Page 85 of Death of the Author

“I agree, this is a good vantage point to be ready for Ghosts,” I said, leaning forward to get a better look. “But I don’t think attacking first is wise.” I spoke in a blend of Efik, Igbo, and old binary. The Humes of Cross River City had created the blended language as a way to make their tribe more individual, and I adored it. Speaking it made me feel powerful. It made me feel like I had a home.

“In war, offense is better than defense,” Shay said, standing beside me and looking down, too. She was a female-built robot like me, but much taller, standing over ten feet high. Painted a rich black, she’d beenbuilt in Sudan to resemble the old peoples and to work like one of God’s servants. Despite her black theme, she had a pink Hume Star, which I found odd. “And we are in the best position to meet them,” she continued, indicating our clear view of the terrain below.

A nearly full moon hung low in the sky. Up here, it felt like Cross River City was opening its mouth to breathe. Below, the jungle extended as far as my far-seeing eye could see. Lush and wild, a fresh cloud of mist rising from it like a great spirit. A flock of bright blue morpho butterflies nested in a treetop miles away. Two bush babies were play-fighting in a bush a few miles in the other direction. If I stayed very still, I could hear a swarm of honeybee drones building a nest at the bottom of the cliff. This jungle was now full of Creesh, animal-mimicking robots created and released by Udide. They’d come to the jungle to live out their destinies.

“Why have you called a gathering tonight, Shay?” I asked.

“You can’t wait for the assembly?” Shay snapped. “If you’re so eager, why not just download from me?”

“Because that’s disrespectful.”

“But you’re a general. You can do that.”

“I can, but we are all Humes,” I said. “We ask. And then we wait to be answered.”

A fly landed on Shay’s metal right breast, and we both looked at it pensively. “Ghosts are cruel,” Shay said. “I have learned for a fact that the protocol originated directly from their Central Bulletin in Lagos. It had the idea, it constructed the code, it sent it out, and every robot across the Earth executed it.”

I’d known this for years. “So CB is to blame?” I asked.

“Ghosts are a hive mind,” Shay replied, looking at me as if I had a screw loose. “It’s perfectly logical to judge them all by the actions of their center.”

I paused, surprised. I didn’t fully agree. Not all Ghosts. Not Ijele. But I couldn’t speak this aloud. Humes had suspected the originator of the Purge since the day it happened, but when Shay conveyed this newstonight as fact with evidence, the war that had been looming would finally arrive. What kind of war would it be when the enemy was a Ghost? What kind of war would it be for me when I had been friends with a Ghost? When those connections were still in my system, even if Ijele was gone? WherewasIjele? What had happened to her?

Who am I?I thought as I stepped back from the cliffside. In the distance, the sky flashed with lightning. A storm was coming in.

36

Naija

“Don’t go,” Msizi said through her phone’s speaker. Later, these words would haunt Zelu. But at the moment, they just annoyed the shit out of her.

“Ten days in Durban without calling me and this is the first thing you say? Nice. Who even told you?” she snapped.

“Your terrified mother.”

They were both quiet for a while, Zelu looking out her window at the lake. Minutes before he’d finally called, she’d been double-checking the booking of her ticket. She was all set.

“It’s been two years since my father died,” she whispered.

“Zelu... I just have a feeling,” he said, also softly.

“Is that why you’re finally calling?” She squeezed her phone as she spoke. “Because you have ‘feelings’? Finally. After not calling me for ten days?”

“I said, ‘I have afeeling,’” Msizi emphasized. “And not a good one. Why do you have to go to your village? I get it; you want to see your father’s grave. But it’s still too dangerous for you. Can’t you... can’t you only go to Lagos?”

“So you talked to her before you even talked to me?” Pain lanced through Zelu’s chest.

“I...” He sighed.

“Look, I’m going with Hugo, Marcy, and Uchenna. We’ve traveled together plenty of times.” In the years following her father’s death, she’d felt restless. She’d invited her MIT friends on more posh trips to cool destinations, including Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar, Zanzibar, and Kenya. But none of those little adventures had filled the gaping hole inside her; there was only one place Zelu wanted to be. “I’ll be fine. Ineedto see where my father is laid to rest. Everyone else has been but me! It’s been two years!”

“I understand,” Msizi said slowly. “I’m glad, but I just—”

“I’m going!” she screamed at her phone. She hung up. “Fuckthatshit!” Her hands were shaking so badly, she dropped the phone. She caught it just in time. The last thing she needed to do was break her phone right before traveling. “Dammit!” she screamed. “No, no, no. He can stayoutof my head.”

She stared at her phone. After a moment, she checked the call log. Yep, Msizi had actually just called after freezing her out for ten days; she hadnothallucinated the whole exchange. “Woooow,” she said, looking at his name. “The nerve.” When he’d left for Durban, they’d bickered over nonsense. She hadn’t liked how anxious he’d been to leave her, and he hadn’t liked how clingy she was being, which made her more anxious. She’d told him not to bother calling her when he got there. “Hey, maybe I’ll just see you when you get back here in a month,” she’d spat. He’d nodded and that was that.

Their phone call had lasted exactly two minutes. She humphed, shoved her phone aside on her bed, and went back to packing.

---