F Paul Wilson - Sims 05 (11 page)

 
          
The
CEO looked puzzled. “Girl, boy, what difference does it make? Its very
existence is the threat.”

 
          
“Competition,
Merce.” Sinclair-2 turned from the window and stared at his brother. His eyes
looked haunted. “Inter- and intragenomic competition. Think about it.”

 
          
It’s
finally happened, Luca thought. Sinclair-2 has completely lost it. Even his
brother can’t figure out what he’s talking about.

 
          
He
glanced at the CEO then and was struck by the change in his expression. His
King-of-the-World look was fading—the perpetually raised eyebrows had sagged,
the condescending half smile had fallen into a frown. But his eyes…his eyes
told the whole story, narrowing and then widening into what Luca could only
describe as abject horror. His mouth opened, his jaw worked, he took a step
backward, almost lost his balance, and fell into his chair where he sat staring
at his brother. His gray complexion made him look more dead than alive.

 
          
“What’s
wrong?” Voss said, upset as well, but only by his boss’s reaction. He seemed as
much in the dark as Luca. “What did he say? What’s wrong with it being a girl?”

 
          
The
CEO was incapable of speech. Sinclair-2 answered for him.

 
          
“Not
your concern, Abel. This is a personal matter between us.”

 
          
“Itis his concern!”
Sinclair-1 blurted, getting some of his
color back. “It’s all our concern!” He turned to his brother. “Ellis, for the
love of God, if you’re involved in any way with the people who have the sim,
do
something! Stop them!”

 
          
Sinclair-2
shook his head. “I can’t stop anything. I don’t know Meerm’s whereabouts. It’s
beyond you, it’s beyond me. It’s up to Zero now.”

 
          
Sinclair-1’s
brow furrowed.
“Zero?
What’s zero?”

 
          
“Not
what.
Who.”

 
          
“You
don’t mean…?” Sinclair-1 blinked. “That Zero? But he’s dead.”

 
          
Sinclair-2
stared at his younger brother. “Not quite.”

 
          
The
two words seemed to hang in the air between them. Portero caught Voss’s eye and
the big man shrugged, obviously as confused as he.

 
          
“You liar!”
Sinclair-1 blurted, his face purpling.
“You traitor!”

 
          
Sinclair-2’s
voice remained flat. “You’re amazing, you know that? But the fact remains,
Zero’s in charge, not me, and I’m afraid events have built to a point of
inevitability now where no one can stop them.”

 
          
“Nothing
is inevitable!” Sinclair-1 screamed. Now he seemed to be the one losing it.
“Not until I say so! There’s still a fifty-fifty chance it’s a male! But no
matter what it is, I want it born here! ” He pointed with both hands, jabbing
his index fingers toward Luca and Voss. “So get out there and find that sim,
goddamnit!”

 
          
Normally
Luca wouldn’t have allowed the twit to speak to him that way, but now he was
clearly off his head, so Luca turned and led Voss into the hall. As soon as the
door closed behind them, Voss grabbed his arm.

 
          
“You
have any idea what that ruckus was all about?”

 
          
Luca
shook his head. He was as baffled as the fat man.

 
          
“I
been with this company since the git-go,” Voss said, sweating, eyes darting
about like caged birds, “and I ain’t never, ever seen Mercer Sinclair lose his
cool like that.” He shook his head. “Boy baby, girl baby—what the hell does it
mean?”

 
          
“Haven’t
a clue,” Luca said, turning and moving away.

 
          
He
had things to do. The first was to pry more manpower out of Lister for his
trap; another was to find out what had so unnerved the Sinclairs. Something
about inter- and intragenomic competition. Sounded like heavy shit, not the
kind of stuff they’d taught him in Special Forces. But it might turn out to be
important. It might be way important. And right now he needed all the help he
could get.

 
          
MINEOLA
,
NY

 
          
One hell of a day.

 
          
Patrick
lay awake in the dark in the smaller of Betsy Cannon’s two extra bedrooms, and
thought about the changes Meerm’s baby would bring. He had no doubt that the
child’s pedigree, despite all the challenges and smokescreens SimGen would
throw up, eventually would elevate sims to the status of “persons.” That one
change in designation would tumble SimGen and send the world’s labor and
financial markets into chaos. The simple realization that he’d occupy a pivotal
position in the eye of that oncoming storm would have made sleep difficult;
knowing that
a cadre of ruthless men were
on the
prowl, looking for him and Romy and Meerm to prevent that from happening made
it impossible.

 
          
Zero
had departed late this afternoon after a protracted debate as to whether or not
Kek should stay here for security. They finally decided against that. Zero was
the only one who could control him. What if Kek decided he wanted to go
outside? Who was going to stop him? If he were spotted, that would blow their
cover. Better to keep all nonhumans away from Betsy’s.

 
          
After
a light dinner, they’d all turned in early. Romy was in the next bedroom down
the hall, Meerm was on a cot in Betsy’s bedroom, Tome and Kek were with Zero at
his home, wherever that was, God was in His heaven, and not one damn thing
seemed right with the world.

 
          
He
jumped as he heard the bedroom door open.

 
          
“It’s
only me.” He recognized Romy’s whisper.
“Didn’t mean to frighten
you.”

 
          
“Just
startled me,” he said. Then she startled him even further him by slipping under
the covers and huddling against him. “Hold me, Patrick.”

 
          
“Gladly.”

 
          
He
wound his arms around her. She was wearing some sort of long T-shirt. He didn’t
know what she had on under it, if anything.

 
          
“No,
I mean, just hold me,” she said.
“Nothing more.
I
don’t want to be alone tonight, Patrick. I need a friend.”

 
          
“That’s
me,” he sighed. He was about to add, Friend to the friendless, but bit it back.
She was trembling, as if chilled. So he said, “Tough day, huh.”

 
          
“Believe
it.”

 
          
“Want
to talk about it?”

 
          
“No.”

 
          
“Okay.”

 
          
And
then she said, “I feel lost, Patrick. I used to have some pretty hard and fast
ideas about right and wrong, up and down, latitude and longitude, but now
everything’s been twisted out of shape. Like one of those computer programs
that let you distort a photo or a famous painting, you know, push it and pull
it this way and that until it bears only a passing resemblance to the original.
That’s how my world feels. That’s how my life feels. That’s how I feel.
Like I don’t even know myself anymore.”
A
harsh little laugh.
“Not that I ever did.”

 
          
“You
loved him, didn’t
you.
”

 
          
He
heard a soft sob and felt her head nod against his shoulder.

 
          
“Do
you still?”

 
          
“I
don’t know,” she whispered. “I think I was in love with an image I’d concocted.
But now that the mask is off…”

 
          
“Let
me ask you something,” Patrick said. “If he’d taken off the mask and revealed a
face horribly disfigured by birth defects or an accident, how would that have
changed things?”

 
          
He
marveled at the way his thoughts were running. He should have been searching
for the best angle to wedge himself between Romy and Zero; instead he was
looking for a way to ease her pain. As much as he wanted her—and right now,
with her bare legs warm against his, that was very, very much—comforting her
seemed even more important.

 
          
“Not at all.
It wasn’t a physical attraction. I see where
you’re going, but it’s not the same. A disfigured man would still be a man.
Zero isn’t…”

 
          
“A man?
What’s your definition of a man, Romy?”

 
          
“A
male Homo
sapiens .”

 
          
Patrick
sensed himself clicking into attorney mode, felt the well-oiled teeth of his
rhetoric and advocacy gears meshing. He’d always prided himself on an ability
to mount a convincing argument for either side of an issue, even one he didn’t
particularly care for. Like this one.

 
          
“But
before today, when you thought of both Zero and me as male Homo
saps ,
you gravitated more toward him than me. Why?”

 
          
“I
didn’t know you, Patrick. And I didn’t trust you.
At least
not at first.
But you’ve got to admit you’ve changed.”

 
          
“How?”

 
          
“Well…,”
she said, drawing out the word, “you’ve gone from a man with no commitments to
one who believes in something and is willing to put himself on the line for
it.”

 
          
“Romy,
Zero has been committed since day one, from the roots of his hair down to his
toenails, and that was what you responded to. But it went beyond commitment,
didn’t it. He demonstrated high intelligence, integrity, decency, courage,
dignity, a reverence for life that matches, maybe even
exceeds,
your own. Those are traits you admire in humans. They’re what make you value a
human, and until this morning you’d thought you could find them only in a
human. But this is a new world, Romy, where the definition of ‘human’ is being
revised—and let me tell you, when we take Meerm’s baby public, it’s going to
undergo a total rewrite.”

 
          
Listen
to me, Patrick thought. I’m making his case and killing my own.

 
          
But
he was on a roll, high on his rhetorical momentum, and couldn’t stop himself.

 
          
“As
for Zero, he says he’s a mutated sim. Well, it looks to me like he mutated in
the Homo sapiens direction, big time. He’s more human than a lot of Homo saps I
know, and we both know Homo saps
who
look more apelike
than he does. Meerm’s baby is going to upgrade the
sims
from ‘product’ to ‘person,’ from the Pongidae family to Hominidae, but as far
as I can see, Zero is already there. A new species of Hominidae—Homo
zero
. So what else do you want from the guy? What else does
he have to do to deserve you?”

 
          
He
felt her stiffen. “It’s not about deserving me. I’d never—”

 
          
“Then
decide what makes a guy worthy of your love—his genome or his values.”

 
          
A long silence.
Patrick had run out of
steam,
and Romy…he wished he knew what she was thinking.

 
          
Then
she snuggled closer. “Thank you, Patrick. That doesn’t settle things, but it
helps.
Helps a lot.
You’re a good friend.”

 
          
Good
friend…he wished he were much more, but for now he’d settle for that.
Didn’t have much choice.
And who knew? Maybe things wouldn’t
work out between Zero and her. They’d barely spoken today. Maybe Zero had other
plans. But even if they both agreed on trying a relationship, they had a hell
of a lot stacked against them.

 
          
He’d
wait, because he knew of no other woman in the world like Romy Cadman. He’d
hang around so he could be close by to catch her if she fell.