“Maria," he said, his eyes intense and for the first time she saw a smoldering rage within him. Her stomach dropped, he knew.
“Which family attacked you?"
Relief flooded over her. “They spoke Afrikaans."
His head inclined and the far off look of someone moving through their virtual vision came over him. “Are you certain?”
She nodded. “I could never forget," she said looking at her mother who embraced her again. Tears began to well up in her eyes. Even though the story was concocted, the tears were real.
Her mom looked at her father, never releasing her hold on Maria. “You make those South African mercenaries suffer for what they did."
“When we've dealt with the issue at hand, Maria, you must still go through with the wedding to Chen." Once the words left his lips, her control over her emotions evaporated, and the full force of all the trauma she had endured burst forth. She fell to her knees a wail escaping from her as she did. Her mother followed down yelling at her father.
“No, we are not losing her again, and we certainly are not sacrificing her to those animals!” Her mother fell to the ground with her, shielding her with her own body.
“We are outnumbered and soon to be out produced by their alliance. I can only postpone their invasion for so long, and once they land here in North America, they will have spent too much in blood and resources to entertain the idea of peace,” he said coldly.
“Figure it out!” the older woman yelled.
He kneeled next to them. “They will either take her from us by force or burn us in nuclear fire, but either way the end result is the same. At least this way we have some control and so long as our armies remain in existence they will give them pause in how they treat her, but if we are brought down, there will be no protection for our daughter at all, and they will do with her as they desire."
Slowly, Maria began to regain her composure. The steady tones of her father's logical argument cut through her sorrow and gave her traumatized mind something to latch on to. She wiped her nose on her sleeve, taking a deep stabilizing breath after. “He’s right Mom. If I don't go, we all die anyway. At least this way, you and Dad will have more time to turn the tables on them."
Her mother looked like she was about to say something but instead wiped her eyes and looked upon Maria with great pride. “You learn everything you can about them from the inside and rip their fucking hearts out when they least expect it.”
___
The children played around her. School time was over for the day, so all of their pent up energy was being expended. At first they didn’t understand why she wouldn’t join in. She explained that she wasn't feeling well. When they asked about Toby, she stopped feeling like a liar. Her stomach dropped and her heart ached at the thought she would never again see her nearly lifelong companion. She quickly recovered, telling the kids that Toby was busy, but that it missed not being there with them. A heated debate erupted between the kids about whether or not robots could actually feel anything. It then dissolved into the pack of kids chasing another group. She knew the answer to their question, but rather than share she luxuriated in their energy and innocence.
And then he ran up to her, the little boy who reminded her so much of Mr. Miller. It was definitely the eyes; they had the same depth of compassion about them. He held out a ball and wiggled it at her, his wordless inquiry speaking his intent. She smiled and shook her head. He shrugged his shoulders and bolted off chasing the ball as he kicked it through the artificial environment.
In that moment as she thought about his eyes, the memory of the three holes in the remains of the stadium victims flashed into her mind. Her father had told her that the DNA he used in the creation of the children was recovered, but now she wasn't so sure. She stood, waving at the little ones that noticed her leaving, and made her way into the bowels of the Spire.
She accessed the section of the facility where the children were created and born. The massive cloning operation took up a space equaling the circumference of the entire Spire complex and was located deep below all the other subterranean floors, below even the robotic assembly lines that produced the variety of robotic labor and war fighter units at their disposal. She wondered for the briefest of moments if her father might find her presence here odd. No doubt her access had been noted in the master system and a notification sent to him, but she dismissed her concern. She had spent countless hours in this part of the Spire monitoring the cloning processes for her father, so much so that he likely wouldn't think it too out of the ordinary.
She walked through the rows and rows of artificial wombs. The facility was designed to produce numbers ranging into the thousands; however, her father wanted to take his time with the first batches and make sure there was no problem with the cloning process. When he had first brought her down here to introduce her to the children that would one day occupy the walled in surface garden, she had asked exactly how he managed such diversity in them. He told her that during the collapse his units had secured tens of thousands of DNA samples from government facilities and family lineage companies and then combined them with a genetically engineered virus that used those samples to generate new combinations. It was simple and straight forward so she hadn't thought to press for greater detail. For example, she had never studied that particular virus. She approached the main terminal for the facility and accessed it. She began looking through the index but couldn't locate anything dealing with this engineered virus.
Instead she switched tactics. She accessed the directory for each prepared DNA sequence the computer had available for it. It took the computer a moment to retrieve the general file information which in itself was intriguing. Finally the data popped onto the screen. She didn't have to look any further than the basic file information displayed at the bottom of the window. Seventeen million five hundred and thirty seven thousand and fifty two separate DNA strands were on file and ready to be produced in the maturation pods.
“Where are they Miss Patterson?” Williams’s voice rang through her mind. She licked her lips but found her mouth suddenly too dry to bring her any relief. Her stomach began to twist with the dread that came from the possibility that her father’s accusers might have been right about him. She took a calming breath. It could all be coincidence that the number of samples came close to Williams’s projection on post collapse population numbers. The hip bones flashed into her mind and her fingers hovered over the display, ready to inquire into one more topic. She came so close to inputing the words, ‘mode of acquisition’, but she stopped. Her eyes squeezed tightly and her hand fell to her side.
She closed out the terminal, left the cloning facility, and took an elevator to her floor. She needed to pack.
11
The transport bucked beneath them as it flew through the typhoon that was besieging Hong Kong, the center of the Chen Empire. Maria grabbed the straps and looked out the virtual window. The storm clouds and lightening cracking the sky asunder were a perfect match for her current mood. She looked over at her mother and father and for a moment her anger was overwhelmed by pity. Her mother’s eyes were closed nearly as tightly as her hands gripping the harness that stretched over her shoulders.
Father reached a hand across the gap between them and squeezed her arm, only to have her mother jerk it away forcefully. He looked at her for a moment, real pain in his eyes. Then it faded, he nodded his head, bringing his hand back over the chasm that existed between them. He turned his attention back to his virtual vision and his hands and fingers moved subtly as he manipulated it.
After a few moments he swiped his hand through the air violently and sighed, running his hands through his hair and cupping them at the base of his skull. He looked right at Maria and said, “Remember to show proper deference to Jeffery. Always refer to him as sir or master, and never challenge him in front of subordinates especially the women of the court."
She laughed slightly, “Thanks for placing me in his hands Dad.”
“Yeah, I know you think this is the best route Dad, but you are in fact putting me in the lion’s den. This is the man that reverse engineered the cure for the virus so that it only worked if you received regular injections and then enslaved millions throughout mainland China with it."
“Yes, he’s deplorable."
She rolled her eye. “Obey or Die, I believe that's the slogan that the slaves must teach their children from birth."
“Which then set precedent for other Spire families to do so.”
She pointed a finger at him. “And exactly how many of his wives did he execute for giving him daughters?”
He brought his gaze upon her, his eyes heavy with sorrow. “Maria, do you honestly believe I would allow for you to be in this situation if I thought it would result in you being harmed?”
“You just warned me about their patriarch. Why would you do that if it wasn't a real possibility?”
“Jeff is many things, reckless is not one of them. While he is more than happy to be brutish, it is always with intent. He will not harm you or allow for harm to befall you because he knows what your mother and I will do should he fail to keep you safe and healthy. If you follow the rules and don't give him a reason, you should have nothing to fear.”
“And what about spiritually or emotionally, can you protect me from harm in those ways? The moment I walk into their Spire I become a prisoner whose sole value centers around the balance of power being maintained between you and this alliance that Jeffery Chen has formed. Their access to resources and their industrial base is larger than ours. They will eventually, through just sheer numbers, overwhelm us and on that day my usefulness comes to an end. So for however long that takes, I have to live in a constant state of fear, or I have to sacrifice all of my values and integrate into their family so completely that they don't consider me outsider enough to be dealt with.”
His jaw tightened as he declared, “I will never let any of those things happen.”
She laughed out loud and rested back in her chair. “That statement would have far more weight if I wasn't being carted off to the Chen Spire.”
He nearly responded but stopped mid-sentence. She could clearly see him thinking through what he wanted to say next as his eyes narrowed and focused on some far off place. “What do you want me to say Maria? It's not fair that you were placed in this situation, I am remorseful and repentant to the very core of my soul, and I hope one day you can forgive me?"
She sneered, “Starting small I see.”
His head cocked to the side, clearly unsure what she was referring to. “What does that mean?”
She looked upon her father, his figure once so powerful and imposing in her childlike eyes now smaller and vulnerable as he sat hunched over in his seat, his own eyes red and strained. A part of her wanted to hate him, to lash out and hurt him physically or emotionally, either would do at that point. But she had to admit to herself that it was a small part, that her father truly was doing what he thought was best to protect each one of them. So she let go of the hate and almost physically felt it leave as her body relaxed and she shook her head.
“Let's stop fighting. I don't want that to potentially be my last memory of you," she said as she turned back to her window.
The transport dropped as the air turbulence played havoc with the lift generated by the body of the craft. Maria and her mother both gasped, and she swore she could see the older woman actually push her fingernails through the material that made up the harness. Just then light shone through her window display and stole her attention. Below them was the island of Hong Kong, breaking through the typhoon’s cloud coverage.
For a moment the anxiety and anger she was feeling disappeared, replaced by wonder at the sight before her. While she had seen surveillance footage from drones and orbiting satellites, it didn't have the same effect as seeing it in person. Stretched below them was one of the few remaining great cities of Earth. The lights in the darkness shone like diamonds that cut through the rain and the cloak that was the night. There seemed to be as many lights as there were people on the island. The last intelligence pass she had read on the island indicated over two million human heat signatures within the city. To be honest however, there was no way of being entirely certain how many actually resided upon the island given that the Chen family had taken measures to prevent observation of large sections of the city by making them resistant to thermal detection and blocking radar mapping of the subterranean elements. Soaring above all of it was the shinning edifice that was the Hong Kong Spire, so similar to hers yet with such a different feel.
She frowned. With all the wonder and thought the lights had generated, she had forgotten the most important fact of all, those lights represented slavery. The other Spire families had grown wary of the robotics that had protected them from the mobs during the fall of the old civilization. They turned to slave labor, capturing and breeding large numbers of people to work in the factories and to serve as fodder for their armies. Yes, there were robotic units used by each family; however, they rarely ever made up more than twenty-five percent of the total manufacturing and military might of their fiefdoms. Unlike the others, her family was completely reliant upon robotic entities whose efficiency and lack of emotion made it possible for the three people of her family to rise to dominance over all that remained. The other families understood this and when she was younger she often wondered why they hadn't completely embraced robotics. She understood now though. They feared that should they become more reliant her father, being a brilliant software engineer, would be able to seize control of their work forces and armies. They also had another reason; deep within themselves was the dark and malicious need to dominate others. Her family didn't have that need. The others though had to have those that they could look down upon and feel superior to as their own lives spun out of control from drama that was their own making.
It wasn't long after the plague came into existence that her father devised the cure for it. He shared it freely with all the other families in the hope that they would use it to help those around the world who still suffered or were vulnerable. Instead, men like Jeffery Chen took it and adapted it to their cruel intentions. He changed the cure so that rather than only needing to be used once an individual would instead require regular injections to stay healthy. Essentially it held the virus in check but did not eradicate it from a person’s system.
Producing the cure for the families were the small number of free people that they kept around to deal with more complex tasks or in most cases just to serve as their personal entourages. They may have thought themselves free since they didn't need the cure, but they were still very much slaves. Step out of line just a little and the fickleness of the Spire families could see them exiled from the Spire where they would find little protection from the anger and resentment of the slaves below.
So while all of this was beautiful to behold, like oh so many other things in the world, it was only palatable when viewed from a distance. When seen up close and forced to face the truth of what it actually was, that was when people learned something about themselves. Do they accept what they see or do they fight against it? Are people powerless to affect the outcome? Should they just stand back and hope that by staying quiet the terribleness will somehow pass them and theirs by?
And with that Maria found a bit of hope in her situation. She may be a prisoner here, but she was in a unique position of having access to the upper levels of such a mighty family. She would use her time to try and end this barbaric practice of the Chen household and by extension use their influence to force change amongst their lesser allies. With this task before her, the despair she was experiencing lessened. As her parents taught for her entire life, finding and working toward a purpose was the most beneficial thing she could do for herself.
The autopilot began the transport’s descent through t
he wind and rain. The craft was buffered from side to side, and she lost her view of the Spire as they banked and came in for a landing. Their speed bled off and through the downpour and glare of lights she began to make out some detail in the buildings far below. All of that was slowly replaced by the view of the inside of the Spire’s hanger. The space looked much like the one at her home with the walls and ceiling crossed with catwalks and machinery of all types. In some areas, transports far bulkier than the one she sat in were suspended on cables from the ceiling. She used her contacts to display a forward view of the craft’s nose.
A small window popped up in her vision, and she watched as a group of exceptionally well-dressed men wielding rifles were lined up on either side of a golden throne that sat at the end of a red carpet. Seated in the chair, and barely seeming to be held by it, was Jeffery Chen. Even from the camera view, it was clear how physically imposing the man was. Though he wore robes, the sheer size of his chest and biceps stretched the fabric. At two meters in height and almost a hundred forty kilos, he was often identified in her intelligence briefings as the most physically dangerous Spire parent.
The transport landed with an almost imperceptible bump and the engines began to power down. Her father unlatched himself and looked at her mother. Maria could see the thought process running through his head. Should he alert her to their landing? She was understandably furious with her husband, and he was just as understandably afraid of her. Maria smirked. The only person in the world her father feared was the one that he had chosen to spend his life with, and given that the longevity vaccine had no restriction upon it, they could be together for a very long time.
“I'll tell her, Dad,” Maria said, noticing her father’s shoulders relax a bit. He left the chair and began busying himself with her luggage. Maria reached over and gently touched her mother’s arm. Her eyes, which were squeezed shut, slowly opened and looked upon her daughter. For one moment the stress of the turbulent flight left her, and Maria could tell she was happy at seeing her daughter’s face. It was quickly replaced by the realization of what the end of the flight represented. She quickly unstrapped herself and threw her arms around Maria.
The Spire Page 27