Authors: Gregg Rosenblum
Nick sat down in the street, crossed his legs, and put his hands in his lap. He squinted; the bright red light hurt his eye. “You got me, you bastard,” he said. “I want to be re-educated.”
The bot continued to hover in a tight circle around Nick, still flashing red, repeating over and over, “DO NOT MOVE. YOU WILL BE PEACEFULLY DETAINED.”
“I heard you,” said Nick. “Come on already.”
Nick heard the approaching rumble of a Petey, and his stomach knotted and he felt queasy. Then two Peteys rolled into view. He thought he heard a girl’s voice scream his name—Cass or Lexi, he wasn’t sure—and he had to fight the urge to look back. “Be quiet,” he muttered. He stood and held up his hands again.
The Peteys rolled closer and closer, and Nick couldn’t believe, up close, the size of them. He was shocked to realize that now he felt no fear—the moment was so impossible, so unbelievable, it was like he was just watching it happen and wasn’t really there. He studied the Peteys. They had to be eight feet tall and five feet wide. Their dull gray metal radiated warmth that prickled Nick’s cheeks, and they smelled, just vaguely, of oil. Their faces were the same dull metal as the rest of their bodies, flat and featureless except for two rectangular openings where eyes would be. He stared at them, and they stared back, and inside the eye slits he could just make out black lenses, flickering back and forth, up and down.
One of the Peteys reached a giant arm out toward Nick, and he suddenly felt a rush of panic, realized
This is happening
, and without thinking he turned to run, but then the Petey’s arm touched his shoulder. He saw a flash of light and felt an instant of horrible, unbelievable pain, and then it all went black.
NICK CRUMPLED TO THE GROUND, LASED BY THE PETEY. CASS SCREAMED, and Lexi clamped her hand over her mouth. Reflexively Cass bit her on the finger. Kevin jumped up as if to run into the street, and Lexi grabbed his shirt with her other hand. She held on and slowed him down long enough for Cass to grab him around the shoulders and pull him back against the wall. Kevin struggled, but Lexi and Cass held on tight. Cass wasn’t about to let go. Letting Kevin run into the street would mean losing both her brothers.
“Let go!” he said. “Let me go!”
“Shut up!” said Lexi. “Both of you, shut up and calm down! He made his decision.” Her finger was bleeding where Cass had bit her. “Don’t ruin it by getting us caught.”
Kevin stopped struggling. Lexi let go of him, but Cass continued to hold on, now more to prop herself up than to restrain him. She felt tears coming down her cheeks.
“What the hell did he do?” said Kevin.
“He’s an idiot,” said Lexi. “A brave, noble idiot.”
“I don’t understand,” said Kevin. “How could he just give up? How could he leave us?”
“He didn’t,” said Cass, wiping away tears. “He’s trying to get inside the re-education center. He’s trying to save them.”
“Idiot,” repeated Lexi.
“He’s going to get killed,” said Kevin. He pushed Cass away from him and sat down, back against the wall.
“Or maybe he’ll find a way to save Mom and Dad,” said Cass. Reflexively her hand reached into her pocket and touched the drawing of her parents’ faces. She didn’t really believe it, but saying it out loud might make it possible.
Lexi sucked on her bleeding finger and shook it, grimacing. “You actually bit me,” she said.
Cass said nothing, in no mood to apologize. She peeked around the corner of the wall. Nick’s body was limp and looked almost pitifully small in the arms of one of the giant Peteys. Kevin put his face in his hands and stared at his knees. Cass kept watching, silently, as the Peteys rolled away with Nick. They turned a corner and disappeared from view. She felt numb. “He’s gone,” she said.
“All right, let’s go,” said Lexi.
“Go where?” said Kevin.
“What do you mean, where?” said Lexi. “Farryn and Doc are waiting for us. We’re late.”
“What, we’re just supposed to pretend that my brother wasn’t just dragged away by the bots?” Kevin was flushed and had a wild look in his eyes.
“No,” said Lexi, “we’re supposed to sit here in this alley and do absolutely nothing, because I’m sure that’s what Nick would want.”
“Kevin,” Cass said gently, “Lexi’s right. We have to move on with our part of the plan.”
“I know she’s right,” said Kevin. He sighed and shot one more angry look at Lexi. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
They made it to Farryn’s house a few minutes later. Farryn let them in, frowning, holding up his comm and projecting the time onto the wall in bold white letters. “You’re late,” he said.
“Shut up, Farryn,” said Lexi.
Farryn shrugged. He smiled at Cass. “Hey, artist, do you have my payment?”
Cass pushed past Farryn without saying anything or looking at him.
“Hey, I’m just saying,” said Farryn, “I’m delivering my end of the bargain, and I’m hoping that once you guys get the dummy chips you’re not going to skip out on me …”
“You’ll get your damned artwork, okay?” said Cass. “Just drop it!”
“Whoa there,” said Farryn, holding up his hands. “Hey, where’s the big friendly one? You know, the guy who had me in the choke hold?”
Nobody spoke.
“What, he’s not coming? Probably safer that way, actually …”
“They got him,” said Kevin. “He let the bots catch him so he could get into re-education. They lased him and they took him away, and now it’s just us.”
Farryn’s grin disappeared. “Oh, man, I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s terrible.” He reached out and touched Cass’s arm. “I’m really sorry,” he said.
Cass jerked her arm away, but then after a moment she relaxed and said, “Thank you.”
“So,” Farryn said hesitantly, “are we still on with the chips?”
“We didn’t show up just to say hello,” said Lexi.
“Actually, you didn’t say hello at all,” said Farryn, leading them to the garage.
He turned to them as they stood outside the entrance. “Listen, don’t worry about Doc. He may seem a bit off, but he really does know what he’s doing, I promise. And he hates the bots as much as I do.”
They went inside. Doc was waiting for them, sitting sideways on a scoot. He stood up and clapped his hands. “Finally, my victims!”
To Cass he looked like a fat middle-aged former weightlifter, short and squat, with a huge chest and big belly and thick forearms covered with black hair. He was bald, but had a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a white smock that came down to just above his knees, and his lower legs were bare and covered with the same thatch of thick curly black hair as his arms. He pointed at a wooden worktable, draped with a white tablecloth. At the far end of the table, on a towel, gleamed a few instruments—a scalpel, two small square objects that must have been the dummy chips, a cup, and several other items whose purpose wasn’t readily apparent.
“Who’s first?” he said. He picked up the cup, took a long sip, and grimaced. “Whoo, good stuff,” he said.
“My finest homebrew,” said Farryn.
“Um, sorry, uh, Mr. Doc …” began Cass.
“Just Doc,” he said.
“Doc,” said Cass, “are you drinking?”
“Yup,” he said. “Steadies the hands.” He held his hands out in front of him, and they did, in fact, seem perfectly still. “Come on now, someone needs to get on my table.”
Cass looked at Farryn dubiously. “Don’t worry,” he said.
“Right, what’s there possibly to worry about?” she said. “Just some surgery in the garage with a drunk doctor.”
“Little miss,” said Doc, pointing a finger at Cass, “I’m drinking. I’m not drunk. There’s a difference.” He took another sip from the cup. “But in another ten minutes or so, that might change, so you should stop stalling.”
“Okay, fine, let’s get this over with,” said Cass. She walked toward the table, but Kevin grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.
“No,” he said. “Let me go first. I’ll find out if it’s safe.”
Cass bit back an annoyed retort. After seeing Nick taken away, he needed to feel brave, she realized. So even though the last thing she would normally put up with was her little brother trying to take care of her, she just nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll be right here. Good luck.”
Doc set his drink down on the floor under the table. He held up one of his tools, a small black canister. “Topical anesthetic. You won’t feel a thing. Shirt off, and lie down face first on the table, please.”
Kevin slipped off his shirt, handed it to Cass, then lay down on the table.
“Any last words?” said Doc. “Joking. All right, here we go.” He laid a towel on each side of Kevin’s neck and draped a third across his shoulders. “First, disinfectant. This’ll be cold.” He swabbed Kevin’s neck with a clear liquid. Kevin winced then gritted his teeth and laid still.
“Now, the anesthetic.” Doc held another towel between Kevin’s neck and face, then sprayed a thin mist from the black canister. He waited a moment, then touched Kevin’s neck with the bottom of the canister. “Feel anything?” he said.
“No,” said Kevin.
“Few more seconds and we can get started,” said Doc. “Need to let the anesthetic dissipate from the skin surface a bit more, otherwise I’ll be chopping away at you with numb fingers.” He bent down and took another sip of his drink. “Okay, now listen up, before I begin,” he said. “This’ll be quick, but once I start you DO NOT MOVE OR TALK until I say it’s okay, you got that?”
“Got it,” said Kevin.
“I’m not going in deep, just under the fat layer, but I’m right at the cervical spine, and not far from some important blood vessels, so any movement could be very bad, understand?”
“Yes, okay,” said Kevin.
“This garage could be on fire, and if I don’t say it’s okay, you don’t move.”
“All right, I get it! I won’t move.”
Something began beeping loudly, and Kevin turned his head to see what it was.
“I said don’t move!” said Doc.
“Sorry,” said Kevin. “What is that?”
Farryn picked up his tracking device and frowned. He tapped on it a few times and the beeping stopped. “Rust,” he said. “Bad news. My father’s on the move. Heading home.”
“How much time do we have?” said Cass.
“Maybe fifteen minutes,” said Farryn. “You’d better go.”
“Doc, is that enough time for two chips?” said Cass.
“Probably,” said Doc. “But I’ve never done this before, so who knows?”
“You should leave,” said Farryn. “We can do this another time.”
“Start cutting,” said Cass to Doc. She turned to Farryn. “We don’t have time to waste.”
Doc looked at Cass, then Farryn.
“Go on!” said Cass.
Doc shrugged. “Okeydokey, then. Here we go.” He picked up the scalpel and carefully made a small incision in the middle of Kevin’s neck. Blood seeped out, down both sides of his neck onto the towels. Cass winced. Farryn looked away, suddenly interested in the far wall.
Doc picked up one of the chips with a small pair of tongs, lifted the neck skin up away from the incision with another tong, and began slowly sliding the chip into place. “You’ll be feeling a bit of jostling,” he said. “No moving, no talking.” He nudged the chip in a bit further. “Needs to be sitting just right,” he muttered. “There we go.”
He released the chip, let the skin flap settle back down onto the neck, and then ran another tool—it looked like a thick pencil, with a blunt square tip—over the incision. He dabbed away the blood with a towel, and the incision was closed. Only a faint pink scar line was visible.
“Done,” he said, clapping his hands together. He picked up his drink. Kevin didn’t move. “You can get up now, kid,” he said, then took a sip.
“ETA ten minutes,” said Farryn, watching his tracker. “Keep it moving.”
Kevin sat up, and Cass handed him his shirt. “You okay?” she said.
“Yeah, no problem,” he said. He began to reach back to his neck, but Doc leaned over and slapped his hand away.
“Give it a few minutes,” he said. “It should be seated fine, but we don’t need you pushing it out of alignment. Ten minutes, and the tissue should be fully resealed around the chip.”
He turned to Cass. “All right, shirt off, on the table.”
Cass glanced at Farryn and hated herself for it. She was wearing a bra; there’d be nothing to see …
“Farryn, turn around,” said Lexi.
Farryn held his hands up. “We’re all mature, here, right? I’ve seen a girl’s back before.”
“Turn around,” repeated Lexi. “Doing you a favor, anyway. You almost passed out with the first drop of Kevin’s blood.”
Farryn frowned. “Okay, okay,” he said. He turned and faced the wall. “Good luck, Cass.”
Cass took off her shirt and handed it to Lexi, whispered “Thank you,” then laid on the table. She received the same lecture—no moving, no talking—and up close to the Doc now, she could smell the alcohol on his breath.
Doc repeated the procedure, and five minutes later he was done. Cass sat up and reflexively reached for her neck, and just like with Kevin, he swatted her hand away. “Sorry,” she said. “Forgot.”
Doc lifted his cup and saluted them. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’re chipped. Dummy chipped, at least.” He finished his drink and set it down hard on the table.
“Rust!” said Farryn, holding up his tracker. “He’s here.” He tapped his comm, and the garage door slid open silently. “Everyone out,
now
.” He looked at Cass and pulled the piece of paper with her stick figure on it from his pocket. “Don’t forget our I.O.U.”
They heard the front door open, then slam closed. Farryn went inside, and they all hurried out into the night.
NICK OPENED HIS EYES AND STARED AT A WHITE CEILING. HE COULDN’T move, couldn’t even look to his left or right; he was dizzy and nauseated, and every inch of his body hurt. It felt like he had been run over by a wagon—his muscles ached and throbbed, and he doubted he could even lift his hand he was so weak. His shoulder, where the Petey had touched him, burned like it was on fire. After a few minutes his head cleared a bit, and it suddenly registered that he was naked, and cold, and lying on a metal table with nothing but a thin pillow under his neck.
He rolled onto his side, slowly, groaning. He put his hand on the table, took a deep breath, braced himself, then with a grunt of pain and effort managed to push himself upright into a sitting position. The room he was in was small, ten feet by ten feet. The walls and ceiling were blinding white, the floor a gray metallic tile. There were no windows, just a door with no visible handle. Nick felt a momentary rise of panic.