If you dont believe me? I asked, shaping the words with lips that had gone numb.
If I dont believe you, youre all on the next bus to Berkeley, and were parting ways before the sun comes up, the senator said and turned his back on me, all smiles as he shifted his attention to the crowd. Congresswoman! he said, joviality coming back into his voice as if hed flipped a switch. Youre looking lovely tonightis that your wife? Well, Mrs. Lancer, it surely is a pleasure to finally have the opportunity to meet you in the flesh, after seeing you in so many of those Christmas card photos
And then he was moving away, leaving me standing alone in the middle of the crowd, the important people of this little modern Babylon pressing all around me as they struggled for a moment of his attention, my colleagues standing not ten feet away, waiting to hear what Id accomplished.
The truth had never felt like it was further away, or harder to make sense of. And I had never in my life felt like I was more lost, or more alone.
We were eleven when I first understood that we werent immortal. I always knew the Masons had a biological son named Phillip. Our folks didnt talk about him much, but he came up every time someone mentioned Masons Law. Its funny, but I sort of hero-worshipped him when I was a kid, because people remembered him. I never really considered the fact that they remembered him for dying.
George and I were hunting for our Christmas presents when she found the box. It was in the closet in Moms office, and wed probably overlooked it a thousand times before, but it caught Georges eye that day for some reason, and she hauled it out, and we looked inside. That was the day I met my brother.
The box was full of photographs wed never seen, pictures of a laughing little boy in a world where hed never been forced to worry about the things we lived with every day. Phillip riding a pony at the state fair. Phillip playing in the sand on a beach with no fences in sight. Phillip with his long-haired, short-sleeved, laughing mother, who didnt look anything like our mother, who wore her hair short and her sleeves long enough to hide the body armor, whose holster dug into my side when she kissed me good night. He had a smile that said hed never been afraid of anything, and I hated him a little, because his parents were so much happier than mine.
We never talked about that day. We put the pictures back in the closet, and we never found our Christmas presents, either. But that was the day I realized if Phillip, this happy, innocent kid, could die, so could we. Someday, wed be cardboard boxes at the back of somebodys closet, and there wasnt a thing we could do about it. George knew it, too; maybe she even knew it before I did. We were all we had, and we could die. Its hard to live knowing something like that. Weve done the best we could.
No one gets to ask us for anything more. Not now, not ever. When history looks our waystupid, blind history, that judges everything and never gives a shit what we paid to get itit better remember that no one had a right to ask us for this. No one.
From Hail to the King,
the blog of Shaun Mason, June 19, 2040
Twenty-five
Georgia, what just happened?
George? You okay?
Both of them sounded so concerned it left me wanting to scream. I settled for grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing server, draining it in one convulsive gulp, and snapping, We have to go. Now.
That just redoubled their concern. Ricks eyes went wide, while Shauns narrowed, accompanied by a sudden frown. How pissed is he? he asked.
Hes pulling our press passes in fifteen minutes.
Shaun whistled. Nice. Even for you, thats impressive. Whatd you do, suggest that his wife was having an affair with the librarian?
It was the tutor, that was the Mayor of Oaklands wife, and I was right, I said, starting to stalk for the exit. True to form, they followed. I didnt say anything about Emily.
Excuse me, but does one of you mind telling me whats going on? interjected Rick, putting on a burst of speed to get in front of me. Georgia just got us kicked out of a major political event, Senator Rymans clearly pissed, and Tates glaring. Im missing something. I dont like that.
I went cold. Tates glaring at us?
If looks could kill
Wed be joining Rebecca Ryman. Ill fill you in once were in the car.
Rick hesitated, licking his lower lip as he registered the anxiety in my tone. Georgia?
Im serious, I said, and sped up, going as fast as I could manage without starting to a run. Shaun took the cue from me, linking one arm through mine and using his longer legs to give me a little extra speed. Rick hurried along behind us, holding his questions until we got outside. Bless him for that much, anyway.
It took only one blood test to get back to the car. Since everyone on the banquet level was assumed clean after the checks theyd endured to get there, the elevator came at the press of a button, no needles involved until we wanted to exit. Like a roach motelthe infected could check in, but they couldnt check out. My earlier curiosity about what would happen if more than one person took the elevator at the same time was answered as the interior sensors refused to let the doors open until the system detected three different, noninfected blood samples. Someone who unwittingly boarded the elevator with a person undergoing viral amplification would just die in there. Nice.
Steve was still next to the car, arms folded across his chest. He straightened when he saw the three of us come marching out of the elevator but he restrained his curiosity better than Rick had, waiting until we were reaching for the doors before he asked, Well?
If I dont believe you, youre all on the next bus to Berkeley, and were parting ways before the sun comes up, the senator said and turned his back on me, all smiles as he shifted his attention to the crowd. Congresswoman! he said, joviality coming back into his voice as if hed flipped a switch. Youre looking lovely tonightis that your wife? Well, Mrs. Lancer, it surely is a pleasure to finally have the opportunity to meet you in the flesh, after seeing you in so many of those Christmas card photos
And then he was moving away, leaving me standing alone in the middle of the crowd, the important people of this little modern Babylon pressing all around me as they struggled for a moment of his attention, my colleagues standing not ten feet away, waiting to hear what Id accomplished.
The truth had never felt like it was further away, or harder to make sense of. And I had never in my life felt like I was more lost, or more alone.
We were eleven when I first understood that we werent immortal. I always knew the Masons had a biological son named Phillip. Our folks didnt talk about him much, but he came up every time someone mentioned Masons Law. Its funny, but I sort of hero-worshipped him when I was a kid, because people remembered him. I never really considered the fact that they remembered him for dying.
George and I were hunting for our Christmas presents when she found the box. It was in the closet in Moms office, and wed probably overlooked it a thousand times before, but it caught Georges eye that day for some reason, and she hauled it out, and we looked inside. That was the day I met my brother.
The box was full of photographs wed never seen, pictures of a laughing little boy in a world where hed never been forced to worry about the things we lived with every day. Phillip riding a pony at the state fair. Phillip playing in the sand on a beach with no fences in sight. Phillip with his long-haired, short-sleeved, laughing mother, who didnt look anything like our mother, who wore her hair short and her sleeves long enough to hide the body armor, whose holster dug into my side when she kissed me good night. He had a smile that said hed never been afraid of anything, and I hated him a little, because his parents were so much happier than mine.
We never talked about that day. We put the pictures back in the closet, and we never found our Christmas presents, either. But that was the day I realized if Phillip, this happy, innocent kid, could die, so could we. Someday, wed be cardboard boxes at the back of somebodys closet, and there wasnt a thing we could do about it. George knew it, too; maybe she even knew it before I did. We were all we had, and we could die. Its hard to live knowing something like that. Weve done the best we could.
No one gets to ask us for anything more. Not now, not ever. When history looks our waystupid, blind history, that judges everything and never gives a shit what we paid to get itit better remember that no one had a right to ask us for this. No one.
From Hail to the King,
the blog of Shaun Mason, June 19, 2040
Twenty-five
Georgia, what just happened?
George? You okay?
Both of them sounded so concerned it left me wanting to scream. I settled for grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing server, draining it in one convulsive gulp, and snapping, We have to go. Now.
That just redoubled their concern. Ricks eyes went wide, while Shauns narrowed, accompanied by a sudden frown. How pissed is he? he asked.
Hes pulling our press passes in fifteen minutes.
Shaun whistled. Nice. Even for you, thats impressive. Whatd you do, suggest that his wife was having an affair with the librarian?
It was the tutor, that was the Mayor of Oaklands wife, and I was right, I said, starting to stalk for the exit. True to form, they followed. I didnt say anything about Emily.
Excuse me, but does one of you mind telling me whats going on? interjected Rick, putting on a burst of speed to get in front of me. Georgia just got us kicked out of a major political event, Senator Rymans clearly pissed, and Tates glaring. Im missing something. I dont like that.
I went cold. Tates glaring at us?
If looks could kill
Wed be joining Rebecca Ryman. Ill fill you in once were in the car.
Rick hesitated, licking his lower lip as he registered the anxiety in my tone. Georgia?
Im serious, I said, and sped up, going as fast as I could manage without starting to a run. Shaun took the cue from me, linking one arm through mine and using his longer legs to give me a little extra speed. Rick hurried along behind us, holding his questions until we got outside. Bless him for that much, anyway.
It took only one blood test to get back to the car. Since everyone on the banquet level was assumed clean after the checks theyd endured to get there, the elevator came at the press of a button, no needles involved until we wanted to exit. Like a roach motelthe infected could check in, but they couldnt check out. My earlier curiosity about what would happen if more than one person took the elevator at the same time was answered as the interior sensors refused to let the doors open until the system detected three different, noninfected blood samples. Someone who unwittingly boarded the elevator with a person undergoing viral amplification would just die in there. Nice.
Steve was still next to the car, arms folded across his chest. He straightened when he saw the three of us come marching out of the elevator but he restrained his curiosity better than Rick had, waiting until we were reaching for the doors before he asked, Well?
