Alice keys her final commands into the console, sending the signals that will cause the guards and the lab assistants to stand down and surrender themselves, the mere stroke of a finger delivering their absolute obedience. She is the puppet master now, but it doesn’t make her feel like she is in control. It doesn’t make her feel powerful.
On her last trip to visit Trick, she glimpsed inside a club beneath Mullane where the patrons can command paid couples to perform any sexual act they choose for their gratification. If you took how that made her feel and multiplied it by a hundred, it still wouldn’t describe the unease she experiences manipulating this device.
She feels nothing but relief when she knows she can step away from it, and greater relief knowing that thanks to Slovitz, she can take the necessary measures to prevent anybody from interfering with her own mind again. She realises she may never know which of her memories are genuine or even unadulterated, but she understands that it doesn’t matter. She is the sum of those memories, for better or worse, true or false, and she will be the sole guardian of that archive from here on in.
She sees Nikki stare in wonder as two of the guards cuff the lab assistants then meekly volunteer their own wrists to be cuffed by Daniels. He in turn offers up his arms to Nikki for her to do the honours.
“Jesus. Future of policing,” Nikki says. “That is some terrifying shit and we seriously need to destroy it before the Seguridad gets here.”
“We’re destroying nothing. It’s evidence.”
“And do you trust the FNG and the Quadriga to keep something as powerful as this safely in isolation while we all wait for a court case? How hard do you think it would be to pay somebody to look the other way while they swapped it out for a decoy?”
“Regardless, what happens to this technology is not ours to decide. Besides, there’s a cop in the Seguridad I reckon I can trust to keep it safe. She’s got a reputation for corruption but I believe her heart’s in the right place when it comes to the big stuff.”
“Yeah, I always said you were dangerously naïve about the ways of CdC.”
They share a smile, but it is Gonçalves’s reaction that catches Alice’s eye. The professor is rousing from her resigned catatonia, like something has reignited her spark.
“You have something you’d like to say?” Alice enquires.
“Would you like to know about your parents?” she replies. “Your natural ones, I mean.”
A combination of longing and wariness stirs inside Alice. It is confusing enough to stall her from answering.
“It’s my last bargaining chip,” Gonçalves says. “I’m prepared to trade it.”
“For what?” asks Nikki, who appears to have noticed that Alice is struggling to find her voice.
“For you to wipe Beatrice’s memory of the things she did, and the memories I implanted in order to make her do them. Please. Before the Seguridad get here and take it out of your hands. She should not have to carry that burden.”
Nikki looks to Alice for a decision. It is a hard one to make, but hard doesn’t mean difficult.
“That’s not our call either. It should be Beatrice’s decision, though only after the trial.”
“But that is my primary concern. She should not face judgement for acting upon things I falsely put in her mind.”
“That’s a very good point,” Alice concedes. “Do we absolve her on the basis that she might have made different decisions had these memories not been inserted? If these memories were artificially put in her head, can we say she acted of her own free will? Or should she be judged for the decisions she made and acted upon on the basis of what she believed to be true?”
Alice leans over and looks Gonçalves in the eye.
“Thanks to you, Professor, I’ve been privileged to study ethics and the law under some of the greatest minds on planet Earth. Consequently, my perspective on these questions is surprisingly straightforward.”
“And what is that?” she asks, anxious and expectant.
“I’m glad it’s someone else’s problem.”