“Liar,” Helen called again, stepping closer to Kevin. “You say that none of this is real, and yet you trade on the misery generated by your supposed realities! Why not just use simulations? Why capture real PCs and imprison them in your torture chambers, unless you thought there was some value to the suffering of real people?”
Kevin gave her a sideways look. “I have never thought that was the case. Only my customers seem to think it important that the PCs are real. It is precisely because I
Helen gaped at Kevin, her mouth moving soundlessly as she tried to think of a reply. She couldn’t. Kevin gave a laugh.
“You
“What are you talking about?”
“Judy knows what I mean.” Kevin stared into her black eyes. “You see, Judy, the trouble with putting the good of the many before the individual, is that it becomes an excuse for the needs of the individual to be forgotten.”
Judy 3 gazed impassively at him. “Social Care has always been about looking after the individual, Kevin. You know that.”
He sneered: “Looking after the individual according to your safe, sanitized viewpoint? Humans are not like that, Judy. I reveal that in my Private Network. They have a capacity for evil that-”
Judy’s next words stuck with Helen for the rest of her life. She spoke them with a calmness and assurance that went beyond her Social Care training. Helen had the impression that Judy was articulating a belief that went deep to the core of her being.
“No, Kevin,” Judy said quietly. “You talk about the capacity for evil, but that’s just an excuse. Human nature is not about the extremes that a few people go to; it’s defined by the way that people work hard every day to keep within reasonable bounds, no matter how hard that is. It’s the way people can become so annoyed with each other they want to shout and hit and fight but, even so, they don’t. They sit down and talk, no matter how hard that might be. You see human nature every time an exhausted mother is so frustrated by her child’s crying that she wants to lash out, but instead takes a deep breath and starts rocking the child to sleep again. Everyone has a
Helen gave a delighted laugh. She had got it.
She turned to Kevin. “You stupid fucker.” She laughed. “Every human has the capacity to eat until they weigh four hundred kilos. That doesn’t mean that at heart all humans are obese.”
Kevin reeled, looking confused.
“So why are you doing this?” asked Judy 3. “Why are you killing us?”
Kevin held out his hands. “I want to get you on my side.”
The atomic Judy stood in her lounge, dressed only in her sleeping robe.
“Go for it, 3,” she whispered.
Frances placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“Judy…” She was scanning the room warily. “There is something in here with us…”
Judy 4 stepped into the mirrored isolation room, Helen close behind her. They headed to the doorway and the silver path that led to nothing. Judy 10 stood there, in the dissipating rainbow that had been Kevin. Another Helen stared at the dead body of Judy 5 lying on the ground. For the first time, members of this particular lifeline of Helen’s finally met each other.
“Hello,” they said, cautiously looking at one another. As one, they reached out with their right hands and touched themselves on their left cheeks.
Judy 4 looked back at them.
“It’s not a good idea to speak to each other,” she said. “We’ll separate you as soon as we can.”
But the two Helens ignored Judy 4’s advice.
“And I thought I was unique,” they both said at the same time, a look of realization crossing their faces. The same woman reached out and held her own alternative hands, and then snatched them back, and then touched again.
They looked to the two Judys.
“And you knew it was like this all along,” they both said. “You must have.”
“It’s always hard when you have run in concurrent realities so recently,” said Judy 4.
“How do you cope with it?”
“If you learn to love yourself, it’s easy.”
Helen was still lost in wonderment at Judy 3’s speech. For the moment, she
Judy 3’s gaze was locked on Kevin. “What do you want us to do?” she asked.
“Help me to end the rule of the Watcher,” Kevin said. “The atomic Judy will know more about the reasons why. We’ve been gradually leading her to this point.”
“We?”
“Chris and I. The atomic Judy knows who I mean. Maybe she’ll tell you, too. If you don’t get it, it doesn’t matter. You are expendable, after all.”
“No one is expendable,” Helen said.
Kevin grinned at her. “
Judy 3 had her hand concealed in the sleeve of her kimono. She removed it and dropped something on the ground: a box with a strap to hold it to her arm. The little device that dispensed MTPH.
“A grand gesture,” Kevin said. “Does that mean that you are no longer willing to try to empathize with me?”
“No, it just means I’ve realized the futility. You’re not human, Kevin; you said it yourself. What use is MTPH against you?”
Kevin stopped playing with the white knife and tossed it to the ground at her feet.
“So kill me, then. I’ve already killed three of your sisters.”
“Killing you would achieve nothing.”
“Good; you’re learning. So start working for me, rather than for the Watcher.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you’re starting to question all this.” He waved his hands to take in the forest around him. “Nobody ever questions the way they live and die in the EA’s processing space, and yet look at you now. You feel the Shawl is wrong, don’t you? This symbol of impermanence? But why should you think that? The EA has been programming that thought out of you from your birth. It’s only my presence here that makes you think otherwise. I’m not evil. I just have to go to extremes to make you think the unthinkable!”
“What is it?” both Helens asked simultaneously.
Judy 10 looked at Judy 4, who was slipping a little blue pill into her mouth.
“This processing space has just been jettisoned.”
