19.

  "Wait, like a deformity?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

  "No, like a fucking urban legend, Thomas! But of course it was gone by the time anyone could verify one way or another," He said this in a tightly controlled hiss.

  I took a drink, he gave me a refill. "Yeah... So then we were convinced *it* --” Here, he gestured vaguely at the air. “Found a way to broadcast wirelessly. We didn't tell hardly nobody, but Old Man Lundquist had a theory about weaponized electromagnetic fields combined with an algorithm to manipulate brain waves, so we built this," he said, rising to his feet while pointing at a secure looking door behind me.

  20.

  Buzzing fluorescent lights clicked on as Phil led me into the neighboring room. Dominating the room was a massive mesh cage. All manner of electrical and monitoring equipment was plugged into the apparatus. "It's a --"

  "Faraday Cage." I finished for him.

  "You always were a damn nerd," he said. I wanted to tell him that he was, too. But I suddenly realized I didn't know the man standing before me. Not really... not anymore.

  "But yeah, that's essentially right. Old Lundquist added a bunch of doodads to see if he could decipher the means of the hallucinations. Or, what we thought was, anyway."

  "It didn't work?" I asked.

  "Well, we thought it did... before the horrorshow upstairs. But I do know that it works for Sheeple like your dumb ass. Which is why you're going to get in it. So I can prove to you I'm real."

  21.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  INTERACTION LOG, 11:31, 4/7/1, REGION: OWL98223

  Participating Subjects: Prodigal, Stroud

  /////

  Stroud: So get in.

  Prodigal: Wait, you said the cage didn't work for the Naturals, but it works for the Upgraded?

  Stroud: Oh, it works for everyone.

  Prodigal: But --

  Stroud: Keep up, Sunshine. The carnage upstairs? My dead friends? That's real.

  Prodigal: I don't -- are you telling me there are real monsters? Vampires and shit?

  Stroud: I don't know about that. I do know that yesterday, some giant goddamn spider looking things with blades on 'em stampeded through our HQ and turned a group of hard cases into gibs. I was out on patrol when it happened, so I don't even know if those things were TRYING to kill them.

  Prodigal: Jesus Christ.

  Stroud: I just saw them charge through the front door and then out the back like it was nuthin'.

  Prodigal: No, no, you have to be wrong. How could something --

  Stroud: I don't know, Thomas. Maybe if a rogue AI that's crazier than a shithouse rat gets a holda' the entire world's top secret research and data... maybe it might just get up to some mischief!

  Prodigal: We don't know that's what happened...

  Stroud: I do. Now get in the cage.

  Prodigal: I don't need to, I believe you, I --

  [Stroud throws Prodigal into the Faraday Cage on to a cot]

  Prodigal: [Inaudible]

  Stroud: I'll keep watch topside. You rest yourself, and I'll be back in a few hours.