Unnatural

by Anthony DiGiovanni

  * * * *

  Sabrina laughed when Uriah told her he set out to become immortal after parting ways with Jane, as if she needed more reasons to question his sanity.

  “What are the odds you’ll figure this out before you kill Livingston again?”

  “Zero,” he said before lifting a spoonful of soup into his mouth. “Because I already killed him a second time.”

  “Come on. He has a world of robots at his disposal, what are you up against that?”

  Uriah’s affronted ego was showing. Good, anything to minimize this handicap of hers. “I’ll have you know it’s remarkably easy for me. An EM gun didn’t keep him down for long, but this time I put a physical bullet in his brain. Repeatedly. I used that spear I left back in Everett for good measure.”

  “And this stopped the bots from getting you?”

  “Hardly. That’s why we’re hiding in this house.”

  She sighed with exasperation. “That much was obvious, but then how did you survive up to this point at all?”

  “Let me explain how I re-encountered Livingston first. Now, I might’ve been poor for the past few years, but I’m no dope. I know that if you’re betting on what’s gonna make humans live forever, your money’s best off on nanotechnology.”

  “Not if you wanna keep out of jail. You know how many times I’ve heard of people ticked off at their countries’ governments’ regulating the making of nanobots? It’s like marijuana to the nth degree.”

  “What choice did they have?” Uriah stole a glance at the moonlight. “Tiny machines can be as deadly as massive ones, if not more so ‘cause we can’t see ‘em. But they can also be manna for our species. Think about what causes death. There are a lot of indirect killers, but it all boils down to the body’s inability to keep metabolism going. Not enough energy or oxygen – starvation, asphyxiation, massive blood loss. Nutrient deficiency and dying cells – cancer, a helluva lot of other diseases. You get the idea.”

  “And nanobots can prevent all that. We could alter our bodies to get our energy from sources besides food, and to speed up tissue repair, and nab tumors while they’re young.” So he was onto something, but it was a rather shaky plan when the quality of nanotech was about as reliable as that of narcotics. “Most of what kills us the Unnaturals don’t have to worry about, anyway.”

  Uriah scoffed. “A lot of them are the ones I’d rather have dead.”

  “You really think that?” Maybe these reasons to hate him weren’t helping. In the moment, this perverse attraction wasn’t getting any weaker – it just seemed to fight her rational mind relentlessly.

  “You said it yourself. That you’ve fantasized about a world without any people who just got in your way.”

  She shrank away extremely slightly, but lifted her chin to compensate. “That was just a thought, I mean, I don’t seriously wish people’s deaths!”

  “Thinking it is always half the battle. But more to the point, get off your moral high horse.” Her eyes widened, and he continued quickly. “I’ve never believed that all lives are worth living, or preserving. And I don’t think that makes me a bad person, because ya know what? Some lives harm others more than they help. Even than they help themselves. You give me one good reason to think I should’ve let Livingston go on his merry way, raping people and sucking the life out of everyone who doesn’t fit into his dignified little class of ‘next-generation humans.’”

  “Maybe not Livingston, but for these other Unnaturals, riddle me this: What if they see your life in exactly the same way?”

  That shut him up. What the hell was wrong with her, having a soft spot for someone this deficient in empathy? “Look, arguing about this isn’t the most productive thing we could be doing, not when we need any reason we can find to have each other’s back. So. You were saying?”

  Uriah stayed silent for a couple seconds, then breathed deeply. “Right, well, a robotic body is death’s nightmare. The vulnerable human brain that wears out faster than it can replicate its cells, much less keep the right connections going? Not so much. And even though what ya see in the public techno-square would have ya believe there’s nothing out there that can immortalize even the brain, I know better.”

  “Do you, now?”

  “Sure, thanks for asking. It’s as likely as that thousands of people will find ways to get drunk in a state under prohibition laws. The regs are almost totally ineffectual, especially since the people who’ll make nanobots for evil purposes aren’t gonna do it under the watchful eye of the public scientific community. But the public and, hence, the legislatures are willing to push for these laws out of, let’s call it … fear of a silicon planet.”

  “Just how will you find these underground mad scientists?”

  “Already have.”

  Uriah was about to explain, but Sabrina caught on. “Livingston?”

  “Bingo.”

  “So that’s how he –”

  Uriah nodded. He pushed aside his empty bowl. “I think so. See, until I shot him today, I hadn’t supposed he might be a nanotech enthusiast.”

  “Just a crazy?” She finished soon after him, but neither was concerned enough with mundane matters by this point to clean up dishes.

  “Pretty much. A crazy with a lot of power, which is a dangerous combination. The scariest thing is he really hasn’t lost it.”

  He’d just called Livingston crazy, so Sabrina assumed he meant his power, not his mind. “Spare me the metaphorical claptrap. Dead people are powerless.”

  “I meant his robotic subjects are still under his control.”

  “Okay, so besides the obvious question of how that makes sense, how’d you get away from these robots if they’re still bounty hunting you?”

  “I am the most dangerous game, dear Rainsford. I did what I’ve been doing since Livingston died – sending the drones to android hell. This was on my way to Everett, not to find Livingston, but Marshall Patterson.”

  Sabrina just stared, prompting him to explicate. “Jane’s creator, who worked at the EMFI. This was a man who made a human replica convincing enough to be his own girlfriend. If anyone could cheat death with technology, it was Marshall. Livingston had a damn near seductive grasp on robots, but I didn’t see any reason to think he was actually tech savvy or inventive.”

  “You thought he’d just keep his nanobot blueprints stowed away in his office?”

  “Nah, but if ya know what to look for, secretive work leaves traces, especially in overt work.” He leaned back, hands behind his head. “I’m not gonna pretend I always do what makes sense, Sabrina. Maybe searching for immortality where it’ll most likely show itself makes more sense than anything in the world, but even if it doesn’t, that’s what led me to where Livingston was hiding, ready to catch you in his spiderweb.”

  Sabrina’s face reddened. The words “damsel in distress” had always been nails on a chalkboard to her. “So you just took a handgun and blew his brains out as soon as you saw him?”

  “I figured it couldn’t hurt to bring preemptive arms if, worst case scenario, he could make me choke myself to death with another brain-bug anyway. It really was a fluke, but I’ll always have a chance to show my inner Superman as long as the drones are still around.”

  “Okay, you know what? This is beyond madness. I am not the gullible little kid you think I am, so your story had better start making some sense or, or …”

  “Or what? No offense, lady, but you’re not much more powerful than a corpse yourself.”

  “Or I’m out of here.” He gave a blank stare, at which she added, “You see, Uriah, I’m not gonna stoop that level. Of violence. I don’t need to threaten you, but I do know you’re going to absolutely crash and burn without me.”

  Uriah snorted. “This is some kind of joke, right?”

  “You’re insane, which is exactly why if I leave, you’re just gonna find that all the years of endless life won’t mean a thing if y
ou can’t replace this Pat skank.”

  He pointed his finger with a scathing look, very nearly poking her eye out. “Petty insults aren’t much better, y’know.”

  “My point exactly.” She grinned. “You’re miserable without her. Oh, sure, you put on that bravado like you couldn’t care less about other people, but I can tell you need companionship. Trust me. All I need is a reason to trust you.”

  Uriah eyed her with what seemed like a strange mix of curiosity and admiration. “I dunno whether to think you’re the crazy one or that ya just might be onto something. I’ll bite.” He reached for his holster. “Take the gun.”

  Her eyebrows shot up about an inch. This wasn’t just a necessary sacrifice to get her to come to the Amish house. He was actively giving her the gun. “Are you serious? I – I’m sorry I doubted –”

  “No, I need to show you I’m not bluffing.” There it was. She would never have thought a weapon could mean what it did now. He pushed it over, and after Sabrina looked up to see him nod, she took it in her hands.

  She wanted to ask more, but he appeared tired of talking about this matter, or about anything at all. “Dennis, maybe you should get some rest. You’ve probably been tiptoeing on eggshells for a few dozen hours with those robots out there.”

  He seemed to appreciate the concern, but he sighed and said, “That’s why I don’t want to sleep. It’s stupid. It would leave me – us – at their mercy.”

  “Not in this neighborhood.”

  “They don’t operate on the human circadian rhythm, Sabrina.” Uriah took the dishes for her, and but for her captivation the gesture would’ve lost its effect when he had no reason to wash them in a temporary home. “Eight hours is plenty of time for them to find us.”

  Okay, time to see if he appreciates a tough girl. Not that I should care. “What if I stand guard? I got some sleep on the plane, and I can work an EM gun well enough.”

  “No, you shouldn’t hafta do that for me,” he said with a yawn that she hoped wasn’t of boredom. “It’s not safe.”

  “That doesn’t work on me, big guy.” She stood and put her hands on her hips. “I went through training for Sonicap spaceflight, so I think I can handle this.”

  Uriah paused, grimacing a bit. “All right, you keep an eye out for bots. But you’ll need a few toys of mine.” He headed for the living room, unzipping his backpack. She followed him, surprised at his sudden willingness.

  “First, caffeine.” He handed her a teal soda can. “Don’t worry, this stuff is totally risk-free. No addiction or carcinogens, but it’ll keep ya from snoozing involuntarily.” He removed an ordinary-looking belt from his pants, handing it to her. “I ganked this from the EMFI. Handy little gadget, all ya gotta do is put it on and it’ll give you a subtle buzz in the right direction when it picks up signals you’d expect any robots approaching to send each other.”

  “This is great! We’ll both be safer.”

  He maintained his serious expression. “Blast ‘em right away, focus on the EM pulses first ‘cause they’re less concentrated than a gunshot, and – that reminds me –” He gave her the electromagnetic blaster. “So there isn’t a repeat of the last time a robot looked at us funny. You should be able to tell where a bot is after you EM nuke it, so a gun works best for finishing the job at long distance.”

  Exhausted as his face showed him to be, Uriah put his hands on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. “Lastly, please, if anything goes wrong, wake me up. Don’t be a hero.”

  She pushed his hands away, adopting a more confident posture. “I’ll be fine, Dennis. And I’d like not to be ordered around, as I’m your equal despite my appearance.”

  “Sure.” He smiled ever so slightly before walking upstairs. “Good night.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean at a time like this?”