The Immortality Virus (22 page)

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

“We could talk, you know,” Alex said. “This is going to be a long enough wait as it is with the silence.”

“You’re the one...” Grace stopped and reconsidered. She hadn’t actually made any attempts at conversation either, now that she thought of it. Oh well, maybe it was better that way. In silence she could find and maintain a resolve to only trust Alexander Lacklin so far. If they talked, his soulful eyes and deep, soothing voice might lull her into a false sense of security.

“So, why don’t you tell me about yourself?” Alex asked.

“Because I don’t know you.”

Alex blinked a couple of times and then smiled, the first real smile she had seen on him. She liked it. It suited him. “I did rescue you twice, you know.”

Yes, and she still didn’t quite like the fact she had needed rescue. “All right, fine. What do you want to know?”

“How about your family? You know all about mine, after all.”

Grace hesitated, and then shook her head. “I can’t tell you about my family. There’s just too much risk right now.”

“So you care about them. That’s a good start. Probably more important than their names, ranks, and serial numbers anyway.”

Grace almost smiled. “Fine. You win. You learned something about me. That makes it my turn.” She decided to throw caution to the wind and ask what she’d been dying to ask since she first met him. “What kind of person takes a job on a farm?”

“That’s not what you want to know. You want to know why I took this job.”

“Isn’t it all the same?”

“No.” Alex made the word a simple matter of fact, neither angry nor hurt. “A lot of people work here for money or power. Farming corporations make a lot of money. Everyone has to eat, after all, and food is at a premium.”

“But that’s not why you came.”

Alex didn’t answer right away. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts. Finally, he said, “You have to understand that when I grew up, slavery was an abomination. It wasn’t just slaves were mistreated or there were rumors about Soylent Green. It was just the height of evil for one human being to own another. There used to be slavery in the United States.”

“I’ve read history,” Grace cut in.

“Have you now?” Alex raised an eyebrow and shot her a sly smile. “That tells me something about you, too. Not many have nowadays, especially not the pre-Change history.”

“What does that tell you about me?” Grace asked.

“Either you’re a sentimentalist, dreaming of earlier glory, or an intellectualist. Given your quest, I’m guessing the former.”

“Couldn’t I just love history?”

“Nah. You’re too busy.”

They stared at one another in silence for a while. “Did your slave story have a point?” Grace asked, finally.

“Ah, yes. So, slavery was an abomination when I grew up, and then The Change came and there weren’t any jobs and people fled to the countryside to try to live off the land. Some people saw it coming, of course, but I was naive. I never imagined the culture that deplored slavery would one day embrace it again. Then the farms hired workers for nothing but room and board. Then they went with some kind of indentured servitude arrangement, the terms of which were never fulfilled. Then it became official. By the time they called it what it was, the farm workers had already lost all their freedoms and much of their humanity.”

Grace let out a noise somewhere between a bark and a laugh. Then she blushed and tried to cover it with words. “You don’t spend much time with them, then. You can’t take humanity.”

“I see. I’m sure you’re right. You have just been thrust in with them for almost a week.”

“You should spend some time with them, too. Some of them tried to kill me, yeah, but I think that’s human, too.” Grace paused to figure out how to put her thoughts into words. “They don’t have much, but even they have a hierarchy of power and cling to their fiefdoms.

“They can also be fiercely loyal. When Meg convinced her clan to accept me, they protected me. That’s why it took you so long to find me.”

“Someone turned you in.”

“I turned myself in, and let my clan get the credit for it. You were about to do barracks by barracks searches and probably kill lots of people while you were at it.”

“So you don’t just care about your family, then?” Alex teased. “I know more about you all the time.”

“A clan is a family,” Grace replied, though she knew she had not been there quite long enough to feel that strongly about Sharon’s clan–except possibly for Meg. “Look, you still haven’t made your point.”

“Oh yes, slaves. So, I wanted to do something. That’s why I’m here. I wanted to make life better for the slaves on this farm–and I did. Mr. Cooper was much more reasonable than people said he would be. Then again, he’s an old timer like me, so he grew up in the same world. I convinced him slaves with better food, shorter working days, and reasonable expectations would work harder and better. In the end, I not only made things better for the slaves on this farm, but I increased productivity. Carl never forgave me after that. He was trying to convince Mr. Cooper to enforce harsher penalties for poor work performance.”

“How generous of you,” Grace said dryly. “You come here and offer your services in exchange for letting one plantation of slaves have some extra food and nicer conditions. They’re still slaves. Yeah, Meg thinks this place is heaven compared to whatever hell she was raised on, but that’s just because she doesn’t know any better.”

Alex frowned and his eyes darkened. “I’m also trying to find ways to get more nutrition out of less food so one day we won’t need slaves anymore.”

“Oh.” That sounded like something Sam would do–try to save the world through science rather than force. “Wait. What do all the slaves do when they’re no longer needed?”

Alex licked his lips and swallowed. “That’s a good question. I’m hoping for an answer soon.” He looked to the stairs as if expecting someone to drop in on their conversation. “I’ve actually–Actually, I think it’s your turn to answer a question.” He straightened up. “Why’d you take this job?”

The sloppy redirection took Grace a minute to get over. He was hiding something, but what? “I-er, I took the job because...” She stopped and tried to sort through all the reasons she had taken the job. “I want us to go back to normal aging. I’d love to help and this is the first time I’ve found a real way to do so.”

“You’ll probably get killed.”

“That’s a drawback, yes,” Grace admitted. “It’s worth it if I can do some good. I should have died years ago, anyway. Besides, I think Matt would have made sure I died if I had
not
taken the job.”

“I see.”

“So, what were you about to say before you stopped yourself a minute ago?” Grace tried to meet Alex’s gaze, but he looked to the side, staring at a spot on the wall.

“That’s probably enough talking.” Alex reached for Grace’s backpack and tossed it to her. “I managed to get your portable back for you. All the pieces are in there; you just have to plug them in.”

She should have felt relieved that he no longer wanted to get personal, but for some reason she didn’t want to stop talking. An hour ago she had been content to wall herself inside her own mind, but now there seemed to be a hole that needed filling. Had her life been incomplete before?

“Don’t get on the nets or they’ll trace you,” Alex warned.

“I know that,” Grace snapped. She wished she could check her messages, but that would have to wait–unless the portable had managed to download any in her absence.

“Fifty new messages,” the portable intoned. “Tuesday, eleven oh five a.m.”

“Hi, it’s Sam. Matt just wants an update. Give me a call when you get this.”

“Tuesday, eight thirty-seven p.m.”

“Hi, it’s Sam again. I’m still at work so you can call me here or at home as late as you like. Matt’s getting kind of worried and wants you to check in.”

“Tuesday, ten twelve p.m.”

“Grace, Matt seems to think something’s wrong. He won’t say how he knows, but I think he’s been having you watched...for your own safety, of course.”

“Of course,” Grace muttered.

“Anyway, I want you to call me anytime night or day.”

“Wednesday, eight twenty a.m.”

“Grace, it’s Sam again. Matt won’t say what’s going on but he’s sent some people after you.”

They went on like that for some time, only occasionally interspersed with messages from her mother or other perspective clients. Grace had never heard Sam so bent out of shape before. The thought of him in a panic made her smile.

“Ex-boyfriend?” Alex asked.

Grace stopped the flow of messages and snapped her head around to face Alex. “What on earth gives you that impression?”

“Well, someone has left you a lot of messages. At first I figured it was family, but then you started smiling in a way that made me think it was someone you’re glad to see worrying over you.”

“I thought we were done talking,” Grace said. “Don’t you have a video game to play?’

“I got sick of video games about two hundred years ago. They’re all the same.”

Grace raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s one of the few areas of technology that seems to be advancing instead of going backwards! Every year there’s new and better virtual reality. Not that you can get it on your portable. What was it, a hundred years ago when they came up with the holoroom so you didn’t even have to wear the suit?”

“One hundred three years ago, to be exact, and the plantation house has such a room. It’s all right.”

“All right?” Grace said, skeptically. She had always wanted to try one, but even rental time was prohibitively expensive. “If we ever get out of this alive, you’ll have to let me use your time slot.”

“It’s a date.”

Grace gave him a searching look, but saw nothing but humor in those sparkling green eyes.

“So, who is he?” Alex pressed.

“No one important. Someone I thought I loved long ago. A lifetime, in some centuries.”

“Thought you loved?” Alex asked. “Don’t tell me–he broke your heart so badly that you don’t believe in love anymore.”

Grace scowled. She suddenly wanted to sit in silence again. “Doesn’t love, by definition, last forever?”

“I don’t think so,” Alex said. “Love is something we do, and even if we choose to stop loving someone, it doesn’t mean we never did. It also doesn’t mean we can’t embrace it when it’s here.”

Grace thought about that for a minute, drawn into his view of love, even if she wasn’t sure she bought into it. “Were you ever married?”

“Yes, for a long time. My wife left me shortly after I came to work here, though. I don’t think she ever forgave me for giving up that spot on the colony ship. She could have come, too, you see.”

“Oh.” Grace wanted to think she would have forgiven him, but how could she be sure? Idealism aside, the colony ships were a one-way ticket off this miserable planet.

“We have two kids–Angie and Ben. They’re not children anymore, long since. In the grand scheme of things, they’re my age. It feels so weird. You know, when I was a kid I wouldn’t really think of having a peer relationship with someone thirty years older or younger than myself. They were too old or too young, completely not of my generation.”

Alex got a faraway look in his eyes before shaking it off. “My kids live in Des Moines. They settled there after I took the job. Angie decided to forswear all science and chose art as her passion and her profession. She actually makes quite a good living off it, though. She does commissioned work for the rich and famous and is in quite a bit of demand. It gives her the money to do her ‘real’ work, she says. I don’t really understand any of her work, to be honest. I was always so mathematical and I simply don’t see the layers of paint as being anything other than that–paint. Sometimes she paints something pretty. I have one of her paintings in my quarters. It’s got this river on it that somehow looks like it’s flowing. It’s an optical illusion, of course, but I thought it was impressive that she could free-hand it like that. I reproduced the effect on the computer, but for some reason, Angie didn’t speak to me for a year after that. I don’t suppose you understand it?”

“Sort of, yes,” Grace said. “I’m glad she’s talking to you again, though.”

“Who said she was talking to me? That was last year.” He smiled and added, “I’m winning her back over, though. I sent her a one-pound brick of chocolate last month. She sent it back. So I sent two pounds, then three, then four... Finally, she kept the ten-pound brick. I think that’s a good sign. Either that or it got lost in the mail. Do you think I should go ahead and send more?”

Grace smiled and shook her head. “What’d you do with all that chocolate she sent back?”

“I’m glad you asked!” With a flourish, he opened the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled out the largest chunk of chocolate Grace had ever seen. It must have cost a fortune. Even a small candy bar was hard for her to justify on her inconsistent salary.

“Wow,” Grace murmured despite herself.

“As long as we’re going to be stuck here for a while...” He broke a chunk off and handed it to Grace. “Enjoy!”