‘We’ve both sacrificed too much to stop now,’ she said. ‘A little programming could—’
‘Programming isn’t enough. I need to put this behind me.’
‘You haven’t embraced your pain,’ she said. ‘Not all of it. You need to see it as a mere sensation; it comes and goes, like everything. Run, as it commands, and it will devour you; stay, against its wishes, and it will serve you.’
He remained unconvinced.
‘Who would replace you?’ she asked. ‘We have no one in the Federation who might match your skill with Geppetto. As federator, I could not accept your resignation, not in a time such as ours.’
‘And as a friend?’ he asked.
The rain formed vertical rivulets along the window. ‘It’s been a long road, Jeong-soo.’ Two-Eagle sighed and her maya-form walked through him. ‘I can approve a mem-wipe instead. I can wipe everything that’s happened since the Tellinii hack.’
A wipe?
‘Help me finish what we started,’ she said, ‘and I’ll make you forget every last second of it.’
In forgetfulness, there was a freedom.
15:5
Every time the ambulance hopper shuddered or changed direction to remain under cloud cover, Sky would wake with a start. Eventually she gave up trying to sleep. Instead, she used the time to get to know Geppetto; it had integrated with her neurals and she discovered she was able to access its mind-dubbing function.
She thordered Geppetto take snapshots of her most important memories from the last few days and store them digitally within her internal DNA computer. She attempted to find a network connection to an insurance company in the VOL, to transfer her memories for safekeeping, but all the intra-solar networks were unavailable; Earth had walled itself off.
No matter, Sky thought, she would wait for a more opportune moment to transfer her memories. Until then, she would have them at the ready.
Dawn came sooner than she had expected. The light revealed the land’s natural curves and contours, packaged into multicolored boxes of farms. Her map indicated they had crossed an invisible border into the state of Canada, thirteen kilometers from their intended destination.
The night had kept them safe, but the first sign of light threatened to expose them. Her swarm did not have the mass to cover the entire length of the roof. This had not been a problem in darkness and cloud cover, but now that the clouds had thinned, the sun’s rays would reflect off the white of the roof.
Sky’s new BOS suggested initiating the swarm’s chameleon feature; instead of becoming invisible, the swarm could use color to blend into the environment. This would allow the swarm bots to spread out, yet maintain an adequate illusion. Sky gave the thorder and the swarm danced like oil on shifting waters, changing colors to camouflage the hopper, mimicking the landscape below. A handful of swarm bots hung in position underneath the vessel, capturing the topography on their cameras and transmitting the data to the parent swarm on the roof. From a satellite camera’s perspective, the hopper would be much harder to spot, though not impossible.
The swarm’s ability to camouflage had one drawback; Sky could see the hopper’s shadow gliding along the ground.
Okiro woke.
‘So it wasn’t a dream,’ he said, looking around.
‘Would you prefer that it was?’ Sky asked him.
He yawned. ‘I’d prefer tea, to be honest.’
Much to his annoyance, and despite opening every compartment, he could not find a tea facility. Instead, he found a pair of medico overalls and decided to dress Sky as she was still in her hospital gown.
He was amazed at the lack of bruising on her legs. ‘You don’t look like you just jumped off a railpod. Modern medicine, eh?’
‘I feel like shit, if that’s any consolation.’
Okiro kept an eye on the pilot who sat expressionless in the cockpit. Although he knew Sky had manipulated the man, Okiro half expected him to turn against them at any moment.
‘What a strange sensation…’ Okiro said as he pulled the overalls over her knees, ‘… not having to stand guard against my thoughts, just in case something pops up to annoy the scanners. Was this what it was like in the Before? Mental anarchy? Gives me the jitters.’
‘Anarchy and freedom, both,’ Sky said. ‘By the way, I admire your ability to glance at my breasts only when I’m not looking.’
He smiled a you-got-me. ‘It’s a talent. Years of practice,’ he said, then gave her an admonishing look. ‘I thought you said you couldn’t read my thoughts?’
‘Who said I was reading your thoughts?’
He smirked. ‘Putting aside my reproductive urges for a moment, what’s the remaining ten per cent of my mind been devoted to?’
She laughed, louder than his joke deserved. She would have let him kiss her then.
‘So, your memories…’ Okiro began, still struggling with what he had seen, ‘It’s going to take some time to process all this…’
Sky wished she could reach out to him, to comfort him. What happened next was even better; she received a request for a telepathic connection from an Okiro Mohammed-Levi.
‘You opened yourself to me,’ he explained, ‘I think it’s only polite I return the favor. Plus, it’ll be a nice change from communicating underneath a door.’
She chuckled, her heart warmed. She accepted the request.
His head arched back and the whites of his eyes shone in the artificial light. Their thoughts intertwined.
So many families dead at the hands of Tellinii, he thought. He reached out and held her hand. She wanted him close, yet she was afraid. Even though their minds had merged, she was still afraid.
‘Don’t be,’ he said, and opened his life to her.
Sky saw how Okiro had investigated her neural spike.
That was probably the NIA’s instructions, sending me on my mission, she thought. But how? Remotely through Tester’s Geppetto? No, the timing of her neural spike coincided with meeting her father that night at the hospital, when he had scanned her mind. It must have been then that he had implanted the instructions.
As she sipped from Okiro’s life, she came upon memories of his family; Penny, and little Elsa. Until now, she had not known he had others in his life. Sky, so intimately connected with him, could not hide her disappointment. Nor could she hide her delight at the love in his life.
Okiro’s memories found their own place in Sky’s mental timeline.
He was close now—physically. He brushed his lips against hers. Then they melted into one another, a physical union that mimicked their intertwined minds.
He chuckled and pulled away. ‘We should have done this…’
‘… a long time ago.’
*
With at least an hour until they reached their intended destination, and after a week’s worth of anxiety and fear, not knowing whether she would live or die, Sky needed more of Okiro than just a kiss.
Her desire empowered his own. He was hesitant at first, given her recent injuries, but she reassured him; the doctors had stabilized her spine, he would not hurt her.
Okiro lifted her and took her to a space at the rear of the hopper.
She found that, without the distraction of physical sensations below her neck, their kissing became all-consuming. Her neck had never been more sensitive. She felt herself dissolve.
At one point she gasped, not out of pleasure but out of fear; the presence of another so close, and her inability to move her limbs, pulled her back into the past, onto that bed with the Gregos man leering over her. Okiro experienced it with her and stopped. He gave her space, just as she needed him to. When she was ready again, she craned her neck toward him…
Her lack of sensation below was no barrier; she would feel what she could feel, and if that were not enough, she would switch into his mind to experience his pleasure.
Sky discovered she could still feel arousal, though it was somewhat diminished in comparison to her experience before her spinal injury. Later she would learn tha
t she had been experiencing pleasure through her vagus nerve, an alternate pathway to the brain which bypassed her spinal cord and wound down her neck through to her heart and below.
Lovemaking between telepaths was not that different from the ordinary variety, except that each lover was more aware and responsive in the dance. When she wanted gentleness, he sensed it and responded in kind. When the time for gentleness had passed, he knew it before she did and brought her there.
And when that was not enough to dam the memories of days past, horrors which would crawl from the shadows to rob her of a simple pleasure, when she needed someone to shake her into the present and hold her there until she forgot who she was, when she needed to feel vulnerable—but in the hands of someone she trusted—he obliged.
The space between Sky and Okiro narrowed and their experiences began to merge. He revelled in her pleasure, as she did his. They played in the infinitesimal present, light-years from past and future, and Sky realized, for the first time since ’36… she could love life.
15:6
Okiro slid himself into position behind Sky to get a better grip on her overalls. He shimmied them up her body, struggling to lift the pants.
I wish we had a larger size, he thought.
Sky glared at him, ‘They are my size.’
Okiro laughed. ‘It’s challenging enough for a guy to navigate the sea of icebergs in ordinary conversation with a woman. I can’t for the life of me understand why any woman would link telepathically with a man.’
The rain beat down. A sudden jolt of the hopper threw Okiro off balance—he had to grab hold of a rail to prevent himself from falling over. The hopper dipped, then righted itself.
‘What was that?’ Sky asked, concerned.
Turbulence, she heard the pilot think. Storm clouds.
Sky looked out the window. The relatively flat plains had given way to a creeping incline; they were approaching mountain ranges.
You should wake your mom while you’re both still in one piece, Okiro said.
I know.
You’re scared.
Am I? Yes, but…
But what?
When she hears the truth… I don’t want to hurt her…
So you’ll keep her asleep forever?
The hopper landed. They had arrived at their destination.
15:7
The ambulance shuddered as it landed beside a line of ash trees, tall and overgrown, spotted with red buds. The undergrowth was thick. The wall of rain made it hard to see.
Good, Sky thought, the satellites will struggle too.
I sure hope you’re right about this guy, Okiro said. He must have seen us by now, and if the scanners pick that up…
It’s worth a try, Sky said. If my hunch is wrong, we’ll find some isolated place up north and lay low until we get another chance.
Sky’s swarm had found a series of cameras on the property, but they were all on a private network. The NIA would not be able to use them.
The doors opened. Sky rolled down the ramp, followed by Okiro. With her mother still inside the hopper, Sky thordered the pilot to lock up, then she put him to sleep.
Sky collected her swarm from the hopper’s roof and transformed it into a canopy to protect herself and Okiro from both the rain and the satellites.
Her wheelchair struggled in the soggy turf. She wished she could feel the cold; the icy sensation existed only around her head, traveled down her neck, and then stopped. It was as if her consciousness was compressed into a ball, balancing on the edge of a skyscraper.
They arrived at a rusted gate with a sign: Trespassers will be shot on sight, accompanied by an illustration of a farmer with a rifle.
‘Friendly,’ Okiro said. They both knew the sign was an empty threat, given that private weapons had been illegal for decades, and the scanners would have long ago picked up any violent propensities in the property owner.
That’s assuming the scanners can read him, Sky pointed out.
A chill ran down Okiro’s spine, and it was more than just the cold.
The farm’s front yard was a helter-skelter of odds and ends, as if they had been flung by a tornado; old road-vehicle bodies, sheets of metal, and other remnants of machines past.
Amongst the debris sat a wooden homestead. Sky thought it might fall apart before they reached it. The home had more walls than windows, and the windows were so filthy they might as well have been walls.
To her left was a tombstone set under an ivy-covered pavilion, complete with vases of fresh flowers that stood at attention. The grave was either new or well maintained, in stark contrast to the rest of the yard.
As they approached, the front door of the farmhouse creaked open and a Caucasian man with a prominent belly walked out. He wore overalls and a red-checked hunting cap with earflaps. Sky recognized him as one of the citizens she had processed in a scanner review the day Detroit was hacked—Billy-Jay Renfield. The man wiped his bulbous hands on a dirty rag and adjusted his cap.
Sky scanned his mind, but there was something odd about his neurals. Geppetto had made observing someone’s mind as easy as a printed lunch, but this man’s brain took effort to penetrate; some of his thoughts were clear, as they should be, yet others…
One thing she did glean from his mind was that he was carrying a projectile pistol, presently snuggled in a holster underneath his jacket.
‘Can I help you folks?’ he asked, eyeing them. He reminded her of a light-skinned Uncle Jesse.
‘Mr. Renfield, my name’s Sky, and this is Okiro. We need a ship, something to get us offworld, and I understand you might be able to assist us.’
The man’s eyes bulged so wide that they threatened to tip him over.
Subtle, thought Okiro.
I can pick up sarcasm, you know.
Why not just puppet him, like the hopper pilot?
Better an ally than a slave.
‘Listen ma’am,’ Mr. Renfield stammered, ‘I’m a law abidin’ citizen. The only place I can help you get to is the nearest town,’ he motioned to a pickup truck that Sky had assumed was inoperable. ‘Besides, the scanners already know what you’re up to so I reckon the authorities will be here soon. Can I get you folks somethin’ while we wait? My lemonade has real lemons.’
Sky wheeled herself to the steps of the porch. ‘The scanners can’t see us anymore than they can see you.’
Billy-Jay’s feet shifted. He adjusted his cap again. ‘Can’t say I know what you mean. The scanners pulled me up just the other day. I’m due for a visit from the programmers this week.’
Sky cocked her head, unconvinced. ‘You don’t plan on being here when the programmers arrive. You and Ol’ Pete.’
A hint of red spread across his cheeks. His left hand moved inside his jacket. ‘Where are you folks from anyway?’
‘We’re just ordinary folk trying to avoid the authorities, just like you.’
‘You don’t look ordinary to me,’ Billy-Jay pointed at the space above Sky’s head. The swarm may have been invisible, but the rain was bouncing off it, outlining its shape.
Billy-Jay whipped out the gun and stuck the barrel to his own temple. ‘Sorry, I’d rather die free.’
His gun hand trembled. His whole face flushed, the veins of his neck popping from the strain. But his gun would not fire. His eyes turned to the gun’s barrel. He watched in disbelief as his gun-hand lowered to his side, against his will.
His jaw dropped. ‘What in the… brainbenders?’
‘That’s a nice hat. You do much hunting?’ Sky asked over the pelting rain.
‘I ain’t hunted since it was banned.’
‘We’re not from the government, Mr. Renfield,’ she tried to reassure him. ‘What’s under the hat?’
The man’s shoulders slumped and, with a look of resignation, he lifted his hat with his free hand. His scalp was covered in a reflective material dotted with wires.
‘Is that a jammer?’ Okiro exclaimed. He leapt onto the porch with a gri
n, focused on the man’s electrode-heavy skullcap. Billy-Jay stood still while Okiro circled him. ‘Still functional?’
‘Uh, yeah,’ the man responded, sheepish.
‘I thought jammers didn’t work.’
Billy-Jay shrugged. ‘It helps if you never got those DNA motherboards injected.’
Okiro looked at him as if he were a relic in a museum. ‘So how do you connect to the Neuronet if you’re not equipped?’
Billy-Jay pulled back his right ear. Wrapped around it was a piece of discolored technology. A tiny light flickered on it, then expanded until a hologram appeared a meter in front of the man, displaying various public sites.
‘Ah,’ Okiro nodded, smiling, ‘old school. But how do you thorder when you don’t have a DNA motherboard?’
‘You don’t need one,’ Mr. Renfield explained. ‘Holotech can link with the net’s generic programs on the cloud. Truth be told, you don’t even need holotech; you can link to local devices and the net with just your naked brain. The speed’s not great but it still works. Personally, I prefer holos. You couldn’t pay me enough to use mayas—I don’t trust any tech that can make me hallucinate. Workin’ out what’s real and what’s not is hard enough as it is.’
‘I didn’t know you could link naked,’ Okiro frowned.
‘Why would you? It’s easier for them to monitor you with an internal motherboard.’ Billy-Jay tapped his temple. ‘All natural, no artificial additives. Connects to the net just like yours.’
Sky recalled that the Apollan urchin, Bolt-head, had also claimed he could access neuronets without a DNA implant.
Okiro was intrigued. ‘How can your thoughts access the net while they’re being jammed?’
‘The jammer only scrambles thoughts I’d rather keep to myself. Other than that, I can access the net like you do.’
That raised another question in Sky’s mind: ‘If you have a jammer, how did the scanners flag you?’
‘Well… yer see… I sorta fell. Legs ain’t what they used to be.’ He adjusted his hat. ‘The jammer went offline for a second. Guess it was bound to happen after thirty years.’
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