Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox

the touchpad and Vyn pressed her hand to her mouth. The Goodmans were using the creativity, the raw essence of trapped personalities to power their fucking depraved games. There was also a touch of what she was in how the Halls converted organic energy. Ossian was right, the CEO was a moron for exposing the Mind’s security for profit.
    “It’s the last meeting, the final face-to-face with the Tydeus Group.” Ossian’s gaze fixed on Paul. “You kill their CEO, Dia Mylonas, and you, her and him—” he jabbed the touch pad back to Liam, “—go free. I, of course, keep the simulacrum gear.”
    Ossian’s thumb teased over the shiny pad. “Yes or no?”

Chapter Ten
    Paul frowned. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
    The other man shrugged. “You don’t. But if you say no, he’s dead. You’re dead.” A smile touched his lips and Vyn held down a shiver. “And she’s dead.”
    Paul pushed himself up and took Vyn’s hand, watching as Ossian’s fingers flexed around the weapon’s trigger. “We go now and we come back here?”
    “The rest of your plan stays intact. House. Vehicle. Codes to escape.”
    He didn’t release her hand. “What’s to keep the CEO from joining us?”
    Her former friend snorted. “Doesn’t know much about gear, does he?” He let out a slow breath, his expression full of false patience. “The simulacrum itself. If it replicates the neural patterns of a specific individual, then that flesh-and-blood mind is blocked from the virtual layer. The Mind doesn’t allow identical patterns. Vyn’s dominance over the system will force Lucas out. And the CEO of the Corporation is the simulacrum’s default image. The one necessary to bypass security.” He grinned. “There is a reason why making his image is illegal.”
    Ossian’s grin faded, but the sharp gleam in his eyes didn’t. “But you have to act fast.”
    Paul cursed. He closed his eyes, his face tight, and a muscle jumped in his cheek. Vyn didn’t break the silence. She’d made her decision, but she wasn’t the one ordered to kill. He scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “Vyn…” He didn’t look at her, his gaze fixed on his brother. “I have to.”
    “I know.” She eased her fingers free and tugged the wrapped wires of the simulacrum from her pocket. She fixed the receptors to her skull, letting the net drop and the familiar fizz wash over her. “I’m ready.”
    He glared at Ossian. “Deal.” He took her hand again and sank to the floor, pulling her with him. Lying down, he laced his fingers through hers, his grip tight. “Get comfortable.”
    Vyn followed his example, stretching out her spine against the metal floor. She stared at the shadowed ceiling before closing her eyes. Too quickly the fire of the Mind swept over her and she hunted for the upper tier, finding the portals, pushing up, pushing on, using her skin to break through codes to which only the Goodman family had access.
    Her consciousness burst through the final portal and there, on the edge of her thoughts, was the CEO.
    Sensations from his brain, his body rushed her. He’d only just sat in the cold-world chair he always used to enter the Mind, his body moulding into the padding. Soft, comfortable. The hint of leather and cigars clinging to its surface filled her thoughts. His grandfather’s chair, how Lucas had sat in it as a child with his own father. A sudden stark image of his father, his uncle, their faces pale and the copper scent of blood cut the air. The shadowed weight of a blade filled her hand. It came with a dark satisfaction.
    Lucas had killed them? What the…? And short heartbeats later, the cold-world faded. Images of a glass-walled office rose, his home, his secure base within the virtual world his family had created, streaming with warm light and scented with open pasture. His. All his. His to use. No one else’s…
    Stabs of panic cut her. His thoughts had thrown her. He’d murdered his family to grab the company for