“Minus the fire breathing, although I think that was under development,” BoBo joked.
“This spurred the Authority to place additional restrictions. Still, I have a few ‘old friends’ tucked away in this house,” the doctor declared with a smile. “You see, they were grandfathered in. I’m just not allowed to grow any more babies.”
While dinner had proven to be particularly delicious and the conversation interesting as usual, D_Light remained quiet throughout the meal. Dr. Monsa, finishing off his third helping of everything, drew a deep breath and asked to be excused from the table. The remaining dinner companions nodded, and the doctor began his rapid limp down the path. D_Light sat quietly for a few moments, stood as though leaving, hesitated, and then proceeded to follow the doctor.
“Doctor, sir, may I walk with you a moment?” Dr. Monsa regarded D_Light distantly and nodded.
“It’s about Lily. I…er…Okay, you are perhaps the most knowledgeable wetgineer on the planet, so I thought I would ask you-”
“No, I’m afraid I cannot make her human,” the doctor answered before D_Light could spit out the question. “I have already considered the problem from all angles. I have looked at her specs again and again. To get her over 96.3 % DNA parity with humans, I would have to do massive gene therapy. It would kill her.”
“But-”
“I know she looks and behaves human, but her reproductive system, her metabolism, even her nervous system are significantly different. If I recoded her at the cellular level, her physiology would-” Dr. Monsa paused and rested a gnarled hand on D_Light’s shoulder. “It is right and good that you care about her. A gentle soul like yours would.”
D_Light had never been called a “gentle soul,” nor was he sure it was a compliment. The doctor leaned in and scrunched his face into an even uglier ball of flesh. D_Light resisted the urge to recoil. “If I could do anything to help her, I would,” whispered the unsightly doctor. “Believe me, I have more interest in her welfare than you realize.”
She was shaking again, moaning in her sleep. D_Light turned over on his side to kiss her ear and whispered, “Lily, it’s only a dream. Wake up.” But as he slid over to comfort her, he realized she was gone. He watched her leave through eyes silted from sleep. She resembled a ghost, drifting away as the microlenses of her skinsuit reflected the light from the simulated moon.
One of the clone girls stood ahead of Lily like a sentinel. The face of the young girl was a mask. D_Light rose up onto his feet. “Lily?” The question slid out into the gloom. In response, Lily’s shoulders tensed and she turned back to him with an expression that startled D_Light into full wakefulness. She looked terrified-terrified as though she was regarding a menacing stranger rather than the man with whom she had fully shared her life over the past several days.
“Lily, where-” D_Light’s question collapsed in on itself as the shutters of his mind slammed shut and his body slumped to a heap on the ground.
Master, your chemi delivery system has been compromised. Smorgeous’s words were hazy and distant in D_Light’s head. You were given an unauthorized dose of the commonly named MyLullaby™ chemi. I have taken the liberty of counteracting its effects; however, you have been unconscious for 15.31 minutes.
I…I was overdosed? D_Light’s thoughts were like viscous syrup.
Yes, master. The dose administered was not within lethal range; however, it was incapacitating.
D_Light opened his eyes. He was flat on his back and completely disoriented. He could not place where he was, although it was not where he last remembered. He had no idea how he got there, either. He blinked his eyes hard and with greater frequency as though doing so might bring clarity to the situation. He then spotted Djoser and Lyra nearby. The nobles seemed to be inspecting mechanical devices of some kind. Weapons? he wondered.
The hunted hunt themselves. Djoser reviewed the quest again in his mind as he checked the trigger action on the crossbow left for him. He enjoyed the symmetry of the quest, although he admonished himself for not having anticipated it. Had he done so, he could have prepared.
It was simple. Hunt down and kill Lily. There were only two rules: The quest would last up to seventy-two hours. If they did not kill Lily by then, the quest was lost. The hunters and their familiars were to assemble at the dining table and remain there for two hours to give Lily a head start.
The proctor reminded them that their archives would be reviewed upon game completion and that rule transgressions could result in disqualification.
Djoser smiled to himself. Not only was the quest consistent with the theme of the MetaGame thus far, it was spiritually satisfying. Lily had been created for this purpose-for this sport-and although he had not realized it before, it was unsettling for him to watch her defy her fate. The OverSoul would not be contradicted.
Although he had not prayed explicitly for this quest, he offered a silent word of thanks to the OverSoul. She knows us better than we can know ourselves, he thought. Djoser then shifted his attention to the glassy-eyed D_Light laid out upon the grass below and dropped an unloaded crossbow on his chest. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’ve got less than two hours to pull yourself together, man.”
The quest party was assembled at the great dining table. D_Light finally saw the pending quest update and opened it. How horrible! Was I drugged to protect her escape? As though I would hurt her otherwise? Could I do that?
Praying he was having a nightmare, he closed his eyes again. Perhaps if he slipped back into that syrupy unconsciousness he would awake with Lily asleep at his side. He would tell her that she was safe, that he would protect her. His fantasy, however, was quickly broken as the numbing voice of the proctor pressed into his consciousness the caution that Lily had been given a vial of culler repellant, whereas they themselves had none of their own.
“That will make it interesting,” Djoser said. “We all got our last dose yesterday around noon, right?” he asked no one in particular.
“Yes, so from what PeePee tells me, the repellant will have worked its way out of our system sometime on day three.” Lyra’s voice was near.
“An added incentive for finding her sooner rather than later,” Djoser commented dryly.
Djoser and Lyra spent most of the two hours of Lily’s head start time discussing how they would find her. They decided that the familiars could use their sniffer software to follow her; however, she would be expecting that. D_Light sat quietly, only half listening.
“Certainly she will go to the nearest water to knock us off her trail. Remember the lake?” Lyra asked.
“Yeah, the first thing she did when she joined up with us was lead us to the water,” Djoser said.
D_Light had now passed through the phases of shock and denial and into one of anger. “And she’ll know we know that,” he spoke to the sky above, his voice brimming with resentment. “And she’ll know we know that she knows that.”
“Don’t be an ass, D_Light.” Lyra’s voice was irritated.
“Get over it and focus on the task at hand,” she added sharply.
“Yes, Mother,” D_Light replied distantly, keeping his gaze fixed on the bogus clouds above.
Djoser slammed his fist on the table. “Damned right,” he shouted.
D_Light, startled by the verbal assault, regarded Djoser. The nobleman’s eyes were burning with rage, and his lips curled and quivered like an animal readying itself for an attack. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten who Lyra and I are and who you are not. Perhaps we were in error to think we could dispense with the formalities during this game without you coming to think that you’re actually an equal.”
Reflexively, D_Light stood and presented himself humbly to his father. “My sincerest apologies, Father. I beg that you pardon my transgression.” He made a deep bow.
Djoser spat at D_Light’s feet and waved at him dismissively. “Good, so we have an understanding. Now get out of my face until I ask for your input.”
“Understood, Father.”
D_Light removed himself from the table and sat down on the ground next to a variegated reddish plant with feathery green plumes. He knew he was sulking. He knew he was being weak and pathetic, and he hated himself
