Veil (88 page)

As Peyton and Suren worked together to touch
up the Veillusion, Peyton could see the residual pain in Suren’s
eyes when she described that moment. However, it clearly wasn’t
comparable to what she witnessed in Hunter. While it was only a
Veillusion of Ken, it would feel like Ken to Hunter, nonetheless.
Peyton knew that. Peyton knew Hunter wouldn’t last long, and he’d
cave. He’d have to touch Ken again. He’d have to kiss Ken again.
Hunter loved Ken; Hunter loved Ken deeply; Hunter loved Ken to a
fault. Peyton was not blind to that.

All she needed to do was wait for Hunter’s
desperation to get the best of him. Besides, once Ken died, Hunter
was all but doomed to live life alone. It was the same for the
Great Widow Tsay after she lost Jin. Peyton believed that, deep
down, the Trustees knew that. The Trustees knew they were all going
to live and die isolated and alone.

Peyton figured that unconscious truth slowly
drove each of them mad.
Something
had to explain why the
three of them were so neurotic and unstable. Mostly out of
necessity, The Tsay Trustees were all insulated, cut-off, hermits.
Peyton knew the three were destined to live and die completely
alone, except for each other—and they couldn’t stand each
other.

“Jesus, you look like crap.”

“Thanks.”

“Well, you do.”

“Here” He held out a small, shiny white
box.

“What is that?”

“It’s every memory I have of him.”

“Every memory?”

“Within reason. I used the same program that
he and I created to isolate and extract Roy’s memories of Jin.”

“You used it on yourself?”

“Yes.”

“To isolate and extract all your memories of
Ken?”

“Duh, Thumbelina.” He rolled his eyes and
shook his head. “Captain Obvious.”

She rolled her eyes right back, “Ok … but
what do you expect—”

He interrupted her, “That’s not all.”

“What else, then?”

“I used a variation of your algorithm to
measure, detect, and pluck out the best memories I have of him. I
tweaked it to single out my strongest memories of him. Of me and
him together.”

“You used my algorithm?”

“I had to change it up some. I rewrote it.
But yes, it was able to scan all the memories I already extracted,
and then it identified the best ones. The most significant ones.
Like how you could use it to choose the best script when you didn’t
have enough details.”

“That’s actually pretty—” she started to
compliment him.

“I don’t care about your opinion, Rainbow
Brite. I just want you to use those memories.” He pointed at the
white box now in her hand. “Use those to add scenes of me and Ken
to your Veillusion.”

“Hunter, you already know what my answer
is.”

“Yes, yes, I know. You do this and streaming
is yours. You all can have streaming. I don’t give a shit. I want
Ken. I tried to break open your Veillusion and program those in
myself, but I couldn’t. Apparently, little Miss Strawberry
Shortcake is smarter than me. So, leave. Go. Do it.”

Peyton had a hard time believing he was going
to hand over streaming to her without some guarantee in place. She
didn’t trust him. She also didn’t understand half the insults or
names he threw at her. He was such an odd, strange little man.
Still, she wanted some kind of guarantee. At least, she wanted to
try
to get one from him.

“I … well, how do I know you’ll—”

“Leave.”

Hunter said it before, and he would say it
again: Suren was not one to make empty threats. If she didn’t take
a cab, she’d find another way to get to his house. He decided to
forego an entire afternoon of Ken simply for the chance of
witnessing Suren get out of a cab. It was worth it for the chance
of watching her cling to her dignity, as she swung open the cab
door and hobbled out. Or fell out. Maybe she’d fall out.

Oh god, what if she fell out of the cab?

Oh hell no, he couldn’t miss that. There
could be pain and blood to witness. Maybe there should be popcorn.
Hunter decided he could have Ken again after Suren left, so he used
a blanket to make a pallet on the front porch. He lounged there and
sipped down multiple Long Island Iced Teas while snacking on
popcorn and waiting for the show to arrive.

Maybe I should have Band-Aids? Nah, let her
bleed.

He should have figured Roy would cave. It was
who Roy was and that wasn’t going to change in the ninth inning.
When the limousine pulled up and Roy exited from the driver’s seat,
Hunter thought maybe Roy was about to walk around to open Suren’s
door. It wouldn’t have surprised him in the least, but it would’ve
been appalling to him nonetheless.

However, Suren opened her own door and slowly
extended a white cane from the darkness of the limousine’s
interior. She used it as leverage to pry herself off the seat and
begin her annoyingly sluggish approach. Roy did rush around to help
her climb the stairs, but one could hardly blame him. The old bitch
could barely keep herself upright.

Ugh, what a waste of good popcorn. And … no
blood.

Boooooring.

“You moved the couch.”

“Roy and I moved the couch.”

“Ah, yes.”

“It’s not like we had any of our little get
togethers in here any more, so I didn’t see the point.”

“I do miss our little get togethers.”

“I’m sure you do. Yes. Wonderful. Do you know
you broke one of his teeth?”

“Excuse me?”

“Ken. That night you came over and beat his
face like you were his pimp and he owed you fiddy dollars. You
broke one of his teeth. A molar.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. He
dented my ring.” She held up her finger. “See?”

Hunter didn’t reply.

“No, you probably can’t see it.” She lowered
her hand and spun her ring in circles while she reminisced. “He
dented it, though. So
,
I’m not
surprised.”

“Simply wonderful. Why are you here,
Suren
?”

“I want to talk to you about this plan. About
this Ken’s Clause.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, and I’m sure
you haven’t, I’m not in the habit of giving you things you
want.”

“Can we cut the bullshit, Hunter? Please.
It’s tired and exhausting.”

Hunter snatched up an empty crystal snifter
and chucked it at Suren. It narrowly missed her head and shattered
against a wall four feet behind her.

She’s probably already a fucking ghost, so
it just went through her. Go haunt someone else, Connie Chung.

Hunter had truly aimed for Suren’s head and
was genuinely upset that it missed.

“It’s not bullshit!” he screeched. “And stop
making me break all my glasses. You’re not even worth them.
Fuck!”

While she struggled to keep her voice steady,
Suren tried a different approach.

“Fine, I know how to speak your language.
Tell me, how did you two use me?”

Hunter snickered and leaned his chair back.
He rested one foot on the wooden handle of the bottom desk drawer
and folded his hands across his chest. He could no longer lift his
legs high enough to lounge with his feet up on the desk.

“Ohhh you certainly know how to speak my
language, don’t you? Ok. He used what Jin … what your loving
husband did to you.” He grinned and pointed an index finger at her,
which he spun around mid-air while he pointed at her. Hunter was
delighted with himself, so he crinkled his nose and shimmied his
butt while he spun his finger at Suren.

“Yes, you told me as much,” she shook her
head. It was still a sore spot for her, but she opened the door.
She knew Hunter wouldn’t be able to resist walking through it and
would at least start the conversation.

“Yes, I figured you figured,” Hunter
smiled.

“So?”

“So what? It’s not that hard to figure out,
really. Unless, that is, you’re being lazy.”

“Hunter, you know there were things I never
understood about what the two of you did and how you did them. So,
I’m not being lazy, I’m just too dumb,” she greased him.

“True. Very true. However, I see your bet,
and I’ll raise you. I’ll give you some of what you want but not
because you reverse-psychologized me into giving it up. I’ll give
it to you because I don’t have time to sit here while you try to
butter my ass all day. I have masturbating to attend to, thank you
very much.”

“Fair enough,” she conceded. Although quite
desensitized to the ways Hunter used gross humor to disarm and
provoke people, she was forced to swallow back a gag produced by
the visual of his old, shriveled, ashy penis and brittle, gray
pubic hair. The image made her mouth taste like bile. She was
certain that was the reaction Hunter sought when he said things
like that.

Score one for him
, she figured.
Nasty old pervert of man
.

“We used what Jin did to your brain, how he
trained it to reject Veil. We used the way Jin restructured your
brain. Ken took out the fatal part of the time tomb, but we
included the rewiring method, and it will train people’s brain to
reject Veil. The infection, if you want to call it that, is stored
in the artificial brain that’s at the Temple. It’s inside
The
Jin Experience
brain. When it’s triggered, it will transmit the
mutation through the vNet like a computer virus. He slowed it down
a great, great deal, so it would have time to spread. We’re talking
years. I don’t know how many years. He wanted to give it a proper
chance, which meant keeping them from being able to isolate it. So
they couldn’t cure the artificial brain and then exile all the
infected people to prevent the spread of it.”

“Ok … so what—“

“Shut up
.
I’m not
done. Do you want to know or not?”

Suren nodded.

“That’s what I thought. So, after it gets
triggered and released … well then ten years, fifty years, a
hundred years later, Veil will just stop working. In one person at
first, then another, then another. They’ll start popping up
everywhere. One day, Veil won’t work for anyone. And not like how
your brain can shadow someone but no one can shadow you. Veil won’t
work at all. The brain will be trained to reject communication with
any Witness other than one it creates. The neuroelectrical
fingerprints will have to match up exactly, like the VSN.
Artificial neuroelectrical patterns won’t work. Streaming won’t
work. Nothing will work. Veil will be dead, like Ken wanted.”

“And that’s what I figured,” Suren
interjected. “After I saw the Veillusion, I knew you must’ve
purposely left out what Jin did to me. You wouldn’t leave anything
out by accident. Especially something you knew would affect me.
When I heard what you said … when I … well, suffice it to say, I
started looking at everything I did, everything I allowed myself to
do, and I realized I did some things Jin probably wouldn’t be very
proud of—”