The Tribunal Ch. 02

Eventually her cries were reduced to one word, repeated over and over with tiny exhalations:

"Yes, yes, yes, yes-!"

He sped up. His body arched up and down, back and forth, machine-like, unyielding, never tiring. For her he wasn't willing to stop. She rose up and kissed the side of his neck, then bit, then let out a ragged moan, then managed to say again:

"Take me, oh God, take me!"

Kazuhiro squeezes his eyes shut. He was shaking like a leaf now. In the mirror, he saw his own face, pale and haggard. How long had they been talking? How much longer was this going to go on?

"But these memory inhibitors aren't still in place?" said the Tribunal.

"Of course not. They're designed to wear off after the prescribed period, so that the agent can begin reporting in after he's infiltrated the target group. In my case, since this was just a field test, they went with six months, but that's a modest span compared to what the technology is capable of."

The Tribunal clicked its metal fingers. "And just what is it capable of?"

Kazuhiro whistled. "Who knows? Years, at least. Maybe decades. A guy could live an entire life never knowing who he really is. Sleeper agents might sleep forever, if control wants them to."

"And once the inhibitors wear off, the fabricated personality is completely lost?"

Kazuhiro swept his hand over the tabletop. "One minute it's there, the next, gone. Dust in the wind."

"Kazuhiro!" said June, "I want it! I want all of it!"

He was rock hard inside of her, cumming already, little spurts going out with each inward thrust, imparting a bit of himself into her.

She whispered in his ear: "I want it, I want you to cum, I want you to do it in me, I want all of you, everything, please, Kazuhiro, please..."

He felt it clench and roll up inside of him. She was so wet and her body shook all over. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned, and she was matching his frenzied pace with her own, their coupling threatening to spin out of control. He half-expected that the floor would give way and the foundations split, because how could anyplace contain what he was feeling right now?

She kissed him once, a long, deep, penetrating kiss, and he let go, stars bursting behind his eyelids and the chorus of her voice singing him on as he released, and forgot everything. For one, happy, blind moment, nothing existed in the universe except for her and him and the gratification of their two bodies together.

It took a long time for him to come back down. When he opened his eyes, she was looking up at him. She touched his face. He breathed in. He smiled. She smiled back.

Everything was finally perfect.

"That's it," said Kazuhiro. "That's all I know. You want to know the rest, you have to talk to control. I did my job, I reported in, now I'm done until they need me again."

The Tribunal hummed, but said nothing.

Kazuhiro sighed. He wanted to sleep forever. "All right, I cooperated. Now I want to see June. Take me to see her."

"We have not concluded the debriefing," said the Tribunal.

"I told you, I don't know anything else. You have everything. I want to see my wife."

"We are not finished," said the Tribunal.

Kazuhiro stood up. "I've had enough of this. I can leave anytime I want. The guards outside, they know who I am, they wouldn't touch me. I could just walk out of here I wanted to. I've had enough. I did my part. Now, I'm going."

The Tribunal was quiet for a time. Then it said: "Very well, Lieutenant."

And then it turned off. Its camera eyes winked out, and its servos stopped moving, and its steel frame slumped over.

Kazuhiro blinked. "Hello?" he said. "Is someone listening? Hello?"

A door he never noticed opened on the other side of the room. A woman entered. She was older than Kazuhiro, and although she wore an officer's uniform her hair was cut short like a cadet. She was reading a clipboard.

"Hello?" he said.

"Hello, Lieutenant Yamaji," she said, looking up.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Porter. I'm your controller."

Kazuhiro blinked. Then he saluted. "I'm glad you're here," he said. "I've had a hell of a time."

"Yes, I'm sorry about this." She gestured to the Tribunal. "We wanted to try something different this time, to see if the antagonism would elicit a different reaction. It didn't."

He frowned. "Different reaction?"

"Follow me please," said Porter, going back through the door. Kazuhiro followed.

"Where are we going?" he said. They were in some kind of service corridor.

"To see June," said Porter.

Kazuhiro sat on the bed, looking at the blinds. It was light outside. June touched his shoulder.

"I have to leave," he said.

"I know."

"I wish I didn't."

"I know. And I know that there's no telling when you'll be back. It's okay. I always knew."

"You deserve better."

"There is nothing better. Nothing better than you."

He held her again.

"I'll come back," he said. "I promise."

"And I'll wait," she said. "I don't care how long it is. I'll wait."

"I'll come back," he said again.

"Will you love me forever?" her little fingers were wrapped around his.

"Always," he said.

Porter lead him through a door to a room much like the one they'd left. It was empty except for a bank of television monitors on one wall.

"What is this?" said Kazuhiro.

"What you asked for," said Porter.

She pushed a button on the wall. The monitors turned on. June's face appeared on each of them. She smiled at the camera and said:

"Will you love me forever?"

Kazuhiro's heart tightened. "What the fuck is this?" he said. "Where is June?"

"Right there," said Porter. June's face kept smiling on the screens.

"Don't fuck with me," said Kazuhiro, turning on her. "I want to see my wife right now!"

"You are. That's her. That's the only June Amory who ever existed."

"Will you love me forever?"

Kazuhiro felt sick. What was she saying? What was going on? "I don't get this. Explain this to me. From the beginning."

Porter held up her clipboard. His dossier was on it. "Your name is Kazuhiro Yamaji. You're a Vega-class internal security operative, originally from Tampa, now stationed in San Francisco. Your rank is Second Lieutenant. And your dossier lists you as unmarried."

Kazuhiro's knees went weak. "No, no, that's bullshit, I married June the day before I was deployed. If the records haven't been updated-"

"The records are up to date, Lieutenant. They list you as unmarried because you are. You have no wife. June Amory does not exist."

"Will you love me forever?"

Kazuhiro stuck a finger in Porter's face. "You tell me what's going on, right now!"

Porter leafed through some pages. "It was all part of your cover, Lieutenant. You were unmarried and never had any serious romantic relationship the entire time you've worked for us, so we wondered how your behavior might change if you suddenly had someone else to live for. So when we created Alexander Qi, your cover identity, we also created June Amory, his wife."

Porter pointed to the screens. "And there she is, just as you remember her. But of course, they're not really memories at all. They're fabrications."

"Will you love me forever?"

Kazuhiro felt cold. "No, no, this isn't happening, this isn't-" He tasted bile. He doubled over, trying not to vomit. Nausea churned inside him The monitors repeated over and over:

"Will you love me forever?"

Porter sighed. "I realize this is a lot for you to take in," she said. "You were supposed to forget about her when the memory inhibitors phased out, just like the rest of your cover identity. But for some reason, you didn't.

"You can imagine how confusing it was for us when you showed up on the base demanding to see a woman who didn't exist, who you shouldn't even remember anymore. To be honest, it's still confusing. We don't know why you're like this."

Her voice sounded far away. All he could hear now was June's voice:

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"No, no, no!" Kazuhiro said. "That's a lie, you're fucking lying to me, stop it! I want to see June, I want to see my wife!"

"What's your wife's middle name?" Porter said.

Kazuhiro stopped. "What?"

"What's her favorite song?" said Porter, looking him in the eye. "What's her favorite color? What's her favorite position to be fucked in?"

Kazuhiro's jaw dropped. He fumbled for an answer.

"What are her parent's names? What's her job? What's the first thing she does every morning? Do you know the answers to any of these questions?"

"I...I..." Kazuhiro thought hard. He must know?

"Do you know anything about your wife except for her name and her face and one night you supposedly spent together?"

"I can't remember...why can't I remember..."

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"You don't remember because we never created those memories for you. You only remember a few things because that's all there is."

"But, I remember her, I remember her saying my real name, she called me 'Kazuhiro' over and over again. And I remember telling her about my fieldwork, I remember-"

"You remember what you want to. Your subconscious mingles your real memories with your false ones to create a more convincing illusion. It's part of the program. You're very good at fooling yourself. We all are."

Kazuhiro's eyes burned. Tears ran down his cheeks. He tried to shut out the voices. He couldn't.

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"What does this mean?" he said. "Why did this happen?"

Porter shook her head. "That's what we'd like to know. That's the point of these debriefs, to find out. Do you know how long it's been since your field assignment ended? Do you know how many times we've had this conversation?"

Kazuhiro looked up. "How many?"

"Enough. More than once. Lots more."

Kazuhiro fell to his knees. He rocked back and forth, head in his hands.

"This isn't happening," he said. "This isn't true. She's real, I remember her, I love her, I know she's real!"

"Where did you meet? When did you propose? How long have you been together?"

"Will you love me forever?"

Kazuhiro tried to block out Porter's voice.

"How old is she? When is her birthday? What's her sign?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"What did she study? How does she kiss? What's her favorite food?"

"Shut up!" said Kazuhiro, jumping up and taking a swing at Porter. His fist went right through her, and he landed on the floor. Porter's hologram only flickered in response to the attack.

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"For your sake, I'll leave that out of my report, Lieutenant," said Porter.

Kazuhiro beat the floor with his fists. "I've lost her," he said.

"You never had her. She's not real. You're being haunted by the ghost of a woman who never existed, an electronic fantasy."

Kazuhiro sobbed.

"Some people think that there was an error in your programming," said Porter, not looking at him as he cried. "Some trick of your brain chemistry that we didn't account for that explains why you won't forget her. But I have a theory of my own. Would you like to hear it?"

Kazuhiro didn't answer.

"I think you just don't want to forget," said Porter. "I think that you prefer the fantasy. You prefer to remember a fake woman who loves you rather than the facts of your real life. I think you decided not to forget. Isn't that right, Lieutenant Yamaji?"

Kazuhiro shook his head again and again. "No, no, no, this isn't right, this isn't happening."

He put his hand on the monitor screens. June smiled at him. He kissed her image.

"Please honey, please come back to me. Please come back. Please be real."

"Lieutenant," said Porter, "don't do this to yourself."

"Please, oh God please, June, I love you, I need you, come back, don't leave me like this, come back!"

"Lieutenant, get a hold of yourself!"

"Please be real."

"Lieutenant!"

"PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU'RE REAL!"

Kazuhiro beat the screen with his fist. June kept smiling.

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

Porter sighed. "I'm sending for security, Lieutenant Yamaji."

Kazuhiro said nothing.

"It's a damn shame, watching you do this to yourself," she said. Porter's hologram flickered and disappeared. "A damn shame."

Kazuhiro looked at the monitors. June smiled back.

"I love you June. I love you so much."

"Will you love me forever?"

"Yes."

"Will you love me forever?"

"Yes, oh God, yes."

He threw himself to the floor and closed his eyes, remembering her touch, her kiss, her laugh, her warmth.

"Will you love me forever?"

"I will. I do. Always."

They came and took him away. The monitors turned off, but he still heard her voice. In his mind, her heard her voice, over and over, always:

"Will you love me forever?"

"Will you love me forever?"

"Love me?"

"Forever?"

"Love me?"

"Forever?"

"Forever."

"Forever."

"Forever."

And that was all.