“I’m Joey. That’s Nina.” He pointed at Hugo. “That’s Proscion, and this is―”
“Ahh, Miss Emily.” He leaned on a cane topped with a ruby-eyed silver skull, and smiled at her. “It is good to see you again.”
Emily curtsied at the huge man; Joey’s eyes slid back and forth between them, not knowing what to make of their familiarity.
“Hugo…” Shabundo shook his head. “You looked much better the last time we spoke.”
Emily took a step towards the giant man. “Please, he needs you to help him; he has a body to use now. After what happened, you promised to make it up to him.”
Ghede looked at the little body in Nina’s arms, leaning back with a laugh that echoed through the Bayou. When it stopped, his eyes had tears at the corners. “A strange man you are, my friend. But I will keep my promise.”
“Please.” His hand left the cane to gesture at the open door.
Joey stared at the metal skull and got the strangest feeling it looked back at him. Nina entered first, pivoting to avoid hitting the doorframe with the inert girl. Joey pushed Hugo in with Emily keeping her hand on the chair. Shabundo entered behind them.
Ritual objects, candles, hanging beads, tapestries, bowls of animal parts, and small dolls surrounded an altar at one end. Mr. Ghede was nothing if not theatrical. He indicated the altar to Nina, and she set the synthetic down and folded the girl’s arms over her chest. She thought about it for a moment and adjusted them to her sides so she did not look so dead. At Shabundo’s urging, Joey moved Hugo up alongside the table. Emily stood holding Hugo’s hand, dutiful at his side.
“What you are about to see will shake da very fabric ‘o da world ta you.” Ghede walked around, lighting candles as his voice filled the room with its harmonious cadence. “I will not ‘old it against ya if you wish ta wait outside. Not many can witness dis without forever changin’ their outlook on da way things are.”
“On that note.” Joey ducked through the door without a second thought.
Nina cast an uneasy glance at Hugo, and then at Ghede. She took a deep breath, figuring that the old man had come here by his choice. Whatever happened was not on her conscience. Ghede drifted about, now strangely nimble for a man his size. He lit candle after candle, muttering under his breath in a foreign dialect. In the dim light, the phantasmal shapes of small white skulls glowed from within his eyes. She switched through several vision modes, but the skulls remained. The only explanation was a mental hallucination; not true light.
On thermal, she caught a glimpse of a human-shaped outline of cold standing at Ghede’s side, moving as if helping with the ritual.
She offered a polite smile and darted outside, moving at a brisk walk to where Joey stood, leaning against the railing. Emily appeared in the doorway and stared at them for a minute. She offered a cute smile, and then closed it, remaining within. Shabundo’s voice boomed through the wall in a dialect neither of them could understand.
“Does that guy think he’s invoking magic or something?” Joey pointed back over his shoulder with an incredulous face. “I didn’t think psionics needed to do that.”
Nina shrugged. “Some of them use focuses to help them concentrate. His might just be ascribing a ritual nature to it.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you…” Joey’s voice trailed off to a whisper as he stared at the swamp.
Smoky fog exuded from the water as the chanting got louder. A spiral quality developed and it thickened. Soon, the whirling mist obscured their view of the whispercraft as it built into a slow cyclone around the cabin. A chill ran down Nina’s back and a fright settled through her that she had not felt since the closet monster roared at her when she was five. She grabbed Joey’s hand.
He put his arm around her back. “Oh come on, he’s probably got smoke piping under the water around the house. These guys put on one hell of a show.”
“This doesn’t feel right.” She shivered. “I’m honestly scared right now and I don’t know why.”
Her thermal scan picked up distinct cold swaths moving independently of the mist; some of them formed human silhouettes.
Joey played the part of the protector, but could not understand what could scare someone with a body like hers. He felt ridiculous trying to act tough compared to a woman who could throw a car. Footsteps on the deck made them both jump; Nina clung to him like a security blanket. Joey squirmed, forcing a smile at a robust woman in a white and red floral print dress with a matching cloth around her hair. The woman approached bearing a tray containing two bowls.
She offered them a bowl of gumbo and a glass of lemonade each. “Greetings. Please, accept our hospitality.”
Nina did not move an inch as Joey took the tray and thanked her for her kindness. The woman smiled and walked back into the house.
“Hey. What’s up? Why the statue routine?” Joey tickled her in the side.
She looked at him, her face paler than normal. “That woman had no body heat. Only the bowls were red.”
Joey laughed figuring that Nina was just messing with him. He ignored the rising crescendo of chanting and attacked the food. Some of his confidence rubbed off on Nina and she distracted herself eating. It would be rude to decline it, and the fragrance was wonderful.
By the time the bowl was empty, Joey had the same look on his face that Nina had moments before. The fog had thickened to the point it felt as though the house had transported itself to another dimension. Everything beyond ten yards from the porch had been lost to opaque white fog, and he could have sworn he saw human figures drifting past. Bright white light flooded over them as reality turned photonegative with a pulse of strong energy. Joey closed his eyes and tried to distance his mind from what went on around him. He felt the presence of dozens of eyes upon him.
A familiar scent snapped Nina out of her trancelike stare at the mist. She moved without a word to the corner of the house. Her fingers touched her mouth in shock at the sight of Vincent at the end of the deck, out where the wood planking went over the water. The railing was visible right through him. He stood at attention, hat tucked under his arm and in his dress blues, the same ones he had been cremated in. Nina wanted to cry, but his presence radiated happiness. He looked at her with the faintest trace of a nod before his visage faded backwards into the rotating fog. She clasped her hands to her chest, leaning against the house.
“Are you okay?” Joey’s voice came over her right shoulder.
She turned and leaned into him.
“Yeah. I think I am.”
Joey held her; her trembles ceased and she felt relaxed. A sound as though a giant creature inhaled a great breath rolled over the area, making them look up at the absence of fog. The brackish water off the back porch was still and glasslike, save for the wakes left by several large bugs skimming along.
A tug at Joey’s coat made him turn. The synthetic girl stared up at him with gleaming emerald eyes.
“We can go now.” She smiled and looked down at herself. “Thank you for the dress, it’s so pretty!”
Aaaah! It’s alive! Joey would have leapt away if not for Nina standing against him. H…Holy shit, it worked!
She sounded so much like a little kid that Joey shivered with unease and tried to stamp out the part of him that knew the mind of a seventy-year-old man controlled it.
What if the old man believed his delusions? I guess if his brain is gone, maybe he is a child again.
“Are you okay, Joey? Your heart rate is going nuts.” Nina squeezed his hand.
He gave her a helpless chuckle and pointed at Kelly.
Emily walked up alongside her new sister, appearing as happy as the WellTech dolls were supposed to look.
The porch groaned with the weight of Shabundo Ghede as he ambled out of the building. A heavy sheen of sweat glistened on his face and he seemed out of breath.
Joey looked up at him. “Where’s Hugo?”
Ghede smiled. “You’re looking at her.” His tired laugh resounded off the trees
and chased birds into the air. Even he seemed a tad uncomfortable with what had happened.
Joey cringed. “I mean, you know…”
“I shall deal with ‘is remains in accordance with tradition.” Ghede looked down at Kelly. “Your favor has been repaid. Go now and enjoy it. But know this.” He turned and looked out over the water. “Do no ill, lest those who watch over the realm of the dead find you undeserving of this gift.”
Kelly nodded with a gulp.
“I shall rest now. Please, stay as long as you like. If you need anything, Abeni will be happy to provide. You have but to call out for her.” His silken voice stilled the noises of the wildlife in the swamp.
The big man bowed his head to all and went without another word back into the house. Joey sent a longing stare to the whispercraft and Nina shared the sentiment. They carried the girls back to the plane, sparing them the dirt. Joey stayed in the main cabin as they lifted off, looking at the two as they fussed with each other’s hair. Emily did seem to be at least a little confused at the transition from daughter to older sister, and seeing her stumble with it made Joey feel a little less crazy.
Once they leveled off at altitude, Kelly hopped out of her seat and walked over to him. “The hair isn’t red, but I love it. Synthetic?”
Joey nodded.
She beamed. “No one will ever know, unless they try to read my mind.”
“So, um…”
“Some ghosts can take over machines. Division 0’s network has a lot of interesting stuff on it; you should poke around there when you can. Shabundo pulled mine out of that horrible body and fused it to this one.”
He closed his eyes. There would be much tequila tonight. “That’s not what I was going to ask.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. Without a soul our bodies are just material. Does it really matter if it’s cytoplasm and bone or plastic and metal?” She fixed him with a sincere look. “I have a soul that makes this body who I am, how is that less of a person than being trapped in a meat sack that can’t even wipe its own ass? I can feel and I have emotions; I even need to eat so this body has raw materials for the maintenance nanobots. By the time that I forget who Hugo was, I will more than likely forget that the body was manufactured.”
Nina looked down at herself, as the tiny voice flooded the cabin. After a moment of reflection, she looked up with a contented smile. Streams of glowing letters and lines animated her flight path over the billowy clouds that rushed by.
“Yeah, that’s something you could write a doctoral thesis on.” Joey crossed his arms. “Anyway, about that info you offered?”
“Oh. Right.” Kelly slapped herself in the forehead. “I’m sorry, I was so happy it slipped my mind.” She cheered and hugged herself. “I couldn’t have asked for a better body! I can’t believe it! You really went overboard.”
“You have no idea.” Joey gazed at the roof.
Kelly spun back and forth, making her dress flare out. “Look for a man named Sho Wantanabe and ask him about Imoru Kitsune. Sorry… Kitsune, Imoru… they reverse the order over there.”
“Any idea where I should start looking?”
She ground the toe of her shoe into the ground with her fingers interlaced behind her back and flashed a coy smile. “Maaaaaybe.”
The awkwardness was enough to make Joey feel sick. “What do you want now?”
She giggled. “Will you find us a home? My original plan was to just run around the city until I got picked up by social services, but I don’t want to get separated from my sister.”
“They’re going to think she’s a WellTech doll and put her up for sale.” Nina’s voice drifted in from the cockpit.
“No!” both girls yelled.
“I doubt it.” Joey shook his head. “She doesn’t act like one.” He glanced out the window at the retreating swampland. “I have the strangest feeling they’re more alike than I want to admit.”
Emily gave him a meaningful look.
Joey glanced at her. “She’ll pass the test to get protection under the Sentience Act.”
Nina’s voice came over the intercom. “There’s another possibility, at least for a couple of years.”
The two girls looked toward the front.
Kelly was the first to speak. “What?”
“My parents would probably take them in. They really wanted grandkids and…”
Joey wanted Nina in his life, but to have this creepiness attached to her was not a pleasant thought. Emily was eerie enough but Kelly took wrong to an entirely different level. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out. Maybe in time he could forget all about the wrinkled old man.
“Is that legal?” Joey tried one weak attempt to preserve his sanity.
“Why not? One’s a doll and one’s undocumented. Not to sound crass, but actual kids need the system more than they do.”
“What about your dad? I thought he had a pretty low opinion of dolls…” Joey winced.
Nina’s tone darkened. “He doesn’t need to know. Besides, these are the kind of daughters he always wanted.”
Joey chuckled. “He’ll get the hint when neither one of them gets older.”
Emily frowned while Kelly smiled.
Nina turned her attention back to flying. “I’ll worry about that when it happens. Once they have their documentation, it shouldn’t be a problem.” Bastard wanted grandkids, he can take what I can offer.
“I guess.” He looked at Kelly. “So tell me what the Silver hack was about?”
“StarPoint data. The file contained specs on some research facility out in the Badlands. Access codes, maps, that sort of thing. Nothing looked all that strange, a lot of companies have stuff out there.”
“What about my patrol route change?” Nina’s voice trickled into the room.
Kelly shrugged. “That wasn’t me. But I think Wantanabe can answer everything for you.” She grinned at Joey. “I’m not going to be hacking anymore coz I’m trying to forget about who I used to be. Go to Edmonson Memorial Starport and find locker 013370. The key is at the warehouse where you found me, hidden in a pipe behind the Meridian under a little plastic penguin. My old deck is in that locker, you can have it.”
“It’s not pink is it?” Joey smirked.
Both girls giggled. Kelly shook her head. “Nope.”
ina stared at the wall of text in front of her as line after line turned yellow. All of the feelers she had sent out into the net to hunt for traces of Itai’s involvement with the Mossad came back inconclusive. Even Hardin’s old friend from C-Branch had turned up nothing. The way he had trounced Joey in cyberspace at first made her think Itai might have been an alternate avatar of Proscion, though that idea shriveled up in an old hover-chair somewhere in the swamp.
“What’s the occasion?” Hardin’s lean followed his voice into her office.
“What?” Nina looked up.
He let himself in and closed the door, indicating the ceiling with a wave as he approached. “You have the lights on. You never have the lights on.”
“No reason.” Nina leaned back in the chair. “Well, maybe a change of mindset.”
Harold smiled. “What’s his name? Off the record, it’s about damn time.”
Her gaze flicked back to the terminal.
“I won’t patronize you too much. I hope you know what you’re doing with that Dillon fellow.”
Nina looked up; a job with Division 9 came with a low expectation of privacy. She knew how closely the government could watch someone, but she still felt a bit violated.
“He’s harmless. Someone is… Whoever did this wanted to set him up to be our fall guy. I am starting to think we may be looking for one hacker instead of two operatives. Did you look at the report from Net Ops? Whoever this is tried to have Division 1 assassinate him.”
“I saw that. We have been keeping a lid on the whole Karsson-Neimand problem. We are not yet ready to release that information before we know how easy it is to pull off. I trust you’ll be arranging a trip to
Miami for whoever is responsible for that?”
“You want me to kill someone for hacking K-N?”
“Think of the security risk.”
Nina drew a long breath and closed her eyes. “Alright, but I won’t kill a kid.”
“You really think a child could do this?” Hardin laughed.
She picked at her terminal. “You’d be surprised what kids can do.”
“I understand. You haven’t been around long enough to get desensitized to vacationing.”
Nina shifted her gaze to his. “If I ever get desensitized to vacationing, I’m going to Miami myself.”
Hardin smiled, enjoying the paradox that he had come to know so well. Doll agents often got more emotional about taking life, especially ones like Nina that did not have a normal body waiting for them. The more machine they were, the more human they acted.
He smiled. “We think that Nemsky may have been reassigned. We have not been able to authenticate that file you received about his early retirement.”
“It’s true it could be a deep cover transition, but the information might be legit. Look at how difficult it was for us to find him, Nemsky had no record of any training in covert operations. Add to that we found a doll made to look like him with an AI emulation of his personality. Someone made an AI of Joey’s father; why not Nemsky?” She loosed an exasperated breath. Or Vincent.
“For what purpose?” Hardin stood up.
“When I find that out, I’ll know what’s going on.” She waved her arm over her desk; each holo screen collapsed into nothing as her hand passed through it. “You know what just occurred to me? Some hackers just do things to see if they can do them. Maybe the reason we have not been able to find anything is that there is no plan at all. What if someone’s just waving their dick at us because they can?”
He pondered for a moment. “Leaving early?”
“Harold, it’s almost seven. I’ve been here ten hours.”
“That never stopped you before.” He opened the door for her, falling in step alongside her as she went to the parking deck.
“Staring at those files won’t get me anywhere. I’m just taking a dinner break.”
Virtual Immortality Page 58
