Madoc! Thank God. They got to you, Madoc. Im sorry we had no idea. Can you hear me?
WhereamI? Again I hadnt made any conscious effort to formulate the words, although it was only natural that I would want to know. My voice sounded hollow, distant and spectral: not mine at all, although definitely mine in the sense that it certainly wasnt anybody elses.
Youre in a level-6 biocontainment facility in one of Conrads old labs. We didnt have any choice, Madoc. We tried to flush the stuff they pumped into you, but we couldnt get it all. Its gone too deep wormed its way into the marrow of your bones and into the glial cells of your brain. We cant get the rest without doing irreparable damage to your own tissues. We may not have long before the whole system begins to regenerate itself, Madoc. Maybe days, maybe only hours we just dont know.
What?
By now, it was as if I were a mere observer watching myself speak. I didnt understand what the hell was going on and neither did the not me that I was watching.
We dont even know if the effect was what they intended, Damon Harts voice went on, relentlessly. Maybe its all screwed up. Maybe they wanted to screw you up. On the other hand, maybe they just figured that youd be a convenient subject for a trial run. Either way, Madoc, Ill make sure that they pay. You can depend on that. All their precious cant about war without casualties, struggle without sufferingIll find the bastard responsible for this, and Ill settle the debt in pounds of flesh, blood included. Trust me, Madoc.
The other me tried again. What?
I couldnt get any more out than the single word. It hurt too much. The stench was unbearable not that that mattered to either of me, as there was no possible way of avoiding it.
We pulled the tigers tail once too often, Madoc, Damon said. After all theyve said, all Ive given themthey dont want the likes of us at their precious table. They want every last thing weve got, but they want it all for themselves. They dont really want us at all. Not Conrad, not Eveline, not me
not even the people at Ahasuerus. At the end of the day, all they care about is their property, and hanging on to it.
Im sorry I got you into this, Madoc, but I didnt understand the dirty kind of war this is, and I underestimated the measure of the men were fighting. Were trying to figure out exactly what kind of IT they injected into you, but its a hideously complicated suite and there are half a dozen bot species weve never seen before. Unless and until we can get into their databases its going to be a long job maybe years. Maybe the reason they did it to you is that youre the only man we have who had a better-than-even chance of hacking into their deepest secrets. Theyre trying to take us out, Madoc fucking you over is just the start. But you have to hang in there until we can figure out how to bring you all the way back.
The other me tried for a third time, throwing in a little variety just for the sake of it. Who?
I seemed to be gagging on the unclean air, but I supposed that had to be an illusion.
I dont know, Damon cut me off. Not exactly. I dont think even PicoCons solid, let alone the PicoCon/OmicronA cartel. The wonder is that they paused long enough in their attempts to stab one another in the back to come after us. But Ill find out you can bet your life on that. Look, Madoc, theres no easy way to say this: its going to be rough. We cant fight the stuff now, and Im not willing to take the risk of leaving you at the mercy of whatever plans the rogue IT might have. It cant be a crude killer, or youd have been dead before we found you, but that doesnt mean that it wont be fatal. The way its gone to ground in your brain strongly suggests that its intended to fuck with your mind. It may be a further development of that VE-generating IT they hit me with, but if it is then its a lot more ambitious than version one. I think they might be going for the big one: absolute mind control; total robotization. If so, we have to find a way of countering the threat.
So heres the deal. Were going to put you in SusAn. Not just an artificial coma well have to take you all the way down to six degrees Absolute. Were going to stop this thing in its tracks until we know how to deal with it, and were not going to bring you out until were certain that we can make you as good as new. Trust me on this, Madoc well get you back eventually, but itll take time. It may be that the stuff will mess with your head while youre on the way down, and again when youre on the way back up, but you have to hold on. You have to remember this conversation if you can, and know whats really happening to you.
This is real, Madoc: you can be sure of that. Well come back for you. Remember that: however bad it gets, Ill be coming for you. Ill pull you through. Trust me.
I tried to lift my arm, but I couldnt. It was trapped in the sleeve of the biocontainment suit, and the sleeve was rigid and it wasnt really my arm at all. I was a spectator here, a passenger in my own memory. Except that it couldnt really be a memory, because if it had been, I wouldnt have been a passenger in it. It was a Virtual Experience of some sort but that didnt necessarily mean that it wasnt true .