Actuator
Page 13
“What can we do to help Marco?”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“A.M., if I can’t count on you to figure this out, where do Marco and I turn?”
“Then let’s come up with a plan together.”
“How do you think Marco will try to get in here?”
“That’s the question. Usually the fly finds its web.”
“You think the Mod is setting a trap?”
“They’ve established an actuating center outside the building, drawing in transits with food. I
suspect a job offer will follow. Transits operate elliptical machines in the basement to supply energy to the institution.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
“It’s a hard thing for a young person to learn. You were struggling to adjust.”
“He’ll be running the power I use to do my nightlies?”
“Or sweeping the hall.”
“Outside my door?”
“Among others. What better bait than love, Emmy?”
“They’ll know it’s him. They’ll do to Marco what they did to Skip.”
“They’ll have to be certain, and wait until they are. He’ll need time and a cloak of ambiguity.”
“How do we provide that?”
“How would you act if Marco was here?”
“Elated.”
“Then don’t be. You can’t let them suspect. You must make them guess and wonder. You must keep Fields and Snow busy on your chats and nightlies so I can operate counterintelligence.”
“Must I chat with Ms. Snow?”
“I know how you feel about her, but she is the only one who can slow me down. Without being obvious, you must find a way to chat with her, to distract her so I can operate counterintelligence.”
“What counterintelligence?”
“I’ll have to manipulate the institution’s fingerprint reader, their only way to confirm him. Based on Marco’s resistance to technology, I don’t imagine they’ll have a current picture of him, though they may have found an outdated one in his parents’ flat. And privacy laws prevent the Mod from operating surveillance cameras throughout City.”
“And the Mod preserves that right in here?”
“The Mod has gained much leverage by preserving privacy throughout all buildings in City. Between the privacy concession and trace, most adults remain productive. Those who don’t go transit where rules and rewards are not so clear.”
“Why are adults so motivated by trace?”
“After the actuator, adults suffered less of the ailments associated with the environmental hazard, like the bug and skin cancer, not to mention the common cold one acquires when interacting with other citizens; but many adults began to manifest new symptoms, a post-digital age syndrome. Releasing Vitamin D from LCD lighting solved many of the problems caused by inefficient exposure to sunlight. Deeper deficiencies were not so easy to solve. The cost of medical house calls grew prohibitive. A drug, long banned throughout City due to its short-term tendency to dull ambition, became a popular illegal remedy. After years of protests and calls for legalization, the Mod responded. They decided they could have the best of both worlds. After a hard day’s work, a dose of trace softens the tensions of working at one’s flat screen and reduces the residual anxiety of having abandoned so many physical things in adapting to modern life. Trace allows adults to relax, to sleep, and in dreaming, to remember what they left behind. So pleasurable is the release of those tensions, so intense and satisfying the dreams that follow, adults awake each morning (if a bit groggy) highly motivated to increase their productivity in order to earn a larger dose of trace in that night’s shipment. Wages were not always paid each evening, and parents were not always so vacant come nightfall. The Mod, counting on the lure of digital technologies designed only to work within one’s own flat, never suspected that Marco or other college students would start to slip past their dozing parents. The Mod underestimated the possibility of young outliers, convinced that old traditions only appealed to failed adults.”
“What about outside? Could they have other records of Marco besides his fingerprints from when we first started to go outside? Why would the Mod honor privacy outside if those traveling on foot would be assumed transits?”
“Based on my searches, the Mod honors privacy throughout City, whether inside or out.”
“Why would they make concessions to transits? That’s not logical.”
“It might be if we had more information. Something tells me City makes the concession, not to the transits themselves, but to the Fed. I just can’t connect the dots. For now we must assume, while the Mod doesn’t operate surveillance cameras, they do collect fingerprints. They must have Marco’s prints from when the patrol searched his parents’ home; the patrol would have handed them over to the Private that runs the institution.”
“They did that?”
“Wouldn’t you if you were the Mod?”
“I don’t want to think like the Mod.”
“Then we can’t help Marco.”
“Fine, yes, that’s what I would do.”
“So my job, Emmy, will be to scramble the fingerprint readers and keep the institution guessing.”
“Then what?”
“Facts on the ground, we’ll have to collect those and make decisions as we go.”
“We’re going to have our hands full.”
“Fuller than your bottle.”
“One more question before we get started. How did you design a self-cleaning device for the towers?”
“That little thing?”
“Yes.”
“Are you really that curious to know?”
“Yes.”
“I followed the model of a windshield wiper that cleans car windows and then added a few modifications.”
“Which were?”
“Emmy, I think we should get started on the work before us and save that discussion for a better day.”
“Goodnight, A.M.”
“No sleep for me tonight, dear.”
“Then take care.”
“You, too.”
Chapter 26
“Emmy?”
“Skip?”
“That’s me.”
“How is that possible? You’re writing from the institution’s web address.”
“I’m here.”
“You’re back?”
“I’m here for the first time.”
“First time?”
“I’m the new Skip.”
“What are talking about?”
“I’m a new student. I’m the new Skip.”
“You assumed his name?”
“I thought it’d be efficient.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, why make the institution create an additional login?”
“You’re a new student who readily took the name of a previous student who recently suffered a tragic death?”
“You could put it that way.”
“And why would someone as coldly logical as you need rehabilitation?”
“My parents thought I could do better.”
“Better than what, a robot?”
“Better than I was doing. I wasn’t performing to expectations.”
“Whose expectations?”
“Theirs, mine and the Mod’s.”
“Why would the Mod care about you?”
“My dad is high level. I’m expected to follow in his keystrokes, that sort of thing. One day I might lead the Mod.”
“They’ve said that about me.”
“I heard. They think highly of you. They think we could do excellent work together.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, Ms. Snow said if I could get you to cooperate we could even share in-room visits. She said you’re old-fashioned and might like such a thing.”
“Did she?”
“I just said that. She said it wouldn’t technically be inefficient since I’m housed right down the hall, and th
ere’d be less energy demands in us talking than chatting, a concern given that we don’t have elliptical machines in our room.”
“Why would I want to visit you when we’ve just started chatting?”
“I have something.”
“What’s that?”
“Something Ms. Snow had actuated for us to work on. She said you might like it: a kit for making a non-digital craft, a sort of relic from the pre-digital age.”
“What kind of craft?”
“A ship in a bottle, she called it.”
“A ship in a bottle?”
“Yes, the ship is miniature. The bottle is the kind people used to toss into the sea in exchanges for wishes.”
“That’s not what they did.”
“What did they do?”
“They tossed the bottle into the sea with a message so another person could find it and respond.”
“So who could find it?”
“The person who might stumble on the bottle.”
“That’s sounds illogical.”
“People weren’t doing it to satisfy logic.”
“Whatever the antiquated reasoning, the kit even includes paper sails for the boat. The boat doesn’t float or move, so it’s inferior to a digital boat, but they thought you’d like working on it. Would you like to visit me some time? Ms. Snow will arrange transport.”
“I’m just down the hall.”
“Is that a yes?”
“No, that’s a no.”
“I don’t understand the logic.”
“Well, you are the new kid. Ask me again after you’ve taken some of Ms. Snow’s nightlies.”
“Then you’ll come over?”
“No, then I’ll explain why I won’t. You might understand.”
“What about the ship in a bottle? Ms. Snow said you like storing things in old, glass bottles.”
“Did she?”
“I just said that. You’re asking questions that call for redundancy.”
“Sue me.”
“Sue what?”
“Never mind. Something I read about in a cached file.”
“So are you interested in the ship in a bottle?”
“Not so much. Bottles aren’t everything.”
“Ms. Snow thought you might say that.”
“Then why’d she have you ask?”
“I don’t know. I’m just the new student.”
Chapter 27
“Emmy, why are you chatting me? I told you we shouldn’t chat anymore.”
“I don’t know where else to turn, Liz. I don’t want A.M. to detect my fear.”
“Who is A.M.?”
“Never mind.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
“Where do I begin?”
“I don’t have time for that, Emmy.”
“For what?”
“For you to go over the whole thing.”
“Why is everyone always in a rush? My mother never video chats me because she’s always multi-tasking, my dad’s too tired to chat at all, and now you want me to get to the point.”
“People have things to do. Doing one thing at a time is inefficient. Who can afford to make you center of City?”
“Can’t they just pay attention to a person for once?”
“That’s a bit narcissistic, don’t you think?”
“Once in a while, couldn’t I ask for undivided attention?”
“Emmy, you’re the one that didn’t want to talk to me.”
“I apologize for that. You said we were once good friends, the best of friends. Can’t we remember our friendship for one night?”
“Go backwards?”
“Not backwards. Why does everyone always think I’m an affront to progress? Couldn’t the present incorporate the past; couldn’t some things survive into the future?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“So you are my friend?”
“Yes, Emmy.”
“And you’re listening?”
“Yes.”
“No music?”
“I’ll take off my headset.”
“Then can we video chat?”
“My hair is off. I haven’t done my make-up. You have my undivided attention, but let’s stick with chat.”
“Fine. What not.”
“Why are you afraid, Emmy?”
“Courage seems to waiver the closer I get to freedom.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to lose what I still have.”
“I can understand that.”
“Really?”
“I think so.”
“When? When have you felt that way?”
“Emmy, don’t do that to me. Just tell me why you are afraid. What do you still have? What might you lose?”
“Hope.”
“Hope?”
“I just said that, Liz.”
“I know you did, but I don’t understand how you’re using the term.”
“Hope keeps me going. I’ve struggled through it all because of the hope in reaching my reward. If I fail, then I’ve got nothing. What will I do without even hope?”
“You’ll become like the rest of us.”
“I thought you were going to change things?”
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I have hope for myself. By the time I change things, my life will be decided, spent. I can only hope to make the world better for the next generation.”
“Is that all one can ever do?”
“That’s all I can do.”
“Why?”
“I’m too attached to the rewards.”
“What rewards?”
“You won’t make fun of me?”
“Never again.”
“Parental approval, City approval, Mod approval. I have earned so many awards, so much admiration. Those things define me. I wouldn’t want to lose that. The only way to surpass what I’ve done in mastering the rationale is one day to improve it.”
“Maybe people do need us.”
“You and Marco?”
“Maybe.”
“Did you take a web poll?”
“I don’t want to take a poll. I’m not running for office.”
“Polls are not just a way to gain election within the Mod. Polls are an effective way to gauge what citizens want, to identify the greater good.”
“Not everyone wants the same thing.”
“You can’t speak for everyone, Emmy.”
“I don’t want to. I want to speak for those who are left out. City shouldn’t exist solely for the majority.”
“I’ll take that into consideration when I rise in the Mod.”
“In the meantime?”
“In the meantime, why you are afraid?”
“I told you. I’m afraid of losing hope. I’m so close.”
“What makes you feel close?”
“I can’t say.”
“Then how can I help? And how do you even know you’re on the cusp of some breakthrough?”
“If I wasn’t close, then why would they act threatened?”
“Threatened by you? Not Marco?”
“Why is that so hard to believe?”
“Fine. Assuming it’s true, why?”
“I can’t say for certain, but based on their actions, they seem threatened, desperate.”
“What actions? I can’t help you if you remain vague.”
“How do I avoid vagueness when they refuse transparency?”
“Transparency can be inefficient. Transparency takes up unnecessary bandwidth that could go towards making people happy via chat, video chat, emails, music and electronic books.”