Deserted waterline, thebolditalic.com
What happened to Hans.
“The first thing I remember was waking up half-drowned in a bag half-open and splashing in cold, shallow, stinking water in the dark beside a rotting pier. I crawled the short distance to a rocky shore and just lay there in the darkness, moaning. The world was spinning and my head in agonizing pain. After a long time, I felt two men pulling me by the arms along the shore. They took me to a hovel they’d made with a tarp under an old dock. They propped me up beside a small fire in a grill and gave me some vodka to drink. You wouldn’t believe how much it restored me. The screaming in my head went low. I was able to thank them for saving my life. They were two older men, hobos, living in this den.”
“The next few days I was barely able to crawl out and sun myself a few hours beside a decrepit wharf. There was no one around this abandoned waterfront, but I could see rows and rows of condos not a half mile away. I found out I was in Alameda. Each night they’d set out on their rounds and always return with food and more vodka. I was so weak they had to spoon feed me for a while. But each day I felt a little better, at nights at least, drinking. Each morning I woke up to raging headaches and hallucinations that prevented me from standing up.”
“These two fellows, Sam and Pete, told me they had a great life. Besides dumpster diving, they said there were a whole bunch of Goodwill drop off boxes around the condos and that every night they’d be emptied and locked up at nine. But after nine rich people would still come by and drop off all sorts of things right beside the boxes, golf clubs and clothes and TV’s, you wouldn’t believe what the rich throw out, so my friends would sneak around before dawn and collect these items for the pawn shops in Oakland. With this money, they could afford all the cigarettes and liquor and food they needed, everything a hobo could want. As I slowly got better, I even went with them on these expeditions. Then the miraculous night happened.”
“You mean the EMP blasts” Claire added.
“Yes, and my head was suddenly clear, completely cured in one instant. What a night of drinking and celebration that was. The next day we noticed there were no vehicles moving. That night we saw that the whole bay was dark. We had a good supply of food and drink, so we just spent the next few days as usual, loitering, waiting for things to return to normal, only we noticed on our excursions that there were no more drop-offs at the boxes and all the dumpsters were empty. A day later we met some people looting a hardware store. They told us we all had to leave for the central valley the next day by foot and that all our needs would be looked after. “Fine by me, I thought. That’s how I did all my traveling.”
“The next morning my partners didn’t want to leave, but I could see whole flocks of people heading to Oakland across the bridge. I thanked them one last time and headed out, joining the first group of people I ran into. What a fine summer that was. Everything was provided for, food and clothes and rooms. We moved around quite a bit, but I didn’t mind watering huge fields by hand and picking fruit all day. It was right up my alley, this kind of work. I excelled at it and people took notice. And I was full of talk, my head packed with so many new ideas. I felt a burning ambition finally to make something of my life.”
“By the time the Bay Area was restored in late fall, I’d made quite a few friends. One of them arranged for me to move into a small bungalow in San Jose. It was just assigned to me; the papers filled out in my name, the keys, my own property, my first ever. The valley was just starting to reorganize and rebuild. There were thousands of openings in tech firms and with my new gift for gab, I parlayed myself from one great job to the next, making excellent connections everywhere. I was even put on the shortlist for the first of the new wafers. The morning after I took it I looked myself in the mirror and decided I had to set out on my own. After months of intense research, patenting and meetings with investors I founded Zaptech. That was a year ago and look who I’m sitting with now.”
“By the way” he continued, “I can’t read any of you. Either you’re all unprogrammed, or you have the most fantastic new shields I don’t know of. But I do know that you, Claire, were wired up two weeks ago.”
Claire replied: “That’s one of the things we’re here to talk about. But first I have a question for you. What have you heard in your social networks about behavioral programming? I’m not talking about what’s on the news. I want the gossip.”
“There are a lot of rumors flying about” Hans began, “and I’m not sure which are true. Some are disturbing. They say there’s a chip factory in Louisiana making wafers for convicts. The government is getting rid of all prisons, saving billions. Those wafers don’t allow a person to commit a crime; it’s Clockwork Orange. One other concern among my tech friends is that long-range monitoring over all our thoughts is fast becoming a reality, not just monitoring, but manipulation. The technology is there, and the government has it. And the other disturbing news is that legislation is being proposed to make the taking of a chip mandatory, not a choice. So you know something is up when they want everyone to be under the influence.”
Claire glanced around the room at all of us to see if our worst fears had just been realized, and they had.
So Claire began for all of us, boldly. “We have the very same concerns and are forming a small group committed to preserving human dignity in these changing times. I think that everyone at this table agrees that you and perhaps many of your friends would be a welcome addition to our group. Would you consider joining us?”
‘Yes sure, of course. But do you have a plan?”
‘We have the antidote to any possible manipulation, a new chip with a radically altered design, unhackable.’
“So that’s why you contacted me. You’ll need one of my units to rid yourselves of the old chips to ingest the new” he said triumphantly.
“It’s upstairs” Claire replied sardonically.
“Wow. I can’t believe this. You people are miles ahead of the curve. I knew one was missing. I was sure of it. I almost fired two of my best assistants over that when they kept telling me everything was in order. We’ve only shipped out forty-seven to date, to institutions mostly, with another twenty ready in our warehouse. So one missing kind of stands out. I’m one hundred percent yours, me and any of my tech friends you’ll accept. Let the revolution begin.”
“We’re still in the preliminary stages” I told him. “It’s going to be a few more weeks before we take actions but if you could work on getting us the computer array set up and perhaps introduce us to some of your friends, here at the house, we can have more discussions and let you in on exactly what we have in mind for our group.”
“I’ll call my secretary right away to start ordering parts” Hans said eagerly.
His enthusiasm was quite contagious. We took him once again to the basement to show him exactly where we wanted the setup and after a drink at the bar shook hands to close the deal. The next morning there was a delivery truck in our driveway with Hans and three technicians in tow and the construction began. It took two days to complete, but in the end, Claire had her wish fulfilled. It looked like something out of a futuristic movie, the command center of a spaceship, eight large, curved screens, four at desk level and four right above comprising a sixty degree arc, and a beautiful, mahogany desk curved to the exact measurements of the screens, with two high tech leather chairs, a dual workstation, all the gear hidden underneath. Claire said this would be our new eagle’s nest, our portal into the future. She’d been talking with Hans and had up-scaled the quality of the components to the maximum money could buy. She paid for all of it. She had millions in the bank from her international work. So did Jaime and Samantha and also Naomi and Jason. I never asked into their financial affairs, but the thought now occurred to me that I might be the poorest of the lot.
Claire fell in love with this station the moment the screens flickered on. It was a love affair I felt almost embarrassed to intrude upon, so deep was her focus as she probed the net for information, two hands on two keyboards, eight screens at a time. She spent hours there every day, and I encouraged her in her new interest, telling her I was delighted to have more hours with Rollo, which I was. Lucille handled the brunt of his needs joyfully. She’d never had a son, and now, at fifty-two, she was fulfilling her almost lost dream of such a role, a surrogate mother, feeding and bathing the small boy, handling his afternoon nap, telling him stories on her lap, singing all the way to dinner time.
I’d join Claire for a few hours each morning, after my workout with Samantha. But she was light years in advance of me in researching the web. I found myself gravitating back to the garage where Samantha was pumping iron alone, as Jaime was up on the hill in his science heaven. We became much closer friends in those few weeks, talking and working out. I told her in minute detail of my healthy summer in the hills of Idaho and of how all that natural exercise restored me to sanity. She would take my hand from the machine beside me and thank me for the conversations. She told me that Jaime thought the highest in the world about me and that as his partner, our new friendship pleased her to no end.
Claire mentioned this to me one night: “Roland you spent five hours today in the garage working out with Samantha and only three with Rollo. I know I spend an inordinate amount of hours at my console, and that when I’m there, I’m lost in my world, but are you falling in love with her?”
“No, darling, not at all but I’m glad that you mentioned it. Isn’t it funny, now when we can’t read each other’s minds, we grow suspicious. Samantha and I enjoy working out together. You exercise your mind, we, our bodies. The thirty days is running out. I’m sure when we eat the new wafers we’ll all be a lot more cerebral, so this seems like the best way to spend our time right now. Jaime is my closest and oldest friend. That will never change.”
“But something is going to change” Claire began, almost reluctantly, “when we do ingest the new chips. There’s a real crisis Roland, and I’ve decided I’ve got to step up to the plate. I’m not going to take one, but many wafers, and with that, tied into this machine, I’ll be able to alter things. Would you be able to handle this change in me? I’ll be so busy I might not even seem human, hardly a mother and wife. But it has to be done for humankind, and I’m the one to do it.”
“I don’t know, Claire, it sounds dangerous. I can take care of all the rest and Rollo too. That’s why I’m here. I know you’re trying to help others. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice yourself. Our bodies and minds are fragile, and everything we put in them has an overdose limit. I’d feel much better if we researched any case where someone did ingest more than one wafer if there are any.”
“I’ll get on that tomorrow morning, on the internet. And we’ll discuss it and sleep on it a few days before we make any choices. But I do know that Hans took five after trying out his machine, and he’s doing fine. I think the best way to do it is all in one shot, like the leap of trust you lately mentioned.”
“Just include me in your decisions as much as possible, so I don’t feel left out, a bystander in my own house” I replied.
“Yes, certainly dear. We’re going to be recruiting quite a few people in the next few weeks, and I want you with me at every interview, to help judge character. And every night I promise to go over with you in detail the events of the day. You’ll be my touchstone, my anchor. Through all these crazy times you and this house, you never change. That’s something I’ve never had, continuity. But it’s what I want the most and what Rollo needs the most, a home.”
“Yes, he does. Thanks for the compliment. But consider this: with our new setup downstairs and our fifty thousand wafers in the safe, unlike before, do most of your work right here. Let the world come to us. Make this the center of our solar system. Your presence is all I crave. Stay here, and I’ll be happy, even though you’re glued to those screens downstairs, and I don’t have a clue what you’re up to. Just seeing you here in this house will give me continuity. You know what I’ve been through. Promise me this, and I’ll love you entirely. Will you agree?”
“Yes” Claire said. “I will make this our base. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s perfectly logical. This is our command center, our old eagle’s nest all over again. We have everything we need here. Let the world come to us. That’s a great idea. I used to chase around the globe after opportunities, but now the whole picture has changed from a public to a private game, a secret one. And I’ll need to stay here, to stay secret. I don’t know if I could trust myself out in the world with what I’m planning on doing. I’ll want you and Samantha and the others to be at my side, holding my hand. I’ll need all of your support.”
“How many wafers were you planning on ingesting,” I asked.
“Twenty.”
“Claire that could be suicidal? Are you crazy?”
“No, I talked to Hans. When he designed his machine he tried the prototype out on himself four months ago, and after that he called all his contacts in Silicon Valley and got hold of five wafers to re-ingest, and he is just fine, better than ever in fact. That’s what gave me the idea. I saw his mind at work, an animated engine and I think I can handle twenty. Just give me a chance. With that processing power, I’ll be light years ahead of the world, and we might just be able to win our battles.”
“Or a basket case in my arms” I said.
“At least I’ll be in your arms, and happy.”
There was no reply to that. We fell asleep.
