Sorry for the delay. Don't know why this was so hard but it took forever. Kept stopping and starting over, then loosing interest. Then starting again. It just didn't feel right. For a while I thought I'd lost the story. Think I found it. - Pz
Alive
Book 2
Pt18
1
It was all haze now; his 'other' life. A shifting mist of recollection, haunting the shadowed periphery of his daily trials. Forgotten moments occasionally broke the fog and came to clarity on that vaporous border; animated by some repressed, unconscious longing, or by an event in his new life, that harkened back to those times. He had no sense memories to recollect. No smells could provoke a nostalgic tug of the heart. No subconscious recalling of mother's milk at the teat, or being glutted on Halloween candy. No happy days could be harkened.
His digital youth, both innocent and dark at once, was a cold unyielding past, void of joy or tenderness.
Except for Her.
Except for Love.
Even as David followed a visibly shaken Henry Swinton into the dark house where his heart had been awakened, he felt that mist of his history enclose, felt its shifting indistinct forms take shape and solidify.
Home.
He was home.
No matter where he lay his head; no matter what earthly abode laid contractual claim to his loyalties via the impotent laws of mankind, this would always his home.
He gestured for Henry to sit at the dining table, the same one where, in his other life, he had begun his search for 'reality' in a subtle yet unprecedented breach of Mecha restraint, by reaching across the table in a game of sibling rivalry and filling his empty bowl with spinach. Then attempting to eat.
Now he was back.
Now he was real.
But what had he become?
2
"You break into my house, just to talk?" Henry said.
"I'll be asking the questions," David hissed. He raised the Neutralizer to remind Henry who was in charge. "Understood?
Henry started to speak. But finally just nodded, eyes shifting nervously towards the spiral staircase that wound up from the center of the living to the place where 'She' lay in dreams. David dared not think about that now. He had to keep his wits.
"Who else is in the house?" David said, feigning ignorance.
Henry hesitated. David placed both hands on the Neutralizer.
"You can tell me or I can find out the hard way," David said, somehow managing to sound like he meant it.
"Just me…" Henry replied, reluctantly adding. "…and my wife."
"Where's your son?" David said.
Henry's grimaced. The question in his eyes was obvious.
"You just mistook me for your child," David reminded him. "And I doubt you thought I was your daughter. So you obviously have a son. Where is he?"
"I don't know," Henry admitted finally. "He's been gone for a few…" He stopped mid-sentence, embarrassed and uncertain what to say.
David felt a quick guilty sense of satisfaction at the man's fear and confusion. Like he had felt so many years ago. Abandoned. Rejected. Alone. But he pressed those feelings back. They would do no good here. He found himself wondering where Martin was, and what he was up to.
"Just go ahead and take what you want," Henry said, finally surrendering to the situation.
Age seemed to have conspired with the stress of his wife's ailing health to make the man appear slight; almost gaunt. Seeing him this way, confused and trembling, tie loose at his collar, eyes still brimming with sleep and the anxieties of the coming work day, David's angers finally relented. Was this really his enemy, the subject of all his aged hatred? This simple family man? In all his years of revenge fantasies, Henry had loomed large, a menacing shadow blocking the light of Her memory. But David had grown. He was taller now, and so Henry's once imposing visage had diminished. And David had grown in another way. He'd grown inside; so that Henry's face no longer inspired wrath, but something closer to pity … sympathy?
Even as he felt the heat of old injustices rising inside, he knew they were pointless, and pushed them back.
"I told you, this is not a robbery," he said, "I just want to talk."
"Talk?" Henry snarled the word, his face incredulous. "What the hell would I have to say to a common criminal?"
"You really need to hear what I have to say, Mr Swinton."
The pronouncement of his name gave Henry pause.
"How do you know…"
"I know who you are, where you work and what you do there," David admitted. "And if I was here to hurt you, it would have already been done."
Henry nodded slowly.
"So you knew I had a son when you asked?" he said, his eyes sizing David up.
David ignored the question.
"Covert Operations Unit 101," he said." Are you familiar with that system?"
Henry didn't answer at first; lost in thought. His expression shifted from confusion to recognition, and then settled on hesitant acknowledgement.
"That project was classified," Henry said. "How do you-"
"Quit wasting my time," David said.
Henry finally made a resigned nod.
"Yes," he admitted. "I know what it is."
"So you know its function," David said.
"We were briefed," Henry replied. "But that was years ago."
"Do you know what it's capable of?"
Henry made an exasperated sound.
"Who are you? How did you know about-"
"Just answer the question," David interrupted, raising the Neutralizer. He got another surge of satisfaction as fear came back into the man's face.
Henry fell silent again, obviously weighing what he should say.
"It was just a cursory briefing," he confessed. "We were told it was a military commission. A mimic with self-modifying personality adaptation. But the project was dropped. Or something went wrong. I don't remember. No one has even mentioned it since then."
"Were you aware that it's gone rogue?"
Henry was genuinely surprised.
"Rogue?" he said. "I didn't even know it was still active."
"Well, it is," David said. "And it has."
The two stared at one another as an understanding passed between them. After a silent moment David shocked Henry by lowering the Neutralizer. The man hesitated, as if he thought it might be some trick. But then he sighed in relief and lowered his arms. But his eyes stayed suspicious on David.
"You security people are really getting big on the drama," he said. "There are other ways to communicate in secret besides scaring the crap out of people, you know."
"There was a breech in Manhattan," David said. "101 is in the system now. It could be monitoring any communications. It would know."
"It's that bad?" Henry said.
"Worse," David said. Henry's face softened, but he continued to scrutinize David cautiously.
"You seem awful young to be one of Jenna's people." he said.
So the ruse wasn't working. David thought quickly on how to continue. He finally decided on the truth. The lies were getting tiring and it was much too late in the game to weave more tangled webs.
"I'm not one of Jenna's people," he said.
His words hung in the air. "Then who are you?" was the unspoken question in Henry's eyes.
"I can't tell you who I am or how I know what I do," David said quickly, "But I have information that you need to hear. Your family could be in danger."
Henry hesitated again, his eyes still wary. David could see the man's body tightening, as if he was about to lash out. A tense silence followed, and David considered raising the Neutralizer again. But the man finally glanced up the stairway as if to make sure no one had been awakened, and gestured to the patio door.
"Outside," Henry whispered. "My wife is … not well. I don't want to wake her"
3
Her!
For an instant it was almost too much to be reminded that She was right up those stairs. Sleeping? Dreaming? Was she dreaming of him? Would she remember him if she suddenly came down the steps to see him there, cloaked in this silly disguise?
Somehow David managed to maintain his composure as he followed Henry into the darkness outside, to a place beyond the divider wall that separated the patio from the pool, the same pool where, in another life, he had almost drowned his Orga brother. David felt another moment of disorientation. To be here again after so many years! But sunrise was hinting on the horizon and David could not afford to waste any time on dark nostalgia.
"Have you heard of the Trinary Directive?" he said when they were sufficiently far from the house..
Henry donned a confused expression, folded his arms and leaned against the divider wall.
"You mean trinary-based programming?" he said.
So he didn't know. David sighed.
"Not that," he said. "There is a conspiracy theory that has gone viral. I don't have time to explain how it came to be, but it claims there is a plan to extinguish the human race and replace them with Mecha."
Henry chuckled.
"Isn't that Johnson Johnson's old spiel?" he said. "I admit there is a certain charm to the idea, but it's entirely impractical. I mean, if we replaced everyone with a sim, then who would buy our product?"
Henry laughed at his own joke. David didn't.
"Johnson was a carnival barker," he replied seriously. "A demagogue who played on people's fears to fill up seats at his shows. But this is real. People believe it and it's making them do crazy things."
"Some people may believe it," Henry conceded, "but not enough to be taken seriously."
"It doesn't take a lot of people to cause mayhem." David said. "A few well-placed acts of sabotage could do a lot of damage."
Henry raised a mocking eyebrow.
"You mean those wackos who beat up service bots," he laughed. "What has this got to do with me or my family?"
"Cybertronics is part of the theory," David said. "They think your company is the source of the plot."
This made the man pause. But he tried to shrug it off.
"That doesn't surprise me" he said. "The Davids caused a lot of stupid speculation. Even among people who should know better. It's click-bait for paranoids."
Then his tone suddenly changed. "Is this what you broke into my house to tell me? Who are you? Why are you really here?"
"If you believed that someone wanted to destroy you, what would you do?" David said, louder than he'd intended. "I mean if you really believed it? Would you just sit back and let it happen?"
Henry chuckled as he considered this. But after a moment he fell quiet and stared at the ground. His dismissive smile disappeared as he thought. Maybe it wasn't so funny after all.
"How is the 101 supposed to be involved in all this?" he said.
"It's up to something," David said. "I am not sure what yet, but it's adopted an Orga persona in order to incite the Crash Jammers. They think it's human. They've formed some strange kind of cult around it."
"Crash Jammers?" Henry said. "You mean those crazy kids who rioted at Nexus a few weeks ago?"
"The same," David said. "There are more of them than you think. And they're not all kids"
"Why?" Henry said. "Why would a rouge Mecha organize an anti-Mecha gang? You're not making any sense."
"It's more than a gang, " David said. "It's a movement. A dagerous one. And it's too complicated to explain right now. I am not sure what 101 has planned, but it'll start doing it soon. Anyone employed by Alan Hobby could be in danger. You've got to get a message to him for me."
Henry laughed.
"You want me to tell Hobby that one of his discarded projects is coming after him with a gang of dumb kids?"
Henry waved a dismissive hand and glanced away as for a moment. But his laughter faltered as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. He turned quickly back to David.
"Ok, but you're going to have to give me more than some stupid story if you want me to go up the chain with this. You can start by telling me who the hell you are and how you know about the 101."
"There's no time," David shot back. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."
"I have a silent alarm," Henry said. "I could have triggered it the minute you stopped pointing that Neutralizer. I didn't because I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. But you'll have to do better than Crash Jammers and wacko conspiracy theories if you expect me to get on this crazy train."
David made a frustrated sound. Daylight was coming. The police would still be looking for him. And he still had no plan for how to fight 101; wasn't even sure what it was going to do.
"I am not lying to you," he said, "All I am asking you to do is-"
That's when he noticed the dark shape that had been creeping up from the shadows behind him.
Henry hadn't been struck by some sudden thought, after all. He'd just been stalling.
David turned quickly, reaching for his neutralizer.
But too late.
Martin was already on him.
4
Martin's first punch caught David in the midriff. He bent over, breath lost, pain flaring in his guts and chest. The boy was bigger now, but so was David. And he had accustomed himself to pain. As Martin tried to wrestle him to the ground, David lashed out with his foot and caught the boy in the knee. Martin let out a sound like a whimpering pup, and fell to one leg.
That's when Henry's fist caught David's jaw
It was well aimed, a solid connection, and David's head jerked wildly, a mad torrent of stars erupting behind his eyes followed by pain. But he'd been here before. He rolled with the blow, pivoted on one foot and flailed the other in a wild roundhouse kick as he spun around. The kick landed on nothing. It was supposed to. He'd telegraphed his move so Henry would have time to get out of the way. He just wanted to keep Henry from trying to hit him again. It worked.
"I don't want to fight!" David yelled as he regained his footing and stepped back, holding hands out to his sides to show he had not taken out his weapon.
Then he realized that he couldn't have taken out his weapon if he'd tried. Henry had it. And he was aiming it in David's direction.
"Little shift in the chain of command, eh?" Henry said.
"Don't" David said, urgently. "I am telling you the truth."
But Henry was ignoring him; moving towards Martin.
"You ok, son?" he said, his voice urgent and full of a concern that David had never felt from anyone. "Can you stand?" Henry said.
Martin had risen onto one knee and was cupping the other, moaning and swearing under his breath.
"Blast the bastard!' he said.
"No" David pleaded. "You've got to hear me out!"
Henry turned back to face David. But the look in face was no longer anger. Nor was it vengeance. It was shock that David saw there.
Martin had grown suddenly quiet too. And when David looked at him he saw the same confusion.
Laying on the ground beside Martin, reflecting back the faint rays of dawn, David saw the goggles. They'd been knocked from his face. Now he understood their stunned expressions.
"You!" Martin hissed through gritted teeth.
"What the hell is going on here," Henry said in a perplexed voice.
5
There were few people in the world who would have been able to see the resemblance between David now, and the boy he had once been. Even when standing right next to one of his Mecha twins, most people never looked close enough to catch the familial curvature of the jaw, the unique angle of the eyes against the bridge of his nose. His Orga face was on the edge of manhood, his features more pronounced and his eyes already worldly for his years. World weary some would say.
But even in the faint light of the coming dawn, Henry saw it instantly.
"So it's true," he whispered in awe. "You're… you're the clone."
Martin glanced at his father. Then looked back at David.
"Clone?" He repeated the word as if he had just heard the answer to a difficult riddle.
Clone? Is that the story that had made it through the Cybertronics grapevine; that the strange boy with the startling resemblance to Hobby's dead son was a clone? David didn't say anything; just continued to stare back at Henry's disbelieving gaze.
After a moment he nodded a false confession. Let them believe whatever they want. The truth was too incredible to tell.
Martin guffawed and rose to wobble uneasily on his leg.
"A friggin clone," he said. "I knew it!"
"I'd heard rumors," Henry said, mystified. "But I didn't really believe Alan would actually do such a thing. It's… it's…"
Henry stammered for a word, but then looked away.
"The loneliness must have driven him crazy." he said finally. He wasn't talking to David.
Crazy. Yes, that was the word Henry was looking for. And what would he think if anyone had tried to tell the truth? It was a good lie. A noble lie. He decided to it stand.
"Ok, so now you know," David said. "It doesn't change anything. 101 is still out there. It's still coming. We still have to do something."
"What the hell are you going on about?" Martin said. "What threat? I'm calling the cops."
Martin reached for his pod, but Henry stopped him with a weave of his hand.
"Wait, son," he said, glaring at David. He was deciding, David knew; deciding what to do with this strange young man who had broken into his home and threatened him with a weapon. The silent seconds seemed like an eternity.
Henry finally reached into his pocket and pulled out his pod. He fingered a key, keeping his eyes locked on David
"No" David said, seeing his freedom disappearing right before his eyes. "You don't understand!"
"Hey," Henry said when someone answered. "Listen, something just came up and I probably won't be in today. Get started on the new promos and just load everything into the cloud when you're done. I'll look it over later."
When the connection as closed Henry stepped slowly forward until he was within striking distance of David. Then he turned the Neutralizer around and held it out so David could take it.
"Dad?" Martin shouted. "What are you doing?"
Henry held out a hand to silence his son.
"He could have shot me before if that's why he was here," Henry told Martin. Then he turned back to David.
"I'm going to give you a second chance," he said. "Convince me."
(cont...)