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page0087.mm
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<p>Page 87.</p>
<p>“The
equipment carried by the average modern-day soldier weighs a hundred
fifty pounds.” The Manager spread his palms. The light flooding
in the window behind him made this gesture vaguely Messianic. “That’s
your standard grunt. Start talking specialists, they’re lugging
half that again. We have equipment that could radically increase
their effectiveness that they simply can’t carry. War has
become a load-bearing exercise. A logistics puzzle. And sure, tell me
it’s never been any different. Tell me that throughout history,
battles have been won on the back of resource co-ordination. And I’ll
agree with you, Dr. Neumann, to a point. But let me say this. An army
of soldiers who run at fifty miles per hour, leap twenty feet into
the air, have an inbuilt arsenal capable of handling any contingency,
and walk through enemy fire like it’s rain—that army
would get respect.”</p>
<p>“Charlie has
some interesting spine work in the pipeline,” said Cassandra
Cautery. “I should get you an updated report.”</p>
<p>“And I’ll
tell you what else excites me. The after-sales support. Now there’s
some vendor lock-in. We outfit a military with Better Future Combat
Augmentations, they’re going to need servicing. Training.
Upgrades. They’ll live and die on our bug fixes. I mean that
literally. It’s a never-ending revenue stream.”</p>
<p>“I liked
<em>Better Future Bioreplacement Technology</em>,” said Cassandra
Cautery. “What happened to that?”</p>
<p>“Marketing.
Didn’t test as well. People are uncomfortable with the concept
of replacing. They prefer to add.”</p>
<p>“Ah.”</p>
<p>I said, “I
don’t want to be a super-soldier.”</p>
<p>Cassandra Cautery
smiled. The Manager said, “Of course you don’t! And I
don’t want you to be. You’re a thinker, Dr. Neumann. Your
role is hands-off.”</p>
<p>“So to
speak,” I said. This was a quip. I had become a bit of a
quipper, since Lola. It was becoming compulsive.</p>
<p>“What I
mean,” said the Manager, “is there’s no need to put
yourself through the QA for every Better Future Combat Augmentation.
We have people for that.”</p>
<p>I was already
shaking my head. “I don’t want to make parts for other
people. I want to rebuild myself.” Cassandra Cautery inhaled,
so I added: “And I guess you need a product at some stage. But
that’s off in the future. Right now, I’m experimenting.
On me.”</p>
<p>The Manager
scratched his ear. “The thing is, Dr. Neumann, that’s not
completely realistic. These in-house test subjects, they’re not
something I’m proposing. We’ve already begun.”</p>