The Meeting, 123rf.com
The next morning Claire and I were driving across the Hayward bridge to Silicon Valley. We’d arranged a meeting with Hans at his shop and told him to invite over his ten best candidates for our group, people with influence, CEO’s and the like who could marshal and manage scores of others under them. Around his conference table, after introductions, we all sat down, and Claire said point blank that anyone who didn’t have grave concerns that the chips in their heads could be manipulated by others, foreign or domestic powers, should leave the room right now. Nobody moved. She then stood up and pulled from her briefcase a binder of our redesigned wafers, with eleven pages in it, fifty to a side, one thousand one hundred in all. She opened it in the center of the table and flipped the pages for all to see. Everyone was duly impressed.
“With these in your heads you’ll be safe” she began, “they’re unhackable. They’re for you, your families, your friends and trusted colleagues. Each of you gets a page today. They’re the latest 200K models with no images or back doors or tricks to them, virginal processors using a language nobody knows, encrypted, with no one holding the key. Enjoy.”
“But wait” one of the four women in the group stood up and spoke, “what do you want in return? Hans told us we would be part of a secret league.”
“You will be part of our group” Claire responded, “once you erase your heads and take these new chips because we’ll all be on the same wavelength, apart from the rest of the world, safe from the storm that’s soon to come. We have no agenda yet. The war hasn’t begun.”
“Then what’s our mission?” the same woman asked.
“To preserve human dignity and life, at least in a remnant of us but hopefully to share it with many more. The current chips in people’s heads can be remotely controlled, making people human robots, serving others without the slightest clue. I know. I was a puppet master. I’m sure you all saw me in the news and the deals I arranged. Do you think that Arabs and Jews would ever sit down together signing numerous treaties and hug each other like children at the end? I was pulling all those strings. They all walked away thinking it was their deepest heart’s desire. I did this all on my own for world peace. I’ve given up those devious ways. But now governments are getting wise to such coding and capable of ruling the masses with secret prompts, using cell towers, commanding thousands to do this or that, like human drones. So we have to do something. This is the start, to protect ourselves. We’ll set up secret links on the internet so that we can all talk at length. And we have thousands and thousands more of these wafers on hand, so let's start a network and make it grow.”
Everyone stood up and applauded.
Hans rushed over to us.
“I’m going to put my head in my machine and take a few of your chips right now, and I want everyone to stay and watch, so we can see that it’s safe.”
Two others declared they would follow suit right then and there, then five others also chimed in and said they would too. It was as if the speech, like one from a great general before an ancient battle, got the blood of the soldiers boiling, enthused to a fever pitch. So we watched as one by one they cleared their heads and partook of our wafers. Hans insisted, once again, on eating five, a reckless act I told him, yet Claire was wide-eyed and curious to see if there would be any adverse reactions given her own plans. The other seven were prudent enough to ingest a single wafer. Before we parted, Claire invited Hans and everyone else to our house the next day to see how the new chips affected them and to discuss matters. It was our plan now to try our chips that night. Claire drove me home, speeding.
That evening we invited Jason and Naomi over for dinner and told them the events of the day. Then we proceeded to my office where I took out another page. I’d talked to Jaime earlier and told him about Hans and the multiple chips he took. Then I told him of Claire’s plan. We both agreed that this was insane and after talking to her and bartering back and forth like three camel traders in a desert oasis we settled that she could eat ten wafers and that the rest of us would each eat three. And that’s what we did, Claire bolting down five at a time with a large glass of water in hand. The six of us hugged each other afterward and I couldn’t resist repeating Hans’ phrase: “Let the revolution begin.”
The next morning I awoke like a lightning bolt had struck me, but wide-eyed and feeling great. Claire was not at my side. I knew where she was. I threw on some clothes and rushed to the basement where she sat in only her white bathrobe, half open, the eight screens flickering streams of images. I walked up and kissed her on the cheek. Without even turning her head she said: “Everything is fine with me and I think we’re going to succeed. The first battle we can win. I love you, Rolland. Call Mr. Tanaki in five hours when it’s dawn in Tahiti and tell him we need to start production on more of the new chips and that Jaime can fly out tomorrow. Ask Jaime and Samantha to come to me now. Also, we’ll be having a full house of guests today so ask Lucille to prepare some food. Go wake up Rollo and tell him I love him. After you feed him his oatmeal read him some Andersen fairy tales. He’s ready for all of them. Get Naomi and Jason over here. I’m sorry I don’t have more time for you, but I’m busy coding.”
And that’s what she was doing. The screens weren’t pictures and words but all ASCII code, dropping like curtains of water. And she was drinking it all in with unbelievable thirst. So much for our shared booth and dual stations. I adjusted her wardrobe without her even noticing and told her Jaime and Samantha would visit her soon. I gave her another kiss on the cheek and then finally she did turn to me, looking me straight in the face with the most intense green eyes.
“Rolland, this is going to work out for us. I feel it. I hope you’re feeling the same.”
“I do, darling. Your my angel” was my parting reply.
I shot back up the stairs, showered and shaved and dressed, and executed all her orders. Around eleven our guests began to arrive and in our large parlor we sat and chatted, all of us except Claire, still in the basement. We shared notes on how the new chips affected us, the three of the group who hadn’t ingested yesterday having done so this morning. Everyone was brim full of positive enthusiasm. Hans told us he was setting up a private room at his warehouse with ten units so that people could bring by their families and friends and be in and out of there in minutes, not hours. We were all in a high glow of hope. Then Claire appeared in her bathrobe in a somnolescent daze, almost sliding her bare feet across the tile floor as if on ice, until she stopped abruptly and gazed down upon all of us. It was an apparition that struck us profoundly, like seeing a ghost. The room was silent.
She began in a monotone voice: “I’m so glad you’re here. Who knows about transmission grids, towers, and Wi-Fi amplifiers?”
Three of our guests, like children in a first-grade classroom, raised their hands.
“Then I’d like to talk to you downstairs in a few minutes. I have some ideas about a new form of telepathy.”
Then she turned and walked away, half in a trance. When she left the room, I stood up and half embarrassed told our company: “Nobody, under any condition, eat ten wafers.”
This sight was too curious for any of us to leave alone and our whole group filed downstairs. Claire was again seated at her booth of screens in the dimly lit room and swiveled her chair to face us as we approached. She began: “I’m sorry for my behavior. I’m in a bit of a daze from all the information I’ve taken in this morning. It’s intoxicating. Remember these pass codes and sites. This is where we’ll talk.”
I felt a barrage of images strike my mind, dozens of websites and the passwords to access each one. All of us received the data. Then Claire spoke again: “I’m hoping that we’ll be able to communicate through these links telepathically, without texting, using encrypted code. I have this talent, and I’d like to spend time with each of you to help you develop it. This way our communications will be swift and secret, our private internet. Samantha, if you could talk with our new friends and set up a schedule, I’d like to spend the next five days instructing you, two at a time, here at our house, afternoons. I’ll teach you. You pass it onto others in the following weeks. Jaime, you’re flying to Tahiti. You know why. Let’s plan our expansion carefully. I want each of you to distribute at least ten chips every week, always choosing at least one out of that number who can be a team leader and join our net. He or she will become the distributor of more wafers, with the same orders. And I’ll be meeting each of these leaders. Send them here for their packages and my instructions.”
“Hans, you might have to step up the production of your units. You’re going to be getting a lot of customers. You’ll need to set up in several locations. But I’ll leave all of that in your trusted hands. Just keep it discreet. Let’s now head out and indoctrinate the Bay Area, infiltrate, educate and inoculate, the best and the brightest. But like I said, only one in ten has to be a leader. The rest of these chips are for your loved ones, your parents and children and friends, so you have no fears.”
Another spontaneous round of applause filled our dark basement. It was as if Steve Jobs had just given a rousing new launch at Apple.
While the others collected around Samantha, eagerly arranging dates for their lessons, I went straight to Claire and hugged her.
“Claire, you were magnificent. What a speech. But what’s up with you. Ten minutes ago you were a zombie and walked into our living room in your bathrobe, your chest half displayed again. Now you’re more than lucid. It has to be all those chips you ate. Are you okay?”
“I think I am. It’s such a rush of perception that’s pouring in. I’m sure it will settle down with time. I want you to know that even though I don’t look at you or say a word, I see everything you’re doing for me, every gesture, and I love you for it. Your taking care of me.”
“Trying, but it’s kind of crazy. Come upstairs with me now. You need to get dressed.”
I took her arm and guided her away. The others parted like the Red Sea did for Moses, and we made our way. I helped her shower and dress and then led her by the hand to visit Rollo next door. He’d just finished his lunch with Lucille and the three of us played in Abbott’s living room, laughing and crawling about like horses, him riding us and laughing too. That’s when I knew she was okay, a little strange perhaps but still human, as who plays ‘horses’ with a four-year-old? Only humans, or horses.
I told her no more work for the day. We spent the rest of the afternoon on our back deck while Rollo took his nap. Jason and Naomi joined us on the lawn chairs. Samantha was upstairs with Jaime, helping him pack his bags and saying goodbye. Soon they joined us.
“Jaime” I asked, “how long will another hundred thousand take?”
“Several months. But it’s all repetition. I can reprogram the computers and get things rolling, and my assistants there can churn them out. I’ll be back here in a week. I don’t want to be away from Samantha any longer. Then I’ll fly back and check on the operations and collect the goods each month, and we can keep it rolling for millions of wafers.”
“Sounds like a plan” I replied. “You’re in charge of that department. Claire can handle indoctrinations, training camp so to speak, and the overall scope of our operations. Samantha, if you could record the details of our network, the skills and locations of all our team leaders, all in your head so no spies can gain access to this information, our recording secretary if you like. Naomi and Jason, you’ll be organizers at the highest levels, and I’m sure we’ll have all sorts of important tasks and posts for your talents.”
“What about you Roland” Jaime said, “what’s your charge?”
“Taking care of Claire” I replied, “the queen bee. And I think I’ll have my hands pretty full.”
Claire laughed. “I won’t be that much of a basket case. Just drag me away from those screens in the basement every morning, after I’ve had at them for three or four hours. They’re mesmerizing. In this fresh air and sunlight I feel fine now, great in fact, loving life.”
“Well, it looks like we have a very dynamic group here. Everybody agrees. I think this movement is going to snowball like crazy soon, and we’ll all have our hands more than full. We have the chips. I’m inviting Mary and Monique and Scout over for dinner, Charlie too. We can inoculate them tonight. Naomi, do you think your mother and the Abbotts would like the procedure?”
“No Roland, they’re happy as is. Just let them be. No government is going to mess with their heads. It has nothing to gain. If something changes we’ll do it but until then, nothing.”
“You’re right Naomi. It takes a daughter’s love to see the obvious.”
