Silver-Tongued Liars (short story)

Silver-Tongued Liars was the fourth story in Cyberon. It was a short story written by James Wylder as well as an explicit crossover with P.R.O.B.E., later being republished as such in the P.R.O.B.E. anthology True Origins.

An audiobook reading of it by Bill Baggs was released on 15 January 2022 as one of the Audio Adventures in Time & Space, branded simultaneously as a Cyberon and P.R.O.B.E. audiobook.

Summary
Brittany attends the funeral of her uncle, Tom Mordley, and meets a group of women from P.R.O.B.E. Eight years later, she finds a vial of Cyberon in one of Tom's boxes. She brings the vial to school and takes it to resist a bully. Struggling with the Cyberon for control of her body, Brittany escapes school and contemplates suicide from a high rooftop; however, Patricia Haggard arrives and helps her shut out the Cyberon. A year later, Patricia, her partner, and Giles visit Brittany again and discover that she has retained some of her Cyberon enhancements.

Plot
At the funeral of Tom Mordley, his niece, Brittany, is distraught to see his golden coffin being consumed by a wave of concrete. She isn't the only person there, as she is accompanied by her mother, Sarah, and there are other attendants too; a group of three women, a man and a woman, and dozen armed soldiers. The woman accompanied by the man introduces herself as Lauren, but while Sarah converses, Brittany ignores her, only wanting to go home to Philadelphia and forget about the funeral. The group of three women then introduce themselves as P.R.O.B.E., but Brittany is lost in her thoughts about her uncle.

Eight years later, Brittany is in her school, hardly paying attention to her teacher, Mr. Hendricks, as she already knew about what he was teaching, although she decides to pay attention anyway just in case if he slips in an obscure fact; she goes to use her notebook, to find her classmates have written vile remarks inside to illicit a response from her. While she doesn't give them any response, Jennifer giggles among her friends.

Later, Brittany arrives home at her family's apartment, and her Mom welcomes her home. She is surprised to see many boxes around the apartment, and Sarah explains that the storage company raised their rates, so Sarah couldn't afford to keep using them. Brittany begins to offer to get a job, but Sarah shuts her down and tells her that her education is more important.

Later that night, after Brittany had finished her homework, she begins going through the boxes to get rid of anything unimportant. After going through a few boxes, she finds one of them contains a suitcase, which has clothes inside. Just as she was about to put it away, she hears something inside, and, after looking carefully, she sees a small tear near one of the wheels. Opening it, she finds one vial of Cyberon, which she stores away in her desk under a pencil-case.

That night, Brittany dreams of Tom, who stands on a pier; weirdly, behind him, stands the Big Ben. Brittany turns away when Tom begins kissing Lauren, and then the duo turns to Brittany, telling them that Cyberon is the future. She awakes from her dream, but settles again after a few deep breaths.

The next morning, Brittany can't take her mind off the vial as she gets ready for school. She decides to take it with her as she leaves. She can't pay attention during her classes, her mind fixated on the Cyberon. Frustrated by her lack of focus, Brittany goes into the first stall in the toilets and rubs her face. Brittany contemplates taking Cyberon, but is distracted by the door rattling. She goes to leave, but Jennifer forces the door shut, trapping her inside. Jennifer starts verbally attacking Brittany. Trembling, she decides to take Cyberon — she reasons that it can help her. A pain shoots through her arm, and the process begins. The Cyberon tries — twice — to connect to the Cyberon Network, but is unsuccessful; it tries to manifest in Brittany's vision, but is also unsuccessful. Brittany is in agony as the Cyberon begins refabricating her muscle tissue — for the preservation of Cyberon — and she clamps her mouth shut so as not to scream. The Cyberon helps her escape, shoving the door open, flinging Jennifer to the sinks. Brittany cracks Jennifer's head against a mirror, and the Cyberon attempts to inject Jennifer with Cyberon, but fails due to Brittany's anemia. The Cyberon tells her to locate nutrients — i.e., iron-rich food — and so Brittany leaves the school, a security guard and the locked front doors doing little to stop the augmented Brittany. Outside, however, the Cyberon reveals it made a miscalculation about Brittany's resources, and she falls unconscious.

Brittany dreams of floating about Earth, guided by the Cyberon. The Cyberon then shows her a battlefield, hundreds of years in the future.

Brittany awakes in an ambulance, being looked over by a pair of EMTs. However, the Cyberon takes control of her, and forces her to escape despite wanting to go to a hospital. She finds herself running through traffic, unaware of the fates of those in the ambulance, and she turns down an alley and crouches behind a dumpster, considering what to do next before breaking down into sobs. The Cyberon eventually returns, telling her that she still needs nutrients, and she heads off, entering a Wawa. She brings an armful of pre-made meals and a hoodie to the counter, the employee scanning the items. The Cyberon tells her to touch the device, and changes to her anatomy enable her to send a shock that works as a card.

Sitting on a bench outside a bank, she consumes her food very quickly. Finding somewhere high up, she breaks into a building and ascends the stairwell. At the top of the building, she looks out at the view, everything now much smaller beneath her. The Cyberon is confused as to why Brittany is at the top of the building, and Brittany tells it that she doesn't intend to go home. A noise behind her alerts Brittany to the arrival of Patricia Haggard, whom shows Brittany an ID card. Brittany prepares to jump, and Patricia tries talking her out of it. Patricia explains that P.R.O.B.E. noticed the activation of Cyberon, having flown out immediately, and that she's on Brittany's side. Brittany shouts at her, angry about the lies that had been spread about her uncle, angry that that the dream of the good Cyberon could bring was never fulfilled. Patricia tells her that, while she was right to believe in her uncle, now that she took Cyberon, it was doesn't live up to what was dreamed of. The Cyberon, getting desperate, tries telling Brittany to ignore Patricia, but Brittany shuts out the Cyberon, and it fades away, not able to maintain itself without further doses. Both she and Patricia want her to have the future her uncle wanted for her.

One year later, Brittany waits for the arrival of a taxi despite her thirst. The taxi pulls up, Brittany glimpsing Patricia inside, and they embrace in a hug when Patricia climbs out. Patricia isn't alone, as she brought her partner and Giles with her. They head to Wawa so Brittany can quench her thirst, while Patricia asks her questions, like how she's doing in school, how her mother is doing, and if the modifications made to her body remain. Indeed, Brittany is still muscular, and still has the Cyberon injector in her arm. Arriving at the store, the members of P.R.O.B.E. are unimpressed with the convenience store. Giles goes to pay, but realises he left his wallet at the hotel. Instead, while P.R.O.B.E. aren't looking, Brittany pays for everyone's snacks, still retaining the ability to shock the card reader.


 * "Found everything you were looking for?"


 * She smiled, "Quite a bit more, I think."

Characters
(In order of appearance)
 * Brittany Mordley
 * Sarah Mordley
 * Patricia Haggard
 * Patricia Haggard's partner
 * Louise Bayliss
 * Lauren Anderson
 * Ray Lambert
 * Mr. Hendricks
 * Jennifer
 * Security guard
 * EMT 1
 * EMT 2
 * Man
 * Giles

Referenced only

 * Tom Mordley
 * Jackson Pollock
 * William Gibson
 * Ms. Przybylski
 * William Penn

Worldbuilding

 * Brittany likens the entombing of the deceased Tom to the treatment of hazardous waste.
 * Brittany hangs a hall pass on the wall, after returning to class.
 * Mr. Hendricks talks about the War of 1812.
 * The insults scrawled inside Brittany's notebook are a "veritable Jackson Pollock".
 * Lots of "claptrap" about Tom circulated around Brittany's school, such as him working for a drug cartel, that "Canary place" in the UK, or that he had been taken over by an alien drug and had tried to test it at a care home.
 * Brittany had mistakenly believed that the adults at her school would've tried to help her against the bullying that occured after the cover up of her uncle; Ms. Przybylski, Brittany's 4th grade teacher, had tried to tell her that there may have been some merit to what the other students were saying.
 * The floor in the apartment is carpeted.
 * Part of Brittany's homework involves worksheets.
 * To Brittany, the boxes are like an archeological dig.
 * Inside the boxes, there is a copy of Burning Chrome by William Gibson, various CDs, clothes, greeting cards, and a smaller box filled with things to do with Lauren.
 * There were advertisements for Cyberon.
 * Brittany showers, brushes her hair, and eats a poptart.
 * One of Brittany's classes is social studies.
 * She can't take her backpack into class, due to the prevention of school shootings, so she transfers the Cyberon into a purse which is allowed by the dress code.
 * Brittany wears a tie and a white blouse.
 * Brittany left her books on a ledge over the sinks before entering the stall.
 * Jennifer is a teacher's assistant for an hour, so she doesn't need to attend class.
 * Jennifer calls Brittany stupid and a slut, and tells her that she'd be doing the whole school a favour if she kills herself
 * Jennifer suggests that Brittany should jump off a roof.
 * Brittany can't crawl out from the other sides of the stall, as there are puddles of red soda that would stain her blouse.
 * The Cyberon went out of date on 3 February 2003.
 * The front doors to the school can be remotely locked from a security booth.
 * Brittany initially thinks she is some sort of superhero.
 * When Brittany awake in the ambulance, she has a breath mask on.
 * In the Wawa, Brittany purchases an Eagles hoodie.
 * "Disturbia" is playing in the Wawa.
 * The cars beneath Brittany seem like matchbox cars.
 * Philadelphia is also known as the City of Brotherly Love.
 * There is a statue of William Penn in the distance.
 * Despite not being old enough to apply, Brittany has looked into universities.
 * Brittany uses her Cyberon injector to squirt water when she goes to pools at people.
 * Patricia compares Brittany's muscles gained from her partial conversion to a "free gym membership".
 * The group buys ice teas and pretzels from Wawa.

Continuity

 * Tom Mordley died. (PROSE: The Last Dose)
 * Rumours have spread about Tom Mordley by 2008 such as him being infected by an alien drug and attempting to test it in a care home (PROSE: Cyberon) and him being part of an advance force for "whatever had gone on at that Canary place in the UK". (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)
 * Cyberon vials don't have needles. (PROSE: Cyberon)