Crashland (37 page)

“Gotta go,” Clair said, feeling revitalized by this unexpected reconnection. It was as though someone had draped a rug over her without her knowing, then suddenly swept it away, letting the light back in. “We'll catch up later, yes?”

“One hundred percent yes. Just try and stop me.”

The chat ended. The double door opened, revealing Nelly.

“Those two stay outside,” she said, pointing to Forest and Sargent.

“Guard duty again?” Sargent grumbled.

“But you're so good at it,” Nelly said, waving Clair and Jesse through. Devin went to follow and wasn't turned away.

The doors shut behind them, cutting off the night and the Air, along with Clair's view of Sargent's annoyed expression.

“And they were never seen again . . . ,” Devin intoned.

Nelly shot him a sharp look. “The PKs are perfectly safe.”

“I meant us. Clair, you're going to have to turn in your sense of humor when you join this lot. Have you really thought this through?”

NOTHING HAD CHANGED
in Agnessa's room. The machines still hummed and breathed. The machines still beeped. The woman on the bed still lay on her side, giving no sign at all that she had ever been alive.

“So, Jesse,” her voice intoned from all around them, “you've decided to rejoin our ranks.”

“As an Abstainer, yes.” He looked anxious but at the same time relieved that he had reached a decision. “Clair says she'd like to join too.”

“I gather. I don't remember inviting her.”

“Uh . . . but it's okay, isn't it? You let her in here. You're not going to kick her out, are you?”

“That depends. Clair, tell me why you're here. Is it because of Jesse or because of you?”

“Me,” she said, mostly sure that was true. It was such a new thing; she was still working it out. “Every problem we're facing goes away if we stop using d-mat.”

“You know it's not that simple,” said Devin from the other side of the bed. “Solving one set of problems by creating a thousand more isn't a solution. It's
surrender
.”

“I'm not giving in to anyone,” she said, beginning to feel angry again. “It's the right thing to do.”

“
Now
it might be,” he said, “but what if you change your mind later? Be careful which bridges you burn, Clair.”

“I'm not burning any bridges. We can still work together. Or are you saying you won't work with me just because I want to be an Abstainer?”

“No,” he said, running his fingers through his thin red hair. “It's just . . . you're a figurehead. That's why I joined the investigation; that's why we rescued you from the dupes. You represent something—call it the future. Or persistence, like Nobody said. If you do this . . . what does it tell the people following you?”

“It tells them that there's another way,” said Agnessa. “They need an advocate who's like them, who understands their confusion. That person could be Clair. Instead of running around helplessly, chased by an endless stream of monsters, she can turn and take a stand. She can make a
difference
, if she really wants to.”

Clair stared at the supine woman on the bed. Was that the deal she was being offered—the same as Jesse's? Just giving up wouldn't be enough. She could only join if she became a champion of the cause . . . ?

“When people are afraid,” said Devin, “they'll agree to anything.”

“That doesn't make it wrong,” said Jesse.

“D-mat saved the world, for heaven's sake! Do you really want more Water Wars? Because that's what we'll have on our hands if you clowns are ever in charge.”

Clair could feel the temperature rising fast and she raised her hands for calm. “There's no need to be melodramatic—”

“
Melodramatic?
I'm playing it down, if anything. What's happening right now is a fight for the future of the human race—and it's all Wallace's fault. If he hadn't created that damned entity, we wouldn't be here, seriously considering turning off d-mat—because people
will
vote for Abstainer lawmakers if they're driven to it. That may look like a solution to you, but it's utterly wrong. It can't be allowed. We won't stand for it. You think you've got problems with dupes right now? Wait until they team up with my lot to stop you turning back the clock. Then you'll really have a war on your hands.”

Clair gaped at him. Was he serious? Would RADICAL really side with Wallace against WHOLE? That would be a bloodbath.

“No one's fighting anyone,” said Agnessa in a calming voice. “That's what Wallace wants. Divide and conquer. The trick is to stop him
first
and worry about d-mat later. And there's something very important you need to know about me, Devin, that you obviously haven't realized yet: I'm not Turner Goldsmith. I don't expect to change the world. It is the way it is, and I can be content with my small corner of it—just so long as I have a voice and my people are left in peace.”

Devin was flushed. “On your word?”

“On my word. There's been enough fighting already.”

“Then . . . I apologize. Please forget everything I just said.” Devin leaned against the bed. “And Clair, I apologize to you, too. You have the right to decide how to live your life. It's a free planet. We can agree to disagree, I'm sure.”

Clair nodded, although that wasn't what worried her now. A new fear was rising up inside her, so large it was drawing others to it and casting a shadow across all her hopes for the future.

“When people are afraid, they'll agree to anything,” she said, quoting Devin's words from just moments ago. The thing taking shape in her mind drew its power from many people's words.
A new age is coming. Divide and conquer. King of the world
.

“Jesse, what was it Turner said about creating a dictatorship? Something about two steps?”

“Uh . . . robbing people of their individuality was the first one,” he said, looking puzzled.

“And putting people under constant observation was the second,” said Agnessa. “I told you. Turner was a dreamer. If he'd been right, we'd have been living under an iron boot years ago.”

“I think Turner was half-right,” said Clair. “And Wallace knew it. Anyone can be copied now, so who's real and who's not? That's the first part. The second . . . Think about what the dupes are doing. They don't seem to have much of a plan beyond attacking us whenever we get in their way. They're just deadly and dangerous, which is making people scared. And the lawmakers are responding. Shoot-to-kill orders. Deputies. Vigilantes. That's the second part of the plan.”

“To make people
afraid
?” said Devin, looking skeptical.

“Wait, I get it,” said Jesse. “I can totally see how Wallace meant it to go. First he'd fake some kind of emergency—maybe a problem with d-mat—which he or one of his plants would fix. Sound familiar?”

“He steps in and saves the day,” said Agnessa, “and people are so grateful they vote in laws that make the Earth his playground?”

“Yes—and then there's that list,” said Jesse, snapping his fingers. “His pet lawmakers! They're the ones putting all the new measures forward.”

“But you can't rule the world if you're dead,” said Devin.

“Is he, though?”

“Actually,” said Clair, at last seeing the full extent of the thing she had been reaching for, “I think he really might be dead, and we've been too stupid to see it.”

ALL EYES TURNED
to her.

“People don't often call me stupid,” said Devin. “You'd better explain.”

“All right.” She looked down at her hands, trying to put her thoughts in the right order. “Our working theory has gone back to being that Wallace is still alive because of the dupes. He's looking for revenge, taking over the world, whatever. But as you said, it's not in his character to do all this in public. Also, if he was around, you'd think he'd have made a new version of Mallory by now . . . and she would've come after us for sure.”

“Right,” said Jesse. “You killed her, after all.”

Clair shied away from those memories.

“That's not to say, though, that Wallace wasn't part of the plan at some point,” she went on. “An integral part. He had his own operation—Improvement. I figure he was approached by someone who heard about it somehow, someone who wanted to create a secret army of dupes for themselves. Wallace made that possible, but it wasn't his idea, and he wasn't in control of them. Not absolutely. Maybe he had some dupes of his own—probably the prototypes, the earliest versions, Nobody—but the rest didn't work for him. They were independent, a dupe squad that couldn't be traced back to their masters. The people who have really been pulling the strings all this time.”

“Wallace was a pawn, just like the Cashiles said?” Devin asked. “Who for?”

What do the other dupes want?
she had asked Nobody on the seastead.

The same thing they've always wanted
.

“The people who really want to take over OneEarth,” she said. “Someone public, someone seen to be doing good, someone in a position to influence the Consensus Court . . .”

“The lawmakers on that list,” said Agnessa. “Is that what you're suggesting?”

“Maybe some of them,” said Clair. “Maybe all of them. I don't think even Wallace knew. That's what the question marks and asterisks were for. He was trying to work it out for himself.”

“LM Kingdon is on the list,” said Jesse. “With an asterisk.”

“I know,” she said, remembering the woman's easy but determined charm. “It fits, doesn't it? She's pushing for harsh measures against anyone suspected of being a dupe. How long until she starts accusing the people who disagree with her? How long until you don't even have to be a dupe to get in trouble?”

“You think she's really her?”

“I don't know. And I don't know how to find out. That's the trouble with dupes. Unless they slip up or confess, there's no test to see who's who and who isn't. That's why this is so clever. People are suspicious of dupes, which means they're suspicious of everyone. You can see exactly how it'll happen, how paranoid everyone is going to get. How desperately in need of a bad guy. It's almost like the real bad guys
wanted
Wallace to be discovered. . . .”

“Maybe they did,” said Devin, looking like he was starting to come around. “He takes the fall and they get everything they need to stage their coup. It's all very convenient.”

“And maybe that's why he wanted Q so badly,” Clair said. “He could see what was coming for him and was trying to avoid it.”

“But he failed and he's dead now, leaving Nobody flailing about at a loose end.” Devin was ticking points off on his fingers. “The rest of the dupe squad don't know what to do with Nobody. Maybe they don't want to admit what's going on to their masters. So they come to you, Clair, in the hope that you'll do something about it. First they try to recruit you, then they warn you so you'll warn us. There are at least two factions among the dupes, but only one of them is dangerous—not Nobody, although that's what they'd like you to think. The Cashiles, who are helping the lawmakers take over the world. And
that's
why there's all this orbital hardware in play: they have friends in high places.”

“Hold it,” said Agnessa. “This is all very well as a theory, but I don't buy it. You've let Turner's wild ideas go to your heads. Forget the crazy dupes for a moment. The rest is never going to happen the way you say it will. People aren't stupid. Random acts of terror don't lead automatically to a totalitarian government.”

“Maybe not overnight,” said Jesse, “but if you can use Improvement to steal new bodies every generation or so, you can afford to play the long game.”

“Or,” said Clair, only then thinking of another plausible take, “the lawmakers could dupe voters to vote the right way for them.”

Devin's eyebrows went up. “Whoa. You don't think small, do you?”

“Is that possible?” asked Jesse. “I mean, could they really do something like that with no one noticing?”

Clair didn't know. “Maybe if they duped whole families and friendship circles . . .”

“Whole towns,” said Devin. “Whole regions. Why not the whole world?”

“They can't do anything while d-mat isn't working,” said Agnessa, again playing devil's advocate.

“That's Q again,” said Clair. “Things weren't supposed to go that way. Wallace died. The Nobody dupe freaked out. The lawmakers have done their best to take advantage of it, but really Q's the monkey wrench in their works as well. That's why everyone wants and fears her at the same time. She changes everything around her without even realizing she's doing it.”

“I told you she was dangerous,” Devin said.

“But she saved us,” said Jesse. “Without her, where would we have been in fifty years? Kingdon and her buddies might have won and our kids would all be slaves. Now that we know, we can put a stop to it.”

“How?” asked Agnessa.

For a full minute, there was silence.

CLAIR'S MIND WAS
crowded with sudden, new thoughts. She had come to Agnessa expecting to turn her back on d-mat, and here she was uncovering a plan to take over OneEarth from the inside. If that was what it really was. Just because it felt right to her didn't mean that some lawmakers were really intending to
mind-rape
the world. They needed evidence. And they needed some kind of leverage before they could possibly take something this incendiary public. Her mother was still vulnerable.
She
was still vulnerable. What did she have on her side apart from a band of argumentative misfits hiding out in an abandoned city?