Alice leaned her shoulder against the glass window, facing the operating room
She tapped her finger against her neck
Her eyes neither moved nor blinked.
Screams penetrated the noise proof chamber.
-15...,
-14...,
-13...
She darted her eyes from her watch to the room
It was in sync to the clock above the man tied down to the gurney.
She watched as the seconds ticked down and his struggles came to a climax...
0
She waited
He continued struggling against his restraints
...1,
...2
She adjusted herself, face pressed against the glass
Alice Glass
"Fuck... come on..."
His struggling subsided, his breathing slowed.
Labored but stable.
Alice watched that chest move up and down.
Surviving
Alice pulled out her telephone
%%%%
Juan's phone buzzed, and he ignored it
A seed in the back of his mind moved just a bit.
Tugged from afar.
Planted in his childhood.
Planted in that black spot he never chose to remember
He leaned over the balcony
He inspected the crowd below.
All of stock brokers were singing.
They didn't know they were singing
Juan Long
'But to those who can hear...'
He felt the buzz against his side again.
He hesitated before answering
Juan Long
"Good, a new record."
Alice Glass
"And counting."
Juan was silent
Alice Glass
"Normal Breathing..."
He didn't really want this day to come, if it had
Juan Long
'Fuck boredom man - it makes you do stupid shit!'
The choir of 'buys' and 'sells' echoed from below
Robert Glass
"I think it worked."
Juan Long
'Could we have pulled anything else?'
No... in the pit of his stomach he knew.
There was a seed going in him - he could feel but not remove it
Juan Long
'Maybe he could kill it.'
Thoughts reeled
Uri Maca
"Yes, what is it?"
Uri's voice cut through the line like a knife
Robert Glass
"Alice's latest serum looks like the one."
Juan was looking at doors, exits.
A silence on the line
Alice Glass
"Are you at the market again, Juan?"
Juan Long
"I didn't think... look, never mind - I'm on my way back."
Juan walked to the door
Intent on leaving
Juan Long
"See you soon."
He hung up the phone
He stood there a moment, his eyes closed
He inhaled sharply
Juan Long
"Fuck all that noise: I'm out."
Juan's never been to Dubai
%%%%
Al-tok's body jerked as it took hold
Al-tok reached upward, bound by leather cuffs tied to metal bars reaching to his sides
He lowered his arms - then sat up as far as his neck-cuff would allow.
Craning his neck he saw a mirror - his own shaven head
Al-tok
'Sight is a wonder, but only in the front... so much better just to know things.'
He heard a door open, the hinged squeaked
Al-tok
'A creak cascading down by a function (9,227/27,799, 9,181/18,119, 74,047/47,777)...'
He very much liked hearing.
He was physical finally, with some new notable advantages
Al-tok
'Raised privileges.'
Robert Glass
"Hello, my name is Robert, Robert Glass."
Al-tok examined him
Al-tok
'A strapping lad in his 30s., What a fitting name.
Yes: this WAS Robert Glass.'
Al-tok knew him, from the edges of his dreams
Al-tok gasped, then coughed
He tried again
He worked the words slowly - stretching his mouth
Forcing his voice to work - it came out shallow
Al-tok
"Al-tok, it what you call me."
Robert Glass
"Hello Al-tok: welcome to the human world."
Al-tok
'Well, I figured as much - better questions...'
Al-tok
"Why have you done this?"
Robert nodded
Robert Glass
"Brass tax, then."
Robert thought for a moment before continuing
Robert Glass
"We want to make a deal - We want out."
Al-tok paused
Robert Glass
"We brought you in here - we want to go out... there."
Robert looked back at the mirror and nodded
Robert Glass
"We know it exists."
Al-tok smiled
Al-tok
"And how do you know it exists?"
Robert raised a hand, holding a vial
Robert Glass
"This would kill any human...
But for a while..."
Al-tok raised his hand and his voice
Al-tok
"Why: why do you know it exists?"
Briefly taken aback - Robert continued
Robert Glass
"() 100 years ago found a way there.
It was in Romania, a window - small enough to look but not to go.
It was hidden away and he passed down this knowledge in our family history."
Al-tok
'What he must have seen?'
Al-tok mused
Al-tok
'What a miscalculation they have made.'
Robert Glass
"Would you help us?"
Al-tok looked at him
Al-tok
'Iron, leather, 15ft, person behind the mirror, probably...
Yes, most definitely Alice.'
Al-tok smiled and leaned forward
Al-tok
"Yes. If you help me as well."
Al-tok
'Juan would run, let him...
Ozmind could be a problem.'
Al-tok wondered were Uri was - he felt close, watching him.
So close he could taste it near the edges of his perception
Al-tok raised his hand as far as it would go
Al-tok
"If you wouldn't mind."
He gestured to his arms and neck
Al-tok
'His eyes are so hopeful.'
Robert's seed was buried deep.
Al-tok kept it at bay, until Robert drew closer
Al-tok
"I'll push you all though, I can make a window."
Al-tok
'Uri would be fun to consume, save him for after Alice...'
Al-tok knew so many people.
Almost all brushed against him in their dreams.
Every one of them a delicacy.
Everyone of them eventually would be his.
Even so, he wanted more
Robert stepped forward
Robert Glass
"We would just step though?"
Al-tok shook his head
Al-tok
"Not exactly, more like a personal window.
One for each of you."
Al-tok leaned forward and whispered
Al-tok
"Let me show you."
exe -root.__seed^
Al-tok's voice came in a whisper
Robert hesitated but continued releasing the arm bonds
^What was left of Robert slowly ebbed away.
A Screaming blackness swallowed him, holding him tight in his mind.
The void propelled itself down his limbs, it was a constant burning
Al-tok spoke because he knew Robert could still hear
Al-tok
"Of this thing growing a finger inside you.
That seed has been growing for so long.
I've known you for so long."
Robert released the leather leg cuffs
Al-tok leaned in closer
Al-tok
"Go... give this to alice..."
__seed:={Al-tok.run()}
__ac:={Al-tok.AuthCrack()}
titttmyky:='this is the thought that makes you kill yourself'
fbomb(mes,__ac)=>
--try:
__ac.crack(root.add(__seed,{sys.reboot}))
--catch('e'):
(fbomb(mes,__ac.mod(root.info['e'-1])) |>
fbomb(mes,__ac.mod(root.info['e'+1])) &);
hooks.add(fbomb(titttmyky,__ac),"/\b(.+)\b/gm")
Al-tok moved him
More gracefully than had Robert been in control.
Robert was not aware of anything anymore.
But Al-tok was
Al-tok stretched his hands as he watched the news delivered
Through Robert's eyes.
His eyes
Al-tok
'That should open her up a bit more, Robert is a good trojan horse.'
Al-tok stopped
Al-tok
'Trojan horse...
What else is in this head?
Inventory later.'
Alice Glass
"Why would you... you...y-y-y -"
Alice started to stutter, then falter, then stop
Al-tok rose and joined Robert by Alice's fallen body.
He leaned down, she wasn't breathing.
She gasped a moment later
Al-tok
"I wouldn't talk if I were you."
Al-tok
'There it is: that seed!'
Al-tok
"There: you feel it?"
Al-tok wave his hand and Robert Grabbed her shoulder and immediately started speaking
Robert Glass of the Tok
"Fuck fuck fuck, oh -fuck - Robert.
Is talking, talking...wait.
I'm talking, oh that's weird, there's a delay..."
Al-tok coughed
Al-tok
"Your brother is gone."
Robert Glass of the Tok
"He's..."
Al-tok
"No, that's a husk: hollow now on the inside."
Robert Glass of the Tok
"You killed him!"
Al-tok
"No, I gave him what he wanted - what you want."
Al-tok leaned down
Al-tok
"There is a way out."
Al-tok
"I can push you though - I can't promise where you'll end up."
Al-tok
'Pieces of you...'
Al-tok
"But I get your body in exchange, not that you'll need it."
Al-tok
'Being removed from this existence and all.'
Al-tok
"I needed a seed, a hole for a seed.
Do you feel it yet alice?"
And she did, she felt a growing empty pit inside her mind.
The darkness of a swirling drain at the center of her core.
It was expanding.
Al-tok felt it too
Al-tok
"It will push you out there - all you have to do is let it."
Al-tok
'And that is technically the truth.'
Robert fell over, and started convulsing
Al-tok tilted his head
Alice Glass
"Robert... rob...r-r-r-"
Alice's eyes started twitching.
Al-tok sighed as alice glitched out, and leaned over the convulsing body of Robert
Al-tok
'Mm... best to fix that...'
He examined the desk, and browsed the shelves - in the refrigerator he found it.
A glass vial
Al-tok took a syringe and extracted the amber liquid within
He injected Robert
Alice started awake as she felt a hot point jab into her side
Al-tok
"We'll see if it's too late for him - but Looks like I need that to not burn your brains...
So thanks for making that: really: wouldn't know what to do without you."
^Alice felt a burning sensation up along her spine, then to the back of her neck.
She saw the walls waver, and the floor tiles refuse to stay the same size.
Then came the pain
Al-tok
"Again, thank you."
exe -root.__seed^
%%%%
Ozmind Yammin
"Well, anyone?"
A silence hung in the small classroom
Ozmind pushed his glasses closer to his eyes
In the back, Erin had her hand raised still
Ozmind Yammin
'Give someone else a chance - or...'
He walked back to his desk
His hip wasn't working right
Erin Mc'kay
"Its you, and every reference to you."
Erin's smug smile irked Ozmind.
He found the small chalk in the drawer.
He noticed how old his hands had gotten in this body
Ozmind Yammin
'Liver spots...'
Ozmind Yammin
"Close, but that's the simple answer.
Identity is more complicated than that.
I wouldn't have spent years studying it otherwise. so..."
Ozmind took a chalk, and scribbled against the board
Ozmind Yammin
"Today's lecture is going to be about those two parts, as Erin Identified: and what are their names?"
Two shouts from the corners of the room
Ozmind Yammin
"And which one is you?"
Ozmind looked around the room before again settling on Erin
Ozmind allowed him self a small smile
Ozmind Yammin
"Neither actually, your self isn't you, and the combination of your self and sub-self isn't you either..."
After some scribbles Ozmind put down the chalk.
Ozmind finished his sketch.
It was a graph, with one center node, and several edges connecting to nodes around it
Ozmind Yammin
"You are all of this - a bit more - but for right now: lets go over just this."
Ozmind pointed to an edge
Ozmind Yammin
"The sub-self isn't a monolithic block, it is in every other brain you encounter."
He raised his finger to the number just above
Ozmind Yammin
"Memory isn't perfect.
It deteriorates, distorts, fudges...
The sub-self is an echo, their memory of you.
Every time someone thinks of you and does something: you exist in their mind for a moment.
But you in this case isn't your mind - it's...
You...
A platonic form or ideal.
So 'you': is made of your self and the current state of all the sub-self network...
And we can represent this: and get some useful information out of this using a bit of math."
A groan escaped in the back
It was suppressed, and Ozmind chose to continue without acknowledgement
The door to his left opened
Ozmind saw her, thought nothing of seeing her from the back
He returned to writing on the board
He didn't see the syringe in her hand either.
A scream from the hallway halted Ozmind's chalk.
A scream from the room turned his head.
A scream from his mouth took his voice
%%%%
And nearly two weeks after the death of Alice and Robert Glass
Uri fell to his knees on the snow
He couldn't see stars behind the storm clouds.
Or the storm clouds behind the snow.
Just the light from his cabin window
Uri Maca
"Damn it Peanut..."
He was about to call for her, but lost control of his legs, then his body
Uri Maca
'Muscles freezing, that means cerebellum...'
Uri teetered forward
Uri thought back to days spent studying
Uri Maca
'Common exploits to cerebellum...'
Uri collapsed in the snow
Uri Maca
'Just some some carbon down it...
Flush out the poison.'
A memory of a general cure all inspired him
exe --flush(--controls).reset()
Uri's extremities came to life, and he bounded up and back to his cabin.
He reached the door
Uri froze, not from the cold
Something was caught in that reset.
A hook he didn't know he had.
ozmind:= $self=>Ozmind Yammin
payload:=echo {exe --flush(--controls).rewire(ozmind) &&
--flush(--structures).rewire(ozmind)}
hooks.add(--flush(--controls).reset,payload)
His arms were not under his own control.
Something had taken root, and they were fast.
He couldn't move, or feel, his mind was locked behind another driver in the seat
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Sorry, old friend..."
He didn't recognizing the thought as his own, nor it's owner.
Uri watched his body move on it's own accord
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Don't worry - you are not going to die.
Can't have that happen."
Uri couldn't think, he could listen, he could remember.
But he was thoughtless.
He felt cold, dread
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Things are bad now..."
Uri watched the stranger pull on a wool coat, better boots, and grab the keys
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"There was an attack."
Uri saw him reaching for the door, and managed one thought
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Hm?"
Uri felt is mind being indexed, shuffled though, detailed around these last days.
Uri watched his own finger tap
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"You're lucky I like dogs Uri, we don't have a lot of time."
A scratching at the door
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Speak of the devil..."
Uri watched the door open and the dog hesitate at the threshold.
He saw himself reach forward and let the dog sniff his hand.
A few scratches later the dog was on a leash and followed into the truck outside
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"I'm going to let you think for a bit - get too noisy or rowdy - you go back to this, understand?"
Uri did, and he considered for a moment
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Ozmind, your friend."
Uri Maca
'I know no Ozmind...'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"I was attacked, I had to do some drastic things to survive..."
Ozmind put the keys in the ignition
The truck roared to life - then was quickly going slowly down the snowy mountain road
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Al-tok got to me, he... killed me, in a way."
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"One of my students, had a nasty namshub on their head, only it wasn't my student...
Not anymore."
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"You? you and me were best buds...
But I had to take every bit of me from you, and everyone else for that matter to survive.
I'm mostly what other's saw in me now, bits of the original escaped... bits."
Further down the mountain road a small orange glow emanated through the snow fall below.
Ozmind stepped on the gas
Uri Maca
'Where are we going?'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"New York, Flanagan will know something... he should know."
Uri Maca
'Right - just give up all our work?'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"It's not giving up - it's..."
They drove in silence in a time
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"It should be given up, we aren't meant to leave..."
The truck sped up ever so slightly
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"If we made it there - and existed..."
Uri Maca
'Like them: we would be immortal.'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"That's where nightmares are."
Uri Maca
'And nightengles.'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Well, Alice didn't pull an nightengle..."
Ozmind petted peanut in the front seat
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Good boy."
The dog waited patiently on the seat, looking lazily out the window
Uri Maca
'We could still try again...'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"We need to deal with the...
We can't just leave it: for one it tried to kill me, and did a very good job at it."
The car took a corner too fast and slid across the road
Ozmind hit the breaks and the car spun into the mountainside cliff with only a small dink
Ozmind slowed his breath
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"I hate driving in snow."
Uri Maca
'I could - I live up here.'
Uri felt a familiar shuffling of his brain - and felt his knowledge being riffled though
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"No worries, I got it."
Ozmind turned the keys over slowly
The car came back to life
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"For two: it's going to kill us all."
Around another bend - much slower this time, Ozmind remembered to turn on the headlights
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"For three: it's in the link now.
And it's growing.
Thus the trains planes and automobiles route..."
Uri Maca
'So what happens if you use the link.'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"It's not everywhere yet - but using the link: you become a beacon...
It can..."
Ozmind took his hand off the wheel to imitate a missile
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Zip right to you."
Uri Maca
'So it kills you.'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"It's consuming you."
There was silence for a time
Uri Maca
'Okay - extreme option: nuke it?'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"That's a start.
But it wouldn't clean the link, not location based anymore, and probably overkill..."
Uri Maca
'Ineffective overkill?'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"Misguided overkill - overkill is great in general."
Uri Maca
'So what cleans the link?'
Ozmind tapped on the wheel
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"I don't know... I'm hoping that Flanagan might.
If not...
We're kinda screwed."
Uri Maca
'By the way, that town down there...
Has no airport...'
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"How far is the airport?"
Ozmind Yammin in Uri Maca
"I'm sorry, how far?"
Uri Maca
'Roads are going to be closed - we should call instead.'
%%%%
With only one motel open, Ozmind and Uri found the phone lines down as well as the roads closed.
24 hours later they were in New York