A collection of short stories from science-fiction author, Sarah Wagner. Gripping tales about the edge of reality where the difference between human and machine blurs to almost nothing.
Excerpt
The moment Rado pulled his van into the warehouse, Corinthian was opening his door and battering him with questions. “Who was it about? What was it? Will it help?”
“Hold up. Give me a minute!” Rado shook his head as he stepped out of the van. “Fate is smiling on us. Or whatever. Mark Lawrence’s mother ran into a familiar face at the safe house. Jason Kuo’s half-sister has been in hiding for all this time. He gave her a set of discs and some money and sent her into hiding two months before the killings.”
“He must have known something was coming.” Corinthian shook his head. “If he knew, why didn’t he warn anybody?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe these will help.” Rado pulled a small black case off the front seat. “There are seven discs here. I skimmed a little but haven’t watched them all. There’s some interesting stuff on there.”
“Like what?”
“There’s a video of a surgery performed on Shade. She was just a kid. They wired her up like a bomb and she was just a baby.” Anger poisoned his words.
“Wired?” Corinthian’s head shot up, his eyes wide and intent. “I’ve been so stupid! That’s the key!” He grabbed the case of discs and ran for the bunker.
“What key?” Rado chased after him. “What’s going on?”
“You just found the one element I’ve been missing.” Corinthian sat down in front of the mainframe and inserted each disc into a separate drive. “I was looking for something more advanced, something spectacular. It’s going to take more than one implant. That’s why she was pumped full of wiring. Synaptic receptors aren’t going to be enough. The answer was there the whole time. I’m such a freaking idiot.”
“If you are an idiot,” Shade’s manufactured voice filled the small room, “what am I? I knew nothing of this. And it was my body they wired!”
“What do you think?” Corinthian asked.
“I think we’ve just jumped to making the construct a reality instead of a possibility.”
“Construct?” Rado sat down.
“We’re going to implant a piece of Shade inside a donor body.”
“You’re going to what?” Rado was nearly shouting, the vein at his temple pulsing in time to his bitter heart.
“We’re going to take a special chip and install it into our living volunteer. If it all works the way we think it will, our volunteer will become an extension of Shade with some added benefits.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No, I’m not.” Corinthian smiled.
“That’s impossible.”
“It certainly was this morning.” Corinthian said with a broad smile.
Copyright 2008 Sarah Wagner. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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