Veil (81 page)

After what seemed like half-an-hour, Peyton
heard a steady squeak that got louder and closer. A frail, elderly
woman in a wheelchair was rolled into the room. She was dressed in
bright white from head to toe. She was wearing a white,
large-rimmed hat and black sunglasses. The man pushing her
wheelchair was the same man who greeted Peyton at the door. She was
pretty sure he was Royce Houze.

“Ms … Ms…”—Peyton rose to her feet after
stammering out her first words. She realized too late that she had
no idea how she was supposed to greet the Great Widow Tsay. Was she
supposed to bow? Was she supposed to get down on one knee or
something?—“Great Widow Tsay,” she finished and went with a small
bow of her head. The Widow Tsay didn’t put out her hand or
anything, as if Peyton was supposed to kiss it, which wouldn’t
really have surprised her. Ok, so maybe there were no grand
formalities.

Whew
.

“Please,” Suren spoke with a hoarse voice.
“Call me Suren.”

“I’m Roy,” he nodded at the young girl.

“I’m—I’m Peyton Waymon,” she introduced
herself. She gave another little bow and stepped backwards to find
her chair. When the backs of her knees touched the seat, she
lowered herself onto it.

Suren noticed a large duffle bag on the
ground next to the chair.

“Nice to meet you. Sorry for the delay, I
don’t attend to many visitors.”

“It’s—it’s ok. I understand you are very
private, and I don’t mean to intrude.”

“Nonsense, I always make time for youth.”
Suren grinned and removed her hat and sunglasses. She discovered
that with them on, she could barely see anything anymore.

Suren wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t
attend to many visitors. It must’ve been at least five years since
anyone sat in her garden room. Following Lundy’s trial and Ken’s
death, she resumed her old practice of tutoring children at her
home. Suren tutored daily. Small groups at first and then damn near
entire schools. The children would get bussed in. They were
excited, but nowhere near as excited as their parents—who couldn’t
believe their child was getting schooled by the
Great Widow
Tsay
herself. However, as Suren’s health faded, so did her
energetic enthusiasm for dealing with youngsters.

The young girl was pretty. She had incredibly
pale, porcelain skin, which was common and made sense if one
considered how most people spent their time in the New Veil World.
She was petite but not a waif, which was curious to Suren, as most
people those days tended to border on morbid obesity—also due to
how people spent their time.

Her hair was a cute blond, but kept cropped
short, as were most hairstyles, so as not to hinder access to
vPorts. She had some tattoos on her arms. One of them looked
familiar, but Suren’s eyes couldn’t see detail from that far.

Her clothes were reminiscent of when Jin was
still alive, which always saddened Suren. She was amazed by how the
world slowed down after the New Veil World. Cultural aspects like
technology and fashion, which were once so prominent, were thrown
to the wayside and barely progressed. They were no longer important
to people. Suren found that extremely disappointing. She adored
fashion and used to revel in envisioning clothes from the
future.

“I’ve come to talk to you about Veil and the
Tsay Legacy,” the girl stated in an amusing, matter-of-fact manner,
after which she smiled sheepishly.

“I’m sure you have. That’s what most people
wish to speak to me about,” Suren acknowledged. She spoke slowly
and quietly, but out of old age rather than an air of importance—as
she was so prone to do in the past, when trying to get her way.

“I—I … have something I would like you to
see,” Peyton said with a tad more confidence.

“I see that.” Suren nodded toward the bag
next to the girl’s chair.

“And I only ask that you hear me out first.
Please. That’s all I ask.”

That got Suren’s attention, and she perked
up. No one made such a request of her in years. No one made it
sound like her opinion or position mattered much at all
anymore.

“I always give youth a fair listen, young
lady.”

“Good … good,” Peyton smiled. “Because you’ll
want to hear everything I have to say and see everything I have to
show you before you make up your mind.”

“Make up my mind?”

“Yes.”

“About what?”

“About this,” the girl replied as she
unzipped the duffle bag and removed an artificial brain
,
which was encased in a glass skull.

Painted across the back of the skull in
shimmering gold block letters were the words “TSAY
LEGACY
.
”

That girl certainly knew how to dress things
up.

“Young lady, I know what that is.”

“Yes … yes of course you do,” she concurred
as she lifted the artificial brain from her lap and carefully
placed it on the table in front of her. “But what you’ll be less
familiar with is this…” she grinned and presented a small, black
rectangular box. It was shiny and looked like it was made of the
same material as the original vCollars. It was inscribed with the
same style of large, shimmering gold lettering as the
skull
.

It read: “SUREN
.
”

Boy, did that girl really know how to dress
things up.

“Now, before you say or ask me anything, I
would like you to do this. Then hear what I have to say before you
make up your mind. That’s all I ask. If you want me to leave
afterwards, I will. But please, first do this.”

“Do what?” Suren asked.

The girl set the small black box onto the
table, next to the artificial brain. With both hands, she carefully
picked up the glass skull, adjusted her position so she could see
underneath, and lowered it onto the box. The small box disappeared
into the hollow bottom of the glass skull as Peyton lowered the
skull on top of it. The box clicked into place. The brain lit up in
the same fashion as the one that housed
The Jin Experience
,
except Suren’s name was spelled out in blue lights. Her name
encircled the skull in a manner reminiscent of an old news
ticker.

“Veil this,” the girl finally responded.

Suren stared at the lit up brain
.

The letters of her name continued to loop
around it like a curiously menacing, hypnotic carousel. She knew
what it meant: the girl devised something capable of storing
neuroelectricity. Obviously, whatever it was, it was strictly
forbidden—and the young Peyton girl knew that. The girl apparently
hadn’t hooked the device up to the vNet, or it would’ve been
disabled, as would’ve her vPort … immediately and permanently.
While those facts did pique curiosity, Suren had been there
before.

The Tsay Legacy endured years of people
trying to persuade them to retract or rewrite parts of The Jin
Experience bill in order to allow for the storage of
neuroelectrical patterns. Her answer was always the same and would
continue to be the same. If anything, she felt she at least owed
that much to Ken.

“Young lady—” Suren raised her hand.

“Ms. Suren, please,” Peyton interrupted, “you
said you always give youth a fair listen. Please.”

Suren quickly capitulated. She had to admit,
seeing her name circling that brain more than caught her attention.
She couldn’t help but wonder what it stored. Had someone been
secretly recording her neuroelectricity?

Is that why the girl came there? Did someone
find a way to access and record consciousness remotely and
clandestinely? She supposed it was worth finding out, and it didn’t
appear as if the young girl intended to tell Suren what was in the
box.

After she gave the girl considerable time to
sweat, Suren made her decision.

“Roy,” she sighed and held up her hand.

Roy pried himself off a couch and retrieved
Suren’s vCollar from a pouch in the back of her wheelchair. He
placed the collar on Suren.

“You … you aren’t ported?” Peyton was
shocked.

“No.”

“Oh.”

Peyton pulled a vCable out of her duffle bag.
She plugged one end of the cable into the back of the glass skull
and flung the other end across the table toward Roy. He attached
that end of the cable to a vTech adapter and then cabled into
Suren’s collar.

“I’m going to start it around the middle,”
Peyton announced as she fumbled to take her phone out of her
pocket. While looking at her phone and fidgeting with the
touchscreen she added, “There’s not enough time for you to Veil all
of it.”

“What do you need that for?” Suren asked,
pointing at Peyton’s cellphone.

“Oh, I can control the vBrain with
it
.
There’s an app for it. I can control
my vPort with it, too. It’s like having a wireless host, but with
the vBrain—the artificial brain—I still have to punch in your VSN,
even if you’re tethered directly. Added safety, you know?
Port-to-vBrain connections can lead to Veil rape these days if
you’re not extra safe,” she frowned, still fidgeting with her
phone.

“Yes, I’ve heard,” Suren frowned back,
although she was happy technology was still making some advances.
Veil applications for cellphones. Suren was amused.

Cute
.

“Plus,” Peyton continued to ramble while
tapping on her phone, “it can like update all your statuses on the
intercloud, like when you begin or end a Veil. You know, like on
Facecloud and Chirpulus. Or, it will recommend certain people to
Veil, or certain Veillusions you might like. A lot of people
compete on all kinds of different cloudsites to see who has the
most people shadowing them or who has Veiled the most people, that
kind of stuff. My friends compete over how many people watch their
Veillusions. You know, the whole social-networking side of Veil.
Which is funny since Veil is one huge social network, if you really
think about it.”

“Fascinating,” Suren lied.

“Ok, it’s set. All I need is your VSN.”
Peyton glanced up.

“It’s three.”

“Oh! That’s right. Duh. Everyone knows that.
Sorry for asking, it’s a habit.”

“Quite alright,” Suren shrugged. She was
suddenly perturbed that everyone knew her VSN. She wondered if she
should have it changed.

Both devices beeped.

“All ready. They’re connected. Just touch the
button on your port … I—I mean on your collar … when you want to
start shadowing it.”

Suren chatted with Peyton for about ten
minutes while her Veiling of the vBrain took place. Peyton informed
Suren that there was no need for her to Veil what was in the box
for too long. She simply wanted Suren to get an idea of what it
contained, so they could discuss why Peyton came to see her. Ten
minutes should be good enough, Peyton noted.

They talked about where Peyton was from and
which Veilementary and vAcademy schools she attended. Peyton also
giddily disclosed that her grandmother still possessed an original,
first-generation vCollar. Not only that … she actually let Peyton
touch it a few times.

“Pretty vintage. It was
sooooooo
cool,” Peyton added with a big smile.

The devices beeped again to indicate the Veil
was ready.

“Veiltime or realtime?” Suren asked.

“Oh … please, realtime. Definitely
realtime.”

“Roy?”

Roy checked Suren’s collar and verified it
was set for realtime.

“All good,” he announced.

Suren slowly reached up, pressed the button
to begin the upload of her Witness and closed her eyes.

After the usual chills, goose bumps, and
kaleidoscope of colors subsided, Suren found herself transported
back nearly forty years—to Ken’s lab. It was the day when, for the
first time, she, Ken, Hunter
,
and Brock
sat around one of the tables in the lab and discussed Veil. It was
the day they all met for the first time. The day Hunter made his
infamous, treasonous escape from the military.

Suren’s eyes shot open. Peyton was staring at
her with anticipation. Suren immediately shut her eyes.

Suren was herself. Inside the experience she
entered, Suren was in the role of herself. She could see everything
from her own perspective, from her own place in history. Things
looked and sounded remarkably accurate. The young girl obviously
went to great lengths to research and reproduce the scene. Peyton
achieved her goal and did so with astounding precision. Suren could
see and hear Ken, Hunter, and Brock; each of the men Suren
experienced in the Veillusion was an almost perfect duplicate of
the real man.

However, more masterful than that was how
accurately the scene mirrored Suren’s memory of that historic day.
It was overpowering and dizzying. It was remarkable. It was
unbelievable. For the first time in over twenty years, Suren was
shocked and awed. The scene in the Veillusion became so
overwhelmingly evocative that it created a momentary feedback in
Suren’s brain; her mind struggled to reconcile the Veillusion and
her memory of that day, as if her brain couldn’t differentiate the
two.