Part 14 (1/2)

A total of fourteen bodies had been found: three out the front, nine inside, two at the back. Roads was still missing, which wasn't news to him or Barney - or, it .,,seemed, to Chappel herself. ”if Phil's there with you,” she said, ”I need to talk to him urgently.” When Barney hesitated, she continued: ”I cae a.s.sure you that this conversation is strictly off the record; it isn't being monitored or recorded, and there's no-one in my office but me. I'm calling as a friend, like last night, not as head of RSD. just tell him to call me as soon as possible, if you see him.” ”I'm not sure -””It's okay, Barney.11.He stepped into the room and came forward to face the terminal. ”I have to appear eventually, I suppose. h.e.l.lo, Margaret.” ”Phil, your little vanis.h.i.+ng act had even me worried.” ”Really? I never knew you cared.” ”If I didn't, I wouldn't be calling now.” Her face hardened. ”What happened?”

He quickly brought her up to date on everything that had occurred between his leaving Barney's house the previous night and the explosion. .So the Mole killed them. . .” She frowned. ”That's a different story to the one going around HQ.” ”Which is?”

She shook her head, dismissing the question. ”There's a meeting in my office in two hours. I suggest you be here. ” ”How bad is it?” ”Let's just say it would have been worse if you'd died last night.” ”I see.” He understood perfectly; there was only one thing better than a scapegoat, and that was a dead scapegoat. ”I'll be there. Thanks for the warning.”

Chappel raised a hand. ”One thing more before I go.” ” Yes? ” ”I strongly advise that you wear your contact lenses. Barney has obviously taken the news well, but I can't guarantee that the others will.” ”Point taken. See you in two.”

Chappel killed the line, and Roads turned back to Barney.

She was staring at him oddly. ”She knew?” ”From day one. Her father was expelled from the city under the Humanity Laws when she was a child, and she's never forgotten. She helped me get a job when I arrived in '58.”

236.

”Anyone else?”

Martin O'Dell guessed. He ran a comparison Mew4s old Missing In Action files and the most recent census; my name came up on both lists. And iMorrow knows, of course.” ”Why didn't you tell me long ago? You should've 19 me.

”I know, but . He turned away. Even now, he from telling her the real reason. The instinct 0) secrecy that had kept him safe through the last four 7-4-T- was hard to break. ”Look, tell me how you felt $140 you first found out.” ”Shocked, mainly, and a little as if you'd betrayed 0.

”It didn't bother you?”

She looked uncomfortable. ”Well, yes, but I'm getting to it.” ”Are you sure?” He turned back to her, but she didn't J'sm: his eyes.

”Would you have felt that way about 61ki own father?” he asked. ”He was like me, an ex- Officer drafted into security after the War. We s= c the same secret.”

Barney opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. Her eyes moistened. ”I never knew,” she eventually said. ”No. He made me promise not to tell you until after he died and his body had been cremated. But then, when I had the chance, I couldn't do it. You'd learned the 106MY” in school too well: that biomods were evil and 1011i; who had them was a perversion. If I'd told you then, you wouldn't have wanted to know.”

Barney shook her head. ”You're right. I wouldn't of*[email protected] believed it. Not of Dad.” ”And I couldn't tell you about myself, either, without telling you about him. You were a teenager when he 237died. I'd known you since you were a small child. I never guessed we'd be in this situation, where my failure to tell you might threaten he shrugged whatever it is between us.” ”But you stuck around,” Barney said softly. ”You took care of me. You've always been there, Phil, unchanging and reliable whenever I needed help. And I rely on you so much. How could I not have trusted you. ”I know, I know.” Roads nodded. ”And I do feel like I've betrayed you -”

”Don't be stupid. I would have suspected years ago, had you been anyone else.

The only reason I didn't is because I wouldn't let myself.” She put a hand on his arm. Her face was still serious, but at least her eyes met his again.

”It's not your fault your body ages at a slower pace than mine. G.o.d knows, you'll probably outlive me by decades -”

He smoothed her forehead with a fingertip, trying to erase the frown. -Don't think that far ahead, Barney. You've got plenty of other stuff to worry about.

Right now, I need a shower and a change of bandages. And then I'll show you my box of tricks.” ”That sounds ominous,” she said with the slight beginnings of a smile. ”Is it?”

He smiled back. ”That depends whose side you're [email protected] The injury to his shoulder was healing nicely, although full movement had not yet returned to the arm. The wound was filling with a ma.s.s of pinkish cellular material that would later migrate and specialise to become dermal, muscular and nervous tissue, guided by shepherd machines as small as red corpuscles.

Within a week, he guessed, his shoulder would be as good as new.

His ribs were still tender, however. Bones were more aff(Mu to mend than flesh, even for his modified After Barney had cleaned away the dried blood that Mr- leaked overnight, and rebound the joint, Roads IRTT T-1 in the clothes he had rescued from his house. @@h, down at the kitchen table, he wiped away the Years of dust ingrained on the leather case, then opened it.

Inside, among an a.s.sortment of old tools, was a spare A K. of contact lenses which he rinsed and inserted. They Jitted snugly, unfurling on contact to cover most of each s surface. Simple machines in their own right, the retinae reacted to light, contracting and dilating as a normal eye would, and came complete with imitation blood-vessels.

You'd never guess,” said Barney in admiration. ”I certainly didn't.” ”These were standard-issue for undercover work, for sensitive' situations. Even back then, some people were uncomfortable with biomodification, and didn't like to be reminded.” ”I can understand that, to a certain extent.” ”You didn't have to deal with them.”

Roads remembered the neo-Luddites clearly. In the late 2030s, the Puritans had preached a modern sanct.i.ty of the flesh: no implants, no gene therapy, no metabolic alteration. They had claimed that it interfered with G.o.d's plans.

On the reverse side of the coin were those who had been denied the new technology, yet craved it bitterly. One such group had hunted biomodified troops during the Dissolution and drained them of their blood. By drinking the bodily fluids of their victims, they had hoped to acquire the micromachine elements standard in all retrofitted combat soldiers.”Progress always leaves someone behind,” Roads said. ”Cars, computers, biomodification - they're all the same in that sense.” ”And the Rea.s.similation, too.” ”Exactly. There's nothing to be gained by fighting the future.” He replaced the items he had removed and handed her a tiny hemisphere no larger than a grain of rice. ”So put this in your ear.”

She eyed it warily. ”What is it, first?” ”A short-range transmitter/receiver.

It'll allow us to communicate directly, without a radio or a phone.”

She raised it nervously. .Don't worry. You might feel a slight sting as it anchors itself, maybe a tiny movement, but it won't do any harm.”

She pushed the tiny device into her auditory ca.n.a.l, then wriggled as it tickled its way toward her eardrum. ”How's that?” he asked, without moving his mouth, and she jumped. ”Can you hear me clearly?” ”I ... As though you're whispering in my ear. Weird.” ”To reply, all you do is subvocalise my full name and talk. The bead will pick up the vibrations through your skull and cheekbone.”

She tried it, counting slowly from one to ten. Her voice in his ear was gravelly but perfectly clear. ”Good,” he said. ”I wondered if it was still working. It's been a long time since I last used it.” ”How does it work? At your end, I mean.” ”One of the most common implants in the old days was the cyberlink; sort of an advanced cellular phone or modem without the visible hardware. Mine is a little more sophisticated, but operates on the same principle. My optic and auditory nerves cae receive data, via an antenna wired along my spinal cord, from about five kilometres.”

,”What about power? Don't you have to recharge now and again? Or do you just change batteries?” ”Most of the power comes from here.” He pointed at @N, gut. ”The human body produces its own electric Mine has been boosted, that's all. As long as I overdo it, I'll be fine.” She grimaced theatrically.

What?” ”Sorry. I was just imagining what would happen if *JkL had a short circuit.” ”Well ”I don't think I want to know. And don't expect me @c share a bath with you.” He smiled back. ”I won't.” They went into the lounge, where the laptop was still estin on the coffee table by the sofa.

Switching it on, 9 ''he took a data fiche from his case and fed it into the drive. The program took a moment to configure itself to the unfamiliar system, then announced its readiness with a simple command screen.

The logo in the top right-hand corner said: 'PolNet.' ”Now what?” asked Barney. Roads shook his head and tapped a few commands into the keyboard, opening the modem line to RSO's mainframe and calling up access to its communication towers. When everything was ready, he leaned back into the sofa and closed his eyes.

This was much harder than simply opening a cyberlink to Barney. There were pathways to be explored that he hadn't touched for thirty years - pathways that might have changed or devolved, perhaps even atrophied completely, with forty years disuse - both within him and within the city.

After a moment, he sighed with relief. A list of commands scrolled down the screen.”That's it,” he said aloud. ”That's what?” ”I'm on-line.” He opened his eyes.

Superimposed at the corners of his vision were glowing green and red menus surrounding a stylised command screen. ”My internal processor is broadcasting to. RSD communications at several million bits per second. This means I can interface with the RSD mainframe through the program in your terminal. The complete PoNet command network is gone, but the abbreviated backup here will do for now. I can access files, take calls, run programs - all without even closing my eyes.

Much easier than the old manual interface I keep in my office at HQ.”

He experimented with a few commands. The skills were still fresh in his memory. In fact, it was almost too easy.

His two lives, until that moment, had been quite separate, linked only by the implants in his eyes and ears. Accessing the system was like putting on clothes he had worn in another lifetime; he felt as though part of him had been resurrected. But he was no longer the same person he had been. The young Phil Roads had died in-the Dissolution forty years ago, and comfortingly familiar clothes could not change that.

He sent an image in 2-D to the RSD mainframe, then had Barney's terminal display the picture. The process was perfectly clear, but fairly slow. The image grew from the top of the screen down, line by line, in the time it would have taken to download it directly. It showed her staring back at him, eyes wide. ”Very funny.” She leaned closer and brushed at his temples. ”It's hard to imagine all this gear in your head.”

He guided her hand to the rear of his skull. ”Actually, it's here.” ”Wherever, it's still unbelievable.”

ything we have today, but I really. Better than an the same principles. If not for the berse on rkers, a -technology riots and the Humanity Laws, nti ht still have retained a crude biomod mig He shrugged. ”But I doubt it. The technology madvanced for the reclamation factories. You can't F1 nanomachines and biochips out of left-over data Iow and broken computers.”

”Which is why we have to Rea.s.similate,” she said. [email protected] we end up in the steam age again.” ”To put it bluntly, yes. You could already see it @rl when I arrived here, ten years after the end of f4i;; War. Datapools were less sophisticated; there had *,-44s, no technological progress at all, and the number of computers was on the decrease. Kennedy's ocosi;@ well to last this long, but it has to open up In five years, we won't be able to repair the 1.1t mainframe any more. There'll be nothing left to Barney folded her arms around herself. ”I keep telling U these things, but it-still doesn't seem real.” Roads glanced at her, noticing her uncertainty for the first time. ”The world is a scary place,” he said softly.

She nodded. ”It's like growing up, I guess. You want -o be an adult, but don't want to leave childhood ,behind. I feel the same way when I think about Stedman. And you, with all your toys. I feel ... disempowered, if that's a word.” ”I'm not sure it is,” Roads said, reaching to touch her shoulder, ”but it should be.”

She shrugged, and squeezed his hand. ”Don't worryIt's just a mood. Have you got anything else to show me.

With a flick of a mental wrist, Roads banished all but a basic ”ready” icon, in the shape of a stylised policebadge, and a clock. The menus he had once known as well as the backs of his hands vanished into the timeless s.p.a.ces of computer memory, awaiting his command. just knowing they were there made him feel more confident. ”Actually, it's 9:15,” he said. ”We really should get going. Better done quickly, and all that.”