CO-145

  Southwest of Silverton Colorado

  December 2nd, 2022

  4:55 pm

  The faded blue Subaru Crosstrek swerved slightly as an intense gust of wind and dust washed over it. The vehicle had Arizona plates; a stylized but faded ASU and distinctive earth, anchor, and eagle sticker of the United States Marines displayed in the bottom left of the back glass. The rearview was nearly obscured by bags and random items piled into the back of the vehicle.

  The driver perked up from squinting through the swirling dust roiling across the road as she registered her name.

  “Mare, are you even listening to me?”

  She turned and looked at the woman in the passenger seat. She was broad shouldered with short black hair buzzed to stubble on the sides and styled with gel on top. Christie adjusted her thick black glasses and raised her eyebrow at her.

  Maria turned her attention back to the road as another intense gust of wind hit the car. A yellow sign advising her of the steep decline for the next three miles loomed out of the haze and disappeared past them. She sighed and shook her head, “No Chris, I am too busy trying to keep us from falling off this mountain.”

  She heard Christie sigh and winced as she repeated herself, “I said Jer asked me to work over the holidays, right before we left.”

  Maria’s lip twisted. Jerryl was their project director and an insufferable narcissist. She glanced at Christie out of the corner of her eye and rasped, “I assume you told her no and,” she let out a sigh, “we both know she won’t be forgetting that anytime soon.”

  Christie’s voice brightened, “I told her I would do some at home work if they need it. That seemed to keep her happy.”

  “You always know the right thing to say,” she reached over to grab Christie’s knee and squeeze, “I would have told that bitch to go fuck herself.”

  Christie clasped her hand and chuckled, “And the crew’s quest to keep Maria out of conversations with Jerryl continues.”

  Maria put her hand back on the wheel and cleared her throat, “The whole crew is in on it then?”

  “Mostly just me and Thomas, although Phil has done his part as well.”

  Maria smiled and said, “Phil, coming out of his shell, seems like just last week he was a newbie just out of field school.”

  Christie responded with a smile, “Yeah, it’s been four weeks.”

  A hazy vehicle came out of the wind ahead and resolved into an SUV with lights flashing atop its cab. As it passed she noted that it was a DPS vehicle with the distinctive and gaudy American flag adorning its side with their newly minted slogan, ‘Safety, Values, Loyalty’.

  Both of them stopped talking and tried to act naturally as the vehicle passed. It was a lot like driving around with a little bag of weed when she was a teenager but these days failing to ‘be cool’ could turn into a one way trip to what they were calling a Rehab Center. It's why they had chosen to wear their vests on their drive home. Two girls driving together alone, who weren’t working raised a lot of questions with the DPS.

  After the car passed and there was no immediate sign they were being followed there was a brief pause and then Christie continued, “Maria, we have to talk about some…”

  The speakers of the car thrummed with the tones of Maria’s ringtone and the in dash screen blinkered to life with the distinctive red and green phone symbols and the word ‘Mom’.

  Maria gave Christie a look and saw the sour expression on her face. She winced as she hit the ‘answer’ button. There was a hum and click and she said, “Hey Ma, what’s going on? We are in a pretty bad dust storm here…”

  An exasperated and reedy voice interrupted her, “Peanut, I need you to talk to your brother.”

  Maria winced and she heard Christie shift uncomfortably in the seat on the other side of her car. She answered as gently as she could manage, “Come on Ma, you can’t call her that anymore.”

  Her mother’s voice got more intense and seemed on the verge of tears, “I gave birth to a son and a daughter, Maria Emilia. I don’t want to hear anymore of this nonsense. You need to call him and tell him he needs to come home for the holidays, and not to ruin Christmas when he does.”

  The weight in that sentence was palpable. ‘Don’t ruin Christmas,’ meant not to show up as she was. Things had been like this for nearly a year. Ever since her sister Layla had announced that she was no longer Daniel, or male at Thanksgiving dinner to an entire family that ran the gamut from bad to devout Catholics, things had been ‘tense’. Her mother had not taken it well, especially when Layla had arrived mid physical transition after two years of infrequent calls to the family.

  Ever since the screaming and crying match that followed Maria had been the unofficial go-between for her mother and sister. Layla had told her two days before that she had no intention to visit the family in Glendale for the holidays. She was going to San Diego to spend the holidays with her girlfriend and her family who were a lot more tolerant and less prone to screaming meltdowns.

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  “Ma, we can talk about this when we get there…”

  “Are you finally bringing that boyfriend of yours home?”

  Maria’s shoulders rose sharply and she nearly cursed. A distinctive memory of when she had told her father that she wouldn’t be joining the service hit her. She felt the same disappointment from the other side of the car. The same terrible and sad glare. She knew full well, however, that Charlie would not be bottling up her anger and carrying it as thinly veiled resentment.

  “Ma, I gotta go. This storm is getting really bad!”

  Before her mother could answer she reached out and hung up the call.

  The car swerved when another powerful gust slammed into them. She cursed as she hurried to compensate. She could barely make out the dull tail lights of the truck a hundred feet ahead.

  Christie’s voice sounded hurt when she spoke up, “You told me you told her.”

  She clenched her teeth and took a deep breath, “My mom is,” she paused to think of the right thing to say and finally said, “she is in a rough place right now. I have been trying to think of a good time to tell her.”

  Her girlfriend’s voice rose, “You told me that you told her in September. You told me that she was upset but she said she was, ‘happy if you’re happy’.”

  Maria let out a sigh and shook her head, “All she talks about is Layla, and how she let her down and how she just wants her son back. She barely has anyone to talk to anymore after Dad died, and…”

  She sighed and tried to think, running her hand over her half shaved and tattooed head in frustration, “You know my mom, she might have freaked out and called the DPS.”

  Christie gave her an incredulous look, “Your main concern was whether your Mom would narc us to the fucking Department of Public Safety?

  Maria cringed and kept her eyes on the road. She stammered, “I… I mean… She…”

  Christie took a deep breath and her voice was strained as she said, “What were you going to do when we got there?”

  Maria perked up and glanced at her, “What do you mean ‘when we got there’?”

  Christie looked equal parts furious and hurt. The rims of her eyes were wet and she was on the verge of crying but Maria wasn’t sure she had ever seen her so angry.

  “What I meant is that I am obviously not going now.”

  “Chris, come on…”

  “No, I am not spending the holidays with some bigoted old bitch who thinks I rank less than the shit she scrapes off her shoe!”

  Maria held up a hand as old and reflexive anger surfaced, “Look she… she will understand, ok? Layla is different. She is a lot more for my mom to process.”

  Before the words had come out of her mouth she knew that she had said the wrong thing. Layla and Christie had met several times and were very close.

  “Look, I didn’t mean…”

  Christie cut off her angrily, “Look, shut the fuck up! Don’t dig yourself any fucking deeper ok? I want you to drop me off in Cortez.”

  Maria glanced at her and stammered, “Cortez? Is there even a…”

  “Maria look out!”

  The alarm in Christie’s voice brought her back to the road and she cursed as the lights of the truck hurried toward them. She yanked on the wheel as they hurtled through the dust and just as they would have hit the floating red lights her entire world went white.

  –

  Connecting…

  Server ID Unity Core 33.229

  Encryption Bypassed

  Password ******************

  Loading Environment…

  As Cage materialized into the server he was hit by the sound of raised angry voices. His sharp tipped black leather shoes clicked onto the marble floor as he landed on the ground. He was surrounded by a host of varied avatars. There were anime style stylized characters, lifelike real world style figures so well made that they annihilated the uncanny valley, and a few blank mannequins that were designed to hide as much about their users as possible. Easily the most awe inspiring avatar of them all was at the far end of the chamber. She floated above a marble dias, the tip of her right foot nearly touching the ground. Golden arcs of energy snapped and rolled over the avatar of a beautiful woman in a skin tight bodyglove with a metallic silver and blue scheme. Her wild full golden hair floated around her head in a spiral. Her dark skinned face was serene with golden lips and make-up. Her eyes were closed.

  The avatars were all sitting on the tiered steps of a roman style theater below her. Some stood and hurled insults across the room while others tried to make their voices heard over the din. A very few remained quiet.

  An impossibly beautiful slender man with cat ears and tail wearing a tailored suit boomed out a question, “Why are we here arguing? Did no one see the cast from the government? They are going to launch weapons at the platform! This is an attack on our sovereignty!”

  An anime style little girl in a Victorian dress spoke with the husky voice of a grown woman, “We have dallied in world politics too long and we are getting what we deserve. We should disband Unity and try to hide what we’ve done!” She paused when she caught sight of him and pointed him out, “Victor! Mother has been silent and we are running out of time! We need to call a vote!”

  He raised a hand to the clamor of voices. His own avatar was more on the realistic side. In fact, he had gone to great pains to assure that it looked as much like his real self as possible. Tall, dark haired with distinctly Korean features. He was wearing a tailored white dress shirt and black slacks. The room grew silent as they recognized him. He looked up at Mother and said, “Mother called me here herself. She and I have been discussing an answer to the Allied threat against the platform.”

  He turned to the little girl avatar and offered a glum smile, “Anya, unfortunately we won’t be walking away. Not all of us anyway. Mother and I won’t be forcing anyone to stay with the movement after this, but today we are dropping a gauntlet.”

  He turned and looked up at the floating avatar and said, “They will almost certainly declare war on us after today.” There was a clamor of voices, some angry at that statement. He continued despite the furor, “but, I for one, don’t want to live in a world where they continue to control us. Right, Mother?”

  The gathering of avatars turned to look upward and saw that the eyes of the floating female avatar had opened. They pulsed with golden energy and she weaved her fingers through the arcing light that swirled around her.

  Cage nodded to her and smiled as he said, “We are sending a mass message to all members of Unity. Cut ties now or join the war.”

  The light flowing around Mother’s fingers filtered upward into golden screens covered in white code. Edits flashed through the written text with blinding speed. Below, very few avatars vanished. Most looked up toward her with veneration awaiting whatever was going to happen next.