He paid for a credit verification service to check her out as well. She came back with an address that matched, a phone number that matched the one she listed online, a decent credit record, no convictions, no gaps in employment and education. Everything was consistent.
Kade yawned and checked the time. It was almost two in the morning. Was there anything else to check? He couldn't think of anything.
He fired off an invitation to Sam's public address. Would she like to attend a party Saturday night? A party where she might be able to find a certain something she'd asked about? He couldn't tell her where, but he'd be happy to pick her up.
Reread. Send.
Then he stripped off his clothes and collapsed into bed.
Sam kicked, blocked, punched, dodged, kicked again. Imaginary enemies fell.
Across the room, a new message chime sounded. The tone was keyed to Kaden Lane.
Sam ignored the sound and continued her blurringly fast path through the hundred and eight steps of the kata she was practicing, her limbs moving with superhuman grace and precision through a four hundred year-old sequence of strikes, parries, and evasions.
Focus, Nakamura had taught her. Absorb yourself in your task. Leave all the rest aside.
She let the message wait as she completed the kata. Only when she was done and had bowed to the empty room did she turn, limbs trembling slightly, brow beaded with sweat, and ask her slate to show her the message.
It appeared in the air before her. A message to Samara Chavez. An invitation to a party. A party where, he hinted, she could try Nexus.
Guess I didn't spook him so badly after all, Sam thought to herself.
She waved away the slate's projection and the image evaporated. She'd respond tomorrow at a reasonable hour.
Samantha Cataranes turned back towards the center of the room, bowed to the air, and began the next kata.
BRIEFING
Transhuman – noun –
A human being whose capabilities have been enhanced such that they now exceed normal human maxima in one or more important dimensions.
An incremental step in human evolution.
Posthuman – noun –
A being which has been so radically transformed by technology that it has gone beyond transhuman status and can no longer be considered human at all.
Any member of a species which succeeds humans, whether having originated from humanity or not.
The next major leap in human evolution.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2036 Edition
2
CLOSE DOOR, OPEN MIND
Saturday 2040.02.18 : 0612 hours
The lump on his forearm was red, agitated. It stood out against his dark skin. Wats rubbed at it. It felt hard, hot to the touch. Skin peeled away under his fingers. He was bloody underneath. He peered at the uncovered tumor. Deep within it he could almost see the broken strands of DNA, his chromosomes fraying like split ends, giving birth to the cancers that would eat him. Another lump caught his attention. Another. His wrist was covered with them. His hands. His arm. In horror he ripped open his shirt. Red, angry lumps were growing on his chest, on his belly. They were rising, expanding, spreading as he watched, covering him…
Wats jerked awake.
Breathe. Breathe. Early morning light was filtering in through the windows.
Not the cancers. Not yet.
He scanned his arms. They were bare, unblemished.
"Lights!"
He threw himself out of bed, scanned the rest of himself.
Nothing.
Breathe. Close your eyes. Breathe. Pull yourself together, Sergeant Cole.
He hadn't been Sergeant Cole for a long time now.
Wats crossed to the sink and splashed cold water on his face. Wash away the rest of the nightmare. He pulled down a disposable tester, slid his finger into it. A short, sharp prick. A drop of his blood was sucked into its microfluidic channels. The box hummed softly as it worked. Flow cytometers examined every cell by laser, looking for telltale swelling of the cell nuclei, elevated hormone levels, abnormal chromosomes. DNA and protein assays took burst cells, evaluated them for cancerous genetic and proteomic fragments.
Wats stared at the device as it did its work. He willed it green. He willed it to finish. He willed it to give him time to do what must be done.
The device beeped. Its display turned green. No sign of the cancers. Not yet.
Wats breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the tester into the garbage. Someday he'd pay for his crimes. But not today.
Saturday 2040.02.18 : 2108 hours
Kade picked Sam up just past nine in a Siemens autocab. The little plastic and carbon fiber car drove them south and east along the 101, past SFO, past San Mateo, past Menlo Park and Palo Alto and Stanford, and the venture capital hub of the world. She kept Kade engaged in conversation. She asked about his work, his friends, the party, the music he listened to, when he'd first tried Nexus. He answered everything except the questions on Nexus, and asked his own about her, her life, New York, her work in data archeology. She stepped into her role and answered the way the fictional Samara Chavez would answer. The lies came easy after so many years. She had him in stitches with Samara's misadventures in data archeology.
The cab drove them to Simonyi Field, formerly the site of NASA's Ames Research Center, and dropped them in front of the giant Hangar 3. It loomed above them, longer than a football field, taller than a seven story building.
"Welcome to our party space." Kade grinned.
Sam nodded her approval. "Impressive. How'd you score this?"
"Our lab leases it for experiment space. And, well, this is kind of an experiment."
Sam raised an eyebrow.
"You'll see."
Kade led them to a back door into the hangar. He knocked quickly three times, and the door opened.
Inside an entryway, a large sign read "Welcome! Please turn off data connections on all phones, slates, pens, watches, specs, shades, rings, etc… No active transmitters, please!"
Below that, another sign: "Close Door and Open Mind As You Enter."
To her right, the man who'd opened the door for them. Six feet tall, black, muscular, and lean, with a shaved head and a relaxed posture. Watson Cole. Data spooled across her tactical contacts in pulsing red. Threat leveclass="underline" high.
Watson "Wats" Cole (2009 - )
Sergeant 1st Class, US Marines (ret 2038)
Deployed: Iran (2035), Burma (2036-37), Kazakhstan (2037-38) (…)