City 55

by William Pinecroft

  “Charlie, is this going to work? Because if not, let’s stop now,” Sam said finally.

  Charlie had no idea. He had these high hopes that exceeded logic. Up to a few months ago, he led a simple life that fell in line with everything expected of him. Now, he was trying to overthrow that and also take responsibility for a group of people he recently met. This was getting irresponsible, and he didn’t know if he could do it. There was a dwindling chance for success. If something happened to anyone, he would be the one to blame. Charlie shook his head, losing his conviction, ready to go back to the way the life was.

  Pam leaned into Charlie’s chest, looking up at him. “I’m glad you made me believe in something better. I can’t ever settle for less now.”

  Charlie looked over at Sam. “It has to work. We need that information.”

  “I just need to get those fat executives on board again.”

  ****

  “Interesting. This is excellent Sam. What have we done about this?” the executive asked as he read over the report Sam handed him. It was a synopsis of the work Timber’s four had done over the past couple weeks. The statistics highlighted inefficiencies within The Corporation’s headquarters in City 55.

  “Nothing sir,” Sam said.

  The executive put the folder back down on the table before removing his reading glasses. “Nothing?”

  “The initial contract was only for the analysis.”

  “Uh huh. Sam, why would I want to highlight problems only to leave them infecting our system of perfection?”

  “Sir, I’m sure you wouldn’t.”

  “Well?”

  “Sir?”

  “What do you need?”

  “Those four back and more money.”

  “Tell me when it’s fixed,” said the executive as he waved Sam off.

  The four technicians reported to Sam the following day.

  “We need real time surveillance,” Sam said.

  “Yeah, we know. Who uses this office?” one of the four asked.

  “Me.”

  “No one else?”

  “No, this is my office.”

  “You’re not going to like this,” the man continued as he pulled out a tiny device. “This thing,” he began as he held the piece between his index finger and thumb, “can access the information we need from anywhere in the network.”

  “Okay?”

  “We could find some office, connect it to the network there but someone may find it.”

  “We want to connect it to your computer here in this office, where only you have access,” one of the other technicians broke in.

  “What? How long before they detect that? How am I going to explain it?”

  “Order a new 3D printer. Make sure whatever paperwork and authorizations you have to do to add that device onto the network are completed pristinely. We have this thing imaged to reflect a 3D printer on the network. Once the authorization comes through, connect this baby,” said the first man.

  “Presto, we have our eyes and ears,” the second interjected.

  “What about the goddamn printer on my desk?” Sam asked.

  “Don’t let anyone use it,” the first technician said.

  “It won’t work,” said the second.

  “Yeah, no shit. Fine. Give me two days. Should be good to go by then.”

  The device was in place two days later, providing constant updates funneled to Timber’s terminals. From these terminals, they were passed around the world until terminating at Fred’s control room in Los Angeles. With the exception of Istanbul where The Proxy carried out its decisions, Fred’s little yoga clinic contained the greatest concentration of information the world had ever seen.

  ****

  Charlie sat in his living room across from Pam, legs folded, eyes closed. He had moved the furniture from the room. They were sitting in a circle with the 3D imaged group based out of Los Angeles. Charlie made Fred agree to limit his group of spiritual leaders to the four that joined them in Death Valley. Tensions were heightened now that there was live data streaming from The Corporation to Fred’s fishing house. Timber’s team was routing and rerouting IP addresses to alter the feed flow in order to prevent The Corporation from locating Fred, should they realize the security breach. Charlie employed Sam and Sheila as his undercover spies, monitoring employee suspicions should they crop up. The flow of information was originating from their jurisdiction within the company, giving them wind of any initial concerns. At the first hint of real concerns, Timber would shut down the feed.

  Charlie instituted amended protocols within the group due to the increased threat. Now, everyone was required to report in daily. The methods varied but all centered on approaches minimizing the chance of observation. Dan was now getting his extra miles in, relaying everyone’s status. To Charlie’s delight, Pam met with Charlie personally after she argued face-to-face meetings without a middleman were the most secure. She never failed to add a little smile and a wink when she explained this to Charlie. It drove him up the wall that she could be so calm and cool about everything.

  Charlie had also tasked Jerry to alert the group if anything suspicious originated from the legal department in the company. This was anything but foolproof, as the immediate action for The Corporation, should a security alert originate, would be to mobilize the Guardian Element and only then, provide the appropriate notifications to legal once the time sensitive portion of the operation concluded. Time sensitive portions included the arrest of probable threats to The Corporation and The Word Government, namely Charlie and his group. Although such protocols were well known, it gave some semblance of security and control over an uncontrollable situation.

  Peter was leading the meditation. They had decided meditation would lead off anytime the group congregated. Studies had shown that specific meditation geared toward concentration would have lasting effects on the individual. Additionally, this type of approach primed everyone for the actual task at hand. Once the meditation was complete, Manuel would begin the stream of information through the yoga studio. Everyone utilized the clips to observe, as Dan and Fred had done in Los Angeles. Peter continued the exercises, picking certain details for everyone to focus on. By concentrating on the same event, Fred postulated the group would be able to focus together using a sort of telepathy. Their task today was to focus on the great earthquake of 2021 that destroyed large swaths of Oakland. They were focusing on the facts from the news reports, rather than individual feelings or experiences they remembered from that moment.

  An hour into the session, Fred began refocusing to the current news that was streaming before them. Manuel read the local news stories that related to these events. Although this biased everyone, it cued the groups’ minds to what The Proxy was doing at that particular moment. The goal was to find a specific action that The Proxy was deciding upon.

  To complicate matters, The Proxy could be analyzing multiple scenarios in unison, with simpler issues taking nanoseconds to complete. Then of course, much of the details for many subjects never reached the news until well after the case closed. Fred focused on bigger debates, mainly societal issues that had come under recent scrutiny. The added benefit was that The Proxy’s actions could be compared to public opinion. Hours into this process, the group had gotten nowhere. No one could focus long enough to make sense of what was being presented.

  Charlie and Pam took a break. “You know the first time you bore witness to the streams of consciousness, you were high as a kite,” said Pam.

  “True. But we couldn’t make sense of anything,” responded Charlie.

  “How about something else? Similar effects without the scrambled brains part?” asked Pam.

  Charlie went back into his room. He pulled out his medical kit. Occasionally, he would wind up with drugs that other medics experimented with. He never partook while on the job, so he would stash them away for a more suitable time. Normally, they never saw the light of day. He dumped the twenty pills out on the kitchen table
.

  “Charlie!” exclaimed Pam.

  Charlie explained where they had all come from. He started to name off the pills, as he separated them into bunches. “These are Ambien. Here we have Dexedrine. Oh, here is… I think these are Viagra.”

  “Something you want to admit?” asked Pam.

  Charlie blushed. “Here’s Aspirin,” he went on naming off a few more.

  “Well?” Pam said.

  “Dexedrine is basically speed. It keeps you focused,” said Charlie.

  Pam nodded her head and with that, Charlie and Pam popped the two pills sitting on the kitchen table.

  Pam and Charlie resumed their conversation. Fred and the others had taken a break now as well. As they were discussing what they had witnessed with Charlie and Pam, the conversation transitioned to a back and forth between Pam and Charlie. The others ended up listening on the sidelines, trying to keep up with the pace of consciousness streaming from Charlie and Pam’s mouths.

  “Charlie?” Fred asked.

  “What?”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Is something wrong? I feel fine. Pam, are you fine?”

  “I’m great. I feel wonderful. I feel alive.”

  “Me too. Great! Fred, let’s meditate again man. We’re in the mood now. Come on man.”

  Fred agreed, although a little perplexed at what was happening to Pam and Charlie. Peter began the new session. Between instructions, Pam and Charlie could be heard describing the origins of meditation and the benefits both had recently read about.

  “Charlie!” yelled Fred. “We can’t do this with you two jabbering on.”

  “Sorry Fred,” Charlie answered.

  “Sorry Fred,” mimicked Pam.

  Peter began again as Manuel fed information into the system. Immediately, Charlie and Pam started reordering the images. The two swiped, minimized, reordered, and expanded different portions of the scene. Everyone remained perplexed as the picture unfolded before their eyes. After they were done, a single solitary strand of actions and reactions arose. The flow of information presented itself in the form of a story unfolding in reverse, visible for everyone to follow. The beginning was the decision to shut down a Middle Eastern grocer on the south side of San Francisco. From there, each person could move backwards in time, witnessing the causal events that led to this decision. Pam and Charlie would take turns, combining and rearranging other streams over and over again, displaying the repeated methods of The Proxy. The others struggled to track the rapid movements and jumps Pam and Charlie were making.

  “That was awesome,” Charlie said after Fred cut off the session.

  “I saw everything. I saw it all working,” Pam replied.

  They continued in frenzied conversation, chattering back and forth while the four others sat looking on in wonder.

  Finally, Fred had to break in. “Charlie, Pam?”

  “Yes!” they replied in unison.

  “We saw it all too,” continued Fred.

  “So you saw how it all fits together?” asked Charlie.

  “Yes we did. Now, we need to do something about it.”

  “So we send a conscious decision into the combination of subconscious reasoning,” Peter said.

  Everyone turned to look at Peter. That made sense. It seemed impossible, but the idea seemed plausible.

  “The conscious is going to carry more weight than the subconscious. At least this will be the case if these thoughts work as they would within a human brain. If you present a specific conscious direction, I think the entire standing on whatever subject may be redirected.”

  “How do we do that?” Charlie asked.

  “Grab a stream of decisions like you did before, but focus on reactionary streams that are currently happening, without a solidified conclusion,” continued Peter.

  “Okay,” said Charlie.

  “And then make a decision in opposition to the majority.”

  “Ummm?” said Pam.

  Peter began the meditation again, allowing everyone to settle into the streams of images and data that Manuel provided. Pam and Charlie had naturally started focusing on similar information by the end of the last session. It was no different this time as both rearranged what Manuel was streaming into the session.

  A petition to outlaw the ritualistic slaughter of animals presented itself. The two were able to view the majority decision, a resounding opposition to such slaughter. There was a small minority that defended the legality of such actions. This might have originated within the Jewish community, as Jewish dietary laws have strict instructions regarding the slaughtering of mammals and birds. The majority deemed these rituals as inefficient, as machines could process animals much faster. Pam and Charlie consciously decided to protect the practice of ritualistic animal slaughter. The streams of consciousness visibly morphed as Pam and Charlie forced their own wishes upon the collective.

  The group couldn’t discern the ultimate decision, or see if anything was solidified at all. They were only able to witness the active collective consciousness. Following another hour of deep meditation, the group decided to call it a night, not knowing whether they had accomplished anything of worth.

  CHAPTER 9

  DROWNING IN A GLASS BOX

  Charlie woke the next morning. He had a message waiting for him from Pam. Animals can still be slaughtered! This was the headline plastered across the news channels that morning. There were numerous experts on the morning collaborations that expressed their disapproval of such a practice. They called it inefficient and barbaric. They did not understand the cultural significance of the methods, nor the historical relevance.

  Charlie didn’t care about that. He did care that what they had done last night, worked. Whatever they had done. He wasn’t able to fall asleep for hours last night. Pam and he had stayed up dancing around his apartment until two in the morning. Because of the curfew, she had decided to spend the night. He, of course, offered his room to her while he crashed on the couch. Her note was all that remained when he rose. There was a kiss imprint in bright red on the yellow note. He pinned it to the refrigerator.

  Plans were immediately set in motion. Charlie passed the information to Dan, who then took it to Timber. Fred and his group continued the sessions, now with the added benefit of Dexedrine. Few people were sleeping, as they worked nonstop to disrupt The Proxy.

  Daily reports were being broadcast, unknowingly displaying the decisions Charlie’s hooligans were crafting. Protests and condemnation accompanied many of the news reports. Minorities across the country rejoiced, as it appeared their voices were finally being heard amongst the tyrannical democracy they had been living under for the past decade. The majority cringed as each decision challenged their idea of how society should be run. Unique ideas and practices sprouted throughout the globe. Despite the fact that these often violated laws, which had been enacted to protect the majority, Charlie and his gang ensured the offenders lived on in bliss without repercussions.

  The Guardian Elements and Judiciary were unable to act, despite direct violations of the laws, if The Proxy deemed the law to be unconstitutional or the specific grievance acceptable. Reports rolled across Jerry’s desk on a daily basis that highlighted the egregious actions being committed within The Corporation. Shortly thereafter, a decision by The Proxy deemed the laws banning such actions constitutional, giving him no choice but to ignore the complaints.

  The world was alive with change. Cultures thrived within San Francisco. City 55 was gradually witnessing a resurgence of creativity and adventure. People dared to challenge convention. Some of the majority began to perceive a positive change as well, a change they had long since forgotten. People for so long had become accustomed to doing what they were told or accepting the status quo just because it existed. No one wanted to rock the boat or challenge authority because the risk was not worth an unattainable reward. They had all lost the feeling of what it was like to wake up to the unknown. They had forgotten that free
thought and enterprise could inspire. They had become content. And contentment is a dangerous feeling. Contentment makes you grow soft and weak. A person no longer hungers for the thrill and adventure of embarking on something new. Why risk the comfort of what you have now? Charlie loved it. They were giving rise to more than he could have ever imagined.

  ****

  Dr. Helena Buscher marched by office after office in the corporate headquarters of City 21. She walked with intensity, her high heels clicking through the barren hallways that connected the different offices outside the main room housing The Proxy. She ignored everyone. She had one thing on her mind. She walked into her office located on the top level overlooking the other offices. It sat atop the Golden Horn, a source of inspiration for her during those times she needed a little boost to get her through the current day. To her, the Golden Horn represented the crossroads of so many civilizations throughout history, and the ultimate failure each had eventually faced. These civilizations had stood for hundreds of years, only to leave behind remnants of ancient religions and artwork that was now packed up somewhere beneath the surface of the city, waiting for revival should it be deemed important enough to display. No one had the heart to destroy it, so they remained in their cardboard coffins.

  Even though the people that created those past cultures had built so much, contributing to what is now the current world, Dr. Buscher could only focus on the fact that they had failed. Success was always short lived. It was finite. Her plan was not. In her eyes, this project started by her father, continued to fruition by her, was the way in which the world saved itself from itself. It would never fail. It would only improve upon itself, using the construct she had created.

  Now, something was wrong. People always complained. One could never satisfy everyone, but as long as the majority was in agreement and content, there were few concerns. Who cared about the outliers? Such could be categorized as exceptions, which were not relevant. Now, those outliers were appearing everywhere. They were happy while the majority was unhappy. This shouldn’t happen in the system… Her system.