Machines of Eden (14 page)

No, there was some very
expensive, very omniscient technology around here somewhere, and it
enabled her to see and hear most of what she wanted. The key would
be finding her blind spots, areas
of the
island
where her eyes and ears didn’t or
couldn’t reach. That would be a trial-and-error job, and might take
a long time. And she would guard against that, too. If it was him,
he’d have some bot sentries in this valley monitoring any blind
spots.

She’s smart. Remember
that. She’s the smartest thing you’ve ever met. She’s got it all
figured out. You play her game until you learn more, until she
overreaches. Wait for that.

John
circled the pond and entered a stand of trees, heavily draped
in some sort of flowering vine. The heady scent made his head swim,
and he walked faster. Ahead, a flock of small birds burst from the
green tangle and arrowed through the trees squawking. He
stopped.

Something had scared the
birds; he was too far away yet to have startled them into flight.
He cocked his ears and listened intently.
H
e heard the rustle of leaves as
something brushed past them.

A bot or an animal predator
would make things difficult, so he turned aside and followed a new
course, climbing over the larger roots and ducking dense foliage.
Ten minutes later, while scrambling over a downed log, he noticed
the smell of rotting meat. He scanned the ground.

There was a young deer,
half eaten, lying between the roots of a large tree. It wasn’t a
type he would have expected to see in a tropical climate, but he
supposed that transplanted deer might prove as hardy in a warm,
humid climate as they did elsewhere.

His eyes lingered on its
torn shoulders and neck for a moment longer. There was something
about it that demanded his interest. A second later he noticed it,
and looked closer, finally walking over to finger it. A bullet
hole, drilled neatly through the base of its neck on a line that
would sever its spinal column, and a corresponding exit hole. Small
caliber, and probably high velocity, considering the cleanness and
size of the exit wound.

Eden’s own little game
warden
. He considered the possibilities.
It could be a herd-thinning; he didn’t know much about game
management, but this valley could only hold so many large ungulates
before they ate themselves into starvation. It might have been done
to feed
scavengers or small
predator
s
, but
it
didn’t seem to
fit
Eve’s
precious little mythos to have
blood and bones scattered over Eden.
Probably just thinning the herd, then. Unless it’s Nut or
someone like him.

“
Eve? I’ve got a dead deer
here that’s been shot. Your doing?”

There was
silence.

“
Eve? If there are bullets
flying around here, I’d like to know from where.”

“
Please continue your
test, Adam. We can speak later.” She sounded a little clipped, like
she was irritated.

At me, or at the deer
killer?

John
continued on, hurrying but keeping his eyes and ears open.
The trees began to thin out over drier ground. He came across a
meter-wide shallow brook and followed its course through the
groves.

Coming into a clearer
patch, he saw a tree rising above some scrubby undergrowth that was
different than the rest. Its drooping branches were a paler shade
of green than most, and the little sprigs clustered along each long
switch had little white berries. He hadn’t seen anything else like
it, so he moved toward it.

The tree hung out over a
deep section of the brook, its roots forming part of the bank.
As
John
came
closer, he confirmed that it was unique, and he suspected that it
was the goal of his first test. It was quite tall for such a thin
trunk, and its branches spread outward like a series of umbrellas.
Close to the trunk about
two meters
up there hung a small blue melon-looking fruit.
It was the only one on the tree, weighing down the twig it hung
from and dangling just out of reach for most animals.

Not what I expected the
Tree of Life to look like.

He
began to reach for it, but stopped. It seemed a shame to pick
the fruit; it didn’t look particularly edible, and it was the only
one he could see. It was probably rare and difficult to replace. He
decided to leave it undisturbed for now. Eve wouldn’t like him
messing with the prize of her garden, and he had no use for the
fruit personally.

“
All right, Eve. I think
this is it
,
”
he said.

“
Congratulations, Adam,
and well done
,
”
came Eve’s reply, and she sounded
genuinely excited.

“
If I eat the fruit do I
become immortal?”

“
Not this fruit, Adam. If
you touch this one, you die instantly. The fruit itself might help
you live longer, yes—in fact, pharmaceutical companies almost
harvested it to extinction several decades ago. But had you
attempted to pick the fruit, you would have triggered an electrode
arc field that surrounds it, powered by the laser projectors you
see on the ground at the base of the tree and on the far side of
the bank, and your body would have fallen into the stream partly
disintegrated by the force. Again, I congratulate you.”

“
Nice of you to tell
me
,” John said, edging
backward
.
“
I’ll make sure not to brush it as I
go by.” He almost kicked himself for not spotting the little black
nozzles hidden on the ground. If this arc field was anything like
the ones he had seen around high-security military compounds, Eve
was understating it. The arc would probably have enough power to
fry him out of existence.

Eve continued as if the
dangerous security measure were nothing to be concerned about.
“
This tree is the last known specimen of
its type. It represents new possibilities in medical science, an
invaluable source of cellular regeneration crafted over millions of
years of evolution. We are very fortunate to have it here, and will
go to any lengths necessary to protect it. It only bears fruit once
in several years, depending on the climate and nutrient levels of
the soil. By recognizing and then refraining from disturbing it,
you have demonstrated your level of concern for endangered flora. I
knew you would make the right choice!”

“
Yeah,” John said.
There's no way to anticipate her whims. I'm
treading on thin ice.

“
You are now ready for the
second test,” Eve announced. “This time you must find the Fruit of
Knowledge. It isn’t an actual fruit this time, but rather a piece
of knowledge I want you to recover; permit me my little
bon mot
. On the far side
of the valley against the cliff base you will find a small
observation hut overlooking a cluster of tamarind trees. I need you
to recover a portable
datacard
there. This is the Fruit of Knowledge. You may
begin.”

It took
John
an hour to cross
the valley. He gave the deeper part of the marshes a wide berth to
avoid the crocs. There was a solitary rhinoceros standing in the
middle of a large meadow that he also skirted. It looked small as
rhinos went, but rhinos were infamous for their
unpredictability.
Or had been, when they
were around. This little fellow's got to be one of a mere handful
left in the world. Eve really has something going on
here.

The terrain was more open
on this side of the valley, almost savannah-like. Tall trees and
bushes dotted the landscape and gave plenty of cover to wildlife,
but it was easy to see where he was going and he made good time. He
spotted the hut easily from a kilometer away. Directly behind it
the gray rock towered
a
hundred
meter
s into the sky.

He approached the hut
through the tamarind groves, prompting furious rebukes from swarms
of little monkeys in the trees. The hut itself was
fifteen meters
above the
valley floor, set on a
talus
slope with stilts supporting the front porch and
the back resting on the rock slope. It held a strategic view of the
tamarinds and the valley beyond.

He didn’t see any sign of
security measures here, and there weren’t many places to hide them
anyway. He climbed a small path up through the
scree
to the hut and stepped onto
its porch. There was no door and the windows gaped emptily. It was
a simple, flat-roofed structure made of the same synthetic
fiberboard as the walkways near the Facility.

“
Any hidden surprises you
want to let me know about, Eve?”

No answer, of
course.
She
’s
probably enjoying
this
. A
s much as
an ultra-intelligent AI that
’s
a few pickles shy of a full jar
c
an
enjoy
something.

He stepped inside and stood
there, waiting for his eyes to adjust completely. There was a chair
in front of the window table. In the back there were a few boxes
and a desk. Everything else appeared to have been stripped from the
room by the monkeys, which had also left some less-than-savory
signs of their presence. There was no sign that anyone human or
machine had disturbed the dirty floor of the shack in a long
time.

Maybe there was something
in the boxes at the back. He stepped gingerly, trying to avoid the
monkey droppings and lengths of discarded cable that lay strewn
across the floor.

One of the longer cables
spontaneously coiled.

John
froze.
No, no, no.

Bitis
arietans
, an old friend from his tours in
sub-Saharan Africa. The puff adders were thick and heavily built,
with distinctive stripes mottling their brown backs. There were
probably fifteen of them in the hut, all gathered toward the back,
away from the sunlight. The boxes in the corner were probably full
of them, maybe even nests full of young.

None of them were hissing
yet, which was a good sign.
John
backed slowly away toward the door.

Where was the
datacard
? Darting
glances at the floor every few seconds, he gave the small interior
a careful search. There was little to see. The low table by the
window, a few chairs, the desk against the far wall, and tattered
boxes in a jumble on the floor. He couldn’t search those. Adders
slithered around and through them, tongues flickering. They’d only
come in here to avoid the heat of the day, but
their motivation didn’t lessen their effectiveness as a
deterrent
.

There was no
card
here. Maybe she’d
sent him here to see if he’d kill the snakes rather than simply
avoid them. Maybe –

There was a drawer in the
desk. He hadn’t seen it earlier because it didn’t look like a
drawer. There was no keyhole, just a
small
pull-out grip.
It has to be in there.

“
Eve... I found it. Can I
go now? I really don’t like these guys.” Images of some of the bite
wounds he had seen in Africa flashed through his mind. He recalled
that the enemy had even based an air-dispersed bio-chemical agent
on the cytotoxin these adders produced.

“
Your test is to retrieve
the Fruit of Knowledge, Adam. Overcome the Serpent and bring me the
data.”

John
slowly eased toward the door. He needed a long stick; Eve
would never approve killing the snakes and he’d have to snag
the
card
over
their heads.

He left the hut and
searched until he found a meter-long tamarind branch. The thought
of re-entering the hut made him queasy, but there was no other
way.

Back inside, he studied
the adders. They had barely moved, and the snake that had coiled
earlier had uncoiled once more. Standing as far from the languorous
reptiles as possible, he reached carefully to the desk. He’d chosen
the stick because of a
fork at the end,
and he hooked one of the fork ends
under
the drawer’s grip and gently pulled.

The drawer slid open
smoothly, and there was the
datacard
inside
, a ten by six centimeter slab. It was a type that could be
accessed directly through a display surface on its side, or
inserted into a reader at one of the Facility’s consoles. John
found himself more curious than ever to know what was on it that
Eve wanted so badly.

It took
quite
a few tries
to
push it until it was propped up against
the side of the drawer so he could get the branch’s fork under it.
Finally he was able to get it onto the branch’s fork and lift it
out. Ever so carefully he brought the branch back toward him,
keeping it steady so the wide card resting across the fork would
remain flat.