Judy tilted her head. “That all depends.”
“On what?”
Judy looked at James. “The people who run this place know that their cover is blown. They’ll want to destroy the evidence. What happens now depends on whether
Helen licked her lips. “Do you think you will?”
Judy smiled and nodded. “I always do. We’ve been dealing with the Private Network for some time now. One of my digital alter egos is hot on the trail of Kevin-one of the Private Network’s leaders-right now. They won’t do anything to harm the simulation while he’s still in here.”
James slumped hopelessly into a corner of the room.
Helen gazed at Judy. “Digital alter egos? You’re going to have to explain that…”
Judy fingered the black sleeve of her kimono.
“There are twelve of us,” she said. “Twelve digital Judys. And then there is our other sister, living out in the atomic world. For the sake of convenience, I’m sometimes called Judy 3.”
“Judy 3?” said Helen.
“You can call me Judy.” She tilted her head, listened to her console, which was set in the form of the black rod threaded through her hair. “Here we are. My sister has just caught up with Kevin…”
Judy 4 stepped into the isolation room. Kevin was already here, struggling with Helen. Calypso, the woman who had booked the session in the trap, was lying on the floor, feebly trying to get up. Judy paused by the door, letting events run their course. As she watched, Helen slumped to the floor. Kevin noticed Judy and gave her a smile.
“Hello again,” he said. He nodded to Helen on the floor. “She’s very clever,” he said. “She grabbed hold of Calypso’s hands and rubbed the relaxant on me. She couldn’t know that the simulation is programmed to exclude me from the effects.”
Judy’s face was deliberately impassive.
“She’s very tenacious, Kevin. I’m really coming to admire her.”
“That’s why we pick her for the traps. Big favorite with a certain sort of man.” He looked down at Calypso. “And a certain sort of woman,” he added.
“Fk ff,” Calypso murmured.
Kevin rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. “I don’t seem to be able to exit from this space at all.”
“We’ve got your measure now,” Judy 4 said.
“I didn’t think that was possible.” Kevin frowned.
Judy pulled a little blue pill from the sleeve of her kimono and swallowed it.
“It is possible,” she said, “if we isolate the space completely. Nothing gets in and out now. Not even me.”
Kevin shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, well. There is still one way out.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Watch me,” whispered Kevin. His smile froze as he slumped slowly to the ground.
Judy 4 stared at him for a moment, her white face motionless. Only the slight widening of her black eyes displayed the horror she felt.
“Wht? Wht s it?” Calypso said. She was gazing up from the floor where she lay. “Wht dd he do?”
“What’s the matter, Judy?”
Helen leaned close to Judy 3 and took hold of one of her white hands. For something that seemed to be barely there, the hand felt very warm.
“Judy, what is it?”
“He killed himself,” she whispered. “Overwrote the personality space he inhabited with null events.”
James spoke up from his corner in a whining voice. “So what? Let him die. Who cares?”
Judy 3 turned and gave him a sweet smile. “
Helen moved her lips, thinking aloud.
“Surely they will have a backup of this processing space? Couldn’t they just run that?”
Judy 3 had been gazing at her reflection in the mirrored walls of the isolation room. She turned and gave Helen a significant look.
“Ah, now you’ve hit on the crux of the matter, Helen.”
Judy 11 stepped into the isolation room on Level Four and held her breath, expecting the worst. The scenarios on this level did not bear contemplating. To look at them awoke a boiling anger that slowly cooled into thoughts that left her feeling weak and ashamed.
In this room there was a table, a little tray of silver instruments at one side of it. A man was looking at the instruments thoughtfully. He turned as Judy appeared.
“Hello, Judy,” he said.
“Who are you?” Judy 11 asked. “Where’s Helen?”
“Never mind that,” said the man. “We need to talk, and quickly. I’ve been trying to get a message to your atomic self, undetected, for months now. This may be my last chance.”
Judy 11 laughed sardonically.
“You could have picked a better place. This processing space is going to be shut down at any moment, with all of us in it. I’m doing a last sweep for anyone who may be trapped in here, in the vain hope that we may be able to get them out in time.”
“Never mind that,” the man said again. “What I’ve got to say is far more important.”
“I doubt it,” Judy said.
The man took hold of Judy’s hands and gazed into her black eyes.
“Judy, listen to me. When word of this gets out, it could bring down Social Care, the EA, even the Watcher. It changes everything we’ve been led to believe. There’s been a murder.”
The edge to the man’s words touched something in Judy. He
“Who has been murdered?” she asked crisply.
“That’s not the problem. The problem is the murderer. They’ve killed once; they’re going to kill again. The murderer has to be stopped, and I don’t think that that’s possible.”
Judy 11 was calm.
“Nothing is impossible. Who is the murderer?”
The man swallowed. He looked around the room, as if afraid of who might hear his words. When he spoke, it was in a hoarse whisper.
“The Watcher.”
Justinian 1: 2223
Only three weeks had elapsed since his arrival on Gateway, but Justinian was increasingly wondering why he was still there. At 5 A.M. subjective time his frustration was the only thing that could compete with his exhaustion.
