Page 57 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - SULLIVAN

I sigh into the encroaching blackness. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

“Do you hate him?” she asks.

I think about this question for a little bit. The light on the phone flickers, then dims, flickers a few more times until the battery finally dies. I tried to call Case and Lincoln while I was waiting for Sadie to wake up. But no luck. No satellite signal down here in the fucking earth.

“Well?” Sadie finally says. “Do you or don’t you?”

“Hate is a strong word. Do you hate people?”

She laughs. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“Well, I don’t hate him. He’s me, for fuck’s sake.”

“But you’d like him to be the…what do you call it? Like… secondary personality? Instead of you?”

“He is the secondary personality, Sadie. I’m the one who was born in that body.”

“Then why was he in control for so long?”

“Because they tricked me.”

“Who? Prodigy?”

“Who else.”

“What happened?” she asks.

I stay silent.

Sadie turns her body a little. Her head is resting on my thigh. She was sweating profusely while she was sleeping, but she’s cooling off now. I wonder what they did to her to make her this way?

“If I knew what they did to me, I’d tell you.”

“Are you a mind-reader too? I thought that was my job.”

“Can you read my mind?” she asks.

“A little bit. I can read most people. Thomas can’t. He only reads them when they die for some reason. And only when he’s not on the drugs. Like now. Which is why he was off his game that morning you showed up. Someone died and he caught all those thoughts. Which gave me an opportunity to get a better hold on him. Quick tip. The inner ramblings of crazy people will make you crazy. So if your superpower is collecting the thoughts of the dead, try not to get yourself locked up in an insane asylum. I never understood any of it when I was younger. And I barely understand much more now. But I do know I can’t read your mind unless I’m… inside you.”

“What’s in there?” she whispers into the dark. “In my head? What did they do to me?”

“It’s computer shit. I told you that. Nanites and some kind of interface. We have one too.”

“What kind of interface?”

“I don’t know. They locked me out, obviously. If they hadn’t we wouldn’t be here. I’d have taken over again. You know. The way it’s supposed to be.”

“So that’s your plan? Take over Thomas. Become him?”

“Kick him out, you mean? Hell, yes, that’s my plan. I mean, I’m not against his little revenge scheme. My life only gets easier with Prodigy gone for good. But he’s the one who stole my body. Fucking body-snatcher.”

She thinks about this for a little bit. “So there must be a link, right? Between us?”

“I can only assume, since I can access your interface.”

“Hmm,” she says. Then silence.