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“Electra is your daughter?”
“They took my egg to make her. Against my will,” the Head says a particular far away note in her voice, as if she is disassociating from the memory while she conjures it. “That was two decades ago. I did not have the resources then that I do now. I have lived my life knowing that things were created from me, Doctor Ares.”
“Babies?”
“They weren’t all babies. Most of them were just things. Lab grown meat. Mixed with…” she trails off with a tight smile. “Best not to dwell.”
“I’m sorry.”
I say the words, and I mean them. I can tell when I am in the presence of trauma, and the Head is almost certainly one of the most traumatized people in this place. She runs her realm acting out all the horrors done to her, keeping order with a white knuckled grip and furiously lashing out at those who threaten it.
“When I first recovered Electra, she was entirely feral. She killed three men in three days. That is why I assigned Tyko to her. He was tough enough to survive her. He began the task of doing what I could not, but neither of us had the ability, the temperament, or the time, to care for her as she needed to be cared for. For that, I recruited you, Doctor Ares.”
“Tyko was useful?” The question escapes me before I can stop it. He struck me as a complete asshole.
“He’s not as bad a man as he seems,” the Head says. “He was what she needed first. Someone to break. She broke him swiftly. She has broken every man she has encountered. Except you.”
I would be more skeptical, but the timeline fits, and it explains so much, why Electra has been protected and yet not really treated like a human, why the Head leaped at the chance to engage me to work with her. It’s a commonly known fact that genetic and cybernetic experiments have been going on for decades. Electra is probably among the first to be healthy enough to live to adulthood.
“You need to tell her that you’re her mother.” That’s the first thing that comes to mind. This secret cannot remain secret. It is too powerful and it is doing far too much damage to everyone who does not know it and yet must live by it.
“Do I…?”
Truth
“I… ughhh!”
The Head starts to choke. At first, I think it is because she’s melodramatically exhibiting disdain for my suggestion, but then I realize that she’s actually being choked. Somehow, someone has just come up behind her, wrapped a very thin piece of material around her neck, and is pulling like Hades.
I knew Electra was a stealth assassin. I did not realize she could materialize in the Arctic, gain entry to a remote cabin, and murder somebody in front of others with them barely noticing. But there is no time to be impressed at Electra’s assassination prowess. I have to stop her.
“Electra! No!”
I’m not trying to save the Head’s life as much as I’m trying to not let Electra kill her mother. That is a level of Greek tragedy which does not need to be acted out here today.
“This bitch deserves to die!” Electra pops out from behind the Head. “Also, hello! I love you!”
“Let her go. Come here.”
Electra doesn’t listen to me.
“We saw through your lie, bitch,” Electra says, keeping the pressure steady on the Head’s neck. “We figured it out. You don’t send people away. You don’t trust anyone enough to have power anywhere else. Only here in this building. So we came back and we searched the building and then we realized you’re a one trick pony who thinks everyone is stupid and you like fucking with them. So we came back here, to the floor you made for me and Tom in the first place.”
“Electra,” I repeat, not wanting to see the outcome of what seems to be her murderous intention. “Please. Come here.”
There’s a moment of hesitation in which Electra must choose between death and love.
She makes the right decision.
I stretch my arms out and instead of murdering the Head, Electra falls into my arms…
THUD
That is the sound of the wall of my cabin falling away to reveal that I have been kept captive on the very same level Electra and I once lived on. I am an idiot. I have spent weeks of captivity in a heavy lined wood wall which was only ever supported by struts like a movie set.
I was duped into believing in my captivity so thoroughly I didn’t even truly try the bonds of my prison. There’s probably a lesson in that somewhere, but for the moment I am thoroughly distracted by holding the love of my life.
Having her in my arms is more important than anything. I squeeze her tight and I whisper how much I missed her in her ear. She’s mine. I will never let her go. Ever.
