Renegade: The Ten Sigma Series Book 2 Page 2

  What’s wrong with this new body?

  Bewildered, I descend through the waning flow of facts and toward a radiant layer that curves to the horizon. When I near, I see the rising sheet is a lattice of translucent cubes filled with pulsing, shifting glows.

  Currents push me into a space between two of the strange objects, their walls curving high into the darkness above and down into whatever lies below. Eddies whip me close to a bulging surface, where shiny datums of all shapes and sizes shove against the thin barrier, striving to force their way outside.

  I shiver, not wanting to touch anything by accident and unleash another unwanted explosion of information. Mercifully, I pass without making a disturbance. As I tumble beneath the layer, I’m happy to watch the dancing data fade into the distance.

  Below, lightning flashes across a bumpy, moonlit cloudscape where inky whirlpools lie between white pillars of mist.

  I’m falling into one of them.

  Even though this eerie place can’t be real, I flail my arms and legs, struggling to change course.

  The desperate movements do nothing, and a vortex gobbles up my falling form. I scream as ferocious currents whip my body in every direction. Forks of lightning flash behind streaking swathes of gray while howling winds drown out the thunder. Frightening seconds pass before I’m ejected downward, my tumbling view alternating between the chaos above and a dim network of rivers below.

  A glowing green attracts my attention the instant before a harsh impact empties my lungs.

  Grimacing, I flop onto my back. Sparse droplets patter on my face while I gasp for breath.

  A breeze brushes past, and goosebumps rise over my bare skin. I’m dressed in a bra and panties like I wore in my showdown with—

  Dappled moonlight fills the clouds, and metallic plants with sharp, bladed leaves glisten around me.

  Terror crawls up my spine. This is the horrible map from my final scenario in the virtual universe.

  The body of my archenemy Syd, a being created from the worst personas humanity has to offer, rests a few meters away, where I killed him.

  As a burgeoning panic threatens to consume my thoughts, I take deep breaths and focus on the knife embedded in his throat.

  My most vicious enemy is still among the deceased.

  Beyond him, others I’ve slain lie across the rippled landscape. Past a dark river on the next island glow the green threads that hold the facts from my real-world existence.

  I sigh, unsure of how to get to them in this nightmare.

  Footsteps splash in the shadows.

  My muscles protest as I force myself to my knees. Feeling vulnerable, I wrap my arms around my chest and scan the surroundings.

  Nothing moves among the contorted corpses and lethal plants.

  Pain spikes through my skull, and I grimace, squeezing my eyes shut.

  When I crack my eyelids open, the bald giant of my nightmares stands over me.

  It can’t be.

  I killed him.

  His muscles ripple as he reaches down, grabbing my hair and yanking me to my feet.

  With a snarl, I strike at his face, but my fist lands with no effect. He gives a sadistic grin, and I fly backward from a kick.

  As I tumble, the sharp leaves of the plants shred my limbs. I come to a stop on my back, unable to move. Helpless, I stare skyward, searching for my salvation beyond the blue dome.

  The real world is nowhere to be found. Instead, my other nightmare, the girl with violet eyes, kneels over me. She wears a sympathetic expression as she wipes wet hair from my face.

  Fear clutches at my insides. I try to apologize for killing her so many times, but the words spill out in gurgles.

  Her fingers caress my cheek before wandering to my throat. She pushes down.

  My windpipe constricts, and I flail at her face.

  She only tightens her grip.

  As I wheeze, fighting for air, the bald giant arrives and grabs one of my sliced and bloody arms. My elbow snaps with a loud crack.

  Howls spill from my lips. I twist, but the violet-eyed girl holds me in place by pushing her knee into my stomach.

  The bald giant grabs my other arm, but before he exacts any further revenge, the twin nightmares tilt their heads in unison, sending me identical corner-eyed stares.

  Terrified by their eerie expressions and what’s coming, I writhe, praying for an escape.

  The bald giant breaks my forearm.

  I shriek as a rumble echoes. In the distance and from all directions, land and water ripple, forming a towering circular wave that’s heading directly toward me.

  The ground rocks while the arced wall of landscape approaches.

  My tormentors vanish when the surge hits and carries me into the center of the map. When the curves of terrain meet, everything spikes, and my broken body cannonballs upward, past the clouds and through the cubes.

  By the time I reach the swirling storm of data, I’m a blubbering mess.

  The glittery datums sting me with knowledge as my consciousness drifts higher. Soon, and to my relief, blackness shrouds the nightmare below.

  Three

  Reality returns in the form of bitter odors tainting sweaty smells and bulky armor rubbing against sticky clothing. My head lolls, swaying from side to side, while my boots scrape over a smooth surface.

  I’m being propped up and transported to some unknown destination.

  When I lift an eyelid, a wave of disorientation floods through me. My legs give way, and I crumple.

  Jonathon tumbles too, and we land in a heap.

  “How long have I been out?” I say, squinting down a dim gray corridor lit by red emergency lights.

  The scientist untangles himself from my limbs and struggles into a kneeling position. The stress of combat has worn him out. “Only a few minutes,” he replies, sucking in shallow breaths. “I had to get us away from the lab and up to the fourteenth floor. More soldiers were coming.”

  When I concentrate on hiding places, the details crammed into my mind reference a nearby utility closet that’s behind a pale-green door.

  I grab the pudgy man by his white coat and stagger to my feet. When he protests, I put my hand over his mouth and drag him from our exposed position.

  The room consists of metal shelving stocked with plastic containers lining the sides. Underneath, boxy cleaning robots sit along the footboards, recharging. Although the overhead light is off, sunlight shines down the narrow space from a window made of glass blocks.

  After I shut the door, I evaluate my condition. The good news is I’m physically intact, which is a tiny consolation. Besides passing out from the torrent of information, dull throbs still linger behind the fog clouding my thoughts. While I functioned through horrible wounds battling in the scenarios, not being able to think is a major detriment.

  The mind can’t be compensated for…

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Everything should be fine,” he replies.

  Still on edge from dealing with my virtual ghosts, I pivot and ram him into the shelves, rattling metal.

  “Everything is not fine,” I say, just short of a shout.

  “Everything to bring your essence into that body should have worked,” he blurts.

  “Should have?”

  “I followed all the instructions.”

  “Instructions?” I say incredulously. “Is this the first time you’ve done this?”

  He nods. “A team was supposed to fly in and handle all the details, but the attack threw everything off. We were supposed to do this three days from now when everything would have been ready.”

  Still clutching his lab coat, I step back, trying to digest this unexpected tidbit.

  He sighs, glancing to where the metal collar was resting around my neck. “This isn’t how things are supposed to be.”

  The cryptic nature of the statement strikes exactly the wrong chord for my fragile state. “How things are supposed to be?” I gather in a long breath the
n spit out, “You have no idea of what I went through to be here. I just fought an army of people created from the worst parts of death-row inmates and beat them, so I could reach ten sigmas and get back to the real world and my family. But now, I’m running from I-don’t-know what and heading to I-don’t-know where. So forgive me for not being sympathetic to your expectations.”

  “To answer your question, we’re in New Austin, Texas—”

  “Yes, I know that,” I say, letting go of his collar, so I can wave my hands for extra emphasis. “And every other stupid fact about this area. What the hell is wrong with my mind?”

  His shoulders sag as if the weight of the morning’s events has finally taken its toll. “I’m sorry.”

  The apology deflates my anger, and I step back.

  He rubs his forehead, eyes lost in thought. “I’ll need to research what the issue is, but something’s off with your control mechanism, the software that binds your values to those of a ten sigma. Are you sure there’s nothing else?”

  Only me killing the bald giant…

  Instead of mentioning that nightmare induced by the blue liquid, I reply, “Can you explain exactly what happened before I came back here?” I force a faint smile. “It might help us survive a little longer.”

  “The border’s been in flux for a number of years—”

  I hold up my hand. “Maybe limit the story to right before I get back?”

  Jonathon wipes his forehead. “The Liberation Front hit at dawn. Most likely, a bunch of them came in with refugees over the last month. It takes a long time to animate a body before putting in the mind, and once the process is started, it has to be completed or the body goes to waste. Since we began two days ago, we needed to finish here.” He puffs out a breath. “The insertion team was due to fly in tomorrow, so I had to complete everything by myself, today. While I understand the theoretics, there were some things I had to guess at—”

  “Guess?”

  “Yes, guess. So when the time came to download supplements for your memories, I wasn’t sure which would be appropriate…”

  I rub my eyes, picturing all the datums that flowed past and then all the data just waiting to get out of those translucent cubes, which stretched as far as the eye could see.

  Suddenly tired, I dip my head and quietly say, “Let me guess. You downloaded everything.”

  “Yes,” he replies. “I decided it was better for you to have information you didn’t need rather than need information you didn’t have.”

  I restrain a scream of frustration. As the Ten Sigma Program wore on, everyone’s original past was erased. But before I left, the man with the broad-brimmed hat returned my personal information via the green threads in my mind. And now, that precious bundle lies buried under a heap of every bit of knowledge from the computer system.

  Not to mention being surrounded by my virtual nightmares.

  I bite my lip, waiting for my overstuffed head to burst into a glorious orgy of gleaming data, gray matter, and crimson droplets.

  “Thankfully, the whole thing worked,” he adds.

  “Worked?” I shove him against the plastic containers again and tighten my fingers around his lab coat, trying to impress upon him the seriousness of our situation. “We are in big trouble.”

  “You’re a ten sigma. The best of the best.”

  I’m not sure what to do. I’m supposed to save his life, but he needs to understand what we’re up against.

  Metal and plastic rattle as the room shakes from a muted explosion.

  “It’s not that simple,” I say, pushing my nose against his.

  Although his lips quiver, he speaks behind a brave front. “You won’t hurt the ones you have to protect. Let go of me, please.”

  Fighting is easy, but diplomacy…

  He’s right; I shouldn’t be hurting him. I didn’t go through hell to come back and bully people. After loosening my grip, I pour my exasperation into a long sigh. “Look, something is seriously wrong with my thought process. If I can’t trust my own mind…”

  The unspoken words hang between us for a moment before he nods in understanding. “Give me a second.”

  As his eyes shift in thought, I get angry with the delay because he’s weighing the minimum amount of information to reveal. The reticence isn’t going to help, so I try a different tack. “When I won all those battles in the virtual world, I didn’t have a splitting headache, and I just lost control of my body. Unless I can solve this problem, this mission will fail.”

  “Did anything strange happen when you blacked out?”

  What didn’t happen that was strange?

  “I floated against this tide of data. It was like being stung by bees or something. Then, there was a layer of cubes where each one was packed with information…” I tighten my lips, unwilling to share any part of my nightmare.

  He frowns. “That’s the download.”

  I nod. “When I try to think of something from the real world, I think the cube containing the topic dumps everything.”

  “That’s really strange,” he replies. “Those are issues for accessing knowledge. It’s like you ask for a drop but get a waterfall.”

  “How do we fix this?”

  “Don’t think so much.”

  “That’s idiotic. If I don’t think we’re dead.”

  “What I mean is,” he digs his knuckles into his sweaty forehead. “Try not to think of anything new unless it’s absolutely necessary. Your intrinsic knowledge is intact. If you need something new, be very specific with your queries.”

  A moment passes while I drag in a deep breath. “So, if I avoid any thought besides fighting and surviving, everything should be okay. Or else focus on specific terms and hope for the best?”

  “Yes, extremely specific.” He raises his fingers, bringing them a hairbreadth apart to reinforce the point.

  The logic is tenuous, but I can make it work. I hope. The man is still hiding something, but as of now, his secrets can wait until we’re out of danger.

  “Okay, let’s go,” I say, releasing my grip.

  As I step past him, he glances again at my neck.

  I touch the bare skin. “What was with that metal collar?”

  “Part of the control mechanism. With it on, you shouldn’t have been able to do anything physical.” His lips purse. “Whatever happens and whoever we meet, don’t mention passing out to anyone. After we get out of here, I’ll figure out what’s wrong, but for now, keep this between us. And try to act like a ten sigma.”

  Instead of responding, I tighten my jaw. I don’t have any idea of what acting like a ten sigma means. Assuming the title means more than just killing everyone I meet.

  “Is there anything else?”

  “If anything comes to mind, I’ll tell you.”

  With nothing further to discuss, I open the door, wanting a plan to escape.

  Paths to exit the building enter my mind.

  I pause. Although the initial painful dump of knowledge caused debilitation, the results are manifesting as something useful. My optimism surges at the positive, then I look at my empty hands.

  “You didn’t bother to take any weapons?”

  Jonathon shakes his head.

  Great.

  I roll my eyes as I lead us from the hiding place, trying not to think of anything I don’t already know.

  A few steps later, the tip of a pulse rifle appears from around the far corner.

  I freeze. The headache has dulled my senses, and in my haste, I’ve made a blunder.

  Four

  Four soldiers appear at the end of the hallway.

  I yank Jonathon in front of me and hunch behind his pudgy frame.

  He yelps, “What—”

  “Just play along,” I mumble, pretending to have a weapon pointed at his back. In Liberation Front armor, I hope to at least pass for one of them with Jonathon as my captive.

  The men stop and center their pulse rifles on us.

  Since I can’t see Jonat
hon’s face, I’m not sure of his acting ability, but we’re committed. “Act scared,” I whisper, pushing him forward.

  The clacks of our footsteps fill the tense silence, and the distance narrows without pulses searing into our bodies—a distinct positive.

  “What have we here?” someone asks.

  “Prisoner,” I reply, lowering my voice and shoving Jonathon into the lead soldier.

  He catches the scientist while the others relax. A moment elapses before the leader, a tall man with a scarred cheek, shifts his attention to me, or rather my feminine face and red hair. His eyes widen as his rifle rises.

  I leap and jam the muzzle aside. Before he recovers, I snap my palm into his chin then drive a kick into his chestplate.

  His body crashes into the rearmost soldier, and the pair tumbles in a knot of limbs, armor, and weapons.

  The remaining two react with glacial speed.

  I toss Jonathon to safety and step inside the nearer one’s guard, wresting his rifle away.

  He crumples after I crash the butt of the weapon through his visor.

  Before he hits the floor, my hand grips the flat trigger while the red combat threads woven into my essence inform me about the nuances of its use. Using my pinkie to create pulse levels and my index finger to fire, I launch a barrage.

  Tunnels of superheated air ripple into my enemies, who offer only sloppy, slow reactions. Hideous cries come as they die in sprays of molten armor and seared flesh.

  The last one with the smashed face rises, and I drill him with a side kick as an afterthought.

  He crunches off the wall and falls with his head twisted at an odd angle.

  Although the area quiets, I clear the rest of the corridor, suspicious of my lack of situational awareness, the most necessary trait for surviving in combat.

  After I find nothing and come back, my eyes wander to the smoking bodies of my adversaries. I return their dead stares, wrinkling my nose from the charred odors infesting the ozone-tainted air. No feelings arise from inside me, except for disappointment in not knowing what emotion I should have. These were hard men, killing and torturing many in their lives. I think that should make me happy. However, since they never had a chance, perhaps sadness is in order.