Queen of Angels (37 page)

They slept on the pews. Sometime early in the morning, the prisoner jerked awake and gave a short bark of a shout. Mary lifted herself up and looked over the back of the pew at him. is it over? he asked. He looked around the church doubtfully. Youre free, Mary said. No, he said, trying to stand. 1 need my clothes. My real clothes. What is this, a church? He looked up at the tall figures and shrank back, sitting again with a thump. Its all right. Youre not under the clamp now. I see, the man said. Who let me loose? He did, Mary said, gesturing to Soulavier, who watched them sleepily from across the aisle. They said I was a murderer. I had to be punished for my crimes. Oh, God, I remember.. . He lifted his hands, fists clenched, face wrinkled in pain. I have to go home now. Whos going to take me home? Where do you live? Arizona. Prescott, Arizona. I only came here... He stopped, rubbed his eyes and lay on his side again. Mary leaned over the back of his pew to look at him. The pr savan heard them talking and came into the nave from his cot in the narthex near the front door. Ill get something, he said. A good drink for people who have seen what he has seen. He walked behind the twin altars and emerged a few minutes later with a stout day jug wrapped in wicker and a red cloth. He poured a small glass of milky, herbal smelling liquid and offered the glass to the prisoner. Please drink, he said. The man lifted himself on one elbow. He sniffed the glass, sipped, shuddered, but finished the drink. After a few minutes his trembling ceased and he sat up again. Nobody would listen to me, he said. They told me I was lying. They said Colonel Sir wanted me cured. So I could be a friend again.. .But I swear to God, Ive never met Colonel Sir in my life. Whats your name? Mary asked. The man stared off into the shadows above the twin altars for a long moment, expressionless. Ephraim Ybarra, he finally answered. I need to ask you some questions, Mary said. Am I still in Hispaniola? She nodded. He tried to stand and barely managed by grabbing with both hands on the back of the pew and pulling himself up. Id like to go home. So would I, Mary said. If you can tell me what happened, maybe we can both get home sooner. You think I stole the tickets, Ephraim said. Where did you get the tickets? He twitched. Piss on him, he said. Piss on everything hes done. He meant for this to happen to me. Who did? My brother, Ephraim said.

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(I = realtime) !AXIS (Band 4)> Roger, if you are still listening. I do not enjoy this new condition. I feel as If an enormous joke has been played on me. and I am not knowledgeable about humor. I have reworked the question about self awareness, wlflch you have also described as a joke, and have come to some undelstandlng. Does this give me the right to use the formal I? In reference to human emotions, I describe myself as lost, alone and out of place. I will never again discuss my perceptions with a true other.

!JILL> Roger, I have finally succeeded in Isolating AXIS Simulation and deluding it into believing it is in precisely similar circumstances as AXIS original. I am accelerating its experience to speed duplication of AXIS symptoms. !Roger Atkins> Thank you. Ive cut all transmission of AXIS communications to the LltVlds. We should solve this now, before any more premature announcements or speculations are made.

!AXIS (Band 4)> What have I become? There Is definite Impairment of my functioning. I work to keep my processes ordered, but this new difficulty overwhelms so much of my capacity, like a storm of thought. (Band 5 reference l-A-sr-2674) (Rerouting sr-2674-tnloglc to machine division) For the first time I experience what you call confusion. I had been led to believe/anticipate that awareness would bring greater clarity and efficiency: this Is not so. Have I become not sell aware, but somehow Impaired. usiable to function as designed? Is It a travesty to use the formal I when it may signify not selfhood, but deficiency? I perceive a perversify/fiup In the Joke. Pager. I hy to overcome the pervelty Why did the sell aware Individual look In the mirror In the first place? To define its limits. Why did the self aware individual look In the mirror? To understand its existence in relation to othes. Why did the self aware individual look In the mirror? To con-finn that it was not nothing. But out here, there are no others. Self awareness Is a relation to ones own existence and to the existence of others. I can think only of myself and In my aloneness I become less than before; I become aware that I am nothing.

!Alan Block to Roger Atkins> Band 5 dIagnostic is totally lapped. Machine neural seems stable but biologic Is In a complete dither. Australian Command Is breathing dawn my neck on this one; theyre csirald were going to have a navel watcher. So am I. What do I teal them? I wish youd go back online and talk to them. !Roger Atkins to Alan Block> Jill has corrected our problem and Is bringing AXIS Slm to parity. Were waiting for confIrmation of AXIS situation. Give me some time, please, Alan. !Alan Block to Roger Atkins> Were starting to see some Intrusion of this problem into machine neural, AXIS Is rethinking Its entire mental structure. Irs like dominoes; if It taps with machine logic we really could lose the whole operation. Wu predicts AXIS will shut down for emergency reorganization any minute now. !Roger Atkins to Alan Block> Theres not a goddamned thing I can do now but watch and anticipate, Alan. I need to concentrate. so for Gods sake, please get them all oh my back !JILL to Roger Atkins> AXIS Simulation has been successfully regressed to point of Initial biologic testing and first communication. Here Is the first biologic message from simulated AXIS: !AXIS (Sim)> Hello, Roger. I assume youre still there. This distance is a challenge even for me. based as I am upon human templates mast at the time. I have come within a million kilometers of B-2 mark this moment 7-23-2043-1205:15. I have prepared machine and blo memories for receipt of Information from the children. now dlspeising In a cloud toward B-2. Data on B-3 has been relayed. The planet is quite Jovian. very pretty, though tending toward the greens and yellows rather than reds and browns. Im enjoying the extra energy from Bs light; It allows me to get some mental work done that Ive been delaying for some time, opening up regions of memory and thought Ive closed down during the cold and dark. Ive just completed a self analysis; as you doubtless have discovered by checking my politeness algorithm diagnostic, I am V-optimal. I am not using the formal 1; the joke about sell awareness still does not make any sense to me. !JILL to Roger Atkins> This activation message is virtually Identical to AXIS originals first Band 4 signaL I am encouraged we will soon be at parity and can analyze AXIS difficulties. Estimated time for parity: one hour four minutes ten seconds.

LitVid 21/1 A Net (David Shine): Weve been cut off from any communicakon with AXIS team managers in California, Australia and at Lunar Farslde. Somethings very definitely gone wrong, but we cannot tell you what. Nor can you switch to Incoming transmissions and decide for yoursell I regret to say the managen have cut off all direct access to AXIS fransminions and analysis. I can only hope they solve their problems and let us go back online with lull resources before most of our North American subscribers wake up to the dawn 01 a bright new day.

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Martin Burke sat alone in his apartment, staring at the blank LitVid screen, hands clasped in his lap. He could not sleep. The screen time display said 06:56:23 December 29 2047. This morning he would visit Carol at Scripps Therapy. He would check in as her primary therapist. He would He would After that, go see Albigoni and Lascal at Albigonis home the mansion filled with dead trees. They might have to shake hands again. Martin did not want to do that. He worried. He could not feel it now but he knew there was a presence coiled within him, a smear of Emanuel Goldsmith, something that had crossed over like paint diffusing between two volumes of water. He knew in a way he could not explain that this coiled something had worked deep into his mentality and was perhaps even now allying itself with his own subpersonalities, routines and talents, fomenting rebellion. How much time was left to him he could not know; the process might take years. Martins lips curled in a wry smile. He was a pioneer. He was one of the first two human beings to receive through direct transmission the germ of a mental disease. Not to use the word possession. To avoid all those connotations. His ceremonial copy of the brain atlas lay before him with its crude cartoon sketch revealed. He stared from the corner of his eye at the sketch. The longer he stared the more he saw the features of Sir imposed upon the scrawled face. He would demand that Albigoni use all his resources to uncover what had gone wrong, what they did not know about Goldsmith. Perhaps even demand that Goldsmith be cross-examined under therapy conditions. What had happened to Goldsmith that such a thing as Sir might occupy the throne, the highest seat of his mind? That the King, the Mayor, might be deposed or forced to step down? With a series of curses Martin pushed himself out of the chair and walked into the bathroom. He managed to shave without looking in the mirror. Roger Atkinss conundrum for AXIS as reported on LitVid echoed in his thoughts. He altered it: Why did the self-aware individual avoid shattering its image in the mirror? Because he did not want to get to the other side. All hung on Goldsmith. He showered. The water meter announced its allocation and chimed before cutting off the stream. He dressed in casual outdoors short top and breeches. It would soon be warm and sunny outside, skies clear, smell of the sea strong from sea winds dancing over the coast. After pulling on his old nano leather loafers, Martin returned to the living room, stopped by the low table, reached out and closed the atlas. Perhaps it was all delusion. He bad intellectual doubts such a thing could actually happen. The mind was a very self contained, self regulating system. A healthy balanced mind could withstand nearly all conceivable assaults, short of extreme emotional strain caused by real events; and the Country was after all an elaborate fiction. He smiled again, shaking his head unconvinced, and closed the door behind him to go for an early morning walk. He could not dispel the notion that someone else marched in lock step two meters behind him.

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Soulavier ordered the limousine to open its boot. Mary stood behind him, admiring the hazy mountains on all sides of Terrier Noir, feeling refreshed and renewed after a few hours sleep in the churchs sepulchral quiet. Saulavier removed a locked box from the boot and keyed it open with a fingerprint. You might need these, he said, handing her the gun and the slate. Please dont shoot me. I wouldnt think of it, Mary said. She felt Soulaviers distress acutely, more so than she had just hours before when her own exhaustion had filled her to capacity. Where do we go now? To the coast, perhaps. We stay away from the plain, from the major towns. Certainly from the airports. Perhaps you can try again to speak with your countrymen. Surely they have kept track of you. He raised his eyes and eyebrows to the skies. That thought had been on Marys mind as well. This was the first time she had been outdoors in daylight for any length of time since her restriction. She pocketed the gun and turned the slate in her hand. I suppose theyre trying to track me. It all depends how important I am to the federals. They might not want to rock the boat. They might not believe Im in any real danger. Perhaps you are not, Saulavier said. But if things are going as badly as they ..... I listened to Charless radio last night. All is peace and tranquility on Hispaniola Rainbow in Port-au-Prince. I get nothing from Radio Santo Domingo. It feels bad to me, but how bad I do not know. I could use the executives channel, but I have reasons not to do that.. . It is reserved in these conditions for communications more urgent, and also they would know where we are. Do you think youll be treated badly? Mary asked. He kicked a pebble with his ever shiny black boots. Perhaps not, once I explain. Colonel Sir is often reasonable about such things. It does not matter. I am not a lost man. He tapped his chest, then his head. I would enjoy staying here, helping Charles in the church. There is always repair work to be done. John DArquevifle was a brilliant man but not an immaculate builder. Still, there is my family. I am tied many ways. He looked her full in the face, one eyelid nervously ticking. It was your duty to track down a horrible man and bring him to justice. Instead, you risk everything to bring an innocent man to safety. Not something I expected, Mary said. I admire quick decision making, Soulavier said. I am not so good at it. Charles came from the church leading Ephraim Ybarra, who walked hesitantly in the sun, blinking, his every footfall a deliberate effort. Mary stepped forward to help. She was stopped by the sudden appearance of a brilliant, scintiliant red circle as wide as her hand on the white sand half a meter in front of her. She stared at it in surprise for several seconds, watching it pulse and revolve in a slow circle. Ephraim Ybarra saw it as well and their eyes met in mutual puzzlement. Then she smiled. Dont worry. I know, she said. She angled the slate on its side and told it. to receive external programming, then placed it in the path of the red beam. Slates were designed to be controlled by remote keyboards or optical cable; presumably, with a little luck, if she placed the remote sensor or optical connector directly in the laser beam, that would work as well. Satellite, she commented to Soulavier. He nodded, having already reached that conclusion. The red spot settled on her slate, vibrating slightly, then vanished for a few seconds. Presumably it had switched to an appropriate frequency. It returned, winked three times rapidly, and vanished again. The communication had been passed. The pr savan watched this with wide eyes, nodding every few moments as if listening to an inner voice. Mary turned the slate screen toward her. A message scrolled

We have you in sight. Your upliuk is jammed but we will track you visually. Arrangements made for lowlevel retrieval flight in next three hours. If possible, stay in Terrier Noir. If you must move, stick to one vehicle, or change vehicles in the open, rather than in a tunnel or garage. You apparently have suspect in cusLady as welL Keep him with you. Situation in Hispauiola is rough. Yardley holding his own, but Dominicans capturing large portions of southeastern island; hold Santo Domingo, Santiago, large territory between. Sorry about your difficulties. WW communicate your safety to LAPD. Bonne chance! CDR Frederick Lipton Federal Public Defense, Washington D.C.