Gene Mapper

by Fujii, Taiyo

“Enrico’s disap—”

  “Ms. Thep.” Kurokawa cut me off. “From now on, please deal directly with me. The investigation on the ground will be conducted by me and Mamoru. I’ll gather all the information you need and keep you in the loop.”

  Her dark mood seemed to lift immediately. The lack of response from L&B must have really been on her mind.

  “You’ll coordinate everything? I appreciate it, but what happened to Enrico?”

  “He’ll be on vacation for a while.”

  “On vacation? He’s the PM. What happened? Did he have a breakdown?”

  “Something like that.” Kurokawa laughed regretfully.

  “What a fool. Going mental at a time like this. I bet he ran back to Mama.”

  “Enrico is very good with the technology. I’m sure he’ll be giving us valuable support as soon as he recovers.”

  “Is he really good with the technology?” I asked.

  “Sure,” said Thep. “But I don’t need him. I’d rather work with you.”

  She leaned against the door, feet planted shoulder-width, arms folded. The muscles in her arms and shoulders flexed.

  “Hayashida-san, your hands are frozen. Could you hurry up and get those shorts off?” Her voice had an edge to it, but a hint of kindness too. I sighed and dropped my drawers.

  “Well, at least you weren’t being shy about your size. Okay, I’ll turn around. Get that gel on and suit up.”

  * * *

  Thep walked ahead of us down a long corridor that led to the fields.

  “I’m glad you brought this gear. Now we can do some night shooting.” She was carrying a big tripod on one shoulder. An eight-by-eight True Vision multipoint camera array swung from her other hand. Both pieces of gear were from Kim’s shop.

  “Phnom Penh is two hours on the chopper. It’s hard to get decent gear there, and since the mutation started we haven’t let anyone on the site.”

  “Thank you,” said Kurokawa. “We’d prefer to avoid panicking the public. I’m glad you secured the site.”

  “Yeah. Except for the squatters.”

  “Out here?” I was surprised.

  “Sorry, we’re all just country people here.” Thep smiled. “Nature addicts. They’ve been living in tents around the perimeter since the site was constructed. They bring in all kinds of equipment and spy on us twenty-four/seven, trying to catch us using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, anything that could blow our certifications. At first I thought they might actually show the world what we’re trying to do here. But their technique is sloppy and the data they’re collecting is junk. Work that shoddy would never pass muster on my site.” Thep threw her tank-topped chest out proudly.

  “Now they’re flying kites with cameras, shooting us at night. The glowing crops are perfect for their propaganda. Thanks to that we’ve had to spend extra on security. The detail you saw at the front gate is just the tip of the iceberg.

  “They’ve been camping out for a year. I don’t know where the money is coming from. I won’t say genetic engineering and distilled agriculture are perfected, but what we’re trying to do here is more sustainable, better for the environment, and safer than slash and burn or relying on natural mutation to produce better crops. I wish I could beat that into their heads.” Thep was hardly breaking a sweat with the heavy tripod and camera array.

  “Mother Mekong hires locally. That’s Fair Trade. There aren’t many people here that I can talk to on the same level. Kurokawa-san, after you guys finish, could you leave that with me?” Thep gestured toward me with her chin.

  “What, me?”

  “No, the suit. That’s a Biochemical Command suit. The AR model, right?” She peered under my armpit, trying to read the spec plate. “I’m glad you came prepared. With things the way they are now, a suit like that would be good to have. All we’ve got for protective gear is this.” She motioned to one of her wrists, which was sealed with an elastic band. The rubberized surface of her jumpsuit was dirty and the area around the knees was wearing thin. The tops of her boots were sealed to her suit legs with silver duct tape.

  “It’s not like we’re dealing with a biochemical weapon,” I said.

  Thep stopped, put down the camera, and stared at me.

  “I mean, there’s no proof that it’s anything like th—”

  She gave me a hard shove in the chest. “Do we need proof?” Her eyes were almost wild-looking. “We’ve got no idea what this is! That’s why it’s frightening! Something is mutating on this farm. We checked everything—air, water, soil. And we still have no idea why this is happening.”

  Her hand was still on my chest. Her arm was trembling.

  “We go out one morning. We find something that’s not supposed to be there. It’s not SR06. Something is very wrong. How do we know it isn’t a threat? I can barely get my own people to come out here. They think Neak Ta, the spirit who owns this valley, is angry with us. And those grasshoppers—”

  Kurokawa stepped between us. “Ms. Thep, we’ve received almost no information from you since the mutation started. Weren’t you sending data to Enrico?”

  The tension in her arm melted away. “That idiot. Didn’t he send you my reports?”

  “We can’t reach him. L&B doesn’t know where he is either. All we have is the data you sent me and the cultivation logs.”

  “Enrico didn’t send you anything? I don’t believe it.” She stepped back and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Hayashida-san. You said ‘weapon’ and it set me off. It’s just … it’s so strange that we don’t understand what’s happening. I just pray that it’s not some kind of weaponized genome.” She picked up the camera. “Anyway, with this we can finally shoot the mutation as it happens. Sorry to get physical. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

  * * *

  The UV in the sterilization chamber was intense even through the suit visor. I stood with arms straight out, blinking against the light. We had to cook off any contaminants before we went into the field.

  “Those suits look new. They should be clean already, but my gear is not. This will just take a little longer.”

  Thep was encased in her dark yellow jumpsuit. I couldn’t see her expression behind the eye slits in her clean mask. Not only was her rubberized jumpsuit from a different era, it was several sizes too big. She needed a web of silver duct tape to keep it in place.

  “We’re here to follow your procedures, Ms. Thep,” said Kurokawa. “I don’t want to complicate this investigation by bringing in some sort of contaminant.”

  Kurokawa opened his suit workspace and began inputting into the strange-looking interface. Thep peered over his shoulder.

  “What is all that?”

  “I’m inputting today’s Operation into our control program. The three of us make up a platoon. The immediate goal of the Operation is to collect samples of the intruder, SR06, and the grasshoppers, along with any other relevant intelligence. The Operation comes under the Mission, which is to determine the nature of the anomaly threatening Mother Mekong.”

  “Do we really need a whole grasshopper?” I was hoping not.

  “Of course!” Kurokawa and Thep answered in unison.

  “How are we going to catch one? We didn’t bring a net.”

  “Don’t worry, the border between SR06 and the mutated plants is full of them. You can catch them with your hands.” Thep sounded disgusted, though I still couldn’t see her face. According to the tutorial, the AR that came with the suits let you “see” the expressions on your platoon mates’ faces.

  “Shall we go into AR?”

  “Yes, it’s time,” said Kurokawa. “The video said to whisper ‘activate’ and gesture with the left hand over the face.” He put the tips of his left thumb and little finger to his temples. “Activa—”

  His head rolled back before he finished the command. He dropped to his knees and topple
d over. His helmet thudded against the floor and he went into convulsions.

  “Kurokawa-san!” Thep was on her knees beside him. His back was arched in a position that didn’t seem anatomically possible. I could hear wet gurgling from inside the helmet. He was vomiting.

  “We’ve got to get his helmet off!” Thep shouted.

  “Wait!” I kneeled and pulled the release under his jaw. The visor popped off. Vomit flecked with tiny strands of fiber splattered onto the floor. His fingers were curled into claws. His eyes were locked open and jerked spastically.

  “What’s happening? What is it?” Thep was screaming now.

  Kurokawa took a deep breath, tensed, and ejected another geyser of vomit from the pit of his stomach.

  I cursed myself for not paying more attention to the tutorial. What was the emergency escape procedure? Kurokawa was fighting the convulsions, trying to reach behind his neck.

  I remembered. The emergency release was at the base of the neck.

  “Takashi, I’m getting you out of that suit!” I put my arms under his armpits and hugged him to my chest. He tried to say something but vomited onto my visor instead. I found the cable and jerked it.

  The ribbons linking the suit plates loosened. Green gel oozed from the gaps. Thep grappled with the gel-smeared ribbons at the back of the suit and pulled the armor away.

  “Turn on the shower!” I yelled at her. “We’ve got to get this stuff off.”

  “It’s not sterile!”

  “I don’t care!”

  She ran to a panel by the door and jammed her thumb on a blue button. Water came blasting out of nozzles on both sides with nearly enough force to knock me down. I lifted Kurokawa into the stream. The water pummeled his skin as it flushed off the gel.

  “I called for help!” Thep yelled in my ear. The door was already open and several of her people were coming in with a wheeled stretcher.

  “Clean him off!”

  Multiple hands held Kurokawa and wiped off the last bits of gel with towels. They picked him up and put him on the stretcher. While they kept wiping him down, I noticed something odd on his right shoulder.

  It was a three-line bar code. Not a tattoo—it was different somehow. I looked closer. The bar code glowed softly and faded, with a rhythm like a heartbeat.

  “Don’t put him on his back! He’ll choke,” Thep shouted. “Hayashida-san, what are you doing?” She was leaning over Kurokawa, shouting in my ear, but her voice seemed far away.

  A luminous bar code?

  Thep and the others pushed the stretcher outside. For a moment I was too stunned to move. Then I ran into the corridor after them.

  I wasn’t used to running in the suit. The tutorial said it would feel as natural as the user’s own skin once AR was activated, but I wasn’t about to do that after what I’d just seen.

  They had just wheeled Kurokawa into another room off the corridor when I heard Thep scream. Two staff members with AR glasses backed hastily into the corridor. Their faces were pale with fear.

  “Neak Ta! Neak Ta!”

  I pushed past them into the room. Kurokawa was sitting on the stretcher in a dark blue suit. He bowed. Thep stared at him, dazed.

  How had he gotten a suit on? And why were the two people behind him doing manual CPR into empty space over the stretcher?

  “Ms. Thep, Mamoru, I’m sorry this happened.” He hopped down from the stretcher, buttoned his suit coat and bowed again.

  “I’m a mess right now. The feedback was too strong. I couldn’t handle it.”

  One of Thep’s people laboring away at the empty stretcher turned pale and yelled, “He’s got no pulse! Khun Thep, what are you doing? Get the defibrillator!” He pointed at the orange AED box near the door. I reached for the latch, but Kurokawa stopped me.

  “No AED!” His tone was commanding. “I don’t need it, Mamoru. I can communicate with you through my avatar. They’re not in AR.” He pointed to the people hovering over the stretcher. “They can’t see me or hear me. Tell them exactly what I tell you. No matter what, don’t use the defibrillator. It’ll fry my feedback chips.”

  Something was wrong. How could he control his avatar with his heart stopped?

  “I have to empty my stomach completely. Turn me on one side and keep my airway free. Ms. Thep, I need intravenous glucose. Can you do that?”

  Thep shook her head.

  “No? Digestion is inefficient … Oh well, tell your people to break a chocolate bar in quarters and put one in my mouth every fifteen minutes.”

  “What are you guys standing there for? We’re losing him. He’s got no pulse.” One of the staff grabbed my shoulder and shook it. I didn’t know how to explain what was happening.

  “Khun Nimol, he’s going to be okay,” said Thep. “Clean him up and get him into bed. No AED. And get someone in here who can use AR. Glasses are fine.”

  “But his heart—”

  “Just do it!”

  “Thank you,” said Kurokawa. “Don’t worry, I’ll be all right.” Kurokawa’s avatar glanced at his wrist, as if checking a watch.

  “Mamoru, I need both of you to get to the mutation site right away. The feedback was too strong for me, that’s all. Disable your own stage and activate your suit. All the Operation parameters are set.”

  He took a step toward me. He looked more serious than I’d ever seen him. The avatar’s forehead glistened with tiny beads of sweat.

  “The Operation is in your hands now.”

  “But shouldn’t we wait until you stabilize?”

  “There’s no time. Two days from now, TerraVu will photograph the site in daylight. We’ve got to get some kind of explanation in place before that happens.”

  “What’s so important about TerraVu?” said Thep. Kurokawa checked his wrist again.

  “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get back to my body. My brain needs oxygen. I’ll tell you about TerraVu later.”

  He gave us a sweeping bow. “I hate to ask you to carry on without me, but it’s the only way. I have to get my body under control.”

  Kurokawa’s avatar got onto the stretcher and lay back. The next instant it was gone, replaced by the real, naked Kurokawa. He lifted his head.

  “Mamoru … please …”

  “Don’t try to talk. We’ll handle it.”

  He gave us a gentle look, then turned onto his side and started vomiting again.

  * * *

  I was back under the UV with Thep.

  “Are you really going to risk it?”

  After we left Kurokawa I had checked the suit manual, hoping I could use it without activating AR. The answer was negative. The life-support system would not function without nanomachine-enabled neural feedback.

  The image of a convulsing, vomiting Kurokawa was still fresh in my mind. I couldn’t quite summon the courage to use the activation command.

  I was afraid.

  “Hayashida-san, I know your friend is desperate to get us out there, but can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

  Thep’s voice was muffled by the clean mask, but she sounded as scared as I was.

  “No, we’ve got to do what he asked. Otherwise how can I face him?” I checked my courage for the umpteenth time. Taking samples before TerraVu photographed the site in daylight was important, but was it urgent? Yet Kurokawa had begged us to go, even as he fought for his life.

  I blinked twice to deactivate my stage.

  “Hayashida-san, take care well.” I heard Thep’s unfiltered English. Her pure, singsong intonation was like a tiny silver bell.

  “Thank you, Shue.”

  I flashed back to Kurokawa vomiting again. Still, he was probably right. The tutorial said that the risk of unexpected side effects from the suit’s feedback was extremely low for the average user.

  I lifted my left hand, encased in the black
carbon fiber glove, to my face. I placed the tips of my thumb and little finger at the level of my temples and whispered “Activate.”

  A million tiny feathers swirled over my body. The sensation was so arresting that for a moment I had to close my eyes.

  Something was touching my temples. I could feel the warmth of my fingertips against my skin. I opened my eyes and saw my hand. The glove was gone. As I lowered my hand, I could feel the current of air it made against my face. The carbon-fiber armor was gone. I was wearing a crisp new rubberized jumpsuit. I could feel its sleeves touching my wrists.

  Every sensation—the touch and warmth of my fingertips, the movement of air against my skin—was artificial, mediated through the nanomachines that penetrated my skin to stimulate my nerves, yet everything was completely indistinguishable from reality.

  “Mamoru, are you all right?”

  Thep was wearing the same-style jumpsuit. Her silky black hair was tied in a pony tail. It swayed gently as she cocked her head.

  “Ah … yes,” I answered. “Yes, I think I’m okay.”

  OPERATION MOTHER MEKONG FIELD RESEARCH INITIATED 15 JUNE 10:45:22

  RECORDING ALL ACTIVITIES

  EMOTION CONTROL ACTIVATED

  The suit readout scrolled across my field of vision. Again I felt a million tiny feathers stroking my skin. I was filled with an emotion stronger than anything I had ever known.

  I had to move out now.

  “Shue, are you ready? Suit sterilized? Then let’s get to it.”

  “You’re acting strange. Are you really all right?”

  Thep’s words betrayed anxiety, but her expression was gentle. Her eyes were filled with trust. Thep was my buddy. We were part of a Mission to investigate the anomaly threatening Mother Mekong.

  We had another buddy, Kurokawa. He was injured and had to stay at the base. It was up to us to reach the site, collect samples of the intruder, SR06, and the grasshoppers, and return to base safely.

  Grasshoppers? Something far back in my mind protested. Was catching a few grasshoppers such a big deal?

  A profound sense of the Mission’s importance welled up in my chest.

  Yes. I will capture the grasshoppers.