Join by Steve Toutonghi Read Free Book Online Page B

noises. Starboard, a twister might actually be forming.

    Flustered, Chance loosens up. Joins express themselves through drives in much the same way that solos express themselves using their limbs, their bodies. And, like limbs, in familiar situations drives may operate without much conscious oversight. An analogy is often made to a “flow” state, in which solos perform practiced activities with a speed that doesn’t allow for conscious interference. A person running multiple drives can put distance between the awareness of the join and one or more drives, allowing the drives to run semiautonomously, in a join-specific analog of a flow state.
    Faced with two situations that require urgent attention, Chance does this reflexively, focusing awareness and jumping back and forth in bursts between Chance Two, in the airplane, and Chance Three, in the restaurant, leaving Chance Four in a kind of trance and Chance One and Five asleep.

    Chance Three’s body is stiff. His jaw aches. Chance says, “Yes, I’ve been overtaxing my drives. I suppose you guessed all that. I don’t know how else you could know. I’m not proud of it. I’m not a risker. But I have been working hard. I want new drives.”
    â€œI’m very glad you admitted that,” Rope Three says. “You’re doing well. You’ve done us both a great favor by being honest. It means we can move together to the next stage. Now, you’re a doctor. The next stage is the very beginning of a process that could result in you contributing to the greatest breakthrough in join science since the trial of one thousand.”
    Chance shakes Chance Three’s head, to clear it. Chance is having trouble processing all that Rope is saying. Rope Three leans forward. He is earnest, sincere, his elbows going up on the table, his hands gesturing as Rope Fourteen leans back to make room for him.
    â€œSome interesting things are going to happen now, Chance,” he says. “You should prepare yourself. Before these things begin, I have to warn you. You’ll want to contact the authorities. Your Four is positioned to do just that. But don’t do it. If you do, things will go badly for you. Believe me, I wouldn’t be doing this in public if I wasn’t sure that the authorities weren’t a threat to me and that I am in complete control of this situation.”
    Chance Three aches. The drive’s muscles seem to be almost glitching, seizing up and then releasing rather than moving smoothly. Chance is focusing on clarifying his connection with the drive.
    Rope Three says, “First, I think we should talk about the waitress.”
    The waitress is suddenly there, beside the table, standing next to Chance. Chance Three turns to his left to look up at her. She says, “I think you almost caught on. I left a few small clues. This is my Twenty-One.” Rope Three sits back in his chair.
    The waitress, Rope Twenty-One, continues, “I’ve poisoned your coffee. Your Three drive is going to die. You want to play the game, Chance, the real game, for unlimited stakes. This is the ante.”
    â€œAnd to prove that I’m in the game too,” says Rope Three.
    Rope Fourteen says, “I’ve killed my Twenty-One.”
    Through the rising aches, Chance sees now that the waitress also seems to be in pain. She’s grimacing; she’s resisting it, concentrating, but her eyes are beginning to cloud. Chance realizes that Chance Three can’t move. The drive is somehow stuck. Chance begins pushing every cycle at it that can be mustered, but the limbs won’t move. The chest is freezing up. Chance can’t make Chance Three breathe.
    Rope Fourteen says, “How am I going to do it? Well, I’m going to tell them that your number Three is my number Nineteen. I have a reputation for drive failures, so, in the early going I’ll insist that this was just two more failures. That invention will be