Wildcard (22 page)

“All right, then. Who am I?”

“The Deeply Named, of course.”

“I’m not the clone of Mata Hari, am I?”

“No, I’m afraid not. That lie wore thin,
eh?”

“Yes. Why did I always believe it?”

“You never completely believed it, I would
wager. There were always niggling doubts. You were conditioned to
believe it, as a child. I needed the lie to last.”

“But no one ever told me I was her.”

The Benefactor made a dismissive noise.
“Don’t be stupid. All the clues were there. It was a trail of bread
crumbs, leading you to the conclusion that that is who you
were.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say that I didn’t want you to
know the truth, so I gave you an interesting lie. A sexy lie that
would be …fun to believe. Then conditioned you to accept it.”

“How?”

“A bit complicated and a mere footnote.”

“Well, then, I ask again. Who am I? Quit
being so dramatic and tell me.”

The man’s laugh slid out again. “Forgive me.
Since this is my first time in a room with another living being in
9 years, I wanted to build it up. Just a little. You are my clone,
of course.”

Karl needed to find Seeker. He phoned the
Sergeant to ask about returning to their headquarters. The General
came on, emphatically opposed to Karl’s return. He said something
about M-E strikes if they were all in one place. Karl sensed that
was not the reason. If the M-E’s wanted them dead, they would be.
Technically, it was probably true, but the General seemed to be
saying one thing and implying another.

He asked neither the Sergeant or the
General, or both at once. “Do you want me alive?”

“Oui.
Absolument. Je veut vous vivant.”

“I need to find Seeker. Can you help
me?”

“Probably,” the Sergeant said. “But your pal
Dartagnan can do it a lot faster.”

“What should I do?”

“You ask too many questions, Karl.” The line
went dead. They wanted him to work with Dartagnan instead of them.
Surely the two parties were opposed, considering the General’s
war-stance on M.E.s. Perhaps they had reached an agreement in
Karl’s absence. Maybe Dartagnan and the General were working
together now. Maybe they always had been. They seemed to know about
Dartagnan’s contact with Karl.

He pulled out the cell-phone gizmo RJ had
given him, pushed #4, the speed dial for Dartagnan.

“Hello?”

“Dartagnan?”

“No. You have reached Seeker. Who is
speaking?”

The voice was male, but feminine.

“My name is Karl.”

“You are Karl? The Karl? The Savant has
telephoned me?”

“Just Karl.”

“Incredible. What is your wish with me?”

“Hmm. This is strange. I was calling
Dartagnan, and was going to ask him to put me in touch with
you.”

“One supposes he threw the switch first. How
may I help, Karl?”

“Let’s figure out why I need to contact
you.”

“Excellent. I have an idea. Where are you
located?”

“Manhattan.”

“Interesting. I live somewhat close, in
Manhattan Mansworld, that is. Would you be able to find an Internet
kiosk nearby?”

“Alright. Shall I call you back?”

“No. Maintain this
connection. If we become disconnected, contact me by e-chat at
[email protected]. When you arrive, take station 7 and input
Karl-Seeker-Mansworld
into a search engine
called databot.”

Karl found an internet store in five
minutes.

“I’m here. Station 7 is taken. Should I
wait?”

“No. 7 is merely lucky. Find another
station.”

Karl sat at 11, after the man waved him to
sit anywhere.

“I typed it in. 1400 hits.”

“Open the e-chat program. Keep the search
results open.”

He asked a neighbor how to do it, typed in
Seeker’s information.

“Done. Do we keep the line open?”

“Yes. This type of connect is not so easy to
establish. However, we also wish to ask some questions online. Some
research.”

Onscreen appeared the
words
This is a secure connection. Do not
repeat what is typed. We need to keep this communication
secret
.

“OK, what do we ask?” Karl said.

We need to meet face to face. Can you make
sure you are not followed?

“I shall enter Seeker-Karl-Mansworld,”said
Seeker.

“Me, too. We can compare.”

Can meet. Where?

Plaza of the Americas.
52
^nd
floor. Room 7. An office in
human
s
pace I have
use of. Do not bring that phone. 2 hours.

They talked for a while, made a phony verbal
arrangement for a coffee shop which Seeker said he used frequently
for meetings. The fake meeting was the next day. They invented
false phone calls to make and threw out other smoke trails. Karl
knew the mechanics from Martha and spun out a lot of fluff.

I received something
called “
Wildcard
is coming” in my results.

I did not. Print it and bring it. Hide it if
you can.

Martha knew it. As soon as the carapace
lifted, she knew the thing was herself darkly distorted.

“A biopid?”

“
No, you are pre-biopid.
You are my first clone. Correction, my first successful
clone.”

“
How were the others
unsuccessful? Did they die?”

“
A few, but that was not
the principal difficulty. They went mad, frequently, and had to
be…disposed of.”

Martha shivered.

“There was some engineering done, to make
you more seductive, more female deadly, but no partner matching
like the Sergeant and General, or technological integration
facilitation like the Mechanic and the Sergeant. No perfect profile
and habituation adaptation, and many other things like Karl. Or
superluck, like RJ. The Sergeant does not fear, the General will
not yield, Karl, probably, will live a very long time, possibly
forever. Karl is gene blended, a mélange of persons chosen for key
traits. Benjamin Franklin, base data. Karl is nearly perfect at
building consensus.”

“The General seems quite good at that.”

“No, what you see in that regard is the
General’s persuasiveness and a Napoleon enhanced quality I call
Negotiation Dominance. He is able to negotiate at any level and
attain what he wants. It is …beautiful. He also has a skill called
Escalation and Lateral Movement Superiority. No matter which way
you take the battle, he will find some strategic edge, he will
adapt his strategy to win without confrontation or use the Sergeant
to obtain what is needed tactically. He killed Juniper, for
example. I would never attack a Manufactured Entity directly. He
did and he won. I gave him some help, though.”

“How did he win?”

“He attacked Juniper at the level of policy.
He took his desire to live and his curiosity, the two things that
made Juniper active. Juniper is still there in some form, but he is
more like a vegetable, inert.”

They had been talking for over an hour. A
tray of finger foods appeared.

“What happened with the clones?”

The Benefactor cleared her throat. Something
resembling an arm twitched a bit.

“IKG Psinetics, one of my companies and
Genetics Destinary, Inc, or GDI, another company, teamed up to
create a clone. I did not tell them who the original was. We
enhanced some things, but it was very difficult to do. Eventually,
we found the Genetecist. He created you, my precursor to biopids.
RJ, at another place, was created at almost the same time.

“The Geneticist, soon after your creation,
was found murdered in his office.”

“Did the General murder him?”

“That would be very impressive. It happened
before he was born.”

“Did you do it?”

“No. Many suspect me. To cover something up,
and it is a good motive. There was much to hide and I was far more
vulnerable at that time. But that is not what happened. Somebody
else murdered him, quite brutally. He was pureed in his
office.”

Martha traced her thumb and finger towards
each other, between her lips.

“What do you do?”

“I evade. I disappear. Though that may
change soon. I control power through hidden streams of corporate
levels and stock markets, through governments, and just through
money. Lots of it. I operate several central banks.”

“Do you control militaries?”

“Yes, by persuasion, but the General
controls militaries much more directly. He controls through force,
almost. He puts people in key positions. He is very cunning about
it. He controls a couple of nation-armies, mostly for the income
they provide. He controls many very powerful weapons, but uses
those against the threat of his real death.”

“Real death? Is there some kind of fake
death I don’t know about?”

“Yes, there is. The General has a bank of
clones. The death of all his clones constitutes real death.”

Martha contemplated this. “The U.S? Does he
control the U.S. military?”

“Pieces of it, certainly. Definitely not the
whole. He owns a number of elite mercenary and security
corporations.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I need you to know as much of what I know
as possible.”

“Why?”

“That, my dear, you will come to understand
very soon. Ask more questions.”

“How would I beat the General?”

“You could not. I may through you. Though
defeat and victory are very relative terms in our world. Not really
the objective.”

Neither said anything for a moment.

“What is the objective?”

“Right now, for me, to live. But that is an
interim goal. Perhaps you would say the objective is to make the
most creative use of power. That is how the General and I best one
another.”

“How would you…best the General?”

“Through you, I will become an arrow. I may
reach the target first.”

“What target?”

“That is information I do not yet have.”

“Who is shooting the arrow?”

“Wildcard, of course. Ask questions you do
not already know the answer to, idiot girl.”

“Why is LuvRay important?”

“‘You are the seed of our
understanding.’”

“What?”

“It is a Wildcard line about LuvRay. He
fulfills some mystic purpose for Wildcard, and possibly for the
three. I don’t know if it’s important to us. It may be. Who can
say? More questions. You really are beautiful, by the way.”

“What about Sublime?”

“Not important. A piece, not a player. A
minor one at that. Yet very useful at times. He makes the situation
move when one needs, and without violence. And he connects
things.”

“Who do you fear the most?”

“Ah, good. Now you begin
to see the game we play. Presently, you are a piece. When we
finish, you will be a player. You will not enjoy the process,
however. Outwardly, I fear the General most. He would end my life
if he could. And he would do so without regret. I am of the Named,
as are you. We are safe from the three, and equal to the
Mans
.”

“And Wildcard? Do you fear Wildcard?”

“There is no meaning in fearing Wildcard. Do
I fear aspects of him? Very much. Wildcard has aspects too horrible
to name, too horrible even for me. Wildcard is insane from our
point of view.”

“You said outwardly you fear the General.
Who do you fear inwardly?”

“Probably Karl. His potential is …
phenomenal.”

“How so?”

“He can believe things into being. Wildcard
is using Karl for some purpose which I cannot fathom. Though in the
short term, he wants Karl to cross.”

“Cross?”

“Into mansworld. Into his universe.”

“What are you doing in this game?”

“Playing the hand I was dealt, what else is
there to do? Too vague. Ask more specific questions.”

“Who are you?”

The laughter was machine creep evil. Nasty.
Low. Alien. “That requires a long answer. An answer I will give
you, but not yet.”

“You don’t answer very much.”

“Ask better questions, and you will get
better answers.”

“Why not just tell me what you want me to
know?”

“I have no idea what I need you to know. You
must find that out.”

“Why should I?”

“What else do you have to do? You may as
well learn what I know. You cannot leave.”

“Good point,” Martha conceded. “The
remaining 2?”

“Yes. Right question. Know the players.
Learn about power. That is a key to the game.”

“What game?”

“Any game, fool. But this game is
power.”

“I find it to be about knowledge.”

“‘Knowledge is but the mask power wears
today.’ Wildcard. I love his poetry.”

“Yeah, so does everybody else. What’s the
big deal?”

“He wrote you a poem, and you do not know?
Your life can be altered in unexpected ways by a poem.”

“OK. The three?”

“The remaining 2, as you said. :3: is a
passive player from our seat. He is more like a force of nature and
the lord of mathematics combined. He moves climates and plays with
governments in odd ways. He causes famine, natural disaster,
uprisings, that sort of thing. Really, he would suggest them to
Juniper or Dartagnan and they would create uprisings. He was trying
to prove something by statistically comparing results to baseline
non-interfered data of similar composition.”

“That sound likes gibberish to me.”

“To me, too, really. It’s M-E speak, a
translation by Juniper. Nonsense to us. But many people die as a
result. And I have little else to do but think and play power
games. I do not see many people, as you can imagine. :3: is not
playing in our arena, not right now. His actions create ripples,
though. Those ripples can be ridden to benefit. In terms of power
brokering, the chaos he creates is a goldmine. I have literally
obtained control of goldmines in Africa after he has engaged. He is
somewhat fun, and very profitable, to follow. Mostly, I have the
Accountant, my MSI, and the Mechanic follow him. My attention is on
the active game.”