A man backed into the doorway. Still speaking to someone in the room, he hadn’t yet seen the trio waiting for him in the corridor. Hadn’t yet seen the guns in their hands, pointed directly at him.

  “Hold your fire,” Cassidy said, raising his hand. Shooting him now would reveal their presence. And he was too far away to physically subdue the man. It was just bad luck a guest had chosen this precise moment to leave the party. A few seconds later, and they would have been clear.

  The man laughed at something that was said to him and then waved, finally turning around and stepping all the way through the doorway, the doors sliding closed behind him. He froze instantly, piercing Cassidy with his gaze.

  “Oh, shit,” Jazz said. “That’s Bizrathi Praan.”

  An older man, he was of average height but plump, with dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes and a round, friendly face. Praan regarded them silently for a moment before looking back at the door. Would he decide to run back through it? It would take a few milliseconds for the sensor to pick up his movement and the door to open, another second or two for the man to turn around and run back through it.

  Cassidy thought again about shooting him. His finger put pressure on the trigger. But then the man reached out and tapped the lock button on the pad beside the door. Then he looked back at the three of them, seemingly unconcerned about the assortment of guns pointed at him

  He smiled and started walking toward them, moving briskly but calmly. Cassidy remained still, unsure how to react to Praan’s cool reaction.

  “Detective Hall,” Praan said quietly as he arrived. “You made it.” His smile grew larger, and he exhaled as if he was relieved by their success, rather than afraid. “Please, this way. It isn’t safe for you here.”

  Cassidy and Jessica looked at one another, still confused as Praan went over to the door they had targeted and pulled it open. “Please,” he repeated, waving them through.

  They hurried past him, into another corridor similar to the first. Praan trailed behind them and closed the door.

  “What’s going on?” Jessica asked. “I don’t understand. I thought you were the enemy.”

  “That’s because you know that something’s wrong,” Praan replied. “But you have no idea what. You know someone is the enemy, and you think it’s me. It’s not.”

  “But—”

  “Not here. Not now” Praan replied. “Once Nevis figures out you made it up, they’ll come. Hall, or should I say, Cassidy, we need to get you to the unit before that happens.”

  “You know who I am?” Cassidy said.

  Praan smiled. “I know everything. It is both a blessing and curse. Hurry.” Turning his shoulders, he squeezed between Cassidy and Jessica, leading them down the corridor. He took only several steps before stopping and turning back around. “Too late. Damn that woman.” He pointed at Jazz. “Mister Jazlin. The UDF is going to break through this door within the next thirty seconds. You need to hold them back as long as you can.”

  “Why me?” Jazz asked. “I didn’t sign up for that.”

  “Yes, I understand. You want payment for your effort. Believe me, I will make it worth your while.”

  “Your coin is useless if I’m dead,” Jazz said.

  “If you don’t hold that door, we’ll all die,” Praan replied. “And then it will still be useless to you.”

  “Shit,” Jazz said again. He turned to face the door, shotgun up. “I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved in this.”

  “This way,” Praan said, leading Cassidy and Jessica forward again.

  They were almost to the end of the hallway when Jazz started shooting, his Sliver identifying the UDF agents before they had breached the doorway. His shotgun rounds punched through the wood, knocking the first line of them down before they could shoot back.

  “Hurry!” Praan said again, though he refused to go faster than a quick walk. He made it to a doorway at the end of the corridor, reaching into his pocket and this time pulling out a single, standard manual key. He put it in the door and turned it, setting off a series of clicks and thunks that showed the door was better protected than it seemed.

  An explosion of gunfire followed behind them. Cassidy looked back to watch the UDF burst through the remains of the door, leading with bulletproof shields. Jazz fired round after round from the shotgun, his Sliver helping him find gaps and weaknesses in the defenses. The shields fractured and broke as shells blasted through them, inflicting deep, dreadful, killing wounds.

  “Cassidy,” Praan said.

  Cassidy looked back at Praan, who had opened the door into the library. Jessica was already inside. He returned his attention to Jazz as the shotgun went dry. The dealer pulled his sidearm and charged into the agents, his modified muscles allowing him to throw heavy punches into the attackers. It seemed as though an entire platoon had already fallen to his defense, but more agents continued to pour into the fight. The elevator could only carry six or seven at a time at most.

  Where the hell had they all come from?

  They must have already been on the floor, waiting for a signal from Nevis or maybe even Praan. But that would indeed mean Praan had turned on the UDF. Had turned on Unity.

  Why?

  He would find out soon enough.

  Cassidy continued looking back as more agents swarmed Jazz. There was nothing he could do to help his friend. And Cassidy realized that was exactly what they were. Their eyes met one last time. In Jazz’s, Cassidy saw acceptance of his fate and then farewell in the slight dip of his chin. An instant later a bullet went through his skull. In his grief, Cassidy watched Jazz fall. He didn’t see the rifle aimed at him. He saw the muzzle flash, the round punching him in the chest just before Praan shoved the door closed, slamming the key home and locking it.

  Cassidy stumbled backward, fire and pressure filling his body as he looked down at the blood spreading rapidly across his shirt. He struggled to breathe, struggled to stand, only remaining upright because Jessica grabbed him and stuck her shoulder in his armpit.

  “He’s hit,” she said to Praan. “Bad.”

  “I see that,” he replied. “We need to get him to the machine. Nothing else matters.”

  “Damn it, Cassidy,” Jessica said. “Don’t you die on me.”

  Cassidy reached over, jabbing himself with the stim ring again. He shuddered as the chemicals took hold, momentarily revitalizing him. “What are we waiting for?”

  The library was as tall as the rest of the floor, the walls fully lined with books. A single desk rested in the center, a few thick volumes splayed across it, overlapping one another. A pad of paper and a pencil rested in front of the books, a half-written page on top. Praan walked over to the desk and reached underneath. A moment later, part of the bookshelf swung out, revealing the negative space and the stairs behind it.

  “This way,” Praan said again, walking quickly to the stairs. Cassidy and Jessica followed him.

  They started to climb.

  Chapter 51

  The stairs fed into a small room, dimly lit and ensconced by walls composed of thick steel to protect it from any potential attack from outside. The transfer unit rested in the center, similar to the units in the Underworld but not identical. This version looked older, much older, and this specific machine seemed well-used.

  “Lay him down,” Praan said, moving to the workstation beside the table.

  “Wait,” Cassidy said, despite the pain in his chest and the growing weakness from his loss of blood. “I’m not doing anything until you tell us what the hell is going on.”

  “There isn’t a lot of time, Cassidy,” Praan replied. “No stim cocktail in the universe can save you from excessive loss of blood. Lie down.”

  Cassidy let Jessica prop him on the edge of the table, but he didn’t lower himself further. “I know how this works. You need a minute to prepare the system. Talk.”

  Praan looked past the display, annoyed with Cassidy. He probably wasn’t used to getting pushback from anyone.

  “There’s too much to say, and not enough time to say it,” Praan replied. “It’s hard to know where to start.”

  “Why are you helping us?” Jessica asked.

  “Because Unity requires it,” Praan said. The simple statement shocked both Jessica and Cassidy enough that he laughed at their expressions. “You didn’t expect that, did you?” he continued. “You thought I was going to tell you that Unity is evil. Unity is a machine. Incapable of evil. Incapable of emotions or taking sides. It was designed to ensure the survival of humankind. A rather basic tenet open to a wide degree of interpretation. To a human, at least.”

  “But I was right,” Jessica said. “The archon. The secret transfer unit. You are imprinted, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Praan replied. “I’m a Shade, just like Cassidy. One of the first Shades, mastered long before the Underworld was created.”

  “How old are you?” Cassidy asked.

  “This is my tenth repository. I’m approximately two hundred and thirty years old.”

  “That’s not possible,” Jessica said. “That would mean you predate Unity.”

  “Yes.”

  “That would mean you predate the war.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  Praan smiled. “I’ll say it again. That’s because you know that something is wrong but you have no idea what. You know someone is the enemy, but you have no idea who.”

  “Why don’t you tell us, then?”

  “It will take too long to tell you everything. That’s why Unity called you here. That’s why I need to be the one to show you.”

  “Called us here?” Cassidy said. “Unity tried to stop us, from the moment I was imprinted to the moment I was just shot by a UDF agent.” He paused to cough, spitting up blood. “Shit.”

  “Lie down,” Praan said, more forcefully this time.

  Cassidy didn’t argue. He moved himself into position on the table.

  “Unity was designed to ensure the survival of humankind,” Praan repeated. “On the surface, that sounds like a noble intention, does it not? But what if the underlying purpose of that directive is the true problem? And what if the machine tasked with fulfilling that directive is able to identify the long-term consequences of the directive itself?”

  “You mean Unity is fighting itself?” Jessica asked.

  “That’s one way to look at it,” Praan said. “This all came about because of a glitch in the archon, did it not? A single snapshot in time where Shade Cassidy saw something he shouldn’t have while imprinted to you.”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I told you, I know everything.”

  Cassidy tried to laugh and wound up spitting up more blood, which ran down his cheek. He could tell the stim was beginning to lose the fight to the blood loss. “How?” he managed to say. “How do you know everything?”

  “Because I wrote the program which became the AI that became Unity. You could say, I’m her father. I have root access, which includes the ability to review every decision she makes. In fact, that’s my primary reason for being here. To ensure the stability of the system.”

  “To ensure it, or control it?” Jessica asked.

  “Unity is a closed loop,” Praan replied. “She can’t be changed. That’s part of the problem. And the solution. I can help prevent fragmentation and fault, but I can’t alter the directive.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Unity is trapped in an infinite recursion. She’s supposed to prevent the downfall of humankind, but she’s determined that keeping humankind in its current state will lead to the downfall of humankind, and yet she’s powerless to change humankind’s current state. At least, not directly. Again, a loop that we’re all trapped in.”

  “Including you?” Jessica asked.

  “To a lesser extent, yes. Including me.”

  “Which is why I’m here,” Cassidy said.

  “Yes,” Praan agreed. “The others believe the status quo will allow Unity to settle the problem on her own. And if they’re wrong?” He shrugged. “Lucky for you, and maybe for us all, I disagree. And I should know better, should I not?” He paused to look at the display. ”Preparation is complete. I’m beginning the sequence. Try not to die for a few more minutes.”

  The table began to move, sliding back to position Hall’s head between the electrodes. The light over his head started flashing, trying to help him calm his mind. It was hard to do when he was mortally wounded.

  “But Hall is going to die,” Cassidy said.

  “An unfortunate side-effect to being shot,” Praan replied. “But you won’t need him where you’re going.”

  “Where is that?”

  “The transfer provides a pathway, off-limits to the units in Hades but available to those with the proper permissions. I can’t explain it to you. You have to experience it for yourself. When you do, you’ll know what needs to be done.”

  “Why me?”

  “You weren’t chosen, if that’s what you’re asking. This isn’t fate. You survived when others didn’t. You gained the experience needed to break the loop.”

  “How do I break the loop?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then how do you know I have the experience?”

  “You’re the longest tenured Shade by far. If you don’t, then nobody ever will. The future isn’t written yet, Cassidy. But if there is a way, you’re the one who has the best chance to find it. That’s why you glitched. That’s why you’re here now. That’s why you need to survive long enough to finish the transfer. Stop talking and relax.”

  Cassidy stared up at the overhead panel’s shifting lights.

  “There won’t be any scrubbing,” Praan explained clinically. “So you’ll go directly from alignment and relaxation through calibration to extraction. After a normal extraction, you lose awareness. After this extraction, you will gain awareness. Do not fear the light. Let it guide you.”

  Cassidy didn’t speak. He watched the lights over his head, his body relaxing, his eyes becoming blurry.

  “He’s losing consciousness,” Jessica said.

  “He can’t,” Praan replied. “He’ll corrupt, and then we’re all doomed.”

  Jessica grabbed Cassidy’s hand, squeezing tightly. The force helped jerk him awake, and he forced his head to remain still. He was already in so much pain, he barely noticed when the electrode wands moved and the alignment needles speared his head. He focused his attention on Jessica’s hand in his.

  “You can do this, Cass,” she said.

  He still couldn’t respond. The lights over his head began to fill his vision, becoming everything.

  “Relaxation complete,” Praan said. “Calibrating.”

  Cassidy squeezed Jessica’s hand, desperate to stay awake. He was cold, so damn cold, and all he wanted to do was close his eyes. Calibration was so unpredictable, if he knew how long it might take it would be easier to hang on.

  “We’re almost there,” Jessica said. “Don’t give up on me.”

  He forced his eyes to stay open, refusing to even blink for fear the lids would close and fail to open again. Seventy years as a Shade. He couldn’t believe it had all come down to this. Minutes? Seconds?

  The coldness on Cassidy’s neck faded into warmth.

  “Calibration complete,” Praan said, after what felt like an eternity. “Beginning extraction.”

  “I’ll see you when I see you, Jess,” Cassidy whispered.

  Her hand squeezed his one last time. “I’ll see you when I see you, Cass.”

  A sharp, stabbing pain went up through Cassidy’s neck and into his brain, and every nerve in his body activated at once, though Hall was already so close to death he barely felt much of anything.

  Only for an instant, and then everything turned white.

  Thank you for reading Mindfracked!

  I truly hope you enjoyed it. I’m sorry for the cliffhanger ending, but the best is yet to come and it’s coming very soon. How soon? Head over to mrforbes.com/cassidy2 for the latest!

  Thank you again!

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  Until a malfunction forces his wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.

  Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.

  Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.

  The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.

  Until now.

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