Victor sat in the dark. The only light came from the blue screens. They hummed like a hive of angry bees. His fingers danced over the keys. He was fast, but the static in his head was faster. It was a grey fog. It ate his childhood. It ate the face of his first dog. It was coming for the rest of him now.
He was the best at his job. He could take a bad memory and snip it out like a loose thread. People paid him to forget. They paid him to bury the things they did in the dark. But Victor had buried something too. He had buried a monster in his own mind. Today, that monster woke up.
He clicked a file. It was labeled “PROJECT EYE.” A video started. It was Victor, but younger. His hair was thick. His eyes were bright. Younger Victor spoke to the camera. He talked about a way to link every human brain together. He talked about a map. If you could see what everyone saw, you could stop every crime. You could rule every heart.
Victor felt a sudden coldness in his chest. He did not remember this. He had built a weapon. He had turned the human soul into a spy camera.
The phone on the desk buzzed. It was Maury. Maury was the man who paid the bills. Maury was the man who kept Victor in this clean, white cage.
“You found it,” Maury said. His voice was smooth like oil. “We told you not to look, Victor. We told you the fog was for your own good.”
“I am deleting it,” Victor whispered. His voice broke. He felt like a little boy lost in the woods.
“You can not,” Maury said. “It is not on the computer. It is in you. You are the server. Your brain holds the code. In five minutes, we will trigger the final wipe. You will forget your name. You will forget how to walk. But the weapon will stay. It will live in the static.”
Victor’s heart hammered against his ribs. He felt like a panicked pufferfish. He looked at the wires on the table. He looked at the heavy glass bottle of water. He had to move. He had to run. But where do you go when the killer lives inside your own skull?
He stood up. His legs felt like jelly. He saw a picture on the wall. It was a woman with green eyes. Jade. Was that her name? He had loved her once. He could feel the ghost of a kiss on his cheek. But the name was slipping away. It was melting like ice on a hot stove.
“Jade,” he choked out.
The fog moved closer. It tasted like copper. It smelled like burnt toast. He grabbed the water bottle. He smashed it against the desk. The glass shattered. It looked like diamonds in the blue light. He did not want to be a weapon. He did not want to be a map for Maury’s world.
He looked at the main power box. It was a mass of thick, black cables. If he could short the system, maybe he could fry the code. Maybe he could die as a man instead of living as a machine.
Steps echoed in the hall. Heavy boots. Maury’s men were coming to watch the lights go out.
Victor’s breath came in short, jagged gasps. He was crying now. The tears were hot. They felt real. They were the only real thing left. He reached for the wires. He thought about Jade. He tried to hold onto the color of her eyes. He tried to remember the smell of rain on a summer night.
The door kicked open.
“Stop!” Maury yelled.
Victor did not stop. He shoved the wet glass and the water into the heart of the machine.
There was a sound like a thousand dry sticks breaking. White light filled the room. It was brighter than the sun. It burned. It screamed.
Then, there was nothing.
Victor opened his eyes. He was sitting in a white chair. The room was very quiet. A man in a nice suit was smiling at him.
“Hello,” the man said. “Do you know where you are?”
Victor looked at his hands. They felt heavy. He looked at the man. He felt a weird twitch behind his left eye. A red light blinked in the corner of his vision. It looked like a tiny, bleeding star.
“No,” Victor said. His voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “I do not know anything.”
“Good,” Maury said. He leaned in close. He looked right into Victor’s eyes. “That is exactly what we need. Now, tell me. What do you see?”
Victor looked at the wall. He did not see a wall. He saw a thousand streets. He saw a million faces. He saw a girl in a park. He saw an old man eating soup. He saw everything.
He wanted to scream, but he forgot how. He just sat there. He was a silent camera in a world of secrets. The static was the only friend he had left.