Chapter 30: Wires and Whispers

Ada grapples with Omni's emotions while confronting Murph's painful past, leading to a critical decision that impacts their future.

The silence dragged onwards and Ada watched as concern grew in Omni’s body. Her stance changed, and then she fidgeted, and finally it blossomed on her face. Being able to read your summoner was critical to the bond, knowing their status and understanding their beautifully intuitive but slow wetware minds.

But Ada didn’t understand, she didn’t know. She couldn’t connect this scattering of dots. She’d been apart from Omni for the longest time since she awoke. It had been days or a perhaps a week or two since she’d lost track, but now it felt like an eternity between them. The yawning chasm opening between them, experiences unshared and a shifting base of understandings. They had both found their mentors. She glanced at Zephyr, who was intent on Murph waiting like a glacier for change to come.

For a fleeting moment, Ada felt like she didn’t belong. That she was intruding on this moment with Murph and Omni.

Step toward fear to dispel it, she whispered to herself and flickered to Omni’s side. One moment she was a projection on the far side of the table and then the next she stood beside Omni, her hand on her shoulder.

Omni felt the touch through her implant and looked up at her. Ada smiled sadly, and asked in her mind <What’s going on?>

Omni smiled and placed her hand over Ada’s. She couldn’t squeeze it back, but Ada could give her the impression that she did. “I don’t understand either,” she said out loud.

A whisper but loud enough for Murph to hear and glance over to her, his anger leeching off him as the seconds ticked away.

He spoke with a heavy voice, thick with emotion that Ada started tracking to predict his likely next outburst. Gentle ghostly tendrils probing his mind feeding off the status data his implant generated constantly. Hundreds of data inputs from skin temperature to microexpressions created a composite image of Murph’s mental state within Ada’s mind.

“Ayanda was my sister,” said Murph.

Next to her, Omni frowned, her tension spiking for a moment. Ada collected that data as well, then started expanding her focus to every person in the room and even what she could of the guards outside.

“I couldn’t save her,” he looked at Zephyr and then nodded slowly to himself looking at his hands on the table, ”It’s my fault she died.”

“She died as a teen, a little older than Vinn and maybe a year younger than you Omni.” He glanced at Omni and Farook in turn, that latter’s data indicated compassion but a growing hardness as well. Huge slabs of thought sliding into place and forming immovable decisions. Predicative modelling suggested Omni’s father would come to a decision soon.

“What happened?” Omni pressed.

“I doesn’t matter.”

<Doesn’t it?> said Zephyr.

“What do you want me to say, Zephyr?”

<The truth. Before, now, and always.> the old djinn said, and rubbed his face a strangely human gesture Ada hadn’t seen on him do before.

“What is the truth, Zephyr? Is it what I remember?” Murph’s voice rose now and the so did the markers for anger and violence, “I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re thinking. But I wasn’t there when she needed me, when he killed her. When he did what he did.”

Murph chewed on that for a moment his jaw working, “I … I was only a kid, I tried. It was before I had any power. I tried for years. I caught beatings for it, I tried to be her shield, I tried to absorb his anger. But there was always more. And then I left.”

Omni nodded, her face growing dark.

“I ran away, my plan always to come back. She was tough, she wanted me to go, I promised I’d be back.”

Murph rubbed his face and exhaled forcefully blowing out the emotion and tension in his body. Ada watched as he tried to wade through the long-buried memories.

He pressed his hands against the table. “When I returned a young summoner it was too late.”

Zephyr’s mask cracked and sadness bled through.

<When he found her body, twisted like that, he went into a rage. It was the first time we both got caught up in vengeance. >

“What happened?” Omni asked, her father glanced at her frowning and her words faded.

Murph looked at her then, “I killed my father.”

The room was silent, the weight of Murph’s confession hanging in the air. Ada’s data inputs from Farook showed a mix of compassion and judgment. His own religious beliefs were at odds with the younger man’s pain.

Ada could see Omni’s heart breaking for Murph, but she also sensed Farook’s internal struggle. He had seen betrayal before, and he knew the cost of misplaced trust.

Farook’s voice, when it came, was soft but firm. “Murph, your pain is evident, and I cannot begin to understand the weight of your past. But our present, our current challenges, in part a result of your own involvement, require trust. Trust that you’ve broken.”

Murph’s face contorted in anger and pain. “You think I wanted any of this? I’ve been trying to make amends!”

Farook held up a hand. “It’s not about what you want. It’s about what’s best for the group, for my daughter. Your past actions, your lies, they’ve made you a liability.”

Ada watched as Omni’s face fell, torn between her connection to Murph and her loyalty to her father.

Farook continued, “In my faith, we believe in redemption, in second chances. But we also believe in the importance of self-reflection and growth. You need time away from this group, away from my daughter, to find your path.”

Murph’s eyes darted around the room, looking for support. But the group’s faces were a mix of sadness and agreement. Zeke didn’t wait, gave a subtle nod to the guards, who moved forward.

The hooded figure placed a hand on Murph’s shoulder and Ada perception of the world flickered, she sensed the power of this Override. Even with their attention directed at Murph the bleed through interfered with the connections and sensors in the room.

“No! Wait!” Murph shouted, but it was too late. The guards grabbed him, and as they dragged him away, his eyes locked with Omni’s, a silent mix of betrayal and desperation.

The door yawned, staying open as Murph disappeared sounds of a struggle, and muffled shouts gave way to shuffling feet. Zeke stood and walked to the door. He closed it with a click.

The room was thick with tension, the weight of the decision pressing down on everyone. Omni’s eyes were red-rimmed, her emotions raw.

Before anyone could speak, Zeke broke the silence, his voice grave. “There’s more you need to know.” He put his hands up, forestalling any interruptions but looking into the eyes of everyone present.

“I need your help. It’s a choice, but soon it won’t be for all of us. The Company is already after you. And if we don’t rescue her soon, then they’ll know nearly everything about the resistance.”

Ada’s own faced mirrored the question in Omni’s and others. She smirked at that, becoming a little human after all. What Zeke said next surprised even her.

“Vinn isn’t dead. The Company captured her during a recent op. They have her at Blackwater.”

Omni’s head snapped up, her face a mask of shock. “What? How? Why didn’t you tell us?”

Zephyr looked up, surprise clear on his face. “Vinn is alive?”

Zeke raised an eyebrow. “How could you not know?”

The older djinn sighed “I’ve been … lost. I escaped from reality.”

Ada chimed in, “I found him in a dive bar in the desert.”

Zephyr nodded, “Yes, thank you, Ada.”

Ada felt Omni’s mind churning, trying to process everything. A glowing whirlwind of data and emotional markers. The weight of Murph’s betrayal, the revelation about Vinn, and now the urgency in Zeke’s voice.

Zeke’s voice brought her back to the present. “Get something to eat, get some rest. We attack tomorrow.” With a flick of his hand, a countdown timer appeared in Omni’s vision, ticking off the hours until they went against the most powerful corporation in the history of this continent. The supreme ruler of this megacity. A cold, dead grip that started centuries ago.

Omni’s heart raced, Ada noted as she said, “What the hell are we thinking?”