Chapter 31: Reconnecting (Part III)

The AI’s projection moved her hand in a gesture that mimed unrolling a scroll; a legal document drew itself into the air, unrolling beneath her palm. “While you and Elaine drew him out, I’ve been finishing research I’d been set to much earlier this week. I’ve been trying to determine the proper identity of the person in the coma ward and in doing so I’ve uncovered some startling revelations about his parentage. Chance is your brother.”

“I don’t follow,” Emily said.

“The document you see here—” Hadaly gestured and it zoomed in at the top, listing a few doctor’s names and procedure times. “—is an in vitro fertilization assessment form for Chance’s birth mother. On a hunch, I unsealed the same documents used for you and Tom.” She put particular amused emphasis on the word “hunch” as she spoke aloud and opened her hands like folding open a book, two more documents shimmered into view and folded out to either side of the initial. They looked very similar to each other. The same logo appeared in the upper corner. “As you can see, the same company did the fertilization and implantation—and the egg donor designation also matches. Chance, Tom, and you are all oocyte siblings. Same mother, different fathers.”

Emily’s jaw dropped and she took a deep breath, glaring at the documents hovering in the air in front of her.

“So,” she said slowly. “Chance and I? But Tom… How many more siblings do I have?”

“I have not been able to uncover any further documents about this egg donor. The company who did the fertilization went bankrupt shortly after. In fact, I had to retrieve these from the different fertility clinic doctors who did the actual implantation. I’m sorry.”

“Chance,” Emiy said with deliberate softness. “I am so sorry. That’s amazing. You’re my brother. How could I miss that? I found Tom but I missed you and you were right under my nose.”

“My brothers and I are the same way,” Elaine said. “We have our differences but we’re drawn to each other. The three of you ended up in the same place, doing the same thing. If it weren’t for that freak accident, in all probability Chance would be running for an office now as well.”

“But how is he connected with what’s going on out there?”

Elaine swept the hovering documents out of the air with a gesture. “I have a theory now to fit these facts,” she said. “Even deeply comatose, the human brain still functions to particular conscious effects which can affect the outside world to an extent. A part of Chance’s brain—not the part we’re talking to now, though—has been trying to communicate with you. And also with Tom. Your connection and proximity to him have given him the ability to impress his will onto other people through the application of magnetic forces. This is how I’ve been able to bridge a connection between your iPhone and his conscious mind.

“When I first saw the pictures in your iPhone, I found one where a figure stood over Tom. After the event that put Tom in the hospital, I guessed that along with that picture it meant the person stalking you had attacked him to get him out of the way; but now, it makes more sense that Chance has been trying to reach out to both of you. To contact you. The electrical discharge that put Tom in the hospital would have been a terrible accident—an unintended consequence.”

Her goggles gleamed brightly as she circled the hologram of Chance as he stood watching Emily in a near-stunned silence.

“You’ve been dreaming about still working on her campaign, haven’t you,” Elaine said to him. “Even in your coma, you’ve been running down leads, persuading people that Emily is the best fit for student president. So far you seem to think it’s all been a dream, but sometimes you can’t tell. In fact, did you know you were in a coma before you heard Emily’s voice telling the story about the fire?”

“I guess I didn’t,” Chance said. “I’ve been so caught up with work. I guess I knew something happened, but it’s so hard to recall anything moment to moment. I’ve been talking to so many people. It’s strange, like you say. I’ve been working on her campaign work for what seems like years—which makes sense now; it’s been years—but I never seem to be able to get to see Emily in person. I’ve been watching her walk past, going to meetings to see her speak, but she never notices me. Though… I don’t know what I can even rely on those memories.”

Hadaly extended a hand and gently touched his holographic shoulder with hers. Where Emily couldn’t offer comfort, the other projected girl managed to elicit a reaction.

“Thank you,” he said to her, “for keeping me company in there.”

“I’m sorry,” Emily said. “I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

Elaine lifted the Enoch to her ear and said, “Zane, we’re ready.” The cell crackled in response and she turned to look at Emily, nodding slightly. “You can say goodbye. Once this gets shut down, Chance won’t be able to contact the external world anymore. But you know about him now, you have a reason to visit, he’s not alone.”

With each word, Emily tensed, as if listening to the recitation of a death sentence read from the stand. Her jaw trembled.

“Engage,” Elaine said into the phone.

She closed the Enoch and walked away. The image of Chance flickered where he stood above Emily’s iPhone, Hadaly’s eyes followed Elaine’s progress as she strode past and mounted the steps up to the back of the stage. Her expression remained unreserved, nothing in her experience gave her a proper emotional display for Emily’s troubles—or Chance’s—not that she figured Chance had the emotional state to worry about what would happen to him. And in a few moments, it would only be Emily she’d have to deal with anyway. His effect on the campus and all the people in the crowd couldn’t be ignored. Simple moral arithmetic, she told herself while she waited for the “clear” tone to emit from the Enoch, telling her that Zane and Hadaly had cut off Chance’s connection to the campus.

“You can’t do this to me!” Emily shouted as she ascended the steps enveloped in a rage. “How can you give me my brother, whom I put in the coma, and then take him from me again.”

When she finally caught up to Elaine, who stood at the front of the stage overlooking the crowd, Emily grabbed the smaller girl by the arm as if to turn her around. There, with a vision spreading before her of Hayden Lawn, the Navel of Knowledge, the tan-and-glass edifice of the Hayden Library Stacks rising from the planes of green grass and concrete sidewalks, she stopped herself and stared. Elaine waited for Emily’s grip to relax on her arm, this she expected. The other woman spent her life seeking out her brother, Tom, over the simple realization she had a sibling “out there” and now she’d been given another one. And Elaine understood she’d threatened to take him away also—or in Emily’s mind, now already taken him away.

The sight that stopped Emily in her tracks, however, needed no explanation. Certainly it had context for Elaine—who prepared it with an exactitude fitting her plan—but Emily wouldn’t fully understand and that gave her immediate pause. All across Hayden Lawn, only three figures remained standing in a sea of fallen humanity. Prone students lay everywhere some together, some apart, like a field of fallen human dominoes spread over the grassy acreage. The entirety of the crowd waiting for Emily to speak to them, unmoving, unconscious. Only Hadaly, Frog, Howie, and Andrew still stood amid them. Even Roger had fallen at Howie’s feet, his friend propped his unconscious body with his knees.

“It’s too late,” Elaine said. “It’s already done.”