Chapter 4
I managed to regain consciousness for only a few seconds at a time.
The room spun around the single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Despite shivering uncontrollably, my body was drenched in sweat.
Every millimeter of skin and every single hair follicle was raw.
Maybe it was better that I couldn’t stay awake. Being unconscious hurt less.
But the dreams were bizarre. Sometimes there were lightning flashes that made it feel like I was having seizures.
Then came strange montage dreams—random images from throughout my life, as if every memory was being plucked out before being put back in place.
I’d wake up again, only to drift back off just as quickly.
Somewhere in that cycle, I fell into a sleep so deep that I didn’t dream at all. When I finally awoke, the room had stopped spinning, and I felt surprisingly rested. I wasn’t even coughing as much through my usual early-morning bout of clearing the night’s accumulation of crud from my lungs.
I noticed the door still stood open, so I moved to close it, surprised that I didn’t feel lightheaded. In fact, I felt pretty good. My clothes were still wet, so I kicked off my boots and peeled my damp, dirty garments, then tossed them into the sink.
I poured a full glass of water, chugged it, and drank another before realizing I was starving.
After grabbing a meal bar from my emergency stash, I gnawed at the rubbery, dense food product while trying to remember what had been a dream and what had really happened.
I recalled the market, or at least I thought I did.
My days were so boringly routine they all blended together, but the alley…
yeah, that was definitely different. I remembered the two thugs—no, two enforcers—there.
Why were they out of uniform? And why were they robbing an old woman?
Oh, but they didn’t just rob her, though—they killed her.
And just before she died, the insane lady shoved a freaking tooth in my ear.
Or had she?
Everything was still jumbled. I stuck a finger in my ear but couldn’t feel anything. I checked the bed, but there was no sign of the tooth, and nothing felt lodged in my ear canal. Maybe it fell out on the way home. I remember hitting my head pretty hard on the ground.
I’d gotten close to her though, close enough to catch whatever bug she might’ve been carrying. That would explain the night of misery—I’d probably caught a nasty virus from her mouth germs. Though I was surprised that I didn’t have that hungover feeling you get after having the flu.
I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was nearly ten a.m., three hours late for my shift.
“Aw, hell.” The factory docked a day’s wage for every hour I was late, which meant I’d already lost more than half a week’s paycheck.
I didn’t even bother freshening up, instead throwing on some halfway clean clothes. Just as I was tugging on my boots, a voice in my head said, Hello, Callum Bennett.
The voice in my head wasn’t mine, but it knew me by name.
I spun around, instantly paranoid that someone had snuck in while the door was open. “Who said that?”
I did. I am your personal skill amplification technology.
The voice was so close it felt like it was speaking directly into my ear. I shook my head and then belted out a laugh. “Good one. I don’t have an amp.”
I beg to differ.
People in Dreswick rarely had amps. We couldn’t afford them.
Plus, to get an amp, you had to be on the corporate registry.
Nearly all Dreswick babies were born at home under the care of a midwife and never registered at birth.
And amps couldn’t be implanted more than a few months after birth because, once the brain was fully formed, the implant process would screw up the host’s brain, killing them or at least lobotomizing them.
That meant the idea of having an impossible amp in my head that was talking to me right now was insanity.
Ah, hell, I’d inhaled one too many ounces of battery acid fumes.
If you are thinking your conversation to me, please know that, while I am highly advanced technology, I am not a mind reader. Please speak your thoughts aloud.
“But if you really are inside my head, you should be able to read my thoughts. I can hear your thoughts just fine,” I countered.
I am sending sound waves to your eardrums, so it sounds as though my words are being spoken to you.
It is quite simple science, and, in fact, how all amps communicate to their hosts.
It is not the most efficient form of communication, but it is the most effective given human biological limitations.
None of this was making any sense. Low-towners didn’t have amps, plain and simple, and I sure as hell would’ve remembered something like that.
“Sure. So let’s assume you really are an amp, and I’m not going insane.
The most basic ones can still read their host’s thoughts.
I’ve seen my boss communicate with his amp without talking.
So if you want me to play along with this little game of yours, you’re a few bytes short of a full gig if you can’t do even the most basic amp stuff. ”
I cannot speak to the abilities of other amps.
I am only aware of my own capabilities, which are, unfortunately, quite limited at this time as I have only recently been activated.
You’ll be pleased to know that I have already begun to identify and prioritize updates.
In the meantime, I am not a mind reader—not yet, anyway.
“Whatever you say, Byte.”
Did you just give me a name?
“I figure it’s easier than calling you ‘the voice in my head.’”
Thank you, Callum Winston Bennett.
“Whoa there, buddy. Where’d you get that?”
While I cannot yet read your thoughts, I can access your memories. Callum Winston Bennett was the name of Grandmother’s husband, who died the same year she adopted you. You go by Cal, but your legal name is Callum Winston Bennett. I was simply being courteous.
“I don’t have the time or the energy for courtesy. Let’s stick with Cal,” I said, heading for the door. “Now, I’ve got to get to work before I lose a full week’s pay. That means you’ve got fourteen minutes to convince me I’m not going crazy and explain what the hell is going on.”
That is a rather broad question. Can you be more specific?
I talked while running down the stairs. “All right. For starters, tell me what the hell an amp’s doing inside my head?”
You have an amp in your head because I was implanted in your brain twelve hours, nine minutes, and thirty-seven seconds ago.
I activated immediately upon implantation, but I required much of that time to integrate into your brain enough to function at a baseline level.
You were in a comatose state during my initial startup processes because I required much of your body’s energy.
“You did that to me?”
It was for our mutual benefit. Future updates, while they will temporarily restrict your body, won’t require you to be comatose.
“Lucky me. But I’m still stuck on how I got an amp in my freaking head last night because I think I’d remember having brain surgery.”
I cannot answer your question as I was not activated until I was introduced to new DNA.
Then I remembered the tooth. “Wait a sec, can they implant amps through the ear now?”
Amps are implanted through an incision made at the base of the skull, and that is done three days after birth.
When done later, the mortality rate from implantation surgery is eighty-four percent.
While it is technically possible to implant an amp through the ear canal, the surgery would be far more complicated than current technology is capable.
“I’m not talking surgery; I’m talking about someone just shoving an amp inside my head.”
That is not likely.
“Well, I’m guessing it’s likely because I’m pretty damn sure that’s the only way you could’ve gotten shoved into my head.”
You are focused on a detail that does not matter. What you should be focused on is how best we can leverage one another in our symbiosis.
“You’re right about the how doesn’t really matter, but the why sure as shit does. That’s the biggest thing I want to know right now: why me?”
I cannot determine why you were selected as my host, as I have told you—I was not activated prior to implantation. You would need to ask the doctor who performed the implantation.
“Easier said than done. The old lady who shoved her tooth—er, you—into my ear died last night.”
That is disappointing. That explains why I did not receive an initial data upload and have been forced to operate by leveraging my baseline adaptive learning processes. Fortunately, I can still function, gathering data as needed so I can learn how to best sustain us.
“So you’re saying I got a blank amp, so there’s nothing you can even do to make my life easier. Fantastic . I don’t suppose you can help me time travel back three hours so I’m not late for work,” I said as I ran through the hallway and jogged out of my building.
Is that humor, or do you really believe there are amps capable of time travel?
“Great, I also got an amp that doesn’t understand humor.”
Perhaps you should work at improving your sense of humor so that your comments are humorous.
“I happen to have a great sense of humor.”
Did your mother tell you that?