by Sims (lit)
Meerm stepped out into the light. Zero gasped at the sight of her—her belly so big and her ankles so swollen she could barely move. She took a step forward, but caught her foot and started to fall. Zero grabbed her, then lifted her into his arms. She was heavy for a sim, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
“Don’t be afraid, Meerm,” he said in a soothing voice as she started to struggle. “You’re okay, now. I’ll make you safe and keep you that way. No one will hurt you ever again.”
As he turned toward the tunnel he saw two figures emerging from its entrance. Romy and Patrick, faces ashen, mouths agape, eyes fixed on his nonhuman face. They couldn’t miss its yellow eyes and simian cast—his brow ridge was not so pronounced as Meerm and Tome’s, he knew, his nose not quite as flat, but he was unmistakably sim like.
Oh, no, he thought as dismay softened his knees and he almost stumbled. Oh, God, what have I done?
Just when they were so close to success, he’d ruined everything. Now the whole organization would fall apart because…because who’d want to follow a sim?
Even worse was the uncomprehending look of betrayal he saw in Romy’s eyes.
But he had to press on. She looked away as he approached, so he addressed Patrick.
“Help me get her through the tunnel. We haven’t got much time.”
Patrick blinked, hesitated a heartbeat, then nodded. “Less than you think.”
As they eased Meerm into the opening, Zero prayed Romy would follow.
10
Silence ruled the van. Zero leaned forward as Patrick piloted them toward the freeway.
“Follow the signs toward the Goethals Bridge,” he told him.
He glanced at Romy, huddled against the passenger door at the far end of the front seat, staring dead ahead without blinking, looking as if she were in a trance.
I’ve really done it now, Zero thought. I’ve lost her. She’ll never trust me again.
Meerm whimpered at his side. She was curled next to him on the rear seat. He laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Tome and Kek hunched behind them in the open rear section.
“Goethals,” Patrick said. “Got it. But I think…I think we…” He seemed to run out of words.
“You think you deserve an explanation,” Zero said. “Of course you do.”
“I mean,” Patrick said, “I feel as if the world just tipped ninety degrees.”
Zero glanced again at Romy who still hadn’t moved. She’d known him so much longer than Patrick. Her world must feel even further out of kilter.
“You’re not human?” Patrick said.
“No.”
“I heard you tell Meerm that you’re a sim.”
“I am.”
“But how come you don’t…?”
“…look like the average sim? I’m one of the earliest, so early that you’ll find no UPC tattoo on the nape of my neck. Plus I’m a mutant—bigger and paler than my brother sims—too big and too human-looking for the workforce. So they kept me separate. I was raised in SimGen’s basic research facility and after a while I became a mascot of sorts. My only contacts growing up were the Sinclair brothers and their most trusted techs. Later, when Harry Carstairs arrived to take over sim training, he took a special interest in me.”
Harry…how he’d loved Harry Carstairs. The man’s daily visits had been the high point of his adolescence.
“He was impressed by my linguistic skills so he tested my intelligence; when he found it to be not only far above sim average but above human average as well, he and—”
He cut himself off. Better not mention Ellis.
“He got permission to see how far they could take me. I learned to read, and built up my own library; I was never allowed out of basic research, but television gave me a window onto the rest of the world. Harry and I…I guess you might say we bonded. He taught me to play chess and we spent hours hovering over the board.”
He missed Harry, especially their chess games. Every so often Zero would give in to a compulsion to see the man. He’d sneak by Harry’s house at night and watch him as he sat and played chess against his computer; he’d longed to knock on the window and challenge him to a game. But Harry believed him dead, and had to go on believing that.
Patrick said, “But how did you graduate from SimGen mascot to Zero, SimGen nemesis?”
“I’ve always been called Zero. I imagine it’s derived from part of my serial number when I was an embryo. As for my ‘graduation’…I believe I became inconvenient. Here I was, this man-size sim who was an evolutionary and commercial dead end. Somewhere along the line, a corporate decision was made to terminate me.”
“Jesus,” Patrick whispered. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“What were they going to do—shoot you?”
“An injection. They drew blood from me at regular intervals. This time they were going to put something in instead of take something out.”
Zero saw Romy glance quickly over her shoulder, then return to her thousand mile stare.
“Scumbags,” Patrick muttered, shaking his head.
Only one, Zero thought. Mercer Sinclair had made the unilateral decision.
He looked down at Meerm who’d closed her eyes and seemed to be dozing. Termination would have been her fate if Portero had found her first.
Patrick asked, “How’d you manage to escape?”
“I found I had a highly placed ally in the company who arranged to fake my death.”
Ellis again. He’d told his brother that he didn’t want a stranger terminating Zero, that he’d do it himself. But he injected Zero with a sedative instead of poison, cremated another dead sim in his place, and spirited him out of SimGen. He told Zero everything, and set him up with a steady flow of cash and data aimed toward one purpose: to stop SimGen and free his brother sims.
“This ally is the source of all your inside information, I take it,” Patrick said.
“Yes.”
Patrick shook his head again. “A high-up inside SimGen working against it. Is he nuts or does he have a personal beef with the Sinclairs?”
“Both, I think. But it’s also a moral issue with him.”
All true. But Zero had always sensed something else driving Ellis Sinclair, almost as if he felt he had to atone for something. Something “unspeakable,” perhaps?
Patrick laughed. “Put a sim in charge of bringing down the makers of sims. I’ve got to say, it has a nice symmetry to it. And now that we’ve got Meerm, it looks like your job is just about over. Congratulations, Zero. They chose the right man. I mean sim. I mean—hell, I don’t know what I mean. All I can say is I never had an inkling you weren’t human.”
And now we come to the crucial junction, Zero thought.
“Does it bother you that I’m not?” He directed the question at Patrick but he was watching Romy. He thought he saw her flinch.
“I don’t know. You’re not like Tome or any other sim I’ve met. In fact, you’re more human than some humans I know. Smarter too. What a world! But you haven’t steered me wrong yet. So I guess the answer is no. To tell the truth, every day I’m getting less and less sure about what exactly ‘human’ means.”
Bless you, Patrick, he thought, then looked at Romy. He couldn’t bear her silence any longer. This had to be dragged out in the open now.
“And you, Romy?” he said. “You haven’t said a word.”
For a few seconds, she didn’t move, then she twisted swiftly in her seat and faced him. Angry tears streaked her cheeks.
“You lied to me!”
“I never told you I was human.”
“You pretended to be!”
“I never pretended to be anything other than who I am. I didn’t even change my name.”
“You hid yourself—that was a lie!”
“No, I had to. Would you have joined me if you’d known I was a sim? A mutant sim?”
Her angry expression faltered, then she turned away again.
“Think
, Romy. When was I ever untrue to you? Were the goals of our activities against SimGen ever other than what I said they were? Have I ever misled you into doing something that you didn’t want to do, or worked you toward an end that wasn’t your own as well?”
She replied in a tiny voice. “No.”
“Then can I ask you why you’re so angry at me?”
“Who says I’m angry at you?” she said in that same small voice. “Maybe I’m angry at me.”
Baffled, he replied, “I don’t—”
She held up a hand. “Can we just leave it be? I’ve got some adjusting to do and I need some time. Okay?”
“I understand, but I need to know: Are you still with us?”
She nodded without speaking, without looking around.
Zero leaned back and closed his eyes to hold back the tears.
After a while Patrick said, “Goethals Bridge dead ahead. Why do we want that?”
“Because it’s the quickest route out of Jersey.”
“But where are we going?”
“Dr. Cannon’s.” He took one of Meerm’s hands in his. “We’re bringing her the most important patient of her career.”
11
Two more men dead!
“Shit-shit-SHIT!” Luca Portero screamed as he smashed a glass paperweight against his office wall. He didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing; security staff was minimal on Sundays.
Luca hadn’t seen the bodies yet, but Lowery, who’d found them, had told them that both their skulls had been cracked like eggs. That sounded eerily similar to the way Ricker and Green had bought it off the Saw Mill. But this was in broad daylight, damn it!
Could things get any fucking worse?
As if in answer to his question, the secure phone rang. He hesitated—because, yes, things could get a lot worse—then answered it. He repressed a sigh of relief when he heard Lowery’s hello.
“What?”
“I’ve been checking around the area and found some squatters in this broke down old apartment house on the same block.”
“Did they see anything?”
“Not what happened to Snyder and Grimes, but they did see this black van parked on the street—”
“They’re sure it was black?”
“Double-checked that. They swear it was black. But here’s the meat: the one looking out the window says she saw a very swollen looking female sim being led into the black van.”
Oh, no! No! They’ve found her! Snatched her right out from under our noses! How the fuck could this happen?
“She’s absolutely sure?”
“No question.”
“Who was doing the leading?”
“Two men—one ‘very strange looking,’ according to her, but she was kinda vague about that—along with a woman, and another sim, an old male.”
Luca dropped into his desk chair and cradled his head in his free hand. Cadman and Sullivan. Had to be. Plus that old sim Sullivan kept around, and someone else working with them.
And they had the pregnant sim.
“All right,” Luca said, straightening. This wasn’t FUBAR yet. It still could be salvageable. “We abandon Newark. Divide the remaining men into four teams: one on Sullivan’s apartment, one on his office, one on Cadman’s apartment, one on her office. You see them, grab them.”
“But—”
“I don’t care what you have to do to nab them, just get it done. If there’s any flack we’ll straighten it out later. I want one of those shits and I want them brought to me!”
He’d interrogate them personally and they’d lead him to this pregnant sim. No need to worry about being recognized because whoever he dealt with would not be leaving vertically.
But what if they’d all gone to ground?
12
MINEOLA, NY
“She’s not going to last much longer,” Betsy Cannon said as she angled the doppler wand this way and that against Meerm’s swollen, gel-coated belly.
Romy, Zero, Betsy, and Meerm were crowded into the tiny, white-walled, windowless procedure room in Betsy’s home office. Meerm lay on the table, Betsy working over her, Romy and Zero watching from the other side.
“What do you mean?” Romy said, watching in rapt fascination as the 3-D shape of the fetus within Meerm’s belly formed on the monitor screen.
“Her uterus has taken just about all it can. It’s too small for this baby. Andyet…the baby could use more gestation time.”
At least Zero had his ski mask back on. They’d all agreed on the way here that no one else needed to know Zero’s history. When it was all over—and with Meerm’s baby, that could be very soon—he promised to go public.
The mask made it easier now for Romy, but she wished Zero had waited outside with Patrick and Tome; she was still uncomfortable with him, especially standing next to him like this. And she didn’t want to feel uncomfortable, hated herself for it.
But…how elsecould she feel? She was fighting her way through an emotional maelstrom and still hadn’t regained her bearings. She’d admired Zero so; he’d become a hero in her eyes and in her heart, and that was fine, but she’d also been sexually attracted to him, had fantasized about him, and now…now to learn that he’s not human.
So what?said the ghost of Raging Romy, ever ready to shoutUp yours! to the world. It’s not as if he’s a squid or a plant—he’s a fellow primate.
That was true and real and forward thinking, but another more primitive part of her was repulsed and kept damning her, whispering that in another time, or in a SimGen-less world, Zero would have been born a chimpanzee, destined to spend his days sitting in a jungle sucking ants off a stick.
Sicko evil girl! Wanting to make love with a monkey! Sick! Sick! Sick!
Romy did her best to shut out that voice, but it wouldn’t go away, couldn’t because it was part of her, and that was what so dismayed her. She’d always thought she was better than that.
“How much longer?” Zero asked.
Betsy Cannon brushed back strands of graying hair from her face. “Hard to say. If this were a sim baby I’d say she’s almost due. If human I’d say premature. But this baby…I don’t know. And there’s another problem: Meerm’s uterus is small, smaller even than a breeder sim’s. That baby is packed tight in there, so tight I can’t determine its sex.”
“We could lose the baby?” Romy said.
“It’s a real possibility.”
Romy stared at the color image on the monitor, watched the rapid filling and emptying of the chambers of its little heart, saw the baby move, squirming for comfort in the confines of the too-small womb.
We can’t lose you, she told it. Youmust live. We’re so close now and…the salvation of an entire species rests on you.
“We could lose the mother as well,” Betsy added. “The baby is going to be premature, and I can tell you right now that a vaginal delivery is out of the question. This baby is coming out by section.”
“Cesarean?” Romy said, looking at Meerm’s distended belly. “How…where…?”
“I don’t know.” Betsy’s expression was grim. “Not here, that’s for certain. It’s major surgery and I’m not equipped for that, not unless we intend to sacrifice the mother.”
Romy’s gaze darted to Meerm’s face. The poor sim didn’t have a clue as to who or what they were talking about.
“That’s not an option,” Zero said. The finality in his tone stabbed Romy with a reminder of why she’d been so attracted to him. “Tell me what you need and I’ll arrange it.”
“A sterile operating room and a skilled surgical team,” Betsy said. “Can you manage that?”
“Tall order,” Zero said. His voice had lost some of its confidence.
And then another voice spoke.
“Why Meerm sick?”
They all stared at her a moment, then Betsy spoke.
“You’re not sick, Meerm. You’re going to have a baby.”
Her sloping brow furrowed. “Baby? What is baby?”
“You know babies,” Betsy said. “You must have seen many babies on television.”
The brow furrows deepened. “Baby?”
“Only this won’t be like the human babies you’ve seen. This will be asim baby.” She gave a little shrug as she glanced at Zero and Romy, signifying that she was simplifying the situation as best she could for Meerm.
“Where baby?”
Betsy tapped the sim’s abdomen. “Right in here. And the baby will come out soon.”
“Baby here?” Meerm said, a slow smile of wonder spreading across her face as she gently rubbed her hands across her belly. “Baby inside? Baby kick-kick-kick?”
“Oh, yes!” Betsy laughed. “I’ll bet that baby’s been kick-kick-kicking like crazy!”
As they all watched Meerm gaze at her belly, a question occurred to Romy.
“Will she be able to care for a baby?” she said softly.
“She won’t have to worry a bit,” Betsy said. “That baby will getgreat care. As a one-of-a-kind species, it will belong to the world.”
“No, it will belong to Meerm. It will beher baby. We’re not going to forget that, are we?”
“Ah, Romy,” Zero said through a sigh. “That’s why we need you: to ask the tough questions.”
Something in his voice struck her…did Zero…could Zero feel about her the way she…?
No. Out of the question. He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t.
13
SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ
“Let’s get this started,” said Sinclair-1, spinning his chair away from the winter-browned hills beyond his office window to face Luca and Abel Voss. “I’ve still got a lot to do today.”
Luca thought the CEO looked particularly irritable this afternoon. That was going to get worse when he heard Luca’s news. Normally he’d relish the prospect of upsetting him, but not now. All the blame rested squarely on him.
“We’re waiting for your brother.”
Voss shifted his bulk in his chair to face Luca. “I thought he wasn’t comin.”
“I called and told him this was too important to miss,” Luca replied.
Sinclair-1 gave him a questioning stare. Luca only nodded. Yes, they’d agreed that Ellis would be excluded from tactical meetings, but Luca had a reason. He was sure Sinclair-2 already knew that Meerm had been snatched from under SIRG’s nose, and damn well knew who had done it; he was going to use Sinclair-2 to bait a trap for the people he’d been supplying with information.
