by Amy Cross
"I'll manage." He pauses. "I work better when I'm alone. Besides, if I need an assistant, I'll see if the Shades can create something. Don't worry about me. Without Lacey Hobbs to deal with, I can work properly."
"But people are going to want answers," I point out. "The world -"
"Give it a couple of days," he replies. "The perception filter can achieve a great deal, but it'll take up to forty-eight hours before people start to forget what happened. Things should be back to normal before too long."
"Will I forget?" I ask.
"Don't you want to?"
I pause for a moment. "Would I forget everything? Would I forget Cooper?"
He nods. "That part of your life would be quietly excised."
"Then I don't want to forget."
Walking over to me, he pauses for a moment before reaching out and plucking a hair from my head. "I'll make sure the Shades leave your D.N.A. alone," he says. "Just remember that your version of events might not be the same as the world's."
Without replying, I step over the pool of gray liquid that used to be Caroline Jones and I make my way along the corridor that leads away from the laboratory. With the building's power still cut off, I have to take the emergency stairs that lead all the way down to ground level, and it's almost an hour before I emerge from the building and find, to my shock, that the streets are full of people. There seems to be lot of confusion, and people are desperately trying to work out what has been happening, but the storm has almost completely died down as I start walking toward the western side of Manhattan.
Once I've got a couple of blocks away, I turn and look back toward the Compidome tower. For the first time, I can actually see it: a vast structure, gleaming in the sunlight, it looks to be so tall, you could almost believe it reaches all the way to the roof of the world.
"Hey," I say, tapping a nearby woman on the shoulder before pointing up to the top of the tower. "Do you see that thing?"
"What thing?" she asks.
"That tower."
"Huh?"
"You don't see it?"
She frowns, before turning and walking away. I guess Lydecker's filter is still keeping the place hidden, which means I can only see it because I know it's there. For everyone else, it's business as usual, and it looks as if Lydecker is going to keep working at Compidome, all the way up there at the top of a vast skyscraper that most people don't even notice. I hope he manages to perfect the Shades eventually, because the technology seems to be truly astonishing. Still, he needs to be careful, because Lacey Hobbs has already demonstrated the dangers of allowing that much power to rest in the hands of one person. I think I might just come back to New York every so often and go back to Compidome, to see how things are going.
By the time I reach the waterfront, the weather has cleared up completely. The effects of the storm are still evident, though, and it's going to take a long time before the city is able to recover. I have no idea how the world is going to rationalize everything that happened, but I guess things will get back to normal eventually. I make my way down to the jetty and along to the boat, where Sutton is waiting. I guess he'll have plenty of questions too, but there's no way I'm going to start talking to him about invisible skyscrapers and nano-engineering. As I reach the end of the jetty and come face to face with him, I can already see from the look in his eyes that he's guessed I'm the only survivor.
"What happened?" he asks. "There are people here again. Where the hell did they come from?" He waits for me to answer. "Dr. Grant? Where are the others? What happened?"
"It's time to go home," I reply. Glancing back at the city, I see the Compidome tower soaring above every other building, and I can't help but feel sorry for John Lydecker, working alone up there. Still, I guess one day he'll decide it's time to reveal his inventions to the world. "In a few days," I say, turning back to Sutton, "I think things are going to look a lot better. It'll be like none of this ever really happened."
Caroline Jones
Today
"I'm not your assistant!" I say, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.
"I just want coffee," Mendez replies, his voice a little muffled as we speak over the phone. It's Monday morning and I'm already running late for work, but now my boss wants me to stop off on the way and pick up his goddamn coffee. "Don't think of yourself as my assistant," he continues. "Think of yourself as my... friend."
"Friend?" I reply, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"I don't care how you rationalize it," he says, "just bring me some coffee. And don't take too long about it. The Meldrew account's getting wobbly. I need you to get in here and put it straight. Work your charm, or whatever the hell you normally do to keep Meldrew happy."
"Fine," I mutter. "I'll get your coffee."
Once I've finished talking to him, I head to the nearest coffee shop. Sometimes, I feel as if Mendez sees me less as an investment analyst and more as a general office dogsbody. I swear, apart from the unpaid interns, I'm pretty much at the very bottom of the pecking order, and I'm starting to think that I'm never going to get a raise. As I head through the door and make my way to the counter, I'm already making a mental note to start looking for another job. Seriously, being a runaround lackey for Mendez is not what I wanted to do with my life.
"Hey," says Reed, standing ahead of me in the line.
"Hey," I reply, before -
I pause.
Reed?
Who the hell is Reed? Staring at the stranger, I try to work out where the hell I've seen him before. A second ago, I had a really strong impression of him in my mind, but now it's as if that impression has just evaporated.
"Sorry," I continue, trying not to let it show that I'm feeling flustered, "I'm really bad with names and faces. Have we met?"
"I..." He pauses. "You know what, I'm not sure. I thought..." He stares at me. "Okay, this is embarrassing," he continues. "I thought I knew you for a second, but obviously I was mistaken. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I can only apologize."
"It's fine," I reply. "To be honest, I thought I recognized you too. For a second, anyway."
"Weird how the brain works, huh?"
I smile politely, as we shuffle forward in the line.
"Maybe we've seen each other before," I add. "I don't know, maybe in here?"
"I've never been here before," he replies, "and anyway, I think I'd remember you." He pauses. "That wasn't supposed to be a pick-up line, by the way."
"Of course not," I say. Damn it, am I starting to blush? I feel as if I'm blushing. I should probably just abandon the line and head to another coffee shop, but it'd be totally obvious what's wrong, and the last thing I want to do is run away from a guy. "Deja vu's pretty odd," I add. "Maybe it's my perfume, something like that."
"Maybe," he says. "Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you."
Once he's turned back to face the front of the line, I find myself trying to work out what to do next. This guy, who for some reason I'm convinced is named Reed, is pretty hot, and my life is definitely not at the kind of place where I can afford to just ignore random meetings. Still, I've got this really strange vibe from him, as if somehow I have met him before. The last thing I want to do is seem like some kind of tongue-tied idiot, so I guess I should just learn to let this one go.
While some English girl places an order in the line directly ahead of Reed, I try to act normal. Sure, I'm imagining what it'd be like to go on a date with this guy, but that doesn't mean anything's going to happen. It's simply a reflection of the fact that I haven't had a proper date for a very long time. I'm totally overreacting to what amounts to little more than a quick, snatched conversation in a coffee shop and a brief case of mistaken identity. Damn it, I need to get a grip before I fall completely down the rabbit hole.
"Chloe?" Reed says suddenly.
Turning, I see that Chloe is -
I pause again.
Chloe?
Who the hell is Chloe? As I watch a puzzled-looking woman walk away, I rea
lize that something strange is definitely happening here. I turn and look back at Reed, and I can see that he's thinking the same thing.
"Your name's Reed," I say cautiously. "Isn't it?"
He stares at me. "Caroline?"
I take a deep breath. It's as if there's some kind of mental block that's preventing me from remembering exactly where I've met Reed before, but I feel as if we have a strong connection. Sure, it could be a case of deja vu, but I can't shake the sensation that this guy has meant something to me at some point in the past.
"Do you want to get a coffee?" he asks after a moment. "Maybe... talk about this?"
I nod.
Later that day, we meet up for a drink. We talk about our lives, and about how we each have this very strong feeling that we've met before. It's crazy, but I swear to God I've spent time with him in the past, and he admits that he feels the same way. It quickly becomes clear that I remember specific details about his life, including the fact that he has a son named Tommy, but neither of us can explain how we could have met before without remembering. Eventually our conversation turns to recent events. We both have a vague memory of something huge happening, some kind of life-changing event, but after a while we realize that we're both stubbornly unable to remember the details. By the time the evening ends, we're at a loose end, but we agree to meet up again the next night, to talk about it some more. Eventually, after several of these meetings, I end up going home with him. In some strange way, it even feels as if we've slept together before, but finally we decide to stop focusing on the weirder aspects of our meeting. One night in late October, we go for our first proper date, to a little Chinese theater in downtown Manhattan...
And that's when I discover that suddenly, out of nowhere, I seem to be fluent in Chinese.
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