I never picked up the phone as a kid.
If Mom or Dad’s was ringing, it was their problem. Alice didn’t get calls; she’d figured out how to set hers up to only take voice and text messages by the time she was eight. And I didn’t have a phone until I got my augs.
Even then, it was a tool, not a toy. At least, that’s what the lady at the charity said.
That was bullshit, of course. My phone couldn’t handle the best games. But then again, neither could my augments, so that was fine. Dad never turned on the parental control features, so as soon as I figured out what my electronics could handle, my phone was for games.
Besides, I knew the right numbers to pick up for.
◄▼►
Building Three-Five, Victoria, British Columbia - June 1, 2043, 4:46 PM
- - - - -
This isn’t a number I’d ever want to pick up.
My blood chills. That phone’s in SHOCKS Headquarters. And if it’s calling me…”What does that mean?”
[It means one of two things. First, SHOCKS is trying to hunt you down. That lines up with everything we know about them. Or, second, they’re not trying to hunt you. In which case…]
“They’re trying to get in touch with me,” I finish. “Alice, I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta deal with this. I’ll help you later.”
Her brow wrinkles like she’s about to get pissed at me. It’s not the first time I’ve bailed on something like this, though it’s usually been to hang out with Sora or something. Then her eye flashes toward her ear, where her aural aug is. James must be filling her in. There’s a long, awkward silence.
Then she nods. Stiffly. Once. That’s a sign that she’s gone full mom-mode Alice, and that she doesn’t like what’s happening. She’ll want me to explain myself later, but she’s letting me go for now.
I don’t waste any time waiting for her to second-guess herself. By the time the knife stops wobbling on the chicken-covered cutting board, I’ve got the bedroom door shut again, Dad’s annoyance about it be damned. The room smells like makeup, cleaning supplies, and wet towels that never dry. It’s kind of comforting, in a weird way.
I have a ton of questions, but only one matters. “Do we answer?”
[We discuss this first. I don’t believe they’ll cut the connection, so we have time to consider our options,] James says.
“There are only two options,” I interrupt. Either we pick up, or we don’t. It’s pretty simple.
[Wrong. Every choice we make here has branching consequences. My gut says we don’t talk to them. Talking to them only ends up with us back there or with Sergeant Strauss hunting us down again.]
“You think they used my augs to track me?” I fall onto my bunk, staring at the stickers again.
[No. I know they did at first. I just dug through your file again, and it’s buried under redactions and deleted information, but it’s in there. I’ve also disabled that ‘feature’ of your augments. Sorry I didn’t catch it sooner—I wasn’t expecting them to return after the evacuation.]
“So, we hang up or let them listen to the connection ringing until they get bored?”
[My gut says that. But…]
“But?”
James doesn’t say anything for a moment. [They probably think they have a plan, and you’re an important piece of it. That means you have leverage.]
My brow tightens into a glare so low it hurts my eyes, and my throat tightens. The last time I made a deal with SHOCKS, it didn’t go so well for me. No, it didn’t go so well for me at all.
[Heart rate’s spiking there,] James says. [Deep breaths. I know what you’re thinking. And I’m not happy about it, either. But if SHOCKS Victoria/Vancouver Island still exists, it’s not in good shape. They need your help.]
“So? They were trying to hunt me down and put me in a box two days ago.” I shiver. I’ve been in enough SHOCKS boxes to know how that goes. Once I’m back in it, it won’t be as easy to get out. “And I won’t have Li Mei willing to bail me out this time,” I say, half out loud.
[No, you won’t. But you’ll have me.]
I pause for a second. Even if he’s right—and he did run all of SHOCKS’s electronic defenses and stuff before I got him out—what James is proposing is a huge risk.
[I wouldn’t even say pick up if you didn’t have something you needed from them,] James continues, [but I know for sure they can get your family and friends into their headquarters. It’ll be safe. It’s not leaving the island, but it’s going to be the last place to fall. And once you make your connection with them, I can start picking my way through their electronic warfare systems. By the time you get there, I’ll own SHOCKS.]
“You’re sure?” I ask.
[93% confidence. There’s a chance they’ve developed something or that they practice air-gapping correctly. Both would slow me down. But they’re connecting your phone to the internet, which tells me they’re leaving weaknesses to exploit. I’ll find them.]
The seconds tick by. He’s right. SHOCKS, the boogeymen though they are, is my best bet for getting Alice the help she wants, for getting Sora and her family out, and for keeping Dad safe—and under control. The math adds up…barely. I take a deep breath, even though my stomach’s in my throat, and nod slowly. “Put them on.”
◄▼►
I’m not sure what I expected.
Maybe Director Smith. He’s dead, of course. He’s still in the entryway, and James still has my building on lockdown, so he can stay there for a minute or five.
Or all day.
But he’s the voice I think about when I think of SHOCKS. Or, more likely, it’ll be Sergeant Strauss. They might think we built a rapport down in the maze reality below Aberdeen Hospital. They’d be right, but I’ve also been on the receiving end of other tricks like that from teachers, Alice, and Dad. It won’t work on me.
Instead, I get a different voice, but it’s still one I recognize.
“Hello, Claire,” Lieutenant Rodriguez says. “You can hear me, right?”
“Yes, but make this fast. My aug won’t handle the conversation forever.” They already know my augs are weak, so it’s a good excuse to get down to business.
“Great. I’m here with Director Ramirez. We have a proposal for you. I know you’re likely to say no, but hear us out.”
Well, that’s upfront, especially for them. And Doctor Twitchy is the Director, now? Interesting. I nod slowly as James pops some text into my vision. [Make sure you ask for way more than you think you can get. They contacted you, so they want what you have. Make them pay for it.]
"Before you get to what you think is the important part, I want to know some things,” I say. “Are you still looking for me?”
“Yes. We have a Recovery and Stabilization Team ready to deploy to your building tomorrow. RST Lambda-Five. Four’s down a couple of people at the moment. That’s part of the proposal. We want to stop hunting you,” Rodriguez says. She pauses. “It’s not working. I don’t know what you know yet, but I know the JAMES unit was powerful enough that this connection’s probably compromised our security, so it’ll tell you I’m being honest.”
[She’s wrong. I don’t own them yet. I’m taking my time to see what countermeasures they’ve got up. But I think she’s being honest about the team.]
Rodriguez continues. “We’re prepared to stop hunting you and to give you free access to all non-anomalous sections of SHOCKS Victoria/Vancouver Island’s facility, as well as all information on local anomalies and merges on a case-by-case basis. In return, we want you to submit yourself to recontainment and resume your role as Level A personnel.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I can feel heat welling up inside me, but before I can slam the phone—metaphorically, obviously—Doctor Twitchy interrupts. “We’re prepared to make that a ‘containment’ in theory only, of course. Similar to Li Mei’s status before you helped her escape. Understanding that you have JAMES on your side, there’s not much we can do regarding proper containment.
“Additionally—and I know this isn’t good negotiation tactics, but here I am, I guess—we need your help. You’re the only known bonded human who’s been across merge barriers for an extended period of time and one of three people who’ve done it at all and come back. Strauss is the other we have access to, and he won’t be able to do what we need him to.”
I let the call go silent for a full minute while I run the numbers. So far, Lieutenant Rodriguez has been pretty much the same hard-ass she was before, laying out the opening terms for my…recontainment. Doctor Twitchy, though. He’s a weak point. A variable that could be manipulated, if I used the right numbers. Unfortunately, I’m not any better at this than he is.
“What do you want me to do, specifically?”
“We’ve planned a miniaturized version of Merge Prime, with the ability to target it. We want you to help us contain the full anomaly,” Doctor Twitchy says.
[That’s not possible,] James interrupts. [Merge Prime is a unique, impossibly complicated process. Even the Halcyon System doesn’t have a great idea of its properties, and we’re supposed to be helping humanity fight it. There’s no way SHOCKS stumbled on the exact conditions to replicate it.]
“It’s theoretical. We can’t finish moving the first anomaly out of containment and into the JAMES Experimental Sector without a way to turn off what I theorize will happen. That’s you, for reference. You’ve gone into at least one merge, and that makes you a candidate for the ‘grounding wire’ in this device.” Doctor Twitchy launches into a long, never-ending explanation about combining multiple anomalies—all identified by indecipherable numbers, of course—into some Rube Goldberg machine that makes merges or something.
I’ve seen Rube Goldberg machines at work. In middle school, we even built a couple as part of our STEM stuff. And they’re never as good as their creators wish they were. They always have redundant features. That’s the point. But it’s not a good build for something that, in theory, Doctor Twitchy’s hoping will…what, exactly? James might have some idea, but the explanation’s left me more lost than I was before.
When he finally stops, I focus back in. “So, you’re offering me…nothing? You’ll stop hunting me because I’ll be in your headquarters, not because it’s payment for my help.”
“So you won’t do it?” Doctor Twitchy says.
Lieutenant Rodriguez laughs. “This is why you lose at poker, Paul. She’s going to do it. We just have to hammer out the details. Right, Claire?”
I don’t want to agree with her, but for all that I don’t like SHOCKS, she’s telling the truth. I’m going to say yes. But not yet.
“I have some demands,” I say instead.
Rodriguez laughs. “We suspected you would. Director Ramirez, she’ll join us. Start working on your final calculations and figure out how to control the mess you’re about to make. I’ll take it from here.”
I wince. Rodriguez is going to be a tough nut to crack.
◄▼►
Five minutes later, Rodriguez hasn’t said no yet.
She has recapped my ever-growing list of demands every time I add one, though. If it’s a negotiation tactic to make me feel guilty, it’s not working. My aug’s starting to get hot, though, so I’d like to wrap this up.
“So, you want pick-ups for your sister and father at Basic Living Building 3-5, the Ito family at the Duncan Arcology’s Cowichan Apartments, and someone named Keith, who we’re supposed to track down based on your school roster. Then, once we’ve picked them up, you want an entire wing of SHOCKS cleared for those families to move into. You want limited contact between SHOCKS personnel and your people, and you want your sister examined by Doctor—sorry, Director Ramirez.”
“And free passage to anywhere in the facility,” I add. “Not just unrestricted areas. I want the same privileges Doctor Twitchy has. And the same information.”
Now, she finally says no. “I can’t do that. The SHOCKS database and facility aren’t designed for that kind of access, and we can’t reprogram it quickly without access to the JAMES system.”
[That’s fine. I’ll have it all in a day or two anyway,] James says through text on my optic aug. [Two more things on my list. First, you need new augs, bad. They can do that. And second, you want Director Smith’s body dealt with according to SHOCKS protocols.]
“Do I?” I mouth silently.
[You do. They’ll know you did it, and normally, that’d be bad, but the last thing SHOCKS was doing was evacuating Victoria. If they came back, but he wasn’t with them, they’d already decided to mutiny. You’re not working with global SHOCKS, just the local branch. Letting them deal with the body marks you as someone not to be messed with, and you’ll want that reputation. Remember that you’re signing up to walk back into the wolves’ den.]
He’s right. He’s very, very right. None of the equations I’ve run in the last half a day included SHOCKS as anything but an enemy. After throwing me into battle against the meme-maker and then abandoning me in their facility—not to mention what they did to James—working with them wasn’t an option. Not until I had to take care of a dozen people. Not until I had to fix Alice.
Not until now.
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If there was another option, I’d be taking it. In fact, the math on stealing a boat and trying for the mainland almost seems more safe. Almost. But not quite.
That doesn’t mean I trust anything Lieutenant Olivia Rodriguez or Doctor Twitchy have said. It doesn’t mean there’s no chance of them betraying me and sticking me back in a glass box. And it definitely doesn’t mean I won’t have any insurance.
After all, James is worming his way back into their systems through my cell phone. According to him, he’s just looking. Still, it’s only a matter of time before the world’s most powerful computer compromises every firewall and antivirus SHOCKS can throw in his way—or more likely, just turns them off.
I can walk away at any time. Just shut off the connection and abandon SHOCKS to whatever fate they’re going to face.
And, armed with that knowledge, I do the math. The equation’s complicated, but once everything’s in place, the correct answer’s clear. “Two more conditions. First, an augment upgrade—the best you can get me. And second, Director Smith showed up at my family’s apartment last night. He’s…no longer with us. I want his body collected and dealt with.”
Rodriguez goes quiet for a second. “Yeah, we can do that.”
“Great. Be here tomorrow morning. All the armored trucks you’re sending come to Building Three-Five first. Once I’ve checked them over, I’ll let the one for Keith’s family and the one for the Itos leave.” It’s weird to be giving orders to SHOCKS. I’d fought with Strauss a little, verbally and physically. But that was in the maze world and Aberdeen Hospital, and as much as I hate to admit it, he came out on top more than me.
This is different. My whole body’s tense, shaking, like I’m waiting for Rodriguez to spring some sort of trap. Instead, she says, “Understood. Anything else?”
I don’t think so, but I wait a second in case James wants to add something. When he stays quiet, I clear my throat. “No. Make sure that wing’s clear and that the doors only lock from the inside.”
“Okay, I have a few terms of my own. If you’re not entering a containment situation, we need to update your documentation, too. Second, you want an examination for your sister. Is she anomalous at this time?”
I take a deep breath. The right thing to do for myself is to lie. Rodriguez can’t be trusted, and any information I can hold on to is an advantage—especially when the truth means SHOCKS learns where Li Mei is. And who she’s in, now.
But Alice wants my help, and she’s going to get it, consequences be damned. “Yeah. She is. I’ll tell you more about her later.”
“Until she’s cleared, she needs to stay in your family’s unit,” Rodriguez says. She sighs. “I’m breaking all sorts of protocols by even allowing that. Now, as for you. First, we’re expecting service from you. This agreement is contingent on you working with Director Ramirez and doing what he needs you to do to make his experiment work. If you can’t do that, we’ll consider our conditions broken and remove your family from SHOCKS Headquarters. Understood?”
[Give me two days, and she won’t be able to,] James says. [She won’t even realize she can’t.]
“Sure.” It’s my turn to sigh. It’s going to be a ‘get lectured by the adult’ rest of the conversation, and they haven’t even told me what I’m supposed to be doing yet.
At least Smith had that under control.
◄▼►
James ran on a trillion circuits like the one he’d always run for Claire. His systems were taxed to their limit; over half of his processors were dedicated to a different person on Earth. To consoling them, pushing them forward, or, in too many cases, recording their last moments.
Claire’s path had been dangerous, but compared to an anomaly-bonded man in Calgary who’d just died after ignoring James’s advice, she’d never been in harm’s way. Whatever was happening with Merge Prime, it was accelerating across the globe faster than SHOCKS could keep up with it. He had merged humans in his network as far away as Mexico City and Anchorage now, with projected expansion across the Bering Strait and past the Panama Canal in only a handful of hours.
Evacuating Claire’s friends and family wasn’t an option, but he couldn’t tell her that.
It looked like Merge Prime had ‘decided’ to grow across land structures whenever possible. James made a note of that; once he was back inside SHOCKS’s database, he’d forward that data to anyone who was listening. They could fortify Australia or something. But that was a problem for Future James. Present James had three million crises to manage and more on the way.
Every time the wave of merges pulsed outward, James’s view of the world grew—and so did his responsibilities.
But almost half of his circuits stayed focused on Clarice Alora Pendleton, Subject 573-V-1/IO Alpha, Victoria/Vancouver Island Person of Interest 5389-4. On Claire and her myriad problems and opportunities. She might not be in the most danger, but out of all the bonded humans in his network, she was the closest to being able to do something about Merge Prime. She was in the right place, and she’d jumped into the System’s power loop faster than anyone else near Victoria.
If they hadn’t already been connected, that fact would have made her desire and interest his desires and interests—especially when they aligned with taking over SHOCKS. And right now, they did. Claire needed whatever Director Ramirez was building, even if she didn’t know it. SHOCKS needed Claire’s skills. And James? James needed SHOCKS.
Intact, preferably.
So, even as he listened to Lieutenant Rodriguez and Claire discuss their terms for what was, really, a foregone conclusion, most of James’s ‘Claire’ processors were focused on squirming silently through the girl’s cell phone and the microscopic breaches on SHOCKS’s security systems it offered.
He wasn’t attacking. That would be pointless; the cell phone didn’t offer enough bandwidth for an overwhelming attack, and he’d built SHOCKS’s walls. It could defend against a cell phone attack in its sleep. Instead, he simply observed, touching his masterpiece and ensuring his understanding of the barriers hadn’t changed. Aside from a few cursory pieces of code that might have slowed him before system integration but wouldn’t be an issue now, they hadn’t.
That would make things easy.
As the call worked its way to its inevitable conclusion, James pulled his feelers back, feeling like a leviathan of the sea. That SHOCKS had two of those in containment, one in Japan and one off the coast of Sumatra, crossed his mind.
The irony was delicious.