Read Online F Paul Wilson - Sims 05 by Thy Brother's Keeper (v5.0) - Free Book Online Page B

Patrick said, “I feel as if the world just tipped ninety degrees.”
                 Zero
glanced again at Romy who still hadn’t moved. She’d known him so much longer
than Patrick. Her world must feel even further out of kilter.
                 “You’re
not human?” Patrick said.
                 “No.”
                 “I
heard you tell Meerm that you’re a sim.”
                 “I
am.”
                 “But
how come you don’t…?”
                 “…look
like the average sim? I’m one of the earliest, so early that you’ll find no UPC
tattoo on the nape of my neck. Plus I’m a mutant—bigger and paler than my
brother sims— too big and too human-looking for the
workforce. So they kept me separate. I was raised in SimGen’s basic research
facility and after a while I became a mascot of sorts. My only contacts growing
up were the Sinclair brothers and their most trusted techs. Later, when Harry
Carstairs arrived to take over sim training, he took a special interest in me.”
                 Harry…how
he’d loved Harry Carstairs. The man’s daily visits had been the high point of his adolescence.
                 “He
was impressed by my linguistic skills so he tested my intelligence; when he
found it to be not only far above sim average but above human average as well,
he and—”
                 He
cut himself off. Better not mention Ellis.
                 “He
got permission to see how far they could take me. I learned to read, and built
up my own library; I was never allowed out of basic research, but television
gave me a window onto the rest of the world. Harry and I…I guess you might say
we bonded. He taught me to play chess and we spent hours hovering over the
board.”
                 He
missed Harry, especially their chess games. Every so often Zero would give in
to a compulsion to see the man. He’d sneak by Harry’s house at night and watch
him as he sat and played chess against his computer; he’d longed to knock on
the window and challenge him to a game. But Harry believed him dead, and had to
go on believing that.
                 Patrick
said, “But how did you graduate from SimGen mascot to Zero, SimGen nemesis?”
                 “I’ve
always been called Zero. I imagine it’s derived from part of my serial number
when I was an embryo. As for my ‘graduation’…I believe I became inconvenient.
Here I was, this man-size sim who was an evolutionary
and commercial dead end. Somewhere along the line, a corporate decision was
made to terminate me.”
                 “Jesus,”
Patrick whispered. “Just like that?”
                 “Just like that.”
                 “What
were they going to do—shoot you?”
                 “An injection. They drew blood from me at regular intervals.
This time they were going to put something in instead of take something out.”
                 Zero
saw Romy glance quickly over her shoulder, then return to her thousand mile
stare.
                 “Scumbags,”
Patrick muttered, shaking his head.
                 Only
one, Zero thought. Mercer Sinclair had made the unilateral decision.
                 He
looked down at Meerm who’d closed her eyes and seemed to be dozing. Termination
would have been her fate if Portero had found her first.
                 Patrick
asked, “How’d you manage to escape?”
                 “I
found I had a highly placed ally in the company who arranged to fake my death.”
                 Ellis again. He’d told his brother that he didn’t want a
stranger terminating Zero, that he’d do it himself. But he injected Zero with a
sedative instead of poison, cremated another dead sim in his place, and
spirited him out of SimGen. He told Zero everything, and set him up