Although he had a point, it just didn't fit. She had spent her career analyzing EIs. She would swear the Bart who ordered Fourteen to shackle her to the table wasn't the EI she had first met. She disliked what she had to do, but she saw no other responsible choice. "Thomas, I need to tell you one more part."
He didn't look surprised. "Yes?"
She forced out the words. "Turner has a copy of Charon in his matrix. It's contained, but not that well."
Thomas stared at her. "Hell and damnation. Why didn't you tell me before?"
She met his gaze. "I wasn't sure I could trust you."
"Why not? I've known you since you were too young to wipe your own butt. Now you can't trust me?"
"I asked you for help and next thing, we're shanghaied to Tibet. Then at Hockman, all of a sudden you've never heard of us and Major Connors is skulking around, trying to deactivate Turner. After all that, would you trust you?"
"Granger was trying to shake you up enough to crack your story. But both you and Turner stuck to it." He held up his hands, palms out. "Whatever you think of my motives, know this. I could no more betray you than my own daughters. I promised your father I would look out for you and I meant it."
Sam suddenly felt tired. "I know."
His voice quieted. "You don't trust me, yet you do trust Turner, someone you've only known a week and who may have the mind of an insane man within him. If you were me, would you want him conscious and aware?"
"No. No, I wouldn't." After a pause, she added, "If Bart didn't send us out here, who did?"
"Wildfire. Charon. Parked and Gone."
Sam grimaced. "He parked himself inside Turner, but who knows where else he's gone. If he has access to the GPS, he could transmit himself all over the planet."
Thomas looked as if he had eaten a sour fruit. "In your estimation, has he taken over Turner?"
"No."
"Could he be corrupting Turner's matrix?"
"I don't think so. What do you NIA whizzes say?"
He answered wryly. "They aren't whizzing so well, it seems. They had no idea Turner carried a copy of Charon."
"We have to do something. We can't just stand here." She walked to the front of the Redbird and jumped up to look into the empty cockpit.
Thomas joined her and showed her the palm screen of his glove. His scan of the onboard systems verified an AI had flown them here. "It overrides my commands when I try to open the cockpit doors. Same thing when I try to call in help. It's probably blocking my GPS chip and the signal from the Redbird, too." He flicked his finger through several holicons floating above the screen. "At least I can still lock up the Redbird."
"Let's check the area," Sam said.
He scanned the sky. "We were in the air for over an hour. It won't be long before someone realizes we're gone, if they don't already. We'll be easier to find here with the Bird."
"And easier to kill."
He turned back to her. "If someone wanted to kill us, they could have done it already."
"They want the goods intact." She tapped his temple. "As soon as you die, your brain starts to degrade. The imaging process to map it has to be done right away. If someone intends that for us, they would want to start as soon as we were dead. Or before." Sam remembered Fourteen with his air syringe, standing over her when she lay shackled to the table. Unable to stay still with the memory, she paced toward the forest.
Thomas caught up with her. "Don't go far."
"I won't."
"I'm not going to let anyone slice your brain, Sam."
She shivered. "Thanks."
"I thought it was possible to image the brain without destroying it."
"Yep."
"So why does Charon kill people, even himself?"
"Turner was already dead. I'm not sure what Charon wants from me. For himself, who knows? Maybe he's just nuts." She imagined what it would be like to copy her own mind. "Suppose someone copied your brain without harming you? Then what? You could exist in two different bodies. Very weird."
"That, from a woman engaged to a biomech forma."
"I'm engaged to Turner. For a principle."
"What happened to love?"
Her cheeks heated up. "I've only known him a week."
Thomas slanted a look at her. "Having doubts?"
"Of course I'm having doubts."
"So don't do it."
She tried for a lighter tone. "Well, no one else has asked me." She hadn't had a real date in years. Her friends claimed she ran like the wind anytime a man showed interest. Maybe they were right. Until Turner.
"You could have a normal relationship if you wanted it," Thomas said.
"I'm happy with this one." It finally hit her what he had said: So don't do it. That implied a choice existed, one she could make herself.
She spoke carefully. "If Turner and I persist with this marriage thing, will you try to stop us?"
At first he didn't answer. They walked in silence. Sunlight filtered through the trees and made dappled patterns on the ground. Fresh scents filled the air, different from the redwood forest around her home, less vivid, but fresh and vibrant. Leaves and twigs crunched under their feet.
Finally Thomas said, "Are you asking if I will oppose the marriage because it raises questions we haven't yet answered or because I think it will make you miserable?"
"The first." She was worried enough about the second for both of them.
"Sam, if you want this, I won't oppose it."
She stopped walking. "I didn't expect that."
"If you're convinced he's human, I'll take your word. You're the EI expert."
She wasn't certain she believed him. "Aren't you worried about world security and all that?"
"I didn't say no one would oppose it," he said dryly.
"You mean General Chang."
"Yes."
If Chang opposed it, the marriage wouldn't happen regardless of what Thomas thought. "I doubt anyone even knows if it's legal."
"It would probably end up at the Supreme Court." Thomas pushed aside a bush sticking out in their way. "We shouldn't go any farther."
"All right."
He sat on a fallen log balanced on two boulders, giving a "bench" at about the height of his waist. "Talk to me, Sam."
She sat next to him. "I thought I was."
"You've told me events. I want to know what you think this all means. Not technically, but in the bigger scheme of humanity."
She sat thinking, listening to the chirps and rustles of the woods as she gathered her thoughts. "Our ability to create intelligent machines has outstripped our evolution. Some people think we're headed for an explosion in biomech development that will change the human race forever."
"I've heard the theory."
"Maybe this is the first stage."
"It doesn't feel that way." He turned over his hand, studying his glove. "Sure, we have fancier gadgets. But my life now isn't unrecognizable to my parents, who grew up in the 1950s."
Sam leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "Suppose Sunrise Alley really is intertwined with our global meshes, that they can outwit our best security, that someday soon we could all load ourselves into formas, that people could pilfer minds and bodies the way Charon did with Linden." She exhaled. What did you call it when someone stole another person's internal identity? "In twenty years, our lives may not be recognizable even to ourselves."
He watched her intently. "The longer Turner lives, the smarter, faster, and more sophisticated he will become. Have you thought how you will feel when he's leagues beyond anything you can achieve as an unaugmented human? He'll leave you in the dust."
She had been avoiding the thought. "I know."
"Unless you change yourself."
A woman spoke, her voice deep, throaty, and mocking. "Well, that would be interesting."
Sam jerked and Thomas jumped to his feet. "Who is that?" he asked, his voice rumbling. She had forgotten how intimidating he could sound when he wanted.
A
woman in a black leather catsuit walked out of the bushes, sleek, svelte, and menacing, an EM pulse rifle in her hand. "Me."
"Ah, hell," Sam said.
It was Alpha.
XIX
Buried
Thomas glanced at Sam. "You know this woman?"
"She's one of Charon's goons," Sam said.
Alpha shifted the rifle to her other hand. Her slow smile had the look of a predator. To Sam, she said, "How's the arm, honey?"
Sam spoke through gritted teeth. "Fine."
The bushes behind Alpha rustled as another of Charon's mercenaries came out, the man Hud. He took up position behind Alpha, his stance solid, his hands gripped on a pulse rifle, his face unreadable.
Alpha strolled forward, long and lean in her black outfit, which had components embedded in its leather, silver and hard. She and Thomas eyed each other, both about the same height.
"How did you find us?" Sam asked her.
"Oh, you know." Alpha shrugged. "We listen here, there, around."
"Who are you?" Thomas asked. "And who is 'we'?"
"She's Alpha, from Charon's base in Tibet," Sam said.
"That's right," Alpha said. "And now it's time to go." Her eyes flashed with malice. "I'm sorry Turner's not here. I would have liked to return the favor of his attentions in the elevator."
Sam smirked. "Don't like being outwitted, eh?"
The way Alpha's smile hardened made Sam suspect Turner had indeed outwitted her, as opposed to Alpha letting him escape. That didn't mean Charon hadn't set it up, but it did imply Alpha hadn't been in on the plan. Hud showed no trace of emotion, he just watched with that careful, intent scrutiny of his.
Thomas motioned in the direction of the helicopter. "How did you get the Bird here?" He had his other arm down by his side, his mesh glove off now and crumpled in his hand, almost hidden from view. In her peripheral vision, Sam saw his thumb moving discreetly over its surface.
"You can quit fooling with the glove," Alpha added. "We fried the mesh interface."
Thomas smiled coolly. Sam had seen that expression before. He wasn't amused. Whenever he had that look, she got out of his way.
"Lead on," he said, his voice deceptively mild.
So Alpha and Hud took them through the woods, Alpha walking with Thomas, and Sam and Hud behind them. It would have been a pleasant hike—if Sam hadn't feared they were about to die. Or worse. She didn't want to discover how it felt to be a submesh inside someone else's brain.
An engine rumbled overhead. Alpha looked up, then increased her pace. Sam's hope leapt; Alpha hadn't expected that sound.
Hud stayed at her side, a solid, oppressive presence. Every now and then he looked her over with an appraising stare. It was making her twitchy. Finally she said, "What? You don't like my fashion sense?"
The corners of his mouth quirked up. "Actually, it's rather attractive."
She didn't like it when he smiled at her. "Your fatigues could use some style work." Okay, it wasn't the most tactful response, but the sarcasm crept in when she was scared.
Unexpectedly, he laughed. "I imagine so."
Up ahead of them, Thomas turned back. Knowing he was afraid for her, Sam gave him her I'm fine expression. After a hard look at Hud, he turned forward again.
The rumble overhead returned, surely an aircraft above the woods. This time Alpha stopped, her gun raised as she scanned the canopy of branches arching over them, much closer to the ground than the cathedral-like redwood forest at home.
Thomas leaned against a tree, his arms folded. "Expecting company?" he asked Alpha.
She tilted her head. "No one could have followed you here."
"Why not?" Thomas asked. "You aren't the only ones with good infiltration systems. Maybe we lured you here under false pretenses."
A muscle twitched in Alpha's cheek. "Move."
"We aren't going anywhere," Thomas said.
Sam tried to ignore Hud as he closed his hand around her upper arm. The tendons of his fingers felt as hard as the cables of Turner's hand. She wished he didn't look so damned familiar.
"Think again." Alpha holstered her gun and withdrew a slender tube from a conduit in her sleeve. Calmly, without hesitation, she fired the tube at Thomas. He slapped his hand over his breastbone, then pulled something out of his chest.
"What is this?" He held out his hand. A dart lay on the palm.
"Lethal nanomeds. Little molecular assassins. High-tech poison." Alpha glanced back the way they had come. The rumble was increasing, something landing, it sounded like. She swung back to Thomas. "They take five minutes to act and another five to kill you." She motioned at Sam. "Charon wants her alive. He doesn't care about you."
Sam clenched her fists. "If Thomas dies, the only work I'll ever do for Charon is to kill him."
"Oh, your sexy general doesn't have to die. I'll give him an antidote—when we have you two secured." Alpha motioned them forward. "I would suggest you get going. You don't have much time."
"Secured where?" But Thomas started to walk again.
"A place we set up," Alpha said. "In case something like this happened."
They strode through the woods, faster now. Hud stayed with Sam, vigilant and unwelcome. She didn't need his urging to go fast; Thomas was sweating far more than he should have been, given the cool day. His face soon paled. She also noticed how easily Alpha pushed aside branches that even a strong man would have found heavy, and how her too-perfect face showed no signs of strain.
"You're an android," Sam said to her.
Alpha considered her, but said nothing. Thomas never slowed his pace, his long stride eating up distance despite the undergrowth that hampered their progress.
"There." Alpha indicated a stand of trees screened by bushes. They pushed through the matted foliage and stopped in the middle of the stand, surrounded by tangled brush. Despite the foliage, Sam didn't see what good this would do. Thomas's people would find this place when they combed the woods.
But by then, it might be too late for Thomas. His face had gone white. "Where is the antidote?"
"You'll get it." Alpha pressed a mesh woven into her jumpsuit. The ground cover pulled back, grass and dirt falling into the hole, clearing to reveal a hatch several yards down. Sam doubted she would have found it even if she had thought to dig. That it resembled the hideaway in Iowa didn't reassure her. Charon may have found this place through Bart.
The hatch swung down, revealing a chute with a metal ladder on one side. Thomas immediately started down, lowering himself into the hole until he reached the ladder. Sam went next, descending into cooler air and shadows, and Alpha and Hud followed. After they had gone a few yards, several hatches closed over them in rapid succession. Sam didn't doubt the ground was moving into place, filling the hole. She wondered what Thomas's people would do when they found no one up there. Methods existed to detect a place like this, but just as many ways existed to hide it.
They climbed in the darkness.
"Thomas?" Sam asked.
"Yes?" His voice came from below.
"Are you all right?"
No answer.
"Damn it, Alpha!" Sam clenched the metal rungs of the ladder. "Give him the antidote."
No answer.
A grate came from below, a shoe scraping concrete. Sam went down a few more rungs and her foot hit the floor. She moved away from the ladder, listening to Alpha step down. Sam thought frantically of wrestling her to the floor and grabbing the antidote. It was a stupid idea; she had no chance against even one mercenary, let alone both Alpha and Hud. But she hated knowing that Thomas might be dying at her side, in the darkness, and she couldn't help.
"Here." That was Alpha. "Inject yourself in the arm."
A hiss came from the dark. Then Thomas said, "How do I know it will work?"
"You don't," Alpha said. "We've cut it close."
Sam swore at her. "He better not die."
No answer.
"Thomas?" Sam asked. "Are you there?"
"Don't stop talking." Her words tumbled out, fast and scared. "Let me know you're alive."
"Still alive . . . and kicking."
Sam reached around until she brushed his arm. "Maybe you should sit down."
"I think so."
That scared her as much as anything else. Thomas always insisted he was fine, even when he was sick.
As they settled onto a cold floor, Sam strained to hear sounds, any sounds. "Alpha? Hud?"
A distant clang came from somewhere.
"They dumped us," Thomas said.
"You really think your people are looking for us?"
"Yes." His words sounded labored. "Lieutenant Dreymore thought that transmission from General Chang's staff was a fake."
Sam listened to his ragged breathing. Alpha had said he would die within ten minutes. It had to have been that long by now. "Thomas?"
"Need to lie down." His uniform rustled. Sam helped him stretch out on the floor, on his side, then sat next to him and rested her palm on his forehead. His skin felt clammy.
"You have to stay alive." Losing Thomas would be like losing her father all over again, even worse, because she had brought this on Thomas by seeking his help. Please be all right.
"Our EIs have been analyzing Charon's attempts to break into our meshes," he said.
"Thomas!"
"Yes?"
"You're alive."
"It does appear so." He sounded a bit surprised.
"Thank God." Relief washed over her, tempered by the knowledge that his improvement didn't mean he had come through this yet.
"We looked for patterns," he said. "Links, anything that would help us track the attempted break-ins."
Sam knew that tone. It was the same one he had used after his doctors told him to pay more attention to his cholesterol or he would have a heart attack. He was trying to distract himself from thoughts of his mortality.
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