Neurolink

by M M Buckner

  “What are you doing?”

  She shoved him aside and wrenched off one of his cyber-nails. “We can’t leave the miners’ money in ZahlenBank. I know a nice little church in Australia.”

  “The South? Oh my.” Elsa bit her finger.

  Dominic was stunned. Qi wanted to move the money South? She couldn’t mean that. The South was unsafe. Too scandalized to react, he let her take the rest of his cybernails and put them on her fingers. Australia was full of gangsters and free agents, and Southerners ran their businesses like open-air bazaars. They never took pains to amass wealth for the future. He grabbed her hand. “We don’t know anything about their banking laws.”

  “Have you been there?”

  “Have you?”

  Qi elbowed him away and didn’t answer. Very few Northerners chose to journey across the broiling equatorial latitudes to reach the southern hemisphere. Dominic had always wanted to go, but it was easier to visit the moon than the southern pole. The South was a place of legend, a wild frontier about which Northerners knew very little. Automated agents blocked every southern Net site to prevent the spread of viruses. The South drew Dominic’s curiosity and suspicion in equal measures.

  Qi started tapping icons. “If we leave this money at ZahlenBank, sooner or later, your dear old Da will steal it back.”

  “But the South.” He shook his head.

  “Let me show you something.”

  She opened a browser, and a new pane of light shimmered in the air. The heading read, “Perth Church of Constant Necessity.” In the background was a real-time image of the Milky Way, beamed from some orbiting observatory. Dominic browsed the church’s menu: Health, Games, Arts, Shopping, Finance.

  “You intend to put money here?” He was flabbergasted.

  “Yes, I do,” Qi said.

  “This is a Southern site. How did you get past the blocking agents?” Elsa asked.

  “My former boss showed me a trick or two.” Qi flicked the icon to Send Deposit Now.

  While Dominic watched, the balance in his new alias account began to dwindle away as fast as it appeared. “We didn’t discuss this!”

  “I discussed it with the council. They think this is best.”

  “Those amateurs! Those lunatics!”

  “Those protes. That’s what you mean. Say it!” Qi rose on her knees and faced him with hard fists and blazing Asian eyes. She looked furious and exhausted, and when she punched his chest, it didn’t even hurt.

  He caught her in his arms. “You know me better, Qi.” He held her tight and smelled her hair and watched the money disappearing out of the account. “I only meant we should perform due diligence before transferring large sums of money to this wacko Southern church.”

  Qi leaned back and examined his face. She made him self-conscious. He wished he still had the eye patch to cover his scars.

  She said, “What if I told you this church gave the miners a loan three weeks ago? That’s how they got the new drilling rigs so they could build the colony. How about that?”

  “Oh my.” Elsa quietly opened another package of cybernails and started browsing through the Perth site. She said, “They offer watercolor classes.”

  “Yeah, and they make loans on pure trust,” Qi said. “Is that duly diligent enough for you, mister executive coin machine?”

  “I haven’t used the term ‘prote’ in a long time,” Dominic said. “I’m not the same person. You know that.”

  Qi rocked back and forth in his arms. “I guess.”

  “You know that,” he said.

  This time when she bounced against him for a quick kiss, he was ready. He caught her head between his hands and explored her chapped lips with his tongue. Their teeth clicked together, and he tasted her soft, warm, salty mouth for a long time.

  “Goodness,” Elsa said. “They have digital roulette.”

  The plastic sleep tube echoed with Qi’s boyish laughter. After a second kiss and a third, she disengaged herself from his arms and crowded next to Elsa. “Click the Shopping icon. Girl, we have stuff to buy.”

  Before anything else, Qi paid off the loan because the Perth Church of Constant Necessity had limited capital and needed its money back. Their first purchase was a supertanker of high-grade synthetic fuel to resupply Anzie’s power plant. As more money streamed into their Perth account, they bought a showroom full of the latest new fuel cells with integrated gas turbines to capture waste thermal energy. Soon, all three of them were so engrossed in ordering the newest antibiotics and cancer drugs, Kevlax sealant, rivet guns, diving masks, designer wall paint, a respirator pump, a quantronic loom, that they didn’t notice the ghostly light jetting from one of their spare peripherals. They didn’t see it take form, and swell to man size, and lounge comfortably among the green cases, and casually cross its holographic knees.

  CHAPTER 23

  * * *

  ACCRUAL

  “HOO-HOO! We did it!”

  Qi tossed her cybernails into the air like confetti. In the time it took all ten of the silver claws to hit the sleep tube ceiling, her buy order streamed through the airwaves, ricocheted through a ring of satellites, and zinged into the processing queue at the Perth Church of Constant Necessity. The miners’ merchandise was bought and paid for.

  She hooted again. “The colony’s gonna make it, Nick!”

  “Congratulations, sir,” said Elsa.

  Dominic felt the old charge of elation. A deal closed. Victory in the palm of his hand. He couldn’t hide his smile.

  “Such confidence. It fuckin’ warms my heart.”

  Elsa gasped. The holographic intruder wagged its head and leered at them. It was projecting from one of the dark green cases. The NP—there it sat, clean-cut and resplendent in a tailored pin-striped suit. Qi sprang back and overturned her Net node.

  Dominic crossed his arms. “You’re too late, NP. Frankly, I expected you to trace us before now. Old age must be slowing you down.”

  “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why did I wait till you placed the order?” The hologram snickered.

  “No time for long good-byes, Nick.” Qi tossed him his slippers. “We gotta go.”

  Elsa was already cramming items into a gear bag. If the holographic image was here, its bank guards wouldn’t be far behind. Dominic didn’t bother to pack. By the time he hustled out of the sleep tube, Qi was already halfway down the ladder.

  The NP’s image projected through the open sleep tube door, and its voice followed them. “All I have to do is track your supertanker. It’ll lead me straight to the Benthica.”

  Dominic stopped moving down the ladder. That gloating tone, he despised it. He met the NP’s luminous gray eyes.

  “Move, Nick!” Qi grasped his ankle and yanked him down.

  He helped Elsa off the ladder, and they raced along the narrow hall, Qi first, Dominic next, Elsa trailing behind. In the Rest Nest lobby, half a dozen life-sized NPs beamed from a row of courtesy Net nodes. Hotel guests dropped what they were doing and gawked. The six NPs wagged their heads, and the replicated voices spoke in chorus. “Wherever you’re going, I’m already there.”

  Qi burst through the front door into the tunnel, and Dominic heard sirens wailing. Qi didn’t stop to look around. She ran for the subway entrance, and Dominic and Elsa galloped after her. As they jogged down the entrance ramp, Elsa’s gear bag slipped off her shoulder, and contents spilled across the pavement.

  “Forget it. Let’s go,” Dominic said. He was trying to keep Qi in sight. Elsa’s legs were too short to run fast, so he caught her arm and propelled her forward.

  Cars zipped through the narrow subway at high speed. This route wasn’t meant for pedestrians. In the dim greenish light, they hugged the wall and ran in single file. Qi was far ahead now.

  Abruptly, the NP’s voice projected from a road sign. “All this time you thought you were hiding. I saw you land on the coast. You looked straight up at me. Don’t you remember? I waved.”

  Qi took a turn into a de
eper tunnel, and Dominic dashed for the opening with all the speed he could muster, tugging Elsa along like baggage. The ramp was steep and slick, and he almost lost his footing, but Elsa grabbed him around the waist and kept him steady. She was winded, gasping for breath. She wouldn’t be able to run much farther. When a cop car screeched against the curb right on their heels and trapped them in its spotlight, she let out a cry.

  Dominic got her moving again. Then the NP took shape. It projected from the car window and pretended to run along beside them, mocking their awkward gait. “I saw you hide in the rosebush. I saw you climb the spire. Our spire, Dominic. It belongs to both of us.”

  Qi darted out of the shadows. She lifted Elsa over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and Dominic lumbered after them. They headed for the darkness, trying to outrun the spotlight, but the cruiser followed at a crawl, taunting them. No way could they outdistance a car. Any minute the cops would arrest them, or shoot them, or smash them against the wall.

  The NP’s hologram stopped pretending to run and simply glided along. “I want you back, Dominic. I’ll destroy the Benthica, unless you come back.”

  “He’s lying. He can’t trace the tanker,” Qi yelled between panting breaths. “It’ll be cloaked.”

  “Cloaked like your Devi?” The NP made its snickering noise. “In fact, your tanker just left the dock in Frisco. Its current position is 37 degrees 37 minutes North, 122 degrees 23 minutes West. Close enough for you?”

  “He pulled that out of thin air,” Qi yelled. “Don’t believe him, Nick.”

  “You want to save those charity cases in the submarine?” The NP grinned at Dominic. “Always that soft streak. You’re as bad as your ditz-brain pal, Elsa Bremen.”

  “Bastard!” Qi kicked at the hologram, but her foot passed through the insubstantial light, and she nearly stumbled off balance. Elsa ducked her head.

  As the NP floated along beside them, it pretended to take a folded sheet of printout from its breast pocket, flap it open and hold it out for Dominic to browse. “This is the deal you offered. The miners get their loan. Your whore goes free. And you consent to our merger. Those are your terms, and I accept them. As for your treacherous, thieving Elsa, I’ll even turn a blind eye to her. Pardon the unfortunate cliché.”

  “That deal is off the table.” Dominic loped on without looking at the NP’s contract.

  The hologram raced effortlessly ahead, then turned and skipped backward, facing him with a derisive smile. “You think I’m bluffing?”

  Dominic didn’t bother to answer. He had no faith in the NP’s word. When Qi staggered against the wall, he lifted Elsa from her shoulders.

  “I can run, sir. I’ve got my second wind,” Elsa said.

  “Right.” He set her on her feet, and they took off again.

  “It’s not like I’m asking you to commit crimes, boy. You’ll help me save ZahlenBank and keep the markets alive. You still believe in the markets. The markets feed—”

  Loud car horns blotted out the NP’s voice. A traffic jam was developing behind the slow-moving cruiser. People yelled catcalls and projected obscenities on the tunnel ceiling with their lasers.

  The NP snapped its holographic fingers. “One word, and this comedy comes to an end. I’m giving you a chance, boy. I want you to volunteer.”

  Qi sprinted ahead, and Dominic lost sight of her. It was difficult to see beyond the harsh bright circle of the cop’s spotlight. The cruiser engine whined at his heels, and he asked himself why he kept running. He couldn’t escape. His lungs heaved, his thighs were going rubbery, and Elsa was already falling behind again. When he stopped to wait for her, he bent over and inhaled big drafts of the acrid subway air. He was just on the verge of surrendering when he heard a noise ahead.

  Shuffling feet. A low rustle of voices. Soft at first like running water. Then louder, like a rushing flood. Hastily, the cruiser’s spotlight panned away from Dominic and jittered into the tunnel ahead, lighting the front ranks of an oncoming mob. Even in the dimness, Dominic could see their haggard faces and threadbare clothes. Men, women and children, not one of them in uniform, not a Com logo among them. They were runaways.

  He saw men and boys, old women, children grasping the hands of their mothers. The people carried no weapons, only sacks and suitcases. And they chanted no slogans. They simply walked, holding their infants in their arms, hundreds and hundreds of them. Dominic lurched when he heard the cruiser doors open right behind him. Then he saw the polished black boot of a ZahlenBank guard step out onto the pavement. It was over.

  But then the boot drew back into the car, and the door slammed. He looked up and saw the mob roll around the car like a tide and hem the cops in. The NP’s hologram flickered and broke apart as employees marched through it.

  “Nick! This way!” Qi signaled him toward the wall where she was pressing against the rough concrete to avoid the marchers.

  “You can’t escape me, boy. We’re two sides of the same coin!” the NP thundered. “We belong together.”

  Dominic hurried after Qi, but Elsa caught his hand and stopped him.

  “Sir, this is where I leave you.”

  “Elsa.”

  People buffeted against him as he stood gazing down at her. She ducked her chin bashfully and tugged him closer to the wall. He wanted to argue—he wasn’t about to leave her behind. But then he reconsidered. Perhaps Elsa would be safer away from him.

  “Thank you,” he said, knowing the words sounded void and cheap compared to the enormous price she’d paid to help him.

  She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, sir.” Then she faded into the crowd.

  Dominic pressed flat against the tunnel wall and crept toward Qi. Someone noticed his executive uniform and pointed. People whispered. “It’s the banker. Dominic Jedes.” His name passed among them like a breeze. Girls cast him shy glances, a man clapped him on the shoulder, and a woman touched the hem of his sleeve. Among so many faces, he lost sight of Qi. More sirens yowled as dozens of cop cars converged behind him, but the people moved forward to block them.

  A scream made Dominic stop and look back. The cop cars were plowing into the people, crushing adults and children alike. Strobes reflected on the curved tunnel ceiling, and shrieks echoed against the concrete as cops attacked employees with batons. But the people marched on without hesitation. Gray-faced and silent, they leaned forward as if into a strong wind, and watching them pass, Dominic felt sick. How could the cops do this? But of course, they were executive class. He knew how little respect they had for employee lives. By God, he knew.

  Staggering, he pressed his sweaty hands against the wall, dismayed that these innocent people would offer their bodies to shield him. He couldn’t let this slaughter go on. He was the last person on Earth to deserve their sacrifice. With a fierce, inarticulate cry, he pushed toward the cop cars to give himself up, but then a man wearing a striped blanket reached out and shook his hand.

  “We heard what you did, banker. Some of us took up a collection.” The man pressed a small purse into Dominic’s palm.

  “I can’t take this.” Dominic tried to give the purse back, but the man melted into the throng. “No, please. I don’t deserve a gift. You don’t know me.”

  A yellow-haired woman cried out, “Save yourself, coin man. We’re counting on you.”

  To his amazement, the runaways parted before him to make a clear path for his escape, and the yellow-haired woman motioned for him to flee. Others gestured as well. Go, their silent faces urged him. Finally, Dominic understood. They weren’t giving their lives to save one man. They were saving their hope of survival. He was their only access to money.

  With a will, Dominic turned and ran.

  At the first tunnel intersection, Qi was waiting. “Through here, Nick.”

  They leaped into a coin-operated air chute, and Dominic opened the purse. But the purse didn’t contain money as he expected. It held an artificial eye, a pair of plastic tweezers and a tiny folded sh
eet of documentation, all sealed in sterile cellophane. Dominic dumped it into his palm and stared.

  “We need a coin! Elsa gave you some loose change!” Qi fished in his pocket and fed the slot a coin.

  As the pneumatic cushion plummeted, he felt weightless. Blank. Devoid of content. Not massive enough to fall. And so he soared. A stranger had given him a gift. The eye was an inexpensive model with standard optics and no special features. The color didn’t even match—it was commissary-issue black. But coming from a penniless employee, it was priceless. If a poor man could show such munificence, what could a wealthy man do? He floated above the cushion and found himself expanding beyond his own skin, beyond private hungers and selfish dreams, beyond the limits that defined him. He drifted free of himself and became larger, wider. He felt capable of valor.

  “We’re counting on you,” the yellow-haired woman had said.

  There is no me, Dominic wanted to answer.

  Qi led him into a maintenance area full of growling air exchangers. “No surveillance cameras here. We’re home free, Nick. You did everything you promised. You were wonderful!” She hugged him and kissed him, and her boyish laugh rang louder than the rumbling machinery.

  He was still clutching the artificial eye in his palm, and while Qi danced around him and cheered, he quietly inspected it. By slow degrees, a sense of providence stirred him. “I think I want to wear this.”

  “Sure. Why not.” Qi laughed and switched on a torch so he could read the documentation on his new eye.

  The installation was quick, though a bit painful. Qi stretched his scarred eyelid open while he popped the little orb into place with the tweezers. Its intelligent molecular structure immediately adjusted to the size and shape of his socket and began generating nerve cells and capillary connections. The owner’s manual said it would assemble a bridge to the optic nerve and become fully functional in about an hour.

  “Are you okay for another run?” she asked. “We’ll sneak into the airport and steal a car.”