Minders Read Online Free PDF Page B

sensors, that activity is mirrored onto your mind, letting you experience it exactly the way the Subject does. That is called interperception.”
    Sadie was so entranced she had to remind herself to breathe.
    “If you’d done that fifteen years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to keep both your thoughts and your Subject’s in your mind at once during interperception. Theirs would have overridden yours, which means any kind of research or evaluation could only have happened later. But stasis changes that.” Catrina’s eyes lit up. “By freeing the mind from responsibility for your body, stasis increases your mental capacity enough so that all those impulses can be mirrored onto your brain with adequate space left over for your normal thought processes to occur simultaneously. You can not only observe, you can evaluate, and because you can remain in stasis safely for a long time, you can keep an uninterrupted link with your Subject for an extended period. Thus Syncopy—extended, conscious sessions of interperception—was born. We have only begun to explore the implications of this incredible process, but I’m among those who think it will be hailed as the most significant advance in a century.”
    A boy with dark hair spiked straight up said, “Have you ever been a Subject?”
    Catrina shook her head. “To be a Subject you must have a neuronano transmitter implanted. But Minders can’t have transmitters because they interfere with the ability to enter Syncopy. So you can either be a Subject or a Minder, but not both.”
    “Has anyone ever died during Syncopy?” the girl with the tight bun asked.
    Catrina frowned, as though the question was in poor taste, then said, “No Minder has ever died.”
    “What about—” the girl began to ask but was interrupted by Curtis’s return.
    There was something about him, Sadie thought, that made the air feel more electric. He smiled and said, “Did you explain everything, Cat?”
    Catrina gave him a look Sadie couldn’t quite fathom. It wasn’t flirtatious, although her ears had gone pink at the sound of his voice. It looked more like… relief. She said, “Yes. We’re all done with the preliminaries.”
    Curtis smiled, crooked a finger at the group, and said, “Then it must be time to get naked. Follow me.”
    • • •
    After the tour, orientation became a mix between summer camp and the most invasive physical Sadie could imagine. When Curtis had said they were going to get naked he hadn’t been joking, although Sadie learned with relief it was more the kind of nakedness that involved baring your soul rather than your skin.
    Sadie spent the next two days immersed in CAT scans, MRIs, fMRIs, electrocardiograms, radiocardiograms, blood tests, hearing tests, vision tests, and tests for strength, endurance, and respiratory health. There had also been basic self-hypnosis tips and a course on “Maintaining a Mental Notebook,” since they would have to memorize all their observations while in stasis. Sadie and Flora had been assigned as a team in an exercise the second morning of orientation, and their tension from the first day had been overpowered by the shared goal of winning.
    “Three o’clock,” Flora said as they walked away from the coffee cart near the stasis chamber. “Only an hour left of orientation.”
    Sadie blew on her coffee. “I wish we could start Syncopy tonight, without going home.”
    Flora raised an eyebrow. “Come on, don’t you want one more good makeout session with Pete?” She stopped herself. “Sorry, I forgot you only have eyes for Hot Curtis now.”
    Sadie laughed. “Speak for yourself.”
    Flora shook her head. “Catrina is more my type.”
    “I’m afraid you might not be hers,” Sadie said apologetically. “I think she and Curtis are a couple.”
    Flora waved that away. “For expediency, maybe, but not really. Trust me.”
    Sadie wasn’t sure. She’d gotten lost the previous night on her way to dinner and ended up in