Hard Wired Trilogy DeAnna Pearce (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

trailed a finger through the night sky twirling in the fountain. Ari couldn’t muster the heart to fill her voice with fake words.

Guilt and ache grew steadily in her stomach. Ari might not have stolen her life, VisionTech did that, but she wasn’t returning it. Her self-loathing was interrupted by Vinh.

He spoke over the coms. “What’s going on in there Ari? Your blood pressure is spiking?”

“Nothing. Just playing with the scenery a bit.”

“Well cut it out.”

A moment is relative right? She took a deep breath, then pushed herself. Remembering Emil and his powers, she didn’t hold back. A huge building grew in the distance, like one from school. Then she played with it, changing color and design like a kid with clay. Then she turned back to Kari, all alone.

Ari created people, some profiles she had learned from Niomi and others from her memory: friends from school, her home, Jewels and other islanders. A pain began radiating from behind her eyes and somewhere in the distance Vinh yelled at her. She didn’t, no couldn’t, stop. The pain and regret burst from within, and she deserved the pain. Her brother appeared next to Kari, pushing a hair behind her ear. He would have loved Kari. Then, their mother next to him.

Finally, right in front of her, she created her father from her childhood memory. He wasn’t wide-eyed and crazy from the last time she saw him, but kind and happy. His dark eyes welcomed her, and she lifted his lips in a smile, the smile she had always wanted to see one more time.

Hot tears fell onto her cheeks. “Hey, Dad.”

He didn’t respond. He couldn’t unless she programmed him too. Then without warning, the world blackened around her. Vinh must be manually pulling her out of the program, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

The bright lights stabbed her eyes, even behind closed lids. “Turn off the lights.”

Vinh rushed around the room. Equipment clattered to the floor, mingled with swear words. A patch was pressed onto her arm with a sharp prick.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Vinh asked. “I only needed a couple tests, not a full-blown remodel. Niomi’s going to kill me.”

“Don’t tell her.” Ari answered, an arm strewn over her eyes blocking out the light Vinh still hadn’t turned off.

“She’ll be running in here any minute, I’m sure.” Vinh brushed back Ari’s hair. “Seriously, why were you doing that?”

“AI, light off.” She needed that light off before she could think. The darkness felt like a cool blanket. When she tried to open her eyes, the small lights of nearby equipment had an aura around them. Except the aura ran with code. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried not to dwell on the consequences of her actions in the program. “I’m trying to figure out what you guys aren’t telling me.”

He didn’t reply. Silence filled the dark room, only the thrum of the machines pumping medicine into her body.

Despite the throbbing pain, she couldn’t regret her decisions. She had found her answer. The headaches were a side effect of her powers, just how bad would they get was the question. It must be bad, or everyone wouldn’t be lying to her.

Niomi’s voiced boomed through Vinh’s intercom. “Don’t move. I’ll be there right away.”

“Great,” Ari moaned. While she didn’t regret her decision, didn’t mean she felt like dealing with Niomi while her head throbbed. The patch had turned the knives into small hammers at least.

Vinh let a loud breath go and something clicked nearby. “There are some things I can’t say. To anyone. If I do, I worry my contract will be the least of my problems. Do you understand?”

Ari tried to sit up, but the room spun around her.

“Don’t. Stay put until she comes.” He leaned her back down, and then spoke close to her ear. “Please don’t push things too much. Not for me, but for you as well.”

“You know how much I care for you, Vinh, but I can’t promise that.”

Chapter 24

Niomi stormed in, a bite in her voice. “What the hell happened? And why are we in the dark?”

Before she could tear into Vinh, Ari answered, “To lessen the pounding in my brain.”

“Vinh?”

“It wasn’t Vinh’s fault. AI, low light.” While a dim glow bathed the room, Ari sat up, pushing aside Vinh’s hand. She couldn’t deal with Niomi while laying down.

The tattoo on Niomi’s ear, pulsed rapidly with a blue light. “What did you do?”

“Nothing really. Just played around in the program, redecorated a bit and invited some friends over.”

“Must have been a hell of a party.”

“It was until Vinh pulled me out.”

She turned to Vinh. “What are her stats?”

Vinh handed her a screen. “Elevated, but slowly returning to normal.”

“Are you guys going to finally tell me the truth?” Ari looked back and forth between them.

Niomi kept her eyes on the screen for a moment before turning back to her. “Did we lie about something?”

Ari gripped the handles on the chair and pushed back the pain in her brain. “Lies of omission are still lies. Somehow this ability of mine creates the migraines. Do they eventually kill me?”

“Of course not.”

“But…” Ari knew there was more to this story.

Niomi pulled up a chair. “They are hard on your health, yes. Most brains aren’t wired to do what you do. The complexity and mental concentration required taxes your brain. Hence why we do everything we can to keep your heart and mind in the best shape possible.

“Migraines, especially those that affect your vision, are an unfortunate side effect that we can only mute with drugs. Your missions require you to change shape inside the VLEX but we never want to push you with complex manipulations of the code. And for the most part, you haven’t had many problems.”

Ari thought back to the last time she was half-carried to her room. It happened when she pushed herself and fought back against Emil. Niomi was right about that, for the most part. Most of her problems with the