The Beyond: Dystopian Survival Fiction (The Breeder Files Book 4) by Eliza Green (most popular novels TXT) 📗

memory warmed her biogel. Although, she didn’t remember him smiling that widely before.

‘I thought I told you to call me Jacob.’

His voice came through clearer now. All their voices did.

Her part-organic heart thrummed in her chest as she realised. ‘I... I’m alive?’

The Inventor nodded.

She licked her lips. Last thing she remembered was passing out at the door. ‘Did... we make it?’

He nodded. Her eyes found the others. She saw them clearer now. Men and women dressed in white lab coats stared at her, their expressions serious. None of them were any Copies she’d seen before.

She blinked at the Inventor. ‘What’s going on?’

The old man’s smile dropped away; he drew his brows forward. ‘Quintus is here and he’s in the control systems.’

She sat up so fast her head spun.

The Inventor grabbed her. ‘Easy, miss.’

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed. ‘I have to stop him.’

His smile was back. ‘That’s what I was hoping you’d say.’

Carissa touched the connection point to her NMC. A familiar buzz sounded in her head that made her heart beat faster. ‘Is my NMC fixed?’

‘Yes. Agatha’s team were able to fix it.’

‘Agatha?’

Dom stepped forward. ‘There’s no time to lose, Jacob. We need to get to work.’

She hadn’t even seen him in the room. Anya was with him. A dark-skinned person stood next to the pair, wearing an electric-blue pant suit.

She stepped forward and thrust out her hand. ‘I’m Agatha. Nice to meet you.’

Carissa shook her hand tentatively, uncomfortable about the attention her death—and resurrection—had caused. But all she could think was that Quintus was here.

He’d followed her somehow.

It was time to silence him once and for all.

She jumped off the bed. ‘Tell me what I need to do.’

Agatha clasped her hands together. ‘Jacob tells me you spoke to him through your NMC, more than the other Copies did.’

She nodded. For some reason, Quintus was fixated with her. ‘He found a way to communicate with me separately.’

‘Well, he’s here inside my compound, and we need to stop him.’

Carissa didn’t know how exactly. She looked up at Jacob. ‘Should I try talking to him using my NMC?’

‘That would be a good start, miss.’

She closed her eyes, but opened them just as fast. ‘What should I say?’

‘Ask him where he is,’ said Agatha.

She closed her eyes again and reopened them. ‘Then what?’

‘Concentrate, miss. You know how to speak to him.’

Carissa closed her eyes once more. The second she tried her NMC, she sensed him. The connection sent a shiver through her.

‘173-C,’ Quintus said. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you.’

‘I’ve been... busy.’

‘Trying to escape?’

‘Yes, trying to help my friends to escape.’

‘I can feel you. You made it to the Beyond.’

Carissa opened her eyes and held her breath. Agatha had a walkie talkie in her hand.

She whispered to Carissa, ‘Distract him.’

She kept her eyes open and focused on the Inventor. He had his arms folded and a worried look on his face. It didn’t matter what Agatha had planned for her later; only her success mattered now.

‘Where are you, Quintus?’

The ethereal voice said, ‘I’m everywhere.’

‘Where are the other Collective?’

Quintus laughed lightly. ‘There was only ever me.’

She looked at Agatha, who rolled her hand to keep going. She flashed her eyes to the Inventor. His lips were pursed.

‘Only you? I don’t understand.’

‘I controlled it all, 173-C. The Ten were not separate voices, but personalities I created to help me control Praesidium and the Region. The Collective ten was my protection. If the Copies knew there was only me, it would have diluted the power I had over them.’

Agatha mumbled something into her walkie talkie. She scribbled something down in her notebook and waved her hand at Carissa, to get her attention.

She held up the notebook. It read: He’s in all the primary systems. We need him in a secondary one. We can create a firewall around him there.

Carissa nodded.

Quintus spoke. ‘Are they using you to distract me?’

She answered honestly. ‘Yes.’

‘I have control of their base now. I used to live here. They tried to take it from me once, but not again.’

‘What do you plan to do with it?’

‘Make it my new Praesidium.’

She didn’t see how that was possible. ‘It won’t be like the city, Quintus. There are no Copies here.’

The Inventor scribbled a message on a notepad and held it up. It read: What is he planning?

Quintus answered her. ‘I don’t need Copies, 173-C. I can control the humans through the environmental controls.’

‘They can leave.’

‘I control the doors, too.’

She grabbed the notepad and scribbled: new city.

The Inventor’s eyes widened when he read it. He showed it to Agatha, who spoke immediately to the people on the other end of her walkie talkie.

‘Why are you doing this, Quintus?’

She heard a laugh. ‘You used to follow my direction once. It’s actually a good thing that you’ve made it to the Beyond. I can also sense 118-C. Follow me again, 173-C. The three of us can make this compound ours.’

Agatha grabbed the notepad and scribbled something down.

Carissa said, ‘I want to stay with my friends.’

‘Your friends can stay here,’ Quintus replied.

‘That’s not what I meant...’

Agatha shoved the notepad under her nose with a note that read: Get him to environmental controls.

She mouthed, How?

Agatha pretended to choke then jabbed her finger at Carissa.

‘173-C, are you there? What are the humans asking you to do?’

‘Quintus... what are you doing to the air? I-I can’t breathe.’

She faked a panic attack, similar to the ones she had when something upset her.

The Inventor watched her closely. Others did, too, but she saw only two people.

A frowning Agatha rolled