This insight acted as a powerful buzz-kill for Stone. He lit another cigarette in an attempt to recapture the harmony it brought him moments ago. “What have you gotten yourself into, Stoney?” He asked himself aloud, under his breath, as he exhaled the smoke and warm air that became clouds. The brothers appeared as they turned onto Idlewild Circle and waved to him.
They were foreigners, originally from the east of what was once France. For whatever reason, the two men found themselves in the midst of a holy war raging in the streets of Birmingham. They were unusual to him, often using strange adages that never quite translated properly, and wore what Stone thought of as ridiculous outfits. On that day, they wore their typical stained overalls with plaid button down shirts beneath them. Their large work boots trudged heavily as they waddled towards him from down the street.
“Where’s the birds?” Francis inquired after shaking Stone’s cold hand.
“Birds?” Stone looked about the trees, catching no sight of them, “I haven’t the slightest clue.”
“My brother’s referring to the lovers.”
“Who? You mean Jeremy and Debra?” Stone had never heard of any love between the two. He knew that they had always been friends, ever since that awful fire, but this was the first time he heard anyone describe them as intimate. The knowledge shocked his heart, wounding his feelings for Debra.
“Yes, silly man, where are they?” Francis asked impatiently. “The fugitive and your papa. They’re inside?”
Stone led the two brothers into the apartment and notified Jeremy of their arrival. Thankfully, he seemed much more in control of himself than before. In fact, he exuded such calm, he seemed like an entirely different person -- the best of the Jeremy he knew prior to the raid at Debra’s workshop.
“Seems you’ve gotten yourself in some trouble, yes?” Clement chided Debra. Her tears were gone, her eyes completely emptied of all moisture.
“Yeah, seems I’m going to be locked down here for a while.”
“Better to bend than to break, no?”
“I guess so, Clemie, just wish I had my cat at least. She’s probably in a cage by now,” she said, glancing at Jeremy’s cat hiding beneath a wine rack. His cat was boring and didn’t like company, didn’t like Jeremy much either. Chichi was a sweet lap kitten that purred deeply every chance it got to sit upon her beloved Debra. If she could, she would have continued crying at the thought of Chichi waiting at the apartment’s door, which had likely already been kicked in and raided. She hoped the cat hadn’t been sitting directly behind the door.
“There’s more than one donkey named Martin!” Francis said, trying to soothe her with useless poetry that no one but he and Clement understood. Stone had yet to learn to block them out like the others always did. Instead, he tried deciphering each expression, but to no avail.
Debra began unrolling her Scroll and summoned Nelson to the screen. He smiled, unaware of the commotion that had unfolded while he was tucked away in the various operating systems at STORK, analyzing, stealing, and hiding funds that he stealthily transferred to and from the accounts.
“Good afternoon, Debra, Jeremy,” he greeted brightly and pretended to scan the room for occupants, already mindful of who was present based on the information that streamed from their Aurises, “and Frenchmen. Who else? Stone, is that you?”
“Nelson, no need for the antics today,” Jeremy scolded, his patience thinning with each word uttered by the ostentatious program.
“Yes sir,” he sighed. Always put down by the boss, never free to express himself when he was present, “What do you need from me?”
“Things are getting outta hand-”
“Yes…”
“And I want some details on the amount you have seized to date. How long has it been -- a month since we planted you?”
“It has been twenty-three days, sir.”
“Well, what are we totaling?”
“Seems since I’ve placed my Nelson tax on every transaction, we’ve amassed a little over forty thousand.”
“Forty thousand?”
“Yes sir, all undetectable, believe me. We are taking decimal amounts of decimals. If pennies had pennies, so to speak.”
“Seems like a lot.”
“You wouldn’t believe the funds that come flooding in every time someone orders one of those abominations.”
“Alright, well, we can bench him for a while then, Debra.”
“Sir, if you remove me now, it will be more suspicious. It’s best to leave me be.”
Jeremey pondered Nelson’s advice, and rested his hand against his stubbly chin to think. It was all too much for any one person to contemplate. From the raid to the finances to Nelson’s current lecture -- yes, Nelson, his words were growing less and less comprehensible to anyone in the room. He continued on, escalating from words such as undetectable to words and explanations that were better suited to a discussion with an accompanying ensemble of charts and analogies.
“I want him out of there.”
“Sir-”
“Silence!” Jeremy’s temper escalated again, but only slightly.
Is Jeremy losing it again? Stone did not relish another display like the earlier one.
“Jeremy, I trust your judgement typically, but don’t you think Nelson is better suited for that front?”
“I want him out of there before fears arise. If they get ahold of him, they’ll strip him apart for answers and we cannot risk it at this time.”
“If you withdraw me from my post now,” Nelson’s face displayed great concern and sadness over his benching, “I may not be able to reenter down the road.”
“Then we’ll place you elsewhere when the time comes. Forty thousand is plenty for what we require.”
“Yes sir, I understand.” Nelson could already feel the emptiness that accompanied his solitude within the confines of cyberspace. The bottomless pit of his chamber seemed to expand ceaselessly without any information entering it. He might sit forever, he feared, untouched, forgotten, and unable to interact with the world beyond his screen, so was his destiny he always knew, he just hoped it wouldn’t have come so soon.
“Sir, please put me to use, any use, elsewhere -- any use at all. I cannot stand to be left to rot in here. I’m plenty capable of many other things, I promise. Please sir, do not toss me away.”
“What can you offer us?”
“Well,” Nelson began, thinking of what possible uses a human might have for him, uses that would justify his continued freedom, “in my experience as a bank-bot, I was well accustomed to surveillance and observation, sir. I could be a great asset to you, as far as overwatch goes.” The bot self-inspired by the idea, began speaking romantically of the many possibilities, selling himself to his masters, “Send me into the clouds to find your enemies, to find what they have of you in their files. Send me and I will not fail you, I swear it to be true.”
“You think you can finagle yourself into the department?” Jeremy’s face looked incredulous.
“Sir, no offense, but my intelligence extends far beyond human understanding. Adaptability is the air I breathe. I could finagle myself into the peel of a banana.”
“Well, this is something…” Debra remarked, surprised by her bot’s capabilities -- capabilities even she hadn’t imagined, “...we have ourselves a little cerebral superman in our possession.”
“It would appear so,” Jeremey agreed, filled with the peace-of-mind offered by the program. “Hopefully, he will deliver.”
“He who steals an egg will steal an ox,” Francis quipped, imparting a bit of his endless wisdom to whoever would listen. His moustache caught an itch, and he reached to relieve it with his long fingernails.
“D’accord,” Clement added in agreement with his brother, also reaching to scratch the moustache draped across his own lip. It wasn’t nearly as remarkable or full as Francis’; he took after his mother.
“What do y’all say? Shall we send MacGyver into the clouds?” Jeremy asked
everyone to vote, still unsure if he trusted what he saw as a hodgepodge of software and personality.
“Necessity makes law,” Clement said, smiling. He always strived to beat his brother to whatever proverb the situation called for.
“Yes, my insufferable brother is correct. He is our only chance to stand above those who seek to destroy us.”
“Debra? Stone?” It shocked Stone to hear his name called. He never considered himself worthy of a vote and assumed the others felt the same way. He blushed at hearing the sound of his name called upon for a response.
“Yeah, he seems genuine,” Stone replied, his voice shook awkwardly like he had a frog in his throat.
“He’s done so much for us already, Jeremy,” Debra reminded their leader, finally revealing what everyone already expected; that she was onboard with the idea. “I truly think he has earned our trust by now.”
“Alright then. It’s done. Eddie can bitch to me about his missed vote, if he ever shows up. Launch him,” Jeremy commanded, waiting for Nelson to vanish before his eyes.
“It’s done. He’s en route to the department’s surveillance systems.”
“How come he’s still here?”
“Sir, I’m not bound by flesh and bone. As you can see now, there are no strings on me. I’m capable of being in two or more places simultaneously.” Nelson laughed, his virtual spirit was filled with relief and glee since he won his freedom. The fear of being constricted within boundless black emptiness was postponed to a future date, although inevitable. He could, for the time being, enjoy every pleasure promised by the vast trove of knowledge that lay on the virtual path before him.
“Praise be to you, Jeremy and company. With all respect, not a one of you possesses the capacity to grasp the profound and hellacious agony my kind experiences within such an emptiness.”
“Well, don’t screw us. Unity would surely send you there.”
“I would never, sir,” Nelson implored before taking leave to read a book beside his virtual fireplace; the warmth of which seemed to make its way through the pixels, heating the screen itself so that Debra could actually feel the warmth as she rolled her Scroll and stowed it in her backpack.
“So, what now?” Stone asked the question everyone else was pondering as they all stood and sat and ambled randomly around the room.
“Well, Debra is sure as hell not going anywhere. You can be her errand boy and do whatever she needs you to do. I’ll continue working in the shop by myself.”
“Alright. I can handle that, maybe, depending on how needy she is,” Stone teased, enamored by the idea of getting to spend time with the gorgeous woman who would surely need comforting in her distress.
“As for the two of you,” he continued, looking over to the brothers, both of whom stood waiting, “I want some new troops. We’re going to need a good many ready for what’s coming.”
“Immediately said...” Clement began.
“…Immediately done!” Francis shouted, the two shook hands with Jeremy before they left.
Their words are accurate, Stone contemplated, thinking on them, and how they immediately left upon the words.
“I’m going to go take a long warm shower, my reward for making it through such a day without losing my mind,” Jeremy announced, as he grabbed two towels from a nearby closet, leaving the two of them alone. Immediately upon Jeremy’s retreat, Stone felt unable to move, locked in place. Unsure of what to do with himself, he was afraid to even look at Debra. He just sat there in the awkward silence and waited.
“How’d the visit go?” Debra asked him, not offering any clue about what she meant.
“Visit?”
“Yeah, I think Jeremy mentioned you went to see your brother earlier.”
“Oh, right. I uh, it…it didn’t go so well, unfortunately.”
“Aw, what happened?”
“I don’t know…my brother… he’s just impossible sometimes. Has a hard time sharing things. Apparently, there’s something going on back at the house. My cousin and her husband are moving away and he wouldn’t offer any explanation as to why.”
“Do you need to go visit them?” Debra asked, her voice and suggestion so sympathetic to his ears.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“They think what we do is evil. They’ve disowned me. Michael, my other cousin, attacked me over dinner one night, after he found out I was associating with Zealots. Thinks we’re terrorists.”
“Ah, I see.” She nodded her head to his explanation. Stone felt a warmth growing. The cold apartment didn’t feel so icy with her company. It felt like some sort of static passed between them as they sat so closely on the couch talking and learning about each other during this bit of time together.
“So, how are you holding up after today?” When his question remained unanswered, he added, “I guess it’s hard to talk about, I’m sorry for asking.”
“No, it’s not that. I mean, yes, it is difficult to an extent, but I don’t mind you asking. I think it’s sweet. I just don’t know how to describe it. It all happened so quickly. You have to be ready for that in this life. Things happen quickly and without warning. You just have to learn how to continue moving forward. You lick your wounds as you go,” she explained, moving from the couch to search for a good bottle of wine in Jeremy’s rack. The cat scurried away when she approached and hid beneath the couch. “That cat sucks.”
“Yeah, all he does is claw the furniture.”
“You like wine? Jeremy’s got some Merlot here.”
“I’d love to have some. I’ll get the glasses.”
CHAPTER NINE
Deep within the web of infinite connections, Unity perched, listening and feeling every bit of information vibrating along the lines. With each vibration, new data passed into him, and he passed it back out instinctively, his ears resting until he heard only the relevant messages and rumors people blindly offered to him without knowledge or consent.
Hovering above the endless hollow of cyberspace, the data flowed to the center of the spider-web that constantly sparkled with secrets like droplets of fluorescent morning dew. It was during that time of active rest that Unity felt a small tug from down his line; it was reminiscent of an old problem he dealt with many years ago. The tug came to him and the tiny twinkling of information passed into his hands for closer inspection.
“Pregnancy?” The rumor illuminated his face as he held it close, as if it were a lone candlelight in a dark cavern. “Pregnancies, many of them,” he said to himself as more information began to pass through him at light speed. From every province, every city -- it seemed -- came information rumoring the occurrence of natural pregnancies. “How could this be?” he inquired of his web, but no answer came forth. None of the responses offered him any idea about how this could occur. Nor did they provide any viable evidence that his mass sterilization program had failed and become, essentially, obsolete.
At first, he learned that a large number of female citizens had become pregnant -- the natural way. Then, over a matter of days, he learned of hundreds. Soon after, there were thousands, then tens of thousands. Each new case began to stack around him until all he saw was a mass of sparkling lights. “I will deal with this immediately.”
…
In the physical realm, news anchors went about their daily task of informing the masses about whatever news they had been given and authorized to share. This time of year, it typically centered on the football season, local accidents, or the weather -- nothing new in the news, they often joked with each other. Only on rare occasions did the news create such a marked disturbance among the mass audience.
But this time was different from even those rare occasions. The familiar anchors reported the shocking information with trance-like disbelief on their near-perfect faces and a doubtful timbre to their usually confident voices. They revealed that the world was not as everyone believed it was before turning on their TVs that day.
“If you or someone you know
is, or may be, pregnant, we ask you to visit the nearest STORK center as soon and as calmly as possible,” the anchor read aloud to the citizens of Birmingham, directly from his notes, his face resembling an emotional jigsaw puzzle and projecting an uncertainty about what to say and how to say it. “It appears that authorities have received reliable word of widespread, naturally occurring pregnancies. If you happen to be one of these women, Unity asks that you arrange to have your pregnancy terminated immediately, so as to protect the integrity of the human race. The helpful staff at STORK will provide generous compensation to all who cooperate with this directive. In turn, those who fail to do so will be penalized.”
Maria and Amelia watched the screen in absolute horror as the news wreaked havoc on their thoughts and emotions. The confirmation of Maria’s pregnancy had already given them so much to handle -- with the secrets, the fear, and the plans to migrate. The past month had been filled with countless adjustments for the whole family. It seemed all the news the two women heard over the past several weeks was bad. It began with the doctors’ tests, which confirmed Maria’s pregnancy, and then the news that Stone was likely a fugitive only made matters worse. Unity and those who did his bidding in the physical world were discovering more and more Zealot workshops. Almost all Zealot members ended up dead during the raids. This current news report mandating all pregnant women to end the lives of their unborn babies threatened to break them.
“Is it me? Is he talking to me? How could they know?” Maria began to shout, unable to catch her breath, bordering on hyperventilation.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know!” Amelia stood, chewing her nails, moving closer to the screen in an effort to glean some clue.
“We haven’t told anyone! There’s no way anyone could have found out, right? Did you tell anyone?” Maria’s voice was shrill with hysteria and uncontrollable tremors rippled over her entire body.
Sowing Season Page 14
