Hyperthought (22 page)

Suradon rolled his eyes and crossed his arms with a great show of impatience. “All right, son. Now’s your chance. Tell me what you know about quanta.”

Jin shifted vaguely in my direction, and I saw a melancholy shadow deepen under his eye. Hesitantly he stuttered, “The p-prince couldn’t fight.”

“Bullshit,” Suradon huffed. “Brain enhancement, my ass. Judith, I can’t present this. The Triad would eat me alive.”

“But our agreement—” Merida whined.

“The boy can’t even speak properly. Your experiment is fucked, Judith. You lose the bet.”

“Bet! Is that all he is to you, old man?” I couldn’t hold back my anger any longer. I jumped up and marched into the light—listing a bit to the left like a top-heavy manikin. “Jin is your son!”

Suradon turned a scowl on me like a garnering of storm clouds. “He’s no worse than before. Too damned cocky for his own good.”

“La Sauvage,” Jin whispered, pointing in my direction. “Witness.”

“Yes, that’s right.” Merida’s scarlet mouth stretched into a smile. Her pretty black eyes flashed at me. “You were there when Jin’s brain activity peaked. You saw it all. Tell Lord Suradon what happened, Jolie.”

Suradon steepled his fingers and looked down his nose at me. “Jolie Blanche Sauvage, Angel of Euro. My son does make interesting choices. Greenland posted a reward for your death. You’re plenty gutsy to call me.”

Between Merida’s smile and Suradon’s ominous smirk, I was getting way more attention than I wanted. Plus, with Tan’s improvised motor controls, I was having a lot of trouble standing without falling over. Malgré tout, I had to speak. “Will you help your son or not?”

“Help him? I’m the one with the problems.” The old man lifted his hands theatrically. “The Triad wants to bust up my Com. That’s millions of people and half a continent of infrastructure, not to mention the retained capital. Generations of my family spent their lives building Pacific.Com. You’re asking me to play favorites, to put my son ahead of everyone else.”

Merida purred. “You’re in a pretty fix, pet. Tell Lord Suradon what happened to Jin, and we’ll save you as well as your friends. You’ll be well again. Nome won’t bother you anymore. And you can make that speech we were talking about earlier, to you know who.” She pretended to be talking behind her hand so Suradon wouldn’t hear. “Oh, and your little brother Luc will be fine. No more worries, pet.”

Mes dieux, but I hated Merida at that moment. She knew all my buttons, and she pushed hard. Although Jin had asked me to tell his father, I hesitated. Anything Merida wanted I automatically opposed.

“Speak, girl!” She grabbed my hair and jerked me off my feet. Even in the holograph, I felt her nails dig in. “Your comrades think you betrayed them. And they’re right, aren’t they? You ran off to pleasure yourself with an aristocrat. All those children suffocating in the tunnels. Did you forget them, pet?”

I tried to fight her, but I think Tan had cross-wired the sensors. My arms swung around loose, as if a marionette were pulling my strings. I yelled, “Let me go, you witch.”

“Running after a rich prince when your friends are dying in the war. That doesn’t look good, pet. People know you by the choices you make.” Merida released her grip on my hair, and I stumbled. The floor came up hard and hit me in the chest. I wasn’t getting any better at this motor control.

Merida said, “Make the right choice now, pet. Tell us, and save your friends.”

“Tempus fuckin’ fugit.” Suradon’s words exploded above me. “I have a meeting, ladies. Can you hold the catfights? Sauvage, do you have something to say?”

I lay sprawled on the virtual floor. When I looked up, Suradon and Merida glared down at me with shining, ravenous eyes. Their eagerness frightened me. I realized that for different reasons, they were both equally anxious to hear whether Jin had made a breakthrough. For a moment, I bit my lip and said nothing. Then I heard Jin speaking inside my head. A memory? Imagination? He said, “Jolie, keep your promise. Be my witness.”

“D’accord,” I said aloud. As calmly as possible, I sat up and crossed my legs, pretending a confidence I didn’t feel. I squinted up at the pair of them. They were hunching over me with their heads nearly touching, two black vultures silhouetted in the golden light. I spoke to Suradon. “Jin wants me to tell you, so I will. But I’m asking for your promise. Will you protect my friends?”

“Sí, pet, and we will make you well again.” Merida’s Spanic accent got thicker when she poured on the charm. “You can go back and do your duty in Euro.”

I ignored Merida and spoke only to Suradon. “There’s one other promise I want.”

Suradon’s eyes narrowed fiercely. “Do you think you can negotiate with ME?”

Excellent question. Who was I to make terms with the head of Pacific.Com? I wasn’t exactly bargaining from a position of power. Still, I carried on as usual, ignoring the obvious. “After I tell you what happened, you’ll let Jin leave with me. That’s what I want you to promise.”

Suradon hooted and clapped his hands.

Merida sneered. “We don’t need to make bargains with you.”

“Hmm, I don’t know, Judith.” Suradon grinned. “Perhaps my son would be better off with this girl. She claims to love him.” He ducked when Merida whirled to glare at him.

“That’s ridiculous. She’ll be dead in minutes.” Merida wiped her palms on the cloth of her suit and made a visible effort to regain control. Contorting her lips into a smile, she linked her elbow through Jin’s and continued more smoothly, “My Lord, I’ll redesign the nanobot. I already know what direction to take. Jin will be magnificent, and Pacific.Com will be rich. You’ll see. We don’t need this girl.”

Suradon was still wiping laugh tears from his eyes. “I wanna hear Sauvage’s story.”

“Jin asked me to tell you.” I pushed myself up from the floor and stood with my legs planted wide to keep from staggering. “He wants you to know, Suradon. Just promise to let me take Jin away from her.”

Merida marched toward me and bumped her chest against mine. She kept walking into me, forcing me to step backward. It was all I could do to stay on my feet.

“Stupid slut. I can take Jin to higher planes of consciousness. Can you? That’s what he wants. To learn more and more about the nature of the universe. Can you show him that? This last episode injured his thalamus. I can heal him. Can you make him well? No. If he stays with you, he’ll be a doddering imbecile for the rest of his life.”

I shoved Merida back. “Jin stays with me.”

Suradon chuckled. “Greedy, Sauvage. You wanna keep my son an invalid so he can’t leave you. And you call that love. That’s rich.”

Suradon’s words shot through me like a bolt. His mocking laughter drummed in my ears. Is that what I wanted? To keep Jin dependent on me? No, I wanted to keep Merida’s fingernails out of his brain. She had no intention of healing him. But…but… The old bastard’s accusation confused me.

“What do you call love?” I shouted back defensively.

Suradon’s laughter died as quickly as it had begun. “I don’t use the word.”

His hulking image towered over me, but I forced myself to face him. I was not going to let the old bugger stare me down. As we locked glances, his accusation reverberated through my mind. Greedy, Sauvage?

Had I been wrong to drag Jin away from Merida? He wanted that nanosurgery. I knew how burdened he felt by all his wealth and talents. His compulsion to do the right thing hounded him, and he honestly believed Merida’s nanobot would help him make up his mind. Maybe the nanobot worked. Maybe Jin really had heard the universe singing in that blue chamber. Who was I to say? Jin had never once asked me to take him away from Merida. “Wish you were here,” those were his words. Maybe just an idle greeting from a movie star to a fan. Was I simply addicted to a screen idol? I started second-guessing.

Suradon’s stare burned into me like a searchlight, and I sensed that I should say something. He was wavering. He might actually give in and let Jin leave with me. A few well chosen words might tip the balance in my favor. But was I asking for the right thing? Scenes from the blue chamber reeled through my mind. My beautiful Jin. At the height of his vision, he’d seemed euphoric and all-seeing. If I took him away now, would he live out his life as a muddle-headed freak? Who was I to make that choice for him?

Faster even than the answer formed in my mind, I said, “Jin stays with me.”

D’accord, someone had to choose. And I’m not the girl to drag things out forever. It came down to this. Merida didn’t care if she killed him, whereas I would do everything to keep him alive. Call me greedy, arrogant, stupid. You would be right about all of that. Still, if Jin stayed alive, maybe someday another doctor could cure his brain damage. Maybe he wouldn’t be as muddle-headed as Merida claimed. Maybe someday he’d be well enough to make his own choices. For now, at this moment, I chose for him.

“I want him to live,” I said.

Gradually, Suradon’s burning stare dissolved into a tired, wrinkled smile. He remained silent only for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers like a magician. “Agreed, Sauvage. You may keep my son. Now tell us what happened.”

“Lord Suradon, you’re making a mistake.” Merida rose on the balls of her feet as if to attack.

“Quiet, Judith. Let the girl talk.”

Merida gnawed her red lips and glowered at me. Her eyes glittered with, anger, but she settled back and said nothing more. Suradon crossed his arms and tapped a finger impatiently. Jin waited with lowered head. So I told them everything. I repeated what Jin had said in the chamber, quoting him word for word as nearly as I could recall, even what he’d said about his father. It took some time, and when the telling was done, I felt drained.

“My nanobot worked! I win! You owe me, old man!” Merida danced around like a fire-flame, gloating with delight “You owe me! Upload those Net ads. We’ll air them tonight. I’ll set up a chain of clinic franchises around the globe. Everyone will want my Hyperthought!”

“Mystical crap,” Suradon said, working his fists. “This is not a scientific breakthrough. It’s a psychotic hallucination. I can’t take this to the Triad.”

“You know the truth when you hear it. My nanobot worked!”

“It’s bullshit. The boy was raving.”

“Jin goes with me now,” I reminded them. Jin had stepped backward out of the golden light. I saw him only in shadow.

“Suradon, she can’t have him!” Merida rose on tiptoes again and balled her fists. “I won our wager, and I demand justice. He’s mine!”

“Go now, Sauvage,” Suradon thundered at me.

“To hell with you!” Merida’s holographic image ballooned out larger than Suradon’s, and the whole holo-stage went topsy-turvy. “You think you can change the terms of our bargain, old man? We had a deal. I get Jin.”

“You get what I say,” Suradon boomed. Their projected images overlapped in a weird interference ripple. I struggled to keep my balance.

“And what’ll you do to stop me?” Merida’s image started strobing. “You’ll do nothing. Impotent old fraud. Jolie Sauvage called you for help. The poor child thinks you have power over me. That’s the real joke.”

The colors on the holo-stage marbled together like liquid paint. I lost all sense of balance. My pink chiffon kimono streamed into the golden light, and my body started melting into the floor. Out of nowhere, Merida filled my vision. She was breathing in my face.

“Sorry, pet. Lord Suradon has his own battles. He’ll forget you the minute you’re out of his sight.”

Far away, I saw Suradon arching one bushy eyebrow. “Judith, I’ve got a meeting. Are we done here?”

A rainbow rippled and exploded, and I barely caught Merida’s last words. “This isn’t over, pet.” Then solid white light expanded around me, and everything vanished. I fell into a velvet black whirlpool. Another holo-stage exit. I should be getting used to it.

“JOLIE.” SOMEONE SHOOK
my shoulder. I knew that voice. Merida! Mes dieux, but she had caught us after all! I wanted to scream and grab Jin and run, but I couldn’t get my eyes open. They were glued shut. I tried clawing at them, but I couldn’t find my hands.

“Jolie,” the voice came again, and this time it wasn’t Merida but Luc. “What gear did you pack, chérie? Did you forget the waterproof matches?”

“Luc?” I whispered. But someone kept jogging my shoulder, and the whole world quaked up and down. Go away. Leave me alone. I couldn’t get enough breath in my lungs to speak.

I woke up coughing. Tan was leaning over me, holding a gauze bandage to my lips and looking concerned. “Lady? Can you see me?”

Yes, I could see a little better than before. Vincente’s meds must have reduced the swelling around my eyes. The electric lantern dangling from the tent pole no longer bristled with long sharp rays. My friends had wrapped me up in sheets like a mummy. I felt hot and constricted. I tried to loosen the winding sheets, but I didn’t have the strength.

“Aw, ma’am, now don’t mess with them sheets, okay? What happened with that Commie lord? You were gone a long time. He made us upload Jin’s signal, too. I rigged another holo-interface outta spare parts. I hope that was okay.”

I felt dizzy. The sheets were wrapped too tight around me.

Vincente smoothed my hair. “Chica, the bruja witch, she’s coming. She figured out how to disarm our explosives. Your amigo, the Asian lord, will he help us?”

Merida was still coming? She’d disarmed the mines? But Suradon had promised to let everyone go free. Surely he would do something to stop her. This cot felt so lumpy, and the sheets were making me hot. How clearly I remembered the feeling of being whole and healthy on that holo-stage. But that was a dream. This nightmare was real. I couldn’t wake up from this.

“We’re on wave with Luc Viollett,” Tan was saying. “The whole dern world knows where we are now. No point keepin’ silent.”

“Luc?” I managed to wheeze.

“Yes, ma’am, Luc and Trinni and Miguel. They’re comin’ as fast as they can. Got some kinda stolen military stealth jet. Plenty cool.”

Luc and Trinni and—Miguel. My heart sank.