Death Wish by Lindsey Menges Page B

calls out at my side, raising his hand to get Sloan’s attention. She nods for him to continue.
“You just said the Life Chips were the reason for our limitless life spans. How could they have died while their Chips were still okay?”
Her face becomes stony. “Because they weren’t okay,” she replies, and with a nod at Alquist the picture changes again. Now there is another picture of the Life Chip, but this time it’s accompanied with a graphic of it attached to the top of the spine. Sloan continues her explanation.
“As you are all aware, the basic function of the Life Chips is to speed cellular generation. From its position at the top of the spinal column, the Chip intercepts neural signals and modifies them slightly. Essentially, what it does is kick the regenerative properties of cells into overdrive. This means that a wound inflicted on a person without the Chip would take days to fully heal. But now, with the Chip altering the speed at which the cells heal the body, the process only takes a few moments.”
The next slide on the screen is a diagram of the human form.
“The Chip works on every single area of the body, meaning that no matter where you are injured, it tells the body to heal at an exponentially faster rate than it is capable of doing naturally.”
Another hand raises in the audience, and Sloan nods at them. This time it’s Jenny, the Godmother I waved to before the meeting started.
“Um, I’m a bit confused.” Her voice is high and nervous. “I understand how the Chip works, but something doesn’t make sense. If the Chip increases the body’s rate of healing that drastically, doesn’t that run down our bodies really quickly? I mean, I thought that organs had a certain limit to how much abuse they can take. Shouldn’t we all be dying earlier because of the Chips?”
Sloan smiles, and the image of a professor teaching a classroom comes to mind.
“That is a very good point, and it would be the case if not for the second purpose of the Life Chip.” A second purpose? I straighten up, my attention completely captured. I thought the Godparent Organization told us everything there is to know about the Chips, but apparently that’s not the case. Alquist hits the button on his keyboard again, and now a Life Chip and a team of surgeons grace the screen behind Sloan.
“In addition to increasing neural healing signals, the Chips also monitor the state of the body.”
Sloan gestures to the screen behind her.
“Each internal organ has a certain ‘lifespan’, and the Life Chip keeps an eye on that. Before the invention of the Chips, most human organs would have an average lifespan of fifty to seventy years. The older each part got, the worse they would function, and if this process was not intercepted with surgery or medication the organ would eventually fail. But since everyone has been installed with the Life Chips, this type of intervention is no longer needed. When a part of the body is nearing its expiration, be it the muscles in an arm or the person’s liver, it will send a signal to the Surgeons who work for the Security division. Upon reception of this signal, we send out a message to that individual that they need to report to the doctor for a check-up. You have all received these check-ups before, I’m sure.”
I certainly have.
“During the check-up, us Surgeons will take a new clone of the body part needed and replace the dying one with the new, healthy one. The average citizen usually only needs a check-up every ten years, but due to the nature of your profession, Godparents are more likely to have a check-up at least every two years.” I had noticed that my doctor’s appointments seemed to increase in frequency whenever I completed a particularly violent Death Wish, but I never really gave any thought to it. Sloan nods to Alquist, and he moves forward while she retreats back to the keyboard. He clears his throat and continues where she left off in a soft voice.
“What we have