T.O.R.N.: There's Only Right Now

Chapter 18 Quantum

"Dr. Farraday," The guard greeted Emily by name when she entered the lobby of Quanta.

She thought of all the roads she had chosen to lead her to this moment. Emily had never been satisfied with what was given to her. She would rather prefer what she could take. Since she was a child she had rebelled against the very notion of second place. It's why she left her family and The Wave when they insisted on her living in the shadows. She was destined for more. It's why she rose very quickly through the ranks of The Sephiren and it's why she would win this war over the fate of humanity. And no one, not Asante, or Aissa, Michael, Fairchild, nor Schmidt would get in her way. Especially not Schmidt, especially not today.

The elevator chimed and opened. Dr. Schmidt smiled at Emily, meeting her gaze over her spectacles, lowered down her nose. "I thought we could walk down Sunset and chat. It's such a lovely day." Schmidt said before Emily could speak.

Emily moved aside and replied, "After you." Realizing she had been slightly outmaneuvered by Schmidt, she decided to play along. "You knew I was coming, did the computer tell you why as well?" Emily said as she put on her Gucci sunglasses to protect against the midday sun's rays reflecting off the mirrored buildings.

"If I had asked it but I don't need the quantum computer to give me answers to the obvious. It's the probability of the unseen that it's most useful in determining." Schmidt replied with a smirk on her lips. "The real query here," she continued, "is will you ask the question that will give you the best probability of what you want to see happen?"

"Where is Michael?"

"We could ask quantum that, but let me ask you a question, Farraday, what do you want?"

A myriad of images flooded Emily's mind; Aissa, Michael, and Asante's demise for one, unlimited power and mankind kneeling at her feet, a cat? But she was clearly not going to give Schmidt anything that might run contrary to her own musings. Schmidt had made it clear with Brennan that she had ulterior motives and she ran the Quanta sub-faction with complete autonomy. She couldn't be trusted.

"I want to put an end to this uprising attempting to disrupt the natural order of the world," Emily replied as a matter of fact.

"Which means?" Schmidt prodded.

"We need to destroy The Wave!" Emily answered quickly.

"So what question do you want to ask Quantum?" Schmidt asked as they had finished their walk around the block and had returned to the entrance of Quanta.

"How do we eradicate The Wave?" Emily said with fire in her eyes.

"Now that, Farraday, is an enterprising and profitable question. Let's go down and find out, yeah?"

As they entered the room where Quantum was located. Emily could feel the raw power of the machine. It was hard for her to contain her excitement though she knew she must.

"The sheer possibility of what the mind can create as an extension of itself is astounding." Schmidt offered as they sat down at the console.

Emily smiled in agreement. As Schmidt began to type their mutually agreed upon query. Emily began to focus on what she had learned from all the years experimenting on Michael. Through many years of effort, she was able to mimic the process of entrainment by accessing all the same faculties that The Wave philosophy pointed to, minus the intent to live harmoniously with all one encounters, but rather control and manipulate all that one encounters. She began to entrain Quantum mentally. And as she did, she metaphysically understood what lay before her. She knew she must act fast. Schmidt was smiling at her as she pressed enter, sending their question to Quantum. Her smile quickly turned into a look of terror and panic as she met Emily's eyes. She lifted her arms to create a shield to block the incoming energy gathering behind Emily's irises. But it was too late, the bolt of electricity traveled the length of her entire body by the time her arms were in mid-air. Her lifeless body collapsed into a pile of ash a moment later.