Love in the Time of Technology 1 Read Free Page B

not aware of this sinister plan. Those who found out were silenced.
    Roan looked accusingly at him. He felt that Mario did not have a sister so he could not possibly empathize with him.
    “You think I don’t care for her. I do but we are all pawns in the great order of things. Our numbers come up and we follow what destiny has for us. You know that,” Mario pleaded.
    Roan looked sullenly at him. He didn’t disagree with what Mario said. Roan was offended that Mario seemed to know what he was thinking. He needed some privacy to have negative thoughts sometimes.
    “And don’t say I don’t have feelings for her because I don’t have a sister,” Mario said. “I’ve got my work cut out for me. You could ask the Resistance for other assignments or have a girlfriend or something,” he said aimlessly.
    Almost before he had finished his sentence , Roan dived at him pushing him roughly to the ground. “Don’t you ever speak to me in that rude tone of voice! And what about you? You’re so quick to act high and mighty.”
    “I’m still on my journey in search of my identity.”
    “Guys stop it,” Lilydeen shouted at them. “This isn’t the time for this.” She paused and looked at Mario.
    “She is moving very shortly. We are looking at various underground tunnels and other openings.”
    Roan groaned.
    This was not going to be easy. The Fringes resembled the Wild West with some sectors having well ordered communities with their mini governments while others lived in anarchy without any law. The y would have to be very carefully in moving through it to get to the old underground channels that would take Lilydeen inside Genetica. Although they were battle ready with various weapons at hand and were honing their skills in hand to hand combat, they didn’t want to sap their energies fighting in the Fringes. They felt they should be channeling their energies to the common enemy.
    America like most parts of the developed world had fallen apart many years earlier due to the rise of enhancement technologies. At first people had welcomed cloning and then things had gone from bad to worse. Governments had fallen and people had come together in likeminded communities of conservative Christians or new agers. Liberals had formed their own. Those who did not belong anywhere had lived in lawless hubs. Cities had fallen in disrepair and neglect. No one cared what happened to the world. All they cared about were their own communities and they made sure no one took that away from them.
    S he came close to Mario and hugged him. “I need to know,” she sounded desperate.
    “No!” he said fiercely.
    “I have this dream of the same guy who looks at me sadly. He’s sort of lonely and not really sure what to do.”
    “No!” Mario shouted.
    “I have the same dream day after day,” she said with finality.
    “No!” Mario said again overwhelmed by the fact that his head was networked to the Oracle program that could simulate the future with incredible accuracy. He cradled his head and burst into tears. The emotions were too much to bear and he passed out. He could not bring himself to tell her that the mission was so dangerous he was not even sure she would return. He was very close to her and the prospects of her dying inside a cold hideous shell overwhelmed him. That was not all. There was another teen who would stalk her. Why the Oracle allowed this complication was a mystery to him at this moment.
    Roan carried him gently as they walked. He couldn’t help noticing that Mario looked almost cherubic in his delicately formed face with his greenish blue eyes, blond hair and well crafted body. He always wondered whether Mario had been one of the rejects from Genetica that had been rescued ; perhaps a cloning experiment that had taken a wrong turn. There had been rumors. If this was true it meant that Mario was being used and would be discarded when he became obsolete. He hoped this was not true.
    Mario became conscious and was