“Because they’re putting hardworking humans out of a job,” she said, and moved to another section of the room.
After that, Javier avoided talking to anybody. He saw the other visitors as they trickled out, though. Many of them were picking up vN in the waiting area. Most of them were older human men. Some of them wore the New Eden logo on their necks on their lapels: a little golden apple with one bite taken out of it, and a set of clockwork gears in place of the bite. They were obviously there to see LeMarque. Javier had a feeling most of the New Eden higher-ups had gone to prison or obscurity, so maybe these men were long-term adherents, or just plain fanboys. Either way, the vN they were picking up were all the size of little kids.
He hadn’t put it together, before, but the children in the waiting area didn’t have parents that matched their clade. He’d figured that maybe the organic parents in the waiting room had adopted an iteration – it was easier than having a second kid the organic way, and it was a simple way to make sure your little princess had a strong big brother to keep her out of trouble – but that wasn’t the case. One by one, they all got collected by greying men in athletic sandals and old fleece sweatshirts. Javier had never seen so many earthtones or embroidered logos in a single place. At least not a real place, a place that wasn’t a resort.
“Did you enjoy your meeting?” one of the little vN boys asked, as his human walked away with him.
“Yes, I did,” the man said, squeezing his hand. “Jonah and I are really working through some things. Thank you for being so patient.”
“Did he know anything about the grocery stores? About the food, I mean?”
“I keep telling you,” the dad said. “Don’t worry about the food. That was just a crazy person, trolling other crazy people.”
Javier hid his head in his hands, and waited.
“There’s only one way out of here, you know,” Ignacio says.
Javier is big, now. So big they can’t really share the bunk anymore. They still do, because Javier is a measure of warmth, and he doesn’t need to worry about hurting a spine or a neck. It makes Ignacio feel awkward, though. He can tell. So Ignacio’s solution is for Javier to grow even bigger.
“You have to eat, conejito.”
“I’m not such a little rabbit, any longer.”
Ignacio hisses out of his mouth like a dead basketball deflating. “Pfft. This is what I keep saying. You’re grown, now. You’re ready to make your own way.”
“I like it, here.”
“You like it? You like the guys flinging their shit at you? You like running errands for the asshole warden? You like keeping dicks out of asses? That’s what you like?”
Of course he doesn’t like that part. But he keeps thinking that if he just helps them, if he’s just good enough, or strong enough, or fast enough, they’ll start improving around him, instead of just testing him. And besides, he has Ignacio to protect. Ignacio doesn’t have a crew. He isn’t with anybody. If Javier leaves, Ignacio will be alone.
“He’s not coming, Javier.”
Javier frowns. “Who?”
“Your dad. He’s not coming. He’s not going to get you out. Only you can get yourself out.”
Javier snaps the sheet he is folding. “I know.”
“So leave. Be free.”
Javier finishes folding the sheet. He smoothes it out. It has a huge stain in the middle of it, with several other little stains all around it, like a solar system. But the stains are paler, now, at least. He crisps the edges. He adds it to the stack.
“What will you do?”
“Without you? I’ll pray for you and your boy, is what I’ll do,” Ignacio says. “It’ll be nice for you to have a little Junior running around. You’ll never be lonely, even when you want to be. It’s good, being a father. Really. I wish I could get back all the time I’ve lost.”
In order to jump the fence to freedom, Javier has to eat enough to grow to full size. Man size. But when he does, he will likely iterate. Ignacio says he should take the boy with him. Javier isn’t so sure. It’s not as though Arcadio did a very good job with him. Why would he do any better with his own iteration?
Ignacio would do a better job, he thinks. Ignacio is, after all, a real man. A real human being. And a father, already. A father without a child.
So he eats. Dionisia brings more vN food for him. It’s expensive, but it makes Ignacio happy, and that makes her happy. He gets fat. He’s round and suddenly people leave him alone. No more air kisses or gropes or grabs. He gets his work done a lot faster, as a result. If he’d known, he would have gained the weight months ago. The iteration starts almost immediately – “like a hangover,” Ignacio says, “you get one before you even know it.”