Alex Scarrow - City of Shadows

‘Shadd-yah!’ Sal muttered under her breath.

Liam looked at her. The one eye of hers not hidden by her looping fringe had suddenly widened with realization. She seemed to have some inkling of what Maddy was talking about. ‘What, Sal? What’s she mean by that?’

‘We’re not who we thought we were, Liam,’ said Maddy.

‘Not who we…’ His brows locked. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Your life is just a lie, Liam… a story,’ said Maddy. ‘Fiction.’

‘Maddy? What happened?’ asked Sal.

Maddy laughed. More a wet snort of snot mixed with tears. ‘They obviously didn’t expect we’d come looking for the truth. Why would they?’ She took her glasses off and wiped at her eyes. ‘I mean, Foster made such a big thing of it, didn’t he? That we should be dead already… that this extra life was like a bonus or something. A gift.’

Liam nodded. Of course he had. The old man made no bones about that. There’d been a choice right at the end of their old lives: not much of a choice admittedly, but a choice nonetheless. He could have gone down with the Titanic if he’d wanted, but he’d chosen to join Foster.

‘We all chose it, Maddy,’ said Liam. ‘Right at the end, when he saved us all.’

She laughed. A miserable, choking sound. She shook her head. ‘But that’s the point! We didn’t!’

‘Didn’t?’ Liam hadn’t a clue what she was talking about. ‘Yes, I did. I chose to — ’

‘No… no, you didn’t,’ said Sal quietly. Nodding. She understood now. ‘Or me… I didn’t either.’ Her one visible eye was beginning to spill glistening tears on to her dark cheek.

‘Ah Jay-zus! You crying too? What’s up with you both? Why’re you crying? What is goin’ on here? ’

‘None of us chose to join this agency in the last moments of our lives, Liam,’ said Maddy. ‘Because none of that ever happened.’

Sal’s head dropped, her face dipped out of sight. He could see her shoulders heaving gently. He looked around. The only other person here who seemed utterly bewildered by all of this was Rashim. He offered Liam a sympathetic shrug that seemed to say, I got no idea what they’re talking about either.

‘Our memories, Liam… everything we thought were memories of our lives before the archway, before we were recruited…’ Maddy’s chin dimpled as fresh tears streamed down her face. ‘Everything. My home, my mom, my dad, my school, my job… they’re all lies. They’re phoney.’

‘Information: memory implants.’ Even Bob seemed to have an understanding of what she was saying now.

Maddy nodded. ‘Faked memories. Our lives are just made up. I never lived in Boston. Sal never lived in India. And you…’ Her voice faltered. ‘Oh, Liam, you never came from Ireland.’

‘But…’ Liam bit his lip. ‘But I’m from Cork! I know I am! I’m… that’s… what kind of nonsense do you think you’re — ’

‘We didn’t come from those places. We never lived there; we never even set foot in any of those places.’

‘Whuh?’

‘I get it.’ Sal’s soft voice drifted up through the drooping curtain of her hair. ‘We came right out of three giant test-tubes.’

Maddy nodded. She reached out and rested a hand on Sal’s shoulder. A reciprocated gesture of comfort.

‘Do you get it, Liam? Do you see?’ said Sal. ‘We’re support units.’

2055, W.G. Systems Research Campus, near Pinedale, Wyoming

‘Can I trust you, Joseph?’

Joseph Olivera lurched. That question came right out of nowhere and caught him entirely off guard. Waldstein was standing beside him in the lab, seemingly emerging from thin air.

‘Wh-what? Yes! Of… of course, Mr Waldstein.’

A long, uncomfortable moment.

‘I’m so very sorry about what happened to Frasier. He was the closest thing to a friend I have.’ He shrugged. ‘ Had.’ He sighed. ‘God, I’ve known him for nearly ten years.’

Joseph swallowed compulsively. He had the suspicion that an aura of guilt was glowing around him: a scintillating sparkle of betrayal giving away his secret intentions to Waldstein’s deep penetrative gaze.

‘The argument the other day… I’m sorry you had to see that. That was unfortunate. I wish Frasier and I hadn’t fought like that. I…’ Waldstein looked away. ‘And I truly wish that hadn’t been the last time we spoke.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘But he had doubts, Joseph. Doubts about this project. Even if that awful attack on the road hadn’t happened to him, he would have had to leave us.’

Joseph nodded.

‘You know, I’ve been thinking it would be a sensible precaution to deposit some more pre-growth embryos back in the San Francisco drop point.’ Waldstein nodded to himself. ‘Yes, we should arrange that. As soon as is possible. Get some ready to transport.’

‘Go back there? Again? Are you sure?’

‘I know, Joseph. It’s risky. But I suspect they’re going to get through more support units than I originally anticipated. You know… when we were setting up the 2001 team, I was half convinced they’d never actually be needed — that they’d be just sitting there kicking their heels. That I was overreacting, being paranoid. Worrying too much about other time travellers out there wanting to destabilize our timeline!’ He shook his head. ‘I realize now maybe I wasn’t paranoid enough!’

‘Yes, sir.’ Joseph checked their inventory on the holo-screen in front of him. There were two dozen embryos on ice: part of the batch being readied for the US military’s field-testing programme. ‘How many would you want me to prepare?’

‘Let’s give them half a dozen. Maybe send them some of both types of hybrid; the heavy-duty model and the female recon model. Might as well give them a few of each.’

Listed on the screen were the other clones, who were nothing at all to do with the US military. ‘What about the pure-clone models? The Madelaines, Liams… the Saleenas?’

Waldstein gave it a moment’s thought. ‘No… if we send back pre-growths of themselves they’ll know what they are. We were very lucky with that first team. Very lucky that the Liam unit played along with us and kept the new team from finding out what they are.’

‘It’s part of his programming. He’s loyal. Duty oriented. That’s his personality template.’

‘But even with your programming, Joseph, they’re not a hundred per cent reliable, are they?’

Joseph shrugged. ‘They have the capacity for independent will. That’s what makes them better — ’

‘- tactical decision-makers, I know. But when all’s said and done, unlike the military hybrids, those three are just like real people, aren’t they? They’re like real kids. If they ever found out they were products? Good God, who knows what they’d do?’ Waldstein sighed. ‘I do sometimes wonder if what we’ve done is… a cruel thing: created three children who-never-were and then gave them this sort of burden. If that was me,’ he said, smiling sadly, ‘if I discovered that was my lot, I think I would almost certainly turn on my maker.’

Joseph nodded.

‘No, they’ll have to be on their own. We can’t send back pure-clone embryos. If it happens again — if another one of them dies…’ Waldstein shrugged. ‘Then I’m afraid they’ll have to work around that problem.’ He sighed. ‘There’s only so much we can do for them.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘So, if you could organize that? Prep some embryos and ready them for transport?’

‘Yes, of course.’

Waldstein looked out of the lab’s small window, a long moment of deliberation before he finally spoke again. ‘And I’ll take them back myself. But this has to be the last time we go back to assist them with supplies. The last time I go back. It’s getting too damned dangerous.’