by Ken Barrett
“Meet our new best friends.” Keith smirked. Two worn and weary old men sat on adjacent beds in the back corner. Both had short gray hair and grizzled faces lined with age.
Liam paused; the men did not look friendly in the least. “Well, which bed is mine?”
“Whichever you want,” one of the old men said. “I’m Joe, and that’s Eric. So, your sister’s stayin’ with the whore across the hall?”
Liam was speechless for a moment. “Lisa seems nice to me.”
“Suck it Joe. Times are tough and she’s gotta feed her young’uns.” Eric sighed and looked down.
“Sure, I guess,” Joe replied. “Y’all come down here from Flatiron City eh?”
“Yeah, we did.” Liam smiled, glad for the change in subject. “How long have you guys been here?”
“About a year; they brought us here after they attacked Pueblo,” Joe stated, referring to a city that was 70 kilometers to the south. “They took us like they did you guys; came in and wrecked the place and marched us up here ‘cos they needed workers.”
“Careful Joe, there’s ears in the room,” Eric whispered, then nodded toward a small plastic box mounted high on the wall by the door.
“Fuck it, I don’t much give a damn anymore.”
“They’ll crucify you.”
“The old bat can do whatever the fuck she wants.”
“I’m sure you’re just havin’ a bad day,” Keith said lightly. “We should turn in; gotta be fresh for our new jobs tomorrow mornin’.”
Chapter 10: Fitting In
Liam stood at the windows of his dormitory room, letting the early morning sunshine seep into his body. Summer had inevitably arrived; it was impossibly hot and thick humidity pressed relentlessly down upon the city. The air smelled like a musty armpit; and in the soggy conditions he wondered if mold was growing within his lungs.
Three months had passed since they had arrived in Pike City, and he still wasn’t used to the oppressive feel of the place. Every citizen was continually monitored, and any seditious word or act was severely punished. No one had yet questioned his false identity of Jack Jones, so for now he was safe from discovery. It was best to remain hidden and unremarkable, because anonymous but useful cogs rarely get beaten into submission or painfully executed.
Upon arriving in the city, he had tested the government’s methods by accusing Sergeant Mick of murdering ‘Liam Collins’. Then, just a few days later he watched as the man was crucified in front of the City Council Building. Mick had been an evil man and deserved to be punished for his role in the execution of Clare and the Flatiron militia. Still though, he took no satisfaction while listening to the man’s agonized screams as rats and ravens tore at his body.
The experiment was not only an interesting check of the government’s intolerance for sedition, but also a sign of what would happen when they didn’t get their way. It was apparent that the authorities wanted him to work at their Technology Center, although he couldn’t fathom why. After all, the Trappist-1 probe was the only project he had done for Pike City, and it was already complete. Whatever they were after must be important though, because they had responded with such extreme violence when they didn’t get their way.
The crucifixion had also verified that all it would take to destroy someone was a simple accusation, this was good to know because it not only acted as a warning but provided possible opportunities as well. All aspects of life can be applied to strategy at some point, and he realized that Mother’s Ears could eventually become a useful tool. There was no acrimony in what he had done to Mick, it was just an attempt to see how the city worked, and as an engineer, testing things was a large part of his job.
*****
At night their room was sticky and unpleasantly warm, and mosquitos often found their way inside, which made sleeping especially miserable. Their metal beds squeaked with even the slightest movement and the thin blankets were practically useless. Every morning they recited the Oath to Mother, making sure to be near the listening device beside the door. No one knew whether the government was checking on them, but it seemed best to not take chances. The words of the pledge didn’t matter; truth and lies are the same when spoken, a simple disturbance of the air.
Liam and his sister rarely ate breakfast; they had lost much of their appetite after arriving in the city, possibly due to the excessive heat. Oddly enough, neither of them suffered any weakening or weight loss, so they shared their uneaten meals with those they knew were in need.
Lisa’s husband had worked at the motor-pool but was killed by rebels while driving equipment south. Since then, she and her children struggled to get by on the basic rations the government supplied to the unemployed. With the additional food that Liam and Rose provided, Suzy and Sally appeared to be growing and gaining strength.
All of them had jobs in the motor-pool, and it was fairly easy work. Liam made deliveries of food and supplies to the commissaries in the area, while Keith and Rose spent their days repairing electric truck motors and recharging batteries; the city didn’t have the benefit of the advanced technology of Bob Lyall’s nuclear batteries because that research had been purchased by the Tribes. Fortunately, all of their duties placed them in positions where they could learn about the city and observe the activity within the motor-pool.
Something unusual was definitely going on somewhere far to the south. Several times a week heavily loaded trucks would leave the motor-pool and would then return empty a week later; the returning vehicles frequently showed the scars of battle. High technology computer and power systems were being taken somewhere; but where and for what purpose? Liam knew that it was dangerous to ask, but curiosity got the best of him one day. “Where are you guys going?” he asked one of the drivers.
The man gave him a warning glance and shook his head. “Careful,” he said. “There’re some things you shouldn’t ask. You get me?” Liam nodded and left the man alone. Whatever was going on down south was taking a lot of resources so it must be very important, and that made it a weakness which he might be able to exploit.
Over the following days, he spent many sleepless nights wondering what the Socialists were working on, and also remembering what they had done to Flatiron City; the destruction, the executions, and the long walk. Those painful memories made him chafe at the injustice they had suffered. He could choose to either ignore the past and make the best of the present or seek revenge; in the end he decided on the later. Fighting the government would be a dangerous business though, so he was inclined to keep his sister out of it.
One late afternoon on their walk home from work, he pulled both Rose and Keith aside in a lonely area where there didn’t seem to be any listening devices. He squatted down to retie his boots at the side of an old broken-down building. “I’ve been thinking about what the Pike City Army did to our home, and the long walk afterward,” he said cryptically. “And I’ve decided to do something about it, but it’ll be risky, so you two shouldn’t get involved.”
Keith snickered. “Do you remember who I am, and who my friends are?”
“Huh,” Liam grunted. “Yeah, I know, but I’ve also seen how the government tortures and executes people. Just be sure you know what you’re getting into before you agree.”
“I told you that I have a mission to bring this place down, and it kinda sounds like we’re after the same thing,” Keith said. “I’ve already made contacts, and got the equipment that Bob showed you how to use before we left home.”
“Ok, that’s good,” Liam replied as he started to retie his second boot. “I’ll need a safe place to make the changes to our chips though.”
“Lisa has a private spot, it’s where she takes her johns when she has to work,” Rose said.
“I don’t want to risk you being involved in this,” Liam responded.
His sister stamped her foot and frowned. “Fuck that! I’m not a shrinking violet, I’m Rose, and roses have thorns.”
*****
“It’s up here,”
Lisa whispered as she guided them down the short second floor hall and then up a seldom used stairway that led to the vacant third floor. They stepped close to the edge of each riser hoping to make less noise, but the structure creaked nonetheless. “It’s ok,” Lisa reassured them. “No one ever notices when I take customers up here, and even if they do, no one cares.”
Lisa steered them into the first apartment they came to, and Liam quickly searched for a listening device. “Looks clear,” he said. The only furniture was a ragged and stained mattress laying on the floor in the center of the room, just looking at it filled him with a sense of hopeless despair. He went to Lisa and gave her a long hug, and whispered, “I’m sorry you’ve had to do this.”
Lisa pulled away and smiled. “It’s ok Jack. I do it to feed my girls, so I don’t mind… too much.”
“Let’s see if we can do something about that,” he replied.
Keith pulled a pouch from the inner pocket of his jacket. “This is what they gave me,” he said. “Seems kinda weird, but only you can know if it’s the right stuff.”
Liam went to the nearest wall and sat down; the mattress might have been more comfortable but using it felt wrong somehow; Lisa weakly smiled at his choice. Inside the packet he found a pair of what looked like dark sunglasses that had a cute little wireless router built in; so far so good. Next, he discovered a clear plastic suction cup, and a pair of what seemed to be thick rubber gloves. He smiled. “This is perfect.”
“Looks like garbage to me,” Keith responded.
“That’s why it’s perfect,” Liam answered. “It’s all networked. I’ll put the suction cup on your hand to connect to the chip, the glasses will act like a computer screen so I can see the internal code, and the gloves work like an old-fashioned keyboard. This is everything I need.”
“If you say so,” Keith said.
“My brother is really good with computers,” Rose stated.
Keith nodded slowly. “So I’ve heard.”
“Sit down Keith, I’ll work on your chip first.”
Keith sat cross legged on the floor and extended his hand. “Guess I’m the guinea pig huh?”
Liam paused and frowned. “You know, I’ve heard that expression before but have no idea what it means. What’s a guinea pig?”
“It’s not a pig at all actually,” Rose said as she eased down beside Keith. “It’s a rodent, like a rat. They were imported from the African continent centuries ago. People sometimes used them to test drugs on.” She glanced at Keith and smiled self-consciously. “I taught history, remember?”
Keith grinned in response, and Liam wondered if the blond athletic rebel was developing feelings for his sister. It had been months since he’d seen Becky, and Keith was unsure of her loyalties anyway, so being drawn into a new relationship seemed possible.
Liam attached the suction cup to Keith’s palm, then powered the contraption up via the keyboard gloves. With the dark glasses in place the room disappeared, all he could see was the internal computer code as he watched the boot-up process. After about a minute, he began to chuckle. “Looks like a Primary School project at best,” he said.
“So, you can hack into it?” Rose asked.
“Oh yeah, no problem.” Liam began to wiggle his fingers. “Increasing your food allocation is easy, but we don’t want it to be tracked, so I’ll make a little virus that will delete your transaction once it's complete.” He chuckled again. “Whoever wrote this code was pretty brain dead.”
“And you’ll do mine too?” Lisa asked from the nearby mattress.
“Everybody gets an upgrade today; but it’s not a good idea to get all your supplies close to home. Just check out what you normally get at the commissary over on Costilla; I’ll set the code so it recognizes that location and doesn’t download the deletion virus there. To get more food, just go to a different dispensary; if we do that it’ll be really hard for anyone to figure out what we’re doing. Does everyone understand?” He heard three voices murmur yes.
He wandered through the code for another minute. “Well, isn’t that interesting; our palm chips are networked, the government’s been using them to track our movements.”
“That’s not good,” Keith said.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll add some distortion and blackout areas.” Liam chuckled. “This is actually kinda fun. Oh… look what I found, there’s something more; give me a sec.”
“My brother is in his element,” Rose said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Keith answered.
Liam wandered through the city network and was amused that it wasn’t protected with a passcode of some sort. “Keith remember this number: 27.174.293.67.3… you got that?”
“Yeah, why?”
“The local server farm has two external connections, but only one shows recent activity. We can connect to any of them through our palm chips. The number I gave you is the IP address for a remote server that hasn’t been used in a long time.”
“So? Are you gonna plant a virus or somethin’?” Keith asked.
“No, that’d be too obvious. It would get us caught and I’d prefer to put off the whole crucifixion thing as long as possible. What I’m doing right now is building a new database on the unused server. Your people can connect to the IP address I gave you, and that will open a secure line to the Tribes outside of the city. The ability to communicate is a much more powerful tool than just wrecking their network with a virus.”
“Can we get caught?” Rose asked.
“Anything’s possible, but it’s really unlikely. The local IT folks haven’t used this IP address for a long time; they won’t know to look, so they won’t find anything. I’ll also encrypt our connection; Keith, I got another number for you, 2065, you got that? It’s the encryption key; which also points away from us, because it’s the year the first commercial fusion reactor came online; if they suspect anyone, Ron will take the heat because all of his work was in the field of fusion reactors, remember?”
“Wow,” Keith mumbled. “You know, you’re one devious son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, you’re all set up. I’ll do Rose next, then Lisa, and then myself.” Liam smiled as he removed the dark glasses. “For safety and redundancy’s sake I’ll teach each of you guys how to connect to the network and send and receive messages; and Keith, you need to get this information to your contacts. Guys, this is our first step toward kicking their ass.”
“What’s your plan?” Keith asked.
“The long-game,” he replied. “I’ve seen a lot of weakness in how the government’s run, but I think the key to unwinding the whole place lies in what’s going on down south. They’re putting all their resources into whatever it is, and anything that important is a vulnerability.”
*****
On most evenings, Liam and Keith went to the Last Lantern Pub after work. The music and ale were pleasant distractions, and the place reminded them both of the Hammer and Anvil back in Flatiron. It wasn’t a good place to relax though, the pub was crowded with strangers, some of whom were probably spies working for the city government.
The Last Lantern was run by a woman named Carolyn, an exquisitely beautiful creature with long brown hair and dark enchanting eyes. She sometimes played the fiddle for the entertainment of her customers, then when other musicians were on-stage she would circulate through the room lightly chatting with everyone. One evening she sat down on the bench beside Liam. “You’re new here, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Kind of,” he answered.
“Been in the city long?”
“A few months,” he answered cautiously.
“Did you come down with all the rest from Flatiron?”
The woman was up to something. “Yeah, my feet are still sore, but Pike City’s nice,” Liam lied. “By the way, I really enjoy your fiddle playing.”
“Oh, you’re so sweet to say that,” she answered, then gently patted his thigh as she stood up to go. “I hope you’ll come by again.”
After she was gone, Keith shook his head slightly. “Be careful there.”
Liam nodded in return. Carolyn might suspect something, but only time would tell.
*****
While they were at the pub, Rose usually spent her evenings at a local hospice and medical center. The only doctor in residence was overwhelmed with work, so she helped out by comforting the sick, dispensing medicine, and doing first-aid. In her position she sometimes was able to steal vitamins, pain medication, and bandages which she brought home and gave to Lisa for her daughters. The nutritional value of the prepackaged meals was dubious, and the little girls needed all the help they could get.
One late night, Rose was waiting out in the hall when Liam and Keith got home. “Let’s talk,” she said and quietly ushered them into Lisa’s room, then urged them to sit on an unused bed in the corner. “Something interesting happened at the clinic tonight.” The children were already asleep, but before starting her story she turned toward their mother. “Lisa honey, you’ve been wonderful at keeping our secrets. We trust you, but you’re going to learn a little more tonight.”
“You guys have been so wonderful to me and my girls,” Lisa replied. “Of course you can trust me.”
Rose smiled warmly, then turned to the men. “A guard that works at the Technology Center came in tonight; he has the flu and was in a pretty bad way.” She rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling and rocked her head side to side. “I kinda flirted with him and learned some things.”
“The flu?” Lisa asked. “Aren’t you worried about getting sick? People can die from that.”
“My brother and I have great immune systems, neither of us have been sick a day in our lives,” Rose replied. “And the flu is only fatal when the patient is old or weak or doesn’t get the right care; don’t worry, your girls are in no danger.”
“Ok.” Lisa cautiously nodded.
“What did you learn?” Liam asked.
Rose turned back toward Lisa. “My brother was a scientist in Flatiron, and his real name is Liam Collins.”
