“Subject 117, do you know who I am?” The slender man Garrick referred to as the Major sits across from me with a curious expression on his face.
This room is no different from the one I was just escorted out of. The walls are metallic instead of white, but it doesn’t matter. A cage is a cage.
“No, I don’t.” I pause. “But I assume you’re someone important.”
He shrugs. “I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. My name is Henry Jako, and I’ve been sent here at the request of the Maverick to evaluate the situation.”
I shrug. “And what situation is that?”
He sighs. “Mr. Garrick informed me that the two of you spoke—”
“We did, but then the doors got kicked down and everything started feeling a little fuzzy.”
He nods. “I understand you’re angry, but please, I encourage you to be open-minded. The two of us here in this room are going to make history in one way or another.”
“And how do you figure that?”
He smiles. “Because I’ve done this before, but with a different enigma across from me.”
The walls shift from metallic to transparent. I recognize this as one of the rooms Nelson and I had passed last time I was escorted through the warren.
“Have you gotten a chance to see outside? I mean, the real outside. No domes, just air.” He rises effortlessly from his chair and walks to the edge of the room. “It took us a long time to find this facility. It’s camouflaged by the exhaust emitted by Motano in Asia. We thought this place was a dead zone.”
“Motano?”
He nods and an image appears on the transparent wall, of a city suspended in the sky with what looks like a large railway connecting to something out of the picture. “Yes, one of the Twelve. City number nine, if you care to know. It’s a city of economic profit. Its citizens own a good portion of the large-scale businesses on the ground. Took us a while to devise a plausible loophole to the laws—”
“I don’t understand.”
He pauses. “I don’t expect you to. Let’s just say the real world is a very different place from what you’re used to.”
For a moment he stops and stares off into what seems like nothing. Every now and then he nods and mumbles to himself. It’s as if he is responding to someone else in the room who only he can see.
“Henry, why am I here?” I ask.
He looks a little startled that I chose to use his first name. “You’re here because I need you to help me understand.”
“Understand what, exactly?”
He starts to pace. “There are multiple crises all over the world at any given time—all of which fall under the jurisdiction of Voltza. The Maverick is a calculating man who acts based on facts, statistics, and reports. Through this method, he is able to constantly act in humanity’s best interests.”
“Why would he not come here himself?” I lean back in my seat and look up at the wall screen. “Surely being an eye witness would give him more perspective on what is going on.”
The Major shakes his head. “On the contrary, it would compromise his judgement. Being present and seeing means creating a connection—one of an emotional nature. Emotions are what start wars and leave countries in ruins. He needs to be impartial at all times—to maintain a certain amount of distance.”
I look away. “So that’s why you’re here, then?”
“Garrick submitted his report—an oddly articulate one, actually. I am the Maverick’s operative. It is my duty to help determine the threat levels of future crisis points.”
“And that is what I am?”
“That is what you could be.” He walks back over to his seat. “There are one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two synthetic lifeforms within the domes. The number is not insignificant.”
I nod. “You said you’ve done this before. What happened last time?”
Silence drifts between us. The Major looks as if he’s lost in thought for a moment. Understandable. His lack of a response tells me exactly what I wanted to know.
“There are very few things I regret in my life, and I’ve done some of the unmentionables.” He pauses. “But years ago, I made a decision that still lingers to this day. There is a reason you don’t see androids walking the streets, Petra. If I need to make the same decision, I will. Only the strong have the resolve to live with their guilt.”
“You called me Petra.”
He nods. “You called me Henry.”
I push myself to stand. “What am I in your eyes?”
He rotates his shoulder. “An asset who could quickly become a liability.”
My uncle taught me to survive. Who he was or who he worked for is irrelevant at this point. My thoughts drift to Kyra and James, to Dario and Lilith. Real people I have met and interacted with. There is a line—a blurred one—which I am still having difficulty distinguishing. What is the definition of a human being? Right now, as this man paces around the room with his robotic implants, I find myself curious to hear his answer. What do humans think they are? Furthermore, do they have the right to define what it is we are?
“Aren’t you going to ask me?” I ask him.
He stops. “Ask you what?”
I reach out and touch the wall. “What I think you are?”
Major Henry Jako, the Maverick’s operative, smiles and then walks towards the door. “No, I don’t think so.”
“And why not?”
“Because it doesn’t matter. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway.” He walks out the door without another word. I expect it to close behind him, but it doesn’t.
I’m counting the seconds before this room becomes my most recent cage, but to my surprise nothing happens—the door remains open.
I take a deep breath and walk towards it. When I step outside, there isn’t so much as a guard stationed in the hallway. There are just people walking about pressing buttons on consoles and watching figures on screens. Some of the scientists hesitate, but ultimately they continue whatever it is they are doing. The Major looks over his shoulder and we make brief eye contact before he turns the corner.
Something in the pit of my stomach tells me I should follow him, but I don’t. I’m far too mesmerized by this feeling of freedom. The sensation is both foreign and familiar at the same time.