Sunlight 24

by Merritt Graves

  I knew this might be my one chance to shoot Jaden, but it worried me that he didn’t seem worried. That it was a trap somehow. And thoughts were streaming into my head from everywhere—I couldn’t even say which modules—telling me to wait. That I had to figure out what it was they were carrying before I made the final call.

  “Is that what you need time for?”

  “Maybe.”

  “What is it?”

  His eyes lit up between the slits of the mask. “Our ticket out.”

  I tried to keep the gun steady, resting my index finger on the trigger. I hadn’t seen them carrying it when they’d arrived, but it didn’t look like something you’d keep lying around either, even if you were genetic or materials engineers like the Doyles were. “Did you bring it with you?”

  “No.”

  “So you’re making it here?”

  “Yes,” he responded slowly, seeming to relish doling out cryptic answers.

  “How did you know they’d have what you needed?”

  “I didn’t. But I knew they’d have printers.”

  My mind careened from thought to thought, playing them out in fast-forward in my head. The engine had to be for some kind of vehicle, but any vehicle would get shot to pieces the second it left the garage. And even if it managed to avoid that, it wouldn’t get through the vehicles and barricades—there had to be hundreds of cops and Feds out there.

  Unless . . . unless it was for a bike, and it could slip through while the others stayed behind with the hostages still as leverage.

  Or maybe the engine was for something aerial, like a glider or jet pack. Maybe they were making lots of them. I’d made Syd from pretty random stuff, and there was no reason to believe they couldn’t print out something larger if they’d brought all the necessary CAD files with them.

  “Is it an aircraft?”

  “I’ll let you puzzle over that one a little,” he said, moving to get up. “It’s going to have to be upstairs, though. Skills . . . why don’t you help him get ready for bed.”

  I felt multiple presences behind me, then my arm being twisted around and the gun falling out of my hand. Skills walked around and put a few squeezes from an eyedropper into my water glass.

  “Jaden . . .” I started.

  “I insist. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and you’re not in any state to be out and about.”

  I looked down at the crystal glass, where a dark blue cloud was slowly forming in the water. I thought about trying to grab the gun on the floor with my free, broken arm, but I was being enveloped in a hold, and both Skills and another guy already had theirs drawn, pointed at me.

  “Don’t make me have to bring anyone else into this.”

  After thinking a few moments about Chris and Lena and what he might do to them, I grabbed the glass and took a drink. When he didn’t break his stare, I took another.

  “You asked me a minute ago what I’d found. At the onset of all this I thought it was going to be something pretty amazing since you’d been telling me for so long that I had this void inside me—that I couldn’t feel the things that I was supposed to feel. And I get it; it’s natural to assume that something’s wrong with someone if they don’t react to things the way you do. But eventually I realized it was the other way around.” He stared at me. “And that if I just turned the dial far enough in the opposite direction, I’d feel everything exactly as I should. I’d be filled up with the perfect fuel.”

  “Just because you’re not scared when you should be scared doesn’t make you brave. And just because you’re not sorry when you should be sorry doesn’t make you a philosopher.”

  “But it does make me a better scientist and a better soldier and that, dear brother, is the bottom line . . . and the reason I’m going to win.”

  My eyes shifted to a fly landing on the table in front of us, bobbing and brushing its wings soundlessly.

  “They say flies make the best spies.” Jaden flung out his hand and smashed it into a thin, sticky splodge on the table. He removed a metal strip from his pocket and touched it a couple of times before sliding it into the remains. “No storage. No transmission. Sometimes, though, a fly is just a fly.”

  I took another drink at the behest of Skills and felt my eyelids begin to droop. Jaden seemed like he was a football field away.

  “You’re looking a little sleepy.”

  “Jaden . . . you’re a monster.”

  Chapter 47

  I was in a passageway, vaguely aware that it was below deck on a boat since I could feel waves rocking and blips of nautical chatter around me. But I couldn’t move.

  For a while it was normal, calm even, like maybe I was just part of the ship since the crewmen walking by didn’t seem to notice me. But then a light flashed above and an alarm blared louder than anything I’d heard before, seeming to come from inside my eardrum—inside my new cochlea—like the new Revision software had suffered some kind of catastrophic glitch.

  “Alert! Alert! Foreign inorganic presence detected in the ballroom. Standby to initiate neutralization protocol.”

  What was the neutralization protocol? And what ballroom? The walkways and the people had started fading then, becoming more and more translucent until there was nothing left but a red light flashing on the wall. But I still couldn’t move my arms. Only this time they were being held in place by something external—some kind of wire, taut and sharp. And then a gunshot rang out, far away, as if in someone else’s consciousness.

  “Alert! Foreign presence detected in the ballroom. Stand clear of the door. It will be shutting in 3, 2, 1. Neutralization protocol will be initiated in ten seconds.”

  My surroundings were coming together, merging and pulling me inside them. I tried to spring upright, as if ejected from a polar bath, but the same thing from my dream was holding me in place. Only this time I knew what it was. Cables. And as the memories came back in fits and starts—the chase, Lena, the house, the kidnappers, the shootout, Ethan, Jaden—I knew how scared I should be.

  It made my breath jagged as more things came into focus. I tried to take them all in together, alone in what increasingly looked like Lena’s room, but I could only manage one at a time: Her workstation broken on her desk. Broadband cables ripped out of the wall. The clock flashing 2:30. It couldn’t be.

  Little fragments of rationale reappeared but there was so much missing. I still couldn’t move—not even wriggle, with cables wrapped tightly all around the bed, eating into my legs and butt and back. Except for the Faraday cage, it was just like I’d done to Jaden; only since the police were jamming the outside network and he had control of Lena’s, he didn’t need one.

  “Alert. Foreign presence neutralized,” said the voice in a lower, calmer tone. “Remain vigilant, but it is now safe to re-enter the ballroom.”

  Clearly Jaden had brought me up to Lena’s room after I’d passed out, but what was happening now? What was in the ballroom? I looked around for where the speaker was, but my neck wouldn’t reach. The thought of the gunshot returned and for a second I thought the police might be storming the house, though there’d be more of them if they were. And there’d be shouting and footsteps instead of silence.

  So it must’ve come from outside. Maybe Jaden had sent a drone out. Or maybe he’d sent one in. Though if he did that, why would the house’s security system neutralize it? But before I could think anymore, I heard the door opening. I tried turning my head, but I couldn’t twist it far enough to see. “You just missed quite the little pow wow out there.”

  It was Jaden’s voice. I could sense him getting closer and fought harder to turn, though the restraints chafed my neck and arms, making them raw. A threadlike trickle of blood was already running onto the sheets.

  “You know, they’re still looser than the ones you had on me.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “But they’re not the reason I got free; it was because you couldn’t even trust your best friend. That’s pretty sad.” He’d turned off his modulato
r, so it was just him using the same teenage voice I’d heard countless times over the years, only the playfulness was mostly gone. It was just angry. Aggrieved. And a little shaky, too. It still that had cocky exclamation of syllables, but you probably couldn’t be surrounded by hundreds of police and federal agents without wearing thinner. “And you probably think that’s your way out, too; a disaffected henchman, namely Spencer, will wander in here and you’ll turn him against me. Right?”

  “Yeah, Jaden that’s my big plan,” I said, thinking it was best to deflect the question. “But what . . . what was that noise?”

  “Head shot on a hostage. It’s on them, though,” said Jaden, casually, as he strode into view by the bed, punching buttons into his security pad. I was afraid enough of him now that my limbs tingled and I forgot the sting from the cables digging in. I wondered if Jaden had figured out a way to dial up my adrenaline or if my adrenal glands had just figured out one to compensate for me dialing them back. “Trying to sneak in little bug drones through the door when I was letting someone go in good faith.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Not Lena or Chris, if that’s what you’re worried about. Yes, I know all about your little girlfriend.”

  “I just met her, Jaden.”

  “But how long have you wanted to ‘just meet her’? I think that’s the more important question, isn’t it?”

  I thought the best thing to do was just be as furious and terrified as he thought I was, since it would set him up even better for what I was about to do. “I’ll fucking kill you if you try anything.”

  Jaden tilted his head. “Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her when we’re out of here, which is looking all the more likely after them shooting their intervention wad with that last stunt. They’ll catch a lot of flack for that. And it shows we’re not bluffing.” He paused. “Oh, what do you know? Here’s the negotiator now.”

  Jaden touched his ear, and with the voice modulator back on, said, “You really fucked up there, Margaret. I thought we were getting somewhere, had some kind of special understanding with each other, and then you go and stab me in the back. It breaks my heart, Margaret. It breaks my fucking heart!” He screamed the last words. Then he waited for a few seconds, presumably listening, and then screamed again. “No, you killed him! You put me in that position! What were you thinking, that I wouldn’t notice your bots or that I wouldn’t follow through? Which one was it? Which was it, huh?” He waited again. “Well now you know. I guess we can chalk it up to learning. You’re learning a little more about me and I’m learning a little more about you.” He paused. “I don’t usually like to name call, but you’re a cunt, Margaret. That was a cunty thing to do, you know that? How I am supposed to trust you now?”

  I watched him carefully. He’d been calm and controlled before, if not a little weary, but had morphed into something manic and spiteful.

  “You know, Margaret, I’m going to have to punish you for this. I’m still going to release hostages, so we can breathe a sigh of relief.” He looked at me and made a drawn out, exaggerated exhalation. “But instead of every hour, you’re only going to get one every two.”

  There was a pause.

  “Stays safe? You want to make sure everyone stays safe? Coming from you, Margaret . . . I’m not even going to respond to that, but what I will do is make a few additional, highly encouraged requests. I want the perimeter back ten more meters. Off the lawn, back halfway into the street. And second, I want that immunity signed by the governor for everyone in this house. And—” Pause. “Don’t interrupt me until I’m finished. You had your chance, now it’s my turn, and you better fucking listen because next time I’ll kill five. I swear to God. Lastly . . . lastly, back off the birds. Too fucking close. You don’t want me thinking you’re coming in again after what you just pulled. Believe me.” Another pause. “You’re going to work on it? You mean stall while you let me release all the prisoners? And make me another notch on your bedpost?” He was screaming into the phone, furious and slurring his speech. “I’m not sure I want to give you another hostage, Margaret. I think I’ll just keep them all for myself!”

  He touched his ear again and then rapped his hand on the dresser. “Cunt. If she offers to come in again, I might just let her do it.” He turned toward me. “So . . . did I sound crazy enough to you?”

  “Plenty,” I said.

  “Good.” He took his foot off the nightstand. “I’m a big follower of the ‘madman theory’ of diplomacy. Tricky Dick, Chairman Mao; a lot of the greats used it to splendid effect. You should study up in your next life, brother. Or maybe this one. We’ll have to see how I’m feeling in a couple hours when it’s time to fly the coup. Brotherly love versus divine justice. Keep your dials tuned in to find out.”

  He’d started walking away, but now was circling back to the bed. “And just a heads-up, bro. In case you’re thinking of getting tricky, too, I injected a transponder in your back—so if you move, I’ll know. But it won’t do you much good since I took the liberty of removing anything in here you might find helpful.” His voice jumped into singsong as he ripped off a piece from the tape roll he was holding and pressed it against my mouth. “This probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you dreamed of being in Lena’s room, was it?”

  Chapter 48

  It hit me as soon as Jaden said Lena’s name that Icarus had its own dedicated transmitter. It didn’t need the LAN. And Jaden didn’t know about it or else he wouldn’t have left me with my BCI still on. He’d pulled up one step short of drilling a hole in my skull to turn it off.

  The question was, since it was only a temporary guest password, did I still have access to it? Yes, I did. The transmitter was coming up on available connections, but it was weak as it was all the way down in the basement, surrounded by all that sound proofing and God knew what else.

  After waiting a while to make sure Jaden wasn’t coming back, I selected it and felt the world get blurry before materializing on the equipment rack a few moments later, fastened atop brackets.

  I could move my arms again. And my fingers and my toes. But then I stopped just as quickly as I had started, hearing something just around the corner, close enough that I normally would’ve been able to make it out. But this wasn’t normal. It was just a whirl of sound that I needed to sink into, feeling around for anything familiar like I’d done talking to Lena.

  At first it was just syllables, then fragments like ‘Jaden’ and ‘upstairs’ and ‘bots,’ but as two figures emerged in the storage room I could hear every other word, and then full sentences. They were right in front of me. Right in front of the rack on the wall.

  “You want to tell him that? I don’t want to tell him that. We were in charge of the fucking tunnel specs.”

  “No, no. You were.”

  “But I’m under you, right, which you never let me forget. So, if you want to explain how that’s not the case to Jaden, fine. Otherwise, I suggest we figure out how to bypass this fiber line and stay on schedule.”

  The other one shook his head, putting his hand on the top of his mask. “What if there’s something else unmarked?”

  “Then we’ll just have to deal, won’t we?”

  They started walking again, moving outside of my field of vision. I would’ve tracked them, but I was scared they’d notice if I shifted my head. I didn’t know what their peripheral vision was—if they’d gotten more rod photoreceptor cells on the outer layer of their retinas or if they had their visual cortexes tweaked to be more movement sensitive. That was the problem; you were always guessing what Revision someone had—always feeling behind even if you were ahead.

  But a few moments later they were gone and I started carefully disconnecting Icarus from the socket-holders on the wall, waiting for each one to unclamp before moving on to the next. This wasn’t easy, since it was designed for sweeping, explosive movements, hurdling a pigskin a hundred yards through the air. Striding, not skulking. Yet despite the heavy feeling of th
e limbs, they weren’t stiff or cumbersome; they just required constant concentration. A fluid, deliberate force, which I’d started applying more adeptly. The first throw with Lena had been sheer luck, but I’m not sure the fourth one had.

  As the footsteps grew fainter, I moved my leg down along the ledge but stopped short of the floor. Icarus’ first step before had made a clanking noise. Every step had. And even though the storage room was an offshoot to the workshop, the entrance was just big enough and I was close enough to it, that something calculating physics in my brain said it would reverberate around the cavernous walls.

  For a few seconds I’d just stood there waiting for their footsteps to grow fainter, letting them trail off until a sonic hole was left in their wake. It was paralyzing. There weren’t any good options, yet there weren’t any other options, either, since I didn’t know how much time I had before they left. Before they killed another hostage. Before Jaden came back upstairs.

  So I forgot about the fiber gnawing into my wrists and ankles on the bed and thought the same light thoughts I had when walking down hallways in houses we’d broken into. Feather thoughts. Cloud thoughts. Miles up into the sky, the thermosphere, and finally space.

  My right foot glided onto the concrete. Then the left. The synthetic tendons in Icarus’ leg absorbed the initial force, followed by a muscle contraction swallowing the rest in one fluid arc of motion.

  I took two more soft steps until I could see into the workshop. There was no one on the left side by the gene sequencing machines, but there was talking again—low echoing fluxes coming from over by the 3D printers. Further in the background were other noises: motors, drilling, nondescript rumbling, like on a construction site.

  I pivoted and looked around the other way. The storeroom was lined with boxes of parts and bins of different chemicals and polymers, pathways snaking around islands of stacked equipment. I could see the far wall, though, door-less in the distance, and knew that there wasn’t any other way out.