Human After All (14 page)

Jaymes inclined his head in acknowledgment of Arkay’s words.

“That wasn’t exactly a compliment,” Arkay said. “But perception rules, am I right?”

“I won’t argue,” Jaymes said. “Are you really the one who designed—?”

“So you’re the Prince,” Arkay interrupted. “I’d say I know you as well as you know yourself. Maybe better.”

“Then you
are
the one who did this to me,” Jaymes said.

Arkay grinned, showing a set of long teeth. “I’m the chemjineer who mapped your nervous and endocrine systems and wrote a program to regulate the firing of your synapses. I’m the one who mixed the right chemicals with the correct codes to modify your behavior. In a very real sense, I wrote
you
. You’re definitely not the same person you were when you accepted a contract from House Cygne.”

“Make it stop.”

“Impossible. The enzyme alignment is complete within forty-eight hours. If Alvera followed her schedule, the changes are now permanent.” Arkay glanced at Drue. “For both of you.”

“Fix it,” Jaymes said.

“I’m afraid what’s done is done.”

Drue frowned as he leaned closer to the engineer. “If you can make those changes, you can make something that will change them back.”

“Why are you so torked about it? The compulsion grid only lasts forty-eight hours. It’s out of your systems by now, leaving behind all the good stuff. Why don’t we sit, and I’ll explain a few things? But first, did anyone ask if you were hungry?” Arkay looked inquiringly at the Companions and then spoke briefly into the pendant hanging around his neck. “Someone’s bringing you something to eat,” he said to Jaymes and Drue. “Anything else I can get you?”

“We need a way back to the Inners,” Jaymes said.

“I know, but have a seat and take a few easy breaths. And then I’ll find someone to take you to the Cloister.”

“You make it sound simple.”

“It is simple, though not without danger. But you’ve become used to danger, haven’t you?”

It wasn’t a question, so neither Companion answered.

“What would you like to know first?” Arkay asked.

“Where’s Lochler?” Jaymes asked as the door opened.

A Pygmalion came in and set a tray down on the desk. Arkay thanked the girl, and she left as quietly as she’d arrived. When Jaymes and Drue had helped themselves to the bread and cold meat, Arkay answered Jaymes’s question.

“The lobo is being cared for. I hope he’ll be fit for travel by the time you go back to the Cloister. It would be convenient if he could go with you.”

“Why?” Drue asked.

“To provide one more example of how biotechnology is misused. That was Alvera’s mission.”

“Of course it was,” Drue said.

“I studied your schematics thoroughly, and I have to tell you that it’s an amazing feeling to see you walking and talking.” Arkay cleared his throat. “But let me tell you about the mods. You’ve probably already noticed the neuromesh. The two of you have a simple psionic connection that—”

“I always know where Drue is,” Jaymes interjected. “Sometimes I can see what he sees and feel what he’s feeling.”

“Exactly.” Arkay smiled at the T-bred. “You look disappointed.”

“Do I? It wasn’t intentional.”

“I believe you. In fact, it looked like a natural emotional response. Imagine that! A T-bred with genuine feelings.”

“I have real feelings. I just keep them where they belong, and they have no place on the job.”

“Gentech must be so proud of you,” Arkay said. “You’re pure product.”

“At least I’m not dying in the street fighting for scraps of garbage, and one day I’ll be a Citizen.”

“I believe you’re one of the few Companions who actually has a chance of making that dream come true. But don’t you think the price is a little steep?”

“I didn’t make the world,” Jaymes said. “I’m just trying to live in it.”

“Why not try and change it?”

“You Pygmalions have no grasp on reality.”

“The only reality you know is the one Gentren programmed into you.”

“I’m a human, not a machine.”

“No, you’re not a machine,” Arkay said. “But you’re not exactly human either, not a natural one, anyway.”

Drue didn’t like the tension in Jaymes’s neck muscles. “You’ll have to explain that,” he said to Arkay. “As far as I know, the only mods T-breds have are x-terns like combat training.”

“You have no idea,” Arkay said.

“Enlighten us,” Drue replied.

“That is my intention.” Arkay sat back in his battered chair. “How much do you know about the lobos?”

“Lobo is a slang term for a special soldier,” Jaymes answered. “I believe they’re scouts.”

“I keep telling him he’s naïve,” Drue said to Arkay.

“You probably aren’t much more knowledgeable,” the chemjineer said. “But I’m assuming Alvera shared her information with you.”

“She told me how embryos that met certain criteria were altered with viruses and foreign genetic material. She told me they were raised in camps and trained for guerilla combat. She told me they were called lobos but that werewolf would be more accurate.”

“Ridiculous,” Jaymes said, but his skin prickled as he remembered the feel of Lochler’s sharp claws and soft body hair.

“Werewolves are mythical,” Arkay said. “But IndMilCorps had a good try at making them real.”

“Men who turn into wolves?” Jaymes scoffed.

“No, of course not, but they engineered a hybrid of sorts.”

“I don’t believe you,” Jaymes said. “That’s not legal.”

“Of course it isn’t, but that didn’t stop it from happening. Not at IndMilCorps or at Gentren or any of a dozen congloms I could name. They get away with it because they have the blessing of some government agency that makes them exempt from the law. If we had managed to put Speaker Londean in the President-General’s seat, we would’ve made sure he cleaned house at those agencies.” Arkay’s smile was bitter. “What a pity it didn’t work out that way.”

“You weren’t working for Alvera,” Jaymes said. “She worked for you.”

“There’s that famous T-bred insight,” Arkay said. “The intuition of a gambler who’s learned to read the slightest change of expression.”

“You’re the leader of this… organization.”

“I am, and it’s larger than even Alvera knew. There are hundreds of people in place who would have used their positions to inform, influence, and protect Londean as he used the power of his office to eventually outlaw Bioware. The outcome of our scheme was never sure, of course, but we didn’t reckon on the depth of Deputy-President Ampery’s psychosis. You weren’t meant to delete him until Londean had left the Covillion, but the D.P. forced your hand.”

“You didn’t reckon on the depth of his psychosis?” Jaymes said softly. “I saw it firsthand, and I can assure you it was profound.”

“Well, obviously, that’s why he couldn’t be allowed to continue holding high office. He had to go.”

“You put me in that room with him knowing what he was. You used me the same way Gentren uses me.”

“Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.”

“You can’t decide that for someone else,” Jaymes said.

Arkay sighed. “I know, but when one sacrifice could change the lives of so many for the better, it’s easy to rationalize. Our intel indicated we had an optimum means and opportunity to separate Ampery from his guards, and we went ahead and implemented an assassination.”

“And I was your implement,” Jaymes said. “You forced me to kill a Citizen, and it was not a pleasant experience. I had no control over my body, and I was terrified.”

“I apologize. It was a mistake to use murder to achieve our ends, but we haven’t given up yet. We can make the Citizenry aware of the corruption by taking a case to the Attorney Exec.”

“Why would the Attorney Exec listen?”

“Because you’re going to turn yourself in for questioning about the D.P.’s death.”

“Are you out of your jeedee mind?” Drue exclaimed. “He’ll be fragged on sight.”

“We have a plan.”

“Is it as good as your last one?”

“Drue.” Jaymes turned to meet the other Companion’s eyes. “I need to talk to Arkay alone.”

“If that’s what you want.” Drue stood and left the room.

“So you want to be a Citizen,” Arkay said when he and Jaymes were alone. “Why?”

“For the usual reasons. I want to vote, own property in the Inners, have legal children.”

“You might get the first two, but you won’t be having any children unless you contract them.”

“Why not?” Jaymes paused. “Other Companions have children. What did Gentren do to me?”

“They knew any children you had would be… different, so they made sure you wouldn’t have any.”

“I’m sterile?”

Arkay nodded. “You were probably counting on making a small fortune in stud fees from women wanting purple-eyed babies, but that’s another thing Gentren took from you.”

Jaymes reined in his disappointment at the news that he couldn’t father children. “Why are you so passionate about this?” he asked. “You’re not Bioware.”

“No, but I designed the program that altered the lobos. I have a lot to make up for.”

“Are the lobos sterile too?”

“Every one of them. Every piece of Bioware modified with the proteus virus is sterile. And there’s the shortened life span. Anything past fifty is a gift.”

“Drue?”

Arkay shook his head. “He’s clean of any genetic mods.”

Jaymes relaxed a trifle. “So I was tampered with in the womb?”

“At conception, actually. Your mother was infected with the virus.”

“I see. What was done to me?”

“I don’t know exactly. I know how it was done, but I can’t know for sure what strands Gentren incorporated in the virus. Proteus is just a carrier that gets the other matériel into the subject’s DNA and convinces it they’re from the same host.”

“If you had to guess, what would you say?”

“I couldn’t… not without thorough testing, and we don’t have time for that right now.”

“What’s the hurry?”

“Every day we delay, our enemies get closer to finding us. Will you go back to the Cloister as a spokesman for our cause?”

“I want to see Lochler.”

“He’s not conscious.”

“Even so, I’d like to see him.”

“All right.” Arkay rose and opened the door behind his chair. “Come with me. Did the lobo do something prosaic like save your life?” he asked as Jaymes joined him in a narrow corridor.

“There’s no need to sneer.”

“I’m not sneering at his heroics. I’m sneering at your interpretation of them. Lochler acted out of instinct and programming and nothing more, but you want to believe it’s something else. The way you want to think you have a special bond with the Zot when it’s nothing but your nature… or rather, the nature Gentren gave you.” Arkay stopped in front of a door marked Infirmary. He sighed. “You have a romantic soul, which is why I lied to you about the lobo.”

Jaymes met Arkay’s eyes, a terrible suspicion growing in his heart. “I want to see him now.”

“You can see him, but he’s…. He died shortly after you arrived.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought I just explained that. So… do you still want to see him?”

Jaymes shook his head, turning away as his vision blurred with involuntary tears. When was the last time he’d cried because he felt sad? He couldn’t remember. The tears he’d shed as a Companion were nothing more than props brought out to elicit a specific reaction in the client. Lochler was not a wealthy patron, and he had no influence to wield on Jaymes’s behalf, yet Jaymes felt his loss keenly. He was sorry that Lochler was gone and that he’d never speak with him again.

“I knew his death would upset you, so I lied,” Arkay said. “Would you like a sedative?”

For the first time in Jaymes’s life, he refused the comfort of chemicals. “No,” he said. “No, thank you.” He didn’t want to blunt this pain. He wanted to feel it fully, to accept it, and own it as his. Mixed with the sadness were regret and a sense of guilt. It was certain that if he hadn’t come into Lochler’s life, the lobo would still be alive. “I’d like some private time, please.”

“Follow me, and I’ll show you a room where you can rest. In a couple of hours, we can get together and talk about your reentry into the Cloister.”

Jaymes walked silently behind Arkay to the second floor and entered a comfortably furnished bedroom. Drue turned from the window, smiling when he saw Jaymes. As he looked more closely, the smile faded away.

“What’s wrong?” the Zot asked.

“The lobo didn’t make it,” Arkay said. “I’ll see you later. Meanwhile, try to get some rest.”

“Lochler’s dead?” Drue said as the door closed behind Arkay.

Jaymes nodded and sat down on the low, wide bed.

“I’m sorry.” As Drue uttered the mandatory words, he realized he really did feel sorry—not so much for the lobo, but for Jaymes. It literally pained him to see the look of sadness on the T-bred’s face. He wanted to make Jaymes happy again and see him smile.

“You’re not sorry,” Jaymes said softly. “Why would you be?”

“I’m sad because you’re sad.”

Jaymes looked up to meet Drue’s gaze. “I cannot believe you’re ripping on me right now.”

“I’m not,” Drue said, going on his knees in front of Jaymes. “I know I’ve given you a hard time, but only because I didn’t want to fall for you.”

“Why not?”

“Because everyone falls for the T-bred. It’s like an unwritten law.”

“And you don’t want to be like everyone else.”

Drue took one of Jaymes’s hands between his palms. “Ever since I can remember, I wanted to stand out. Whichever direction the crowd was going, I went the opposite way. I was proud to be pointed out as a rebel.”

“Fortunately for you, that mindset meshes well with an Exotic’s character.”

“That’s not the point.” Drue squeezed Jaymes’s hand. “I resented you from the moment Alvera mentioned you.”

“Why?”

“Because I had found a purpose for my life when I found her. She educated me about the anti-Bioware movement and recruited me. I’d found my place as a hero of the coming revolution. And then intel decided a Zot wasn’t good enough for their plan, and you came into the Scenario. Once again, the top job went to a T-bred.”

“I would’ve turned it down if it had been possible.”