“And she’s from the future,” Jeffrey said.
“She’s not from the future,” Oliver said.
“But the robots are.”
“Cyborgs,” Oliver corrected him. “And they’re not from the future, either.”
Artemis shook her head. “I may have to reconsider what I said before. That was almost entirely wrong.”
“Oh,” Oliver said.
“Are you from the future?” Jeffrey asked Artemis.
“No. Sally is not, in fact, an alien. She is a human, and she is from Earth. However, she is not from this Earth. You are familiar with the concept of parallel dimensions?”
Oliver thought it over. “Only in the sense that I’ve seen them on Star Trek.”
“He watches a lot of Star Trek,” Jeffrey said.
“No, I don’t.”
“You want to be best friends with Captain Picard,” the cat said.
“I never said that! I said if I had to choose a captain…”
“Enough,” Artemis cut him off. She looked at him sternly. “I seem to recall giving you a rather large stack of files to read, Mr. Jones. At the time I said you might need the information contained within in the future.”
“Yeah.”
“It would appear that you have neglected that duty, preferring instead to spend your time watching television.”
“I haven’t read all of them,” Oliver said, realizing he sounded like he was making excuses for not doing his homework. “There were a lot of them, and we’ve been busy.”
“Plus he has to watch Star Trek,” Jeffrey said.
Artemis rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. “Very well. Rather than have you take any further guesses, I will inform you that Sally led a commando team into our world a little more than two years ago.”
Oliver nearly gasped. “They were attacking us?”
“No. They had discovered a certain artifact on their Earth and were attempting to discern what it did. In fact, it was a gateway between worlds.”
“The mirror Tyler mentioned before?”
“Indeed. At least you were paying attention to that much. There were two mirrors. One on their Earth, and the other on ours. Fortunately, the mirror in our world was locked away in Vault 3, so their arrival here went unnoticed to most people. We, of course, noticed immediately.”
“I would think so.” This was beginning to remind Oliver very much of a plot device he had seen on Star Trek. He decided not to mention that to anyone.
“When we made contact with them, Sally asked if we could render them assistance. They had been engaged in a war with the cyborgs for some time, and things were going badly for them.”
“Were the cyborgs from the future?” Jeffrey asked.
“No,” Artemis said. “They were largely from Milwaukee.”
Oliver wasn’t sure he had heard that correctly. “They were from Milwaukee?”
“Indeed.”
“I’m definitely going to start reading those files soon,” Oliver said. “Maybe I’ll take some home.”
“You would be wise to educate yourself, but I will give you the quick version. The outbreak, which is how they referred to the cyborg problem, grew out of plague research.”
“The plague?”
“In their world, the plague killed more people than cancer. It was a rather unpleasant business.”
“They should have gotten some cats in there,” Jeffrey noted. Oliver stared at him blankly. “To kill the rats,” the cat explained. “Rats are bad news.”
“It was not carried by rats,” Artemis said, “but that is hardly relevant to our discussion. Traditional medical science having failed them for hundreds of years, they eventually developed an alternative cure. It lay in nanotechnology.”
“This I know,” Oliver said, perking up. “Tiny little robots, right?”
“Quite so. Small enough that thousands could be injected into a human bloodstream, where they could seek out and destroy plague cells. While I am not a physician, I understood enough of their science to see that it was quite brilliant.”
“I would think so,” Oliver said. “I’ve read that we’re doing research on that kind of thing here, but it’s a long way off.” He thought it over. “You could cure cancer, heart disease…I mean, if you designed the nanobots right, you could probably have them performing surgery on a cellular level. So what went wrong?”
“Everything,” Artemis said. “The nanobots were controlled by an artificial intelligence so that in addition to seeking out plague cells, they could anticipate future mutations and adapt without the need for human intervention. While it had a limited scope, the A.I. was, in a sense, taking the place of a doctor.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, it was the A.I. that evolved, rather than the plague cells. It determined that in order to protect itself and its hosts, it needed the power to control the hosts.”
“Like if your doctor followed you around telling you what you could eat?” Oliver asked.
“Rather more invasive. The A.I. wrote itself a new program they called Overlord, which it used to take over the host’s higher brain functions. And then it determined that in order for the hosts to prosper, it needed to control more of them. To use your analogy, it was like your doctor saying that because cheeseburgers are unhealthy, nobody should be able to eat them at all.”
“Okay,” Oliver said. “I’m not sure that was the best analogy anymore.”
“It was your analogy,” Artemis said. “In any case, those who carried the nanobots, now under the control of Overlord, converted others by injecting them with more nanobots, which replicated themselves and continued the process. There were one hundred test subjects in the group that received the plague cure. Almost overnight, there were a thousand cyborgs. And from there, you can imagine what happened.”
“But,” Oliver said, “it would have taken years for an A.I. to evolve like that. How did they not see it coming?”
“Because it did not take years. It took just under one second.”
“One second?”
“That is a very long time for an A.I., as I understand it. Regardless of whether it was one second or two, this led to armed conflict between what were now called the cyborgs and everyone else. The American Federation was in a full scale war against the cyborgs within a day.”
“But war doesn’t make sense,” Oliver said. “Didn’t the cyborgs want to convert people, not kill them?”
“Certainly. They anticipated humanity would surrender, eventually. Killing was only a means to that end, a matter of simple calculation. Humans are easily replaceable, after all. You people breed like…well, humans.”
“Gross,” Jeffrey said.
“Eventually, a cure was developed. A code transmission. A patch, as Seven would say. It left the nanobots functional but disabled the Overlord program. The cyborgs were no longer under its control. War became peace in the time it took the patch to wrap its way around the globe. A few minutes, in other words.”
“Why leave the nanobots functional at all?” Oliver asked. “It seems like they were nothing but trouble.”
“By that time they had become so deeply integrated into their host bodies that shutting them down entirely would have killed the hosts, as well. I believe you saw the cyborg’s armor. It was not worn by the cyborgs; it was grown. Their internal organs were converted as well, which made them very hard to kill. The nanobots were capable of repairing anything other than massive damage.”
“Why doesn’t this story have a happy ending?” Jeffrey asked. “It seems like there should have been hugs and kittens for everyone, at that point. Everyone likes hugs and kittens.”
Artemis nodded. “Indeed. However, the scientist who developed the cure was killed in a cyborg attack at her research facility shortly after she transmitted it to Federation Command for analysis and deployment.”
Oliver had a suspicion he knew where this was going. “It was someone close to Sally?”
“Her younger sister. Linnea Rain.”
Artemis smiled wistfully. “I liked her very much. She had a brilliant mind, but it was more than that. She was filled with such…hope. It was quite remarkable given what she had been through. She was a wonder.”
“But Sally couldn’t have just gone around shooting everyone,” Oliver said. “Well, she’d probably try, but eventually someone would stop her.”
“You are quite correct, Mr. Jones. During her research, Linnea also developed a virus that could disable the nanobots entirely. She only intended it to be used if everything else failed, but Sally found the code when she went through her sister’s effects.” Artemis took a sip of her tea. “In her grief and rage, Sally used her position at Federation Command to access the equipment she needed to transmit the virus. I begged her not to release it, but…I failed. The cyborgs were dead an hour later. All but one, it would appear.”
Oliver took a moment to let that sink in. “My god,” he said. “She really did kill them all.”
“I always thought that was a figure of speech,” Jeffrey said. “Like when someone says he’s going to bring home a really big fish for dinner, but when he gets home the fish is just an average fish.” He looked at Oliver pointedly.
“It was not just talk,” Artemis said. “Afterward she was facing trial and almost certainly execution, especially given that she made no effort at all to hide what she had done. ‘They had it coming’ is not much of a defense, I’m afraid. I convinced Federation Command to let me bring her here, instead, with the caveat I guarantee she would never return. A life in exile would be better than death, I thought. In any case, that did not matter. When we arrived here, Sally smashed our mirror to pieces. She could not go home even if she wanted to.”
Oliver nodded. He had no idea how he was supposed to react to all of this. “I guess I misjudged her,” he said.
“How so?”
“She is a monster.”
“No,” Artemis said. “She is not. She made a mistake.”
“I can’t believe you’re defending her,” Oliver said. “It’s…it’s actually genocide, for god’s sake. You call that a mistake?”
“I did not say the act itself was not monstrous. I would be careful who you call a monster, Mr. Jones. Should we ask the Kalatari what they think of you?”
“You did kill all those lizard people,” Jeffrey nodded. “I was there. I saw it. You put the whammy on them.”
“But I had no idea what I was doing!” Oliver protested. “And it’s not like they were really people, anyway.”
“They would have disagreed,” Artemis said. “As do I. That was a rather callous statement, Mr. Jones.”
Oliver already regretted having said it. He’d very nearly liked one of the Kalatari, even though he’d seen the man eat a human liver right in front of him. “Well, they were trying to kill me at the time.”
“And if they had just murdered someone you loved, would you have been merciful to them?”
“But…” Oliver stammered. “The cyborgs had been cured. They were people again.”
“True. I suppose it is a small mercy that they did not have very long to enjoy their restored humanity before she wiped them out.”
Oliver could barely believe what he was hearing. Artemis could be cold at times; he assumed that was something that went along with her extended life span. He had never seen her just write off human life so easily, though.
“In any case,” Artemis continued, “Sally serves me as a form of penance, if you will. Call it a work-release program. She is well aware she can never make up for what she did, but I will see that she spends the rest of her life trying. I can be satisfied with that.”
“I’m not sure I can,” Oliver said.
Artemis poured herself another cup of tea. “If you cannot, you are free to resign your position.”
“What? Just like that?”
“It is simple math, Mr. Jones. She is worth more to me than you are. Even if she were not, I accepted responsibility for her when I brought her here. I cannot abandon that because it is inconvenient for you.”
Oliver opened his mouth and then shut it again, not sure what to say next. “Would you really let me go?” he asked. “I remember when you offered me this job, you were ready to drug me and lock me up somewhere if I hadn’t taken it.”
“I was,” Artemis admitted. “I was concerned your ability to alter reality made you too dangerous to leave you unsupervised. However, you have proven unable to do much of anything with your power since your encounter with the Kalatari. I like you well enough, Mr. Jones, and I believe you are an asset to my team, but I will not stop you if you wish to leave us. If you have any sense at all, however, you will at least take a few days to consider the matter most carefully.”
Oliver wanted to pretend there was something to deliberate, but he knew there really wasn’t. He had lived a very mundane life before he’d met Artemis and the others. Since then things had been anything but mundane. It was as if he’d spent his entire life watching a black-and-white television and one day suddenly switched to color. Things weren’t always perfect in his new life, but he wasn’t about to go back to a black-and-white one. “I’m fine,” he said. “I was just shocked, I guess.”
Artemis nodded. “That is fair. It was shocking news.” She gave him a reproachful look. “It would have been much less shocking if you had read the files I provided you with earlier.”
Jeffrey had been silent for a while. “You said it was a mirror?” he asked. Artemis nodded. “Does this mean there are different versions of us in Sally’s world? Like, me and Oliver are there but we have little beards and we’re evil?”
Oliver suppressed a groan. “No,” Artemis said. “While there are many similarities between that world and ours, there are not copies of you there, much less evil copies. You are unique, little cat.”
“Well, that’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure in case an evil me showed up and started causing trouble.”
“I assure you that will not happen.” Artemis sighed. “It occurs to me that I may have spoken too harshly to Sally earlier. To tell you the truth, Mr. Jones, I have not yet forgiven her for what she did. Perhaps I will someday. Perhaps not. I will caution you, though. If you cannot find it within yourself to be kind to her in the next few days, I do not want you near her at all. You may take sick leave with my blessing.”
“We get sick leave?” Jeffrey asked.
“You do not technically work here,” Artemis pointed out.
“Oh, yeah,” Jeffrey said. “I’m more of a consultant.”
“I don’t…” Oliver started. “Never mind. I don’t need sick leave. I doubt the subject is going to come up again.”
“I am not sure,” Artemis said. “Her reaction tonight was not what I expected.”
“How so?”
“It was grief, Mr. Jones. She is…mourning.”
“I think she’s always mourning,” Jeffrey pointed out. “She doesn’t smile much.”
“That is true, but I believe she is mourning her victims. I cannot recall seeing her do that before.”
Oliver nodded. Sally usually bragged about having killed the cyborgs, but Oliver had never taken it very seriously. Of course, until tonight, he hadn’t understood what that really meant. “So that’s a good thing, right?”
“Perhaps so. However, Sally tends to be given to extremes. Given her course of action the last time she felt grief, I do not yet feel we should be celebrating.”
But that had been a different case, Oliver thought. After her sister’s death, Sally had gone after those she felt were responsible for it. But even if she was mourning the cyborgs, she was the one responsible for killing them. She could hardy take revenge on herself. And given that she could neither return home nor return the cyborgs to life, there wasn’t much else left for her to do.
Oliver wondered why he wasn’t more reassured by that thought.
Chapter 6
Oliver was back in the office at 9:15 the next morning. The first thing he noticed was th
e flowers. More than a dozen different arrangements littered Bruce’s desk at reception. It looked like a florist’s truck had crashed in their lobby. “What the hell?” he asked.
“We’re popular this morning,” Bruce shrugged. “I think it’s about your trip to Romania.” Artemis had recruited Bruce for the reception position from off of the street. Literally off of the street; Bruce had been panhandling for change at the corner of California and Drumm when she had found him. He was paid to be polite to visitors, intimidating on the rare occasions it was necessary, and for the fact he didn’t mind sitting behind a desk full of weapons he wasn’t afraid to use. He didn’t speak much about his past, but Artemis had told Oliver once that the fact that Bruce had nothing left to lose made him ideal for the job. Oliver had no doubt Bruce would defend the office to the death, if necessary. He wasn’t sure how much Bruce knew about their operations, but doubted he’d have been surprised if he’d been called into service to drag the dead cyborg into Seven’s lab.
“Great,” Oliver said. “It smells like…well, it actually smells pretty good in here.” Oliver had wondered aloud before whether having a public office was such a great idea. He had imagined his team operating out of an abandoned factory, or a space station, or possibly the Batcave. When he’d found his new office was only a few blocks away from the hedge fund where he’d worked before, it had been a little bit difficult to hide his disappointment.
“Artemis wanted to see you first thing,” Bruce said.
“Is she mad?”
“She’s Artemis.”
Oliver nodded. “Fair point.” He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Artemis mad. Nor did he really want to. He started down the hallway.
Artemis was waiting behind her desk with a pot of tea when he arrived. She always seemed to have tea ready. Seven was already there, seated in another chair. “Come in,” Artemis said. “The tea is hot. You should have some.”
Interesting Places (Interesting Times #2) Page 4