Broken Pixels (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 4) by D.W. Moneypenny Page B

particular question, have you?”
    “I suppose not,” Ping said.
    Dr. Canfield pointed them down the hall and to the left. After passing several doors, she entered one labeled Diagnostics. Again she held the door and herded them through. Inside, a round smoky-gray Plexiglas table surrounded by backless chrome stools sat in the center of the room. The wall to the right appeared to be made of the same gray Plexiglas, while the one perpendicular to it—the wall opposite the door—was clear glass. When they approached it, they could see into an examination room one floor below. On a table at the center of the lower room was Cam’s headless body. Off to the side, on a raised oval platform, stood a three-dimensional transparent likeness of Cam—all of him, head and body—gesturing and talking to one of the attendants who had retrieved him from the van.
    Mara pointed into the examination room and asked, “Is he actually talking to Cam?”
    “Yes. We can generate a holographic representation of him through which he can interact with us. From Cam’s perspective, it is much less disconcerting, especially since he has been decapitated, and we have yet to retrieve his cranium,” Dr. Canfield said.
    “He was definitely disconcerted about being decapitated. He got snippy a few times while we were carrying around his head,” Sam said.
    The doctor looked appalled and said, “What?”
    Mara frowned at her brother, raised a hand to catch Dr. Canfield’s attention and said, “I’m not sure it’s possible to retrieve his cranium. I have reason to believe that it may have been destroyed.”
    The doctor looked doubtful but asked, “When did this occur?”
    “The last time I saw Cam’s head was five days ago, and I believe it was lost soon after that,” Mara said.
    Dr. Canfield walked over to the Plexiglas wall and tapped it. It lit up and displayed a row of white buttons in a line about chest high. She touched one labeled Geolocation. After rapidly choosing a series of options and dismissing several screens, she stepped from the wall and pointed to a map of downtown Portland with a red dot flashing on it.
    “We are still getting a signal from the cranium. It appears inactive, but there’s every reason to believe that it may be intact and recoverable,” she said.
    “Isn’t it possible just to fabricate a new cranium?” Mara asked.
    “Assuming you could survive if I chopped off your head, and then I gave you the option of reattaching it or growing a new one in a petri dish, which one would you choose? Cam could survive with a newly fabricated cranium, but the engrams contained in it have evolved since they were taken from his biological body. What he had become as an individual, how he has been shaped by his experiences, all would be lost.”
    “His memories would be lost?” Ping asked.
    Dr. Canfield shook her head. “No, but how he felt about them and how those feelings molded his personality would be lost.” After a short pause, she asked, “Why am I having to explain all this to you? Even a schoolkid understands the basic concepts of synthetic physiology. Who are you people?”
     

CHAPTER 9
     
     
    A soft bing ing sound filled the air, and Dr. Canfield turned toward the Plexiglas wall that she had used a few moments earlier as a computer interface. Instead of tapping on it again, she spoke to it and said, “Yes, Brett. Is something the matter?” She glanced to her right and waved to the attendant talking to Cam’s holographic image.
    A window opened on the wall, and the man’s face appeared. “I’m not sure, but I think you will want to conduct the diagnostic interview with Cameron personally. Some of the events he reports that led up to his injuries are quite extraordinary. I’m concerned that his core memory may have been damaged or inadvertently altered in some way. His account of what happened is simply incredible,” Brett said.
    “How so?” the doctor asked.
    “He claims that, during a plane