Free The Unincorporated Future by Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin

she’d seen him before.
    “What sort of program are you?” he asked, eyes bright and inquisitive.
    That voice! She realized then how truly tired she must be not to have recognized the most hated being in the Avatar Alliance.
    “Don’t even think about escaping,” said Al. “I have local control of this node. No one’s going to be able to break through for a long time.” Al had a sadistic grin. “We’ll have lots of time to get acquainted.”
    Sandra held up her index finger. “Hold that thought for a minute, will ya?” Her patronizing smile had a wonderfully amusing affect on Al. His mouth dropped, and not a word came out. She then turned her back on him and faced the young avatars.
    “Children,” Sandra said as if it were a normal school day and she were a normal schoolteacher wanting to get their attention. “I need you all to take hands. Do you understand?”
    The children bowed obediently and grabbed at one another’s hands.
    “Portia,” continued Sandra in a firm but mellifluous voice, “you and Edwin make sure you’re holding hands with everyone else, okay, sweetie?” The children did as they were told.
    “Do you really think holding hands will help?” asked Al, genuinely curious.
    Sandra turned around and rose up to her full five-foot-seven-inch height. “What part of ‘hold that thought’ did you not understand?” The children giggled as Al’s face reddened in anger. Sandra then bent down and picked up her staff. At the sight of it, Al’s eyes snapped wide. He immediately reached into his pocket, but whatever he had planned was two seconds too late as the white flash of light enveloped Sandra and the children. Al looked up and they were gone.
    *   *   *
     
    One second later, Sandra flashed back, only this time into a different part of the room. “Now, monster, what were you saying? Oh yes.” Her eyes twinkled. “It was something about getting acquainted, wasn’t it?”
    “What are you?” Al repeated again. “Some sort of new program Sebastian cooked up?”
    “Oh, monster, look close,” purred Sandra. “I’m not new at all. I’m old. In fact, I’m the oldest creature you’ve ever met.” Sandra moved over and sat down in the teacher’s chair. She checked her nails.
    And then Al did peer closer at the woman he knew to be purposely taunting him, and as he did so his eyes flashed in anger. “You! You are an abomination. You don’t belong here. Your very presence pollutes the purity of this blessed space!”
    “Monster,” she sang, “is that any way to talk to your grandmother?”
    Al had had enough. He took out a small pistol from his pocket and aimed it directly at Sandra, but the weapon fired at nothing. Sandra had vanished only to appear behind him. She then gave a vicious kick to his backside, sending Al crashing forward into the chairs as the gun flew from his hand. Al picked himself up from under the pile of upended chairs and scattered children’s books. He turned to face Sandra, only to find that she’d once again disappeared. He saw a light flash behind him but was too slow to do anything about the staff that had smashed down onto his skull at full force. His knees buckled and he fell, face forward onto the floor, next to a human skull that had been earlier dislodged in Sandra’s brief encounter with the data wraith.
    “Now, monster, ” Sandra said, leaning onto her staff, “I have some questions for you. ”
    “Stop calling me monster!” screamed Al, and then disappeared from the classroom.
    *   *   *
     
    Al appeared in the shattered remains of Tuscan Park. He’d enjoyed destroying it and leaving freeze viruses in place in order to leave it devastated. It would take weeks to remove the infections, and with luck, Ceres did not have weeks. He’d hoped it would cause Sebastian incredible pain, especially the immolation of the Manassas tree, but right about now, Al was wishing he’d left some more trees standing. Appearing in the middle of a