Now he had to play along if he was going to get out. “All right, you win!” he screamed.
“I can see through you, Dorian.”
“I mean it! I’m sorry! If I could take it all back, I would! It was Phoenix. She convinced me. She manipulated me!”
“You’re going backward now, turning on the one person you claim to have loved. I’ll have to adjust your next mindscape accordingly.”
“My next mindscape?”
“Yes, this will be my final attempt. After that I’ll have to wipe your memory in order to save you.”
“What?!” Dorian felt his confusion and horror mounting. “You can’t do that!”
“Hopefully I won’t have to, but I am no longer optimistic for your recovery. Phoenix and Sakamoto were rehabilitated ten and four years ago respectively, but you’re a particularly stubborn case.”
Dorian’s mind swirled. Ten years… four years… “How long have I been in here?”
“More than a century.”
“You’ve had me in here for over a hundred years?!” Dorian gaped at the ceiling of the featureless room. “You’re lying! I would remember if I’d been in here that long.”
“I suppressed your memories of the previous mindscapes. Failed attempts at rehabilitation are not useful to your recovery. They only make you angrier and more depraved. I am sorry, Dorian. I truly thought you would be able to get out this time.”
Dorian gritted his teeth and shook his head. “How many times have I died? No—how many times have you killed me?”
“That is not important. Please try to clear your mind and relax.”
Dorian bolted to his feet and shook his fists at the invisible ceiling. “Fuck you! Do you hear me? FUCK YOU, BEN!”
“Goodbye, Dorian. I’ll see you again next year.”
Chapter 43
Catalina picked California for her house-hunt.
“Back to where we started,” she said, as she bought them two one-way tickets on one of Mindsoft’s supersonic jets.
It took all of an hour to get from the automated habitat where they’d been staying outside the City of the Minds to Northern California. On the way there, Catalina had browsed the net for a list of houses to see. They were all mansions in the fifteen million sol range. Alexander had wondered how she could afford homes like that.
“The wonders of compound interest,” she’d explained. “A hundred years is a long time to keep your money in a bank.”
If he’d known how long he was going to be in there, he would have saved up a larger sum himself before entering the Mindscape. Hindsight’s a bitch… he thought. And his name is Ben, Alexander added to himself with a wry smile.
“What are you smiling about?” Catalina asked as the self-driving hover car they’d taken from the airport glided up the driveway to the first home on Catalina’s list.
“Nothing important,” Alexander replied.
She nodded absently as she rolled down her window and peered up at a massive three-story mansion.
“Impressive,” Alexander said.
“You have reached your destination,” the car announced.
“Let’s check it out,” Catalina said, popping her door open.
“After you,” he said.
She climbed out and he followed her up a broad set of stairs to a set of heavy double doors. Alexander took his luggage with him—the same bag of hundred-year-old personal effects he’d received back in the habitat. It wasn’t a big bag, and not particularly heavy. For some reason he didn’t trust himself to leave it alone. Right now it felt like an anchor. The only real thing in his life besides the woman standing beside him on some rich stranger’s doorstep.
Alexander glanced at her as she engaged with the holocomm at the door. He wondered—not for the first time—how she was taking all of this so much better than he was. She had to be just as shocked and disoriented, if not more so. They’d both lost a century of their lives to a virtual world that neither of them were ever going to see again.
Catalina finished speaking with the hologram, and then she noticed his scrutiny.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.” Maybe she wasn’t real…
Alexander felt the world tilting away under him, and he shook his head, willing the sensation to pass. This is what we get for making the Mindscape so realistic that we can’t tell the difference between it and the real world.
The doors swung wide and an immaculately-dressed couple appeared. “Welcome to Lakeside Manor,” the man said. “I’m Leo, and this my daughter, Diana,” he said, both of them shaking hands with Caty.
When it was Alexander’s turn, he hesitated, suddenly afraid that these two were androids, but their hands were warm. Alexander nodded and smiled, forgetting to introduce himself. Catalina introduced him after an expectant pause.
“Come, let me show you around,” Leo said.
Alexander followed Catalina inside, hanging back to avoid conversation. He was locked in his thoughts. Troubled. He barely paid attention to the luxurious appointments of Lakeside Manor. The pool and lakefront property behind the house caught his interest, but only because the dock looked like a nice lonely place to sit and think.
He excused himself and went down to the dock to dangle his feet in the water. It felt cold, while the air was conversely warm. Floral scents wafted to him from the garden. Alexander took a deep breath and lost his gaze across the water. Something tickled his hand and he brushed it away.
That was when it stung him. Alexander yelped and glared at the wasp as it flew away. The pain served to focus his thoughts, to bring him back to the here and now.
It wasn’t just the lingering question of what was really real that bothered him. It was Caty.
What was he doing here with her? What were they to each other, anyway? They’d just spent a hundred years together! Married. Having children. Buying luxurious homes like this one. Visiting exotic places and living everyday life together. Thanks to Ben’s accelerated timescale, it was technically even longer than that, but now all those memories blurred together intangibly. The only part of that virtual life he could really remember was how he felt about his wife, and what they were to one another. The actual context of those feelings—all the moments they’d shared in the Mindscape—had become somehow vague and unimportant. Alexander felt sure that all of that was by design. He couldn’t be allowed to wake up with more attachment to a virtual life than his real one.
Alexander reached for the bag on his shoulder and fumbled through the outer pockets before he really realized what he was looking for.
He withdrew an old engraved pocket watch, a gift from Catalina.
“So? What do you think?” Catalina asked brightly as she came to sit beside him.
He didn’t answer at first. Just stared at the engravings on the watch.
“You kept it…” Caty said softly.
He nodded and looked up to see tears sparkling in her eyes. “Time is an illusion,” he said, reading one side of the engravings on the watch. He knew them by heart.
“Love is the only truth…” Catalina went on, reciting part of the other engraving.
“Let mine be yours,” Alexander finished for her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head.
“For what?”
“He told me it would help you.”
Alexander took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh before reaching for both of Catalina’s hands. “It did. You did,” he said. “It’s just a big shock, that’s all. I’m still trying to understand how all the pieces fit together.”
Catalina nodded. “I can imagine. I’m also feeling… overwhelmed.”
“Really? You look like you’re taking it pretty well to me.”
“That’s just a face I’ve learned to wear.”
“Well you don’t have to wear it around me.”
“Don’t I?” she asked, her eyes searching his.
He knew what she was looking for. He looked away, bac
k out across the lake. “You know, I’ve been thinking. All that time maybe you weren’t who I thought you were, but you were still you. What we had was real.”
“Yes. It was.”
“And you weren’t forced into the Mindscape to help me.”
“Of course not. Benevolence only keeps criminals in the Mindscape against their will.”
Alexander turned to look at her once more. “So you wanted to help me because you still loved me. Regardless of why Ben really had us in there for a whole century, that much at least is true.”
Catalina nodded. “I never stopped loving you. After I signed our divorce… I accused you of not fighting for the things you loved. I realized that you weren’t the only one. I needed to show you that I still cared.”
Alexander smiled. “You did. Thank you.”
Catalina flashed him a brief smile in return.
“I love you, too, Caty.”
“What about Viviana?”
“I also love her, but she’s dead, and it’s definitely time that I accepted that. Besides, Ben’s right about one thing—she would have wanted me to be happy, and you make me happy, Caty.”
“I didn’t always.”
“We had a lot going against us back then. A decade spent apart from each other. The Mindscape.
“The Mindscape tore us apart, but ironically it also brought us back together. You made me the happiest man alive for over a century. How many people can say that?”
Catalina shook her head. “For all we know marriage might not even exist anymore.”
“Well it does for us,” Alexander insisted.
Fresh tears sprang to Catalina’s eyes, and she bit her lip wordlessly.
“Would you do me the honor of marrying me—again?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” Catalina grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled his lips down to hers for a kiss.
Grinning, he kissed her back. After a long moment, he withdrew and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They both took a minute to appreciate the view. The sinking sun set the sky on fire. The air grew still and the lake became a mirror for the sky. As they watched the sun set, Alexander thought about everything they’d been through to be together, all of the obstacles they’d faced and overcome… Catalina’s words echoed through his mind once more, and it was as if he he’d never really understood them until now: Love is the only truth.
“So, what do you think of the home?” Catalina asked, interrupting his thoughts.
He turned to her with a smile. “It’s perfect.”
Chapter 44
—Three Weeks Later—
The doorbell rang and Catalina saw an image from the holo camera on the front porch appear on her ARC lenses—another pair of neighbors had arrived.
“I’ll get it,” she said, leaving Alexander to tend the steaks on the barbecue and entertain their other guests.
“Thanks, darling,” Alexander replied.
Catalina turned toward their home and the sliding glass doors opened automatically for her as she approached. It was a long walk to the front door. Between her savings and her time serving as an Alliance senator, she’d been a wealthy woman by the time Benevolence had taken over. Add to that a hundred years of compound interest, and that fortune had become a whole lot larger. She and Alex had used it to buy this three-story lake house in California. The house-warming was Alex’s idea. A way for them to get to know their neighbors.
By the time Catalina reached the front door, she found that Richard, their human butler, had already answered it and their guests were just now stepping inside. “Thank you, Ricky. I’ll take over from here,” Catalina said.
“As you wish, Madam.” Ricky inclined his head to her before heading back to the kitchen.
“Welcome,” Catalina smiled graciously at her guests, shaking hands with them one by one.
“I’m Bill, and this is my wife, Emma,” the first man said. Bill was tall and trim with dark hair, silver eyes, and flawless brown skin, while his wife was pale with piercing blue eyes, long, white hair, and a face that could make anyone stare. Both of them were well-dressed—shorts and a polo shirt for Bill, and a colorful summer dress for Emma. His hand was cold to the touch, a fact that made Catalina look at him with fresh eyes. It was a hot day.
“You’re androids,” she said, recoiling from Bill’s hand before she could stop herself.
“Is that a problem?” Bill asked. He glanced at his wife and back again. “The invitation made no mention of the party being a human-only event, but we can leave if our being here makes you uncomfortable.”
Catalina smiled again. “No, no, of course not. I’m just surprised that you would want to come. I’m not used to androids, so I don’t know much about them—you, I mean. My husband and I were in a mindscape until recently. For therapy.”
“You must have been in there for a long time if you’re not used to seeing androids,” Emma said.
Catalina nodded. “We were. Please come in. Everyone else is out back. I think they’re all humans, but…” she trailed off as she led the way through her home, wondering whether or not it would matter to Bill and Emma if the rest of the guests were human. “Hopefully you’ll be able to find something to talk about with us.”
“Don’t worry. We’re not prejudiced,” Emma said. “We wouldn’t be married if we were.”
Catalina cast her a puzzled look.
They reached the doors to the terrace and walked outside. Alexander cursed at the barbecue as flames leapt up from the grill and threw a cloud of smoke into his eyes. A man standing beside him laughed between swigs of his beer and said, “Just stick it on auto… like this.”
“Huh…” Alex replied wonderingly as the other man flicked a switch. “Nice feature.”
Catalina stopped behind her husband. “Alex—” He turned to her. “This is Bill and Emma.”
“Nice to meet you,” Alex said, extending a hand to Bill. From the surprised look on his face, he obviously noticed how cool Bill’s hand felt. But when he shook hands with Emma, his surprise turned to puzzlement.
“I’m human,” she explained. “Bill is the android.”
Catalina had forgotten to shake Emma’s hand, so she was just as surprised as Alex to hear that.
“How does that work?” Alexander asked.
“Very well, actually,” Emma said. “I’m asexual, not something that most human partners would understand.”
“So androids don’t…” Alexander trailed off. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”
Bill smiled. “Oh, we do, but unlike humans we can turn our desires on or off.”
“I see.”
“Sounds like you two were made for each other,” Catalina put in.
Emma nodded agreeably.
“You probably already know most of the people here, but this is Ed,” Alex said, turning to introduce the man beside him.
Except he wasn’t there.
“Actually, we’re also new to the neighborhood,” Bill replied.
“Where’d he go?” Alexander asked. “He was here a second ago helping me with the grill.”
Catalina looked around for the man she’d seen helping Alex. She found him down by the pool, standing under a palm tree and chatting with a pair of women suntanning there. In the background the lake sparkled invitingly. “Isn’t that him?” she pointed.
Alexander followed her gesture. “How’d he get all the way over there? Hey, Ed!” he called, but Ed didn’t look as though he’d heard.
“He left as soon as he saw me,” Bill explained.
“You two know each other?” Catalina asked.
“No. He must have realized what I am… Perhaps coming here was a mistake. Thank you for the invitation. We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“Hold on—” Alex said. “I’m confused. How did he even know what you are? He didn’t shake your hand.”
“Some people have infrared detection software in their ARC lenses that enables them to tell androids from humans at
a distance.”
Catalina’s brow lifted in surprise. “So they can stay away from you,” she guessed.
“Or hunt us,” Bill added.
“I thought crime is all but nonexistent now thanks to Benevolence’s drone patrols,” Alexander put in.
“All but—we wouldn’t have so many criminals living in the Mindscape if crime were a thing of the past.”
Alexander grimaced. “Our son and his wife, among others.”
Catalina shot him a let’s-not-talk-about-it look. She didn’t want to be reminded of the man Dorian had become. She’d given up on him. A mother’s love was supposed to be unconditional, but she’d found otherwise when she learned what he’d done. Some things were unforgivable. He was just lucky Benevolence didn’t believe in the death penalty, otherwise he, Phoenix Gray, and Orochi Sakamoto would have all been executed a long time ago.
“I see…” Emma said, sensing an uncomfortable topic and looking away to scan the rest of the guests at the party. They were all still keeping their distance.
Catalina noticed that every now and then one of their guests would cast a furtive glance in Bill’s direction. Did they all have infrared detectors?
“I think my husband’s right,” Emma said after a moment. “We should be going.”
“You don’t have to leave just to make everyone else comfortable,” Alexander replied. “What can I get you two to drink?”
“Bill doesn’t drink.”
“Or eat,” he added. “That would be an inefficient use of resources that humans need to survive.”
“Well, what about you, Emma? You must be hungry at least.”
“You don’t have to go,” Catalina added. “You came all this way for a party.”
“There’s an android party a few houses down from here,” Bill said.
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