Code Breakers: Alpha Read Free Page B

feel those shakes?”
    Gerry nodded. “That’s just Mags doing her thing with the D-Lottery reg.”
    “No. That’s the demon screwing the bejesus out of your Mags’s back door. It’s trying to impregnate her like it’s done with your pal Mike. Here, watch.”
    Petal pushed Gerry closer to the zombified creature that barely resembled his old friend and boss. They’d known each other since they were toddlers. Came out of the same breeding programme. Selected for the same career path. Gerry had always looked up to him, and here he was, a shell. A rotting shell.
    He blinked the tears from his eyes, breathed deeply—and then regretted it. He gagged on the stench of bad eggs and rotting meat.
    Petal took a HackSlate from her breast pocket and swiped a three-fingered gesture across its neon-blue holographic surface. The device was barely larger than her palm and as thin as paper. She was connecting to their internal network. Gerry had heard about these devices. A few of his colleagues had worked on defence systems against them. They had the ability to bypass most front-line security systems. He’d have to ask her where they got them from, but now wasn’t the time.
    Petal smiled at Gerry. Her full lips stretched wide, exposing sharp canines. She resembled a wolf pup on the edge of adulthood.
    “Time to wake him up.” She drew yet more complex gestures across the slate until a few seconds later the body twitched. “Hey, Mike. Your old pal’s here to say hi.”
    Zombie Mike lifted its head, focusing a milky eye on Gerry. A flash of recognition slithered across its vision. Its swollen lips parted, and it spoke.
    “Kill. Me. Kill me now…” And then the thing started to thrash against the restraints before a different voice spoke. “Ahhh, Mr Cardle, just the man I was sent to get—what treasures you’ll give to me… what secrets you’ll reveal. Now, come here!” The thing lurched towards Gerry, trying to claw at him, but the restraints held it back.
    Gerry jumped back. “Oh, god, Mike!” Gerry screamed, shocked, unable to comprehend the horror of the situation. The thing moaned, then whined, seemingly in pain. “Can’t you put him out of his misery?”
    “We’re tryin’, man.” Gabe pointed to the NanoStem solution. “The demon has royally screwed with his AIA. Got into his brain, neural pathways, nervous system. It’s like a living virus. An artificial evil. You guys, with ya goddamn brain-mods, are clueless as to what ya’ve done. It’s using him to get to the algorithm in ya head, in ya damned AIA.”
    Gerry ignored the AIA argument. He’d monitored the anti-AIA groundswell for years, but the Family always handled it. Severe punishments for those who uninstalled them soon quelled the rebellion. And despite his wondering what it’d be like without a modded brain, there wasn’t a single report of anything detrimental to having one. He turned to Petal. “Have you tried—”
    “Everything. Apart from one.”
    “And you need me for this one thing?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And it’s dangerous?”
    “Hell yeah.”

Chapter 3
     
    M ike Welling, Gerry’s best friend, colleague, and godfather to his kids, was now essentially the animated dead. Before this moment, Gerry had never given a second thought to anything paranormal. Heck, no one did these days. Technology was so prevalent and life so comfortable that there was no need to seek solace in superstition, myth or religion. There were still a tiny minority of people, usually the crazed or the high, who believed in such things, but generally that kind of old-fashioned faith had died decades ago.
    But seeing that thing, that creature in the corner, made Gerry think twice. There was something not right about the situation, about Gabe, the girl, any of it. How did he end up smack-bang in the middle of it all? Coincidence was the usual explanation. But maybe there was some other reason? He wasn’t sure about anything anymore. Gerry took one last look at