Trifecta (35 page)

T
here was proof the woman was not human, Sabrina thought
as she watched the woman's hand heal.  Except she bled bright red blood, not blue
or yellow, which would have been more telling.

"Ferd said I was immune to viruses.  He was quite
stimulated when he said I couldn't catch the 'common cold.' His heart rate went
up to ninety.  Evidently my hearing is also excellent."

"Did Ferd say why he made you?"  Sabrina asked.

"To be a new offshoot of mankind and to obey.  But
I'm not an offshoot of man.  I am a descendent of woman.  You specifically."

"Right,"  Sabrina said, and smiled genuinely
for the first time since waking up in the tanning salon.  "The concept that
mankind came from women first is one that many find hard to accept."

"Why?"

"It's like the chicken and the egg.  Which came first. 
One religion teaches that the first woman was made from a man's rib."

"The egg came first.  And I read about the rib.  It
must be a myth because the theory does not seem very probable, although I had the
capacity to be either man or women.  But Ferd had to use a whole person, not a rib,
to make the body."

"Tell me about your life."

"Mine? My purpose is to be an offshoot."

"I want to know all about you,"  Sabrina said. 
"But first let's name you."

"What will we name me?"

Sabrina had already decided on the name.  "Eve."

"I understand."

"You're the first of your kind, Eve,"  Sabrina
said, and without thinking held up her tea cup for a toast. 

"I can smile, too,"  Eve demonstrated with a
big grin.  She looked very charming to Sabrina, even knowing she must resemble Eve
when she smiled.

"But,"  Eve continued, the smile instantly vanishing,
"I don't feel smiles.  Or sads."

"No emotions?"  Sabrina asked.

"Ferd said I would function in a superior manner intellectually,
since I do not have feelings or emotions."

"You won't have much fun,"  Sabrina said.

"I don't think I will have fun, either,"  Eve
stated flatly.  "And because my body is based on yours, the hormones necessary
to make my body function will eventually affect the brain."

It sounded like a dire event from Eve.

"Then you will have emotions?"

Eve nodded.  "Ferd said I was not a fail-safe experiment,
but he could not make the body function without hormones.  He said eliminating peripheral
pain receptors was easy, but making the body work without hormones was impossible. 
So I am still experimental.  And unpredictable.  Of course, I am highly intelligent,
so I will control myself if the hormones cause irrational instability in cognitive
functioning."

"I see.  Um...how old are you?"  Sabrina asked.

"I don't know.  The first thing I remember was my
bottle.  Ferd used it to give milk to me.  And he helped me learn to walk.  That
was when I was falling down a lot.  When I was so large.  Then there was a blank
time.  For a while I could not hear or see and that time is fuzzy, but I think it
was after Ferd implanted the computer.  I remember Ferd talking to me.  He called
me his Big Baby.  He played tapes.  The alphabet.  Words and spelling.  He also
read to me.  I could make sounds, so I copied the word sounds and the alphabet. 
Ferd also called me his 'Computer Brain Baby.' I like Eve better, though.  The fifth
and twenty second letters of the alphabet.  Eve."

She repeated the name several times, as though trying out
the sound.

"Then what happened?"

"About 288 hours ago, twelve days, I could see.  First
fuzzy light.  Then blurry colors.  Ferd kept talking about rods and cones and true
colors.  Evidently I did not see correctly and distinctly because he had used hormones
on me that damaged my eyes.  And made me large.  Now I see colors differently than
just a few hours ago.  From the copy of your retina.  After I could see, I learned
to read from a computer reading disc.  I read many books, three dictionaries and
a set of Britannica Encyclopedias.  I don't forget anything.  Ferd said he wanted
me to fit in, so I had to study the way people walk and talk and act.  I watched
lots of television.  I know it bothers you that I study you, but you are the first
woman people, excuse me, person, I have met, so I have to research you.  I learned
to blink just like you.  Each person blinks differently, so I thought I should learn
yours."

"I wondered about that."

Eve gazed at Sabrina like a small child, looking straight
at her without avoiding her eyes, totally without guile or self-consciousness. 
Adults had the habit of glancing at people in the eye only for a second, but Eve
had not learned that yet.  In a way it was kind of nice.  One would never get the
feeling that Eve was trying to hide anything.  Or would lie.  It was also extremely
disconcerting in an adult.

The chime connected to the lobby rang.

"That's Mark.  My friend.  I want him to meet you," 
Sabrina said.  She went into the hallway and pressed the Listen button.

"Mark is here, Sabrina.  Should I send him up?"

"Yes, Jack.  Thanks."

Sabrina went back into the kitchen.  "Maybe I should
have you answer the door, Eve, but I think he might faint."

"Shock? Surprise? Trauma?"

"You'd knock his socks off,"  Sabrina said, smiling.

"You're being funny?"

"Yes.  Let's both go to the door."

Sabrina looked through the peephole.  She saw Mark glance
anxiously at his watch.  Whether he was late for another date or just concerned
about her emotional state, Sabrina could only guess.

Sabrina opened the door and Mark stepped inside, looking
at Sabrina intently and leaning forward to kiss her.

"Hi, sweetie,"  Mark said.  Then he saw Eve.

Mark stared for a second in shocked surprise.  "Hi."

Eve said Hi to Mark and turned to Sabrina.  "His pulse
went from 72 to 89."

Sabrina looked at Mark with concern, who was looking with
amazement at Eve.  His face did look white.

"You must be a relative of Sabrina's, although I thought
Sabrina was an orphan,"  Mark said, smiling at Eve.

"I'm not a relative,"  Eve said.  "I am
copied, cloned, to Sabrina's body."

Sabrina thought Mark was probably as surprised by Eve's
lack of emotional affect when she spoke as he was to the content of her words. 
She really did sound like a robot and she was almost too stiff looking to be human. 
When she was not talking or deliberately moving, Eve was still as a rock, except
for her eyes, which seemed to move independently and take in everything without
blinking for minutes on end.

"Cloned?"

"You better sit down, Mark,"  Sabrina said, leading
him into the living room.

"Cloned?"  Mark repeated as he sat on the couch.

"I would look just like Eve, without all the trimmings," 
Sabrina said to Mark.

"Trimmings?"  Eve asked.  She looked extremely
alert.

"I mean fixing my hair and make-up,"  Sabrina
explained to Eve.  She sat down in a chair across from Mark.  Eve, watching Sabrina,
sat down in another chair opposite the couch.

"I must learn trimmings,"  Eve said.

Mark looked back and forth at the two women.  "Your
voices are alike, too.  Stereophonic sound."

"I'll try to explain,"  Sabrina said.  She told
him about the toothpaste commercial and going to Ferd's Tanning Salon.  Sabrina
continued on about Eve and the men who intended to kill her.

Mark looked stupefied.

"Evidently Eve is an experiment and they used my body
to make her.  But Eve's brain is a computer."

"They called it a chemical computer,"  Eve said. 
"Actually, part mechanical, too."

Sabrina glanced at Mark, who was looking with a kind of
dazed expression at Eve, who was again still as a statue.  She explained to Mark
about Eve's lack of emotions and physical sensations.

"This is a joke?"  Mark asked.

"At first I thought I was crazy.  But it's all true."

"I can't believe it."  Mark shook his head, looking
back and forth.  "Is your hair that light?" 

Sabrina nodded and wondered what Mark thought of Eve's
white hair.  He surprised her by saying it was beautiful; like angel hair pasta,
or spun sugar. 

Mark took a deep breath.  "It sounds like the Stepford
Wives.  Or the mad scientist making Frankenstein."  Then he turned to Eve,
"No offense, Eve.  But it does sound rather fantastic.  Like that scary movie
about pods from outer-space replacing people by duplicating them, killing them,
and taking over the world."

"Eve's existence is proof that it's true."

"All I know for sure is that Eve looks exactly like
you."

Eve had been watching Sabrina and Mark "Would you
like to see accelerated healing, Mark? I will cut myself.  Or I can set myself on
fire."

Eve got up and started walking toward the kitchen.

Oh no, Sabrina thought, she's going for the knife.  "No,
Eve.  Come back and sit down.  I'll tell Mark about it."

Eve returned and sat down obediently.

Sabrina told Mark about the healing.  He looked at her
dubiously. 

"Eve, do you have a mole on your right thigh, behind
the knee?"  Mark asked.

"I don't know."  She started to unbutton the
coat.

"No!" Mark said.

"Wait,"  Sabrina said.  "Don't take off
the coat.  Just raise it up in back."

Eve stood, pulled up the back of the coat and looked at
her leg.  "It's there."  She turned around so Mark and Sabrina could see.

"Eve,"  Mark said, "Do you mind if I touch
your leg there?"

"No, Mark.  You can touch my leg there."

Mark got up and walked to where Eve was standing, back
toward him, and knelt down.  "I feel silly."  He looked closely at the
mole and touched it.  "It's real,"  he said and got up.  "Just like
yours, Sabrina."

Mark returned to the sofa frowning for a minute.  "What
you are implying is very serious, Sabrina.  Maybe your mother had twins and the
two of you were separated at birth.  I admit that the physical resemblance is totally
uncanny.  Either you two are twins, or what you're saying is true.  And if it is
true, Eve is not just the six million dollar bionic man.  She must be worth billions. 
And she could be very dangerous to you, Sabrina.  Whoever made her, if it's truly
true, will stop at nothing to get her back.  So it's time to see her accelerated
healing and any other tricks she can perform to make absolutely certain."

"Mark,"  Sabrina said quietly, "don't you
believe me?"

"I hope Eve is your twin.  The other alternative is
too frightening to fool around with."

"I don't want her to cut herself again,"  Sabrina
said stubbornly.

"We have to know.  I don't disbelieve you, but I want
to be sure."

Eve got up, went to the kitchen and came back holding the
knife.  What Mark was doing was, to her, an implied command.  She had been made
to obey.

"I have to cut deep, the body heals quickly," 
Eve said.  She pushed up the sleeve of the coat.

"I don't want to make you hurt yourself, Eve," 
Mark frowned.

"I will cut the artery, so you know for sure."

Sabrina jumped up to stop her and Mark yelled, 'Wait!'
but Eve had already slashed her wrist twice, once horizontally and once vertically. 
They were both shocked at the violence of the self-destructive action, as she slashed
deeply and very quickly.  She hit the artery and blood spurted out of the slashed
wrist twice, in time to her pulse, and splashed on the table in front of the couch. 
The blood sprayed over books and magazines and several crystal figurines.

Mark shuddered and jumped up to help Eve, but the blood
stopped pumping from Eve's arm.  They watched as the skin flaps, which had been
detached into four separate pieces, seemed to pull toward each other, then meet,
and grow together before their eyes.

Sabrina felt tears running down her cheeks.

"You don't have to feel sad emotions.  I'm not hurt."

"Let's wash off the blood."  Sabrina walked with
Eve into the kitchen.  On the way Eve staggered for a moment and almost fell.  Sabrina
tried to grab her and help, but Eve straightened up and resumed moving stiffly to
the sink.  When the blood was rinsed away there were only two small scars, which
looked like they were being erased.  Mark had followed, and peered over their shoulders.

"I don't believe it,"  Mark said in wonder.

"It's about time you started believing."  Sabrina
spoke tartly. 

"I'm sorry, Sabrina.  And Eve, I apologize.  Let's
sit down and figure out what to do."

They all sat down silently at the kitchen table.  Eve got
up and went to the refrigerator to drink syrup.  She appeared a little shaky.

"Eve, you said you could remember everything you read. 
Will you start reciting from the dictionary?"  Sabrina asked.

Eve nodded.

"Wait.  Start from the letter Q."

Eve nodded and started reciting, almost too quickly to
understand, "Q.  Seventeenth letter.  Qu pronounced as Kw.  First word.  Quack. 
Duck sound.  False professional practitioner.  Quadrangle.  Figure with four sides....."

"Okay."  Mark said, interrupting her when she
got to Quirk.  "You can stop.  I'm going to order us a pizza.  I have to make
a phone call."

"The police?"  Sabrina asked.

Mark smiled, "No.  I'm going to cancel my plans for
tonight."

Sabrina took Eve into her bedroom and gave her a pink running
suit to wear.  She didn't want to hear Mark cancel his date.  Then she took Eve
into the bathroom and showed her how to brush the tangles out of her hair. 

As Sabrina brushed her own hair, she noticed strange rusty
flakes in the brush.  She leaned over the sink, threw her hair over it, and shook
vigorously.  More brownish flakes.  Blood?

"You're not hurt,"  Eve said.  "Ferd did
an EEG.  To test your brain waves."