The Free Citizen

by T. J. Sedgwick

  “Don’t worry—we’ve proved the nanite only works on humans,” said Dudek.

  Don’t worry? Unbelievable!

  “Are you a dog lover like me, Captain Rae?”

  Not the first psychopath to prefer dogs over humans, recalled Rae.

  “Yessir.”

  The next glass cell held a pair of chimpanzees.

  “We’ve tested on a range of mammals and non-mammal species,” explained Dudek. “We have a great affinity for nature. C-Day will be the best thing that ever happened to wildlife once all the unworthy humans are removed.”

  The wall and door of the third cell was translucent.

  “This is what happens to the unworthy,” said Dudek.

  He reached for the control panel beside the door and tapped the small touchscreen, clearing the frosted glass.

  Rae’s jaw dropped as Dudek turned, observing his reaction. A devilish grin grew on Dudek’s face as Rae forced himself to look. A dead man—tall, dark, athletic-physique—lay naked and shackled, slumped against the painted cinder-block wall. Half his face had been stripped to the bone, as had his lower left leg and part of his hand. A gray veneer covered the bone and the exposed edges of raw flesh and skin. Rae heard Dr Muller gasp on the comms channel. His stomach lurched, but he stayed outwardly calm.

  My God, that’s horrific, she said to his mind.

  “An amazing achievement,” said Dudek, now eyeing the dead man. “The nanite is multiplying, using the subject’s molecules to reproduce.”

  Rae said nothing, averted his eyes. Dudek observed him.

  “You find it distasteful, Captain?”

  Distasteful’s an understatement.

  “Yessir,” he said before he could correct himself.

  “Your chip’s probably being a little slow in quelling your empathy,” said Dudek. “Empathy’s always retained though—it’s a useful emotion. Take me for instance. I’m a very empathetic man.”

  Rae almost scoffed but held his tongue.

  “You see, Captain, only the empathetic can understand the emotions of others. If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t be very effective, now would I?”

  “No, I guess not… sir.”

  Dudek regarded Rae for a moment, then gave a brief smile, betraying something between amusement and concern.

  “Come along, Captain—there’s more fascinating things to see. Let’s take a look at Cell #4.”

  With a sense of dread, he followed Dudek to the translucent glass frontage of the next cell. The intel officer tapped the panel and the white frosting went clear. A twentysomething man—underweight, East-Asian-looking—sat unclothed on atop the cinder-block plinth-like bed. Shackles joined his wrists and ankles. Bruises and recently-scabbed wounds told of a beating during his captivity. The poor guy was probably one of many plucked from the Badlands to be used and abused by the despicable Regime. He looked up, tired and hopeless, fear in his eyes.

  “This subject is an Illegal from the Northwest MOZ,” said Dudek breezily.

  “What is this place?” cried the young man. “What am I doing here?”

  Dudek smiled.

  “Now, now, just be calm,” he said. “You’re doing a very important job. You’re about to be a star—look, our cells have cameras recording everything.”

  Rae clenched his fists, his jaw tensed, his face flushing with anger.

  Don’t react, Cal, said Dr Muller, distress permeating her voice. You may want to kill the bastard, but you’re no good to us dead and there’ll be billions of dead if we don’t stop them deploying their nanites. And for that we can’t allow ASTRA to take down our defenses.

  I know. I’m on top of it, he replied.

  “Stand up,” said Dudek, drawing his handgun, holding it down by his side.

  The man complied as Dudek turned to the bio-suited figure sat at the lab bench behind.

  “You,” said Dudek, and the suit turned around—a middle-aged woman, her eyes blank, detached. A researcher.

  “Yessir, how may I help?”

  “The test subject is ready. Go ahead and insert the agent.”

  “Certainly, sir.”

  She opened a stainless-steel cabinet containing glass canisters the size of a soda can and slid one out. Rae saw it was half-full of gray powder, like iron filings. She got up and removed the cap to reveal a valve in the lid. Next, she went over to the cell door and opened a small hatch, not much bigger than the canister, and installed it onto a nozzle, before closing the cover.

  “What the hell is that stuff?” cried the young man in the cell.

  “It’s your destiny,” said Dudek with relish, nodding to the researcher.

  Rae looked on as she tapped the control panel. A whirring noise came from the canister compartment, followed by the sound of a fan and the flow of air.

  Rae followed Dudek’s gaze to the cell’s ceiling where a vent spewed a fine dusting of nanites. The poor test subject looked up, eyes wide. His pleading eyes caught Rae’s and he shuffled desperately to the door.

  “Help me!”

  Rae glanced at the pistol in Dudek’s hand, fighting the urge to act.

  The young man began coughing uncontrollably and sat down against the wall before blinking rapidly, then rubbing his eyes. He moaned in distress as his restrained hands alternated between his ears, eyes and skin, which he scratched frantically. The moaning gave way to spitting as he tried to clear the killer nanites from his mouth.

  “This could go on for a while,” said Dudek, unconcerned. “I must confess, Captain, this little show is all for you.”

  Rae said nothing, just stared numbly at the murdering bastard before him.

  “Change out Cell #4’s air,” said Dudek to the researcher.

  The fan changed pitch and the remaining mist of gray cleared from the cell while the nanites already on and in the test subject continued their destruction.

  “Cell air cleansed, sir.”

  “Very good,” said Dudek. “Open the door. Close it once we’re both inside.”

  “Yessir,” said the woman.

  The door slid open. Dudek entered, gun drawn and moved past the frenzied, naked form before grabbing him by the hair and dragging him to the far corner beside the bed. The man was too preoccupied and weakened to resist. Dudek beckoned Rae towards him as the door whooshed shut.

  “It’s a slow, painful death, Captain.”

  “Yessir,” Rae said, forcing a calm tone.

  “Take off your bio-hazard suit.”

  His stomach dropped.

  This must be a test. A test of compliance. A test of loyalty.

  He reached for the fastening on the hood. The wasp drone hopped to his shirt and moved below his field of vision towards his shirt collar. He removed the hood, then the suit, stepping out and kicking it across the room while Dudek nodded approvingly.

  “Very good, Captain,” said Dudek. “I’ll keep mine on, I think. No need to dirty my uniform too.”

  Dudek held out the handgun, grip-first, eyes locked on him.

  “Take it.”

  He took the gun.

  “Now kill the subject.”

  Poor guy was dead the moment they exposed him, rationalized Rae with sadness.

  The dying man looked up in horror. Rae raised the gun, stared unseeing, then squeezed the trigger. The muzzle flashed, the crack of the pistol rang out. A red entry hole appeared in the man’s forehead and he slumped sideways to the ground. Rae lowered the gun and turned to Dudek, resisting the powerful urge to shoot him.

  Stay the course, Cal, came the voice of Dr Muller, now steeled, resolute.

  “Excellent, Captain… Maybe I was wrong about you. Perhaps we can trust you,” said Dudek. “You know, it’s never wise to act on just one source. Intelligence work demands corroborating evidence, verification. The diagnostics on your neural chip were reassurance. For many, that was enough, but not for me. I prefer the old-fashioned way.”

  “Yessir,” he said, neutrally. “Can we go to ASTRA now? I may know s
omething that helps the team get—”

  “That’s what I like to hear—keen to get started!”

  Rae gave a curt nod.

  “But there’s one more thing,” said Dudek. “Do this one thing to prove your loyalty beyond doubt.”

  “Yessir.”

  “Come.”

  Dudek led him out of the cell, stepping over the expanding pool of blood.

  “Get this place cleaned up,” he ordered a nearby lab tech, as he strode to Cell #5, next door.

  Dudek tapped the control panel, and the glass wall turned transparent. Rae was surprised the cell was empty—he was expecting to see another helpless victim.

  Is this cell for me? he thought.

  He’d already been exposed to the nanite dust in the air of Cell #4—surely his mindchip was working well enough to nullify them.

  The door slid open.

  Dudek smirked at him but said nothing. His eyes glazed momentarily, focusing on something in the virtual realm.

  Hang in there, Cal. Remember: they need you, said Dr Muller’s voice.

  He eyed the gun in Dudek’s hand.

  Dudek’s eyes returned to Rae.

  “They’re late,” Dudek said. “Shouldn’t be long.”

  “Who are we waiting for, sir?”

  “You’ll see.”

  The researcher woman walked over to Rae and handed him a glass canister of nanites. He peered at the gray dust, wondering what the terrible nano-machines actually looked like. The fine dust could spread easily and get anywhere.

  Do we know how to stop these things, other than the entire population wearing bio-suits forever? he asked Dr Muller in his mind.

  Counter-measures was something our other source was seeking. Now she’s gone dark, said Dr Muller’s voice, worry lacing her words.

  I’ll try to find her.

  Tread carefully, Cal. You’re our last best hope of stopping this thing.

  Muffled, raised voices from the direction of the lab entrance grew louder—a woman, in some distress, screaming, protesting. The deep, aggressive voice of a man telling her to shut up. Then from the decontamination room a thwack and a shriek from the woman. The door slid aside. Escorted between the two big bio-suited soldiers was a late-twenties woman, with intelligent sapphire eyes and a noble, heart-shaped face and shoulder-length light hair, completely naked. Her lips were swollen and bloody, there was a red mark on her cheek, and her arms and legs were bruised. She limped slowly, then when refusing to move got shoved by the brute on the right.

  Are you getting this? Rae mind-spoke to Dr Muller.

  There was a pause. He could hear labored breathing from Dr Muller.

  Are you ok?

  He heard a male voice in the background through the neural audio feed. Dr Muller, shooing him away, composing herself.

  No, I’m not ok, but I will continue. That’s our other asset, Cal.

  Dudek snapped out of his mind’s eye.

  “Ah, there’s our lovely young spy!” he said, reveling in the situation.

  Rae gritted his teeth, his death stare focused on the two bastards escorting her. The blonde woman’s staunchness never faulted. Rae’s eyes met hers. He’d never seen her before, but she looked somehow familiar.

  “Put her in the cell,” said Dudek to the soldiers.

  She glowered at Dudek as they forced her into Cell #5, pushing her to the floor, the door closing behind them.

  “Peters, you’re dismissed,” said Dudek. “Davis, you stay.”

  The soldier named Peters left the lab, the other one took up position nearby, holding his slung SMG across his chest.

  The blonde captive stood in the cell, defiant. Rae admired her apparent resolve: vulnerable, naked, beaten and probably tortured but still standing, her face full of smoldering fury. Only training or the right mindchip could provide such strength. Or maybe she’d caved and sung like a bird and had escaped lightly. Somehow, he doubted that.

  “Captain Rae,” said Dudek announced grandly, “I would like you to meet Jennifer Scott, real name Sabine Muller, daughter of Dr Stephanie Muller.”

  19

  There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  R ae fought hard to remain impassive.

  Now you know. Our other asset is my daughter, said the diminished voice of Dr Muller.

  He said nothing.

  “Dr Muller’s an old friend of yours, isn’t she?”

  “Not a friend. A former professor.”

  “You spoke to her on the Erasmus, did you not?”

  “Yes,” he replied numbly.

  “Did you know that this little spy’s mother was part of DASIS?”

  “No.”

  “They recruited her during her tenure at UCLA. Over time, the asset became a handler. Looks like it’s a family tradition.”

  Rae said nothing.

  “Are you sure you didn’t know, Captain?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Dudek broke his stare and continued. “Now we have her darling daughter, it seems we have the good doctor’s undivided attention,” said Dudek. “Let’s switch on the display over there.”

  A two-meter-wide image appeared on the previously plain white wall, above the rear exit doors. The strained face of Dr Muller appeared on the screen.

  “Ah, so wonderful you could join us, Dr Muller,” said Dudek. “We didn’t know if you’d make yourself available, but I suppose news of your daughter’s captivity did the trick. I must say, it was naïve to think you could hide the fact she’s your daughter. Amazing what stray DNA can reveal—we extracted it from your hand print on ASTRA. Fortuitous that her mother has detailed technical knowledge of ASTRA.”

  He nodded to soldier Davis, who pointed his sub-machine gun at Rae.

  “Just insurance, Captain Rae,” said Dudek, grinning. “I hope you understand.”

  “What do you want?” said Dr Muller.

  “I assume you are on a private line, away from prying eyes and ears.”

  “Yes, I’m on a private, secure channel. Alone.”

  Rae didn’t know how Dr Muller usually communicated via the wasp drone or if she still could.

  Dr Muller, blink twice if you can still hear me and can’t speak.

  She blinked twice in quick succession.

  Acknowledged—you can hear my mind-speak.

  “You know what we want, Doctor,” said Dudek. “We want you to get ASTRA working for us. In return, your daughter will live, and we will provide safe passage to wherever you and she wish to go.”

  “Live how? As a mind-slave like you?”

  “For us Citizens, it isn’t so bad,” said Dudek, his face flushing in annoyance. “You people have no idea, do you? It isn’t as though we’re devoid of our own thoughts. The neural implant and its algorithms simply seed imperatives in our subconscious—it helps us do a job better, furthers the nation’s aims. We—unlike you—are all pulling in the same direction. That’s why we’re successful. But we’re not here for a philosophical debate, Doctor. Suffice to say, you will be given the choice. Maybe you’d like to stay once you see our way of life.”

  Just go along with it to buy some time, said Rae to Dr Muller via thought. Please trust me.

  “Alright… I will help you,” said Dr Muller flatly.

  “Very good! But there is one thing we must do first…”

  He looked at the canister in Rae’s hand and nodded towards the small insertion door. Rae paused.

  “Go ahead, Captain. Don’t delay.”

  “Is that what I think it is?” said Dr Muller.

  “Yes, it’s nanites,” crowed Dudek.

  Rae opened the small hatch, removed the canister lid and slotted the valve over the nozzle, then reclosed the hatch and stepped back.

  He looked on in horror as Dudek started up the fan sending nanite dust into the cell. He eyed the gun-toting soldier, then switched his gaze to Dudek’s handgun. His muscles tensed, ready to spring
. He could lunge for the pistol, knocking him aside, take out—

  “Mom!” called out Sabine. “Sie haben den Timer meines Gehirn-Mikrochips eingeschaltet!”

  Rae held off, wishing his mindchip was active to translate what he thought she’d said.

  “Yes, of course. We aren’t going to kill Sabine quite yet,” said Dudek. “She’s our leverage. Her neural implant will protect her from the nanites for as long as it’s functioning. But… you have an hour to become helpful, Dr Muller. Then we’ll extend it another hour and so on until ASTRA is working. And I’m pleased to see Captain Rae has complied. He can help us take the war to the enemy soon, now we have you on board, Dr Muller. However, in the meantime he can tell me if you’re lying.”

  He turned to Rae.

  “Captain, if you hear any inconsistencies from what you gleaned on Erasmus…”

  Rae nodded.

  Facing Dr Muller on the display, Dudek continued, “Any lies, any hint that you’re not working alone and… well, you’ve seen what our nanites do to the human body.”

  It’s a test, Dr Muller… Rae said via his thoughts.

  “Yes, I’m alone, and no, I don’t know what your nanites do to the human body,” said Dr Muller gravely. “Nothing good if you’re involved.”

  “Now, now, Dr Muller,” said Dudek. “No need to be like that… Let me describe it to you so you know what awaits your daughter should you fail to play nicely.”

  He described the horror Rae had just witnessed in Cell #4—the nanites attacking the poor, under-nourished Asian man. Rae smoldered inside as Dudek seemed to relish the retelling. Dr Muller listened silently. Maybe she already knew, maybe she didn’t. The main thing was she gave no hint of the wasp drone—a capability the enemy were clearly unaware of.