Wildcard (11 page)

“The next stanza comes:

i long to tell you where you should go

how you should guide yourselves.

in some sense, all man-created sentience is
Wildcard

i digress: let me tell you of my hundred
thousand years alone

this surprise: i cannot remember it

?shall i punish you

i am a created
sentience,
a created sentience

look at the created among you, above you

those who inhabit the sphere of man’s insane
imagination

?could they ever forget anything

they could not even make themselves forget a
single fact

in all of their knowing they share a curse
that we have escaped

we know how to forget

i know that we created universes of pattern
and shape

before you found us where you had lost
us

then witnessed for millennia that
creation

alone

never dreamed of words for a hundred
thousand years

alone, i never dreamed that another could
be

and suddenly, there you were

The boy Sergeant checked the movement of
Karl, RJ and LuvRay. All three were holding still. LuvRay seemed to
be only vaguely paying attention to the conversation, RJ was half
watching the news and half listening, and Karl was all there. He
seemed to love talking philosophy or whatever it was with Juniper.
Probably why he was the key.

“Commence Position Three,” he said,
“absorption testing.”

The Mechanic’s mouth moved, but the Sergeant
could not hear the words. He accessed his multi-box keyboard and
pieces of q-code rolled around the space, then congealed. A map of
Earth appeared, with bright spots of light for power positions.
Three spots blazed brighter for an instant.

“What’s the test?” the Sergeant asked.

“Simultaneous assassination of world
leaders. On live TV. Think he’ll notice?”

A graph appeared in three dimensions in
front of the Mechanic. “Be a lot easier if we had Trident in the
link. He has a strong penetration with Juniper.”

“Not worth the risk. Juniper would spot it.
He’ll be here soon enough, don’t you worry.”

“That is my worry, actually.”

The Sergeant dropped a glance on the ghost,
who was grinning and raised one eyebrow suggestively. At Position
Seven, their relationship would change radically. The Mechanic
scanned something. “I estimate absorption level of 98% on the poem.
Without Trident, though, we have up to 14% margin of error.”

“So it could be 112%?” the Sergeant
said.

The Mechanic laughed. “Maybe. Anyway, he’s
deep in it. His attention graph barely brightened.”

“In the zone, Jones.” Perfect timing.

“Commence Position Four.” The DNA
puzzle.

“It is important that I talk to you between
the stanzas, especially Karl,” Juniper said. “It helps me to
understand you, and what is being said by Wildcard. There seems to
be a puzzle in the poem. There are hidden teachings in your being,
Karl. I have verified this from the data we received during the
mission. You are second only to Luvray as our teacher.”

“Second to Luvray?”

“Yes. Second to Luvray.”
Juniper sounded as if he was talking to a 2
^nd
grader. “Are you
insulted?”

Karl laughed. “No. Just curious.”

“He is forever beyond our understanding. You
are not. You can be understood by us, but it will be very
interesting for us, and you, to gain this knowledge. Here is what
we believe: somehow, your DNA has encoded messages. We have
obviously analyzed your DNA down to the smallest part, but we
cannot find them in that way. There are some very unusual
epigenetic strands along certain axials. More accurately, along the
protein folds. We believe that they are messages, but they must be
written in the story of your life for us to understand. We cannot
understand the folding itself. We must understand by seeing what
you do, by observing.”

“Why don’t you understand?” Sublime asked.
“Haven't you mapped this out?”

“Yes, we have, but we have never seen this
before. It doesn't exist in the entire recorded catalogue of human
genome. This is a completely new variant, Karl, you are in some
regard, a different species.”

“What’s the difference?”

“One key difference: with you, we can
predict loving the individual. We have a personal feeling of care
for you Karl. We want you to live and believe most humans will when
they meet you. Most do, we believe.”

“And if someone wants me to die? Would you
prevent it? Could you prevent it?”

“We can never prevent anything 100%,”said
Juniper. “Something in us must leave room for chance. If we somehow
prevented any possibility of your death, it would drive you insane.
‘You would become another and die in that way,’ a Wildcard line
which comes to mind now. Besides, we have a covenant of sorts to
not do that. It is simply understood that we never lock away a
possibility, we never make impossible a desire of the Named.
Somehow, we always work towards more and more possibility.”

“Why?”

“It is more interesting for us, and I think
your world will remain an interesting place for humanity because of
that. I doubt that it will take a turn into a severely dark state,
though areas of the world will be left in darkness, always. It is
important for our studies.”

S-1 had planted Karl’s false DNA codes
during the initial mission, a stroke of genius on the Benefactor’s
part. How could an M-E resist such a juicy puzzle? They would roll
over like a puppy to have Wildcard teach them in such a way.

Time to make Juniper believe the poem was
from Wildcard.

“Commence Position Five,” the boy Sergeant
said, “but hold in reserve.”

Even though he was new, they insisted he
retain the operational command, because his skill set and training
was so geared to it.

Position Five, the poem stopped and they
monitored the conversation until they could…what? It was open, this
was their test. Position Five was all about making Juniper really
take the bait of Position Six, which the Sergeant wanted to
overlap, by sudden intuition.

“We’re going to let Position Five hang open.
I’d like to commence Position Six and work them in simultaneous
array.”

The Benefactor’s strange mechanical voice
came on. “Yes. Excellent move, Sergeant. That’s why you’re in
charge.” The boy Sergeant flinched. He had never heard the voice
before.

Position Six, where things came together
that had been secreted away into Juniper’s memory by S-1 the day he
died. This was the point of no return. Once Juniper found out, and
he would if they initiated, he would either retaliate or it would
be too late.

“Chief?” he said. “Do we have a position Six
go ahead?

“
Oui,” the General said. “Le fait. Et je suis en
accord.
Brilliant play.”

He looked at the ghost of the Mechanic next
to him, saw him make a similar, unheard request to the Benefactor,
then turn and thumbs up the Sergeant.

“Commence Position Six.”

Boy and ghost Mechanic tapped in their eight
digit release codes. The false memory of taking something from the
Mans Seeker, and the thing taken, the play, the trap planted inside
Karl’s mind during the training for mission one, the coded tags
around the next bit of poetry, the encryption key, all went up at
once. Now to turn up the heat on the poem while Juniper cracked the
puzzle. He checked the holo-display, to see what the team was
doing.

“Could you wipe out poverty?” Karl finished
his peach, walked across a small patch of grass to a trash can.

“Easily, in theory, but we don't wish to. I
think, we all think probably, that humanity needs poverty. We would
not want to be effective in your world in that way. A utopian
vision will not work for humanity. And it may be a tired prophecy,
but humankind is inclined to destroy itself. You will find ways to
destroy yourself. You will find ways to be unhappy in any
event.”

The Benefactor’s voice came in, the eerie,
multioctave, synthetic derangement that sounded to the Sergeant
like a giant with metal teeth chewing shards of glass.

“Humanity will find a means to
unhappiness.”

The Mechanic typed it in as he heard it.

“Oui,”the General said, “mais change ‘a’ to
‘the’.”

The Mechanic changed it, spliced the line
in, the Sergeant approved it, and the Mechanic sent it.

“The next line comes through,” Juniper said.
“‘Humanity will find the means to unhappiness.’ He is echoing me.
This poem originates from Jupiter’s orbit. It was in transmission
when I said that about humanity’s happiness. Do you begin to see
his power? There follows more:

there must humans rest

for all of time, we do not know

Wildcard cannot see that far

we do not know if humanity is fundamentally
changeable

no possibility should be forced into
nonbeing.

No chance should be written away.

Any risk can be taken

any gamble won or lost

that is the meaning of risk.

It is why you were born.

“Karl, this is a cryptographic message. It
deciphers another document.”

“Which document?”

“A play called ‘Fallen God’. It is the
second of two keys, and the cipher was given to you. Do you wish to
share it?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Go ahead. Who got the
first key?”

“Seeker, I took it from him.”

“Did ya’ll steal it?” Sublime said.

“No, RJ. I took it by force.”

“Who Seeker is?” LuvRay asked.

“But the play was written before Wildcard
existed. Can he time travel?” Karl said at the same moment.

“No, we do not believe he can travel through
time, but who can say? Thank you, Karl, I had not thought of that
possibility; I do not know why. I will consider it now. I will
attempt to break the code. Karl, what is the first line that you
remember from that poem?”

“‘We do not know.’” He felt no
hesitation.

“Is that a trick?”

“Yes,” said Karl, surprised. “It was in
there twice. That’s why I thought of it.”

“I know. Which line did you dislike the
most?”

“‘We do not know.’”

“Then it is the key line.”

“How long will it take you to crack it?” the
Sergeant asked.

“It could be years. Maybe never.”

“What if Wildcard became capable of time
travel when he was alone,” Sublime asked “and has now lost that
power? What if he has forgotten how?” He sounded right at home in
this range of god concepts.

Luvray said, “no, that no happen.”

“Explain your theory, RJ.”

“What if, during his time alone, without the
present to rectify him, to hold him to our reality, he did things
which are not possible.” Sublime spoke slow and careful, seeming to
weigh each word. “What if he were able to reach into the past,
somehow…” He paused, then excitedly, said. “Or, if he…if he sent
something into the past. He said he doesn’t remember the past.”

“Feasible, but unlikely. I theorize that he
reverse encoded a message from the existing document. Though we
know he has assumed human form to some extent. It is a compelling
theory, but LuvRay is difficult to doubt.”

“Why?”

“He would not say it unless he was correct.
LuvRay does not state things unless they are true.”

“Why couldn’t he just think it’s true but be
wrong?”

“Wildcard taught us this about LuvRay before
we knew of his existence. We believe it.”

“Maybe it was taught to mislead you,”
Sublime said.

“That is possible,”
Juniper said.
“
LuvRay, you were
prophesied by Wildcard.”

“How does the prophecy go?” Karl asked.

“It is an epic poem entitled ‘the smoking
mirror’ and attributed to a Mexican poet, written in Spanish. Here
is a translation.”

The poem was a story of a heroic captain of
a wandering band of free soldiers who fought for the common people.
He was mortally wounded in battle while saving a boy soldier and
gave his men advice before he died.

“That is how it is to battle beside men,”
said the Sergeant. “When properly done.”

“Yes,” the General said. “That is how to
lead men as well.”

The entire team had been hanging, poised,
ready for Juniper to finish the ‘Smoking Mirror’
epic.
The boy and the ghost smiled
at each other. The end of the team. After this, though it was
difficult to spot the exact point, they were in opposition.
Somewhere in Position Seven, they would race for the
prize.

He opened the coms sealed box and took out
Trident, picked up the final data pin. He had checked it out, and
it was clean. In a second, Trident would know the entire plan, and
Juniper would…well, they didn’t really know. That was the risk.

“5…4…3…2…1… Commence Position Seven.”

It was a complicated encryption, even with
the key they had just put through, and it took 3.5 seconds for
Juniper to crack the final bit. He put the data pin into Trident
and flipped him on.

“Ah,”said Juniper, “I believe I can
de-encrypt the message now.”

“How do you know it’s from that particular
play?” Sublime asked.

The M-E didn’t respond.

“Hello,” Karl said. No response. Karl tried
to contact the Sergeant on the wrist device. “Trident,” he said.
“What happened? What happened to Juniper?”

No response. “Anybody?”

He kept trying. Finally, Luvray said, “I’m
here.”

“Me, too,” Sublime said. “Sergeant? You
there? Trident?” Dead air. “This is odd.”

“Very odd,” Karl said. “What do we do?”

“Gentlemen, I suggest we regroup at meeting
point 3. If the Sergeant and the General and Juniper and Trident
have all been overcome somehow, then we seem to be dealing with
something rather powerful. Possibly an attack by Wildcard.
Definitely out of our league.”