by Sean Platt
“His first experiment?” Ephraim asked.
“You,” Papa explained.
“Why me?”
“He wanted to see if he could evolve you. Goad you into doing something that should have been impossible. It’s Old Greek, you know, to have the creation kill its creator. It’s like man defeating God — something Neven, himself, seems to want to do.” Papa chuckled. “But there I go, reading psychobabble into everything.”
“You’re saying he wanted me to kill him?”
Papa nodded. “He needed to know if a clone’s mind could be twisted all the way around without breaking. Because up until recently, that was a clone’s weak spot — the one significant advantage that humans always had.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Evermore’s process, one I helped Wallace to invent, relied on electrochemical analysis and conditioning as the two primary tools in feeding a clone its memory. I’m sure the Eden process has improved quite a lot since my involvement, but it was, and always would be, limited. It was slow, for one. Incomplete. Because a lot relied on conditioning, and that’s always far from reliable, there would always be unknowns. Sure, Neven could create excellent clones who believed their manufactured pasts and acted like the originals they were copied from, but they were stable only so long as they never realized those pasts were fake. A clone who learned what he truly was always went insane, then inevitably died from adrenal fatigue. Every time.”
“But Neven—”
“Was raised as a child. Wallace neglected him and his half-brother for three years in the interest of creating a pure experiment, until the organic child died and Wallace finally turned himself around. Neven’s memories are real. His life happened. But that isn’t true for Precipitous Rise. Those clones are rapidly grown to adulthood, then stuffed with fake experiences.”
“Then how can Sophie and Hannah know they’re clones?”
“The Change has a process to liberate the mind. It’s slow and relies mainly on therapy. You have to learn to accept the vacuum before you can face it.”
“What about me, then?”
“Yes,” Papa said. “What about you? I don’t understand how Neven did what he did, but it’s a little like teaching a glass of water to hold its shape without the glass. Once my people told me about you, and I realized where he was nudging you, I figured he’d have a climactic choice moment lined up. It took me a while to figure out what it would be, but then I found out that Fiona Roberson of Riverbed had given you the Quarry.”
“What’s the Quarry got to do with this?” Ephraim asked.
“The Quarry is the solution to Eden’s ‘memories’ problem. It maps minds directly, fast and with extremely high fidelity. No need for guesswork when the Quarry is involved. No need for elaborate conditioning, unless it’s more like brainwashing, meant to get any person, clone or not, to behave in the way that someone wants them to. Neven was working on a solution involving a drive he called a ‘Hopper,’ but that solution would have had him connected for hours at a time, over a span of months. It could map a mind nearly as well as the Quarry, just much, much slower. Neven needed the Quarry to launch his next phase. You delivered to him.”
“But he died before getting it. The Mauritius Border Patrol took the Quarry when they arrested me.”
“And yet,” Papa said, “my followers in Agaléga insist that it vanished.”
“Where did it go?”
“To wherever Neven re-spawned. A place that Eden’s AI calls ‘The Domain.’”
“Re-spawned?”
Papa nodded. “Change agents inside Evermore have informed me that Neven was doing exactly as I described, disappearing for hours at a time to ‘drip’ his consciousness into the Hopper. He hid his secrets well, so while I am guessing here, I’m also fairly confident. Mainly because other Change agents made me aware of a package that arrived at the Chicago hub, from Agaléga, the day after you beat Neven to death. Just big enough to hold the Hopper. And a Quarry.”
“It went to Chicago.”
“Yes. But from there, who knows? The package could have gone anywhere, and I was unable to track it. But rest assured, wherever the package went, that’s where Neven was resurrected.”
“How?”
“He’d have a facility. Like Eden, but more evolved. Capable of making 2.0 clones.”
“What’s a 2.0 clone?”
“One that doesn’t need to be conditioned or dripped because its mind can be copied exactly. Riverbed’s Quarry, which Neven now has, can siphon memories from one person and put them in another. Riverbed was supposedly working on an artificial intelligence for use with the Quarry that would extract data from social media profiles. If that’s true, based what someone posts online, the AI would be able to make a ‘shell’ personality to fill a clone. The more the target person posts, the better that shell would be.”
“So a 2.0 clone could be anyone?”
“Well, Neven for sure. I believe your trip to Eden last year served three purposes, all for him. The first was to bring the Quarry to a place where he could intercept it. The second was to test your will, see if a clone with the old system’s limitations — no offense — could be forced to evolve into self-realization without breaking like the others, without the need for elaborate deprogramming like we have here at The Vineyard. And the third was to kill him because Neven needed to die.”
“But why?”
Papa met Ephraim’s eyes. “A test, for one. Neven is operating, I assure you; I can see the movement of clone blanks off of Eden, maturation hormone, too. Wherever this place is, it’s bound to be large and elaborate, full of individual spawn chambers each capable of birthing one ‘2.0’ clone at a time. Its power demands and geographic footprint would be enormous. There would have to be bribes to hide it. Neven needed someone trustworthy to oversee and run it, but until the first person died and their consciousness was successfully transferred into the cloned body, it was all theory. But there was another reason he wanted to die, Ephraim. Another reason that Neven needed you to kill him, beyond proving that you could evolve.”
“What?”
“Escape. I saw it coming, but my people weren’t in the right places to get the Hopper before it was shipped away. Because ‘Neven’ was on that drive, he’d survive if you killed him, able to leave Eden without anyone’s knowledge. Particularly Neven’s scapegoats — your brother and the other Ephraim.”
“Scapegoats?”
“Yes. The Ephraim Todd incidents drew a lot of attention. You burned the islands and murdered their favorite son. Thanks to you, all eyes are on Eden. Jonathan has what he always wanted, but it’s like a snake’s dead skin. Only the Domain matters, and with the world’s attention on Eden and Jonathan Todd, Neven can work without anyone knowing.”
“Then you have to tell someone!” Ephraim said.
“I don’t know enough yet. I’ve leaked some information, but right now that means scraps. Telling someone now would only expose my insiders. I can’t let Neven figure out how much my network knows until I’m in a position to stop him.”
“Stop him from doing what?”
“Neven himself re-spawned in a 2.0 clone pulled from the Hopper. It was slow and required physical shipping. But now that he has the Quarry, he’ll set up a cloud-based solution. That is something Jonathan believes is stalled, but which is very much alive. It’s called DataCrate and works like a Dropbox for minds. Eden’s official plan was for DataCrate clients to wear continuous monitors and always be ready to wake up in a new place if their current body expired. Because Jonathan never had the Quarry, ‘live sync’ never left the ground.
“But Neven doesn’t want live-sync. He wants theft. He’ll go after the minds he wants most directly if he can get close for long enough, copying them onto the Quarry while snatching a DNA sample, for the physical body, at the same time. Working through cloud transfer, it’ll require little effort. One of his agents can upload remotely, downloading both mind and genetic sequence into a blank
clone in one of the Domain’s spawn chambers. Betas are pre-matured with Precipitous Rise — almost all humans’ DNA is the same, with only minute differences to make us individuals. Using betas, a specific person’s phenotype can be actualized in days. A week, maximum, from sampling to a perfect clone replacement. Neven could make a quick switch and dispose of the original. Person by person, he’ll be able to remake the world in his image — or, more accurately, in the twisted image he believes his father would have wanted.”
“What image is that?”
“I’m not sure. But with the Quarry …” Papa looked into the distance, thinking.
The sun had almost set. Ephraim followed Papa’s gaze and remembered something he hadn’t yet mentioned. Something painfully relevant.
“Mr. Friesh.”
Papa turned back.
“When I had the Quarry, I used it on Hershel Wood. Do you think …”
Papa’s face went blank. He blinked. His mouth was slightly open. “How?”
“I was working with Wood at the time, against Eden. Or at least—”
“But why?”
“Fiona told me to. She wanted to search his head for things to use against him.”
“That’s not why,” Papa said.
“It’s not?”
“No.” Seeing him so obviously troubled made Ephraim uncomfortable. Even knowing Papa for only a handful of hours, he found the man’s manner and damn-near-omniscience comforting. His worry was unsettling, like the world itself had shaken. “You did it because Neven wanted you to.”
“Fiona wanted me to,” Ephraim corrected.
Papa wasn’t listening. He was thinking hard, and withering in light of these new conclusions. “This makes sense. I wondered how he planned to, or rather, what he planned to—”
“Mr. Friesh?”
Blinking. Shaking his head. Then he looked at Ephraim.
“I guess there was a fourth reason Neven wanted you to come to Eden. You didn’t just bring him the Quarry. You also brought him Hershel Wood.”
“I …”
Papa took Ephraim’s hands. Their tightness frightened him. Papa had seemed like a monolith. But now, he was grasping Ephraim as if he — not Papa — was the anchor.
“I knew you had to help me find Neven and stop him. But now I realize it has to be now. Not eventually. Not soon. NOW, Ephraim. Before the genie leaves the bottle forever.”
“Okay, but what does that—?”
Papa half-laughed and met Ephraim’s eyes. “You know, I get it now. I do.”
“Get what?”
“That this is exactly what Neven would guess his father wanted most for the world ‘The one thing that changes everything.’”
Chapter 22
Out of Options
“Got a problem, Boss.”
Mercer’s statement was complete, but he stopped short as if there were more. His feet stopped moving as he entered, then waited for acknowledgment.
Neven was intense, hunched over the Domain’s Cube 13 equipment. Neven had snapped at Mercer in the past while concentrating — and with the machine’s guts exposed, Neven now appeared plenty involved.
“Let me guess. Your codes didn’t work,” Neven said.
“How did you know?”
“Kilik finished his errand.”
Mercer stopped, but this time the silence was uncomfortable. He’d known he was involved in something high-stakes. He was flattered to be involved and eager for what Neven’s plan promised them both. But he didn’t like killing. Neven thought that was hypocritical. The man had made his living selling human beings into bondage, but murder made him uncomfortable?
“And?” Mercer finally said.
“There’s a new Hershel Wood in town,” Neven answered.
“Have you recalled Kilik, then?”
“Why would I recall Kilik? He’s our GEM insider.”
“I thought the Wood clone was the GEM insider.”
“Both are. Now we have two, as we should. Checks and balances, Mercer. You do understand I can’t control Wood now that he’s out of the box? He’s on the mission because he believes in the mission, not because I’m whispering into his MyLife like a 1.0. But a free man needs a check, doesn’t he? Even those who believe in the mission need leverage held against them, right?”
Mercer would have had a hard time holding Neven’s eyes at that moment, but Neven spared him the need. He was making final adjustments, shoving the console’s trim panel back into place. Mercer, being naturally human, was also a free man. And accordingly, Neven held leverage against him, too. Neven’s tidbit about using Kilik to “check” the Wood clone did double-duty, letting Mercer know the situation at GEM while also reminding him that he wasn’t as free as they both pretended he was.
“So what’s wrong with my Eden codes?”
“Jonathan must have changed them.”
“Why?”
“He knows you’re stealing betas and differentiation hormone.”
Neven finished and leaned back, now giving Mercer his full attention. “I don’t think he knows it’s you specifically. A lot of people come and go through Eden’s vaults. Hell, even one of the Mauritius people could conceivably get down there if Jonathan isn’t careful.”
“How did you find out?”
“I told you. Wood.” Neven tipped his head toward a monitor displaying footage of the man in action — not from his MyLife, but from the 1.0 Kilik clone’s MyLife as he worked with the Director. “Jonathan leaked information about possible rogue cloning operations outside Eden. He did a good job. I know Eden well enough to see that Jonathan is the source, but GEM will likely buy it. It’ll look as if there are illegal clones out there, being made by someone else.”
“GEM knows. The jig is up?”
Neven laughed. “Maybe Hershel could’ve figured it out. The original, I mean. But Jonathan is trying to blame Riverbed. It’s implied, but the dots aren’t hard to connect. It couldn’t be me. I’m dead, remember?”
Mercer visibly relaxed. Apparently, that was what had gotten him all tight-assed: an illogical fear that somehow, GEM would realize Neven had returned and was pulling the strings. But that was ludicrous. Nobody even knew the Domain existed.
“It’s fine. We have enough betas.”
“Half of the cubes are unoccupied,” Mercer said.
“A new source of betas might open up. Who knows? Maybe Fiona and others like her will figure it out after all.”
“How?”
Neven smirked. Mercer didn’t need to know everything.
“The leak doesn’t bother you?”
“What Jonathan sent went right to Wood. The new clone intercepted it before the first Wood even opened the envelope.”
“Oh, whew,” Mercer said. “The way you were talking, I thought it had already gotten out.”
“Well, it has.”
Now Mercer stopped, confused. The man was trustworthy for a snake and a crook, but he wasn’t terribly smart.
“Jonathan sent something else?”
“No, I did.”
Mercer ran a hand through his hair. “Why would you leak information about betas and clones and shit?”
“I got an idea.”
“You just told GEM what Jonathan told them? That there are real clones out there?”
“My version, yes. But I also talked to Ava Bloom.”
“Ava?”
“Christ, Mercer. You dragged the beta that became Ava into its cube yourself. You said you thought she was hot. You were disappointed that we had to give her an old-style mind map because you wanted to ‘fuck the good news right out of her.’”
“Wait. Ava Bloom the reporter?”
“I thought she might like to know that Ephraim Todd has positively been identified on Manhattan.”
“You told the news about all of this?”
Neven had enjoyed this game for ten minutes. But that was enough.
“Try to understand, Mercer,” he snapped. “I didn’t tell ‘the news.�
�� I told one of my clones. Ava is just like Kilik. I can steer her where I want her. And I didn’t ‘tell her about all of this,’ like ‘Hey, media! Guess where Neven Connolly showed up! You’ll never believe what he’s doing!’ I planted an idea that Ava’s mind will believe was her own and that she’ll be able to verify with some checking.”
“Ephraim was in Manhattan? You figured out where he is? So why the hell were you so worked up about finding him if you—?”
“Ephraim isn’t in the city!”
Organic brains were so goddamn flawed. If he’d had another clone like Wood or himself ready, he’d be using it as his right-hand instead of Mercer. But the availability of his Tomorrow Clones would ramp up soon enough, now that New Wood was in place.
“I just installed a CryptBuster,” Neven said, indicating the console he’d recently closed. “Combined with what Wood’s now able to give me, I can get into the city’s sweeper records. Just deep enough to allow Ava, once she starts checking sweepers and checkpoints, to find Ephraim’s genetic sequence. Ava already believes she spoke with a few eyewitnesses who report seeing him. That’ll be enough for her to go live. The entire city will be looking for Ephraim after that.”
“But he’s not there in New York?”
“I have no idea where he is.”
“So?”
“This is how we smoke him out. The report is highly credible. Wherever Ephraim is, he’ll see and believe it. And because he knows that he didn’t leave genetic evidence and eyewitness sightings in the city, he’ll assume it’s the real Ephraim back in New York.”
“Why would the real Ephraim be in New York?”
“Doesn’t matter. It only matters that the clone will come out of hiding to find him. And then …”
Neven didn’t need to finish. Mercer understood. Ever since Neven had learned the clone was out of prison, he’d been obsessed with taking him out of circulation.
The clone had served his purpose; he’d brought Neven what he needed, provided his means of escape, and demonstrated that clone minds could evolve beyond their limitations. It was all just as Wallace had predicted and Neven had proven with his superiority over his long-dead brother.
