Caine's Law by Matthew Stover Read Free Book Online

directed to consult on, and cooperate with, any and every Overworld Company operation that requests your attention until the Board determines you have successfully concluded your assignment. If at any time the Board judges success to be impossible, or that you have engaged in deliberate obstruction or sabotage of this project, or that you no longer have anything of value to contribute, you will be remanded to the Social Police for trial, followed by summary execution for Forcible Contact Upcaste in the murder of Leisureman Marc Vilo.”
    “A trial? Seriously?”
    “It’s a formality.”
    “Oh, that makes it okay, then.” I look over at Gayle. “Don’t these idiots remember what happens when they try to bully me?”
    “I’m sure they do,” he says. “I believe they don’t expect you to be intimidated; I believe they only wish the parameters of your situation to be entirely clear. I believe they expect that once you understand, you’ll choose to join them. Of your own free will.”
    “Seems unlikely.”
    “It’s not my plan.”
    I’ll give him that one too. “I’ve had more attractive offers. Slavery and execution kind of leaves out the whole idea of, y’know, sweeteners.”
    “My understanding is that it’s not supposed to be attractive. Just the opposite. It’s supposed to make the alternative attractive.”
    “Oh, there’s an alternative now?”
    “There always has been, Hari,” Gayle says solemnly. “Here, though, it’s a little more straightforward. You might say,
unexpectedly forthright
. Because the laws of physics here are just a bit different from most of the rest of Earth. Do this one thing, and everything Professional Faller has detailed goes away. We can all be friends.”
    “That seems more unlikely.”
    “The switch in your hand, Hari.” Gayle nods at the I.V. pump. “All you have to do is press the button.”
    Eventually I manage to pick up my jaw. “You are batshit fucking insane.”
    “No. And I’m not joking.”
    “Do you know what this shit
is
?”
    “Not precisely. Neither do you. I suspect our superiors have a more complete comprehension. I know what it does. And I have been told that if you don’t accept it—that is to say, if you hit the button without fully consenting to the terms—the substance will kill you. In a spectacularly painful fashion. The specific phrase was,
if he does not say yes
. Do you understand?”
    “Oh, sure. I get it. You know, the first time I saw this shit it was burning Ankhana to the ground.”
    “I’m familiar with the history.”
    “They want to make me into … whatever the fuck Kollberg was.”
    “One more thing you’ll have in common.”
    “This was what you were talking about all along. You weren’t talking about enlisting … you want to make me
part
of that sick hungry mindless fucking
thing—
”
    “Your father called it the Blind God, yes. It’s not, though. Blind. Not at all. Nor mindless, unless we allow it to be.”
    “It’s not?
You’re
not. That’s what you mean. I can fucking smell it on you. It’s in you. You’re in them.”
    And that’s the integrity transplant right there: he has no fear of shame, no fear of humiliation, no self-pity, none of the resentments and weaknesses that defined his life. Now the only way to hurt him is to
hurt
him. Physical fear is the only one he has left.
    Kris said each of us is the sum of our scars. Dad used to say we are defined by what we fear. “Jesus to fuck and back again, Gayle—did you somehow miss what happened to Kollberg? How could you do this to yourself?”
    “It was my duty.”
    “Holy shit.”
    “I’m not entirely sure why it frightens you,” he said. “You don’t get lost in it, Hari. I’m still me. But I’m part of something greater now.”
    “Tell it to Kollberg.”
    Even this Gayle takes with only a thoughtful nod. “Administrator Kollberg is not a … representative example. The events surrounding his breakdown left his mind, ah, fragile.