Anarchy Found (SuperAlpha, #1)(44)

What does he do here? It sure looks like he’s a bike builder. I walk forward a few paces and then spy an expansive hallway I missed on the first trip. The far left side of the cave is a huge glass wall, and on other side are rooms. One is filled with tanks that hold luminescent jellyfish, smaller versions of the one in the main tank. They flicker rainbow colors in the darkness and I’m mesmerized by their weightless dance in the water.

The main tank is giant, something you’d find in a city aquarium. And the jellyfish are huge. They seem like decorations or pets. I walk forward to get a better look at the new tank room. These smaller versions look like specimens when you take in the equipment surrounding them. Microscopes and refrigerators.

I walk on after a few moments and the next room looks like an engineering lab with various stationary robot arms busy working on another bike.

There’s more to see farther down a slender hallway and another glass-walled room. But when I walk forward to peer inside, this lab is totally different. There’s some kind of operating table in the center with the kind of light above it that you’d see in surgery. The next room has white mice in small cages stacked to the ceiling. More computers, of course. If he’s a mechanic, he’s a very high-tech one. But mice? And microscopes? And what’s with the room filled with jellyfish?

“What are you doing?” I whirl around and find that holographic woman behind me, her transparent hands on her hips like she’s annoyed.

“Just looking for a bathroom,” I say back. “And I’m thirsty.”

“I think we might have a problem.”

I take a step back. Her tone is harsh and even though I know she’s made up of lights, she scares me. “W-w-what kind of problem?”

“I didn’t know about the inhibitor.” She scowls and I wonder just how much power this thing has. “It creates a powerful advantage in your favor. I might have made a mistake.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand.” I’m not sure I should talk to this computer. What if she’s got something against me? What if she resents the fact that I’m here? It’s clear that Lincoln doesn’t bring people down here. She’s probably wondering about our past. “I don’t really know what that means,” I say. “You’re Sheila, right?”

“Correct,” she says, walking around me in a circle, like she’s sizing me up. Trying to figure out if she can take me in a fight. “What if you ever want to hurt him?”

Shit. She is not going to let it go. And she scares me. I don’t think this technology even exists. I have no frame of reference for what she might be capable of. “I don’t—I don’t understand it all, I’m sorry. I just need to pee.”

“Do you know what he is? What he does?”

“No,” I say truthfully. The concept of Alpha was never explained to me. And an eight-year-old does not need to know such things, even if she’s a pawn in the game. The only reason to use a small girl as part of some secret plan is to make her cooperate without having to explain. “But I’m interested,” I say, hoping that will make this thing back down, or at the very least, fill me in a little.

“So you can arrest him?”

“Do I have a reason to arrest him?” I know he’s involved in those murders, but I don’t know the how or the why. He was not on the security footage.

“If you did, would you? Or would you help him? Would you institutionalize him like your mother?”

“What? How the f*ck do you know about—”

“I’m a computer, Detective. A very powerful computer.” She seems to grow bigger in that moment. Taller, wider, and maybe even more substantial. The light that makes up her body becomes dense, less transparent. And she seems more solid than she did a moment ago. “I have access to every database on Earth.”

She terrifies me. “That’s impossible,” I say boldly.

“Is it?”

“No one has that much power. There are firewalls and… stuff. I’m not very technical, but people take precautions. They don’t just let… clandestine programs wander in and take their information.”

“Is that what you think I am? A clandestine program?”

“I have no idea what you are.”

“You think I can’t get by a firewall, Molly Masters? You think I’m what? Some ordinary hologram? Because you’ve so seen so many of those, right?”

“Jesus, I don’t know. What are you asking?”

“Lincoln is not what you think. He’s not your Alpha anymore, Molly. He’s mine.”

“Oh, for f*ck’s sake. What, are you jealous?” I laugh. “I’m not having this conversation with a computer. You can’t—”

“I might have made a mistake by encouraging him to see you again. You have no idea what’s happening here. And I don’t want you coming in and misunderstanding.”

“Then what is he?” I place my hands on my hips, ready to fight it out with this thing about who knows Lincoln better.

Sheila continues to circle me like prey. And even though I know my hand would slip right through her lightshow of a body, she’s intimidating. “What special power did the Prodigy School give you, Molly?”

“Special power? I don’t have a special power. I was used, Sheila. I was a pawn to try to keep Lincoln from disobeying. It’s not my fault I have that effect on him. I didn’t ask for any of this. I just wanted him to be my friend.”