by Sean Platt
Altruance traced the line with his finger. They weren’t even listening.
“It’s precise. The ends were drawn with a ruler. Look at the way the lines intersect here.”
“What the hell are you two talking about?”
Sophie looked up, jockeyed around inside the office, then finally dragged Ephraim out onto the dock. She scanned the horizon, seeming to search for her bearings. Finally, she pointed, her side pressed against Ephraim’s so they could sight down the arm together.
“See that buoy?”
“I see something. It might be a gull.”
“And you see that one over there?” Sophie pointed again.
“Yes.”
“What do you think those buoys are marking?”
“I don’t know,” Ephraim said. They didn’t have time for this.
But Sophie was pointing, so he made himself consider. Both buoys were close to the marina.
“Maybe it’s the no-wake zone. Go slow when your boat is close to the port and all that.”
Sophie shook her head. “It’s Mauritius.”
“What do you mean, ‘It’s Mauritius’?”
“I mean that buoy marks the edge of their Economic Zone. Where we stand is Eden, but since Eden isn’t a nation, it doesn’t have its own EEZ. The world treats it no differently than an oil rig built in international waters.” She pointed again. “That’s Mauritius. That right there? It’s the border.”
Ephraim looked from the key in his hand to the people on either side. The dock was bobbing, turning his legs uncertain.
“I thought you didn’t trust Mauritius? You said Eden probably bought them off.”
“Mauritius couldn’t be bought off,” said a voice from the rear.
They all turned. Behind them, between the office and the shore, stood the man with the black beard, holding a gun with a silencer on the end, pointed right at Ephraim’s heart.
“Unfortunately,” he went on, “certain people could be.”
The man’s arm moved slightly to the left.
Then his weapon fired, knocking Altruance dead into the water.
CHAPTER 66
THE LESSER OF EVILS
Sophie’s mouth opened, but only a wheezing little hitch managed to escape. She staggered backward, her hand coming helplessly to her throat. Her weight sagged onto Ephraim, who she nearly dragged to the deck.
Ephraim watched Altruance’s body bob face-down before coming to rest against a pylon. Blood spread like a blossom in the water.
“Do it,” Ephraim said.
“Do what?” the man asked.
“Shoot us already. I don’t give a fuck anymore.”
The man paused, as if considering. Ephraim fixed him with hard eyes. He knew he should be more shocked and saddened by what had just happened, but he no longer had room for new emotions.
Something had been splintering inside his mind since his arrival on Eden, and it had cracked most of the way when he’d killed his brother’s twin, pausing after the deed to scoop necessary equipment from his eye.
Now that splintered part of Ephraim’s mind had broken away. It was gone and drifting, flotsam in the stream of his former sanity.
The man drew a slow breath, then slipped the gun into his belt at the small of his back. “You don’t understand.”
“Goddamn right I don’t understand. And I don’t fucking care. I don’t want to get away. I don’t want to do any of this anymore. I want it all to stop.” Ephraim turned to Sophie, who looked terrified, her eyes leaking tears. “Just let Sophie go. Let her leave and I’ll quietly go wherever you want me.”
“Ephraim. I’m a friend.”
“I don’t even know who you are.”
“My name is Neven. I worked closely with your brother.”
Neven. He’d heard that name before.
“He wasn’t my brother.”
“That’s a matter of opinion.”
“It’s not a matter of opinion. And you’re not my goddamn friend.”
“Take a breath, Ephraim.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t even speak to me. Just pull the trigger and get this over with.”
Neven sat on a deck piling. Against all odds, he managed to look casual.
“I don’t want to shoot you. I’ve only ever been an observer.” Neven looked down at Altruance’s body. “And a helper, through whatever means were necessary.”
“You kill my friend, then lie to me about helping?”
Neven shifted on the pylon. He looked like he was choosing his words, trying to get what came next exactly right. Finally, he said:
“Altruance Brown worked for Fiona Roberson. Fiona was playing both sides, Ephraim. She wants Eden’s technology because getting new clones to mature rapidly without genetic faults is very difficult — something she and Wallace had a rather large falling-out over a long time ago. Riverbed is very much into rejuvenation and duplication, same as we are. Did you know that? And honestly, in many ways, their memory-transfer technology is even better than ours. Riverbed can do everything Eden does except for that one little piece: rapid maturation without faults. And that, Ephraim, is what your trip here was meant to fix. She sent you here to steal the one thing she couldn’t quite figure out on her own.”
Ephraim watched Neven, unspeaking.
“There was just be one little problem,” Neven went on. “After Fiona got what she needed, you would know where it came from. You, Ephraim, would know that she stole Eden’s process rather than inventing it herself. She had to solve the problem. And that, right there, is the catch-22 of espionage. You can’t win when dealing with double-dealers. Fiona betrayed you the second she hired you into this. You were sent to find the information and bring it back. But she also took out insurance by sending someone to erase you.” Neven nodded to the body in the water.
Ephraim managed a bitter laugh. “Altruance Fucking Brown was sent to ‘erase me’? He’s the richest, most famous athlete in the world!”
“He was sent to guide you in all the wrong directions. And believe me, Ephraim — everyone has their price. You don’t know all you think you do about your late friend’s leverage points.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Neven looked over his shoulder, toward the islet’s shore. In the opposite direction from where they’d come, around a bend in the sand.
“Then go and look. Take a walk along the water, right up that way. See where Altruance wanted you to go instead of coming into this marina. There are people waiting around that bend, Ephraim. You’ve thrown Eden into chaos. I saw Fiona’s people come ashore on one of the surveillance cameras, but they’re well-armed, and our forces are too scattered to face them.”
“Bullshit.”
“Altruance’s paperwork was forged using the same falsification channels as yours. That’s Fiona’s signature. He didn’t need a new identity like you, but he did have a sibling he needed to be hidden from view.” He leaned forward. “Fiona has his sister, Ephraim. Don’t blame Altruance. He was only doing what he had to do to protect her.”
“More bullshit.”
“Then let me ask you something,” Neven said, crossing one leg over the other. “What’s in it for Fiona Roberson to send you and not someone she already knows and trusts? You were an unknown to her, a stranger who begged to be sent to Eden for reasons of his own. So why you?”
“I was willing.”
“No one else was? For a woman as wealthy as Fiona? She had no other choices but you?”
“I brought her the plan. It was my idea. She backed it.”
“Maybe you thought it was your plan, but it wasn’t.” Neven gave Ephraim a look that was, of all things, sympathetic. Perhaps even condescending. “You coincidentally brought her the exact plan she needed, and she already had all the machinery in place to execute it once you showed up. Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“She didn’t even want me to do this at first. I had to track her down and work her for weeks before she agr
eed to let me go. I convinced her.”
“Did you? Or did you walk into her office and guess the number 617, which she already had in mind?”
In Ephraim’s head, he saw Jonathan touch his shoulder, prompting Ephraim to do the same. Touch your elbow, he’d said.
Ephraim skipped past all that Neven implied: that Fiona had pulled a mind trick, sending him on an errand that was her idea but that she’d allowed him to believe was his. He focused on Neven’s specific number. 617. Where had that come from, if not an unseen eye in the sky?
“You were listening in when I talked to Jonathan.”
“I was all the way out on the grounds before I thought to check back in. When Jonathan didn’t answer my page, I turned on the intercom inside the lab and heard you together. I couldn’t get back in time to stop what happened. But yes, I heard what he told you.”
“And earlier. On the Reef island. ‘Neven.’ I used your login to access the computer.”
“That’s right. Jonathan used the autofill trick once before when we were together. He called it the ‘poor man’s hack.’ He said you’d taught it to him; it was your method of getting into parents’ computers when you visited friends as kids. Because parents are sloppy; they don’t know better than to erase autofill histories. And if we could be as sloppy, maybe you’d use that little trick on our computers, too.”
“You’re saying you wanted me to get into the system? You wanted me to see what Eden was up to?”
“Who did you think sent the paint line to your MyLife leading you to that room in the first place? I told you, Ephraim. I’m a friend.”
Ephraim looked at Altruance, floating face-down. “You shot a man in cold blood. You lied to me all along.” He shook his head. “You’re an enemy.”
“If you’d gotten onto that boat and Altruance had seen his sister’s options running out, he’d have killed you, Ephraim. But me? I helped you all along. What you saw on the Reef computer? What I specifically led you to and allowed you to access? That was something you needed to know. You of all people."
You of all people, Ephraim. Jonathan’s words rang in his ear. But who was Ephraim? What did that even mean?
“Altruance wouldn’t hurt me. He helped me escape.”
“He was leading you to Fiona’s people on that beach, who would have killed you without blinking.”
“How could he have been plotting? He was asleep in a tank!”
Neven stood, exasperated. “Fiona’s people hacked our network hours ago! The Tomorrow Gene process had already been shut down by the time you showed up to ‘rescue’ your friends!” He glanced at Sophie. “Didn’t it seem odd that you were able to pop the top on a running genetic refurbishment without causing any problems? It was already off! You went to help them, and you got away! All the doors were open! Didn’t that strike you as awfully convenient — that the doors opened even while an alarm was ringing? Almost as if someone was on your side, paving your way?”
“As convenient as an army of clones sent to chase us? As rooms full of celebrity sex slaves?”
Neven threw up his hands. “Stock! Product lines! We need something to sell. How else are we supposed to keep the lights on? Jonathan was good at seeing the big picture and moving us toward the greater good. Changing the world takes capital! Jonathan said you’d understand!”
Ephraim shook his head slowly, and he took Sophie’s wrist. She’d been so quiet, he’d almost forgotten she was there. He backed up, leading her down the dock, toward the slip, the boat key in his pocket.
“Jonathan is dead. And you’re insane.”
“You’re part of this, Ephraim. Whether or not you want to be, your home is here on Eden. It always will be.”
There was activity from the bush on the shoreline. Officers in Eden uniform emerged, prowling forward, hands empty but eyes hard.
Ephraim nodded toward the shore. “I suppose they’re with Fiona? Or are they with you, coming here to give me hugs and welcome me to the family?”
“That’s up to you.”
Ephraim put a foot on the boat’s edge. He stepped inside.
“Don’t try it, Ephraim. We can’t let you leave.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
Neven’s hand went to his hip. It moved ever so slightly behind his back, to where the gun was stowed.
“Are you going to kill me like you killed Altruance? Are you done trying to convince me to stay?”
“Think about what you’re doing. You don’t have to trust me, but you can’t trust Fiona. Understand that there’s such a thing as the lesser of evils.”
“The lesser of evils doesn’t kill my friend. It doesn’t kill my brother.”
“You killed Jonathan, not me. Not us.”
“I killed that thing,” Ephraim clarified. He smiled. “And I’m taking its souvenir with me.”
The taunt felt dangerous, but Ephraim was sure that Neven wouldn’t hurt him. He’d stop him if he could, but Ephraim was safe. Respect for Jonathan’s final wishes, maybe.
Ephraim handed Sophie the key and nudged her. She took a loop of dock line off a cleat and inserted the key.
Something had changed dockside, brought about by Ephraim’s last statement. For the first time, Neven looked surprised. The gun should have reappeared. Neven's hand paused. His face changed, eyebrows rising and eyes widening.
“What are you talking about? What ‘souvenir’?”
“You must know,” Ephraim said, “seeing as you know everything.”
Ephraim tapped his temple. Near his MyLife implant.
Neven knew. Perhaps he’d seen Jonathan’s body only in flashes before setting the alarm. Maybe seen the blood, but not the hole in his face. But now he knew. Now the reality of Ephraim’s proof — the ace he’d managed to get after all — was dawning on Neven’s face.
Neven’s words came out fast, not smooth and certain like before. “Ephraim? Listen to me. I know you have your doubts. But if you …” He touched a spot behind his ear, surely activating a MyLife recall, probably scanning back to the lab — to the moment he’d discovered the Jonathan clone dead.
He looked back up, pure terror in his eyes.
And Ephraim, feeling manic and reckless in his small and surely temporary victory, thought why doesn’t he just shoot me?
But for whatever reason, it was clear that Neven couldn’t shoot, or wouldn’t. And that meant someone else on Eden was calling the shots, maybe whispering into his ear at this very moment. Someone, somewhere, had tied Neven’s hands on the matter of Ephraim Todd.
Ephraim moved in front of Sophie, blocking her as she revved the engine, trying to start the boat. He doubted whatever protection he might have with Neven would extend to Sophie. Neven had already killed one of his friends. He might find his lost leverage by threatening to kill the other.
Neven’s head cocked. His eyes were deep, pale green.
“What did you do, Ephraim?”
“I managed to touch my elbow instead of my shoulder, no matter what you were leading me to do.”
He stared Neven down. He stared at the officers massing behind him.
But again, there was nothing. No real action. Only threats.
“Listen to me,” Neven said. “You have to believe me. The information on that recorder can’t leave the island. There’s more in play here than you can imagine. Jonathan—”
“Jonathan is dead.”
“Give it to me. Please. Just give it to me, and you can go.”
“I’m going anyway.”
Sophie revved the engine again. This time, it fired.
“I can’t let you leave. Not with what you have.”
“Then kill me.”
Neven stood above Ephraim, weighing his options.
He looked back at the guards.
Then, without warning, he leaped.
CHAPTER 67
A RIGHTEOUS HAMMER
Neven came at Ephraim, hurdling gap between dock and rail.
He punched Ephraim in the kidne
y. Then his hands were all over Ephraim’s lab coat, trying for the pockets. For the MyLife with all its damning evidence.
With the stalemate broken, the dock guards sprang into action. Either none carried guns, or none went for them, stayed perhaps by the same restraint that had so recently tied Neven’s hands.
They rushed forward. But their quarry was getting away.
With the line removed, Neven’s leap had caused the boat to drift from the dock. One guard leaped and tap-danced on the edge of the boat before teetering forward into the fray, but behind him two others jumped and missed. One got a foot on the deck and fell backward; the other didn’t commit and ended up with his feet behind him, hands gripping the rail. Momentum dragged him down, and seconds later the two guards paddled toward the stern, to the ladder on the fishing platform.
Sophie moved from the starter and beat them to the rear. There was an oar on the deck; she picked it up and swung. It was too big and unwieldy; it made long, lazy arcs that did little more than unseat her balance. After two misses, she climbed back herself and kicked, stepping on one guard’s fingers as he reached up, drawing a yelp of surprise.
“Get the fuck over here and help me!” Neven shouted to the guards as Ephraim overbalanced, switching their positions and pinning him down.
The remaining guards complied. Four more ran to Neven, Ephraim noticed with his distracted attention. He tried to punch Neven’s gut, encountered an elbow with his swinging arm, and merely poked him.
Neven’s knee came up; Ephraim dodged; the other knee came up; Ephraim’s inside thigh took a hit. His balls remained unbattered, and he managed to swing again with Neven off-balance, boxing his ear while scraping his knuckles along the knurled plastic decking. Pain. Magnified when Neven’s right hand made a hook, raking fingernails at his throat.
The guards had hit the water, circled back, and now tried to overwhelm Sophie on the platform. She’d choked up on the oar from what Ephraim could see, and he could hear all the small noises in a bizarre symphony: wood slapping flesh, flesh hitting boards, bodies striking water. Grunts from the officers and little noises of exertion from Sophie.