by Sean Platt
“What’s he—?”
Papa stopped Ephraim with a look.
“I’d bribed all the right people. This place was erased from the map. Nobody knew it was here, and no one would ever find out. I’d made sure the people who could make a difference wouldn’t put it all together until there were plenty of my clones out there in the world. You know the rest, Timothy; sing along with me. And once I’d replaced some people with others who looked and acted just like them but with suuuuubtle tweaks …”
The sentence went nowhere. Neven stood with his arms slightly spread.
“Well. It was a good plan,” Neven said, brushing his hands together as if to say what’s done was done. “Until I realized that you were in the picture and that you knew a whole lot more than I’d ever thought you would even care to know. That changed everything. Suddenly the Ephraim clone wasn’t the only wildcard, and catching him wouldn’t be enough because you’d stuck your head right up my ass. Completely. You single-handedly undid years of careful planning. Not that I’m bitter.”
The hologram leaned forward and mock-whispered. “So what was the plan? It was to grab the real Ephraim, wasn’t it? When I leaked that report about Ephraim being in town for Jubilee, I figured it’d draw the clone out of hiding to get his revenge. But you had the clone, didn’t you? You got him out of prison and hid him. But he wasn’t just going to grab Real Ephraim and beat him to death like he beat me to death. You wanted to use Real Ephraim somehow to get into Eden. And then into my father’s hologram?”
Papa looked punched.
“He’s the one thing I regret not being able to take,” Neven said. “But there was only so much time and space on what I could have shipped from Eden to the Domain after my untimely death. I do miss him. And yes, he probably would have known where to find me. But what does it matter? You found the Domain on your own. And as to where I am now? Well, that’s not a mystery. Don’t try too hard to figure it out, okay? It’ll make it less satisfying when I just tell you.”
Ephraim looked at Papa, but his face was set. Neven’s news sounded good, but he was too smart to offer a true weapon. If he was about to reveal his location, it would be for his purposes, not theirs. And the countdown timer — just under a day and 7 hours to zero, if Ephraim was reading it right — didn’t make him any more comfortable.
Instead of giving directions or displaying a map, the hologram seemed to look at the coffee station in the rear, and the papers Neven had printed and left behind.
“In a way,” Neven said, “I suppose I should say thanks. You always seemed to think I was smart, but all talk. I ended up trying to impress you. You and Wallace, my two fathers. I pushed boundaries to show my dad I could continue the work he’d left unfinished — the work he turned from when my so-called brother died, and he went soft.”
“That softness saved your life,” Papa mumbled.
“And for you, Dear Mr. Friesh, I made sure I was always so very precise. I didn’t like when you said I was all bark and no bite. I didn’t like when you suggested I had big ideas but no real follow-through. A lot of what I’ve done, somewhere deep down, was so that you’d never be able to say I cheated. I moved Eden forward very carefully after Dad was gone — not an easy thing, considering I could only show half of it to Jonathan, and the other half to no one. But I always kept records. The plan you’ve forced me to abandon? It was deliberate. Nothing rushed about it. Ironic, that your showing up is forcing me to take rash action.
“The messages you sent me after my father died — after your insiders at Eden told you he died. They sounded desperate, if you want to know the truth. I’ve left some copies if you’d like to stroll down Memory Lane.”
Neven waved toward the papers.
“You kept making guesses at what my father would’ve wanted. You kept saying things that hinted that whatever I might be up to, it might not be the direction Dad wanted for his work. But you’re wrong. Because Dad told me what he wanted. He’s telling me today. And no, I don’t mean the Wallace Connolly AI. I mean his legacy.”
The Neven hologram vanished. In its place was a 3-D collage of photos and papers swirling.
Images flashed. Images vanished.
Then Neven was again in front of them.
“He left me all his work. All his memoirs. I’ve been going through them a lot. Your fault, Timothy. Even before I knew you were back, your voice was somewhere deep down. Before I got access to the Gene Crypt — when the original version of my plan was hatching — that Timothy voice was a nag inside me. I got out that old stuff and went through it, again and again. And do you know what, Papa Friesh? I’m right. I see his path in the Shoebox file he left me. I know where his work was always meant to go. If you say, ‘This isn’t what he wanted, Neven,’ then I say, ‘Bullshit!’ But you don’t have to believe me. You can see for yourself.”
Ephraim walked to the table. Atop the paperwork was a thumb drive, Shoebox written in marker.
“I know what you’re thinking. All my father’s work is in that file — or at least enough to reveal Eden’s secrets to the world. Aren’t I afraid that you’ll share it?” He laughed. “Not really. It won’t be long before everyone knows Eden’s secrets. And Riverbed’s. And GEM’s.”
Papa’s face fell, a realization dawning.
It was coming to Ephraim too, but creeping. Almost drunken.
“Share away. Because in—” The hologram rotated as Neven, recording it, pretended to look at the countdown on the largest monitor behind him. The number that followed was a computer imitating his voice: “—one day, six hours, and forty minutes, I’ll share it myself.”
“No,” Papa said.
“I was going to wait years, pumping out my own clones 243 at a time. I appreciate you forcing my hand. Maybe that’s for the best. Maybe this is the bold action I should have taken all along.”
“No,” Papa repeated. “He can’t possibly mean—”
“I’ve come around to what successful developers have known forever,” Neven said. “Open source is the way of the future.”
Ephraim realized. It came in one horrifying gestalt leap.
“You know where I went after leaving here,” Neven said. “I have no tricks but this one, and I’d encourage you not to play any. You know where I am, Timothy. Come and see me before the timer reaches zero. I’ll be alone. You won’t be. If you haven’t brought the Ephraim clone with you this far, get him back. Bring him. Just the two of you. This message won’t play for anyone else. And Timothy, the data is on a dead man’s switch. Unless I stop what’s already set, it will go out Thursday at 9 PM.”
The hologram seemed to meet Ephraim’s eyes. To meet both of their eyes at once. “Come and see me, unarmed. Otherwise, by Friday morning, every nerd and tweaker in the world will have Eden’s research, GEM’s database, and the know-how behind the Quarry. Pandora’s box can’t be closed; you know that better than most. Come and see me, Timothy — or soon, I won’t need the Domain’s cubes to split test the world. I’ll have crowdsourced Earth to do it for me.”
Chapter 55
Exactly the Opposite
“We have to call someone,” Ephraim said.
“He’s not here. Nothing is here.” Papa sounded like he was talking to himself, looking around the large room as if with new eyes.
“The police,” Ephraim said.
“They can’t help.”
“GEM. We could call GEM.”
Papa was barely listening. He seemed both preoccupied and dismissive. His attention wasn’t on Ephraim. He was looking over the room’s consoles one by one, checking the humming equipment, peeking into the corners.
“Papa? We need to call GEM. If Neven is planning to release their entire database to anyone who wants it, and everything a lab would need to set up a facility just like this one, GEM can—”
“Why is all of this running?” Papa tapped buttons and pressed keys, but the countdown stayed on every screen.
“So it could play the hologram for us, a
nd that big timer could tick down on the screens.”
Papa opened panels and rooted around. He worked in silence as if Ephraim weren’t there. He would find nothing, then move to something else; another panel to open or place to poke. Until he stood in front of a large glass-fronted enclosure, captivated.
“Timothy? Are you listening to me? If you’re seriously thinking of—”
“It’s true,” Papa said, looking through the enclosure. A glove box for biological or clean room work.
They locked eyes. Ephraim came to where Papa was standing.
In the glass box, on a small plinth, was the Quarry.
“He left it?” Ephraim said.
“He doesn’t need it. He stripped everything from this place that mattered and left everything that doesn’t. Neven can probably fit what he needs in a suitcase. He wants the world to see the clone cubes and what made them.”
“But the Quarry …”
“He’s reverse engineered it. The ‘open source’ files he mentioned will tell anyone how to build their own.” Papa opened the box, picked it up. There was a single cable attached. “This isn’t what’s running all the cloning cubes in the domain. They’re all independent. We know it works, Ephraim. That reverse engineered package is already in use here, in the Domain.”
Papa turned the Quarry over. Its smooth metal was marred on the underside by ugly silver scrapes. Its housing had been forced apart, and there was char around the opening.
“He wouldn’t have left it behind if what he’d taken from the Quarry didn’t work on its own.” Papa ran his finger across the char marks. “And he wouldn’t have burned its chips to destroy the original if he didn’t have the tech tucked away somewhere else.” He set it down, off its plinth, his voice resigned.
Ephraim picked it up and marveled at it. So much fuss over such a small thing — enough to destroy one clone’s life.
Well. There were ways to even the score. If Papa’s catatonic state kept him from alerting the proper authorities, Ephraim would do it for him.
He took the cord plugged into the Quarry between thumb and forefinger and pulled it out.
“Don’t!”
Ephraim looked down at the charred Quarry. “What?”
“Put it down.”
“Why?” He shook his head. “Not everyone at GEM has been replaced. Even if Wood is a clone under Neven’s control, there must be plenty of other people there with enough authority to help us if we can prove that—”
There was a sound from Ephraim’s pocket. He saw Papa’s alarm and said, “It’s just a message.” Then he slipped out his Doodad and inspected the screen.
“You got a message.”
Ephraim held up his Doodad to show Papa. “Yeah. I signed up to get a message about the weather every day. Now that I don’t have a MyLife … What’s the big deal?”
Papa was rummaging for his own Doodad. He looked at the screen first, closed his eyes, then unlocked it.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s no service here.”
“Apparently there is.”
“No, Ephraim; there’s not. Or at least there’s not supposed to be. The whole place is jammed, remember?” He held the Doodad up around the room, then to the Quarry itself. “Shit.”
“What?”
“We have to go. Right now.”
“Why?”
“I think the jamming ended when the computer verified that I was here, with that finger prick before the hologram started.”
“We can call GEM now!”
“You don’t understand. The jamming wasn’t just blocking us from making calls and receiving messages. It was blocking homing signals, too.”
“Homing—”
“The Quarry is sending out a signal. GEM will see it. Same for all those other people you want to help us: the FBI, the police, what have you. It might take a few days before anyone thinks to look, but the Domain’s days are numbered. Soon, they’ll all know where it is.”
Papa pointed at the Quarry. “And if you take that with us, they’ll know where we are, too. That must be why Neven left it. He wanted us to take the Quarry.” He shook his Doodad. “Fortunately, in this case, I managed to outsmart him.”
“Don’t we want the police to find the Quarry? Or GEM?”
“Neven said we had to come alone.”
“Fuck Neven!” Ephraim said.
“He’s holding all the cards. He can release what he has at any time.”
“He’ll do it anyway! What will going to see him do other than put us in danger?”
Papa pointed at the screen, at the countdown. “30 hours is a lot of time for a man with my resources. There are people I’d like to contact. Things I’d like them to try. Going to Neven buys us time. But if something happens that he doesn’t like, he’ll release that package immediately. It can’t get out there, Ephraim. Right now, only Neven knows how to duplicate people. But if he opens his source for even a few seconds, someone will grab it, and the Dark Web will spread it even if the normal Net looks clean.”
Papa talked faster. “Labs will be up and running in months. The community will kick the tires, then make it better and cheaper. Eventually, anyone will be able to do it. Like the look of your hot neighbor? Make a clone for your dirty desires. Tweakers will tweak them and give them attributes normal people don’t have. How could Neven’s hypothesis fail once people start choosing clones over normal human connection nine times out of ten?”
Ephraim considered the Quarry. He’d held it once, and put it on Wood to steal his mind; he’d fought and killed and nearly died for this little piece of equipment. It seemed wrong just to let it go — to leave it here for the wolves that Papa felt so sure would be on their way once they noticed the new signal off New York’s shore.
“We can’t leave it,” Ephraim said.
“We have to.”
“Whoever comes here next will find it.”
“It doesn’t matter. Neven has fried it. It’s worthless. He only kept it charged so it could tattle on us after his little speech. He probably brought it here from Eden in a shielded case, then stored it in one. Now the jammer is off, and all it’s doing is giving us away the same as it’s giving away the Domain. Put it down, Ephraim. All that matters now is doing what he wants so we can buy some time to deactivate his data bomb.”
Ephraim set it down reluctantly.
“Neven’s right,” Papa said. “I know where he is. There’s only one place he’d go, and that he can be sure I’d know where he meant.”
“Another facility like this one?”
Papa shook his head. “Exactly the opposite.”
Chapter 56
Out of Options
“You’re nervous,” Sophie said to Real Ephraim.
They were five miles from the motel where they’d been bunkered. After four days, it was good to get out. The truck, so long from Jubilee, stood outside the car rental lot with its engine running. Ephraim was in the driver’s seat. Sophie was halfway out the passenger-side door, belt unbuckled.
She’d stopped to look back before stepping down. She was pushing her luck; she should get away from Ephraim before he changed his mind. Dawdling — and especially talking through this with him again was gambling with the goodwill she’d so tentatively earned.
“It’s not that I’m nervous. It’s that part of me is sure you’re playing me.”
“I’m not playing you,” Sophie said.
It was true. There was no point anymore. They’d spent over three hours talking, and at some point, Sophie had realized she was no longer trying to manipulate Ephraim and was speaking to him as she would anyone else.
She no longer needed to convince him. He’d convinced himself. In the evening that followed, she’d slowly told him everything. He knew what Clone Ephraim had gone through; he knew about Neven’s double-dealing on Eden and his secret plans; he knew about Neven’s private facility; he knew that Mercer was Neven’s confidant, and the missing link to the beta thefts. He
knew what Neven planned — both Papa’s guesses and what he’d discovered. Real Ephraim had everything needed to make his own decision.
Real Ephraim said, “If you’re playing me, whatever. If I’m doing something stupid, whatever. I just don’t want to look like an asshole. I don’t want to drive away and worry that you’re back here laughing at me.”
Sophie didn’t know if she should laugh at that. True, they had a rather non-scientific connection simply by being the people they genetically were, and it was true that Ephraim probably didn’t want Sophie to think ill of him because a part of him liked a part of her. But this was something else. This was pride. And pride, she’d learned through their conversations, was something Real Ephraim seldom had much of.
She took his hands. “You’re a good man, Ephraim Todd.”
That, he laughed at.
“You have the potential to be a good man,” she corrected. “Before my mind was freed, I was a different person. I was under a kind of hypnosis, and I did what someone else had programmed me to do. Whatever good things you might say about me now weren’t a part of the person I was before my time at The Vineyard. But that doesn’t mean that who I became — the potential Sophie who was always there below the surface — is worth any less.”
She gave Ephraim’s hands a compassionate little shake.
“Do you want to see yourself as an ass?” she asked with a smile to soften her words. “Fine. See it. You want to believe you’re a fool, just like Neven and Jonathan always treated you? Okay. That’s your business. Do you want to see yourself through any of the other lenses people have for you? As a criminal, a loser, a second-banana to a better brother, a—”
