Proud Machinery

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"Us?" asked Elias. "The two of us? Me and Kess?"

Holifeld nodded. "Yes. I need you two to get something for me, something inside the Holifeld Company compound."

"But we're teenagers. We have not yet reached the age of our majority."

"That'll be gone soon."

"What will?"
"The snark."

That startled Elias into silence.

"Seriously, though," said Kess. "We're two random kids. Get anyone else to do it. The cops. Mercenaries. A world-famous cat burglar. Whoever."

"The Alphas—the Grays—have infiltrated the police, the FBI. Sometimes with their own people, though they find undercover work difficult. Sometimes with bribery, blackmail. In a few cases utilizing brain augmentation more limited and specific than the transformation into an Alpha or a Beta. They hack, they thieve, they extort. You two are already involved in this business, and you are confirmed as the Alphas' enemies. You are as trustworthy as anyone in this world. And besides, you—" He pointed at Elias. "—will be recognized by the security system's sensors as an Alpha. And you—" Kess. "—as a Beta are immune to one of the Alphas' greatest resources, a weapon originally designed to strike against the Alphas themselves. A brain altering substance known as the purge."

Kess realized what could be described as a "purge." She grabbed Elias's arm. "That stuff, that gas that erases memories."

"Exactly," said Holifeld.

Kess remembered that day in the coffee shop and the moment that glass ball smashed at Silver's feet. Apparently she hadn't needed to hold her breath.

"Okay," said Elias. "It makes sense to send us. I guess. What is it that you want us to get?"

Holifeld sat back and stared at Elias. He stared at him for a long time. His hand on his knee began to quiver, but he didn't do anything about it this time, and it made Kess so uncomfortable she almost felt like shaking herself. She had to do something about this, had to break the awkward silence—

"Mr. Holifeld," said Elias, "the Grays are after you, so it's rational for you to distrust everyone you talk to. That's useful. But you already brought us here. You already weighed the risks and rewards and brought us into your home and began to let us into your plans. So your distrust isn't useful anymore. There's no point in hesitating now."

"There's no point to impatience, either, is there Clever Handle?" Holifeld finally raised his arm and adjusted settings on his glove until his hand stopped shaking. Then he leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees. "The Alpha project was focused on civilian applications. No soldiers. They changed nothing but the brain, and we had high hopes for them. Depending on programming input the machines could potentially improve memory, cure addiction. Animal testing was highly promising, and it was time to progress to human tests. Dr. Akiyama volunteered."

"Your lead scientist?" said Kess. "Your lead scientist volunteered to be your first test subject? That's... that's stupid. Scientists don't experiment on themselves. Not real ones."

Holifeld smiled again, and Kess decided she hated that smile. For some subtle reason, looking at it made her angry and sad. "We never did anything properly," he said. "We were sorcerers, demon-summoners."

"The Invisible Man experimented on himself," said Kess. "In the old black and white movie. He injected himself with invisibility juice and went crazy and burned stuff down and was all like 'There are things man was not meant to know!' But I always thought that was stupid. It's not that there's things man wasn't meant to know, just things man was not meant to inject himself with without knowing what will happen. There are things man was meant to learn intelligently."