Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,122

There was no mirror handy, so I pushed myself up from the bed, keeping a firm hold of it as my legs took my weight for the first time. They wobbled a bit, then steadied.

I moved slowly, carefully across the tile, making my way to the bathroom and the mirror contained therein. I stared back at the face that was now my own. Dark eyes stared back at me from beneath a shock of raven-black hair. Fine bone structure, far less brutish than my previous coil. Leaner. More graceful. Less raw physical power. A dancer rather than a body builder. I shrugged. It would take some getting used to—it always did. But by any measure, it looked like Genetechnic had fulfilled their end of the bargain.

The door to the room opened and I felt a sudden sense of déjà vu, of panic. The symmetry to my last awakening was unavoidable. Would Genetechnic stuff me into a new coil just to try to take me out again? But that didn’t make any sense. And I could just as easily have awoken in a prison cell as a hospital room if they intended to detain me. I drew a breath, trying to calm my heart rate as I stepped from the bathroom.

Two people had entered my room. One was Korben. Clearly, identifiably, the assassin who had gone into the passenger liner with us. Had he survived, then? The other was… beautiful. I knew it was Shay before she could say anything—Sarah and Bit had already done the digital handshake to confirm identity. But even without that, I would have known. This slender, petite young woman with hair so black it was almost blue and eyes that seemed equal parts mischief and mystery could be no one else.

She moved a bit unsteadily as she crossed the floor, adapting to her new coil. Then she was in my arms. We leaned against one another, partly for balance but mostly, just to be close. She felt… good.

“How touching.” The voice was the same. The same urbane, slightly patronizing upper-crust accent.

“Fuck you, Korben,” Shay said, her voice somewhat muffled from where her face was pressed against my chest. But she pushed away, maintaining a grip on my arm. For balance? Or something more?

“You’re you,” I said to the assassin. “Does that mean we won?”

Korben tilted his head. “I’m not ‘me,’ not in the sense you mean. I just happen to have access to a more… specialized set of coils. Custom-grown, as it were.” He shrugged. “As for winning… we think so.”

“What does that mean?” Shay demanded. She shifted around, until we were standing hip to hip. I told myself that it was still mostly for balance, but she felt good there, by my side.

“My coil was terminated aboard the ship as well,” Korben said. “And I’ve only been back for a few days.” Days? And I was just waking up? I wondered what Genetechnic was doing in those days. “But it appears we successfully introduced the seek-and-destroy nanites into the environmental system. A subsequent team was sent, and no evidence of the Bliss virus was found. The ship was then… cleansed.”

“You mean destroyed?” I half asked, half stated.

“Yes, Mr. Langston. I mean destroyed. With the most powerful incendiary device we could manage.”

I thought of the coils aboard that ship. Most of the people would have already been re-coiled, probably told there was some terrible accident or other. It happened, from time to time, on deep-space cruises. They would be going about their lives, ignorant of just how close Bliss had come to escaping. And if it had… would we have been able to stop it? Had we managed to gather enough data for Genetechnic to create a broader distribution of their killer nanites if the need arose?

“And what is Genetechnic going to do about Bliss?” I asked. “About their research?” I fought hard to keep the note of anger out of my voice. I already knew the answer. From the faint look of disapproval on his face, so did Korben.

“I have completed my contract with Genetechnic,” he said by way of answer. “In fact, I have one more duty—more out of a sense of responsibility than requirement—and then I will be seeking other employment. In light of that, Genetechnic has chosen not to share any of their future plans with me.” He paused, eyed us, considering. “Though I believe I share your concerns. Which is why I’ve made Ms. Chan a proposal.”

I turned and stared down at Chan in surprise. She didn’t so much smile as she did grin—wickedly. There was more than a bit of the naughty schoolgirl in that expression and she wore it far more naturally than any expression I’d seen from her in months. “We realized, Carter dear, that we have the makings of a very good little enterprise here. Korben,” it was, perhaps, the first time I’d heard her call him something other than ‘assassin,’ “has the contacts, resources, and abilities to deal with a wide variety of physical concerns. My own modest abilities with the Net can open all kinds of doors. You have a sense of practical mechanics as well as a surprising aptitude for violence. All we need is a means of transportation, and we can get into all kinds of trouble.”

She savored the word trouble and I was reminded that Korben wasn’t the only criminal in the room. Shay’s main business had always been on the shady side, with the salvage work being her way to avoid the authorities. I’d spent several lifetimes on the right side of the law and wasn’t terribly comfortable with the implication that switching sides might be an option. Then again, the law seemed designed to protect the big corporations like Genetechnic, even when they came within millimeters of wiping out the human race. I had broken innumerable laws in the pursuit of stopping Bliss. Some—like de facto helping Genetechnic to cover up research that might have wiped out the human race—could have earned me a lifetime of incarceration. This entire ordeal had left me with questions. Questions I had flirted with over the years, but seldom dared to pull out into the light and examine. Did I have a duty to uphold unjust laws? Was legal the same as right? And if not, was illegal still the same as wrong?

“What exactly did you have in mind?” I asked slowly.

“Ms. Chan has decided that someone needs to expose Genetechnic and Bliss if for no other reason than to inoculate the population against similar mistakes in the future. To my surprise, I find myself in agreement with her. That will be our first endeavor.” He shrugged. “If it proves profitable, perhaps there will be more.”

I considered it. If anyone had ever deserved exposing, it was the people who ran Genetechnic. But our word alone wouldn’t be enough. And there was no legal way to get at the evidence we’d need. History was full of those who took the law into their own hands to expose injustice or fight against the tyranny of their oppressors. Some were remembered as heroes and others as villains, but did that matter? Did it truly matter how the system ultimately saw me, so long as I was doing that which I knew to be right?

Shay was looking at me expectantly, the smile on her face firm as if she already knew my answer. Hell, she probably did. “What about Harper?” I asked. “Did Genetechnic keep their end of the bargain with them as well?”

“That’s going to be our first stop,” Shay exclaimed. As jarring as it had been to have her coiled into a man, her current persona, the eagerness, the girlishness, of it was almost as jarring. Charming, but jarring. “We’ll pick up Harper, find a ship, and then see what havoc we can wreak on Genetechnic.” She paused, her eagerness slipping a little bit as the faintest shadow of doubt crept into her voice. “That is, assuming you’re coming with us?”

I knew my answer. I’d sat on the sidelines for too long, hid from the responsibility, if such existed, to my fellow man. I could do as I’d done for decades, keep my head down, live my life. And everyone else be damned. But I felt the old stirring, the old call. The need to do better, to be better. To help. In the end, it wasn’t even a difficult decision. “Of course I’m coming with you.”

Further conversation was cut off as Shay crashed into me. The hug she gave me was platonic but with the barest hint of something more. As I held her briefly in my arms, I couldn’t help but wonder what roads might lie before us.

New coil. New life.

It was going to be an interesting one.