Chapter 65

Priya ran through the darkness in her dreamlike world, her bare feet pounding the metal grates of TAU’s labyrinthine mind. In this digital hallucination, doors flew open for her, one after another after another. None of them could hold up against the keys she possessed, but she still had miles to go.

Though TAU was focused elsewhere, its demons were onto her. They hounded her, chasing her relentlessly, growing closer by the second. They would appear suddenly, surrounding her and leaping for her throat, but she would open another door, vanish, and reappear elsewhere inside TAU’s mind.

She sensed TAU growing stronger. The attack was failing. Max was being compromised.

She dropped down another level, raced into a new section of the labyrinth, and soon found herself surrounded .

Men. Dogs. Demons.

It was imagery. But it was real in Priya’s world.

They lunged for her on all sides, claws digging into her, hands reaching for her throat. But even as they tried to consume her, she pulled back, passing directly through a wall.

The noise vanished. The claws vanished. She was in a misty forest now, green leaves all around. A stream ran nearby. Trees reached up into the fog above. Moss underfoot instead of harsh metal.

This was Priya’s construct. The lair of the Gray Witch. She had hidden it from TAU, but the demons had now seen her vanish into it. They would soon consume and destroy it.

She raced down a forest path, water dripping from the vines, mist obscuring everything ahead of, behind, and even above them. She came to a waterfall at the side of a stony bluff and walked through it. She was back in TAU’s labyrinth, surrounded once more by the dark, anodized steel. A formidable door stood in front of her.

Priya laid her hands on the vault and overrode TAU’s passcodes. The door vanished and she stepped inside the circular room. Glowing imagery surrounded her. Files by the thousands. The full genetic codes of the sea locusts, the clones, and the fertility-destroying virus.

She touched the files with her bare fingers, moved them to another section of the room, and searched for the gate Max had opened for her. Finding it, she sent the information.

“I hope you haven’t missed me while I was gone,” she added.

The data raced through the labyrinth and out. As it cleared TAU’s control, the demons appeared in the doorway.

TAU saw through their eyes. “You have accomplished nothing,” it insisted. “I will destroy all the data you’ve sent and make you suffer for your treachery.”

The demons sprang at her. Their fangs and claws digging into her skin. It seemed as if they would rip her apart. Priya knew that TAU could make them think or feel anything it wanted them to experience. The pain of the attack was as real as anything she’d ever experienced, but it wasn’t enough for TAU.

“You choose to be a witch. Now burn like one.”

Flames erupted in her forest. The demons pulled her toward it. And then, suddenly, she vanished from their grasp.

TAU’s minions stood baffled. Even TAU seemed confused: Priya was no longer part of it.

—

“The hell with waiting,” Kurt had grunted.

He’d cut the wires with a single draw.

Priya arched her back as Gamay had. She opened her mouth as if to scream, but no sound came out. Her face turned toward him. Her eyes found him. Then they closed, and she collapsed in his grasp.

Clearing the wires, Kurt lifted Priya over his shoulder. She was light as a feather. Climbing out of the pool, he saw that Gamay was now standing. “Time to go.”