The hovercar traversed the winding country road to the stone-faced chapel, pulled up to the entrance, and let them out. The weathering of the stone and the style of the steeple bore witness to a century or more of homage within its walls. Above the massive wooden doors was a tall iron post encircled by a double helix in multicolored crystal.
“Holiness sticks to places,” mused Ray, recalling archaeological digs in his database from the Holy Land with mosques built over churches built over temples built over the ruins of ancient shrines.
Walking down the aisle toward the pulpit, the music from the pipe organ filled Ray’s head and resonated within his chest. As they filed into their pews, he smiled down at Natasha taking her place between them. Within the magic of this place and with his family by his side, there was just for a while no Terra and no Ganymede, no secret projects and no politics. When the congregation joined with the music, his voice rose from the depths of his lungs, blending melodically with the others. In his former life, he’d never been able to carry a tune, but his new body was a magnificent instrument.
Partway through the service, though, he had an uneasy feeling that he was being watched. When it came time to file out of the church, he turned and looked up to the balcony, where he spotted two strangers. One appeared in his twenties, had a reddish beard, and was wearing a cap with curly hair sticking out from the edges. The other, at the opposite end of the balcony, appeared middle aged and was smooth shaven and bald like him. Something was oddly familiar about this man. Had he not been trim and fit, he might have been a ringer for his old self.
Both men were looking in his direction before disappearing from the balcony. And he caught another glimpse of them as he left the church. Once the car was underway, he breathed deeply and let the disturbing images go. He was just being hypervigilant, he reasoned, because of all the intrigue in his life.
They took a detour through a neighboring community and let Natasha out at a friend’s house for the day. He was looking forward to a quiet day at home with Corinne. He didn’t notice the white car parking down the street as they passed through the gates to the house.
Photina greeted them at the door and informed them that lunch was ready. Ray washed up in the foyer bathroom and was heading down the hallway toward the back of the house when the front door blew out and a fireball shot toward him, bathing him in searing heat and knocking him flat. He saw Corinne go down around ten feet in front of him while Photina crashed against a wall, landing with a sickening thud and becoming motionless. Then silence enveloped him.
He struggled to move, but even his extraordinary body had been immobilized by the force of the explosion. Corinne lay well out of reach. There was nothing he could do to save her. Then through the smoke a shadow moved swiftly from the back of the house toward Corinne and swept her up and out of the house. He wondered whether she was being rescued or abducted, but the only thing that mattered was that she would get out alive. He was not likely to be as fortunate.
As Ray struggled to maintain consciousness, he was flooded with images of another fire from long ago, a house consumed in flames, and a charred body being wheeled out of the rubble. Then his mother was framed in the light coming from the end of the hallway, beckoning to him, smiling gently. It had been hubris to think that he could cheat death. Perhaps death wouldn’t be so awful, after all.
*****
Photina opened her eyes and assessed her surroundings. The blast had knocked her against a wall and triggered a reboot of her system. She was now fully up and running. The hallway was filled with smoke and she could feel the heat of the fire moving toward her from behind, but her body could withstand temperatures far beyond the tolerance of a human and she didn’t need to breathe oxygen to survive. Fire rescue personnel had been almost entirely replaced by SPUDs like her because of their superior physical strength and relative invulnerability.
Just before the blast, Corinne and Ray, whom she knew only as Marcus, had been walking toward the kitchen. Now Ray lay by her feet and two life forms just beyond him were moving toward the house’s rear entrance. The standing figure was unknown to her. She identified the limp life form in his arms as Corinne and determined that she was alive.
Photina bent over Ray’s inert form and hesitated a moment. Marcus had been good to her and she was almost certain Corinne would want her to save him. Corinne and Marcus had usually seemed happy to see one another, greeting each other with friendly looking gestures, including a form of embrace they called “hugs.” Sometimes they would touch their mouths together and commingle their microbes.
But there had been one time very early in her education when she’d returned late to the house with a question for Corinne about the day’s lessons. The front door was unlocked. She’d let herself in and wandered through the house until she heard voices coming from the bedroom. Corinne’s voice came at first in almost a whisper, but soon became louder and higher pitched, similar to the distressful utterances that she’d tutored her about days before. She peeked into the room. Corinne was lying on the bed and Marcus appeared to be holding her down and hurting her. The utterances increased in tempo and pitch while they moved rhythmically together in an apparent struggle. She didn’t know what to do and was about to rush into the room to save Corinne when it all suddenly stopped and they became quiet. Corinne had her arms around Marcus with her left hand cradling the back of his head and was whispering again. Photina had backed away from the door as softly as she could, walked to the front door and run all the way home.
The heat at her back intensified. When the second fireball swept through the corridor, Photina threw herself upon Ray, absorbing the brunt of the heat. Once the explosion was over, she threw him over her shoulder and ran to the front of the house where the fire was already starving for fuel. He was no longer breathing by the time they got outside, but the rescue team arrived in time to resuscitate him. Photina sat a few feet away and watched as he began to come around.
“That’s good,” she thought, while dimly aware that an alternate scenario in which she would have had Corinne all to herself might have been even better for her.
40
MARCUS DOVE for the embankment beyond the car’s path and heard the dull thump of the impact behind him as he landed and rolled. He watched the body land behind the now stationary car and bounce once before coming to rest on the pavement.
“Get in,” came the command from the two-seater that had pulled up beside him with the passenger door flung open. Without a moment’s thought he propelled himself through the opening and pulled the door shut as the car sped away.
The first thing Marcus noticed once inside the hovercar was the driver’s flowing red hair. He exhaled slowly and let his body settle into the seat, which conformed instantly to the shape of his body. In the rearview mirror he saw the blond man on his feet in pursuit of the car, but the figure soon faded into the distance.
“For a brilliant scientist, you’re pretty brainless,” chastised Terra. “What could you possibly have been thinking by coming here?”
“Good thing I did,” replied Marcus, “or Corinne wouldn’t have had a prayer.” He would have gladly traded his life for hers.
“Perhaps, but that was serendipity. You put yourself and our project in jeopardy, along with the possibility of ever getting your old life back. And now look what a mess you’re in.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter anymore now that Ray is dead.”
“You’re an amazingly lucky man, Marcus,” said Terra. “Ray is alive. He was rescued by the SPUD who stays with them. She shielded him from the fire and pulled him out.”
“Photina,” Marcus thought. “I always wondered if she liked me or would have preferred to have Corinne all to herself.” He drew a deep, luxurious breath that cleared the last of the smoke from his lungs. Ray had grabbed his shot at immortality by stealing Marcus’s body, but even the Ambrosia Conversion was no guarantee against accidental death...or murder.
“What are you doing here, Te
rra? How did you find me?”
“Don’t think I came here just to rescue you. I came to stop you once we’d tracked you to the capital.” Terra’s voice was quiet, but her disapproving tone came through loud and clear. “You were breaking all our rules. We wanted to keep you from doing something that you were sure to regret.”
“All I wanted to do was to see them again,” Marcus said, “my wife and daughter. Stealing them from me was even crueler than stealing my identity.”
“Look, Marcus. It’s not fair. I get that. But you have to play the hand you’ve been dealt. Your life is with Lena, now. You belong with her. And Ray, despite the devious way he managed to get here, now belongs here with Corinne...and Natasha.”
“I could just stay,” said Marcus, “and you could send him back to San Francisco.”
“That can’t happen,” said Terra. “My superiors wouldn’t permit it. Ray set things in motion by his impulsivity that you can’t imagine and that can’t be undone. Exposing your exchange of identities would expose secrets that are crucial to the future of our organization and of the Commonwealth. If we interfered, they would likely kill you both and probably me, too. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t help you now.”
“Or ever?” asked Marcus. “Does this mean you won’t ever find a way to switch us back?”
Terra looked straight ahead, avoiding his gaze, which was enough to give him her answer. The possibility that she might ever reverse the exchange had been an empty promise either to soften the blow or to keep him in line.
The car veered sharply from the road and within minutes was in a long tunnel that descended at a steep angle into the earth. When it finally leveled out, the car slid into a brightly lit underground chamber and abruptly stopped. Terra switched off the power and the vehicle settled softly to the ground.
“You can get out now,” she said.
“Where the hell are we?”
“We’re in a project safe haven. We have a number of them throughout the world. This chamber is completely shielded from airborne communication signals. Here we’re completely off the grid.”
“So the authorities can’t track me?”
“The authorities are the least of your problems. Your impulsive actions have placed you right in the crosshairs of The Tribe of 23.”
“You mean the hate group?” Marcus and Corinne had long been targeted by them because of Corinne’s zealous advocacy of SPUD rights, a cause with which Marcus had joined. His rise to power as Minister of Discovery had cast their advocacy into the limelight. His security detail had protected them from a prior attack, but it was only a matter of time before they struck again.
“The same. They were behind the firebomb. And the man that was just chasing you is Samson.”
“Fast as hell,” said Marcus, “and the collision barely slowed him down.”
“He’s a SPUD, of course,” said Terra. “He’s their poster boy for the threat of SPUDs against humanity. They also use him to do their dirty work.”
“So what happens now?”
“We lay low while our collaborators cover your tracks. By now they’ve removed the car from the scene. They’re preparing an upload to your MELD chip that will place you back home at the time of the fire. It will load as soon as we’re back outside.”
“So my MELD chip won’t function here?”
“No, nor, for that matter, mine,” answered Terra. “If we want to find out anything, we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.” She pointed to a laptop computer sitting on a marble platform. It bore a logo in the shape of an apple.
Marcus had seen one like it, stashed in a drawer in Ray’s apartment. He stumbled upon it soon after Lena discovered his true identity. She’d explained that it was a keepsake. Ray had used it in the early days of his work on HibernaTurf. It was the last of its kind, the final model before computer hardware became obsolete forever.
“We fortunately have powerful friends,” Terra continued. “As far as the authorities are concerned, you were never here. The Tribe of 23 is another story altogether. Samson got close enough to analyze your DNA. They know who you are.”
“Lena!” exclaimed Marcus. Terra saw him flinch, his eyes darting around like a rabbit exposed to the hunt. The intensity of his alarm took him by surprise. As much as he adored Corinne, his time with Lena had formed a bond between them. He’d come to love her, too. And he wasn’t prepared to lose them both.
“Operatives have been dispatched to protect her,” Terra assured him. “They should already have her under surveillance.”
“Who the hell are you, Terra?” Marcus asked with simultaneous relief and indignation. He hadn’t given a lot of thought to the nature of his benefactors when Terra had first approached him with her proposition of wealth and power. Now it was becoming apparent that there was more to her organization than the service they provided. They seemed to have the kind of power that was usually available only to the stealthy arms of governments.
“You don’t need to know,” Terra replied. “Just be glad we’re on your side.”
*****
Ray and Corinne arrived in separate ambulances at the hospital, where they were both swarmed by security personnel. Corinne was still unconscious, but her vital signs were strong and she was breathing on her own. Ray had begun to regain consciousness at the site of the fire. His extreme fitness had served him well. Within an hour, he was awake and alert. His last conscious images had been of the blast and the fire.
“Corinne! Where is she?” were his first words.
“She’s here in the Emergency Pod,” said the nurse. “She hasn’t woken up yet, but they expect her to recover.”
“And Natasha?”
“Safe at her friend’s home where you left her. We’ve dispatched people to protect her,” said one of the guards by the door.
Ray felt a wave of relief. He’d underestimated the depth of feelings that had flourished in his heart for this child.
Photina was at Corinne’s side, holding her hand, when Ray arrived at her cubicle. He smiled at the gesture of concern and affection that was becoming commonplace for Photina and many others like her. Before he’d met Haley Sellica, he’d considered SPUDs inanimate contraptions. His respect for Photina had grown rapidly since his arrival in Marcus’s home. How could anyone regard her as anything but a fully sentient, feeling being? She looked up and smiled when she saw him.
“They tell me you saved my life,” he said extending his hand to her. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And Corinne? You got her out, too?”
“No. There was a stranger...a man. I don’t know where he came from. He pulled her out before I could get to either of you.” She hesitated a moment. “If he hadn’t been there, I would have rescued her instead of you.”
“And that’s exactly what I would have wanted you to do.” Ray smiled and squeezed her hand. “Now...tell me about this stranger.”
41
MARCUS CLIMBED into the front pod of the six-pod cylinder and took a last look at Terra standing on the loading dock before the hatch was shut. After coming so close to Corinne and Natasha, it was painful for him to leave. But there was nothing more that he could do for them. And he felt responsible for Lena and for the danger in which he’d placed her. He’d at least managed to keep from Terra that Lena had discovered his secret. It was time to return to her side.
As the cylinder entered the vacuum tube and accelerated on its frictionless path to thousands of miles per hour, Marcus recalled the history of this mode of transportation, which had begun around the time of his birth and was well-established by the time he was a teenager. Before he was old enough to remember, vacuum tubes were used to transport money and documents between customers and tellers at banks.
A bright entrepreneur had realized that the technology could be scaled to move people over great distances at lightning speeds that surpassed air travel for a fraction of the energy cost. Soon networks grew like giant spider webs, crisscro
ssing continents, and vacuum tube transport became the dominant form of mass transit.
Marcus smiled as the transparent capsule glided soundlessly past the landscape at nearly four thousand miles per hour. Had he been born a little earlier, he might have invented this technology. It had taken him a while to become accustomed to the landscape passing across his field of vision so quickly and so close at hand. The perception of speed with air travel was blunted considerably by the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Marcus found tube transport, in contrast, dizzying until his body accommodated to the sense of speed. What he found most remarkable was that the feeling of being in a speeding vehicle came almost entirely from the visual realm. After he closed his eyes for a few seconds, it felt as if he were motionless, so smooth was the course of the capsule and so constant the speed.
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