Resistance Read Online Free Page B

meeting,” says Norio. “You really can’t accuse me of hiding things from you.”
    Tia laughs. “Fair enough,” she says. “And here we are, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on a nuclear class submarine. The perfect place for a boy and girl to get to know each other.”
    “Why do you have a submarine?”
    “It’s an American Navy sub. They lost it to zombies during the Trinidad infestation, 2016. I found it. Cleaned it. And then, well, I forgot to return it.”
    “Never been in one before.”
    “Finish your meal, and then we’ll go for a walk. You’ll find me in the control room. Ask for the captain.”
    * * *
    The submarine is full of Tias. Norio meets several on his way to the control room, which turns out to be quite far from his cabin – engineer Tias in stained overalls, soldier Tias watching over missile chambers, and surplus-to-requirements Tias running around the submarine in various stages of undress for no apparent reason. The control room, when he finds it, isn’t what Norio expected either – not that he knows anything about submarines, or that the rest of the sub had led him to expect something out of a World War II film, but he’d expected at least one periscope in the middle of the room. Instead, the brain of the submarine is cool and spacious, full of computer screens, a haphazard grid of monitors of different sizes, each showing a complex pattern of falling green symbols. Norio is reminded of those old
Matrix
films his brothers had been so fond of – he’d enjoyed them too, despite the clunky special effects.
    “I like to wear sunglasses and a trench coat when I sit here sometimes,” says Captain Tia, swinging around in her chair in front of the monitors. “I pretend it’s just me, saving the world from evil machines. It could happen.”
    “You look remarkably young for your age,” says Norio.
    Tia laughs, and presses a button. All around her screens flicker and change, and Norio finds himself facing hundreds of pictures and news videos of himself. Tia rolls a sleek black chair towards him, and he sits, turning, taking in the room. Tia faces the screens again, and operates a complicated system of dials and touchpads laid out in front of her. Norio has seen displays far more complicated than this, of course, but those were never about him.
    “Let’s see now. Norio Hisatomi, age twenty-five, born 1995, third son of Ryuga, head and sole architect of the resurgence of the Hisatomi Zaibatsu, and only child of Ryuga’s mistress Megumi, pop singer and occasional actress,” says Captain Tia, as dozens of screens throw up family photos Norio hasn’t seen in years. “Born in Tokyo, raised in London and Los Angeles, officially adopted by Ryuga after his mother’s death in a car accident in 2003. Poor baby.”
    “I know what my story is,” says Norio.
    “I’m not telling
you
, love,” says Captain Tia. “I’m telling her.” Norio sees, in the shadows to the far right of the monitor, a Tia in glasses and a severe black dress. She nods sharply in his direction, and gestures to Captain Tia to continue.
    “Who are you?” asks Norio.
    “Tia Prime,” she says.
    “What is that, the oldest Tia?”
    “Yes.”
    “Aren’t you all the same person?”
    “Yes.”
    “So how can you be older than the others?”
    “Every split is a new birth.”
    “How do you all keep track of who and where you are?”
    “Private social network. Pretend you’ve been kidnapped and feel less free to ask personal questions. Captain?”
    “Yes. Ryuga keeps Norio in the UK because his other two sons are scared of him.”
    “They were not scared of me,” says Norio.
    “Scared because the father was fond, and the mother was hot. Norio does exceptionally well in school but gets a bit of a rep for a violent temper. Very good at drama and photography. Visits Tokyo about once a year.”
    “Twice,” says Norio. He seems perfectly relaxed, except for his left foot, which is tapping on the metal floor with