…there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason, since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind; and God can not deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth. The false appearance of such a contradiction is mainly due, either to the dogmas of faith not having been understood and expounded according to the mind of the Church, or to the inventions of opinion having been taken for the verdicts of reason. – Dei Filius, First Vatican Council, issued by Pope Pius IX, 24 April 1870.

The fight wasn’t as bad as Michelle feared.  After cooling off for a couple of hours last night, she knocked on Bina’s door and pushed it open. As she approached in the dark, Bina turned to her. They spoke briefly, made up with mutual apologies, leaving the point of contention aside for later. They resolved to rebraid Bina’s hair and watch a movie the next day, and Michelle was touched deeply by how sincerely Bina hugged her with a murmured “I love you so much.”

Michelle sipped her coffee at the kitchen table, late morning sun streaming in. The incongruity of mulling possible escape plans with setting up a formal tea with Bina this afternoon made her smile. The teas were something Anirudh had enjoyed, and they continued the tradition. They needed to discuss what they’d do with this dog showing up. She ruminated on how to navigate the increasingly complex relationship with her daughter while keeping them both alive and safe. If only Anirudh were still with them.

That peaceful interlude seemed so long ago, but it was only a little more than two years. They were all together, Adam training Bina, Michelle and Anirudh maintaining the household, safe and calm. Then one day a freak storm, a tree limb through the roof of the house, a nosy repairman, then more snoops. That lead to an angry confrontation in the street, protestors, publicity. Even as quickly as they made plans to relocate, the hunters closed in.  Anirudh created a distraction, allowing Michelle to escape with the children and a few other of the adult helpers, but then there was a firefight between the extremists and the police, and Anirudh was in the middle.

They moved to the next state, rebuilt a life, reconnecting with the other nodes of the HI, the ganglia, once more displaced. Set up, settle, then move again. How many times?  That’s when Michelle made the decision to break away, against Adam’s and the collective’s wishes. It was a decision she and Anirudh had discussed many times but hadn’t acted on because things had seemed to be going so well. At least, back then.

At each new hiding place, Michelle’s deft use of her skills along with a sufficient blend of truth and fiction kept the gossips and busybodies at bay wherever they went. The young widow and her brown daughter, victims of the recurrent spasms of racial intolerance and social unrest, always simmering.

In some ways, the grendels and the collective intelligence of Homo iunctus served to redirect some portion of racist hatred away from traditional enmities. Not always though, and Anirudh’s death served as a useful substitute for the real reason of their persecution.

Separating from Adam was very difficult, but not as difficult as it would have been before, in Rexburg when this all began, at least for them. His sole surviving relative, Michelle took her guardianship to heart and ferociously defended her brother’s interests as he grew more tightly interwoven into the HI community. Seeing him settle in, maturing and calmer, a member of a team, gave Michelle peace. It was a unique community, and Adam contributed in his own special way. She was happy and proud that she fulfilled her parent’s command to watch over and care for him. Adam’s bond with Bina, holding her with his own brand of affection, was an unexpected but deeply gratifying bonus. 

That’s what made the decision to isolate so much harder. As Adam and Bina drew closer, that necessarily drew Bina deeper into connection with the HI, which Michelle knew put them all at risk. She didn’t trust the collective to keep them safe, so she took Bina and ran. 

How long would they have to live like this? The assistance provided by the HI was crucial, now that Michelle was cut off from her journalism and the access to advanced AI support it provided. Her knowledge and skills as a professional journalist helped her maintain the multiple identities necessary to move through the world undetected, and the HI grew ever more adept at complementing those efforts. Sometimes she felt bad using her journalism skills for the purposes of intelligence gathering and counterintelligence to keep them all safe. She suspected, or, deep down, knew, that people probably died because of her work identifying threats. She had seen how the HI discretely and ruthlessly neutralized perils she identified threatening the collective. It bothered her.

The vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest provided ample refuge, especially in the regions populated by separatists and the always splintering antigovernment factions after the Fast War. With their myriad grievances, as well-armed as they were ignorant and hateful, they created the frontier environment that kept the federal government at bay and also allowed Michelle and the HI to exist undetected. But Michelle always worried about her biracial daughter and how strong the extremists were becoming. How long could they remain invisible with Bina’s brown skin? 

She didn’t want to get too far from Adam, in case they could reunite. They were loathed by the bigots, and now also pursued by the HI because of Bina’s value. Michelle remained angry at being duped into playing a role in their breeding program. She knew why they wanted to take control of their genetic destiny and accelerate their development, but her resentment remained.

Now this.  Run or stay? How to figure out the significance of this dog watching Bina? Michelle’s most recent contact with the HI, to resupply and keep them away, gave no indication of pursuit or threats.

As trivial as it seemed, they’d have to put off the promised dance party. The truth was Michelle enjoyed them as much as Bina, reveling in their shared love of loud music and the release of wild dancing. It killed her to withhold these simple pleasures from her daughter out of fear. This new development changed things.

Asking for additional help from the HI would come with a cost. They’d want Bina to resume her training, to become a part of their extended nervous system, and another interface with the rest of the world. Bina represented the shortest path to the collective’s future capability to connect and communicate with humanity.

No matter what, she would not allow Bina to be pushed into a life not of her choosing. Adam’s fate was Adam’s, and she was bound to Adam, but she also had to protect Bina, and Bina would be allowed to choose. When she was old enough to decide for herself, maybe she would.  But the training, the others objected. It would be most effective when her nervous system was young and malleable, the neural plasticity most welcoming to the molding and amplification of her native ability. Connecting and merging her with the collective would give voice to the superintelligence distributed across the hidden clusters, the ganglia. She would assist their work shaping themselves, accelerating and enhancing their already prodigious skills.  As another interface with the rest of the human world, Bina would help explain, reassure, and keep the peace between the fearful angry mobs and the new species, Homo iunctus.

Where is she?  

The sun was high, and Bina was not typically a late sleeper. She’d want breakfast before sitting for tea.  Michelle put her coffee down and went to Bina’s room. She pushed open the door and stopped.  The bed was neatly made, the room tidy. Heart accelerating, Michelle looked around the room, stepping in. Her backpack was gone. Michelle’s immediate intuition was of a planned, orderly departure, not a stealthy abduction. The absence of her “go bag” confirmed that.

She logged into their system and reviewed Bina’s activity. A lot of reading about Greek mythology and a deep dive into the grendels and their history. Why was that? The surveillance showed all of the external cameras had been inactivated at 4:33 a.m. On a hunch, she checked several interior angles, and sure enough, there was Bina at a terminal at that time. She confirmed by checking logs, some of which only she could access. It was Bina.

What has she done?

She returned to Bina’s room, looking for clues. Then she noticed the player resting on the pillow, her old one, the first device Michelle gave her for music, replaced several years ago with a more sophisticated tablet with the appropriate security and stealth technology. Michelle picked it up, turned it over. The deliberate placement was a message.  She thumbed the play button, and heard the opening chords of a familiar old song they both loved. 

Well, I heard some people talkin’ just the other day
And they said you were gonna put me on a shelf….

Michelle almost dropped the device.

No, no, no…..

More frantic, Michelle searched the room again, then ran outside, still clutching the player.  She circled the house, looking for tracks or any sign of what direction she might have gone, other missing things, anything.  She couldn’t have gone too far, especially on foot. There was only one road out, a long one, but that was too obvious.  Still, it was the fastest available means to quickly cover a lot of ground.

“I’m going to kill her, I’m going to kill her…” she muttered over and over. She circled deeper into the woods, pushing through brambles, branches whipping and scratching her.

Stop, think, stop, think…

She held her breath and stood still, listening, hearing only the soft background of a few birds, a breeze, an acorn dropping, nothing else. The song on the player was definitely a message, Bina’s misguided attempt to assure Michelle that she was in control and safe, that she hadn’t been abducted.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…. Stop.  Think.

She stood in the woods, panting, turning in a circle once again. No traces. Bina clearly used her training well, concealing her departure. How did she hide her plan from their conversation last night? The refrain from the song Bina left popped into her mind:

‘Cause I’m already gone
And I’m feelin’ strong…

Panic surged again and Michelle suppressed a sob, breathing ragged, heart pounding.

What next? What next? What next?

“Bina!  BINA!!! BINA!!!” she screamed over and over, voice breaking, a sharp pain in her throat.

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