Geosynchron

by David Louis Edelman

  Natch relents.

  Brone delivers on his promise.

  Or at least he tries. But before he has the opportunity, MultiReal D kicks in. The code that the Patels infected him with. It erases memories. Reverses actions. Don't forget that this is all still experimental, Natch, Petrucio Patel told him. There are plenty of things the program can't reverse. It can't actually move objects. It can't reprogram biollogic code.

  He has wondered what happened to Brone. Why hasn't he come after Natch? Isn't he furious with the Patels for robbing him of his prize? And now it seems that the Patels have not robbed him of anything.

  Brone already has the object of his desires.

  Natch slumps to the floor of Father Wong's Bio/Logic Emporium, feeling small and afraid. He thought he had escaped his troubles. He thought he had started anew here in 49th Heaven-but now he realizes that MultiReal is not behind him. It cannot be ignored.

  The Children Unshackled have hinted that all is not lost, that the power to alter the course of things is still within his control. You will sit in the dark and you will make this decision.

  What decision? What do they want from him?

  5

  TYRANTS AND

  REVOLUTIONARIES

  29

  Pierre Loget greeted them like distinguished ambassadors as soon as they stepped off the hoverbird. He handed Petrucio Patel a bottle of burgundy fermented from the first new crop of grapes grown in France since the Autonomous Revolt. To Merri he gave an antique music box made with a process that had perished around the same time. Expensive gifts indeed.

  "If the bodhisattva's trying to buy our support, tell him that 352 was a much better year than 349," quipped Petrucio, holding the bottle up to his eyes to read the fine print.

  "Oh, Brone knows that," replied Loget in similar good humor, clapping Patel on the back with a dainty brown hand. "What do you think he drinks?"

  Merri tried to find some wisecrack to slip into the mix, but her inventory of meaningless bon mots was depleted. She offered the Thasselian a bland programmed smile instead. Petrucio might have been able to put on a gleeful face in the middle of crisis, but that was not Merri. When she looked at the circumstances-an ongoing civil war, an increasingly fragmented population, a surfeit of new infoquakes, and now MultiReal in the hands of a madman-not to mention another crippling fever on Bonneth's part that made everything happening Terran-side seem inconsequential by comparison-the channel manager had to fight the urge to dash for the nearest boulder and crawl under it.

  Why did Magan Kai Lee pick me for this mission? she thought, for the fifth time that morning. Petrucio, I can understand. He's glib and quick on his feet. He's a leader of the biollogics industry. But why not send Jara or Benyamin with him? And does he really expect Brone to listen to us?

  As Pierre led the two of them down the crooked pathway from the hoverbird docks to the Kordez Thassel Complex, Merri decided to simply concentrate on what she was good at: the facts. Rey Gonerev had forwarded her paragraph upon paragraph of disturbing statistics about the fragility of the Data Sea networks, about the structural weaknesses that the infoquakes had exposed, about the limitations of the algorithms that processed and stored information in the central storehouses. Merri was not an engineer, so she had no way to verify the accuracy or applicability of these statistics. She only hoped that Petrucio would come to her aid if Brone decided to quibble.

  Petrucio was still trading witticisms with Loget as they walked into the Thassel Complex. With its subtly sloping corridors and notquite-parallel lines, the massive building would have dizzied Escher. The businesspeople strutting through the hallways to their meetings looked like they were habituated to the crookedness.

  At the next intersection, they passed the first of the armed figures in black robes.

  Brone had clearly thought through the design of these robes very carefully. The dark background and red trim were meant to be reminiscent of the uniforms that the Thasselians had worn at the Tul Jabbor Complex-but not so reminiscent that a casual observer would make the connection. Brone didn't want to risk the public catching on to their presence too quickly. Only someone who already knew the bodhisattva's role in those attacks would notice the resemblance. Anyone else would look and see private security guards strolling purposefully through the complex holding very big, very nasty-looking dartrifles.

  Record everything you see, Magan had told her. And so Merri made sure to look down every corridor, give a measured look at every Thasselian in black robes. She saw at least two dozen of them.

  Finally, Loget led them through a set of double doors into a large room which was either being prepared for a gathering of several dozen people or being dismantled after such a gathering. Folding chairs covered half the room, with a central aisle snaking between them, while a podium up front looked over the audience at a slightly oblique angle as if it had been pushed aside to make way for a large piece of furniture. Behind the podium was a large purple curtain that might have been suitable for Creed Elan. Standing next to the podium and casting a critical eye at the chairs was the bodhisattva of Creed Thassel. Brone.

  "Towards Perfection!" he said amiably when he saw Merri and Petrucio. "Right on time."

  Loget gave the bodhisattva a jaunty salute before exiting the room the way he came in. Brone, meanwhile, met the fiefcorpers halfway down the aisle and gave them a respectful bow. "So at last I meet the fabled Petrucio Patel, former number one on Primo's!" Petrucio returned the bow with a slick grin on his face. "And Merri, celebrated channel manager and former employee of Natch! Or should I say 'victim'?" The words were caustic, but the body language was cheerful, almost relaxed.

  Merri couldn't help but gape at the man who had earned the title of Natch's nemesis. She had never heard of him until his loan to the fiefcorp several months ago, during the run-up to the demo at Andra Pradesh. It was only after Natch's disappearance in January that Horvil had started to mutter dark words about the bodhisattva, and only in the past forty-eight hours that Merri had finally heard the entire story about the bear and the Shortest Initiation. Brone was stockier than she had imagined, and his prosthetic limb and eyeball were crafted subtly enough that they could go unnoticed in a crowd. She could see how he might once have been handsome. But now he looked at least ten years older than Natch, even though the two of them had been born only months apart.

  "Gotten an eyeful?" snapped the bodhisattva.

  Merri recoiled by instinct. "I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to . .

  "Yes, yes, I understand," said Brone, quickly slipping back into his expression of geniality, this time with a hint of extreme fatigue showing around the edges. "Forgive me, I don't mean to be so prickly. It's been a long week, and sometimes I just get tired of all ... this." He made a gesture with his good hand at the prosthetics.

  "I can imagine," said Merri awkwardly, unsure what to say.

  "No," replied the bodhisattva. "You really can't. Now, shall we sit down and get to the heart of it?"

  The channel manager gave an inquisitive look towards Petrucio Patel, but the programmer was in no mood to be supportive. Clearly Petrucio was only here as a favor to Magan Kai Lee; he had spoken barely a dozen words to Merri during the hoverbird ride over. He seemed to have an intrinsic dislike for her that she was at a loss to explain.

  Merri activated a bio/logic nerve-soothing agent. She wanted nothing more than to sit in a quiet corner and study the music box Loget had given her. Better just get on with it. "Sounds good," she told Brone. She and Petrucio took seats in the left-side group of chairs and swiveled them around to face the room's center. Brone chose one in the right and did the same.

  And then Petrucio proceeded to lay out the case that Magan and Rey Gonerev had prepared for them, without once letting on that he was reading from a script.

  It all seemed eminently reasonable to Merri. MultiReal was still a largely unknown entity that had never been run through even the most basic Dr. Plugenpatch validation. The Data Sea had shown i
ncreasing signs of wear in the past few months, since the appearance of the infoquakes. Releasing any program with such high demand opened the network up to dangerous vulnerabilities, especially when the Defense and Wellness Council was not in any shape to provide leadership in case of a crisis. Releasing a program with the scope of MultiReal was only inviting catastrophe.

  Brone listened to Petrucio's patter with patience and intense focus. He rubbed his chin and nodded several times, but did not interrupt them. "Exactly what kind of arrangement is the lieutenant executive proposing?" said the bodhisattva when Patel finally found a stopping place.

  "Magan's got an open mind about how to deal with the MultiReal problem," said Petrucio. "He really believes what Josiah Surina said: The power of the word is stronger than the power of the gun. So the lieutenant executive proposes convening a summit to discuss possible solutions to the issue, after the war is over with. You would get a seat at the table, of course, as would my brother Frederic and myself. And Jara. Really, all of the major stakeholders."

  "What about Natch?" said Brone.

  "It's an open question about whether he even wants to be involved," said Petrucio.

  "He disappeared months ago," put in Merri. "Nobody's seen him since. We have no idea what he's thinking."

  "Oh, I certainly know what that's like," replied Brone with a hint of exasperation. He planted his chin on his clenched fist and stared into space for a minute as if considering his options.

  Merri knew she was missing some vital piece of information, and that made her feel even more like an outsider in these negotiations. How had Brone actually gotten hold of MultiReal if not through Natch? She had the feeling that somehow Jayze and Suheil Surina were involved, though neither Magan nor the Blade would confirm that. No matter. Soon their little summit with Brone would be over, and she would be able to teleport back to Luna and start sorting through the bills for Bonneth's medical consultations.

  "So the lieutenant executive's proposed a number of tentative dates for the MultiReal convocation," continued Patel, looking somewhat pleased at himself for keeping the negotiations so short and to the point. "Of course, don't forget that circumstances between Magan and Borda might push that date back and forth a little bit...."

  "Perfectly understood," said Brone, snapping out of his reverie and sitting up straight in his chair. "You can tell Lieutenant Executive Lee that I appreciate the gesture of civility, but I'll have nothing to do with any convocation."

  Merri felt a horrid burrowing sensation at the base of her spine.

  "Let me ask you a question," said the bodhisattva, his face turning cold and somber. "Do either of you seriously believe any of the drivel that the Council prepared for you? Wait, no need to answer that-the answer's on the inside of your lapel." Merri had to refrain from reaching up to clench the black-and-white-swirled pin sitting there, emblem of the Creed Objectivv truthteller. "It's an old trick, one that I've seen many times before. I'm surprised that you two would fall for it. Surely you know how this goes? Keep the Objectivv truthtellers in the dark ... pack them full of lies ... and then send them off to deceive with impunity."

  The channel manager quickly threw up a PokerFace before Brone could see the flush of embarrassment creeping up her neck. She looked down and realized she was gripping the music box almost hard enough to break it. Of course ... Magan's sent us here because we're both devotees of Creed Objective, She had to admit that in the rush of the past four days-the urgent conferences with Josiah and Bali Chandler, Council troops coming and going, Quell reciting wild stories about his time in orbital prison-the thought that Magan would take advantage of her truthteller status had never occurred to her. Merri cast a sidelong glance at Petrucio; the unnatural equanimity on his face told her that he had also failed to see the possibility.

  "Oh, don't worry, I don't hold the two of you responsible," continued Brone, folding his arms across his chest, his voice moving back towards affability. "In fact, I'm quite impressed by the two of you. You've made a very convincing argument. Or at least, it would have been convincing if I didn't know who you're representing.

  "But surely you must know by now that the Council only speaks one language, and that's the language of power. This negotiation is, and never was, anything but a sham. Magan Kai Lee has no intention of sitting down and discussing the future of MultiReal, I can assure you. If he did, he wouldn't have had you repeat the same tired old facts and figures from Council-sponsored research. The same canards that Len Borda threw out when the infoquakes began. Tell me, how are we to independently verify these numbers? What about the opposing research from the Congress of L-PRACGs contradicting just about everything these numbers say?

  "The answer is plain for all to see: Magan Kai Lee wants MultiReal for the Defense and Wellness Council. He may be younger than Len Borda and have less of a history of oppression, but his intentions are no different. The two of you will see that in the end, I'm sure.

  "You tell Magan Kai Lee that the bodhisattva of Creed Thassel does not negotiate with tyrants. MultiReal will be released to the people on the Data Sea, in its entirety, as soon as it's ready."

  Stunned silence seeped through the room. Merri really had not been prepared for Brone to give such a frank rejection to Magan's request. Rey Gonerev had led her to believe that this visit was something of a formality, that the bodhisattva would not be so foolish as to turn up his nose to both Len Borda and Magan Kai Lee.

  "You realize," said Merri, not sure where she summoned the courage, "that you won't get an opportunity to parley with Len Borda. The first you'll hear from him is the black code dart that hits you in the back of the neck."

  Brone gave her a feral grin. "Good! That's the thing I like about Len Borda-at least he's honest. Just so you know, I'll be rooting for the high executive to crush Magan's insignificant little rebellion. That will make the decision to release MultiReal to the world that much easier."

  Jara listened to Petrucio's report with a sense of impending gloom. Dealing with Len Borda was challenge enough, but to have a madman holding MultiReal over their heads at the same time?

  Neither Magan Kai Lee nor Rey Gonerev took the news of Brone's rejection particularly hard. Magan merely nodded, his face plastered over with exhaustion, as if he had either expected such a reaction from the bodhisattva or was not paying attention. As for the Blade, Jara could plainly see that Brone's stance did not come as a surprise to her. Anticipated or not, the report from Petrucio was enough to send the two Council members back to the barracks on the other end of Manila for private dialogue.

  Merri, for her part, was furious. Furious at Magan and Gonerev for crassly using her truthtelling oath as a political tool; furious at Petrucio for sourly dismissing Magan's ploy as just another cost of trying to put Absolute Truth in a sullied world; but most of all, furious at herself for being so gullible.

  Her anger was quickly put into perspective by Quell. The Islander had been standing close by with Josiah and Bali Chandler, discreetly listening to Merri's conversation with Jara. He walked up without an invitation and gave the two of them a polite bow to apologize for the intrusion. "You're not the only one who's had to make ethical compromises in the past few months," said Quell to the channel manager, his manner firm but not unkind.

  "I suppose that's true," Merri admitted, her face reddening.

  "If the worst ethical compromise that comes out of all this is that a truthteller has to make a few fibs, count yourself very, very lucky." The Islander made another bow and retreated to the opposite corner of the room with Josiah and Chandler.

  Merri excused herself to contemplate what Quell had said in the privacy of the hallway, leaving Jara alone in the center of the room. It was the same bemuraled room where she and the other fiefcorpers had talked Josiah into writing his manifesto a scant few days ago. Since the moment that the young Islander had tapped a button on his viewscreen and sent the missive hurtling onto the Data Sea, the world had taken on a surreal quality. Jara felt like she wa
s watching events happen in compressed fashion, as if time had suddenly shifted into fast-forward.

  Magan Kai Lee had assembled a vast armed force in Manila's warehouse district; the entire city seemed to exist now in the shadow of the white hoverbirds and other more esoteric machines of war, conducting exercises on the bay. General Cheronna's unconnectible army remained within spitting distance of the Council, causing all manner of tension between the camps. Still, the idea of Grand Reunification maintained high approvals across the board.

  In connectible lands, the Prime Committee was remaining steadfast in its neutrality between the two factions of the Council. But the Congress of L-PRACGs had made a dramatic shift by announcing that Magan Kai Lee had "legitimate grievances with the Borda administration that must be resolved"; given that Lee and the Congress had only recently opposed one another in the hearing at the Tul Jabbor Complex, this was big news indeed. And in the midst of all this, Sen Sivv Sor dropped the bombshell revelation that Council investigators had concluded that Margaret Surina's death several months ago had been the result of suicide by black code. Numbers from Zeitgeist 29a concluded that sixty-three percent of the population believed a government cover-up was in effect.

  Meanwhile, as the spectacle swelled through the world outside the unconnectible curtain, Jara watched a number of much more personal dramas in this very room. Magan Kai Lee had summoned virtually all of the players to the MultiReal drama here to Manila for a summit in twenty-four hours. Since Jara had nothing else to do, she decided to hang around this central chamber to bask in the glow of colliding human emotion. In one corner of the room, Quell and Josiah Surina were conducting a mostly unspoken conversation full of pride, recrimination, love, and acrimony, sometimes all at once. In another corner, Petrucio and Frederic Patel glowered at each other and occasionally fired off tense words that Jara couldn't quite make out at this distance. Speaker of the Congress of L-PRACGs Khann Frejohr was holding a raucous (and possibly drunken) conversation with Islander Representative Bali Chandler, as befit two grizzled lions of their respective governments. As for Benyamin and Robby Robby, the two had struck up an intense conversation with General Cheronna, of all people. What Robby had to say to a dour military man like Cheronna, Jara could not fathom, but he appeared to be doing most of the talking.