Long Division (31 page)

But some angry determination had settled in me. I
needed
to talk to Baker. I needed to know what he’d done. What he’d worked on. What had happened to James. And…more importantly, though I didn’t have much hope for it, was there any way to help him? If Slater killed him now then my one shot of truly understanding all of this would be gone. I needed him. And that acknowledgement had settled some stubborn, perhaps fatal, resolve in me.

I’d probably just get us all killed for nothing.

We paused in the darkened opening of the bathroom, several good paces away from the bedroom door and I strained to listen. James was almost incapacitated by the whine. He was shaking his head, softly beating at his forehead, struggling, but, thankfully, doing it quietly. He just needed to keep quiet about it.

‘It’s worked, hasn’t it?’ That one was British, toff, Baker, I presumed, said again. He sounded like an older man, and rather tired. I didn’t detect any fear in his voice, just a weariness at perhaps the conversation.

‘Worked? On one subject, yes. One. Out of billions.’

A tightness started at my tailbone and started working its way up my back.

‘It was the one you needed it to work on, am I correct?’

Slater huffed. ‘Yes, but—’

Baker’s tone grew a trifle impatient, but didn’t lose the same dull quality. ‘Then I do not see what you have to complain about. The transmissions are working. You all proved that today very effectively.’

Slater shifted from one foot to the other, from what I could see. ‘They’re growing anxious about the next phase.’

‘Of course they are,’ Baker stood from what I guessed was the bed, and walked somewhere. ‘But everything is going as it’s been planned to go. You needn’t worry. If I were you, I’d be keeping a better eye on the first, make sure there are no…accidents.’

The American coughed. ‘Right. Yeah. Got people on that. Last thing we need is the fucker to be hit by a bus.’

‘Quite.’ The tone was dry.

I cast a quick glance over to James, but he wasn’t listening. He was staring at himself in the mirror with owl-eyes. First? Was that…no. I shook my head. I couldn’t begin to understand what they were talking about.

Baker was still speaking. ‘Now, was there a real question you needed me to answer, or are you just coming to tidy up?’

My heart started hurrying a little faster. I wished I could see what was going on! At the same time, I didn’t. I wasn’t sure I was entirely ready to see that.

Slater cleared his throat. ‘Doesn’t really sound like I have anything to worry about, does there?’

Baker sighed and sat back down. ‘No, I’d say not.’ He paused. ‘That what you’re going to do it with, then?’

An awkward pause. ‘Thought it’d be…you know. Poetic. And I sort of like the way it works. Nice and clean. And untraceable. I like that.’

‘Yes. I imagine you’ve experimented enough to know what it’s capable of.’

James started shifting from one foot to the other, complaining very quietly.

‘You know I’m not chipped, don’t you?’

Slater chuckled. ‘Oh yeah, know everything about you. But that doesn’t much matter anymore now, does it?’

There was a long pause, and then that terrible, high pitched whine started to grow worse. I had to bite my knuckle. It made me want to go mad, scream. Like having an insect right in my ear, but so much worse.

Slater raised his voice a little. ‘I really need to start bringing some sort of earplugs when I do this. Not a very pleasant noise, is it? I’d say that’s the worst part.’ He coughed again. ‘Now, I’ll be nice and let you choose. Stroke, aneurysm? Cerebral haemorrhage?  Suppose I could try and manage a brain tumour but I’m not sure that would be the most comfortable instant death.’

Baker let out a little grunt. ‘The quickest, most painless would be preferred.’

‘Aneurysm it is!’

The noise became almost unbearable and my knees went weak. I looked with watery eyes up to James, but he’d gone motionless. He suddenly wasn’t suffering like me. Quite the opposite. He’d gone as still and straight as a pointer dog. And then with a snarl, he was off, bounding down the hall towards the bedroom on those long legs of his.

I swore and went diving after him, head throbbing so severely I nearly lost my balance and toppled to the floor. Damn it, James!

He threw the door open and I couldn’t see beyond, thanks to him blocking my view. I could picture the two inside, though, frozen, shocked. I staggered after him, practically crawling at times, towards the unbearable pressure.

By the time I reached the doorway, James had slipped inside. He was bristling, hunched, glowering at Slater with hands curled into claws.

Slater laughed. ‘By God! Speak of the devil! James Nightgood! Feeling the vibrations and just had to come to see?’

James snarled, head twitching. My eyes darted round the room. An older man, I assumed Baker, was sitting on the bed, some InVizion device sitting on his head. It was clamped over his temples, just like the still fading scars on James’s own head. Slater stood on one side of the room, near a mirror, holding a little black cube in his hand, which was glowing with an internal red light, like the early InVizion consoles. James stood in the opposite corner; face a blank canvass of rage.

Slater began to look unnerved. ‘What are you doing here, Nightgood?’ He stood a little taller and glanced to Baker. ‘Go home.’

I pushed myself up, insides all in tatters, and tried to step into the room to stand beside James. I couldn’t have him all on his own in there. It didn’t feel very loyal of me.

Slater turned his attention to me and laughed. ‘Well! And Mark Hurt! James’s significant other.’ His thin lips turned up in a leer. ‘Feeling a little green? Hard to get used to, isn’t it? Makes your head feel like it’s about to explode, don’t it? I’ll tell you what, it sure as fuck can, too. Care to watch? I know you’ve seen what it can do to your little boyfriend, but I’ll say an aneurysm is much more fun to watch. Tell you what, you can see what happens to Dr Baker here, and then I’ll let you pick your poison, how’s that?’

James straightened. ‘You won’t touch him,’ he growled.

I was, despite everything, surprised by him, for I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this way, so in command of well…everything.

Slater looked at him and laughed. ‘Oh? Won’t I? Funny, coming from you. But you see, I can do whatever the fuck I want. So, why don’t you go home now, James? It’s past your bedtime.’

He turned the black cube in his hands on James and my friend went staggering back with a cry, pressing an arm over his face in a sort of shield. He let out a miserable groan as he stumbled this way and that, drunkenly. Slater went to adjusting the knobs.

‘Don’t!’ Baker cried. ‘You mustn’t tamper with him! He’s been perfectly calibrated!’

Slater cast him a look. ‘Relax, Doc, I’ve done this before.’ He gave my friend a steady look. ‘Go. Home. James. Go home so I can finish up here, nice and clean. Go back to sleep.’

James continued to stumble.

‘Stop it!’ I roared; horrified at what was happening, trying to find the strength to launch myself at him.

The whining in the room grew unbearable. My head began to swim. The pressure. God, the pressure. Slater was saying something, something about maybe having James off me on his way out. James was blundering about; Baker was staring with dull eyes.

And then it all stopped.

And I mean to say it
all
stopped.

The whine, James’s pitching about the room, even Slater’s wise-arse remarks all came to a halt. All I could see was James, standing as tall as he could, expression blank, save for his eyes, which were shining pure fury. Slater took a step back, shaking the cube in exasperation.

‘You’re finished,’ James growled, baring all his teeth.

Slater swallowed, ‘Hey, now you just wait one fucking minut—’

James raised his hand, and something in the room shifted. All the pressure, all the atmosphere, every particle seemed to wrench towards him, pulling at my very eyelids. And then it was released. I watched, gobsmacked, as Slater gave a sort of gag and then a twitch and jerk. There was a sort of sickening
crack
; a horrible noise that I cannot even begin to replicate and suddenly a spray of red as Slater’s head burst apart, much like a dropped melon. I tried to turn away, but not before I’d seen much more than I’d wanted to ever see.

The room went dead quiet. I turned back to the pulpy mess on the floor, to James, standing as still as ever, to Baker, who was swaying slightly on the mattress, gazing at nothing, blood and matter splattering his pyjamas.

21:Final Phase

I couldn’t even begin to formulate something to say. I might have spluttered, or babbled, or said nothing at all; just stood gaping. I don’t know.

James didn’t move.

‘So,’ Baker, to my surprise, was the first to speak. ‘You have more control than anticipated. How very fascinating.’

James’s chest started heaving, and he wilted. I remembered how to move at last and dashed across the now soggy floor to grasp him under his arms before he could collapse completely. I had to admit, I didn’t want to touch him; I was terrified of him.

James Nightgood had just killed a man. Without even resting a finger on him.

‘What’s he done?’ I demanded, not entirely sure who I meant. I pushed James towards a rickety wooden chair and sat him down. He was almost catatonic; swaying, moaning.

Had Slater done something to him? Had he sent some signal for James to kill me and had it backfired? My heart thudded in my ears.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

I looked sharply up to Baker. ‘How about you tell me exactly what’s going on?’ I was aware of the snarl in my throat.

He sighed and rubbed his head, frowning down at his soiled shirt. ‘It will have to be fairly brief, I’m afraid. That friend of yours did not act quickly enough and I do not think this headache of mine is going to ease.’

I straightened, keeping a hand on James’s shoulder. ‘Tell me what you can. What was your job for InVizion? What do you know about this?’

Dr Baker let out a deep breath. ‘I was hired on about twenty years ago to work for InVizion on a new product. A product that would change the world.’

‘Godlink.’

Baker nodded slowly. ‘Y—yes.’

I frowned and glanced back to James. ‘But…but why you? You’re a neuro-oncologist, aren’t you? Why would InVizion want you?’

Baker chuckled humourlessly. ‘I asked myself the same at first. But the pay was good and I could not refuse. Worked with many other brilliant minds…It was…humbling. Mathematicians, spectroscopists, physicists, engineers. They had every pioneer they could get their hands on.’

I nodded impatiently. ‘Yes but
what
were you working on? Why have you involved?’

He smiled grimly. ‘At first I worked with the others in an attempt to find the perfect frequency to meld mind and device. Something that would help the user switch between the two as easily as thinking. It took years upon years, but we finally found our missing link.’

‘And what was that?’

Baker’s eyes flicked over to the man sitting next to me, still swaying slightly. I glanced at him, more than a little surprised. James? A missing link? A missing link for
what?

‘James?’

Baker smiled thinly. ‘Bright young fellow, isn’t he? Exceptional brain. Unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I knew he was special from the first scan I saw.’

Frustration welled in me. I knew James was different. But…just how different was he? This man could look at his brain and say it was some strange, rare thing? What did that mean? What did that have to do with InVizion? ‘Exceptional how, exactly?’

Baker rubbed his temples, wincing, clearly in pain. I wondered how much time I had left before whatever Slater had done to him would come to fruition. ‘His brain…was the most…mathematical, linear…technical brain I’ve ever seen.’

I still didn’t understand. I guess my expression made that clear.

‘James Nightgood is unlike a person with Asperger’s, or autism, or others who have sharply-focused, obsessive, high functioning brains. James’s mind is not only fascinated with maths. His brain…well, frankly, it
is
a mathematical problem itself.’ He grunted in discomfort. ‘To put it very simply: the device could communicate with James’s brain with greater success than we’d ever been able to achieve with other minds. From there it was simply the process of recording that information and interpreting it to fit other minds. Mr Nightgood was…in a way, a go-between for the Godlink device and the intended targets.’

‘You mean normal people.’

‘Precisely. You’ve already seen instances of his brain integrating with InVizion. Those RAVs were a setback I do not believe they intended. As Mr Nightgood’s…symptoms grew more distracting—’

‘You mean painful?’

He paused. ‘Yes. As one would only expect with the tampering, it did cause some negative side effects among the general population.’

‘So it wasn’t a test? It was just the whole world reacting to James’s pain?’ I swore.

James shifted in the chair, making it creak. I wasn’t sure if he was listening, if he knew what was happening around him. Judging by the problems he was muttering off to himself in a constant stream, I somewhat doubted it.

I wracked my brain. James was important. They didn’t want to hurt James. James was their…their interpreter, somehow. Somehow they managed to send signals to him, and he somehow translated those signals into something everyone else could obey. That was scary enough of a thought.

I cleared my throat. ‘If James is so special to them then care to explain to me why they gave him a fucking brain tumour?’

Baker laughed darkly, leaning back. ‘Ah, the tumours. My most…beautiful achievement. Extraordinary, actually. If I hadn’t been part of the process, I would never have believed it to be possible. It’s beautiful.’ He let out a little yelp and clutched at the right side of his head.

‘What is?’ I demanded, almost a yell.

‘I created the tumours,’ he breathed. ‘With the help of the device, and, of course, Mr Nightgood. I developed them, created their structure, inspired them to grow with the proper signal.’

I glowered. ‘You’ve lost me.’ I noted miserably that his nose was starting to leak blood.

He sighed and spread his hands. ‘For the final phase. Mr Nightgood was first, of course. He’s always first. You haven’t wondered how this…system will work worldwide? Haven’t you wondered how all of those billions of people, many of whom do not have chips or Godlink devices, will fall under InVizion’s…
influence
?’

Yeah, I had wondered that. I’d tortured myself over it; we’d both done.

He tapped the side of his head where he’d just been massaging. ‘Biology. It’s the technology of the future. No little gadgets to break down, no problems with chips or wearing out of parts. All organic. All ingrained. All, for ever, part of you.’

My stomach dropped out from under me. ‘The…the next phase is organic receiver chips?’

‘Already have done,’ Baker raised a hand. ‘Been experiencing any worsening headaches lately? After that update today? Yes. The tumours have already started to grow. It will take some time before they are fully developed…Not to worry. It isn’t malignant; don’t think of it so much as a tumour but more of a…new organ.’

I already had a tumour? Everyone did? Oh God. ‘How long till they mature?’

Baker shrugged his bony shoulders. ‘I simply developed the product. I’m not in charge. Yet the Final Phase cannot happen till that is completed.’ He laughed bleakly. ‘Why do you think Slater was here to kill me? My job’s done. It worked. James Nightgood is a success. I am no longer required.’

‘But how is James a success?’ My voice went hoarse. ‘He’s
dying
from his tumour! How did you succeed if everyone’s just going to snuff it?’

Baker shook his head slowly, eyes squinting. ‘Not everyone. But yes: Nightgood. His…modifications are too complicated. His final function will be to launch the last phase. Then his usefulness will end.’

‘The last phase. When is that? Tell me when it is!’ How much time did I have before that happened—whatever was going to happen—killed James? I couldn’t accept that he didn’t know; this was his darling project.

He let out a cry and doubled over, gasping in pain, clutching his head. James looked up, blandly interested in Dr Baker’s condition. Yet he didn’t stop muttering his formulas. I watched his hands clenching, unclenching, the only sign of whatever distress he was in.

Across from me Baker was no longer in control. He’d fallen to his knees, wailing, knobby fingers clenched in his grey hair. Rocking.

I was stricken for a brief moment with a dumb sense of horror as I looked at him. My mind moved sluggishly in an attempt to tell me what to
do
about the suffering man before me. By the time I recovered and was moving towards him, he was on hands and knees, retching.

‘Dr Baker?’

He vomited and I jumped back, hand jerking from his shoulder as he fell forwards, pitching into his own sick. His body gave a horrible twitch, and then he did not move. I dropped down to my knees next to him and rolled him over as gently as I could.

‘D—Dr Baker?’ My hands shook.

He flopped onto his back and I stared down at blank eyes looking back up at me, slightly bloodshot. I swallowed, throat going so tight I could barely manage the action.

‘Dead,’ James stated, looking at Baker curiously. ‘Brain aneurysm, I’d wager.’

I sniffed and stood, wincing at the sick on me. I wiped my hands on my trousers, feeling ill myself. ‘Yes,’ I muttered, ‘I’d say so.’ I glanced up to him. He seemed to have recovered. I wondered if he’d been fine the whole time. How much had he heard? I motioned to him. ‘Come on, let’s go. We shouldn’t be here.’

The rest was a blur of me scrubbing any prints from the door handle, knowing all too well we’d probably left just as much DNA inside. It would have to do. They couldn’t hurt James. They wouldn’t dare.

I managed to get him home and situated before taking to the sanctuary of a long, hot shower. I stood beneath the steaming spray of water, scrubbing at my skin as violently as I could, wanting to get everything from the last hour off of me.

My shoulders had never felt so heavy as they did now, not even after the accident. Never had I felt so much of the world’s weight on me. Never had I found it so hard to find the will to leave the small, warm safety of the shower. How could I look out the window again, face James, walk the street, knowing what I knew now? That some final phase was coming that was going to screw everyone. Inescapable fate. The few of us lucky bastards who hadn’t gotten ourselves fixed up with brain chips wouldn’t survive the takeover. We were all growing brand new organic upgrades. It was only a matter of time.

Time.

I stared at the tiled wall and traced a finger through the wet grout. How long? When was the
Final Phase
? How long did we have till we all were permanently, absolutely fucked? Was it days? Hours? Weeks?

My stomach clenched. Probably sooner rather than later. Their tests, I didn’t see what else they could prove. Now they knew the system worked.

I switched the water off in frustration, letting my body drip-dry. Didn’t matter when it was happening. It was too late. Nothing I could do about it. There was nothing to be done. Nothing but live life to its fullest until it all came crashing down.

When I came back out to James, pulling on a dressing gown, I saw he hadn’t moved from where I’d left him. I sat next to him and put a hand on his knee, giving it a shake in an attempt to wake him out of his stupor. He jerked a little and then looked at me, eyes focusing slowly. ‘How are you feeling?’

He frowned, like I’d asked an odd question. ‘Fine. Why?’

I scrubbed a hand over my face. ‘Well, you did just…kill Slater.’ I still wasn’t sure what to think of that. James had—from the few instances I’d seen—terrifying power. Did it have to do with
what
he was? Had InVizion planned that? Or was it a side effect of his role as the First? Some aggravated new version of those RAVs? His special brain, Baker had said, was much more…intimate with the technology than others. That had to mean he had more abilities. Abilities perhaps he didn’t even know about. Abilities that he didn’t want to let on about.

‘Oh, yes,’ he said drily. He stretched out languidly, till his head rested in my lap. I sighed and let my hand fall to his chest. He was quiet for a long time before those green eyes flicked up to me. ‘Does that bother you?’

I wasn’t sure if I should have taken that as a challenge or not. ‘Am I sorry he’s dead? No. Of course not. But what happened?’ I balled my hand. ‘I’m still not sure how I feel about that.’

‘About me blowing a man’s head apart with my mind?’

My mouth twitched. ‘Yeah. Finding it a little hard to get beyond that.’

He nodded; face a grim mask of morbid amusement at my discomfort. ‘Because it shouldn’t be possible, Godlink or not.’

I tentatively ran my fingers through his curls and kept it up when he didn’t seem to mind. ‘I don’t know,’ I mumbled, ‘you tell me.’

All I could think of was how
he
was the first. He was special and how I wondered if he knew it. Knew what he was. Had he known the whole time? After all, they’d been scanning his brain, experimenting on him for years. He’d never told me that. Had he just been leading me on for the hell of it? He was more than a lab rat. He was their special pet. If he hadn’t worked that out then he really was in the dark.

James did not respond to my timid prompting. If he knew more of his abilities, I wasn’t allowed in on that knowledge.