An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (22 page)

“Thank you.”

“You can leave us now,” she off-handedly commanded the other three, not taking her eyes off the tiny bather.

“But Sonya
,
if he or the cat is bugged…”

“We
’
ll move shortly
.
The
cage
should buy us at least a few minutes
.
Leave us!” 

“Yes, Sonya,” Linc offered meekly, gathering Carl and Suet by eye before drifting out through a door
.
Tony caught tiny noises just outside the door, placing her three compatriots with the accuracy of a life detector
.
Sonya flowed as if boneless down into a lotus position on the floor next to the tiny kitten
.
Her fingers played over the
cat’s
spine
,
eliciting closed eyes and deep rumblings.

“I don’t think
we’ve
been properly introduced
.
My name is Sonya.”

“Uh, Tony
.
Tony Sammis.”

“What can I do for you?” Sonya asked with a voice that combined the innocence of a child and the world weariness of a veteran of several wars
.
She gently stroked Cinnamon.

“Funny, now that I’m here, I’m not sure
.”
Tony looked at Sonya for some sign
.
She never took her eyes off his cat
.
“I guess I
’d
say my life is over and I’m looking for a new one
.
An acquaintance gave me this
.”
Tony held up his hand to show the writing across his hand by a dying woman
.
This drew Sonya’s eyes
.

“Jasmine’s handwriting
.
She has the sight of people
.
I’ve never known her to be hasty or wrong in her judgment.”

“I can’t speak to that
.
You knew she was dying?”

“Dead, now
.
She died six hours ago
.
And yes, I knew
.
Her liver burned under the weight of a corporate poison
.
As an employee, they used her as an experimental animal without her consent
.
Once she learned of this, she used the fire and death in her belly against the corporate machine.”

“Sounds like what happened to me
.
I’m not
exactly
waiting to die,
but they’ve
taken everything from me
.
My chance of fighting what they’ve done is effectively zero. I have no job prospects above garbage sorter. I haven’t the skills nor enough cash to out
-
migrate.
I might have to live on welfare and live in a commune or worse, a relocation camp, or even worse on ground level
.
No health care and recycled food to eat
.”
Tony shuddered
.

Sonya
gently shook her head
.
“Superficial reasons to
join us terrorists, or as we style ourselves, freedom fighters
.
You
sh
ould out-migrate or get another job.”

Tony sighed.
“
It’s not just that.
I’ll be honest
.
I used to be everything you despised.
I followed all the lines.
‘
Get it while the getting is good.’
‘
Do unto others before they do unto you.’
‘
He did what everyone else did, he just got caught.’
‘
If I’m quiet, maybe they won’t notice what I’m doing.’
All the
signs of the time
s
.
They
were
my watchwords
.
Th
ey
aren’t
what I believe in anymore.
”

Sitting up
, Tony pressed home his point
.
“I don’t like any of
my
choices
if for no other reason
than
I don’t want my old life back
.
F
or quite a long time now I’ve believed that something was wrong with my life, or maybe the lives of everyone everywhere
.
Someone once said
,
‘Might for right!’ For some reason
it lit a fire in my heart
that’s only
just now starting to burn with a fury.”

“King Arthur, I believe, Mr. Sammis.”

“
U
h, yeah.”

“Any start is a good start
,
but tell me, h
ow would you use the fire in your heart
?
Don’t answer, just think
.

“Come back now, Linc,” she said with
no increase in volume
.
The threesome appeared quickly
enough
to assure Tony they’d been listening
.
“We must process him quickly
.
Also
,
send an emergency communiqué through the cells that the health club is compromised.

“Until I see you again, Mr. Sammis,” she
concluded,
taking his hand in hers
.
Despite her warmth of personality, her hands felt like un
powered
prosthetics
.
She shook
his hand firmly
and turned to leave
at
an
unhurried speed
.

Linc directed
Tony
through another door that led to a loading doc
k
, shrouded to the outside by curtains of stained plastic sheets
.
The back of a closed truck stood open and as one they hustled inside
.
Tony almost backed out
,
as
the
rear section
held a hanging cage
of metal straps in
the shape of a human body
,
plus
a rack full of cattle-prods and other less savory devices with sharp edges
.
The trio closed
off his one escape
route
by pulling the door down
.
W
ithout a beat the truck pulled away from the loading dock.

“In here,” Linc said, motioning him
toward the cage
.

“
U
h, why?” Tony balked.

“Noobs
.
Did you ever think your implants might just do more than they tell you
?
We have to neutralize them before you give all of us away.”

“
Uhhh…
”
Tony continued to hesitate.

“Freaking corpie, either get in or we boot your ass out the back of the truck
,
and you can find out what happens when you fall two hundred meters to ground level
.
I don’t know
what’ll
get you first, the Nils or the bugs
.”

Tony eyed
a
cage
that
curved just where a person curves and wore a
wig
of wires dangling
from
strategic points
.
The wire-hair twisted down into a single braid that disappeared into the back of a
moderate computer array.

“Will it hurt
?”

“
Depends on what they got inside you
,” Linc said,
“bu
t don’t worry, we’ll patch you up better than new
.
No
w
get in the bleeding cage!”
He
motion
ed
with a gun
for emphasis
.

By we
dging his arms down to his side,
Tony could just squeeze into the contraption
.
Linc brought the cage door around
,
closing him in tight
.
The latch didn’t
have a
lock
,
but was situated well away from Tony’s hands
.

As the cage faced
the wrong way
,
he couldn’t see anything
except
a wall with dubious stains and markings.

“Everyone clear
.
Fire one
!
”
Linc cried out
.
A very mild electric shock wandered across
Tony’s
body
,
feeling more like a tickle than anything painful
.
“I have three implants
.
Start with the scalp
.”
Some metal device poked into his hair, scratching his scalp above his right ear
.
“
Seven centimeters
back and
two down
.”
The probe moved accordingly
.
“Right there
.
Clear
!
Fire two!” 

E
xpecting the tickle once again, Tony remained calm
.
Instead
,
hi
s brain
revolted at
a
sensation like acid filling his skull
.
H
is body convulsed
uncontrollabl
y
within the constraining chamber
.
He must
’ve
blacked out because next thing he knew he only felt something wet and viscous slowly dripping down both of his cheeks
.
One of the wet trails fell into his mouth and he tasted the salt of his own tears
.
He felt nothing else at all
.
No sensation of
limb or self
.

“Help,” he barely managed to croak out.

“Shut up
,” Linc snapped.

“
Next
.
R
ight shoulder, front
.”
This time he saw
the probe as Suet positioned a 2 meter-
long pike with a blunted metal
tip
against his flesh
,
bracing it on the floor
.
“Six centimeters down
.
Perfect
.
Clear
!
Fire three!” The shoulder he couldn’t feel now flew into a rage of hot, stabbing pains
.
With force he didn’t know he had, his arm tried to break
free of the cage
.
Tony
experienced, not quite heard, the sound of his humerus breaking beneath his bicep
.
The
agony
mu
ted the other
pain
s
spread through his body
.
The cry
he let out wasn’t conscious
.

“
Left wrist
.”
Tears rolled freely as he watched the sharp pole move down to the other side
.
Tony could barely feel it press against the flesh
.
“Good enough
.
Clear
!
Fire four!” Unlike the pain from the previous two attempts, his hand went completely numb
from mid-
forearm down
.
“No reaction
.
Increasing charge
.
Fire five!” Again
,
Tony thankfully felt nothing
.

“
OK
, it’s gotta come off
.
All of it.”

Tony took one look at the saws-all in Carl’s
thick
hands and fainted.

* * *
 

With only one door and no windows
in the cell
, Tony paced around the eight
-
by
-
eight cell
in boredom
.
He once again touched his new hand just to reassure himself
it still existed
.
He never missed
the old one
,
and the new one seemed identical in every way
.
He
’d
lost consciousness
before its removal and awoke after its replacement
.
No discomfort from either shoulder or head
lingered
.
Linc had been as good as his word
.