Cerebral Exchange :: Chapter 7 :: COMPROMISED

The upper city wasn’t built in a day. Its magnificent gardens and walkways, so high up in the sky, were the result of its largest corporations trying to outdo each other in an unspoken beauty competition. It didn’t take long for them to run out of space on the horizontal plane, and so height became the new frontier. New innovations in architecture stacked on top of yesterday’s designs. In its haste, the upper city had kept on rising, leaving a seemingly endless series of levels beneath it. Travelling down each skyscraper was like traversing time. Down there was a dormant, forgotten world of old technologies; an era before the hypnotics had taken over.

Level 674, the autonomous shopping district, diner SC-13. This was where the meeting had been scheduled to take place. Watching the robotic staff continue to run an establishment that probably hadn’t been visited in decades, it was like sitting within a relic from the past. They continued to follow their pre-programmed loops, asking their guest every 5 minutes if she was ready to order. Each time she nervously informed them that she was not, gripping onto the diner bench in case they suddenly decided to turn against her.

Dressed in black leggings with a hoodie to match, with the hood pulled up and over her head, her eyes were transfixed on the world outside the dusty window. According to the clock over the diner's counter, her contact was running 20 minutes late, and she was starting to get jittery. She barely left the safety of her apartment these days, and now here she was, in a strange, autonomous eatery, far deeper than she'd ever travelled before. Her fingers drummed on her thighs, her breathing getting consistently sharper, until her thoughts of fleeing back to the comfort of home were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the bell over the diner's entrance ringing out.

All her anxiety suddenly melted away as the sight before her left her utterly dumbfounded. Into the diner strode a lady dressed in such deluxe garments that it completely took her out of the moment. Her curled, blonde hair bounced as she walked, framing an extensively manicured face with glistening sapphires for eyes. Her dress, also blue, was weaved from a fabric she’d never seen before, reflecting the world around it like a rippling, crystal lake. She was so out of place in this disused diner, dressed more for an elaborate, formal evening than a secretive meeting. Her heels clicked on the dirty tiles, as she made her way over to her new companion.

“Good evening, little butterfly.” The lady chimed, looking down at her astonished audience of one. “Flapping its wings so gently.”

It took the flustered girl a moment to realise that the passphrase had been uttered. “A-and the hurricane comes to meet it. You’re TwistedInterloper!?”

“Oh please, it sounds so silly if you call me that irl.” She smirked, gently gripping her dress as she relaxed into the bench opposite, her eyes never breaking contact. “Do you really want me calling you Wintercute69 for the rest of our meeting?”

The shy girl mumbled back, but she was unable to look away from those dazzling, blue eyes. This was the opposite of what she’d been expecting! She’d been hoping for someone way more hacker-like, way more punk! Where was the leather jacket, the studs, the cool visor, the cybernetic ports for jacking into the mainframe? Instead, here she was, confronted by someone completely out of her league. Not that she was here for any social connection, of course, this was strictly professional. But still…

“O-okay… so let’s not dawdle, r-right? We have no idea if we’ve been followed, you especially. I think we should get straight t-to busin--”

“Why me especially, butterfly? Are you suggesting that I didn’t take the necessary precautions, or are you implying that I overdressed for our little date to the lower levels?” Her voice stayed sedative with its smooth tone, her confident presence easily taking back command of the conversation. It was the calmness of her eyes, the warmness of her smile. Something about it was eerily comforting.

“I… I didn’t mean… I’m sorry, I-I wasn’t thinking. I just want to focus on why we’re both here.”

“And what if I want to take my time with it? I imagine for you it’s the same, you don’t often get to spend time in the company of those who may as well be strangers. Why not relax? We’re at a diner, after all. Though one where I admittedly wouldn’t trust the food on selection.”

“Because this is serious!” The haste with which she twisted forward over the table caused her hood to fling back, her vibrant, cobalt hair spilling out of it and over her shoulders. “We’re here to discuss something terrifying, a-and I need to know what you know! You promised you’d tell me, so please!”

Now it was her elegant contact’s turn to be taken aback, a slight blush adorning her cheeks. With the hood down and her face exposed, the lady suddenly realised that the awkward nerd she’d been toying with was actually a very cute, awkward nerd. That changed things. “Oh my, little butterfly. I’m so glad you finally came out of your cocoon. Come then, tell me what you want to hear.”

The awkward nerd breathed a sigh of relief. Finally she was getting somewhere. “W-well, let me tell you what I already know. I’m aware of the obvious truths, the brainwashing technology in our ‘perfect’ society. The gigantic companies that c-control this barely even try to cover it up, so that’s all public knowledge. But the next level up, the bit they don’t want you to know about, is the very tip of the pyramid! The puppet-masters, the aristocracy, the families, whatever you want to call them, they’re so high up that the people below can barely even perceive them!” Her breathing was growing ragged with excitement. Out of fear she’d never been able to talk about them outloud before. “I-I’m sorry… hah... l-let me collect myself.”

“It’s perfectly okay, little butterfly. I’m enjoying this, you’re being appropriately dramatic.”

“W-well, this is where what we know gets sketchy at best, and I’m hoping you can help me fill in the gaps. We think that almost every corporation has a ‘family’ at its head, controlling them from behind the scenes. We don’t know how many there are, how many members each one or how they have managed to keep up this level of control for so long. This is what I want to know more about, I MUST know. Because we only know about the existence of five families right now: The Tessiers, The Joys, The Elysians, The Weylands, and The--”

“Beep boop!” The serving robot was back again, the exact five minute interval since it had last asked for an order must have passed. “Can I get you anything to drink, ma’am?”

“N-no thank you. Please, go away, I’m in the middle of talking.”

“Beep boop! And how about for you, Mistress Synthicate?”

The penny dropped. A horrible chill took hold of her.

The oh-so-elegant lady happily waved the robot away with her consistently calm smile, before returning her unbreakable gaze to her now petrified company. “You know, I adore finding the time to come back down to this level. This was one of our family’s first endeavours, creating an entirely autonomous district. It reminds me of how solidly rooted in robotics we are.”

“Y-you’re… you’re o-one of th-them…” Her hands were going white with how tightly she was gripping the edge of the table. Her heart was racing as the reality of the situation came crashing down. This was a trap, and she had fallen into it all too carelessly. 

“Indeed, little butterfly. This is a fun hobby of mine, taking the time to meet up with those of you who fly too close to the sun for your own good, so that I can melt your wings.” On cue, she pulled a miniature hypno-ray from her handbag, nonchalantly waving it from side to side. “And still, I want to take my time. We were just getting to know each other before the robot so rudely interrupted you, and you were getting so passionate about us too!”

Panting. Terrified. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. This couldn’t be real, it had to be a dream. A nightmare. There she sat, Mistress Synthicate, of the Synthicate family, in all her perfect glory. This secretive world that she sometimes had trouble believing actually existed had materialised quite physically right in front of her. She was clearly already overpowered, unable to escape. She knew this situation was serious, that she should be panicking extremely and nothing else. Then why… why was she thinking about things like that at a time like this.

“You know, I can read you like a book.” The Mistress leant forwards, interrupting her thoughts. “These eyes aren’t just perfect by accident. They’re such lovely augmentations, as well as beautiful crystals, letting me analyse the tiny motions of your face. I can see all that terror, oh yes, and I so delight in that vision when it comes to my prey… but you, you’re getting excited. Now why could that be, hmmm?”

“I a-am not! I… I…” Her voice trailed off into squeaking, shrinking further into herself. She had just confronted one of the families, to her face.

“This is so interesting. Of all the countless victims I have lured here, brainwashed and then dumped off at the nearest drone factory, none have reacted like you. They’ve always stammered a bit weakly, or made a pathetic run for it, or foolishly tried to wrestle the ray gun from out of my hand. And the more I tease you about this fate, the more I’m seeing your delectation levels grow absolutely enraptured. What is going on through your mind? Are you fantasising about this?” There was a pause as the Mistress’ eyes grew wide at the sight of her target’s cheeks turning red. “Really!? You actually are!? You’re in inescapable peril, your mind is about to be completely erased, and you’re thinking silly thoughts like that?”

The Mistress flung her head back and laughed, the petrified nerd in such a mess of emotions that she could barely even stammer back. She didn’t know what to do, what to think, how to act. She was terrified, ashamed, nervous, excited. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be, but she couldn’t help it. She’d always had these feelings about the sinister, powerful world above. Being subjugated like exactly this, it was sending shivers through her.

“Well then, little butterfly.” The Mistress collected herself, adjusting the dress around her shoulders. “Don’t think I hadn’t noticed the startling coincidence of your pretty hair matching the enchanting, blue tones of my overall attire. You want to know more about my world? Well then, I’ll give you the opportunity, for my own amusement. You have two options.”

She relaxed back into the crumbling, cushioned bench, her expression turning much more serious. “Option one is simple - you resist, you run, you stay locked in place in terror or you try to fight me. We both know how that ends for you though. Zap. Empty. Delivered. Dronified. As much as you seem to be getting hot and bothered at the idea of that scenario, I think you’ll like option two a little bit better.”

There was a click, as the dial on the hypno-ray was turned, lowering its intensity. “Option two is you crawl off that chair. You kneel on the grimy floor of this diner, at my feet and whole-heartedly announce your submission. If you do that, like a good, little doll, then I’ll still zap you. But it’ll be just a faint, temporary daze, so that you can follow me quite obediently up to my world. You’ll become my object and I will show you the powerful secrets that you’ve so cutely been dreaming of.”

This was a dream, she thought to herself. How could this not be a dream? That was the only possible explanation for one of her fantasies playing out so exactly, step by step. But she knew she wasn’t, she knew she was lying to herself, as she uncurled her body. It was such a flimsy justification. But it was all the excuse she needed to climb down from her bench and onto the floor. Settling onto her knees, she looked back up into those mesmerising sapphires. Oh how they glowed in the dark of this abysmal place. She knew what she was doing was wrong. It was why she quickly sputtered out the words before she could regret it.

“I submit myself to Mistress Synthicate!!”

There was a smile, a sudden wave from the hypno-ray blasting over her, and all the world around melted away under the loving embrace of an all-encapsulating trance.