by Sean Platt
Maybe Neven caught them. Tied them up. Took their Doodads so they couldn’t leave any more messages.
Or maybe they don’t have service. Maybe everything’s fine, and you’re worrying for nothing.
The feeling stuck to her like a tick, telling her that something was terribly wrong and that Ephraim was in trouble.
She looked down at the Doodad.
Full bars, where before she’d had nothing.
She dialed her voicemail, but there was nothing new from Papa. His most recent message was that 36-hour-old update telling her that he and Ephraim were going to the Domain, relaying its coordinates, and urging her to “get close and stand ready.”
Well, she was close now. Ready as she’d ever be. But the party had started and ended without her.
She looked at the Doodad’s face.
Oh, just do it. If Ephraim is creeping around covert without his Doodad set to Do Not Disturb, he’s bound to get caught anyway.
It was a little funny but not enough. She tried to smile, but the creeping sensation remained. She tapped Ephraim’s number and held it to her face, expecting nothing.
By the sixth ring, she’d decided Ephraim wasn’t going to answer. Because if he had a signal to call — particularly with voice — they’d have left messages, or called her long ago.
But the ringing stopped, and a familiar voice answered.
Chapter 66
A Gong Demanding Silence
“Hello?”
“Ephraim?” said a female voice on the other end.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Sophie. Where are you?”
“The display said—”
“Yes. I told you I had Ephraim’s Doodad. Where are you?”
“You didn’t tell me that. When did you tell me that?”
“I told Papa. In my last message.”
The speaker was loud enough for Papa, who was close, to overhear. He shrugged, confused.
“Where are you, Ephraim? Is Papa with you?”
Ephraim looked to Neven. It felt unreal to be having this discussion with their antagonist watching, and Sophie unaware. “He’s with me. We’re at the cabin.”
“What cabin?”
“Neven’s cabin. Near Syracuse?”
“You’re in Syracuse?”
“Just outside it, in what used to be Green Lake State Park. Papa told you.”
“He didn’t tell me anything about Syracuse.”
“Papa left you a message. Shit, the last … what … two or three mentioned it?”
“Mentioned what?” Papa asked.
“The cabin. Sophie says she didn’t get your messages about coming here.”
Neven smirked. “I wondered if the lancet would be enough to confuse your Doodad into failure.”
Ephraim’s jaw firmed, darting a look of ire at Neven. His trick had screwed himself as surely as it had hurt Papa and Ephraim. Didn’t Neven know that?
He turned to Papa. “She didn’t get your messages.”
“Where is she?”
“Where are you?” Ephraim asked Sophie.
“At the Domain!” Her voice was exasperated, as if they’d had this discussion a thousand times already.
“Why?”
“That’s where Papa told me to go! Why didn’t you come here?”
“We did. But we left.”
“Well. Thanks for telling me.”
“Jesus, Sophie, we left you a bunch of …” Fuck. That meant she hadn’t gotten Ephraim’s message, either, seeing as he’d made the call after Neven’s little lancet-serum trick had done whatever it had done to Papa’s chemistry. And it’s not like he could repeat the secret now, with Neven listening in.
“At least the trip wasn’t wasted. I found that thing you wanted.”
Ephraim let his feet take him a few paces farther from Neven, lowering the Doodad’s volume. With his voice softer, he said, “What thing?”
Sophie picked up the cue and whispered, “The Quarry.”
“Oh.” He knew that because they’d specifically chosen to leave it behind.
“It was just sitting here. In that big 13 room, displayed in a box, plugged in like you charge a Doodad.”
“Listen, Sophie. That’s not important right now. The thing is,” His brow scrunched. “Wait. You said it was plugged in?”
“Yes. So what?”
“So,” Neven said from the rear, projecting his voice. “Is she upstairs, waiting to show me how right you are?”
Moving the Doodad away from his face, Ephraim said, “No. She’s not here.”
“Oh no,” Neven said, mocking sorrow. “Now how will we prove that you aren’t just making up stories to buy yourself time?”
“She can come here. You’ll just have to wait.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’m expecting some serious press coverage in …” Neven looked at his tablet. “… nineteen minutes.”
Sophie, on the other end of the Doodad. “Who is that?”
“It’s …”
“It’s not nice to have private conversations in a mixed group, Ephraim.”
“Is that Neven?”
Neven, having moved closer, plucked the Doodad from Ephraim at the sound of his name. Ephraim reached for it, but Neven held it away like a bully claiming his prize.
“Sophie?” Ephraim called toward the raised Doodad. “Listen to me! You have to get back here. As fast as you can. I—”
“Get back there? Ephraim, you said you’re in Syracuse!”
Neven tapped the speakerphone button at the end of Sophie’s sentence, so the final word was a declaration from nothing.
“I know. But come to Green Lake State Park. There’s a cabin right by Green Lake, to the side by the—”
“I’m not leaving here tonight, Ephraim! It’s dark out now, and even if I had the guts to cross open water in the dark, I don’t think my boat has a light!”
Neven’s brow furrowed. “Boat?”
“You have to, Sophie. I’m sorry. But if you’re not here to …” Dammit, he couldn’t say that because she hadn’t heard his message for context. “Neven needs to scan you or he won’t believe that you … that I’m … how I’m different?”
No one had ever been less articulate.
“Why do you need me to prove that you’re different? Different how? And did you seriously not even see the Quarry while you were here?”
Neven’s face, which had been confused, cleared. Knowledge clicked, and he smiled. He picked up the tablet and, with something like zeal, tapped at its surface.
The call ended, severed as if by a knife.
“Sophie? SOPHIE!”
But it was useless; whatever Neven had done to let her call through, permission had been revoked. He walked to the coffee table, picked up a remote control, and turned on a large screen — out of place in the rustic cabin — above the fireplace. A few more taps on the tablet made it look like a giant window.
And through the window, Ephraim saw a large, sparsely lit room with timers everywhere.
Neven clicked through views on his tablet, and a few seconds later they were looking at Sophie live from the Domain, holding the Quarry.
“You can speak,” Neven said. “She can hear you.”
Ephraim only said Sophie’s name once before Neven tapped the tablet, activating his systems from afar.
Then the big metal door slid closed over Cube 13’s only way in or out, the noise of its seating like a gong demanding silence.
Chapter 67
Until the Darkness Fell
Ephraim’s mind scrambled to adjust. He’d felt sure a few minutes ago. Sophie would be nearby; he’d call out to her; she’d come in and one simple scan later Neven would know they were different together.
He’d have to make a deal. Neven was too driven by his father’s work to settle for artificially corrected 3.0 clones when Ephraim represented 4.0: a clone with flaws, which could be stabilized with research and work.
It would be enough to ma
ke Neven cancel the countdown. He’d want to keep his head start on the world while solving the 4.0 puzzle. It’d be enough to save them all, to give them time to think. Maybe Papa was right, and Neven’s word meant nothing; he couldn’t be trusted even after Ephraim revealed his secrets. But that was a problem for another time. Tonight’s issues were on ice.
But Sophie wasn’t in the cabin or on its grounds. She was at the Domain; useless in making Ephraim’s deal, and a bargaining chip for Neven.
“We need to get her,” Ephraim said.
“No. We don’t.” Neven’s face was no longer surprised or assessing. It was cold and logical. Fooled once, not about to be fooled again.
“I can prove—”
“—that you’re full of shit?”
“Neven, listen to me.”
“I’ve listened to you enough.” He turned to Papa. “You, I stopped listening to long ago.” Beckoning fingers. “Come over here, Ephraim.”
Ephraim couldn’t move if he’d wanted. Sophie was onscreen, rushing to the big door and pounding it with her fists, tapping consoles, futility personified.
“I’m right here,” Ephraim said.
“Closer.”
“Why?”
“You’re going to let me do a full diagnostic. Inside and out. Top to bottom. Body and mind.”
Ephraim shook his head. He held some power, even if Neven had managed to trap Sophie from a full state away. Neven needed an unclouded, nonresistant state of mind. This wasn’t something that could be taken by force.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Neven’s expression didn’t change. Papa was closer between them, his body language considering a lunge. Beating Neven wouldn’t stop the countdown, but if a takedown yielded the control tablet, Ephraim was betting it could open the Cube door, to release Sophie.
“Do it, or I’ll kill her.”
“You’re bluffing,” Ephraim said.
“I promise I’m not.”
“You can close doors. So what?”
“The Domain is a biological research facility, Ephraim,” Neven said. “Consider your implanted memories. Jonathan must have talked about the sorts of things a biohazard risk requires. Multiple isolated air supplies, by sector, to avoid spread and contamination should anything get out. Halon fire suppression system. And a failsafe: if too many seals are breached, an operator needs to burn the room.”
“The labs, maybe,” Ephraim said. “Not the control center.”
Keeping his distance, Neven flicked his eyes to the tablet. He tapped something. The white lights around Sophie died, leaving only reds. Something strobed. “Let’s see if you’re right.”
“Wait!”
Neven smiled. “Come over here.”
Ephraim took a step.
“Don’t do it, Ephraim,” Papa said.
Another step.
“Ephraim? This is bigger than her. Bigger than either of us. If you let him run a complete work up on you and those are the instructions he releases to the world, it’ll—”
“Shut up, Friesh,” Neven snarled.
Panic crept into Papa’s voice. He looked from one man to the other, unsure of what to do, knowing that he had to do something.
“You know this isn’t a valid experiment! You can’t dial up the response curve and dial down inhibition then pit maniacs against organic humans! It won’t prove what you want it to!”
Neven’s eyes were on Ephraim, whose eyes were on Sophie. She’d returned to her first position and goggled at the camera, her eyes wet and hands shaking, repeating Ephraim’s name.
“When thousands of labs start releasing broken clones flooded with feel-good hormones,” Neven said, “who will fare better? The original humans, or their clones?”
“They’re not the same! Too many variables are changed!”
Neven didn’t answer, but Ephraim could see that Papa’s protests would get him nowhere. Neven had stopped caring about a valid test. If he wasn’t a clone, it didn’t matter that clones were better on fair terms. All that seemed to matter was Neven’s twisted interpretation of his father’s work. And oblivion.
“Neven! Your father would—!”
Neven snatched a cast iron poker from a rack beside the fireplace and swung it hard at Papa.
He stumbled back to dodge, but Papa’s rear hit an end table. By the time he could skirt it, Neven had swung. The blow opened a gash on his left cheek. Papa collapsed as if his bones were a liquid nothing.
Ephraim flinched toward him, but Neven raised the tablet. “Let me run my diagnostic, or tell Sophie goodbye.”
Sophie found her voice, out of breath but under control. “Ephraim?” Resetting, even calmer. “Ephraim, listen to me. It’s like Papa said, this is bigger than any of us.”
From the floor, conscious but barely, Papa continued. “He won’t release the 2.0 blueprints because they’re flawed. That’s why he made us come here, so he could get the missing piece from you. The countdown is a bluff. Neven’s not stupid. He can only release once he’s scanned you and knows how to make 3.0s. And he can’t do that unless you let him.”
Neven laughed.
“He—”
Neven raised the poker and hit him again. “I’ll do it, Ephraim. This isn’t like when we were on Eden. I can kill her this time.”
“Ephraim, don’t,” Sophie said onscreen. “He only has one chance to make his mark on the world. Papa’s right. This will end if you don’t give him what he needs.” Her eyes shifted, presumably away from Ephraim’s image and toward Neven’s onscreen. “I guess your father’s legacy turns to shit without the help of a poor little clone, doesn’t it, Neven?”
He eyes sharpened. He whipped around toward the screen. Ephraim was sure of two things: if Sophie were here, Neven would have done worse to her at that moment than he’d done to Papa, and the man was thoroughly batshit.
Neven tapped the tablet. Behind Sophie in the red room, there was a loud hiss as a ceiling nozzle sprayed fog inside.
“Maybe I don’t have to burn the room. I wonder how long it’ll take the halons to smother her.”
“Neven, please.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.”
“You need her. Just scan her, and you’ll see what I mean. She’s made me different. There must be scanners at the Domain. Just have her get one and—”
“You’re stalling.”
“I swear I’m not. It’s true. Even if I gave you what you wanted, those clones would still be flawed. You saw my mind in Papa’s scans. If you let Sophie come here, I can show you how to make better clones. Clones that will last.” He swallowed, knowing the next would sound like pandering. “Work that would make your father proud.”
“Tell me, then. Tell me the secret.”
“I love her.”
Neven snickered.
“It’s true. That’s what you need to understand. It’s what you need to see.”
“I don’t need to see anything, except your diagnostic. Give it to me, Ephraim.”
“You’ll make 3.0 clones if I give it to you. Promise to hold back your release. Promise that you’ll wait for Sophie.”
“No.”
Ephraim and Neven matched eyes. And there, Ephraim saw the truth. The man no longer cared. 3.0s were good enough for Neven, and fuck the world. “You’re insane.”
And Neven said, “Look who’s talking.”
Beyond the insanity, Ephraim could see more as his mind shuffled and processed, rearranging the altered situation on the fly. Datum slotted into place, the whole becoming an awful collage. He could see his only course of action.
The pit of his stomach dropped.
But Ephraim didn’t want to believe it.
He scanned the room for alternatives.
There were heavy lamps like he’d used to kill the Nolon on Eden, but he’d have to throw the things at Neven for them to matter and he’d never have time.
There was a hunting knife on one of the shelves amid a few trophies — a tr
easure in and of itself, by the look of things. He might be able to reach it, but he’d never reach Neven to use it on him.
The gap between Ephraim and Neven had yawned to nearly twenty feet. But the gap between Neven’s finger and the controls that could end Sophie’s life was a half inch at most.
“Either let me extract what I need from you to make 3.0 clones, or Sophie dies.”
There was no way to reach Neven.
Ephraim backed up. Unhurried. He reached for the blade. The thing was six inches long, half a machete. Its edge was so fine, it practically vanished.
He held the blade across his own neck.
Neven’s eyes cleared. He took two steps forward, but Ephraim pressed the blade against his skin until he stopped. A drop of blood dripped into his collar. The knife was so sharp, he hadn’t felt the cut.
“Put it down.” Neven was a weak king, seeing the flaw in his power.
“Sophie,” Ephraim said.
She’d been watching Neven. Now she saw him and gasped. Her mouth formed a no, but Sophie said nothing. The cloud spilled into the room behind her. Would Neven burn her, or suffocate her?
The answer was no. In short minutes, he’d do neither.
“He can’t do anything without me. He won’t release faulty 2.0 clones and embarrass his legacy, and he can’t make 3.0s without my scan.”
“I’m warning you,” Neven said, hand over the tablet.
“You can’t kill her once I’m gone. Sophie plus me equals what you need. Kill one of us and take your chances. We both die, and you start from nothing.”
“Ephraim,” Sophie said, her tears brimming. “Don’t do it.”
“It’s been said twice. This is bigger than us.”
Neven moved forward. Ephraim pressed the knife. More warm blood flowed down his neck.
“She’ll suffocate soon!” Neven spat. “Don’t be a fool!”
Ephraim looked hard at Neven, then turned to the screen, to the camera, to Sophie, and softly said, “He’s right. You can’t have long.” His head shook, and Ephraim realized his terror. His heart ached, and his knife arm shook. But Neven was right; Sophie’s time was almost up. His time was now.
“Don’t! If it has to be one of us,” Hitch. Sob. “Better me than you.”