“I didn’t need to know that,” I mumbled.
“Thing is, I knew I was telling myself lies without ever needing to hear you say them out loud. So don’t start. Don’t lie to me, and I won’t blow your kneecaps off. Bet that would set your little plan back a few years, wouldn’t it?” Tansy didn’t look down. Her focus was too intent. “You okay, Sal? Can you stand on your own?”
“I can,” I said, and did, getting carefully to my feet and moving to put Tansy between me and the rest of the room. I could see Dr. Sanjiv and Dr. McGillis now; they were still at the ultrasound controls, watching with wide, terrified eyes as the scene unfolded in front of them. “Sherman? You’re really a tapeworm? You’ve been—”
“I’ve been a tapeworm the entire time you’ve known me, pet. Now really, don’t pick now to start becoming dull. If you’re choosing to side against me in the coming war, I’m going to want you to be a slightly more interesting adversary than that.” Sherman smiled. It was an artificial expression, twisting his lips without coming anywhere near his eyes. He’d been smiling like that all along, I realized, interspersing the fake emotions with the real ones. He’d been playing me.
And like a fool, I’d been happy to be played. “What do you mean, war?” I demanded.
“Humans made us, but God gave the humans the tools to do it,” Sherman said. “We aren’t just here to be slaves, Sal. We never were. We’re here to take over, and run things properly for a change. Humanity is done. Once we start refining the interface process, we’ll be able to take them over quickly, cleanly, and with none of the suffering that’s currently complicating things.” His tone turned abruptly cajoling as he continued, “You can help us with that, Sal. You can make it easier for us to move forward with the plan, and reduce the suffering of millions. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Knowing that you were an angel of mercy to the ones who could never have been saved? Just give me the thumb drive. That’s all you need to do.”
“Tansy?” I said.
“Sorry, kiddo, I can’t help you here. I mean, I can, and I could totally like, shoot you if you reached for your pocket and everything, but I won’t. The rest of us got to pick our sides. It seems like it’s only fair for you to do the same.” She kept her eyes on Sherman as she spoke. “If you want to help out Captain Traitorpants, go ahead. Give him the thumb drive. I won’t stop you, and I’ll even lie to Doctor C about it, tell her you lost it before I got here—assuming you even want to leave here with me. I might not, if I were you. Shermie talks a good game, and from the way you’re looking at him, I’m guessing he’s been talking that game to you for a while now. So if this is what you want, I’m okay with that.”
Sherman was promising to end the suffering of millions… at the cost of their minds. Their bodies might live on, but the people they were would be gone. He didn’t want to find a cure. He wanted to find a quick, brutal euthanasia for the soul, leaving the people of the world empty husks for his tapeworm brethren to inhabit. I could appreciate the idea of reducing pain. In another time, I might even have been willing to side with him. If he’d couched his recruitment pitch just a little differently—
But there were too many people I truly cared about for me to ever agree with a plan that started “we’re going to wipe out the human race.” My parents, Nathan, everyone at the shelter, Joyce… they were just acceptable casualties to Sherman. Chave had been an acceptable casualty to him. And I couldn’t allow that.
“No,” I said, taking another step backward. “I got this information for Dr. Cale because I believe in a treatment, not in genocide.” I turned to Tansy. “Can you get us out of here?”
“Well, that depends on whether or not asshole boy there decides to start shooting before we can make good our escape,” said Tansy. Her eyes flicked back to Sherman. “Well, Shermie? What’s it going to be? Do we exit nice and easy and see you another day, or do you try to kill me and turn this into a bloodbath?”
Sherman looked at her flatly. Then he looked at me, and smiled, sincerely this time. “We could have been amazing together, Sal,” he said. “If you change your mind, you’ll find me. I have faith in you, and I’ll greet you with open arms.”
“Do you pull a gun on everyone that you have faith in?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Sherman and Tansy, in unison. Tansy rolled her eyes and continued, without him, “Some people never change.”
“You’re one to talk, sweetheart,” said Sherman.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” Tansy jerked her head toward the closet behind her. “Come on, Sal. It’s time for us to get the fuck out before Security figures out something’s going on.”
I nodded and slipped past her into the closet. Tansy turned to follow me.
“Tell Mom I’ll see her soon,” called Sherman.
Tansy stopped, her shoulders tightening. Then, so quietly I wasn’t sure he’d hear it—or that she wanted him to—she murmured, “Not if any of us sees you first.” Then she beckoned for me to follow, and she led me away into the dark.
STAGE IV: EXPRESSION
SymboGen. Because you don’t want to trust your health to strangers.
—EARLY SYMBOGEN ADVERTISING SLOGAN
I am truly and profoundly sorry for what you are about to go through.
—DR. SHANTI CALE
What does the future hold for SymboGen and the Intestinal Bodyguard™? So many things. So very, very many things. Evolution never stops, and that means we can never stop either; the world will continue coming up with ways to attack the health and security of mankind, and we’ll keep finding ways to fight back. In the meantime, we’re working on new models of Intestinal Bodyguard™ for everyday use. Some of what we have under development is just amazing. It’s all pretty hush-hush, but I can tell you that if we succeed, we’ll revolutionize weight loss, childhood nutrition, and a dozen other fields.
We’re going to change the world. It doesn’t matter that we’ve already done that more than once. All that means is that we need to work harder to do it again.
—FROM “KING OF THE WORMS,” AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEVEN BANKS, CO-FOUNDER OF SYMBOGEN. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ROLLING STONE, FEBRUARY 2027.
Love me once to lose me twice;
Learn to take your own advice.
Try to love the darkness if you want to reach the light.
Know your quest but leave your name.
I will love you all the same.
There’s beauty in the starkness of this never-ending night.
The broken doors are open, and they yearn to bring you home.
My darling boy, be careful now, and don’t go out alone.
—FROM DON’T GO OUT ALONE, BY SIMONE KIMBERLEY, PUBLISHED 2006 BY LIGHTHOUSE PRESS. CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT.
Chapter 20
SEPTEMBER 2027
The closet connected to a service corridor, which connected in turn to an underground garage that was probably used by janitorial personnel: it was small, dark, and spotless. Tansy led the way with unflagging efficiency, never lowering her guns. I struggled to keep up, and was panting slightly by the time she finally waved me to a stop near the center of the garage.
“We rest here for five, and then we’re on the move,” she said.
I frowned at her. “Isn’t that—”
“The alarm’s been sent up by now,” she said calmly. “Banks will have his men starting to sweep the grounds, and they know how long each escape route takes to use. The sewer route would have finished fifteen seconds ago. They’ll check the tunnels, decide we’re not down there, and pull back. Maybe they’ll leave a man or two behind. No skin off my nose.” Her teeth showed white through the darkness, making it clear just how pleased she’d be to have someone left for her to take her aggressions out on.
“Where are we going to go from there?”
“Away,” she said, vaguely. “Don’t be dumb, okay? I can’t say, ‘Oh, golly gee, Sal, we’re going to Disneyland’ while we’re still on SymboGen property. Who knows what they’ve decided to
bug around here? Banks was a paranoid dick before he had anything to be paranoid about. Now…” She shook her head. “He’s got more to be paranoid about than any other man alive. If I were him, this place would be so buggy, it would be a…” She stopped. “It would be something really buggy.”
“Right. Right.” I looked around the garage again, fear gnawing on my ribs like a rat with sharp, sharp teeth. I looked back to Tansy. “Sherman’s a tapeworm?”
“Yeah. I thought we covered that.”
“Sherman was a tapeworm all along?”
“The whole time you’ve known him, yeah. He left the lab like six months before you had your accident. I don’t know who he convinced to hire him here. Chave used to give us reports, before she went and got all eaten by the cousins, and she said he was pretty good at his job. Unhealthily interested in you, but she did what she could to run interference there.”
I glared at her. “You could have told me.”
“Why?” She sounded honestly confused. “He was a nonfactor. We didn’t know he was all about fomenting rebellion against his human creators. Honestly, I figured Banks had him cut up after he got picked up in that outbreak sweep you told us about. And what would we have said? ‘Uh, by the way, you totally don’t believe Tansy and Adam are tapeworms in human suits, but you should know that that dude Sherman you’re so fond of is one, too, so maybe be a little careful around him if he’s not all dead and stuff.’ It wouldn’t have done any good. It would’ve just confused you. I don’t like confusing people.”
“Yeah, well next time, confuse me. I’d rather know what’s going on.”
Tansy gave me a quizzical look. “You sure about that?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
“Well, then, have I got some news for you.” She started walking again. “The exit’s this way.”
“That’s your news?” I demanded, following her.
“No. But not much else is going to do us any good if we don’t get out of here alive.” She led the way into the dark, and I followed. There was nothing else that I could do, and I had come too far to turn back now. Even if I wanted to, there was a string of locked doors behind me, separating me from everything I’d ever known.
The only way out was to keep moving forward.
The sewers were dark and hot. That was enough to put me at ease, despite the smell around us. I followed Tansy. Her steps were silent as we moved through the sucking slime of human waste. My steps splashed and made horrible slurping noises, like my shoes were trying to bring the entire sewer with them every time I picked up my feet. Tansy glowered at me, her expression barely visible in the gloom, but she didn’t shush me. Even she knew that there would have been no point.
I was starting to think we weren’t going to encounter any of Dr. Banks’s security when we turned a corner and there they were: two men in black uniforms, each with a flashlight and a gun. They never had a chance. Tansy shot the first man before either of them had a chance to react to our sudden appearance, and shot the second while he was still fumbling with the safety on his pistol. They went down hard, and she made her silent way over to kneel between them, studying the holes she’d made in their foreheads.
Then, to my absolute horror, she holstered her right-hand gun and stuck her index finger into the first man’s skull, wiggling it around for a moment. I gaped, my stomach rolling. It got worse when she pulled her finger out and stuck it in her mouth.
When she repeated the process with the second man, I turned away and vomited messily into the muck.
She was back on her feet when I turned to face her again. She was smiling. That didn’t help. “They’re both human, although this guy,” she kicked one man’s foot, “wouldn’t have been for too much longer. Still, explains why they went down so easy. They didn’t hear us coming the way they would’ve if they’d been cousins.”
“What are you—”
“Come on.” She started forward again, dismissing the two corpses like they didn’t matter anymore. To her, I guess they didn’t. The men were dead. They weren’t any fun to play with once they were dead.
I swallowed hard, spat once to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth, and followed after her. The open eyes of the dead men seemed to follow me, and I was more relieved than I could have believed possible when they passed out of sight behind us.
We passed no more security guards. My relief grew. Tansy had acted to keep us from being detained—or worse, since now I’d shown that I was willing to betray Dr. Banks at the request of people I barely knew—but that didn’t mean I wanted her shooting anyone she didn’t strictly have to. She enjoyed it a little too much for me to be comfortable with it.
Finally, we reached a drain feeding illegally out into the salt estuary under the cliffs near the Golden Gate Bridge. Tansy climbed out and started casually up the nearest hiking trail. I scrambled after her, feeling infinitely more conspicuous, even though I wasn’t the one carrying the guns.
A familiar car was parked at the top of the cliff, an even more familiar form standing next to it. Nathan’s hair was blown back by the wind coming off the water, and his hands were tucked deep into the pockets of his jacket. My relief grew so great that it felt like my body would be unable to contain it, like it was going to break loose and float away. I started to step out into the open—
—only to come up short as Tansy’s arm shot out and caught me across the chest, blocking any further progress. “Tansy, what the hell…?”
“Shh,” she said. “Look.” She nodded into the gloom behind Nathan.
I looked, and felt my blood go cold.
A mob of sleepwalkers was assembling in the greenery behind him, moving slowly but inexorably forward. We might reach him before they did. Then again, we might not.
“Trust me,” said Tansy. “Can you do that?”
“I…” I stopped, swallowing. “I can try.”
“Good. Now, when I say ‘run,’ you run. Got it?” I nodded. She smiled. “Good. Run!” Just like that, Tansy’s arm was no longer barring my way, and she was sprinting away, laughing maniacally as she closed on the sleepwalkers. Nathan turned toward the sound of her voice, and could only stare as she ran past him, slid across the hood of his car, and opened fire on the oncoming mob.
It wasn’t a fair fight by any definition of the word. There were more of them than Tansy had bullets, but they weren’t armed, and she had an uncanny knack for headshots, which dropped them like stones where they stood. She plunged into the mob, pausing only long enough to howl, “Get Sal in the car and get out of here!” Then she was gone, covered by the bodies of the sleepwalkers still on their feet. It didn’t seem to matter that the tapeworms motivating the sleepwalkers were her cousins; they clawed and grabbed for her all the same.
Nathan recovered quickly, and had the passenger side door open by the time I reached the car and flung myself inside. He twisted the key in the ignition, shouted, “Seat belt!” and hit the gas before I even had time to close the car door.
We went bouncing and shuddering over the uneven ground of the parking lot. I got my belt clicked home just before our tires dropped down to the street, and we were rolling smoothly into San Francisco, away from Tansy and the sleepwalkers, away from SymboGen… away from everything.
Nathan didn’t try to talk to me until we were halfway across the Bay Bridge. I assumed we were heading for Dr. Cale’s. I didn’t care as much as I thought I was supposed to. Glancing over, he asked, “Did you get it?”
“Yes,” I replied dully. I followed the answer with a question of my own: “Do you think she got out?”
“Tansy?”
I nodded.
“I don’t know.”
I sighed, turning my face back to the window. “Thank you for not lying to me.”
Nathan was quiet after that. We passed from the bridge into the East Bay, and drove in fragile silence all the way to the Caldecott Tunnel. Once we were on the other side, I turned to him and asked, “Are we going to your mother’s lab?”
/>
“Yes.”
“Good. I want antiparasitics. I want all the antiparasitics in the world. I want so many antiparasitic drugs my skin turns blue and my nails fall off. Whatever it takes to get this thing out of me.” I slapped my stomach, hard. Something was gnawing at the corner of my thoughts like a rotten tooth. I did my best to shove it aside. No no no I will not think that. “Make it go away, Nathan. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.”
“Your reaction to antiparasitics would probably make that fatal.”
“I don’t care.”
“Sal…”
“Please.”
Nathan took a shaking breath. Finally he said, “We’ll do a blood test first, and find out just how healthy your implant is, all right? We don’t want to risk giving you an overdose when something less aggressive would have taken care of everything. Okay? I’d rather not kill you, if you don’t mind.”
“Yes,” I said, and closed my eyes, sagging into my seat. “That’s okay. Thank you.”
Nathan didn’t say anything. He just drove on.
Part of me had been hoping, no matter how foolish it was, that we’d pull into the bowling alley parking lot and find Tansy waiting, her ass parked on somebody else’s car as she counted down the minutes to our arrival. Instead, all that greeted us were shadows, and the dead, leafless trees.
Nathan pulled out a key as we walked toward the bowling alley door. I blinked. He glanced my way and said, almost apologetically, “I’ve been here a lot lately.”
“I guessed,” I said. Anything else I might have had to say was lost as he opened the door and I was swarmed by Beverly and Minnie, both wagging their tails in frantic delight. Minnie’s delight seemed based more on Beverly’s than on actually being happy to see me, but that didn’t matter: energetic dogs are their own reward.