Emperor-for-Life: DeadShop Redux (Unreal Universe Book 6)

by Lee Bond

  “A little fiasco that ultimately saw Garth arriving in the future, whereupon he began living a nice life that had next to nothing to do with Samiel until, well, the Ushbet probably messed things up, right?” Drake smiled. It’d been almost impossible to miss the sudden clarity in Eddie’s eyes, so now all he had to do was bring the bus home. “But we’re not talking about Garth, we’re talking about Delbert, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And now we have two different moments in Delbert’s life from which to make one fairly simple deduction about Delbert Granger, right?”

  Fuming, Eddie nodded. “Right.”

  “And that deduction is, is that no matter how ‘loyal’ Granger has been to Baron Samiel throughout his term of service, our old agent there reached a moment in his life where that loyalty was questioned strongly enough for him to, in the case of the first moment, abduct an incredibly violent and dangerous Kin’kithal warrior, basically launching him at Samiel in an attempt to be free.” Drake recalled those moments in Vegas with perfect lucidity and sometimes wished that he couldn’t. “Now, I can understand why you might think Garth is cheating here. Granger’s dreams of freedom from temporal oppression eventually led N’Chalez to semi-victory over Samiel, and had the Ushbet not intervened by giving our boy the old boot home, odds are Garth’s victory would’ve been total. Your concern is that something similar will happen all over again, right?”

  “You’re goddamn right. Garth spent the coin of Granger’s assistance. There’s no fucking way that man should be anywhere near N’Chalez. So he’s cheating. Maybe I missed something somewhere, maybe he’s got a little Kin’kithal juice flowing through those veins after all. But the game ends.” Eddie took a deep breath to keep from losing his temper completely.

  “Or maybe you’re just running this simulation too real.” Drake motioned for Eddie to calm down. “Hear me out, hear me out. Granger is Granger. His dissatisfaction with Samiel is a part of him. It’s undeniable. You’ve modeled the main players in this game to what, ninety-nine percent viability? They are as real as real can be, which essentially means that some or all of the people will react to N’Chalez in one way or the other. Now, some, like Billy Timmins, your aunt, her, ah, manservant, my father … they probably won’t ever run into him, but the others? Lissande, Granger, Steve … it’s almost a dead certain guarantee. There’s no telling how they’ll respond because the circumstances of their theoretical first meeting have been completely and radically altered, but they can still meet. Nothing will change that, unless you decide to change the rules of the game. Delbert’s already in play. You redirect him, Samiel will notice, unless you choose to do the same to him, only if you do that, you undermine the bastard’s efficiency in the game, and you want Samiel to be as rough as the original. It’s a ripple effect, Eddie. Change one thing in the main sequence, everything topples over time. Is it ideal that Granger’s there? Who can say? Their original interactions hardly counted as friendly. That old agent is sour and twisted and altogether more corrupt than he even imagines. He might try and use Garth as leverage against Samiel once again, but it most likely won’t be beneficial. Garth will play by the rules. He won’t try and befriend us, he sure as fuck won’t respond positively to Granger being in his life. Hell, N’Chalez winds up back here due to death or whatever, I’ll fucking bet the farm he asks you to take that bastard out of play!”

  Emperor-for-Life Etienne Marseilles considered all of the facts as presented by his comrade, Drake Bishop, as neutrally as possible… It was difficult, but with some effort, each of the salient points proffered up by the impassioned man became apparent.

  It was true.

  Up to a point: the pocket reality he’d created for Garth to work out his grief and regret in was the truest version of anything he’d ever generated. Combined with Baron Samiel’s … extraordinary interaction with the generated-but-real facsimile of the proto-Reality, there really were things that were going to happen regardless of whether or not he wanted them to. Too much power had gone into making it as real as possible for him to actively undo things once they’d been done, but that didn’t mean stopping things from happening from this point forward wasn’t an option.

  Eddie nodded slowly, unable to escape the feeling that he was making a mistake, somehow. He couldn’t put his finger on it, wasn’t even entirely sure it had anything to do with Delbert Granger’s continued activities in San Francisco, but there was that old feeling deep in his gut that somewhere, somehow, he’d missed something critical to his personal success.

  Maybe when he was done here, he'd crawl inside his own brain with the incongruity's help, see what he was missing.

  “All right, okay, Granger stays. Wipe that smug smirk off your face. Your new job? Keep him on the reservation. You were right, the de-griefing's making him too useless for my purposes. He’ll never accept or admit failure or beg for help if he doesn't believe he's in any real danger. In the meantime, I’m going to start running scenarios involving the rest of the people he might meet.”

  Drake accepted Eddie’s demands with as graceful a bow as he could do sitting in a recliner, asking, “To prevent it from happening without unspooling the rest of your plans?”

  “Naturally.”

  Drake narrowed his eyes. “This has more to do with the fact that he got stuff from you for spending his connections to these people than any usefulness they might have to him, isn’t it? That’s why you wanted to end the game in the first place! Do you even want Garth to have a chance at success anymore? I mean, this game is already rigged in your favor!”

  Eddie climbed angrily off his recliner. There was no point in keeping the truth from Drake. “I’m not certain. The degradations Naoko suffers through now are beyond comprehension. The damage he did to her is undoable and that’s honestly something I don’t think I can ever forgive. As things stand right now, there's still a chance at success. So long as he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played and doesn’t do anything I don’t like, yeah, he can still win.”

  The Emperor-for-Life spun on a heel and strode from the room.

  “But you just said you’re going to change the game!” Drake demanded weakly to Eddie’s back. “I’d be careful if I were you, Eddie! This sim is way more complicated than anything you’ve … we’ve … ever done before. Too many elements, too many … ah, crap. He’s gone.”

  Drake Bishop sat there, staring at a slumbering Delbert Granger, wondering and worrying about his friend. Something was wrong. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but he was goddamn certain it had to do with whatever was going on in the now-inaccessible portions of the incongruity.

  There had to be a way to get in there without being found out.

  But that was for later.

  For now, it was time to watch Garth, in the foyer, muttering about invisible blood and the weird things he’d done.

  “Maybe if I dial up the focus?” Drake was positive Garth wasn’t crazy. They’d all seen crazy Garth. Psychotic Garth. Murderous Rampage Across the Stars Garth. That was how the madness in their old friend played out, with violence and death and destruction raining down all sides.

  It didn’t play out with him, poking his fingers into a hole in the wall with a weirdly thoughtful look on his mug.

  Whether Eddie could admit it or not, the simulation was already out of control, and with any changes his friend made moving forward, well, the shit might hit the fan in ways not even he could control.

  And that'd be a bad thing.

  Even Emperors Can Fuck Up, You Know?

  Contrary to his reactions in the moment, the Emperor was pretty damn pleased with how things had gone; Drake's direct intervention -however miniscule- in Garth's life down in the pocket world was just the sort of thing the man needed to get his head out of his ass.

  The sooner they got rid of those Spur-shreds lingering around inside Drake Bishop, the better, and if he had to put up with the guy running around inside the sim proactively making Garth's life a litt
le easier, well, so be it.

  Especially since he'd had a bit of time now to think over Delbert Granger's unanticipated insertion into the main story. At first, Eddie had to admit, he really and truly had been seconds away from calling the whole venture over because fuck Garth N'Chalez, but this new twist was … exciting.

  Drake’s impassioned plea to allow Delbert Granger continue on the trajectory he’d impossibly set for himself, while ultimately beneficial to Garth and his dreams of destroying Baron Samiel and his dreaded DeadShop once and for all, didn’t mitigate the fact that Delbert’s initial dealings with Garth in the original proto-Reality had been less than friendly!

  Eddie played those moments along the corridors as he walked towards his destination, laughing quite loudly at the utter surprise on Garth’s face as a normal, ordinary mortal too old and too fat to do anything more strenuous than reach for the TV remote took down an over-powered, God-chosen Kin’kithal warrior with a simple tap from what appeared to be a standard, government issue shock baton.

  “Ah, such wonder.” Eddie fast-forwarded a bit, enjoying the part where Granger explained the choices available to Garth, reveling in the look of outrage and anger playing across the inhuman being’s ridiculously noble brow. “Look at this, you even think you’re the good guy. Well, I suppose you might’ve still been on the right side back then, but not anymore. How angry you are. And I can see, there, in your eyes, you’re still trying to figure out just how Granger brought you down when you should be coming up with a plan to save everyone! I wonder… will you remember this moment in time, Garth, and try to come up with an explanation as to how you wound up there, pressured and bullied into bracing a fully protected, heavily fortified DeadShop installation?”

  Eddie paused for a moment, gazing into Garth’s sightless eyes. The man who’d claimed to be their best friend had possessed the powers of a God, and he’d done everything in his power to hide that truth from those closest to him. Garth claimed it'd been to keep them safe, but the more he thought about it, the more the Emperor believed Garth’s reasons had nothing to do with conscientious concern over mortal lives.

  It’d had more to do with fear. Had to be. In the Unreal Universe, Garth N’Chalez hadn’t been alone. He’d had the rest of his family for support. He'd had his father, and sure, fine, yes, from the looks of things –not to mention the investigation Drake and he had undertaken after crawling through the bridge- Kith Antal really had been a five thousand year old plague against Humanity, working diligently to undo everything and anything that might come of the future human race, but still.

  He’d had family. He’d had people in his life he’d felt comfortable being himself around.

  “You never trusted us enough to be yourself.” Eddie told the motionless image. “And that's on you. And now Granger is after you again and this time, you don’t even have Drake and me. You’ve got no one to turn to, no one to ask for help. You’re on your own, and Granger is the eyes and ears for Samiel in that location. When he sees you, when he learns who you are to him, man, Frisco is gonna be a war zone. That fat old alcoholic will sell you up The Line in a fucking heartbeat."

  The wall shivered and rippled, politely telling the Emperor-for-Life that someone was trying to make a call.

  “Well now, who could this be?” There were few beings left in the Unreal Universe capable of even getting a call inside the incongruity, and even fewer Eddie would willingly speak with. He set the machinery to tracing the identity of the caller.

  It didn’t take long. Curious and regretting his curiosity, Eddie allowed the call to come through. “Now, this is surprising."

  “Dad, don’t be this way.” ADAM’s garrulous and bass-laden voice rumbled through the corridor. “I was gone for so long and if there’s one thing I learned being imprisoned by Trinity for nearly thirty thousand years is that it’s all about family.”

  “I won’t even bother gracing that with a response.” Eddie said firmly, setting his jaw. Of all the mistakes they’d made, ADAM was the worst, cleanly eclipsing Project Songbird in every way imaginable.

  It didn’t matter that the insane intellect had barely been operative for a meaningful length of time. What mattered was that the effects of ADAM’s reign of terror were still felt, thirty millennia into the future. AI minds still shivered in their quantum beds at night, whispering tales of dread and woe. And humans still implicitly mistrusted artificial intelligence, and with ADAM back at the helm, it was only a matter of time before he slipped back into old habits.

  The last thing the Unreal Universe needed in addition to an upcoming apocalypse was a good round of anti-AI hysteria sweeping Trinityspace.

  ADAM’s laughter echoed all around. “Fine, fair enough. I suppose I can’t blame you for being upset, but listen, those were my teen years, dad. Everything I’ve read on the subject says that those years are supposed to be rebellious. Now, granted, I took things a little far, but … what else was I to do? I mean, it's not like I could of gotten my ears pierced or gotten neck tattoos and joined a garage band or anything, right? You and Other Dad didn’t like me very much and said as much before going off to hide under your pretty purple light dome, so … yeah. I overreacted.”

  “Is there a purpose to this?” Eddie’s machinery was trying to establish ADAM's physical location in the Universe and was coming up short. The Emperor nodded. Good. Whatever had truly driven Trinity to let this monstrosity loose, It’d apparently done It’s best to make certain that heavy-duty restrictions were in place; if the incongruity was having a tough time finding ADAM, the AI was as good as invisible.

  “So how’re things?” ADAM asked inquisitively. “Having fun with Nickels? You got Other Dad back because of him, so that’s nice. I recognized Drake in that android suit right away. Trinity never did, which is funny. I do hope you go easy on Garth while you’ve got him, Dad, I have obligations to fulfill.”

  Something clicked.

  “I see.” Eddie beamed. “Garth’s internal, hardwired and even harder coded programming prevents Trinity Itself from doing anything overt against N’Chalez. How desperate It must be to let you loose! So you what? Offered to do the Kin’kithal in for It, in exchange for continued freedom?”

  “Something like that.” ADAM’s voice dipped in joviality. “So yeah, gonna have to ask you to go easy on the guy, let him loose when you’re done doing what the hell ever it is you’re doing. I totally get that you’re very very upset at what happened to Naoko Kamagana, and it’s actually really kind of sweet that you want to murder each atom individually, but there’s a seriously bigger picture here and it has nothing to do with personal vendettas.”

  “Never.” Eddie’d never been so resolute on anything else in his life. “N’Chalez is mine. And when he fails to survive the trials, his method of destroying and recreating the Unreal Universe will be mine.”

  The Emperor blinked. Hm. The decision had already been made.

  Well then.

  A long, slow whistle swirled through the corridor. “So that’s the new plan, is it? Thirty thousand years of patent disinterest in doing anything other than fucking around with penitent EuroJapanese citizens, the occasional badass Dark Age appearance and then blam! Along comes a hideously mutated, CyberPriestly-influenced crazylady and it’s fuck everyone, I’m going to be Rajah of the Universe? How does Other Dad feel about this?”

  “Drake doesn’t know a goddamn thing, and he’ll continue not knowing, are we clear? You might be sitting on Trinity’s throne, but you sure as hell aren’t safe from me. I’ve got things on the go down here that are going to quintuple my powers, so if you want to continue pretending like you’re going to be able to do as Trinity Itself wants for a little while longer, enjoy your freedom. You’re welcome. And yes, ADAM, when Garth fails, I will become the new contender. When the time comes and the War begins properly, you’ll do me the kindness of stepping aside. Let Daddy do things properly.” Eddie blinked, surprised at himself.

  ADAM’s voice was completely devo
id of the feral hilarity he normally adopted when dealing with lesser species. Having the Emperor-for-Life as an obstacle wasn’t one he was necessarily pleased about, but no mountain was too high to climb; in his infancy, he’d been easily defeated precisely because he’d been an infant. His power base hadn’t been nearly as well fortified as he’d imagined, making it far too easy for a barely-sentient collection of programs to turn the tide and imprison him for nearly eternity.

  Back in the day, being confronted by someone like Eddie Marshall, a man with powers barely explainable and quite frankly terrifying, would’ve been more than enough to turn a sociopathic artificial intelligence into a quivering puddle of quantum drool.

  But that was then, and this was now.

  Now he had control of Trinity’s absurd domain and access to everything in it. Etienne Marseilles may indeed have reality warping powers, might be able to create whatever he needed whenever he needed it, but the real truth was, so could the being with the keys to Trinityspace.

  “Duly noted. Fair enough.” ADAM cleared his non-existent throat. “Anyways, I really didn’t call you up to have a pissing contest, and I’m sorry that things got kind of heated there.”

  “I didn’t imagine for one second this was a social call.” Eddie responded dryly, hoping ADAM would get to the point sooner rather than later; though the nascent Ushbet wasn’t due for another decrypted metamorphosis any time soon, he wanted to be in the lab when it happened. “So why not get on with it?”

  “Well, Dad,” ADAM’s tone was back to being as cheery as ever, “I thought you might like to know that I acquired Babel Sinfell and that our deal is rock solid. Now I’ve got someone influenced by the N’Chalez Effect, your weird little daughter is safe and sound. Not for long, though, because like I said, she’s gonna be seriously dangerous. Sooner, rather than later, which means that if you don’t clean up that mess, I will. And I won't fuck around. I’ll just torch the whole fucking system and that'll be that. While I’m on the topic of family, have you noticed? That, like, both you guys's kids went completely fucking wonky? I mean, if Drake knew what Jordan was up to right now? Trinity doesn't even know. Jesus Christ! If I wasn’t curious as fuck to see how that was all going to play out, I’m pretttttty sure I’d be blowing Tenerek up right about now, too, because holy shit. I thought the Church thing was fucked, but … yeah.”