Avatara

It took some convincing for Snow Globe's agent to allow Grace to leave on her own. The agent advised that they consult Snow Globe but Grace gave him short shrift, stating that Sadayuki Suno had caused enough trouble already. Jazz gave her, her coat.

The agent didn't intervene and asked the other men outside the flat to stand down. Snow Globe had previously given them the clear instruction never to physically restrain Grace in any way. He said however that he would be informing Snow Globe immediately.

She ordered a cab. A self driving car to take her to Sheldrake. It was mid evening. The streets were not clear and traffic jams gave Grace an uncomfortable amount of time to think.

"Estimated time to arrival, twenty-eight minutes," said the operating system of the car in a female voice. Its speech AI algorithm was sublime. When self-driving cars first went mainstream seven years prior, people were very apprehensive about them. A driverless car with no steering wheel made people anxious about having a lack of control. But now they were all used to it and actually preferred it. Grace trusted an algorithmic driver rather than a human one given her recent cab experiences.

The car passed 'Big Ben' at eight pm. There were lots of avatara flying and running around. They seemed to be growing in number. More people had become fascinated by the illegal application and willing to share their date with it- and give their trust over to it.

Someone in a lizard avatara form frightened tourists on the embankment. These avatara were inferior and weak compared to the forms of Grace, Jazz and Knightmare-Grimm took during the Piccadilly pandemonium. They broke down quickly and were too weak for serious manipulations in the real world. This was partly due to them not having the correct equipment for a proper transformation and having a bugged illegal copy of the application.

As the car drove along the Victoria Embankment Grace looked out on the thames from the right window. She saw the London Eye lit up in red, then the Southbank Centre also the BFI cinema.

'All these people have no idea about the serious security situation we have. If Knightmare-Grim gets control of that kernel he will able to control anyone who has a version of Avatara.'

Grace couldn't think of any other alternative. She had to give Knightmare-Grimm the codes. She would not be able to live with herself if she left Yi to die or be severely injured in some way.

When she got to Sheldrake, there were still workers leaving for the end of the day, through the revolving doors. These workers were from the finance offices on the upper floors. Two muscular men armed with guns stood at the steps down to Q-division. Grace approached them cautiously but they stepped aside without acknowledgement or hesitation and allowed her to pass through.

At the bottom of the staircase there were two more guards. One of them raised his palm in the air in front of her, motioning her to stop. Neither of them spoke to her. The other guard ran her over with a handheld metal detector for a body search. It beeped hard when it got to her necklace on her upper c.h.e.s.t. Grace wrestled with the fear within. The guard had a closer look at her necklace. It looked innocuous.

"It was given to me by my grandmother. It's a good luck charm." She realised this sounded suspicious to the soldier who looked to the other guard.

"It's just a necklace there's nothing special about it." She tried not to sound too desperate. The guard eyed the necklace again, shrugged and let it rest back on her c.h.e.s.t.

"Yep, she's real boss," he said into the walkie-talkie. The door to Q-division slid open. The bodies of Snow Globes's men had been removed but their blood stained the walls and floors. Grace felt a stiffness from the top of her neck down to her lower back. A bodily sensation brought on by apprehension, being followed by two intimidating men.

"Move," they said. "Turn right."

The cold clinical corridors. Grace remembered her first time at Sheldrake when she came for interview. She met Rylan Spector who headhunted her from university; she never met Grimm before she started the job. Spector's deceptive meekness hoodwinked her and she thought she would be working with lovely people. But even before Byron Grimm assaulted her in his office before she escaped, she hated working here and disliked her callous co-workers. But she gritted her teeth and beared it because of her resume and good prospects for contacts in the future. How she regretted that now.

"I guess you're wondering how I know so much?" said a voice from above. Knightmare-Grimm's voice.

Grace had a theory about it and Knightmare-Grimm confirmed it.

"I have the memories and abilities of Knightmare under my control. I also have the data of the police officer who kidnapped you under my control, including the memories of your first meeting with Yi."

Grace understood. Jazz's police colleague had been taken over Yi and would have memory of the event. And So Knightmare-Grimm now had it. Not only that, but he would have the emotional memories as of Yi from his being in that body. Grace realised that she and Yi formed a connection in that meeting, even though brief- probably a mental manipulation by Yi to get her to listen to Snow Globe.

"I nearly forgot the existence of the monk until I took the body of this police officer. What an asset he is. I hate to say it but without your idiot boyfriend, hapless police colleague and their terrible plan, I wouldn't have been able to get him as a bonus."

His voice was echoey as it played out through several speakers via a tannoy. They waited outside an elevator. The elevator car eventually made to made to their floor. The doors opened with a female voice from the elevator speaker saying, 'landing zone.' Grace was aggressively ushered in. There were soldiers in the lift waiting for them. Six soldiers surrounded Grace in the elevator and Grace felt the air being s.u.c.k.e.d out from her lungs by her anxiety. One of the soldiers used a key on one of the buttons and the elevator descended.

"Very good of you not to bring 'Loverboy' and Snow Globe's men here. As you saw, half-a-dozen of his men were terminated with ease."

It's like you said," Grace replied. "Sheldrake is your fortress." The elevator lowered them further and further into the depths of Q-division. Grace had used this elevator before but had never gone this deep underground as a Sheldrake employee. It felt like it was going down for an age. She shivered as it was cold from strong air conditioning.

"What did you do with their bodies?" said Grace.

"That's classified Miss Shelley," said Knightmare-Grimm. "Unfortunately this is not going to be like a James Bond movie where you stall the bad guy with questions, so that you can work out a way to beat him.

"What I will tell you though is that the monk boy is with me and is still alive. He refuses to talk, probably because he's homesick, haha."

"Don't hurt him," said Grace.

"Of course I won't," said Knightmare-Grimm. "What do you take me for? I am mad not crazy. We are a family. With our talents combined we can rule the world. Although I am considering chopping off his head and studying his brain for the source of his power."

Grace disengaged from the conversation, losing a bit of touch with herself and going into a weird state from being disconnected from herself. She yawned. She felt resigned, empty and hopeless, but also had a light headed feeling. She could fall over at any moment. It had been a long, two to three days. The elevator continued to descend to the depths of the earth.