Man Made Boy (39 page)

“A city-wide rollout of
what
?” I asked.

“I plan to find out what the visual cortex aggression hack I used in Saint Louis would look like if deployed on a large scale. I will project it on every television and computer monitor in New York City tomorrow at eight p.m., eastern standard time.”

“Listen you little—” said Claire and she grabbed for him.

He leapt out of the way. Then he flicked on the switch for the garbage disposal.

“I refuse to give you the satisfaction, you savage,” he said. Then he jumped into the sink, followed immediately by a wet grinding sound and spatters of blood.

“Holy shit.” She stumbled back toward me. “This chick is psycho! She makes the Hydes look like kittens!”

“Yeah,” I said. “And it’s all my fault.”

“No, Boy.” Claire shook her head. “This is way more than you ever—”

“I doesn’t matter. I’m still responsible. And even if I wasn’t, I still have to save my parents and everybody else at The Show. If I can.”

An empty robe and slippers appeared in the open doorway.

“All right, Boy, I know you have your big date tonight, but really, can’t you…” There was a moment of silence. Then, “Dear God, what happened here?”

“You were right.” I slowly got to my feet. “I have to face the consequences of my actions. Will you help me stop them from getting any worse?”

A FEW HOURS later, I stood with Kemp, Kitsune, and Claire on a small private airfield just outside Los Angeles. The nearby city skyline was wreathed in the sickly orange light that hung on the horizon. Around us, there were no buildings or other equipment you normally see at an airport. It was just a long strip of dirt outlined in bright incandescent white lights that stuck up from the ground in regular intervals.

“She should be here in a few minutes,” said Kemp, his coat collar pulled up against the chill evening breeze.

“I really appreciate your getting in touch with her,” I said.

“It’s been a very long time since she and I have cooperated, and I can’t quite remember why,” he said. “She and I used to get on so well. Perhaps once this is resolved…” His shoulders shrugged. “Well, we shall see. Now, before I send you off, please tell me you have a plan.”

“I have an idea that theoretically should work,” I said.

“That sounds…encouraging,” he said. “Please do try to come back in one piece this time.”

I turned to Kitsune. Her long black hair was pulled back, but a few stray wisps fluttered across her face in the wind. I realized that the reason I liked her so much was that she was a lot like my mother. Other than the stories she told, she was a woman of few words. But the way she looked at me told me all I needed to know. I remembered what she’d said when we first met.
Worth it
. This was worth it. No matter how it ended.

I bowed to her. And she bowed back.

Then I turned to Claire. “You can’t come.”

“I appreciate that you don’t want me dead,” she said. “But I don’t want you dead, either. And I’ve already saved your arse enough times to know you’re probably going to need me to do it again.”

“No,” I said. “Literally, you won’t be able to come. She can’t carry us both for three thousand miles.” Actually, I had no idea if the Dragon Lady could carry us both that far. But even if my plan worked, it seemed pretty unlikely that I would survive it. The only way I could go into it with a clear head was if I knew she and Sophie wouldn’t go down with me.

“But what about disconnecting?” Claire asked.

“Well, you can’t do that part, either. Your fingers are too big.”

“But you can’t do it yourself.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Then…” She closed her eyes. “Oh. You need Sophie.”

“Yeah. Her fingers are small enough.”

“Right.” Her face was tense and I could see that muscle in her neck twitching again.

“You did save my ass, though. A bunch of times.”

She smiled a little. “I did. And probably will again in the future.”

“I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities,” I lied.

She put her hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry I choked earlier tonight. You know, when you got all mushy and confessional on me.”

“Look. We don’t have to—”

“Shut up. About your question…the one you asked earlier. Here’s the answer.”

Then she kissed me. We stood on the windswept airfield as I pulled her in close and her hands pressed against my back. Then her lips began to soften, her head lowered, her arms and torso shrank, her touch became gentler. Suddenly, I was holding Sophie in my arms, her long, curly hair flowing in the evening breeze. She pressed her cool cheek against my neck and sighed.

“Hiya,” she whispered.

“Hey,” I said.

“Good to see you.”

“You too.”

“You’re going to ask me to do something gross, aren’t you?”

“Pretty much.”

“You suck.”

“Totally. Will you do it?”

“What if I cock it up?”

“You won’t.”

“Okay.”

We stood there for a little while longer, her face pressed into the curve of my neck. Then the moon went dark. We looked up to see the Dragon Lady circling overhead, her vast wings stretched wide as she glided lower and lower. Finally, she neared the ground, her wings flared up, and she stepped gracefully on to the dirt landing strip. Her head swiveled around as she looked down at us.

“Hello again, little monsters,” she said.

“Thank you for coming,” I said.

“In the dark hours, we must all be lights for each other.”

“It’s good to see you again,” said Kemp.

“And it is good to…be with you again, Doctor,” said the Dragon Lady.

Kemp’s hat cocked to one side. “If you don’t mind my saying so, it seems you have…changed somewhat since our last encounter.”

“As have you,” she said.

“A lot can happen in fifty years, I suppose.”

“Indeed.” The Dragon Lady turned to Kitsune. “When will you next grace us with your presence, Fox Maiden?”

Kitsune turned her amber eyes to Sophie. “Soon, I think.”

The Dragon Lady turned back to me. “Well, little monster. Are you ready?”

“I just have to do one thing first.” I turned to Sophie. “Ready?”

“You sure you want to do it now?” she asked. “Didn’t you say that the longer you’re like that, the worse it is when it’s over?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s the point. So are you okay to do this?”

She bit her lip and nodded.

I handed her a small clamp with a long, thin wire attached to it. The other end of the wire I had already attached to my belt.
Then I turned to face the dragon. It was comforting to look in those glowing, eternal eyes. It made me feel like no matter what happened, some things go on forever.

“Loosen the stitches at the base of my skull,” I said.

After a moment, I could feel a little slack back there.

“Now carefully spread the flaps apart.”

I felt the breeze snake its way past the barrier of my skin and I had to repress a shudder. I didn’t want to make any sudden movement right now.

“Now, there’s probably a lot of stuff you have to push aside. What you’re looking for is a thick, orange bypass cord right above the spine that connects the brain stem to the cerebellum.”

“Eeew,” said Sophie, and I heard a wet sound as she pushed her fingers into me. “What if I get the wrong one?”

“It’ll be the only orange thing in there.”

“I don’t see it.” Her voice sounded a little queasy.

“You have to go deeper.”

“Ugh.” I heard more wet sounds as she pushed in farther. “You know this must be love, don’t you? I wouldn’t do this for anyone else in the world.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I love you t—”

There was a moment when I finally felt like me again, my physical and emotional sides linked back up. I felt clear and calm as I took in my surroundings, the stage of The Show, the gigantic mainframe computer I was connected to at the back of my head and my wrists.

But it was the quiet before the storm, and I could feel the pent-up emotion looming over me like a tidal wave.

I braced myself.

“What?!” said VI. “Disconnect! DISCON—”

Then it hit. And it was like I was swept backward in time
to feel all the emotions that had been building up for the last twenty-four hours, but compressed into a burst of such searing intensity that it might ruin my mind, or maybe just kill me.

THE DRAGON LADY swooped me up from that landing strip outside LA, and the world spun away as we launched into the night sky. My stomach lurched and I almost threw up as we rose higher and higher, moving so fast my eardrums burst. As blood trickled onto my earlobes, I heard the dragon thunder:

“How is this compared to your flying machines, little science monster! Are they this fast, this glorious?”

I heard the passionless voice of the other, disconnected me say, “No.”

Far below, one half of the love of my life reached her hand up toward us as we sped away. The look of horror on her face rent me and I wondered: Have I gone too far, shown her too much of me, of what I’m capable of becoming? Now will she always see some grotesque cyborg creature when she looks at me? I wanted to rip free from the dragon’s clutches, go back to her, forget all this and hide with her somewhere far away. But it was all too late for that now. Besides, if I couldn’t fix this, I didn’t deserve her, anyway.