Chapter 18: Update
Martin woke up back in his office and quickly unbuckled his chair belt. He ran to the door and entered the main floor. While moving towards the elevator, he checked the time on his holodisplay.
About a minute had passed. Maybe less. He talked to that Delta for much longer, so she was telling the truth about that time dilation business.
The distribution terminal was on its own floor where the headclip team worked. As the elevator rose up, he got a video-call request. It was from the Minister of Justice herself. Martin knew she wouldn’t stop calling till he answered. On the holodisplay open to his front, he saw the older-aged dark-skinned woman in her blue blazer.
“Martin”, she said.
“Ronda”, he said.
The Minister of Justice was the kind of person to get straight to the point and now was no exception.
“I couldn’t help but notice a nationwide alert to avoid Paradise. Is this something I should be aware of? If there’s any sort of hacking going on then my department needs to be aware.”, she said.
Martin paused. Was it wise to reveal this info? Delta said she’d be able to stay inside even if her body was killed. Yet, it couldn’t hurt for the Justice Ministry to know then, could it? Could Delta tell if it happened? What would she do to Molly and the others then?
Ronda saw the sweat form on Martin’s brow.
“Martin, who did you talk to?” she said.
He stalled.
“Martin!” she yelled out.
“Delta! She said her name was Delta. Some hacker found an exploit or something. I’m dealing with it-”
Ronda had already pulled up a search of people with that name and pushed a list of them to Martin’s holodisplay.
“I assume you saw her. Pick.”
Martin scrolled through the list and saw her picture. Her hair was black, eyes brown, but the face was the same. He highlighted the entry.
“That’s her? You sure?” asked Ronda.
“Yes. But what are you going to do?”
“That’s the business of my department, but needless to say Paradise is a national asset where such fiddling can’t be tolerated. I trust you’re dealing with the technology issue on your end right now?”
The elevator dinged to a stop.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
The call ended.
Martin stepped out.
--==--==--==--
Delta walked alongside the Canmore’s shared realm. Inside her stomach, Molly was wrapped in that cocoon construct she made. She had a lot of time before Martin could distribute the firmware update. Hours.
Molly was in agony of course. Delta made good on her word. The slime pod in her stomach digested the blonde over and over. It was by far her most excruciating form of torment yet, but she couldn’t even enjoy herself with it.
The tan titaness paced around the private realm. Her feet dug into the grass with every step, and the resulting vibration under soles went almost entirely unappreciated.
Doubts ran through her mind.
‘The amount of people entering Paradise slowed to a near stop. There must’ve been an announcement. Martin might not go through with it.’
Molly was stuck in that lit stomach. The encapsulating construct of Delta’s flesh was filled with stinging, melting fluids and tendrils wrapping about her body. The cruel appendages squeezed her tight, over and over, as Delta used her melting body as a stress squeeze-toy of sorts.
The tentacle down Molly’s throat stymied her screams and stung at her insides. It was hard for her to think much of anything at all under the constant barrage of agony.
Even that wasn’t enough for Delta. She needed another victim, someone else to prove her superiority with. She teleported in some random guy from the Nexus. Still frozen, he found himself in her grip as her fingers broke him every which way: another stress toy for her. When he died, he respawned back in the Nexus while she warped another random soul in at the same time.
‘Of course he’ll do it. Martin saw what I can do. He couldn’t possibly leave her likes this.’, thought Delta.
--==--==--==--
Criminality was rare in the United State of Humanity. Paradise and other things kept people occupied. Life was good within the country for everyone. Even the poorer citizens never had to worry about food or entertainment. Yet, when needed, the Ministry of Justice could act swift and decisively.
A team of 4 was dispatched towards Delta’s apartment in Newer York City by orders of Ronda herself. Each one carried a rifle and wore light-gray tactical uniforms and helmets. Bob, the drone doorman, was shoved aside and they checked the rooms.
Since Delta owned the entire building, she never specified a room number for mail and thus they had to check each and every one. Their orders were to terminate the target.
Ronda didn’t know too much about technology, but anyone who could hack Paradise, however much, marked an existential threat to the nation.
--==--==--==--
Headclip R&D floor was empty when Martin got there. They all had the day off so no one was around to question him as he went towards a special room at the back. The security guards there stepped aside as Martin told them he needed to distribute an emergency patch to deal with the matter.
He went into the room and the doors shut behind him as always. The glass was one way, so no one could see the gray suited man as he approached a lone and complex looking terminal.
Martin walked to the special computer and interfaced with it. It recognized his status and gave him all access. With a thought command he started the update process. He was prompted to select the firmware package from his headclip data storage and hesitated.
‘Should I really do this? Can that hacker’s promise really be enforced? I could be condemning everyone inside to an even worse fate. Who knows what’s in this file?’
Then his thoughts slipped to Molly, of seeing his beloved wife writhing in an acidic pit of flesh: treated like food. He couldn’t let her go through that. If there was even a chance of lessening her suffering, it was worth putting the nation at risk.
‘What’s the worst that can happen. She’s just one woman. Whatever this is we can figure out a way to stop it. I just need to get Molly out of there. Anything for that.’
Martin started the upload. The file left his headclip and went into the terminal. A progress bar showed up and slowly tricked up. 5%, 6%, 10%. The process of updating the headclips was very delicate and involved setting things up so it all went out to everyone at once.
15%... 30%... 50%...
--==--==--==--
The Justice Response team kept checking rooms. All were locked and had to be kicked open. Each time the rooms were empty. No furniture, no lights, no nothing.
--==--==--==--
Martin watched the bar go up. Sweat dripped form his brow.
‘Am I doing the right thing?’
60%... 80%...
--==--==--==--
The Justice Response team kicked in the next door. Unlike the others, it was double locked and resisted the kicks of the team lead at first.
Eventually, the door tore off its hinges and they went in.
--==--==--==--
90%... 99%
--==--==--==--
The team saw the target. Delta’s shoeless body was buckled in her computer chair, still wearing her green shorts and yellow shirt. Clothes were scattered in two piles by a mattress.
The team lead raised her rifle to take the shot.
--==--==--==--
100%
--==--==--==--
The tactical team slumped to the ground. Martin too. Ronda. Darian. Silver-seeder pilots. Shoppers. Even those outside the country at overseas computer farms and the glacier works were affected. Everyone everywhere went limp. Their headclip LEDs glowed a constant yellow.
Delta’s favorite color.