CHAPTER FORTY – SADIE
The anarchy isn’t on the streets of Cathedral City. It’s inside my head as I wrestle back a little bit of control.
But I’m not me anymore.
I am everyone.
I am no one.
I can feel all of them at once. Cyan, Iziah, Uzi, Thomas, and Sullivan. For a few seconds we are three bodies, but one common entity.
This is the definition of insanity. I have lost myself. I am gone. I have been wiped away and replaced with… a collective.
My body is twisted up on the ground in a defensive position as rioters come at us. They have clubs and bats, and flying fists. They want to end us.
But when they reach Iziah, they don’t try to kill him. They pick him up and hold him steady as he wobbles back and forth. They do the same to Lincoln and Case.
That’s when I realize. No. They’re not here to kill us, they’re here to take us back.
I lose a little more of myself as Cyan gains power. But Sullivan, Thomas, and Iziah are right there, fighting for me. Fighting for us.
A little bit more, Sadie.
Sheila! I want to cry with happiness. But I can’t even manage a single moment of relief, because the arms and hands are on me now. Pulling me to my feet, restraining me. Taking me prisoner until…
Uzi walks up to me tsking his tongue. “I was worried you’d get away, little Sadie. But not anymore. You are mine, bitch. My little fuck toy. We have a business to run down in the underbelly, remember? We’re such a great team, aren’t we?”
“Fuck you,” I spit, struggling in the arms of my captors. My mind is clear now. Everyone gone. Nothing left inside me but… me. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”
But I’m powerless. Because in the instant it takes for me to realize all the others are gone, Uzi is there, filling me up again.
I struggle against the hands holding me steady for Uzi. He walks up to me, sick smile plastered across his face.
Sadie, Sheila whispers. Give me control. I know what to do.
I do it without hesitation. I blank myself out to make room for her. I am not going down without a fight this time.
Sheila’s awesome computing power sweeps through my whole body. Every nerve ending belongs to her now. Every thought, every motion, everything of me is hers to command.
I stand up straighter, the pain in my head gone. Cyan, gone. All of them gone. I am more myself with the creepy supercomputer inside me than I ever was with my sister or the psycho who thinks he owns me.
Uzi stops, some secret message from Cyan making him doubt his approach. He’s not far away though. And dozens of hands are still holding me captive.
But Sheila is with me. Sheila and all her big ideas. Sheila and all her insane power.
She laughs through my mouth.
“What’s so funny, little Sadie?” Uzi asks me. “You might’ve kicked Cyan out, but you’re not going to win.” He turns and sends a mind blast towards Iziah, Case, and Lincoln. They blow back from the force of his power.
And just as he’s distracted, Sheila uses me to throw a trip into the crowd.
A concentric wave bursts out of my mind and hits every one of Uzi’s little minions. They squint their eyes in confusion as they look at me.
I smile, and this time it’s not Sheila controlling my face. It’s me.
Because I know what she just did. Thanks to Prodigy, I have a hard drive in my brain.
Thanks to Lincoln and his software, I have data flowing through my brain.
Thanks to Case and his SpyGlass tablets, every face around me comes with a name. Facial recognition is a fact of life that no one even questions anymore.
And thanks to Sheila, I am myself, and I wield the trip with awesome power only I’m capable of.
I flicker in and out, my face changing every few seconds. I am him, and her, and him and her. I am that parent, that baby. That girl they wish didn’t get away. I am their loved ones in these moments. I am the only person that matters in their life.
The hands holding me release as the crowd stumbles back in confusion.
I watch Uzi for the moment, that one glorious moment when he realizes what’s happening. When he realizes who he’s really dealing with.
They don’t call them Alphas for nothing.
He turns, just a fraction of a second too late. And this time he’s the target of a mind-blowing blast that catches him off guard, throws his body back against the brick wall of the warehouse, and knocks him unconscious.
He’s not only dealing with one Alpha, he’s dealing with two. Thomas and Sullivan work as a team and Iziah is there too, helping them. Making them stronger together than they ever could be alone. They pound Uzi against that wall with blast after blast. They pummel him like a force of fucking nature.
Fuck the wind, I think to myself.
Fuck the wind to hell and back. We are more than one force of nature.
We are all of them.
We are all Alpha now.