Broken Dragon (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 3)

by D. W. Moneypenny

Mara continued examining the face. It looked real. With a finger she pressed the side of the narrow nose. It bent slightly, giving as much under pressure as flesh supported by cartilage should, and it bounced back when she stopped. Almost imperceptible lines at the corners of the eyes and mouth hinted at the kind of wear and tear that comes with aging, comes with living. She poked at the full lips, pulled at one corner as if prompting him to smile.

  The eyes snapped open.

  “Oh, my God!” She fumbled the mask and struggled not to drop it on the floor. “Did you see that?” She got a grip on the sides of the face and turned it back toward her. The eyes stared back at her. The irises grew, and the pupils narrowed. They shifted left and right, then focused on Mara. “Are you seeing this, Detective?”

  “Yeah, maybe you should put it down,” he said, pointing toward the gurney.

  Mara held the face away from her, extending her arms as far as possible, and walked stiffly toward the gurney. The face blinked a couple times as she sat it down, propped up against the body’s hip, facing them. The nose wrinkled; the lips twitched. Mara slowly backed away. “Wow. Oh, wow,” she said. “What do we do now?”

  “Hell if I know,” Bohannon said.

  Mara’s phone vibrated in her jeans pocket. She didn’t make a move to answer it. After a moment it stopped.

  “Well, we can’t just leave him here. What if he’s still alive?” she asked.

  “Alive? We’re talking about a machine here. You probably just touched something by accident and activated whatever it is that’s animating that face.”

  “I don’t know, Bo. Look at those eyes. It looks like they are actually watching us.”

  Mara’s phone rang loudly from her pocket. Exasperated she pulled it out and asked no one in particular, “How did that happen? One minute it’s on Vibrate, and the next it just decides to ring on the highest volume setting?”

  She glanced at the screen. It said CAMERON LEE.

  “Holy crap.”

  She held out the phone screen to Bohannon. His eyes widened, and he said, “You better answer it.”

  Mara turned to the disembodied face on the gurney and said, “This can’t be …”

  The corner of the face’s lips turned up, and the eyelids lowered, the closest thing a face without a head could get to a nod.

  Mara tapped the Speakerphone icon. “Um, hello?”

  “Mara Lantern,” the voice from the speakerphone stated.

  “Who is this?”

  “Cameron Lee.”

  Mara looked at Bohannon aghast. After a few seconds he pointed to the phone, then made an open-and-close gesture with his fingers. Talk.

  “I’m sorry. I’m a little confused about how this is possible. I’m looking at what’s left of Cameron Lee, and he’s not in much condition to talk, much less find my phone number and dial it.”

  “You’re correct about that. I don’t seem to be able to talk. However, I didn’t need to find your phone number, since you’ve got Wi-Fi enabled on your phone. I simply connected to it.”

  Mara looked down at the mask. “Right. You’re a wireless robot. That’s convenient.”

  “Tell me what is going on. My field of vision is limited. How long have I been unconscious?” the voice on the phone asked.

  Mara looked to Bohannon.

  He turned toward the face on the gurney, then back toward the phone, not sure to whom or what he should be talking. “The accident was on Saturday. Today is Thursday,” he said.

  “How badly am I hurt?”

  “Assuming you are what we are looking at on this gurney, your face, which appears to be looking at us, has been knocked off your head. There seems to be some damage to your torso, and your hips and legs look sort of bent out of alignment,” Mara said.

  “How did you get my faceplate working? Are you familiar with synthetic human physiology?”

  “Synthetic human, is that what you are?” Mara asked.

  “My physiology is synthetic. I’m as human as you. I’m just not made of blood and guts anymore. How did you repair my faceplate?”

  “Are you saying that you once had a body that was not artificial?”

  “That will take some time to explain. Do we really need to go into that while I’m sitting here in pieces? How did you get my faceplate active? You must know something about nanotechnology and neural connectivity.”

  Mara shook her head. “Yeah, not so much.”

  “So, who got the faceplate going?”

  “I suspect it might have been me, but I don’t know anything about nanoneural whatever.”

  “Then how did you do it?”

  “Well, that too will take some time to explain,” Mara said. “Let’s just say I have a knack for fixing mechanical devices.”

  “If that’s the case, what’s keeping you from finishing the job?” the voice from the phone said.

  Mara leaned into the phone. “I’m sorry? Finish what job?”

  “Finish fixing me. I can’t spend the rest of my life being a bodiless face sending pulses to a cell phone via Wi-Fi.”

  Mara raised a finger and said, “Hold that thought. I need to confer with the detective here.” She tapped the End icon on her phone screen and turned to Bohannon. He had an exasperated look on his face. Mara said, “What?”

  “Just how are you going to reconnect with him? You don’t have his number or log-in rights to whatever Wi-Fi signal he’s beaming from his nose. Also, if you don’t understand how he can see out of those eyes, how do you know he can’t hear us?” Bohannon stared at the face on the gurney. Its eyes were moving back and forth between the two of them.

  “Oh, you’re right. I guess I’m a little more flustered by all this than I thought. He’ll have to figure out how to reconnect.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Now I’m not sure it’s a good idea to be repairing a robot from another realm. For all we know, he’s going to run around injecting people with little nanoviruses and turning everyone else into robots. We could all end up going to Jiffy Lube for our annual checkups.”

  “You’re just going to leave that face on the gurney? He’s eventually going to tap into someone else’s phone.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think anyone else will be able to fix him. The technology is just too far out there. To be honest with you, I’m not sure I can fix him, certainly not without some tools.”

  Mara’s phone rang, and she answered it.

  “First of all, I am not a robot. Stop calling me that. I’m as human as you. Second, you are not to touch me with any of those archaic doodads you people call tools. I’d rather have a monkey clean my ears with a stick. I can talk you through the procedures to enable my body to repair itself, assuming the structural damage is not too severe.”

  “So you can hear,” she said, turning to look at the face. “How do you do that without being connected to your ears?”

  “My skin gathers most of the sensory data I need to perceive the world around me, including sight, sound, smell and touch. My ears, eyes and nose are largely aesthetic, to make me look and feel more human.”

  “How do I know you’re not some megalomaniac bent on enslaving the human race?”

  “You must have had a very disturbing childhood.”

  “No, just the last few months.”

  “Look, your phone’s charge will run out in about five minutes. Has my head been damaged? Is it misshapen?”

  Mara stepped up to the side of the gurney and leaned over the body. “I don’t think so.”

  “Let me see.”

  “How can you do that?”

  “Pick up my face and turn it toward my head.”

  Mara grimaced a little and handed her phone to Bohannon. “This is so weird.”

  “Try seeing it from his perspective.”

  Mara grasped the faceplate and lifted it above the body.

  “How’s that?” she asked, turning it downward to face the body’s head.

  “Okay. The shape of my head looks good. All you have to do is lay
the plate over the opening. Then you will need to place a finger behind each of my earlobes. You’ll feel little bumps back there, like those buttons on a remote control with a flat surface. Press both simultaneously and the plate should integrate with the rest of my cranium. It will sort of meld into it. Understand?”

  “I think so.” Mara turned the faceplate upward and aligned it with the opening.

  “One more thing.”

  Mara stopped lowering it.

  “If, once the plate is in place, I don’t become conscious, I’ll need you to remove my entire head.”

  “Remove your head? You mean from the rest of your body?”

  “Yes. It’s possible that damage to my torso or even my lower extremities might have caused a—What would be the best way to put it?—a short circuit of sorts. It could prevent my cranium from activating, while it is in contact with my body. If that’s the case, just place your thumbs slightly inside the base of my nostrils, where you will find two more buttons. Press on those with your thumbs while pressing the buttons behind my earlobes at the same time. That will disconnect my entire skull, and I’ll be able to talk to you, assuming there isn’t any internal damage.”

  “Okay, stick my thumbs up your nose while pressing fingers behind your ears. Got it. Gives a whole new meaning to ‘losing your head.’”

  She lowered the faceplate over the opening and pressed the buttons behind his ears. The edges of the faceplate and the opening in the skull turned viscous momentarily and fused seamlessly before once again becoming solid and smooth. Mara stepped back and looked down at Cameron’s face. He looked serene and normal, much more human and much less disconcerting. However, he did not awaken.

  She lifted her thumbs in the air at Bohannon and turned to lean over the gurney.

  CHAPTER 19

  Mara placed her thumbs at the base of Cameron’s nostrils, spread her palms over his cheeks and reached around his ears with her middle fingers. She felt the buttons he had told her about, sort of flat nodules she could feel under the skin. Pressing all four simultaneously, she heard a muffled click. The head rolled forward, as it disconnected from the neck. Mara tightened her grip on the face, preventing it from rolling to the side. She grimaced as a shiver of revulsion ran through her. She had successfully decapitated him.

  “I’m going to have nightmares for weeks after this,” she said. She slid her hands to the sides of the head, under the ears, and straightened next to the gurney, holding it out for the detective to see.

  Bohannon wiped his brow. “I’m not sure I’ll even be able to sleep again,” he said. “How do you turn it on?”

  The head’s eyes snapped open. Mara squealed and tossed it at Bohannon. “Oh! I’m sorry,” Mara said, reaching after the flying head.

  Bohannon reflectively bobbled and batted it between his hands before catching and establishing a firm grip on it. “Lord have mercy,” he said. “Take this thing.” He shoved it back into her arms.

  “Hey, cut it out,” the head said. “Just sit me down somewhere. You’re making me dizzy.”

  Mara held it up and turned it to face her. “Sorry, you startled me. I’m not used to holding talking heads in my hands.”

  “I suspect being a talking head in someone’s hands is slightly more disconcerting. Just put me down.”

  Mara placed the head on the end of the gurney. “I’m not sure that’s going to work. You’re kind of sitting on your jaw.”

  “I’ll—” Cameron opened his mouth, his jaw pressing down against the thin mattress on top of the gurney, pushing up against the rest of his head, knocking it off balance and causing it to roll over onto its side. He glared at Mara.

  “Let’s try this,” Mara said. She grabbed the head, lifted it off the gurney and walked across the room to one of the shelves on the far wall. They were mounted a few inches above her head, but not out of reach. She sat the head on the lowest shelf, with the jaw hanging over the ledge. Stepping back, she assessed and asked, “How’s that? Can you talk without rolling over now?”

  “I think so. Could you slide me over to the right about a foot or so, center me over the gurney? I’ll be able to see what’s going on,” Cameron said.

  “Jeez.” Bohannon shook his own head back and forth, while Mara made the adjustment.

  “How’s that?” Mara asked.

  “Good. Now give me a minute to see if I can establish a connection with my primary core.”

  “Your primary core?”

  “My main processor, my brain.” He closed his eyes.

  Mara glanced over at the detective and shrugged. “The robot is connecting to its primary core.”

  “Good. Maybe when it’s done, it can help me reconnect to mine, ’cause I’m feeling a little unmoored myself,” Bohannon said.

  After a moment Cameron opened his eyes. “Do you think the two of you could stop referring to me as ‘the robot’ and calling me ‘it,’ like I’m some sort of toaster or something?”

  “We’ll do our best. It might be easier once you’re not a talking knickknack sitting on a shelf,” Mara said. “So, you get your head all sorted out?”

  “I wasn’t sorting out my head. My primary core is located in my torso, and I was attempting to connect wirelessly, as you call it, by transmitting a signal, but it appears to be off-line. I’ll need your help to assess the damage,” Cam said. His eyes rolled upward. “Detective, you’ve got a call coming in.”

  “Wha—” Bohannon’s phone emitted a staccato tone. He frowned, pulled the phone from his pocket. “Bohannon.” After a moment he held the phone to his chest and said, “It’s my lieutenant. I’ll take this outside.” His steps sounded dry and gritty as he left, reminding Mara they were still in the concrete bunkerlike storage room off the side of a parking garage below the hospital.

  Mara turned back to Cameron’s head. “You can intercept cell phone signals?”

  “Cell phones, radios, garage remote controls, television, wireless networks. You people never met a signal you didn’t want to fill up with useless blather. It took me weeks to develop filters to screen out all the noise and interference in my systems. I’m still not sure I got everything. Bluetooth and infrared stuff still gets through, if I’m not diligent,” he said.

  “So you don’t have all those wireless devices in the realm you come from?”

  “There’s no need. Our bodies are wireless devices. Why would I need a phone to talk or transmit information to anyone? We just signal each other directly. If I want to open my garage door, I just think it and send the signal directly.”

  “Interesting. No television or radio? What about entertainment?”

  “Virtual reality programs, downloaded directly to our cores. They can tap into our sensors and provide a fully immersive experience, not just moving pictures on a screen. What did you mean by ‘realm’?”

  “Alternate reality? Parallel universe? Pick your term. You crossed over into this reality during the plane crash back in September. You were aware of that, weren’t you?”

  “I knew something had happened, that things were different. At first I thought my systems had been compromised, that my core was simply misinterpreting all the sensory information my body was gathering. But everything was too consistently strange, all the noisy signals and the smelly organic people. I knew something had happened, but I wasn’t sure what exactly.”

  “All of this must be pretty strange to you.”

  “It would be a little less strange if you could help put me back together.”

  “Yeah, about that. What are you going to do if I help you?”

  “I don’t understand the question. You’re expecting some kind of compensation in return?”

  “No. What are your intentions with regard to this realm? What are you planning to do with all the smelly organic people?”

  “If you’re asking about me infecting people with a nanovirus or turning everybody into synthetics, I couldn’t do that if I wanted to. I didn’t get my body from a virus. I was transferred in
to it on my tenth birthday.”

  “From a flesh-and-blood body? Your consciousness was somehow transferred into this mechanical body?”

  “Crudely put, yes. I was born, just like you, with blood, guts, poop, the whole nine yards. Would it be possible for us to discuss this after my head is reattached to my body? I’m getting a little freaked-out being in pieces like this.”

  Bohannon pounded on the door, making Mara jump and gasp. “Sheesh. I almost forgot he was out there.” She jogged around the gurney and opened the door.

  The detective walked in and said to Cameron, “Your employer at the gallery is starting to make some noise about your disappearance. Apparently he just got word that you were hit by a car, and he’s demanding to know what happened to you.”

  “Gallery?” Mara asked. “What kind of gallery?”

  “Art gallery. I’m a painter. If we can get on with this, you won’t have to worry about my boss,” Cameron said.

  Bohannon looked at Mara. “You gonna help put him back together?”

  “I don’t know. I’m afraid it might void the warranty.”

  CHAPTER 20

  The Oregon Health & Sciences University campus and hospital, a cluster of institutional buildings, sat atop Marquam Hill, just south of downtown Portland and overlooked the south waterfront of the Willamette River. Two-lane roads wound up the hill, but Diana wanted to avoid getting trapped up there in late-afternoon traffic, so she opted to take the Portland Aerial Tram which connects OHSU, perched high among the trees, to the urbanized riverbank below. Hannah excitedly approved of riding one of the silver pill-shaped cabs that glided on wires over Interstate 5, several parallel streets and a couple neighborhoods.

  After parking nearby, Diana and Hannah walked past several OHSU buildings that occupied the expansion campus at the bottom of the hill, entered the industrial-looking metal-and-glass tram station and stopped in front of a ticket vending machine, from which Diana purchased a ticket. As she tucked her credit card back into her wallet, Hannah tugged on her grandmother’s coat.

  “Where’s my ticket?” Hannah asked.