Unison Spark by Andy Marino

Author:Andy Marino
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

10

CALIBRATION

“LEN,” AMBROSE said, “you’re a friending synth-toad.”

He’d always had conflicted feelings about Len, but right now, miles beneath their childhood home and light-years away from their old life as UniCorp colleagues, Ambrose was pretty sure that he hated his brother. What did their shared childhood—the torment, mockery, and stray moments of surprising kindness—even mean anymore, now that he knew they weren’t related?

“Impressive use of the local slang, little brother,” Len said. “Might wanna put some more fierceness in the delivery, though.”

“I’m not your brother.”

“I know that. I just thought we’d ease into our new relationship.”

Flanked by the unsmiling UniCorp security team, Len looked a bit like a young, earnest Martin Truax: the sandy hair and sharp features were the same, but the movie-star grin and magnetic presence were lacking. It seemed unlikely that Len was sent here to kill him—Martin would want his prize alive—but the standard-issue UniCorp disruptors had very effective nonlethal settings. If Ambrose tried to run, he’d be a quivering ball of floor jelly before he took three steps.

“How long have you known what I am?”

“About a year.”

An absurd montage flashed in his mind: Len and Martin clinking wineglasses and howling with laughter at their shared joke, while Ambrose went blindly about his business like a rat in a maze.

He stepped forward. Eight Security Associates moved eight hands to eight stunners simultaneously. Ambrose displayed his empty, bandaged palms and turned to Ivor.

“What did he buy you with? A corner office at UniCorp? Full Admin access?”

The old man shook his head wearily and rubbed the scruff of his goat-dog’s neck. “Len, please tell him the truth before he pinches a nerve in his face trying to give me a death stare.”

Len gave a casual palms-down gesture to the security team. They took a step back and assumed at-ease slouches.

“Dita contacted me a year ago, Ambrose,” Len said, switching to the warmer tone he used when giving presentations to UniCorp shareholders. “She hijacked my inbox, overrode my transfer log, same as you. ‘Carpe somnium’ and all that. I dismissed it at first, but there was something about the initial message that kept me from bringing it straight to Dad.”

Ambrose was stunned. “You’re lying.”

“Just listen. Partly it was his own behavior. You’d barely started working before his permanent insertion, so the man isolated in Greymatter is all you really know of his corporate persona. But I remember when he was still fleshbound, and it was a lot different. He’s not himself anymore.

“The transmission inspired me to do some digging of my own. His private files don’t exist, strictly speaking, so it was a challenge. And it was what I didn’t gain access to that made me suspicious. Greymatter used to be transparent, or at least accessible to the highest-level Associates. We used to be allowed inside. Remember, we had Friday product meetings there for a while? Now it’s a fortress. There’s something there, something off-the-charts huge, and whatever it is, he’s operating it outside the bounds of UniCorp. These guys”—he

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