The Veritas Project

by C. F. E. Black

  “Think we found him,” I mutter to Pru, recognizing the tall man from a photo M showed us of Boast Garner.

  Boast bee lines for the bar, putting him within easy viewing distance. Close enough that we can see him—hopefully not so close that we become his next two targets. We sip our drinks and say nothing. Chit chat isn’t one of the things we learned in the Center.

  “Who’s the other one?” I ask after a while.

  Pru shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. All we have to do is watch. M can sort out what he sees.”

  “What we see.”

  Just then, Pru’s chin drops, her eyes droop. I recognize the beginning of a brain flash.

  Not here! I reach for her drink as it tips from her hand, but I’m not fast enough. Music masks the shattering sound of glass, but my feet get splashed in orange juice. A few people turn their heads as I scrunch up next to her, attempting to hide her from curious eyes.

  Then Boast, eyes following the movement of those around him, finds us. For a moment, I lock eyes with him, the man who murders people like me, and my chest erupts with heat. Hoping the dark and the disco lights hide my blood-red cheeks, I pull my eyes from Boast and try not to look too concerned for my limp-necked friend. I turn my back so that she is leaning against it, her body still as stone, her breathing quick as quantum.

  In seconds, it is over. Boast hasn’t looked this way again.

  “Sorry,” she says, shaking her head and blinking. “Did you keep your eyes on Boast?”

  Heart sinking, I admit, “No. But he was only out of my sight for twenty seconds or less. Pru, he saw you. He looked right at us. I had to look away. But he’s still talking to the same two people, so I don’t think we missed anything.”

  “Let’s hope not. Let’s hope that doesn’t make M rethink his deal.” She doesn’t sound mad, just concerned. Smoothing her dress, she turns back to watching our prey.

  We manage to filter around the room tailing Boast, drifting like dust pulled behind a fast-moving hand. We take turns, but he never leaves our line of sight. He talks to dozens of people, kisses many on the cheek. Any number of them could have been his contact. We weren’t told if the exchange would be easy to see. We were told only to watch.

  After nearly two hours of circling like vultures, my feet are sticky with orange juice and throbbing in pain. I pass Pru and tag her, ready to sit on the cushioned bench lining the wall nearest the bar. Over the speakers, an obnoxious voice announces the exit of the one and only Boast Garner. The tall man in his flashy suit heads toward the exit. Snapping my head around, I find Pru in the crowd a few feet away. Are we supposed to follow him? I shove my way over to her.

  But before I can reach her, a thick hand grabs my shoulder, spins me around.

  Boast Garner peers down at me.

  Petrified into silence, I stare at him with wide, guilty eyes.

  “Think you can just tail me all evening and get away with it, sweetheart?”

  My tongue is stone.

  The man towers above me, bending to get his sweaty face inches from mine. “Boast Garner takes care of things. You hear? If I see you or that pretty friend of yours again, I’ll find out all your secrets. And you won’t like that.”

  He releases my shoulder and walks away, leaving me with sweat dripping down my back.

  “Think M got what he needed?” Pru asks as she approaches, oblivious to my recent encounter.

  “He saw us,” I shout at her over the music. “He knew we were watching him.”

  She considers this a moment, her eyes unblinking but not afraid.

  “Julius could have just hacked the cameras in this room and probably gotten all M needed.” Pru looks over at the door as Boast and a pack of followers file back out of the apartment. “M sent us here for a reason. He better keep us safe for doing this.”

  I nod at her. “Ty said we’d know when it was okay to leave.”

  Just then, a small voice leans over from just beside my shoulder. “You may go now.”

  So startled I nearly spill my second drink, I examine a short man holding a martini glass. “You are?”

  He shakes his head. “Leave. Your ride is waiting.”

  Pru offers me two raised shoulders. Ditching our drinks on the bar, we head for the exit, ready to be finished with our assignment. All evening, I’ve been conscious of other eyes behind mine, other watchers in my brain. I’m ready to end that.

  And to take off these shoes.

  The refrigerators don’t say a word as we leave. Soon, we are back in the parking deck, sliding into Oscar’s waiting car, which is empty.

  As the car speeds away, I rip my shoes off. Pru unbuckles hers and begins to massage her feet.

  “Why do these women do this?” I ask.

  She offers a slight smile. “No idea.”

  Looking over at Pru, a smile builds that I can’t fight. If M got what he wanted, then we saved Julius. Together. Despite being chained to a collective mind for nearly our entire lives, this may be the first time Pru and I have acted as an actual team.

  Twenty

  The cold air of Streamline Impressions’ employee lounge counters my nervousness as we wait to meet M. When he enters, his brow is knit together, the only way his face has looked since I met him and therefore impossible to read.

  Eager to know if we succeeded, I ask, “Did you see what you needed to see? It was hard to tell if he exchanged anything.”

  He nods his head, wiggling his chins. “Oh, I saw plenty.” He lifts a hand to scratch his temple. “And for a strange moment, I saw white halls and other shaved head kids, but Prudentia’s feed was mostly a scrambled mess. And I couldn’t see Boast from you either,” he says to me. “Explain.”

  “Brain flash,” Pru says before I can say anything. “They are unpredictable and uncomfortable. Images float through our minds that cause extreme disorientation. We see these images as if they are as real as our surroundings.”

  M nods in consideration. “Will these little fits be an issue in the future? I can’t have my eyes and ears seeing false visions at random.”

  “Like she said, sir, they are unpredictable. But they are not that common, and they don’t last long.” I nod at Pru, hoping I deflected his anger.

  “Very well, then.” He sighs, but he doesn’t loosen the pinched fold between his eyes.

  Pru steps forward, her own face pinned into a hard scowl. “Sir, that man you made us follow—”

  “Saw you,” he interrupts. “I know. I saw that from V’s feed.” He tilts his head at me. “And you want to know what I’ll do to protect you from him?” He raises his brows at Pru, who nods, folding her arms. He laughs. “Bargaining? I like that. I’ll keep you safe.” He looks between the two of us. “Oh yes. But I’ll be needing that convenient feed of yours for a little while longer.”

  His sneer makes me want to scream. My brain is trapped again! Not chained to others but still on a leash. I hate this man, but if a gen-eng murderer knows who we are, we may just need his help until Boast is behind bars. I let my chin drop in defeat. At least for now, I’ll abide this. No one is reading my thoughts. It is a step. I’ll break free one day. One day soon.

  “Thank you to the both of you.” M slaps two hands on his stomach. “As for our original deal, I am paid. Now, about your friend, Julius. Please have a seat.”

  Black couches, a sleek bar, the largest reclining chair I’ve ever seen. I opt for the chair, leaving Pru to sit on the couch next to Ty. Drinks are placed in our hands. Appetizers are brought in. There are some advantages to being in this man’s world.

  M strolls over to a tall table adorned with chilled bottles of water and takes one. “On your way back here, I took the liberty of extracting Julius for you.”

  “What?” Pru’s outburst surprises M.

  “Yes,” he says to her. “He’ll be here shortly.”

  “You just … asked for him?” Pru wonders.

  He chuckles, belly jiggling. “Not exactly. But I never give away all my secrets!”
He smiles, downs half the bottle, and strides toward the door. “Back to work.” To Ty, who’s perched on the edge of the couch, he barks, “Find them a place to stay, Tyson. I have a feeling I’ll be wanting them nearby.” He flashes me a wide smile before stepping back out into the cubicle labyrinth.

  A beat goes by. Ty stands. “You won him over quickly,” he says to us. “As long as he thinks you’re useful to him, you’ll be the safest gen-eng in the city. Let’s hope Julius can do something useful, too, or M might just let him out to the wolves, even though he saved him today.”

  “Oh, he’ll love Julius,” Pru says with a smirk, looking back at me from her seat on the couch. “Won’t he?”

  I nod. “When Julius shows up, Pru and I might become obsolete.”

  Ty frowns. “How’s that?”

  Pru lets me answer. “Because he can hack anything just from that.” I point to the open tablet on the table where M watched our evening via split-screen feeds from our sensors. “M won’t need our brains anymore.”

  Her words jar me with a realization. I scramble up out of the deep chair. “Pru! Once he sees Julius can do all this for him, maybe he won’t care about these.” I point to my sensors. “Maybe M knows someone who can remove them!”

  Pru stands, her long limbs graceful. “Maybe then you’ll finally be free.”

  Ty shakes a hand back and forth in the air. “Not so fast. M won’t be doing you any favors without a price. Especially not so long as those sensors can act as his own eyes and ears.” He flattens his palms on his knees. “No. I wouldn’t get too excited about removing those sensors any time soon.”

  Just then a new voice greets us from the doorway. “What isn’t happening any time soon?”

  Julius’ red hair appears in the doorway, and my face lights up like a t-screen. I run toward him, thankful to see him again so soon, but unable to bring myself to hug him. Physical touch is still too strange, too foreign. For a moment, we stand smiling at each other. Ty cracks his knuckles behind us.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Julius pushes past me, looking longingly at Pru. Pru smiles at him but stays where she is.

  In an effort to come to Julius’ aid, I offer a distraction. “Julius, this is Tyson. His father, M, is the one who got you out.”

  The boys nod at each other.

  “What did they do to you?” I ask.

  Julius shrugs. “Nothing much.” He looks at his feet, but the words carry the memory of pain. “They seemed disappointed I didn’t have sensors anymore though.”

  I scratch my head. “So, it wasn’t … bad?”

  He lifts his shoulders in a noncommittal way. “If you don’t count the insults, the no food, and the full-body probe they gave me looking for any—and I mean any—other devices the Center could have placed in me.”

  I cringe. Ty groans. Pru covers a small chuckle.

  “So, yeah, glad that’s over,” he adds, draping one elbow over my shoulder. “Tell me what happened since you got on that tram.”

  Julius sits on the couch in the employee lounge, the place we’ve spent the past two days camped out until Ty finds us some apartments. The cold air of the lounge has pulled all my arm hairs to attention despite the thin blanket Ty procured for me. M feels it’s safest if we all remain at Streamline until Boast is apprehended. Just in case. I’m okay with that, if it means our safety.

  It’s been two days since we went to the party. Two days of doing mostly nothing other than reading a book I’ve pulled from Ty’s shelf of old titles. It feels strange to read words I can hold in my hands, words that take up physical space. I’ve only ever read on a screen, and most of the books we covered in our education at the Center were uploaded via streams. They simply stream-fed us the creativity of the ages.

  Ty appears in the doorway, face pale with panic. “Pru’s gone.”

  I stop reading and gape at Ty. Pru would only leave for one reason: to return to the Center. But that will never work. They’ll replace all of us, surely she knows this!

  Julius’ head snaps up. “What? You let her just wander off?”

  Ty folds his arms. “Dad insisted she learn the hard way.”

  “Why do you listen to that man?” I snap, wondering why Ty, who seems to both love and hate M, does everything his father asks of him.

  Ty scrunches up his face. “He put me into one of the best schools in the country. I’d be like all them”—he tosses a hand at the wall—“if I’d gone to a regular school. And he’s my father.” Like this settles the matter.

  “So?” I say. “He’s the one who keeps telling us the city isn’t safe for us! Julius, see where she is.” I move to the other couch so I’m right beside Julius.

  Ty folds his arms. “He can be hard, but it’s always for the good of those he cares about.”

  I raise a brow at Ty. “You sure about that?” I think of Pru getting scooped up by the Director, brain wiped and a new identity plastered into her brilliant mind.

  Ty doesn’t answer.

  Julius closes the game on his tablet and opens Pru’s feed. He taps a few things and we’re looking out of Pru’s eyes.

  “Ty, do you recognize where she is?” I ask, tipping the tablet toward him.

  He walks closer, examines the screen a minute. “Yeah, that’s a few blocks from here.”

  “What will happen to her?” Julius asks, eyebrows raised.

  Ty shrugs. “Maybe nothing.”

  I spin the tablet back around, surprised by how worried I am. “Who are they?”

  Ty jerks his head down over the screen. “Who?” He pulls it back toward him. “That was fast.” He turns and hurries toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” I’m standing, following him.

  “Come on, she’s in trouble.” Over his shoulder, he says to Julius, who has gotten up too, “Stay here and watch her. Tell M we’ve gone to get her.”

  Julius grunts. “I’m coming with you.”

  Ty doesn’t argue just picks up the pace, and I jog along behind him.

  The car gets us there in minutes. By the time I see the group of boys, I’m chewing my bottom lip like it’s a corn cob. “Hurry!” Ty has already amassed three drones overhead with whirling lights claiming he’s broken the speed limit.

  The tires yell before I can. As soon as the car stops, I’m climbing out, fists flailing, disregarding Ty’s shouts for me to wait. The pack of boys has turned to see what all the noise and lights are about, fear freezing them momentarily. I spot Pru standing against the wall of the nearest building. Her eyes are the size of petri dishes.

  I am no fighter, but I manage to land a solid punch on one boy’s rib cage before he has me by the throat. My knuckles scream like I’ve punched a brick wall.

  Then something behind me makes the boy let go. The group starts to break up, and they scatter. Ty jogs up, a pistol in his hand leveled at the disappearing boys. As they disperse, I notice they all have on something blue; many have on a blue band around their biceps. The same blue band I saw on Oscar’s arm.

  “You all right?” Ty asks, walking past me to Pru.

  Pru’s eyes linger on me, then finally cut to Ty, skipping over Julius. “Yes. Thank you.”

  “What was that?” I shout at her, unsure why I care so much. My heart still flutters with adrenaline. “Think you can just waltz back to the Director and he’ll take you? Pru, they erase people!”

  She nods slowly, a concession, but says, “I’ll take that over this place.”

  Ty tucks the gun under his shirt. “Yeah, the real danger is not the Center you left, it’s the streets you entered.”

  I scoff at him. So he thinks.

  “Why did they leave so fast?” Julius asks, looking over his shoulder for the boys.

  Ty looks in the direction they went. “I guess none of them had any metal. Lucky for us.” He turns back to Pru. “Metal beats blade any day.”

  “Metal?” Julius asks, finally drawing Pru’s gaze.

  “Guns. None of them had a gun. They’re just pun
ks. Come on,” Ty says.

  As Pru walks around the car still idling in the street, she says to me over the hood, “Nice punch.”

  When we recount the events later in the comfort of the employee lounge, Pru describes my punch like I demolished the guy. Julius doesn’t correct her. He just throws me a wink.

  Twenty-One

  One month later, I wake up with a jolt in my apartment. I realize I can see her today. The new Valeria. The one they cleaned up, washed out, and filled with me.

  Today is the day my Order will visit the mall.

  Entering Streamline Impressions an hour later, my blood churns. My Order will be walking the mall, floors above my head, in minutes. Marcus will be there. Valeria will be there. But not me, some new version of what I used to be.

  The cool air has nothing to do with the chill that runs up my spine as I stand in Julius’ cubicle. My hair is long enough now I can rake my fingers through it, which I do on a regular basis.

  “Everything all right, V?” Julius asks, flipping open his tablet to get started for the day. His t-screen flashes to life, filling the desk space with light.

  “They’re here, Julius.”

  “Who?” Pru asks, walking up behind me with a steaming cup of coffee pressed against her lip. Perhaps courting something that feels like routine, she has re-buzzed her head. The scar from the car accident is nearly invisible now, a tiny dent. Before I answer, she lowers the cup. “Oh.”

  Julius, too, realizes. “Them.”

  All three of us stare at each other for several seconds. Our dopplegangers. Our replacements.

  “Can we see them?” I ask Julius, nodding at his t-screen.

  He wheels around and starts moving his fingers through the virtual screen.

  “Wait,” Pru says, holding out one hand. “I don’t want to see them on a screen.” She turns, and without another word, begins walking toward the exit, the path already familiar to us through the winding cubicle walls. I follow. By the time we reach the employee entrance in the back of the cube farm, Julius has caught up. He shrugs when I look back at him, cheeks red with what I assume is the same nervousness I feel.