Chapter 13: Contemplating
The next day I had awakened from my sleep at 6 a.m and went up to the main control room where Parker was sitting in the helm chair.
"Boring night I assume?" I said as he turned to face me.
"Hey you slept all night didn't you?"
"Good point. Did you start the tracking process on the next mind, like I asked you to?" Parker got up out of his seat and walked over to me.
"Colin is ready to be freed whenever you take him just like the others his mind is an exception, above the norm, he's gonna be a powerful addition to the crew."
"Yes his fighting skills are above normal even for one of the connected." I took a seat in the helm chair. "You can go get some sleep, everyone else should be asleep for awhile yet, I can take over for a bit." Parker walked to the doorway and turned back to me.
"Just so your aware Captain, I am able to go for days without sleep and still operate at my best if I need to." I looked back at him.
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you Parker." Parker turned away and left to go to bed.
I decided that I would go check on Colin to see how his day was going. I went to the broadcast zone and sat in the operator's chair and starred into the code. I hit a few commands and the code began to display Colin, he had just gotten out of bed. I was having a hard time thinking of how to get him out, if I should do it myself or if I should take in the whole crew which would be the easiest way, I had to decide. Colin started up his computer; I sent him a message that began to show across his screen.
"Colin if you look hard enough you will find the truth, when you find the truth you will find me." I typed to him; Colin looked strangely at the screen and then began to type something back.
"Is this some kind of dream? Where do I look to find this truth?"
"You must get to the middle of the bridge where the rails no longer lay. There you will meet a young stranger at 11pm, listen to what he has to tell you for it will be what guides you through these next trials." Colin looked at the screen one more time and shook his head almost in disbelief. He got up and proceeded to go about his daily routine. I got up and turned to see Tarra standing in the doorway.
"Good morning, how did you sleep?" I asked.
"Well it was ok, about as good a sleep you can get on a hard old mattress." She smiled and walked over to me and looked into the screen.
"So is this the next member of the crew of the Navras?"
"Yeah that’s him I already sent him a notice, I decided I am just going to send Isaiah in to have a chat with him later on tonight."
"You know I really missed you when you were gone," said Tarra, "I miss a lot of the stuff we used to." I looked over my shoulder at her and smiled.
"I missed you all a lot too but there was nothing I could do to come see you until I was ready to free you or else there was a risk an agent would get into your software and then I would loose you."
"I understand and now that I think of it I would rather it this way. Do you remember when we used to sing in the car, I think that was my favorite memory too bad we can never do that again." I looked up at Tarra with a smile on my face.
"Why not, the construct program can do a lot of things, we could be on a huge stage infront of millions of people in a second."
"Really I'll have to keep that in mind when I get my vacation time," she laughed. Dan walked into the room and walked over to Tarra.
"Morning babe," he said greeting her with a kiss. Tarra kissed him back and hugged him.
"Good morning how did you sleep baby?" Dan shrugged his shoulders.
"Good enough."
The day passed us quietly by and it was now roughly nine’ o’clock inside the matrix. Dan was sitting in the helmsman chair flying the ship through the tunnels quietly trying to avoid a swarm of sentinels that Isaiah had detected on the holographic scanner.
"How are we doing Isaiah?" Asked Dan.
"You're keeping us just out of their sensor range keep it up." Isaiah was watching a hunting squad of about ten sentinels on his scanner. I was sitting in the secondary controls of the ship helping Dan navigate and Tarra sat behind me.
"Oh god please let us get through this," Tarra prayed.
"Shh keep your voice down they can pick up on us talking as well, nothing unnecessary please," I warned. Tarra nodded her head and stayed quiet.
"Ok Dan, we're gonna try to get close enough to use the EMP to attack them with out being noticed," I whispered.
Dan nodded his head and concentrated deeper on the task at hand trying to bring us as close as he could to the swarm.
"Isaiah tell me when we are in range of all of them ok?"
"I will don't worry, we're in range of the two at the back of the swarm, now just a few minutes." I put the mouthpiece of my headset closer to my mouth.
"Parker charge the EMP." The red switch by my hand for the EMP began to light up more and more signaling that the EMP was almost charged and ready to fire.
"Captain we're in range of all of them now, find a place to set down." Dan looked around through the front glass of the ship and pointed to an area. The ship began to fly lower and lower and shortly set down in the spot. Everything went black as we cut the power to the ships systems; I flicked the switch releasing the EMP and assumed that was the end of it.
"Whew that was close," said Tarra as the ship came back to life.
"Close but not quite close enough now lets go see Colin.”
Colin had just gotten off of work and walked out the door of the restaurant. He couldn't stop thinking of the message on his computer this morning, was it real, some kind of virus, or was he just really tired and seeing things. The computer worked fine after that had happened though so it was unlikely it was a virus. The place they had mentioned, "the bridge where the rails no longer lay", they had to be talking about the train bridge. Should he go or should he just pretend like none of it happened. He walked up King Street passed the Tannery and passed the coffee shops. He was all the way up to the corner of Regent and King when he had made his decision to go. For some reason the whole time he was walking he felt like someone was watching him. He turned down Regent Street to head toward the walking trail and headed for the bridge he was to meet this person at.
Meanwhile the Isaiah was just jacking into the matrix. I shoved the needle into his neck and his eyes squinted then went to normal again.
"Isaiah are you sure you're ready for this?" I asked.
"I'm sure, don't worry, all the training I have done, I can take care of myself." I nodded and smiled at him.
"You know what to tell him eh?"
"Yes Captain." I looked over at Parker then back to Isaiah.
"Hit the switch. God speed." Parker hit the switch sending Isaiah into the construct program.
Isaiah stood infront of the weapons table and picked up his weapon The Cougar Berretta and the construct began to load him into the parking garage. Isaiah was on top of the parking garage; he walked to the edge and looked over to the next building. He decided to stay atop the buildings as to not interact with the public too much. He jumped to the next building and ran across the rooftop to the edge and bounded up to the next building some kind of bank with a satellite on top of it. He ran across and jumped to the next, which was all the way across a road close to city hall, some kind of car rental. He ran across the next two buildings that happened to be close together then across the restaurant, which Colin worked at.
Isaiah realized that he was gonna be late for his meeting if he didn't hurry up. He knew that if he focused and just ran along the street he would be moving fast enough not to be seen by anyone. Isaiah began to focus as hard as he can and jumped to the sidewalk below, he broke into an amazing run and blasted up the street. Before he knew it he was right infront of the bridge he was to be at. He could see Colin at the other end of the trail and took the high road. He jumped to the upper part of the bridge and walked along the struts. Colin had ran up to the bridge and was walking right under Isaiah. Isaiah moved swiftly and quietly along the edge above Colin. They shortly came to the edge of the bridge, Colin went into the resting spot and sat on the bench looking out over the river.
Colin gazed across the river and looked around, no one was around the person he was supposed to meet was nowhere in sight. Suddenly Colin heard a thump behind him he stood and turned to face the direction the noise came from. He could see a small figure role to the other side of the meeting place.
"Who's there?" he said in a deep voice. Isaiah stepped around the corner and sat on the back of the bench not saying anything.
"Are you the one I am here to meet?" Colin asked. Isaiah looked at him then looked out across the water,
"Yeah I'm the one who you're here to meet." Colin sat back down on the bench and looked over at Isaiah.
"How did you get that message on my computer, are you a hacker?" Isaiah smiled and looked at Colin.
"No. Before I tell you anything I have something for you to take." Isaiah reached in his pocket and took out the same pill I gave him in the beginning. "Here." Isaiah passed him the pill and Colin looked at it in his hand.
"What's this for, I'm not into drugs man?"
"It's not a drug its more for my safety really. Brandan said you would probably resist." Colin's expression changed.
"Whoa did you say Brandan as in Brandan that has been missing for almost a year and a half." Isaiah laughed a little.
"Yeah that’s the one."
"Man glad he's still alive where has he been anyway?"
"I can't tell you anything, are you gonna take the pill?" Colin looked at it again contemplating taking it.
"Well if Brandan said it is ok then I guess that is good enough to take it." Colin popped the pill in his mouth and quickly swallowed it.
"Ok," said Colin, "Now what is it you've come to tell me what is this truth that the person on the computer was talking about?" Isaiah got down to look over the edge of the bridge and leaned over a bit.
"I'm here to tell you that over the course of the next few days you are going to be contacted off and on by someone on the phone do what they tell you when they tell you, no questions asked. This person, with the help of several friends, is going to free your mind from the false reality you know as life."
"Whoa man, sounds like you're gonna kill me."
"Not at all actually when we free you you'll be more alive than ever." They heard a person walking along the bridge and Isaiah ducked down.
"Hey man what's wrong it's just an old man?"
Just then Isaiah's phone rang he took it from his coat and picked up.
"What is it?" Parker's voice was on the other end of the phone he was almost in a panic.
"Isaiah get the hell outta there, there's agent activity all around you!"
"What about Colin?"
"He'll be ok just go!"
Just as Isaiah put his phone away an agent stepped around the corner on either side of the resting spot blocking both exits.
"You're coming with us," said the one on the left. Colin stood up and backed away from the agent.
"What's going on, who are these guys?" Isaiah had a panic in his voice.
"If they get me they'll kill me, I have to get out of here somehow." Colin immediately jumped over to the closest agent and grabbed him in a haraigoshi judo throw and sent the agent over the bridge.
"Go hurry!"
Isaiah took the exit Colin provided and ran as fast as he could with the other agent hot on his trail. Isaiah focused his hardest to run at an incredible speed. The agent pulled out his gun and began firing at him. Several bullets flew past him as he ran Isaiah ran close to the wall and ran along it for several meters. Isaiah took out his phone and called the Navras.
"Where is the closest hard-line Parker!"
"It's close by, the corner of Regent and King."
"Good." Isaiah ran as hard as he could and flipped off the bridge once he reached the end. He ran down the small hill and an agent landed right infront of him, Isaiah fell backwards and landed on his back. He got back to his feet and took up a fighting stance.
"Foolish human, you will fail," said the agent taking his own fighting stance. The agent came at him and began to swing at him Isaiah dodged the attack and kicked the agent in the side apparently not hurting him. The agent hit Isaiah in the face flat hand knocking him down. Isaiah lied on the ground looking into the sky at the stars trying to think of a way to get away from the agent. The agent walked over and stood over him smiling as he reached down to pick him up. As the agent grabbed the scruff of his neck Isaiah quickly raised his gun and pointed it to his head.
"You didn't think you won did you?" Isaiah pulled the trigger and the bullet went through the agents head and out the other side, spraying blood. Isaiah jumped to his feet and began to run again taking a different route to the end of road.
He made it to the hard-line and slowly crept over to it. The phone started to ring and Isaiah ran and grabbed it placing it to his ear, successfully escaping.
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