Orpheus | Installment Nineteen – Fading

“And I see
all our tortures absolved in the fog,
dispersed in Death’s forests, forgotten. I see
all this gentleness like a hound in the water
float upward and outward beyond my dark hand.”

– An African Elegy, by Robert Duncan, 1966

Fading

“It always hurts… It all hurts. Everything hurts. For as long as you can still feel it.”
― Bruce Sterling, Heavy Weather

If anything, Lisa had seriously thought that something horrible would end up happening on their way up. She didn’t know if it would occur while they reached Level 4 in Akira’s flycar, while they walked to one of the back entrances to the company, or as they got in.

But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

The night was quiet and, at one point, she realized that Akira had perfected their plan to the point that they were leaving no trace at all. As they walked toward the gate, she noticed the cameras moving the other way, as if they were purposefully ignoring them. Only one stayed fixed on them but turned itself off, the little blue LED light disappearing for a few moments. Akira glanced up at it and then resumed walking.

He looked confident but also different from the guy she had come to know. Whatever trace of playfulness Lisa had learned to find familiar about him had been wiped away. He was not childlike at all. In fact, he looked almost scary, all business-like and serious, a giant man who could easily crush your skull with his own bare hands if only he were inclined to do so. He stared right ahead as they hurried toward the entrance, his face a calm mask, his black eyes not giving any emotion away. But Lisa noticed the black stains under his arms. He was sweating, he was nervous. And he had all the reasons to be.

As far as she was concerned, she had done a pretty good job for now and felt strangely calm. She had been able to keep her cool for real and it hadn’t even been that hard. It wasn’t that she didn’t realize they were in danger. It was not that she didn’t know they all could die. She just had a feeling nothing that extreme or irreparable was going to happen. She genuinely believed that everything would be alright. Maybe it was nothing but wishful thinking, but it worked.

“Hey… how did you do it?” Mike spoke to Akira in a hushed tone, touching his elbow. “How come we’re in and no alarm is going off?”

They were in, indeed. Their badges were working like a charm. They walked across the deserted, dimly lit hall and toward the elevators and Akira didn’t even turn his head to reply. He just kept looking straight ahead.

“Because the surveillance cameras are gonna be fucked up for tonight. They’ve been replaying the absolute zero that went on in this goddamn company last night… and they ain’t recording shit. So we’re here, but we’re not here…” The elevator doors opened. “Come on. Let’s go. I wanna leave ASAP anyway… This place sucks! It gives me the creeps…”

While ascending to the lab, nobody felt like talking. The atmosphere was tense and thick enough to be cut with a blade.

Lisa’s ears focused on the noise coming from the company. Nothing but the faint, buzzing sound of the machines that never stopped working. Being there, at Electron Enterprises, didn’t stir any emotion inside of her: at first, it had been just a friendly place where she had the chance to see the man she had so quickly fallen in love with. Then it had become a hostile environment, where she could no longer recognize anyone and nobody would tell her the truth about how Mike was or why he was still in there.

And now… Well, now the company had become the cave where the beast resided. Where it hid and breathed. The most bottomless pit of a potential hell. A place that could swallow them all whole. Electron Enterprises was huge – dozens of floors hiding mysteries, hundreds and hundreds of rooms, laboratories, places unknown even to the most faithful employee. It was Sydney’s castle, it was her hive and she was the queen bee.

Suddenly Lisa realized that this company, with its sleek appearance, perfect technology and squeaky-clean reputation, was the best place to hide the most rotten secrets. Secrets belonging to the most primal and basic side of human beings. A side made of possessiveness, jealousy, shallow desire, lust.

When Akira had told her and Michael that, according to the files he had downloaded from the system, there had been a couple of “aborted clones” before the final, ultimate, flawless version, shivers had run down Lisa’s spine. Akira had stubbornly refused to talk about it in detail, but she had a feeling she knew why he had tried so hard to avoid the subject. And, judging by the expression on Michael’s face, he did too.

She could barely imagine what kind of creatures had been the result of Sydney’s early experiments. And she wondered about them: had they been conscious? Aware of what was happening to them? Had they felt any pain? Had they remembered who they were before? She would never have an answer. What she did know was that they had been terminated – that was precisely the term written in those reports. Terminated. Like things, not living beings. Other versions of themselves, pulverized because they were imperfect.

Aborted.

When the elevator doors opened, Lisa glanced at Mike and he immediately found her eyes, holding her gaze. They stared at each other for a moment while Akira walked out first. Michael took Lisa’s hand and they followed him into the lab, together.

Akira obscured the glass walls on the whole perimeter of the room, then turned on the lights. The whiteness of the furniture, the floor, the ceiling were blinding and he squinted his eyes. Then his gaze focused on the machine – a technologically advanced capsule that looked like some miniature cockpit.

“Check this out… Look at this beauty…” Akira giggled nervously, his gloved hands skimming over the polished white surface. “Look at all these sensor arrays… did you know that they can process and analyze tons of information in less than a millisecond…? Shit…”

Lisa sighed.

“Don’t care. You think you know how to make it work, Aki?”

Akira’s eyes didn’t leave the machine. He was smiling like a little boy. His cheeks were flushed. He sat in the cockpit, looking like a kid in a candy store.

“Yeah… I think so. See this camera lens? I bet if either one of you put your bootie in this seat, this thingy will know who you are right away and even say hello… It’s algorithmic and heuristic… and semantic. While that lens right there… I studied the files… it can read your lips and the expressions on your face, interpret your emotions, and even guess what you’ll be thinking next in terms of probability. It’s amazing.”

“No, it’s not. It’s scary as shit.” Lisa approached the machine cautiously as if it was some dormant chimera. “Does this thing have a name?”

“Synapse…” Akira’s fingertips brushed the smooth lines of the system. “It’s called Synapse… Without it, we can’t get rid of your implants.”

Michael’s hand on his shoulder startled him. Akira turned his head and found Mike’s dark eyes staring at him thoughtfully.

“Let’s get to work, then. We don’t have all night.”

“Sure. I just have to take a look at its built-in protocols… because those weren’t included in the stuff I copied on my servers… just gimme a moment here…”

“I guess we just can’t destroy the whole thing, right?”

It was redundant and rhetorical, but Michael felt the need to ask anyway. Akira watched him as if he had never seen him before.

“Are you out of your mind? The moment you try to disable this beauty, it’s gonna become a threat to your survival. First, it would eliminate the subjects it is connected to… meaning you, guys. And only heaven knows who else… have you ever considered the idea that you and Lisa are not the only clones this thing manages? I mean… we can’t be sure, can we?”

Mike’s lips tightened. No, they could not be sure. And he didn’t want to play chess with anyone’s life.

“Alright… Do your thing… and let us know what we gotta do. And then we leave.”

It turned out that Akira had quite a bit to do. Mike and Lisa watched him as his fingertips ran over the virtual touchscreen at the speed of light, his eyes moving from code line to code line effortlessly. A language that meant nothing to them and made all the sense in the world to him. When he cursed under his breath, they understood that something was not going exactly as they thought it would.

“What?” Michael kept holding Lisa in a tight embrace, his arm around her shoulders. She, too, was clinging to him as if he was a lifesaver, but her heartbeat was slow, regular. “What’s going on?”

“OK, so, I thought there was a way to simply deactivate that goddamn chip in your head…”

“And there isn’t?” Lisa’s voice tried to sound colorless.

Akira rubbed his forehead.

“No… I mean, yes, there is. There is a way to nullify your implants and thus nullify their control game. I just needed to be here. There were details that I couldn’t see, entering the system from the library. The files are all here, stored in this machine… locally.” He scoffed. “Which is absurd. And stupid… They’re not online. Of course, it’s because they were meant to be a secret.”

Michael disentangled himself from Lisa’s body and took her hand. He walked over to Akira… and to Synapse.

“OK, then… so, what do we do now?”

Akira stayed in the capsule but shifted in the seat to look at them both, his huge hand resting on his thigh.

“RHDU chips are, in a way, very similar to barcodes… in the sense that a certain amount of data is contained within them, and systematically transmitted to a secondary reading device which then processes and utilizes the information…”

“I guess you’re talking about the grid…”

“Yeah.”

“OK…” Michael tried hard to follow Akira’s train of thoughts.

“The major difference is that barcodes have to be physically visible to the reading device, while RHDU chips can be scanned through… well, everything. Clothes, metal plates, walls… even flesh, bones and blood, like in your case… They work just fine and they are always very precise. So, theoretically, we could try to deactivate Borealis1 with an external scanner, say… with a powerful magnet or something. At least, that’s what I thought. But it was a foolish idea, because according to these files, the implants can only be destroyed, and not just deactivated.”

Lisa watched him with great concern.

“I am sorry… what the hell are you saying?” She spelled out the words very slowly.

Akira blinked several times in a row.

“Yeah, I know, I know this not optimal…”

“This is not optimal?” Michael raised his eyebrows.

“Wait. You guys gotta understand how those things in your brain work. They contain no internal power supply, but a femto-antenna that uses the electrical current generated by your cerebral activity. Borealis1 uses that electricity to power its internal chip, then bounces its data back out and to Borealis2… which is that mesh around your heart. So, since your brain is its power supply, theoretically speaking we could be able to fuck up the implant by… you know, turning off your brain… for just a moment…”

His eyes fixed on Akira, Michael cocked his head to a side and watched him as if he was utterly deranged.

“…But we don’t want that,” Akira added, hastily.

“You don’t say…” Lisa shook her head slowly.

“Yeah… But we gotta destroy it anyway. And these files tell us how to do it. It’s by using a neodymium needle. The effect is double: on the one hand, by reaching the implant the needle can effectively pierce it. At the same time, its magnetic properties work very well to disable the chip completely, from the inside. So there’s no doubt it works.”

“OK…” Mike sighed. “So, where’s this needle? How does it work?”

Akira stood up, facing Michael.

“It’s in this cockpit. That’s why there’s a seat in there.”

It was then that they finally understood why Synapse looked like a capsule.

Lisa walked around the machine, then stilled near the seat, touching it cautiously, as if it burned.

“It has to enter our brain physically, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Akira’s gaze dropped. “We know that Borealis1 is implanted in your cerebellum. The cerebellum is at the back of the brain, immediately inferior to the occipital and temporal lobes, and within the posterior cranial fossa. According to these classified files, you guys should have…”

Instinctively, Lisa’s hand reached up and touched the back of her head.

“I can’t feel anything…”

Michael walked over, stopping right behind her back.

“Wait… let me see, babe…” He gently moved Lisa’s hair to a side and squinted his eyes, tilting his head. His fingertips skimmed over the nape of her neck, exploring her skin. “Fucking hell… There it is… Akira, look…”

And sure enough, hidden by Lisa’s hair, there was a tiny hole. The size of a needle and framed by a skin-colored silicone edge. Barely visible if one didn’t watch carefully.

Akira observed and touched Lisa’s skin, very lightly, then stepped behind Michael.

“I’m sorry, brother… But you gotta let me see. Stand still.”

Mike stared into space and stood perfectly still, just waiting. When Akira spoke again, he closed his eyes for a moment.

“Yeah… You got it, too.” He stepped back, chewing on his lip. “Mike… Lisa… we’re gonna pretend that cockpit is like a dentist chair… I’m confident the machine won’t make any mistakes.”

Well, if he was confident…

Michael wondered how she had been able to convince him to go first. As he sat in the cockpit, his sweaty hands clinging to the armrests, he glanced at her and noticed her concerned, yet calm face. Lisa hadn’t wanted him to go first because she wanted him to be some sort of guinea pig for a potentially deadly experiment. Quite the opposite, in fact. She had wanted him to get rid of the implant before anyone else because she needed him to be free. And because of some other reason – something she hadn’t said, but that swirled in her blue eyes. A reason Mike couldn’t completely comprehend, but that made him feel skittish and edgy.

However, they didn’t have time to banter over the matter. The schedule had to be respected and Akira was growing impatient. And that was why Mike had eventually relented, putting his ass in that seat.

Lisa reached out and covered his hand with her own. Her skin was warm and dry. She kissed his temple.

“I won’t leave you. It’s gonna be OK.”

He turned his head, offering her a cocky smirk despite being scared shitless.

“Oh, don’t worry, sugar. I know it will.”

“Cool. Bring that huge ego back to me, alright, Michael. I’m gonna stay right here with you.”

Then Akira positioned the helmet over his head, and his vision got impaired by the black visor sliding down. He closed his eyes and had to admit that he didn’t hear it coming despite having an excellent hearing. The needle arrived – thin and very sharp, some kind of electronic pen that felt like acupuncture. Mike felt it tickle the back of his head with no hesitation. Of course, that machine – Synapse – had been designed to be flawless in anything it did, and this task was no exception.

He knew that it was a powerful magnet, and he flinched when it entered his skull. However, the helmet and the harness securing him to the seat didn’t allow any wriggling movement.

Michael felt the needle go in and probe. Then the back of his head became numb, as if anesthetized. What sounded like a Morse code began beeping. He could tell the sound was feeble, and yet it echoed in his head so loudly that even blinking became painful. For a moment he even thought he would go insane. The high-pitched sound was so erratic and irregular that he couldn’t even think around it. He had to muster all his concentration to focus on something able to pull him away from the moment. Michael thought about the future. He thought about freedom. He fantasized about the new planet that he and Lisa would soon discover together. He wondered about the family they wanted to build. He prayed and hoped. And he waited.

Then the pain arrived.

It was only for a moment, possibly two or three seconds, but so intense that he thought he would pass out – or piss his pants. It felt like being cut with a sterilized exacto knife – as if a blade had sliced his grey matter open. But he knew, he knew that was not what was happening. In fact, the magnetic neodymium needle was puncturing the implant and demagnetizing it simultaneously and not wounding him at all. Only, it was doing its thing in his flesh and it hurt like hell. Almost in some last-ditch attempt, the implant seemed to release a quick but excruciating electric shock to his brain, and Mike stifled a groan. Then he gritted his teeth and focused on the touch of Lisa’s hand on his own.

Soon. It’s gonna be over soon. It’s gonna be over soon. Just hold on. Hold on a little longer. It’s gonna be…

And then it was over.

The visor lifted and he squinted his eyes against the white light of the room. His ears were whistling and he felt numb and disoriented for a minute. His vision was unfocused and he removed the helmet, placing it in his lap. Then he reached up and touched the back of his head.

His fingertips detected something, and he knew that it was blood even before seeing it. Bringing his hand in front of his eyes Mike blinked and blinked, struggling to focus on the blurred red spot. It was nothing but a small drop. The tinnitus was finally subsiding, and only a faint thumping feeling in his head remained.

He was OK. He was alive!

Slowly, he turned his head and found Akira’s eyes. There was something in them… something that Mike couldn’t really pinpoint.

“We made it! It’s done!” Michael smiled at his friend, who had crouched down in front of him, and grabbed his forearm. “It worked, right?”

His eyes glassy and wide open, Akira nodded his head and unbuckled the harness. Mike saw his lips move but his voice came echoing from afar.

“It worked. Can you hear me, Mike? Michael…”

Michael squinted his eyes.

“We’re not alone.”

Akira’s voice reverberated in his brain and reached his full consciousness.

We are not alone.

Michael turned his head the other way and sure enough, he saw Sydney and Maddix, standing in the room as if they had been there all along.

They were trapped and cornered.

His legs still shaking, Michael managed to rise from the seat and held onto the capsule, trying to straighten his stance. When the tinnitus finally left his ears, the first thing he heard was the clinking sound of the doors of the room locking. Sydney was forcing them to stay right where they were. Of course.

Maddix looked like a deer caught in the headlights. On the other hand, Sydney showed no trace of fear, not even surprise. And yet Mike knew Akira’s plan had worked out just fine, at least on their way up. He knew that she had not been expecting them, and that she hadn’t known they were going to the company.

Sydney looked calm. Flawless. Her make-up, her hair, her clothes – absolutely perfect, not a wrinkle. Her face looked relaxed, but Michael knew her. He saw the white fire blazing behind her irises. He saw her concealed rage, her fury. And he realized that whatever it was that still kept her somehow anchored to sanity was gone.

Her eyes moved from Mike to Lisa, then narrowed. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly.

“Well, well… Hi, Lisa. It’s so nice to see you again. And quite the surprise, really.”

“How did you know we were here?” Mike widened his stance further but kept his hand anchored to the cockpit, just in case. He didn’t want her to notice how weak he still felt.

Sydney’s eyebrows arched, and she smirked as her white gaze shifted onto him.

“Believe it or not, despite all my top-notch technology, I didn’t know. I just happened to be here, having a private meeting with Doctor Hoover. Then Maddix and I heard some noise coming from the lab, so… here we are.” Her grin became larger. “Funny how simple things can be, sometimes.”

Well, no shit. Michael had no idea that Sydney had the habit of staying at the company during the night. She had never done anything of that sort, at least as long as he had been in her bed. But the idea in itself was not at all surprising, since she had always been a workaholic before becoming so morbidly attracted to him.

“By the way… Hello, Michael. I guess you got rid of Borealis1… or at least tried to.”

Akira rose from his crouched position and towered next to Michael with his immense stance. And yet Michael could tell that he was terrified. For all his physical power, it was clear that Aki didn’t like face to face confrontations. Or that, at the very least, he understood the potential danger residing in Sydney’s deranged mind… After all, his friend knew very well the extent that she was able to reach.

“Why don’t you just unlock those doors, Sydney?”

Lisa’s voice – calm, collected – startled Michael. Yet he didn’t turn to look at her. His eyes stayed fixed on Sydney, like a prey would stare at a predator, waiting for its next move.

Sydney smiled at Lisa, very sweetly.

“Well, I don’t see why I should allow you to leave. It just occurred to me that you couldn’t possibly have the time to finish the task yet… Mike underwent the procedure, that is clear, but what about you? You didn’t, Lisa. Not yet. I can tell.”

Lisa’s face remained grave.

“I am afraid you misunderstood my question. Let me rephrase. Why don’t you unlock those doors so you and your minion can leave… and we can finish what we started?”

Sydney threw her head back and laughed heartily.

“I love that about you, Lisa. That spunk. I’m glad to see it didn’t get lost in the cloning process and, in a way, I’m kind of jealous of it. I wish I was just like you.”

It was obvious that Lisa was not in the least impressed by Sydney’s sarcastic attitude. She just tilted her head.

“It’s definitely not the only thing you’re jealous of.”

“Maddix…” Michael tried to reason with who he believed was the only sane person on the other side of the barricade. “Madd, why are you doing this? Come on, man… this is crazy! You know it is!”

“What about your ancestors, Mike?” Maddix stared at him from behind his glasses. “What about their DNA?”

A sudden pang of pain sliced the back of Michael’s head and he reached up, touching the nape of his neck. The small port on his nape started bleeding again. He winced and almost doubled over.

“Maddix, stop that shit! Can’t you see what’s going on, here? What the fuck are you doing?”

Maddix didn’t reply but blinked several times. Yeah – he didn’t like direct confrontations either. And sure as hell he didn’t want to be there.

“What we’re doing here is nothing but damage control, Michael. You forced this. You know it’s true.” Sydney’s’ voice was very controlled, but icy. Whatever playful attitude she had displayed up until that point was gone. “And I don’t want you to think of yourself as more than you really are. You are special, yes. I’ve never denied that. And that is why I’m protecting my investment.”

“We’re not an investment. We’re people.” Feeling his legs again, Mike brought himself to move a step forward. “I told you already. You can’t treat us like we belong to you. We don’t. You created us, thank you very much. Now let us go.”

She didn’t seem to listen to him at all.

“But let me be very clear. As special as you are, you’re duplicates. You’re not the real thing, and that means that you’re expendable. And I’m ready to destroy you if necessary, and maybe even start again from scratch… being a little more cautious this time. You must understand that you are the result of my passion, of my science. I harvested you like lab rats, and I created you. You exist because of me. I am your very personal divinity. Without me you are nothing.”

“Yo, lady. Tone it down a notch with that misplaced entitlement, will you?”

Oh, great. Now even Akira was getting pissed.

While Lisa – well, Lisa began to see red.

“Sydney, you should do something about that god complex. It’s not healthy at all.”

“Maybe, but I admit I am an imperfect god. And that’s why you’re here, being so rebellious and oppositional to the person who cares about you the most… That’s why you’re nothing but an imitation… Did you know that only 97% of your original mind could be mapped? And even though that imbues you with your originals’ knowledge and instincts, that damned 3% will always prevent you from feeling fully confident that you are who you think you are. That’s why I was so quick at reeling your man back in… right, Lisa? Back into Project Orpheus. And into my bed.”

It was apparent that she took great pleasure in taunting Lisa. Mike swallowed, repressing the wave of nausea suddenly assaulting him at the memory of what he had done.

“Did he tell you about that? Did he tell you what he did to me?”

Lisa just scoffed, shaking her head.

“Are you really trying to make me jealous with that crap, honey? When you had to drug him first, knowing well that he would never touch you if he were even remotely lucid? That he doesn’t love you? That you basically used him as a sex toy? Please. I have too much respect for Michael to fall for your tricks. I know that what you made him do means nothing to him. And it means nothing to me. I am not jealous… If anything, I am disgusted because you violated him.”

“Lise…” Mike reached for her hand and took it. Holding onto it. Silently begging her with his eyes and his grip to not give Sydney any space to maneuver herself into her mind. Because as much as he knew that Lisa really wasn’t jealous, he could also tell that she was getting worked up. They had something much more important to do, and they were being sidetracked.

“I didn’t violate anyone. You, on the other hand… you violated our pact. You failed to comply with the rules!” Sydney’s hands closed in fists, her arms trembled. “You’re a miracle, you’re the closest thing to resurrection and you turned against me. You bit the hand that fed you like a rabid dog, and I am not going to allow that!”

Lisa watched Sydney with pity in her eyes.

“What fucking pact are you talking about? The saddest thing about all this is that you don’t even realize that you’re holding yourself captive… not us. You should just let people go if they want to go. Otherwise, you’ll never be free, because you will always be waiting for them.” She paused as if pondering over her words. “Don’t do this to yourself… Enjoy the freedom not to stop anyone…”

“You don’t get it, Lisa Marie. This is my world, not yours. And I am not going to allow that.”

Sydney just shook her head. Her eyes were glassy, and Michael detected the shimmering of tears. It took him a quick moment to understand what was going to happen. He felt it in his bones, like a cold sensation freezing his soul. But the feeling was too fast to do anything about it. Too quick even to say something and try to change her mind. Before he knew what was happening, it had already happened. Before he could move, it was already too late.

Sydney’s hand came up slowly and touched her brand-new earpiece.

“Jewel++,” she murmured, her voice breaking, “activate Borealis and turn Subject 2 off. She is malfunctioning. Do it now.”

The moment she pronounced the words and the system acted accordingly, in the bat of an eyelid Sydney was faced with the reality of it all.

If she was a god, she was an evil one. Her soul was corrupted. There wasn’t any joy in that epiphany, and a tear slid down the porcelain skin of her cheek.

This time it didn’t feel like a vision or the distant observation of a chopped, hiccupping, worn-out movie from a foreign past. This time it felt intensely real, like going back there and then.

It felt like going home.

The sensory experience was so breathtaking that everything else just vanished. It was like breathing underwater. All that Lisa could see was the ranch in California. All she could hear was Michael’s laugh. She could smell the nocturnal flowers and the freshly cut grass. She didn’t know how long it lasted, but in her mind the moment echoed in eternity.

She knew what that memory was about. It was the first time they had made love, a moment when whatever relationship they had involved them and nobody else. The rest of the world was still outside the bubble. She and Michael were not plastered all over the tabloids and made fun of, like circus animals. Mocked, derided, humiliated. Not yet.

Nobody knew. Nobody had noticed the depth and magnitude of what was brewing between the two of them. They were such different people, and yet so similar. Their attraction seemed written in the stars.

They had even joked about it, once. When they were still nothing but platonic friends.

“Can you imagine, Michael? If only people knew…”

“Knew what? That we’re friends?”

“Yeah. Don’t you think they’d find it weird?”

“Why? Because you’re Elvis’ daughter?”

“Yeah… And you… well, you’re you. I mean, not for me. But for them, you are.”

He had laughed, his brow furrowing.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know…Maybe nothing. You’re right.”

“I don’t know either, Lise… I don’t think you’re weird at all. But I know they think I am.”

“They, who?”

He had just dismissively shrugged his shoulders, kicking a little rock on the pathway leading to one of the outbuildings.

“Who knows… Maybe everyone.”

She had pushed him, playfully.

“The fuck you tawking about. You’re aw’right.”

Her Southern drawl had made him laugh and he had turned to look at her. That time, his dark eyes shone with an unusual glint. Mischievous, but also serious.

“Well, then maybe you should marry me. It would make sense. We don’t think of each other as weird and we can give no fucks about what others think of us… together. It would be the biggest inside joke ever.”

It had been her turn to chuckle.

“Yeah, a laugh a minute…”

She had kept smiling, but now there was some reluctance in her eyes. Because, as much as she had never really thought about Michael that way, what he had said did make sense for real. And it didn’t even seem too far-fetched.

And now… well, now, she didn’t feel like laughing at all.

Because now it was a summer night, and she and Michael were under the Thinking Tree in the park. The beautiful garden at his ranch. And they were lying down on a blanket and they were kissing, and it was romantic, but also passionate and hot. It was also unexpected, and Lisa knew – because she remembered – that it was because of the wine they had drunk together during their impromptu picnic. During one of her visits. Usually friendly visits, but not this time.

Lisa didn’t just see the moment. She lived it again, as if time had suddenly stopped and started going in reverse. The lab disappearing. The gloomy futuristic life she had found herself entangled in, not existing – not yet. Synapse being nothing but a junction between two nerve cells, and not a complicated machine running the most evolved artificial intelligence ever conceived.

Her fingers in Michael’s hair and his lips on her neck and she thought she would pass out. Her body sang, hummed, vibrated under his touch. The way his fingertips caressed her skin. The warmth of his body, scorching her. His desire palpable in so many different ways. But, even more than that, the burning passion coming from deep inside, shifting from him to her and from her to him.

It had all started so innocently. They had chatted, eaten something, sipped some wine. Not enough to get drunk, but certainly enough to lower their inhibitions. And then it had happened. First a gentle peck on the lips. Then another one, still chaste, but lasting a little longer.

From the way they were kissing now, Lisa knew that what was transpiring had nothing to do with alcohol. It was the truth unburied by some delicious French red.

The sun was setting behind the hills and the sky had taken a pink, purplish hue. They had stared at the fluffy clouds swirling into those untouchable flames. Michael had scooted closer to her and they had simply enjoyed the moment together, reveling in each other’s presence, their backs leaning against the tree, their shoulders touching. Feeling perfect and unbreakable, unbeatable and devoid of any worry, for once.

When she had turned to look at him, feeling the pull, feeling the pure, intangible essence of his being calling out to her, she had found him staring back at her. And his eyes – those eyes, again – had been her undoing. Soulful and almost black, they had absorbed her into their darkness and she was lost. And she was found.

A minute later they were kissing. Tentatively at first, and then with increasing urgency, with growing passion. Their voices hushed, whispered, their moans muffled, although nobody was around and the staff was gone for the night as per Michael’s request. Lisa would never know why he had sent them away that night, but it was OK.

His hands on her face, making her feel warm and protected. Safe. Making her feel as if she finally belonged somewhere. And his lips – she had thought about Michael being a good kisser, but she couldn’t imagine anything like this. He had kissed her the way she had always dreamed of being kissed. In a way she had never been kissed before. And she had wanted nothing more than to be his, and for him to be hers.

They found themselves making love right then and there. Still half-dressed, their clothes unbuttoned and crumpled. Their passion and need too powerful to allow them to wait any longer or to move someplace else. Their hands searching and finding skin. The white heat. Her vision blurring in the intensity of the moment, and his presence keeping her anchored. She had wanted that moment – and them – to never end.

The way she had felt him tremble first against her skin and then inside of her. The way she had gasped when he finally had taken her and had started to move as if he had known her body forever. As if he knew how to play all her cords by heart. The way she had clung to him – one hand grasping his shoulder, the other on the small of his back – as he made her pleasure, and his own, last. The way they had come together, their eyes connected, their breathing labored, their moans barely kept at bay.

It had been the beginning of everything, and now Lisa knew that there would be no end. It didn’t matter how many obstacles they would find on their way.

She had been right, after all. Nothing bad was happening. She had wanted Mike to sit in the cockpit first because she wanted him to be safe. And because there was a faint, faraway voice talking to her from the depth of her soul. Nothing but her instinct, nothing but a gut feeling. A voice telling her to take care of him, always, no matter what. That the first time around, he had to die for her to finally be able to figure him out, even in his most hidden shadows. It was different now. Now she knew. And she wouldn’t let him leave first. Not this time.

And that 3% Sydney had so arrogantly talked about, that small percentage of their original DNA that she hadn’t been able to replicate, Lisa now knew what it was. Stupid, stupid Sydney. Thinking that science had an answer for everything, that it could clone a soul.

All was OK.

As Lisa died, as her body got turned off like a light bulb and she slid to the floor, the last thing she thought before everything faded to black was that all was OK.

That she had been right and nothing terrible had happened, after all. And that Michael would live. She was only sorry that he, her Orpheus, was being forced to see his Eurydice pulled back into the afterlife where she belonged.

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