Resurrection, Inc.

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Danal sat with his eyes wide and his mouth open in wonder. Possibilities echoed inside his head, and he had to hammer them back, forcing them to come one at a time so that his consciousness would not be overwhelmed by awe. “What do we do now?”

  The nurse/tech grasped at his practical question, as if the more esoteric explanations made her uneasy. “First of all, we have to get you out of here. And soon. Upon admitting you, I entered your ID and your Master’s name into The Net—anybody with sense enough to look will be able to track you down, sooner or later. We’ll have to get you out unobtrusively, to a safe place.”

  Then her eyes grew hard. “But one thing I absolutely must impress upon you, something you have to keep at the front of your mind above all else. Something you can’t forget.”

  “What?”

  Like someone sharing a secret initiation, the nurse/tech lowered her voice. “We must not be discovered. If the public knew that Servants can awaken, maybe return as lost loved ones, or lost enemies—well, I don’t want to consider the consequences. People are already uneasy enough about us.

  “We’ve got to keep it secret—that’s our greatest advantage. We Wakers can do things, support ourselves and plan for our future. It’s delicate stuff, with such far-reaching consequences as the future of all Servants, so we’ve got to proceed with the utmost care. We don’t want massacres of Servants, and we don’t want an upheaval of all society, you know.”

  She ran out of patience with herself. “Gregor will explain it all to you. He’s a lot more eloquent. For now, I’m more concerned with getting you to him. Stay here a minute.”

  The nurse/tech left the bright room, sliding the door shut behind her. She hurried out to the front lobby with a firm, businesslike stride, but stopped abruptly upon looking out the transplastic entry doors.

  Outside, the black hulking shape of an Enforcers Guild hovertransport hung in the air with its tonguelike ramp extending to the ground. A second transport lowered itself into position. White-armored Enforcers filed out of the first craft, taking positions near the door. An Elite Guard, accompanied by one regular Enforcer, strode to the sliding transplastic doors; his midnight-blue armor made him look much larger than he actually was.

  Several of the techs and waiting patients pushed excitedly to the window, watching and whispering to each other; other patients remained apathetic, scanning Net periodicals or staring at the artificial plant-things in the lobby.

  As the doors slid open for the Elite Guard and the first Enforcer, the nurse/tech moved to meet him before anyone else could speak. The Elite Guard was startled by her abrupt presence, and she used it to push her advantage.

  “Yes, Guildsman, how may we be of assistance? I can see this is serious. Please be careful. The safety of our patients is paramount.”

  The blue-armored Guard turned his opaque visor toward her. “You have a Servant here. He was injured, and someone healed him.”

  “That is our business after all,” she said, smothering her own sarcasm.

  “My orders are to apprehend him.”

  The troops of Enforcers outside had surrounded the medical center. Other men in the second hovertransport stood waiting.

  “Are we in danger from this Servant?” She placed a worried tone in her voice. “May I ask what he’s done?”

  “No, you may not. Please direct me to him.” The accompanying Enforcer tensed. His hand strayed toward a weapon. “Now.”

  “Yes, yes. One moment.” The nurse/tech bustled behind the counter. She rattled her fingers over a keyboard, ostensibly calling up information on Danal, stalling for time, trying to think.

  “Ah, yes. He was injured in the shoulder, but he’s recuperating now. Claims his name is Danal—well, of course his name is Danal, since Servants can’t lie.” She let out a little laugh. “Says here that the attending physician suspected your Servant might be violent or something. Here, follow me.”

  She strode down one of the corridors with the two armored men marching closely on her heels. “He’s in this one—it’s one of our high-security chambers, designed to restrain the more violent patients and to ensure that they can’t escape.”

  “Good.” The Elite Guard pulled out his scatter-stun, and the other Enforcer did the same. They both tensed. “Now let us in.”

  The nurse/tech activated the door, and both men leaped into the empty chamber. Just as quickly she reversed the switch and slammed the door back into its closed position, affixing the edges with magnetic seals. Smiling to herself, she illuminated the “CAUTION—VIOLENT PATIENT” designator and turned rapidly to walk away as the two trapped Enforcers began to pound on the door.

  For lack of a better idea, the nurse/tech activated the emergency fire alarms as she hurried back to Danal’s room. An urgent ratcheting sound filled the halls. The other people in the medical center milled about, confused.

  The nurse/tech slid open the door to Danal’s room and threw him an apron like those worn by the orderly Servants. “Put this on. And come out in just a minute. Trouble. I think this is going to be tough.”

  The nurse/tech popped out into the hall again, ushering the people toward the front door. “We all have to evacuate! We’ve got a situation here. The Elite Guard wants us out—come on, let the Enforcers do their job! Everybody out!”

  Without their Elite Guard leader, the massed Enforcers outside were completely at a loss when the patients and medical personnel began to crowd out the doors. The Enforcer troops could not retain control, short of stunning the front lines of refugees, and they did not want another mob disturbance so soon after the riot outside Resurrection, Inc. The uncertain chaos outside even exceeded the nurse/tech’s expectations.

  As she returned to get Danal, she noticed that the door of the confinement chamber had buckled outward slightly, glowing a dull red as the two trapped Enforcers used their own weapons to blast out.

  Danal emerged from his room, uneasily wearing the orderly smock. The stain-killing enzymes in his own gray jumpsuit had by now managed to dissolve much of Nathans’s blood, and the apron made him look more unobtrusive.

  The grating evacuation alarm continued to pound through the air, adding to the confusion. The nurse/tech grabbed his arm and propelled him toward the front.

  “Everybody out!” she shouted, then lowered her voice to Danal. “Remember what I said. No one can find out about us, especially not the Guild. We’ll take advantage of the confusion and try to get away, but they’ve got two transports of Enforcers out there. Somebody must want you very badly.”

  “Nathans is dead. I’m surprised the imposter has that much influence.”

  As they reached the lobby, the nurse/tech put on a harried commanding voice. “Servant! Take that box and follow me. Quickly!”

  The nurse/tech pointed to a box filled with small vacuum sealed bottles; a label, “BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES—IN STRICT CONFIDENCE,” stood out prominently on the outside of the box. Danal picked up the package, made sure to keep a blank, mechanical expression on his face, and followed her outside. He tried to hide his face behind the box, though Danal doubted any of the Enforcers had a good description of his facial characteristics anyway.

  Some of the Enforcers stood rigid, at attention; others ran around, chasing people, trying to look authoritative.

  The nurse/tech hopped from one person to another in the crowd, tending the displaced patients. One man squatted on the ground, crying, staring at his knees. The nurse/tech went by, patted him on the back, and went to a woman who was adjusting her own bandages on a burned hand. “You all right? Good.”

  She moved on. Danal followed her obediently, like a good Servant. She spoke to him quietly out of the corner of her mouth. “Over there—see it? If we’re careful, I think we might be able to just walk out of here.”

  Danal looked where she indicated. A block and a half away, one of the broad KEEP OFF THE GRASS patches glowed threateningly with its lush, vibrant green lawn, fenced off with a knee-high barricade. One Enforcer stood stati
oned beside it, presumably to make sure no one slipped and fell into the deadly disintegrator patch. The single Enforcer watched the chaos around the medical center, but made no move to help out, refusing to leave his post.

  When the two nearest Enforcers moved aside to break up a fight between a medical center tech and a patient, the nurse/tech stepped up her pace and bustled down the street, trying to get away from the crowd.

  Behind them, the trapped Elite Guard and his accompanying Enforcer burst out of the medical center entrance, successful in blasting their way through the door of the confinement chamber. Both of them had weapons in each hand. They began shouting, causing a large commotion.

  The nurse/tech did not look back, but moved more quickly instead. Danal saw the lone Enforcer ahead of them by the disintegrator patch and prayed that he wouldn’t pay any particular attention to them.

  “Hey! Wait! You—” one of the Enforcers behind them bellowed.

  The nurse/tech broke into a run. “Follow me! Now!”

  Danal dropped the box of samples with a crash at his feet and leaped over it as it fell. Someone else shouted, and a ping! exploded at Danal’s feet.

  “No, you idiot! Not projectile weapons!” someone screeched behind them. “We’ve got to take him alive! Scatter-stuns, everyone!”

  Danal ran. The Enforcer in front of them stood with his legs spread, intimidating, but not moving from his position. He held one gloved hand out, waggling it slightly in a strange gesture. The nurse/tech ran directly toward him.

  “Danal! Command: Follow!”

  Unable to resist and suddenly betrayed by the Command phrase, Danal leaped after her. He heard the buzzing hum behind him as scatter-stun fields radiated outward.

  He and the nurse/tech had almost reached the lone Enforcer. The gaping deadly maw of the KEEP OFF THE GRASS patch shone a beautiful green, beckoning.

  Then Danal’s left leg went completely numb and useless as a scatter-stun field struck it. His own momentum carried him forward, but he tripped and fell directly into the arms of the waiting Enforcer.

  The white-armored man grappled with him, wrestling the Servant in a bear hug. Danal tried to struggle, but the Enforcer began to tip backward, stumbling into the low fence surrounding the disintegrator patch.

  The nurse/tech let out a wild howl and also leaped to tackle the Enforcer. All three of them toppled over the low barricade toward the deadly shimmering grass.

  With the speed of his microprocessor Danal felt himself falling with agonizing slowness, unable to escape. The last thing he saw was the sharp and distinct green blades of grass. As he reached out his arm to try to stop their fall, Danal saw his own hand disappear into nothingness as a brief rush of ozone filled his nostrils. Then the rest of his body fell through the disintegrator field, engulfed completely.

  PART III

  Awakening

  25

  Danal dropped through the disembodied blackness, flailing his arms. He could see nothing, but he sensed the tumble of the other two bodies as they all fell together.

  With a jolting abruptness, strands of nylon rope knocked the breath out of Danal’s lungs, and he lurched wildly up and down until he finally came to rest on a wide net strung from above. He struggled and turned around, looking in the direction his mind remembered as “up.”

  About fifteen feet above, he could see a blurry green square of prismatic light, like the back side of an illusion. As Danal’s eyes adjusted to the shadows, he could discern the supporting ropes stretching upward from the net, fastened to three overhanging girders.

  Nothing made sense. He found himself intact, not a cloud of atoms scattered apart by the disintegrator field. He drew a deep breath, tasted a salty and musty tang in the air. He heard a faint rushing noise down below… and could even make out occasional snatches of conversation somewhere out in the darkness.

  Beside him, the Enforcer managed to get to his knees on the wobbly net, apparently nonplussed. Danal tensed, ready to fight back if the Enforcer drew one of his weapons, but the armored man pulled off his helmet instead.

  Stunned, Danal saw that his head was pale and bald—a Servant.

  The nurse/tech shook herself, then let out a long sigh. “Well, we’re in for it now.”

  In the grip of confused astonishment, Danal could not respond.

  The Enforcer/Servant ignored him as he crawled to the edge of the swaying net, hindered by his stiff armor. He reached a rope ladder with which he hoisted himself onto a narrow wooden platform above. “You were a good plant, Laina. But it had to end sometime.” He turned to Danal and smiled with a calm expression and tangible personal warmth. “I’m Rolf. Welcome.”

  The nurse/tech—Laina—reached for the rope ladder as the Enforcer/Servant disappeared into the darkness. The white skirt rode up on her thick legs, exposing darkened panty hose that made cadaverous skin look like normal flesh. Danal remained motionless, squatting on the gently swinging net. Baffled, he looked at the square of greenish light high above.

  “But… we’re still here! We fell through the disintegrator—”

  “Maintenance opening.”

  “It was one of the KEEP OFF THE GRASS patches! I watched us fall through.”

  “Maintenance opening.”

  “What’s going on—please?”

  Laina heard the plaintive desperation in his voice and paused to give him an explanation. As he listened, Danal began to chink the gaping holes in the mysteries, though questions continued to pour around the edges.

  “This is the Bay Area Metroplex, remember?” Laina began, “When have you ever seen the Bay in all your life? All you find is Metroplex, buildings and roadways and office plazas. Years and years ago our dear sprawling city butted up against the ocean and spread out over the water, where the builders could still sink pilings to hit bedrock.” She spread her arms to indicate the shadowy forest of pilings. “This was all oceanfront property!

  “In the beginning, they left maintenance openings so workers could go down to check the conditions of the pilings, to inspect the support beams. But that’s all been forgotten now that we’ve got Net-programmed repair-rats to do the routine maintenance. However, that still leaves the maintenance openings up on top. Some crazy city planner covered them with patches of holographic grass. Maybe they thought it would look pretty or something.”

  She smiled and raised her painted eyebrows; her thick lipstick looked wet in the dusty light. “Holographic grass. Oh, people must have seen some clod fall right through the illusion—hence, a ‘deadly disintegrator blanket.’ But it’s been a long time now, and we make sure The Net doesn’t give out any real information about the maintenance openings. I doubt even the human bigwigs know the truth.”

  She stood on the narrow platform and placed her hands on her hips. The wig covering Laina’s smooth scalp sat cockeyed in front of her eyes, knocked loose by the long fall. “Well, are you just going to gawk at me or do you want me to show you around? Gregor probably wants to know what’s going on.”

  Danal worked his way over to the rope ladder, twice losing his balance on the lurching net. He could see only darkness below like a bottomless open mouth. Somewhere beneath him, he heard the soft rush of waves curling around countless pilings and girders.

  “So who’s this Gregor you keep talking about?”

  The nurse/tech offered her hand to help him up. The grip felt cool but strong. “He’s our fearless leader.”

  With a Servant’s precise control Laina led him along a narrow walkway, a wooden board barely ten centimeters wide. Danal recognized similar walkways extending from place to place, level to level, and interconnected by rope or metal ladders and occasional platforms.

  “After curfew sometimes we use the KEEP OFF THE GRASS patches to get up there. But most of the time we choose less dramatic means—we found several openings and passages into the lower levels of buildings, once we knew where to look.”

  “After curfew?” Danal sounded surprised.

  “Sure, w
hy not?”

  “Not worried about the Enforcers?”

  She made a wry expression. “It’s not difficult to be smarter than a bunch of bored Enforcers.”

  Intermittent bright lights hung from various supports and girders; cords dangled like snakes in the rich shadows, tapping into the intricate power conduits of the Metroplex. The dangling lights ahead looked like a pattern of stars over the dark water. Large crates forming a stockpile of food and hardware hung in nets suspended from crossbeams and looming over the walkways.

  Laina quickly worked her way down two rope ladders, bringing him closer to where he could hear the rippling ocean. Then Danal began to see people, other Servants dressed in a hodgepodge of clothing, some in gray jumpsuits; mostly, though, they wore bright and vibrant colors. All of them moved with a purposeful semblance of normal life, without the mechanical apathy of ordinary Servants.

  “Are those all… Wakers?” Danal asked.

  “You bet.” Many of the others stirred, watching his arrival. Some smiled; some looked worried.

  The Wakers’ network of hammocks, platforms, suspended lights and ropes made a virtual world of its own. Some of the Wakers lay back under the harsh lights, sunning themselves, apparently working on their melanin to regain some skin color, though the clear synBlood would never let them have the ruddy appearance of life.

  Near his ear Danal heard a clicking and scuttling noise. He looked up to see a pair of articulated mechanical repair-rats making their painstaking rounds—tediously maintaining things, checking conduits and wires, fixing structural damage. Tiny scanner lights endlessly swept over their field of view, correlating the picture with a master plan fed to them by a remote Net link. The repair-rats each carried a bevy of tiny tools and synthesizing equipment to repair any deviations they detected.

  Laina noticed the repair-rat and swore under her breath. Danal realized the mechanical drones had been dismantling one of the hanging sunlamp fixtures. She reached up to deactivate both repair-rats and switched them back on after moving them to a different crossbeam. “There, it’ll take them days to get reoriented.” She clucked her tongue. “We basically ignore the damned things, except they always try to undo the intentional changes we’ve made down here. It’s a constant battle.”