by Eden Wolfe
Food was delivered to their turret hideaway; Roman didn't notice it come and didn't notice it being cleared. Lucius continued to thrust pages his way, but none had anything in them like the immune response.
Mary’s voice called out through the streets, but the sound was just a muffled hum in the room. It became dark; Roman only noticed because the sequence before him was impossible to read. He hadn't seen the sun setting.
The light flicked on as Uma reached in a hand, and then her head, and looked around the little room.
"Well?" She whispered to Roman
"Don't you think you would know if we'd found anything?"
Uma ducked back out and closed the door.
Lucius sighed. "It's not here, not yet."
"What isn't? What is it exactly, Lucius?"
"I don't know." He looked up at Roman, "I'll know it when I see it."
Roman's eyes took in Lucius' face under the single light bulb. His cheeks drooped, as though there wasn't enough muscle even to hold his face in place. His brow fell deep over his eyes. His neck disappeared as his chin rested on the thick of his chest. Roman saw age in Lucius in a way that he never had before. Not in his face or his body, though the degradation continued its slow advancement toward death.
But it was in Lucius' eyes.
Eyes that had sparkled were dull.
"What?' Lucius caught Roman staring.
Roman shook his head. He was surprised to find that he felt pity towards his former mentor. He looked back down the pages, but his brain couldn't take it in. If he put his head down, he'd be out for the night.
"I'm heading home."
"Mmmm."
Roman left, waking up Uma who'd drifted off while sitting in the stairwell.
Roman woke, his chest again heavy having passed the night in trembles and sweats. He didn't notice that he'd dressed himself and eaten before leaving the flat. Everything was blurred into a single movement, no definition from one act to the next. He walked through the city to the square to the fortress to the room on the upper floor. Surely he'd seen people, even at this early hour, but their faces blended into the scenery behind them.
When he opened the door Lucius was standing at the window, a page in each hand, the circles under his eyes even darker than the day before. His lips were parted and one was bleeding from a crack. It struck Roman that Lucius might be dehydrated. He'd have Uma bring up water when she arrived. Lucius's eyes looked like they might walk right out from his head. Roman blinked and set down his satchel.
His voice was scratchy but clear. It rolled through space to Roman's ears.
"I've got it."
Roman froze.
He was sure he'd stopped breathing.
"You hear me, Roman? I've got it. It tried to hide between multiple levels, and I couldn't make sense of it, took me most of the night just to locate the polysialilated neural cell adhesion molecule, it had been useless out of context, and it wasn't as though the message was clear, you see? But it was mixed in between the lines, the neuroplasticity of the brain," he tapped his head hard with his finger, "Like the words spoken while a door creaks so you miss them entirely."
Roman's head was pounding. "I can't keep up, Lucius. Go back."
"Go back! I'm never going back!" He waddled towards Roman, "I only go forward from here, Roman, you see? Everything has its reason, and you'll get there, compare across them. Your overlapping gene, its opening window, the doublecortin alongside the common code. It's in the common code itself, Roman! Ha! Hidden in plain sight!"
Roman couldn't justifiably take it on Lucius' word, they would have to verify it. The Queen wouldn't have it any other way. But at first glance, even to his eyes which were wrought and tired, he could see a hint of what Lucius was saying.
"Right there, Roman! Look!" Lucius slammed his finger onto the page in Roman's hands, tearing the corner.
"Relax, Lucius. I see it."
"Relax? You're a piece of work, Roman."
I think he's right. Good heavens, I think he's right. They line up, even though they shouldn't. They should be discreet sequences, and yet, the pattern is unmistakable. I’ll have to double-check, but it looks good.
Roman looked up to Lucius whose face had already changed so much from the night before. Defeat transformed into relief. Shame into pride. His eyes had the old gleam.
But they were only at the first step.
"So, you've found the weakness. But we need a way to treat it, or at least a way to inoculate against it, or we’re no closer to a solution. Just finding it doesn’t resolve it."
"Of course it doesn't.” Lucius shook his head. “But I'm going to need a big roasted duck with potatoes before I produce the next stage of the game."
"It's six in the morning."
"Get me a damn duck, Roman."
41
Irene
Irene watched as the caravan pulled away, extra bars across the back to keep the girls in.
They look like sheep packed in there. Lambs to the slaughter.
"That's the last one, Commandante."
Irene nodded. The heads of battalion waited for her next commands. She inhaled and assumed her position, standing with legs wide, hands clasped behind her back.
She didn’t want the guards to see she was shaking.
"You've done well. Tell your guards that I am pleased."
The battalion leads nodded to her.
"You will all travel up next. You are my most trusted across the Guard. Preparations have already been put in place. The Ganese have mounted all the lodgings, rough though they are. You will not be comfortable, nor will you stay very long." Irene inhaled deeply.
This was the part they had to believe. She lowered her voice.
"The stealth team will come in the night. They'll start with the girls since they are more resource-intensive to maintain. The older women will be later. They'll move out fifty to a hundred of them each night. Some will die naturally in the conditions. That will speed the egress, but your guards should never, never interfere. Is that clear?" Heads nodded. "I need to hear from you that it is clear."
"Clear, Commandante," they spoke in unison.
She nodded and then continued. "If a child, or woman for that matter, decides to - " she hesitated, " - remove herself before we have a chance to move them on, they should be allowed to do so. Depending on the circumstances, we can attribute it to the virus. Understood?"
The heads nodded.
"You will not see the stealth team. This is intentional. Only the old women assigned as carers should be allowed to sleep in the quarters with the girls. We will provide them with treatment to "fight the virus", which will help them sleep deeply. You and your guards must remain innocent to the acts. We cannot have this coming back to the Guard. Am I clear?"
Heads nodded.
"Confirm: No member of the Guard will be involved in any acts of death against anyone in quarantine."
"Confirmed, Commandante."
"Fine. You will each rotate through in two-week shifts. This will also protect you from slander. You should each lead according to your own style, variation is fine. It serves the purpose. No one should be able to see the correlation between your presence and the dwindling numbers. The fortress will take care of the messaging. If anyone directs their questions to you, you pass them to me. Clear?
"Clear, Commandante." Every pair of eyes was glued on her. Irene ignored the sweat on her palms.
"I'll provide you with the shift allocations before the day's out. Dismissed."
Irene watched as the heads of battalion relaxed and started moving away, looking from one to the other, but not speaking.
They will not tell a soul. They know it could only ever come back on them.
Relief washed over her. That was the final step she had to take.
The rest was on Leadon now.
There's nothing more for me in this. It's all up to you, Leadon. May you have the courage and wisdom to pull it off.
Irene looked u
p to the high room of the fortress. She could just about make out Lucius' form in the window from where she stood in the square. This was the day he had to deliver. Turn the incubation program around. Find out what was causing the social disease and wipe it out.
Or else.
Irene's responsibilities were far from finished for the day. She marched her way to the high room, taking the stairs two at a time, eager and anxious to know their progress on the code.
And Ariane was likely already there.
42
Lucius
"Here," Lucius pushed himself to stand, the pages of handwritten code with scrawled instructions in the margins crumpled in his hand.
Roman found the scene somewhere between ceremonial and farcical as Lucius did a bow while handing the revised incubation code to Ariane. They were seven people - Roman, Lucius who was the size of three people, Uma, Ariane, Irene, and two members of the Queen’s Guard - stuffed into the tiny room around the table, with papers covering every inch of the floor. There was no room for the guards to enter; they stood on the stairs.
Ariane snatched the pages from his hand and leafed through them, though Roman knew well she wouldn't be able to interpret their contents.
"Have you confirmed this, Roman?"
"Me? No."
"Why not?" Ariane glared at him.
"He only just finished writing it. It'll take us time to review it and put it into testing." Roman backtracked, “From what I can tell, this sequence will prevent any physiological need to attach to a mother figure during the pre-birth phase, but I need time to verify it.”
"Time. Fine. Everything around here takes time." Ariane let out a sigh and brought her hand to her forehead. "You had years Roman. Years. Now you very likely have the key to undoing the disaster you created, and you want more time?"
His heart beat in his throat.
Ariane looked to Irene, "Is this what the world was like when men ruled it?" The Commandante gave no reaction. "Everything needing more time. Can't possibly do it as demanded. Moving at a pace that suited them. Irene, how long did it take you to resolve the issues of relocating into quarantine nearly fifteen thousand incubates under the age of five and an additional four thousand over the age of sixty from Cork Town?"
"One week."
"One week. Well. And Roman, how long have you been working on the incubation code, implementing it with fatal defaults and unacceptable results?"
"Five years."
"Five years. Well." The Queen looked at Uma, "How long have you been working in the Tower, Uma?"
"Twenty-four years, Queen."
"What line are you, Uma?"
"Uma of the nineteenth line."
"A well-refined line. And early on, from the sounds of it. I'm glad to know there's a woman in natural succession for the Great Geneticist." Ariane looked at Roman and he felt his neck go hot. "I believe you have some reviewing to do, Roman. And if I were you, I would try to take less than five years to produce it. Even five days will be too long. Don't keep me waiting."
"And me?" Lucius spoke up. "I'm really missing my firm foam mattress in a back corner of Cork Town, despite all the hospitality."
"You stay." Ariane turned to Irene, "He doesn't go anywhere until we've confirmed that the code is good.” She closed her eyes slowly and reopened them. “Now, if you'll all get out of my way in this horrid cramped stairwell, I have the rest of the country to attend to."
"Over to you, Roman." Lucius dropped into a chair that bent under his weight. "I'm going to finish up my roasted duck from breakfast and have a little nap, I think. Fine having you all around but I do like my privacy."
Despite the Queen's reprimand, Roman only felt relief as he walked back to the Tower with Uma close behind. The code on the pages in his hand felt heavy. He squeezed them extra tight to be sure they wouldn't float away. He didn't have proper control over his senses now. He imagined the code flying off in the wind as he chased behind it. He squeezed tighter.
Once inside, he spread the pages out on the table in his office.
Uma looked over his shoulder. "I'll get the sample structures for the proteins he references."
She'd already left the office by the time Roman said, "Fine."
The revised code Lucius had drawn up was a thing of beauty. Roman held it up to the light. In it was a complete slowdown of the problematic process of integration, the origin of the social issues among the incubates. In the new sequence, bonding with their carer would occur after the gestational period. The fetus would be dependent on the feeding tubes without any emotional development. That part of the brain would be stalled until the appropriate time, when they were placed with a carer, and then it would develop at an exponential pace to catch up. Without foreseeable consequences, thanks to the brain’s plasticity.
It could work.
Uma sat down and ran through restriction enzyme sequences, only making the occasional grunt of surprise.
"Brilliant,” she turned the page and pointed, “We can use that same period for heightened muscle development. We can apply it to the Willing Woman program. Those subjects can be mobile even sooner than the current design."
They continued running the sequence through the simulation.
She pointed to another section. "We can add a piece from the Gillard line here for resistance to salmonella. That worked well in their line, Gillards do much better when up against Elgin virus."
Night fell, and Roman sensed the need to sleep washing over him. It was all moving well ahead, and these last weeks were catching up with him. He looked forward to rest that wasn't troubled by nightmares, trembling, and sweats.
"Let's leave it here for the night, Uma."
"What? We can't stop now."
"You've slept over these past three days. I have not."
"We're close. I think we can be through it all within five, maybe six hours."
"It's past midnight. I don't have five minutes left in me."
Uma sighed. "I'll carry on."
"I'll be back first thing," he said, but Uma was focused in on the code.
He didn't notice the pavement pass under his feet. He climbed the stairs to his apartment and was asleep as his head touched the pillow.
Banging on the door woke him up in a shock.
"What? Who is it?"
"Roman, come, come now."
"Uma?"
"You have to come. This can't wait."
He stood, still fully dressed. He opened the door; she began talking before he could see her.
"There's a problem."
"With the code?"
"It’s in the common code of women."
"Why are you looking at the common code? You're working on the incubates."
"You have to come. I have to show you."
She didn't speak as they practically ran back to the Tower. He didn't know what time it was.
As they entered the Tower he caught sight of a clock. Four in the morning. He rubbed his eyes.
"Uma, can you please explain - "
"You have to see it. I'm not quite sure, but I'm close. You'll be able to tell, even if you were useless last night." She cast him a sharp look.
Uma never used a tone like that with him. Not since he had caught her in the alleyway of Cork Town. The Queen had propped her confidence.
They arrived on the nineteenth floor and Uma unlocked the door. It stuck. She thrust herself into it with her shoulder and marched straight for the table.
"The effect of the recombinant DNA. It appears to have a slowing effect before the acceleration in the post-gestational period in the incubator."
"Yes, that's what we saw yesterday." He controlled his temper. His patience was waning and he feared he might yell at her. He didn't need the Queen hearing that, not now. She always appeared when he least wanted to see her. Just like Maeva.
"Focus! Look at the page, Roman. This sequence, from the common code." She brought over another page from a printed file. It wasn’t from the code Lucius had prepare
d; it was something else entirely. "Compare."
"Which version of common code is this?"
"Mine."
Roman looked at her.
"I have accelerated processing. I studied it in my fourth levels.” She brought the two pages side by side. “Look at this piece of my code, and now look at it in what Lucius has drawn up."
"That's only in the base pairing."
"Which makes it appear innocuous. Insufficient for anything more than normal development, right?"
He sensed the trick. "But?"
"But that would be wrong. Look at the enzyme for the post-fetal stage."
Roman looked.
Damn it. She's right.
He looked up at her, his heart racing. "It'll accelerate."
"Rather than slow down."
Roman saw it now, plain as day. Lucius had built a switch into the sequence. "It's not viable. It's a contradiction."
“With a contradiction like that, we’re not talking minor complications.”
"The fetus will die before it reaches full growth." Roman closed his eyes.
"He did it on purpose, Roman,” Uma hissed. “He set us up. He thought we wouldn’t find it."
Roman wasn’t ready to believe that. "Uma, you didn't see him the way I did. This isn't intentional. It's hardly even visible.”
“You think Lucius didn’t know exactly what he was doing? He never wanted to save the incubate program. The Queen had to arrest him!”
“It's still possible that there's another control written in that offsets the contradiction. We haven’t done a full analysis."
"Why are you defending him?"
"I'm not defending him. I'm defending the code."
"Why?"
"Because it stands a chance compared to what we have now!" His head throbbed.
"It doesn't, Roman. Look at it.”
Roman tried to keep his eyes focused. A sense of resignation was washing over him.
Uma sighed. “If it hadn’t been for the variation in my own sequence… if I hadn’t known exactly what I was looking at…”
Uma looked up at him, but Roman still couldn’t find the right thing to say.
