EHuman Dawn (28 page)

“Of course. Everyone knows where that place is. The kings and queens of this island practically live there, plotting and scheming. They leave the place only to come here, to the mansion to party and have sex with one another in style,” she said with disgust.

“Can you get us there?” Adam asked.

“What do you mean, us?”

“Dawn and I,” he answered.

Oksana tensed once more.

“Even if I could help you, Edgar would find out. He sees everything,” she replied with a note of fear in her voice, “If he were to catch me, the punishment would be great.”

“Please,” Adam begged, “I need you Oksana. If I gain access to Archion, I can free you from this place, once and for all!”

“That’s impossible,” she cried, “There is no escape from New Caledonia. No one other than Edgar has set foot off the island in a century. Edgar won’t permit it.”

“When I’m through here, all will be free,” Adam replied fiercely.

Oksana remained silent, absentmindedly sliding her hand up and down his back once more while she considered his request. The sensation drove Adam wild.

“Oksana,” he said with a stiff voice, “Please consider my offer. Help me and you will be free to live where ever you want, with whomever you want.”

She pulled her hand back up to his shoulder and looked him in the eyes.

“I’ll think about it,” she replied tersely, “But if I do help you, it will be for you alone. I will not help her.”

Oksana nodded her head in Dawn’s direction, who was laughing as Edgar spun her around on the floor.

“I’m sorry, but she and I are a team,” Adam answered.

Oksana stopped dancing and pushed Adam away from her.

“That’s too bad,” she shot at him, “I have no interest in helping her. If you want my help saving the world Adam Winter, you’ll need to do it alone.”

Oksana turned and headed to a table near the back of the room, situated next to a wall completely made of glass, allowing the guests to look out on the ocean. A full moon was beginning to rise. Suddenly, Edgar’s voice boomed beside him, causing Adam to jump.

“Did Oksana leave you alone?” Prince grinned, still holding Dawn’s hand, “Such a shame. She has no manners that one. But she’s lovely and one of my best entertainers. She’s all yours if you’d like.”

Adam turned to Edgar and glared at him.

“No thank you father,” he answered coolly, “I came here with Dawn, and she’s all I need.”

Adam reached out and took Dawn’s hand from Edgar’s grasp.

In response Edgar laughed and said, “Always the gentleman, aren’t you? Come, let me introduce you to the rest of my colleagues.”

Edgar Prince led Dawn and Adam to the table where Oksana and his closest associates sat. They assembled like royalty, entirely comfortable and at ease.

Oksana was right
, Adam though wryly,
They really are the monarchs of the New World. And Edgar Prince is the emperor who controls each and every one.

“Please, have a seat,” Edgar Prince ordered.

Adam and Dawn obeyed. They found themselves surrounded by several men and women, all of whom stared at the couple. As Edger introduced Adam to all of his cronies, Adam noted that Edgar had chosen a seat next to Oksana. She couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off of Adam. He made eye contact and smiled at her. Edgar, misunderstanding, paused in his introductions.

“Do you find my friends amusing?” Edgar Prince accused.

Oksana instantly cringed in fear and gazed down at the table in front of her. Adam shook his head.

“No, father,” he answered boldly, “I was just admiring how beautiful Oksana looks this evening.”

“
Oh, good one,”
Dawn TeleSpoke. Adam continued to smile.

“My son, you always were the flirtatious one. Until you met Sophia of, course,” Edgar Prince replied with a false sweetness.

Suddenly, the lights went dim, startling Adam.

“Worry not, my son,” Edgar smiled at him, “I have a gift for you. Sit back and enjoy!”

Edgar gestured to the dance floor, which had been cleared of all guests. A ring of multicolored lights pulsed along the perimeter. The audience began to cheer and clap with joy as eight completely bald eHumans, their skin the color of steel, glided into the room, taking their
place at the center of the dance floor. Their eyes glowed fire red, as if there was a furnace inside each of them. They set their gaze upon the audience and waited for their cue to begin.

And then the pulsating music began.

The rhythm, blend of violin, cello, and synthesizer, set the dancers into motion. Their hands suddenly became balls of fire, illuminating every move in their primitive, yet incredibly modern movements.

As the music grew in intensity, so did the dancers. They seemed able to do anything imaginable with their bodies. Flipping, climbing, tossing each other with perfect timing.

Just as the violin came to its highest note, all eight burst into flame.

Like pillars of fire, they moved to the beat, causing Adam’s own circuitry to pulse with them. He’d never seen anything more stunning in his entire life. The dancers were fire. Yet the fire had become the dancers. It was absolutely fantastic.

When the act was complete, the dancers remained on fire, bowing and spinning to the applause. Dawn herself jumped to her feet to cheer them, such was the depth of their inspiration. Edgar saw her response.

“Do you like them?” he asked her.

She turned to him and nodded. The shining delight in her eyes reminded him of the early days of her life with him, when she was new and grateful for her perfect eHuman body.

“Oh yes Edgar. They’re wonderful!” she admitted.

“The dancers created the bodies themselves. I give them artistic license to work with the technology.”

“It’s brilliant!”

She smiled at him with genuine enthusiasm and wonder.

Once the fire dancers left the room, the lights came back on and eBots surrounded the table with silver trays upon which lay several small, palm-sized glass orbs in a stunning array of colors. Adam instantly recognized them.

“Portable Pleasure Zones?” he asked.

“Yes,” Morgan, who was sitting on the other side of Edgar Prince, answered, “One for each of us. Several different pleasurable impulses for you to choose from.”

“Of course, you could also have one of our women work with you instead,” a tall, fair man suggested.

“Elijah is beyond such things,” Edgar Prince said, instantly dismissing the man, “He has the Dawn as his companion—and I know firsthand what her feature set can do!”

Adam felt his insides glow hot with anger.

“Edgar,” Dawn purred, pretending to be bashful, “How nice it is to hear that you choose to still remember those early days.”

Edgar Prince’s smile once more graced his face.

“Strange to hear you talk so freely with a known terrorist,” said a woman with long, pink hair and dark brown skin.

Edgar Prince turned his attention to her.

“Terrorist?” he challenged.

“Yes, Dawn is the number one terrorist. Remember? It’s her organization that attacked our cities last week!”

“It’s true!” cried another woman, “I’m most disturbed about those attacks—I haven’t been able to get any new shoes since you took out New Rome! Where else, other than New Rome, can a woman get proper shoes?”

Dawn stared at the woman.

“What disturbs me,” Edgar drawled, “Is that someone here on the island leaked the list of targeted cities to the Resistance in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Adam demanded.

“It was time for us to smoke out the Resistance. The WG had allowed Dawn and her silly friends to play their game for too long. Their antics were starting to mess with production—and profits. Guardian Enterprises created a strategic list of cities to shut down in order to bring the Resistance to justice. But somehow the Resistance got a hold of that list and moved in before we could turn off the power. Fortunately about thirty cities were near our ANP sites.”

“ANP sites?” Adam asked.

“Advanced Nuclear Program sites,” Edgar explained, “Sites where we have been developing and launching our nuclear program for the past few centuries.”

Both Dawn and Adam were taken aback. To what end would the WG need a nuclear weapons program? After all, they had complete control over the population via Neuro.

“Yes,” Edgar continued, “When the Resistance arrived to take over those cities, we simply sent in the nuclear drones and blew them off the map!”

“Including all the citizens?” Dawn asked incredulously.

So now Dawn understood what happened to the thirty-three lost cities. The news sent a chill down her steel spine.

“Of course. We didn’t really need those cities,” Edgar laughed.

“That’s not true,” the woman with pink hair corrected him, “The eHumans in those cities provided the labor we needed to make the weapons program functional.”

“Temporary setback,” Edgar answered briskly, “Which brings me back to my original complaint: someone in our circle shared the list with the Resistance!”

“Really?” Dawn cried out with dismay, “You’re surprised that someone in your inner circle would leak information? Honestly Edgar, such betrayal comes with the territory.”

“To what are you inferring?” Edgar challenged her.

Dawn stared deeply into his eyes.

“When you rule with an iron fist, you must expect some people to rebel. No tyrant is without his enemies,” she said.

“Iron fist?” Edgar Prince asked innocently, “There is nothing iron about our rule. My darling, we rule with compassion and love. What is Neuro, other than pure love and eternal security for the eHumans of the world?”

The men and women around the table began to nod in agreement.

“Neuro is love and safety?” Adam asked, “I would argue that Neuro is more about control.”

“Safety and control are two sides of the same coin, aren’t they, Adam Winter?” Edgar Prince replied coolly.

Adam shivered. For the first time since arriving on the island, Edgar had refrained from calling him Elijah.

“My son,” Edgar continued, “Do you honestly believe that the freedom of thought is good? What you and your people don’t understand is that the members of the WG are the most qualified to run the world. They’re the ones who truly understand humanity and its precarious state. Through the WG’s loving management, and the Guardians careful work within Neuro, all eHumans are free in the truest sense—that is to live forever in safety!”

“What the does that mean?” Adam demanded. He was pushing it, and he knew it. But he couldn’t help asking the question of the one man who knew the actual answer.

“It means that if we granted eHumans freedom of thought, they wouldn’t be happy. They’d turn back to their pre-Great Shift ways, destroying the Earth and one another with their apparent xenophobia and fear of life. If eHumans could think for themselves, they’d remember how much they hate themselves, and as a result, how much they hate the other eHumans. In my opinion, the eHuman not only stopped death—it stopped the eventual destruction of the human race itself.”

Adam looked at his father in bewilderment. Finally, the impulse that drove Edgar’s decision making was revealed.

“Neuro keeps them in line, which makes governing humanity so much easier,” Morgan added, “Though after the Great Shift we still had to trim down the population to make it more manageable. Now Neuro controls all eHumans that are left and we just sit back and watch it happily run.”

“What do you mean, you trimmed down the population?” Dawn asked.

“Approximately four billion people have been released since the day you first opened your eyes, my dear,” Edgar Prince answered, his smile still plastered upon his chiseled face.

“Released?” she clarified.

“Yes, released. You know, unplugged,” he replied casually.

Instantly, Dawn felt the familiar sick sensation of guilt pour through her. Adam grabbed her hand under the table to try and silence her. But to no avail.

“You’ve killed four billion people?” she said.

“That still leaves about three billion to deal with,” a haughty woman laughed from across the table, “And securing three billion people is no small task. Your Resistance has no idea how taxing running the world can be!”

In spite of himself, Adam rose from his chair. Edgar Prince followed. If his father had ever bought his cover, it was now almost certainly blown.

“You see, Dawn,” Edgar Prince muttered while staring directly at Adam, “Your Resistance can never succeed unless you keep the people in the dark, the way my government has. Your desire to free the people from the control of Neuro is folly. You’ll destroy humanity as we know it!”

Edgar released Adam from his gaze. He held out his hand to Dawn, who still sat numbly at the table. She couldn’t believe that their plan had failed so quickly. They hadn’t even been on the island for one day. She accepted Edgar’s hand and rose from the table in a daze.

“Fortunately, my dear,” Edgar crooned gently, “You’ll never get the chance to ruin my perfect world. The reason Operation Insurrection was so successful is because we let you occupy those cities. Now we can finally destroy the Resistance. My friend World Leader Donahi has released her nuclear drones upon your cities. It’s only a matter of hours before every last one of your friends, and the people whom you seek to protect, will be wiped off the planet.”

“No!” Dawn cried out desperately, “You can’t do that!”

Edgar looked at her with pity. It was such a shame that he had to torture her like this. He quickly reminded himself that the entire situation was Dawn’s fault. She was the one who had left his side to form the Resistance. That was an act he could never forgive. He drew her closer to his chest and leaned his head towards hers.

“There’s one more thing you need to know dear,” he whispered in her ear, just loud enough for Adam to hear, “I’m the rat. I’m the one who gave your organization the list of cities.”

She looked up at him in shocked silence. Adam moved closer.

“What?” Adam hissed.

“You heard me, I gave that list to your organization,” Edgar replied softly, without emotion.

“Who would take information from you?” Adam demanded.