“There was something different about this,” Robin said, the confusion settling on her face as she sat down on the sofa opposite her husband. When the bot brought over her drink she automatically raised her hand to take it.
“You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately, my dear,” Blake said. “But all that’s going to change now. You’re not sick anymore, you’ve been made better. You’ve been made whole by the great science that is this colony. You may not agree with some of the things we must do, but we must protect the population. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, just like Spock said.”
“I don’t think Spock said that,” his wife grumbled.
“Suddenly you know the classics?” Blake asked her with a smile. “Remember, I’m the one who was valedictorian with my early 21st-century doctoral degree. It’s how we even discovered this code existed.”
“I’m well aware of what your degree is in,” Robin said. And suddenly she felt very, very tired, her shoulders drooped and she made her way to the couch where she fell and closed her eyes. “How did we even get here?” She asked. “You know, back then, all I wanted to do, all I wanted was to marry you and have a family. What happened to that dream? You asked me to help build the city. I did that, but it wasn’t the only dream I ever had.”
Blake’s heart clenched at her words. A family. He could keep people alive through almost any disease by extracting the parts that didn’t work and replacing them with hardware and computerized software pieces that would work. But he couldn’t get his own wife pregnant.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
But his voice was soft and Robin wasn’t listening anyhow. She was thinking the same thought she’d been thinking for the last few years. She wondered when she would be allowed to die. Or was a hybrid truly meant to live forever?
Charlie was back in his penthouse, looking down on the city. What the hell was he doing? He tried reaching Jade through the ServBot system at least a dozen times since the end of that stupid event. The ceremony he had dreamed of his entire life. Finally getting the recognition he deserved. And it all seemed like a sham, orchestrated by Crowley simply to give them the opportunity to murder the rebel; make an example of him. And when they had escorted Charlie back to this penthouse, well he’d heard the lock in the door when Monfils left. He was pretty sure he wasn’t getting out tonight. He scratched thoughtfully at his wrist.
Charlie was a hell of a programmer and he was good at getting things working. He hoped so. He was so good, Blake had gone to the past to bring him here. But now that was done, well, the cold hard truth was settling in. There was no way Blake or Warren were going to let Charlie go back. Why would they risk Charlie changing the code, making alterations, or even taking the code for himself? Charlie’s brain worked overtime on this problem. But the answer was always the same. There was no way in hell Charlie was going home.
Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out the card his nephew, Alex, had given him. Alex’s voice rang clearly in Charlie’s head.
“His name is Halidan. He is savior of the realm, like Taborlin the Great. If he is played when your city has been destroyed, he rebuilds it. He’s my favorite.”
Suddenly, the full import of the choice he had made slapped him in the face. Charlie was never going to be able to see his nephew again.
Ever.
He could maybe look up his nephew’s records, find out what became of him, try to trace his family line, but Charlie from 2017? Wiped off the face of the earth. He had become one of those missing persons. He thought about his mother, about his sister. How long would they be thinking about him, wondering where he went, what happened to him? His nephew would grow up always wondering what happened to his uncle and why he abandoned him.
“I left because I wanted to make a difference,” Charlie said aloud to the empty room.
But what had he really done? He could’ve made a difference in his nephew’s life, but he sacrificed that. And for what? From everything he saw going on here, it mostly felt he had just been used. Blake Crowley had a lot of problems and the hybrid disease had only been one of them. He had rebels attacking, and even his wife as a hybrid, it didn’t look so good.
What if it was worse, though? Blake was a pretty ruthless guy. He just killed another human right in front of everybody. Just to make a point. Charlie figured his own status was high enough that he wouldn’t be killed, but Blake was the kind of a guy who could create an accident and make it believable. Charlie’s eyes went to the northern quadrant of town where the DarkM’attr machine was housed. It was overrun by Lowsmiths when he arrived, but he was sure Blake had it back under control now. He had to get back to it. He wasn’t safe here, he wasn’t a hero, he was just the next guy, probably in a long line of guys, that Blake used to protect his assets. Charlie turned the card over and over in his fingers and looked back out the window. How the hell was he going to get across town? Hell, he didn’t even know how he was going to get out of this apartment, but for the sake of his mother, his niece and nephew, and hell, even his sister, he knew he had to try.
Monfils had tried everything. Blake was not answering. Jade was not answering. The only person he could get to was Warren. And he had to be careful about that. You don’t just walk up to a cobra and punch it in the nose.
Monfils needed a flute.
He walked into Command Central humming a tune.
Warren glanced up as Monfils entered, but didn’t take much more notice of him. Monfils walked over to the hybrid pod to have a quick look at his units and see if there was anything that needed his attention.
As he passed Dustin, he clapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations,” he said. “Good work helping Charlie Richards. Glad you guys got the problem fixed and I can get my hybrids, well, those that are still alive, back in service.”
An involuntary snort came out of Dustin.
Monfils’s eyes narrowed. “You are planning to have my hybrids back in business. I mean, you gave me back Jade. She carried out my orders perfectly.”
And that’s when Monfils saw it; Dustin’s face fell.
“Your orders?” Dustin asked, his eyes flitting between Warren and Monfils for the briefest of seconds.
Monfils stepped in close, towering over Dustin. “You filthy little rat shit bastard. You can’t lead people in any real way, so you wrote code to control them.”
Dustin relaxed. He had slid into Monfils’s little trap, but it wasn’t going to hold him back. “I did write the code,” he grinned. “But Warren controls it. I don’t think you want to challenge him on that, do you?”
A dark storm crossed Monfils’s face as he turned and strode out of Command Central.
Chapter 25
Charlie called out to the ServBot. “I need to speak with Blake Crowley,” he said, donning his best voice of authority. He didn’t think it was an option or that the bot was going to make it happen, but he wanted to test the system.
“I am most sorry,” the ServBot said. “This is not a possibility.”
“I’m not feeling very well,” Charlie murmured, slumping into the couch. It was a classic 21st century “when you’re in prison and on lockdown” sick act. He wasn’t sure if it was going to get him out of the apartment, but he was going to give it a shot.
“One moment please,” the ServBot said.
And it was truly only a moment before a MediBot rolled into the living room.
“How might I be of service?” it asked, opening its side panel showing a huge dispensary of drugs. “What sort of medicine do you need? These are all suitable for human consumption but I recommend letting me choose for you based on your symptoms.”
Charlie was a bit taken aback, but couldn’t stop himself from perusing the goods. Everything, apparently, was done in liquid form these days and only required a single drop on a small slip of paper. Seriously, it looked a little bit like acid you’d take in the 90’s. Charlie wasn’t going near any of it with a ten-foot pole.
“I
just need to get out of here,” he said. “Get some fresh air.”
Its eyes rolled back in its head as it processed the request. “You are not at liberty to travel outside of this apartment,” the MediBot said. “But now I’m quite sure you are relegated article 350 CX. Anything you do needs to be reported. And you’re not allowed to do anything.”
“Right,” Charlie said glaring at the MediBot, who stared back with an impossibly disinterested gaze.
Charlie realized a couple of things. The first was that you couldn’t get out on a sick charge, you couldn’t talk to Blake… and even Jade didn’t seem to care about his plight anymore.
He could try the “I’m going to kill myself” shtick, but it didn’t seem like anyone was going to care about that either. If they wanted him dead, it might just get the job done sooner.
A loud explosion across the city made the glass window shake. Huge lights and explosions blew up the skyline. This time it wasn’t in the area where the DarkM’attr machine was, it was all along the outer perimeter. Every single wall along half the city was being bombarded with explosions.
“Holy shit,” Charlie murmured. “What’s going on?” he asked the ServBot.
The ServBot reached into whatever system plugged it into the main network. “It appears there is a demonstration being conducted. Nothing to be alarmed about.”
“Where the hell are you reading that?” Charlie asked. “The Good Crowley Times? You’ve got to realize it’s bullshit. Unless Blake has decided he wants to destroy half of his precious city, I guarantee you this is no demonstration.”
“There is nothing to be alarmed about,” repeated the bot.
Charlie was trying to figure out how he was going to use the situation to his advantage. The first thing he needed to do was get out of the apartment.
His mind flashed to the awards ceremony. To the look Warren and Dustin had exchanged. Dustin was Warren’s man. Warren would be the one who didn’t want Charlie around. He’d be the only one who cared about what Charlie could do. There’s a reason they hadn’t killed Charlie yet and he was pretty sure it had to do with Dustin and Warren. The code worked, he knew it worked. So, why were they still letting him live? Charlie had the feeling he was losing in a game he didn’t even know the rules of, one he had no power over. He was supposed to be the mastermind. The one who had created the technology that made the hybrids. But now he was being kept in the dark, seemingly in the lap of luxury. But he had no idea what his future was.
Unless… Unless he had made a mistake. Or they thought he had made a mistake. Now that he understood more about the system, maybe there was some way for him to gain a little ground.
“I need to see Warren,” Charlie said.
The ServBot just blinked at him.
“Warren Relic,” Charlie said.
“Just one moment, we will check his availability,” the ServBot said.
“While you’re checking his availability,” Charlie said, leaning into whatever camera the bot stored its vision receptors in, “I need you to transmit this information back to headquarters. Tell Warren I made a mistake. There is a problem in the code that will disrupt what I programmed. It’ll work for now but I set a variable wrong. It’s really wrong. Like it’s only going to work for another hour. You need to get me back to headquarters so I can double-check it.”
It seemed to take forever for the bot to come back with an answer. Charlie was extremely frustrated by the basic inhumanity of them. They couldn’t even see his frustration or irritation; they simply did as they were programmed. There was no connection, nothing. But he knew he got him something right. He knew there was only one thing Warren truly cared about, and that was the hybrid code. Charlie wasn’t quite sure why, but he knew it would get his attention.
“You will be collected and taken to Mr. Relic,” the ServBot finally said.
“Good,” Charlie said. “That’s great.” He tried to look enthusiastic and happy as if he really cared about the code getting corrected, which he didn’t. He just cared about getting out of here, getting to the DarkM’attr machine, and getting back to his time. To his people.
* * *
You could’ve knocked Charlie over with a feather when his escort showed up to take him to see Warren.
“Good job,” Jade said as the door slid open, the black shadow of Genesis II looming behind her.
Charlie wasn’t sure if he should hug her or hide from her. He wanted to do both. Though, truth be told, mostly just hug her. He compromised by sticking out his hand. He just wanted to touch her, he wanted human contact. She stared down at it as if it was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. Her arms remained at her sides.
“I’m here to escort you to Warren,” she said.
As much as Charlie wanted to ask questions, he knew he could not miss this opportunity to get out of the apartment. But he also knew with Jade as his escort, he had no hope in hell of escaping, or surviving if he attempted it.
They walked in silence down the hallway into the transport lift.
“Headquarters,” Jade said, sliding her finger through a vapor portal that apparently recognized her. A dual chair slid into the tube and the gate slipped open allowing them entry.
Charlie glanced at the sleek chair that would take them a few blocks away. This was the future.
Man, if he could get back in time he could make a killing either inventing some of this stuff or, probably more realistically, writing crazy science fiction. Because he had no idea how half the stuff worked. I mean… what sort of vapor bath does one put a finger in so it can identify exactly who you are and what permissions you have? No idea.
He rubbed his hand over the smooth surface of the chair as he sat down. There were no belts. The chair suctioned them in with a great intake of breath.
“Why did you kill him?” The question came out of Charlie’s mouth before he could stop himself.
Jade’s slanted eyes tilted towards Charlie. “It had to be done.”
“But he was just some guy,” Charlie said. His words trailed off. How could he explain that Frank reminded him of the kind of guys he sat in the bar with back home. “Just some guy caught up in a crazy rebellion.”
Charlie’s heart clenched at the truth. It could just as easily have been him. Would Jade kill him if Blake commanded it? He glanced over at her. There was no telling. She stared straight ahead as the chair whizzed soundlessly through the air.
“That guy let me live. He could’ve killed me when we came out of the DarkM’attr machine and you were taking me into headquarters, but he didn’t. He let me live.”
“He got caught.” Jade’s tone was flat.
“But he shouldn’t have died, and-”
“I don’t know if you realize this,” Jade interrupted, “But I don’t exactly make the rules around here.”
“Yeah, but come on, I know you’ve got power. I see how everybody looks at you. You don’t just have to cave and follow the rules like everybody else. I may be new around here, but I see that much. I’m not an imbecile,” Charlie said.
“You might be coding-smart, and handy with hardware, but you don’t have an ounce of emotional intelligence. If you did, you would shut up and just do what you’re told.”
Her words stung. Charlie tried to scoot away from her a bit, but the airlock on the seats wouldn’t let him move.
“Something is wrong with you,” he said. “You’re different.”
“You don’t know me,” she said. “You showed up in my life three days ago. And you are nothing like the documentaries they made about you.”
Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Did you watch them all?”
Jade rolled her eyes and looked out the window. The tube opened up and they slid to a halt in the lustrous lobby of the Crowley headquarters. She grabbed his arm before he could step out of the tube. Her grip was stronger than the airlock that had held him into his chair.
“Is it true?” She asked. “Are you going to Warren to tell him there’s something wro
ng with the code you gave me? I mean, you gave all the hybrids?”
Charlie knew she was highly trained to measure any imperceptible muscle twitch or eye motion. Anything that would let her know he was lying. He held himself as steadily as possible and stared her straight in the eye.
“It’s true,” he said. “I made a mistake. I am human.” He shrugged his shoulders and use the opportunity to look away from her concentrated gaze.
The sound Jade made wasn’t quite a snort, but it wasn’t just an exhale. It was something in between the two and told Charlie he might’ve given something away. He pulled his arm loose from her as the transport doors swished closed behind them and they stepped forward into the bustling hive that was headquarters.
“Restrain her!” Blake yelled at the ProtectoBots as they stormed into the room. “Gently,” he added, which is not something he had ever commanded a ProtectoBot to be in his entire career as master of the universe.
He turned his back as Robin, screaming at him, was held down by the ProtectoBots, her wrists bond with H-Con cuffs.
Blake pressed his finger to his temple so hard it hurt. “What the fuck is going on, Warren?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Warren says smoothly. “How are things with you?”
Blake listened to Robin screaming in the other room and closed his eyes. There was no way he could tell Warren his wife was going crazy. Still, he should…
“Good,” Blake said smoothly. “Just wondering if there have been any reports of strangeness among the Deltas at all.”
“Strangeness?” Warren asked, trying hard to keep the smile out of his voice.
“You know, aggressiveness from the update or something?” Blake tried to sound real, real casual.
Warren bit his lip to keep from chortling out loud. “Nope,” he finally managed. “All’s quiet on the western front. How’s Robin?”
“Oh, fine, fine,” Blake muttered, but his eyes closed. There was no way he could show weakness to Warren.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 111