Eden Chip

by Scott Cramer

  “I give you high marks for creativity but a low score for intelligence,” Caleb scoffed. “You expect me to swallow such nonsense?”

  “Let's plot the equation.” Ashminov keyed in the variables and used the messenger’s laser magnifier to project the result on the wall. A pink, fleshy line ran at an angle of approximately 45 degrees.

  Caleb looked at the line uneasily as he noticed for the first time the pleasurable reaction he had to that shape. No, it can't be!

  “Look, it matches Raissa's scar exactly,” Ashminov said with a satisfied grin. “Petrov has plans for you two.”

  * * *

  A thousand questions battled for dominance in Raissa’s brain. Caleb, she realized with dread, was not some random NanoArtisans employee whom she had used to deliver devourware inside the firewall. For how long has Petrov orchestrated our lives?

  “What is going on?” Caleb asked weakly.

  “Caleb, I’m sorry.” Zoe said in a cracking voice.

  His face creased in confusion. “Sorry for what?”

  “I bought the tickets so you’d sit beside Raissa.”

  “No, Jack bought them!”

  Zoe took her brother’s hand. “I lied,” she said.

  Caleb took fast deep breaths. “Nobody with a chip can lie. Zoe, you’ll think more clearly after you get a chip refresh.”

  Watching Caleb edge closer to the truth, Raissa wanted to block her eyes and ears. To betray your own brother was cruel; to discover the betrayal by a loved one, crueler still.

  “Help Raissa and Ashminov,” Zoe said.

  “Help them do what?” Caleb blurted out.

  The door crashed open, and a lean, muscular man stepped in. He wore overalls—the typical dress for an environmental paladin. “Zoe, what the hell is going on?”

  Raissa whipped her joule around, but Zoe leaped between them and cried, “Don’t shoot. It’s my husband. Caleb, tell her.”

  * * *

  “Shoot him,” Caleb shouted to himself, blind with rage.

  Clenching his jaw shut to keep the contents of his stomach from rising up his throat and spewing out of his mouth, he jumped to his feet. Jack sickened him; that Zoe wanted to protect her husband sickened him more.

  Jack put a protective hand on Zoe’s shoulder, pulled her close, and looked around, his eyes lingering on Raissa’s joule. “Zoe, who are these people?”

  “Are you a rebel?” Caleb asked.

  “Rebel?” Jack stammered. “Am I dreaming?”

  Blood throbbed in Caleb's head. “Jack, did you poison . . .?” his voice trailed to a low rasp.

  “Jack didn’t poison Julian,” Zoe said.

  Shards of ice punctured Caleb’s heart. Zoe had completed his sentence.

  Jack frowned. “Nobody poisoned our son. He died during the injection procedure. It was a freak accident. Ask your brother.”

  Zoe bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

  Jack glanced at Caleb with a look of concern bordering on fear. Then he smiled at Zoe. “There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I killed our son.”

  He caressed her cheek. “Honey, this is my fault. I should have insisted that we go to the genetarium. Even with chips in our brains, it’s possible to mourn the loss of a child. I underestimated how you felt. Caleb and I can take you to the hospital for a chip refresh. Afterward, we’ll go straight to the genetarium.”

  Caleb pressed his knuckles against his lips. Jack knows nothing about the trip that Zoe and I made to the genetarium. So, whose DNA was already in the profile?” He saw Raissa had lowered her joule, with Ashminov standing beside her. The M-code rebel suddenly looked strangely familiar.

  “Caleb, do you remember the night Mom and Dad got killed?”

  He spun around to face his sister, remembering the moment as if it had happened yesterday.

  “They believed in God,” she continued. “They were rebels who could not live with Version 3. Security forces executed them.”

  Caleb's knees buckled. Zoe spoke of God without crumpling in pain. “Our parents were musicians,” he cried. “Innocent bystanders. They got caught in rebel crossfire.”

  Zoe shook her head. “Security assassinated them with sonic bullets. I received a call from the solartarium. They wanted me to pick up their carbon tabs.”

  Jack gripped Zoe’s hand. “I’m calling an ambulance. You aren't well. We can fix this.”

  Jack’s words sounded distant. “I wanted to go with you after you got the call,” Caleb said.

  “I didn't want to leave you, but they told me to come alone. When I got there, I met a paladin. You know him: Gabriel Mars. He took me to the Citadel where I met Petrov.”

  Caleb’s stomach dropped to his knees. “You…met Dr. Petrov?”

  Zoe kept her eyes locked on him. “Petrov told me you were special, Caleb. He told me that someday you’d work at NanoArtisans and he would arrange for you to meet someone equally special.”

  Caleb glanced at Raissa, who looked down.

  Zoe dragged a sleeve across her face. “Petrov knew that you dreamed of becoming a soloist, but he said he’d take steps to kill your dream. That’s why he gave you the M-code patch when you were six years old. Because you struggled so much with the viola, you enrolled at MIT to study nanobiology, which is what Petrov wanted you to do.” Zoe clenched her fists. “Petrov modified my chip and told me I would have to lie to you about everything.” She choked out a sob. “Three days ago, Petrov told me that Jack would find a drum of PCBs buried in the river bank, and he’d bring home a sample before he took it to a testing lab. Petrov told me how I should use the poison. I gave Julian a time-released capsule filled with PCBs right before we entered the injection center.”

  Jack let out a loud cry and punched the wall. Raissa gasped and stared at Zoe with a look of disgust. Jack punched the wall again with his other fist.

  “Petrov made me a promise, Caleb. He told me if I killed Julian, we could all live together forever. You, me, Jack, Julian, Raissa. We’d all go to Paradise.”

  “Monster,” Raissa hissed. “You murdered your own child.”

  Zoe turned to her. “I hope you never face the decision I had to make. Who did I love more, my brother or my son? I loved both of them equally with all my heart. Jack, I love you, too.”

  A voice crackled over the intercom. “This is security. We’re looking for Dr. Saunders. He reported an emergency.”

  * * *

  Alarmed by the paladin’s voice and dizzy from Zoe’s revelation, Raissa charged to the window. Three emergency vehicles were lined up at the curb. “Great. Heavily armed paladins. How did they find us?”

  “I called them,” Caleb said.

  “When?” Raissa challenged.

  “I’m a beta tester for the V7 chip. Telepathically I told my colleague to send security here.”

  “Well telepathically, tell your colleague to call them off.”

  “They’re here to help,” Caleb replied.

  Just then, Zoe reached under the seat cushion, pulled out a laser sword, and ignited the blade. The thin red beam extended half a meter from the hilt, filling the air with the scent of ozone as if lightning had struck nearby. “Go down the fire escape. I’ll stall them.”

  Jack held out his hand. “Zoe, put it down, please.”

  “I can’t live with myself for what I did,” she said in a shaky voice.

  Raissa grabbed Caleb’s arm. “Ashminov and I need your help.”

  “Hello? Dr. Saunders, are you there?” The paladin spoke politely. “We're downstairs. Please open the door.”

  Caleb hesitated. “What are you going to do to Dr. Petrov?”

  “Kill him,” Ashminov said calmly.

  Caleb stepped back and shook his head. “Dr. Petrov has a bigger plan. I know it. We have to trust him.”

  Raissa picked up her pack of weapons, walked to the rear window, and opened it. They had to move now, and she wasn’t about to shoot Caleb. While Zoe held of
f the paladins, she and Ashminov would improvise. “The alley’s clear. Ashminov, go.”

  “Open up,” the paladin said over the intercom, a hint of agitation creeping into his tone.

  “Now!” Raissa grabbed Ashminov’s arm and pushed him through the window.

  Zoe dashed over to her and pressed a data stick into her palm. “Profile 888. Keep it safe.”

  Raissa found it difficult to make eye contact with this so-called mother. “What is it?”

  “Insurance,” Zoe said.

  “For what?”

  Without responding, Zoe raced to the front door, laser sword in hand, and disappeared into the hallway.

  Raissa jammed the object into her pocket, slung the satchel over her shoulder, and started out the window after Ashminov. She had one foot on the fire escape when Caleb ran after his sister.

  Raissa muttered to herself. Goldstein would not approve. Paladins were out front, and she and Ashminov had only seconds to escape, but, against her better judgment, she stepped back inside. “Meet us in the alley,” she said to Ashminov and traded the joule for her Glock. “Caleb, wait!”

  * * *

  Caleb flew down the stairs, taking four at a time to the bottom floor. Zoe had shut down the elevator. He found her in the foyer on tiptoes, holding the sword by her side and peering out the glass panes in the door. He leaned his shoulder against it, careful to keep clear of the unforgiving blade. “You need help.”

  She put a finger to her lip. “The paladin’s right outside.”

  “Open the door, or we’ll open it for you,” the paladin barked.

  “Caleb, leave now!” she said in a hushed, urgent tone.

  Her expression transported him back in time to when they were navigating life without their parents. Zoe would assume her bossy-sister look and a sharp tone to frighten him into submission, to get him to do his homework or to pick up his room. Caleb had discovered a counter-move. He'd make a funny face, and she would burst out laughing. Comedy won’t work this time.

  “Open up,” the paladin barked.

  “Let me talk to them,” Caleb whispered. “I work in Paladin Research.”

  “If you don’t want to save yourself, do it for Raissa.” Zoe was peering through a pane again. “Petrov said he needs Raissa’s neurons.”

  “Neurons,” he blurted out.

  Alerted by Caleb’s voice, the paladin pounded the door with his fist.

  Loud footsteps startled Caleb, and he turned to see Raissa and Jack in the foyer. Raissa held an antique pistol, but what shocked Caleb more was to see Jack armed with a joule. He couldn't believe it—Jack, who had just learned that his wife had murdered their son, was here to protect her.

  “Open up!” the paladin shouted.

  “How many are outside?” Raissa asked.

  “Only one at the door,” Zoe said. “More on the sidewalk.”

  Raissa raised her gun and aimed it at the door. Her hand was shaking. Caleb’s legs were shaking just as much. Is she going to kill the paladin?

  BANG. The door vibrated with a blow from a boot heel. BANG. The paladin kicked the door again, and sunlight spilled through a crack in the wooden panels.

  “When I fire, we’ll all rush out,” Raissa whispered in a rock-steady tone. She had stopped shaking. “Jack, make sure your joule is on stun. Drop as many paladins as you can. We’ll meet Ashminov in the back alley.”

  “Zoe, no!” Jack shouted and lunged at her, but he was too late.

  Zoe drove the sword through the door. The laser pierced the wood with ease, and an anguished grunt came from outside. She pulled the blade back and pushed the door open, but it jammed against the paladin slumped on the stoop. Raissa, stepping past her into the narrow opening, fired overhead several times. The shots were deafening. Zoe followed her outside. Jack, his jaw agape, seemed in shock.

  Caleb stepped to the doorway. The paladins had ducked for cover behind their vehicles. Raissa, positioned behind the steps of the adjoining building, kept them pinned down with sporadic shots fired overhead. She had flattened two tires.

  Zoe sprinted to the sidewalk and plastered herself against a tree. The small trunk offered minimal protection and she was perilously close to the paladins. They opened fire, giving rise to a lethal hum of high-amperage slugs as they sizzled when striking concrete and brick.

  Caleb glanced at the dead paladin at his feet. There was no blood; the sword had cauterized the man’s vessels. Conflicted, Caleb didn’t know whose side he was on: that of his sister, who had admitted to murdering Julian, and two rebels who had a crazy notion Dr. Petrov had developed a weapon? Or that of the paladins, superior individuals to whom he had dedicated his career?

  Family first!

  He reached down and took the dead paladin's joule. Then he remembered Jack. His brother-in-law was family too. Jack stood exposed in the doorway, still dazed. Caleb grabbed him by the wrist and tugged. Jack jolted, and they dashed down the steps together.

  Behind the bottom step of the stoop next door, Raissa had stretched out on her belly. Caleb moved to her right and squatted beside her. Jack was somewhere behind him.

  A paladin raised his head above the hood of his vehicle, and Raissa expertly aimed in that direction. The loud crack of the pistol pierced Caleb's eardrums. She shot out another tire. The paladin ducked out of sight.

  Caleb whistled to Zoe, who was leaning sideways against the trunk. He picked up his joule and made a motion that he'd toss it to her.

  “Keep it,” she shouted.

  Immediately, the paladins let loose with a fresh barrage. Several successive blasts from Raissa, each shot endangering only the pigeons in the air, restored calm.

  Incredibly, Zoe started crawling toward the closest paladin vehicle, the sword blade trailing along the ground by her side. Stunned, Caleb had no idea what she was doing, but one thing was clear: It no longer made sense to toss the joule to her. He’d deliver it.

  He nudged Raissa and said, “Cover me.” Her green eyes flashed in the sunlight, leading him to wonder if he were seeing them for the last time.

  Suddenly, Jack leaped up and sprinted toward the tree. Taking shelter beside it, he crouched on his haunches. When Zoe started around the vehicle, Jack, joule raised, jumped out from behind the tree.

  A paladin popped up and aimed at Jack, not noticing Zoe had flanked him. She swung the sword and sliced his chest in half.

  The force of a high-amperage slug lifted Zoe in the air and propelled her backward. She skidded over the pavement and lay motionless. Caleb fired the joule repeatedly, fighting the urge to curl up in a ball from the pain in his gut.

  “Aim for the heart!” Raissa urged.

  The paladins were now firing at will; antique bullets screaming safely overhead no longer concerned them.

  Each squeeze of the trigger plunged Caleb deeper into a crucible of blinding pain. A metallic click informed him that Raissa was out of ammo.

  Jack had made it to Zoe’s side as several paladins emerged from behind the second vehicle. Jack didn’t see them.

  “Behind you,” Caleb shouted.

  Jack spun and dropped one, but then he jerked to the side with a wordless grunt, as another paladin shot him in the neck. “Run,” Jack cried, firing once more before slumping next to Zoe.

  * * *

  Raissa grabbed Caleb’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “We can’t help them.” Together they raced down Beacon Street. Pumping her legs hard, Raissa knew that she and Caleb could never outrun the horror they’d witnessed.

  With her hand welded to his, they wheeled onto Gloucester Street, and a half-block further, she pulled him into the alleyway that ran behind Zoe’s building. “Where’s Ashminov?”

  Caleb pointed. “Up there.”

  Ashminov, hugging his knees, was on the top landing of the fire escape.

  They ran to the base of the metal stairs. “Come down!”

  “I can’t.” Raissa strained to hear Ashminov’s weak, trembling voice.

  She sh
oved Caleb into a doorway, rammed a fresh clip of ammo into the Glock, and pressed the gun into his hand. “Aim, brace for the kickback, and squeeze the trigger. I’m going to get him.”

  He returned the pistol. “I already have a joule, and it's best if you deal with the paladins here.” He crept to the fire escape.

  Knots formed in Raissa’s stomach. No more firing above heads. She would have to shoot to kill.

  After what seemed like hours, which, in reality, was less than half a minute, Caleb called down from the landing. “He’s afraid of heights.”

  Nothing with Ashminov is simple. Raissa watched as Caleb helped him to his feet. They hooked arms and started a painfully slow descent, exposed from every direction. She peered out from the doorway, looking left, right, and up, acutely aware of sounds—feet shuffling on metal, and the explosive detonations of her heart pounding in her chest.

  A voice crackled through a radio. “Fifteen meters north.”

  Raissa peered right. A female paladin stood at the Gloucester Street end of the alley.

  The paladin spoke into her two-way radio. “I don’t see Eve.”

  Eve? Is that me? Maybe it was her codename? “Eve,” Raissa whispered to herself, “is about to fill the air with hot, screaming lead.” Keeping her back pressed against the wall, she retreated out of sight. Caleb and Ashminov were two-thirds of the way down the fire escape.

  “Do you have a shot on Adam and the Bulgarian?” the voice over the radio asked. Raissa could tell the paladin was getting closer.

  “Yes,” a man replied.

  Reinforcements!

  “Should we put joules on kill or stun?” the man asked.

  “Kill,” came the reply.

  Caleb and Ashminov had reached the first landing, several steps from the ground, arms no longer hooked. “Wait! I work at NanoArtisans,” Caleb pleaded. “Here’s my badge. Come look at it.”

  Raissa realized he was luring the two paladins closer, which would make her job of gunning them down easier. She would have given anything to be holding a joule set to stun instead of an antique weapon that would blow a gaping hole in them.