Metak Fatigue Part 2

He shrugged. " lkll right then. Have you ever heard of -something called 'syncritical path a.n.a.lysis'?"

No. "Flow about the Boss Voice theory?" Never, " Ba rney said. "Well, neither had I until Keith explained them to me." He stniled. "it helps if you imagine the brain to b e a collection of many parts working in concert rather than a coherent whole; more like the organs in a body .',,or the species of an ecosystem than the components of a machine. Some parts keep you breathing, others ,monitor your use of language or memory recall; there might be thousands of individual parts in your head, each evolved to perform a particular function, and they all interact: a portion of one will play a role in the function of another, and vice versa. With me so far?"

Barney nodded. "I think so." She had taken a term of basic psychology back in high school, and the general principle rang a bell. "The whole thing is moving, right? Even when we're asleep?" "As I understand it, yes. Everything in the brain is cyclic and chaotic. You have oscillations that appearregular, but arise Purely by chance; if the parts - tthjye pattern generators - were rearranged in even a sligh different way, the end result would be quite different. So the closest you get to stillness is when you meditate and reveal the standing wave, the holding pattern, beneath the mess. But the sum of this 'mess', not the holdin pattern, is what we call consciousness; if you add all theg processes together, in other words, what you get is 'P, the Boss Voice in our heads."

Roads glanced at Barney to confirm she was still keeping up. She nodded, although less certainly than before.

He went on: "Researchers back in Morrow's day apparently knew how the brain uses chaos to encode and transmit information along neurons; that's how they built the implants used in berserkers. Decoding the parts of the brain and the way they interact involved similar principles. It was the sum of the interactions between the parts - the syncritical path, as they called it - that Morrow's pet scientists set out to measure." "Like brainwaves?" "No, although there is a relation. Electrical and magnetic activity of the individual parts could be measured, and their relation to the whole could be approximated. Apparently. " "So - - - " Barney prompted. "They copied the parts?" "They copied the chaotic way Keith's parts behaved the functions governing their behaviour, at least - onto an enormous neural net, an electrical a.n.a.log of a human brain. This was much easier than building a virtual model of his entire brain, neuron for neuron. Even though they often didn't know what the individual parts did, they in effect made a copy of his consciousness in the process. As long as the parts were there, with their strange artractors and their links to each other, the whole thing worked. And is still working today."

32.

what about his memory?" Barney broke in. not a process, is it?" me memories were, mainly the ones that related sory perception. Those that didn't were supted by notes he made before he died. Otherwise, actly the same as he ever was - except that he's 11.1"'. ally immortal, and far better off than he ever P, @ so he says." incy shook her head. "I think I'm going to have to @- your word for it." on't. Look it up one day. I may not have it right M- telf, or Keith might've been bulls.h.i.tting me." Roads f-smiled. "But whatever they did, I'm betting not any people tried It. It was an expensive and revoluionary experiment, and only someone rich and .,84esperate would have tried it. Keith may be the first and @.Nist of his kind, anywhere in the world - a unique relic In the old days."

arney understood what Roads was saying there, at V., ast but didn't think that was a good enough reason to a known criminal remain free. Relics had proved to be highly dangerous before.

Although she was too young by twenty years to the Dissolution, Kennedy's schooling system had made certain she knew the reasons why it had Occurred. In individual conflicts, the reasons for going to war had been territorial, but overall the cause was 'people: eight billion of them by 2040, and only a Minority satisfied with their lot.

A burgeoning population may have caused the War, but it was a new minority that contributed to the severity of the Dissolution. Although the nuclear phase of the War had lasted only a few days, it set a dangerous precedent of ma.s.s-murder that overshadowed less visible and more efficient means of killing. One of the greatestthreats was to be found on the ground, where soldiers armed with the latest mechanical and biological weapons created havoc on the battlefields.

Berserkers - the most ruthless caste of the many biomodified combat soldiers created by the US Army - killed at random for decades after the War. just one could decimate a small city in a matter of weeks. They were unstoppable, implacable and utterly unwilling to negotiate. Their motives were hard to fathom; although some were genuinely insane, it appeared that others had been given explicit orders to kill civilians - which they did with all their genetically-honed combat skills. This parting gesture from the military lingered for forty years until the last known survivor was hunted down and killed in Kennedy.

The United States might have pulled itself together after the War, had it not been for the berserkers and other creatures like them. That was the lesson Barney had learned - both in high school and from her father's death - and the reasoning behind the city's Humanity Laws: biomodification had resulted in the suffering of millions, and would no longer be tolerated at any level of a sane society.

It was no wonder, then, that Keith Morrow made her nervous. He was obviously different from the berserkers, 1 but that didn't stop him being more than human - and if he had broken the Humanity Laws, then it was her duty to turn him in. That they needed his help to gain information about the Mole only made her more uneasy.

And then there was Raoul, with his artificial eyes - tangible, clear evidence of biomodification. Who knew how deep his inhumanity ran, or what dark motives his appearance concealed? "I don't think Keith felt threatened by us, so we can probably take everything he said to be the truth."

y looked up at Roads. "But what about what he eah, I don't know."

tapped the heel of one boot to the toes of the She hated that she had no choice but to go along the situation. It was wrong in principle, if not in -details as well. Maybe later, when things were back she could reconsider and take appropriate rmal, ion.

he eventualare you going to tell Margaret?" s asked.

e yet." Roads grimaced.'"An anonymous "I'm not sur .,vtp-off, obably." pr "Well let me know so our stories'll match."

21 I will. The radio crackled and Roads pulled his receiver from his pocket.

'Roads." "SiO" It was Komalski. "Something just went by us, but we're not sure what. It looked like it was heading Your way." A Roads was instantly alert. "Where was it?" "Corner of North-East and Murdoch Lane.

Barker z @',,@"artd Sti son saw somet A,t hing pa.s.s over their heads. They ,think it might have been someone on the rooftops."

anks for the "Okay, we'll keep an eye out. Th -warning.

Giving, the receiver to Barney, Roads signalled to the three officers in the van a nd relayed the information. The five of them spread out in an expanding circle from the car.

Barney touched the rea.s.suring weight of her sidearm and studied the darkened street. Windows stared blindly back at her; narrow alleyways gaped like open pits.

34Behind her and to her left, Roads turned slowly in a full circle, peering into every shadow. The seconds ticked by, until Roads suddenly froze. "There!" he hissed, pointing.

Barney caught a flicker of movement in an alley twenty metres away. Roads took off toward it, and she followed him, the other officers not far behind.

Fumbling for the radio, Barney shouted orders while she ran.

Roads was halfway up the alley before she even reached it. "s.h.i.t." Nuggets of fallen concrete threatened to trip her. "Phil -wait!"

But Roads had already turned left at the end of the alley and disappeared.

When she reached the intersection, he was gone altogether. Even the sound of his footsteps had faded.

The three officers burst from the alley behind her. "Split up," she told them, and picked a side street at random. She could see no-one, nor anything to suggest that Roads had been that way recently. The streets, still damp after the rain, were empty.

Reinforcement arrived, in the form of Komalski and two other men, and the search widened. Barney chose another side street and followed it to its end.

Apart from a feral cat looking for food sc.r.a.ps in the gutters, she found nothing. Stony-faced houses stared solemnly back at her, any one of them potential harbour for a fugitive. The clicking of her soles echoed on cracked pavement as she followed another lane back to Old North Street. The flashing light of a second RSD van strobed the area in blue: more back-up had arrived.

She thought of Raoul's cold eyes reflecting the blue from the safety of 114, and repressed a shiver.

Heading back into the maze, she recalled the officers a.s.sisting her.

36-.

ped. thing?" she asked when they had regrou i; a trace," said Komalski. The heavy-set cop was ng. [email protected] Of Roads, or anyone. Any idea who he was 0, 1 only caught a glimpse." She glanced nervously watch. "Where the h.e.l.l is h0" "Should we buzz HQ, get another squad? If we er the area 0, let9s give him a little longer. He'll have to come this way. Four of you, go back to the house and an eye out. Komalski, Vince, stay here with me."

[email protected] si Yes, ';@,'The minutes crawled by. Komalski eyed the, dark dings that surrounded them- "Do you think he's No. He'll be okay," she said as much to rea.s.sure rself as him. -The other officer c.o.c.ked his head. "Listen."

Footsteps approached. Barney tensed as the sound W,Srew nearer. The steps were unevenly paced, not Roads'

r pistol at the ready. ady plod. she held he IT' A shadowy figure stepped out from behind a fence ,jaot far from them. She almost took a shot at it, then, turning the reflex into a wave, flashed the torch to -attract its attention.

Waving back, Roads limped to join them. His breath came heavily, as though he had only recently stopped running. His trousers were torn, and a small amount of blood showed through the opening. "Are you okay?" asked Barney. "Been better." He came to a halt with an audible sigh. Barney offered him the receiver, which he put into a pocket with a sheepish expression. "Sorry to keep you all waiting. I'll take this with me, next time." "Good idea. Where did you get to?""I lost him four blocks down. He went up a ladder and onto the roof. I tried to follow, but the ladder collapsed when I was halfway up.- He winced, flexing his leg. "I don't think it was an accident. "Should we try and go after him?,, "No. He'll be miles away by now. He's one fast sonofab.i.t.c.h, that's for sure, "Was it the Mole?" "[email protected] someone else. Bigger." He tapped a b.u.t.ton on his overcoat. "It's lucky I had this. Didn't get a good look at his face, but I managed to tag his profile a couple of times. If the shots turn Out, we might be able to work out who it was, and if [email protected] relevant."

Barney nodded. Roads had maintained a longstanding dispute with RSD supplies for the disguised camera. Miniaturised equipment was at a premium, of course, but he had argued that on occasions the right tools were a necessity, not a luxury. If he did get a good picture of the man he had chased, then the effort would have Proved worthwhile. "Could be a coincidence, You think?" she asked, following on from his last comment. "Maybe." He glanced up and down the street, as though making sure they were alone. "Komalski, go back and help secure the cordon. Vince, go with him. I don't want anyone else getting in.

Barney and I'll be at the house in a few minutes. 11 "Yessir." The two men iogged up the street and turned a corner.

When they were gone, Roads sighed again, this time in annoyance. "I was this close, Barney. I can't believe he got away so easily. @ She studied him closely, noting the bunched crow'sfeet and sweat on his brow.

@You can quit playing the tough guy now. It hurts, doesn't it?"

38.

sagged. "Like h.e.l.l. Want to have a took?" 'knelt and peeled back the ripped fabric. The was shallow but long, from the back of his knee ay down his lower leg. Blood seeped steadily it. She brushed away dirt with her fingers and used It to clean the rest.

handed her a handkerchief without looking Wn, arid she covered the gash as best she could. As as she found his phobia, she had to feel pathy for him. A cop afraid of blood was like a .91, Ton afraid of sharp knives. She stood, wiping her hands on her coat. "There. Nothing serious. All you need is a teta.n.u.s shot and @@'[email protected]'ll be right as rain." "Thanks, Barney. I owe you one." "One ",hat?"

He sinlicd, obviously back to his old self. "That's up to y 0 U She was about to reply when the streetlights suddenly came on. Pale yellow light, too weak to dazzle but bright enough to illuminate, flooded the suburb.

The road [it tip as though it were a stage and the two of them actors frozen in a tableau.

Barney stood, her words forgotten. His eyes caught Aers, and she stared back, fascinated by the grey swirls and patterns of his irises. Although he had the best 6yesight,of anyone in RSD - had she doubted it, the way caught sight of the man in the alley would have ronvince d her - the orbs themselves were rea.s.suringly Numan. Nice eyes, kind eyes, eyes a girl could fall for as an old friend had once said, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. They were even slightly bloodshot.

She shivered, remembering yet again the artificial lenses of Morrow's consultant. If Roads had had eyes like Raoul, Barney doubted that she would have likedhim half as much as she did. Which was more than enough for the time being, maybe for both of them.

Roads broke the moment by reaching for a cigarette. The pale, short-lived flame sent shadows flickering across his eyelids and forehead. When he looked back at her, he smiled gently. "Want one?" he asked, offering her the pack.

She shook her head. Anti-cancer vaccine bred into tobacco plants had effectively made smoking a safe practice, but cigarettes were prohibitively expensive due to short supply. Maybe that explained Roads' involvement with Morrow: nothing more serious than blackmarket smokes. The thought came as something of a relief after her earlier fears. "Let's get back," he said. "We've got work to do." "Yes, boss." She took a deep breath to gather herself. "A thief to catch, et cetera." "And don't you forget it."

The short walk back to the house pa.s.sed in silence.

CHAPTER THREE.

0 a.m.

me suddenly, dissolving the claustrophobic Dawn ca 'thickness of the night and replacing it with a weak, orange sky. As it lightened further to yellow, then blue, Roads started to feel tired. The city was stirring at a time he was normally getting ready for bed. The thought depressed him, as it always did.

From his position by the patrol van, he watched as old solar sheets, most of them salvaged from abandoned buildings and pa.s.sed from owner to owner down the years, unfurled from windows and rooftops like silver banners. Old North Street looked as though it was about to receive a ticker-tape parade for celebrity robots.

Roads had to remind himself that this greeting of the dawn was a photovoltaic phenomenon, not a poetic gesture - and that it was a symbol of the fight for survival, not of the love of life. For every two or three solar sheets there lived one person unable, or unwilling, to pay for power. It was, like Kennedy itself, a reminder of everything that had been lost.

Barney emerged from 114, where she'd been helping Raoul catalogue the wreckage, looking as tired and dirty as he felt. Her clothes and hair were rumpled, and there were bags under her eyes."You look like s.h.i.t, Barney." "Ever the smooth talker." She came to join him by the van. "Top of the morning to you, too. "Any news?" he asked. "None that I'm aware of. But that's hardly surprising. Morrow's little friend is having a ball down there - too busy ordering us around to actually tell us anything."

Roads grunted, understanding her resentment. It hadn't been an easy decision to make, to approach Morrow for aid, but he'd only made it when every obvious avenue had been closed. just one set of new data would make the risk worthwhile - and justifiable, when the time came.

Even if Old North Street proved another dead end, there was still the data fiche Morrow had given them. Whether that proved to be a dead end too he wouldn't know until he managed to get access to a card reader. 111Xt the rate the current investigation was going, that wasn't likely to be until late that afternoon.

Roads wasn't by nature a fatalist, but on mornings like this, after a night of insufficient sleep, reality was sometimes hard to fight. There was no denying the past, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it; the present had its own perils, and the future promised nothing but uncertainty. He felt as though he had been trapped in amber for the last forty years - secure in the knowledge that nothing could get in, but increasingly conscious that he was unable to get out.

He grimaced. The metaphor was one that came to mind whenever he thought about Kennedy. "Are you okay?" asked Barney, peering at him.

He nodded. "Just tired." Like everytbing else, he added to himself.

The War had been both vicious and sudden - yet many forecasters had been predicting it for decades.

49.

ed environmental disturbances early in the -first century had led to crop failures and water ges, exacerbated by pollution of what little ces there were available. As new diseases and old ared in countries barely able to feed their many ns, let alone heal them, many regimes had turned I-nce in order to quell uprisings of people educated b. Internal better by the World-Wide We e civil war, or encouraged inction had becom n from without, while affluent countries had Itinued to pay lip-service to the United Nations. An dy inequitable distribution of resources and justice worsened - until finally the pressure became too .The first atomic bombs exploded in anger for almost hundred years burst a symbolic dam. Fighting opted overnight in South Africa, South America, tern Europe, Indonesia and China - the countries ace-keepers in need of resources. United Nations pe st re fired upon and executed in defiance of one last rt to restore order. Mediation was seen as interY,,,Vention, and prompted violent backlashes. Fighting read to the Middle East and Europe. Soon, no continent was free from conflict.

Refugees - and invaders - poured into the United States of America, IWestern Europe and Australia. The border between the Vnited States and Mexico was pelted by missiles launched from the Alpha-2 s.p.a.ce Station - the first time war had ever been conducted from s.p.a.ce - but sophisticated weaponry had little effect against sheer numbers. When Alpha-2 was finally shot down by a ground-based laser in Argentina, the southern defences of the United States began to crumble.

Around that time, five years after the beginning of the War, the Dissolution began. In the United States, itcoincided with the recall of the Armed Forces to halt widespread looting in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and a dozen other major cities. Whole battalions refused orders to fire on civilians, or simply rebelled against their superiors. Simultaneously, the internal revolt which had been building for a century reached flashpoint. Armed demonstrators stormed the Pentagon, and the new President disappeared in the process of evacuating - or, as some believed, retreating to a more secure stronghold to leave the fringes to battle it out among themselves.

The fighting lasted a further five years, in which time the army itself disintegrated. Local governments formed and fell in violent clashes that tore the Union to tatters. Gangs of predatory nomads spread from town to town, pillaging for food rather than working for it themselves. In the anarchic chaos that enveloped North America, anyone with even the slightest advantage was either a beloved ally or a feared enemy.

Kennedy had survived the Dissolution purely because it was designed to be as self-sufficient as possible. The city had remained able to feed, house and heal its million-odd citizens when crops failed or were left to rot unharvested outside, or when threatened by the many diseases that rocked the collapsing United States. At first the Mayoralty had welcomed refugees with open arms; later, with a population inflated to five million people and several million more storming its walls, it had been forced to adopt a harder policy. It had closed its doors, physically and metaphorically, purely to remain a viable enclave of civilisation.

Isolation had saved it from the worst of the Dissolution. Reversing that policy was not just a matter of w iting a new clause in the Mayoralty's Const.i.tution, but rewriting the entire city's psyche.

V: ds himself felt it. Even though he agreed with the milationists - who believed that the arrival of an from the Reunited States, six weeks ago, couldn't come at a better time - the thought of living t walls around the city bothered him. He had used.to isolation, and the illusion of safety it That was why the conservative members of the I that had held the upper hand ever since the War been reluctant even to acknowledge the nce of the RUSA. Only at the last moment, when it e clear that the envoy wasn't going to take no for answer, had they backed down and allowed otiations to take place. "'And now, if one believed the rhetoric, all the city's blerns would soon be solved. General Stedman and convoy were due in a matter of days, and Kennedy uld join the Reunited States of America within a nth, at least as a partner if not as a member. Trade utes would open, allowing an influx of resources the y desperately needed. People would be able to leave I*nd enter at will - maybe not at first, but certainly in a few [email protected],vqth years. And if all went well, within a generaK" '.

e,@I',tion or two the damage caused by the Dissolution would ',be erased forever.

If all went well ... Roads wasn't so naive as to believe that it would "'happen s o easily, but he was certainly a long way from the a.s.sa.s.s in's point of view - who had killed, and would certainly kill again, in order to prevent it happening at all.

Eventually the vividness of the day became too much for him. "My turn to help out, I guess," he said. "Just get a straight answer out of him," Barney said, "and you'll have done well."He entered the house and descended the steps to the cellar like a vampire returning to its crypt.

The scene was one of organised turmoil. Raoul, still wearing dark-tinted gla.s.ses to hide his eyes, sat on a desk and directed the efforts of the four officers he had been a.s.signed. As they rummaged through boxes and cupboards, he wrote down the serial numbers of any parts they found. If the part had no number, he wrote a brief description of what it appeared to be instead. Once each part had been catalogued, it was returned to its original place. Without a genuine reason, RSD was unable to impound the contents of Morrow's underground operation. "How's it going, Raoul?"

The black man looked up from his hand-held terminal. "Slowly. Give us a few more hours, and we'll have the first list ready for you. Then another hour to run it through the inventory." "What about the "I've patched a link through to the Head. He's scanning the system now. An hour, tops." "Good."

Roads stepped gingerly to a pile of electronic components and studied them thoughtfully. "What exactly was this place?" "None of your business." Raoul added another number to the list and looked away.

Roads didn't press the point. "Phil?" Barney's voice floated down from the floor above. "Yes? "Call from HQ." "On my way."

He took one last look around before heading back up the stairs. Barney was waiting for him at the top. "Can't help bad timing." She gave him a mobile phone. "It's Chappel."

hi, Margaret," he said into the phone. "To what owe the pleasure?" od morning, Phil." Her voice was crisp and y-ironed; he hated her for sounding like that. "This than just a social call, I'm afraid. We need you at e. ow? I'm a little tied up 1e MSA has requested your presence for a meeting f an hour. You don't have any choice, I'm afraid."

ds cursed automatically. -d.a.m.ned soldiers." He hed for a cigarette. "Always sticking their nose in."

ing business, unfortunately," said @,@,,And mean ppel. "Time's running out on us."

t it." He dragged deeply on the smoke, Tell me abou whing the bridge of his nose. "Okay, Margaret, I'll be ASAP. _-,,@,:"Good. I'll make sure there's coffee ready," she lied, and cut the connection. He gave the phone back to Barney. "What is it.

she asked, noting the expression on his face. "Some military bigwig wants a bulls.h.i.t session.