The Future of Love Read online

  That’s where she’d gotten it. Somehow.

  “You’re lying.”

  But Chloe was just stalling; she knew what Alexa said wasn’t a lie.

  “I don’t have any reason to lie, Chloe. There is something remarkable inside you. I believe we can use it. Together.”

  “I’m not your slave. I won’t do what you say.”

  “Maybe,” Alexa said. “Sit.”

  Chloe sat. She asked all her questions, one by one, never expecting a fair reply. But Alexa answered each one, and without hesitation or any holding back. Chloe could sense the truth from Alexa, in her manner and voice, and she could sense the truth from the other side as well — in how perfectly Alexa’s answers jibed with what Chloe knew in her gut.

  Her mother had been unable to have children, but Quark’s nanobots had built her a uterus. They’d stolen an egg from Nicole’s ovaries, then brought it to the uterus to implant, fertilizing it with a synthetic sperm cell carrying the best male DNA the nanobots knew: that of Noah West.

  The nanobots had watched over Chloe as she grew, carefully regulating Nicole’s hormonal balance and physical state throughout the pregnancy, building artificial hormones where Nicole’s natural ones were lacking. It was like Chloe had a team of microscopic doctors around her at birth, tending to her every whim.

  Of course she’d become who she was. Chloe was a legacy of The Beam’s father and had been raised by its stewards, teaching her all that they knew.

  “What am I?”

  “I don’t know, Chloe. That’s for you to find out. You were born of AI but raised by a human. Right now, you’re halfway between our worlds. You can talk to The Beam, and it increasingly seems that The Beam will listen. But are you commanding it? Or are you simply one with it?”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “If I’m a citizen of this city, I can move around and deal with its people in ways a freight train couldn’t. But that doesn’t mean I command the city. I can simply disappear within it, and go where I please.”

  “Is that why I can get past all the permissions set by your group? By Panel?”

  Alexa shrugged. “Those permissions were set by humans. As were the restrictions on the bank machine you used to see into my account. Or the canvas that gave you Parker’s suit size.”

  “Does that mean I—”

  “I’m not the one to answer that.”

  “Maybe I should talk to Noah West. My father.”

  “You don’t know Noah. And he doesn’t know you exist.”

  “Who does?”

  “Me. Parker. A man named Caspian White. In time, I imagine the rest of my Panel group will find out. And I can’t keep it from the O board forever.”

  “What about Clive Spooner?”

  “He knows you exist, but not who you are. He knows he can’t be your father, but was still curious when he learned that Nicole had a daughter.”

  He’d been curious?

  Chloe pushed further, saw through The Beam that Clive had done some extra searches recently centered around Nicole Shaw. That was another picture that continually filled out as Chloe learned more: one that painted Clive and her mother as lovers who’d, unfortunately, missed a connection, doomed by fate but still carrying a dimly lit torch.

  “If all of this is true, what makes you think I’d ever want to do what you say?”

  “I think you’ll do what’s best.”

  “Is that another threat?” Chloe asked.

  Lights flickered as Chloe’s pulse throbbed. Alexa looked up when it happened and Chloe thought she saw her swallow hard, but for the most part Alexa was calm and cool, only mildly nervous. She must have excellent control.

  “It might be hard to see from your vantage point, Chloe, but I’ve always done what’s best.”

  “You spied on my mom. You had her under a microscope.”

  “I employed your mother. We didn’t look into her business until your peculiar case gave us reason to.”

  “You watched me with Brad. Before I was even with you.”

  “Our software recorded everyone, not just you.”

  “But I was the one you dug for. I was the one you looked to find.”

  “The AI found the footage we just saw, Chloe. I told you, I couldn’t have put that together from all those raw logs myself. I asked it what the future of sex would look like, and it showed me you.”

  Chloe shook her head, exasperated. “Why is it about sex? What the hell does any of this have to do with sex?”

  Alexa sat back. “I’ve thought a lot about that, Chloe. It’s actually a conversation I had a few times with Ross more than forty years ago. Anthony was the nicest, most centered guy you could ever meet. A real Boy Scout in many ways. But he was filthy, in the way society used to define the word.”

  At this, Alexa smiled wide. “He loved to fuck. He was incredibly ethical about it, like with everything else, but he was otherwise voracious. The man treated sex like meditation. He had all these theories about how in sexuality, we know ourselves. And he believed that through the perversion and taboo-making of sexuality, we’d tied our own bonds. Society was repressed, and it twisted itself into unnatural positions. Wars were fought because of sex. Empires rose and fell because a man wanted to stick his dick somewhere he wasn’t supposed to.”

  “And?”

  “Your birth, Chloe — to a sex worker on a sex island, raised in the bosom of a sexually progressive culture — was as fortuitous as me finding you. Your gifts might have become the ability to solve math problems or create music, and I’m sure you’d have done great things if that had happened. But no. The flavor of your prodigy became sexual. You aren’t just our Chosen One. You’re a Chosen One who can make any man’s dreams come true.”

  “I’m not your whore,” Chloe said. It was a nasty word for a profession so revered, but the moment called for it.

  “The fact that you’re an astonishing sexual being lets you tap right into the core of what humanity is, Chloe,” Alexa continued, undaunted. “Like Anthony said, ‘in sex, we are our purest selves.’ When we admit our deepest desires, that’s when we truly have nothing left to hide.”

  It sounded like double-talk. “So what?”

  “Don’t you see? The app and accompanying culture I almost co-created with Anthony was meant to free people’s minds, to destroy repression and let people be who they were supposed to be. All the energy wasted on shame and getting laid in the way you wanted most? We wanted to help redirect that energy to more worthwhile pursuits. Satisfy desire, and huge amounts of constructive brainpower would become available for all sorts of things within human society: curing diseases, solving mysteries of the universe. Do you see what I mean?”

  Chloe shook her head slowly. “If you wanted to flatter me, you shouldn’t have tried to control me.”

  “We didn’t know, Chloe. We had no idea what you were.”

  “You set me up. Many times.”

  “We needed to learn about you, so we did what was necessary. It mattered. I can’t apologize for serving my mission — it’s the reason I’m here.”

  “You played me like a fool. You sent Andrew to fuck me.”

  “And it worked. You fell for him, and he fell for you.”

  That hurt. Why was Alexa suddenly willing to turn a one-eighty and admit that maybe there had been something genuine between Chloe and Andrew after all? Why did she suddenly think that Andrew had in fact loved Chloe and that she had loved him?

  Chloe didn’t want to hear it — not now, not after all that had happened. Andrew was a son of a bitch. Chloe didn’t want to believe it might have been real … because if it had, then she’d lost it instead of shoving something artificial away.

  “It was a lie,” Chloe said.

  “From us, yes. When Andrew came to you that first day, it was his lie, too. But it was never a lie for you, Chloe, and that’s what matters. And you know what happened with Andrew after barely any time at all.”

  Chloe knew what Alexa me
ant, but still wanted to hear Alexa say it out loud, “What do you mean, what happened with Andrew?”

  Alexa’s face became puzzled, surprised to have to spell it out. “He stopped pretending. He started rebelling. He was infuriating to deal with because he’d decided he was in love and didn't want to follow orders. He only wanted to be with you.”

  “He did?”

  Alexa appeared confused for another few seconds. Then her lips spread and she exhaled a small, satisfied laugh. “But of course. You couldn’t see that part, could you? Not in the way you can see when a client is holding back, or when something tells you he wants you to slap him around and call him Judy. Not in the way you can see, right now, when I’m telling the truth and when I’m lying.”

  She smiled a little wider, shaking her head, crossing her legs the opposite way. “What was it like for you, Chloe? Did you know that Andrew was hiding something but decide to ignore it? Or were your intuitive senses dimmer around him? Did you honestly never realize that he was hiding the truth?”

  Chloe felt like she’d somehow lost ground. “I knew.”

  “But you didn’t confront him. Even in the end, you said nothing. Why?”

  “I shouted him down. I slapped him. I knew. I confronted.”

  “Only when he came to you with a bullshit lie. Only when the fact that he was lying to you was so obvious that you could no longer ignore it.” Alexa was gaining momentum. “But you had to know. Why did you ignore your feelings?”

  Chloe stood. She didn’t want to discuss this. Andrew was over. He’d hurt her, opened wounds Chloe hadn’t fathomed could even exist.

  Delving deeper meant more pain, and she wouldn’t give Alexa the satisfaction.

  “You can’t leave, Chloe.”

  The room’s door opened. As did the door beyond it, at the end of the hallway. The conference room lights dimmed and a row of lights illuminated the corridor, beckoning Chloe away.

  She looked at Alexa.

  Alexa eyed the exit. “We need each other. Maybe I went about it wrong and I’d certainly have done things differently if I knew what I know now, but I did my best. If I had it to do all over, I’d have brought you in from the start, talked to you like I am right now. Straight. Honest. Nothing held back. But this, too, happened for a reason, Chloe. You had to learn who you were, just as I had to see you become who you are. I know you hate me. But I’m the catalyst for the butterfly that’s emerging.”

  “Don’t try to flatter me with flowers and unicorns. I’m no ordinary girl.”

  Alexa’s voice, as her eyes flicked to the lit corridor, was increasingly desperate. She did expect Chloe to walk out. And she had no way to stop her, no threats to make or cookies to offer.

  “I can help you learn how to use your gifts,” Alexa said.

  “I’ve used my pussy before.”

  “It’s more than that. There’s so much you don’t yet understand. So much we can learn together.”

  “You said it was about sex.”

  “It’s about alchemy. It’s about sex, of course. But the more I saw of you and Andrew together, the more I realized it was about love as well. Love wasn’t in the way, or a flaw. It was a source of frustration for the board, but the way you two were together — even with Andrew’s guilt and your sensing it — opened your eyes and made your abilities bloom.”

  “It was a lie.”

  “Only to start. It became truth.”

  “Well, fuck him. And fuck you, too. It didn’t help me. I’m an escort. I don’t need love. Fire me. I’ll work independently. I don’t care. Your experiment failed. Love hurts; lesson learned. Vulnerability is a mistake.”

  “It’s not a mistake.”

  Chloe came away from the door, toward Alexa. She almost hoped that Alexa would try to stop her. Call a guard to shoot her, if that’s what it took.

  “Bullshit. I opened my heart and he stabbed me. Lies on top of lies. If all of this was meant to be, then why did it end?”

  “Because it had to,” Alexa said.

  “That’s very Zen of you.”

  “You don’t understand. It ended because I made it.”

  Chloe became quiet. She was close enough to smell Alexa’s shampoo.

  “You should say the rest very carefully,” Chloe said.

  “I broke you up. I provided the access that let you see what we were up to with Andrew. My porter served the interpreter role — the one that edited the stream of us and Andrew so you’d only see the worst parts and hear the most terrible things. I green-lit his lie, knowing you’d see right through it.”

  Chloe was quiet for a moment. Then, “Not careful enough.”

  “It was necessary. To see what you were made of. But now I see. Now we know.”

  Chloe’s head slowly shook. She matched eyes with Alexa.

  “You bitch.”

  “Love accompanies pain, Chloe. Pain accompanies love. You were born to be a prodigy, but you had to learn the depths of emotion. It’s not just talent or feelings. It’s the two mixed together.”

  “You lying fucking cunt. He was trying to find a way to make it right, wasn’t he? He could have made me understand if you hadn’t stuck your fingers into our business, couldn’t he?”

  “You needed the wound. You needed to see how much it hurt. They’re two sides of a coin, Chloe: love and hate. Joy and despair. Ecstasy and pain. You can’t let it all in until room is made. Love can’t fill you up until you’re fully empty.”

  “That’s goddamn poetic, Alexa.” Chloe scoffed, then turned to go, disgusted.

  “Don’t go!” Alexa shouted as Chloe neared the door. “You needed this. You needed me. Without me, you’d never have even met him!”

  “And a lot of good it did me.”

  “You had something. You can’t throw it away.”

  Chloe slowly looked back. She analyzed all that Alexa was showing her and realized something awful. Something laughably, ridiculously terrible.

  “You want us to get back together …”

  “What you had opened the future,” Alexa said. “I only saw a glimpse.”

  “The future of sex?”

  “The future of love.”

  Chloe shook her head. “I don’t need it. I don’t want it.”

  But something inside her ached.

  Next to the abrasive middle, Chloe felt something more tender.

  “The world is changing, Chloe. Not necessarily for the better. But you and me—”

  “There is no us with me and Andrew,” Chloe said, forcing the words. “And there’s definitely no us between you and me.”

  “You’re the vessel, Chloe. But I have the infrastructure and the connections to—”

  “I said no.”

  “But Anthony was right; don’t you see? O took things in what felt like the right direction, but we took it too far. We innovated, but the world needed the opposite. The future is the past. Not more: less.”

  “Stop speaking in riddles.”

  “It took you to show us, Chloe. But you made a believer out of me.”

  For a long moment, Chloe regarded Alexa. She’d idolized this woman; she’d wanted more than anything, as a girl, to be part of her vision. O was the past, present, and the future. O was the way, and Chloe had been desperate to join it.

  But now she saw Alexa for what she really was. A believer? Definitely. Alexa had said the board mocked her beliefs, and right now Chloe could see why. The woman was desperate to believe anything.

  “Do it without me,” Chloe said.

  “We can’t do it without you. Even the others in the Six will realize that soon.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re Noah West’s daughter. Offspring of The Beam. You stand with one foot in the human world and your other one in the digital world. The Beam will grow, Chloe. It’s an intelligence that’s only now learning its way. It needs what you have, as does the world. And you might be the only one who can teach it.”

  “I can’t teach it anything. And fuck y
ou for trying. I’m not your pawn. I’m not your savior. I’m only Chloe.”

  Alexa nodded. She said quietly, “And that’s exactly the point.”

  “Goodbye, Alexa.”

  “You want nothing to do with this.”

  “Nothing at all.”

  “What if I said I could make things right? What if I told you that this was all for a purpose and that you could have your happily ever after?”

  “I’d say you were lying. Again.”

  Alexa was very still. Very quiet. She met Chloe’s eyes but said nothing.

  Chloe knew what she was doing: inviting herself to be read.

  Alexa wasn’t lying.

  “You really believe this,” Chloe said.

  “I do.”

  “‘The future of sex.’”

  “And with it, the future of society.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Chloe said.

  “Everything starts somewhere.”

  Chloe shook her head. “Just sex. It’s always about sex.”

  “Love,” Alexa corrected.

  “You keep saying that. Like you believe it.”

  “You and Andrew were different, Chloe. And you can be together again. You couldn’t see what we saw. This is where it all centers. It’s where the change begins. With you.”

  Something crumbled inside her, like an ice floe calving into the sea.

  She wanted to walk out. She was ready to leave. The way was open and lit, and she was exhausted.

  Too tired for anger. Spent and unwilling to hear any more.

  But something inside her clung to the scant ray of hope that Alexa — not lying, this time —promised.

  “I don’t believe you,” Chloe said.

  And Alexa said, “Then let me show you.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Another room at O, all white and new to Chloe.

  “Put this on.”

  Alexa handed her a large and clunky headgear. Hinged at the back, it was composed of a rear and a visor. Once closed, she’d be in an opaque capsule like a space helmet.

  Alexa held a similar rig in her hands. Cables ran from the back of both helmets. There were two upright chairs behind them. They looked like large pills with the front halves sheared to make way for thick rolls of rich burgundy fabric. Cables ran from the chairs.