I turned to the men carrying me, and shouted above the noise of the celebration: “Hey, guys, I really need to go see my friends, so could you carry me over there, where Benji is?”
Everyone in the nation knew Benji, so they had no trouble heading in his direction. As we made our way through the crowd, I waved as if I was in a parade, and the people waved back and shouted greetings. Soon we were in front of the Walker family apartment, and the men deposited me gently in front of my friends, then gyrated off into the midst of the great mass of people.
Before any of them rushed forward and hug me or anything, I held up my hands to stop them, and said, “I don’t have much time, and I need to tell you guys what’s going on. Can we go inside?”
Their smiles faded as they realized I was serious, and Wally and Harry both said, “Come on in, mate. I’ll put on some tea.”
The entire group filed through the beads hanging down in the doorway and into the now-crowded front room of the apartment cave. Immediately the questions came flying my way: “Didja talk to the bloody Americans?”
“What do they want from you this time?”
“Where are you going?”
“What’s the emergency?”
I held my hands up again, took a deep breath, and began. “They want me to go to China. I guess it worries the Americans that they have some unknown kind of technology, and they want me to do something about it. Before you yell at me not to do it, though, I told them I’d do it, but I’m not going to. They’ll never let my dad out, we all know it. They… they let me talk to him, just for a minute… so I know he’s still alive. I have to go after him, I’m not waiting anymore.”
Mr. Harutyunyan suddenly seemed unsteady; he flopped down in a chair as if he had no more ability to stand, and Ms. Houng put her hands on his shoulders. “You spoke to your papa? You could tell it was him, for sure?”
“Yeah, it was him. They only let me talk to him for a few seconds, but I’m sure.”
Mr. Harutyunyan and Ms. Houng seemed ready to cry, but Benji let out a bellow that filled the room. “Ahh, you have no idea what that news means to us, mate! I mean, we all hoped, but this… this gives us some bloody purpose, eh? Whoooo!”
Cheri came near and put her arm around my shoulder. “I know what that means to you, too, Lukey, we all do. I think you have something else to tell us, though, don’t you?”
“Um… yeah… before I do anything else, I, or we, Ava and me, have a gigantic problem to deal with. Because more and more of my brain cells are being replaced, Ava has to go through a reboot process, and we’re not sure what that will do since it’s never happened before. We have to make some big decisions about how things will work… I don’t want to take the time to explain all of it right now because time is running out on us. We have… how much time do we have left, Ava?”
“Three hours, seven minutes. Gotta get moving if we’re going to see Dr. Bhat, sonny boy.”
“We have three hours and seven minutes before the reboot happens, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it or slow it down. I have this strong feeling… I’m not sure why, but I need to go see Dr. Bhat and do the reboot with her there. I know that seems weird, but I just have to. That means I have to get out of here as soon as I can. It’ll take an hour and a half to fly there and then hope I can find her. As soon as we finish the reboot, and assuming my brain still works, I’m going to Area 51.”
“I can help,” Tarni offered. “I’ll contact Little Jimmie and have him get hold of Dr. Bhat so she’ll be ready for you.”
“That’ll be great. Okay, sorry, guys, but I have to get going.”
The group did not seem happy about my announcement. Benji was shaking as he said, “Now hang on a sec, mate. Ya come back after almost bein’ killed, and we haven’t seen ya for even a day, and yer off. We need, naww, we deserve to at least know what’s goin’ on.”
“He’s right, sonny boy. These people made it possible for you to live, and we’ve left them out of almost everything. Tell them we’ll wait for them at the Bright Hand cavern. It’s the least we can do.”
You’re right. But by the time they get there, I might not be me anymore.
“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, they’re still your family. My family, too, you know. I wouldn’t be what I am without them, either. Oh, that’s strange… I think I felt something. Is that what emotions feel like? Strange and disconcerting, I would say. I don’t know if I can get used to that. I… I don’t really have the words to describe it… now, that’s never happened before… we need to move, sonny boy.”
I turned to my friends, who were waiting patiently; by now they were used to me taking these pauses in conversations to talk to Ava. “So… are you guys up for a road trip?”
3
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC
121752 22:14
-Are we done with the recruitment for the siege on Area 51 yet?
-Yes. We ended up with a bit over seven thousand; if half of them show up, that should be more than enough.
-And we think at least half will show?
-They won’t get the rest of their pay if they don’t, so I believe we can count on that many.
-There are a lot of desperate people out there, that’s for sure. Where is the kid now?
-He is in the aboriginal nation’s cavern, and there appears to be quite a celebration in full swing there. In his honor, by the way.
-Why don’t we ever have any celebrations in here like that? I’ll tell you why. Because we’re never satisfied. We can never be happy; there’s always something else we have to strive for.
-This philosophy-speak is an interesting development. It’s not really like you to doubt yourself.
-The kid’s got me thinking, that’s all. I originally sort of thought of him as a vehicle, something we could use until we didn’t need him anymore. I mean, we all did, right? But now… I don’t know, I think our overwhelming self-interest has blinded us to some genuine experiences. Holy crap, I am getting philosophical. You’re right, this kind of personal insight is not like me.
-It’s rather disconcerting, to tell the truth.
-Okay, I’ll snap out of it. How did the leaked info to the Bright Hand communications and logistics about the siege on Area 51 go?
-Everything is in order. (WK) has assured us that Zoey Perez has seen it and that we can expect her to provide the info to the boy.
-There’s no way we could communicate with him directly? This relying on inferences has me nervous.
-We could, and I’m sure he would follow the directions of a group of uber-rich technocrats who are using him as a test-bed for technology that they plan to usurp. He has no reason not to trust us, right?
-Hey, sounds like someone is feeling a tiny bit guilty. What do you suggest we do?
-It’s too late to change course. We will just have to ride it out and hope the boy survives.
-Why don’t we just offer to pay the kid? Everyone has a price, right?
-…
-No, you’re right, that was low. We can’t put a price on his dad’s life. Plus, he’ll do the entire thing for nothing, anyway. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? Hey, that reminds me, let’s send out for some milkshakes.
****
F ollowing a short but spirited discussion, the group headed back to the Bright Hand cavern, using the nation’s old orange electric van. Cheri didn’t want to wait, though, and she did her best to let me know. “Well, you have to let me go with you. There are no two ways about it, don’t even try to argue. I may only have one arm nowadays, but I can still use it to punch you in the nose.”
“I… I was going to ask if you wanted to go with me, but maybe not if you’re going to hit me.”
“No, you have to… oh, you were going to ask me to go? Okay, I accept. I was just joking about hitting you.”
“What? You… oh, I knew you were joking. I was… I was just joking about your joking.”
“Sure y
ou were. What are we waiting for? I don’t want you to go into the reboot while we’re in the air. We might end up spread all over the outback.”
“That’s what Ava said. Let’s go.”
We hurried back to our guest apartment near the entry ramp to the cavern, which wasn’t that fast because we had to dodge the masses of revelers as we went, and Cheri frantically gathered the few things she needed to take with her, including her heat suit. “All right, mate,” roared Benji as he burst through the colorful beads hanging down in the apartment's doorway, “don’t you dare leave before we get there. We’ll be on the road breakin’ all kinds of laws right quick.”
“I won’t. I mean, we won’t. We’ll see you over there in a few hours.”
Mr. Harutyunyan came through the doorway at that moment and put his massive hands on my shoulders. “Be careful, my boy. Minh and me, we pray that this is your last labor, and when your papa is free, you can rest.”
I took just a moment to look at my friends, who were all now in the living room of the little apartment carved into the walls of the great cavern, all of them smiling, their eyes gleaming with tears. It really is a group of incredible, brilliant people, and that they were all concerned for me, even though it was logical, made me feel weird. Or maybe uncomfortable is a better word. My mom tried to explain love to me when I was little, but I didn’t understand it. It wasn’t logical; I couldn’t see how you could care for someone else so much that you would sacrifice yourself for them. It still seems weird to me, but at least I understand how it feels, because that’s what I’ve been doing ever since my dad got taken away. Then it hit me that my friends were doing the same thing for me and my dad in their own ways, and I remembered something my dad told me one time: we don’t have to understand the sun and how it works to appreciate the fact that it makes it possible for us to exist. And you don’t have to understand how love works to appreciate it and to return it. I couldn’t really think of how to do that, though, so I just smiled and gave them all a thumbs-up, and that seemed to be enough.
“Let’s get a move on, sonny boy. You’ll see them all at the Bright Hand cavern, assuming we can still see anything after our reboot.”
You don’t think we’ll go blind, do you?
“It’s not too likely, but you never know.”
Oh, boy.
Cheri and I bolted out of the apartment and up the ramp, waving at Warrin and Monti as we sped by, and I had Cheri climb on my back so we could get to the top of the hill faster. She screamed like she was riding a wild horse all the way up to the plateau, and when we reached the top, I turned away as usual as she pulled on the tight, full-body black heat suit. I put my much baggier suit on, being built to stretch to accommodate my arms and legs when they morphed into wings, got the harness ready, and we clipped Cheri in. “Okay, remember to…”
“Lucas, we’ve done this a few times before, remember? I know what to do.”
“Oh. Oh, yeah, Sorry. Here we go…” I sprinted for the edge, my arms extending as I ran. The jet engine kicked on just as I jumped, and off we went, our altitude and speed steadily climbing.
The air was growing colder, and we were hitting some bumpy spots. “Are you doing okay?” I called into the ear hole of Cheri’s black helmet.
“Great! Faster!” she roared. “So, what do you think will happen after you and Ava do the reboot?”
“I wish I knew. If we separate, we know what will happen then: Ava will continue to run the system, but we won’t communicate back and forth anymore. I don’t want that. I need her to tell me what to do, at least part of the time. Plus, I don’t know… I’m used to her now. I like her. She’s… it’s kind of like having a conscience who can actually talk to you and is the world’s smartest person at the same time. Even if she confuses me all the time, which she does. Anyway, if we stay together, stay connected, Ava doesn’t know how things will change. It might not change at all, but we won’t know until it happens, I guess. Things are already getting kind of weird, though. Earlier, Ava said she felt emotion, and it freaked her out. I guess she’s getting tangled in my biology, and I’m getting tangled in her… whatever it is, quantum stuff or something.”
“That made me think of something… imagine how it would be if she was someone you didn’t like. All alone in your head with someone mean or abusive, or even evil. It could have been a much worse experience. She could have gotten you to do terrible stuff, but instead she’s helped you every step of the way. That’s pretty cool.”
“Yeah… I never thought of that, but you’re right. It could have been terrible, but it wasn’t. I…”
“I don’t like to stop you in the middle of singing my many well-deserved praises, but we’re up pretty high, and we’re being surveilled. That happens sometimes, but this time it’s coming from a satellite. It could be one of a few countries with that kind of tech, but I’d bet on the Americans. We need to lower our altitude to almost treetop level and slow down a bit. The surveillance has a tricky signature, and I almost didn’t recognize that it was even there, which makes it even more important to evade. Anyone who could go to those lengths to track us means business, sonny boy. And you’re right, I could have been terrible. Okay, down we go.”
We suddenly dropped almost straight down, Cheri screaming the whole way, and finally leveled off about fifty meters above the rocky ground. “Hey, you gotta let me know when you’re going to do that!” she roared.
“Sorry, Ava says we were being sur… sur… watched, and we needed to lose altitude fast, then she just did it. Maybe she’s a little bit terrible after all.”
4
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC
121852 07:21
-Don’t bother me with dire news. It’s too early and I haven’t had any coffee yet.
-Very well, then I won’t tell you we’ve lost the boy’s signal.
-WHAT?! We were just tracking him! What happened?
-There is no malfunction, he simply disappeared. It would seem that he noticed our snooping and took evasive measures.
-I thought our signal was sensor-proof.
-I would say that it appears we were mistaken. If he was somehow able to detect our surveillance, it’s likely he believes it to be the Americans. He probably made a drastic change in speed and drop in altitude. Either maneuver would throw off our tracking.
-Doesn’t he know we’re just watching to make sure no one, i.e., the Americans, try to stop him?
-…
-You’re right, that was a dumb question. He was making a beeline for the Bright Hand headquarters when we lost him, wasn’t he?
-Yes. At the speed he was traveling, we should know in thirty minutes or so if he made it.
-Holy crap. Let’s hope so. Okay, on to other things. Talk to me about the progress on the halo protocol.
-Since the bulk of the team working on it are in New Zealand, we pulled everyone from the other projects there and put them to getting a full-scale example up and running. They’ve only lost one technician so far, so it’s going pretty well.
-Wrong place at the wrong time?
-Yes, let’s go with that.
-Look, can’t we say it’s just not ready and move on?
-The latest test was successful. The synchronization was as perfect as we can make it to be.
-If we use it and it ends up killing the boy and his father, I will kill you, and I’ll do it old-school. I’ll stab you with a pitchfork or something.
-…
-All right, settle down. I don’t even have a pitchfork. But I do have a regular fork, and it’s time for some breakfast. And get (BG) and (LPJ) over here. I need some input. While you’re at it, get (JR) online. He knows about the timetable, so we might as well include him.
****
F lying close to the ground requires a lot more maneuvering than higher altitudes, and Cheri was on the verge of barfing as we rose and fell to match the terrain. Ava, can we go up just a little? Even a hundred meters would probably
be enough. Cheri’s going to spew all over the place if we don’t.
“We’ll try it, but if I sense the tracking on us, I’ll drop us back down. It may be nothing, but with such an unusual fingerprint I doubt it. I don’t think it’s the Americans, by the way. They tend to do things in a certain way, sort of brutish, and this is much more sophisticated. I’m working on identifying it in the background, but it may be that it’s not in my records. Okay, up we go.”
I watched the altimeter in my heads-up display, and at exactly one hundred meters we leveled off and accelerated. Then I felt Cheri tilt up her helmet, turn to the side, and… well, at least she didn’t get any on us… “I’m okay, just a little motion sickness. How much longer ‘til we’re there?”
“Let’s see… just about twenty minutes. I’ll see if I can speed up a little.”
“Are you doing okay with your… I don’t know what you would call it… your pre-reboot stuff?”
“I think so. When you’re flying like this you have to concentrate, so I haven’t noticed anything unusual, but it could be because I am focused on other stuff. Ava, how about you?”
“Nothing I want to talk about while we’re in the sky. Let’s just get there quickly. I’m afraid thinking about it will cause a domino effect, sonny boy. Then we’ll be in trouble.”
Domino effect… hey, I know that one… oh, but it’s not good… oh, boy…
Reassemble (Singular Book 4) Page 2
