Wake the Dead

by Victoria Buck

  “Wonderful. I’ll see you in the lab.”

  She left him, and he returned to the bathroom and showered. He dressed and packed his bag. Walking across the compound, he had the urge to stop. The open desert stretched beyond the fence and the air was still and hot. A cloudless sky covered him. He paused for a second. “No time for idle pleasure.” It was up to him and him alone to tell the world how marvelous life could be with a little augmentation. No one would become like him, of course. But everyone deserved the opportunity for a better life. A life improved by the innovations made possible by the Helgen Institute. And SynVue, of course.

  He entered the laboratory and greeted Robert with an outstretched hand. “My friend and savior. How are you this fine morning?”

  “Chase, son, how are you?”

  “Never felt better. I remember figuring out how to turn off my crypt offloading program. Don’t know why I would want to do that. I want you to turn it back on.”

  “Do you recall how you turned it off?”

  “Nope, not at all. I doubt I’ll be able to do it again. And why would I want to? It’s good to know someone is always watching out for you.”

  “Do you recall anything about a code?”

  Chase smiled and put his arm around Robert’s shoulder. “Nope. You look worried, Bob. Not me—I have a feeling you programmed all my worries right out of me.”

  “I see.”

  “Why the glum face? You seem disappointed. Things are moving in the right direction now. You told me we would take on the world. Well, I’m ready.”

  “That you remember.”

  “You bet I do. Let’s get to it. No more changing one life at a time. I’m going to change the world.”

  30

  Throughout the flight to BHO, Chase wondered what was on the screen Dr. Fiender studied with such determination.

  “Are you monitoring me, Bob?” he asked when the doctor looked up from his VPad.

  “Not at all, Chase. I’m working on the network’s next project.”

  “What are you talking about? You’re still going to take care of me, aren’t you?”

  “Life goes on, young man. I only came along on the flight in case you became anxious. I thought your phobia might interfere with your new programming.”

  “I appreciate that, Bob. Don’t like to fly. Can’t you do something about that?”

  “No, son, I can’t. Fear runs too deep.” The doctor swiped the VPad and dropped it into his shirt pocket.

  “You will stay with me for a few days, won’t you, Robert?”

  “I must hurry back to the desert. So much to do, you know.”

  Little else was said between the two for the duration of the flight.

  The jet pulled right up to the terminal in the daylight. No hiding this time. Chase emerged from the plane surrounded by armed guards. Kerstin walked in front of him, and she turned to give him a smile as a group of reporters approached. These were some of the men and women who for years had waited backstage after episodes of Change Your Life. The ones his assistant would gather into the press room for reports of how the network managed such incredible feats for their contestants.

  And now his life was the one changed.

  The media reps didn’t run to surround him. They didn’t hammer him with questions as soon as they saw him. Instead, they stood in awe. And silence.

  Chase stood almost behind Kerstin and whispered in her ear. “My debut, kitten? I didn’t expect this. What do I tell them?”

  She tilted her head toward him. “Tell them the truth. It’s the right time, Chase. They will prepare the public.” She addressed the crowd. “Thank you all for coming. As you can see, we have a great revelation. Our own Chase Sterling has not only recovered from his injuries, he is ready to step back into the public forum. His fans—and who in this world is not a fan--should know…” She stepped to one side and pulled on Chase’s arm. “His recovery is not only complete. It’s miraculous. The world will soon know how far science has come. How vast the possibilities. And the man who will reveal these great things is standing before you.”

  She moved behind Chase.

  “It’s so good to be back with you all. I am, as you can see, fully recovered.”

  A hand went up. Chase couldn’t recall a time when these people had raised their hands. He remembered the man as the one who had made him stop backstage after Judy Bamber’s win. The reporter had commented that Chase must be running out of ideas. Chase never knew the reporter’s name, just his face. But now, somehow, he knew.

  “John McKent. Question?”

  “Yes, Mr. Sterling. The night you were injured, I thought…We all thought you must certainly be dead. What happened to you?”

  “If any of you have done your job as a reporter, I would also like to know what happened to me. Someone must know who sent that M-snipe into the studio.”

  Kerstin poked her fingernail into his back.

  “Of course, that has nothing to do with my recovery.” Chase smiled. “I was mortally wounded, and yet I recovered. And not only did I recover, I became more than I was.”

  “How so, Chase?”

  “Julie Hill, so good to see you again,” he said. “The organs blown away that terrible night were replaced with new ones. My heart and lungs, among other things, were manufactured at the Helgen Institute. I was put together by a team of scientists led by my friend, Dr. Robert Fiender.” Chase turned to see if the doctor was behind him. Kerstin shook her head, and Chase returned his focus to the reporters.

  “We’ll introduce him another time.”

  “Chase, I saw you,” a man in the crowd said. “You had a hole—a big one—blown clean through you.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, Blain.”

  The reporter continued, “When they said you were alive, we all thought your brain must be hooked to some new kind of life preserver. We never expected you to come walking into an airport terminal.”

  Another of the media reps cut in. “Have you been at the Helgen Institute the whole time?”

  “No, Karl. I’ve been right here in Chicago, at Synvue Estate.”

  Questions came fast then, but Chase answered them, filling in details as much as he could. What he didn’t know, Kerstin seemed able to answer. It satisfied the reporters. Chase wondered why the doctor wasn’t present. Where was he? Still on the jet? At some point during the rapid-fire Q&A, Chase looked behind him, to the runway. The jet was gone.

  Kerstin wrapped up Chase’s meeting with the media and gave a preview of the upcoming SynVue special. “In two days,” she said. “The world will see what this man can do.”

  In what seemed to Chase an afterthought, she spoke of the new show—the one replacing Change Your Life.

  “As part of the program, Chase will interview Larin Andrews, host of the upcoming new show, Reach Your Destiny.”

  She dismissed the reporters, and the guards surrounded Chase and hurried him through the terminal. A crowd had gathered during the interview—obviously, the word was out. Throngs of people lined the narrow terminal. They cheered, clapped, and reached for Chase. Chase only smiled. He gave an occasional wave but didn’t speak. These were the common people. Of course, they adored him. They wanted to be like him. He’d see to it that some of them got a little boost to what God had given them.

  But he was a one and only. There would be no one like him.

  ****

  Back at SynVue Estate, Chase was taken to a new room. This one was larger, less medical. More like a suite at a luxury hotel. “I don’t remember this room,” he told Kerstin when they entered. “I think my recall was compromised by the latest procedure. I want to talk to Fiender.”

  “Robert has returned to the Helgen Institute. You don’t need him anymore. As far as the room is concerned, you don’t remember it because it was remodeled just for you.” She reached into the leather satchel she carried at her side. “Here.” She handed him a coded tag on a black string. “Hang it under your shirt. You are free to co
me and go from this room as you please.”

  “I can leave the estate?”

  “No, not just yet. But you may walk to the cafeteria or wander the grounds.”

  “What else needs to be done to me? If you’re going to continue to keep me here, I think I should be under the care of my doctor.”

  “No other procedures are required, Chase. We’re keeping you close to make sure you have healed properly. And there are plenty of other doctors here. You know that.”

  “Dr. Fiender told me I couldn’t survive without him.”

  “Sometimes geniuses are grandiose. You most certainly will live on without his presence. You’ll outlive all of us.”

  “I met an old woman in the desert. A doctor. You seemed to know her, kitten.”

  “That crazy old dermatologist?”

  “Right. Gaha, wasn’t it? She’s a hundred and ten.”

  “What about her?”

  “Will I live to be that old?”

  Kerstin laughed. “You’ll still be a young man when you’re that age.”

  It should have been good news, but something inside Chase ate at him. “How old is Robert?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “He’s the one to come up with all this. Body parts that don’t wear out. Augmentation. He’s the doctor. He made me.” Chase sat on a blue sofa. A huge window overlooked the pond behind the estate. “This place is very nice, kitten. Will I be here long?” He settled back to enjoy the view.

  “Are you all right, Chase? Don’t you want me to answer your question?”

  He looked up at her. “Question?”

  “Robert’s age.”

  “His age?”

  “Chase, you just asked me how old the man is.”

  “Right, how old is he?”

  “Ninety-four.” She seemed to study Chase.

  “Wow, I would have never guessed. I thought he was in his sixties.”

  “A lot of people are older than they look, thanks to medical advancements.” She smiled. “Of course, the new ways will leave modern medicine in the dust.”

  “Robert is augmented like me? He didn’t tell me that.”

  “He’s nothing like you. He’s got a new liver and kidneys, and some arteries or something.”

  “There’s no one like me,” Chase said. “I don’t need Fiender.”

  31

  Chase spent most of the next day looking at his own reflection. The people who’d made him should have done a little more to improve his appearance. Not too many years would pass before he started showing signs of aging.

  When he grew bored of calculating the time it would take to wrinkle, he left his room to stroll the grounds. Exercising his organic parts would surely help keep him young. He jogged awhile on a mulch path. Recognizing the rosebush that grew outside the window of his former room, he stopped to sit on the ground beside the red blooms. The black cat he’d observed with his night vision stared at him from the low limb of a laurel tree.

  Chase held out his hand. “Kitten, come here.”

  The cat jumped from the branch and hurried to Chase’s side.

  Chase wrapped his hand under the cat’s belly and lifted it onto his lap. Rubbing its head against Chase’s hand, the little cat purred.

  “That’s my kitten.” He stroked its back and rubbed its ears.

  Chase opened his eyes wide, giving the COP monitor a good view, and then he wrapped his hand around the cat’s neck.

  ****

  That night Chase and Kerstin dined in his suite.

  Kerstin poked at her steak. “Why did you kill that cat?”

  “You don’t seem very hungry.”

  She stared at him, silent, from across the table.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe just to see if anyone was watching. Was it you who witnessed the murder?” Chase smirked.

  “No, it was a nurse monitoring your COP. She was quite repulsed. She called me and every doctor at the estate to come at once to address the issue.”

  “And what did the competent minds behind the great Chase Sterling conclude?”

  “Nothing—that’s the problem. We installed a program that should tell us what you’re going to do just prior to the time you do it.” She paused. “Chase, don’t you find it amazing that we could do such a thing?”

  “It’s been in the works for years.”

  “At any rate, it seemed to be working, until the cat. The sensor only indicated you were going to pet the cat, not kill it.” She sipped her wine. “I think you need some more work done.”

  “I was fond of the cat. It used to play outside my window when I first began to use my night vision. How long ago was that, kitten?”

  “It’s only been a few weeks. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Time seems to have stopped for me. And yet I always know what time it is.”

  “Chase, don’t you have anything to say about the prophecy sensor?”

  “The what?”

  “The new program that tells us what you’re going to do before you do it. I expected you’d launch one of your objections when you found out about it.”

  “Do you know what I’m going to do right now, kitten?”

  Kerstin lifted her fork and took a small piece of meat between her lips. She chewed slowly and swallowed as though the bite stuck in her throat. “Before you killed the cat, you called it the same thing you’ve been calling me these past few days—kitten.”

  “I did?”

  “I think you should talk to one of our psychiatrists.”

  “Or Robert could just adjust my sensors.”

  She dropped her fork onto the plate and stood. “Is that what this is about? You’re trying to get me to bring Dr. Fiender back here?”

  “Kitten, don’t be angry. I’m sure a little adjustment is all I need. Any one of Robert’s protégés could handle it. We brought someone back with us from the Helgen Institute, didn’t we?”

  “We’ve brought in four of their doctors to remain on staff. I’ll see to it that one of them examines you tomorrow morning.”

  “Don’t look so worried. I’m sure there are no other cats on the premises.” Chase smiled.

  Kerstin took her seat. Her eyes remained fixed on him.

  “Why do you stare, kitten?”

  She turned her eyes away. “We mustn’t give the public any reason to doubt your integrity. Violent outbursts, if that’s what happened today, can’t be permitted.”

  “Do you really think I would hurt someone? I tried out my strength sensors on a cat, that’s all.”

  “Anyone could snap the neck of a small cat, Chase.”

  “Are you saying I’m nothing special?”

  Fear barely sparked in the back of her eyes. “Of course not.” She smiled. “You’re special, Chase.”

  “That’s right, kitten.” Chase cut a hefty bite from his tenderloin.

  ****

  The next morning Chase found himself stretched bare on a gurney, covered by a thin sheet. The man in charge seemed too young to be examining the greatest scientific wonder in the world.

  “Robert turned me into a prime example of augmentation,” Chase told the fledgling.

  “We all worked on you, Mr. Sterling. I actually positioned your new organs in the rebuilt body cavity.”

  “Can you call Robert? He should be watching what you’re doing. He can do that from the institute, can’t he?”

  “Yes, of course, he can. But there’s no need.”

  “Who are you? I don’t remember you.”

  “Dr. Bentley.”

  “First name?”

  “Jack.”

  “Jack, why are you sticking that probe in my auricle? Something wrong with the hearing enhancer?”

  “No, your left ear is where the neuroprosthesis was installed. I’m trying to determine if there’s a problem.”

  The small instrument caused pressure in Chase’s ear, but no pain. “Is that the personality alteration thing? Does Elaine Jenz have one?”

&
nbsp; “As far as altering your personality, I suppose it does, in a sense. As far as Elaine Jenz is concerned, I have no idea what type of device they used on her. It was probably a simple EWB.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Emotional Well-Being Enhancer—a chip in the brain.”

  The probe went deeper, and Chase winced.

  “Sorry about that.” The doctor pulled out the metal implement. “Doesn’t seem to be any problem.”

  “Robert made Elaine Jenz manageable. Takes more than a chip for depression to do that.”

  “If you say so, Mr. Sterling. I was at the Helgen Institute when Ms. Jenz was worked on.”

  “What’s wrong with me? I’m not causing any problems. Am I?”

  “Have you experienced forgetfulness?”

  “I don’t remember,” Chase said with a grin.

  “Any confusion?”

  The smile left him, and he clenched his fists. “I can’t get these numbers out of my head. And I’m having dreams.”

  “Everybody dreams,” the doctor said. “Are yours troubling?”

  “The numbers run through my head all the time. They repeat in my sleep.”

  “Maybe your sensors are having trouble accepting code from the NP.”

  “NP?”

  “The neuroprosthesis—the thing in your ear.”

  Chase pulled on his ear and rubbed his head. “Can I see Dr. Fiender now?”

  “Sir, he’s not here. Remember?”

  “Kitten says he’s not coming back. I don’t need Fiender.”

  “I’m beginning to think you do. I’ll consult with the team, and one of us will give him a call. I can’t believe they’re going to put you on live tonight. Maybe Dr. Fiender can get here before the show.”

  Chase grabbed the doctor’s arm. “Did you know I can make a diagnosis of your health simply by touching you?”

  The man pulled away. “I was there when Fiender installed the Wilberton sensor.”

  “What’s the matter? Don’t you want me to tell you what’s wrong with you?”

  “Mr. Sterling, I’m a doctor and you’re not. I consider—I’ve always considered—putting that device in you something of a circus act.”