Visions of the Future (64 page)

“Hey, what are you doing?” a man called out. “Stop that!”

Kaybe bent down, scratching the final bit of proof into the wall. The man grabbed her arm, and reflexively she pushed him away. He flew across the room and crumpled to the ground.

Oh my God, did I do that?

Quickly now… She finished the proof and stood up. There. She had left her mark in the world. Whatever was going to happen now, she was ready.

“Hey lover,” a voice crooned in the doorway. He leaned against the door frame, a cocky grin on his lips.
Those lips.
“Didn’t know you were in town.” He was red, and muscular, and gills had begun to form at his neck. But she would recognize him anywhere.

“Brian?” she whispered.

Her former classmate gestured at the wall. “So what is all this?”

“It’s a proof. How did you—”

“—a what?”

“A proof. A mathematical proof. What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Same thing you’re doing here.”

“I mean, out and about. Not in a cell.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “You gotta go with the flow with these people. They can hurt you bad.”

Kaybe wanted to touch him, make sure he was real, touch his hair… “What does that mean?”

“It means,” he said, gripping her elbow so hard it hurt, “it means they can hurt you bad. Real bad. Do what they tell you. Or you’ll regret it.”

The nurse swept into the room. “Hello my darlings, how is everyone this lovely day?”

“Dying in pools of our own shit, piss, blood and vomit, no thanks to you,” muttered someone on the floor.

“Fix that for you in a jiffy!” the nurse sang. She bent down, took hold of the man’s head, and twisted. A loud pop ended the remaining conversation in the room.

“Anyone else?” Brian asked. “No point suffering if you don’t have to and all.”

No one said anything.

“Come on, Kaybe, let me show you around.” He took her by the hand, his claws clacking against hers.

An electric tingle went up her arm. “Brian, I—”

“What in tarnation is that?” the nurse demanded. She pointed at the scritch-scratch on the wall.

“Math or something, I don’t know,” Brian said.

“I’ll get someone in here, clean that up right away,” the nurse said. She strode to the door.

“No!” Kaybe shouted.

“Well don’t get your panties in the bunch, dear, now what’s the matter?”

“You need to get someone down here I can show this to. It’s a mathematical proof. Changes everything. Life as we know it.”

“I’d say growing gills and claws and preparing for a permanent move into the ocean changes everything, wouldn’t you?” The nurse patted her cheek. “But I’ll get someone down here. Don’t you worry about it.”

Kaybe felt her throat. Gills were growing there. Did that mean her vocal chords would disappear? That she would be reduced to sonar-only—and soon?

She turned to Brian to ask him, but he was engrossed in conversation with a guard in the hallway. Max. His name was Max. She couldn’t catch everything he said.

“—gone, I mean gone, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Kaybe touched Brian’s sleeve. “‘Sir’?”

He laughed. “Bit of joke. They call me ‘sir,’ when really I should be calling them that.”

She eyed the man, who stood to attention once more. “He doesn’t look like the joking type.”

Brian got in the man’s face. “Are you the joking type?”

“Sir! No, sir!”

“I said, are you the joking type?”

“I mean, Sir! Yes, sir! I am the joking type, sir!”

Kaybe looked sideways at Brian. Weirder and weirder.

The nurse pushed past them. “My dear, since you are a graduate, you will need to come with me for a moment.”

“A… graduate?”

“The treatment,” Brian said. “You survived. You’re a 2.1er. Like me.” He grinned, held his arms out wide. “Get it?”

Kaybe felt her throat again. The gills were growing. How was she going to tell people about her proof? “How much longer till I lose my voice?”

“That’s the best part,” he said. “Us 2.1ers will have both. Even better than the 2.0ers.”

“Truly you are blessed,” the nurse said. “Now I must insist. A few quick tests, then off you go with Brian.”

Much to Kaybe’s surprise, the tests were quick and painless. Eyes, ears, nose, throat—on the scale, if you please?—a few blood tests, this won’t hurt at all, dearie—and then she was done.

“The Council are going to be thrilled when they hear about you two,” the nurse said. “First 2.1ers ever. The beginning of new humanity. I am so jealous!” She squealed and grabbed them both in a bear hug. “Now go forth and be fruitful, or whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.”

And winked.

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Kaybe whispered to Brian.

“It most certainly does!” the nurse boomed.

She led them down a corridor to a cafeteria, pressed plastic chips in their hands and wished them
bon appetít.

“Food here’s not bad,” Brian said. “The spicy kelp’s my favorite.”

Kaybe waited for the nurse’s retreating steps to disappear. “She doesn’t know I’m sterile.”

“What’s that?” He pushed her hair behind one ear.

“After you left. They zapped you. Remember? That’s when they sterilized me.”

His hand slipped around her waist, found the small of her back. “Who did?”

“Department of Austerity.”

“Sterile, hmm?” He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned away.

“What will they do when they find out?”

“Who’s going to tell them?”

His hand found her breast, and she pushed him away.

“Stop it!” she said. “This is serious. Our lives are on the line, and all you want to do is make out?”

“Who knows how long we’re going to live? Tell me that.” He crossed his arms. “People getting formula die all the time. They think they’ve got it right, but they haven’t. We could be dead tomorrow, or live for another hundred and twenty years.”

“A hundred and—”

“Met a guy who told me that.” A shrug. “Could be true. Who knows?”

Kaybe’s head hurt. “We have
got
to get out of here. And
do
something.”

“Do what, Kaybe? Tell me. Serious now.” He took her hand. “What are you going to do? Hmm?”

“Well, I—”

Everything was jumbled up inside of her. What was she doing here?
Math. Remember the math.

“I’ve got a proof I want to show somebody. A mathematician. A scientist, someone. Who do I talk to?”

Brian made a nose. “They don’t talk to riff-raff like us.”

“But I thought you were, like, important or something. The way you ordered that guard around…”

“I’m just trying to stay alive,” he said. “That’s all.”

“What do you mean?”

“The guard wants to play, we play.”

“So you’re not, like, important here or anything.”

“Kaybe, I’m just another experiment. Like you. I—”

“Alright,” she said, thinking. “They don’t want to talk to me, I’ll talk to them. Who are they? Where do I find them?”

“I dunno…”

Hmm… Kaybe leaned into him, her not-quite-finished-growing breasts scraping his chest. She gave him a peck on the cheek. “You sure? I would consider it a… big favor.”

When the red skin around his gills flushed purple, she knew she had him.

“I think,” he said. “I know a way… but we have to be careful. Got it?”

“Got it,” she agreed, and let him lead her through the maze of the underground fortress. They climbed some stairs and down many more. They passed elevators—the moving boxes, that is—but it was better not to draw attention to themselves, he explained.

“Where are the dragonflies?” she asked suddenly. “They have no idea where we are. No one’s watching us… what does that—”

Brian laughed softly. “It’s true, isn’t it? The Department of Austerity does not like being watched. We could do… anything,” he said, and caressed her hair, “and no one would see.”

“What about escape?”

He shook his head. “One way in, one way out. That’s why we’re free to go basically wherever we want. I mean, what’s the worst that we can do? They can always find us if they need us.”

“Well,” she said, “let’s find your mathematician-scientist dude, who is he again?”

He pouted. “You don’t want to make out with me.”

“I do,” she said, and part of her meant it. “But first things first.”

Another half an hour passed before Brian found what he was looking for. The impromptu tour gave Kaybe a good idea of the layout of the building. They passed 1.9ers who sang out in greeting, 2.0s whose gills quavered as they passed—the sonar was beginning to make sense to Kaybe, but her ears still weren’t ready, she guessed—and many humans with guns who shrank back against the wall at the sight of them.

“Am I scary?” Kaybe whispered.

“Touch the ceiling.”

She reached up, and found it no more than an inch from her head. “But I’m—I’m growing!”

“We both are. Just about done, though. That’s what the nurse said, anyway.”

“I hope so!”

“Cause if they think we’re a threat, they will incinerate us. I’ve seen it happen.”

“Incineration?”

“Not every GMO experiment is a success. Camp calculus.”

They stood outside the offices of Carl Schreobyuir, Chief Scientist. “I am the boss,” a handwritten note said. “Knock and enter.”

Kaybe glanced at Brian. He shrugged. She knocked.

Nothing happened. She knocked again.

Still nothing.

A voice inside cried out, “What part of ‘knock and enter’ do you not understand?”

Put it that way…
Kaybe pushed the door open and stepped inside.

A fat man sat behind a desk. His fingers danced across a terminal, one of the few Kaybe had ever seen. He glanced up when they came in.

“Oh, the 2.1ers. Was expecting you. Come in. Yes, come in.”

Brian shut the door behind them. “I’m Brian, and this is—”

“Yes, yes, yes I know. Kaybe Winters. Some kind of math prodigy, by the looks of things. Let me have it.”

“Have… it?”

The man sighed, rolled his eyes. “Your proof. You think I know nothing? Show me what you want to show me, I’ve got a lot of work to do today.”

Make it seem like his idea. Not your own. But how was she going to do it? He already knew. They’d probably already sent him photos of her scritch-scratch on the wall. How on earth was she going to make it look like it was his idea?

“Well,” she said, “I am just a girl. I mean, I’m fourteen, you know? I’m probably doing it all wrong. Maybe you could show me where I’ve made a mistake?”

He looked at her over his glasses. “Don’t waste my time, child. Either you’re a math prodigy, or you’re not. Which is it?”

So that’s how it was going to be. Kaybe twisted her lips, crossed the room to a blackboard. Someone else’s handwriting covered the board. She lifted the eraser in a mute question.

“Get on with it.”

She cleaned the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and, as she had done for Saizon, marked out her proof. Only this time, with the new corollary she had discovered an hour ago. Halfway through, the man stood and grabbed her wrist. He plucked the chalk from her fingers.

“You may go.”

“But I—”

“I am not overly fond of life, child, but I am not prepared to give it up just yet. And you are a lot younger than I am.” He pointed to the door. “You may go.”

“But don’t you under—”

“I said—”

“—could solve all our—”

“—you may—”

“—all our problems!”

“I said out!”

His upper lip trembled. He craned his neck up at Kaybe, one finger jabbing at the doorway. Two soldiers stood there, weapons at ready. One of them was Max.

“Orders, sir?”

“Incin. All precautions. Stat.”

“Aye, sir. Incin, all precautions, stat.” Max flicked off the safety on his automatic rifle. “This way, please.”

Kaybe looked at Brian, mouthed the word, “incin”?

He winked back, took her by the hand, and walked passed the two guards.

They are going to kill us now. Incinerate us. She could hear Max’s breathing behind her. But Brian doesn’t seem concerned. What does he have in mind?

She wondered where her father was, what he was doing right now. The outlaws—Johnny and Saizon all the others. Had they left the cave? Fled because of her? Their home for five years.