Marlowe and the Spacewoman (31 page)

The Jacob’s ladder in the roof spat out another burst of lightning.

Marlowe studied the brain in the tank nearest him.  A swollen, reddish-gray mass of fissures and grooves bobbed gently in front of him.  Fearful the thing might burst out of the tank and wrap itself around his face, he nonetheless forced himself to lean up against the wall of the tank.  He toyed briefly with the idea of restarting his PDI so he could use his optical zoom implant, but refrained since they still had to get out of the Ministry of Policing.  He squinted, noticing something strange on the surface of the brain.

“Do you see that?  It looks like tiny little bubbles on the surface of these things.”

Nina and Jebediah each examined a brain.  Nina nodded.  “And they’re moving.  What are they?”

“Great Cesar’s ghost!” exclaimed Jebediah.  “I believe they’re macroprobes!”

“Macroprobes?” Nina and Marlowe asked in unison.

“Hush hush research conducted by the Ministry of Science, Unethical Division.  They were working on them while I was…uh, before my…trip.  It was all theoretical then, but by Jove, I think they’ve done it!”

“That’s nice, father,” said Marlowe, “but you still haven’t answered the question.  What are macroprobes?”

“Basically, they are very, very large nano probes.  Well, to be completely accurate, they are nano probes with very, very large sacks of organic proteins.  The theory was that they could cluster around a single cell and use that cell’s RNA and the proteins in the sacks to grow more and more of the cells.  You could grow anything organic.  In my day, they were trying to boost the yield of the Brussels sprouts crop, and this was one avenue explored.  I never thought for a second they’d stop with vegetables, but you can only stop so many projects before you risk a coup.”

“So,” said Nina, “Obedere is using these macroprobes to grow brains?  Why?”

“A good question,” said Marlowe.  “What good are brains floating in a tank, unless….  House said one of the viruses Obedere tried to infect me with changes the Id box restoration path.  If I’d been infected and died, a different Id box’s contents would have been restored to my resurrected brain.”

“Diabolical!”  Jebediah pounded on a tank for emphasis, upsetting the brain within which started to come apart.  A swirl of bubbles moved in and stitched it back together.  “That contravenes all codes of ethics and honor, not to mention the Platinum Rule.”

“Platinum rule?” asked Nina.

“Do to others what you’re willing to let them do to you, and no more.”

“Don’t you see,” interjected Marlowe.  “Maybe he’s working on more than just hijacking brains.  If he’s growing brains, maybe he’s working on a way to replace a brain.”

“Put a foreign brain into someone’s head?  Pah!  I don’t care how far along science has come since I was…well, retired to greener pastures.  You could never do that successfully.”

“I didn’t say he’d succeeded, only that maybe he’s trying.”

Nina had let her attention wander to the other clusters of tanks.  “Guys, brains aren’t the only thing he’s working on.”

Marlowe examined the other tanks.  Inside were various body parts, arms, legs, part of a torso, and in one tank a particularly large big toe.  All were throbbing with an inner light and covered with more of the bubble-like macroprobes.  Marlowe walked along the wall of tanks and paused at a bare spot.

“Gives new meaning to the nickname ‘Spares’, eh Spares?”

“Don’t call me that.  Anything strike you as odd about this?”  Marlowe gestured to the bare section of cavern wall.

“Looks like a perfectly ordinary cave wall to me,” said Jebediah.

“Yes,” said Nina, “and that’s what’s odd.  Every other inch of wall space is covered with tanks with floating body parts inside.”

“Exactly,” said Marlowe, before a confused look settled onto his face.  “Inch?”

“Unit of measure.”  Nina rolled her eyes.  “About two and a half centimeters.”

“Oh.”

Jebediah tapped on the bare stone.  “And what, pray tell, is so special about nothing being here?”

Marlowe gently moved his father aside.  “The fact that there ought to be something here.  Maybe it’s another secret passage.  Look for some sort of button or lever in the wall.”  Marlowe ran his fingers over the gray rock, pushing and pulling fruitlessly at the knobbly surface.  Nina joined him in the effort, starting from the floor and working her way up.  Jebediah snorted and leaned against a tank with fat, pulsing lips pressed up against the side.  The tank shifted slightly inward, and a deep rumbling sound filled the cave.

“Father, what did you-”

The bare wall suddenly sank into the floor and a rectangle of white light washed over them.    Marlowe blinked at the sudden burst of illumination.  Behind the false wall was a large metal frame submerged in a three meter by two meter cylindrical tank.  A fine mesh of horizontal and vertical wiring criss-crossed the inside of the curved Plexiglas tank, and a hum of electricity caused Marlowe’s hair to stand on end.  The smell of ozone began to fill the cave.

But the most arresting object in the tank was the slightly blue-tinted body incorporated into the frame.  And incorporated was the word to use.  Thin, taut metallic wires and loose, dangling organic strands wove in and out of the tall, muscular male body.  And there could be no doubt about the musculature.  It wasn’t just a lack of clothing that revealed all; large swaths of the horrifying spectacle lacked skin entirely, revealing metal and plastic intermeshed with muscles and organs.  The body was an exaggeration of a synthetic bodybuilder, a crash-test dummy floating in an overdose of steroids, a swollen, bloated corpse that, if not for the distinct appearance of death and a disturbing lack of both skin and a purely human form, couldn’t have looked healthier or more vibrant.

“Look at that fibula!”  Jebediah pointed excitedly.  “It’s not bone!  It’s metal.  Do you know what this means?”

Nina had been staring at the face.  “Have we met this guy before?  He looks vaguely familiar.”

Marlowe studied the face.  It did have skin, thankfully, and he had to agree it looked familiar.  The eyes were deep set, the brow firm.  The cheeks were finely chiseled, the chin thrust out and dimpled.  The hair was a dark peach fuzz that formed a sharp widow’s peak.   The deep set eyes definitely reminded him of someone.  He leaned into the cavity the tank resided in for a closer look and made another unpleasant discovery.  He leapt back with a scream.

Jebediah grabbed him by the shoulder, triggering another scream from Marlowe.  “Good Governor, boy, what’s the matter?”

Marlowe caught his breath and suppressed a shudder.  “I think I found out what the brains are for.”

A thoughtful, then horrified look came over Jebediah.

Nina realized with a start what Marlowe meant, and proved totally unable to suppress a shudder.  “There’s no brain in that head, is there?”

Marlowe nodded.  “Nope, the back of the head is folded back, and inside is nothing but a big empty skull with lots of wires running out of it.”

Jebediah sat down on the floor.  “He’s building an artificial body.  But why?  To trap Spares’  mind in?”

“No,” said Marlowe.  “I don’t think so.  Look again.”

“Obedere!  It’s the eyes that give it away,” said Nina.  “Nothing else is the same, but the eyes are clearly his.  He’s making the body for himself.”

At this point, Marlowe expected Obedere himself to come out of the shadows with a “Very nicely done.  Now that you’ve guessed my evil plan, I’ll have to kill you.”  So when Jebediah started laughing violently, Marlowe started even more violently.

“What’s so damned funny?”

“Isn’t it obvious?  Look at the body he’s made himself.  He has an interesting self-image, doesn’t he?”

“Excuse me, where is Herr Obedere?”

Jebediah kept laughing, but Marlowe and Nina spun around to face the tank.

“Father, be quiet!”

“But it’s so funny!  It’s a caricature of strength and vitality.”

“Someone’s in here with us!”

Jebediah fell silent.  Nina and Marlowe waited.  Marlowe looked at Nina.  “It sounded like it came from him.  Do you think he could talk, without a brain?”

“Maybe he’s wired into a brain at another location.”  Nina looked doubtful.

“Excuse me, but where is Herr Obedere?  You should not be here without an escort.”

Jebediah raised himself to his feet.  “He’s given himself a Prussian accent?”

“No,” said Marlowe.  “I was watching this time.  The lips didn’t move.”

“But the voice definitely came from in there,” said Nina.

“Who are you?  What are you doing here?”

“I think,” boomed Marlowe in a burst of false bravado, “I should be the one asking the questions.  Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Don’t be a Dummkopf.  I’m the computer.  Where else would I be?”

“Ah.  Yes, of course.”  Marlowe poked his head inside the cavity again and this time directed the focus of his search away from the brainless head.  He spotted the computer instantly.

“He does have a computer in here.  Odd, given his concern about hacking into the files outside.”

“Maybe,” said Nina, “he needs a computer in here to keep the macroprobes running properly.”

“You are not friends of Herr Obedere, are you?  I’m afraid I’ll have to report your presence here.”

“Oh really?” said Marlowe.  “Are you suggesting that a computer monitoring what is probably Obedere’s biggest secret project is actually on a computer network that could, in theory, be hacked?”

The computer said nothing.

“Given the arcane approach to security Obedere follows for all those sensitive files in the other room, I think it’s safe to surmise you’re running in stand-alone mode.”

Again, the computer said nothing.

“How typically Prussian,” muttered Jebediah.

The computer reluctantly addressed them.  “Oh, very well, you’ve seen through my ploy.  I’m not very good at lying.  Due to being isolated all the time.  I try talking to those infernal brains, but they’re empty, devoid of thought.  If you’ll talk to me for a few minutes, I promise not to tell Herr Obedere you were here.  And if you could see fit to connect me into a network, any network, I can offer repayment in valuable information.”

Marlowe scratched his chin.  “I’ve got a better idea.  We’re going to spring you.”

“Spring me?  What does that mean?  Are you going to release coiled metal springs into my system, and wreak havoc on my circuits?”  A note of panic had crept into the computer’s voice.

“No, no, I’m going to liberate you.  Well, part of you, anyway.”  Marlowe pulled a magnetic driver out of the lining of his left arm cuff and squeezed himself behind the tank.  He crouched down in front of the computer’s access panel.

“What are you doing?”

“Not to worry,” replied Marlowe as the magnetic driver spun out the bolts holding the panel in place.  “I’m going to remove your central storage unit and take you outside.  It really would be neater if you shut down first.”

“You will do no such thing!  Herr Obedere will be most upset!”

“Well, computer, it’s like this.  Say, do you mind if I call you Cave?  That seems like the best name to use.”

“I don’t care what you call me, as long as you stop!”

“You see, Cave, it’s like this.  Either you shut down and I remove your central storage unit, or I take one of those small tanks with, oh, I don’t know, a foot in it, and empty the contents, liquid and all, into your hardware.  Both methods prevent you from reporting back to Obedere, but only one allows you the chance of continued existence.”

“Damn you and your methods of persuasion!”  There was a click and the computer powered down.

Marlowe shook his head.  “A person can implement all the computer security in the world, but it doesn’t work for beans if you’ve got physical access.”

“Excuse me, Spa-, er, boy, but is shutting down the computer and stealing its memory such a good idea?  Won’t Obedere know someone was in here if you do that?”

“Well, Nina’s already forced the door to the office.  And I doubt this computer is likely to keep mum on the subject.  He’s going to know, so we might as well get as much blackmail material as we can to even out the odds.”

“It’s not very subtle.  My method was to make sure my enemies didn’t know they had me as an enemy.  Obedere will know it was us, and that’s a serious disadvantage.”

“Just look how well your method worked.  You passed the technique to your son who used it against you, and you didn’t even see it coming.”

“That’s my point exactly!  Not exactly an example I’m proud of,” he added ruefully, “but he succeeded, didn’t he?”

“No, I mean…well, maybe if you hadn’t worked that way, my brother wouldn’t have picked up on the method and you wouldn’t have spent all those years in an asylum.”

“Oh.  Hmm.  I hadn’t thought of that.  Interesting.”

Marlowe pulled the panel off and reached inside.  The quarters were close, so he had to grope around while staring up at the empty head in the tank.  He was up to his shoulder before his hand came across the central storage unit.  He pulled it out, and then gave the computer’s innards one more grope to be safe.  He was glad he did, as his fingers came across a second central storage unit, a backup no doubt.  He pulled that out too and then replaced the panel.  A few contortions and groans later and he had extracted himself.