Recursion

“So this is it,” said Eva.

“Good-bye,” said Katie. “I’m sure we’ll meet up again sometime.”

“I’m sure we will,” said Eva.

“Good-bye, Nicolas,” said Katie. Nicolas appeared very distracted; he jumped as Katie spoke to him.

He turned in her direction and gave a nervous grin. “Bye,” he muttered, then turned and continued to scan his surroundings nervously.

“What’s the matter, Nicolas?” Eva asked, puzzled.

“Nothing,” said Nicolas. There was the sound of a door slamming, and he jumped again. A young woman dressed in grey dungarees came out of one of the broken-down buildings. She was carrying an old power saw.

“Nearly there, Nicolas,” she called. “I think this could be nursed back to life with a bit of oil and some TLC. The rest of the stuff in there is for the dump.”

Eva looked at Nicolas, amazed. He was blushing.

“Erm, this is Debbie. I met her down in the valley. She offered me a lift into town. She said that she just had to come up here first, to sort out some old tools.”

“Oh,” said Eva. “Then she locked you in a shed?”

Nicolas studied his feet. “I don’t know. I think that was the Watcher. I don’t think she would ever do that to me. What do you think?”

“I think you should go and give her a hand with that power saw, Nicolas,” said Eva.

– And for heaven’s sake, don’t stare at her tits when you do it, said her brother. It was probably just as well Nicolas couldn’t hear that last bit.

Eva and Katie exchanged glances for the last time.

“Bye,” said Eva, hugging Katie.

“For the moment.”

“I can’t believe you’re staying here with…him!” Eva nodded back toward the building.

Katie gave a patronizing smile. Eva had seen it before with couples.

“You’re bound to think that, Eva. That’s why he picked you. But trust me. The Watcher is good. He’s on our side.”

Debbie drove Eva down to the nearby town. Nicolas held the door open for her as she got out of the van.

“See you around, Eva?” he said.

“See you around, Nicolas.” Eva hugged him. He looked at her with a hopeful expression, and Eva leaned close to his ear.

“She’s lovely,” she whispered.

Nicolas’ face lit up with delight. He climbed back into the van and waved to her as Debbie gu

Eva waved to them as the van drove around the corner. It was incredible, she thought. Debbie seemed so normal, and yet she really did seem to like Nicolas. Eva wouldn’t have believed that Nicolas was ready for a relationship. Did the Watcher really have that much insight about humans? Was it possible to find someone whose personality had just the right facets and features to mesh with someone else’s and thus to effect a healing process?

The idea was laughable: the idea that the Watcher was sent between the stars to act as an extraterrestrial dating agency.

It was getting cold. Eva reached in her pocket, pulled out her phone and turned it on. The screen flashed once, then again. A message was waiting for her.

Hello Eva, she read. The “Eva” flashed twice and then was replaced by something else. Now the screen read, Hello“?”

She got the message. The Watcher was offering her a new life. Who did she want to be?

She gazed up and down the empty street of the little Welsh town. Light streamed from the windows of a fast-food shop further up the road. The other shops were all closed for the night. It was incredible. In the last few weeks she had come from the crowded city to this. On the edge of a new life.

If the Watcher was to be believed, she was at the edge of a new era. An era of self-replicating machines, perfect romances, and who knew what else? A time of optimism. That would make a change. For too long the world had just looked around at itself and seen the downward slope to disaster.

Or was she just fooling herself? Believing what she wanted to believe? Justifying the fact that she had left Katie back there with the Watcher.

“What do you think?” she asked her brother.

– I think we’ve been tricked. We all got what we wanted. Katie got an equal; you’re free of South Street. Even Nicolas got a girl.

“Hmm, I know. But it was our choice, I suppose. Look how the Watcher lost his temper when I didn’t realize that.”

– Of course he didn’t lose his temper. That body, those expressions, they were all an assumed look. He’s-it’s still playing with us, making us think what it wants, even at the end. That’s why it had you there, I bet. If it can convince you to hand over power, it can convince anyone. We all got what we wanted. Especially the Watcher.

“I know,” Eva said sadly. “But what if it’s true? What if it’s here to help us?”

– We can’t take that risk. Someone has to watch the Watcher.

“What can we do?”

– I don’t know. Whatever we can? Now answer the phone. Who are you going to be?

Not Eva Rye, thought Eva. She died in South Street. She needed a new name. Anything. Eva what? She looked around at the little row of shops. A name over one of them caught her eye, a name as good as any other. She held the phone to her ear and spoke.

“Hello,” she said. “My name is Eva Storey.”

constantine 5: 2119

They quickly ran up the steps of the concert hall. There was so much to explain and, out in the real world, time was ru

“There aren’t many real personalities in here,” Mary gasped, her face pink with effort, shiny with perspiration. “It’s a processor-intensive task, keeping a full personality ru

Her breath came in great heaving rasps; Constantine offered her his arm. Mary may have been a simulation, but she had the poor stamina of an overweight fifty-something woman. He could feel the warmth of her body in the cold of the stairway.

“So who are the real personalities?” asked Constantine.

Mary gulped for air.

“Now? There’s only space for four. So it will be you and the three people they think will be the most persuasive to you. Marion and I are both hoping that we are two of the chosen ones…”

They turned another corner in the stairway to find Marion where they had left her. She was trying to read something on her console, distracting herself from the precariousness of her situation. She rose to her feet as she saw them approach.

“How did it go?” she asked Mary.

“As well as could be expected,” replied Mary. She nodded toward the door into nothingness. “Do we have to go back…out there?” she asked, blinking rapidly.

Marion gave a shrug; Constantine could tell from her expression that she wasn’t feeling as nonchalant as she was trying to appear.

“I don’t know. It all depends on what they’ve decided…”

She took a deep breath, then held her console to her ear.

“What next?” she asked. She tilted her head, listening to the reply.

“Only Constantine goes through,” she whispered. She listened again and a look of relief crossed her face. She gave Mary a great wobbly smile.

“It’s okay, Mary. They’re keeping us in here with him.”

Mary took hold of Marion’s hands and squeezed them tightly. Marion spoke again.

“They’re rearranging space in here, making it as hard as possible for DIANA to detect what is going on.”

She turned to Constantine. “You’re to go through the door. You’ll step straight into your hotel room. Try to get some sleep while you can. I don’t know when you’ll next have the opportunity.”

“Fine by me,” said Constantine. Simulated personality or not, he was tired and he needed to sleep. As he took hold of the doorknob, Marion’s console pinged and she put it back to her ear. She listened for a moment then held up her hand for Constantine to wait.