Free Killswitch by Victoria Buck Page A

“Will the two of you come with me?”
    The women nodded. “We’ll be there,” Mel said. “But it’ll be hard to be near him all day and not say anything.”
    Chase looked into Molly’s eyes. “A few minutes ago, you moved away from me when you found out what I can do.” He took her hand. “You are in perfect health.”
    She smiled. “I am as the Lord wills. Tomorrow may bring a change. If it does, and you know, don’t tell me. All right?”
    He nodded and lifted his hand to touch her wrinkled face. Then he turned to Mel. “Can I ask you something? About the information trails you put in me?”
    “You can ask me anything.”
    “I had to get into the underground in Atlanta to find cryptic messages written on the walls before I could dig your code out of the Psalms. Why not just put a Bible in my head and direct me to the code?”
    “The scientists and governing officials in charge of your transformation didn’t allow it. If I’d tried it, they’d probably have caught on to what I was doing and had me arrested. I know it sounds odd that they would give you access to everything ever entered into a database except for one topic, but they’re working to get all religion, even if it’s just for reference purposes, out of the cyber world.”
    “I’ve found some literature referring to Bible stories. And some historical information about other religions. No history of the Christian church though. It’s like it never happened.”
    Molly shook her head. “We’re being erased from history.”
    “They can’t do that,” Mel said. “Not as long as we’re still here.” Her eyes met Chase’s. “Do you want a Bible? I can get you a paperback.”
    “No need, I guess. I only wondered why I couldn’t access it through the exoself.”
    “When I get a chance I’ll see if I can get it in through my own programs.”
    “I can access general information about church music,” Chase said.
    “You mean, like hymns? You can learn a lot from those old songs,” Molly said.
    Mel lifted her brow. “Eliminating religion from the cyber world is a work in progress. Maybe it was an oversight. But Molly’s right. There’s a lot of church history in the old songs too.”
    The three left the small meeting room and joined dozens in the command center. Chase brushed by his mother and squeezed her shoulder. She appeared to be working on a new room arrangement. The added residents meant a few would have to share a room. Beds were being moved to accommodate, and those with larger rooms were asked to give up their space for the sake of those who’d be living with roommates. Of course, no one complained. How long could these people live like this before somebody started to gripe?
    “Chase,” Mom said. “Switch ran by here mumbling about how ‘that robot’ wasn’t going to accuse him of…something. The two of you having a problem?”
    The battle might start sooner rather than later. Chase sat beside her. “We think there might be someone down here, or up top, feeding information to the Feds. Some bad stuff happened last night. I’m sure Amos will fill in the whole group sometime later today.”
    “What’s that got to do with Switchblade ranting about you? Does he think you had something to do with it?”
    “He might have suggested it, and I might have suggested the same about him.”
    “Well, I don’t believe it,” she said. “Not about either of you.”
    “We both got a little hot under the collar. Somebody is responsible for what happened last night.”
    “What was it?”
    Chase peered over his shoulder and then leaned in close. “The families of those kids who came under were killed.”
    Tears filled her eyes and her hand covered her mouth.
    “Mom, don’t say anything.”
    “Where are those poor babies?”
    “In their quarters with the ministers.”
    “We’ll need to be here for them. All of us. We’re their family now.”
    Chase nodded. “You’re a good mom. Always were.” He kissed her cheek.