Posthuman by Theophilus Monroe

Author:Theophilus Monroe [Theophilus Monroe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theophilus Monroe
Published: 2023-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

Archimedes Flat hadn’t replicated himself before. He didn’t need it to deal with Goff, Koontz, and the resistance. The extra little gift, the Trojan horse, he’d piggy-backed on his firewall that the resistance now possessed, that unhitched itself from the firewall and interfaced with Koontz before Goff delivered the firewall to Larson, would do what Flat hoped. He couldn’t just kill Goff outright. Not easily. Not in any way that would guarantee his success. Short of decapitating the Marine, which Bonecrusher might be able to do, there wasn’t any way to pull it off. Besides, Goff was with his daughter most of the time. Flat had spent some time with Susie after the algorithm targeted Goff. He couldn’t bring himself to eliminate Goff while leaving her behind. No matter, eventually everyone would be absorbed into the nanoverse.

There were two ways Flat could eliminate Goff. The first was to destroy his body completely. Then, though, there was still a remote risk that Goff’s nanobots would reawaken in the nanoverse. Presumably, without Brian’s traumatized mind still guiding the nanobots, he’d lose his power over the nanoverse. The other way was to convince Goff to enter the nanoverse willingly, to overwhelm him with experiences he couldn’t resist, that his mind and body would crave. If Brian remained in the nanoverse too long, if he didn’t return to his body in time, his body would shut down. With his nanobots occupied, channeling his consciousness into the nanoverse, they wouldn’t heal him or sustain him. The end result would be the same. He’d no longer have a traumatized mind, a component of his brain, that he could leverage to potentially destroy the nanoverse.

The Trojan horse was prepared for either option. But so long as Keith Koontz was infected, so long as he could be used to unwittingly carry out Flat’s plans, he could continue to use the soldier. He’d start with the easiest one to influence, the one who, if harnessed by the nanoverse, Goff would have no choice but to go after. As luck would have it, Goff left Susie with Koontz shortly after they returned from the scenario in Iraq. That other soldier, the woman, Liza Rodriguez, was there too. But it wasn’t a worry. All it took was a casual touch and, once the girl fell asleep, she’d join Flat in a scenario he’d chosen carefully, one that he’d been to before. Flat was taking Susie Goff to Disneyland.

At least, she’d be with one of Flat’s newly replicated selves. So far, he’d only duplicated himself. He’d make more copies soon, but it took time. He couldn’t just claim someone else’s nanobots as his own. He had to divide his own bots, one address divided into sub-addresses. That also meant, technically, each of his selves was less powerful than the whole. It made him more vulnerable. Until he gained unassigned nanobots, he couldn’t replicate at full strength. The problem? Now that the government saw the nanoverse as a threat, most of the unclaimed nanobots were destroyed.

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