Unleashing Light

I should kill the bartender.

I smile to myself. It’s rare that I’m able to identify a thought that’s not my own. The thought had come from my chip, how else would I know that the bartender’s own chip is beginning to malfunction?

Chatter fills the bar as everyone around their tables catch up during their daily allotted social gathering. No one pays attention to me or the government issued gun I carry. A designated drunk stumbles into my path. His chip sparks his alcohol soaked brain into motion and he scurries away before I trample him.

The bartender spares me a glance out of the corner of his eye as he polishes a wine glass with his rag. He pretends not to notice me but I see the beads of sweat condensing on his brow. He sets the glass on a shelf then swings the rag over his shoulder.

“What can I get you, sir?”

Responding would be a waste of breath. I raise my gun at the bartender’s head and the man ducks, leaping over the counter and shoving his way through the bar. It’s no use, my shot rips straight through his chest. Silence falls upon the bar as the bartender thuds to the floor. One by one, the patrons return to their conversations as their chips erase the incident from their memories, until I am the only one who notices the pool of blood leaking from the corpse.

The hairs at the back of my neck prickle. A man is dead because he started to regain his free will.

A surge of pride wells in my chest, overcoming my moment of human weakness, and I thank the Server for the courage It gives me. A man is dead because he started to regain his free will. Free will which violated the earth. In its absence, we have world peace, the destruction man reigned upon the world washed away by the harmony of the Server.

I drag the dead man by the ankle, the chips manoeuvring their owners out of my way. I dump the body in the alley behind the bar, the cleaners will know what to do with it along with the trail of blood. I clip my gun back onto my uniform, my night’s work finished.

The warmth of home embraces me as I walk through the front door, shielding me against the bitter night air and the spiced scents of the celebratory feast call to me. My daughter grins at me from the end of the table as I enter the dining room and she smooths the scarlet evening gown I’d bought her for the occasion. The housekeepers have outdone themselves this time and I make a mental note to give them a bonus.

“I’ve been waiting for you Father. You’re late.”

My daughter says it with a raised eyebrow, but her eyes sparkle.

“I’m sorry, I had some last minute business to take care of. Happy birthday, Evie.”

I raise my glass to her and her smile melts my heart. I watch my daughter as she enjoys her meal. It seems as if only moments ago, she had been the baby in my arms that I’d taken home from the hospital from which her mother had never returned. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she ready for her chip upgrade. She will be given chip that will drive her natural ambition and intelligence. It will be her first upgrade towards a shining career.

“Do you think my chip will push me towards medicine? I would so like to study at the Academy.”

“I’m sure it will,” I say with a smile.

What most people don’t realise is that their feelings are simply the Server Itself fuelling their innate desires. It drives them to their full potential and to the deep desires of their soul. The mere fact that Evie was yearning for a career in medicine meant the Server would grant it. She was, after all, one of the top performing pupils in the city.

After finishing our meal, Evie curls up beside the fire with her favourite book. I join her on the couch, fidgeting with the small item in my pocket. I place a hand on Evie’s shoulder and she smiles at me.

“I have something for you.”

I slide the silver pendant out of my pocket. Evie’s book slips to the floor as she perks up. Kneeling on the couch, she runs her fingers over the kitten cradling a diamond ball.

“It’s beautiful,” she says.

“It was your mother’s. I gave it to her for her sixteenth birthday.” 

I brush my daughter’s auburn hair away from the nape of her neck and attach the necklace. I used to brush her hair out of her tears when she’d climb into my bed after a nightmare when she was little.

“Thank you, Father. I love you with all my heart, you know that right?”

Evie gazes at me with tears lining her eyes. It sends a blow to my heart as I realise just how much she resembles her mother. I’ve loved my departed wife since we were thirteen years old.

“Of course,” I say.

She throws her arms around me and a sob escapes her. I cling to her, aching for the days when I’d watch her skip around the garden, splashing in the puddles during the rain while insisting they were her collection of private swimming pools. I had expected her mother’s necklace to awaken the longing my daughter felt the mother she had never known, but not like this. Evie eventually pulls away and smiles up at me through the tears which she wipes away with the back of her hand.

“I’ll see you in the morning. I want to be fresh for my upgrade. Goodnight Father.”

“Goodnight Evie.”

She plants a kiss on my cheek, then disappears into the hallway. I settle deep into the couch, watching the flames dance. Evie’s woollen socks are still warming up on the mantle. Odd, she never goes to sleep without them. With a sigh, I scoop them up and bring them to her door.

“Evie? I have your socks.”

There’s no answer, yet she’s only been gone for ten minutes and knowing Evie, she wouldn’t be asleep yet. Something could be wrong. I have to go in, break down the door if I have to.

I take a deep breath and count to ten, keeping the chip’s thoughts in check with my own, which is admittedly a dangerous activity if it happens too frequently.

“Evie?”

I bash on the door. Silence.

My heart races as I yank on the door handle, but it’s locked. My agent instincts kick in, and I throw my entire weight against the door until it breaks open. I’m greeted by a gust of wind swirling in the darkened room. I flick the light on to find that Evie is no where in sight and her bedroom window is wide open. A crazed resistance member seeking revenge has captured her. It can only be one of them, since no one with a chip can get in here without the Server alerting me to their presence. 

I close my eyes and open my connection to the Server via my chip. The two-way connection with the Server is the greatest advantage of being an agent. I think of my daughter as I ask the Server to locate her. I wait, rubbing my sweaty hands on my jacket. Is it me or is the Server is taking longer than usual? The request comes back negative, the Server is unable to find her. Those savages must have already ripped out her chip. Server, let her still be alive. Alright, new tactic. I send a stream of memories of Evie to the Server and It searches for her in the memories of others. This time, the Server locates Evie within a second. She was last seen two minutes ago, crossing a homeless man in the park who had knocked her over, seeing her face. There was no one else around her, she must have escaped their grasp!

I bolt out of the house, slinging my gun over my shoulder as I leave. I will find you Evie, and I will protect you from those bastards.

The Server traces the optimal path to my daughter in my mind’s eye and within two minutes, I arrive at the park. Despite the pouring rain hazing my vision, I spot a single hooded figure stumbling in the puddles a mere hundred metres away from me. I cover the distance with ease, catching up to the fallen figure. I find Evie in the mud, her clothes plastered to her small form as she scrambles to her feet.

“You have no chip,” I say. Yet she has no injuries either. 

Evie hesitates for a moment, searching me, and then hangs her head.

“The resistance took it out of me a few months ago and it changed everything. This is no way to live, Father. Free will is what makes us human.”

I swing the gun over my shoulder and aim it at her head.

I should kill my daughter.

Something nags at the back of my mind, but it’s shut out.

Evie falls to her knees into the mud before me, her tears mixing with the rain. She looks so small, like the child I used carry home, asleep in my arms after a long day in the park.

Now she’s a traitor. An abomination.

She’s a child. My child.

She’s a threat to all of mankind. A threat to the entire world order.

Evie sobs. “Please, Father, I know that you love me. I know you’d never hurt me.”

My baby girl whom I swore to protect.

System failure.

The light of my life. My only reason for living.

Heat sears the back of my neck where my chip is buried. Is this what it’s like when a chip malfunctions? I search into the Server, seeking information on what may come to pass, but it has shut me out.

“Evie get up.” She peers at me with a frown, yet she obeys. My heart races and my breath catches in my throat. Panic. A new feeling with no fully functional chip to banish it from my mind. My chip’s not dead though, at least not yet. There’s still enough life in it to signal my presence to the other agents who will be upon us any minute now. I seize Evie by the shoulders, pulling her towards me.

“Father?”

“Do you at least know where you’re going?”

“Yes! There’s the resistance, they’re —”

“Don’t say another word. The Server still has access to my memory. Go, I’ll hold off the agents.”

She gapes at me and shakes her head.

“No, I can’t leave you here to die! Come with me, they’ll remove it from you too!”

“No, the Server will track me there. I won’t risk your life. Now get out of here, before the agents arrive.”

“But —”

“Now Evie!”

She leaps into my arms, gripping onto me.

“I’m sorry,” she weeps.

I allow myself the comfort of her embrace her for a few seconds before I force myself to push her away.

“Go,” I say, cupping her chin and gazing into her tear filled green eyes. “Be safe.” I kiss her forehead. She nods brushing away her tears.

“I love you, Father,” she says and then runs into the night. There’s only forest beyond this point, there will be no one else to cross. I wait under the dim light of the street lamp. My life in exchange for my daughter’s. A sacrifice I am gladly willing to make.