Duplicate Minds

Six

Once Dev left the dormitory, Rajeev summoned Daniel.

"How can I help?"

"Daniel . . . can you give me a summary of what's happened in the past fifteen years? I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Happy to help," he said. "How much detail are you looking for?"

"You can just give me the broad strokes for now."

"Very well."

Much had changed in the past fifteen years, but much had not. People still relied on the internet for information. But it had migrated much more to virtual reality environments and virtual assistants like Daniel, who were built into augmented-reality glasses and sunglasses.

Autonomous vehicles were just becoming a thing at the time of Rajeev's accident, but now they were far more common than the manual variety . . . and the government was making efforts to persuade the few people who still owned the old-school cars to trade them in for autonomous models, which had reduced the traffic death rate to nearly zero. Rajeev had already gotten a taste of this particular technological advancement firsthand on the drive to the morgue.

But there had been no major geo-political upheavals. Peace still eluded the Middle East, the United States was still run by a two-party system and nuclear weapons were still a visceral, albeit unmentioned, threat. In many ways, the world still looked much as it had fifteen years ago.

Daniel finished his concise overview of the world's fifteen-year history in a little over two hours. That still left much of the day available and little for Rajeev to do.

"You could always go back to the entertainment lounge," Daniel suggested.

The thought of interacting with more of his kind gave Rajeev pause. "I think I'd rather not."

"It's good for human beings to socialize."

"I'm not exactly a human being."

"You are in mind and spirit, if not in body." Daniel offered a reassuring smile.

"Still, I'd really rather not."

"It's completely your choice. I can only make suggestions based on my understanding of what is in your best interest. But I can't make any decisions for you. It's always your choice."

It might have been Rajeev's choice, but Daniel sure was laying on some pressure. He took a moment to think it over and decided another ten minutes couldn't hurt.

"Fine. I'll go for a couple minutes."

Daniel led the way back to the lounge. As they approached, Rajeev saw two androids sitting in chairs, but there was no way to tell if either of them was one of the ones he'd met yesterday.

"Hello," he said as he walked in.

"Hey there . . . Rajeev, right?" It was Ted's voice.

"Guilty as charged."

"Rajeev, you haven't met Brian yet." He gestured toward the other android, then back to Rajeev.

"Nice to meet you," Rajeev said.

"Same to you. So you're a newbie, eh?"

"Newer than you, that's for sure." Rajeev took a seat on the couch, facing the other two androids. "In fact, I had my first physical therapy session today."

"It'll go by in no time," Brian said. "When I was in my old body, I had knee surgery and had to go to physical therapy for months. But in this newfangled thing, I was done in a week."

"That's great. I'm already starting to get a bit cooped up here. I'd like to go see my wife and daughter soon."

Brian whistled. "Don't hold your breath. Not that you have any."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think NLT is going to just let you waltz out of here with a piece of equipment worth tens of millions of dollars?"

"What are you saying?"

"These bodies of ours . . . they don't come cheap. And considering that none of us paid for these machines, NLT considers them company property."

Rajeev shook his head. "No. My son told me that after I completed my physical therapy I could go see—"

"I don't know who your son is, but they're probably feeding him the same crock they're feeding us."

Ted placed a hand on Brian's shoulder, as if restraining him. "All Brian's trying to say is that—"

"My son is the founder of the company."

Ted blinked. "Your son is . . . what?"

"He's the founder of Next Level Technologies. This is his company. And he told me I could leave when I was able to walk on my own."

The admission sucked the air out of the room. Brian was the first to speak.

"I appreciate that your son knows a hell of a lot more than I do what goes on around here," he said. "But anyone capable of becoming one of the richest men in the world within ten years must be able to tell a mighty fine fib or two. Maybe he'll stay true to his word, pull a few strings and let you visit your family, on account of you being his dad and all. But I'm willing to bet he's not going to let a multimillion dollar prototype off company grounds just so you can hug your wife and daughter. I think it's more likely he's feeding you whatever bullshit you want to hear to keep you nice and compliant."

Rajeev stared Brian straight in the photosensors. "Don't you dare talk about my son like that."

Brian shrugged. "I'm sorry. I just call 'em like I see 'em."

"Then you'd better get your eyes checked," Rajeev said. He wanted nothing more than to storm out of the room, but he was still dependent on his walker. As he shuffled out of the room, he dared not turn around to see if the photosensors of the two androids were burning into his back.