47

Mel put her hands on Chase’s shoulders. “Is he gone?”

Chase drew her close, then gaped at Switchblade, who sat on the floor, his back to the wall, his hands resting on his knees.

“Is he, man? He didn’t tell you nothing about the blood? Because I think you got something there, Charlie.”

“Oh, Switch, you can’t be serious,” Mel said. “You can’t just go pumping nanobytes into a sick man. Besides that, we don’t know what would happen to Chase if we started pumping them out.”

“Actually, it’s nanobots. Is that even weirder?” Chase asked. “Because it sounds weirder.”

Mel didn’t answer—her attention remained on Switchblade. “I can’t imagine any doctor would agree to it, much less one with no training in cyber-genetics. Certainly not Dr. John, and I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

Switchblade got up and limped to the door. “Charlie, can you get that ghost back here for some more Q & A?”

“I don’t think so. But he’ll show up again. Somebody must have interrupted. He can’t very well sit around talking to Chase Sterling with other people around.”

Mel shook her head. “Chase, this is crazy—you talking to him. Talking to Kerstin the way you did. They’re going to find us.”

“We know what happened the last time they closed in. The exoself took care of it.”

“You really want to go through that again?” she asked. “Tell the exoself to stop bringing people here from your old life.” She crossed her arms.

“Robert will be careful. I need to talk to him again.”

“About a blood transfusion? That is even crazier. As leader of Blue Sky Field, I forbid it.”

“Mel. Seriously? You’re going to stop me from doing something to save Amos’s life?”

“I’ve got to get back to the command center.” She opened the door. “If Fiender shows up again, I want to know about it immediately.” She left without waiting for a response.

“Yes ma’am,” Chase said. He pointed at the door and lowered his brow at Switchblade. “That woman…”

“Yeah, you got your hands full, Charlie. But she’s just looking out for you. At least you got Sparky back. You really saw that doctor of yours? I only heard one side of a conversation, and I didn’t see nothing but you staring at the corner.”

“He seemed as real as you, Switchblade. I mean, after he coded in and before he coded out.”

“I think I got the gist of it—the talk you had with the man. You went right out and told him you’re a believer. Took guts, Charlie. More guts than I ever had.”

“Nobody ever taught me to be quiet, Switch. And nobody ever will.”

“You got some power in you, brother. All that stuff you said about Christ giving His blood for you—you understand it. But you ain’t had no teaching.”

Chase sat on the end of the bed. The exoself ran through every branch of the underground. That world, at the moment, appeared safe. Well fed. Equipped. Transportation requests flowed through his mind. A branch in the EU had accepted thirty-two believers seeking shelter after a raid of church houses. No one was lost in the crackdown.

Everything Mel could see at her work station amassed in Chase’s head without any prompting. The Underground Church moved on in its quest to remain an entity apart from the obstructive forces of world government. Hidden, protected. In part by the programs brought to them by a transhuman. But surely it was God watching out for them.

Was the rest of the population to be left godless?

Chase shifted from Mel’s programs and the code uniting the underground, and locked into the workings of the WR. He’d been kicked out of this trail of information when Robert first removed the federal ownership of the exoself and placed it solely in Chase’s possession. But the exoself took a one-way street back to the Western Republic. That street was still open. Nothing had changed since Sparky took shelter in Mel’s old computers. Chase roamed the government programs at will.

The nearest detention center—the one with the awful machine designed to harvest gray matter—had a few new prisoners. Dissenters. Kirel was one of them. He might talk—tell the Feds all about Blue Sky Field. His file showed nothing but a medical report stating trauma to the brain resulting in short-term memory loss. A temporary condition being treated with techno-medical procedures. Kirel wouldn’t be out of his mind forever.

Chase shuddered as he attached a report demanding treatment cease immediately due to insufficient data supporting a positive outcome of the procedure. Then he prayed Kirel would never remember he’d been beneath an old museum in Herouxville.

He looked up to find Switchblade sitting beside him.

“Man, you been off on a trip or what? You got an update from Sparky?”

“Yes. Most of it’s good. Some of it’s troubling. I’ll monitor the situation.”

“Tell me if I can be of assistance. You serious about helping Amos, in spite of what our fearless leader says? Because I’m ready for a trip out of this cave.”

“Switchblade, if I get Mel to change her mind I want you to stay here. I’ll feel a lot better knowing you’re watching over Blue Sky Field.”

The big man huffed and shook his head. “I’d feel a lot better doing what Amos assigned me to do—watching your back.”

“I can handle a run to Gagnon. But before we plan anything I need to talk to Robert again. No point in putting Amos through that if the maker of the nanobots says it’s a waste of time.”

“This stuff just keeps getting weirder, Charlie.”

“Yeah. And useful. I hope.”