Daughter of Nothing

by Eric Kent Edstrom

Unless Humphrey had told that secret to Dr. Carlhagen.

  “I’m sorry, Jacey,” Humphrey said. “I wish I had been a better friend.”

  He turned to face her, swallowing hard. “I just didn’t know how.”

  Jacey’s finger tensed on the trigger.

  The Dr. Carlhagen who had possessed Vaughan hadn’t been able to pull off Vaughan’s noble demeanor. He’d been too obsessed with forcing himself on Jacey. Could the same twisted mind be inside Humphrey?

  Logic told her it was possible. But her gut told her no. She had to trust him.

  Slowly, Jacey lowered the pistol. “I’m so glad I didn’t have to kill you.”

  He swallowed. “Me too.”

  Jacey stepped forward and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her, gently. There was no feeling of possession in the embrace. Only care.

  Mr. Justin cleared his throat. “Miss Jacey, the Nines need to prepare for the storm. I shall summon Sensei and explain what’s happened with Dr. Carlhagen.”

  Jacey pulled free from Humphrey’s arms. “Sensei is gone. The gunmen took him.”

  Mr. Justin swore, face transforming to a mask of frustration. He stormed to the holo table. “Chax!”

  The security AI appeared.

  “Did Dr. Carlhagen request Sensei’s removal?”

  “Yes. He activated Protocol Seven.”

  The look on Mr. Justin’s faces became grim. “Thank you, Chax.” He turned to Jacey. “There isn’t much we can do for Sensei. His body is likely floating in the sea at this moment.”

  Jacey closed her eyes, picturing the martial arts master’s stony face. He’d been the closest thing to a father she’d had. And now Dr. Carlhagen had taken him from her, too. “What of his family? Sensei told me Dr. Carlhagen used them as leverage over him.”

  “Protocol Seven specifically includes their deaths.” He paused and seemed to consider something. “There is a chance. . . . If Dr. Carlhagen tells us the authorization code, we might be able to save some of his family.”

  Jacey spun and left the transfer room. “I’ll get the code.”

  35

  The Allure of an Eel

  Jacey found Belle hovering over Vaughan’s cot, stroking his brow and whispering to him. She straightened when Jacey, Humphrey, and Mr. Justin entered. “Get out.”

  “That’s not Vaughan, Belle,” Jacey said.

  “He’s just sick. He had a head injury,” Belle said.

  Jacey went to the IV and adjusted the drip the way the medic had. Vaughan—Dr. Carlhagen—roused almost immediately. Humphrey stood behind her, and Belle hovered close by.

  “Jacqueline?” Vaughan said.

  No. Dr. Carlhagen.

  “My name is Jacey.”

  His brow knotted in confusion, then softened. “Of course. Jacey. Yes. Please let me tell you—”

  “Shut up,” she said. “You’re going to tell us what the authorization code is so we can call off Protocol Seven.”

  “Sure. Sanderson, seven, Heinlein, four, Lovecraft, five.”

  “I’ll speak with Chax,” said Mr. Justin, and he swept from the room.

  Belle glared at Jacey. “Why don’t you leave him alone?”

  Jacey was surprised Dr. Carlhagen had given up the code so easily. Perhaps he knew it was too late.

  Wearing a false smile, Jacey stared down her nose at him. “Since you hijacked Vaughan in order to trick me, I realized that somewhere out there in the not-so-desolate world is a man who expects to take up residence in this brain soon.” She tapped his forehead. “But since it’s already occupied, I started to worry. What on Earth could we tell him? But then I realized that nothing has really changed. When the time comes, Vaughan’s Progenitor—whoever the bastard is—can just overwrite you. I’d consider it an improvement.”

  Dr. Carlhagen smirked. “Don’t hold your breath, dear. Charles is dead.” He laughed until he coughed, face turning red. “Boating accident killed him and Jacqueline five months ago.”

  Him and Jacqueline.

  “I can read your face, dear. It’s so unlike you to let your feelings show. Yes. Charles and Jacqueline were married. For nearly seventy wretched years.”

  Jacey couldn’t absorb it. She knew that her Progenitor was dead; Dr. Carlhagen had told her that when he’d locked her in the pit. But both her and Vaughan’s Progenitor . . .

  “That’s why you hated Vaughan, isn’t it?” she said. “And when you were convinced I loved him, you took his place.”

  Dr. Carlhagen sneered. “Not my original plan, believe me, Jacqueline.”

  “My name is Jacey.”

  Belle frowned at Dr. Carlhagen. “Vaughan? Why are you talking like this?”

  Dr. Carlhagen’s eyes locked on Jacey’s. He didn’t seem to notice Belle’s presence. “I hated Charles for taking you from me. For winning your heart. I returned here knowing there was no Progenitor to overwrite you. That you were available to me once again. I could do it over, and this time you’d be mine.” His eyes shifted past her, locking on Humphrey. “Does he know?”

  Jacey had no idea what he was talking about. She glanced at Humphrey, but he was obviously as clueless as she was.

  “Humphrey. This beautiful girl, the one you held at gunpoint because you hated her for not loving you, she does love you.”

  Jacey looked at her feet. “I never said that.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Tears stood out in Dr. Carlhagen’s eyes. His lip quivered, and his face flushed. “If I had transferred to my own Scion, I would have possessed you.” He let out a blubbering laugh. “What irony. You have no idea how I hated you, boy. You can’t imagine the disgust you produced in me, to discover the weaknesses of my youth were not a matter of circumstance, but hardwired into my very DNA.”

  Humphrey’s face went white. He stepped forward and slapped Dr. Carlhagen. “Disgust? You know nothing of disgust. Imagine the revulsion I felt when I believed you to be my father. The only thing worse than being your son is to discover that I am instead a copy.” He struck again, and Dr. Carlhagen was helpless to defend himself.

  Jacey moved to pull Humphrey away and was joined by Belle, who was weeping openly.

  “Stop it,” Belle cried. “He can’t defend himself.”

  “He strikes Vaughan,” Dr. Carlhagen said, cheek glowing red from Humphrey’s blows. “He relishes the chance to abuse his old friend, who was stronger and better in every way.”

  “I loved him!” Humphrey shouted, voice cracking. “He was my brother in every respect save blood.”

  Dr. Carlhagen clamped his mouth shut, tried to turn his head away, but the straps held it firmly in place.

  “Vaughan,” Belle said, weeping. She went to Dr. Carlhagen and brushed his hair from his brow. “Please come back. Are you still in there?” She leaned over the bed and hugged him and kissed him.

  “Unhand me, girl,” Dr. Carlhagen said. “You have the allure of an eel.”

  Belle stumbled back, then ran out crying.

  Dr. Carlhagen’s eyes shifted to Jacey’s. “So now that you know you can’t overwrite me with Charles, what do you plan to do? Surely you don’t believe that you can stay here on this island? I have many contacts in the outside world. They’ll begin wondering what happened to me if they don’t hear from me soon.

  Turning away from Dr. Carlhagen, Jacey took Humphrey’s hand, partly to restrain him, but also for strength. She looked into Humphrey’s eyes. “They’ll hear from you, won’t they Dr. Carlhagen? With Mr. Justin’s help, it’ll be a long time before they catch on. Maybe never.”

  “Indeed, indeed,” Humphrey said, mimicking Dr. Carlhagen’s old joviality. “We should get back to the hacienda. I believe Mr. Justin is serving cake this evening.”

  They turned to go.

  “Damn you,” Dr. Carlhagen spat. “Damn you both!”

  Jacey considered turning the IV drip back up to sedate him, but decided he needed to be alone with his thoughts.

  She closed the door and locked it. Though muffled,
Dr. Carlhagen’s shouts came through.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Humphrey asked as they exited the medical ward and started up the path to the hacienda. The roaring wind nearly carried his words away, so Jacey didn’t try to answer.

  She didn’t have an answer. And it wasn’t the most pressing issue. The most important thing was weathering the coming storm.

  36

  Forbid the Tides to Rise

  Jacey sat behind the desk in Dr. Carlhagen’s office in the hacienda. She put her hands on the desk. “Socrates?”

  The professor didn’t appear. Instead, Madame LaFontaine flickered into existence. “What are you doing here, girl?”

  “What can you tell me about Dr. Carlhagen’s transfer to Vaughan?”

  “I know nothing of any sort about transfers,” Madame LaFontaine said, shrugging dramatically. She wore a look of such pure innocence it nearly made Jacey laugh. “In fact, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Jacey grabbed Livy’s stuffed dog from the table. She’d retrieved it from the dining room. She toyed with its ears as she regarded the dance mistress. “Can we please dispense with the denial, Madam? We know about it. Dr. Carlhagen has admitted it.”

  “Where is he?”

  Jacey leaned back in the leather chair, which she found quite comfortable, and crossed her legs. “He’s strapped to a bed in the medical ward, heavily sedated. I haven’t decided what to do with him yet.”

  “You must release him, of course. He runs this school.”

  “Not anymore. This whole business of Progenitors overwriting Scions is over.”

  “I can contact people in the outside world. I will have this island swarming with armed men.”

  “You could,” Jacey said, stroking Charlie’s soft fur. “On the other hand, if you don’t have to teach talentless girls how to dance, you could spend more time creating your own virtual ballets. Isn’t that so?”

  “True,” Madame LaFontaine said. “You girls are very tedious. Perhaps we can come to some sort of arrangement. For now.”

  Jacey flashed to the day Madame LaFontaine and Socrates had their verbal battle in the mirror in the dance studio. “Did you make a backup of Vaughan before doing the transfer?”

  Madame LaFontaine flung her arm out. “I didn’t perform the transfer.”

  “Who did?”

  “That was Greta.”

  “May I speak with her then?”

  The image blurred and transformed into a different woman. She wore a white lab coat, buttons straining to contain her ample bosom. She stood, waiting expectantly.

  “Hello, Greta. Did you make a backup of Vaughan before Dr. Carlhagen transferred to him?”

  “Of course I did. Their brains were so different, I had to do several virtual passes to resolve the optimal transfer solution.”

  “So he’s in there somewhere. Can I speak to him?”

  Greta laughed. “That’s not how it works. The backup is just an image. I wouldn’t dirty my servers with software that could model human thought. But I suppose . . .”

  “You suppose what?”

  “We still have Socrates’s servers, and he was a meat-to-box transfer. We could load the image of Vaughan there now that they’ve been wiped.”

  Jacey nearly choked, caught between the horror of learning that her beloved professor had been deleted and the hope of speaking to Vaughan. “Do it. Please.”

  “One moment.”

  The wait stretched much longer than a moment. While Jacey waited, she studied Livy’s dog. It seemed he and Mr. Justin were the only two to survive the last few days unscathed.

  All of the Scions had suffered trauma to some degree, whether it was being locked in the pit, seeing Sensei carried off, watching Sarah fall, or having their happy illusions torn to shreds.

  Vaughan faded into existence, a twelve-inch tall holo standing on Dr. Carlhagen’s mahogany desk. He wore his Scion uniform with the shark pin on his collar.

  He looked down at his hands, and then up at Jacey. “What’s going on?”

  “You’ve been overwritten, Vaughan. You are a computer iteration.” Then, slowly, she related the whole story, starting from when he was struck down by Elias.

  “I’m surprisingly not upset,” he said after absorbing the tale. “I don’t remember anything after we were caught coming out of the bell tower.”

  Jacey realized that Dr. Carlhagen had likely kept Vaughan sedated in the same way he had Sarah. What a strange way to wake up, realizing you are a digital construct. He didn’t seem disturbed by it.

  “I was thinking,” she said, “that since your backup image still exists, maybe we could transfer you back to your body. Overwrite Dr. Carlhagen.”

  “Maybe,” he said, face going thoughtful.

  “Why are you hesitating?”

  He looked up and spread his arms. His feet lifted from the virtual floor. “I can fly in here. Even now, another iteration of me is exploring a cavern; another is swimming on Isaac’s Beach. Well, I suppose those are simulations, but you’d never be able to tell. And there’s information here. Imagine an endless shelf filled with books.”

  Of all the responses Jacey had expected, this was not one of them.

  “Give me some time, Jacey. I think there might be some information in here we need. I can see the stub of code where Socrates was attached to some databases.”

  “Vaughan—”

  But he had disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

  The door opened to admit Mr. Justin. He brought a tray with a glass of iced tea. She accepted it and took a long drink.

  “Thank you, Mr. Justin. How is Humphrey?”

  “Resting comfortably. A mild concussion.”

  “And Belle?”

  “I spoke with Leslie. She and Wanda are keeping an eye on our distraught Shark. The dormitories are prepped for the storm with supplies and walkie-talkies.”

  So everything was in hand.

  “Would you mind telling me what Dr. Carlhagen had hanging over your head? And why you helped us deceive Captain Wilcox?”

  Mr. Justin smiled and bowed. “Dr. Carlhagen has been acting strangely lately, in case you hadn’t noticed. The medicine he was taking made him quite irrational. When he transferred to Vaughan, I realized he’d lost his mind. I decided the school could run quite efficiently without his . . . influence. When I discovered Humphrey in one of the side rooms, the plan just popped into my mind. Fortunately, I had time to prep him before you and Captain Wilcox arrived. As for leverage, Dr. Carlhagen had little over me. Nothing like what he had on Sensei and Nurse Smith. The truth is that he paid me well.”

  “And how will he be able to pay you now that he’s . . . incapacitated?”

  “The payment is secure. Let’s just say it’s in my best interest to assure that the training of the Scions continues.”

  “I’m not allowing any more transfers.”

  “I understand your objections, Miss Jacey. I sympathize. I really do. But you have no idea the forces at play behind this school. The most powerful people in the world have Scions here. You and Humphrey are the only Scions without a Progenitor out there expecting a transfer. And more babes were delivered at Mother Tyeesha’s on Birthday. Eighteen years from now, they will be overwritten.”

  “I forbid it.”

  “You might as well forbid the tides to rise, Miss Jacey.”

  Anger flared in her. “What do you suggest I do?”

  “Leave the island. I can make arrangements. Elizabeth—you’d recognize her as Vin—she lives on an island nearby. I’m certain she would take you in for a time, introduce you to the reality that lies beyond these shores.”

  “What about Humphrey?”

  “I need him here acting as Dr. Carlhagen. At least for a while. That will keep the outside world at bay until I can concoct a story for Dr. Carlhagen’s retirement.”

  “And re-supply? We’re going to run out of food.”

  “That’s no concern,” Mr. Justin said. “Th
e supply boats come on a set schedule.”

  “So there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Not for a year,” he said. “That’s when Belle’s progenitor will arrive expecting to transfer.”

  “And if I refuse her?”

  Mr. Justin smiled again. “Expect helicopters—lots of helicopters.”

  The End of Daughter of Nothing.

  Book One of The Scion Chronicles

  Child of Lies: Her Smallest Plans

  Keep reading! Here are the first three chapters of Book 2, Child of Lies.

  * * *

  Jacey stepped blearily into the dark hallway outside her bedroom in Dr. Carlhagen’s hacienda. She’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, and that had come only once the hurricane winds had finally settled deep in the night.

  Not enough sleep. Not even close.

  She padded down the wide tiles, shoes making a soft scuffing in the quiet. Her whole body ached from the exertions of the past few days. Her fight with Dr. Carlhagen—who had mind-transferred into her best friend Vaughan’s body—had left bruises on her legs.

  As tired as she was, she needed some physical activity to energize her, to prepare her for the challenges that lay ahead. That’s what Sensei would have prescribed if he’d still been there.

  Thinking about the martial arts master brought a lump to her throat.

  No. She would mourn him later.

  She planned to head down to the dojo and get in a light workout. On the way, she would assess the storm damage. Assigning the Scions to clean-up duty would keep them busy for the day. Soon they would be asking for explanations about where Dr. Carlhagen was, where Sensei and Nurse Smith had gone. And of course they’d all have questions about Vaughan.

  She stopped near the entry foyer. The living area lay in darkness to her right, the lumps of wicker furniture vague shapes against the floor-to-ceiling accordion doors making one great window of the far wall. The sky was just lightening as dawn approached. Limbs and leaves blown free in the storm floated in the pool beyond the door.