Master wu, p.31
Master Wu, page 31
She reflected on her problem. She considered slipping into a bubble and then realized she didn’t need to. An answer popped into her head. It was not perfect, but it was the best she could do with the time allocated. It was all in the packaging. If she had one real and eleven mockups, she just might get it past him. She had to package them so that only the real reader was easily accessible. Even so, she knew the mockups had to pass a cursory inspection by persons without the expertise to know the difference. She would set a date after she knew the entire plan. She had to inform Thurston of the shipping details tomorrow at dinner in SoCal.
A couple of hours later, she felt better. She decided her plan might work. Chloe was searching the planet for one of the mythical HCRs. It turned out that there was, in fact, a lab that had designed a prototype. They purported to have reduced scan time from many hours to under 10 minutes with a much higher degree of accuracy. The money for this research came mostly from private sources in the hopes of cashing in on the latest craze: to send your scan, along with your DNA, to the stars. As far as the world was concerned, no one had succeeded in transferring a scan into another brain, but they all lived in hope that someone, in the future, would do exactly that. After the discovery of the research on Biome 13, the WG was taking a much closer look at the ramifications. Who would ever volunteer to have their body stolen and their personality destroyed?
CHAPTER 40
Manipulation
The North American continent became one of the four major centers of science and technology. The countries of the century before were dissolved and reformed into areas with geographic and climatic similarities. These areas were not recognized by the World Government as separate entities, but the people who gravitated there seemed to have many things in common. The area west of the Rockies and Sierra Madres became Cal. It stretched from the 54th parallel in the north to the 15th parallel in the south. From the old city of San Francisco south was SoCal. The northern section became NoCal. Beyond that were the Wilderlands. The World Government allowed a reduced level of control in these areas. People who chose to live there were officially “off the grid.” The lack of social requirements was offset by the total lack of social benefits. People from the Wilderlands did not have any opportunity to find a seat on the biomes.
Dinner with Thurston was weighing on Jayne. She had taken on a role she was unsure she could pull off. All the sex stuff that Thurston and Winter had indulged in, in their original lifetime, she found alien and bizarre. Sex was not something in which she had any firsthand experience. She knew it was a topic that was going to come up after the business had been dealt with. She considered how she might deal with it. She had been suggestive with him on several occasions. He had once tried to get her clothes off at knifepoint and she had fought back. This little game she had been playing would have to escalate at the very least. Perhaps she could keep it from becoming something she felt she could not stomach. The teasing might continue a little longer, as long as it made him think that getting with her was about to become a reality. She needed a way to keep him on the hook without making him bleed too much. If she found herself in a situation she could not control, she might put herself in danger, not to mention ruin the whole plan. She had spoken to Rose and gotten some tips on dealing with aggressive men, but they were of little help. Rose’s first recommendation was not very useful.
Jayne could hear Rose’s voice in her head, “If he tries anything, just kick him in the nads.”
Jayne had responded with, “Nads. What and where are nads?”
This brought Rose to her knees with laughter as she clarified, “Gonads, balls, nuts, cojones or their formal name: testicles. Just savate kick him between his legs as hard as you can. Hell, you might be able to end it right there. He would be rolling on the ground, and you could call in the Calvary.” She grinned and stroked her chin. “Or maybe you could drug him. Put a drop of something in his drink. Or carry a hypo injector strapped to your inner thigh, hot spy-chick style.
Jayne flushed again at her naïveté. She didn’t think that any of these options would work. If she could call in reinforcements, so could he. Pincet would scan him at the bistro, and she assumed he would scan her, so drugs or hypo injectors and any sort of physical altercation might very well ruin everything. She had finally decided, if it came down to it, she would let him see some of her but not touch her. She would somehow signal her VID to call her with an emergency. She needed a plausible way to leave the situation without arousing suspicion. She knew that arousing him sexually might give her the edge when it came to his capture. Thoughts of sex, she had read, could often cloud a man’s judgment. She needed him to have a cloudy mind. “Hell,” she thought as images of Rafferty and Spike entered her head, “those kinds of thoughts can cloud anyone’s mind, even mine.” A mental grin carried the thought further. “Especially mine.”
She initiated the new facebot bandage program that appeared in her VID and morphed her face into young Winter’s face. She looked at herself and was amazed at how well the bots worked. The skin of her face was paler than her own, but it blended perfectly into the rest of her. The eyes were not like the eyes that the old Winter possessed. Those were green. But, as Jayne suspected, they were not original. Winter was born with dark eyes. Jayne was truly a perfect doppelgänger for young Winter. She knew that this was going to impress Thurston. She could not wear Sergio. The suit could look like an entire ensemble, but it could not behave like one. What she had to do might require certain pieces of clothing to be compromised.
They met at an upscale bistro in Berkeley.
Jayne did not sense that anyone suspicious was lurking. Her people, especially Spike, had checked out the entire block surrounding the restaurant once he knew the location. At a brief meeting, Jayne demanded that everyone back off and let her handle the meeting.
“He is not going to kidnap me. He won’t want to make me angry. I am in a position to provide him with something he wants. Do not do anything. Follow the plan. When or if I send a signal, Rose will send an emergency message that requires I leave. If, for some reason, I do not confirm that message, then, and only then, will you swoop in and rescue me. Is that clear?”
There was a reluctant agreement from everyone.
Thurston was sitting at a small table. A glass of wine was waiting for her. He was sipping his. Jayne looked closely at this new body. It was attractive, Jayne admitted. His dark hair fell over one eye, adding a bit of mystery to what it might be like to brush it aside and kiss him. Jayne shook the thought from her mind. She walked closer to the table.
“Have you been waiting long?” she asked.
“Not long,” he said a bit quizzically and stood. Jayne saw his eyes swell open, as if they were trying to see what they were seeing more clearly. “My god, Winter, you look… you look…” He seemed unable to finish his sentence.
Jayne stepped nearer to the table. She said, “Close your mouth, William, and sit down.”
She sat as he faded into his chair. Jayne touched her fingertips together in a downward angle under her chin and pursed her lips, Kewpie doll-like. “I see you like the new look. I thought you might. I did it especially for you.” Jayne knew that those words were the absolute truth. She had done it for him, but not for the reasons he was now fantasizing about.
He finally got out what he wanted to say, “You look just like the first time we met. You had just gotten your doctorate, and I was just presenting my first paper on brain scan recordings. You sat in the first row. As I recall, you were especially naughty. You tried to distract me by…” He shook his head as if the memory was just too delicious to indulge in at this particular moment.
“I don’t remember,” she said coyly. It was the truth. That memory was not one she got from Winter.
“Well, I do. It is one of my most favorite memories of you.” He picked up the daily menu sheet and asked, “What would you like to eat? This place has one of the highest ratings in all of SoCal.” They ordered, ate, and chatted.
He kept bringing up past encounters and she told him if she remembered or not. Most were not part of what she culled from Winter. Some of these she pretended to know to keep a reasonable balance and keep him from becoming suspicious. Where she did find a memory, she offered up deeply personal details only Winter could have known.
Finally, she decided it was time to get down to the main reason they were here. She opened with, “Do you want these new HCRs?”
His demeanor shifted. He was blunt. “Yes. I want them. Tell me when the shipment will arrive at the biome. Seven, if I remember from our last conversation.”
Jayne patted her mouth. “The ship will arrive at Biome 7 three days from now. I have made sure that an exit slot will be made available in their schedule once the shipping error is discovered. So it is scheduled to go in and leave within three hours. There is no exact time. You can hijack it whenever you see fit, going in or coming out. That is up to you.”
“How do I get into the package? Those things will be safely locked to specific personnel.”
“Yeah, I almost forgot.” Jayne took her VID out of her pouch and held it in front of Thurston’s eyes. “There. I will use your retinal scan to lock the container. Only you will be able to open it.”
“What about the landing codes for Biome 6. Have you got them yet?”
“No. I will tell you when I get them. Stop being so impatient,” she stood. “Well, now that bit of business is done, I must be on my way.”
He jumped to his feet. “You can’t leave now.” He moved to her side and put a hand under her forearm. “Let’s go somewhere where we can get reacquainted. I have a room upstairs. I keep a few places just for special events like this. It is equipped with state-of-the-art security. No one will be able to disturb us.”
“A special event. I am a special event? Wow.”
She allowed him to lead her to a small PUT alcove at the back of the restaurant. He tapped her VID, and they both appeared on a personal PUT in the ante room of an opulent apartment.
“Sit anywhere you like. I will get us something to drink. I have a very special liqueur imported from the moon. It is called Lunatic Blue. They tell me it is distilled from some sort of fungi found only in caves on the dark side. They say it has a few hallucinogenic properties. Want to try some?”
“I like to keep my wits about me, so am going to decline your offer.”
Thurston poured two glasses. One had only a very small amount of the liqueur and the other was filled to the brim. “I insist that you at least taste it.”
He took a sip from the full glass before he started to walk across the room. “Don’t want to spill any. This stuff costs a fortune in credits.” He handed the drink to her. “Be a considerate guest and stick your tongue out and taste it.” This time, it was almost an order.
Jayne smiled. “Perhaps it will dull whatever I have to do next,” she thought and drank the liqueur. It was sweet and strong. She coughed a little.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he said and moved to her. He sat beside her. “I want us to be close like we used to be. Is there any possibility of that?”
Jayne felt him challenging her to show mutual trust.
“William, of course, we can,” said Jayne with an external calm that did not betray her inner turmoil.
She walked across the room and stood beside a small table. She was wearing a vest with lacing down the front over the top of a white blouse. Her skirt was short, with a pouch on one hip. Her shoes were flat sandals. Everything was chosen with a purpose in mind. If she was to remove clothing, it must take time. She needed him to see that she was willing. She unhitched the pouch at her waist and turned her back to him. She set the pouch on the table and at the same time signaled Rose that a fake emergency message was required in fifteen minutes.
She turned back to him and began to unlace the vest one hole at a time, staring back at him with a little smile on her face.
He never took his eyes off her hands. Once the entire lace was removed, she folded it in half and half again. The vest hung open. She held out one of her hands and whipped the other with the strands of the lace-like a cat-o’-nine-tails. She could see him blink with every strike. She dropped the lace so it unfolded with her still holding it in the middle. She put the lace between her teeth and let it dangle.
She started to unbutton the bottom button of her blouse. Her mind was going crazy at this point. She had never had to wear a bra and wasn’t wearing one now. “Stupid,” she thought, “that would have given me at least another couple of minutes.” All she could think about was the emergency call. She undid another button and smiled her sexiest smile. He must not suspect that she would rather slit her wrists than let him see her naked. Two buttons remained. She undid another.
She watched his tongue flick out to the side of his mouth in concentrated anticipation. She was at the last button and did not break up the flow. She prayed for the call had to come now. She had no idea what to do next. He would expect her to open her blouse. She sensed his muscles tensing. He was going to get up and rush to her the moment her breasts were exposed. She quickly turned her back on him, undid the last button, pulled up the tails of her blouse and tied them in a knot that covered her navel. She then doubled the knot and spun around.
She put her hands on her head. His tension was almost palpable.
“Patience, William,” she purred.
He relaxed and eased down into his chair.
She thrust out her chest and pirouetted so that her skirt flared out, giving William a glimpse of her underwear.
“Do you like what you see, William?” she pouted but did not wait for an answer. “It is your turn now. Stand up and take off your shirt.”
It was not a request. This Jayne did remember. Winter did not request such things, she ordered them. Jayne ordered now. “I said stand up, William, and take off your fracking shirt.”
He followed her order as quickly as he could and stood there waiting as if he wanted another order, as if another order was the only thing in his life that held meaning. It was apparent that the liqueur was affecting him. His eyes were glazed.
Jayne reached down and picked up the lace she had dropped. She doubled and redoubled it in her hand. She noticed his breathing become shorter. She waved the lace provocatively in front of her.
“Turn around.” She whispered her order this time, and he turned his back on her. Jayne took the moment to move back to the table and stare at her VID. She confirmed that she had sent the message. Where was the response? “Please god, call me and get me out of here,” she begged in her mind.
She turned back to Thurston. He was about to turn around and see what she was doing. She yelled at him, “Don’t you dare look, you maggot.”
She stepped forward, raised the laces, and whipped them across his back as hard as she could. Thurston moaned. Jayne raised the makeshift whip again. The lash struck him across the back a second time. It left red welts. He moaned louder and at the same time, her VID sounded an emergency tone.
She saw that Thurston was about to turn around. She let him. She moved to her VID and picked it up. She glanced at the screen and forced a pained expression onto her new face. “Frack! I have to go.”
She was not going to give him any further explanation. She returned her pouch to her waist, picked up her vest and tossed the lace whip into Thurston’s face. “Alright, you worm, I have an emergency to attend to. If I don’t go right now, I won’t get those Biome 6 codes. Flagellate yourself with that. I want to see some near bleeding welts on that pretty back of yours the next time I see you. Do you understand?”
“Where are you going?” he asked meekly.
Jayne channeled her inner Winter and strode over to him, slapped him hard across the face. “Shut the frack up and do what you are told.”
She took out her VID and stepped on the PUT. Nothing happened. She looked at him and frowned.
“Sorry. Just a precaution,” he said and stepped over to a panel on the wall. He touched something and the PUT activated.
The sense of relief accompanied by a wash of nausea enveloped her as she stepped into the waiting shuttle. She was glad she did not try to take Thurston in the apartment. Things would have gone very wrong.
“How did it go?” asked Rose.
Jayne answered by falling into her arms and sobbing. She lifted her head. “It was horrible. I don’t think I can play Winter too much longer. She was a horrible, horrible woman. And he is her perfect mate.”
CHAPTER 41
More Plans
There were strict rules in place that governed the immigration of persons from the Wilderlands into society. Anyone who wanted to join the world in its effort to save itself from destruction had to go through a stringent process requiring extensive vetting and sponsor support. They were also required to become a contributing member. This usually entailed getting an education. Persons who went through this process and took advantage of these benefits but refused to give back had their rights and identity removed. They would be required to pay back all the benefits they had obtained by working in an internment camp. The rules were religiously adhered to.
Leaving the biome and going to live in the Wilderlands was easier. If you made it out there, no one was going to chase you. However, you would never be able to return.
The next three days were frenetic for Jayne, the Greenway Group, and Biome Central. They met in the underwater facility. It was decided to keep the operation to themselves. Sharing with the WP would complicate matters. There would have to be a meeting to decide the process of the operation. It would be easier and better to ask for forgiveness for not informing them, rather than asking for their permission.
