Free Six by Mark Alpert Page B

height of my shoulder is agony for me, and the wasted muscles in my upper arm tremble from the effort.
    Luckily, after a couple of seconds Dad notices my struggle. His head whips around and he looks at me with concern. “What is it, Adam?”
    My hand is shaking, but I manage to point it at the machine. “The intelligence in the robot? Would it be a perfect copy of the person’s intelligence? No difference at all?”
    Dad nods. “That’s right.”
    â€œBut if my intelligence is in the robot and also in my brain, which one would be the real me? Would I be in two places at once?”
    He takes a deep breath before answering. “Good question. If we copied all your memories into the circuitry, the machine would think of itself as Adam Armstrong, wouldn’t it? And it would have just as much right to that identity as you have.” He shakes his head. “But in the real world, fortunately or not, we don’t face this problem. We won’t have two identical intelligences existing at the same time.”
    â€œBut you just said the intelligence in the robot would be a perfect copy.”
    Dad frowns. All his enthusiasm has vanished. His face is slack and pale now. “I’m sorry, Adam. I should’ve mentioned this earlier. The X-ray pulses from the brain scanner are more energetic than typical X-rays. They’ll destroy the brain tissue. We can’t copy your mind without killing your body.”
    The auditorium goes silent. Then everyone in the room starts shouting.
    I sort of blank out for the next half minute. I’m vaguely aware that lots of things are going on—the rich girl’s father is yelling at Hawke, the deformed boy’s mother is cursing like a sailor—but the commotion seems distant and unreal. All my attention is focused on my right hand, which now rests on my thigh. I grasp the meager flesh there, the stiff band of dead muscle, and squeeze it as hard as I can. Though it’s broken and dying, this is my body. How could I exist without it?
    I remain in this trance until General Hawke takes the microphone and booms, “ Quiet! Please ! ” He’s not used to dealing with civilians, and the strain shows on his face. “No one’s forcing you into this. You have a choice.”
    â€œThis isn’t a medical treatment!” The rich girl’s dad jumps out of his seat. “This is murder!”
    â€œI’m very sorry we can’t do more for your children. All we can give you is the chance to preserve a part of them before they die. Maybe the most important part. And in the process, they’d be doing their country a great service.”
    â€œIt’s sick! You want to harvest their minds!”
    Hawke doesn’t argue with him. “Because we realize what a difficult decision this is, we’re going to let you go home to think it over. It’s a security risk, but as long as all of you keep your mouths shut, we won’t have a problem. We can’t give you a lot of time, though. The threat posed by Sigma is growing every day.” He narrows his eyes. His face is like stone. “You’ll have to decide within the next forty-eight hours.”

CHAPTER
7
    I wake up to a Kanye West song blaring from my Star Wars clock radio. I’m a big fan of Kanye. I love the fact that his songs annoy my parents. And it’s funny to hear his X-rated raps coming from a radio shaped like Darth Vader’s helmet.
    I’m back home in my bedroom. Although the clock radio says it’s 1:00 p.m., it still feels like morning to me. The return flight in the Air Force Learjet took longer than expected, and we didn’t land in New York until way past midnight. After we got home at 3:00 a.m., I slept for ten hours straight, but I’m still not ready to wake up. So instead of calling for Dad and starting my day and thinking about the big decision I need to make, I just lie in bed and look around my room,