Like you? he thought. Not a chance. I’m nothing like you.
But was he so sure? The possibility made him queasy.
12
BROOKLYN
Romy lay in bed in her apartment in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. The Ackenbury at Large closing credits had just begun to roll when her PCA chimed.
“Are you alone?” said Zero’s voice.
“Aren’t I always?”
“You really need to get more of a life, Romy.”
“Maybe I’m waiting for you to take off that mask.”
“It’s off.”
“And if I were there, would I like what I saw?”
“I doubt it very much.”
She laughed. “Come on—”
“Romy…” He sighed. “You don’t seem to be enjoying life.”
“You sound like my mother.”
She and her mother still spoke three or four times a week. Her parents divorced when she was a teen—her fault, she knew—and her mother had never remarried. But she had a job, men friends, women friends, a bridge club. In other words, a life.
So do I, Romy thought. Sort of.
She had her job at OPRR. She had her ballet—she’d spent two hours working out on the bar tonight and had the sore hips to prove it—and she had Zero and the organization. But beyond that…
Friends were a problem. Always had been. She’d had no girlfriends growing up—her wild mood swings saw to that—and still had trouble being one of the girls. As for men, she had plenty of offers, and she’d had her flings, but most of them seemed tissue thin. Nobody with a fraction of Zero’s substance.
She had a life, damn it. Getting justice for the sims—wasn’t that enough?
But it was so frustrating. She’d read up on the civil rights movements of the fifties and sixties, looking for inspiration. But that had been different. Those seeking justice then had been human, and could march in the streets to demand it. Sims weren’t human, and the idea of joining a movement or even a single protest march was completely beyond them.
So people like her and Zero had to work behind the scenes.
“Were you watching?” Zero said.
“Of course.”
Usually she did the early-to-bed/early-to-rise thing, but tonight she’d stayed up to see how Reverend Eckert came across; like everyone else, she had been stunned by Patrick Sullivan’s sudden appearance.
“What did you think?” Zero said.
“First tell me if you knew Sullivan was going to appear.”
“Not a clue. But I’m glad he did.”
“So am I…I think.”
“He said things that needed saying. And anyone who pushes sims closer to humans in the public consciousness does us a service. SimGen is always pushing the other way.”
“But squatting on the chair and eating that banana…do you think he went too far?”
“You mean, how did he play in the bleachers?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, only time will tell. But I have to admit that Patrick Sullivan has risen in my estimation.”
“Why? He’s still a quick-buck artist. Did you hear how many times he managed to mention his 800 number?”
“But he projects a good image, plus he’s audacious and thinks well on his feet. I like that.”
Romy had to admit that Zero had a point. Sullivan had come across well—more like a crusading attorney with a wild sense of humor than a zealot or opportunist.
“I still think he’ll cut and run as soon as the opposition stiffens,” she said. “And if what we hear about this judge assigned to the case is true, he’s going to run into a brick wall next week. And then it’s sayonara sims.”
Zero sighed. “You’re probably right. But I’ve learned, sometimes to my delight, sometimes to my chagrin, that people aren’t always as predictable as they seem. Patterns of behavior can be misinterpreted. And tonight I thought I caught a glimpse of something in our Mr. Sullivan, a spark of stubbornness that may work to our advantage. We’ll simply keep a careful eye on him and watch for developments.”
“I guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we.”
“Unfortunately not.” Zero paused, then, “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
She’d scheduled the first leg of OPRR’s inspection tour of SimGen’s main facility to begin at 1:00P .M.
“I suppose so. I just hope it accomplishes something. After all, you’ve had people in SimGen itself for years, and they haven’t been able to learn much.”
“That’s because they’re low-or mid-level employees, and because SimGen’s cellular corporate structure reduces crossovers between divisions. They see only a tiny piece of the picture. That’s been our problem all along. Everything about that company has been designed for maximum security. Look at where it’s located: The hills protect it from ground surveillance, and a fly-over offers only a momentary glimpse. If we had access to a spy satellite we might learn something, but we don’t.”
“How about a hot-air balloon?”
“A couple of reporters tried that, remember? SimGen’s copters buzzed them so much they damn near crashed.”
“I was only kidding.” Romy took a deep breath to ease the growing tension in her chest. “So it’s all on me.”
“You’ll do fine. Even if you uncover one tidbit over the next few days, one little thing that OPRR can use to call the company’s practices into question, it could lead to slowing or even stopping their assembly-line cloning of sims. If nothing else, this inspection has to shake them up a little. So far they’ve managed to insulate themselves from regulatory oversight. This is a first for them. They’ll be nervous.”
“And I’ve planned something that just might add a little extra rattle to their cages.”
“Good. Maybe they’ll slip up.”
“We can only hope.”
“I’ll call again tomorrow night—on the secure PCA I’ll have delivered to your apartment in the morning.”
“Why? Are you worried about a tap?”
“Not yet, but after you begin sticking your nose into SimGen’s sanctum tomorrow, I’ll bet they’ll want to learn everything they can about you.”
Romy shook off a chill creeping over her shoulders. “Thanks. That’s a pleasant thought.”
“Sleep well, Romy.”
“Sure.”
She hung up, told the TV to turn itself off, and lay in the darkness. But sleep wouldn’t come. Instead of throttling back, her mind raced along, veering in all directions.
She wondered at the turn her life had taken and if she might be courting futility. It didn’t seem possible that Zero and the organization had much of a chance of denting SimGen, let alone toppling it, and yet he persisted. And so did she. But sometimes she felt like one of many Sancho Panzas helping this enigmatic Quixote tilt at windmills.
She’d have to be on her toes at SimGen tomorrow, staying alert not simply to what was going on around her, but to what was happening within her. She might encounter something that upset her and she didn’t want it to set her off. She had to be the picture of professionalism.
The doctors had said her bipolar disorder was cured, but she knew better. She’d had no violent outbursts since her treatment, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t come close.
There’d been two Romys in the bad old days—the studious, compliant, Reasonable Romy, and the fierce, wild, Raging Romy. Raging Romy was supposedly gone, but Romy still heard echoes of her footsteps down the corridors of her mind.
She closed her eyes and fell into a dream dredged from an incident in her childhood. Romy had been an Air Force brat with an American pilot father and a German mother. They moved around a lot and it always seemed as soon as Romy just started getting used to a new place, her father would be transferred to another base in another state.
The dream involved the time when she was nine or ten and came upon a couple of the local boys throwing rocks at a lame old dog who’d dared to bark at them from its yard. But it wasn’t a dog
in the dream—it was a sim. Her dream rage was as fresh and hot and sudden as it had been all those years ago when she’d charged into those boys with flailing fists. That had been Raging Romy’s debut. And in the dream, just as in real life, she sent one of the terrified boys running home with a bloody nose, and had the other on the ground, bashing him with a rock and screaming at him, How do you like it? How do you like it? and not stopping until someone pulled her off.
In real life he’d told his parents, who threatened Romy’s folks with a lawsuit if they didn’t “do something about that girl.” The first of many such threats during the years to come.
And in real life the owner had come out of the house to thank her. But here in the dream, the owner came out, but it wasn’t old Mrs. Moore, it was Patrick Sullivan. And there, right in front of her, he sold that old sim to a man from the university to be used in medical experiments…
Romy awoke sobbing.
13
SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ
OCTOBER 5
“I understand what you’re saying, miss, but I can’t find your name on the list.”
The young guard at the gate, so young his face still sported a few pimples, looked flustered as he stood outside his kiosk, staring at his hand-held computer; he pushed buttons and stared again, shaking his head.
Romy felt sorry for him but couldn’t let that show. She’d shoved the court papers in his face, demanding entrance, and now she glared at him from the driver’s seat of her car.
“Then call someone who can find my name,” she said through clenched teeth, “or I’ll shut this whole damn place down and you’ll be lucky if you find a job pumping gas in downtown Paterson!”
He ducked inside his kiosk and made a hurried phone call. A moment later he stepped out and pointed to a small parking area to her right.
“Pull over there, please. Someone’s coming down.”
Muttering unintelligibly under her breath, Romy complied. Then she turned off her engine, leaned back, and smiled. This was working out just as she’d planned.
Minutes later a small four-seater helicopter lifted over the wooded rise dead ahead and buzzed toward her. It set down in the field on the far side of the road. A man stepped out of the front passenger seat and strode toward her. He didn’t duck as most people do while under the whirling blades, didn’t have to clutch a hat to his head because he was bareheaded, didn’t have to worry about the vortex mussing his hair because it was cut too short to matter. He walked erect, purposefully, but with no sense of urgency, as if he knew within a centimeter the locations of the blades slicing the air above his scalp.
The word military flashed in Romy’s brain like a neon sign as she took in his broad shoulders, measured step, straight spine. Or at least ex-military. She put him in his early forties. And judging from his skin tones, black hair and eyes, Romy bet on a heavy Latino ancestry. Not a bad-looking man. Attractive in an animal sort of way.
“Ms. Cadman,” he said as he reached her car. He didn’t smile, didn’t offer his hand. “We weren’t expecting you so early.”
“According to your gate man you weren’t expecting me at all.”
“He only has the morning list. Your arrival is scheduled for one o’clock.”
“One o’clock?” she said. “Ridiculous! Why would I waste half a day?”
He pulled open her car door. “Step out, please.”
He said it like a cop. Romy saw no reason why not, so she swiveled in her seat—giving him a good shot of her legs before she adjusted her skirt—and stood before him.
Maybe that had been a mistake. A shiver ran over her skin as his eyes raked her blazer, blouse, and skirt. She’d seen eyes like that before. On a crocodile. She felt naked.
“You’ll want this next, I suppose,” she said, fumbling for her OPRR ID card and handing it to him.
“You read my mind,” he said as he took the card. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth but didn’t quite make it to his eyes. “That could mean trouble.” He handed it back. “Welcome to SimGen, Ms. Cadman. I’m Luca Portero, Chief of Security here.”
“The head man? Should I be flattered?”
She’d read up on a number of the key people in SimGen, and Luca Portero was one of them. She’d never seen him, but knew his folder: Army Special Forces, decorated in Afghanistan, honorable discharge with the rank of sergeant after twenty years in; hired by SimGen within weeks of his discharge.
“A visit from OPRR is an occasion.”
“Get used to it,” she said. “If I have my way, we’ll be here every week.”
His smile froze, then faded. “We’ll use the copter to take us to the center of the campus. It’s faster.”
“I’m here today as vanguard for the full inspection team; to do that I must see the facilities firsthand—from ground level.”
“Of course. We’ll pick up a car at center campus and continue from there.”
Once inside the helicopter, conversation was impossible, especially with Romy in the rear and Portero up front next to the pilot. The security chief spent the time talking into his headset, and did not look happy.
So Romy took in the scenery. The trees were showing off their vivid fall colors but she could not let that distract her. She was looking for concealed roads, hidden installations, anything not visible in the aerial photos that might escape OPRR inspection. But she saw nothing.
Romy caught her breath as the copter cleared a hill and the center of the SimGen campus flashed into view. The glass sides of the buildings, none taller than six stories, picked up the hues of the neighboring hillsides and made them their own, integrating the manmade structures into their surroundings. As much as she hated the company, she had to admit it appeared to be a beautiful place to work.
She knew the layout of the campus by heart and immediately identified the taller executive and administration buildings. She wasn’t interested in those; her inspection team would be focusing on the natal center, the sim dormitories and training centers, and the two research buildings—general and basic.
Zero had told her he was particularly interested in the basic research facility. He’d mentioned mysterious shipments in and out of an enclosed loading dock near its northwest corner, and that only a select few were allowed anywhere near the place. But was that all he knew? Was the basic research facility so secret even his high-up contacts didn’t know what went on inside…or wouldn’t tell him? Or did Zero already know and want OPRR to expose it?
What could they be doing in there that was so sensitive? Her mind flashed lurid images of experiments on human subjects, or Doctor Moreau–type vivisections, or hideous failed splices, locked in cages with their claws or tentacles reaching through the bars. She doubted it was anything that exciting. And she’d find out soon enough, wouldn’t she.
Squinting against the glare of the morning sun, she located the building and spotted a medium-size delivery truck backing into a shed-like structure jutting from its flank. She reached for the binoculars in her shoulder bag—the set with a spycam concealed within—but changed her mind. She might find a better use for them later—no sense in letting Portero know now that she’d brought them along.
As she watched, a corrugated steel door rolled down, sealing the truck in the shed.
Romy could understand the need for an enclosed loading dock on a windy winter day, but the weather was positively balmy this morning. The only other purpose would be to conceal what was being loaded or unloaded.
When the copter landed, Portero led her to a blue Jeep Geronimo, one of many wheeling through the campus.
“Do you buy these by the dozen?” she asked.
“Four-wheel drive is not a luxury here, especially in the winter. When it snows in these hills, it snows .”
Once they were seated within he gave her another penetrating up-and-down look. “Are all the OPRR investigators so beautiful?”
Puh-leese! Romy thought. She wanted to tell him to save his imagined wit and charm but decided it might
be best not to acknowledge the compliment.
“I’m considered OPRR’s plain Jane,” she said brusquely. “I’d like to begin with the research facilities.”
Portero started the engine. “They’re not ready for you yet. We’ll start with the natal center.”
“I prefer research first, then natal. It’s a more natural progression.”
“If it was up to me, I’d take you anywhere you want to go,” he said.
Why don’t I believe that?
He went on: “And if you’d arrived at your scheduled time, I’d be wheeling us there right now. But the powers that be say that if you insist on starting with research, you can wait in one of our empty offices until one o’clock and start then. But if you wish to get to work immediately, natal is available.”
Score one for you, Romy thought, hiding her frustration. After all, she was a professional.
“Very well. Natal it is.”
But don’t look so smug, she thought as she watched Portero put the Jeep in gear. The game has just begun.
14
The Natal Center—intellectually she’d been prepared for it, but emotionally…
Anne Twerlinger, associate director of the center, was a reed-thin middle-aged redhead who stank of cigarettes, wore retro pointy-framed glasses, and spoke with what Romy could only describe as a sniff in her tone, as if convinced that at any moment her nostrils might be assailed by a noxious odor.
Portero had stayed behind in Twerlinger’s office, making phone calls, while she started the tour by leading Romy down a narrow corridor. The right wall was glass from waist to ceiling, and looked in on the natal center’s cloning lab.
“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the sim genome,” Twerlinger said, then proceeded to do just that. “As everyone knows, it consists of twenty-two chromosome pairs—one fewer than humans, two fewer than chimps; much of the junk and non-functioning genetic material has been removed, leaving it one of the cleanest mammalian genomes in existence. Sims don’t mate, mainly because we’ve genetically reduced their sex drives to nil; but even if they did, no offspring would be produced because their ova cannot be fertilized.”
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