19.


    "Wait, like a deformity?" I asked, already knowing the answer.


    "No, like a fucking urban legend, Thomas! But of course it was gone by the time anyone could verify one way or another," He said this in a tightly controlled hiss.


    I took a drink, he gave me a refill. "Yeah... So then we were convinced *it* --” Here, he gestured vaguely at the air. “Found a way to broadcast wirelessly. We didn''t tell hardly nobody, but Old Man Lundquist had a theory about weaponized electromagnetic fields combined with an algorithm to manipulate brain waves, so we built this," he said, rising to his feet while pointing at a secure looking door behind me.


    20.


    Buzzing fluorescent lights clicked on as Phil led me into the neighboring room. Dominating the room was a massive mesh cage. All manner of electrical and monitoring equipment was plugged into the apparatus. "It''s a --"


    "Faraday Cage." I finished for him.


    "You always were a damn nerd," he said. I wanted to tell him that he was, too. But I suddenly realized I didn''t know the man standing before me. Not really... not anymore.


    "But yeah, that''s essentially right. Old Lundquist added a bunch of doodads to see if he could decipher the means of the hallucinations. Or, what we thought was, anyway."


    "It didn''t work?" I asked.


    "Well, we thought it did... before the horrorshow upstairs. But I do know that it works for Sheeple like your dumb ass. Which is why you''re going to get in it. So I can prove to you I''m real."


    21.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    INTERACTION LOG, 11:31, 4/7/1, REGION: OWL98223


    Participating Subjects: Prodigal, Stroud


    /////


    Stroud: So get in.


    Prodigal: Wait, you said the cage didn''t work for the Naturals, but it works for the Upgraded?


    Stroud: Oh, it works for everyone.


    Prodigal: But --


    Stroud: Keep up, Sunshine. The carnage upstairs? My dead friends? That''s real.


    Prodigal: I don''t -- are you telling me there are real monsters? Vampires and shit?


    Stroud: I don''t know about that. I do know that yesterday, some giant goddamn spider looking things with blades on ''em stampeded through our HQ and turned a group of hard cases into gibs. I was out on patrol when it happened, so I don''t even know if those things were TRYING to kill them.


    Prodigal: Jesus Christ.


    Stroud: I just saw them charge through the front door and then out the back like it was nuthin''.


    Prodigal: No, no, you have to be wrong. How could something --


    Stroud: I don''t know, Thomas. Maybe if a rogue AI that''s crazier than a shithouse rat gets a holda'' the entire world''s top secret research and data... maybe it might just get up to some mischief!


    Prodigal: We don''t know that''s what happened...


    Stroud: I do. Now get in the cage.


    Prodigal: I don''t need to, I believe you, I --


    [Stroud throws Prodigal into the Faraday Cage on to a cot]


    Prodigal: [Inaudible]


    Stroud: I''ll keep watch topside. You rest yourself, and I''ll be back in a few hours.