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“It’s been weeks since I mentioned my ultimate goal, Ignacio.” Soma stared at his face, which was turned forward in the direction they were walking instead of looking back at her. “I feel that if we delay any longer, it’s going to be impossible for me to motivate you to begin. Or to bond with me.”
Ignacio waved his free hand around in the air as if punctuating something he was saying. Even though he didn’t say anything. Not until after he let the arm fall limp at his side. “It’s not what you think.”
They were on their way to Hempstock to sell some of his mazai materials, bags over their shoulders and in their hands, and Soma had seen the long walk from the commune to Banks’ train station as a perfect time to talk to Ignacio without him being able to find any distractions.
“Listen.” Soma tried to soften her voice. “I know they did something to you. They sacked you or exiled you. Now you go behind their backs to help people in need.”
He squinted, still not looking at her. “Well, I wouldn’t give me that much credit.”
She didn’t break her stare. “You’ve told me about the corruption in the Assembly. Things like paying poor women to abort their babies so the soul space can be auctioned off for a hundred times what they’re paid. Work camps for homeless people that promise quick money, where the mortality rate is mysteriously through the roof.”
She kept staring. He kept looking forward. Finally, he drew in a breath. “I know. And I still think that Aleph who talked with you was lying about your family ‘accidentally’ being annihilated. Soul space is the only thing that has true, intrinsic value.”
“What about Aleph ink?”
He shook his head. “Just the Aleph version of shekels. They only care about Fractions. Before people, friends, or family.”
Soma looked away from him and sighed. Both here and in Prometheus, Fractions were used to purchase “fertility medicine.” It was really just a cover up for giving people a slot in the Essesin for conceiving a child. Every woman in Mebar was entitled to have at least one child. Then, each man and woman were given, at birth, a thousand Fractions. Two thousand Fractions could be exchanged for one Credit, and that Credit could buy an extra dose of the fake medicine, so that another child could be raised.
Since Fractions were the gold standard, breaking them into smaller denominations, called rubles here on Pan, made a lot of sense. But apparently, that had only happened here, where a person can’t buy anything of real value without rubles.
Soma chewed on her lip. “I was a police officer for fifteen years. I know what corrupt government leaders look like, and I can’t believe that the Alephs are merely a brood of belligerent dictators sneaking around behind each other’s backs.”
“Why not? That’s exactly what they are.”
“You’re misunderstanding what I’m saying. They can’t let themselves appear to be that.” She looked up at the gray sky. “They have to have a code they tell everyone to follow but don’t actually follow themselves. What they actually do is agree to look the other way, even if it’s an unspoken agreement. Leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone, something like that. At least, that’s how this kind of corruption usually takes place.”
“Or they gain enough status and no one questions them.” Ignacio stopped walking. He looked around as if he needed to make sure no one else was listening. His insecurity was a little silly, since they were walking on a deserted path surrounded by dense greenery with no sound but leaves rustling in the wind. “But yes. There are rules.”
“And they probably operate on a ‘don’t get caught’ system of enforcement. Breaking the rules isn’t actually discouraged, just doing it in such a sloppy way that you’re noticed. Then, a person deficient in cunning gets the hammer. As an example of everyone’s fake allegiance to the rules.”
Ignacio set one of his bags down and folded his arms. “Well, yes. There’s…there’s Stove.”
“Stove.”
“It’s a prison for Alephs and preyvedes and other things. The Assembly will organize a court hearing and, if there’s evidence they can’t ignore, they’ll throw someone in Stove.”
Soma resumed walking, thinking. That was it. She needed evidence and a way to approach the Assembly. “Where would one find evidence of what the Alephs are doing?”
Ignacio picked up the bag and jogged to catch up with her. “It would all be down in Babel, but if they found out I was in Threshold with a preyvede, they’d try to kill both of us, probably. Keeping preyvedes out of Threshold is one of the rules they’re actually strict about. There are some back-ways in that most people don’t know about, but still.”
“If you bonded with me, you wouldn’t have to worry about me as much.”
He shrugged, which looked odd because of the bag he had strapped across his shoulders. “I told you, that’s not what it is. I want to. I really, I really do. I really want to. But the state you’re in, it could be dangerous. You’ve barely gone to the fire preyvede commune at all. They’re the best ones to teach you how to use your abilities. Fire preyvedes are powerful. If you bond with me, your strength and your powers will more than double.”
“I don’t need to learn how to throw fireballs around like…some sorcerer on that Lower Empire show. Besides, I hate going there. The men flirt like idiots.” She frowned and folded her arms tightly as she looked at the path. She remembered a couple of dirtbags at the fire camp asking if she was doing charity work by dating Ignacio. “Don’t you want revenge?”
He frowned. “I want to be left alone. I know that makes me sound like a coward, but, I’m used to people thinking that about me.”
They continued on in silence for a moment. Soma looked at her own feet, trying to think of more questions to ask, either to convince Ignacio or to ween more information.
But he broke the silence. “I wish I could say that the slow bond was already starting between us, but it isn’t. I know that…you’re only with me because you want revenge. It’s okay. I’m happy to be helpful. But, I do want to be with you, and that puts us out of unity. As long as we’re out of unity, the slow bond can’t form.”
Soma frowned, feeling a bit lightheaded. She wanted to deny what he was saying. They walked along, Ignacio’s head drooping forward more than normal.
He again was the one to speak. “You’ve probably heard of the ‘never-no’ bond. It’s instant. I don’t like it because it’s…it’s kind of vile. Especially among water preyvedes.”
Soma’s voice was weaker than before. “I though the bond was supposed to be a promise of devotion.”
“The whole preyvede resurrection system is garbage. Being brought back to life after trauma, being given super strength and a sexy body, only causes problems. Some of them will find a human and fall in love. But they’re often too afraid to pursue them honestly. Or, they get rejected. Some water preyvedes set traps.”
Soma watched Ignacio as he walked. This was the first time she’d ever seen him genuinely angry. His heavy brows hung over his eyes in a way that made his face almost frightening.
Soma knew enough about the bond to be able to guess what he meant by setting traps: “I imagine by that you mean they set a scenario up so that the ‘object of their desire’ is seriously injured, then they come out and offer the never-no bond in order to heal them?”
Ignacio’s eyes were turning glassy. “Sometimes, because water preyvedes are so strong, they assault the person openly, then offer the bond. I’ve known preyvedes that have killed people because they refused the bond. Then they just find somebody else to go after. The human they bond with, well, they end up doing almost anything the preyvede tells them.”
Soma frowned. “I’d heard of that, but it didn’t make sense. Does the bondee lose their free will? They become some sort of mind-slave?”
Ignacio shook his head. “No, that’s just the rumor people tell. It’s an addiction. Obedience becomes a narcotic.”
“A narcotic?”
Ignacio looked at her and took on his calm, “teacher” face. “The bondee will feel an urge to do whatever the preyvede tells them, but that’s not the problem. When the bondee obeys, they’ll feel a deep sense of elation. It’s so strong that they become addicted to following commands. It can be very disturbing. And it gives the preyvede a huge amount of power to manipulate. The only counter is that the bondee gets to make three conditions.”
He held up three fingers and his face regained some of the brooding expression from earlier. He continued, “Some die before they can accept the bond because they don’t understand, or because the preyvede gives bad instructions on stating the conditions. Sometimes the preyvedes confuse people on purpose. Some don’t want to be bonded with someone who might say, ‘you can never hurt me in any way’ or ‘you have to let me go home whenever I want to.’ The conditions are very, very powerful to balance out the compulsion for obedience.”
“Do the Alephs stop preyvedes that try to abuse the system?”
“Sometimes. Same thing as with Alephs that break their laws. They’re taken to Stove as examples.” Ignacio resumed looking at his feet. “The three conditions can be anything. They can actually be placed on the bonder or the bondee. But the bondee has free choice in making them, so they usually limit the bonder. If you and I bond, I will be the bonder and you will be the bondee.”
“Because you’re an Aleph.”
He nodded. “But if we bond, I want one of the conditions you make to be placed on you.”
“What is it?”
He looked at her, his face finally softening. “You must tell no one, ever, all the things I’ve told you about the Alephs. If you do, the Alephs may find you and kill you. They won’t bother with Stove.”
Soma thought about this a moment. She couldn’t at that moment think of what specific things he’d told her that would make her all that dangerous. Most people won’t believe the more extreme things anyway. “What conditions should I ask for? You’ve never been abusive in any way. You’re probably the most gentle person I’ve ever met.”
He breathed out loudly through is large nose as his face twisted up in concentration. “Ask that you will receive all my authorities and augmentations if I die.”
Soma looked away from him and folded her arms.
“You don’t like that one, do you.”
She didn’t respond.
“I can tell that you won’t stop. The last months, I hoped you’d moved on, but now I know. I’m going to do anything you need to help you.” He laughed his awkward, completely unmusical laugh. “We’re a pair, the two of us. I’m with you because I find you…so damn beautiful. And most people are very impatient with me. I’ve never found someone as patient as you. And you, you’re with me because you need justice and I’m the only one that’s willing and able to help. We’re just…we’re both just…”
“It’s not really true.” She needed to say something to lift him up, but it needed to not be a lie. “Most people aren’t very patient with me either. I mean, it requires a lot of patience to put up with me. You think I’m perfect and wonderful, but I’m not.”
He smiled. “I don’t know if I think you’re perfect, but it doesn’t matter. Maybe I don’t want to bond with you is because I know that it will just get you closer to your goal. And that means that, probably, both of us will get killed.”
Soma’s eyes felt warm and went out of focus. She knew he was right. She also knew that she’d never truly loved anyone except her two girls. She did not love this broken, lonely man, Ignacio. She knew this for sure because of one important fact.
She knew she might die in her attempt at justice. She didn’t mind that, but what she was ashamed of was that she knew, in the core of herself, that she did not care if Ignacio died. Her girls were gone. She didn’t care who else died. “Ignacio. I want to go to Threshold tomorrow.”
***
Nathan returned to his camp on the top of the hill, dropped his bag of groceries next to the ice box, and sat on his stool to stare at his little stove. It was getting darker and colder and he wanted either tea or coffee. But he didn’t want to bother boiling water or cleaning out his tea pot or his French press.
He instead pulled a beer out of the bag and opened it and drank half of it in one pull. Most people, when they waited for an omniscient being to meet with them--and they didn’t show up right away--gave up. Move on and do something else. Especially after three weeks camped out on top of a hill in the dead of winter. It was close to Christmas. He wondered if there were people celebrating Advent while Nathan was on top of a hill waiting for the advent of a little, god-like child.
He giggled at the silly coincidence as he took another drink. He was like one of the shepherds. Sort of. Random memories of going to mass during December popped up in his head. People talking in Latin. Extreme boredom, enhanced by impatience over waiting for presents and feasts.
“I hope some people still eat turkey for Christmas, since there’s no more Thanksgiving anymore,” he mumbled to himself. “Not that I’d get any, since apparently this is my life now. Sitting on hills, waiting.”
***
“Well, we might as well get ready.” Ignacio reentered the apartment, carrying a stained, wooden case.
Soma looked out the small window of the room the two of them were sharing at a small hotel in Hempstock. People were walking past on the narrow street. The jackets and coats were heavier and warmer here than on Prometheus. Maybe longer and more ornate. No zippers. But Soma was never that good with fashion. She liked uniforms, because then she could just follow a standard someone else had already figured out. She had liked her detective uniform in Helison, which was mostly just a black cotton suit with a long duster. She’d somewhat subconsciously tried to replicate that look during her time here in Pan.
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“If we’re ready, should we bond before we go?”
Ignacio undid the latch on the wooden case. “I got something for you, since you haven’t had a chance to master your powers yet. Call it an Advent present.”
Soma came over next to the bed as Ignacio opened the case. Inside were what looked like two double-barreled flintlock pistols, but with a grated metal vent on the handgrips. He took one out and held it out, grip toward her. “They’re Henry Stacks. Element Lock pistols.”
“What are they for? I don’t know how to load a muzzle-loader. Are there no real guns in Pan?”
He smirked. “There are plenty of guns. But these use your powers. When you pull back the charging dial, the gun draws in elemental magic from your hand through the vents here and here.” He pointed at the grated vents on either side of the grip. “Until you learn how to fast-charge them, it takes a second or so to ready each blast, so it’s best to ready one ahead of time if you think you’ll be in trouble. Otherwise it might not be a lethal shot.”
She took the pistol and examined it. It was very heavy. The stacked hexagonal barrels looked like they were made of matte-finished obsidian and the other metal parts looked like brushed bronze and nickel. The grip was a dark hardwood. “It’s beautiful.”
He nodded as he put his hands in his pockets. “We can go to a leather place I know in town and get you a set of holsters if you want. They’re just as accurate as a regular gun, but a hell of a lot more powerful.”
She found a deep pocket inside her jacket and put the pistol there as Ignacio closed the case with the other one and put it in his bag. She folded her arms, feeling the weapon pressed against her side. “Thank you, Ignacio. So…does that mean…”
He nodded again and cleared his throat. “Alright. Just make sure to keep a handle on your emotions. The intensity of your powers is going to double. Or more. So, if we get into trouble, and you feel yourself getting panicky, grab the gun and charge both barrels to take the edge off. Otherwise, you could take out a city block.”
Soma frowned. “I’m not going to accidentally let fire explode out of my pores if a mouse jumps up behind me.”
He nodded and held out his hand. She reached over and clasped her hand around his wrist as his hand gripped her wrist. His palm was sweaty. And he was looking at the floor.
He lifted up his eyes and stared at her. His expression became very serious and much less distracted than it usually was. “You don’t need to come with me. I already know how to navigate Babel. You can just tell me what to look for.”
She shook her head, matching the intensity of his gaze. “I know what damning evidence looks like. I don’t want you risking getting attention only to come back with something that won’t hold up in a court.”
He held her gaze a moment before again looking at the floor. “Do you, Soma Dan, agree to bond with me, an Aleph of Pan?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
He drew in a long breath. “Alright. Name your conditions.”
She looked at the cracked paint of the ceiling as she went over the list in her head. “First, that I will receive all your powers and authorities if you’re killed by—”
“—killed or…emasculated. Or, whatever stripped of all powers forever, means. They may just lock me up in stasis forever.”
Soma squinted an eye. “I don’t think ‘emasculated’ is the word you’re looking for.”
A tight wrinkle formed on Soma’s forehead as she tried to think of another word. “I’ll receive all those things from you, if your former associates kill or…destroy you. Second, that you can never do anything to stop me from pursuing justice. Third…that I’m not allowed to tell anyone all the secrets you’ve told me.”
He nodded. “I accept your conditions. Do you accept my bond?”
“I do.”
Immediately, their hands and arms where they were gripping glowed white and then went back to normal. Soma took a step back, looking at her hand. “Is that it?”
Ignacio sighed. “Yeah. The light means that Cephas believes he can hold us to those conditions.”
Soma, still looking at her hand, clenched it into a fist. “Alright. Let’s go.”
***
Paul was heaving as he ran around the corner and up beside Aramis. She was standing in front of O’Malley’s Shop O’Magicks, waiting and carrying a toolbag. Her eyes brightened as she noticed him.
“Sorry,” he said. “I got lost on the way here. The streets still confuse me.”
She shrugged. “Well, she isn’t here yet, so you’re okay.”
He noticed an odd look on Aramis’ face. “You okay?”
She adjusted her arms. “Yeah, I just saw something odd on my way here. My old boss was with some fire preyvede woman. And…she was really, really beautiful. I think she was bonded to him.”
Paul frowned. “How could you tell?”
She turned toward the street and opened her mouth but didn’t speak right away. “Well, it’s really hard to describe, but I’ve seen it so many times that I can usually spot it. What’s weird is seeing him bonded to someone. He doesn’t like the practice very much.”
“Huh. It is because of the thrall issues with the Never-No bond?”
“Not exactly. He doesn’t like how preyvedes are all expected to find someone to bond with. The fact that he’s an Aleph and a preyvede makes people expect him to not be very nice about how he’ll find someone. And he wouldn’t ever do that.”
“People are dumb.”
Aramis looked at him, then away again. Paul was noticing the odd discomfort she showed at times. It was something he didn’t quite understand. It seemed like she was carrying around the weight of the things they were discussing, as if she was responsible for them. Or responsible for fixing them.
She shoved her hands in her pockets. “There are some bars along the Thyme River’s waterfront, just south-east of here. People go there to meet preyvedes. It’s just a couple steps up from prostitution. Just, no money exchanged. Just drinks and promises. Lots of people go to those bars specifically to bond with a preyvede.”
Paul was about to reply in Aramis’ pause. But as he opened his mouth, Gael O’Malley finally came around the corner.
She smiled, dimples forming on her freckled face. “Oh, Paul. There you are. Is this the young lady-preyvede you spoke of yesterday?”
“Yep.” Paul smiled as the frizzy-haired woman brushed past them and unlocked the front door of her shop. “I don’t know anything about mazai machines, but she does. She trained with some big-wig.”
O’Malley turned to Aramis and smiled tentatively. It sent a tinge through Paul to see it, because it seemed like the woman might be prejudging Aramis because she was a preyvede. At least there wasn’t any prejudice in O’Malley’s voice as she opened the door. “Well, come in. I’ve got a lot for you to get started on.”
Paul waved to Aramis as she followed the woman into her shop. Paul watched her go, then had a thought. He’d been trying to get more information out of Aramis for weeks about the mechanics of the bond, but she’d been dodgy and uncomfortable and he didn’t like to make her feel dodgy and uncomfortable.
But now he knew where he could go to find people who knew a lot about it.
***
“Why are we in the children’s section?”
Ignacio ignored Soma’s question as he glanced around the shelves filled with colorful books of many widths and heights. He stopped as he noticed a small girl sitting on a cushion, reading a bright-yellow book with a blue cartoon dinosaur on the cover. He stared at the girl a moment, until the girl noticed and looked up at him with a blank stare.
Ignacio’s eyes bounced off of her as if he was deeply embarrassed. His reaction was so comical to Soma that she couldn’t help but smile. She leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear. “You look like you’re afraid she’s a spy for the Alephs.”
He shook his head, his face humorless. “I’m just waiting for her to leave.”
“Why not just go into another room?”
He pointed at a bookshelf. “Old books, filled with pictures and stains and creases. They help conceal what we’re about to do.”
“Conceal from what?”
“Not from what; from whom. Clausius. You can use magic to get him to track people. And to detect when someone’s about to use an Aleph key.”
They stood there in the back corner of the children’s section, awkwardly doing nothing and waiting for the girl to leave. Eventually she did, taking the book and a couple others with her.
Soma noticed that Ignacio was now sweating. He stepped over into a corner where two bookshelves met and retrieved his Aleph pen from a pocket. He took the cap off and began to draw a silver line right on the bookshelf.
Carefully, he drew out a rectangle right on the wall and bookshelf and books. Soma’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped the moment he closed the line. The space within the silver rectangle blinked away with a CRACK, replaced by a wooden door with a heavy latch.
“What the hell?”
“Shh.” He opened the door to reveal a small room. With another door at the opposite end.
A finger pressed to his lips, Ignacio held out his hand to Soma. She took it and he led her inside the black box. Once they were standing inside, he pulled the door closed. It shut with a click and a lamp on the ceiling came on. In front of them was a door with two horizontal dials in the center.
Ignacio hunched over the dials and Soma heard them clicking as he spun them, but the writing was small, so she could see the top one. The one Ignacio landed on was “Babel Redundancy.”
After not too long, Ignacio grabbed the door handle and pulled down. The door cracked open with a SLAM that made Soma jump back. He pulled the door open, and Soma caught what was written on the bottom dial: “Atrium Broom Closet.”
Ignacio stepped through the door into, shockingly and obviously, a broom closet. With a broom and a mop and containers of cleaning solution sitting on shelves and a large sink on one wall. And a squat little cylinder on wheels sitting in the center of the room. Probably a cleaning robot. It was all lit by a dull light on the ceiling.
Ignacio stepped out after her, shut the door behind him, and it vanished with another CRACK.
“That’s pretty handy.”
He chuckled. There was a door opposite the sink, a normal door, that he walked to and opened. He stepped out, Soma coming up behind him, but then he stumbled back, knocking Soma into one of the mops. He shut the door and turned to her, his eyes wide with horror. He spoke through clenched teeth. “They’re here!”
The door was ripped right out of the frame. Soma reached into her jacket and took the grip of the pistol in there.
The person holding the now-removed door was a gorgeous woman with snow-white hair and wearing a very profession suit. She looked at them a moment, frowning with disappointment, then tossed the door to the side. “It’s just Ignacio.”
“Who? He’s still around?” said a man’s voice further into the large hexagonal room.
The woman in the suit nodded. “What are you…ah, shit.”
She had spotted Soma. Her disappointment switched to frustration. “I can’t cover this up for you, Ignacio.”
Ignacio looked at Soma, then back at the woman. “We’ll go. Just…don’t do anything to her.”
“I just said we can’t.” Her expression softened a little. “Well. I guess we can throw you on one of the exile worlds. We’ll can say…she came her to ask for asylum. That’s the best I can do. If I don’t, the Pan Sub-Assembly will kill both of you.”
Soma ran her finger along the stubby trigger of the pistol in her pocket as she watched the expressions on Ignacio’s face and on this woman’s face. Soma had an idea. Something she remembered from that contract that Viki had written up and then torn up. She didn’t want to play this card now, but Ignacio looked a lot more relieved by this woman’s offer than disappointed. It could be the bond, or the fact that she had him pretty figured out, but she had a feeling he saw one of these “exile worlds” as a welcome retirement, not a major set-back.
“If that’s all you can do, I guess—”
Soma cut him off. “I appeal to the Assembly.”
Even through the blue color of his skin, it was clear all the blood had rushed out of Ignacio’s face. The woman’s forehead wrinkled up, confused. “No, I’m not going to do that. If you knew the paperwork—”
Soma took her hand out of her jacket, leaving the pistol there in the pocket, and stepped around and in front of Ignacio. “I appeal to the Assembly. I want to talk to them now.”
“Soma! Stop it!”
“No.” Soma turned back to Ignacio. “I didn’t give you that condition for no reason. We’re going to go through with this. For my justice as well as for yours.”
The woman watched this exchange, confused and worried. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about whatever little lovers quarrel you two are having right now. I’m dropping you off on Hail.”
A short man, very handsome and wearing a very nice suit, walked up to them. “She has a right.”
“They’ll just kill her!” The woman glared at her companion, showing shock for the first time in the conversation. “It doesn’t matter whatever ridiculous agenda she has or why she’s here. The Assembly doesn’t screw around with the Second Life laws.”
The man shook his head. “She looks pretty adamant. She’ll just break back into here eventually. She already figured out to how once. She’ll just find another loser like Ignacio to get her in.”
Ignacio’s forehead was covered with sweat and his skin was turning almost gray. Soma felt more than just a little guilt at dragging him into this, but she was also angry at him for being so willing to let this woman throw them under the rug.
The woman’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. “Fine. Get someone to contact Negri.”
***
“You don’t know anything about what happened to me.”
Nathan, sitting on the ground in front of his tent, looked up as the child’s voice woke him. He saw Irse standing in front of him, but she wasn’t smiling like before, when she’d first woken him up after all those centuries. He slowly stood up and stuffed his ice-cold hands into the pockets of his jacket. He’d fallen asleep sometime in the afternoon sun and now it was dark and freezing.
Irse didn’t move as Nathan took a step toward her. She was wearing the same light, colorful clothing but didn’t look cold at all. Nathan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could she held out a piece of paper. It was that rough kind with fibers and colored strands in the texture. It had a list on it. The top said, “Nathan’s vocab study list.”
“I should have made this for you first off. But, now you have it.”
Shaking the sleepiness from his head, Nathan looked down the list, which was broken down into categories: Money, augmented persons, magic, etc.[1] He looked up at Irse. “I’ll look at this later. I need to know about what happened to you. I’ve been waiting a while.”
“You’ve only been here three weeks. I’ve been waiting centuries.” She folded her arms. “What the Alephs did to me was hell. Worse than the hell the god of the old universe invented for his demons.”
Nathan nodded and hugged himself as a breeze sprung up. “I know they made clones of you, cut out parts of your brain, and tried to reprogram your clones into sex slaves.”
She shook her head. “They didn’t just try.”
Nathan’s fists tightened. “I know they called it Project Immortals, and I know that no one punished them for it. Is that why you woke me up?”
Irse turned to look at Nathan’s fire pit, at the ashes and cinders of dozens of fires Nathan had set night after night. She looked back up at Nathan. “If you want to find out more, it’s all there in Babel. The Assembly tried to change those rules about documenting all their actions, but I stopped them. Everything’s there.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to get back into the library any time soon. They’ll be waiting for me.”
Irse shrugged. “Use the key.”
“The key?”
“The one I gave you. Draw a door on a wall and it will become a door to a small hallway and you can step inside and choose where in Threshold the hallway leads. I’ll transfer some back doors they don’t know about to your key so you can get in without being caught. A few even Carini and Tanaka don’t know about yet.”
Irse turned to walk toward some trees. Nathan watched her a moment, then yelled out in near panic. “Wait!”
She stopped and turned her head to give him a blank stare. “I’m very busy, Nathan.”
Nathan raised a finger, but his hand was shaking. He needed to ask his question, but he was afraid to. “Carini said you’re human now. How is that possible? How can you be human if they can make copies of you and twist up your brain? You were supposed to just be the cute, clever face of the manager we set up for all sensory input. Granted, one that was so clever that you threw out the face we picked and chose a different one. How can you…how can they hurt you?”
Her expression was still blank, but her eyes were getting glassy.
Nathan recoiled a step, since seeing pain on her face was deeply upsetting. His own breathing became more and more uneasy. Hers remained still despite the tears running down her cheeks. His voice shook as he continued: “Why…why can tea taste right, but those nasty wraps we made right at the beginning still taste like cardboard? If we were back on Earth just…disguised somehow, those wraps would be impossible. So, unless Mebar had a major upgrade, tea shouldn’t taste right.”
She smirked and relaxed. “Most people didn’t notice that.”
“Didn’t notice that food finally tastes real?” Nathan looked around as he drew in a long breath. “So, is this where you put on cool sunglasses and a leather trench coat and tell me that I have to see Mebar for myself to know what it is? And we go on a cool, visual-effects driven journey through the anatomy of the system?”
Irse looked up at the stars, more and more of them shining as the minutes passed by and the blue faded from the sky. “That would be pretty, wouldn’t it? I take you on a tour of the outside of the cosmos and show you how the reality you thought you knew is all a lie.”
“Is that one gray listed? ‘The Matrix,’ I mean. The movie. I feel like with this weird culture they wouldn’t want people seeing it. I should sneak it out of the EMA and leak it to one of those little theaters in Helison.”
Irse turned to him, her expression humorless. “This isn’t a computer simulation. It’s real.”
Nathan opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. This wasn’t what he was expecting. Maybe a massive upgrade to the software. Maybe all the hardware had been overhauled. Still, Irse wasn’t above lying. She could be covering something up.
Her head tilted down so she could look at the ground. She kicked at some dirt as she continued. “Mebar used to be computer generated. A new Noah’s Ark devised to save mankind from the Cull. People here used to be minds that were uploaded into the Esessin, leaving their infected bodies behind.”
“Yeah, I know all that.” Nathan began, first frowning, then lifting his eyebrows high. “You’re saying that’s not true anymore.”
“Man became god and created a new universe more to his liking.”
They stood across from each other in the deepening darkness for a long moment. Nathan squinted one eye. “Bullshit.”
She shrugged. “It’s going to take some time for you to believe it, so I’ll hold off on explaining the ‘how.’ For now, you need to get to Pan. Quickly. I have a feeling that something interesting is about to happen at Mount Alanessa. It’s why I came to meet you tonight and not another.”
She resumed walking toward the trees. Nathan felt numb now, watching her go. Her answers were somehow both disappointing and disturbing at the same time. Eight centuries ago he had helped design a collection of new worlds, but they were nothing more than fakes existing inside a huge computer.
“So, what’s happening at Mount Alanessa?”
She turned and smiled. “Something that hasn’t happened since they put you on ice. Someone is about to call out the Assembly for covering up the truth.”