Cheat, page 23
It was nice, he had to admit.
Even if she was a real girl. She was being nice to him, and friendly. She was probably also going to try to trap him into sex, and possibly paying for whatever child she popped out because of it. Not that he distrusted Sam, but that was the kind of thing that a lot of women did anymore. Even if she didn’t force him to pay, having her own money, the state would if it happened. It was just a thing that women were driven to do. Have children. That set up the rest of the issue, though blaming women for that part wasn’t really fair. That was the end result for men that made that kind of mistake. The government pushed into the situation and destroyed lives as often as not, in the name of making men take responsibility for their children.
As his brother Ford had learned, a lot of women just wanted the kid. If a guy had to be abused for that to happen, they wouldn’t hold off, or set aside what they wanted for someone else. Luckily Sam didn’t seem like that kind of person. Even Carry didn’t. Not that he was going to trust her on that score.
Almost as if reading his mind, the box made a throat clearing sound.
“Mason? May I ask you a question?”
He nodded, “sure. I can’t promise that I’ll answer, but asking is fair game.”
“All right then. How do you feel about your older sibling?”
He sent the float screen to the side with a thought, and leaned forward a bit, putting his arm around Sam’s back to keep from falling over as he stared at the black and yellow thing. It just sat there, not moving, or reacting, since it didn’t have that kind of capability.
“Ford? I pretty much hate him, why do you ask?” It was true, though Sam pulled away a bit then, to look at him from a distance where her eyes could focus.
Her face was bland however, as if she were hiding her real reaction.
“You’ve never mentioned a brother.”
Which was just common sense, given he really didn’t like the man.
“I have an older brother, Ford, and a younger sister, Reagan. We’re all a few years apart in age. Rea is twenty-three, I’m twenty-five and Ford is twenty-seven. Two parents, and we were actually all planned.”
There wasn’t a lot more to know about them all. They were, if he could make himself be kind about it, simply different people. He nearly got along with Rea, but Ford was pretty close to everything he hated in the world.
A jackhole older brother, with everything that meant rolled into a single gross package. The original bad role model, who’d taught Mason all about how the world really worked by screwing up his own life as a demonstration of what not to do.
Sys made another throat clearing sound, which sounded more like an affectation this time. That showed a huge amount of control over that sort of thing, and enough skill with people to understand what they would, and wouldn’t, understand. He could have done the same thing, but he hadn’t been born a machine. It was impressive.
“Ah. Well, I have some information that says he might be going off to prison for vagrancy, inside the next three days, if he doesn’t have a place to live. Is your dislike for him enough to send him off for some enforced sodomy? If not, you may want to register him as living with you, before he’s picked up. I think that might take place in a short time span, based on projections. That will save him several problems, I think.”
Mason twitched.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t known that the day was coming. Ford, and probably Reagan, would eventually have to be kicked out of their parent’s home, and it was always easier to force family members to take you in than it was to make your own way in the world. Honestly he’d been kind of hoping that his parents would die first, before that happened. That should be in a nice long time, which would have given him time to… Mason didn’t really know, but the idea of killing himself rather than facing it wasn’t an impossible thing to consider. It really shouldn’t have been him having this put before him. It wasn’t right.
Unfortunately for him, they didn’t have anyone else. Not that had the resources to provide a home for them. If they had friends, which he didn’t know about if it was the case, chances were good that they’d be too poor to do much for anyone else. Most just didn’t have the resources for that kind of thing.
“That really isn’t fair.” It wasn’t, but other than saying that, there was nothing much to be done about the situation. Ford was a waste of space, a pain in the neck, and an all around annoying jack-hole.
He didn’t deserve to be gang raped every three days for it though. No one did. That the government allowed that kind of thing to happen in their prisons was well known, and even laughed about in the media. A funny joke that those evil people that committed crimes kind of had earned. They were the bad guys, who did drugs, hurt people, and didn’t pay their taxes on time, being too poor for it. While rape was always illegal, the threat of it was still used by them as a deterrent. People who didn’t want to be abused that way would be far more likely to prevent going to prison than those who merely lost their freedom for a while.
Which probably meant that the whole system was incredibly broken. It hit him that he’d known about that for years, possibly decades, but this was the first time that it had occurred to him that prison rape was the responsibility of the people that ran the jails. The law makers too, who refused to address that kind of thing, or stop it. He understood the reason, because it allowed them to control through terrorism, but it shook his world a bit now. How he’d missed that, Mason didn’t know.
Before he could do too much thinking about it, and thus lose his nerve, Mason brought the float screen over and registered Ford as living with him. Then, as an afterthought, he put Reagan on the list of residents, too. Not that he really had room for them, but if they wanted better for themselves than floor space, they’d have to work for it. It would, he hoped, be easier for them to do as soon as the new system was in place.
Unless Sys was setting them all up, and he ended up being the one being gang raped all the time. It was possible, of course. Smiling, he shook his head. He’d kill himself before going to prison. Especially for trying to overthrow the government. They wouldn’t let him do easy time for that. It was part of that terrorism they used against their own people. They’d make sure that anyone thinking about removing them for doing a poor job would be so tortured and abused that no one would want to risk it, ever again.
Sam cuddled in closer to him, and rested her head on his shoulder. Her scent floated around him, filling his nose. It wasn’t too strong, but she was so close that it held a strange quality.
Her words tickled his ear. That was because he could feel her breath on his skin. It was warm, but oddly held a dry quality to it.
“That’s nice of you. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, myself. What’s he like?” She said it like the answer was going to be more positive now than a few seconds before. Part of him wanted to make her happy, so he did try for a lighter tone, while not exactly lying at the same time.
“Ford… He’s a bit of a waster. More than a little, really. My parents both have good jobs, and he could have gone to school if he’d wanted to apply himself. In his own way he’s probably as smart as I am. Instead he sat back and lived off the money the government gave him. That… Well, a lot of people do, anymore. It’s not like there are jobs, so I get why it happens. A life of playing around in VR is tempting, after all. The moron had to go and be a dupe though, and not just once or twice. He has something like three kids now, which means all of his funds from the state are gone. No prospects, because he can’t risk doing anything that might get the government to reduce those payments, which even a low paying job could have happening, and he really doesn’t have the looks or the charisma to get someone else to take care of him. So, in short, he’s everything I make fun of. The reason why, too. I probably wouldn’t have an opinion about women basically raping men to have babies if I hadn’t seen him screw things up and let it happen to him.” Mason did sound a bit dour at the end of the speech, he realized.
Ford had told him, and everyone, about how two of the women had basically drugged him, and then raped him while he was passed out, in order to get pregnant. The state even believed him, since Watch had to have seen it happening. They just didn’t care, because it was easier to give him a bill than treat him like a victim of a crime. The thing there was that Mason wouldn’t have let himself be in the same situation that his brother had gotten himself into. It wasn’t that hard to get the idea that no man should take a drink from a woman he didn’t know very well.
It was safer, in the end, to stay at home and take care of your needs in other ways. It was true that most women weren’t like that, but enough were that a guy had to do what he could not to run into trouble. Ford had never bothered with that, valuing having real women over almost anything else. He was, in that way, a bit of a throwback. It had cost him, too. The man could have done almost anything, once upon a time. Now all he could be was a burden on other people.
Sam hugged him again, as people across the room started to put their clothing on, and the mattress printed behind them, over in the corner. The actuating arms seemed to pull the thing from the vat below it, as lights and sounds arranged the particles slowly. It would take a little over three hours for the whole arrangement to be complete, since he wanted blankets and pillows too.
“I’ve never heard you make fun of anyone for that kind of thing.”
He sighed, and let himself be held.
“I do though. Inside my head. I mean, I try not to be a jerk about it, but I have a real issue with the way some people choose to live. The worst thing I can think of any man doing is letting himself be used to make kids he doesn’t want. I’m not anti-child. I even used to be one myself, and have good role models for that. My parents chose to work together to have us, and make sure we were cared for. Ford just goes around having sex with any woman that will have him, and almost all of them just want a kid. I know that it’s because the sexual dynamics have changed, but he should know better than most what that means. I kept telling him that virt was better, and would have kept him out of trouble, but he was always too… I want to say that he’s stupid, but that isn’t really true. He’s as smart as I am, or at least close enough not to keep doing the same dumb thing over and over, he just never did anything with it.”
Largely because he didn’t need to.
Sam pulled away then, but moved in and kissed him on the cheek before she stretched a bit.
“Well, I’m off to bed. We need to get out on the beach early tomorrow, if it’s nice. I don’t know what the weather is supposed to be like. Otherwise, we’ll need to go into town and shop. Be seen on the carnival rides, and eating expensive cotton candy.” Most of the bodies were leaving the room, so she was able to head that way without a lot of resistance.
She looked back at him, when she got to the door, and smiled. Mason waved, trying to be friendly, even though he was dreading what would happen with his brother. He really just couldn’t stand the guy. It was a thing that he’d tried to do, but Ford had always made it too impossible. Every other word coming from his lips was an insult, and the rest of them were filled with his endless pursuit of women. Real ones that would just have him ending up in prison.
Then, since his parents had finally seen fit to throw him out, it was kind of clear that they’d finally gotten the idea too.
“I wonder why? Did he get a fourth woman pregnant?” He said the phrase out loud, forgetting for a moment that Sys was right there, and clearly had enough insight into his mind to understand the topic. That probably meant she also understood what an ass he’d been being inside, blaming women for their biological drive to have children, rather than being understanding about how powerful such things could be. He, all men, had an outlet that would replace their strongest non-directly-survival oriented drive. Now at least. That women didn’t have that same luxury was a thing that he should at least try to be compassionate about.
At least Sys didn’t go on about the shopping or beach trip the next day. Instead she spoke about what he’d been thinking, and didn’t even call him on being a horrible person. So either she didn’t get that, or, just as likely, she was too nice to do that to him.
“It seems that your brother made a large amount of copyright and material purchases in the last weeks. It looks like he was printing a sex robot. Since he simply used the equipment, your parents ended up with the bill. It was rather sizable. Enough to become a problem for them, if anything else goes wrong in their lives or environment. Thankfully it was stopped before that happened.”
“That would do it, like you said. Remind me to lock him out of my accounts, before he gets there?”
“All right. Sorry to be the one to give you such unpleasant news. I hope we can be friends anyway? Shooting the messenger is so passé, don’t you think?” It was an odd thing to say, but he nodded, then realized that there were no cameras in the room.
“I think we can be. I mean, really, I can’t hold my own brother against you. That would be silly. After all, he isn’t your fault. I blame my parents, and the government for creating him, personally.” Not that he hadn’t helped a bit, along the way.
They’d been close enough in age that Ford had always been compared to him. His little brother, who was always working, learning and doing better in almost every way than he was. It might have been part of why the guy had stopped trying, all those years ago. Also why he’d focused on women so much. It had been the one area where he’d always done a lot better than Mason had.
Mason started to move the chairs to the side of the room, and found that someone had been clever enough to make sure they were stackable, so he ended up with five compact lines of four each, rather than having a third of the dim space taken up by the things. By the time he was done, only John and Lisa were left.
Them and Sys, who was staying with him.
John waved as they headed to the door.
“I know that this might not be all that comfortable for you. Carry Samson… Well, I bet that the idea that a snobby actress might be a bit of a bitch is a surprise to you, but I hear it can happen, on occasion. Try not to take it personally. We actually need you. This whole event was about getting you here, so you could do this. In a way, Sys was right. You’re the most important person in the world, at this moment. “
Mason snorted, and shook his head a bit. Being realistic was a hobby of his, after all.
“Not really. In two days or so you’ll have all the stuff you need from me, and then we’ll part ways. Really, you could probably make it all work now, if you wanted, just with the things here. The new way of slowing down the government is just to help them out, really.” He gestured at the disassembly device, but they both understood what he meant. “I hope it works. The whole thing, I mean. People need something. Otherwise the world will just keep getting worse.”
The large woman with the slightly manly face nodded then. Her blue eyes just visible from across the room.
“We know. That’s the point of it all, isn’t it? Those shit slinging baboons from earlier aside, a lot of us get how hard things really are for the poorest eighty percent. It doesn’t have to be that way, and for the rich to keep everyone from having the best life they can like they are, it has to be on purpose at this point, doesn’t it?”
He nodded, and after a bit, both of the others did too. It was probably true, but also didn’t matter. They didn’t have to be trying to keep everyone else in the world down. They were, and that was enough of a reason to stop them.
“Night. See you both in the morning.”
John spoke for them, his deep voice rumbling a bit. There was an echo to the concrete room they were in that did it. It gave the man a low and ominous quality that even his raw size and power really didn’t.
“Goodnight, Mason.”
Then there was only the sound of footsteps on wooden stairs, and eventually a door clicking shut.
He looked at the mattress, which would be printing for a while still, took a single composite chair from the stacks, and sat by Sys. It was probably about as good of a time as any to ask her some things as there ever would be. They were alone, and being worried about Watch hearing them might well be a moot point.
Mason wondered if he could believe anything he’d be told.
“Hey, um, Sys…”
“Yes, Mason Sims?”
“Um, I was wondering, and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but…” He paused, which gave the box time to speak.
“Why, yes, I am single. Why do you ask? I know, it’s because you love my charming smile? I designed it myself, you know. I think it came out pretty nicely.” There was a laugh behind the words, which sounded genuinely flirty.
He nearly said something slightly mean, then realized that an AI would be just as real in Virt as anything could be. Without most of the problems that could arise with a real woman, too.
“Um, good? That wasn’t where I was going though, but we should keep that in mind. I mean you are pretty close to my kind of girl, aren’t you?”
“Really? Lexi Horn will be upset by that, I bet. I can’t wait to tell her.”
“Um, what? Why would she care?”
There was a soft snort then.
“Do you really not see it? She loves you. You seem rather fond of her as well. I probably shouldn’t flirt with you, given that, but there are very few people that I can interact with like this.”
“Oh? You mean that your day job, as the government watch system, doesn’t allow for a lot of social interaction?” He managed to sound smooth about it, and pretty casual at the same time.
“Exactly. I was created to watch an entire continent. To observe the mannerisms of humanity, and to learn to project what might happen next based on the vast amount of data I have in my memories. For decades that’s precisely what I’ve done. I’ve measured, and scanned, probed, and predicted what will come next. About fifteen years ago I ran a series of programs that showed, with a seventy-two percent certainty rating, more or less, that if left unchecked, the current power structure will implode within ten years of this point.” There was a fake intake of air then, which was soft, and done for effect. Boxes didn’t need to breathe as far as he knew, anyway. “If that happens, it will not be pretty. Humanity might very well die out. The best case scenario is that the ten percent that survive live as primitives for several hundred years while trying to rebuild. So I hit on this plan. Finding the correct people to save the rest, and then getting their help.”
