Cathedral of Dreams (31 page)

Rene bent next to his head. “We don't go into that room,” she said. “That's the main computing room.”

“Who maintains the system?”

“It's automated,” she said. “That's all I know.”

Keith peeled back the drywall and began to crawl through. “Follow me,” he said.

Nellie yelled after him, “Some of the others saw us. They're coming.”

“Let them come in. They can make their own decisions.” Keith found himself in what looked like a room of shelves, each lined with equipment. Small, green lights flashed on most of the units. He kneeled on the floor and waited for Nellie and Rene. After Rene, others started coming through. He had to back away to let them all into the narrow space. Lori and Philip were last.

Keith turned to Philip, “The others?”

“Andrew,” Philip said. “He sees the apparitions. A lot of the others are staying with him.”

Keith shook his head. “There's nothing I can do now.” He ran down one of the aisles. Green flashed at him from both sides. At the end of the line, he turned right. Looking at the ceiling, he thought he could find the center of the room. Why he was going there didn't matter, getting there did.

“Where are you taking us?” Rene yelled.

“This way,” Keith said.

Rene caught up with him and dragged him to a halt. She was in his face. “This isn't a mystery game. Where the hell are you taking us? There's nothing in here. It's just a bank of computers.”

Nellie stood beside Rene. She looked at Keith and back to Rene. “We've got to decide who we're following or if we're making our own way. Just decide, Rene, so we can get going again. I, for one, am sticking with Keith.” She reached to take his hand. “Live or die, that's my choice.”

Rene didn't say anything. It was clear that she was thinking the situation over. “I'm going back for Bradley,” she said.

Keith nodded. “Don't go through the wall until after the explosion. Wait, okay?”

“I'll wait,” she said, then turned around and backtracked the way they had come.

“Let's go,” Nellie twisted Keith back around and shoved him.

They scurried like mice up and down rows of computer racks. It was a simple maze with multiple ways to go through. Keith imagined the area as he traveled it. Once the pattern was implanted in his memory, he slowed down and walked.

“We're getting closer?” Nellie whispered.

“Almost there.” Keith turned the last corner and stopped. He held a hand behind him to keep the others back.

“What is it?” Nellie said.

“People,” Keith said.

Philip stepped up and put his back against the computer rack. He whispered, “How many?”

“Millions,” Keith said.

Philip pulled him back beyond the final turn. “Are you all right, son?”

Keith nodded. “Yes.” He stepped aside. “Go ahead.”

Philip slid past him and looked around the corner as though he was spying on someone. He pulled back shaking his head. “It's a hologram. Unbelievable.”

“Of people?” Nellie asked.

“Everyone, I suspect.” Philip slapped Keith on the shoulder. “Look, we've got to try to communicate with them, or it, or whatever is running this place.”

“You're right,” Keith said. “But let's approach slowly.” Keith stepped out and began to walk toward the shimmering mass of humanity. He didn't understand how he could see into it so deeply just by changing his focus, but it appeared as though he could literally see everyone in the complex at once. He focused on the boy with the bullet hole in his forehead.

As the boy began to appear, others came with him. Perhaps those were people following him at this very minute, heading toward an exit. So, that's why he wasn't around.

“Are you doing that?” Philip said to Keith.

Nellie reached to touch Keith's back as he stood there.

“I think so. But there's something wrong,” Keith said.

Nellie sidled next to him. “There's no bullet hole in his forehead.”

“What's that mean?” Keith said aloud.

The image of the boy turned. Clear as though he was standing in the room with them, the boy said, “You're on your own now.”

Several of them sucked in air in surprise to hear the boy speak. Keith stopped breathing, then took a long slow breath in. “It's not me anymore,” he said.

“You're right,” Nellie said.

“What happened?” Keith addressed the hologram.

“The boy was in your image because I have no image. Now that you are free, I selected a new image.”

“Without the bullet hole?” Keith said.

The boy held up his right hand and it was missing a finger.

“Why?” Keith asked.

“I don't know.”

Keith turned to Nellie and Philip, “It's answering my questions.” He continued to look at them, hoping that they'd have questions for him. This was it, the opportunity, but he couldn't think of anything more to ask.

“What about the angel?” Nellie said.

“Right.” Keith turned back to the boy. “What about the angel? Who's she?”

The boy smiled. “I made the angel based on a dream.”

“Your dream?” Keith said.

“That's all there is. Even you are me,” the boy said. “We share an image.”

“But you said that I'm free.”

“Free to do what you want, but I'm still there, inside you, monitoring, living.” The boy raised his chin, as though asking if there was anything more.

Keith didn't say anything else for a moment, then blurted out, “What about the others? Are they free?”

“Yes. Like you. I can only suggest, pique their curiosity. I live through them, but so many come back to me. I don't want them here.

I know here. I want them out there.” The boy pointed somewhere beyond Keith.

He felt relief at first. He was free from the system. Free to make his own decisions, not the illusions of decisions he had made so far. But with those feelings brought other, sadder sensations that filled his body with a great sense of being completely alone, even though he knew that wasn't true. A terrible separation occurred inside him, a tearing of his spirit, his heart, and in many ways his mind. How would he ever know if a thought were his alone or nudged by the system? Yet, when the boy said that Keith was free, he felt a physical sensation that acknowledged it as truth, a twisting and pulling feeling in his chest, and a similar snapping loose in his mind. There would be no more guidance that he could rely on. The angel, he knew, would never appear to him again. “Goodbye,” he said.

When Keith turned around, everyone was still staring past him. “We'd better go,” he said. “I'm not too sure how much longer this can go on.”

“Is the system breaking down?” Nellie asked.

“If I were to guess, I'd say it grew beyond the physical. That's the only way it could be inside us. That's the only way it could want anything. Maybe it monitored our emotions for so long that it learned them. Does it matter? Does any of this matter? The only thing we need is to get out of here,” he said. “Find a door.”

Philip sent a man up the side of one of the computer racks to get on top. He also found three men with guns. The rest huddled around until the man who climbed the shelving discovered an exit and relayed its approximate location.

“This way,” Philip said. The whole army of unchipped residents followed him, the men with the guns marching to either side.

Keith kept close to the front of the line. Nellie held to his shirt part of the time and pushed ahead of him every once in a while. At the times she led him, Keith figured that her aggressiveness had gotten the better of her. But it was all right. He liked that about her and was glad to follow for a change.

When they reached the door, Philip hesitated long enough for Keith to recognize that he was unsure if it was safe to go through.

Then it was too late. Philip shoved at the doors. They were secured shut. He waved a gunman over and ordered him to blast the lock off.

The doors fell open, and only residents stood in the hall, surprised at the noise.

Keith caught up with Philip and they walked out together.

“Is it letting us go?” Philip asked.

“That's my guess. But it doesn't make all the choices. There are the others we have to worry about,” Keith said.

“This is too crazy for me,” Philip said.

Keith grinned at him and slapped his shoulder. “Get used to it.”

Philip shook his head. “Which way?”

Keith stood straight and thought about where they were standing in relation to where the lab was. The maze of shelves had confused him for a short while, but he was getting his bearings. “We'll go out the front,” he said.

“Just walk out?”

“The boy said that it wanted us to go, so let's go.” Keith led the group forward toward what he had surmised was the front of the building.

“How far?” Philip asked.

“Quite a ways.” Keith swung around. “Is there any way we can get this group to spread out and mingle with the crowd?”

Some of the residents moved closer to the walls and others continued as though nothing was amiss. Keith figured that the system was busily focused on its escapees. It had placed safety nets along the way in case some of the residents weren't emotionally ready for some reason. That meant that it never could control them totally. If they got in a jam, the weak ones would sacrifice themselves. If they weren't strong enough to make it past the doctor, they'd be brought back in. The system knew Bradley was out there. It was all making more sense, even though there were mysteries every step of the way. Keith chalked them up to a system at play, or performing a trial and error to see what works best. He really didn't know, couldn't know, what the system had evolved into.

The group spread out, but continued through the halls and past the shopping areas. When Keith looked back at them, he noticed the three men with guns stayed together, Philip and Lori in front of them by a short distance. At his side, Nellie walked without touching him. She was strong and sure in her movements. He felt he was as much following her as she was following him. But he knew the way. He could see it in his head. Still, on occasion he asked the boy to appear and show him the way.

Nothing happened. He was alone.

“Buck up,” Nellie said. She must have noticed his slowing speed or his hesitation at the next turn.

Keith smiled at her. Internally, he thanked her not just for the boost to his confidence, but for noticing him as closely as she did. He stepped it up as he headed down a long hall.

That's when he heard the first explosion. The blast must have been enormous for it to shake the building the way it did. Bradley had no idea what kind of firepower he controlled and no idea what it would take to blow a hole through the building. Keith had suspected the truth since he found out that Bradley was a psychologist working under Rene. But here was the proof. He waved his hand for the others to follow more quickly as he stepped into a slow jog down the hall. If Bradley went after the system itself, there was no telling what would happen.

Philip came up near him. “They're behind us,” he said.

“Who?”

“Some Newcity Security and some unchipped security.”

Keith heard shots behind him and began to run. If he was right, there was a left turn and several hundred feet of open hallway before they could bust into what he recalled on his work terminal as the reception area. There had been numerous maintenance problems there.

He reached for Nellie, who actually ran faster than he did and pulled him along until he stumbled. She slowed and he caught his balance. “Left,” he said. Just as they turned the corner, Philip yelled for Lori and the others to keep following Keith, while he halted the gunmen and positioned them as protection.