“See, with our microprocessors we can tap directly into The Net, just like an Interface. Rolf and I, and other Waker volunteers, are like Guardian Angels for the Wakers. When we… link up, we can restring databases, divert informational queries, things like that. No one suspects. Not even the real Guardian Angels, and we have to be very careful about that. The people have an incredible blind spot about The Net—they trust it too much. They don’t even think about the information they find there. And since The Net tells them the grass patches are really deadly disintegrators, they just plain don’t look for contrary evidence, though there’s plenty of it if they’d open their eyes.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t take much to think faster than they do.”
Danal indicated the jury-rigged terminals. “But how do you tap into The Net? With a stolen password?”
Rikki looked at him, puzzled and surprised. “Well, a lot of us still have our own passwords from before. See, it takes so long for Net Accounting to reassign out-of-date passwords, many of us still use ours. We can use chromosomal match, retina scans, or other ways to prove our identity, even if the records say we’re dead. Once a password works, we share it among ourselves.”
“Enforcers can kill you for sharing passwords!” Danal said automatically.
“We’ve done plenty of other things the Enforcers wouldn’t like. Besides, we’re all in this together. ‘Bound by a common tie that runs deeper than simple human trust.’ Gregor says that.” Rikki hesitated, eager and expectant, looking at Danal out of the corner of his eye. He found his voice again. “What are you going to do for all of us, Danal? We’re really anxious to know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re…” Rikki looked around, then spoke more bravely, “Gregor sits around thinking all the time. I mean, he really is worried, but I bet you’re willing to do something, instead of just sitting here. Now, nobody’s ready to be a better leader than Gregor, but some of us are getting tired of just waiting.
“See, we were all nobodies—even Gregor, he was just a librarian, a historian, and no one missed him when he died. But you’re so famous. Vincent Van Ryman! Now we’ve finally got someone who might make a difference!”
Danal pursed his lips. “It doesn’t matter if I’m famous or not. Why don’t you all just come forward? All Wakers. You’d get enough publicity to make your point, tell your story. Anybody coming back from death is enough to force people to pay attention.”
Rikki shook his head vigorously. “We can’t just come forward. Watch this.” A grin crossed the boyish face, then he spoke in a sharp tone. “Danal, Command: Slap your face!”
Involuntarily Danal’s left arm jerked up and he struck himself flat across the cheek. His eyes flew open in shock, but he could not stop his reaction.
“Sorry,” Rikki said, “but anyone can do that to us. Any time. With just a simple word or two, they could shut us all up forever. If we go public now, we would have to roll over and do whatever anyone Commands us. Those aren’t very good terms for rejoining society, do you think? We’re still Servants, Danal, no matter what all we remember. We’ve been trying to deprogram ourselves, to get rid of the Command phrase, but it doesn’t do any good. It’s tangled up too deep with the microprocessor that keeps us alive.”
Danal’s face stung from the slap, and he frowned. “Have you told anybody? I mean, real people?”
“No,” Rikki answered.
“How about your own family? Did you have a family? Have you gotten in touch with them?”
“No!” Rikki cut him off. “Yes, I had a family. I had a younger sister, and a mom, and a dad. Both of my parents worked. When I died, I think it was some kind of… accident. Out in the streets people were throwing bottles, stones, cans. We were trying to run to get inside a… a café, I think, and something hit me in the throat. It hurt, and I blacked out.” He rubbed his neck, where a twisted scar showed what had apparently been his death wound. “And then I was a Servant. Boy, was I surprised.”
Rikki made a sarcastic little grin, but then his eyes looked wistful and distant. “My dad had just taught me how to play chess. I wasn’t very good, but I understood it, and it was an adult game. It was interesting because we used a real board, and pieces you moved one at a time with your hand. The game seemed so much more real than the computer versions of chess. I think this is the way they used to play it a long time ago.” Then he bit his lip and looked back at Danal. “No, I haven’t told them I’ve awakened. It would be like killing myself all over again.”
Danal looked at him helplessly. “But what do you expect me to do?”
Rikki was shocked that he would even ask the question. “You’re important enough—with your scandal, with Francois Nathans and the imposter, we can get public interest long enough to tell our stories. It’ll distract them before someone, say, from Resurrection, can use the Command phrase and silence us all.”
“Nathans is still alive,” Danal said, clipping his words short.
“Yeah, we found that out yesterday. We were going to let you know.”
Danal saw his chance and did not hesitate. “I need you to do something for me. And then maybe I can help you.”
Rolf sat up from his terminal and blinked, dazed. Upon seeing the other two Wakers, Rolf snapped himself back to his surroundings. He nodded, and Danal returned his greeting.
“I’ll be going in. Just a second,” Rikki said.
“Don’t wait too long.” Rolf seemed cursorily confident in Rikki’s abilities. “I found no queries this time.”
“There usually aren’t,” the boy Waker mumbled.
As if in a conspiracy between themselves, neither Danal nor Rikki spoke again until the other Waker had walked briskly away along the narrow wooden catwalks.
“Shouldn’t you go in? Watch The Net?” Danal asked.
Rikki brushed the question aside as if it didn’t matter and whispered to Danal in eager fascination, “What are you going to do? How can I help?”
“I need to find someone.”
“Who is it? Is this part of a plan? I knew you’d do something to help us!”
Danal frowned, but considered the question. “Well, I think it’ll solve some of the questions Gregor’s worried about. Then maybe he’ll do something. But at the moment, this is for me alone.” Danal swallowed, uneasy, but forced himself to push ahead. “Her name is—was Julia. I… loved her.”
Rikki’s eyes lit up. “You mean the Julia?”
“You know?”
“Yes, we all know the story! This is Julia, the one—the one Nathans killed.”
Danal stared at the terminals, wishing that he could do everything himself without having to open up to someone else’s questions.
“Yes. He said he wiped her from The Net, and then he brought her back. As a Servant. I saw her on the streets—that was what finally brought all my memories back.” Danal fell silent, and Rikki waited for him to continue. “But of course she couldn’t recognize me, not with the surface-cloning of my face. I don’t look like me anymore. But I know she’s out there, and I have to find her.”
Danal was afraid to have Julia back, but he had no choice but to locate her. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to track her down, if Nathans has deleted everything about her from The Net.”
With a glint in his eye Rikki said, “Nothing is ever really gone.”
“Can you do it?”
The young Waker shrugged and drew a deep breath, considering. “It’ll take a lot of time, and I’m on assignment here as a guardian. See, we don’t really have the manpower to watch The Net more carefully, so I can’t let everyone down. If I track down Julia for you, I’d have to put aside those duties.” He looked uncertain but anxious to help.