Perion Synthetics

by Verastiqui, Daniel

  “You lay a finger on me and I’ll slag you and everyone like you. I’ll dance on your liquefied entrails, motherfucker.”

  She took a step forward, causing both AGs to reach for their holsters.

  “Alright, alright,” said Cam, jumping between them. He faced the synthetics. “Please excuse my friend; she’s just been fired from her job. I’m sure you gentlemen can relate.”

  The guards took a moment to process the request before removing their hands from their weapons.

  Sava narrowed her eyes. “What’s your deal, Gray? When you got here, you wasted no opportunity to make my life a living hell. You stole a prototype, you went over my head, and then for the donkey punch, you aided two aggregators in corporate espionage. I should be beating the shit out of you right now.”

  “It would be a start,” said Anela.

  Sava clenched her jaw; sometimes she wished her sister would shut up.

  “But you’re not,” replied Cam, grinning like a fool, “and it’s because you and I both know it’s all a game, a series of random events with no personal motivations involved. Banks could have sent some intern instead of me and then all of your anger would have been directed at him. It’s not Cameron Gray—famed conversationalist and sexual marauder—who you have a problem with. You’d be pissed at anyone who came into your house and started breaking shit. Likewise, how can I be mad at you for doing your job?”

  “So it all boils down to no hard feelings? I find that hard to believe, the way you talk about your boss.”

  “That’s different. Donato Banks was my friend. He betrayed my trust. Whereas with you, I never trusted you in the first place.”

  Anela started to respond, but her mouth closed with an audible click and she drifted off to an unlit corner of the construct.

  “God, you’re retarded, Gray.” Sava pushed past him and headed for the elevators.

  The AGs followed at a respectful distance.

  As she stepped into the elevator, she put one hand on the door to hold it open.

  “Are you coming or not?” she asked.

  Cam smoothed out the front of his jacket and patted the sides of his head. He cupped his hand in front of his mouth, breathed into it, and then made a face as he inhaled.

  “Coming,” he said.

  Sava almost smiled.

  In the construct, the demon roared.

  60

  “As a new day dawns in Perion City, change is in the air. Joseph Michael Perion, son of the late James Perion, has assumed control of the company and promises to carry out the dream and plans his father so meticulously set down. A young man of just twenty-seven years, it remains to be seen whether he has the ambition and the competency to lead a multi-billion dollar corporation into the next decade and beyond. One thing we already know: Joe Perion is a man of action. Mere moments after assuming control, he relieved Sava Kessler of her responsibilities as head of public relations. With Ms. Kessler stepping down, the world waits in anticipation to find out who will replace her as the new face of Perion Synthetics. But what of Ms. Kessler? Where does a woman with her extensive list of accolades go after this? What company in the world could rival the prestige of the great and honorable Perion Synthetics?”

  Cam paused and tapped his sliver. He looked over at Sava.

  “You like that?” he asked.

  Sava reached out and pressed the button for the lobby despite it already being lit.

  “Then again, just who is Sava Kessler? Why was she the first employee on the chopping block? What does Joe Perion know that the rest of us don’t? Care to comment, Ms. Kessler?”

  “Care to walk out of this building under your own power, Mr. Gray?”

  Cam held up his wrist. “Wasn’t recording that bit,” he said, smiling. He tapped his sliver and resumed his rambling.

  “The relationship between Ms. Kessler and the Perions will forever be a closely guarded corporate secret; even this aggregator could not glean the slightest detail about their history. Only over the last week, through my interactions with Ms. Kessler and the company, have I been able to form a foggy impression of how things might have been. The simple truth is this: Sava Kessler is a professional and was well-respected by James Perion. She was part of his inner circle and was trusted with more secrets than there are skeletons in Donato Banks’ closet. Ms. Kessler stood behind her superiors and her company to the bitter end. If she is guilty of anything, perhaps it is that she cares too much.”

  Sava raised an eyebrow.

  “I doubt this will be the last personnel change of Joe Perion’s rule. Not that it matters; James Perion has already spoken through Sava Kessler, sharing a message of innovation, sacrifice, and cooperation—ideals that will live on so long as there are people who remember the man who set it all in motion. However it came to pass, however many mistakes were made, an era has ended at Perion Synthetics, and the previous generation is stepping aside to make way for the next. Ms. Kessler rides towards the sunrise with her head held high, carried by the satisfaction of a job well done and the legacy of James Kirkland Perion forever etched into the hearts and minds of people all over the world.”

  The elevator stopped, but Sava put an arm in front of Cam as the doors opened.

  “Do you believe anything you just said?” she asked.

  “Do you?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe, does it? You feed that shit to millions of people and they’ll swallow it without a second thought. You think you’re reporting on reality, but you’re just making it up as you go along.”

  “You’ll thank me in the end,” said Cam, straightening his jacket. “I have enough dirt on this company to give James Perion a proper burial, but you can walk out of this without so much as a smudge.”

  Sava dropped her arm and stepped out into the lobby. It took every bit of self-control to keep from telling Cam she didn’t want his help. He wanted to paint a pretty picture of her, maybe help her get another job somewhere else, but there was no point staying in the corporate world. The only course of action now was to resume her skirmishes with Vinestead, to come up with something bigger and more damaging to keep their focus away from Perion Synthetics while Joe learned the ropes. She’d be a diversion, one Vinestead International wouldn’t be able to ignore.

  Just the idea of a face-to-face fight with Vinestead made Sava smile.

  The return of synthetics to the Spire had not resulted in a similar return of humans. The lobby was mostly empty; no line of employees snaked between the security station and the front doors, nor was there a crowd of weary office runners milling around the coffee bar tapping their feet as they waited for their morning fix. The cleaning crew was still hard at work, but they had gravitated to the outer edges of the lobby, sweeping the last of the debris into piles against the walls. The center of the lobby was spotless and two synthetics stood ready with floor buffers to return the marble to its previous sheen.

  They were stymied by the presence of a small crowd—both synthetic and human—gathered around the lobby’s centerpiece, the giant hand of the puppeteer reaching to the heavens. Seated on the circular bench surrounding Perion’s hand was Gilbert Reyes. In his lap, he held Roberta’s head; the rest of her body stretched out on the bench next to him.

  Sava watched for a moment as Gil attempted to smooth out the damage on Roberta’s face. He tugged at skin that had begun to curl, wiped the life-giving oil from her cheeks, and attempted to push broken bits of carbon fiber and frayed wires back into her eye socket. Sava hadn’t really taken the time to survey Roberta’s damage the night before, but dawn allowed her the clarity to see the quality of Gantz’ marksmanship.

  “I can’t just leave her,” said Gil, as Sava approached.

  “She’s not Jackie,” said Sava. “She’s a synny.”

  “So am I.”

  Murmurs began to rumble through the crowd.

  “Don’t you people have jobs to do?” asked Cam. “If not, I’m looking for someone to make an official statement re
garding the mistreatment of synthetic beings in Perion City.”

  At that, the onlookers scattered. Cam chased after the dawdlers, rattling off his credentials for the thousandth time and begging for just one sound bite to put on the feed.

  One of the AGs tapped Sava on the side of her shoulder.

  “Give me one damn minute,” she snapped, punching the synthetic in the chest.

  “I was thinking,” said Gil. “It wouldn’t be so bad, living like this, if Jackie were there with me. I was going to make it a term of my employment that you’d have to help me get her out of the city. So I came down here to wait and then I saw two synnies carrying her out like she was a broken copier. They were just going to throw her away.”

  “It will be hard to repair her on the outside,” said Sava. “Most of her parts are sourced right here in the Spire. The chances of getting our hands on substitutes are very slim or prohibitively expensive.”

  Gil nodded. “I don’t expect you to pay for the parts, but I do want your help in locating them. And in exchange, I’ll be your personal bodyguard. I’ll protect you and your… secret.”

  “It will take time, Gil. Six months, maybe a year or more. You have to know that going in. And even if we get her operational again, there’s no guarantee her matrix is still intact.”

  “It is,” said Gil. “The bullets didn’t get through the inner casing.”

  “She could be another bodyguard,” said Anela. “Augments would be no match for fully synthetic muscle.”

  Sava leaned closer to Gil. “You know they’re not just going to let us leave with her right? If you want to do this, it has to be now. And you better be ready for a fight.”

  “I know,” said Gil. He shifted to the side and guided Roberta’s head to the bench. Then, with hardly a grunt, he hefted the lifeless synthetic onto his shoulder and started towards the Spire’s south entrance.

  “Any day, Cam!” called Sava.

  The aggregator hurried to join them.

  As they walked around the elevators, Cam tugged on Sava’s elbow to get her to slow down.

  “Who’s the muscle?”

  Sava kept looking straight ahead. “Gilbert Reyes. He’s an aggregator like you.”

  “I met a Gilbert Reyes last week,” said Cam.

  “Same guy.” Sava wondered if that were true.

  “Naw, he looks nothing like him. Look, I have a picture.”

  Sava stopped and put her hand on top of Cam’s outstretched phone. “He’s the synny version. We did to him what we did to you. He got the short end of the synthetic stick.”

  Cam watched Gil turn the corner. “How many deals did Perion have going?”

  “There was no deal,” said Sava, continuing on. “He was here undercover. Roberta helped us figure it out. Transitioning him to a synthetic chassis was the only way to get leverage.”

  Outside, a Nissan sedan pulled up in the circular driveway. Its driver got out and stood near the rear passenger door. When he saw Sava coming, he opened the door for her.

  “So we’re taking two synthetics with us?” asked Cam. “How’d you swing that?”

  “What are you doing?” asked the driver.

  Sava watched as Gil carefully maneuvered Roberta through the rear door and set her upright. After securing her seatbelt, he stepped back and closed the door.

  “I can’t take a synthetic to Perion Terminus.” The driver motioned to the AGs. “Will you two please remove this thing?”

  Sava rubbed her neck. “Well, Gil. I think it’s time to begin your interview. You think you can defuse this situation?”

  “Shit,” muttered Cam.

  “Of course I can,” said Gil. He flexed an arm. “You have no idea what this body is capable of.”

  Sava leaned forward and smiled. “Let’s see it.”

  Gil’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of Sava’s waistband. He tugged sharply, pulling her towards the car. He slipped to her right and threw out an oblique kick, catching one of the AGs in the knee. It stumbled backwards a few steps. Gil changed direction and went after the other synthetic, stopping its hand before it could fully remove its sidearm from the holster. At such close range, Gil used elbows and knees to inflict most of the damage. When the synthetic was thoroughly disoriented, Gil used a palm strike to free its gun. The weapon rotated in the space between them before Gil grabbed hold of it and dug it into the AG’s jaw.

  Sava turned her head as he fired, coating the other Scorpio in oil. It wiped at its eyes as Gil spun around. He held down the trigger and put five bullets into the synthetic. It fell to the pavement with a thud.

  It was over in a matter of seconds.

  “Defused,” said Gil, tossing the gun onto the fallen AG.

  The driver took two steps backwards and then broke into a run.

  “Ask him where he sees himself in five years,” said Cam.

  “No need,” replied Sava, stepping closer to Gil. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I know where you’ll be: with me, and Jackie, and Calle Cinco. One big happy family.”

  “If you guys are done making out, we should probably go,” said Cam, walking around to the driver’s side. The car rumbled to life a second later.

  “Welcome to the revolution,” said Sava. She gestured to the car with her thumb. “Shall we go?”

  “I hated this place anyway,” said Gil.

  “It had its moments,” said Sava, taking one last look at the Spire, wondering if Chuck Huber were in there somewhere walking one of the hundreds of floors. How long would it be before he noticed she was gone?

  Cam honked the horn.

  Sava climbed into the passenger seat and buckled herself in.

  “Where to?” asked Cam.

  “Perion Terminus, then hang a right towards the coast.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sava saw half a dozen Automated Guards pushing through the crowd. They were already holding their rifles at the ready.

  “Drive,” said Sava, extending her arm outside the window.

  She smiled as the breeze rushed over her extended middle finger.

  61

  “There’s no fluctuation,” said Gil.

  Cam had been trying for the last half hour to engage him in conversation, but it was only after they had passed The Fringe that Gil could tear his attention away from Roberta. The line of questioning was centered on what it was like to be a synthetic, a topic just interesting enough to keep Sava from nodding off.

  Besides, there was nothing worth seeing on the other side of sleep, just a construct full of the charred remains of slagged synthetics. And walking amongst the smoking limbs and hollow faces was Anela Zabora, a projection of a ghost of a memory, no more real than the demon obscuring half of the sky.

  “I remember eating too much for lunch and it ruining the day,” said Gil. “Then you’ve got caffeine and pain pills and a thousand flavors of synth. Your body goes up and down all day. But now… now it’s all baseline, exactly the same from one second to the next. It’s like they built a car but never asked how it drove. Now there’s someone behind the wheel who doesn’t feel tired or hungry or horny.”

  Sava chuckled in her half-sleep.

  Cam looked at Gil in the rearview mirror. “You uh… you think it still works?”

  “It works,” said Sava. “You think Perion wanted to live out the rest of eternity without a fully furnished basement? Roberta’s the same way, but you knew that, didn’t you, Cam?”

  “What’s she talking about?” asked Gil.

  Cam waved the question away.

  “It’s not his fault,” said Sava. “I ordered Roberta to charm the panties off of Cam. And judging by the complaints from the other hotel guests, she succeeded.”

  Cam blushed. “Like it’s some kind of huge accomplishment to get my panties off. Shit, I’d drop them for Sava if she’d smile every once in a while.”

  “I smile plenty,” she replied, striking him in the chest.

  Cam rubbed himself and looked in the mirror aga
in. “You know that was before we met at the warehouse, right? If I had known…”

  “I know,” said Gil. “It’s different now. I should be jealous you were with her and I should be pissed you’re making jokes about it, but I don’t really feel it deep down. I feel…”

  “Untouchable,” said Sava. “Perion said that to me a few days ago. Said there wasn’t a human on the planet who could even reach him, let alone hurt him. Said he existed on another plane.”

  “A transcendental toaster,” said Cam. “That’s a first.”

  “He wasn’t trying to be deep. He just recognized a flaw in his plan. Humans aren’t immortal. If a human becomes immortal by imprinting on a synthetic sleeve, then they immediately forfeit any ties with the rest of humanity. Maybe Perion didn’t know that going in, but he realized his place eventually.”

  “What place?” asked Gil.

  “Your place as outcasts, part of a new evolutionary leap. It’s the reason I fully expect you to jump ship the second Rob—Jackie—is repaired. Once you have her, you won’t need me anymore. You won’t feel any sort of obligation to me whatsoever, not like a human would.”

  “I meant to ask about that,” said Cam. “Why does Sava Kessler need a bodyguard?”

  “She’s leaving Perion Synthetics,” said Gil. “Think of how much she knows about the inner workings. Any company in the world would want that intel. If Vinestead gets wind of it, they’ll literally break down her door to get it.”

  “Vinestead, Vinestead, Vinestead. That’s all you people ever talk about here. Maybe they should call this place Vinestead City instead, maybe have Arthur Sedivy’s hand fisting the Great Spire. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

  “And you never will,” said Sava.

  She turned her head to the window and watched the desert scroll by. Much of The Fringe had looked like this when she first started at Perion Synthetics. Over the years, the city had expanded, churning up the faded and cracked earth to make way for another factory that would turn out a more specialized hand or eye or penis capable of four hour erections.

  Sava shook the image out of her head.