Page 120 of Tapeworld Induction

Elodie only nodded. When they reached the top floor, she walked out of the lift, taking Dylan through a black polished door, trimmed in gold. That was definitely out of place in a building like this…

The room on the other side was a rectangle cut into concrete, pure minimalism on display. Another door opened further inside, and the two men entered pushing Isaak on the stretcher. He was awake.

“Isaak!”

The two men left again, presumably to get Talia. Dylan would have struggled to describe them, had she been asked. Black clothes, and… just men. She tried to remember their faces and just couldn’t. There was something oddly bland about them.

She ran to Isaak, knocking into Elodie’s shoulder in the process.

“Careful!” Elodie said, only sounding half annoyed.

Dylan smiled. Whatever awful shit Astrid had put Isaak through, he was awake now. She wanted to kiss his beautiful mouth but… he was speaking. It didn’t seem right to stop him.

“She’s got Talia.”

“I know,” Dylan said. “She forced the Sleeper on her. Did you see her in the Tapeworld?” She knelt next to him, their hands interlacing in an automatic gesture.

“She’s in there,” he said. “In Astrid’s tape-space. Where I taped in to. She… Astrid was playing with her.”

Dylan’s whole body shook. She couldn’t stand the feeling of seeing someone she loved go through pain. Talia. The dread of potentially losing her shook her to her core. Isaak was a mirror of her own pain and sorrow, shivering as he tried to explain what he’d seen.

42

Jolt

Isaak

Isaak’s senses were slowly returning after his encounter with Astrid. Sacha dabbed at the pooling wet on the side of Talia’s mouth. She lay unconscious on a makeshift bed over a concrete slab, plastic adornments connecting her chest and arms to monitoring machines.

Dylan sat next to them, worry across her face, legs restless.

Elodie sat at an ornate desk in the corner of the room. Ragged cuts in the concrete wall behind her opened to a view of night-time East London. Neon lights filtered through the gaps, the towers of the skyline in the distance. There was Tower 42, with its famous sushi restaurant and posh breakfast venue. Then the Gherkin, so named for its shape. And the Shard, which used to be the tallest building in the city, built for the sole purpose of being the tallest building in the city. Since the Dark Year, a new vast tower had taken over that title: the Seat of the First Kingdom, where the Twin Queens reigned from.

Elodie was wringing her hands, her face a mask of furrowed brows and a downturned mouth. This whole time he knew her as a friendly, non-judgemental face handing him tape, only for him to end up tying himself in knots. But it was clear there was more to her than that. This entire building was hers, and he’d had no idea. He’d passed by the ten-storey building so often on his way to her “home”, oblivious to what else was going on inside. She stank of a bigger organisation. Even employed a couple of burly servants. Elodie had lied and hidden what she was really about. Was she just another Astrid?

What was it about him that made people want to use him? He was smart but not threatening. Strong, but not violent. His broken family – his mother missing, and no contact with his father… Maybe it made him susceptible to stand-in parental figures who didn’t always have his best interests at heart.

He got up from the bed, his knee flaring up, the familiar pain a soothing balm compared to the aches all over his body. Even his breathing came at a cost.

“Hey, hey, are you okay to walk?” Dylan rose to help steady him.

“I’m good. Well, good enough.” He leaned on her shoulder, on the same side as his bad knee, feeling thankful for her. “You!” He stared at Elodie, his voice a snarl, raw and guttural. “It’s time we talked.”

The concrete wall behind Elodie was lined with synthtubes and cigarette lighters. There were various types and makes, some modern, others from back when they were still called vapes, liquid plainly visible in a transparent tube. With a deft hand she grabbed one from the wall. “Certainly.” She wrapped her lips around the top bit and pressed a red button and sucked in with her mouth. The thing made a sharp noise. She tilted her head and let her arms fall to her sides for a few seconds, the jolt of whatever drug the tube was laced with hitting her insides, eyelids fluttering in pleasure.

The sight turned his stomach.

“I’ll start, shall I?” she said. “Why did you poke the hornet’s nest? And without consulting me? I’m offended.”

His chest felt heavy. It wasn’t self-loathing this time, but rather contempt. “I didn’t trust you, given your working relationship with Astrid. And it turns out I was right not to, given everything you’ve been hiding from me.”

Dylan watched him talk, the way he imagined she watched his ReSports matches. Admiration in her eyes. She interlaced her fingers with his.

“Is it wrong to have a few secrets?” Elodie’s green hair shone in the light of a passing zeppelin, visible through the cuts in the wall.

“Yes, it’s fucking wrong. I jacked into Cardinal Row. Does that mean anything to you?”

She just looked at him with a blank expression.