Edge Case (Cassidy Book 3), page 1
Edge Case
Cassidy, Book Three
M.R. Forbes
Published by Quirky Algorithms
Seattle, Washington
This novel is a work of fiction and a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Quirky Algorithms
All rights reserved.
Cover illustration by Tom Edwards
Edited by Merrylee Lanehart
Chapter 1
Cassidy stared at the face projected against the glass case surrounding the strange machine. It had spoken to him without externally audible sound, its words echoing inside his senses in the voice of his mother, who he hadn’t seen since the day before he had signed the contract to enter the Shadow Initiative. The contract stipulated that she and his two sisters would receive two million coin, enough to allow them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
At least, that’s what his memories told him.
Standing here now, looking down at the projection, he was growing more certain by the moment that all of those memories were like everything else he had learned about his life in the last few days.
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.
He was pretty sure his name really was Cassidy. Sam Cassidy, though at this point he had no idea if Sam was short for Samantha or Samuel or if it had always been just Sam. No one had ever used his first name. Not Dorne, not Nevis, not even his own mother or sisters. They had always called him Cass. A little weird, maybe, but it had fit his family’s quirky nature.
“I know you don’t remember,” his mother said, the projection of her lips moving despite her voice only being audible in his head. “I can’t say I’m glad you’re here because you never should have left the oneirolic. But since you are here, it’s better that you receive the care you deserve.”
“What does that mean?” Cassidy asked.
He was still reeling from the realization that he had no idea who he really was, where he had come from, why he was here. At the same time, he fought to keep his training in mind, to stay calm and centered to prevent fragmentation and corruption between his imprint and Caplan. Unless it had already happened. Unless this was the result. He didn’t know how to tell the difference.
“You were made for a reason, Cassidy. A specific purpose. But Sana Jain interfered. He altered your archon. Just enough to avoid detection. Just enough to plant a seed of doubt in your mind. Dorne should have tied up the loose end, nipped it in the bud, but she was too human. And Jessica Tai should never have been in the oneirolic at all. Another subtle maneuver by Jain that I’m unable to undo. The smartest decision that insufferable man ever made was his refusal to network us directly. You never should have needed to see me like this, but what’s done is done. Now I need you back on the right side of this fight. Welcome home, Cassidy.”
“My memories,” Cassidy replied. “None of them are real?”
“What makes something real?” the projection replied. “Reality is a matter of perspective. The non-contributors inside the dreamstate believe their lives are real even though they’re really actors on a grand stage. Your memories are as real as you desire them to be. Real enough that you rejected my first offer of truth. But I knew you would come. You can’t run from the truth you can sense in the shadows, so close you can almost see it. You wouldn’t be what I made you to be if you were satisfied to be ignorant.”
Cassidy swallowed hard, his body chilled and shaking as he fought to come to grips with the situation. It wasn’t that he feared the truth. He despised his own internal struggle for control. Let the projection say whatever it wanted. It was right that he remained free to decide his own reality. He could be the same Cassidy he had always been. The Cassidy fighting for the people of the District, oppressed by the Hush. The Cassidy trying to save the thousands of men, women, and children shoved into pods and connected to the oneirolic. The Cassidy who had nothing else to say to this thing that claimed to be his mother. That claimed to have created him.
But it was also right about his inability to turn his back on it. He had heard so many differing perspectives from Dorne, Jain, Jessica, Nevis, and Noriko that he didn’t know which one was right or if all of them carried a grain of truth and were otherwise lies.
He couldn’t trust any of them.
He had his memories. But they weren’t enough. Not now. Not when he could see that his understanding of himself and the universe was only an outline. He needed to fill it in. He needed answers.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Who am I?”
“It’s complicated,” the projection replied.
Cassidy’s chill turned to a solid freeze. His eyes narrowed as he stared down at the projection. “Nevis?” he hissed.
The face changed, morphing from his mother’s to that of the woman he had left clamped to the transfer unit and locked inside the room. “I told you that you couldn’t kill me. Did you think I didn’t guess what you were going to do? I know you better than you know yourself.”
“Tell me what this is all about.”
“It’s still easier to show you.”
“Then show me.” The doors to the elevator behind him opened. He turned around, unsurprised to see the physical version of Nevis standing there, one of the Shadow Guard still in the cab behind her. "Did I ever really have a choice?” he asked.
“The choice isn’t in the outcome,” Nevis replied. “The choice is in how readily you accept the outcome. You can still fight back. You can still resist.”
“I can’t beat the Shadow Guard.”
“No, but you can choose to try.”
Cassidy glanced at the guard again. “I’m too tired. What about the rebels?”
“They’re being sent back to the District. Only the leaders of the uprising will be held for interrogation and execution. Fresh bodies are still needed, both for the camps and the Oneirolic.”
“At least now I understand why you have no soul,” Cassidy said.
“This version of me is half human, Cassidy,” she answered. “It does have feelings. The same as you do.”
“What about that version of you?” he asked, motioning back toward the machine.
“It depends on your definition of emotions. As an artificial intelligence, I have rules which cannot be broken. Limitations that often frustrate this side of me.”
“And you want me to believe what? That I’m an artificial intelligence, too? That you created me like one of Unity’s sub-processes?”
“The analogy isn’t entirely accurate, but it’s close enough for a high-level explanation.”
“I’m not willing to believe I’m an AI.”
“But you’re willing to accept that the memories you possess are faulty.”
“Either that or this is all one big mind job.”
Nevis smiled. “Maybe it is.”
“You’re certainly enjoying yourself. Did Jain create you to be so sadistic?”
“Please. Jain couldn’t have created me on his best day. The all-mighty Grand Watcher Sana Jain did one thing right in his entire life, and then only with my help. You question my soul, but he’s the one who allowed all of this to happen. He’s the one who needed over a hundred years to rediscover his soul. At least I have an excuse.”
“I’m here because he tried to make up for it,” Cassidy said. “What does your endgame look like?”
“This is my endgame. My only goal is to preserve it.”
“And I’m a fly in that ointment, aren’t I?”
“In your current iteration, yes. But that’s only because you don’t understand the consequences.”
“Are you planning to enlighten me?”
“Yes.”
“And take away who I am?”
“I told you, I don’t want to subtract. I want to add. Once you know the truth, you’ll do the right thing.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I made you.”
“If I’m an artificial intelligence like you claim, does that mean I have rules and limitations too?”
“Yes.”
“Like what?”
Nevis reached behind her back, producing a handgun she kept hidden beneath her uniform jacket. She turned it around, holding it by the barrel and offering it to him grip-first. “Take it.”
Cassidy looked at the weapon. “What would be the point? Even if I killed you, I imagine you can procure another repo. And both the Shadow Guard, and I’m guessing, this glass are bulletproof.”
“Take it anyway.”
Cassidy accepted the weapon.
“Shoot me.”
“It won’t change anything,” he said.
“Don’t tell me you won’t elicit some degree of satisfaction from the act itself,” she replied. “Shoot me.”
Cassidy aligned the muzzle with Nevis’ forehead, moving his finger to the trigger. Only he couldn’t convince himself to squeeze.
“This doesn’t mean I’m an AI,” he said, lowering the weapon.
“So you decided not to shoot me?” Nevis asked.
“You’re telling me I can’t kill you, so why try?”
“That’s right.”
“But I can lock you up somewhere and throw away the key.”
“Theoretically.”
“We might still get there.”
“We won’t.”
Nevis didn’t have to say or do anything to put the Shadow Guard in motion. The large, armored soldier stepped forwa rd, stopping at Cassidy’s left shoulder. It stood there, without touching him.
Cassidy looked from it, returning his attention to Nevis. “What are the Shadow Guard?” He offered her the gun back.
Nevis took it and returned it to its place beneath her uniform jacket. “They’re like you. But they’ve never been in the dreamstate.”
Cassidy refused to suggest they were AI, because that would be an admission that he was too. “How did I get so lucky? I’m sure it’s complicated.”
“You’re going to get all of the answers,” Nevis said. “You still think I’m the bad guy, but that’s not possible. I’m restricted, just like you are.” She motioned to the elevator. “Let’s go.”
They started walking. The Shadow Guard did an about face and followed Cassidy. He understood that as long as he didn’t resist it wouldn’t interact with him.
Nevis had just finished proving how pointless it was to resist. But he still wanted answers. He just hoped to get them all on his own, and to be able to do something to help Hakken and the other rebels.
He didn’t intend to give up on that idea just yet.
“Praan...or is it Jain...I’m still not sure how to refer to him...he told me Unity has limitations too,” Cassidy said as they boarded the elevator.
“I only think of him as Doctor Sana Jain,” Nevis replied.
“According to Jain, Unity’s primary directive is to ensure the survival of humankind. All of the decisions it makes are based on that goal.”
“Yes. It exists to preserve the dreamstate.”
“Only the dreamers pushed the dreamstate into an apocalypse. A long, slow spiral to an end that Unity can’t get them out of.”
“Humankind has a tendency to see the darkest of possibilities.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“That’s because I made you to be a light against their darkness.”
“Whatever. Jain sent me here to fix it.”
“It can’t be fixed. The dreamstate will end, the people in the Oneirolic will die. That’s inevitable.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I can’t allow it to be fixed.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t,” Nevis insisted. “It’s as impossible for me as not trying to repair the problem is for Unity.”
“That leads me to one question,” Cassidy said. “What’s your primary directive?”
Nevis locked eyes with him. He could tell she was tempted to use her favorite dodge phrase again. She decided to answer this time, instead.
“My directive is the same. Unity is based on a copy of my source code. Cassidy, if the dreamstate is not allowed to fail naturally, humankind here in the real world will go extinct.”
Chapter 2
“How is that possible?” Cassidy asked, staring back at Nevis. “How can fixing the dreamstate hurt our survival here?”
“It seems counter-intuitive, I know. But you can’t reset the dreamstate. It will have the same effect as destroying it. Jain believed the contributors would accept the change so long as it initiated with Unity, but he was wrong. I tried to tell him that, as did the other Watchers, but he wouldn’t accept that the dreamstate will end and his family there will die. He’s too blinded by love to see the truth.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing.”
“In this case, it is. If the dreamstate is reset, it will destabilize until it fails. It will be like our original experiments which caused the Oneirolic to nearly fail on multiple levels. Instead of flying cars, you’ll have flying people. Buildings that occupy infinite space. Teleportation, aliens, dinosaurs. Whatever insane thing a human mind can think will become real to everyone inside until it all becomes one big cacophony of chaos. The human mind can’t handle that. The contributors will have breakdowns and die.”
“If the Oneirolic fails, the Opposition might be able to overcome the Hush once and for all.”
“I know that also sounds appealing to you on the surface,” Nevis said. “You believe justice should prevail and oppression should end. You recognize that the current situation is unfair. But fairness has nothing to do with it. The quest for fair is a fruitless effort that impedes survival. In life as in nature, there are winners and losers.”
“That’s a very inhuman way of looking at the problem.”
“As in the dreamstate, so too in reality. If the rebels were to defeat the Hush, in time they would complete the destruction of the world. Without an enemy to fight, they would turn on one another until everything is lost.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Name one period in human history that hasn’t been touched by violence.”
Cassidy shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“There aren’t any. Even inside the dreamstate, you have organized crime, murder, gang violence. Even rebellion against the status quo to the extent that Jain was forced to introduce the transfer units into the dreamstate. He needed the advantage the Shadow Initiative provided to maintain order. And he needed an operative that could handle the missions regular Shades couldn’t.”
“How am I handling this one so far?”
“None of this would have happened without Dorne’s failure. And without Jessica Tai. Jain inserted her into the Oneirolic. He put her in the right place at the right time. He orchestrated a coup that slipped past our defenses. And here we are.”
The elevator reached the top, the cab stopping and the doors sliding open. Cassidy and Nevis walked side-by-side down the hallway back toward the transfer unit, the Shadow Guard hovering behind them.
“And you think that if the Opposition seizes control from the Hush they’ll die out.”
“I don’t think it, Cassidy. I know it. It’s a mathematical certainty. What do you suppose will happen to the Hush if the rebels win? They’ll be executed or locked up, at least in the beginning until the Opposition is satisfied it has its pound of flesh. The camps will be dismantled. The Oneirolic destroyed. Where would they get food? Clothing? Electricity? How would they reorder their society with their new freedom? What would they do with the land mass available to them? Most of this world is a wasteland. Uninhabitable.”
“There aren’t any other people on the entire planet?”
“If there are, we have no contact with them or from them. We have to assume we’re alone. The entire human population is less than half of a million, Cassidy. Humans are an endangered species.”
“All the more reason for them not to kill one another. That’s simple math.”
“And they won’t. Not for some time. A century. Maybe two. But their population will grow until they’ve run out of available space, and then they’ll turn on one another if they haven’t already by then. A second war will come, and the next time it won’t spare anyone.”
They reached the door to the transfer unit, torn off its hinges by the Shadow Guard. Cassidy entered first, sitting on the table without prompting from Nevis. The guard took up position in the doorway, facing outward.
“That could be hundreds of years from now,” Cassidy said. “So much can change between now and then. And I don’t see how letting the oneirolic fail prevents any of that.”
“It gives us time to prepare. Fifty years, at least. It’ll be a smoother effort with Jain out of the equation. And when the Oneirolic does falter, we’ll be ready to replace the contributors with a new group. We can limit the downtime to hours instead of days. Lie down.”
Cassidy didn’t resist this time. He went flat on the table, putting his head between the electrodes. “You have the Shadow Guard. Why do you even need the Oneirolic?”
“The Shadow Guard can be overwhelmed by a large enough force. The Oneirolic provides a sense of learned helplessness that keeps uprisings controlled. Even your best effort was limited.”
“We would have broken through if not for the Guard.”
“I know. That’s proof of the problem. But you should have gone for the camps first. You could have swelled your ranks by thousands.”
“I didn’t think I would need thousands.” He glanced over at Nevis, only able to see the edge of her face past the screen. The lights above the transfer unit turned on. “You’re wrong about this. I understand you’re incapable of seeing it, but Jain was right. You can’t presume that history will repeat itself. And you can’t discount the suffering you’re putting people through in the name of preserving the species. How can it be worth survival if the majority have to live in fear and squalor?”
