SPECTRE

9| UPDATE AVAILABLE

I stared at Isla.

"Isla...?" I whispered, not daring to believe it. She'd betrayed me. My only friend in years had betrayed me.

She shook her head. "Sorry, Spectra. §100,000 was on the line."

100,000 cubix. Isla had betrayed me for 100,000 cubix — not even a substantial amount of Galactic Currency. Maybe enough to buy a holoscreen televison, but not nearly enough to betray a friend over.

Then again, in the 'Holy Book', the Bible, of the 1st-21st century religion of Christianity, the apprentice of the 'Saviour' had betrayed him for only silver coins.

Still, before my brain could fully process this information, Isla kicked me around the head, and I dropped like a sack of potatoes, black spots appearing in my line of vision.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was her grin as she stood beside me, and an OPTIS officer transacted the money to her.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I woke up in the middle of nowhere.

Actually, let me rephrase this.

I woke up in the middle of the vast void known as space that was certainly a virtual dimension created by OPTIS to imprison me. Their imprisoning methods have definitely improved since the last time I saw them.

Why? Because if I couldn't see where the neuro-receptors were...

I couldn't hack them.

Resentment bubbled to the surface — resentment towards OPTIS, Isla, and finally, myself. How could I have let my guard down like this? Years of hiding, unnoticed, and thanks to a foolish decision one night, I was back in my worst nightmare.

In OPTIS.

I took a shuddering breath.

I twisted my wrist, using the movement that I usually would to 'draw out' code lines. A small interface appeared in front of me, showing an endless amount of blinking, looping 0's and 1's.

I randomly selected a group of the letters and deleted them with a few taps on the interface, knowing it would create a glitch in the system.

Hopefully, big enough for me to regain my senses and get out of here.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hours upon hours of floating, and I still hadn't noticed anything the glitched code could've caused. Sure, the positioning of the planets G'okra and Xthalar was wrong, but that was probably just a mistake in the creation of the virtual world. Not worth the time to check out.

Who knows what they were doing with my physical body right now. For all I knew, I could be stuck in cyrostasis, in one of the 'freeze tanks' in their labs, floating around for them to study like a new specimen of animal.

All thanks to Isla, the traitor.

I should never have trusted her. I should never have trusted anyone. OPTIS had spies everywhere, I'd known that a long time ago, but I guess there were more than I thought. Much more. And their skills were getting better and better.

I was getting much too gullible.

So much for feeling lonely. I had to be independent. Work on my own. What if this happened again?

Suddenly, there were muffled, warbling footsteps resonating across the void.

Then it struck me — perhaps, just perhaps, the part I deleted controlled the virtual auditory sense that blocked all real-world noises out...

Leaving me free to hear whatever I wanted in the real world.

This was an advantage that I would certainly use to the highest potential I could.

The sound was still distorted, muffled like the speaker was underwater. But I could glean enough from the words I could make out.

"Stable vitals...better senses...neurologically enhanced...careful...hacker...best...put under...virtual reality...simulator...stimulating brain responses...patient clear..."

The last words I could hear chilled me to the bone.

"Project X-093657...ready...experimentation approved."