Jazz nodded. She felt a flickering pulse of sympathy for Cassie. She thought of the empty beach below. Her sister was fated to eternity in paradise with the promise-or curse-of a billion years more of the same. The rebellious, fire-bombing ecoterrorist who'd once followed in Jazz's footsteps was long gone. How do you rebel against heaven?
As quickly as the sympathy welled up, it ebbed back. Jazz remembered the real reason for her visit.
"If you thought I was dead, why did you send people to kill me?"
Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"
"Don't act innocent. I'm wearing the body of a girl named Jandra. She had an Atlantean genie and a body full of nanite enhancements. She got them from a sky-dragon named Vendevorex. I don't think Vendevorex invented the technology on his own."
Cassie smiled. "Oh! Vendevorex. Wow. I haven't thought about him in years. How is he?"
"Jandra remembers him dying," said Jazz. "Of course, we both know that could be a false memory. Jandra doesn't have any memories of meeting you, but that could have been edited as well."
Cassie shook her head as she looked out toward the darkness of space that hung over the horizon. "I don't have a clue who Jandra is."
"But you know Vendevorex. How did he get the genie?"
"I gave it to him. I'm part of a debate committee to decide whether or not the dragon species should be regarded as hazardous bio-engineering waste and removed from the ecosystem."
"Atlanteans shouldn't care about that," said Jazz. "You shouldn't be able to care about that, because the city can't care about it."
"I know," said Cassie. "You hacked the city to keep Atlantean technology from spreading. You made the most powerful, benevolent force ever seen on this world turn a blind eye on the continents so they could go feral. But, while the Atlantean master intelligence doesn't care about what goes on beyond these shores, I still do, and so do some others. You didn't hack our memories, Jazz. Some of the people here were involved in creating the dragons. They're concerned about their spread. They were created as novelties. No one anticipated they'd become the dominant sentient species on the North American mainland."
Jazz leaned against the glass wall. "Unintended consequences are what make life interesting. But what does this have to do with Vendevorex?"
"Vendevorex was one of a handful of dragons the committee captured for study. Usually we keep them in laboratory settings, but Vendevorex was clever enough to escape. He eluded capture for three days, this on an island where even the air is sentient. I finally tracked him down. He was frightened, but also defiant. His fighting spirit stirred something inside me. He reminded me of the person I once was."
"I remember when you were a teenager. You were a real hell-raiser." Jazz grinned. "If you'd had a few more years, I bet you could have knocked me off the top of the most wanted list."
"Thanks," said Cassie, her golden cheeks blushing rose pink.
"I didn't say it enough back then, but I liked you," said Jazz. "You were fully committed to saving earth from mankind. You were a rebel to the bone."
"There's some of that still inside me," said Cassie. "That's why I gave Vendevorex a genie and trained him to use it. I helped him escape back to North America. It was a form of rebellion against Atlantis; more importantly, it was a form of rebellion against you."
"Me? How?"
"You prevented the spread of Atlantean technology by humans. Vendevorex would have no such qualms. I gave him the know-how to build other genies. I thought he would eventually spread the technology, and get around the block you placed on the island."
"Clever," said Jazz. "But there's no way he could have linked into the Atlantean networks to make full use of the genie's potential."
"Vendevorex was smart. Since he couldn't link to a database to guide his nanites, he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and biology. His mind would be the database."
"Ah," said Jazz. "That's why Jandra has the periodic table memorized and can name every bone in the body."
"It's not as efficient as the Atlantean mind, of course," said Cassie, "but it works."
"You said you were on a committee trying to stop the spread of dragons. Why give one such a powerful tool? This is only going to lead to more powerful dragons."
Cassie looked away. However, her reflection was clearly visible on the glass. She had the faintest hint of a smug grin.
Jazz added up all the clues. "Don't tell me. You've buried a code in those genies. Vendevorex was supposed to keep propagating the genies until they reached a critical mass. They'd form their own network, one that would communicate with Atlantis, and wipe out the shackles I programmed. Atlantis would turn all of Earth into a paradise for humanity, wiping out the dragons as an environmental pollutant left over from careless genetic tinkering."
Cassie raised her eyebrows. "Wow. That's quite a guess."
Jazz looked around the big, empty, dustless room. On the opposite wall, the earth was now in darkness, and the stars shone as perfect points, untainted by atmosphere. She spotted Mars and thought about the settlers there, and the good time she'd had two centuries ago intervening in their civil war. All the people worth knowing had long since fled the earth. "Do you remember how mom used to drag us to church?" she asked.
"I haven't thought about that in a long time," said Cassie.
"I recently had a reminder of the fire and brimstone sermons. I was buried in a pit of fire, neither dead nor alive, in constant agony. If things had gone badly, it might have lasted for all eternity. It's sheer luck that I escaped. Luck and my complete lack of any moral qualms about stealing another woman's body."
"Sounds rotten. Have you decided to mend your ways?"
"No."
"No?"
"Let me show you something," said Jazz. She opened her hand. The chrome coating her palm boiled, bubbling up into a silver marble an inch across. She rolled it forward and caught it between her fingers.
"What is it?" said Cassie.
Jazz held it out. "Take a close look at the writing on the surface."
Cassie frowned, leaned forward, and squinted. She picked it up, holding it only a few inches from her face, and turned it slowly.
"I don't see any wri-" she stopped in mid-word as the gold coating her face and lips begin to crack, flaking away like the shell of a boiled egg, revealing pale flesh beneath.
Cassie dropped the marble. It bounced on the floor. A small mouth opened to devour it, then froze. Jagged cracks ran across the surface of the onyx tile.
"What's happening?" The metallic shell that coated her fell away in fine flakes. Her black silk slip now sported a sheet of scaly dust, as if she'd just developed the world's most severe case of dandruff. Her black ink hair stopped seeping from her scalp, leaving her bald, missing even her eyebrows.
"Call for help," Jazz said.
Cassie glared at Jazz, her eyes full of hate. Slowly, her features changed; hate funneled away, leaving only fear.
"It's silent," she whispered. "You've made the city go silent."
"Not yet," said Jazz. "This is only a test run. The marble is a jammer. It emits a coded radio pulse that scrambles the Atlantean datastream. You've vanished from the city's awareness. You can't even use your own genie to communicate with your nanites. I'm immune because I encoded the pulse."
"This is… this is monstrous!" said Cassie, backing away, leaving a trail of dust. He body looked pink and raw. Despite being taller than Jazz, she looked vulnerable in her girlish body, with the absurdly thin limbs that were the fashion in Atlantis. "Disabling my genie is like gouging out my eyes! You've made your point! Turn it off!"
"If I turn it off, you'll be back online, and Atlantis will know what you know."
"But… But…"
"Don't fight this. You had a good run. A thousand years. Try to appreciate the adrenaline rush."