Fin

by Larry Enright

  “You are not a bad person and I do not blame you for the way you feel,” said Fin. “But nothing is insurmountable where there is love.”

  “Did you read that in that stupid book of yours?”

  Fin admitted that he had.

  Nova sighed. “God help us.”

  “I didn’t think you believed in God.”

  “It’s just an expression,” she said, frustrated. “Look, I really wish things had been different for us, but they’re not.” She put her coffee down and told the Homecom to turn off the vids and lower the temperature. “I spoke with Ben this morning. They’re taking me off the mole investigation.”

  “What? Who is replacing you?”

  “That’s not my problem. All I know is they’re not firing me. They’re reassigning me to public relations. It’s a downgrade, but I get to keep the apartment and the perks.”

  Fin looked down at his flashing Commlink. “Strange, it says I have no signal.”

  “It’s been decommissioned. They’ll be downgrading my access later today. The secure terminal is already offline. I’m sorry, Fin. It’s over.”

  “We cannot give up now. We are too close.”

  “I just knew you would say that. There is no we, Fin. We’re done."

  “I will never give up, Nova.”

  “You have to. You’ve got nothing. The data is gone. Don’t you understand? The schematics. Everything. They wiped your computer remotely. All your work is gone.”

  He handed her the dead Commlink. “I should go.”

  “What do you mean go?”

  “Move out. I cannot stay here any longer.”

  “Why not?”

  “I am a danger to you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Besides, where would you go?”

  “I do not know. Somewhere. Anywhere. Does it matter?”

  “What about Book? He’s still gunning for you, you know.”

  “I don’t care about that, Nova.”

  “What do you care about?”

  “You.”

  Fin went into his bedroom to pack the few things he owned. Nova was ending a call on her Commlink when he came back into the common room to say good-bye.

  “That was Dr. Shepherd,” she said. “He’s sending Esse over to take us to the Ark. He wants us to stay with him for a while.”

  “You called him?”

  “I didn't know what else to do."

  Fin shifted the uncomfortable duffle bag to his other shoulder. “What about your job?”

  “He said he’d clear it with Commander Roberts, an extended leave of absence or something.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “He’s worried about us, Fin. He’s worried about you. I am, too.”

  “What about the mission?”

  “Forget the mission. It’s over.”

  “I will never give up."

  “You know what they’ll do to you if they catch you. What do you think they’ll do to Dr. Shepherd if they find out he knows about it and didn’t report it?”

  “I do not know.”

  “He wants you to stop, Fin.”

  “He said that?”

  “Yes, he did. Look, we did our best. It’s time to call it quits.”

  Fin held her gaze. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

  “Like what?”

  “The truth.”

  “You think I’m lying to you?”

  “I overheard your conversation last night, Nova. You were telling someone that you could no longer lie to me. That it was cruel.”

  “First of all, didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to eavesdrop? And second, what makes you think I was talking about you? What reason could I possibly have to lie to you?”

  Fin said he didn’t know, and apologized.

  “No problem,” Nova said. “Just don’t do it again, OK?” She massaged her cheek. When she noticed him staring, she said, “What? It’s nothing. It’s just a little sore.” He continued to stare, and that made her mad. “I said forget it, OK? Just forget it. Forget everything.”

  She could have struck him with a hammer and it would have made less of an impression. “Forget,” he whispered, turning away. “How soon until Esse arrives?”

  “I don’t know, a few hours maybe. Why?”

  “May I borrow your Commlink for a minute? I need to check something.”

  “Is this going to get me in trouble?”

  “No.”

  “Fine. Knock yourself out.” She tossed it to him and went into the kitchen to get more coffee.

  When Fin had finished, he set it on the counter. “I am going out for a while,” he said.

  “Where?”

  “For a walk.”

  “Let me grab my poncho. I’ll go with you.”

  “I prefer to be alone.”

  “You are planning on coming back, aren’t you?”

  Fin dropped his bag on the floor. “Proof enough?”

  “Just don’t be too long and don’t do anything crazy, OK?”

  Fin left the apartment, pulled his hood over his head, and headed out into the rainy Cytown morning. Stopping in an alley in the next block, he took off his shoes and gave them to a Gray who was rummaging around in a trashcan. Barefoot and soaking wet, he kept to the shadows and made his way to the Northend Station where he slipped unnoticed into a crowded train car and found a seat beside a dozing Yellow. The train left the station. When it passed through the shield, the cabin lights flickered. Fin’s neck tingled as the shield circuitry scanned his tattoo for a match. There was flash of light in the next car, startling everyone.

  “There goes another one,” a Gray muttered, slouching back in his seat.

  A frightened Yellow whispered to her seatmate, “Is it true what they say that Book is having five of us banned every day until that Blue is turned over to him?”

  Fin pulled his hood tighter about his face.

  Another said, “I heard it was ten, and you never know who’s going to be next.”

  Whispers spread through the car. Fin slid his hands into his pockets and stared out the window.

  “Five, ten, what does it matter? We can’t live like this. The Man should do something. It’s not right.”

  “Since when did the Man care about us?”

  “But how can he let Book do this to us? We have rights, you know.”

  “He owns the cops. There’s your rights.”

  “Isn’t there anything we can do about it?”

  “Book’s got money to buy anything he wants. We’ve got nothing to buy nothing. You figure it out.”

  “Isn’t it enough that he’s doubled the price of Creep?”

  “It’s never enough. He’ll squeeze us dry till he gets what he wants.”

  “Then I say we give it to him, dead or alive. Either way suits me just fine.”

  When the train pulled into the next stop, Fin got off. He came up to street level and breathed deeply of the city’s antiseptic air. Like an analgesic, it relieved the debilitating symptoms but not the underlying disease that was slowly consuming the souls of every man, woman, and child in Periculum. He looked up at the sky so clear and bright, so false as everything else in that place. The humans buzzed about on the upper walkways like a colony of insects with a single-minded purpose—the preservation of their queen and its magnificent hive. All else meant nothing: the horrors of war, the world they had created, and the Cybernites they tortured and discarded without a second thought.

  He quickened his step. He wanted to run, but running was illegal and punishable by immediate recycling for one with no credit balance such as himself. So Council had decreed. Several blocks along, he noticed a well-dressed Green on the corner speaking into a Commlink. Their eyes met. Fin knew that look of recognition. He crossed to the other side of the street and picked up his pace, drawing his hood tighter about his face. The Green followed, still on his Commlink. In a few more blocks, two tattoo-covered Whites came running up the stairs from an underground co
ncourse and crossed against the light.

  A Lawspeaker flashed amber. Obey all traffic signals. Fines will be assessed, repeat offenders and those with a negative credit balance will be recycled. So Council has decreed.

  Halfway across the street, the two thugs vanished in a flash of light, stopping traffic for the cleaning bots. In the next block, two Grays surfaced on the lower sidewalk and joined in a walking pursuit, shoving other Cys out of the way as they closed in on Fin. The commotion was upsetting the city’s structured tranquility and beginning to attract the attention of human onlookers on the upper walkways. No one did anything to stop Fin or his pursuers, but it was clear when they pulled out their Commlinks that they were calling the authorities to report a gang of dangerous Cys in the Techno Sector.

  When Fin reached the gates of the Polyclonic Technologies campus, the Grays gave up the chase. He got into one of the security lines ahead of a tour group. When his turn at the checkpoint came, the guards scanned his tattoo and told him that his clearance had expired. He suggested they check the temporary authorization list for last minute additions, telling them that Dr. Shepherd himself had requested his presence and that Agent Nova of the SIA had signed off on it. They found the authorization at the end of their daily log, the entry Fin had keyed in from Nova’s Commlink along with his shield clearance. They scanned him, patted him down, and admitted him to the building. Fin joined a tour group and followed them into the atrium where a Cybernite guide greeted them and began their tour by calling everyone’s attention to the lobby’s magnificent bomb-hardened polyglass cathedral ceiling. They were absolutely safe the guide assured them. The city was impenetrable and thanks to the Ancient One’s invention of the Cybernites, Periculum would endure forever. Fin separated from the group and crossed the lobby. Valen was watching him with interest, her green skin shimmering in the changing light.

  “Fin?” she said. “I never expected to see you again. You’re soaking wet.”

  “God be with you, Valen,” he bowed.

  “And with us all. It’s another beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  He traced her gaze to the glass ceiling and the ever-blue sky beyond. “The days are always so beautiful in the city,” he agreed.

  “Yes, and we have the Ancient One to thank for that. After all, without him there would have been no workforce to construct the shield and no one to maintain it.” She noticed his bare feet. “Where are your shoes? And why are you wet? You aren’t homeless are you? You know the law requires us to report all homeless Cybernites within city limits, and that would make me sad.”

  “I would never ruin your perfect day, Valen. The truth is I live in a very nice apartment in Cytown, got caught in a storm, and gave my shoes to someone who needed them more than I.”

  “Always the charitable one. May I get you a towel?”

  “No, thank you."

  “Why are you here, Fin?”

  “I have been summoned. My clearance should be on your temporary authorization list.”

  She glanced down at her Commlink. “So it is. It says you’re here to see Dr. Shepherd, but he isn’t scheduled to come in today. That’s odd.”

  “He wanted me to see Francis actually.”

  She checked her Commlink again. “Francis is just finishing up a diagnostic and has another scheduled in an hour. He has a free time slot, but I don’t see your name in it.”

  “It probably has not updated yet. It was all very last minute,” said Fin. “I don’t want to be late. I should go.”

  “Will you join me for lunch in the cafeteria afterward? The chef has set the food generator to serve his special blend of Reconstitute today. It’s my absolute favorite.”

  Fin thought of Mama. “I am sorry. I cannot.”

  “Perhaps another time then?”

  “That would be wonderful." The lie rolled off his tongue as easily as the truth ever had.

  Fin took the elevator to the lab floor. When he got there, Francis was just completing the diagnostics on a Gray.

  When he saw Fin, he dismissed the test subject and waved him in. “Hey, Fin,” he said. “How’s it going? And what’s with the all-wet no-shoe look? Is that a Cy thing now?”

  “Are you busy?” Fin asked.

  “Always. They moved up the release date on some neural enhancements to the Drabs. Apparently there are some abnormal behavioral issues in the Series-100 models. They’ve got me working twelve-hour shifts, psych-testing and retesting everything. Old Doc Shepherd wants every I dotted and every T crossed. What can I do for you? I’m kind of pressed for time. I’m supposed to be prepping for my next test.”

  “I need your help.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “I want you to make me forget.”

  “Forget what?”

  “Something.”

  “What do you mean something? What something?”

  Fin thought of Nova, of that one night when everything wrong with the world had seemed so right. “I want to forget that I am in love.”

  “Really? With who?”

  “Nova.”

  “The Violet? But she’s so hot,” Francis said. “For a Cy, I mean.”

  “She does not love me.”

  “Oh, and she blew you off, did she?”

  Fin nodded. “She said she cannot love me.”

  “You don’t need my help for that, Fin. Listen, I know this place just over the shield line where the Slimers are out of this world. One night with a couple of them . . . plenty of drugs and booze . . . Trust me. You won’t even remember her name.”

  “I want you to download my override code and order me to forget how I feel about her.”

  “You know it’s illegal to use a kill code without a warrant, right?”

  “Will you help me or not?”

  “I just told you it’s illegal. That means I’d go to jail and you’d be recycled.”

  “Only if we are caught.”

  “Which is exactly what would happen once they checked the download logs against the warrants list, which Compliance does every day.”

  “There are no outstanding warrants for any of your Cybernite test subjects. I checked the network before coming here.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “The Cybernites you experiment on have no pain receptors.”

  “Yeah? And?”

  “You keep them awake and aware so they can comment on what is being done to them.”

  “It provides valuable information to the docs. So what?”

  “It is also inhuman.”

  “It’s science, Fin.”

  “Would you still consider it science if you were the one who had to watch yourself being tortured and maimed in its name?”

  “I’m not a Cy. I’m also not following you. What are you getting at?”

  “I just find it curious that none of your subjects show any signs of residual psychological trauma after being repeatedly forced to witness the horrible procedures you inflict upon them.”

  “We have our ways of fixing that.”

  “So you said before. I believe what you meant was that you use their override codes to instruct them to forget the entire incident so there can be no psychological aftereffects. It is the only possible explanation.”

  “See above, Fin. It’s illegal. We don’t do that here.”

  “I can smell your nervous sweat, Francis. I can hear your teeth clenching. I am trained to recognize the truth and when someone is not telling it. Polyclonic is somehow able to download override codes without the authorities being aware. I am asking you to do that for me.”

  “I can’t help you, bud.”

  “Are you afraid of losing your job?”

  “Do you think?”

  “I will tell no one. I promise.”

  “Famous last words.”

  “You misunderstand me. You can make me forget I was ever here. You can make me forget everything I know about this place and what you are doing. You can make it so there will be nothin
g for me to tell.” Fin grabbed Francis by the collar. Initiating physical contact with a human was a crime punishable by immediate recycling. So Council had decreed. “You have to help me.”

  “Or what?”

  Fin released him. “Or I will have to live with this pain for the rest of my days.”

  Francis shook his head. “You know, you’re really something. I thought the ‘or else’ was going to be a little more dramatic like you diming us out to the SIA or pulling a Pulser from your hoodie and disappearing me.”

  “Friends do not disappear each other.”

  Francis considered this for a minute, then said, “You know if I use your kill code I could pretty much make you do whatever I want, from admitting to the cops that you forced me into this, to making you dance naked in the atrium, both of which would get you instantly recycled, right?”

  “I trust you, Francis.”

  Francis keyed several commands into his Commlink. “We don’t use the official database of kill codes. We keep our own copy. That’s how we get away with it, not that they care what we do to you Cys here but if any of those rights advocates ever found out about it there’d be hell to pay. I’m only telling you this because I’m going to make you forget all about it when we’re done. OK?”

  “I understand.”

  The Commlink response came back. “That’s funny. It says access denied.”