Wildcard (26 page)

The Doctor had instructed him and Karl to
spend as much time as possible talking with each other.

“It is of vital import that you learn each
other’s faces and bodies so that they are called up at will, each
other’s mannerisms, and speech. Try to imitate some, take some of
the other into you. It will help the transfer. Come to know each
other to the greatest extent you are able.”

With the holograms, they could watch each
other from different angles.

“Do you find it ironic that the Doctor
instructed us to know one another better?”

“How so?” Karl said.

“The Doctor seems less interested in knowing
people than anyone I have ever met.”

“I don’t get the question.”

“‘Get’ the question?” Seeker did his best
puzzled expression with a slight tip of the head. Karl laughed at
his self-consciousness, as usual.

“Understand the question. Why did you ask me
that?”

“I am trying to comprehend irony. It is
difficult.”

“What’s the definition?”

“Hmm, where is my dictionary?” He knew
exactly where it was. He made a show of looking the word up,
although he could quote the definition by rote.

“Ah, here we have it.” He looked at Karl to
guage his reaction to the phrase. None, at least that Seeker could
perceive.

“I find your attitude to my comment ironic,
in one meaning.”

“You’re pretty odd, Seeker. Go ahead.”

“‘A cool, detached attitude of mind
characterized by recognition of the incongruities and complexities
of existence.’”

“Why not?” Karl laughed as he spoke, “But
then the Doctor’s instructions were not ironic. He does not get the
complexities. Or the…” Karl was laughing very hard now “…
incongruities.”

“Why is that funny?”

“I can’t explain it.”

Seeker shrugged, peeked at Karl after. He
didn’t notice.

“Here is the definition of irony appropriate
to the Doctor’s instruction: ‘a combination of circumstances or a
result that is the opposite of what is or might be expected or
considered appropriate’. I would call it irony that the Doctor told
us to know each other better when he is obviously incapable of
doing so himself.”

“Touché, Seeker. That sounds like irony to
me.”

“Are you being facetious?”

“What does that word mean?”

“Sarcastic.”

“Not consciously.” Karl took a cashew from
one of the snack bowls on the table. “I was just enjoying the
conversation. By the way, why were you so afraid of eavesdroppers
when I first called you?”

“Some manipulation was obvious.” Seeker
imitated Karl’s nut pickup operation with a pistachio. He stuck his
fingernails in and said “crack” as it opened, because he had seen
Karl do so once. “Who connected us? Why were you seeking me?
Someone was watching, Karl. You can be certain. I had no notion as
to their interest.”

“Do you now?”

“Yes, of course. They wish us to exchange
places. We are doing that, so they are not currently a threat.”

“Who do you think it was?”

“Most likely Dartagnan. He gave you the
device. But who can say? Many beings have the skills. By the way,”
Seeker used Karl’s phrase of a moment before, “I have a request of
you.”

“Shoot.”

“Shoot?”

“Ask away. Ask me. Go ahead.”

“Can you assist me in appearing more
human?”

“Ha, ha. Holy cow. Yeah, I suppose. I can
try.”

“That is excellent. How may I do so?”

“Quit talking like a robot, for one thing.
Downshift the perfect grammar. Say um, and ah. Don’t always use
complete sentences. It’s very noticeable. Slur your speech a bit
more.”

“Like izh?”

Karl rubbed his face with his hands. Seeker
imitated the gesture.

“No, you sound drunk. Just…um…clip off
unimportant words sometimes. Like this. Tsa good thing… see. I
dropped the letter I in it’s. Try it.”

“Tsuh good thing. How was that?”

“Not bad. Use contractions. ‘How’s that,’
not ‘how is that.’”

“I try to do so, but I tend to forget.”

“How can you forget?
You’re a Mans
.”

“Oh, we forget much. The M-Es never forget,
but we do. I concentrate diligently on appearing human.”

“Say ‘I work hard to seem human, not I
concentrate diligently on appearing.’”

“Thank you.”

“Say Thanks.”

“Thanks.”

“There is a Mans who is-”

Karl interrupted. “Why do you want to change
places?”

“Let me ask you something first.” Seeker had
almost prefaced his statement with ‘before I answer your question’,
then stopped himself. He also had no real question. Did he feel
stymied? It would be an appropriate response.

“What is the feeling of pride?” Never ask
exactly what you think. He had found this rule out himself. Humans
always meant something different, even if slightly, from what they
said.

“Uh… Pride. Let’s see,” Karl answered.
“Well, you think you did something good. Good to do, I mean. Or
that you did something well. And…you want people to know, to see.
What you did.”

“Excellent, because I just used the
construction –”

“No, that’s not it. You can’t say it. Never
say it. Unless you drop it casually.”

“Drop it?”

“Into the conversation. For example, ‘Oh,
yeah, I swam the English Channel once. No big deal, really. It was
warm that day.’ You downplay it.”

“Ahha. Eureka.”

“No. Don’t say eureka. It’s stupid. Also,
you look like you’re thinking about how to look surprised or
whatever. Stop that.”

“But I must consciously express those
things.”

“No, you don’t. Trust me. You don’t. Or at
least you won’t after we switch. It will feel more natural.”

“Are you certain?”

“No, but I want to encourage you.”

“Thanks, Karl. What do you want with the
switch, by the way?”

“See different places, I suppose. How long
will your body stay alive in Mansworld?”

“Impossible to tell. Karl, I dropped ‘it is’
from the beginning of the sentence. Without thinking about it.”

“Good for you. Perhaps it’s becoming part of
who you are.”

“Perhaps. Speaking with you is helpful,
certainly. At any rate, I would live no longer than a human could.
Seventy years, if I do not, sorry- don’t- die some other way. There
is an unusual sickness here called information sickness. A variety
of forms, actually.”

“What’s it like?”

Seeker forced the contraction, “It’s fatal.
Always. And gruesome. The victim’s form decomposes as they are
alive. I think it is similar to leprosy in your world.”

“Thanks for sharing.”

“Watch out for it, Karl. Avoid those who
have it. It is very contagious. Why did you ask about life span? Do
you wish to live an extended period?”

“‘Do you want to live a long time?’ Ask it
like that. Yeah, maybe I do.” Karl made a why not gesture. “I might
like to live a good long time.”

“Interesting. I calculate a better than 50%
chance that you would live longer. You will be a human entering
Mansworld. Very precious. He, or they, you could say, Wildcard, has
not brought anyone across the information barrier yet, as far as I
know. You would be the first.”

“You, too. I don’t know that I care about
that, anyway. Tell me about wildspace.”

“You shift conversation. Why?”

“Felt like it. It’s normal, Seeker. Another
thing, don’t analyze so much. Just let things go. Forget about
stuff. And quit trying to be the normal human. Just be what you
are, or will be, that is, a Mans who has gone into a human body. It
doesn’t make you inferior.”

Epiphany. Karl had cut to the core and found
a secret he did not see. He unconsciously thought that he was less
important than a human. Where had that belief come from?

“That is very helpful, Karl. Thank you.”

“No problem. Why are you so eager to leave
there?”

“I think I will die if I stay here. The leap
into humanspace will extend my life as well. Perhaps for a very
long time. I want to live a long time.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“Why not?”

“No reason. Just a hunch. You really need to
work on instinct, mon ami.”

She found the General and showed him
Trident. They made a deal. In exchange for capturing Nefario, he
could have Trident. He agreed, saying that the machine was almost
made for the Sergeant.

Finding Nefario was complicated. The
Sergeant took over a month just to get a photograph that they were
sure was him. He was a will-o-the-wisp. His business style was to
own nothing and control everything. They tracked him through the
layers of shell corporations and false holding companies. They
finally penetrated one of his illegal operations, and captured an
upper echelon in one of Nefario's espionage teams who did deep spy,
very complicated work.

The Sergeant conferred with the general, and
they knew that this man had actually met Nefario because of his
position, because of his duties, and because of some thngs he said.
The Sergeant captured him. Under interrogation he pointed them to a
data store, which Trident cracked.

At one point Trident was counterattacked
from within. He responded well. The attack came swiftly, a data
bomb. Part of Trident was lost in the attack, but he managed to
prevent the database from alerting Pleiades.

They later discovered the attack was a
vectored arrow to communications. Most of their communications
devices short-circuited. The Sergeant was monitoring the engagement
through an early nanotic device which provided visuals. It slagged
out, destroying his right eye. Prototype nanotic eyes were already
developed, and with the Sergeant’s input, they developed a
specialized one for him.

The eye later recorded the capture of
Nefario.

The data store was closer to a data mountain
and contained more than 4000 faces propagated as possible Nefarios.
The data was a gold mine, an immense store of corporate war
techniques. It offered little in the way of attack or
counterintelligence, but much in the way of defense. It was his
defensive database, how he kept himself separate, hidden. Many
levels, many layers.

Nefario was an attack engineer. Pleiades was
entirely defensive. He had studied things like moat building,
pouring boiling oil, countercatapults. Completely archaic stuff,
from the Middle Ages. What they found of his notes and explanations
in the data store shared very interesting correlations, with
applications to modern defenses. He had much more to say about
deception and subterfuge. Spreading rumors and disinformation was
really his stock in trade, but it was fascinating how he had made
the study of ancient technique usable in his defensive strategies
and tactics to prevent Nefario’s capture.

She learned a tremendous amount from the
capture of Nefario. Many of Nefario’s faces, for instance, were
female. In parts of the world and parts of his operations, he was
rumored to be female.

She knew that the general also learned a
great deal, and she could see that they would soon be in
opposition. She had always known it; they both had, although they
never met. The general learned different things from the
database.

It took all their combined skill to locate
Nefario. He had very deep defense-tek, and capturing him was
Byzantine. Months of watching. Trident discovered he was coming
into one of his villas on his campaign of perpetual motion. South
Africa, they knew the day.

She wanted to take them in route, thinking
that during the transport would be better than after he arrived in
a secure environment. The Sergeant nixed the idea, saying that his
transportation and logistics were impossibly complicated. There
were more than sixty cars arriving from different times in
different directions, from different places. Multiple routes, many
look-alikes, tinted window's. He was very good at the shell game of
movement. The Sergeant didn’t think he could pull it off. He was
sure he would tip their hand.

Instead, the Sergeant penetrated the villa,
three days before. He stowed away inside, a risky move. It could
have been a plant, the idea that he would be at the villa. It could
have been just one of the many pieces of disinformation that
Nefario was constantly spreading. It turned out to be accurate.

Trident was able to penetrate the alarm
system in a very interesting way. The Sergeant had the Accountant
perform a hostile takeover on the company which had installed the
security for the villa. They got the alarm codes, alarm plans, the
entire system. The codes for the inner compound had been changed
and the company did not have them. The codes were on a perpetual
change loop and the only Trucode was a chip held by Pleaides. The
key was obviously to remain invisible, let nothing be seen. Which
was relatively easy from the inside of the company. The accountant
passed Trident the outer compound codes from the company. Only
Pleaides had the inner codes. Once in, Trident created a deliberate
fault, an electrical problem and the guards called the alarm
company themselves.

They used an old-time gambit, almost cliché.
The Sergeant disguised himself as a technician, out to work on the
alarm system. The Accountant, who owned the company, created
official badges and had the Sergeant and two others officially on
the payroll. The other men got in the van and drove out, acting as
though they were done. The guards didn’t realize that three techs
had come in and only two came out. That was probably the riskiest
part, but Trident created a distraction – having a guard call from
the outside as the van entered the compound, so the gate guard did
not pay much attention and missed the third man, the Sergeant.

After penetrating the outer compound, the
Sergeant hooked into the security with a Stanzerd interface, a
quantum throughput device. Early q-tek, it sent FTL, or faster than
light signals, in opposing directions, encoded to each other. The
device was designed to create encryptions, but Trident and the
Programmer adapted it to break them. Or bypass them, really.