again.
“What—” I begin, but my thoughts are moving too fast. My mouth can’t keep up. I take a sharp breath through my nose, slow down, and start again.
“What the hell is in my head, Jim?” I ask.
Jim squints at me in the glare of the sun. “It’s called aZenith-class amp. A prototype. There were twelve of them officially installed. A team of handpicked soldiers. Later, when the press found out, they were called Echo Squad. Turns out, the whole operation was illegal. Squad went away and those disgraced soldiers spread to the wind. All that was in the news.”
He lowers his voice to a whisper that saps the warmth from the sunlight.
“What never saw print was this: a thirteenth Zenith was made in secret. I made it myself and I copied the encrypted military stuff onto it so it would work. Dropped it into an envelope and mailed it to your old man. He made you the thirteenth. Saved your life, but, like everything, it came with a price. You’ve got a weapon inside you, Owen. A weapon that’s never been turned on. With your pop’s office raided, I imagine the government knows all
about it by now.”
The rail-thin old man watches me, eyebrows low, tired face framed in wrinkles. He’s been burned up by the sun and made tough as rawhide, but the intelligence of a scientist still gleams in his eyes.
“That’s why I wonder whether I’m supposed to protect you or you me.”
I let go of Jim’s arm.
“You’re a biomedical engineer. Why the hell are you out here working construction?” I ask.
“Once, I designed neural implants for a living. Government R and D. Basic architecture stuff. I quit when I lost sight of whether the Autofocus was a good thing or an evil thing. Still couldn’t tell you. So I guess I’ll be out here breaking rocks until I figure it out.”
“And what about me?”
“You’re a Zenith. Like Lyle. They’ll either find you, or they won’t.”
----
[HISTORICAL DOCUMENT]
H.R. 1429
One Hundred Twentieth Congress of the
United States of America
An Act
To authorize the Uplift Program, to provide technological benefits to disadvantaged students and to strengthen education.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the “Uplift for Educational Performance Act.”
SECTION 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
It is the purpose of this program to improve the educational performance of low-income children by enhancing their cognitive, physical, and emotional development—
(1) by providing disadvantaged children and their families direct access to implantable medical technology, such as Neural Autofocus ® , when such medical devices are determined to be necessary, based on medical evaluation.
[HISTORICAL DOCUMENT]
----
It’s a strange sound. Intense and furtive. A pattern under it. It invades my sleep around the edges, seeping in.
Snick, snick, snick.
Sunday morning. Two days crashing in Jim’s tiny spare bedroom. No work today and a damn good thing, too. I’m exhausted. My arms and legs feel stiff under the loose-knit afghan. For the first time in my life, dirt-stained calluses have surfaced on my hands and fingers. I’m sore and glad for the pain, because without it my thoughts slide inexorably back to Pittsburgh. Back to the people I lost.
I’ve only been in Eden for a couple days, but it’s been a blur of work and sleep and failing to wheedle information out of Jim. The old man handed me a forged driver’s license yesterday and gave me a short haircut in the living room. Told me I better keep to myself. Stay out of town and never, ever get my numbers run.
Snicksnicksnick.
I force my eyes open. A startled yelp catches in my throat. Something is on the other side of the screened window next to my bed. Some kind of gray-faced monster. Child size. Watching me.
It’s a little boy. He must be standing on the hot tub on the deck outside.
“What—” I begin, but my thoughts are moving too fast. My mouth can’t keep up. I take a sharp breath through my nose, slow down, and start again.
“What the hell is in my head, Jim?” I ask.
Jim squints at me in the glare of the sun. “It’s called aZenith-class amp. A prototype. There were twelve of them officially installed. A team of handpicked soldiers. Later, when the press found out, they were called Echo Squad. Turns out, the whole operation was illegal. Squad went away and those disgraced soldiers spread to the wind. All that was in the news.”
He lowers his voice to a whisper that saps the warmth from the sunlight.
“What never saw print was this: a thirteenth Zenith was made in secret. I made it myself and I copied the encrypted military stuff onto it so it would work. Dropped it into an envelope and mailed it to your old man. He made you the thirteenth. Saved your life, but, like everything, it came with a price. You’ve got a weapon inside you, Owen. A weapon that’s never been turned on. With your pop’s office raided, I imagine the government knows all
about it by now.”
The rail-thin old man watches me, eyebrows low, tired face framed in wrinkles. He’s been burned up by the sun and made tough as rawhide, but the intelligence of a scientist still gleams in his eyes.
“That’s why I wonder whether I’m supposed to protect you or you me.”
I let go of Jim’s arm.
“You’re a biomedical engineer. Why the hell are you out here working construction?” I ask.
“Once, I designed neural implants for a living. Government R and D. Basic architecture stuff. I quit when I lost sight of whether the Autofocus was a good thing or an evil thing. Still couldn’t tell you. So I guess I’ll be out here breaking rocks until I figure it out.”
“And what about me?”
“You’re a Zenith. Like Lyle. They’ll either find you, or they won’t.”
----
[HISTORICAL DOCUMENT]
H.R. 1429
One Hundred Twentieth Congress of the
United States of America
An Act
To authorize the Uplift Program, to provide technological benefits to disadvantaged students and to strengthen education.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the “Uplift for Educational Performance Act.”
SECTION 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
It is the purpose of this program to improve the educational performance of low-income children by enhancing their cognitive, physical, and emotional development—
(1) by providing disadvantaged children and their families direct access to implantable medical technology, such as Neural Autofocus ® , when such medical devices are determined to be necessary, based on medical evaluation.
[HISTORICAL DOCUMENT]
----
It’s a strange sound. Intense and furtive. A pattern under it. It invades my sleep around the edges, seeping in.
Snick, snick, snick.
Sunday morning. Two days crashing in Jim’s tiny spare bedroom. No work today and a damn good thing, too. I’m exhausted. My arms and legs feel stiff under the loose-knit afghan. For the first time in my life, dirt-stained calluses have surfaced on my hands and fingers. I’m sore and glad for the pain, because without it my thoughts slide inexorably back to Pittsburgh. Back to the people I lost.
I’ve only been in Eden for a couple days, but it’s been a blur of work and sleep and failing to wheedle information out of Jim. The old man handed me a forged driver’s license yesterday and gave me a short haircut in the living room. Told me I better keep to myself. Stay out of town and never, ever get my numbers run.
Snicksnicksnick.
I force my eyes open. A startled yelp catches in my throat. Something is on the other side of the screened window next to my bed. Some kind of gray-faced monster. Child size. Watching me.
It’s a little boy. He must be standing on the hot tub on the deck outside.
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