Jal searches the maelstrom for Katya- he remembers the morning before they left for the
outback- remembers her standing in front of the window, twilight touching her body and
face- soft blue against pale skin. The thought is caught in the maelstrom and sent
spinning away, but he catches it again, holding it for a moment before letting it go again.
He had not heard from her since that night- had not even glimpsed one of her thoughts
or dreams in passing. He would sit here for a moment more and wait.
The maelstrom vanishes slowly, mist gathering before the sun- fading light, then
darkness.
Jal opens his eyes.
Pale sunlight filters through the windows, long rectangles of light that catch dust motes in
the air as they move slowly across the floor. Jal looks down at his drink, at the dirty
wooden floor and the cracks that reach searchingly across the rough brick walls.
The door to the bar creaks open, letting in the sounds of the street for a moment. A
figure hesitates there, a shadow waiting before continuing in. As he does, he looks over
and smiles at Jal. He’s a young man, with a thin, smooth face and sleepy reptilian eyes.
Pulling up a chair, he sits at his table. “Jal- it’s you, isn’t it?”
Jal is a little surprised at the voice. “Dr. Pendle? Is that you?” He takes another drink of
his beer. “You’re looking better than the last time I saw you.”
“It’s a beautiful day, Jal,” says Pendleton, a little too suddenly. “Come and walk with me
in the park.”
Wordlessly, Jal drains his beer, following him to the bright street outside.
The narrow, unpaved road is lined with trees whose leaves were just beginning to
emerge- the air smelling faintly of flowers and rain, cool with a breeze that dances over
puddles in the road. The street is empty, but sounds of people come from the park a
ways down the road.
The park lies upon a low plateau that stretches for miles through the city. As they walk
up its shallow slope, Jal turns to Pendle. “How many are there now?”
Pendle smiles. “You mean you don’t know?”
Jal shrugs. “I suppose I could count them- sometimes I mean to, but when I’m there,
numbers don’t seem to mean much.”
“Several thousand have them now.”
Jal smiles back at him. “Several thousand? What does that mean in a place like this?
The population never seems constant- sometimes the city seems crowded, sometimes it’
s like I’m here alone.”
“What it means is that is not unusual to see a person with one. Have you heard of the
Puzzle Factory?”
“One of your inventions isn’t it- something to augment the implant?”
Pendle halts, studying him for a moment. “That’s the reason I came looking for you- I
need your help to make it work correctly.”
Jal laughs, giving Pendle a sidelong glance. “If we fixed it, it wouldn’t be a puzzle factory
anymore, would it?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You should be grateful it doesn’t work like you’d planned. Imagine if someone- anyone-
could create an object merely by thinking about it. To be honest, I’m not sure what would
happen, but I’m sure I like the Puzzle Factory better- something that creates the
subconscious interpretation of the object- it’s really more honest, if you think about it- it
gives you what you actually want, not just what you think you do. In this way you get
objects more closely suited to the individual, don’t you think?”
Jal puts his arm around Pendle. “You have a Puzzle Factory, don’t you?” Jal says.
“You ask it for things, but instead it gives you what you were really asking for. Think of
a rose, Pendle- your rose- show it to me.”
To one side of them, a dull metal thing begins forming in the grass, thinly pressed
ribbons of metal twisting gently around each other, serpentine blades of chrome
spiraling out between leave of cool jade.
Jal stares at this longingly. “Pendle’s rose is beautiful,” he says, picking it up and
handing it to the doctor. He turns then, walking away while the doctor watches,
eventually disappearing into the glare of the afternoon.
#
Sounds of energy weapons filled the night. Jal had been in the small, barren room for a
long time- dark, with the exception of its single small window that presently looks out
onto the night. A breeze blows through it, cooling his face.
Shaking, he looks up at the small square of dim light. How long had he been studying
the holographic fragments of the thousands who had implants? Their numbers were
dwindling.
Too many had gotten the Puzzle Factory- too many times those that possessed it
ended up creating things that destroyed them or drove them insane. Those driven mad
created even more twisted visions- visions made real, phantasms given flesh and
turned loose on the city. The minds of those killed still continued to create, their minds
creating demons from the nightmare of death.
The weapons he heard were killing the artists and their creations.
Somewhere in the ancient, wasted world below Siah was still alive and influencing the
City. The aether through which their telepathy traveled tasted like poison, like bad air
that left an oily film on the skin- it all tasted like Siah. It wasn’t strong yet, but it was only
a matter of time before the reality of the city was affected.
Looking back to the fractal patterns of the minds of the living, he noticed the special
dimension that was added to those who had the implant. He could affect those
patterns, influence them- make them his own. The holograms, isolated, would join and
become strong through him.
Still light-headed, Jal limps carefully down the stairs into the street. The wind was
stronger here, air cool and damp- he hugs himself to keep warm. Stumbling through the
darkened streets, he finds fragments of Siah’s influence- focusing his mind on these,
the complexity of their patterns grows deeper. Strands of double helixes, packed into
shells of protein- self-replicating weapons. Jal pauses on a pile of refuse in an
alleyway- shaking from the cold and what he now understands. The virus- similar in
effect to the chemical Siah had used on the Delpini- it traveled through the collective
unconscious, searching for the resonance of the living.
Finding it, it would change the infected being’s DNA, making them human again,
ensuring they would pass from this world of illusion to real afterlife beyond- Siah’s faith
would be the death of them all.
Leaning his head back, Jal sees the stars, distant and fixed above the alley walls. The
image of the virus still superimposed on his mind, Jal begins to modify it. He doesn’t
have the knowledge to do what he’s doing now, but he finds he can access it in the
corridors of the dreamtime. Changing proteins in the virus DNA, he renders it harmless-
at least he can save the Implants from dying this way. Linking with each of them at
once, he passes on the information to their bodies’ immune systems. It’s the first time
he’s talked to any of them directly, much less all once. When he does so, everything
changes.
The shooting slackens, and then stops. Concentrating, Jal finds he can see through
the eyes of one of the Implants- then, with a thought, he sees through the eyes of them
all at once. Each of them had mastered their creations, destroyed them, or turned them
on those who were trying to kill them. Jal can feel each of these people turn inward
toward him, touching his face and hands- they belong to each other now.