Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [116]
That’s because they ‘think’ you’re dead.
What do you mean?
It’s a paradox, Maudi. Tricky. They can hear you, with effort and proximity, and you them because you have a mind-to-mind link, but their minds think you’re dead, so they can’t hear you. See? No amount of effort allows for your voice because they believe you are not here.
Can you please tell them the truth? Tell them I’m here?
Already done.
And?
They think I’m in denial.
You’re kidding!
They think I’m creating a phantom of you so I don’t have to face the fact that you’re dead.
But I heard Kali. She’s convinced I’m alive.
She’s convinced you still have viable DNA somewhere. There’s a difference.
Rosette floundered. And they think you’re hallucinating?
Seems so.
That’s ridiculous.
Not really, Maudi. It’s quite plausible.
Oh, great. Now they have you believing it?
Drayco sat on the platform in front of Kreshkali and began licking his paw and washing his face. The notion makes sense, Maudi. It’s probably exactly what I would do if you were dead. I have no way, right now, of knowing for sure if I am hearing you or if I am making you up in my mind.
But I do! This is me, and I wouldn’t feel ‘me’ if I was a figment of your imagination, so stop that line of thought right now! You have to convince them to get my body out of…wherever it’s been put, and find a way to get me back in.
I’ve got them headed in that direction.
Even though they think I’m dead? How did you manage that?
They managed it for me. There’s a lot of concern about Jarrod and his key-codes. They need to get your body so no one else has access to your DNA.
I guess that’s a start anyway. She was learning how to express a sigh without breath.
We’re moving. Come on, Maudi.
She looked down. Everyone was headed into the portal. Wait for me!
Drayco stalled by the entrance as she swept past.
And we are headed where, Dray?
Off to Everett Kelly’s world to retrieve your corpse.
Everett slid his ID card into the scanner and waited for the release tone. As soon as it chimed, he pushed the stainless steel door back and buttoned his coat.
‘Welcome to Cryology, Mr Kelly. How can we be of assistance?’
For once he was glad it was a computer-activated simulation that greeted him. The last thing he wanted to do was answer any questions right now. There would be enough of them in a moment, when he mentioned the words ‘Jane Doe’.
‘No assistance needed. I’ll find my own way, thanks.’
‘If you require anything in the future, Mr Kelly, simply…’
Everett double-clicked the F1 key on the central keypad and the simulation disappeared. ‘Nothing is simple today,’ he said as the hologram flickered out.
His heels tapped out a rhythm on the tiles. It was so cold that his breath was visible when he exhaled. He passed rows and rows of vats before he found a technician, a tall woman leaning over one of the tanks. He approached her with his data file screen extended, the digital readout showing a patient number.
‘I’m looking for this one,’ Everett said. ‘She would have come down late last night.’
The tech took the hand-held computer and wiped her thumb across the screen. ‘The new ones are further back. It’ll just take me a second to cross-match.’ She frowned. ‘That’s strange. There doesn’t seem to be an ID.’
‘Jane Doe,’ he said, keeping his tone light.
‘Really? Let me double-check the location.’ She went to the central desk and ran a search, stretching her neck towards the console as the numbers flashed. ‘Female, Jane Doe, brought in at 23.25?’
‘That’s the one.’
The tech’s eyebrows went up. ‘We didn’t get a file update yet,’ the tech said.
‘There isn’t one.’
‘Admin too clogged to tag her?’ The woman led him past dozens of cryo vats, glancing from their digital displays to the readout in her hand.
‘They’re very busy.’
She huffed. ‘We can’t use her until they do.’
Everett nodded as they passed another block of vats.
‘Here it is.’ She stopped at a tank indistinguishable from hundreds of others save for the number displayed at the foot of the vessel—103,989,001.