Athena's Choice

by Adam Boostrom

  “Don’t give me that,” growled Athena. “When I told you that I wanted to help find the genome, you said that there was zero chance that I could.”

  “And that was the truth!” Nomi pushed her plate into the table’s center hole. “I’m sorry, but can you please explain to me your thinking here? I know you’re smart and hard-working, but how exactly are you — with no prior knowledge of cybersecurity, no knowledge of advanced-genomics, no investigatory experience of any kind — how exactly are you going to be the one to crack this case?”

  Athena stormed back to the table. Her heart raced. “Ugh. I can’t stand you sometimes. You think you’re so smart. You think just because your choreographies are so popular that you can tell everyone else what to do—”

  “That’s a lie!” protested Nomi. “I thought I could tell everyone else what to do long before I made those choreographies!” Her face burst into a smile.

  “Laugh it up,” Athena scowled. “This time you’re wrong. The Core chose me. Me. For once in my life, I have been given a chance to prove myself. If you think I’m going to walk away from that just because Nomi James, in her infinite wisdom, thinks that I’m wasting my time on a wild goose chase, then you’re wrong.” Angrily, Athena swiped twice into the air, and flicked her finger. Her H-pro report landed with a thud onto Nomi’s display. In no uncertain terms, the report detailed its conclusions: namely, that Athena possessed an almost overwhelming need to accomplish something that would separate her from the crowd. Otherwise, it said, she might never be truly happy. Walking away from the chance to work on the case, it said, would leave her feeling miserable.

  Nomi paused to read the report. When she had finished, she slowly got up from her place at the table. “I’m sorry you think I don’t believe in you, A.” Without any anger, she walked out the back kitchen-door and headed down the stone path that led to the water’s edge. Beneath a silver sliver of a crescent moon, she swiped two fingers into the air. Large, underwater rocks began to glow beet-red. Steam started to rise off of the nearest portion of the lake.

  Slipping out of her dress, Nomi tested the temperature of the water with her big toe before submerging herself completely into the impromptu hot-tub. She closed her eyes. Seconds later, Athena came barreling after her.

  “Honestly, Nomes, what would you have me do? I can’t fight who I am.”

  Nomi did not open her eyes, nor raise her voice. “A,” she replied calmly, “You’re right. This is who you are. Helping with this case is obviously something that you have to do. I can accept that.” She paused for a beat. “But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  Stripping off her garments, Athena joined Nomi by lowering herself into the water. She winced momentarily at the first touch of the heat against her soft skin. “Why’s it so impossible to think that I might be able to help them?”

  A gust of wind rustled through the leaves of the trees, creating a pleasant sound. Above, the sky was a tableau of starlight that had been racing through empty space for millions and millions of years.

  “Remember last April,” reminisced Nomi, “when we went to that underwater hotel for your birthday? Remember how they ‘lost’ one of their great white sharks and asked you to help recover it?”

  “This is different!”

  “And you spent the next three days searching through nautical charts, looking up shark diets, and measuring weather currents. But then it all turned out to be just some marketing promotion for the opening of their sister hotel? You remember how devastated you were? Do you think I enjoy seeing you that sad and unhappy?”

  “This is not the same thing, Nomes.”

  “Maybe not. Who knows, A, maybe you’re right. But something seems off here. Don't you feel it? The world’s most powerful AI just contacted you out of the blue and asked you to help solve a mystery that it can’t figure out on its own? Really?” Sliding herself deeper into the lake, Nomi brought the level of water up to her neck. “What if this is all a trap? What if you’re going to get hurt?”

  Athena grumbled softly, “You know what, I don’t even care. Finally, after all the past months of rejection, someone is showing some faith in me and my ability to do something. For once, I won’t be part of the useless class, idly passing my time and living off my Citizen’s Benefit. I know that that life is good enough for you, but it's not good enough for me. Don’t ask me to give this chance up.” She gazed out across the moon-lit surface of the calm water. “Just once, Nomes,” she pleaded, “will you trust me to look out for myself?”

  Nomi reached out and grasped Athena’s hand into her own. “I love you, A. Through thick and thin. That means it’s possible for me to believe in you, and be worried about you, both at the same time.”

  Later that night, alone in her bedroom, Athena notified Public Safety that she had decided to accept their invitation to help with the case. The agency replied within seconds, telling her that a heli-car would be by at seven AM the next morning to pick her up.

  Lying on her bed in the dark, Athena swiped left and right on her display. Images of dresses, pants, and tops flashed into view. With much deliberation, she chose an outfit for herself for the following day: a blue and gray dress held together by luminescent thread. She sent the dress’ blueprints to Aasha so that it would be ready by morning, and drifted off into a dream-filled sleep.

  June 9, 2099

  What Dream May Come

  Hours later — or was it minutes? — Athena found herself again in the meadow, standing before the man dressed entirely in buffalo hides.

  “Athena,” he bellowed, “the truth is in the library. You must come with me if you want to save her. You must come with me to the home of the buffalo.”

  “Tell me who you are,” Athena demanded.

  “I am the Second Coming,” he answered with a deep and rumbling voice. “I am the creature vexed to nightmare from fifty years of stony sleep.”

  The surrounding air was still, but above them, the sky raced through earthly rotations. Day, night, day, night. The sun rose and set, rose and set, yielding to burning asteroids and the shadowy Milky Way.

  “What nightmare?” she asked.

  “Come with me,” he commanded. “I must take you to the home of the buffalo.” He held out his hand.

  Athena crossed her arms. “I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me who you are.”

  “In that case,” he said, “I will bring the home to you.”

  Turning around, Athena discovered the dilapidated, six-columned library suddenly resting behind her. The spacious meadow had disappeared. From every direction, she detected the same sensations she had noticed before: the crisp smell of pine, the biting sting of brisk mountain air.

  The man spoke, “Go inside, Athena, and quickly. You must find the truth in the library if you are to save her. The blood-dimmed tide will soon be loosed.”

  Athena walked briskly into the deteriorating structure. She had forgotten how moldy it was. Mushrooms grew sideways from the remains of wet pulp. Spores floated like dust clouds toward holes in the ceiling.

  With careful steps, she found her way down to the dry basement. From across the room, in the same place as in her first dream, she spied the special book from before. It still glowed a bright, flaming orange. Once close enough to see its title, she read the words aloud: Original Sin is Real. Cautiously, she reached out her hand to touch the book.

  On contact, the binding burned her fingers, but she refrained from bursting into flame. She pulled the glowing volume from the shelf and examined it closely. On its cover, a man and a woman stood naked, side by side, surrounded by a lush garden. She traced her finger along their outline, marking all the ways that the male body differed from hers. Pausing for a deep breath, she pried open the book.

  Immediately, a blast from within threw Athena from her feet. She landed with a whump onto her back, hitting her head against the ground. The book dropped to the floor, but its cover remained open. Out of its exposed pages, something began to emerge,
as if climbing from out of the manuscript itself.

  Athena watched from a distance, as a single skeletal hand broke the plane of pages and touched the outside air. Its long, blood-red fingers reached for the outer edge of the book, grasping for purchase. Then a second hand emerged, as red as the first, and took hold. Together they gripped and pulled. From out of the book, a new specter climbed out into the world.

  Once it had fully escaped, the frightening figure stood almost two meters tall. It was fully skeletal, and covered in dripping, red blood. It glanced dismissively at Athena before turning its attention back to the book. Bending to a crouch, it reached inside the pages and pulled from them a second figure — a man with tattered clothing and green skin. His head and arms were covered in boils and sores. He wore a pained expression on his pock-marked face.

  The second figure hung meekly as it was lifted to safety. It was smaller than the first, but no less terrifying. Once it had been deposited onto the ground, the first figure returned its spindly fingers into the book, and pulled.

  A third figure surfaced. Like the second, it was a man clad in tatters. His face and body were wholly gaunt, his frame barely skin and bones. Ravenously, the third figure gnawed at his own fingers, as the blood-dripped skeleton pulled him from the pages.

  As the three specters rested, behind them, a fourth figure arose. The fourth lacked a discernible face. Its head and body were completely shrouded by a large, black cloak. In its hand, it carried a metal scythe. Unlike the two preceding it, the fourth figure required no assistance from anyone, and easily levitated out of the book and into existence.

  For a minute, the four figures swayed in place, trading malicious grins. Then the first led the way past Athena and toward the staircase which connected the library’s basement to the wider world. Its long legs strode easily across the floor, leaving a path of dripping blood in its wake. Despite being bent and twisted, the second and third figures followed quickly behind. They hobbled across the floor with alarming speed. Lastly, and seemingly in no rush at all, the fourth specter kept its position at the rear. Silently, smoothly, it glided across the floor, leaving no trace that it had ever been there at all.

  After all four of the specters departed, Athena climbed to her feet and rushed to close the book, fearing that worse villains might soon appear. However, when she reached the open volume, she looked inside, and saw that only one creature remained within. Deep down inside the tome, looking small and alone, lay a solitary dove — with an olive branch resting in its beak.

  June 9, 2099

  17

  At precisely seven the next morning, a Public Safety heli-car touched down on the cabin’s front lawn. Athena welcomed its arrival, looking fresh and eager in her new dress. She climbed inside the car and turned her head to stare at the cabin’s front door. As the heli-car rose in flight, she gazed at the door for as long as she could. Eventually, trees blocked her view. Nomi never showed.

  Fleeing fast from the rising sun, the heli-car raced west. Athena passed the time by watching shows, and reading the latest news on her display. One headline in particular grabbed her attention:

  Top story: Hurricane deflected along the eastern seaboard — *Select*

  Atlanta Residents were relieved this morning to learn that a supermassive hurricane had been diverted from landfall and redirected back into the deep ocean. Meteorologists on the scene gave special thanks to the Third Core for her assistance in the Effort. “Without her help,” they said, “I don’t think any of us would still be here…”

  Hours later, the heli-car began to descend above a flat and rural countryside. Directly below lay a sprawling series of square, one-story buildings composed of white, stucco walls. Beyond the buildings, low-lying fields, and the occasional deciduous tree, stretched out in every direction. Athena quickly realized that her apparent destination was not the bustling capital city of Chicago.

  “Where are we?” she asked of the car.

  “You are now arriving at the Sunnyside Retirement Living Complex,” it replied. “This is central Wisconsin, about fifty kilometers east of Eau Claire.”

  Looking down through the heli-car’s glass floor, Athena identified the image of Captain Bell, black hair blowing in the wind, standing defiantly in place of where the car was clearly about to land. To avoid her, the car needed to make a last-minute lateral adjustment — which it did with a sideways jolt. Upon landing, Captain Bell called out to Athena:

  “So here she is…here’s the wunderkind that’s going to magically help us to find the Lazarus Genome!”

  Behind Captain Bell, several more PS officers stopped what they were doing. They turned to gawk at the new arrival. They stared while exchanging soft whispers and furtive glances. Athena could feel their judgment burning holes in her new dress. “You all sure know how to make a girl feel wanted,” she muttered.

  Valerie Bell shook her head disapprovingly and exhaled. She began to speak, slowly at first, so that even a complete idiot could understand her. “Ms. Vosh, I want — I only want — what is best for this case. I cannot, for the life of me, see how that includes…you, but if the Third Core says that you might play a role, then you must play a role. That obnoxious silicon-storm does not make mistakes.”

  Captain Bell waited patiently for Athena’s feet to touch down. “I’ve already told my officers,” she continued, “that if anyone has a problem with you, they can take it up with me. You are to receive our agency’s full backing and support.” She glared at the gray-eyed girl. “So don’t do anything to make me look bad.”

  Athena shook her head.

  “Very well then,” the captain commanded. “Come with me. I’ll catch you up to speed on where we are.”

  Although sitting squarely in the middle of North America, the Sunnyside Retirement Living Complex felt like a stop at the end of the world. As they walked inside the third of about twenty or so plain, square buildings, they were met by white-washed walls and long hallways containing room after room of “settlers” — elderly people whose reconstructed bodies were healthy enough to live on, but whose minds were so completely settled and inflexible that their days passed on and on like a needle caught at the end of a groove on one of their antique spinning records.

  Captain Bell narrated as she led Athena down a main hallway. “Our PS investigators have tracked the Helix hack to this location.” She turned down a side hallway and then veered through a cordoned-off door. Next to the door was a light-sign that read:

  Room 503

  Ms. Linda Blythe

  From the doorway, the room appeared tiny and rectangular, barely thirty square meters. A four-poster bed and a small, wooden desk fit snugly inside. As was normal with nursing homes, the far wall was equipped with a 3D screen. Ms. Blythe’s ‘wall’ currently looked like a sandy beach with dots of palm trees and an ocean view that stretched all the way out to the horizon.

  The captain marched over to the small, wooden desk, on which stood a very old computer. “Here’s our source,” she said.

  “You’re telling me,” asked Athena incredulously, “someone in this nursing home stole the Lazarus Genome?”

  Captain Bell rolled her eyes. “Yes, behold! I give you criminal mastermind: great, great, great grandmother Linda Blythe!” The captain’s words dripped with heavy sarcasm. “At 146 years of age,” she quipped, “Linda here usually struggles to remember to drink her food through a straw, so hacking into one of the world’s most secure laboratories definitely ranks as a minor accomplishment.”

  Athena smirked.

  “Try to keep up, rookie. Here is our actual culprit. Our PS computers stitched this together using the building's security footage and Linda's personal recordings.”

  With a flick of her finger, Captain Bell sent a holographic replay onto Athena’s display. Immediately, the events of the night in question, superimposed onto the room in which she stood, played out before Athena’s eyes.

  In the replay, Athena saw the frozen figure of Linda Blythe prop
ped up on her bed. The woman possessed a tangled mess of thinning hair and more wrinkles than Athena had ever seen before. She looked as though rain drops would bruise her. On her face rested a completely blank expression. If she had been a painting, she would have been a still-life. Reaching out to feel the old woman’s wrinkles, Athena observed her own fingers passing right through the holographic image.

  Captain Bell grabbed Athena firmly by the shoulders and turned her to face the door. Five seconds later, a benign-looking nurse with a bob of strawberry blonde hair appeared. The nurse entered the room and immediately checked in all directions to see if anyone had witnessed her ingress. Still seated on the bed, Linda Blythe did not even acknowledge that someone else had joined her.

  The ‘nurse’ then walked over to the ancient desk computer and navigated through several password protected screens. She uploaded and downloaded until, satisfied with the result, she logged off and turned her attention to covering her tracks. To erase any traces of DNA or bacterial evidence, she doused her surroundings with an acidic, denaturing enzyme.

  Once everything had been sterilized, the nurse turned toward Linda — who still hadn’t moved or given any response at all — and placed an index finger to her own lips in the universal symbol for “shhhhhhh.” Flashing the old woman a devious smile, she winked and then vanished from the room to parts unknown.

  “That is our culprit,” announced Captain Bell. She rewound the recording and froze it with the nurse standing in place. “This is the woman who stole the Lazarus Genome. We’ve already run a scan of her face through all the PS facial databases, but of course there were no hits. Before last night, this woman did not exist.”

  Captain Bell moved to leave the room. She motioned for Athena to follow. “We’re going to try to track the thief's movements after leaving here. I’ve requested a warrant to obtain the travel-logs for every car that came or went from this place on the night of the theft, but I’m not optimistic that it’ll get us anywhere. Truth be told, we have only one lead, and it's not a very promising one…"