The searing waves of the sun beat down on Kelly, Dunstan and Johnathan so that every step they took towards noon made it feel like weights were being tied to their boots. Kelly and Dunstan had trained to endure this exact type of debilitating pain and fatigue, but walking through a desert was never a pleasant experience. They were equipped with army thermals and bucket hats, and a full canteen of water each — Johnathan wore shorts and a t-shirt and the skin on his shoulders and forehead was already turning red. The road stretched on before them for miles.
“You think I’m scared?” Johnathan scoffed as he stumbled along the road. He tried to stand proud but the oil welts on his face and neck made him look wounded and sickly. “How long do you plan to keep me before my father finds out where I am?”
Kelly shoved him on. “The only thing Anton is going to find is your remains. No one is coming for you.”
Johnathan was silent for a moment while he puzzled it together — the necklace and ring.
“Oh man,” he said. “It won’t change anything. If my father thinks I’m dead he’s gonna come for you, I swear to God—”
Kelly drove her boot into the back of his ankle and he tumbled onto his face. He groaned, lying on the burning road, and then rolled onto his back, his hands bleeding from the gravel.
Kelly knelt in front of him, looked deep into his eyes and said, “I’m counting on it”.
Dunstan slid behind the bar and poured Kelly a glass of water the moment she sat down and untied her scruffy red hair. Her lips had begun to crack and her skin felt as dry as old leather coated in a fine layer of sand. The gentle wind fluttering down from the ceiling fan felt like a godsend. Kelly leaned over her crystal glass of water and sighed.
“You two look like shit,” said Agent Santiago.
“Thanks,” Kelly replied.
Johnathan Harrell had been zip-tied to a chair behind them and Santiago had just arrived to collect him—the CIA’s latest asset. Now that the cult believed their prodigal son to be dead, Santiago would milk Johnathan for every piece of information he could give, and no one would come looking for him.
Kelly closed her eyes and let the breeze from the ceiling fan wash away the discomfort. This empty saloon was generously quiet save for the jukebox playing tunes in the corner, and the occasional clicking of little Penelope practising in vain at playing pool, the large pool cue handling awkwardly in her tiny hands.
“I hate summer,” Kelly said.
“Tell me about it,” Johnathan agreed.
Kelly turned and faced him with a look that threatened to do him harm—more harm, actually. Johnathan Harrell was a mess. Blisters covered his neck and chin and his skin was red and raw from sunburn. She was certain he’d say anything for a glass of water right now, but he wasn’t her problem anymore. She did wonder what Santiago was thinking letting his daughter anywhere near a man like Johnathan Harrell. Penelope was hardly obscured from the life they all lived, and she looked at Johnathan with an expression of mild curiosity. Where was her mother? Kelly wondered. When she wasn’t here at the saloon, did Penelope do that things that normal girls her age would do?
Agent Santiago untied Johnathan from the chair and hoisted him to his feet.
“Need a hand?” Kelly offered.
“You deserve a break,” said Santiago, leading Johnathan towards the door. “I can handle this.”
They left Kelly and Dunstan alone. Dunstan leaned against the bar and said, “He wasn’t right.”
“Hmm?”
“Johnathan.”
“Of course he wasn’t. He didn’t seem too happy about his father.”
Dunstan gripped an empty glass with two hands. “And Anton won’t be too happy about us killing his son.”
“It’ll serve its purpose. With Johnathan out of the way Connors will sweep the region for loose traces of Hex and put a DEA taskforce on the trail of the Shinoda family.”
“So what’s our next play?”
Kelly rapped her fingernails against her glass and thought for a moment. “Well, like you said, Anton is going to be pissed when he learns about Johnathan, but I honestly don’t think it’ll be enough. We need to go after someone else.”
Dunstan snapped his fingers. “You know, I might actually have a lead on Julia van Burren we can follow up on.” They moved over to one of the booths and he opened up his laptop. “Take a look at this.”
“The Neural Interface,” Kelly shrugged. “What about it?”
“Anton’s selling point was that the NI was unhackable, and for the most part that is correct, but after hearing about Hex’s impact on neural cybernetics I have a theory I want to test out.”
“You think you can break into Anton’s Neural Interface and move some of the data, or at the very least delete it?”
Dunstan shook his head. “Probably not, but if I can get a hold of the device itself I’d wager I can get access to it, or maybe find a way to understand it better.”
“Is this before or after it’s surgically implanted into the brain?”
“After,” Dunstan responded seriously. “People are just data processing units anyway, the interface just amplified the process. Get me someone augmented with an interface and I promise you I’ll recover whatever data they have.”
“Okay,” Kelly nodded. “Decent plan. Why go for Julia van Buren?”
“Well, I was thinking, as soon as Anton learns that we know how to hack his augments he’ll throw in counter measures right away. We might only get one shot at this. It has to be someone high-profile.”
Dunstan clicked open a file on Julia and turned his laptop screen to Kelly.
“What exactly have we got on her?” Kelly asked.
“Not much, but the Harrell’s are very good at keeping their data off the cloud. Julia manages most of Anton’s operations, if we hack her interface it might just give us the edge that we need.”
“The file, Dunstan.”
“Right. Julia van Buren. Bit of a family leader. Anton’s cousin. Owns a construction company and is currently managing a number of property investments right across the South-West. One of the first ever augments to install a Neural Interface, one of Anton’s illegal prototypes, it seems. Accused of laundering, associating with a smuggling ring, multiple counts of kidnapping, and murder. Never convicted. Overall, just a ray of sunshine.”
“She’s dangerous,” Kelly said, “but she’s also just a businesswoman. A powerful businesswoman.” She crossed her arms and tried to think of their approach. “I don’t think we should antagonise her. I say we get some kind of leverage and arrange a meeting. That business with Johnathan went okay but I don’t want any more bodies on this one.”
“You’re the boss,” said Dunstan.
“What else can we use?” Kelly asked.
“Give me a sec.” Dunstan typed away on his laptop for a few minutes and then pulled up a new file. “According to this schedule she’s attending a construction inspection across state, New Mexico.”
“When?”
“A few days from now.”
“Well, at least we’ve got time to prepare. The cult will be looking for us. We’ll have to travel as civilians.”
“If we take the train it’ll get us most of the way there. We can blend in that way.”
“Sounds good.”
Dunstan pulled up yet another file on his laptop. The screen displayed a building painted with pink neon.
“One more thing,” he said. “Remember what Anton said about his niece’s night club? I think there’s something fishy going on there. Cherry van Buren has purchased a tonne of VR servers and is turning them into entertainment venues, but I’ve been monitoring the brainwaves of people going in and out of those servers and there’s something I don’t like about it. We should look into it further.”
“First we deal with Julia, then we’ll focus on the niece—”
Kelly’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. She checked it. Unknown number. She walked away from the booth and answered.
“You killed my son.” Anton Harrell’s voice was hoarse and violent.
Kelly was a strong-willed person. A soldier. Period. But behind the rage, she heard heartbreak in Anton’s voice, and she suddenly had to remind herself not to think about the other people she had killed. That man on the balcony whose face she barely saw.
“That’s right,” she said.
“This wasn’t personal,” Anton replied. “I am doing God’s work. This has always been about something greater than myself. But I swear to you I will make you regret ever coming here, ever getting involved with my affairs.”
“There doesn’t have to be any more bloodshed,” Kelly tried to use a commanding voice. “You know what we want. You have the power to end it right here, right now.”
“Your organisation is in shambles, there’s no going back to the way things were before. This is the way of the world now. The human race deserves freedom and you cannot stop us from fulfilling our God-given duty.”
“My duty is to stop you.” Kelly wondered why she was even bothering to reason with him at all. She refused to believe that she was having doubts about what she needed to do. “Your son is dead. I will do whatever is necessary to complete my mission.”
Anton refused to say anything for a good while however Kelly knew he was still on the line. Then he spoke in a strained and anguished voice. “Just try it.”
The line went dead.
ns 172.69.59.15da2