22 Star
With the help of a not-so-anonymous tip, the police of Upwater and the arriving assistance from Central were able to locate Carme at the late-night cafe attached to a local gas station, just outside the labyrinth of walls where her parents lived.
Two other patrons and the one staff member of the cafe were escorted out, but waited in their vehicles, wipers on to clear the fresh snowfall off their windshields, so that they could watch the proceedings.
Carme was left alone inside the cafe, seated at a booth table. The exits were occupied by two detectives who had their heads poked out, pointed at the scene in the parking lot. Framed in a diner window under the looping neon Open sign, against a wall of snow and darkness, she resembled an animal in an oversized holding tank, confused and forlorn. But when Rai made his approach (ramping his car up between gas pumps; the North parents plastered to his back seat with the force) it was clear that Carme did not find her situation as tragic as it could have been.
She fanned her hand out a greeting, and raised a teacup to her lips.
Motioning an officer to keep the parents in the car, Rai hopped out onto the fresh blanket of snow and headed for the parking lot. Behind the glass of the cafe, Carme’s eyes followed him. She was most definitely not the caged animal here. He was quick to round the corner and out of her sight.
Carme had parked her car at the far edge of the complex, immediately evident by the circle of officers who had packed themselves around it, shielding it from view. With their murmurs and dark uniformed backs, they resembled occultists in the middle of some dark ritual. Sao, ever the observant one, noticed their newcomer first. He called to the group and they opened up a small gap to accept Rai into the fold.
“Well,” Sao said, “There he is.”
And there he was.
The first thing Rai saw were the shoes. The shining red sneakers that identified Cadoc at the convention, the day his downfall began. They hung out of the door in coy gesture, beckoning him in with their color alone.
Rai leaned in.
Cadoc North, in the flesh - or what looked like it - lay prone across the backseat. His eyes and mouth drooped half open like a drunk, limbs spilling over the cushions. He was completely still - there was no breath, blood or blinking. Rai removed a glove and held a hand over the seat, lighting the cavity cut into Cadoc’s chest. Carme must have been hiding him with a blanket originally, but this had been thrown aside. There had also been the obscene decision to tug his shirt open so someone could pry his loose chest pieces apart, perhaps helping it along with a pocketknife, and his full indignity was revealed.
Between two flaps of skin which had been pulled aside like wings, there was a bloodless hollow, the shape of a rectangle. The edges - made of the material that resembled human skin - were wrinkled slightly, like elastic that had been pulled wide by clamps and then let go again. In the hollow of Cadoc’s torso, Rai saw a rubbery sac, perhaps a deflated balloon, connected to a pipe, amongst a nest of what looked like straw and fishbones. On closer inspection the oddly colored straw was revealed as bundles of tiny wires clipped together with small metal rings, some of which were embedded into the flesh-like material alongside a mesh of stiffer fibers with a golden glint. This mesh and the inlaid ‘fishbones’ were what gave the skin its lifelike firmness.
Rai waved his light up to Cadoc’s limp face, searching for some revelation there, some robotic bolt or sheen the cameras had always missed - but found nothing of note. Even laid out and opened up, Cadoc’s visage was superbly, convincingly human, in the eerie way of a real corpse. The only thing striking was his definitive resemblance to Carme. But unlike the bemused woman in the window, Cadoc was devoid of thought or life. He could not get up or enjoy a coffee or speak or breathe, unless he was told to. He simply stared at the roof of the car with a stunned reverence, waiting for some miracle, the spark or signal that would return him to to life.
“The head in the house was his,” Sao said. “It was a kind of prosthetic - a mask with the hair attached. A little torn up around the mouth, big dent in the forehead that cut into the wig… likely the head he - it - was ‘wearing’ on the day of the semifinals. It was damaged by the glass Kep added to the burgers, and knocked against the door in a hasty escape. Perhaps he was malfunctioning... oh, the blood was Carme’s - it didn’t come from the head, but there were some torn-up rolls of synthetic skin buried lower in the box.”
“So Cadoc North, competitive eater, never existed. Guess we can confirm that he wasn’t the one driving,” Rai quipped. “Although if robots can be trained to eat professionally, they might very well be able to drive too. Who the hell knows.” Backing out of the car, he felt the sudden need to wash his hands. “How in the world did Carme get her hands on this thing?”
“From her work, I would imagine.”
“Life Equipment and Android Companionship was shut down years ago.” Rai yanked his gloves back on. “She got this far with tech four to five years old.”
Sao motioned Rai off to a snowy corner and continued in a low tone. “L.E. & A.C. specialized in androids for the sake of palliative care. Pumps and mobility support were part of their business - but making convincing human stand-ins was their specialty. Behaviors, expressions and lifelike movements - the robots were specifically what Chimera acquired them for. Of course, Chimera supposedly shuttered all android development, in any of their branches, after the Peace Convention incident and resulting policies, two years back, but...” Sao stared into the greying sky, snow catching in his hair. “The secrecy surrounding the business - the extent to which Chimera has protected it - suggests L.E. & A.C. is still in operation in some form. But the records are intentionally left hazy. It seems Carme left the company later than she told us.”
“And she didn’t leave her job on good terms, if the parents’ story is any indication.” Rai glanced at Cadoc’s resting form again. “If they’re making products as convincing as Cadoc, I can see why big money would still be in it. Illegal or not.”
“He was very convincing.” Sao’s head sagged. “I mean, it was. It should have been obvious - he talked too smoothly, like a recording, like a script. And his tactics, the perfect repetition of movements...”
Sao cycled his hands in the classic food-shoveling motion Cadoc had become known for. When Rai made a face, Sao dropped his arms and went on.
“That he didn’t have a personal life, didn’t respond to taunts - he couldn’t. It is absurd. I keep thinking of what Kep said. ‘It’s not our world anymore.’” Sao scraped the fresh snow with his shoe. “He was speaking of Life Fountains - I doubt he knew what Cadoc really was - but he had the right feeling all along. And humans had more to look out for than just LFs.”
“You weren’t the only one who fell for it. Imagine the guys who funneled money into this thing, just to see it eat...”
“I suppose I thought I should have had more insight. Because I spoke to him personally. And considered him a friend.”
Rai let that lament drift off in silence. Something in the way Sao drew out his words warded off any wisecracks. They were controlled, aimed at the ground, but with a severity Rai did not think he’d ever gotten from his mild-mannered assistant.
Rai frowned as Sao continued to inspect the snowy pavement. Though he did not regard Sao as a total idiot, was hard to believe that he had never been fooled by a false friend. If anything, that kind of blunder was expected when you made business out of being social. The most admirable and foolish thing about that sort of person, in Rai’s estimation, was their exacting brand of humility that let them accept it, and continue with a smirk.
Well, Sao must have been pretty tired. It was past 4 a.m.
Or was it the fact that this friend hadn’t been human?
In the end, Rai gave this a wide berth, He kicked the ground loudly and coughed, causing Sao to lift his head. “It just sucks that that Chimera’s behind half the crap we’re talking about here.”
“Yes.” Sao shook the snow from his shoulders with a shiver. “I got the LEAC info from my contact, but I can tell this won’t be easy to pursue. I would imagine many of the reasons Carme avoided any chance of a reveal, even to her parents, even after all the online picketing, is because it would out Chimera’s activities. And that would bring a storm far worse...”
“The best she can hope for is a fraud charge, for effectively cheating at the eating contests. I’ve never witnessed an android rule breach myself, but she didn’t exactly weaponize hers, so...” Rai huffed. “Right, and maybe we’ll get the parents for Cadoc’s disappearance 20 years ago… that part isn't confirmed yet. But Carme might be able to clear up a few details there.”
They returned to the car for a final look, and to help shield Cadoc from an incoming news van. The blanket had been pulled back up over the body, with only half-lidded eyes peeking over the edge, Cadoc resembled a sleepy, tucked-in child.
“What a mess.” Sao knelt by the body to pull the blanket over Cadoc’s legs. “For the family, of course. It’s superficial to think of such things at a time like this, but I have to wonder what it will mean for the eating league.”
“Third place a poisoner, second place an invalid creature.” Rai counted off on his fingers. “And first place not even a living being. I guess fourth-place Basil is in luck.”
“Hah. I didn’t think of it that way.” Sao laid a hand against the car seat, and shifted in. His breath misted Cadoc’s motionless face. “Not even living…”
The ring of officers dispersed to ward off the newscasters, but one remained, ready to shut the car door.
“I think it’s time for Cadoc to get some rest.” Rai stepped back. “Since we’re here, why don’t you have one more catchup with Carme, watch the sun rise, and see if we can get any answers on record before she’s taken in?”
Sao smiled, at last, with exhausted effort. “How romantic.” Then he raised a hand and pressed it over Cadoc’s face, gently as a ghost. Rai could not help but recall Sao touching the hologram Gene’s face with overt tenderness. In a way, it was mockery - if they were a living, breathing person, he’d never give them such disrespect.
Of course, the machine wouldn’t care either way.
Rai stood back and stared at the sky, which was beginning to lighten into a neutral, steely grey.
When Sao retracted his arm, Cadoc’s eyes were shut. Sao contemplated his palm and stood.
Rai puffed a few more smoke clouds. “So, did it feel like skin?”
“No. My favorite thing about synthetic humans. They don’t feel alive.” Sao wiped his hands on the side of his trim black coat and smoothed his smile out. “Or maybe my hands are just getting numb. Let’s go inside.”
---
The seating area of the gas station cafe was playing a wordless, jazzy tune, distant over the constant hum of heating pipes and glass-walled drink coolers. The whole room had a milky, washed out color, if one ignored a splash of brown mold growing behind the counter. Rai stepped over the growth to rummage through the cooler for an iced coffee, then had to excavate his pockets for change.
Sao took the seat across from Carme. “Fancy meeting you here, stranger.”
She smiled, sharp but far more substantial than he’d ever seen from her. “You too.”
He saw the glint of red leather sneakers under the table, identical to Cadoc's. "Nice shoes."
“Charming." She crossed her legs. "You look good too.”
It was clearly a lie, but he felt some heart in it. “I take it you decided against that beachside vacation?” He followed her gaze through the snowfall to where Rai had left his car by the gas pumps. Cora and Rigel North were staring back from the backseat. “It turned into a family gathering after all. My supervisor saved you some driving. He says their neighborhood’s quite a sight, though.” Norths were staring back at him from the backseat. “It turned into a family gathering after all. My supervisor saved you some driving. He says their neighborhood’s quite a sight, though.”
“I don’t want to speak to them right now.”
“Yes, they still have to be briefed. Apparently they were woken up thinking their daughter had been beheaded by her brother, who was last seen posing serenely in front of her bloody head. Funny story. It got me, anyhow. But no harm done - to any living beings, that is.”
Carme rapped her spoon against her saucer and then smacked it against her lip with a suddenness that jolted Sao in his seat. “Oh… oh, you saw the box of spare parts! That must have been it - and here I was thinking that I’d blabbed something over one of the calls. Good eye, or does this mean you recorded them? It's funny. And impressive. But...” The spoon scraped returned to the chipped plastic plate. “No, I should have known better than to think our conversations would be private.”
Rai strolled over with his coffee. “Evening, Carme.”
“Evening, Investigator.”
“We’d like to talk to you before the rest of the officers remember their duties and take you in.” The news van shuttled by. “Nice of you to wait here for us.”
“I figured there was no point in trying to escape, now that you know what Cadoc is.”
“You overestimate us.” Rai’s eyes shifted from Carme’s side of the table to Sao’s side, and he chose to remain standing. “I’m pretty sure you could have gotten away with that head start of yours. Not to mention, you’ve had most of the city fooled for the last two years.”
“I think you’re the one overestimating me.” She laughed. “It’s all been down to tricks and luck. Every day was like standing on the edge of a cliff that just got steeper and steeper as time went on. I always thought - no, I always knew it would come to an end.” She beamed at Sao. “I thought it would blow up in my face with a police raid, or gunfight. But instead, I got you two. Talk about relief.”
“So you were hoping to be caught,” Sao said.
“Maybe. But it wasn’t always like that.” She smiled at him, and he was surprised to find some real warmth. “You look tired.” The smile remained in place as she inspected Rai too, but she did not comment on his energy levels.
Rai snorted and took a swig of coffee.
“It’s been quite a night.” Sao tipped his head. “And you look…”
With a minute adjustment to her teacup arrangement, Carme waited patiently.
“Different. All I can think is that this is the first time I’ve seen you smile.”
It was enough to get her face red and hunching below her shoulders. Rai gulped down the rest of his coffee and slapped the can onto the counter, cutting through the jingle of jazz radio. “So, Carme, how did you come up with the impressive idea to sneak an android into the world of competitive eating?”
Sao laid his arms over the table. “And how did you attain such an impressive machine?”
“I don’t know if we have time for all that.” Shamelessly fanning the blush off her face, Carme leaned back, tracing her thoughts. “Well. I don’t want to say too much about how I got the base. Back in the company, I was responsible for the eating-specific behavior and exterior design.”
Rai held up a hand. “We’re aware of the relationship between your old company and Chimera. At the moment, we aren’t interested in pursuing the issue of the android ban with Chimera - this case only pertains to the disappearance of Cadoc and his -- I mean, your actions in the field of eating. If we can avoid dragging Chimera into the situation, we will.”
“Oh, but they’ll find out.” Carme slid down a little on the vinyl bench. “You saying that only means they’ll find out faster. Someone’s always watching, just waiting to do exactly what you hope they won’t, as soon as you voice your greatest fear. Ever feel like that?”
“All the time. But since you’re already doomed, feel free to tell us as much as you can.”
“Ah, but you still sound hopeful.” Carme smiled serenely at him. “Okay, I assume you already know that I didn’t leave L.E.A.C. when it went under. The bankruptcy was a cover story retroactively set up by Chimera, once the android ban happened. The truth is that L.E.A.C. was acquired for android dev, no big deal at the time - but three years in, we heard of the Peace Expo accident, and soon the android reform came - no 'intelligent bots', no humanoids, no capability beyond routine labor - a bill written by a bunch of luddites, no doubt. Fact of the matter is, we were supposed to be shut down for real - but Chimera kept the research going.” She folded her hands neatly, inspected them. Her nails were as chipped as the saucer. “Technically speaking, they aren’t breaking any particular law, on paper. Their development is entirely internal, no public use, no public risk. The product isn’t functional, either. Research and dev is framed as a spread of independent projects that, when put together, may form a self-sufficient android but are officially separate aspects. The higher-ups believe the ban will be retracted one day - and you know what, they’re probably right. They're pushing holograms, but people want something physical, something they can touch and trust - so the second the ban lifts --” Carme swung a hand down in a motion indicating a swooping bird, or a guillotine.
“You don’t have to put in a good word for Chimera,” Rai said. “In the sense that this case is unlikely to faze them in the least even if it reaches their desks.”
“And it will. But you should know what you’re up against. I know they don’t need my sweet talk - I didn’t end up leaving L.E.A.C. on good terms.”
“Leak,” Sao repeated. “Is that how the company name is supposed to be pronounced?”
“It’s what we all called it. How else would you say it?”
“Never mind. Please, go on - you left the company and…”
“It happened shortly after the supposed android ban. I had a disagreement with the shareholders.” Carme drummed her fingers against the table, nails scraping the grainy plastic surface. “It had nothing to do with the ban - well, maybe it did. Remember what I said, how Chimera seeks out what you’d hate most so they can be contrarian and push it through? Come the ban, the demand was that we focus on android development - nothing else. I didn’t care about the new law, I barely understood it at the time, but I did care about the abandonment of the ‘Life Equipment’ part of the company name. We were abandoning the healthcare aspect to focus on something we were ruled not to do. A little after that, I resigned. It was stupid, in retrospect.”
Sao blinked. He caught Carme’s eye, which locked onto him for a moment, vying for approval. “They let you keep some of the machines?”
“I was let go very quickly - and the head at the time didn’t bother tracking down the equipment. I was surprised, but it made some sense. L.E.A.C. records were already being doctored - there were things unaccounted for, and original prototypes, before they were branded for Chimera, were scattered among employees. Nearly everyone had at least one base - that’s essentially the skeleton of the droid - and the latest software at the time for the base expressions, locomotion, speech, and such. L.E.A.C. produced prosthetic parts and printers - that’s for generating faces - but since the ban, a lot of fairly advanced material was being ditched for low prices. Joints, dye, dentures, extra skin polymer... I even got a spare head mould; a lifesaver after Cadoc hit his head when I rushed out of the expo hall that day… ”
“A day to remember.”
Carme glowed with the shared memory. “I really was afraid for him. He was rattling with all those glass bits, no way he’d made it though the interviews...”
“Of course. The beginning of the end. But back to the start of it: you got right into the eating world after you split from your company?”
“No, it took a while. I had no idea what to do with myself at first. Losing my under-the-table job meant I was left without any references, and took my insurance, car, everything. I had to eat through my savings, without any hope of job prospects. Until I saw a bar ad, stating free lunch for any group if one could finish ten king-size curry beef bowls...”
Rai clapped the palms of his gloves together. “Alright, moving onto Cadoc.”
Carme’s face, which had grown rosy over her recounting and sips of tea, began to pale. “Of course. I should have known you’d want to know his story.”
“When was the first time you put all that equipment to use?”
“Oh, you mean that Cadoc.”
“Yes, the android. The original Cadoc can wait - he’s been waiting for a long time, I think he can stand a little longer.”
“I guess so,” Carme said, blinking rapidly. “I remember the first contest pretty clearly - it wasn’t anything official, just a local bar. One of the last things I’d been working on was android eating mechanisms - mostly the limb movement; making the behavior convincing was one of the biggest challenges. These droids were supposed to be comfort companions for the sick and elderly, after all, you can't have these swinging, gobbling motions. We didn’t perfect it while I was with L.E.A.C, but we’d exhibited it internally before, so I knew it was close enough. I refined them a bit at home. It was still an uncanny valley nightmare to sit down and watch one of the droids up close, at a dining table - I think it was the eyes, they kind of spaced out when eating. But capacity wasn’t an issue - the body was loaded with a compressor - and if someone was trying to shovel down 10 bowls of rice as fast as possible, surely there would be some facial distortion. Some liberties could taken with ‘natural’ human movement. Oh, and this was at a bar - the audience was tiny and way drunk by dinnertime. So we got lucky.”
“And a star was born,” Rai said.
Carme laughed. “A lot of fine tuning was needed as the challenges went on. The compression engine in him right now is the sort used to lift cars. Somehow, even the stranger experiments caught on with the public. You’ve heard of the Cadoc method of lobster shelling? All it takes is one paper plate… no?” She rolled her eyes, a motion so mismatched to her face that Sao shrank back. “I just wanted a meal at first. I would put Cadoc to sleep - or sleep mode - after he ate, and nobody would bat an eye.”
“Nobody asked who he was?”
“Of course people did. I just said he was my twin brother.” Carme shrugged. “We looked the part. I had pictures of us as kids.”
“His face,” Sao said, “Must have helped.”
“Yes. I can’t take full credit for that - I just scanned, printed and pasted it on. The facial rigging tech was made by specialists - that was something Chimera was really interested in. And the 3d replicator - the printer - was developed by another branch of L.E.A.C. as well. I just used their work to copy my own face. Professional designers use an amalgam of multiple faces to create something completely new, prettier, friendlier, and so on. Holo companies are using the same technology on these up-and-coming service bots. Some of those are too pretty if you ask me. But in all seriousness - a physical model is more convincing, isn’t it?” Carme took a vibrant sip of her tea. “A colleague of mine told me that they managed some seriously impressive high resolution models in early VR, like perfect replicas of buildings and even animals. Down to cracks and individual hairs. But if the shadows didn’t fall right, fade right - then even an amateur could tell something was wrong. Even if they can’t name the reason, something feels off. When it comes to these new virtual holo companions, the shadows still aren’t right - that’s realism you can only get from a real, tangible object. I mean, the thing is made of light, of course it’s not to be casting proper shadows...”
“It all sounds very complex. You might be surprised how far holograms have come in the last month alone. Although it’s true they’re never going to be able to eat like a physical model,” Sao said, thinking vaguely of Chimera’s Gene. “So Cadoc started out helping you get meals, and you two moved up in the world.”
“If you want to call it that. The competitive eating crowd was practically expecting distortions of the human form, so once we got that far, it actually became easier to fit in. The eating part, that is...”
Sao finished for her. “Because as a star, you were also fielding interviews, and Cadoc would be going before larger crowds.”
“The Central Mixed Meat Skewer Tournament. That’s where I became sure it would all collapse one day. I knew about the pin test but not the TV cameras; I even lost connection with Cadoc halfway through, and he just went facedown for a few seconds.” She smiled, dreamily. “But Nero won that one - took the spotlight and saved us. It was a learning experience - made things easier going forward. I’d been planning to improve Cadoc's reception from the beginning, and parts were getting easier to attain. As for being noticed - I quickly learned the eating field is notoriously low tech. Have you seen the scales they use? And why in hell are they still using the pin test in this day and age? I know it’s aimed at Life Fountains - not exactly technical experts - but even the most basic synthetic arm can be modified to fool the pin. They even sell premade models for medical students. Although, I’ll admit, loading in the blood each time isn’t much fun.”
“That explains your blood in the house. And the voice control?” Sao asked.
“It was all my voice. But I think you figured that part out already.” Carme lifted her phone, tapped in a few commands, and set on the table. “Takes a recording and modulates it. Usually, the maintainer would download or pre-record all the key phrases and leave it to the AI to interpret, but with Cadoc, we needed on-the-fly conversation. I had to feed him lines, reading it in and then playing it out. His canned AI and responses would work in a pinch, if we were both onstage. But I was usually able to stand some ways off, unseen. Hence this little system...” She held down the largest button and leaned close to the reciever. “Hello.” Her finger lifted. “The second button is the release - go ahead and try. Don’t touch anything else.”
Rai did not hesitate for a second. The flash of his hands speeding for the phone made Carme falter for the first time that night. There was a yelp from the parking lot.
“Ingenious. So when Kep tried to interfere with Cadoc, who was alone in the room… There was no way he’d have gotten the response he wanted. Cadoc’s cool disregard was really caused by lack of input.” Sao smiled in spite of the cruelty. “This also explains the abundance of pauses.”
“Yes. Especially on calls. I got… used to talking like that. The gaps give me a chance to replay, rethink, maybe re-record. Of course, the ideal is to do all interviews remotely, and pre-record when possible. Being able to watch what he’s doing is very helpful - I got used to doing calls just sitting across the table from him. I guess I got overconfident, wouldn’t you agree?” She smiled again at Sao.
He threw one back, automatically. “The complacency was mine.”
"I'm sorry if it seemed a bit mean, especially that last call Cadoc took with you. But I wanted to see your face when..." She turned away sharply, but with a smile. “Well, you got through it in the end. I guess it’s not surprising Cadoc got away with what he had - considering the amount of cheating that went on each day by the others...”
Rai’s brow went up. “Were you aware of the presence of Life Fountains or sabotage in your eating contests?”
“Who wasn’t? Nearly every other contestant is a scam of some sort - and they all end up protecting each other. Kep and Nero had the fortune - and misfortune - of getting so far before being caught, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t ask me for names - I didn’t keep track after the third straight match of poison and mysterious bribe offers.” She snorted. “Cadoc wasn’t going to be seriously harmed by sabotage short of corrosive acid, but nobody’s been silly enough to try that - yet. Most just try to tickle out a simple ‘reversal’. However rocks, powders and pepper flakes turn up so often in Cadoc’s stomach contents that I even threw in a response for it. A little hesitation, maybe a cough - easy enough - helps him blend in a little better. Adds some drama. The audience likes...” Her smile remained, but her gaze fell. “They like to see people choke.”
Sao glanced at Rai, who looked utterly fascinated. Which, he supposed, was development from the halcyon weekend where Rai had watched his first eating match, crimped with disgust.
“Alright.” Rai folded his arms. “I think that just about covers the Cadoc of today. So now… we’d like to hear what you know about the Cadoc who disappeared 20 years ago. Your real brother.” He nodded out toward the snow-covered lot, where the North parents were still packed in the seat of his car, staring out. Mrs. North’s mouth was open, moving without words, like a goldfish. “And what they might have to do with it.”
The hum of the fridge rose over them once again. The jazz music had faded, shifted into some soft bluegrass. Carme’s cracked nails drummed the table once again, but with beats that were no longer even. “It’s another stupid-sounding story.”
“For better or worse, the truth isn’t always pretty,” Sao said. “I think we can accept that, after all we’ve seen tonight.”
“They’ve already implicated themselves.” Rai was searching for another coffee. “But you can leave out your parents’ involvement, if it makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“Hah. It would be impossible to tell you the truth without involving them.” Carme threw a glance out the dark window. “If they’re here, they know what’s in store for them. Fine. Twenty years ago, Cadoc choked to death in the back of our old house. They pretended he ran away from home. And that’s how he ‘disappeared.’ Ironic, isn’t it?”
Rai turned from the fridge slightly and caught Sao’s eye, passing the buck to him. Sao smoothed his sleeves and crossed his arms over the table. “Ironic because…?”
“Because… oh, you.” Carme raised a hand to her forehead to brush the hair back. “He choked while eating some chocolate. A whole bag - because mom and dad forced him to.”
“Your parents made Cadoc eat a bag of chocolates, with the intention of killing him?”
By the drink counter, Rai cocked an eyebrow. “Accidents happen.”
Carme set her elbows down and scrutinized their ignorant faces. Roughshod and free of makeup, she perfectly resembled the image of Cadoc that had graced the screens and stages. She had his smile, too, which despite her frustration, had not budged. “You can decide for yourself. It’s not like they would have come up to me and said ‘we did it on purpose, and you’re next.’ No… they were never like that. They were perfectly good parents to me. But that’s because they thought I didn’t know.”
“But you did see it happen.”
“Yes. They figured it out eventually, thanks to the uproar over Cadoc making it to the finals, going missing... At least I’d had time to move out by then.” The smile pulled taut. “I suppose you want to know the beginning, not the end. Okay. The whole ordeal started at dinner that night twenty years ago - no, before dinner. That day, Cadoc won a massive grab bag at the school fair. Like a hundred-something mini chocolate bars in this big plastic sack. His project -- I can’t remember what it was, but it was something good. Mom and Dad like to say I was the smart one. I know they’re thinking of Cadoc when they say it - but he really wasn’t bad at school at all. Although, it wasn’t crazy to say he was the kind of kid who wanted to run away, at least a little. It was like he knew what kind of people we were living with. Like he knew what would happen… but everyone makes mistakes.”
The radio crooned gently overhead.
“That night, Mom caught him sneaking some of the chocolate before dinner. That was it.” Her nails began rapping the table again in rapid succession. “It would be unfair to say that our parents were extra-abusive or violent. They never hit us. I had trouble thinking of how to phrase it when you two visited the house. I mean, they were old-school religious, fairly strict, hated neighbors and passerby and other people on vacation, but they weren’t psychopaths.”
Sao nudged her on. “And yet…?”
“A huge argument started over snacking before dinner. It was one of those little, ridiculous nitpicks that just exploded. ‘You’ll spoil your appetite’, ‘it was just one’, ‘no it wasn’t’, ‘yes it was’, 'don't use that tone'... One talks back and the other decides to defend themselves and - you know how it is. Typical.”
Empty stares. Carme’s serene smile broke into a chuckle.
“Right, who am I to say what’s normal.” She returned to the drumming of her fingers. “In the end, Cadoc was sent to his room without dinner. Afterward, they sent me up to wash up and go to bed - I think I told you, it was a school night - and called Cadoc down so Dad could have a go at him. It didn’t sound too serious - it wasn’t the first time Cadoc had gotten into trouble. They weren’t loud.”
Sao tilted his head against his palm. “You don’t have to defend your parents.”
Carme’s look was burning a hole in the table. “I was in bed when I heard them in the garden - I could see it from our bedroom window, and with the lights off, they wouldn’t have seen me looking out. Our house was the first in the neighborhood to have high walls, and at the time, we didn’t have neighbors. As I said, they weren’t even that loud - nobody saw what happened. Usually, it was Cadoc yelling, but that night...” She shut her eyes, as if recalling a distant dream. “His mouth was occupied. They decided to punish him by making him sit outside and eat all the chocolates, the whole bag. Dad kept saying, ‘we’re giving you what you wanted,’ ‘this is what you wanted’, in a very calm way. Like it was reasonable. I don’t know if Cadoc was crying, but he was either scared or thought he could do it, because they left him out there alone and he kept eating without saying a word. But eventually - something must have caught in his throat. Because he started shaking and spitting, like he was going to vomit, and then lay on the ground scratching the grass and himself and the bag.”
“Did you parents try to help him at all?”
“No. They could have thought he was throwing a tantrum or faking it, but...” She shook her head. “I think they just weren’t looking. Maybe they were already regretting their choice of punishment. That’s the kind of people they were - don’t like it, just turn away and hope it takes care of itself for you.”
“I’m sure that worked out for them,” Rai said, cracking open what must have been a third can of coffee.
“Cadoc was rolling on the grass gagging for a few minutes. I wasn’t counting. Then he crawled towards the walls, maybe trying to find some way to stand himself up again. But he didn’t get there. Eventually, he lay on his stomach and stopped moving.” Carme’s smile had waned, hanging loose and absent like a forgotten piece of drapery. “He was lying still for a long time before Mom and Dad came to check on him. I remember I wasn’t exactly afraid - I thought maybe he was resting, or had passed out. But as time went on I realized -- I was probably the only person who saw him die.”
Once again, she was searching Sao’s eyes for a response, judgment, or comfort. Sao chose to focus on the wall behind her. “Your parents noticed eventually. Then what?”
“Dad came out to check. He rolled Cadoc over and just kind of looked at him for a while, then Mom came out.” The dreamy look overcame her again. “I didn’t hear them cry or yell, but they were talking very fast; they were arguing. First they just picked up the bag of chocolate and took it inside, then they both looked up at my window and I ran back to bed so they wouldn’t catch me. And that’s the end of what I saw that night.”
Sao sighed, smiled weakly. “But what happened to the body?”
“Well… I didn’t see, so make of this what you will. But later that night, I heard some rattling and scraping, the car going out and coming back. They sold that car years ago.” Carme paused. “And in the morning, there was a blanket missing off the sofa - one of those lacy things - and Cadoc was gone. You’ll probably get more useful information out of those two.”
“I must say, you were a very observant young child,” Sao said.
“It would have been hard not to notice. They were stressed, and they had probably been up the whole night. They had no idea how obvious it was. Anyhow - the next morning Mom and Dad had a big breakfast ready, and were all tired smiles and chirpy voices. As he drove me to school, Dad told me that Cadoc had run away the night before, after the chocolate argument. He even asked me if I’d heard anything. But even then, I knew what he was really asking...” Carme brushed her hair back again. “And I said no. I said that I would look out for him at school. In case he went to a friend’s house. That was the end of that.”
“And life went on, as if nothing had ever happened.”
“Sort of. You know, insane as it is to say, I think Cadoc’s disappearance turned me into the better kid. The one they wanted, the one they could say was the smart one - I did not talk back, I did what I was told, what they wanted. And after that night, I never heard my parents argue again. They stopped going to that ridiculous church - those culty meetings. They began to save money, bought be me a car, a lot of new clothes. Cadoc may well have turned them into better parents too.” The placid smile resurfaced. “Any time some kind of disagreement came up, you could feel Cadoc’s ghost hovering over the conversation. All it would take was one person to say his name and it would be over. In a way…” She held her palms out, offering the revelation. “Dying gave Cadoc all the control in the world.”
Sao looked down at her palms contentedly. “That is quite ironic.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Yes. Doubly so that you wound up making a remote-controlled version of Cadoc through which you could harness all that worldly control.” The sound of ref
“I didn’t use Cadoc’s identity only out of convenience. It was also a way of giving Cadoc - or the memory of him - a way to taste all those things he’d never be able to eat. And make him the best at doing it, too.”
“No regrets, then.” Sao turned to the window. The first silvery rays of the sunrise were beginning to peek over the treeline. “Because there was nothing you could have done for Cadoc as he choked to death under your bedroom window. Nothing you could have done to bring your parents to justice before they became a threat to your livelihood. Nothing to be done for the crowds who gathered in support of Cadoc North who will now be told he does not exist.”
“There are downsides to everything. But there’s no point in worrying about them now.” A snort. “Is the Meat Cup really a prime concern here?”
“It is the avenue through with Cadoc North affected the most lives. I understand the experiment began so that you would not have to starve, but taking it as far as an international tournament was a bit much.”
“Yes, it’s going to be a mess with the sponsors, but...” A wry curve graced her lip. “I’ll be free of those shitty comment brigades. Or at least, the obligation of looking at them. Of all the tricks and preparation that went into maintaining Cadoc, can you believe that was the thing that had me breaking down most often? I thought, if anything was gonna get me to drop the Cadoc act once and for all, it would be the police figuring it out, or some asshole finally cursing me out hard enough. I think it was hard because I couldn’t escape those comments, even at home… every time I had to post a video. Honestly, calling me some kind of kidnap-murder-rapist… I should have expected it. That’s how people are.”
“I’m sure there were some decent fans out there. There was the suspicion that the abusive content was automated...”
Carme folded her hands and leaned forward. “There’s been something about you that I’ve been wanting to ask, Sao. You aren’t a fan of robots, are you?”
Complacent mist blown back, Sao's neck stiffened. “Excuse me?”
“I couldn’t ask before - bringing up androids in a call would have been a little too obvious. But I’m sensing some bitterness now, when you were totally sweet on Cadoc before.” She dropped onto both elbows, cupping her chin. “Are you really that old fashioned?”
Sao adjusted in his seat, sitting straight he faced Carme. Rai remained where he was, silent, coffee in hand. “Sharp as the rumors say. It’s hard to accept that I was caught out, trying to read a nonhuman face as if it were alive. And I’ll admit I’ve always been cautious of these high tech… pseudo humans. They’re a bit too… consistent. For lack of a better word, it can be frightening.”
With a clap, she sat back and laughed. “Afraid of the future? That’s cute.”
Sao thought of Gene, and Rai’s stunned face when he touched the lighted skin of the hologram. Of Hro and his cameras and machines that he called ugly yet protected with all the vigor in his spiteful body. He thought of Cadoc, lying dead in the backseat of a car he had earned but never owned. “I know progress is inevitable. Cadoc is one example of many - the technology is getting very good. But the more sure I am of the future, the easier it is to find things to be fearful of. There is the sense of competition… and of course, when comparing yourself to a perfectly optimized human there is...”
“The feeling you can’t do anything right.”
“A familiar complaint, I see.”
“Universal, even.” Stretching back and lacing her fingers together, Carme regarded him, his whole feeble self. “Kep’s strong arm tactics - they weren’t moral behavior. But I get why he did it - he knew his competition could take it. For years, even before Cadoc and I appeared on the scene, the eating records have been growing at an astronomical rate. Anyone working in healthcare can tell these aren’t human appetites. The Life Fountains skewed the game. Was that ‘right’?” She shot a purposeful look at Rai. “There’s also bribery. Magic. Drugs and bodily modification. People must constantly be wronging one another; that has to be maintained for anyone to survive in the presence of others, this doesn’t just go for competitive eating. And the competition doesn’t only apply to people versus robots. People and people, and Life Fountains and Shapeshifters, it’s all a race without rules, or rather your ability to make people overlook the rules. Achieving ‘success’ only means you’ve maximized your ability to wrong others, and have now limited your routes to a downward spiral. We did alright, but managing Cadoc was more stress that it was worth.”
The cameras outside were beginning to press their way through the police barricade, and Carme turned to the window to beam at them. Sao wondered who the newscasters thought they were seeing. She looked nothing like Carme anymore, and the emptiness he’d seen in the persona of Cadoc had been filled. The image sitting before him now what something else. She was unrecognizable.
“In that way, I can say I never did anything right. Because it’s impossible to live and be righteous.” Carme clasped her hands on her lap. “So no. I don’t regret what I did. I don’t regret being caught. I don’t regret what’s going to happen to those people waiting for me in your car. Regret would mean that I believe another choice could have changed things. But in the long run, nothing would have ended up for the better.”
Rai was standing over them now. “We’d better wrap this up.”
“Since you’re mind is likely set about me, let me also say this. Cadoc was lucky to escape the struggle early. At age 12, he was free. Cadoc was the smarter one. And the braver one.”
“I see.”
“Before you ask - I do think I have some perspective of my own demise. Chimera is going to tear me apart. But I knew that, years ago.” Carme thought. “They’re appropriately named company, don’t you think?”
Sao closed his eyes and breathed deeply. There was mold and antiseptic in the air. And coffee, a smell that must have been baked into Rai’s coat. When he opened his eyes, Sao smiled, and this time funneled some energy into it. “I think you should begin preparations to face trial as soon as possible. Even if you think it won’t make much difference.”
With a nod, Rai stepped back, allowing Sao to rise from his side of the table. The officer at the door came to retrieve Carme and take her to her long-foreseen fate. The radio switched into a flighty tune and Carme just about danced her way out of her seat.
“Sao,” she said, paused at the doorway. “It was nice to meet you. Even under these circumstances.” And she held out a slender, chip-nailed hand.
Sao only bowed his head slightly, hands behind his back, a safe distance away. “I’m glad this was a pleasant experience for you.”
For reasons his addled mind could not rake up, her smile only broadened at that. With a courtesy wave to Rai, the hand dropped back to her side. Then, with a blank-faced officer at her back, Carme North stepped out into the morning snowfall, the swarm of flashing cameras, and glassy gaze of her parents, all with the stride of a natural, living star.