BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 21: Upgrade

I blink, frozen, at the hologram beckoning me forward.

"Please scan your chip at this station, and we can begin orienting you on the lab and your upgrade."

I turn to Nate as he struggles to sit up straight on the stool. What the hell is up with him? The blood loss can't be that bad yet. "Are you seeing this?" I ask, needing him to tell me I'm not the only one losing my mind right now.

He nods, equally mute and gawking at the figure of my late grandfather floating ahead of me.

"Don't be afraid. I've waited a long time for you, and it's finally time. We don't have a moment to waste."

Timid, I follow the hologram as he glimmers and floats to a bench ahead of me, whereupon an inverted desk rises from the floor and onto the flat workspace. Fancy!

"Place your left arm here," Granddad instructs, and I oblige. It's odd to be listening to him, but I am, when technically, I don't really know the man. I mean, we've never met in real life. He died in a fire, trapped inside his house a month before my birth. At least, that's what Mum told me. I've only ever seen him in videos uploaded to our family's server, and only when she felt the urge to share him with me. She said the memories were too painful and didn't want to watch him.

The chip in my arm gets scanned for the second time that day — by another laser on this odd-looking workstation. I see the elements of a computer, CPU, screen, keyboard, but I also see other apparatus that look more like robotic tools in a Science lab. Duh! I am in a Science lab, a fucking sophisticated one at that. Even Dr Hill's lacks in comparison. There are gadgets and gizmos here I have never seen.

"Place your feet on the markings." He smiles, pointing at the floor, at the two outlines of feet, their shoe size far too big for mine. I place my feet on the outlines as instructed and Nate rasps in his seat.

"Are you sure you can trust him, Mia?" Nate grumbles, losing his posture now and then. His eyes riveted on the blue glow that is the hologram.

"Are you okay?" I ask, just as he tumbles backward. A loud thud sounds as he hits the floor. I go to move, to run to him and assist, but find I cannot, in fact, move. "What the?" I look down to see my feet clamped to the ground and my grandfather smiles. "What's going on?"

"Relax, Mia. This will only take a moment."

I can hardly relax being secured to the floor. I try to slip my feet out, but find that I cannot. Next, two apparatus resembling Lego-man arms clamp my arms to the table.

"What the hell." I panic. "I don't want this. Let me go."

"Mia?" I hear Nate's groggy speech. I can't see him anymore, but I can see his feet jutting out from behind the stations where he had sat.

"Hold on, Nate, I'm trying!"

"Mia, hold still, please," Granddad says sweetly. Unblinking.

"No!" I scream, trying to free my limbs even more frantically than before. Especially when I hear a whirr above me and see some sort of probe lowering from the ceiling towards my head. "What is that? What is that?" I try to turn my head, to follow its path, but soon, I find a metal plank rise from the floor behind me, and several more clamps secure me to its cold surface, including my head.

Somewhere in the lab, Nate is faintly grumbling, "Something's not right, Mia..."

You don't say! I want to scream, but a brace locks my head and my jaws. In fact, my entire body is now immobile, strapped to the plank, and I can't see anything else beyond the grin on my grandfather's face.

I hear the whirr get closer and closer to my head, behind me, closing in on my neck. "Oh god, oh god, oh god. Please. Stop. Please." I barely breathe. Such is my fright, and even that stops as I feel a sharp pressure against the base of my skull.

My heart thunders to my throat. "What are you doing? Oh, God!" I feel a sharp pinch as it breaks the skin. "I don't want to die like this!" For the first time in my life, I scream in terror. A blood-curdling scream that sends my blood running cold.

The pressure holds for a moment, just as my scream dies.

"They are in there!" I hear multiple guards yell suddenly. I guess I screamed loud enough to give away our position.

Granddad looms in front of me, serious as he can be. "Your system is being upgraded to a more compatible, and complex code, Mia. Please hold still. The procedure will take five minutes to upload and a few more to reboot you."

"No," my voice is feeble as I tremble. Hot tears stream down my cheeks. "Nate? Nate? Help me! Please." But I know it's futile. Nate's out of commission right now, seizing on the floor, on the periphery of my vision.

I close my eyes as I feel the probe proceed further, deeper, thrusting itself into my brain stem and for God knows how long I am dead to the world. The pain is no longer excruciating. I no longer hear myself, nor the guards attempting to bring down the door to reach me.

Silence.

The silence only the dead hear. The hum of it lulls me into feeling safe. It's quite peaceful, really.

I welcome the silence.

*     *     *

When I come to, I am slumped on the floor, slick with sweat. The hum slowly fades from my ears, and I shake my head, so heavy it feels. I check my arms and legs. They seem in order and working. Next, I check my head and neck and only see a dot of blood come away on my hand from what I thought would be a torrent.

How am I still alive?

"Well, it's simple. You simply cannot die."

I look up and grandad's hologram peers down at me like a child. All smiles.

"What did you do to me?" I push off the floor, seething, but my legs are still a little weak.

"What we designed you for. To carry the Code far and wide."

"What code?"

He smiles and turns my attention to Nate. "The boy needs your help first. You can ask me questions later. I promise."

Do hologram promises mean anything? I wonder, rising to my feet and scrambling towards Nate, lying unconscious on the cold floor.

"They are in there. I heard something earlier," the guards outside yell. Thumping objects and their own shoulders against the door, I assume. But I haven't got time for them.

"Will that door hold?" I ask, checking Nate's pulse. He has one, but it's faint.

"It's designed to withstand a nuclear bomb, dear, but not multiple nuclear bombs. So you best hurry."

I'm not a doctor. How am I supposed to help Nate? I don't even know what's wrong with him.

"They've corrupted his code on purpose, I suspect, and recently too." The hologram keenly studies Nate.

"Corrupted, why?" I peek up, scared that Nate is looking a little blue.

He looks at me deadpan. "In the event, you try to run, of course. Dr Hill's way of slowing you down."

That bitch!

"Yes, quite! Unfortunately, I realised that too late too."

"Are you reading my thoughts?"

He shrugs. "We are connected now, my dear. It's part of the new upgrade. You have full access to my research and technology. In fact, this whole lab is now uploaded into your system other than the few encrypted files. Everything we built here, is now yours to command."

What the fudge? I don't understand the man's rambling, but I understand that I have to hurry. Nate is dying. His heart's rhythm is no longer normal. Tachycardia. It catches my ear. I need to figure something out. Now.

"You say his system, or his code, is corrupted. Can we upgrade him too?" I glance at the station where moments ago I had died. I wouldn't wish that pain on my worst enemy, but this was my best friend on the floor, dying. I can live with torturing him if he comes out of this alive.

The hologram eyes the workstation, perhaps in thought. He shakes his head as he turns back to us. "I'm afraid that procedure will kill a normal human body. Their bodies aren't compatible with a direct procedure, but," — the man grins so wide I feel I can see all his teeth — "we can see if you actually work."

Huh? "What?"

"You can hack his system and rewrite it by copying over your code."

What now? I must have the oddest face, and I would have found all this amusing if Nate wasn't dying with every heartbeat and I hadn't just been 'upgraded' to death. Excuse the pun.

"It's a built-in, involuntary feature of your new code. You can recode another system with a mere touch. At least, that's what we hope. Let's see. Just follow your instinct."

He keeps saying 'we' and somewhere in my mind, I wonder who his partner was, and where the hell is he? "Follow my instinct?"

"Yup."

"Okay." I stare doubtfully at Nate, lifeless. My pulse pounds in my skull. The banging on the door has also become incessant. But heck, I have nothing to lose, and Nate to save. Even if the hologram sounds loony, I will try anything right now.

"How did they gain access to the lab? It's been sealed for sixteen years!" Dr Hill screeches outside. "Get me that girl or I swear I will throw each one of you out to the surface and strip your codes!"

Yikes, someone has anger issues! I try to shake off the creeps the woman gives me and concentrate. I don't know what I'm doing, but I have to be calm enough to feel my instincts, I suppose. Instinct? Do I have those, if I'm not entirely a normal human body?

Focus, Mia. Focus.

I take Nate's hands in mine — aware that I look ridiculous — as if I'm getting ready to talk to the dead. Memories flood my mind of all the years we've had together since that first day in kindergarten. Two olive-skinned kids among shades of white. It was natural, the way we pulled one another, like I'd known him my entire life. These memories help me bond. I feel my skin ripple and roll against Nate's cold skin. My neurons are firing. How long has he been out? Too long and his brain is dead, and there's no amount of technology or science that can reverse death. Not that kind of death.

Hold on, Nate, hold on! My rippling skin almost vibrates now. Beneath mine, his skin responds; ripples course out through his body. My body is talking to his. I know it. Or more precisely, his nanites, his code. I am rewriting it with a touch.

"Upgrade and reboot, right?" I whisper, needing confirmation from the old man. I cannot focus on the sounds outside the lab.

Granddad just smiles. His image shivers with each bang on the door.

Right. I close my eyes. They can get in here for all I care. I just want Nate up and awake, back to kicking my butt in everything.

His chest rises in a deep breath and soon, his heart's rhythm smooths out to normal. A moment later, Nate opens his eyes, disoriented. He tries to rise, just like I had, but I guess his legs haven't woken up yet.

"Best he stays down, until the reboot is complete, Mia. His system is still syncing with his biology and nanites."

I nod obediently and push Nate back to the ground. "Take your time."

I get to my feet then, hot and angry at the man who doesn't really exist anymore. "Now answers. What the fuck is going on and what did you do to me?"

He smiles. "I made you invincible. But," — he shifts his focus back to the door, to the banging — "Dr Hill cannot gain access to this lab, and I'm afraid we don't have time for a chat. They are breaching the lab. You must download the remaining encrypted files from this server and destroy the lab before you leave."

"How am I going to download anything, Grandpa? I don't have a hard drive!" I spit, more than a little relieved when I see Nate sit up.

He just smiles. "You are the hard drive!"

In my head, I hear the words, "Downloading. Estimated time: five minutes to complete." That's when my spine snaps up straight and I'm once more frozen in place, not from being disarmed. My system is dedicated wholly to data download.

Beyond the code streaming in front of my eyes, I see Nate get up and eye me curiously. "Mia?"

I cannot answer. I feel the data imprinting in my mind and encrypting into a deep-dive file simultaneously.

Nate shakes my shoulder. "Mia, we have to go, but where?"

It takes a few more minutes for me to finish and I suddenly am exhausted, but I can now access the schematics of the entire facility and the surrounding area.

The ram hits hard against the door and it yawns open a crack. I catch Dr Hill's eyes on me and she screams. "Mia!"

"Come on," I grab Nate's arm and frantically pull him to a false wall twenty meters back, and not towards the glowing exit sign on the other end. There is an escape tunnel on the schematics that leads to the surface. A detail they have forgotten, probably because it's hidden behind a wall. Something Dr Amour — who happens to be my grandfather — built in case he ever needed it. A covert exit and entry point. Guess it's coming in handy now.

"Open!" I scream, and the false walls pull away on command, revealing the hidden exit.

"Mia!" Dr Hill screams again, angry. I ignore her.

"But where will we go?" Nate asks, pushing on the bar.

The ram hits once more, and the lab door yawns further.

"Destroy the lab, Mia!" Granddad screams in my head. No longer a hologram. He's now installed in my head, or at least his AI is.

"How?"

"Enter lab abort code."

"Enter lab abort code?" no sooner do I speak the words, codes float in my vision, and an unusual electronic voice inside asks 'Are you sure you want to deploy abort code?'

"Yes," Granddad and I both say.

Just as the lab door gives out, flames jet from the ceiling, engulfing the entire lab in a fireball. Setting it alight. A scorching river separating Hill and I.

Nate pulls me through the exit and into the tunnel system beyond. I happily oblige, though some part of me tells me this is not the last time I'll be seeing Hill in my life. We wind through the tunnels, and thanks to the blueprint I can access, I lead Nate via the straightest route, avoiding the many dead ends.

When we finally reach the last door, Nate hesitates. "What about surface radiation?"

"You two will be fine!" a voice breaks into our thoughts and Nate and I glare at each other, aware that the other heard it, too. It's a voice I've heard before, on the night we escaped Camp Sweep, but I'm guessing, by the look on Nate's face, this is the first time he's heard her.

"Who is this?" he asks, not of me, but the voice.

I chuckle as a wayward thought slips in. Why haven't I asked her the same question?

"Who are you?" we ask in unison, unable to shake the surprise from our voice.

"I am someone who's been looking forward to meeting the two of you for sixteen years," we hear the joy in her voice. "I am your mother."

Get out!

"What the fuck?" it's Nate who speaks our mind.

While I'm still stuck on the 'I am your mother' bit. "Whose?" I ask, sounding super silly.

"Why both, of course!"

I almost gag on my own vomit. Nate is my brother? Get out! Nope, Nah. Eww, and I thought about kissing him!

Nate stares at me, equally weirded out by this information. "It can't be!"

"Don't look at me. I don't know her either. She is lying, for all we care." I shiver at the thought again. Nate and I.

The voice laughs in our heads. "We will have a lot of time to discuss things, but right now, you two must come and find me. I'll send you my location once you're clear of Hill and her men. Now leave."

"And the radiation?" Nate's still stuck on his question.

"Your systems can handle it now with the upgrade. Good luck. I'll see you on the other side, soon."

We hear the commotion trailing behind us and know that Hill is possibly breaking down the tunnel wall right now. Since we have nothing more to do, and nothing more to lose, Nate and I place our hands on the last push-bar standing between us and mother nature.

Together, we open the door and the sun greets our cold, tired faces like it's never done before. Without burning.

This is it. We're out. Bye-bye, Dr Hill, I think as we walk into freedom, not yet knowing what we've become.