Wired Bone: Chapter Nine (Patreon)

Chapter Nine

The Head Councilman’s office was in the borough of Gilgamesh, as the previous Head Councilman — the original Head Councilman — had decreed. The main Council Chambers were there as well, but on the other side of it, closer to the coast and what used to be New York, now known as the haunted district of Gilgamesh.

This let Zero looked out of the window and wonder at the sight of the city below. As a test subject of only fourteen months of age, Zero had never really been outside of the Academy, so the wonder was still quite fresh.

Third York truly was a wonder of advancement and ingenuity. Thanks to the carefully coordinated aero-routes maintained by the Ministry of Transportation, streets had been erased from Arthur, and the space between buildings was now all the domain of pedestrians and cyclists, while cars parked on rooftops.

Below, businesses and apartment buildings made of the most stylistic, sublime architecture reached for the sky, casting long shadows. Almost a hundred years ago, this had all been cratered, glassed and thoroughly destroyed territory. And then the founder and the rest of the hypercognitive council had gotten their hands on the terrain, after the part of BosWash that started over New York City and ended in Philadelphia had been walled off for the refugees to be safe.

According to the professors that had been alive at the time and the history books, it had been like a competition to design the most beautiful and efficient building possible. There had almost been more living spaces than living people, in fact.

There still were, in some areas.

Since studies had shown that plants helped improve the mental state of people, every block had an average of three trees. And since they had been cultivated by hypercognitives, these trees tended to be bioluminescent, strangely colored and/or made of meat.

Some bore fruit, apples and oranges and experimental variations upon all those, free for all to take. Signs were nailed to the trees explaining the nutritional contents of each fruit and what allergies it might trigger.

“Zero,” said Doctor Phan, drawing the test subject from his wonder, “Stop gawking, we’re almost there.”

Zero nodded and sat up straight. Doctor Phan had patted his head when they’d gotten in, clearly happy that he’d gained them a second chance, but he was still tense and nervous.

Perhaps he wondered, like Zero did, what the cause for the emergency meeting was. Zero’s knowledge of the intricacies of Council matters was spotty at best, but even someone as ignorant as he knew that governments did not move rapidly for simple or insignificant matters.

The Head Councilman had been talking in the car’s phone for a while now, and what Zero overheard implied that the Common Council was also meeting at the same time; both halves of Third York’s government working overtime on a random summer morning.

The test subject wouldn’t have to wonder for long. The car started to drift downwards, creating a small ticklish sensation with its rapid descent, until it landed on the rooftop of the Common Grounds, a square building made with red brick and decorated with light grey pillars and gargoyles of concrete and shaped stone.

A few cars were already there, expensive and fine models belonging to lesser members of government, though the Head Councilman’s parking space was free. Two of the other four Council parking spots were occupied. A maroon and a gold car.

The maroon car bore the sigil of House Sanguine, while the golden car represented House Aurum, naturally.

If nothing else, Third York’s nobles knew how to stick to a theme, Zero thought with some amusement.

In contrast, the subdued dark blue of Lord Valiant’s hovercar was much more along Zero’s tastes. Besides the respect that Zero naturally felt towards the office of Head Councilman, the test subject felt some liking for the man himself.

They exited the car and walked through the rooftop access with the Head Councilman’s key, promptly passing by guards that saluted the Head Councilman and taking the stairs instead of the elevator, as Zero and Doctor Phan would have preferred.

The Common Ground was a building of sterile white walls and patterned floor tiles waxed to a mirror shine. It got plenty of natural light through bulletproof windows with white curtains, though lanterns were present and ready to be lit at any moment.

They hardly called attention as much as the living turrets, though.

Two per hallway, the devices consisted of a brain inside a bronze metal box attached to machineguns and an external eyeball which carefully tracked the people moving across their side of the hallways. They were the work that Brian was based on, though he was far more intelligent than these bio-machines, which were closer to dogs than people.

Their unblinking, perpetually-moist eyes tracked them all the way until they reached the entrance to the Council Chambers. There, the Head Councilman looked over his shoulder at Zero and his doctor and pointed a finger down the hallway, to a staircase.

“Go up a level, and the third door to your right should let you in to the spectator’s stands. You came all this way, so you might as well learn what’s going on.”

Without giving them a chance to reply, the Head Councilman opened the doors and walked in faster than he could be announced by the bailiff. Zero and his doctor traded a look, then headed up the stairs.

The spectator stands were aptly named, considering there was nowhere to sit. There were a few people there, interns and Academy researchers, from the looks of them. Below them all, the Council and the Non-Council Houses sat.

The Non-Council seats, a hundred and fifty all-in-all, were not even a quarter full. Only those who could be reached in time had been called, and listening to the opinions of the lesser Hypercognitive Houses was judged to be less important than holding the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Council Houses were just done arriving, the fourth and fifth seats having been filled while the subject and the doctor had gotten to the spectator stands.

“Well, it appears everyone that could make it has made it. Late arrivals can get caught up by talking to their seat neighbors,” Lord Valiant said with an uncaring tone.

Even slouching and resting his chin against a fist, there was a weight to Lord Charlemagne Valiant’s presence. His father, deceased at one hundred and twenty-one years of age thanks to regular medical treatments and gene-editing, had founded Third York and ended the civil war of 2001 by uniting every side but one under his banner.

Lord Wolfgang Valiant’s passing had been mourned by the city-state, people flooding the streets with mourning flowers and multiple statues being raised in every borough. Even inside the Academy, Zero had heard comparisons between father and son, usually unflattering ones.

But here and now, the man seemed to radiate a casual sort of power. Everyone quieted to listen when he spoke, and eyes remained trained on him until he allowed them to ignore him.

“I shall take roll call so we can get this over with,” the man in question continued. “Ser Rain, representing House Asclepius?”

“Present.”

Ser Rain Asclepius was an odd character, thought Zero the albino artificial human. Dressed head to toe in an all-black three-piece suit, complete with gloves, there wasn’t an inch of skin exposed under their neck. And over it, the Councilor wore an odd beaked mask like a plague doctor’s, altered to have filters on the sides of the ‘beak’.

The mask didn’t cover their ears, neck or curly black hair, but no one had seen Ser Asclepius’ face outside their family. Their androgynous figure and voice, warped and obscured by the mask, meant that people weren’t even sure about their gender.

Whether the mask was worn for any particular reason or if the Councilor was just kind of a weirdo was a subject of hot debate.

House Asclepius had aided the original Lord Valiant by providing their medical research and treatments to their wounded soldiers, as well as biological modifications to those that pursued active combat. These days, the noble House kept watch over healthcare, both public and private. They also sponsored the largest amount of Academy Researchers out of all the Hypercognitive Houses.

“Lord Cain, Representing House Aurum?”

“Present.”

Lord Cain Aurum was a large, overweight man with a push broom moustache and a comb-over from his thinning brown hair. He was Caucasian, with pale and clammy skin. It was a little alarming for Zero to see someone as powerful as Lord Aurum seem so unhealthy, in an age where even the worst medical problem could be solved with enough money. He also wore a simple grey suit that would have looked quite humble, if you couldn’t recognize fine silks and expensive cufflinks[1].

All in all, he gave the image of a shockingly humble and frugal person, considering his family’s history.

Cain Aurum was the nephew of Marcus Aurum, Wolfgang Valiant’s truest political ally; a businessman that had funded most of Valiant’s growing faction out of a belief for the legendary leader’s ideals. His family had lost access to their conglomerate business empire, in an effort to stave off corruption, but House Aurum maintained a strong connection to the wider corporations of Third York.

“Lady Thea, representing House Guerra?”

“Present.”

House Guerra had been founded by the Third World War veteran Marcus Guerra, the current House Head’s grandfather. Another ally of Wolfgang Valiant. The House was closely tied to the upper ranks of the Rangers, either through marriage, membership or funding.

The Lady herself was dark-skinned and harsh-faced, with a strong jawline and sharp eyes usually resting in a frown. Her hair was cut down to the last millimeter, leaving only a thin covering of thick black fuzz over her scalp. She was dressed in a sensible red and black pantsuit, with a silver signet ring on her right hand’s middle finger and a golden band around her left hand’s ring finger.

Thea Guerra was an open member of the Old Country Party, a political club based around conservative ideals and the belief that efforts should be focused on the expansion of every city-state’s borders until the terrain that used to be the United States was back under control.

Zero’s feelings regarding the OCP were ambivalent at most, since the whole concept of a nation consisting of multiple cities under one banner made his head hurt. He didn’t care much for their views about artificial humans’ rights, but it wasn’t like he disagreed on everything.

“Lady Anathema, representing House Sanguine?”

“Present!”

The cheer with which that was said seemed almost mocking.

Unlike the other Hypercognitive Houses on the Council, House Sanguine had been formed by Wolfgang Valiant’s greatest enemy, a man who named himself Vladimir Sanguine, as a lot of hypercognitives did upon reaching a certain age.

The man had held what would be Third York hostage with weapons and technology taken straight from the third world war, even using the likes of computers. The decision to allow his clone/daughter to take over a seat on the Hypercognitive Council had been controversial, to say the least, but apparently it had been the only way to ensure the safety of the citizens.

So, forty years ago, when his daughter/clone finally appeared fifty-seven years after her father/creator’s death, appearing to be sixteen years of age. These days, her biology placed her at thirty-four.

She was a tall and slender woman, of long vantablack hair, red eyes and pale skin like marble. Pointless bioengineering to make her appear more intimidating, though Zero couldn’t deny that it worked. Her painted lips were pressed in an amused smile, while her red nails tapped on the table.

House Sanguine, like House Aurum, connected to multiple businesses. Small ones; like laundromats, tailors, dry cleaners, diners, cafés, car washes, motels, taxi agencies, maid agencies, private schools, a few factories, low-scale law firms, corner stores and bodegas, woodworkers, private and discreet clinics, and more of the like.

She had called it ‘pumping tax money back into the community’. Doctor Phan had hypothesized that it was a complex way to launder money. Zero was inclined to believe him.

“And of course, I am here, representing House Valiant,” the Head Councilman sighed, leaning back in his chair in a slouch. “So? Lady Guerra, you called the meeting. What was the emergency this time? A foreign settlement from Orleans too close to us for your liking? A possible reason to expand our borders?”

Lady Guerra gave Lord Valiant an unamused look, then firmly stated, “The son of the notorious Dark Scientist, Kingston Hill, is dead.”

The room fell silent, the ongoing yet subtle murmurs of conversations smothered in their cribs. Smiles dropped, stances stiffened, and Lady Sanguine’s eyes sharpened.

“… fuck,” sighed Lord Valiant. “Alright, how did you know and what do you propose?”

“One of my contacts in Siegfried’s law enforcement,” said Lady Guerra. “As for what I propose… Precautionary action. A full-scale movement of Ranger troops to find Hill’s hiding place before he can do anything rash.”

The murmuring of the non-council Houses restarted, and Ser Asclepius leaned in to speak.

“That might provoke a reaction, rather than prevent one,” they noted. “Are we even sure he will act?”

“It was his son,” Lady Guerra pointed out.

“Parentage does not guarantee love,” Lady Sanguine noted as she inspected her nails.

Proof of how twisted her thinking was, Zero thought. He couldn’t imagine a creator not loving their creation.

“In any case, that might well be throwing fuel onto the fire,” Lord Valiant sighed. “Perhaps merely strengthening police presence in the borough? I could send some of the people from my district, if it helps.”

“It’d be appreciated,” Lady Guerra nodded, “But I fear it may result insufficient when the maniac acts.”

“If I may ask,” said Lord Aurum, “Where exactly was the child’s body found?”

“At the edge of El Santo San Martín.”

“Ah,” Lord Aurum noted with an amused twitch of his lips. “El Santo Ataúd, you mean.”

“… I’ve made my position on that ridiculous nickname more than clear,” Lady Guerra icily said.

“Oh, yes, my apologies,” said Lord Aurum. “In any case, I have to wonder if anything valuable could be lost from Hill’s reaction. If it happened in El Santo, then it was most likely a gang-related incident, no?”

“… that is the current theory, yes.”

“Then perhaps all that will be lost will be a few criminal parasites. Hardly a tragedy.”

“And you are comfortable making that gamble?” questioned Lord Valiant.

Lord Aurum shrugged.

“Well, sadly for you, I’m not,” Lord Valiant reaffirmed. “I will send reinforcements to El Santo’s police force. Knowing Hill’s patterns, he will most likely use engineered soldiers for his first attack, perhaps something loud and easy to notice.”

“They will have to be eliminated quickly,” Lady Sanguine mused, tapping her chin. “I believe I’ll send some coppers from my own supply over, if you’ll have them?”

“That would be appreciated,” said Lady Guerra.

“So, we’ve got the resources to react. The next question is how will we react?” asked Lady Sanguine.

“Full-scale assault?” proposed Lord Aurum.

“How very like me of you,” said Lady Guerra.

“We all have our off-days,” Lord Aurum sighed. “In any case, Hill has proven unstable on multiple occasions. Unpredictably so. Now that we have an inkling of how he’s going to act, we might be able to finally track him down.”

“And what shall we do, once we have him?” questioned Lady Sanguine.

“Kill him,” replied Lady Guerra without hesitation.

“Yes, yes,” Lady Sanguine waved her off. “But what about his inventions?”

Zero blinked. He saw how the muttering took a different energy in sections of the stands, which provoked other changes in the rest. He saw the other members of the Council tense and look at each other.

Lord Valiant spoke first, “It is regulation to destroy Dark Technology along with its maker.”

“Not always,” Lord Aurum pointed out. “Certain modifications were based around Dark Technology. Need I point out the bio-printer?”

“Technology that was adapted away from the likes of computers and mechanical abominations,” Lord Valiant was frowning now, and sitting up straight. “Hill’s experiments are well known, to myself and to all of you, so I can say with certainty that you know they cannot be redeemed or purified.”

“Oh, it’s hardly all that big of a change,” Lord Aurum waved him off. “Artificial prosthetics instead of organic ones?”

“Gained at the cost of countless suffering and highly unethical experimentation.”

“We are hardly free of sins in that regard. We all know what goes on at the Academy, Councilor.”

What did that mean?

“There’s a difference between this and that,” Lord Valiant objected.

“I’d argue there really isn’t,” Lady Sanguine noted, without a smile for the first time since the meeting started. “The biggest difference is the lack of oversight, which is a problem, but that’s why we would adapt the technology.”

“We’re not going to adapt it!”

“That’s hardly just for you to decide, now is it?”

“Sanguine, I’m warning you…” said Lord Valiant, pointing a finger at her. “You of all people should understand why we, as a community, walked away from the likes of mechanical abominations and artificial computation. Has a hundred years been enough to make us forget the last few years of the war, when everybody had a computer?”

“I agree with Lord Valiant,” said Lady Guerra. “During his last years, my grandfather still could not stand to be surrounded by metals. We might be able to justify it now, but we would be merely opening the door to ancient enemies.”

“… Well, if we’re so focused on learning from the past, should we not try to do it right this time?” questioned Ser Asclepius.

“The way to do it right is to not do it in the first place.”

“As you say, Lady Guerra,” cut in Ser Asclepius, “But consider the possibilities; we are all aware that raw biological matter isn’t as easy gained now as it was when we were up to our knees in corpses, feces and other such delights. While excursions beyond the walls — sponsored by our dear Lord Aurum’s friends, of course — have managed to net us enough for the time being, I doubt I’m the only one that’s run the projections for our use against our capacity to regain bio-mass.”

Frowns decorated the faces of Lord Valiant and Lady Guerra, while the other two observed the masked councilor with curiosity.

“Let us observe the facts. We already recycle human and animal waste, animal and plant cadavers, and willing human corpses. Not to mention donations when a transplant is possible, but that is a loss and a gain packaged and neutralized together,” Ser Asclepius continued. “If we were to make the recycling of corpses mandatory, which would surely cause objections from our beloved citizens, it would still only lengthen the time we have before demand surpasses supply. On the other hand, if we introduced the possibility of artificial body parts, we could focus the use of raw bio-mass into food production, goods and emergency services.”

Lord Valiant frowned, but did not seem to manage a counterargument for Ser Asclepius’ point.

Lady Guerra had no such problem, saying, “We could simply add restrictions to people’s access to printed or cloned body parts.”

“… I sincerely hope you’re not suggesting privatizing health care,” said Ser Asclepius.

It sounded more like a threat than anything.

“Hardly,” Lady Guerra waved them off. “But perhaps regulations about the severity of someone’s condition before they are allowed such treatment?”

“Oh, it’s perfect,” said Lady Sanguine, with enough sarcasm that it dripped all over the table. “That surely won’t have any consequences. We just make a waiting list of agony, and we tell people to suffer until their condition is severe enough to deserve medical attention. Is that your suggestion?”

“Don’t take a tone with me, Sanguine. More than that, don’t start pretending to care about our citizens.”

“I feel like I should say that to you, if this is really your first idea.”

“Not to detract from this productive argument,” said Lord Valiant, flicking some of the sarcasm off of his papers. “But let’s say we do adopt his prosthetic technology — which is still up for argument, by the way. What about his other technology?”

The mood cooled again, and eyes moved around. No one wanted to be the first to say it.

But a lot of them wanted it to be said, Zero realized.

Lady Sanguine shifted slightly, as if making a sharp movement with her leg, which caused Lord Aurum to jump slightly.

He gave her an annoyed look, then sighed and adjusted his clothes before saying, “Look… I’ll be the first to say it. We’re reaching the limit of what we can do with just grey matter. We need computers.”

Immediately, arguing broke out. The Council remained mostly stable, with just Lady Guerra and Lord Aurum starting to shout at each other. The other Houses were not quiet, however.

All around the stands, which Zero now realized had gotten fuller while he focused on the Council, people shouted their agreement or disagreement, then at each other when they realized what the other side was shouting, then someone said something that caused the person next to them to take issue with them despite being on the same side…

The seats were still getting occupied as he watched, Zero realized. Every so often someone would take a break from shouting to tell an intern to go fetch someone or send a message, and they would return with someone that would get caught up on the situation and start supporting one side or another.

A few arrived dressed in work clothes, durable but elegant suits of three pieces. But the majority seemed ripped out of their homes, wearing the likes of tank tops, casual button-down shirts or even t-shirts.

One person was in a bathrobe, their hair and skin still slick with soap. Zero thought he saw a yellow rubber duck sticking out of a pocket of his fluffy pink robe.

The stands were still far from full, but the topic seemed to attract quite a lot of attention.

Zero turned his eyes towards Doctor Phan, who was frowning down at the council.

“Is this Hill person really so dangerous?” he asked.

Doctor Phan looked at him, then flattened his expression before giving Zero a reassuring smile. “It’s hardly something you need to worry about.”

“But everyone seems really worried about him.”

“Well, yes…” Doctor Phan chewed his lip a bit before nodding and explaining, “You see, Kingston Hill has avoided capture for about two decades now. He used to be a student at the Academy, and… well, he’s done a lot of things. Bad things. Some of which became public after some of his bases got captured.”

“Prosthetics and computers?”

“Yes, but… from what people have been able to decipher of his work, what wasn’t black boxed, was that he sought to create completely mechanical bodies while still maintaining the human mind. He started by replacing limbs, then organs, then vital organs, and… well, we’ve yet to find willing subjects of his. And we know for a fact that he didn’t always bother with anesthetics.”

Zero paled, as much as he could with his albino complexion.

“Oh.”

“Yes,” said Doctor Phan. “His work is… well, horrible, but brilliant. As far as cogs go, he’s decades ahead when it comes to interfacing biological and mechanical matter.”

“And… the computers?”

“Well, we’ve only found that he uses them to better manage his machinery,” said the good doctor, which made Zero let out a breath of relief. “And in any case, computers are at their most dangerous when they are connected. But still… that he’s willing to use them is a sign of a dangerous mind.”

Zero nodded in agreement, and turned his attention back to the Council.

But he didn’t miss Doctor Phan’s mutter of, “Not that Aurum is wrong.”

Zero almost turned towards his maker, but the argument finally came to a stop with a thunderous shout of, “ENOUGH!”

At once, everyone quieted. The roar had seemed to shake the foundations of the room, and now everyone stared at Lord Valiant, who was clearing his throat and leaning back.

“Shall we continue as civilized people?” he asked.

Silence was his reply, before Lady Sanguine cut through with a mutter of, “Boy, the lungs on him,” that the microphone caught and amplified.

Lady Sanguine blushed while a few people snickered, making the tension of the room drain away.

“I’ve got five kids, they come in handy,” said Lord Valiant, seeming more amused than anything. Dropping his smile, the Head Councilman turned to Lord Aurum, saying, “Now, you were saying about the limits of grey matter computers?”

Lord Aurum adjusted his tie and nodded, clearing his throat a bit before saying, “Well, yes. Look, grey matter is very useful. Our existence is proof of it. But with neurons being so specialized, just making a basic computing system is an enormous resource sink. And while brains might be more durable and resilient, they still have loads of data loss and inefficiency.”

“We can design better neurons,” said Lord Valiant. “We should design better neurons, in fact. Computers are a shortcut.”

“Shortcuts are excellent. They are convenient.”

“They come at a cost. There’s a reason for why the longer path is the most used one. It’s safer.”

“Science is not about safety.”

“Nor is it about profit.”

“You think I’m pushing on this topic just because I want to make money?”

“I know that you are.”

“Don’t be so quick to judge. I’m a Hypercognitive too, you know. Can you really turn your back on this when there is so much that we could gain from computers? So much we could re-discover?”

“So much we could risk,” said Lady Guerra. “We don’t know everything that is out there. For all we know, there are still Artificial General Intelligences sending out signals from beyond the walls. Are we really going to invite predators into our city just in pursuit of better computers?”

“Better computers would mean that we can automate processes,” said Lady Sanguine. “We could better engineer the genome. We could scan and print neurons without having to manually inspect them. We could make the most complex procedures accessible to non-cogs.”

“And all it takes is using knowledge pumped from the blood and sacrifice of kidnapped citizens.”

“Whether we use the information or not, that sacrifice will still have happened,” said Ser Asclepius. “Better that something good come from it than to just let it be for nothing.”

Lord Valiant looked among his peers with a stony expression, subtly shaking his head.

“I don’t believe this,” he said. “You’re speaking of turning our backs upon out century-old code.”

“We update our constitution every decade,” Lady Sanguine said with a shrug. “Perhaps updating the code every century wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Or more often,” said Ser Asclepius.

Lord Valiant started to get up and gather air, but it was Lady Sanguine that interrupted by waving down Ser Asclepius, saying, “A topic for another time, perhaps. For now, we focus on the present issue.”

Lord Valiant watched her, then sat back down. “Very well. We’re voting, then?”

There was a moment of consideration, then nods from the other council members.

“Will the non-Council Houses present any alternatives to the possibilities presented?”

Murmurs did not stop, but no-one brought forth any ideas.

“All those in favor of destroying all of Kingston Hill’s research once we execute him?”

Lord Valiant and Lady Guerra raised their hands.

Sighing and putting down his hand, he said, “All those in favor of adopting part of his research, after modifying it to comply with Academy standards of ethics?”

No one raised a hand.

“All those in favor of adopting all of his research after modifying it to comply with Academy standards of ethics?”

Lord Aurum, Lady Sanguine and Ser Asclepius raised their hands.

“Very well,” sighed Lord Valiant. “May history have mercy on our souls, then.”

He leaned back while some of the stands muttered darkly, others celebrated, and the rest of the Council exchanged looks.

“Shall we take advantage of our meeting here and discuss other topics?” said Lady Sanguine.

“Might as well,” nodded Lord Valiant. He turned to Lady Guerra, “Can we trust you to handle the reaction to Hill’s actions, and his execution?”

She nodded, mouth still pressed into a displeased line.

“Then we’ll move on to something else,” he sighed. “Shall we get an early start on talking about the Centenary Festival?”

Murmurs of agreement rang out. Zero watched with wide eyes, failing to understand.

Had they really just decided to dabble in Dark Technology? Just like that?

What the hell was going on here?

[1] Which Zero couldn’t, seeing how he lived in a college full of people that bathed rarely and reused outfits often. The Academy was full of air purifiers for a reason, after all.