by Amy Cross
"Are you Caroline?" I ask.
Her damaged face stares at me for a moment.
"Caroline Jones?" I ask.
"That was me, once," she replies, her voice sounding slurred. "Can you see me? Can you really see me?"
"Of course I can see you," I reply. "I... We came looking for people."
"I didn't think anyone would ever be able to see me again," she says. "I've been alone here for so long."
"How are you..." I pause for a moment. "How did you survive?"
"The Shades needed somewhere to wait," she says. "Oxygen slows them down, so they kept me alive while they sheltered in my body. I've been going around and around in this place for weeks, waiting for someone to come back."
"Are you in pain?" I ask.
"They built John Lydecker's mind in my head," she continues, ignoring the question. "They partitioned him off, but he's still in here, screaming. He's angry. Things haven't gone quite according to his plan. Sometimes, at night, when I should be sleeping, I listen to his voice in the back of my mind. At first, he wanted to live forever in thousands of bodies, but now he can't stand being fractured across so many forms. He just wants one body, but he couldn't use mine while we were alone. He needs somewhere for the Shades to go when they're finished, otherwise..." She pauses. "I think you can probably see what happens when they stay in a body for too long. I'm falling apart."
"Don't listen to her!" Lacey shouts. "Just shoot her!"
I open my mouth to reply, but I can't. There's something about Caroline Jones' body that's just too horrific to even contemplate. Gray liquid is still oozing from her skin, leaving a kind of slimy trail along the corridor behind her.
"I just need to get closer to her," Caroline whispers, with a look of desperate panic in her eyes. "I just need to touch her, and then Lydecker and the Shades can do the rest." She holds the U.S.B. drive out, extending her arm several meters until finally, with a creaking sound, it reaches me. "Take this," she continues. "Lydecker says that it can be used to switch off the beacon that Compidome is using to hide all the people. Take it, and let me -"
Before she can finish, a shot rings out behind me, and Caroline's body convulses as a bullet hits her in the neck. She falls against the wall, and although she tries to hold herself up, I can see that she's starting to slip. Turning, I find Lacey standing behind me, with a gun aimed straight at Caroline; she immediately fires again, causing Caroline to let out a pained gasp as she finally drops to the floor.
"She must be in so much pain," Lacey says with a smile as she steps past me. "It's inhuman to let her suffer any longer."
"Are you..." Caroline looks up at her, and all the sadness in her eyes seems to have been replaced by pure anger. "Are you lecturing other people on humanity?" she asks. "You left me here to die. Lydecker's told me all about your plans. Every night, while I try to sleep, he whispers to me. Are you, of all people, claiming to be an expert on humanity?"
"Yes," Lacey replies firmly, before firing four more bullets directly into Caroline's head. The creature slumps to the floor, remaining completely still as blood starts to flow from its wounds.
"You didn't have to do that," I say, shocked by Lacey's brutality.
"She's not in pain now," Lacey replies with a smile, as she turns and walks back past me, heading into the room. "It's a shame," she continues, as she resumes her search for the U.S.B. drive, "but she'd clearly gone beyond the point of no return. There was no way to help her."
Stepping toward Caroline's body, I look down at her lifeless form and watch as blood pours onto the floor. After a moment, however, I notice that the silver capsule is mixed in with the blood; I pick it up, wipe it clean on the side of my haz-mat suit, and realize that I'm holding the U.S.B. drive that Lacey's so desperate to find. I guess Caroline found it while she was stuck here all alone, and since a version of John Lydecker's mind is trapped inside her own, she was able to understand its significance.
"I need your help!" Lacey shouts. "Now that the creature's dead, you might as well see if you can help me find the drive! It's got to be here somewhere!"
"Sure," I reply, still staring at the drive. The truth is, I only need Lacey to call back to Compidome and have the storm switched off. After that, I can ditch her. The problem, though, is that once I hand over this U.S.B. drive, there's no reason for Lacey to keep me alive. I'm not stupid; I know that it'd be much more profitable, not to mention safer, for her to get rid of me. The last thing I want to do is give up the drive, but at the same time I know that Lacey is never going to call off the storm unless she has the damn thing in her hands.
"I swear to God," she says as I walk through to find her still rummaging through the lab, "if John Lydecker was still alive, I'd kill the bastard. After making him tell me where he hid this fucking drive, of course."
"How much longer will the storm last?" I ask as I head over to the far side of the room and pretend to start looking through some folders. "I mean, it can't keep going forever, can it?"
"It'll keep going for as long as Compidome wants it to keep going."
"But you're Compidome, aren't you?" I reply. "I mean, you own the whole company, right? Or do you have shareholders?"
"Compidome is privately owned," she says, not really paying much attention to me as she pulls open some more drawers. "My father was very keen to ensure that we never had to answer to a bunch of idiots in suits. He had a singular vision, and it's my job to keep that vision alive. Besides, we don't need shareholders' money, and the last thing we want to do is go public. Why invite scrutiny when we can operate in the shadows?"
Looking down at my hand, I can't help but wonder how she'd react if she knew I had the drive. Would she kill me instantly, or would she wait until my back was turned? I pause for a moment, before a hint of movement catches my attention. Turning to look over at the doorway, I see to my astonishment that Caroline Jones is slowly making her way into the room. Her body is more malformed and damaged than ever, but she seems to have been able to absorb the bullets. I guess Lacey was wrong when she said that Caroline would be easy to kill. With obvious discomfort, Caroline seems to be making her way toward Lacey, who hasn't noticed that anything's wrong.
"Is this is?" I call out suddenly, figuring that I need to distract Lacey.
"What?" she asks, before spotting the silver capsule in my hand. "Where did you find it?" she asks, hurrying over toward me with the eagerness of an addict who's finally on the verge of a fresh fix.
"Not so fast," I say, placing the capsule on the bench in front of me before pointing the end of the gun directly at the device. "One wrong move," I continue, as Lacey stops a few meters away, "and I'll destroy it."
"And why would you do that?" she asks. "Why do something so irrevocably stupid?"
"Because I'm not thinking straight," I reply. "Because I've seen things that I can't even begin to understand. Because I lost one of my best friends back there in the subway station. Because I've tried to do the smart thing since we got here, and it's all gone wrong, so I figure I might as well see if doing something stupid might work better."
She stares at me with a look of abject horror on her face. She's so focused on the capsule, however, that she hasn't noticed Caroline slowly creeping up behind her. "That drive is the single most important thing in the world right now," she continues eventually. "You have no idea what John Lydecker was working on. With that data, we can rebuild the whole planet in whatever way we see fit."
"Sounds like a lot of power," I reply.
"What do you want?" she asks. "I'll give you anything. Money? A job? There's absolutely nothing that I won't do in order to get that U.S.B. drive, so just name your price."
"Who says there's a price?" I continue, determined to keep her distracted for a few more seconds until Caroline can reach her. "Call off the storm," I say, "and then we'll talk. Otherwise, I've got nothing to lose by pulling the trigger and destroying this thing." I pause for a moment. "And don't even try to pretend that you've got any inte
ntion of letting me live, Lacey, because I've seen enough of you now to know that the only thing you care about is profit."
She opens her mouth to reply, but suddenly she seems to realize that something's wrong. Seconds later, Caroline places her hands on Lacey's shoulders, and although Lacey tries to turn to face her, it's clear that Caroline's grip is too tight. I watch as Lacey tries to struggle free, but Caroline pushes her down to the ground and starts to wrap more and more of herself around her victim, as if she's trying to crush her.
"Get her off me!" Lacey says, her voice filled with terror. "You can have anything, just -"
"I'm not going to kill you," Caroline whispers, leaning closer to her. "The Shades have reconstructed a version of John Lydecker's mind in my head, and it's getting crowded in here, so we're just going to do a little housekeeping. It seems a shame to have two minds crammed into one body, when yours is there for the taking!"
"No!" Lacey screams, trying desperately to get free from Caroline's grip. "I can feel them! Get them out of me!"
I watch in horror as Lacey's body starts to twist and contort, and after a moment the skin around her mouth and eyes begins to close up. Although my first instinct is to go and help her, I force myself to stand back and watch as Caroline finally lets go and moves away, leaving Lacey struggling for breath. With her face now completely sealed, Lacey stumbles across the room, knocking equipment off the benches until finally she drops to her knees and desperately claws at her face, trying to breathe.
"The Shades normally take a few days to get their work done," Caroline says breathlessly, "but there are so many of them in her right now, they should be able to speed things up."
All I can do is stare as Lacey, instead of suffocating, seems to be growing new features. In fact, her entire body seems to be changing, and I can hear a crunching sound as her bones are rearranged. Finally, I realize that not only does she have a new face, but it's a face that I recognize: Lacey is being re-engineered to look like John Lydecker, and moments later the process is complete. He pauses for a moment, as if he's not quite certain whether he's ready, and then finally he turns to me with a shocked look on his face.
Caroline Jones
Today
Silence.
He's gone. The Shades took him away; they carried him, atom by atom, out of my mind and into Lacey's body and then... I try to turn and look, but I'm too weak. My body is dying, giving up under the strain. I just hope... I just hope I did enough.
Dr. Stef Grant
Today
"Where is she?" I ask eventually, breaking the silence.
"Who?" Lydecker asks, staring blankly at me. He seems to be in absolute shock, as if he's not sure how or why he suddenly found himself here in the room with us.
"Where's Lacey Hobbs?" I continue. "Where's her mind?"
"Oh." He pauses, before getting to his feet and taking a couple of tottering steps toward me. I instinctively raise my gun toward him, which makes him stop dead in his tracks. "You don't need that," he continues. "Lacey... She's still here. Her mind is in my mind now, but the Shades have left her in a very small partition. I should be able to ignore her screams after a while, but..." He holds his hands up and stares at them for a moment. "A human body can't play host to a colony of Shades forever. They need somewhere to go. Somewhere to live. They can't deal with too much oxygen, so..."
I wait for him to finish, but after a few seconds I glance over at Caroline and see that her body seems to be falling apart. She's turning into some kind of gray liquid, and although her face is still just about visible in the mess, it's clear that she doesn't have long left.
"I can fix this," Lydecker says suddenly. "I never meant to ruin the world. I just wanted to stay alive, and I wanted to show bring Lacey Hobbs down, but all the duplicates, the other Lydeckers, were unstable. Each of them magnified a different flaw in my personality. I thought they'd be exact copies, but I realized too late that nature never allows exact copies to be made. There's always variation, always a small change. Even now, I'm not a total copy of the original John Lydecker, but I think I've got enough of his mind to get the job done. Maybe that's how the Shades want it." He pauses to run a hand through his hair, before examining his fingers. "Damn it, I've still got the same dandruff that the original had." Sighing, he turns to me. "Where's the U.S.B. drive?"
Grabbing the small capsule, I pass it to him. As soon as he takes it in his hand, I realize that maybe I just made a huge mistake, but I guess it's too late now. He walks over to one of the few computers that's left in the room, and after reaching around to the back of the machine, he manages to get it to start up.
"You're John Lydecker," I stammer, unable to quite take all of this in.
"I'm a copy of him," he replies. "Just a copy. The original John Lydecker has been dead for a few weeks. He died of cancer just as all of this started."
"But you can fix this, right?" I continue. "You can put things back to normal?"
"There's enough locally-stored battery power to get things going from here," he mutters, as he inserts the drive into the machine. "I can turn off the filter and make it so that the population of the United States is visible to the world again. I can also deactivate the storm. In fact, I can remotely wipe all the Compidome systems from this terminal, even the ones in Europe. I designed the entire network, and I left a few back-doors behind in case I ever needed to do anything drastic. I always knew Lacey Hobbs couldn't be trusted, but when I realized what she was planning to do with the Shades..." He pauses. "I created them because I thought they could be useful. Only Lacey could have seen some a brilliant development as a means to control the world."
"Can you help Caroline Jones?" I ask, stepping over to Caroline and seeing that her genetic meltdown is almost complete. It's as if her body has begun to mutate into a kind of thick gray liquid that's slowly dissolving. Her face is still mostly intact, but it's starting to slip further down the gray mass, and it's not clear whether her mind is still intact behind her vacant, rapidly blinking eyes.
"Maybe," Lydecker replies. "The Shades have a race memory of her D.N.A., so they might be able to reconstruct her."
"But it won't actually be her, will it?" I ask. "It'll be a perfect copy, but it won't be the original version."
"It'll use most of her original genetic material," he replies. "The Shades made lots of copies of me, but in the process they accidentally exaggerated some of my less fortunate qualities. Some of the Lydeckers were cruel, others were weak, none of them had the exact balance that made up the real Lydecker. I'm just a copy too, albeit one that possesses his intelligence and, I think, the best of his compassion. Caroline Jones will have the advantage of being rebuilt from her own genetic material, so I think she'll be much closer to the original that might otherwise be the case. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. There might still be a few small variations."
I watch as he uses the U.S.B. drive to access the computer.
"There," he says after a moment. "It'll take about half an hour to die down, but the storm should be gone pretty quickly. I've also turned off the filter that was masking the population. As the storm vanishes, the rest of the world will start to recognize the existence of all three hundred million people. It'll be as if they never went away. From the point of view of the people here, and all across America, they never did go away. The rest of the world just stopped being able to perceive them."
"And the Shades?" I ask. "What's going to happen to them?"
"I'll continue to work with them," he replies. "They definitely have potential, but they're not ready to be used in the wild just yet. When the time comes, I'll take them public and the whole world can benefit." Grabbing a nearby folder, he removes a piece of paper and passes it to me. "That's one of them, magnified many thousands of times. They work on the sub-cellular level, on the building blocks of life. Their view of the world is substantially different to ours."
I stare at the image printed on the piece of paper: it shows a very blurry picture of some kind
of red dot, surrounded by a white haze. It's astonishing to think of these tiny creatures swarming through the bodies of living people, reaching into their cells and rearranging the D.N.A. while being controlled by some external force.
"I've got a theory that they're intelligent," Lydecker continues. "It's just a theory, of course, but I'm fairly sure they're not the drones they were supposed to be. They've been running out of control, but I can bring them all back to the Compidome tower and work on them. There'll be no more deaths." He pauses. "You should go. By the time you get to your boat, the storm should have died down enough for you to get out of here. There are going to be a lot of very confused people wandering the streets, and it's going to take time for them to understand what's happened to them. If it's okay, I'd prefer it if you didn't talk to the world about what you've seen here. Compidome can be a force for good in the world, but not if the place is ripped apart and its assets are plundered. I'm worried the technology would fall into the wrong hands. There are other people like Lacey Hobbs out there."
"Would anyone believe me if I told the truth?" I ask.
"Probably not," he says with a faint smile. "The filter on the Compidome building is going to remain, so you'd probably just end up in an asylum anyway. You'd spend the rest of your life babbling about all of this, and people would simply pity you." He pauses. "I'm sorry, but I think you're going to have to accept that the world will move on and you'll never be able to make people understand what really happened."
Looking at the computer screen, I see that there's nothing but a series of what appear to be oriental symbols.
"I learned Chinese a while ago," he explains. "I figured it was a good way to get my brain working a little differently."
I watch as he continues his work, and finally I realize that it's time to get moving. "Will you be okay here?" I ask.
