Chapter 21 as it appeared
Part 3: Evolution Bites
Authors: Gabby, PCat
Acknowledgment: Based on an idea by Ian, Extra input from BD, Kulko and Tarrok
Chapter 21: Brynzilla
Malton +91
The plates were gone. They had heard the news before dinner. Bryn escaped. Simon dead. The children had been full of it, even Jim who was a little young too young to understand the implications. Bryn's children speculated excitedly about when Mummy would get home. Eventually Cat packed them all off to do homework, leaving her and Gabby, still sitting at the table, a bottle of Cat's best whiskey between them and a glass each. Gabby was the first to break the silence.
"Are you OK?"
"I'm glad."
"No you're not," Gabby said sharply, "Don't pretend to be some evil robot, that's not who you -"
"I am, Gabby. He was an evil, evil man."
"C'mon, Cat, it's not that black-and - "
"Why are you defending him?"
"I... don't know," Gabby stared into the bottom of his glass. "It's like... he was there. He was the Sauron. And now what?"
"We live happily ever after?"
"Will you?"
"Yes," Cat said flatly, "And you will too. Regardless of what he did to me and the world - he tortured you - directly at times. How can you let that go?"
"We were in balance. From the day I met that fucker, I tried to be what he wasn't. Now..."
"Stop it, Gabby."
"I've won."
"So why aren't you happy?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know. I think you're drunk and you're being stupid. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Gabby."
Gabby sat alone, staring into his glass.
"Do you know what I mean, mate?"
The whiskey had no answer.
He downed it in one as a punishment, then sloped off after Cat
"Andy?"
"Bryn, where are you? I've been worried sick."
"Things got a little complicated."
"You're telling me. Joe and I got to that Malton Relief lab just after you escaped. We're in Kyoto now."
"The kids?"
"The kids are fine. Gabby and Cat have been looking after them. You should see them. It does Gabby good to have four people in the house who are not only younger than him, but look it as well. Where are you?"
"I'm not really in control of it. I could be dangerous."
"Bryn where are you?. I don't care if you're in control or not. We can work this out."
"I don't think so."
"Fuck I don't think so. We've got Sy. We've got Sam. We've got Cat. We've got half the world expertise on immortality and nanites."
"There was serious money behind it. Not just Simon. I got some names."
"Bryn!"
"I'm going deep cover Andy. Give my love to the children. It breaks my heart but I have to sort this out. And I'm going to break the bastards who did this to me."
"Bryn!!!"
"I'm not sure flying was such a good idea." Cat hovered on the far side of the Customs' barrier. BD's children and Jim were clustered around her. Robert, BD's eldest glowered belligerently at the crowds.
Gabby looked anxiously at the far side of the barrier. Most of the placards were in Japanese, but the symbol of the anti-immortal party was prevalent. "What the heck do they want?" he growled.
"They're blaming us for Simon's death?"
"Well that's stupid."
Cat gave him a long hard look. "Simon was their token patron immortal. He died at the hands of another immortal. I'm his widow and you're my lover. Work it out."
Gabby glanced back at the crowd. "People are fucking idiots."
"Gabby!"
"This is serious! I'm allowed to swear when it's serious."
They both looked at the crowd. "Flying is too conspicuous," said Cat. "Too few people use air travel. Next time we catch a boat."
"Boats take forever."
"Only the filthy rich fly. I've been telling you that for decades."
"I..." Gabby caught her look again. "OK, let's not argue. What do we do?"
"Well since we are filthy rich bourgeois,” Gabby flinched. “I suggest you phone a security firm and get us an escort."
BD looked tired. Cat put one arm round him and felt him lean into her.
"Right!" said Gabby. "What's the current situation?"
Joe ran his hands through hair. "Bryn's heading for Tokyo. She's going to investigate this research company, Takemura Industries."
Cat nodded. "It looks like they own most of the Biofusion IP. In fact they seem to be behind most of the research into immortality right now. Bryn's not planning on doing anything in a hurry."
"She should come home. We can sort this." BD's voice was quiet.
"She's talked to Sy and I have to agree with them both. There are indications of deep programming. It's too dangerous for her to come home. Not enough control. We don't know what instructions they've implanted. If she gets near one of us, it could set it off."
"You don't know that! Heading off to Takemura Industries! That could be what the deep programming is making her do."
"I trust her BD. She's not easily spooked and she's spooked by this."
"But the kids..."
"Especially because of the kids."
"Look BD, they'll be fine with us a little longer," said Gabby suddenly. "You, Ant, Joe, get your arses in gear and help Bryn. Cat and I will rent somewhere here. You and the children can stay with us and we'll babysit when you're off detecting or whatever."
Cat nodded. "Yes, we can do that. We've all been through worse than this BD. We can manage again."
Malton +92
"Guess who I met today, at the astrophysics festival," Gabby announced through a mouthful of noodles.
"Daddy, don't eat with your mouth full."
Sometimes Cat forgot who was the child in this household. Rolling her eyes, she asked, "Who?"
"Thom, stupid of me really, I never connected him with the Professor Solo who was doing all the work on space travel."
"Doesn't surprise me. Though he was in engineering before the Brankin presidency. I lost track of him after that."
"He was lecturing on the future of space travel. He worked on the Mars base for a bit."
"What did he say?"
"Well, until recently, sub-lightspeed space travel was a bugger for two reasons. One, the pilot would die somewhere around the edge of the solar system. Two, his dead body would run out of fuel a few years later. But you know that fusion reactor they built in Geneva? He reckons one of those would provide indefinite power to a spacecraft, enabling it to travel forever at speeds approaching the speed of light."
"What about the pilot?"
"Amongst our social circle, Cat, do you know anyone who's died of old age? Gabby asked, his eyes twinkling.
"You mean, us? Jesus. Where are you going to take it?"
"I've arranged a meeting with Ian and Thom. I know Thom's already thinking of it. It's obvious if you're in the field, but I reckon we need to make it bigger than a solo flight."
"How are you doing with Takemura Industries?" Bryn sat fidgetting on the far side of the video link.
Cat sighed. Bryn looked normal, mostly, but she was clearly twitchy. Her hands darted this way and that. Cat knew she was only looking human because she was concentrating hard.
"Not good Bryn. I'm not really up on Japanese Company Law and the paper trail is a labyrinth."
"Cat!" There was a crash.
"What was that?"
"Not to worry, I just knocked something over."
Cat frowned at the screen, whatever it was Bryn had done, she couldn't see it.
"I've got one thing for you to go on."
"Shoot it over Cat."
"I dunno Bryn. I think you should let Sam or Sy check you over first."
"I don't want to risk it. Come on Cat! Spill the dirt."
Cat shook her head. "I tracked down some of their other patents. They've done a lot of work with robotics some of which. I dunno. They've got transmitter and receiver arrays as control interfaces to mech systems."
"In English?"
Cat shrugged. "Looks to me like they were developing a way for our nanites to interface directly with one of these machines."
Bryn made a face. "So far, so creepy."
"Let someone check you out."
"No!"
Cat sighed. "I've got a list of their labs and subsidiaries. I'll give them the once over, see which one is doing most of the robotics research."
Malton +93
"Well?" asked Ant.
BD sat next to him wrestling with a smart paper GPS. "Hard to tell. Keep heading north."
"This place is a warren." Ant glared through the electric car windows at the looming skyscrapers that seemed to crowd together over head.
"It's mucking up the satellite signal. That's assuming Bryn still has the tracking device Cat sent her."
"She won't have ditched it. She may be going this alone but she's too smart not to have a back-up contingency."
"I hate being the back-up contingency and I wish she'd given us more warning. Why the robotics lab anyway? What makes her think the good stuff is there?"
"I know, man, but like Cat says, you need to trust her."
She'd so nearly made it. She'd spent a week puzzling out how to break into the robot lab and in the end decided she might as well exploit her new found strength and simply break through the wall.
Bryn was gaining control of her new body by now. Enough control certainly that when fuelled by a box full of high energy bars she could double her height some and increase her weight. Then she simply marched into the compound, swatted away a couple of sentries and broke down the doors. Alarms were blaring but the place didn't have sophisticated security. A prototype robotic frame stood in the construction area. It was about twice as big as she was, even with her enlarged size. It was humanoid in shape and she could see the cradle where an operator would sit and work the giant limbs. The cradle looked big too. Someone had known immortals could shift size.
A couple of technicians ran into the room. Instinctively she reached out tentacles throwing them against the wall while she headed for the computers. She had almost no conscious control over the tentacles, but they were pretty effective and she assumed control would come. Her intention was to grab the machines and head out. Hali could then amuse himself extracting the data she needed. At that moment lights blazed and machinery hummed into action. Signals assaulted her from all sides, a magnified amplified wall of static, shutting down her internal systems and swamping her control. She sank to her knees as if she had hit a brick wall.
She was dimly aware of shouts, of hands upon her. She was being lifted and restrained and then something happened. It was as if extra awareness was patched into her own. She felt like a machine, like she had servos and motors and acctuators. The knowledge of what each part of this body could do swamped her.
"Now raise your hand!" shouted a voice.
Bryn watched a giant mechanical fist appear in front of her eyes and knew that she was moving it.