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A week earlier - Cairo, Egypt (in the reality preceding Replika).
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When Vi woke up, the glowing sun-like ball hanging in the middle of the cavernous space was dark, dim sparks sporadically flashing on the globe’s surface. The dwellers were asleep. The living quarters in the walls were dark and quiet. All except for the one on her level where electronics and computer displays glowed, providing her with a partial view of the room’s content. She approached the threshold of her open cell. The guard, sitting up against her cell entrance, was sleeping. She could escape this place, but she wanted answers first.
She stepped outside, examining for any signs of activity. Everything was quiet. Hugging the wall, she took several steps to get a better view of the glowing room. She could make out six individuals, reclined and motionless attached to upload portal devices. The guard behind her, shifted in his sleep. She waited for him to settle back before returning unnoticed to her cell. She leaned up against the wall, trying to understand what was being done to them. The setup seemed strangely similar to what Omar and Vi had once used.
Vi was pulled out of a semi-conscious dream state when a movement from the electronic room caught her attention. It was still dark and there wasn’t any activity other than the exchange taking place in that specific room. The six individuals who had been connected were removing their equipment. Six other individuals exchanged a few words with them before setting themselves up in their spots.
The disconnected individuals walked to the fountain in front of her cell. They drank water from the cusp of their hands. A woman among them glanced over at Vi with her piercing brown eyes. She walked over to nudge the sleeping guard at Vi’s entrance. The guard woke up, and after a brief exchange where the woman reprimanded him, he stood his guard attentively.
They returned to their separate living quarters. Nothing else happened that night—at least not that Vi was aware of.
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She woke up to the sound of children playing. The air was filled with the pleasant scent of cooking bread, and there was a soft dawn-like light emanating from the artificial sun. The laughing children were running around the fountain, their naked feet splashing in puddles. The adults worked at their respective tasks.
A young man brought her a flat bread, still hot from the oven, and a steaming herbal tea. She savored it.
Shortly after breakfast a chanting started. Vi watched from her cell as the whole population dropped their activities and gathered around the fountain, joining in the harmonious song.
Lined up in front of the gathered population stood the six individuals she recognized as those who had been connected the night before. Seeing them with the others, she realized they were among the oldest of those who lived here. Not old, in their late twenties she would guess, but older than the others.
A lineup formed in front of them, people waiting their turn to give them hugs and kisses. Two young boys pulled out a cart. When the lineup had finished, they were given cloaks and red masks with goggles from the cart. Equipment to protect them from the sandstorms that always raged above ground. A second group of five individuals arrived already dressed for the outdoors. There was a farewell chant as the group marched out of the cavern. Once gone, everyone returned to their task.
Vi examined the portal room. The bodies connected since the previous night had not been interrupted to participate in the ceremony. They had no time to waste to justify delaying whatever training they were submitted to.
A young boy returned to fetch her dishes. She recognized him as one that had given her water the previous day.
“Did you enjoy your breakfast?” he asked.
“You speak English,” said Vi, surprised.
“I’ve learned it this morning,” he said, without the slightest accent. “What were you doing here, yesterday?”
“Searching for the Observatory.”
“The Observatory has nothing to share with you,” said the boy. “It is best if you leave this world and enter Replika.”
“No, I don’t plan on doing that,” she said.
“Either we escort you to the Building of Transfers or we kill you,” he said, leaving her to think about it.
The five individuals who had accompanied the group of six returned, carrying the protection garments of the others in their arms. Wherever their destination, it wasn’t very far. They had been gone less than an hour, giving them half of that amount of time to get where they wanted to go. Vi watched as the two girls washed the sand away from the protective equipment. They weren’t planning on coming back. Vi understood the most likely place they could have gone in such a short time was the Building of Transfers. It also explained why everyone was so young—once trained they moved on to the next reality.
Vi understood what was taking place and that she needed to get out of there quickly. She leaned back, out of view from the guards, and she shifted herself out of there to appear back in Chicago.
***
Vi searched for Omar in the house and the garden on the top of the building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. She found broken glass off the front porch, but no other trace of him. She hurried to the garden shed where she knew he kept his surveillance station. The displays had been turned off. She activated them and, sitting at the controls, she scanned floor by floor, from the top to the bottom. Hallways and rooms were empty except on the seventh floor, where she found him.
Vi found him lying on a reclined chair, a portal headset dangling from his unconscious fingers. Vomit had dried on this chest. She slapped him gently to wake him, but he didn’t move. She touched his forehead. It was glistening with sweat and burning hot.
The seventh-floor room had been set up as his secret laboratory. Even she had ignored its existence. She found canisters labeled as distilled water. She opened one and poured a few drops into his mouth. He regurgitated it back out immediately.
“What happened, Omar?” she said. “Now’s not the time to do this.”
She removed the dirty clothing and cleaned him up. With blankets she retrieved from Omar’s house on the roof, she covered him. He showed no sign of regaining consciousness anytime soon.
Curious, she placed the headset on her head. It carried her to an Observatory. Not the typical ones where you could discuss with a representative. Rather, an observatory that continually streamed news broadcasts from within Replika. She watched as the news discussed a new tower in The Virt. A place called the Red Tower, built by the terrorist group called the Red Masks...”
She removed the headset. She recalled hearing about this group in the Observatory before. She had seen the initial reports about the attack on Paris. Her initial hunch suspected something odd about them, that somehow, they had related to Henry. The Red Masks, just like the red masks used to protect the young adults in Cairo from the sandstorms they would likely face to enter the Building of Transfers.
It all made perfect sense. Every detail perfectly laid out for Henry to build his army here, where he could do it in secrecy. A place where he could prepare them, training their brains to carry key information to allow him to execute whatever he planned on doing...and that he was doing.
Over the following days, Omar started to improve. He could keep his water down, and his lips trembled as if he wanted to say something. But the hope that he might speak only lasted a few moments before he returned to his unreactive and unconscious state.
Meanwhile, Vi continued to monitor the situation as it progressed in Replika. Unable to do anything but worry about Hugh. She had immediately recognized him in Morgan, the dangerous person that the government had mistakenly linked to the Red Masks. The mistake irritated her so much that it was making her sick. How easily could they be fooled when an explanation was beyond their reach.
Henry’s plan became increasingly clear as the streets of New York turned to chaos, and she learned about the conflict over the secure locations. He was accelerating everything, to repeat what was bound to happen anyway. With one small difference—a significant difference—this time he would be the one to define the next reality.
Vi never risked leaving the building. But some nights, when she had trouble sleeping, she would set up Omar’s simulation of the starry night, and she would walk around the roof’s perimeter, thinking not only of Hugh, but also about mankind’s existence. Did any of this matter in the end? In the infinity of the cosmos, the outcome of humanity had little importance. The stars would shine without them. But despite this undeniable truth, she wanted Hugh to succeed in stopping Henry. Was it a human flaw that kept this desire alive and real, or did she have a valid reason to attach importance to this outcome? A reason that would forever be beyond the limits of her understanding.
The day Omar spoke more than one or two words was the same day she witnessed Henry’s plea to the world and the explosion between the missiles that demonstrated the extent of his abilities.
“What is it?” said Omar.
“He did it,” said Vi.
“Who did what?”
“Henry, he is succeeding at creating a reality that he will define.”
“And Hugh?”
“I think he failed,” said Vi.
Omar coughed a few more times, struggling to speak. Vi brought the water to his mouth, and he drank some more.
“Is Hugh alive?” said Omar.
“I think so,” said Vi, thinking the news would have reported anything relating to Morgan. “They are still searching for him.”
“We shall find out soon enough,” said Omar, coughing again.
Vi looked at him curiously. Had he once again foreseen all this in his impressive mind of his? She wished she knew what Omar kept secretly to himself.
“Why would you say that?” she said. “Why should we find out soon enough?”
“If it isn’t over,” he said, growing tired. “Hugh will stop here, in this reality, to see us on his way.”
“Stop here?” she said. “On his way where?”
“Terra Firma,” he said, smiling. “It is the only place he can go to stop Henry...”
Omar closed his eyes and fell unconscious.
To be continued...
***
Don’t miss TERRA FIRMA, the last book in the Replika Trilogy.
To stop Henry from starting a new iteration of reality, Morgan attempts to backtrack to Terra Firma, the place where the bodies are blood and flesh. But when he discovers the unfamiliar realities of the past, he realizes that navigating the blurry line between reality and the simulation is much more challenging than he ever could have imagined.
Meanwhile, Henry recruits the help of an unsuspecting teen to help him eliminate Morgan.
HUGO BERNARD wraps up the Replika series with an edge-of-your-seat story full of unexpected surprises.
Pre-order (publication date October 12th 2023)
