Subject 8.47199E+77: Select.
Subject 8.47199E+77: Aberration detected.
Subject 8.47199E+77: Override authorized—ID Salem Ben.
Subject 8.47199E+77: Activate. Immersion commences in three minutes.
“Protocol compels me to warn you that once you have been immersed you will not be able to withdraw until the moment of Plantagenet Matthias Soome’s death. Protocol also compels me to dictate that whatever you experience, however terrible, you must endure without possibility of extraction. You will know each and every moment as if it were your own …”
I’m nodding slowly. I’ve heard that message more times than there are stars in the sky, but knowing what I am going to face, Qod’s words hit me hard. Whatever I experience, however terrible, I must endure without possibility of extraction.
The metallic threads slip from the walls of the sphere and lift me into the WOOM once again. Shackles lock around my wrists and ankles, and the minuscule pulse of energy that holds the life of Plantagenet Soome comes my way.
“Farewell, Salem. See you in three hundred and four years.”