two other people in white lab coats were pressed shoulder to shoulder, and I imagined these were the Best Minds that Will had bragged about. They just looked utterly freaked out.
Will put his hand on Ruskin’s shoulder and squeezed. “You…don’t stop.”
She shuddered and bent her head to the scope again. The squiggles of blue worms had spread across the back of her skull, pulsing through the short fringe of her pixie cut.
“What the hell, dude,” I snapped at him. “You lose one fight with me and come running back to daddy?”
“He couldn’t help,” Will said. His voice sounded strange and hollow, like some vocal effect. “But you said Ruskin was trying to help you, so maybe…” He swiped his hand across his furrowed brow.
I gentled my voice. “So you thought a bit of kidnapping, torture, and extortion would inspire them?”
His stare pinned me like I was a pithed frog. The rich brown was iced over with the pale blue scrim of his power. So much power. It sent a shiver down my spine.
“Seriously, Will, what do you think you’re doing? You can’t terrorize people into helping. It makes them want to run the other way. The good news is if you chill the fuck out, there is a way we can extend our lives—”
He shook his head hard, and a faint azure veil of his bugs rose around him like an angry cloud of itty-bitty blue bees. “Not chilling out here,” he said. “I’m going for more. Just as soon as Ruskin brings them out of stasis.”
I blanched. “What? No. Will, that’s a terrible idea. That’s your bugs talking, trying to take you over.” And then take over the world?
The BantaMatrix security got into position all around. I seriously hoped they would chill out too.
“Maybe that’s as it should be.” Ruskin’s voice was tight and scratchy, and I wondered if she’d been screaming in the white Tesla for the whole five hours it took to get here. Maybe only screaming on the inside. “I never considered…” She shook her head. “All my life I’ve challenged myself to think bigger, but now I think I was too scared to realize I was holding back.” She looked at me, and her reddened eyes glistened. “Imposing restrictions and directives is what causes the instability. The hives are an emergent life—like…children, and they need the opportunity to realize their full potential.” She reached over to touch the tank behind her with an odd little caress. A fizz of bubbles spiraled up around the honeycombs.
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t give a toddler launch codes,” I told her. “Mini murderous robots need controls, not a playground full of them running amok.”
She gave me a ghost of her usual energetic smile. “We’re deluding ourselves to think we can command them. Even you are slowly succumbing to your hive, Imogen. This isnewlife. We are at the brink of something frightening, but do we dare to jump the chasm of our limitations to a new beginning?”
