Rannu was nodding. His face was cold and emotionless. I was pretty sure that he wanted to hurt this man as much as I did. To an extent Cronin was right – I didn’t want to torture him because I didn’t like to think of myself as that sort of person, but I would if I had to. I wouldn’t lose much sleep either.
‘You remember me, don’t you, Cronin?’ Merle said. Cronin’s icon blanched. ‘Well, you know what I was capable of on a job. Now imagine I’m angry because my sister got killed. Now imagine that I hold you at least partially responsible for that.’
‘That wasn’t me! That was Rolleston! I’m telling you, he’s sick! He’s completely lost it! Same with the torture. It was all him!’ The boardroom polish was slipping. His Detroit street roots could be heard now.
‘Arsehole, there’s only one deal to make and it’s with us. And the only deal is that you make it to the end of this voyage,’ Mudge told him.
Cronin looked around at us all. I don’t think he liked what he saw.
‘You’re all fucking crazy. You’ve no idea what an asset I am,’ he said desperately.
‘Convince us,’ Mudge told him. ‘If you live long enough then you can make your deal when we get back.’
Like fuck, I thought.
Cronin had my attention now though I couldn’t stop looking over at Black Annis from time to time. She would never meet my eyes.
‘So you and Rolleston wanted to rule the world and now you’ve had a falling out?’ Mudge asked.
‘No. That wasn’t what we were going to do.’
‘Oh no, this is the next big step for humanity,’ I said acidly.
‘We evolve to slavery?’ Mudge asked.
Cronin looked pained. He had an expression on his face that suggested even if he explained it to us very carefully, using small words, we still wouldn’t get it.
‘Have you ever thought about the potential of each individual, even the dumbest, least ambitious and least imaginative? If nothing else they have huge potential for industry, potential vastly enhanced by our interface with technology. Then think about all the intelligent, ambitious, imaginative and hard-working members of the human race. Now imagine what we could accomplish if all of us pulled together. If we all locked step and moved forward trying to improve ourselves as a race, as a whole, instead of bickering and fighting over ultimately meaningless things. With the war we’ve seen what humanity can accomplish almost working together, the leaps in technology, the co-operation—’
‘The constant fucking misery,’ I added.
‘Now imagine we don’t require the stimulus of an external threat. Imagine every one of us is working together towards a common goal, the progress of us as a species. Imagine what we would accomplish.’
‘Is this how you sell totalitarianism to yourself?’ Mudge asked.
Cronin looked deeply frustrated. ‘How do you walk upright?’ he demanded.
‘We understand you. You’re not the smartest person in this room by a long shot,’ I snapped, angry at his patronising tone.
‘It’s not Jakob either,’ Mudge said, grinning.
I glared at him. He was right though.
‘Look, you’ve been told a lie. We don’t all have a right to what we want. Sacrifices have to be made. We are talking about a vast paradigm change. We’re talking about humanity becoming an almost new organism.’
‘You’re talking about the death of individuality,’ Morag said.
Why was our interrogation sounding like a philosophy discussion? I hated this bullshit. It was wank that got in the way of life. Why couldn’t people just get on with it?
‘Yes!’ Cronin shouted enthusiastically. ‘But you say that as if it’s a bad thing. At the root of it all we’re all just one step away from lizard-brained animals. We’ve been brainwashed to the point where all we can think of is our own selfish desires. We were going to work together, all of us.’ Then he looked around. ‘I mean, individuality, how’s that working out for you? You all happy?’
Again his smugness left me with the strong urge to hit him.
‘I am,’ Mudge said.
‘Mr Mudgie, I have actually read your profile. You’re not happy; you’re on drugs. There is a difference. Look, everyone in the world is miserable—’
‘You’ve been a significant contributor in that,’ Pagan said.
‘And everyone’s lonely.’ I saw Mudge glance involuntarily at Merle. I wondered if Morag was looking at me. ‘The experiment of individuality has failed.’
‘Free choice isn’t an experiment,’ I said angrily.
‘No, it’s an illusion. You’ve had little choice throughout your life. Anything that feels like free will has always been within parameters set by others. The closest you came to breaking that resulted in a conflict that may destroy humanity. Do you understand how selfish and destructive it is?’
‘We could just as easily lay that responsibility at your door,’ Pagan told him. ‘All we wanted to do was give people the chance to understand what was going on and make decisions themselves.’
‘People don’t want that. People want easy lives.’
‘Which they don’t have,’ I said.
‘People want others to make the hard decisions for them. Most people barely want to think. The reason that Earth is mobilising to fight us, the reason that people like you were sent after us, was because other powerful people have a lot to lose if we’d succeeded. Whether you like it or not, we were going to give people what they wanted. You see, all the pain you feel is because of your individuality. We were going to end that. We were finally and for all time going to make humanity both happy and constructive.’
‘A perfectly ordered clockwork society,’ Pagan said.
‘This is bullshit,’ Merle said. ‘I don’t want to hear him justify himself.’
‘But thank you for your contribution, Mr Sommerjay, and yours, Mr Nagarkoti, and of course –’ he turned to look at Pagan ‘– we couldn’t have done it without your help, Mr Simm.’
Pagan looked stricken. The rigours of the mission, the repeated wounds, the guilt at his betrayal, all seemed to have aged Pagan, even in here.
Good. Fuck him.
‘How?’ I asked. ‘Have Demiurge possess everyone? That’ll only work on everyone with neural cybernetics.’ Then I realised that thanks to the war that was almost everyone, certainly everyone that mattered. Mattered. I was starting to think like them.
‘Possession by Demiurge wouldn’t lead to co-operation; it would lead to an orgy of pain, violence and suffering that would finally wipe us out,’ Rannu said.
Cronin was nodding.
‘Good plan then,’ Mudge commented.
‘Mr Nagarkoti is correct. It would, but Demiurge was only a part of what we’d planned and it didn’t turn out quite the way we thought it would.’
‘So how?’ I asked again, getting more irritated.
‘We were going to remake humanity. Nanite biotechnology derived from Themtech. Imagine Them but with drive, imagination, purpose, creativity, skills and knowledge.’
I’m not sure why, but the thought filled me with horror. It made me think of humanity as a swarm of hungry insects eating everything in its way across the stars.
Merle laughed. ‘This is evil-genius bullshit. This is like some viz. Nobody does this shit,’ he said. Maybe he was trying to convince himself.
‘Mr Sommerjay, once you get to a certain level of influence, subverting governments and mass-controlling populations becomes relatively easy. All we were doing was utilising technology available to us in the most useful manner for humanity.’
‘And you can do this?’ I asked. Cronin just looked at me as if I was stupid. Of course they could. ‘Delivery?’ I asked. Now Cronin seemed surprised. I saw some of the others exchange glances.
‘I don’t know. I assumed that was the information you took from Demiurge at the Citadel.’ He was looking around at us questioningly.
‘Jakob was injured; he hasn’t been briefed yet,’ Pagan told Cronin as
if he was reassuring him.
Cronin turned back to me. ‘It’s nanotechnology, Mr Douglas. It will not be difficult to smuggle to Earth and infect the populace.’
‘Didn’t even tell you, huh?’ I asked.
‘It was compartmentalised. It wasn’t my area of responsibility. I didn’t need to know.’ Obviously Rolleston was really paranoid.
‘I’m interested why you get to make this decision for us?’ Morag demanded.
‘Because they have the power and the resources to fuck with us. Same as it ever was,’ Merle said.
Cronin was nodding. ‘Humanity elected us to do it. If not, we would not have been allowed to manoeuvre ourselves into the situation we find ourselves.’
‘Or to put it another way, you’re arrogant and delusional pricks who think you know what’s best for us,’ Mudge replied.
‘Besides, surely the fact that we’re all here shows that people don’t want this,’ Rannu said quietly.
‘Or it’s a knee-jerk fear reaction before a major change.’
‘And you’d be joining the collective?’ Mudge asked.
‘People need to—’ Cronin began.
‘I thought not.’
‘There are management concerns and issues of vision.’
‘Oh yes, we couldn’t have a rudderless race of zombies roaming space,’ Mudge said sarcastically.
‘They don’t have masters,’ Morag said. ‘They are a true collective.’
The fact that she was sticking up for Them angered me for some reason.
‘They are also not truly sentient and only react to stimuli. We’re talking about our race acting in perfect concert.’
‘You’re talking about a human hive mind,’ Morag said.
‘And you’re talking about controlling it. That’s too much power,’ Rannu said.
Cronin was starting to look uncomfortable.
‘If you’re controlling it but not part of the hive, then won’t that make you the dumbest human alive?’ I asked.
Now Cronin was looking really uncomfortable. He didn’t answer.
Pagan got there first. ‘Unless you weren’t just part of it but were controlling it.’
I watched Cronin’s icon swallow hard. I couldn’t quite get my head around it. What humanity would look like, how it would act.
‘You understand that the very act of taking on that mantle, of ascending, would change the person who did it. You’re thinking that it would be me. It would not; it would be an ascended being that was once me.’ Now he sounded uncomfortable.
‘Is this what the Cabal were up to?’ Mudge asked.
‘No, they were small frightened men,’ Cronin said.
‘Who was?’ I asked. I knew the answer. There was a look close to awe on Cronin’s face.
‘What’s this about?’ Pagan suddenly demanded.
‘Apotheosis,’ Cronin said.
Mudge and Pagan were looking close to fear. I was just getting pissed off.
‘What the fuck does that mean?’ I demanded.
‘To become divine,’ Mudge said quietly.
‘This is Rolleston’s plan, isn’t it?’ Pagan asked. ‘He wants to be God.’
Cronin nodded. ‘Rolleston is a great man. Only he saw the true potential in Themtech.’ Then his face crumpled and he started to sob. I don’t think any of us were quite expecting this. His icon was programmed for real tears as well.
‘You’re all so fucking British about this sort of thing. It would’ve been better if we’d tortured this out of him,’ Merle said.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!’ Cronin wailed.
I pointed at him. ‘See, if you’re going to betray someone that’s the correct reaction.’
Annis looked angry but then it was the icon’s default expression. Pagan at least looked embarrassed and guilty. Mudge thought it was funny.
‘That’s assuming you give a shit. It’s not betrayal if your victim’s a whining bitch,’ Merle said. It may have been an attempt at humour.
‘How did you fall from his grace?’ Pagan asked.
‘Look, Rolleston is not an ordinary man like you or me. He can’t be judged by our criteria,’ Cronin told us a little too earnestly for my taste. It seemed he was desperate for us to understand, to see what he saw when he looked at him.
‘We don’t care about judging him, just killing him,’ I said. Merle and Rannu were nodding. Cronin look shocked. Like I’d said something blasphemous.
‘Even now after I’ve explained it to you, all you can think of is your own petty base desires?’ he demanded.
‘If you want to put it that way.’
‘It’s all I can ever think about,’ Mudge added.
‘You can’t understand this because you are simple-minded terrorists who want to drag everything down to your own sordid level.’
‘We understand it. We just like our sordid level,’ Mudge explained. Cronin shook his head in mock sympathy. ‘No, Mr Mudgie, you do not. Because you have never been part of anything extraordinary.’
‘Fucking the Cabal over was quite extraordinary,’ I said. Rannu, Pagan and Mudge were all nodding.
‘Because it was working against something not for something.’
Merle moved forward and before anyone could stop him grabbed one of Cronin’s fingers and snapped it. Cronin screamed.
‘Not sure that was going to work in here,’ Merle said.
Cronin was rocking back and forth in his chair clutching his finger. It was at an odd angle.
‘Not only did it work; it has probably damaged the finger on his real body,’ Pagan told him with a slight air of disapproval.
With a look of twisted satisfaction Merle grabbed the finger again and twisted it. ‘Get to the fucking point!’ he shouted, accompanied by Cronin’s screams, before letting go of the broken virtual finger. Merle stood over Cronin while Cronin tried to compose himself through the tears of pain.
‘He has certain proclivities. Like I said, he is a great man. He does not have the tastes that normal men like us have.’
‘What did he do?’ Morag asked quietly. I could hear her starting to get angry.
‘There are places where you can go and do things—’
‘Snuff houses,’ Morag said through gritted, grinding teeth.
‘A bit more sophisticated than that,’ he said.
‘Pretentious, up-market snuff houses,’ Mudge suggested.
I was impressed that Cronin had the ability to look irritated through the pain.
‘He didn’t just go there to kill people.’ I almost killed him when he glanced over at Annis as he said that. She was staring at Cronin with barely controlled fury. ‘He changed their flesh – made them something new.’
‘He ever let you watch?’ Mudge asked in disgust.
The answer was written all over Cronin’s face.
‘So he liked to torture people and then kill them?’ Morag growled.
‘No! You don’t understand. It was something to do with his past …’
‘What?’ Pagan demanded, leaning forward, getting sucked into the story.
‘I don’t know. It was why the Cabal recruited him in the first place, before the war!’
‘Because he was a loony?’ Mudge asked.
‘No, you don’t understand. He thought beyond us; he transcended our morality, which isn’t really our morality any more anyway …’ He was searching for the right way to explain but couldn’t seem to find it. He had a point about morality though. I thought about all the things I’d done just to survive. Something was broken within the entire human race.
‘How could we not know this?’ I asked Pagan angrily. ‘How could God not know this?’
‘There must be no trace of it electronically anywhere,’ Pagan said, but he looked baffled.
‘It makes sense. These places are very careful about their privacy and the privacy of their clients – no records, no surveillance,’ Morag said. She was still staring at Cronin, who seemed to be shrinking from her glare.
‘You know about these places?’ I asked.
She turned to fix me with a stare. Her eyes were black pools. I saw my icon reflected and made small in them.
‘There were always rumours. There was a boy … his name was Michael … prettiest boy I ever saw. One night some people came for him in a very expensive aircar. We never saw him again. The following day MacFarlane was suddenly a lot richer.’
‘That doesn’t mean—’ Merle started.
Morag silenced him with a look.
‘He’s not lying; look at him,’ she said.
She was right. The cool, calm and contained corporate troubleshooter was slowly being whittled away to reveal a craven apostle.
‘So Rolleston’s a sick fuck. Anyone surprised?’ Mudge asked.
‘Actually yes,’ I said. ‘I always thought he was a cold bastard who didn’t give a shit about anything but getting the job done. I thought he was more like Merle than a psycho. No offence.’ This last to Merle.
It wasn’t until I’d been possessed and then the Citadel that I’d got a glimpse of what Rolleston was really like.
‘None taken. I’d agree with that,’ Merle said. It wasn’t a huge shock that they’d worked together. To me anyway; some of the others didn’t look happy. Particularly Rannu. Merle leaned in close to Cronin. ‘But I think you’d better get to the fucking point.’
Cronin flinched away from him.
‘He merged with Demiurge too early.’
Everyone around the room reacted visibly or audibly except Rannu. I went cold. It was like someone taking a shit in my soul.
‘Rolleston and Demiurge are the same?’ Rannu voiced my fear. His voice sounded tight, like he was being strangled. I knew how he felt. We’d both been some fragment of Rolleston. The ultimate infiltration. The ultimate violation. I got to see what an approximation of sympathy looked like on Annis’s hag-like features. It just made me feel worse.
‘Then the biotech. He started experimenting. Started changing people, making them something else. Something monstrous. Like they were toys, playthings.’ I thought back to the hackers in the ice. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Rolleston had seen that as a practical application of biotechnological engineering in his twisted mind. ‘I had to load my internal drug reservoir with downers just to cope with the horror. He enjoyed watching them grow, the pain it caused them. I just wasn’t strong enough. That’s why Crom – Gregor MacDonald – was the way it was. Why it looked the way it did. Why it …’ Suddenly he looked around all the hard faces in the room and realised this wasn’t the audience for that particular discussion.
War in Heaven Page 57
