Lock In by John Scalzi

a bottom corner apartment, tucked underneath a stairwell. There was no response when we knocked.
    “He is a Haden,” I pointed out.
    “If he’s living here he’s got a threep,” Vann said. “If he’s got a damn employee badge at Loudoun Pharma then he’s got a threep. He can answer the door.” She knocked again.
    “I’ll go around back and see if I can see in a window,” I said, after a minute.
    “Yeah, okay,” Vann said. “No, wait.” She tried the doorknob. It turned all the way.
    “You really going to do this?” I asked, looking at the doorknob.
    “The door was open,” Vann said.
    “The door was closed,” I said. “Just unlocked.”
    “Are you recording?”
    “Right now? No.”
    Vann pushed the door open. “Look, it’s open,” she said.
    “You’re just a beacon of safe constitutional practices, Vann,” I said, echoing her from earlier in the day.
    She grinned. “Come on,” she said.
    We found Karl Baer in his bedroom, a knife shoved into his brain. A threep was standing beside his cradle, knife handle in hand, flush with Baer’s temple.
    “Holy shit,” I said.
    “Go open the window blinds,” Vann said. I did what she told me. “If anyone asks, you came around the back, looked in and saw this, and that’s when we entered the apartment.”
    “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I said.
    “What’s to feel good about?” Vann asked. “Are you recording yet?”
    “No,” I said.
    “Start,” she said.
    “I’m on.”
    Vann went over to the light switch and flipped it on with her elbow. “Start mapping,” she said. She put on a pair of gloves as I did so. After I was done mapping, she went over and picked up a tablet on the side table next to Baer’s cradle and turned on the screen.
    “Shane,” she said. She turned the tablet around so I could see the screen. Jay Kearney was on it.
    “Is it a video?” I asked.
    “Yeah,” Vann said, turning the screen back to her. I walked over to her and she pressed “play.”
    On the screen Jay Kearney came to life. He was holding the tablet so that he and Karl Baer were both caught by the camera.
    “This is Karl Baer,” Kearney said. “I am speaking for myself and for my good friend Jay Kearney, with whom I am now integrated. For the past eight years I have worked at Loudoun Pharma as a geneticist, as part of a team working to reverse the effects of Haden’s syndrome.
    “When I joined Loudoun, I believed that what I was doing was right for Haden’s. None of us asked to be trapped within our bodies. I know I didn’t. I was a teenager when I got sick and all the things I loved to do were taken from me. Working to reverse the changes that Haden’s had brought into my life made sense to me. I looked forward to the chance to have that new life.
    “But as I went on I began to realize that Haden’s wasn’t some life sentence. It was just another way to live. I began to see the beauty of the world we Hadens were creating, the millions of us, in our own spaces and in our own way. And I began listening to the words of Cassandra Bell, who said that people like me, people who were working to quote-unquote cure Haden’s, were in fact killing the first new nation of humanity to come along in centuries.
    “She’s right. We are. I am. And it’s time to put a stop to it now.
    “It’s not something I could have done by myself. Fortunately my friend Jay believes as I do and believes it enough to help me. Others, who will remain nameless, helped along the way to provide us with materials and planning. And now all that needs to be done is to set it all into motion. Jay and I will do it together. And when his part is over, then I will come back here in order to join him on the next part of our journey together. I guess if you’re seeing this you know how I did this.
    “For my family and friends, I know that my actions— our actions—may not seem comprehensible. I know that there’s a chance that a few innocent people will be