Perception (3 page)

Both men had feather-light
glass e-tablets on their laps, and Officer Grant busily took notes as Alison
talked. She sat straight, her hands folded in her lap like she was interviewing
for a new position at the firm. I hovered near the dining room.

“He doesn’t usually
take off like this without letting anyone know. I mean, I can see him not
telling me,” Alison paused, shifting on the sofa uncomfortably, “not telling
us
,
but not even his best friend or lab partners know where he is.”

“How old is your son,
ma’am?” Diaz asked.

“Twenty-one.”

“And he’s a student
at the university?”

“Yes,” Alison said,
agitation creeping into her voice. “I’ve already told you that.”

Grant’s eyes darted
to his partner. I was sure it was code for
we’re wasting our time
. Then
he said, “Does he have a girlfriend?”

Alison was quick to
answer, “No.” She glanced sideways at Paul. “I mean, he’s had lots of
girlfriends, but he doesn’t have one now. As far as I know.”

“Happens all the time,”
Diaz said. “Young men getting swept away with young love.”

“But Liam’s not like
that,” Alison said.

Grant’s sly eyes scanned
the room until they landed on me. I couldn’t stop a shiver from creeping up my
back. “Can you join us?” he asked.

I reluctantly drew
closer. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t like this guy.

“Are you close to
your brother?”

I thought about his
question. Liam was the only person in my life I’d ever been completely free
around. Even though I was four years younger, he’d never treated me like the
annoying little sister. We’d rallied together against our mother’s over-bearing
tendencies and covered for each other when our personal relationships went
awry.

Yes, we were close,
but I wasn’t about to tip off this jerk.

I offered a slight
shrug in response.

“Where do you think
he is?”

My eyes flickered to my
parents who were watching me closely. “I don’t know. I thought he was asleep in
his room.”

His eyes narrowed. “What
was he working on at the lab?”

I let out a
frustrated puff. “I don’t know.”

“So,” Grant said, disbelief
on his face. “You’re close to your brother, but you don’t know where he is or
what he was working on?”

“I’m his sister, not
his wife. He didn’t confide in me about everything.” I crossed my arms and
forced myself to return Grant’s arrogant gaze.

Grant glanced back at
his tablet, his expression hardening even more if that were possible. “I’ve
just received new information. There is surveillance evidence at the East Gate
recording Liam leaving the city three days ago, but nothing since. No transmission
documenting his return.”

This news made my
blood run cold.
Where are you Liam?

“We’d like to talk
with your staff members, too,” he continued.

“Certainly,” Alison
said. “I’ll give you a list of their names.”

Grant studied me
again. “Are you sure there isn’t anything
you
want to tell us?”

***

After that awkward
inquisition and the following shake-down with Alison and Paul, who were both
convinced I was withholding information, I called Jackson to demand answers.

His three-inch
hologram popped up from my ComRing.

“The authorities just
left. Alison and Paul are squirrelly. If you know anything, you have to tell
me,” I said.

“I wish I did. I’m
worried, too. I’m sure the authorities will figure things out. You just need to
be patient.”

“I can’t be patient.
Liam is
missing
.” I paced around the space at the foot of my bed. The
DigiWall image was set on psychedelic, and the random images were starting to
irritate me. I told it to turn off.

“What about that
other guy you work with, Mitchell?”

“He doesn’t know
anything.”

“How do you know
that? I have to talk to him at least. Do you want to come with me?”

Jackson hesitated
before answering. “I can’t right now. Promised my dad I’d help him with
something. Besides, I need to shower. How about tomorrow?”

I didn’t believe a
word of that, and I couldn’t keep the agitation from my voice. “Fine.”. If he
didn't want to come with me. I'd go by myself.

It took twenty
minutes to get to Sol City University, and I used the time to review what I
knew, which wasn't much. Liam had been leaving the city, but no one knew why,
not even his best friend or his sister. Liam was in possession of a hand-written
note with one word on it, the significance of which remained unknown. I sighed.
Not much to go on here.

The university was
like a city within a city. White-washed buildings sprawled out from a central
park. Students gathered in small clusters or kept solo, studying or taking
study breaks, congregating in the shade of Bacopa trees. Gold nanoparticles
imbedded in their leaves cast a reddish, luminous glow over the park without
the need for electricity.

I made my way by
foot, winding through blocks of square buildings with front door signage indicating
humanities, technology, environmental studies, nano technology, bio tech research,
or other work going on inside. A round-domed building in the distance housed a
planetarium and space science research.

I found the entrance
of the tech lab where my brother did his research and went in. The lab was a
vast, rectangular room covered in stainless steel from floor to ceiling. A row
of windows facing southeast allowed natural light to fill the space.
Microscopes and lab equipment dotted the countertops. Computer equipment lined
a large table in the middle of the room, with oversize 3D monitors displaying
colorful holographic images that hovered in mid air.

A guy around the same
age as Liam was there. His hair stood on end, and half his shirt was untucked.
A cot in the corner was unmade with sheets rumpled on top. Obviously, this guy
didn’t spend much time at home.

“I’m Zoe Vanderveen.”

The guy nodded. “I
know who you are.”

“And you are...?”

“Mitchell Redding.”

“Are you a friend of
my brother’s? Were you researching together? When was the last time you saw
him?”

“Whoa, enough with
the hundred questions.”

I blew air through my
nose, and forced myself to calm down. “I’m just trying to find him.”

“Yeah, I figured
that. I already told the authorities everything I know.”

“Did they take his
computer?”

“It's a shared
computer, so they just downloaded the hard drive.”

“Can I check it out?”

Mitchell shot me a
look like I'd asked him to drop his drawers. “It's university property.”

“But he's my brother.
Maybe I’ll notice something that they missed.”

The guy still wasn’t
giving in. “I’m sure he’ll show up.”

“How can you be sure?”

Finally, Mitchell dropped
his hands in defeat and commanded the computer to log on. “Here you go.” My
heart jumped as I sat in front of the screen. Then it sunk. I tapped on all of
Liam’s files.

They were empty.

“There's nothing here,”
I said.

“I tried to tell you.”

“But how could there
be nothing in Liam's files?”

Mitchell shrugged
again. “I don't know. Someone wiped it clean.”

“But who would do
that?”

 I waited for the
shrug and got it. I wondered had Mitchell wiped it clean, and if so, why? Why
were he and Jackson being so elusive? I pulled the paper out of my pocket and
presented it to him.

“Do you know what
this means?”

 I expected no reply,
and I was right. Mitchell just gave me another helpless shrug. Some detective I'd
turned out to be.

I went back to the
parking stall and instructed my pod to take me home. Maybe my parents had heard
something by now.

When I entered the
living room, Saundra was there washing the windows. Even though we had spider-like
robotic cleaners for the higher ones, Alison still wanted the lower windows
done by hand because the machines occasionally left streaks. I wondered if
Alison had thought of that on her quest for humanoid help.

With a house like
this, there was never a shortage of things to clean. At least for now the maid’s
job was secure.

The glass 3D monitor
was on, but muted. Even though it was more than eight feet long and five feet tall,
taking up a large portion of the southern wall, the high ceiling made it look
smaller than it was. I could hear my parents arguing again.

“How could they not
have found any leads by now?” Alison's voice cracked with worry.

“I'm sure they're
working as hard as they can,” Paul said in the exact laidback tone that drove
Alison nuts when she was stressed. A door slammed, and I guessed Paul was
standing on the hallway side of it.

So they hadn't heard
anything, either. I turned the TV up to keep Saundra from over hearing Alison
and Paul discuss our family's personal problems. I had to admit that if we had
robotic humanoid help we wouldn’t have to worry about outsiders knowing all our
dirty laundry.

Just as I commanded
the volume to go to ten, a news story flashed on the screen. A group of teens
were demonstrating in front of Sleiman Center Three, an imposing highrise on
the
outside
that was sheeted with glass. In the distance I noticed a
brick and stucco clock tower. It had an ancient kind of face with numbers
posted in an outdated circular fashion. Its ornate small and large rusted-iron
hands were stuck at an incorrect time.

I could tell the kids
were from the outside by the variety of their appearances. They had every kind
of hair and skin color, varied heights and weights, and most carried archaic,
hand-written placard signs denouncing GAP governing policies with slogans like “Transhumanism
is un-natural, Science is not a true religion, and one with an angry red circle
and an
X
over the word
GAPS
.

The camera zoomed in
on a face I recognized—it was Noah, the maid’s son. The 3D monitor thrust his
image into the living room and his dark eyes blazed with an anger I hadn’t seen
in anyone before. The other day I'd thought him exotic; now I found him
frightening.

“Genetically Altered
Persons have unfair social advantages,” Noah told the reporter. “They have the
wealth and opportunity allowing them to leap ahead of poorer naturals. They have
the best of the best of all things, including real estate. Look at Sol City. It
was built on land that once housed lower income citizens. GAP status allowed
them to push the poor off their land after the quake so they could build their
walled, GAP-only, utopian city.

“They fund the
government and shape unfair policies. And most importantly, they have time. They
have artificially expanded lifelines. They have no right to play God in this
way. The alteration of human genetics must be stopped!”

The ticker that ran
under the scene said, NOAH BRODY,GRANDSON OF LESSER KNOWN GENETIC SCIENTIST MATTHEW
BRODY, CO-DEVELOPER OF THE PROCESS OF HUMAN GENETIC ALTERATION.

A lesser known
genetic scientist who developed Human Alteration? But it was my own grandfather,
Dr. William Vanderveen who developed the procedure. The now-Democratic presidential
candidate, Senator Vanderveen. He was the one everyone credited with the
extension of the human life span.

Why hadn't I heard of
Matthew Brody before? And if he’d played a part in the discovery of human
genetic alteration, why was his grandson protesting against it?

I caught Saundra
staring at the news story. The woman quickly looked away. She was thin, with
toasted skin and dark hair streaked with gray. Wrinkles fanned away from her green
eyes and I guessed for a natural, she was probably around forty-five years old.
Alison wouldn't begin to look that way until she was closer to ninety.

Saundra was married
to the son of the man this report credited with sharing the spotlight with my
grandfather. How was it possible that she and her son weren’t GAP? How did she
end up working on our domestic staff?

I turned back to the
newscast in time to see a still photo of a well-dressed man on the screen. I
recognized him as Ronald K. Smythe, CEO of Sleiman Enterprises and my father’s
boss. If Liam hadn’t gone missing, my parents would be attending the black tie
event taking place there tonight. The reporter stated that Mr. Smythe was not
available for comment.

The story flipped
back to Noah Brody. Beside him stood a teen with flaming red hair like nothing I'd
ever seen. The newscaster thrust the mic in his face, and he went off on a
similar rant against genetic alteration.

Under his face, the
ticker flashed, ZACK DEXTER, PROTESTER.