Finally, Joe opened the door and stepped back, allowing the legal team to enter first. They filed into the recently cleaned room; no trace of the aerated Synth J remained. Joe followed the lawyers in and left Cam holding the door.
The synthetic guards standing beside the double doors nodded to Sava but put up a hand as soon as she passed.
“Sorry, sir. Perion Synthetics personnel only.”
Cam raised an eyebrow and looked to Sava.
She returned a shrug.
“Fine, I’ll just wait out here, I guess,” said Cam, looking around for somewhere to sit.
Joe Perion came to an abrupt stop at the table as Synth J rose to greet his son. He opened his arms and offered an embrace. Joe accepted after a few seconds of hesitation.
“He does not understand the gift he has been given,” said Anela.
As they separated, Perion motioned to an empty chair beside his. He sat after his son had settled.
“Alright, Mr. Roe, you may begin,” said Perion.
If Adam Roe and his legal team were here now, then something more than a father-son chat was about to take place.
In the construct, Anela’s hand appeared on Sava’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Mr. Perion,” said Roe. “I call this emergency meeting of Perion Synthetics executive staff to order on this seventeenth day of November, 2015. Today’s meeting is attended by myself, Adam Roe, and my team. From management, we have James Perion, Joseph Perion, Katherine Shaw, Nicholas Shaw, and Sava Kessler.”
“Where is Steve Phelps?” asked Perion.
Sava leaned forward to look down the table. The VP of Security was absent.
One of Roe’s men spoke up. “Mr. Phelps resigned his position this morning, Mr. Perion. Deborah Keats was his next direct report, but we’ve been unable to locate her.”
Synth J shook his head and waved for Roe to continue.
“We’ve been gathered at the request of Mr. Perion to discuss the future of the company. All information disclosed in these proceedings is confidential and will be treated as such by all attendees per your employment agreements. If anyone is uncomfortable with these terms, they may leave now.”
No one stood.
Roe cleared his throat. “Then, Mr. Perion, if you will.”
Perion had been staring at his son, but the lawyer’s words brought his attention back.
“Thank you, Mr. Roe. Fine work, as always.”
Roe nodded.
“It’s true,” continued Perion, addressing the assembled crowd. “I have called you here to talk about the future. After last night, I’m sure you all have questions. However, I’d like to start by talking about the past, about the last six months in particular.”
Sava felt the construct come on like a wave of nausea. She saw herself crouched beneath the dome, stuck in the moment between fight and flight. Beside her, Anela stood with her head tilted back, staring at the growing crack in the glass ceiling.
“Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
A red glow flared on the horizon as the demon reared its horned head. Black hooves dripping in thick oil slammed into the construct’s dome, freeing crystal shards which fell like rain on Sava’s avatar.
“By the time the cancer was discovered, it had exceeded the reach of pre-modern medicine. My only hope for survival rested in the hands of Arthur Sedivy and Vinestead International’s Guardian Angel chip. Only through their implant, grow wire, and proprietary code would I have even stood a chance at beating this thing.”
The lawyers were practiced at keeping their emotions hidden, but Katherine Shaw flashed worry, either at Perion’s failing health or the possible presence of Vinestead technology in the city.
Perion looked at his son, but Joe was more interested in the swirls of wood on the table.
“On the morning of November 10, 2015, at 7:08 am, James Perion as you know him, passed away due to complications from pancreatic cancer.”
Katherine Shaw gasped and grabbed her husband’s hand. Nico showed no signs of surprise.
“Prior to my death, and through an unprecedented engineering effort, I was able to imprint my consciousness onto this Virgo Prime chassis.” Perion caught eyes with the lawyers. “Yes, Mr. Roe. I’m a synthetic.”
Adam Roe shook his head minutely. “But, Mr. Perion, this means…”
Perion held up a hand. “I know what it means. As of 7:09 am Tuesday morning, control of the company and my estate passed to my son. I had hoped to stay on as long as possible until Joe was ready for the responsibility, but after last night, it is clear my judgment has become questionable.” He sighed. “I suppose we still have some work to do before… well, it doesn’t matter anymore. This experiment is over.”
“There were some legal agreements signed last week that will need to be redone,” said Roe. He turned to his team. “Pull every deal and contract executed since last Tuesday and prepare them for Mr. Perion’s signature. George, prepare HR for the personnel update.” His eyes landed on Sava. “Ms. Kessler, we will need a press release and obituary ready by this afternoon.”
“No,” said Perion. “No fanfare. You can spin my death as an internal matter. We don’t need memorials right now. I want all efforts focused on my son.”
Joe looked up from the table and turned to Synth J. Some nonverbal message passed between them as he rubbed his throat.
Sava couldn’t help but mirror the gesture.
“I know,” said Perion. His voice lowered, though it was obvious he didn’t care who heard him. “I tried to take everything from you, but now I want you to have it all. I’ll stay with you as long as you need me, or if you’d like, I’ll let you learn the ropes yourself. It’s whatever you want at this point.”
“As a matter of course, Perion Synthetics does not employ synthetic humans as such,” said Roe. “We could not pay your father if he decided to stay on, nor can you allot him an interest in the company’s business. I suppose you’re aware of that, Mr. Perion?”
“Of course he’s aware,” answered Joe. “That’s why he brought in Governor Howard. They want to make it legal for synthetics to own property and have the same rights as humans.”
Sava watched the lawyers’ heads bob in unison.
“That may work,” said Julie Pennington, Roe’s only female staffer. “If California were to pass a law recognizing synthetics as humans, then Mr. Perion could rejoin the company at any position. Though, as Joseph is now the owner and CEO, it would be at his discretion.”
Crosstalk sprung up as the gears turned behind Joe’s eyes. His lips moved as if he were mumbling to himself.
Finally, Perion stood up and called for order. “Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure working with each and every one of you. I will rest easy knowing my son and my company are in good hands. Since I no longer have a say in the company’s direction, I’ll take my leave.”
He paused behind Joe and put his hand on his son’s back. “I’ll be with your mother if you need me.”
Joe nodded as his father exited the room. His eyes found Sava’s.
The construct shuddered under the weight of the demon’s barrage. Anela stood a short distance away, staring at the red bloom, her arms crossed.
“This does not change anything,” said Anela to the demon. “The company remains. The army continues to march against Vinestead as it always has; only the general is different. And you know as well as I do that one man or woman does not make a movement. It is in the numbers, the sheer power involved. No, my friend. The war is still very much on.”
“Well, Mr. Perion,” said Roe. “We have much to discuss. There is, of course, a mountain of paperwork for you to sign.”
“We’ll need an inventory of Mr. Perion’s estate,” said George Symanski. “The tax implications are going to be a nightmare, Joe, but we’ll see you through.”
“Mr. Shaw, I’ll need to brief you on Mr. Perion’s day-to-day responsibilities as CEO,” said Donald Mills.
�
��And there’s also the problem of what to tell the employees.” Jason Minnick pushed his glasses up his nose. “Mr. Perion has been seen and may continue to be seen walking around the building. We don’t want any confusion…”
“Enough!”
Katherine Shaw flinched at the sound of her husband’s voice.
Nico gestured to Joe. “Can’t you see he needs time to process this? Give him a moment to let it sink in.” He stood and pushed his chair back. “This meeting is adjourned. We’ll reconvene at Joe’s convenience. Anything you have for him will go through me. Mr. Roe, designate one of your helpers to be the liaison. This transition will go smoothly so long as we don’t rush things. The company has been without a human CEO for over a week; it can go another few days.”
Some of the lawyers opened their mouths to protest, but Roe silenced them. “Very well, Mr. Shaw. We will put an agenda together and send it over with Julie this afternoon.”
“Just the highlights,” said Nico. “Top five action items and nothing else.”
Adam Roe stood and extended a hand to Joe. “My condolences, Mr. Perion.”
Joe shook his hand and each of the lawyers’ hands as they filed out.
Katherine Shaw lingered in front of Joe for a moment before hugging him. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said.
If he heard her, he didn’t show it. His eyes remained focused on Sava.
“Wait,” he said.
Donald Mills stopped at the doorway.
“I’m ready for my first order as CEO of Perion Synthetics,” said Joe, taking a deep breath.
The lawyer pulled his palette from under his arm and tapped its screen to wake it up. “What is it, Mr. Perion?”
A slice of the construct shook free and fell to the floor, tearing a line down Sava’s back. Blood flowed in weightless bubbles, filling the space behind her. Anela did her best to contain the damage, but each time she grasped a globe of blood, it split around her fingers.
“Sava Kessler.”
“Yes, Mr. Perion?” asked Sava, barely able to speak.
“You’re fired.”
59
There was a ringing in Sava’s ears she couldn’t blot out. It drove her to the safety of a bench just outside the conference room. There, Cam sat with his back against the wall and one leg crossed over the other, fiddling with his sliver. He was sure to have heard Joe’s proclamation, but he didn’t say anything until the last suit had disappeared behind the elevator doors, until the two AGs flanking the door had escorted the new CEO of Perion Synthetics out of his first all-hands meeting. Then it was just Sava and Cam sitting alone in the hallway, squinting their eyes at the rough sunlight pouring in through the window.
“Don’t take it so hard,” said Cam, running his finger over his sliver. The red LED blinked on. “Jobs are like relationships: if Joe Perion doesn’t want you on his payroll, then I say fuck him. There’s plenty of work out there for a woman of your tenacity.”
Sava barely heard Cam over the steam whistle echoing in her head, but she could see his lips moving in her periphery. He was trying to console her about what he thought was a simple firing, a temporary loss of responsibility and income. He didn’t understand the true extent: that with a single termination, Joe Perion had changed the course of Perion Synthetics and Vinestead International forever. Sava had spent so long trying to steer the ship in the right direction, getting cozy with the captain and the navigator and the deck hands who kept everything looking shiny. Now they had thrown her overboard, had left her floating alone in a sea of uncertain futures.
“Do you think you’ll go back to San Diego?” asked Cam.
“Why would I go there?”
“That’s where you’re from, right? Your file says you grew up there. Sometimes people revisit their childhood homes when they have a life event. Helps to recenter, you know?”
Sava thought about her old neighborhood in the suburbs of San Diego: the uniform streets packed with cars on both sides, leaving only the tiniest path for traffic; the Tejano music blasting from every other beater up on blocks; the six legs of three Mexicans sticking out from under them; her family’s rundown duplex with the stained white brick falling apart on the sides and the yellow paint peeling in the back; a yard overgrown with weeds and patches of dirt; her father standing on the porch watering the lone rose bush he had planted the year Anela died that had returned season after season while everything else languished around it; and finally, her mother, sitting in the rocking chair in the living room, perpetually jacked into a VNet simulation she never discussed with anyone but that Sava knew was just a sensory loop of decaying memories of a simpler time when her girls were just girls and the rest of the world was a dangerous but far-off place.
Going back there would just remind her of the pockets of desolation littering the country, the little neighborhoods where people went about their business with a wary eye turned to the dome, to the demon looming on the horizon. They were subjugated and they didn’t even know it, caught in a cycle of debt and earning too little to ever break free of it. Why had Vinestead even bothered to bring jobs to the west coast if they were just going to pack it all up a decade later and ship it overseas? Why give her father a comfortable wage and then rip it from his hands just in time for his first daughter to be born?
“I don’t need to recenter,” said Sava, “and I don’t need to go home. I need to be here, adjusting the sails. Everything was going according to plan. It was just going to be another few years, five at the most.”
“Life changes,” said Cam. “We can do our best to put a plan to it, but really it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do. You can’t let it get you down.”
Sava put up a hand. “Spare me, Gray. You think this is about a stupid job or some other intangible life event bullshit, but it’s not.” She turned her face to the window and closed her eyes. “Just because you don’t see the enemy out there doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
She fingered the ring on her thumb for a moment before pulling it off and examining it in the glare.
“Chuck’s?” asked Cam.
Chuck Huber.
Where was he in all of this? How would he go on without someone in his life to keep him grounded?
“No,” said Sava. “It’s just a reminder of what we’re fighting for. You spend so much time jumping from story to story, you don’t see how it’s all coming together. The endgame isn’t pretty, Gray. The sooner you realize it, the better.”
Cam shook his head. “Companies come and go. Whether Joe runs Perion Synthetics into the ground or towards global domination, it won’t matter in the long run. What matters is quality of life, doing the things you want to do, and having the freedom to be your own person.”
“Here it comes,” said Anela.
“That’s why I’m an aggregator; my only job is to document what I experience. And yeah, sometimes I’m told to ride out to a cloistered city in the desert and report on the lies and backstabbings of one of the biggest companies in the country, but that’s the nature of the game. Am I happy my boss sold me out to that piece of shit James Perion? Of course not. Am I going to make Donato Banks pay for what he’s done? You can bet your pretty ass on it. And after it’s all said and done, I’ll find someone else to sign my paychecks and do the whole thing over again.”
Aggregators; they had no loyalty to any cause, large or small. They were bottom feeders, picking up the discarded morsels of news from the real players of the world, living vicariously through people and companies who used their power and raw determination to make things happen.
Sava sighed and tried to feign further interest in Cam.
“So then you have no love for Perion Synthetics, despite them being poised to take on Vinestead?”
“No,” replied Cam. “I have no love for a company that brainwashes trespassers into thinking they gave birth to a synthetic baby. From what I’ve seen in the last twenty-four hours, Perion doesn’t give a shit about his people, let alone the rest of the wo
rld. And nothing I’ve seen from Joe Perion convinces me anything is ever going to change. Like father, like son; they say that shit for a reason.”
“It wasn’t always this way,” said Sava. “That’s what drew me to Perion City in the first place. Big J was just so… genuine. I’ve never met someone who cared so much and had that much power.”
“He was going to have me killed so he could gain a sympathetic voice on the feed. If I could put that giant toaster out of commission, I would. Shit, I still might. With everything I’ve logged in the last week, I could bring the entire company down and drop it at Vinestead’s feet.”
“Snap his neck,” whispered Anela. “Do it now.”
Sava felt her hand twitch, but nothing more. If Cam didn’t spill the story, then someone else would. There was no guarantee Cyn would keep her mouth shut or that Gil wouldn’t expose his synthetic condition to the world just to get back at the woman who had ordered his death.
It didn’t matter either way; Perion Synthetics was no longer hers to protect.
Down the hall, the elevator dinged. Two Scorpios stepped out and approached.
“Sava Kessler?” asked the guard on the right.
“That’s me,” she replied, standing up.
The AG handed her a slip of paper.
“What does it say?” asked Cam.
“My employment with Perion Synthetics has been terminated as of seven hundred hours this morning. These toasters are going to escort me home to collect my things and then take me to Perion Terminus.” She recited the key points in legalese cadence. “Can’t return to my office, my last paycheck will blah blah blah.”
Sava re-read the note, crumpled the piece of paper in her fist, and tossed it at the AG’s chest.
Escort her home… as if there were anything there worth taking with her—Chuck included.
“I’ll go when I’m damn well ready,” she replied.
“We are authorized to use force if necessary,” said the toaster on the left.
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