Chapter #24The Doppelganger by: Seuzz   "We have to know what he knows, Will," Rosalie says. Joe helps as she lowers herself into a chair. He puts his hand on her belly, and she rests her hands over his. "We have to know what this 'Dark Stars' project is."
"When's the baby due?" you ask.
"Four weeks. And don't change the subject. Nash says it's the only way."
"I know lots of ways of changing the subject," you retort. "Cuthbert needs visiting." Rosalie sighs. "Father Ed should be here," you say. "He'd have an opinion."
"He has lots of opinions. But I've only got one on this subject."
"So you're ordering me to do it."
"I'm not ordering you to do anything, Will. I'm just telling you my opinion."
You need to think, so you cross over to the room's hospitality bar. To your chagrin, you find that Rick has already cleaned it out. "I could try getting his imago again," you say.
"Definition of insanity, Will," Joe says. "His coma's too deep, you told us. Nothing there to copy."
"So there wouldn't be anything there to copy afterwards," you reply.
"Don't be dense," Joe says.
"Honey," Rosalie says in a mild rebuke. "I think I know what you're worried about, Will. It's not just that you'd be unlocking a new sigil. You're wondering what we'd do with Lynn-Keyes's doppelganger after we moved it to Maria's hospital and revived it."
"The doppelganger would be a him, Rosalie," you snap. "Not an it. So what would we do with him afterward?"
"We'd release him, of course, after giving him a new identity, so Fane couldn't track him. And some induced amnesia, so he wouldn't run back to them."
"You'd have to move fast, Will," Joe says. "Fane might try finishing the job he started."
"Fane," you mutter. Hal, you silently add. Crazy-ass Bolshie. If only he hadn't busted in on the senior VP of accounting at Fane-Lustdorf and frightened him into swallowing a tumbler of poison. Lucky it only sent him into a deep coma instead of killing him outright. But it should have been a job for you. You were unavailable, though; and Hal says the confrontation was an accident. Like that's an excuse: Hal Swann's technique is nothing but managed chaos and accident.
You go to the window and look out at Zurich. Rosalie shouldn't be traveling, not in her condition. That she flew out here, to be on the scene, tells you how important she thinks it is.
But keeping your sigils locked is important to you. And this one is very important, for you've no idea what's on the other side. Even Nash, in examining the Libra Personae, which contains the originals of the sigils you use, hasn't been able to penetrate farther than this one.
One that creates exact duplicates of human beings. No masks involved.
You look at Rosalie and Joe. They are very precious to you. You would hate to lose them, or any of your colleagues. The temptation to make "back ups" of them is strong. Terribly wrong too, you know. There should only be one way to make life. The old-fashioned way that Joe and Rosalie are using.
"Meditate on it, Will," Rosalie says. "I'll accept your decision."
"No, I've already accepted yours," you say. "I'm just trying to figure out how to do it."
* * * * *
You carefully look over the paperwork, lifting your eyes several times to stare at the orderly; he looks blankly back. You chew your lip.
You have to make it look good, for there's a security camera in the hallway; and there's a camera because this is a prison hospital. Fane-Lustdorf had quickly filed charges against its ailing VP and bundled him into a secure facility. Maybe they just mean to keep him safe from the Stellae Errantes; maybe they mean to closet him away so they can quietly kill him themselves; maybe they mean to do both.
But Hal had hacked the system and found the guard duty roster, and you'd gotten into Bruno Gloor's apartment, knocked him out for 24 hours, and taken his place. You'd also filled out this paperwork yourself, so you know it's all correct. Still, you have to make it look good ...
Finally, you grunt with satisfaction, and gesture the orderly with the huge crate into Lynn-Keyes's room, and close the door on him. You rest your hands on your belt until there's a knock from within. "Aidez-moi, s'il vous plait?" the orderly asks from within.
You glance up and down the hallway, and go in.
The crate is open, showing a golem. The orderly hands you a pair of gloves, and grins. "You're having too much fun, Joe," you growl.
"Been ages since we've worked a job together. Just like old times, eh?"
You slip on the gloves, and put one hand on the golem and the other on Lynn-Keyes's forehead. "Does Rosalie know you're here? It's an awful risk, even with that camera up there knocked out."
"I'm taking this thing straight to the airport. Rosalie's already there. With Hal looping in new, faked footage--"
"Sure. Now shut up while I concentrate."
The twin sigils appear in your palms, and--
It's like an ocean sluicing through you. Everything that Kevin Lynn-Keyes has been and is pours through. You dip into it as it goes past. But it's a great flood, moving fast; you hope that's why you detect no mind and no memories. If all this has been for nought ...
After a minute the flood dwindles and stops. You open your eyes and look in the crate. Kevin Lynn-Keyes lies there too, eyes shut.
Joe dumps the container dirt onto his naked form. "Time to make the golem," he says in a sing-song.
You sigh again, bring up a different sigil, and turn the duplicate to stone. You then go back out; a few minutes later, Joe exits, pushing the resealed crate on its dolly.
Three days later, when you're back in London, Rosalie calls from Chapel Hill with news: the man in the hospital has died, but his frozen twin has arrived safely in Belem.
And two months later, you drop everything to join it when the call comes from Maria Cardoza's clinic. She's managed to revive the doppelganger.
* * * * *
"We've kept him sedated since waking him up," Maria says as you look down at the unconscious man. Despite his plumpness, there is a thin and drawn quality to his face. Not even Maria can correct for the wasting effects of a traumatic coma. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"No, it's the way I usually work with them." You feel your brow furrow, and tell yourself this time is no different from all the other times that you've pulled memories out of someone. But it is different: This man is alive only so you can rip a copy of his mind from him. For only about the hundredth time in the last few years, you wish Margaret were still alive.
After taking a deep breath, you put your hand to his forehead.
"Are they there?" Maria asks when you withdraw it.
"Yes," you say, and stare down at him. "Can you wake him up? I'm curious to talk to him."
"About what?"
"Anything? Nothing? Everything in between?" You don't amplify further, for you're not sure yourself what you're looking for, and with head bent withdraw to your own room, to study what you've taken from him.
You open up your laptop. The first order of business will be to get into his accounts, to see if they're still active, if nothing else. You launch the browser and navigate to the Fane-Lustdorf home page. There you stop. Bad idea to go straight in. You'll get Hal to do it through a backdoor; should be easy now that you have his credentials and passw--
A searing bolt of light and pain goes through your head; the world reels; and all goes gray.
You stagger up off the floor and check yourself over, inside and out. You swallow at what you find.
Kevin Lynn-Keyes's imago has shattered. The pieces--the information you want--is irretrievable.
* * * * *
"Then it's a dead end," John Reilly says. He's running the conference call, since Rosalie is in labor and Joe is with her. "Was it because you got it out of a doppelganger? It's very strange the double had a stroke and died almost simultaneously with what happened to you."
"Fane," Hal says from Zurich. "Must have put a bloody hex on him before Will copied him, make sure he kept shut up. And you say you got nothing, Will?"
"No more than you, Hal," you peevishly reply. "Why didn't you tell me you got into his account before it was erased?"
"Because there was nothing there. Cryptic notes, that's all. I was counting on you to interpret them."
"The account was the first thing I was going for. I was just leaning over to type in the password when it all exploded." You pause. "John, could they have put something on him to protect that password, to set off a stroke or a mind wipe if he thought of it?"
"There's things like it in theory. Killer yellow. A killion. Numbers or color shades or shapes or thoughts that, if apprehended, kill one instantly."
"If they wanted that kind of security," Hal snorts, "they wouldn't have let him use his daughter's name for a password."
"He used his daughter's name?" you echo.
"Yeah, found it in the mess I recovered."
You sink back: In thinking of Lynn-Keyes's password, you had to think of his daughter's name. The doppelganger died almost as soon as Maria woke it up. Was that its first thought on regaining consciousness? Of his daughter?
"Well, that settles one question I had," you say quietly. They ask you to clarify, but you don't.
To wake from this reverie: "The Boy from Before Everything, Part 2"   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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