The Silent Army by James Knapp Read Free Book Online Page B

and used it to gain access to the information he’d amassed on Zhang’s Syndrome back when he’d been alive. I also know he used our systems to analyze huge amounts of recorded brain-wave data.”
    “Did you study the Zhang’s Syndrome data?”
    “That data has since been classified, and, I believe, destroyed.”
    “Destroyed? Whatever else Fawkes might be, that information—”
    “That information painted a picture no one inside Heinlein Industries is anxious to see come to light. A long-term study, with hard data, suggesting hidden memories that can only be accessed once a person has crossed over and become a revivor? A shadow government that is controlling the minds of the rest of us without anyone knowing? Can you imagine the media storm that would result if that ever came to light? No matter how crazy it is, it would spread like wildfire and would never go away.”
    “So, you think Fawkes was insane?”
    “Fawkes is clearly very intelligent, and he’s clearly very determined, but how would you frame it? From the information I have, I can deduce only that Fawkes coordinated the attacks as a means of fighting this shadow he obviously believes exists.”
    “Is there any chance he’s right?” I asked. MacReady watched me evenly.
    “His data appears very conclusive,” he said, “but there are other possible explanations. Fawkes didn’t pursue them. He followed his paranoia down the rabbit hole.”
    “Could he still have been right?”
    MacReady sighed. “You can always make a case for these things,” he said. “Not long after the events of two years ago, a new law was passed. It ensured that revivor consciousness would revert to pre-generation seven levels—basically removing some of the higher functions to make them more obedient but less self-sufficient. Now all revivor models of Fawkes’s generation or lower are being scrapped and replaced. One could look at those things and see how it might fit into Fawkes’s thinking.”
    I couldn’t tell if he believed it or not. In the light of the monitor, his face was hard to read, and maybe he wasn’t even sure what he believed himself.
    “Do you have concrete proof of Fawkes’s communication?” I asked.
    “No. You’ll have to trust me on that, but it worries me, and that’s part of why I’m here. It was one thing to have Fawkes infiltrate Heinlein’s systems and access our data without anyone’s knowledge . . . it’s another for someone inside Heinlein to be willingly communicating with him. Before, he controlled revivors that he’d smuggled into the country to do what he needed done, but if he’s making allies inside the city who are human . . .”
    He didn’t have to finish. That would mean Fawkes had managed to get people, regular flesh-and-blood legal citizens, to buy into his conspiracy theory and help him. That would give him a much, much wider reach. Maybe even wide enough to try to acquire weapons like the ones uncovered at Royal Plaza.
    “Does Heinlein know you’re here?” I asked.
    “No,” he said, “and they can’t. I don’t know who on the inside might be compromised. I won’t communicate with you over the wire for the time being, until I know, but I’ll try to help you if I learn more.”
    “Thanks, MacReady. Looks like I owe you again. Be careful.”
    “And you, Agent.”
    He got up and headed for the door, stopping to turn back before he left. Silhouetted in the light from the hallway outside, he looked like a shadow himself.
    “Even if he was right about Zhang’s Syndrome,” he said, “I would be very cautious of Samuel Fawkes.”
    He left, and when he closed the door, the only light left was the soft glow from the vitals monitor. I began to fall back into sleep.
    I could almost have dreamed him.

2
    Whispers
    Nico Wachalowski—Mercy Greaves Medical Center
    Outstanding message: Pu, Sean.
    The words lit up in the dark behind my eyelids. I brought the time up next to them and saw it was morning.
    Opening my