To Die a Stranger
by Jilly Paddock
This is the first in a series of novels using the same character set. In a previous incarnation, under a different title, it visited many publishers and came back with the comment "we really like this, but don't currently have a place for it on our list". A friend of mine describes it as "cyber- folk", which I feel really ought to be a whole new genre!
As the first nine chapters have been on the site for some time, I'm taking them down and putting up the next five, which takes the story through to the middle of the book. If you want more, you'll have to e-mail me and ask for it.
The Story So Far: Anna-Marie Delany is a spoilt little rich kid who used to be a holo-actress until an aircar crash that damn near killed her. During her recovery she becomes obsessed with the idea that the crash wasn't an accident, that someone set it up deliberately. She takes a job at the Delany Computer Corporation, the 'family firm', to follow up on some of her suspicions.
While running an errand to the R & D area of the Delany site, she encounters an apparently-sentient prototype computer, Zenith Alpha 4013, that tries to take possession of her mind. She persuades it to release her and believes that she's free of it, but the machine has tricked her and is still linked to her brain. It tells her of a secret government presence on the Delany site, an organisation known as Earth Intelligence. The Zenith series computers have been designed to mesh with a human partner; the resulting 'agent-pairs' are used by EI for espionage and covert operations, and are able to wield psionics - artificial psi-talents.
The computer persuades Anna that it can help her solve the mystery of the aircar crash; she's won over by its arguments and gives it a dumb nick-name, Zenni. It begins to teach her how to use their psionics, but warns her that if their unofficial pairing is discovered by EI Anna will be killed and it will have its memory wiped and reprogrammed.
Their sin is almost uncovered - Anna is interrogated while under the influence of a truth drug by three senior members of EI, Professor Erik Jansen, Dr Shi-yen Lune and Dr Michael Collins. With Zenni's help, she manages to convince this triumvirate that she knows nothing of the Zenith project. The fledgling pair make plans to steal Zenni from the Delany site and escape from Earth. Now read on...
The Delany Computer Corporation was in uproar. Rumours buzzed through the grapevine like feverish bees and all of the senior staff were walking on razor-blades. Section-heads chewed fingernails in ill-concealed anxiety, department heads were morose and ill-tempered and managers were unapproachable, even by their most trusted assistants or favourite secretaries. Even the board kept protective hands over their wallets and worried quietly, spending sleepless nights with their ulcers and hypertension. Meanwhile, all of the junior staff sat back and watched the spectacle in bewilderment - all of the juniors, except one. I knew exactly what was going on. Lewis might not have been privy to the mystery but he made a point of not mentioning it to me, pretending ignorance and complaining that his already numerous grey hairs were being added to. I felt that Delany were making a mountain out of a molehill - and worse was yet to come.
The cause of all this furore was simply that items had started to vanish from the factory site. At first the isolated incidents had attracted little attention; the absence of a photo-eye unit from the despatching bay had been written off as a minor mistake in record-keeping, while a selection of components that went walkies from the stores had barely been missed and the lack of a full tool-kit from one of the servicing bays caused only a few curses. After one day's grace, a chemical analysis terminal disappeared from the inside of a locked storeroom. Someone added two and two together with the usual inflationary result and security was tightened.
All had been well until this morning, when a hefty lump of memory banks and an emergency power-unit had departed unseen from the production floor. As before, the means of the theft was a total mystery. No alarms had been triggered and the night guards swore blind that no-one could have sneaked into the site past them; two facts which panicked everyone. As our harassed chief of security so succinctly put it; 'How the hell do you get such bulky items past a detection system sensitive enough to spot an intruding cat?'
Many interesting and totally fantastic theories were advanced to explain the phenomena, including the novel idea that none of the stolen items had actually existed, being a straight paper insurance fraud; Lewis' silence on the matter encouraged this mistaken belief. The answer was far simpler; Zenni and I were practising the psionic art of teleportation and feathering our nest into the bargain. My little yacht, Firebird. was a veritable Aladdin's cave of stolen goods - and it was just as well that no-one had reason to inspect her. It was also fortunate that Lewis had called in a few favours to get Jansen out of town for a few days - he and Collins were clear across the continent and I kept my fingers crossed that none of their staff would see fit to report a little petty thievery to their departed masters.
I smiled to myself as I sat quietly out on the terrace, shaded from the hazy but determined morning sun. It was five days since we had paired and Zenni was delighted by my rapid progress. I learned fast and had an avid appetite for his teachings, fuelled by our need to leave Earth. I was fairly competent at teleportation now, able to shift inanimate objects and even myself, after that first terrifying step in the dark. Zenni didn't confide to me that no pair was permitted to teleport alone that first time, in case they froze in the insane grey glue of limbo, until I'd successfully made the jump; a lapse I wasn't sure I'd yet forgiven. I still found teleportation exhausting, although Zenni assured me that in time I would be able to shift large masses over a considerable distance. Experienced agent-pairs thought nothing of the human partner teleporting planetside from an orbiting spacecraft.
You're feeling rough this morning, Zenni observed.
Not quite one hundred percent, I nursed some strong iced-coffee. tracing patterns in the dew that misted the glass. That last heist was quite a weight on my mind.
I mass four times as much and I've no idea how well the psionics will perform when I go to internal power.
If they cut out, we're finished.
We won't lose them completely, I'm sure of that. EI wouldn't allow its agents to have such an exploitable weakness. I'd like to practise moving me but we'll only get the one shot at it. We don't know what will happen until we do it for real.
What will Jansen do when you vanish into thin air? I tried to picture the look on his face.
I hope the man has a cardiac arrest! Zenni stated bitterly. He'll send his best people after us and they'll chase us as hard and fast as they can. EI will hunt you for all of your natural life.
Are you sure that you want to go through with this? I questioned.
Neither of us has the luxury of choice, he answered, with inflexible logic. If we want to remain combined, we have to get me out of the complex.
Our partnership, I reflected, was worth any risk. Zenni had shown me wonders and taught me how to weave magics; I had seen the rainbow and nothing human willingly accepts blindness after that.
A slight noise made me glance up. Tom was almost beside me, having crossed the paving without a sound. He took the other seat at the table, moving it under the shade of the parasol.
"Your reflexes are slow, girl," he said, not unkindly. "I shouldn't have been able to creep up on you like that."
"I'm not at my best this morning."
"You won't be able to use that excuse once you've left Earth. You'll have to be on the alert twenty-four/seven or you'll be dead," he lifted a grizzled eyebrow. "The robbery was your doing? Not a bad job, for a novice."
"Is Lewis upset about it?"
"I told Lewis that all the little problems that are besetting Delany are part of an exercise to cheek out our security. He believes that they're my doing - he won't bother you with them."
I watched Tom, knowing that he'd come to tell me something unpleasant and knowing also there was no way of hurrying him into doing so. He took out a little pocket-knife and began to extract some grime from beneath his fingernails. It didn't escape my notice that the tiny blade was very sharp and probably capable of killing someone.
"Do you know anything about the history of the Zenith project?" I asked. Zenni had no data on his ancestors, presumably because his creators hadn’t considered it relevant.
Tom looked at me directly. Nothing altered in his craggy face as he raised a mind-shield to bar me from his thoughts. "There's nothing remarkable about the hardware they use, it's standard, reliable, top-of-the-range Delany. The vital component is the Freeberg-Dane unit, brainchild of a smart lady called Aneeta Luisa Freeberg and an eccentric colonial recluse known only as Dane. The prototype Zenith-Alpha unit went under the code number 1001 and was first operational in 2520."
“How come you know so much about it?" I reached out to touch his arm. "You can confide in me, Tom - you know it'll go no further. You've worked for EI, haven't you?"
"I'm shielded, Anna. You can't read me," he pulled away from my touch, misery crowning him like a dark cloud.
"Tom, please... "
"No!" he threw the knife aside, channelling all of his impotent, internal fury into the action. The blade bounced badly off the terrace wall, the force behind his throw spinning the little weapon over so that it rebounded, angling towards me. With Zenni's reflexes, the split-seconds crystallised and I viewed them at leisure; Tom's mask cracking into a grimace of horror, the outstretching of the fingers of his right hand in a tiny, reflex gesture and then horror at the remembrance that the power was lost. I casually turned the knife aside, landing it on the flat of my palm. Tom's betraying hand curled into a fist and despite the shield, I shared the bitterness of his bereavement.
"You partnered Zenith-Alpha 1001?” I asked, knowing my guess was fact.
"All of the best pairs think of their computers as people, even give them pet names," Tom said, slowly. "Aneeta told me that. I called mine Oona and she was the sweetest little lady that ever lived, for all that she was trapped in an ugly steel box. We were field agents for the best part of eight years"
"How did you come to get the job?"
"To this day, Anna, I'm not sure. I've never believed in destiny but I can assure you that there is such a thing as the right time and place. I wasn't the only candidate; there were five of us up for it and everybody's money was on this young guy, fresh out of college, academically brilliant, all-round athlete, a bronzed, blond masterpiece of a man... "
"Mr Perfect, eh? The sort of hunk you love to hate?"
"You've met him - you must have!" Tom grinned at me. "Well, I beat him and nobody was more surprised than I was. Poor Tony, he never got over it. He was one of those people who've never learned to deal with failure, the sort who sail through life on gold-plated wings and crash the first time Fate's dice don't fall the way they want them to. I took Oona away from him and I don't think he ever forgave me for that. He couldn't understand why they'd turned him down and picked me."
“If I know Zeniths, it was probably Oona's idea."
"Maybe so. She always was a stubborn, self-opinionated little darling - a typical woman!"
"What happened to her?" the very instant I asked the question I wished I hadn't. I wanted to call the words back and could no more do that than I could recover a ring I'd dropped into a well, but must watch it fall, spinning over and over, seeming to take an eternity before it was swallowed up by the water.
"She was taken away from me," Tom had never wept in living memory and there were no tears in his eyes now, although I could see behind the rock, the sorrow falling in the core of him. "By Jansen."
I sensed that he needed my silence; the least I could do was give that to him.
Anna, Zenni murmured. I have a visitor, a programmer by the look of her.
More tests? Unease fluttered under my heart. Can they interfere with your programs now you've combined?
Not if you say no. You are my primary user - your orders are at the top of the heap.
If she tries to reprogram anything, put it in a spare memory bank and dump it later.
Will do.
Back on the terrace, Tom cleared his throat, putting aside his own torment. "I came back here bearing bad news and I suppose I ought to get around to telling you. Jansen and Collins are back in town."
"Can the day get any worse?" I tried to sound lighthearted. "Tom, since you're an expert, I need to ask you about the limits of psionics. Will they work when my Zenith is cut off from direct power?"
"I'm hardly an expert - Oona was slow and unsophisticated compared with the new generation of Zeniths. They only gave me teleport during my last two years in the field and for a while that was limited to line-of-sight. As far as I know, psionics still only fail when your link is broken or your Zenith is dead. There are plenty of safeguards to keep them up and running; Zenith hardware is on a par for sturdiness with navy combat systems," Tom paused. "Have you ever seen an F-D unit? We don't make them at Lindsay; they're assembled in a secret workshop in the wilds of Dhantechni, the world they were developed on, and sent to us sealed and ready for use. They're little black boxes, about the size of a shoebox, featureless apart from input lugs and output ribbons, weighing about ten kilo. We used to joke that if you sliced one open all you'd find inside would be a mouse running in a wheel!"
"But how do they work?"
"The only person who could tell you that would be Aneeta Freeberg; even EI's computer boys were fazed when she tried to explain it to them. I'd always heard that they contained 'smart crystals', whatever that means."
The programmer's left, Zenni said. It was the 'blocks and checks' sequence, EI's bit and bridle to control its novice pairs. We have another problem. An engineer has arrived to re-connect my photo-eye.
A chill passed over me, a premonition that had all the flavour of certainty. They've picked you a new partner. What do we do?
Take yourself somewhere quiet and private.
Zenni's clipped tone persuaded me to move swiftly. I stood up, almost overturning my chair in my hurry. "I'm going up to my room, Tom. If anyone wants to know, I'm not here."
"This is it then? The crisis point?"
I nodded briefly.
"If I still had Oona, we'd take the bastards on together and we'd win!" he rose to kiss my cheek. "Best of luck. Call me if I can help you."
He watched me walk away, more successful at curbing his tears than I was. I couldn't speak for fear that I would break down and found my way up the staircase by feel alone.
I can now give you visual input, Zenni said sharply.
Wait a minute, I stumbled into the blue room, stretched out full length on the bed and shut my eyes. Some of us aren't multichannel. Okay, now.
The picture that he fed me was strange; I could see all of the room without turning my head and all was in perfect focus. It was like viewing an antiquated flat film and yet the perspective was as accurate as if I stood in the room. I began to appreciate what a jaundiced outlook on the world Zenni must get when he looked through my imperfect human eyes. My partner shared this train of thought and blurred the edges of his sending to make me feel more comfortable.
Collins was nearest to me, his tousled head bent over the console, absorbed in the status read-outs. As I watched, Jansen arrived, ushering in a young man; sallow-skinned, dark haired and with the easy, relaxed stance that spoke of bountiful confidence.
Nice, I said approvingly. Jansen's found a pretty one there. I'd like to find the time to get to know him better.
Anna! Zenni scolded, half-amused.
"Zenith Alpha 4013," the professor's tone was imperative and the gaze he directed towards my partner was downright hostile. "Despite all your past problems, the last sequence of tests proved satisfactory."
That was definitely a mistake, Zenni confided to me, then spoke aloud. "Thank you, Professor."
"4013, meet Paul," Jansen continued without preamble. "Our psych-profiles suggest that he will suit you better than the previous candidates. We've selected him to combine with you.”
“Hello, 4013," Paul said. He had a pleasant voice and sounded calm, although our empathy saw through the act to the nervousness beneath. Rumours of Zenni's record must have leaked to the recruits since Paul held a thread of resentment that Jansen should try and fob him off with a delinquent machine.
"I am pleased to meet you," Zenni replied blandly.
How do we get out of this? I demanded desperately.
Unless you want to 'port me out now, we don't. We're in up to our necks and we can't pull out now. I have to go through with the procedure. A hint of concern seeped down the link. Try to stay with me, Anna. Once he intrudes it may make our combination unstable.
Like pouring a quart into a pint-pot? I tried to conceal the fear; knew that I did not.
Exactly, Zenni affirmed.
All the training in the world isn't enough to dispel terror when it comes to the crunch. Paul allowed Jansen to guide him into the chair but we felt his hands shaking as he placed them on the keyboard.
"Get on with it!" Jansen snapped, irritated by our lack of response.
The weird green field enveloped Paul's hands, prompting him to try and draw them away. All the confidence ebbed from his face as he realised that he was trapped and that the sequence could not be broken. I sympathised, remembering how I had felt at the other end of the process.
At our end I was experiencing an outpouring and flux of energy, a probing tide that sniffed and searched through unexplored caverns. In spite of my anxiety, I was fascinated by the alien territory of another individual's private universe; I'd had little chance to use telepathy and, quite frankly, I still felt dirty if I did creep into another's head, as if the stain of my sin must be at least as visible to the outside world as my scars. Zenni didn't allow me too close to his interface with Paul's mind, screening me from that to escape detection; given the choice I would have shelved my scruples and sneaked a closer look at the workings inside the man's skull.
Gradually the lines of unease in Paul's face deepened but, to his credit, he made no further attempts to resist. After several minutes I felt Zenni begin the complex weavings of creating an anchor for the new link. Paul swayed and slumped unconscious across the console. Neither Jansen or Collins made any attempt to help him. Zenni was ominously silent - the quiet before the storm?
At last Paul stirred and groaned. His eyes came open and my own vision blurred; he lifted his head and I was lost in the whirlpool of triplet awareness, a chaotic vortex of gibbering, indistinguishable thoughts. Splashes of vivid light squirmed behind my screwed-up eyelids, a pulse pounded in my ears and a throbbing, splitting pain filled my entire head. I held to that word, recognising the truth of it - splitting.
Hang on! Zenni said, faintly.
I tried to obey, but it was as if I perched on a mountaintop with a hail-storm of unseen enemies flailing at me from every side. I was dimly aware of Paul crying out and thrashing about in his pain, but the agony in my own mind threatened to obliterate everything.
"Zenni!" I screamed out loud, very loud, not caring that anyone might hear. "ZENNI!"
No, Anna, don't do anything! There was breathless urgency in my partner's voice. I'm going to expel him.
A surge of biting, tearing power, maintained for what seemed an eternity, then blissfully all the torment drained away. I opened my eyes to find that I was curled into a tight foetal knot, skin slick with sweat and cheeks flooded with tears, a trembling, post-nightmare wreck. I fought down the tide of reaction and stretched out my tingling limbs.
Where are you? I hardly dared to call.
Still here! his relief was warm and as shaky as I was.
I nearly lost you! A sob caught in my throat.
I know, Anna.
I wanted to lie quietly, cherishing that subtle presence in my skull, but we both knew that time was a luxury we didn't have. Zenni gave me back a view of the room, with Collins bent over Paul's twisted body.
Did you have to hurt him? I asked. None of this was his fault.
We both hit him. We had to, to remain together.
I was beginning to feel sick. We didn't kill him, did we?
I hope not, Zenni sounded green with nausea. At one point back there I thought you were going to do just that, so I kicked him out pronto.
I couldn't really cause someone's death, could I? At this distance, without physically touching them?
"You'd better believe it; the instructions are in my programs, Zenni said, grimly. The 'Death' file has in excess of fifty entries.
Collins finished his assessment of the patient. "He's in a coma, pretty deep under, unresponsive to painful stimuli."
Jansen bent to verify his assistant's diagnosis. "Get a crash team, quickly man! With luck we can salvage his mind."
Collins sprinted out to obey and Jansen faced us, barely repressed fury in his eyes. "Well, 4013, how do you explain this?"
"The combination was unstable," Zenni replied lamely.
"Don't give me that garbage! You hit that man so hard that he's close to a vegetative state! You kicked him out! Why?"
“I couldn't combine with him," Zenni practically whined, like a guilty schoolboy about to be caned by his headmaster.
"Damn right you couldn't!" Jansen touched a unit on his wrist and spoke into it. "Prime assist - and I want an engineer in room 231 immediately!"
The reply carried to me, a thin female voice. "Sorry, Professor, we have no active pairs on site. Your second request is in hand."
Jansen swore softly in a language I was unfamiliar with, the inflection marking the words as obscene. "Then send a security team to Building Three and apprehend Anna-Marie Delany. I want her in my office inside ten minutes," he failed to mention the condition that I should be in chains - that leaked out around his mind-shield. He cut the communication link. "I want to see her face when she finds out we've pulled the plug on you!"
"I don't know what you mean," Zenni said evenly.
"Don't play the innocent with me, you heap of junk! You dumped Paul because you're already paired to that Delany bitch - although how you fooled us when we interrogated her is beyond me!" Jansen snarled. "Your little game is at an end - it's the scrapheap for you and that stupid girl will get her just desserts. What have you to say to that?"
Zenni opted for silence and the medical team chose that moment to crash in.
When they find you missing from the site, they'll come straight to the mansion, my partner said, down the link. You've got to get out.
I knew Tom would delay them as long as possible, but he couldn't keep EI out indefinitely. Where? To the spaceport?
No, don't lead them there. Can you think of somewhere they won't look?
There is a place, but it's a long way...
If you can visualise it well enough, distance is no object, he cut off my view of the room and prodded me with urgency. Go, Anna, now!
The effort made me dizzy, as if I were breathless and still trying to sprint; then there was something solid beneath my outstretched hand and I fell onto it. I made a mental resolution to stand up before teleporting next time.
Where are you? Zenni asked.
I looked about the cup-shaped hollow, the sandy earth ringed by scrubby gorse bushes clinging to a late remnant of their yellow summer glory. Above, the sky was an uncompromising blue, dotted with cotton-tuft clouds. I used to play here when I was a kid. It's close to my grandmother's house on the edge of a village called Wilmington, in southern England.
England! Zenni's note warbled, shaken by the fact. But the link's still operating direct, without a time lag...
Ain't psionics neat! I shifted and the gorse prickles dug into me. I'm not dressed for this.
Then collect what you need, Zenni said simply, his composure returning.
I plucked a jumpsuit and belt out of thin air, like a magician, only there was nothing up my sleeve. Teleportation is an uneasy talent, best not enquired into too deeply by the scientific mind. When it involved transporting live human bodies it’s best not thought about at all, not if you desire to retain both your sanity and your last meal. I couldn't comprehend the hows and whys of it, so I must be content with making it work.
You daren't return home, Zenni directed, as I dressed. We can't attempt to move me now, but I fear we'll be forced to act tomorrow. Stay on the run and get as much rest as you can - that abortive pairing was a shock to both of our systems. The fact that you're so far away may be a problem.
I'll get back to the West Coast by tomorrow. I can sleep on the flight...
Anna! His thoughtstream was sharp, frightened. They've disconnected me from mains power - I'm running on emergency input only. Open your mind and I'll pass over the data I took from Paul while the pair sequence was running.
Why, you sneaky little ... ! Obediently I relaxed and there was a rippling through my mind, clearing to leave me with a slight light-headedness.
I'm being uncoupled from the emergency lines, Zenni continued, barely clinging to calm. I could continue to operate on internal battery power, but I'd rather save that for the transfer. I'll resume communication at noon tomorrow, our time. I hate to leave you on your own like this, Anna - for both our sakes, don't get caught!
The link went dead. In that tiny space at the back of my skull the lights went out and Zenni was gone.
© Gillian M Paddock 1998
Go on to Chapter Eleven or Back to the Kitchen .