CD Chapter Sixteen (Patreon)

When she opened her eyes again, it was to find that the car had stopped, and Felicia was still sitting across from her, simply watching Ava sleep. Ava sat up quickly, instantly feeling her head begin to pound. Felicia instantly extended her hands. One held a clear glass cup of water, while a plain white pill rested in the palm of the other.

“Take one of these now. I’ll leave a few more to help you through the next day or so, but you shouldn’t take anything in the twenty-four hours before your procedure. Your surgeon will give you antibiotics and more pain medicine on Monday.” She shook the glass invitingly, and Ava reached out to take it.

Cautiously, she sniffed the liquid. These people seemed to be on her side, at least for now, but she’d already fulfilled her idiocy quota for the next year. Felicia’s lip quirked in amusement, but she didn’t say anything as Ava used her screen to identify the pill, as well. Reassured, Ava swallowed the medication.

“How long was I asleep?” Ava asked, wondering how long the other woman had been sitting there, watching her.

Felicia tilted her head, black waterfall of hair sliding over the shoulder of her chic suit jacket. “It doesn’t matter. We’re here for whatever you need, and you needed sleep. Now, I have something to show you.” She knocked lightly on the black glass of the window beside her, and Ava’s door instantly opened, revealing Frederic, looking utterly impassive. He stepped back, and Ava swung her legs out of the car, only then realizing that Felicia had somehow unbuckled her seatbelt without waking her.

Frederic held out his hand, and once again, Ava felt like a puppy in training as she set her own in it. She had large hands for a woman, but hers vanished utterly into his as he gently assisted her to her feet. It was good that he did, because she swayed slightly, and Felicia appeared beside her, steadying her until she could stand on her own.

When Felicia was certain Ava was stable, she stepped aside, and Ava looked around. The car had stopped at the end of a long driveway surrounded by grass. A house a little larger than the one Ava had lived in with her mother stood in front of her. It was simple, white, with clean, straight lines, and no extra architectural embellishments, but something about it screamed of money.

“This is where you’ll be staying for the next four days. It’s safe, out of the way, and Amy has assured me that no one will be able to track you electronically. The door is already coded for your fingerprint, but the backup code is 314159. The code will work only once, and if it’s used, Frederic and I will be summoned, so it will also function as an emergency signal.”

Felicia turned and walked up to the modern metal security door, and thumbed the lock. As she entered, she continued, “The refrigerator already has a variety of fresh and pre-cooked foods, and the bathroom is fully stocked.” She pointed out each room as they went by. “There are fresh clothes in the bedroom. They’re yours, so wear them. You’ll be here for two weeks following the surgery, as well, so Frederic and I will bring more food as needed during that time.”

She stopped in front of a completely white dining room table in the middle of a white room, with white carpet, and clear white lighting emanating from recessed sconces. “Do you have any questions?”

“I… What if I need something else? Is there a bus line or something nearby?” Ava knew her cheeks were flaming, but she felt trapped as much as protected.

Felicia’s iris spun, and she actually laughed softly. “My e-ID is in your screen. If you need anything, contact me directly. For your safety, only my contact will work until the end of my contract. I’m afraid that’s one of my requirements before I take on a protection job.”

“But I need to call Mandy!” Ava protested.

The feline smile on Felicia’s lips stretched, and she glanced behind Ava. “Amy will help you with that.”

Ava spun, and there, where there had been only a white wall, stood Amythyst, standing in front of a cerulean couch absolutely covered in sunshine yellow pillows of all shapes and sizes. Amythyst grinned, and Ava stared around as color flooded the room. She realized that every visible surface was a screen, from the table to the ceiling, and the space was transformed from a blank slate to a riot of rainbows.

Ava gasped, hands covering her mouth as she spun, staring. It was strangely like being suddenly dumped into fully-immersive VR, except that everything was modern, instead of the medieval vibe of Veritas Online.

Felicia stepped back into a smooth half-bow. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Rest assured that while Frederic and I will be monitoring a live feed of the outside of the house, we currently have no need to see the inside, so anything you do in here will be entirely private.”

Ava’s face burned as the woman turned and left the house, rejoining Frederic, who had remained outside. A moment later, gravel crunched as the car drove away, and Ava turned to Amythyst.

Gingerly, Ava lifted her good hand, reaching out to touch the ‘wall’, which now looked more like a glass divider through which she could see another room attached to her own. A room in which Amythyst stood, still grinning. Amythyst mirrored her motion, and for a moment, their palms seemed to touch, before Ava snatched her hand back.

Amythyst’s expression dimmed, and she stepped back as well, shifting her hand from the wall to her own cheek. “You look better,” she said, softly.

Ava’s hand lifted, and she touched the faint, prickly ends of tiny stitches on her cheek. Astonished, she stared at the door through which Felicia had departed. “When did she-?”

“She’s very good,” Amythyst said from behind her. “I hired her to investigate my… friend’s disappearance. She’s the one who tracked down the people who delivered the three pods. D- Carl, the dad, really is good at covering his digital tracks, but people still talk, and people are what Felicia does best. Unfortunately, she has other commitments, and couldn’t infiltrate the house for me. Not when it might take months to figure out how to save my friend. That’s why I needed someone else. You.”

Ava turned back to the GM. “If you can hire people like that, surely there was someone else you could pay to do whatever it is you need me for.”

Amythyst hesitated before crossing to the couch behind her. Knocking a few of the pillows on the floor, she sat down, curling her legs beneath her. “Yeah,” she said, “but people you can buy can be bought again, and Carl has almost as much money as I do. I need someone I can trust. Someone who’s on my side absolutely.”

Ava reached out and grabbed a dining room chair, which now looked like wood, though it still felt like some kind of smooth, plasticky surface. Spinning it around, she straddled it and sat, laying her good arm across the back of the chair so she could rest her head on it. Silently, she stared at Amythyst, until she quietly asked, “And that’s me? Someone you can trust? Someone who’s on your side? Seriously? Why?”

Amythyst shrugged, looking away. Finally, she sighed and held up a hand. A stack of manila folders appeared there, and she fanned them out, then let them fall, folders and white pages scattering across the floor.

Leaning forward, she pointed at one. “There. In fifth grade, you wrote a paper about honesty and loyalty that won you first place in a PTA contest.” She moved to another page. “In seventh grade, you beat up the school bully after he cornered one of your friends. You were suspended for a month, but you refused to apologize.”

Amythyst picked up another page. “This one’s my favorite. It’s a story you wrote in second grade. You became a superhero, and the one power you gave yourself was the power to heal. You went around and made all the sick people in the world well again.”

She looked up, green eyes serious for once. “Everyone has a digital trail that follows them these days. I can see them. Some are like slime, leaving sticky residue everywhere they’ve been. most don’t make much of a difference. They live their lives without making waves, good or bad. But you,” she scooped up several pages, which transformed into white butterflies and flew away as she watched, a bemused smile on her face.

“Whenever you got a chance to do something good, you did. You and your mother volunteered at soup kitchens, you helped build houses, you went to sing Christmas carols at retirement homes where you didn’t know a single person. When you got old enough, you started doing things like that even without Molly. It’s like you were determined to make the lives of absolutely everyone better.”

A piece of paper appeared between her first and second finger, and Ava had a sinking feeling she knew what it was. “And then your mother died, and you just… stopped. You sold your house to pay debts Molly didn’t even know you’d accrued while trying to get her into a dozen different medical trials. She signed the house over to you as soon as she knew she was terminal, so you wouldn’t have to deal with taxes and legalities, and you mortgaged it to the hilt. You left all your friends behind, changed your IDs, and even found a new home for the dog.”

Ava looked up, mouth opening, and Amythyst smiled. “He’s fine. The Tongis had a little boy, and Duke is convinced the baby is his puppy. Though Duke’s name is now Fluffernutter, so there’s that.” The GM laughed as Ava made a face.

Amythyst grew serious again. “But no matter how much you tried, you couldn’t quite stop being you.” An image appeared beside her head. Ava’s mug shot. “You let so many things slide that the old you wouldn’t have, but a guy accosting an elderly lady? Nope. You hit him with a grocery cart and got arrested for assault until they found a translator for Mrs. Petrov and dropped the charges.”

Amythyst waved her hand, and all the papers vanished. She leaned forward, eyes locked on Ava’s. “I know you. Probably better than you know yourself. You always do the right thing, no matter what the consequences are to yourself, and helping me is the right thing. If you go in, find out my friend is either dead or happy with whatever’s going on, and you call it quits, that’s fair. I’ll keep my promise, no harm, no foul.”

She stood, taking a step closer to Ava. “But, if you get in there and find out that I- that she’s stuck in there, you’ll do whatever you have to do to help her. Not because I promised to pay you a gazillion dollars, but because that’s who you are, and there’s nothing Carl Landon can do about it.”

Ava froze. She’d been in a sort of trance, listening to Amythyst tell her things about herself that she herself had forgotten, but she knew that name. Why did she know that name? She closed her eyes, brow furrowing as she concentrated.

Carl Landon. Rich, powerful, with a daughter who’d been in an accident that left her in a coma…

Ava’s eyes shot open. “Carl Landon?” she gasped. “Owner of Veritas Corporation? That Carl Landon? I read the obituary for his daughter when I was looking for you, because her name was… Amy… too…” She stumbled to a halt, as a million questions vied for supremacy. One finally won, as she stared at the face that she now had to admit was all too similar to the smiling photo included with the obituary.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”