Limitless, John Gold [best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

perfect prison warden—it needed neither food, water, nor sleep.

The body of a young man fell out of the sky and landed on the island. He was dressed in nothing but the underwear given to all players when they created their account, and his once-gray hair had turned black. The thin, exhausted body practically broke in half on impact.

The young man howled in pain. Blood dripped from his empty eye sockets, the bridge of his nose was cut in half, the bone plates in his temples were sliced open, and a variety of other wounds were scattered across his body. The warden watched him suffer without making a single movement.

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you all!”

The young man went limp, his left arm and leg twitched unnaturally, and foam dribbled from his mouth. He melted into the air four seconds later.

∞ ∞ ∞

Anji Ganet opened his eyes and tried to push back the lid covering his med capsule. His head was foggy, and the medical solution was red. Blood flowed from his nose, ears, and eyes; there was a metallic taste in his mouth. Anji screamed in pain and fainted. But when that happened, his body gave off a shock wave of such pure power that it destroyed his clothing. The armored med capsule, the entire room, and even the wall of the building shattered.

In the midst of the chaos, among the rubble, his naked body lay in a pool of blood, his arms and legs twitching, almost as if he were testing his muscles.

∞ ∞ ∞

Ledge did exactly what it was supposed to do, identifying anomalies in super admin Sagie’s higher brain function. The data coming from Lunar’s med capsule had been decrypted long before, and the ArtIn started going through potential actions as soon as it received the SOS signal.

Twenty-six burst blood vessels identified in the brain. Medulla, occipital lobes, left temporal lobe, and pituitary—all critical.

All software resources moved to Doctor Brain mode. Connection to the neuronet established.

Heavy bleeding. Coagulation needed, connecting to medbots still in the body. Not enough medbots found. Transferring resources to treat more serious injuries.

The clatter of running feet was heard in the hallway.

Critical threat. Probability of fatal consequences: 99.7%. Executing departure per Omega Plan.

The young man was still bleeding, but he sat up and pulled the virtual reality lenses out of his eyes. They were the last devices that could have been used to track the super admin.

Top priority: escape. Parallel process flows activating.

1. Bypass security system, substitute data flow.

2. Hack satellite system covering resort complex. Partial replacement of aerial imagery data.

3. Diversions beginning.

The young man limped through the demolished wall, his stiff body barely responding, and stopped in the underbrush. It was nearly impossible to spot him there, though he’d left a trail of blood leading out of his room. Only the worst of the bleeding in his brain had been stopped. The whites of his eyes were far from white, the broken blood vessels filling them with red.

Probability of being discovered within five minutes: 99.9%. No transportation capable of leaving the island. More opponents identified. Requests sent from the satellite to track the location of super admin. Orbital security droids belonging to Lunar identified. Attempting to establish communications with super admin. Opponent’s scanning system hacked. Replaced waves searching for signals from super admin’s neuronet. Attempt to disorient opponent. Fire alarm in basement activated. Radiation meters leading to basement hacked. Attempt successful. Evidence of breach removed. Critical threat. Probability of being discovered within one minute: 100%.

One of the aids got to Sagie’s room and found the bloody trail leading out the gap in the wall. The video communication camera in the wall followed his movements and transmitted his orders to the other aids.

Data transfer to Lunar identified. More opponents identified. Physical lockdown of all means of transportation on the island identified. Military tracking satellites identified. Building route with best chance of survival.

The young man was already running through the forest, though he suddenly changed course and headed toward the ocean. Dashing down the wharf between the rowboats, he dove into the water. Ledge modified his route, periodically compromising the military tracking satellites. They couldn’t stay compromised, so the strategy included evasive maneuvers, loss of contact, space trash, an obscured tracking area, and an overload that caused some hardware to malfunction.

Swimming onward, the young man left a bloody trail behind him. The burst blood vessels that had just closed reopened from the stress. It had been three and a half hours since the SOS signal was received, but he kept swimming, Ledge forcing him onto his back every time he fatigued. But he couldn’t go on like that forever. For the final thirty minutes, Anji could only swim on his back, his feet barely kicking.

Serious blood loss. Arterial blood pressure down to 60 mmHg. Terminal condition in 120 seconds. Bradycardia identified. Super admin heart beat slowing. Heart will stop in three minutes.

The dying boy floated on his back in the middle of the ocean. Five hours of swimming and constantly bleeding had completely exhausted him, even as his training and the swimming technique he’d honed over the previous five years had enabled him to do what was practically impossible. Ledge had gotten him to the spot in the ocean where the floating island was supposed to be. The only time the super admin had ever visited it, he’d noticed electromagnetic waves in the air that betrayed a powerful energy source, and the data he’d collected had been enough to set the island’s route, schedule, and movement speed. But while Ledge had been hoping to find a med capsule on the island, there simply wasn’t anything there. Anji had been in a critical condition for the past six hours; he’d swum twenty-eight kilometers, and Ledge had barely been able to keep up with the data flows coming in from the satellites and throngs of opponents. It had all been for nothing.

Pulse weakening. One minute until heart stops. External musculature, digestive organs, and lymph system shutting down.