Tony Ballantyne - Recursion

Red spoke up.

– The idea had occurred to me. It all depends how the capture was made, I suppose. It could be argued that we are part of Constantine’s mindset, albeit an artificially amplified part. Imagine a picture being taken, ostensibly of a flower, but capturing the image of a beetle crawling across a leaf in the same moment.

– And we’re the beetles? Thanks.

– You’re welcome. You understand the analogy. I’m not sure if it holds, but it is a theory, and a theory that is preferable to another that has occurred to me.

– What’s that?

– That we are not the original personality constructs. That we have been planted by the enemy to steer Constantine down the wrong path. I’m sure this has already occurred to you, Constantine?

Constantine grinned faintly despite himself. “Yes,” he muttered.

– So why give yourself away? asked Blue.

– You already know the answer to that, Blue.

– I know. Because the enemy knew that Constantine would figure out for himself the fact that we might be fakes, so by me raising the idea first, we gain credibility in his eyes. Well, I’ll tell you this, Constantine, I certainly feel real.

– Of course you do, answered Red, — but you may just have been programmed that way. You may be an AI designed to believe you are Blue, with only the slightest modification to twist you to the enemy’s purpose.

– Oh, I hate this. And all this doublethink is making me miss the concert…

– Well, it needed to be said. It may also explain why we’re not hearing from Grey. Maybe they’ve deactivated that personality after yesterday’s little exhibition.

“And maybe we are not in a computer simulation at all,” added Constantine, subvocalizing. “Maybe it’s just another bluff. Maybe the Watcher is trying to put us off.”

– That does sound plausible, said Blue.-Just listen to those clarinets. Nobody would deliberately simulate someone playing that badly, surely?

The concert ended and the meeting broke up in disarray, Constantine claiming that he needed to contemplate what had been said. Marion wasn’t happy. Only one more meeting was permitted. Constantine and Marion locked gazes for some time. Then the group was pulled apart by the random movement of the audience, Constantine joining a stream that swept him down the shallow carpeted stairs and out through a small door at the side of the hall. He walked in quiet contemplation, a ghost in the center of a colorful, chattering crowd discussing the concert.

They spilled out of the narrow doorway into the yellow evening. The disk of the sun could be seen across the empty plain, sinking beneath the horizon. The city of Stonebreak was slowing down, preparing for the transition to its night-time activities. Constantine slowed to a halt and allowed the crowd to divide itself and stream around him. A forgotten island in the middle of the homeward-bound traffic. The classical columns and entablatures of the concert hall stood behind him; before him lay the wide, flagged space of the fourth level.

– Look to your left, said Red.

Constantine did so. There was Mary Rye. She gazed at Constantine in blurred disbelief, then mumbled something.

– We penitents are all mixed up, translated Red, reading her lips.-What does that mean?

Constantine noted the bottle gripped firmly in her right hand. The hem of her green skirt was stained with something yellow. Constantine stepped toward her, but she shook her head, turned and began to lurch away in the other direction. She was quickly swallowed up by the remnants of the concert crowd.

“Mary!” called Constantine.

– She’s ignoring you, said Red.

“Thanks, Red,” muttered Constantine sarcastically. He began to run after her, pushing his way through the people. He couldn’t see her.

“Where’s she gone?” he muttered.

– Headed toward the elevators to the third level, answered Red.-Look to two o’clock.

Constantine saw her. She clutched her bottle as she scuttled across the flags, head low and shoulders hunched as if she was trying to make herself smaller. Constantine caught up with her and placed one hand on her shoulder.

“Mary,” he said. “What’s the matter?”

She turned to him, and her face was a picture of panic and fear.

“Go away, please,” she whispered. “They told me what they’d do if I tried to contact you again.” She waved the bottle in his face. “They gave me this when I promised not to speak to you.”

It was a good brand, noted Constantine. He felt a pang of real pity for this poor woman, driven further down the road to destruction by his supposed protectors. Mary turned and began to march away. There was a blur of movement and for a moment there were two Marys. One frozen before him, the other staggering toward the escalators. The pity inside Constantine evaporated instantly as he recognized what was happening. She wasn’t real. She was just part of the simulation in which he was trapped. He stepped forward, into the picture of Mary that remained smeared on the air before him, and the picture vanished as he moved within it. Poor old Mary. Just another object that wasn’t repainted properly.

Blue pointed it out as they waited their turn in the line for the elevators.

– I wonder why they’re running the Mary storyline for you? What are they trying to say?

Constantine walked all the way back to his hotel, stopping on the way for a meal in one of the cafes that seemed to appear suddenly as evenign fell. He ate sausages and sauerkraut with cold lager and then sat back with a large pot of coffee to listen to the conversation inside himself. Nobody was speaking. In the end he lost interest, paid the bill with his untraceable card and pushed his way back out into the warm night.

The floating building was parked outside his hotel. Its base hung only a couple of meters above the ground, the lit doorway of his hotel’s lobby shining through the gap. The top of the tower rose up into the night sky; there was a light shining from one of the windows in the higher floors. A dark figure seemed to move within, but Constantine couldn’t be sure. It was too far away to see clearly.

Jay was again leaning on her balcony, her arms folded on the rail as she watched Constantine approach.

He grinned up at her as he reached the base of the tower, reminded of Romeo and Juliet. Constantine rather liked this Jay. Her dark hair surrounded her thin face as she leaned over to look down at him and he noted again how much more vulnerable she looked in this incarnation.

“Hello.” Constantine smiled up at her.

“There’s something going on,” she replied, looking worried. “About three hours ago there was a rush of activity like I’ve never seen before.”

– When we saw Mary, suggested Red.

– Or when we were watching the concert. The time is too imprecise, said Blue.

– We need to know, continued Red.-You’ll have to ask her. We need to know what they’re after.

Constantine shook his head. He felt as if he was being nagged.

“I know, I know,” he muttered. He raised his voice.

“We need some help, Jay. We need to know what the enemy is trying to find out. We’re being tied in knots. We don’t know what to say or when to keep quiet. We need information.”

Jay shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer.”

“Very well. Ask DIANA. They must have some ideas.”

Jay slumped forward, elbows still resting on the railing. She looked thoroughly fed up.

“I can’t speak to DIANA.”

Constantine frowned. “I thought they were working on a way to get me out of here.”

Jay’s expression was a mixture of guilt and sadness. “Don’t you realize that the only reason that I can exist in this place is because I have no links with any other object inside the simulation?”