Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Epsilon doesn’t even bother answering. I don’t even think he heard me.
“Weird, though,” I say, “that the spark kept going. I suppose it’s natural. There would be residual spark. I mean, that’s why everyone was addicted to it in Tyse’s Tau City.”
He’s pacing now, probably coming up with a new way to kill me. And I’ve figured out what I needed, so now it’s time to come to terms with where I am.
Which is imprisoned in a cage.
“What do you want from me? I mean, I understand that you thought I’d be dead after… whatever it was you did to Tyse.” I want to know about him. I want to ask, so bad. But I don’t. I force myself to keep going. “But I’m not dead. So… you can use me again. What do you want from me?”
Now he slowly tracks his gaze to mine. We lock eyes. I hold my breath, feeling sick about what request might come out of his mouth.
But he doesn’t speak. Instead, he strides over to me and releases my head from the bindings. Then he points off to my left, and now that I’m able to, I turn and look.
A screen. Quite large, so there’s no mistaking what I’m looking at.
It’s Tyse. He’s lying down on a table. Strapped to it in much the same way I’m bound to this wall. The cage of needle-like tubes isn’t covering his body, but hovering above him.
“He’s dying, Clara.”
I look at Epsilon. “Whatever it is you’re going to ask… my answer is yes.”
Which makes the god chuckle. “Of course it is.”
“As long,” I add, “as it will save him. Take whatever you want from me. I’ve got a lake of spark inside me, remember? I will recharge. Give Tyse whatever he needs.”
He puts up a hand. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself. It’s not as easy as harvesting you.”
“No.” I look him dead in the eyes. “What you did to me wasn’t a harvest. It was…” I shake my head. Because while I do have a word for it, I’m hesitant to use it.
“Unspooling.” And then I don’t have to. Because it comes tumbling right out of his mouth. “That’s what I did to you. Because, on the other side of that wall.” He points to the wall across from me where the cage of needles is. “That’s the room Tyse is in. I unspooled you so I could thread him back up.”
“I don’t understand. What is… threading?”
“That’s how you augment someone. It’s the opposite of what I did to you. The spark I took was injected directly into Tyse’s bloodstream. And there, it made secondary nervous, circulatory, respiratory, endocrine, skeletal, muscles. All of it. Every system had a tiny nano twin. Tyse is different, though.”
“Different how?”
“When he came here, he’d already been threaded twice.”
“So?”
“It’s not done.” Then he laughs. “I mean, I do it. But I’m a mad scientist. I’m experimenting on these men. They are… worthless. Skins. Nothing more. Tyse is an actual Delta augment. Sanctioned and served in the Sweep Army. He’s legit. They do not re-thread augments in the Sweep.”
“Maybe that’s why he failed?” I ask.
Epsilon nods. “I was thinking that as well. But I’m not convinced. At any rate, we started the re-thread and only discovered afterward that this was his third threading. It took, but only because the first threading was never finished.”
“It filled in the gaps,” I say.
“That’s what I think.”
“OK. So… what’s the problem.”
“What’s the problem?” Epsilon chuckles. “Look at him. He did spectacular. I mean, honestly, Clara, I’ve never seen such a fighter in my life. He was… possessed. Like he loved it.”
I make a face. “That doesn’t sound like the Tyse I know.”
He just stares at me for a moment. Then blinks, like he’s pulling himself out of a thought. “Why would he show you that side of him? And anyway, he was discharged seven years ago. He’s had time to come to terms with life outside Sweep. He’s got it under control.” He turns away, but then side-eyes me over his shoulder. “At least he did.”
“What do you mean?”
He doesn’t answer, just walks over to the screen showing Tyse lying on the table in the next room and touches it. The scene changes. And it’s one I recognize. Because it’s a recording Tyse’s point of view as he was fighting.
That’s the point of view I saw while Tyse was fighting. “What is that?” I ask. “How did you get in his head? How can you see that?”
Epsilon grins. “All augments can be hacked, Clara. That’s what I did when I threaded him. I hacked.”
“I don’t know what that means. Hacked? It sounds like you’re going to cut him up with a hatchet.”
“Right. I forgot. You’re a simple girl.” I think that was an insult, but I don’t press. He continues. “You know what a puppet is, right?”