CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Society is now one polish'd horde, Formed of two mighty tribes, The Bores and Bored." - Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIII, Stanza 95
Hearing that he was probably a born-again wasn't really a surprise to Harry, but he had hoped he was wrong. In the back of his mind he thought there had to be some connection because Makr had kept pairing him with other born-agains. Oh Makr, am I that boring and annoying?
"That isn't the bad news, Harry." Elder Barry knew that many of his Touchables had been re-born, reincarnated, or re-conditioned—whatever it was called at the time.
"The bad news is that it appears Makr selected you to be a pawn from the beginning, something special in His scheme of things. We found mention of it in the last batch of hidden files before we shut down our operation. We don't know why He's doing it, but we think you may have a control—an implant of a special chip or something. It could be as simple as a communication or location device, or a way Makr has of controlling your behavior that's with you always."
"Either way, that makes me a threat to you."
"I'm afraid so. We do know that your mind, as fine as it is, has been tampered with."
"But how?"
"One of the people you met during your first visit here is a Bio psychologist, an emotive like Donna, who evaluated you as we do all newcomers."
"Another emotive?"
"I'm still not sure how they do it. An emotive seems to read minds, sense motives and secrets. We use them to root out Makr secret agents and what have you."
Harry sits there a moment, staring front, dazed, and silent. "Donna?"
"Donna didn't give us that information, but she vouched for you. Said you had tremendous talents that would still be useful. But you really don't know any of the rest of this, do you?"
Harry shook his head.
"I'm glad. That means you're not a willing participant in Makr's plan."
"Is that what you think I am? A spy?"
"To be honest, it had occurred to us. A traitor. Who better than someone prophesied to have a profound influence on us?"
"Prophesied? By whom?" That was the second time he had heard that, or was it more?
"An Evangel. Ever hear of them?"
"Desiree mentioned them on the way over here. One of the Bio splinter groups. Worship Makr and PerSoc completely or something like that."
"Exactly like that. You are almost one yourself by definition, aren't you?"
"Until recently, I didn't know anything else."
"But you do. How? Why are you so different from the others?"
"I wish I knew," said Harry dejectedly.
"Ha! I thought so," Barry exclaimed excitedly. "You don't know how much of an advantage you have over the rest of us. You have access to the Outside and didn't even know it. Your vid collection is your key to the past. Ours, too, I hope."
"Well, at least I'm not crazy."
"No, probably not. One advantage, I think, we Bios have over Cyber is our ability to read between the lines, you know, to see past the obvious. This Evangel, he said you had the symptoms of a born again, but that you were more than that, different; your programming is defective somehow. Something happened in the rebirth process and your brain's synaptic rhythms were disrupted. You dream. In your case, you have nightmares. Am I right?"
"But that's not all, is it?"
"No, I'm afraid not. Problem is we simply don't know enough—except to know you are a possible threat to us here."
Finally Harry was getting answers; just not the answers he was seeking.
"Why? How?"
"The how is easy for Makr. At some point you were taken and reconditioned, but you know all that. Did you know all Insiders have a chip inside their heads? No? We didn't either for a long time and then we recruited someone who did. He was a Bio interface at a chip manufacturing plant. It's a monitoring device as well as a conduit for SensaVision. Most of us out here have had it removed and destroyed. We want peaceful co-existence with Makr, but we don't want Him in our heads either. You have another kind of chip—not the usual chip we all had—that was probably placed in your brain and programmed so you could be in constant contact with Makr on an entirely different level. That we don't know for sure though."
"When did you...?"
"When you passed out the first time you came here. The doorway. Simple CAT scan revealed a chip. We always look to make sure our recruits are entirely human. We expect the regular chips and this time it was different. Yours is larger and denser. Means more information, more programs, and more Cyber evolution."
"You think Makr can make cyberts that sophisticated?"
"You've experienced SensaVision reality first hand. Hard to tell the difference from the real thing, isn't it? I think Makr can make a cybert that looks and acts just like us. Maybe not loose enough behaviorally, not enough gray areas, but close enough so we wouldn't notice. Question is: if He hasn't, why not? It defies logic, which is quite ironical considering..."
"...Cyber are always logical. Okay, why hasn't He?"
"Because He wants to keep us separate. He wants us to know our enemy."
"But He's not your enemy?"
Barry raised an eyebrow.
"Not everyone thinks like we do. You know that. Because we are separate doesn't mean we can't co-exist. Besides it's the Bios who want co-existence. This place is still illegal. We're all committing a capital crime by being here."
"Let's say your suspicions are correct—that my brain has been tampered with. Can't you just remove the chip like you have with others?"
He shook his head, "It's larger and too intricately embedded in the brain stem. We can't do it without killing you. At best we'd paralyze you and you'd be no good to us anyway."
"Thanks, I guess. Won't I be giving you away here?"
"True, but if you do, we'll kill you."
"You should," Harry said. Strangely enough he believed it.
"Don't worry, Harry. I don't think you'll give us away. I can't imagine Makr doesn't really know we aren't here, but there's hope. And a few helpful devices we control. Your communication disrupter isn't strong enough to work here; however, friends of ours created a portable electromagnetic field device that should disrupt any signal you may be sending to Makr or He to you. If you go home, well, that's another story."
"What can we do?" asked Harry anxiously.
"We have to face this head-on. We can't allow you to leave The Watering Hole—for a few weeks anyway—until we can sort this out."
"You're holding me prisoner?"
"We're all prisoners of one kind or another, Harry. We don't think you're likely to give us away. You'd have done that already. We think it has a more subtle, passive resistance effect."
"What do you mean?"
"Although it is likely and entirely possible that you may be gathering knowledge of our organization, the chip's only purpose may be to keep your behavior in check. Now, I don't believe that for a moment. I believe in a diabolical Makr who wants to control and manipulate all Bio behavior."
"That doesn't allow me much choice. Either way—I'm a threat to you."
"Perhaps, but, at the same time, I can't help thinking your purpose is as prophesied. The Evangels are an odd lot, giving everything a religious purpose, but they have access to information we have no way of getting otherwise. We have no choice but to risk your presence until we know more. I could be wrong. It could be that Makr simply doesn't want you to forget your role in society. Remember how much trouble it was for you to come here? Remember the fear?"
"Of course, I remember. It was terrifying."
"Well, that's Makr's hand. You overcame that fear. You see? That is a major difference between Cyber and Bios. Bios can change their minds. They can forget their fear for a moment or change their behavior. Cyber are stuck. Oh, there have been programs that allow them to adjust, but that doesn't happen without expending a lot of inefficient energy so it takes a while for them to catch up. Meanwhile, we humans...do you mind if I call you t
hat—human—instead of Bio?"
Harry's dazed reaction told Barry that he was fine with it and so he went on. "While we aren't as fast in the ciphering department, we can decide without all the available data. Machines have to wait, or at least they had the appearance of waiting. And for them, there's only one answer."
"Unequal in some ways, more than equal in others," Harry interjected.
"Yes, that's true, we are. Unfortunately this DNA cyberserver will make any differences between us so minor as to be invisible to the human eye. There won't be any perceptible glitches or flickers or gaps. That's why we need to act as soon as possible before the upgrades can be made to the current systems."
Barry could see Harry's attention was elsewhere. But Harry heard every word. Still, he closed his eyes, searching for a clue to help. "What if I stay here at The Watering Hole and never leave?"
Barry laughed. "Trust me, you'd get bored." As an Elder, he had placed that very burden on himself; as such a well-known Touchable, Barry wouldn't have lasted ten minutes outside The Watering Hole.
"We think you should spend a lot more time with us. For your own good—and ours. Of course, we'll let you leave once in a while for short visits, but we'll have to limit those visits to the reach of our disruptor devices until we discover the answer to our little problem."
Harry agreed with a nod. There was wisdom in this man Barry. Perhaps more to convince himself, Harry tried to make light of the situation, and said, "Well, at least I'm Bio—er human."
"You're more than that. You're a Touchable."
Harry smiled for the first time during this exchange.
"By the way, Harry, thought you'd like to know. Your emotive evaluator did say something to ease your pain a little. She said you were a much improved born-again, 'not the usual dolt or narrow-minded dimwit.' I think she meant it as a compliment."
Barry, in all his wisdom, wasn't too sure that Harry was all Bio, but he would never let him know as long as it was up to him and not the council.
Harry found himself trusting Barry and all his cohorts. He even trusted Desiree, who had a sexual hold on him, and Donna, who could read him far too well for comfort.
But the dreams were back with a vengeance, and he told no one—especially Barry. This time the images were harsher, and more violent than ever before. Makr seemed to know when he was not where he should have been. The Bio villains in his dreams always destroyed Cyber, and Harry suffered the pain as if he was one of the victims or a horrified onlooker. This time was different. Some of the Cyber turned on the Bios. An energy bolt surged from the tabletop, exploding the Bio figure looking down menacingly at the Cyber. He awoke disconcerted, feeling triumphant in having seen a Bio destroyed.
If the disruptor Barry had given him wasn't working, there was much to worry about...for everyone.