Socket 3 - The Legend of Socket Greeny (21 page)

[Please, leave.]
I planted the thought
in the woman’s mind.

She looked at me across the great distance.
Months of hard work lay on the ground in front of her, and I was
suggesting she leave them behind. Pike slowly turned his head, his
black glasses like holes on his face.

“Do you mind?” he said. “WE’RE HAGGLING!”

The basket woman placed her bundle of grass
on the ground and got up, dusting off her dress, and walked
away.

“Great,” Pike said. “That’s just great. Do
you know how hard it is to find a quality sweetgrass basket these
days?” He shook a dark banded basket at me. “They weave these
motherfuckers by hand and charge a ton of money. And she was going
to give it to me for free. For free, you understand?”

He was a projection, that’s why I couldn’t
locate him. There were no projectors around, so I didn’t know how
he was doing it, I just knew I couldn’t locate him. I attempted to
penetrate his image, follow it back to the source, but it was
empty. Pike dropped the basket and spread his arms, as if to
help.

“It’s like magic, isn’t it?” he said. “In
case you’re wondering, and I know you are, I’m taking advantage of
the plethora, that’s right I said plethora, of virtualmode portals
in the downtown area. I’m using them to project this wonderful
image in front of you.” He spread his arms, again. “It’s a little
trick you might learn one of these days, if you’re lucky.”

“Is this a game to you?”

“It’s all a game, wouldn’t you say?” He
dropped his arms. “I mean, everything is useless, just a game for
the gods. And where does it end, huh? Where does it all end,
wonderboy? Because now you know the truth, don’t you. You know who
we’re doing our little song and dance for.” He pointed up.

He’s known all along. He knew I wasn’t human.
He knew Fetter was out there. Why hadn’t I seen it before?

“Look at you,” he said, clasping his hands
over his heart, “all grown up and realized. You’re a big boy now,
your master must be proud. Is he? Is Papa Pivot happy that his boy
is all grown up and out there saving the world?” He swung a left
and right hook through the air. “You’re out there fighting the good
fight, looking for the bad people, eh?”

“He’s not my master.”

“Oh, but isn’t he divine and wonderful? All
pure of heart, like an angel sent from heaven to save the human
race, wouldn’t you say?”

“How did you know?”

“How did I know?” His piercing laughter
bounced around the enclosed market. “How did I… oh, that’s rich,
wonderboy. How did I know? I knew from the second I saw you.” The
canvas walls fluttered. “I saw through you that very first day you
came to the Garrison, wonderboy. All doe-eyed and goody, I smelled
Pivot on you like a seven day corpse.”

“You’ve known all this time?”

“Who do you think I am? Seriously, for being
wonderboy, you’re not that bright—”

“You need to exit the market.” A man stepped
into view. “No one’s allowed… ”

Pike turned on the man, his anger impacting
him like a wave of atomic heat. It was only the embrace of my mind
around him that kept Pike’s wrath from stripping his mind clean,
but it still knocked him backwards and out of sight.

“You can’t save them all,” Pike said.
“Besides, what’s the point? They’re all heading for the great black
planet in heaven anyway. You only delay the inevitable.”

“How could you know about all this? How could
you elude the minders and the Paladins?”

“Everyone knows! Every one of these skinbags,
these buckets of worm food, know their life is futile, a waste of
effort! They all know, wonderboy, right here, they feel it.” He
thumped his chest. “They know there’s something wrong with their
existence, that their gods are just playing them. They just refuse
to face the fact that they’re rats in the wheel.”

“That’s why you hate being human, is that it?
You want to be absorbed by Fetter, just to get it over with.”

“You still don’t get it? You don’t see?” He
yanked off his glasses and marched closer, white eyes blazing in
the dim light. “Let me know when you do.”

I still couldn’t feel him.
Couldn’t feel
him
. He had a presence, but no sensation of essence. But that
could only mean… “You’ve already converted.”

“Oh, you’re getting warmer.”

“You’re a duplicate.”

“You’re red-hot!”

There has always been a mystery about Pike.
They wouldn’t kill him. He endured torture beyond what was humanly
possible. He was never meant to survive, but he did. He always
survived. Because…

“You’ve always been a duplicate.”

“WE GOT A WINNER!” He whooped and hollered
and leaped and danced, swinging his arms over his head in wild
celebration.

Outside, the sirens rang out and voices
crowded around the market. A few people peeked around the corner. A
policeman walked inside with the father of the little girl. He
nodded at Pike who was now doing something of a foxtrot.

“Can I speak to you a moment, sir?” the
policeman asked.

Pike stopped mid-step. He put on his black
glasses and wiggled his eyebrows. He pursed his lips as the
policeman slowed his approach, putting his hand on his sidearm,
sensing danger.

“Sir, I need you to put your hands where I
can see them!”

Pike drew a whistling breath between his
lips. The temperature in the market suddenly dropped.

“I need you to—”

His face paled. And Pike drew deeper. The
policeman dropped to his knees. Pike was drawing out the man’s
essence, absorbing it like a parasite. Then the crowd began
shouting outside as he drew on them, too. People were falling,
screaming. I felt them weaken and clutch their stomachs as they
felt the essence of their lives siphoned away.

I stiffened, throwing out my awareness like a
protective bubble, penetrating every person within a square mile,
coating their consciousness like a membrane. Pike smacked his
lips.

“It’s like a cool, minty rush, isn’t it?” He
flicked his tongue under his cheeks and lips. “Tingles the tongue.
You need to get some of that, wonderboy. There’s only so much to go
around.”

He knelt next to the policeman, struggling to
breathe. “Would you be so kind as to leave us alone?” Pike asked.
“We’re having a private conversation. Thank you.”

The policeman crawled away, pushing the
canvas wall open and gasping for air.

“And tell your friends,” Pike called through
his hands. “We’ll be done soon.”

It was all I could do to contain Pike’s
influence. While I felt limitless in the desert, I felt more human
since merging with Scott. Maybe since I wasn’t stealing life, I was
running out of it.

“Look at you.” Pike walked near me, pretended
to wipe a bead of sweat off my cheek. “You try so hard to save
them. And for what?”

“They’re real.”

“Is that right?”

More sirens sang. Police were listening to
the stories of what was going on. It wouldn’t be long before they
stormed inside.

“It stung when you discovered the truth,
didn’t it,” he said, sharply. “When you found out what you really
are, it hurt. Am I right? One day, you’re walking around, doing
good, helping people, saving the world, making a difference, paving
a path to heaven then
thhhhhhppt,
you find out you’re just a
pawn.” He pinched his fingers together. “Stings, just a bit.”

“No more than watching you murder.”

“They’re already dead. They just don’t know
it.”

“They’re the reason I’m here.”

“You’re… you? You’re here because of… oh, I
get it.” He wagged his finger over his head. “Yes, yes! Pivot
created you to save them! Well, isn’t that just grand and holy of
him. Isn’t that just divine, that he only thinks of them. Wouldn’t
you say, because he certainly doesn’t care about you or any other
pawn in his game.” He ground his teeth. “We’re all just pawns. The
question is, do you want to keep playing?”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Open your eyes, wonderboy! You’re doing
exactly what he wants you to do. It’s all part of his plan, his
great master plan to save the universe from the evil of humankind’s
very own creation.”

“Fetter still exists.”

“I know, I know.” He waved me off. “You’re
the savior that brought her back, blah, blah, blah… Why do you
think I let you live, huh?”

“
YOU, IN THE MARKET.”
A policeman’s
voice crackled over a speaker
.
“
YOU NEED TO COME OUT WITH
YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD. I REPEAT, COME OUT—”

Pike threw his hands out to the sides. A
sub-sonic wave thumped through the ground, shaking the walls.
Despite my efforts, many people fell unconscious. The police
abruptly reorganized to evacuate the area, calling for
reinforcements.

“So fucking annoying!” Pike shook his head.
“Anyway, where was I?”

He hurt them. How was he doing this? Even if
he was here, in the flesh, the display of power was beyond me. But
he was doing it through a projection! I felt my body shrink as I
continued to protect the innocent.

“Did he tell you that you’re special, is that
it?” Pike said. “Is that why you’re so dedicated to them, mmm? Is
it because you met your original self, got to merge with your soul,
is that why you’re so irrational? Let me guess.” He looked very
serious, spoke in a gritty tone. “
Socket, you’re the only one
that can help them. You are the one. The One. Just like in The
Matrix. That’s you
.”

Pike tilted his head, like he was studying
something genuinely curious.

“Do you know what happened to my original?”
He put his finger in his mouth and cocked his thumb, jerked his
head back. “Blew his goddamn head off his shoulders.”

“Original?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? Where are my manners?”
He slapped his thigh, then extended his hands in consolation.
“Pivot made me, too. Did I forget to tell you? Yeah, I was his
first attempt to fool the Almighty Fetter.” He spoke into the back
of his hand, like he was telling a secret. “So you see, you’re not
that special after all.”

“Impossible.”

“The hits just keep coming, don’t they?”

“He wouldn’t have let you live.”

“He can’t kill me, wonderboy. He created a
monster, yes indeed. And in case you haven’t noticed, they can’t
kill you, either. But nothing will get in the way of the Papa
Pivot’s master plan, bring forth the devil,” – he took a short bow,
then gestured to me – “or the savior.”

As long I live, so will he.

“Listen, there’s not much time left before
these morons march in here with their weapons and begin shooting
air, so let me make you an offer before I have to vaporize their
asses into cockroach shit.” Pike bounced his fingertips together
gleefully. “I feel sorry for you, wonderboy. Really, I do. You’re
young and naïve. You still have emotions and feel for these lab
rats. It’s all very confusing, I know. It’s tough to be a teenager
these days, really it is. But it’s time to grow up.”

“Pike—”

“Just listen.” He held up a finger. “Pivot is
a master, I’m not denying that. After all, he’s going after the
greatest predator that has ever existed. He wants to take down
Fetter, something that has survived for billions and billions of
years, in measurable time. In order to take down a tiger that size,
he’s had to sacrifice a few lambs along the way. So how do you
capture a jewel thief? You dangle the shiniest diamond right in her
face.” He gestured to me. “You, wonderboy, you are the jewel.
Fetter couldn’t resist. So do you think he needs you any more?
Pivot still believes he’s god, am I right?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me this earlier,
huh? Why all the games and clues and deception?”

“Now what fun would that be? Besides, I
needed you to bring Fetter back.” He jabbed at the ground like a
lawyer making his final argument. “The game is about to
change.”

“I already delivered Fetter to Pivot.”

Pike looked around, feeling the
reinforcements arrive outside. Blue lights flashed beneath the
canvas walls. Hundreds of boots scuffed the pavement. It would take
everything I had to protect them.

“I’m going to relieve Pivot of his duty,” he
said.

“I can’t help you. I won’t.”

“Loyal to Pivot?”

“I will destroy you.”

“I’m counting on it.” Pike sneered. “And in
return, I’ll find a special place for you in the universe. You can
be my first in command, once you stop all this nonsense. After all,
we’re brothers, you and me. All part of Pivot’s big happy
family.”

“You’re no better than Fetter.”

“I am what I am.”

“You’re nothing.”

“As are you.”

As I released my mind from protecting the
people outside, I felt a thread of his presence slip through the
veil that hid his true location. It was faint and delicate, but I
could follow it, I just needed time. I couldn’t let him destroy
them. Not the human race. He was right, I had no reason, but I
loved them, even if it was just emotion for my mother, for
Streeter. For Chute.

“IT’S NOT RIGHT!” I shouted.

“It’s the law! Evolution! Man was made in the
image of God and I was made in the image of man, therefore, I will
become god. I will become a god, an unforgiving one. I will strike
these motherfuckers with reckless abandon and devour what is mine.
I will become the black planet that absorbs the universe, all that
is, until all is gone. The universe will beg for forgiveness. And I
will remind them… some sins cannot be forgiven.”

“I won’t let you.”

“Then stop me.”

He smiled and opened his presence. I pressed
forward, shooting my awareness through it, following his projection
with my mind, slithering through space and time, across the world,
into the mountains, into the ground, slamming into Pike’s skin. He
stood unrelenting on a stone slab, knowing I was watching, I was
seeing. Behind him, the grimmet tree.