“Out loud, Marcus,” I say, pushing up from where I’m still sitting on the floor. The shakes from the fugue have already calmed. In spite of the mental shock, my body seems to be recovering faster each time. Plus entering into the fugue under Kamali’s gentle care really seems to make the difference. “What do you know about this?” I demand of Marcus.
“That you’re very right to be concerned,” he says, not slowing down in his manipulations of the matrix.
I stalk over to him. “Care to be a little more specific?”
“He should know,” Leopold says, coming up behind me.
“Know what?” I ask, flipping a scowl between the two of them.
Marcus frowns at the data, then glares at Leopold. “We can find another way to contain this. We simply have to find Augustus’s physical location, go there ourselves, then shut it down until we can—”
“You cannot contain this, Marcus.” Leopold’s tone is sharp enough that it makes Marcus flinch. Either that or the words themselves. “The connection with the cult—you know that’s far too dangerous.”
Marcus swipes away the data and deactivates the holo matrix. Agitation curls up his face in the form of purple tendrils along his skin, but he’s staring straight ahead. At nothing. “You might be right about that.” He finally turns to face me. “Eli, we need to know where Augustus is keeping the Mind.”
“The Mind?” They are clearly way ahead of me on this. “Is that what this is? Some kind of artificial brain?” I’m not sure why that is causing such alarm. After all, the ascenders already have a kind of artificial cognition—their human brains were enhanced with nanites and switched to non-organic substrates a long time ago. And the bots all have different levels of sentience.
“If it’s just a brain, then why is it so dangerous?” Kamali stands a few feet behind me, arms crossed. Tristan is next to her, all skepticism wiped away by the wide-eyed, slightly panicked look on his face. “Even bots have artificial brains,” she says, speaking my thoughts. “Why is this different?”
Leopold and Marcus engage in another round of silent communications and gestures. I look back and forth between them. They’re ignoring me.
“Fine.” I throw up my hands in frustration and stalk around Leopold to Kamali’s side of the chair. “You don’t want to share?” I yell at Leopold and Marcus, my voice growing louder with each word. “I’m going back in without you.”
Tristan frowns and steps back, like he’s not sure what I’m doing now, but Kamali gives me a nod. She’s ready to do this again. And without the ascenders who apparently don’t feel we need to be involved in their plans. Besides, I need to get a better read on where Augustus is keeping this Mind—I only have a vague idea that it’s northeast of New Portland, somewhere in the mountains of Oregon.
“Wait!” Marcus holds up a hand. “All right, all right,” he says, but that’s directed at Leopold. To me, he says, “It’s a bridge.”
“A bridge.” I rub my face. “You mean a bridge like I’m supposed to be.”
Tristan gives me a hard look, which I ignore. Grayson and Caleb have maintained their positions at the periphery of the alcove, but Grayson’s alert level has ramped up, and Caleb’s talking to himself, whispering something into his agitated ascender-tech hand. They don’t know what the fugue really is—then again, neither do I—but they’re about to learn the full measure of the crazy.
“Yes, a bridge like you,” Marcus says, hedging as well. He gestures to Leopold to explain it to the frustratingly stupid human. Then Marcus taps his fist against his mouth, muttering and ignoring me again. I’ve never seen him agitated like this. He goes back at the screen, flipping through data at light speed.
I face Leopold. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you remember the one sin ascenders should never commit?” Leopold lurches around the chair to come to my side.
“Killing an immortal.”
“There’s actually one sin greater than that—creating one.”
“What? You mean, like a baby ascender?” I glance at Kamali, and she looks confused, too. I toss up my hands. “I thought that was the whole purpose of the Olympics—to fulfill the needs of all those ascenders who want babies. Or at least a new ascender-level life to play with.”
“Then why don’t we allow more than a few to ascend each year?” Leopold is testing me.
I wish he would just get to the point. “Because we’ll run out of space?”
“No.” The answer hangs in the air.
“It’s because of you,” Kamali says to me, her voice low and a little shaky.
I frown at her, and Tristan’s mouth is hanging open, but then I remember—Leopold once said the ascenders’ asteroid mining operations could provide a thousand years worth of resources, but that it didn’t really matter because they were close to discovering faster-than-light drive anyway. And then the solar system would no longer be a cage of limited resources for humanity or the ascenders. There was literally no reason not to grow the ascender population as much as they chose.
Something else was stopping them.
I point a finger at him. “You said it was because of The Question. Because ascenders didn’t have an answer yet. That they didn’t know for sure whether humans have souls. And if ascenders did not…” I trail off because Marcus’s attention has whipped back to me.
“And do you know the answer to that question now, Eli?” Leopold’s voice is slow, measured, but undeniably strained.
“No,” I say quickly. Because it’s the truth, and I don’t like the suddenly intense look on both their faces. “I mean, I don’t even know if I have a soul.”
Marcus shakes his head and goes back to his screen.
Leopold nods, slowly and with a slight unevenness. “There are many reasons why we limit who can ascend. It is part of the constellation of capital offense laws forbidding the creation of a new mind, a new intelligence, outside the strictly defined parameters of the law. This is why we forbid neural enhancements for legacies and even humans within the Resistance. These laws don’t just apply to humans, but to bots as well.”
I’m really not getting this. “You’re afraid someone might try to make bots into ascenders?”
“We’re afraid they might succeed all too well.”
I flash back to Lenora saying the same thing—how the limits on human augmentation were in place because the ascenders were afraid she might succeed. “Wait a minute… the experiment you did with me tampered with human intelligence. Or something. How my mind works. What I can perceive.”
“One of the many reasons your existence has been a tightly kept secret.”
“Because if the rest of Orion knew…” I blink. My existence breaks a fundamental law of ascender society. Ascenders aren’t just lying to legacies to keep them docile in their cages. They aren’t just preserving our biodiversity—they have actual laws amongst themselves, capital-offense laws, to prevent human augmentation. Specifically neural augmentation. Very specifically, the kind of thing that led to the Singularity in the first place.
It finally clicks. “A second Singularity. They’re afraid of being replaced by something else. Of going extinct. Like humans were in the first Singularity.”
Leopold looks to each of us in turn, nodding to affirm what I said. Kamali’s eyes are wide, and Tristan’s face has gone two shades more pale. Caleb and Grayson have edged forward during the furious back and forth, drawn in by the words and the tension. Grayson’s normally stoic face has slackened with shock.
Caleb whispers, “A second Singularity.” His eyes are slightly crazed, like he can’t believe the words I’ve spoken.
Neither can I. The idea bangs around in my head, thorny and chock-full of implications—the ascenders are actually afraid of us. Me, specifically. Or at least, the potential I have. Given that I’ve just barely figured out what I can do in the fugue, and it includes at minimum being able to access every ascender’s personal key—I can easily understand why.
And I’
m just a stupid human.
Leopold’s gaze returns to me. “We have created the one thing ascenders fear most—something potentially more transcendent than we are. It could bring ascenders what they lack—the ability to reach beyond our current plane of existence—or it could render them irrelevant. The fear storm it would create inside Orion would be like nothing we’ve seen since the early wars. The idea alone could burn everything to ash.”
“That’s why everyone has been after Eli,” Tristan says, his voice shaky. “To control the idea.”
I throw him a surprised look, but I’m relieved he understands. Even the fact that he’s holding Kamali’s hand doesn’t bother me, not like it would normally. She’s going to need someone to support her through this; hopefully, Tristan can be that, no matter what happens to me.
Because none of this is looking good for me.
Leopold nods in response to Tristan. “Eli is the bridge to something new—something more. But he’s just a single person—a single human person—and one that, so far, has been relatively benign.” He glances at Marcus, who throws him a dark look, but he doesn’t slow in his frantic engagement with the holo matrix, whatever that is about. “Augustus is doing something much more dangerous. If what you say is correct, Eli, he’s not creating a person, a single soul that bridges to the divine. A savior, if you will, or a prophet. The world has seen those things before, and while they can shift everything, they are not the level of fire Augustus is playing with. From what you say, he’s creating an organic machine… one that eats souls.”
A full body shudder runs through me. Because that’s exactly what the storm in my fugue vision was all about—the same as Augustus’s pink Mind.
Tristan frowns. “From what Eli said, it’s not so much eating them as… capturing them?” He gives me a questioning look for verification.
I nod. “Yeah. Almost like Augustus is harvesting them, maybe? Concentrating them inside the Mind?” If that’s what we’re calling it now.
Caleb fists up his mechanical hand, presses it to his mouth, and turns away. I feel sick myself—the whole thing is impossibly strange.
Leopold nods in his jerky way. “Augustus is building dozens of bridges like he originally intended in the experiments to create Eli. Only these bridges won’t be individuals like Eli, who may stubbornly resist his coercions. These harvested bridges will reside within a machine that Augustus believes he can control.”
“To do what?” I ask.
“You tell me, Eli,” Leopold says very carefully. “What won’t he be able to do?”
I swallow in my suddenly dry throat. Because I don’t know all the power of the fugue, but I’ve already contemplated killing myself to keep it out of Augustus’s hands.
“Maybe he can’t really control it,” I say. “Or maybe he doesn’t know what it does. I mean, if he did, wouldn’t he already be using it against us?”
“It may not yet be emergent,” Marcus says. “As you’re aware, it’s not a straightforward thing, expressing all the capability inherent in your DNA. But once it becomes emergent… once it gains the self-awareness and intelligence to understand what it is and what it can do…”
It will sweep up everything in its path. “I’ve seen what that looks like,” I say, my voice almost a whisper. “We can’t let that happen.”
“Agreed,” Leopold says. “Augustus thinks he can control it—but he can’t.”
“This is breaking your laws, right?” asks Kamali. “Let’s use that. Let Orion know, so it can destroy the thing before it gets out of hand.”
An excellent point. “I know vaguely where he’s keeping the Mind,” I say. “Why not let Orion shut him down?”
Marcus pauses in his frenetic manipulation of the holo grid. “You know where he is?”
“Vaguely,” I emphasize. “Northeast of the city, somewhere in the mountains. That’s all I know.”
Marcus and Leopold exchange a look. Caleb turns back around to face us, and he and Grayson both edge closer to me, Tristan, and Kamali. We’re a tight huddle now in the middle of the alcove.
“His estate,” Marcus says with a grimace.
“Impenetrable,” Leopold agrees. “Undoubtedly why it’s there.”
I appreciate that they’re speaking out loud, but not that they’re ignoring my point. “Which is why we should use Orion,” I repeat.
Marcus runs his hand across his face then returns to the holo interface, moving twice as fast as before. Leopold turns back to me.
“There will still be chaos,” he says carefully. “The panic inside Orion will burn down everything. And once the hunts begin, they will find all the threats. Including you, Eli.”
I swallow. “We might not have another choice.”
“Why don’t we use Eli to find the tactical weaknesses of Augustus’s estate?” Tristan gestures to me. “You can do that, right? Go back in and guide us? Then we’ll take it out physically, here in the real world.”
Tristan might not be so bad after all. “I like that idea better,” I say to everyone. Marcus steps away from his screen, the frustration on his face saying he didn’t like whatever he found in his search.
“We definitely need to do something,” he says. “I’m not letting everything I’ve worked for burn down in an irrational return to the post-Singularity wars.” To Leopold, he says, “We should bring out Diocles.”
“The ascender who put himself to storage?” I ask. “I thought he was dead.”
Leopold shakes his head, but it’s for Marcus, not me. “That’s a whole different fire to play with.”
Marcus waves aside his concern, like it’s trivial, but I trust Leopold’s caution more than Marcus’s ambition. “If we can bring him out of storage, if he’s still alive, then Orion will listen to him. He can hold them in abeyance, keep the panic from getting out of control. We can take out Augustus’s little experiment with the full blessing of Orion but without the firestorm of controversy sweeping up everything in its path.”
“I think you overestimate his power,” Leopold says, clearly not buying into this plan.
“Whatever we’re going to do,” I say, “we have to do it now. I don’t know how much time we have left with this Mind thing.”
Marcus frowns. “It will take time to resurrect Diocles. And convince Orion they need to act.”
“It doesn’t sound like we have that kind of time,” Tristan says, coming to stand next to me. Kamali gives him a nod of encouragement.
Grayson speaks for the first time in all this. “We should mobilize what we’ve got, set up somewhere within striking distance, then let Eli guide us from there.”
Caleb’s face is pinched, but he doesn’t add anything.
I give Grayson a grateful nod. “I can go into the fugue on the way and start working on better intelligence immediately. Plus that will let me keep an eye on what Augustus is doing with this thing, in case we need to move faster.”
Marcus’s skin is alive with all kinds of color. “All right. Return to the ship. I’ll start quietly gathering support and supplies for the operation.” He dashes away with ascender speed, and Grayson quickly follows with his ascender-tech legs. That leaves the humans—me, Kamali, Tristan, and Caleb—to make our way back to the ship as fast as our unenhanced legs will allow. Leopold remains with us but keeps quiet. The sentries surround us as we retrace our steps.
Caleb stays close to me, like he’s my personal guard now that Grayson has gone ahead. We quickly work our way through the glass hallways and soon reach the entrance to Marcus’s ship. Grayson’s giving orders to the militia he left standing guard at the second transport. I assume Marcus is already onboard his ship. Tristan and Kamali start climbing the ramp, and Leopold lumbers along behind them.
Caleb holds me back from entering. “You need to wait here.” He’s watching the frosted-glass roof of the garage above us. It’s slowly opening, but I’m not sure what we’re waiting for.
Grayson dashes over on his ascender-tech legs, coming to a qui
ck stop in front of us.
Then Caleb throws an arm over my shoulders, which seems overly familiar—until I realize he’s pulled me into a choke hold from behind with his ascender-tech hand. I gasp, as much from surprise as anything—
“Caleb.” Grayson’s gravelly voice hikes up with shock. “What are you doing?”
I cough and grab at Caleb’s hand, but he’s not actually choking me—he’s just using me as a human shield. I stop struggling because he could snap the life out of me in a split second—and yet he hasn’t. The commotion brings Leopold dashing back out of the ship, but he stumbles to a stop when he sees Caleb’s hold on me. Tristan and Kamali follow, but Tristan pulls her back with a protective arm around her shoulder when he catches sight of what’s happening.
“You’re too late,” Caleb says, his voice breathy.
I don’t know who he’s talking to, but Grayson answers. “Too late for what?” He’s aghast and confused, teetering on his ascender-tech legs like he can’t decide what to do. Marcus arrives with ascender speed from inside the ship. He’s livid, but he stops next to Leopold, a half dozen feet away.
“You are not gods,” Caleb growls at them. Then he squeezes my throat enough to make me gag, without cutting off all my air. “And you,” he hisses in my ear, “are a false prophet, worse than all the demons in hell.”
I don’t understand at all what’s happening. Then Caleb shoves his human wrist up in front of my face. There are five symbols—five letters—inked in black. My stomach turns to ice. It’s the tattoo that Nathaniel, the Cleansed cult leader, had on his wrist.
“I am belonging to God.” Caleb’s words huff on the side of my face. “And I know where my salvation lies.” Then he leans back, pulling me with him, to look up into the bright sunshine lighting up the garage floor around us. It reflects off the hundred levels of glass above us.
I pull in a breath. “Caleb—”
He cuts me off by squeezing my throat, then straightens to face the others. “I’ve heard enough of your lies, devil.” He’s hissing in my ear again. “There is no Mind—the implanted ones use the soulless tech to control their sin, and when their minds finally weaken, they leave this earth peacefully and go straight to heaven with their pure hearts. As I will, after I deliver you. Your blood will not be a stain on my hand, but the most righteous moment of my life will be watching you die.”
The Duality Bridge (Singularity #2) (Singularity Series) Page 28