The Modest Proposal Institute: A YA Dystopian Thriller

by Paul James

Alexis had once told Shane that it was only seeing Nadia that kept him doing the interviews, meeting her in whatever city was the latest attempting to fan flames of rage against the institute. Alexis also told him that it was about this time he began to be angry with Nadia.

  Alexis said she was competent, as always. She shielded him from persistent journalists, booked him into hotels, provided the services he needed, and trained him to answer the questions her research had told her would be raised. What she didn’t do was talk to him as an adult. She wasn’t actually patronizing; she just talked to him as a teenager, which he was, and he noticed it whenever she spoke to Dean or Alexander or any of the others they met on their trips. At fourteen, he’d been too new to the world of media relations to feel offended, but as the months turned into years, he grew increasingly offended. By sixteen, he was, in his mind, an adult and a multi-millionaire. He felt he deserved equal respect. He was also beginning to understand there was more to this growing frustration than his age. He loved her and she didn’t love him.

  Shane smiled grimly at the memory of Alexis telling him all this. That Alexis had shared such thoughts with him had been a surprise. They were no longer rivals but neither were they friends. It hadn’t taken long for Shane to discover the reason for this sudden outburst of confidence. Nadia began visiting the institute properties regularly, working with Alexis and the Founders as they tried to develop better strategies to quell the growing threats of the sinking Western world. During these visits, as even Shane could see, she made it clear that, while she liked Alexis, she liked him as a younger brother—and it was also clear Alexis didn’t want to be liked that way.

  The threats, so worrying for the Founders, meant little to Shane by this time. He’d already discovered the deep ocean and decided he never wanted to return to the wider world. He mentioned his interest to his original team, Kurt and Yves, but they were now leaders of their own teams and had no interest in an undersea world either. He told himself he wasn’t unhappy about that; they’d never been anything but colleagues and allies, people he kept close to support him when needed. But now, when he did need them—both to support him in his struggle against Tomas and for help to persuade the Founders—their indifference was infuriating.

  The thought galvanized Shane into action. It was still dark when he made his way out to the beach with a long metal rod. He knew Alexis was just throwing out ideas when he’d suggested quicksand, but Shane couldn’t ignore the chance that it might be true. He certainly wasn’t getting anywhere with his surveillance of Tomas. He’d been sure Tomas would have said something by now that explained Leon’s disappearance, but the weeks went by and Tomas never even mentioned the incident.

  Shane began at one end of the beach and methodically plunged the rod into the sand as he stepped forward. There shouldn’t be a problem since the island was man-made, but things changed with time. Once he reached the rocks at the other end, he turned and came back, probing closer to the waterline. After an hour, he was sure the beach was as safe as it had ever been. Unless a hole had opened up momentarily and closed right after Leon fell in, there was no way the quicksand theory was real. Disappointed, he headed back indoors to return the rod to the metalwork shop.

  Chapter 15: The World Closing In

  Shane flipped through old interviews mindlessly, revisiting memories. He stumbled across one that reminded him of an Institute project that brought with it a whole range of new problems: their vacation resorts. Existing antagonism worsened as media and governments chose to attack the institute’s policies on even this mundane level. Shane watched as Alexis spoke evenly to the European TV host.

  Interviewer: We asked you here today to comment on the recent television documentary showing young women being informed of the resorts’ rules and even being refused bookings if they responded badly to the rules. How can you justify such behavior?

  Alexis: We have strict rules for everyone on all our properties, men and women. People need to understand the rules before they book a holiday with us. We’re no different than any other private property owner in that regard.

  Interviewer: But people go on vacation to have fun—to party. Your oppressive, restrictive rules prevent that.

  Alexis: Many people do indeed want to have the kind of fun that comes from taking drugs and getting drunk, but many people don’t. We cater to those who don’t enjoy that lifestyle. We ensure they will have the vacation they want and not the one that others want them to have.

  Interviewer: It’s more than just drink and drugs though, isn’t it? You don’t allow young people to meet or mingle without adults present, and they can’t enjoy the normal behaviors of young people in their own rooms.

  Alexis (shrugging): Our property, our rules. The filmmakers accurately described the booking process and they chose to present it as an infringement on the rights of young women, although we give the same talk to our young men before they go to the resorts. An alternate documentary could have presented the seller as clearly representing to the buyer the whole truth about the vacation they were booking. As for their rights being infringed, any young woman who wishes to enjoy those “rights” can book a holiday in any of the millions of ordinary resorts around the world.

  Interviewer: I’m sure you know that the young women who tried to book in the documentary are suing you?

  Alexis: They can sue, but our properties are on our own lands. We are not required to follow the laws of your Western nation, or any other for that matter.

  Interviewer: You won’t pay any damages they’re awarded? Lawsuits will simply build up as every young woman rejects your rules and demands they be accommodated in your resorts under the rules all civilized countries now adhere to.

  Alexis: That won’t happen. The documentary was made six months ago and, since then, we’ve stopped all bookings from the general public. There will be no more mischief-makers of the sort you find so amusing. We have too much real work to do to allow you people to distract us with your interminable nonsense.

  Interviewer: How will you lure simple young women into your sick society without bookings from the public?

  Alexis (laughing harshly): This interview started with you complaining that we offended young women by telling the truth about our resorts’ rules, and now you say we were “luring” them into our society? Your malice makes you inconsistent in your reasoning. Let me put your mind at ease: There are millions of young women today who prefer our safe, orderly society over your increasingly dangerous one, so we’ll have no trouble filling the very few spots we have available for them.”

  Interviewer: Very few? You have three resorts now—Africa, Asia, and South America. Surely, you’re talking of hundreds of rooms that won’t be filled.

  Alexis: Hundreds, yes, but not thousands. Simple word of mouth will do all we need. It was a mistake to offer the spots publicly, as we now realize. You people are destructive and dangerous to any enterprise and we shouldn’t have opened up that channel for your rage.

  Interviewer: And how can the young women foolish enough to go to one of these resorts be sure they won’t be raped by your toxically masculine men?

  Alexis: Our properties are closely monitored. There will be no opportunity for any kind of wickedness, and I use that word in its old sense.

  Interviewer: So, you understand the men you are raising are potential rapists?

  Alexis: We understand that young people will act inappropriately when aroused, both men and women, and we monitor accordingly. Our staff monitors and cameras are modern versions of the old “gooseberry,” the chaperone who escorted the daughters of well-to-do families.

  Interviewer: Most sensible people would assume your cameras are just there to watch young women naked in their rooms. Why would any woman put herself in that position?

  Alexis: Then most sensible people would be wrong. We demonstrate to our guests that their rooms are off-limits to all surveillance, but every entrance or exit to the rooms is monitored. They can sleep easy in their beds know
ing they are safe from intruders, invited or not, and from any inappropriate gaze.

  Interviewer: And they believe you? They must be mad!

  Alexis: Maybe it’s because we keep our word and our promises. We value the privacy of ourselves and others too much to allow bad behavior. Anyone in the institute who behaved like you people do daily would be thrown out, and they know it. So, they behave.

  The interview went on but the message didn’t change. Everything the institute did was wrong and a grave affront to the West’s “correct” understanding of how the world must be. The longer he watched, the more Shane found himself wanting to side with Tomas and Alexis’s growing anger.

  Chapter 16: Societal Collapse

  As Alexis was losing his desire to interact with the outside world, Alexander and Dean left the island for meetings with representatives of the American and Chinese governments with the idea of building more political support. They briefed the council somberly on their return.

  Both countries were struggling to maintain internal stability, their commitments having long outstripped their ability to pay for them and with lawlessness steadily growing. Both governments’ spokespeople said they were willing to restrain the Europeans on behalf of the institute, but both needed “help” to do that. The demands were wrapped in fine words about “investments,” “equalization payments,” and “loans,” but they wanted far more than the institute could now afford to pay.

  Word of the Founders’ news circulated widely among the institute’s members and, for the first time since Shane had arrived at the school, the horrible word “debate” was heard. The institute had always avoided debates on the grounds that all reason and deliberation disappeared once one began so that nothing could be decided. Each side in a debate only wanted to win and the skills needed to win were a mixture of those employed by stand-up comedians and snake-oil salesmen, neither being conducive to good decision-making. Now, suddenly, “debate” was everywhere on the island. Some wanted to stand and fight; many wanted to abandon the island.

  Whatever was decided, the security projects would need to provide defensive cover when the time came. The security leaders—Shane, Kurt, and Yves—were on hand along with Tomas when the council and Founders discussed the problem. In the end, the decision was made to prepare for evacuation but not to leave until a significant military force could be clearly seen arriving.

  “After all,” the council chairman said as he summed up the decision, “they haven’t even yet gotten their ships and men home from their last attempt.”

  This was true. The institute’s drones were tracking the ships as they were repaired at sea or towed back to Europe. It was still possible that the way the institute had simply brushed aside that attempted invasion would be enough to convince those on the mainland that to try again would be madness.

  “I fear,” Dean said in answer to the chairmen’s summing up, “that the EU is no longer in control of much of its territory or forces. As in any societal collapse, generals are becoming local warlords in many areas. Both recent attacks on the institute came from the Southwest Command in Spain and Portugal, an area that has suffered particularly badly since the last recession.”

  “If we are being attacked by a local warlord,” the chairman said, “surely that is to our advantage. He will have limited resources and will be reluctant to weaken them when he could be attacked by a neighboring warlord or by an EU attempt to reassert its authority.”

  Dean nodded. “I hope you’re right, but I’m still fearful. We must be ready to leave the moment we see serious trouble brewing. We can’t have people killed, theirs or ours. That would lead to serious escalation and put all our islands and lands, even the farthest ones, at risk.”

  “It shall be as you wish, Founder,” the chairman replied, and he closed the meeting.

  The decision had been made, but the nearest Institute land for them to evacuate to was the new territory leased on the western coast of southern Africa, and it was still mainly desert. The lease had only recently been signed and the spaceport’s runway was all that had been built.

  Speed was now imperative. Alexander’s construction company crews were hurriedly assembled and men and equipment flown to the area. Portable buildings, electrical generators, a nuclear submarine power plant, and desalination plants arrived to become the nucleus of the new “island.” Originally, the land was designated exclusively as one of three spaceports around the globe. Any space plane returning from the moon was to have a choice of three safe, Institute-owned landing spots located almost evenly around the earth. Now the land also needed to become a home and school for evacuees from the first island.

  The chairman, fortunately, had been correct in his forecasting. The new institute location was ready and occupied long before the anticipated trouble arrived. Though the rapidly dissolving European states were growing more chaotic with each passing day, their people fought so much among themselves and their neighbors that the weak governments had little energy left for oversea adventures. By 2027, the whole of Western Europe was a seething battleground as people struggled to hang on to what they had or acquire something more from others. Central authority slipped away unnoticed.

  It soon became clear to institute entrepreneurs, however, that the desert location provided another new opportunity: adventure vacations. These were still highly desirable to the few in the wider world who had an income. Before it was completed, the new desert resort—located next to an operating spaceport, reached only by hypersonic airliners, and complete with a beach, good diving, and snorkeling—was soon one of the most desirable adventure spots on the planet.

  Chapter 17: The Institutes Goes Underwater

  The surface world’s troubles drove Shane to begin his own escape. The first small “bubble city” left the shipyard in which it had been built and headed out to sea on a calm summer’s day in 2028. Its iceberg shape—nine-tenths of the bubble underwater—and the ungainly compromise between the shape of a ship’s hull and a bubble made it difficult to control. It wasn’t a great seagoing vessel, but that wasn’t the intent. It had only to reach its destination safely and sink onto the cradle that had been built for it on the seabed.

  The first big test, once it was in position, was to see how it submerged and resurfaced. These tests proved the design worked perfectly, and Shane was pleased to be the one to give the order for it to take up its almost permanent position below the surface. Inside the bubble, Shane and the crew watched the light of the surface grow dim as the bubble city sank. By the time it sat on its cradle and had been locked into place, the outside world was dark.

  After its placement, the three mini nuclear reactors that would provide the residents with heating, cooling, light, and power were lowered into place and connected to the bubble. Every reactor could supply the city with all its power requirements; the second and third provided safety. In the sub-zero temperatures on the dark side of the moon and the cold water of Earth’s deepest oceans, heat was vital. No colonization of these remote places was possible without nuclear power.

  The multi-layered, clear plastic walls gave those inside the bubble city a perfect view of the ocean creatures when the internal lights were turned off, as they were at the end of each day. The city’s lights were designed to mimic the light of the world above, simulating the seasons and the regular hours of daylight. For Shane, though, the best part was night, when the lights were low and he could watch the deep sea creatures move around the bubble, practically oblivious to its presence. From their view outside, the bubble was as black as the water it sat in. No light from the inside escaped to disturb the quiet of the deep.

  Shane’s first city was small, hardly bigger than a football stadium, but it proved the design and principles upon which all future cities would be built. It was soon followed by larger cities. Slowly, much of the institute’s people, farms, and factories gravitated away from the surface to these new worlds. These early cities were sited close to existing Institute islands or lands and
through that proximity had excellent communications with the wider world.

  As the principal promoter and driving force of the underwater future, Shane found himself regularly meeting with the Founders and governing council to push his agenda. They were not as enthusiastic as he was, which he put down to land-based prejudice. Despite this lack of support, Shane’s wealth meant he could buy all he material he needed, so progress continued.

  The breakthrough came when a shallow area of sea with a solid rocky bottom was surveyed and passed as suitable for development. Plans were laid out, cradles and piles sunk into the seabed, and a bubble city the size of Manhattan placed in the center. As years went by, more cities would be placed like planets around this central “sun.” The cities would be connected to each other and to the central city by tubes, enabling travel around this new “country” that was as conveniently dry as travel between cities on the surface.

  In Shane’s mind, when this underwater country was complete and he was elevated to a Founder, the city would be the institute’s capital on Earth. Alexis could have space—that empty, cold, dry, desolate region far beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Here on the seabed, mankind would reign serenely, in harmony with nature, while humans on the surface returned to the state of nature that had prevailed before the invention of agriculture.

  He wasn’t so starry-eyed that he couldn’t see the Achilles’ heel in his brave new world—one that couldn’t be easily overcome. The bubble cities had to be built on the world’s surface. There was no other way to do it, and that made them vulnerable. The cities were visible when being built and, if they were seen, they would give away the institute’s new undersea location. To reduce this risk, Shane had a remote island converted for bubble building. This prevented them from being seen by most people, but satellites and ships could still see and take the news back to the world. In Shane’s mind, the moment the world was too far gone to notice, he’d have the space program destroy all the world’s satellites.