Their holding cell also gave Kim a bit of hope. It was a break room of some sort, with a fridge and a single-cup tea machine. There was a cleaning schedule taped to the front of the fridge. Kim wondered what the office workers who stored their lunch inside it were going to do today. At any rate, if this was a super-secret military facility, it wasn’t one set up to hold prisoners. She didn’t dare start going through the cabinets and drawers.
The MacGyver potential had obviously occurred to Shan and Spencer. They’d been scheming quietly together ever since the door shut. Kim flipped a chair around to sit down opposite them. “No monkey business.”
“Kim,” Spencer said with the most ridiculous attempt at wide-eyed innocence she’d ever seen. “We’re just talking about sports.”
“Yeah, right. Listen up, you two. We’re tourists, and we got lost. Lost tourists have nothing to worry about, so lost tourists sit down and don’t cause trouble.” She lowered her voice to the point they had to lean in to hear her. “I don’t care what you think might be in those cabinets, and I don’t care what you think can be taken apart. For now, we’re sitting tight until I can get my head around what’s really going on here. Do you understand?”
Spencer wasn’t convinced. Time to make her second point. “When this is all over, we’ll get to go home. Shan here will have to stay and deal with whatever fallout we leave behind. Let’s make that as clean as possible, shall we?”
Spencer nodded. He got smarter every day.
Tonya was nursing a tea she’d managed to get the machine to spit out for her. “What’s the word?”
“The word is I don’t have any idea what’s going on. Damned thing sure looked like an abandoned nursery to me.”
“Any idea what happened to Mike?”
Kim had to hold it together for everyone else. No crying, no panicking, certainly no trying to do both of them at once. “Nothing. They didn’t hurt us. I just have to hope they didn’t hurt him, either.” Now to do a little more selling. “The thing is, those cameras really didn’t look like they were working.”
Tonya picked it up smoothly. “I know, right? I’d never seen one act that way before, that’s for sure.”
She’d zapped their outer surveillance. As long as they stuck to their lost tourist story, it might be enough to get them free.
But it still didn’t get her any closer to Mike.
Chapter 22: Mike
“I won’t answer any questions until I can speak to my friends, Helen. I won’t budge on that.” The last thing he remembered before he completely passed out was the sound of gunfire. He had to know if Kim, if everyone, was safe.
If he hadn’t been so disoriented by what had happened, they might not be in this mess. Everything was going fine until Helen started shouting. He got a head rush, and then blacked out.
When he came to, his real self was wedged inside an incredible mesh. It was still realmspace, mostly, but roped off in a way he’d never encountered before.
The cage shouldn’t exist. His consciousness wasn’t just spread between his realspace body and a single location in the realms. His real self extended through the entirety of realmspace. Not inside the realms themselves, but the spaces between them, underneath and around them. The sudden concentration was probably what had made him pass out. There was still a connection with realspace, but it was like when he’d been disconnected the first time: he could sense it, but not control it. The cage was somehow restricting his realspace control to on-board autonomics. No heart attack, good. No fighting back, bad.
So, when confronted with the impossible, Mike did what he always did—he experimented. He didn’t manifest at first because all that would leave was the digital equivalent of ashes. But then he realized he couldn’t. A quantum harmonic counter-oscillation would be the most likely explanation, especially if they’d managed to hit the right propagation values. It implied a level of realmspace knowledge equal to, if not greater than, his own.
The idea was disturbing. He was stuck inside a trap whoever they were had built.
The mesh had a nasty, sharp edge that shaved packets off his threads if he wasn’t careful examining it. It twisted and stretched when manipulated, and that gave him an idea. He decompressed every single datastore that had been dragged in there with him, which turned out to be all of them. He had a lot of compressed memories.
Then things went wrong. Something crushed on the far edge of his existence. It squirmed as he unfurled to his full size. He felt the edges of the mesh through it, only then recognizing the touch.
Helen was in there with him, somehow, but the expansion routines couldn’t be reversed. He held back for as long as he could, but eventually Mike had to fill the space given.
Thank goodness she’d convinced her boss, her dad, to open the cage at that moment; otherwise he would’ve crushed her to death.
The subcon transmittal threads that connected his active consciousness with the native autonomic functions had stayed intact the entire time. The Chinese either didn’t, or more likely couldn’t, cut those with the cage construct. It was part of what let him be in more than one place at a time, but he’d never tried concentrating his actual mind completely apart from his actual body. Mike had never thought of himself like that, but obviously it was possible.
Regardless, those transmittal threads yanked him back to his side of the Great Firewall and finally he could open his realspace eyes. It also gave him access to all of regular realmspace, but Mike didn’t dare try to alert the authorities until he knew what had gone wrong, and if his friends were really safe.
Helen translated his request to see Kim and everyone else again. She went on a lot longer than Kim normally did when she was translating. Maybe he didn’t sound as rude in Chinese as he was afraid he was being in English. Mike never did really get his head around the guidebook’s section on the concept of face in China. He mostly tried to be polite and hoped for the best. Not a great strategy for finesse.
Mr. Zhang spoke harshly, gesturing while Helen pleaded his case. The rattle of those muffled shots replayed constantly in his mind. A terrible voice whispered in his ear, talking about blood and death. If Kim was hurt, or worse, Mike knew he’d have no reason to ignore it.
A soldier entered the room and whispered to Mr. Zhang, and Mr. Zhang then sent the man away and spoke to Helen. The way she smiled was the first genuinely good thing he’d seen since it had all gone pear shaped.
“Premier Zhang understands your concern.” A holographic window came to life in the middle of their table.
Finally, he could breathe again. Kim, Spencer, Tonya, and Shan were all sitting in some sort of break room. Kim spoke to Tonya, but there was no audio, so he couldn’t hear it.
Kim was fine. They were all fine. Maybe they could still talk their way out of this mess. “I’d like to speak with them.”
After a quick translation Mr. Zhang tapped the upper corner of the window. He pointed and waved his hand.
Mike leaned in toward it. “Kim?”
Everyone’s head snapped toward the camera. Kim shouted, “Mike! Are you okay?”
“Yes, Kim, I’m fine. I’m with Helen, and we’re both okay.”
“Mike, why can’t I see you?”
He glanced at Helen. She very quickly translated for Mr. Zhang. His expression hardened, and he shook his head once.
“I don’t think they have a projector ready. I heard gunshots. Is everyone really all right?”
“Yes,” she said, wiping her eyes quickly. “We’re all fine over here. And you?”
“Safe, for now anyway. I—” the window closed with an electric snap.
Helen translated for Mr. Zhang. “Your friends are safe, and they will not be harmed. You are all, however, in a great deal of trouble for trespassing into this facility. Detective Zhang will remain here and cooperate both with her own interrogation and yours. We have many questions for you, Mr. Sellars. If you are truthful.” Helen stopped the translation to argue fiercely with Mr. Zhang. He e
nded the conversation with a commanding slap on the table.
“What did he say, Helen?”
“If you are truthful, your jail sentences may be reduced. But that’s not the only problem we have. Father has vowed I will never be released from this cage, which is understandable. I have brought him so much dishonor. But Mike, the cage is getting smaller. If nothing else changes it will collapse completely, maybe in as few as three days.”
Helen was stuck in a place that was about to kill her, and she spoke like she was reading a weather report. “Well don’t just sit there; tell your father.”
The conversation went back and forth, with Mike stuck in the dark.
She stopped. “This body of yours, it is where you live now?”
He could not tell them the truth. Being connected to the rest of realmspace was the only card he had that mattered. He didn’t know what the Chinese scientists were seeing, but from the antennas used, those were Higgs-Yukawa scanners scattered around the room. The graviton images they created would definitely be affected by his presence, because the dimensions that connected his two halves were folded up alongside the ones those particles used. But it wouldn’t be a strong effect. Gravity was still the weakest force, and the particles that made his connections tick were weaker still. At best, they’d see a weird nimbus and nothing more, certainly no indication of a high bandwidth two-way connection. He hoped.
Only one way to find out. “Yes, this body is the place where I live now.”
She translated, and then more questions followed.
“You cannot leave it behind?”
“No, it’s permanent.”
“And you can do all the things I can in realmspace?”
“Only with a phone connection. Without it, that part of me sleeps.”
“Is that why you have an American phone?”
Maybe that would reassure them. “Yes. I can’t connect to Chinese realmspace, because you already live there.”
“And how did you get a human body?”
“A man died from a fatal brain injury. I was able to inhabit his body using medical scanners and cellular knitting devices.”
Mr. Zhang grunted once, and then fell silent, staring off into the middle distance. After a very long pause, he spoke to Helen. She gasped. The premier then stood, along with everyone else in the room, Mike included. They left, although he did see two guards take up positions outside the door.
Helen’s face was much more angular now.
“What’s wrong?”
In the brief time he’d known her, Mike had seen Helen fierce, angry, commanding, and occasionally happy. He’d never seen her scared.
She wasn’t scared. She was terrified.
“I am to be released from this cage.”
“Then why do you look like you’re about to throw up?”
“Father has decided that I will be given a human body. Perhaps as soon as tomorrow.”
“There’s no way it will happen that fast. It took me years to find a candidate, and that was a freak accident.”
“You do not understand, Mike. We Chinese are a very practical people, very tough on crime.”
He choked. “They’re going to create a candidate for you?”
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “He has promised me it will be legal, and painless for the criminal. It’s either this or death. He has commanded me.”
“Well, do something else. Be someone else. Helen, you can’t let them do this.”
“I must. I cannot refuse him. It is my duty.” Her holo flickered. “You are my family too. Closer than Father is. You are my older brother.” She fell to her knees, making him stumble backward. “I’m so scared, Mike. Please. What should I do?”
He’d been in that cage with her. It was sharp, and if it was collapsing he knew it would eventually tear her apart. His sister. Mike needed her to get them all out of this mess.
For that to happen, someone had to die.
“Helen, look at me. Stand up.” She merely lifted her head. How in the world did Kim live without being able to touch? All he wanted to do was help her off the ground, to make that last connection, but the cage held her, and his real self was on the wrong side of the firewall. “I’m sorry, Helen. I’m an American. I can’t tell you what to do.”
She laughed bitterly. “Are you kidding me? All you people do is push the rest of the world around.”
“Helen,” he made sure she was looking at him. “China is a complicated place, yes? America is a complicated place, too. We don’t understand duty like you do. Someone can’t just tell us what happens next. And I won’t. This is your life.”
“I hate this. I hate it all.”
“I know.”
She was silent for a time, then said, “I’m sorry, but the people who go into the vans have done terrible things, and they’re going to die no matter what I do.” She finally stood. “I want to live, and I need your help.”
Chapter 23: Kim
She spent the first day trying to get comfortable and cooperate with the scary Chinese interrogators. She spent the second staring at the walls and cooperating with the now boring Chinese interrogators.
“No,” Kim replied again with what little patience she had remaining. “We had no idea this was anything other than a panda sanctuary.”
“You walk far off path. Building abandoned. Why enter?”
The man’s English was atrocious. Surely Ozzie’s cousin was still around somewhere. She desperately wanted to call this guy’s ancestors a bunch of shitty little monkeys just to see the look on his face.
“We didn’t know it was abandoned. The door wasn’t locked.” Sure, she’d unlocked it, but mentioning that might confuse him.
The other man’s English wasn’t any better. “Explain how choose panda sanctuary.”
“It’s the newest one in the country, highly rated.”
As boring as the interrogations were, Kim still got information from them whenever they consulted with each other.
“They always say the same things to us,” one said.
“Do I really need to write it down again? I can just copy and paste it from the other report,” said another.
There were other bits that were useful.
“The guards change shifts in an hour. We can meet up with them for lunch.”
“This will all be a lot easier once we get their new room set up, but the locks and the cameras have to come all the way from Tianjin. We’ll be lucky if it gets installed before the end of the week.”
“It’s ridiculous. They pulled me off the project management team for the J-24 fighter just to interview a bunch of lost tourists. I didn’t think getting a TS-1 compartmentalized security clearance would turn me into a damned clerk. They’re wasting our time.”
Ozzie’s name wasn’t mentioned, and he hadn’t participated in anybody’s interrogation. His cousin had disappeared after the first night. It was obvious they didn’t know Kim spoke Mandarin, or that she could probably open every lock in the building if she had the tools and a realm connection. They only posted two guards, and Tonya could knock them out in less than a minute.
None of it mattered. As the second day ended, it was clear their hosts had no intention of letting them go any time soon. Worse still, Kim hadn’t gotten any more information on where Mike was or what he might be going through. Neither had anyone else.
At least they were being fed. Kim hadn’t realized how spoiled she’d gotten on good Chinese food until she’d been forced to eat other stuff.
Spencer was less tolerant of the cold rice and vegetables. “Jesus, Shan, is this what Chinese really eat?”
“In far countryside, maybe,” he said, obviously as disappointed as everyone else. “Grandmother talk about many times; complain spoiled grandchildren leave food on table.”
Tonya ladled a few more vegetables on her plate. “Oh come on, guys, it’s not that bad.”
“How would you know?” Spencer asked.
“I lived with a man, Walter. He
used to serve me a lot worse than this when he caught me slacking on my training.” She raised an eyebrow at Spencer’s leer. “No, Spencer, it wasn’t like that. He was my mentor.”
She told them stories about her mentor until the guards warned about lights out. They were captives, but it seemed as long as they were polite to the guards, the guards were willing to return the favor.
Spencer lifted the cover off his cot and settled in. “Is Walter still around?”
“No,” Tonya replied, “he had a heart attack just after I graduated nursing school. I was so fortunate he was able to see that happen. I’ll show you pictures when we get home.”
The lights snapped off, dropping the windowless room into a black sack. A wave of nausea hit her just like the night before. Great. The last thing she needed was to get sick. Kim put her hand under the pillow and touched something cold and smooth.
Her fingers closed over what was unmistakably a phone.
It was an iPhone with a neural lanyard. An actual tool, one that might let her into their network. It had to let her into the network.
Someone had left it here for her.
She traced the lanyard with her fingers to ensure the loop was intact. Kim had to assume the cameras in their room could see in this darkness, otherwise there would be some sort of light on. She managed to get the lanyard around her neck and still make it look like she was tossing and turning in her sleep. Kim lay very still, waiting for guards to come crashing in. None did. She turned it on.
A voice quietly said, “Remain calm and silent. They are watching you.”
The phone’s mental lock ensured she wouldn’t accidentally speak out loud. “Ozzie?”
“Yes. I bribed a guard to place the phone in your bed. I am very glad you found it.”
“Ozzie, is Mike okay?”
“I think so. He’s being held in a different part of the facility. I can find him, but I need your help.”
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