Jack Chalker - Cerberus - A Wolf in the Fold

“I know. Even I didn’t think of that, which shows how paranoid he really is. And damn it, they’re so stinking real! Bogen, Merton—they were real people. Natural, Understandable. They looked, talked, acted just like normal people.” I shivered a bit. “My God! No wonder they haven’t found a defense against these things!”

“So now what do we do?” she asked.

I sighed. “We relax, get some sleep, and find out if we still wake up in the morning.”

We did wake up and were served an excellent breakfast to boot. It was a good sign. After we ate, dressed, and cleaned up a bit we were summoned back down to the lab. Laroo had not changed bodies and was alone now, except for Merton, Bogen, and a figure we both recognized.

“Sanda?” Dylan called.

She saw us and smiled. “Dylan! Qwin! They told me you were here! What’s this all about? I don’t remember anything since I went to sleep last night back in Medlam.”

Dylan and I both suddenly froze, the same idea in our heads, and Sanda, sensing something wrong, stopped too, her face falling and looking a little puzzled. “What’s the matter?”

I turned to Laroo. “You did it anyway.”

She shrugged. “She was here, prepped and available. We decided to see if Dr. Merton’s process would work from what we took off of you.”

“I gather it didn’t, or we wouldn’t still be here,” I noted.

Sanda looked genuinely bewildered. “Qwin? Dylan? What’s all this about? What are you talking about?”

“That’s quite enough, Sanda,” Laroo told her wearily. “Go report to housekeeping on the third level.”

Suddenly Sanda’s manner changed. She forgot about us and her bewilderment, turned to Laroo and bowed. “As you wish, my lord,” she said, then walked out. Our eyes followed her in stunned amazement.

“How does it work, Laroo?” I asked. “I mean, what does the programming we’re canceling say?”

“You don’t know? Basically it states that you love, admire, worship, or whatever whoever gives you the activation code, and that you wish to serve only the wishes of that person or that person’s designated agents. It’s sort of an emotional hook, but it’s unbreakable. They genuinely love me.”

“Surely you don’t activate all of them yourself!”

“Oh, no. But if one of my own robots is the activator, it works out to the same thing, you see. Complicated, though. Takes a computer to remember who loves whom.”

“Well, I gather your process doesn’t work in recording, anyway,” I said, relieved, then turned to Dylan. “Don’t worry about Sanda. She’s still all there. She’s just finally in love with somebody else.”

Laroo sighed. “Well, we’ve done what we could. Merton assures me that the language is still gibberish. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t record and work—but it doesn’t. We tried it out not only on Sanda but on three others, varying various factors. It didn’t work with any of them. I sadly have to admit that I need you,”

Back to my move, I thought, and thank you, Dr.Dumonia or whoever.

“Ready now to take the plunge yourself?” Dylan asked Laroo.

She nodded. “But I’ll need a half-hour or so in prep. However, I want to warn you—both of you. Any funny business, anything wrong with my programming, even accidentally— anything —and you won’t live a moment. My robots will tear you to pieces, slowly.”

“There won’t be any double-cross,” I assured her. “We have some stake in this ourselves, remember. We’re the only two people who can’t become those robots—and as such, we need you for new bodies at the proper time. It’s an even trade.”

“It better be.” It was that little girl’s voice, but that same threatening tone was there.

We waited anxiously for the prep.

To our surprise, the body Laroo had chosen was rather nondescript. Average in almost all respects—civilized world standard, male, nothing exceptional, wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. ”

“Still, it makes sense,” I told Dylan. “The last thing he wants is to attract attention to himself.”

“It’s not too bad,” Dylan said critically. “Looks a little like you, really.”

“Thanks a lot.”

In a short time the girl’s body was wheeled in by Bogen and the two attendants, and off into the back room. We wasted no time at all giving the jolt to the selected body on the helmet machine, and watched that body get the same hand-truck treatment to the back.

I spent the time looking around the lab, asking Merton a few mane and useless questions and taking in what I could. Something bothered me. Laroo had given in too easily, even considering the stress. Particularly after last night. Something just felt wrong. It was a while, though, before I figured out what it was and whispered to Dylan. “Another trick. Don’t fall for it”

She frowned and whispered back so low I could barely hear, “How do you know?”

“Those were cameras up there yesterday, I’m sure. Now they’re laser cannons.”

“You sure they weren’t there before?”

“Sure. Otherwise they’d have used them on golden boy. They can track anything in the lab on those camera mounts.”

“So he switched during the night.”

“Uh-huh. Clever bastard, but hold tight. We got him.” His move. No countermove.

A little over an hour later they wheeled the body back out and went through the wakeup routine again. At least this time we held our ears when the cymbals clanged. The man on the table went through much the same experience as Samash had the day before, and when he jumped to the floor, he looked around wonderingly. “Well, I’ll be damned!”

Merton went up to him. “Activation Code AJ360,” she said to him.

The man paused, smiled, and shook his head. “Nope. There’s a little tingle when you say it, like something inside wants to be let out, but it’s suppressed, all right.” He sighed. “I can see now what Samash must have felt. Like a godl” He turned back to Merton. “You have no idea what it’s like—oh, of course you do. I forget. It’s—unbelievable!” He turned to us.

“Well,” he said, “it works. It really works! You have no idea of the power I feel. It’s almost a strain to slow myself down to your speed just to converse with you. Every cell in my body’s olivet. Alive and sentient! Sentient—and obedient! The power in each is phenomenal! Even I had no idea until now just how powerful and versatile these bodies were. And no pain! Every single body has some pain at all points after they’re born. We live in it. The rush of freedom—to be totally immune to it—is almost awesome!”

“I wonder, though—if these aliens are so smart, why did they allow this loophole to slip by?” I commented. It was a genuine question that really bothered me.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. That bothered me, too—but not now. Nothing,” he added darkly, “will ever bother me again. Nothing and no one.” He looked back at us. “Now, tell me. Give me one reason why I should allow either of you to live one moment longer.”

Dylan looked up at me questioningly, as if to ask, are you sure this isn’t Laroo?

“Trust me,” I whispered beneath my breath, then turned to Laroo once more—the fake Laroo, I was convinced. “Insurance,” I told him aloud, hoping his superior hearing would mistake her glance and my comment for reassurance and nothing more sinister. “Remember Samash. And that robot they caught in Military Systems Command. Hard to kill—yes. Superior? Yes. But immortal? No. Not only that, but I think I know, or can at least guess, the alien’s insurance policy.”