The Rule of Luck, page 25
Still in my bathrobe, I tugged on my green boots, cast a longing look at the bed, and pressed my ear to the door. I couldn’t hear anyone, so hopefully the room was deserted. In fact, I hoped the whole damned route was deserted. Maybe it was prudish, but I didn’t want anyone seeing my walk of shame—even if I didn’t feel particularly shameful at the moment.
I made it all the way to the front foyer before I heard the voices. They were muffled and distant, coming from the far end of a hallway across from the elevator. Good. I could still get away without being noticed. I pushed the call button and waited, refraining from tapping my toe. Time passed. Gods, how long did the damned thing take? I’d never had to wait more than a few seconds before, yet when I needed it most, it took days!
I found myself listening to the voices. It sounded like two men, chatting back and forth. I recognized one of them as Karol. Why did all these people have access to Alexei’s rooms anyway? Did they come and go as they pleased?
The longer I waited, the more curious I became. Why was Karol there? Who was he talking to? What were they discussing? I wandered toward the voices, cinching my robe tighter as I eavesdropped. I had no business listening in. This had nothing to do with me and I should get the hell out of there. Gods, I wasn’t even dressed! Boots and a bathrobe? What would they think? Walk of shame, remember? I scolded myself. Yet, I couldn’t seem to stop. Hell, I couldn’t even rationalize it. I just went.
There were several doors along the way, some open, some not. The voices came from the closed door farthest away. They spoke Russian, which infuriated me. I’d need to learn the language if I wanted to fit in. Great, one more thing to add to my to-do list. Again, I cursed my lack of t-mods. I couldn’t download it and speak with fluency the way others could. Like everything else, I’d have to do it the hard way with long hours of study and practice. Presumably Alexei would help. Oksana, as well.
It wasn’t until my hand stretched out to grasp the door handle that my gut kicked me. Hard. Everything stopped. My breathing. My happy, horny thoughts thanks to last night. My plans to speak Russian. I teetered on the cusp of…something. Opening that door would change everything; I could tell that much from the force of the kick. The desire to run from it was so overpowering, I almost bolted. I fought the fear down with wishes, prayers, and the hard-won knowledge that I had to face whatever waited inside. Avoiding it would only bring me a world of misery.
So, I opened the door and stepped inside.
At first, I couldn’t make sense of it. Karol and a blond man stood beside a large, upright rectangular-shaped box. An endless web of cables connected the box to a monitoring device then filtered to a series of outlets in the wall. Was it a generator or maybe an AI superlink? Karol turned dials, possibly taking measurements, then calling out the results. The other man sorted through the cabling and laughed about something as he threw in an occasional comment. I studied the box: clear, about six feet tall and three wide. Something was inside it. No, someone.
Mr. Pennyworth was in the box, eyes closed as if in sleep. His skin had an unusual waxy cast and shimmered as if coated in oil or gel. If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was dead since the glass box resembled an upright coffin. He certainly didn’t look asleep, at any rate. In fact, he looked not quite human. I took another step forward. What the hell was going on?
Karol saw me and swore impressively. The blond man looked up, caught sight of me, and looked like he might faint. Then he started jabbering in Russian at Karol and moved to grab my arm. I dodged away while Karol started yelling. I took advantage of the chaos to examine the box.
Mr. Pennyworth was fully clothed in his all-purpose gray-green suit. I leaned closer. He wasn’t breathing. I also saw that the tubes outside the box fed into it and disappeared into his stomach, under his shirt. Were they attached to his body? I had reached out to open the box for a closer look when hands stopped me. Karol grabbed my wrist and yanked me back.
“Don’t, Ms. Sevigny. We’re running a decontamination program and it’s unwise to open the sarcophagus,” he warned. “As the nanobots eliminate the toxins, they create a gaseous byproduct that could seriously harm us should it seep into the room.”
“Of course,” I said, as if that made perfect sense. I couldn’t tear my eyes from Mr. Pennyworth’s face. “What is he?”
“It’s a first generation homunculus,” Karol answered at my side.
“Meaning what?”
“It’s science’s first attempt at creating an artificial human. We’re still in the prototype phase, so the design is crude and not without its flaws. Its thoughts need to be guided externally by others rather than working in concert with a host, nor can it be piloted for long periods. The machine mind and human aren’t entirely compatible so we’re getting a toxin buildup. Despite that, we’re getting wonderful results with you in the field. In melding human and machine, we were seeing the first true post-human. Laying there is humanity’s next step toward conquering the universe—the birth of a new god and true eternal life,” he said, voice reverent.
1I frowned. It seemed a lot of people were interested in creating new gods when I wasn’t sure we were finished with the old ones yet.
“You said he…it has a pilot,” I prompted.
“Gospodin Petriv, naturally. He’s been specifically trained to pilot it, but the man is adept at whatever he turns his hand to so I’m unsurprised by the excellent results. And with his unique abilities at manipulating the CN-net and thought replication, is it any wonder?”
“Unique abilities?”
“It’s quite astounding actually. He may not be immortal, but he’s as close as humanity’s come so far. He’s also the first success the Consortium’s had in transferring consciousness to the CN-net without death or severe physical and mental trauma.”
“So…” Words temporarily failed me. “Mr. Petriv can link his mind with…this and pilot it like a puppet?”
“I wouldn’t use such a crass comparison, but yes, that’s it.” Karol turned to me, eyes narrowing. “You’re behaving like this is a great surprise. I assumed you’d been told these details since you’re involved in the field testing. Otherwise, you couldn’t have gotten in without proper clearance. The door was locked.”
I couldn’t answer Karol’s questions because I had better than proper clearance: I had luck, and it wanted me to see what was in the room. As I stood there, drawing conclusions and making connections, horror blossomed in my stomach as the associations weaved together in my head.
What exactly was I involved in? Who, or rather what, was Alexei Petriv? Then came the more frightening realization: it had been Alexei manipulating me all along.
From the first moment I’d contacted the mysterious voice and hatched a plan to break into the fertility clinic, he’d guided my every movement, stripping away all choice until I had no options left but to do what he wanted. He made me take the fall at the clinic and spend the night in the pit. Then engineered the so-called rescue where I felt indebted to him and more inclined to listen to what he had to say. Then hooked me by dangling information about my mother and offering to revoke my blacklisted status. Lastly and most disturbing of all was the manipulation of my feelings. He’d taken my vulnerability over Roy’s betrayal and my mother’s callousness and created a careful seduction that ensured I kept running back to him—pushing me away and drawing me in until I didn’t know up from down.
Humiliation gripped me, followed by a rage I’d never imagined myself capable of feeling. I wasn’t simply angry. I was livid to the point where I couldn’t speak, wasn’t sure I could breathe, and if I tried to open my mouth, I would vomit because I couldn’t control the fury. With all his tech and his genetic modifications and gods only knew what else, he was everything my family rebelled against when they refused One Gov’s t-mods and MH Factor upgrades. To them he was a monster, and now I could finally see what my cards wanted me to know. This was the true Alexei Petriv—and he was horrifying.
I turned on my heel. I had to get out of there. Out of the hotel. Out of Curitiba. Out of Brazil. Hell, off the planet if that was even possible.
“Ms. Sevigny! Please! Wait!” Karol sounded panicked as he called after me. “I’m not sure what I’ve said to upset you, but if you’ll let me explain—”
“I don’t need more explanations,” I hurled over my shoulder through gritted teeth as I stormed down the hall. “I’ve seen enough.”
He ran after me. “If I’ve upset you, I apologize. Truly I do. I just ask you say nothing to Gospodin Petriv. Please, if he knew…I mean…It would make my life difficult.”
“Don’t care. Not my problem.”
I hurried to the foyer and frantically pushed the elevator call button. Karol trailed behind me, pleading and plucking at my robe.
“You don’t understand! He might kill me. My family might disappear. You don’t know what he’s capable of. If he learns I upset you—”
I pushed his hand away and landed a solid punch in the stomach that made him stagger back. “If he kills you because you have a big mouth, then he’s an asshole. Look for another goddamn job if you’re so scared! Now leave me alone because I can’t listen to this any longer!”
The elevator doors opened. Alexei was there, naturally. Big fucking surprise. Luck truly wanted to assault me today. With him were Oksana, one of the people from last night, and a few chain-breakers.
With ease, I wended my way through the group. There were too many of them, causing too much confusion as they all tried to exit at once. I found myself in the elevator alone, gazing out at them. A few looked at the babbling Karol. Oksana reached for him, asking what had happened. The chain-breakers were drawing weapons, training them on Karol, then me. I shrugged and pushed the button for my floor. As if they would shoot me. I couldn’t imagine luck would pound me so severely just to get me shot while I made my getaway. Then again, maybe it would. Fuck it. I pressed the button again.
Alexei lunged toward me as the doors closed. Security blocked him, no doubt thinking they needed to protect him from some undetermined threat.
“Felicia? What’s wrong?” he shouted over the chaos.
I looked at him, then away before I could start crying. Fuck that bastard; I did not want him to see me cry.
He was almost through the chain-breakers, pushing them aside with that scary insane strength I’d seen him use on several occasions. I swiped my eyes with the sleeve of my robe, the tears coming despite my resolve.
“Felicia! Say something!”
“Two of Cups, reversed,” I whispered. Then the doors closed and the elevator began its descent.
* * *
It’s impossible to make a getaway when you’re wearing a bathrobe, boots, and your room is one floor down from where you just left. I mean honestly, what was I thinking? Even so, I let myself in and looked around as if I could somehow grab my things and go. I had dithered for all of a minute, swiping at tears, when the pounding started.
“Felicia, open the door.” Alexei was pounding with a ferocity that shook the walls if not the entire floor. “We need to talk.”
I ignored him. In the bedroom I slipped into a form-fitting green tunic top and tights—at this point, anything was better than the hotel robe. The pounding and his shouts continued as I threw my cards into my travel case and returned to the foyer. The door’s locking seals seemed to groan in protest under his fists. I paused, knowing I couldn’t avoid a confrontation. My insides churned. I didn’t want to see him, never mind talk to him. And yet, I also wanted to launch myself into his arms and forget the last few minutes. My hand hovered over the handle.
The pounding stopped. “I can hear you on the other side.” His voice sounded raw from yelling and I could hear a panic in it that bordered on anger. “Whether I have the hotel staff open the door or break it down myself, I’m coming in. I would prefer if you opened it, but whatever the case, we are talking.”
Arrogant bastard. I blew out a sigh and threw open the door, standing aside to let him in. He looked surprisingly unruffled given he’d had to fight his way free of his own security detail to get down to my room. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but he wore a black T-shirt, black denim pants, and black boots. He’d shaved as well. The T-shirt emphasized the breadth of his shoulders and definition of his chest while the denim drew my eyes downward and made me remember exactly what was in them. I’d never seen him dressed so casually, and as betrayed as I felt, I couldn’t help but notice.
He eased the door from my hand, gently closed it, and then leaned against it. “Leaving?”
“Seems like the thing to do.” My eyes darted from the floor, to the wall, up to the ceiling—anywhere but him. As an afterthought I tossed in, “Did you kill Karol? He seemed concerned. Thought you might have to because he let something slip and ruined your plans.”
“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a monster who indiscriminately kills people when they’ve irritated me. Karol is stupid and paranoid, but he’s also excellent at what he does. What happened was my fault, not his. Felicia, look at me.” He sighed when I refused and continued my examination of the room. “Please.”
Something in his voice made me glance at him. Probably the way he’d said please, with its undercurrent of desperation. I gritted my teeth, fighting like hell to keep from crying.
He wasn’t as unruffled as I thought. I’d even venture to say the haunted look on his face was fear. “Felicia, I’m sorry. It was not my intention for you to see that. You were never supposed to know.”
A laugh escaped me. “Know what? Know you were lying to me this whole time? Know you created this elaborate charade to get me to work for the Consortium? Or know about that…thing in the other room and what you can do? If I hadn’t seen it for myself, were you ever going to tell me?”
“There’s no right answer I can give, is there?”
“I guess that means no, then, doesn’t it? Can you imagine how I feel right now? You came to me to get access to my mother because you couldn’t do it on your own. I get that. But you trapped me in this web of lies and manipulated my every move. And apparently you can manipulate the CN-net as well. Maybe you’re the reason my appeals to the Shared Hope program were always denied. Maybe you suspected it would force me to do something desperate like break into the fertility clinic. If I was arrested, of course I’d turn to you. How could I not when you were the only one offering any hope? Maybe the explosion was your doing too, so you could test my luck gene. Or killing the Arbiter? How do I know what’s real anymore? I guess you must think I’m some gullible idiot.” I took a shaky breath, unable to say more around the lump in my throat.
“Felicia, no. I’ve never once thought that. The situation was…difficult. You saw the reports on your mother so you’ll know the depth of research involved. I’ve been aware of you for years. I wanted you left untouched, but you were also the most direct route to achieving the Consortium’s aims. Yes, I engineered your situations at the clinic and the pit so they worked to my advantage. I regret the Arbiter’s death. That wasn’t my intention.”
“And Mr. Pennyworth? What was that all about?”
He ran a distracted hand through his hair. “I needed distance between us. After our first meeting, I could barely concentrate. Once I’d met you, you became part of every thought and I couldn’t have that. The homunculus allowed me to keep my perspective. When I bonded with it, my feelings for you were…nullified.”
“I see. So I was an emotional drain to you? You had feelings but didn’t want them. Bonding with Mr. Pennyworth made them go away.”
He shook his head, growing impatient. “Don’t twist what I want with what I need to do for the Consortium.”
“And that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?” I retorted. “Sounds like I’m just your stepping stone to taking over the entire tri-system.”
“No, damn it. You were never like that to me. I meant everything I said last night. Every word,” he said fiercely, pushing off the door and advancing toward me. “You know I did.”
“Gods, it’s like you can’t even see what you did wrong! It’s the fact that you were behind everything. You played me from both sides, making me believe you cared and this mattered while at the same time tearing my life to pieces regardless of what that did to me. Even if that life was bullshit, you hid behind your mask and tore everything in me apart. You, all by yourself. After what I’ve been through, I deserve better.”
“And knowing the truth now isn’t enough?”
I shook my head. “It’s too late. How could you ever expect me to trust you when you’re the biggest liar of all?”
“That’s an unfair statement. I told you—”
“I said I didn’t want lies, but that’s all this is. You twisted the truth to what you needed it to be. And if I can’t trust you, nothing else matters. Whatever this thing is between us would mean nothing because I’d always wonder if it was a lie too.”
I ran out of words as gasping sobs took over. He put his arms around me and pulled me to him. I tried to push away. Impossible as always. Instead, I cried into his chest, soaking his T-shirt as he stroked my back. My travel case fell to the floor unheeded. We stood like that for a long time, saying nothing until my shoulders stopped shaking and I ran temporarily out of tears.
“It was never all lies,” he whispered. “I just couldn’t allow you to know what I truly was. I knew you would never fully understand to what extent the Consortium owned me or to what lengths I needed to go because of that ownership.”
“What’s to understand? Are you even human?” I didn’t expect the silence that followed. He might be able to do things I didn’t understand, but I’d never fully embraced my family’s mistrust and dislike of most things tech. Yet as the silence stretched, I lifted my head to look up at him and felt a little kick in my gut. “Are you human?”
