Veil

by Aaron Overfield

  All but the first press conferences were held in exactly the same way. The Great Widow Tsay would meet only with the head of the New Veil World press and only with one camera present. The Great Widow Tsay would read her prepared statement in its entirety without interruption.

  Afterwards, the Great Widow Tsay would take three questions, submitted ahead of time. The questions were to come from one grade school, one elementary school, and one high school. The questions were to be formulated and voted on by the student body. The schools were chosen at random, and every nation would be included. Adults were not to interfere in the process in any way.

  “Ladies, gentlemen, and children of the New Veil World, it is with a smiling heart that I come before you today to announce the passing of The Jin Experience bill. As some of you may already have heard rumored, the Tsay Trustees have crafted, from an anonymous donor, a memory of the Great Jin Tsay we believe best represents his spirit. It is with my smiling heart that I am able to share this experience with the world freely and openly.

  “The Tsay Trustees did not wish for any of you to think your cries for a memory of Jin went unheard or unappreciated. Until this donor came forward, we were at a loss to be able to provide the world with what you were so desperately wanting. As I’ve asked before, so does it still hold true: which of you would be willing to give away your memories of your beloveds lost?

  “Through The Jin Experience, I am able to give the world what it wants without losing a piece of my own Jin. I pray you will cherish this experience, and I hope it gives a glimmer into the man the Great Jin Tsay was when he was simply, Dr. Jin Tsay. He never knew he was going to change the world. He only hoped in his heart that the words of his mother and grandmother would one day ring true when they told him as a child how they knew he would grow up to create a new future for the world. Jin never saw the future he created. Jin never tasted our New Veil World.

  “Next month, on Jin Tsay Day, the usual Veil Network will be shut down for twenty-four hours. During that entire day, The Jin Experience will be continuously streamed through the vNet. Anyone can network-in at any time throughout the day and receive The Jin Experience. After Jin Tsay Day, we will continue to store The Jin Experience inside the Tsay Temple where it can be Veiled by anyone at anytime for free either in person or through the vNet. The Veil Security Number and vNet Protocol address for The Jin Experience will be all zeros. Twelve zeros total. The Jin Experience will go live from the Tsay Temple immediately following its streaming on Jin Tsay Day.

  “Thank you for your patience and understanding. I hope this news makes your heart smile as broadly as it does mine.”

  Suren ended her statement the same way she ended each of them:

  “Everything I am and everything I do is because I once loved, and will always love, a man named Jin Hosato Tsay. Please let everything you are and everything you do serve as a reflection of the love in your heart. Thank you.”

  She then answered the three questions from the school children. The first answer she gave was “orange.” They asked her favorite color. She went on to tell them it was her favorite color because it reminded her of her childhood for some reason and because when she sees the most beautiful sunsets, the sun is always bright orange. The second answer she gave was “love.” The elementary school asked her what she remembered the most about Jin. She elaborated that she remembered the feeling of being loved. She remembered how, when he was off work and could sleep in, which wasn’t very often, he would wrap his arms around her and hold her tightly while he kissed her neck. Though they might giggle at that, she said, it filled her with such a feeling of love that each instance he did so became a moment she longed for time itself to end. Finally, the third answer she gave was “you.” The high-school students asked what she thought could possibly come after Veil, what she thought was next and what was in store for the future. Suren simply smiled, looked at the camera and said “you.”

  For a month, the world buzzed. What was in The Jin Experience? Who did it come from? Did it come from the strange, new blonde-haired, heavyset man who suddenly appeared to be a part of the Tsay Trustees? The one who seemed to be living in the Old Tsay House? Who was that man? Where did he come from? How did he know the Tsay Trustees? Why did it take so long for them to create The Jin Experience? How did they create it? How are they streaming it?

  The questions were endless; the buzz was endless. Both lasted up until midnight preceding Jin Tsay Day.

  At precisely 2:12pm on Jin Tsay Day, all four vKeys began to vibrate. Ken wanted everyone to get the alert at the same time, although he knew they’d all likely be together and all likely be staring at the same computer screen for the entire day.

  “How do you shut this thing off?” Suren asked, angry and annoyed.

  “Fucking squeeze it,” Hunter yapped. He was just as annoyed as Suren, and he scowled as she fidgeted with her key.

  Suren growled and continued to fight with her vKey, which was still vibrating.

  “Here, give it to me,” Hunter snapped and reached around Ken’s back to grab it from Suren.

  “Fine, you take it,” she snapped back. Hunter snatched the device out of Suren’s hand and squeezed down on it with his thumb and index finger. It still didn’t stop vibrating.

  “Damnit,” he growled.

  Without taking his eyes off the computer monitor, Ken reached up, took the key from Hunter, squeezed it gently with two fingers and placed it on the desk in front of him. It stopped vibrating.

  “What the—” Hunter started to say, but Roy interrupted him.

  “Shhh!”

  Hunter was about to go off on Roy but suddenly noticed what everyone else in the room was staring at so intently and silently. The computer finally produced a name from the VSN it picked up from its scan for that one peak reading—the peak that resonated with Jin’s memory from the exact time he was murdered.

  Flashing beside the VSN it recorded was the name the computer obtained from the Veil Security Number database: LUNDY

  “Lundy?” came from Brock.

  “Yeah,” Hunter whispered, still staring at the screen.

  “That’s weird,” was Brock’s reply.

  “How is that weird?” Hunter peeled his eyes from the monitor to look at his friend.

  “One name? Just ‘Lundy’?”

  “Yeah, looks like it. He has one legal name.”

  “That’s weird. Lundy,” Brock repeated himself.

  “How is that weird?”

  “I don’t know. Just is,” Brock explained. “Like if you’re only going to have one name and be an assassin, shouldn’t you have a cool name? A badass one. Like Spike or Blade or Statham. ‘Lundy’ sounds like the name of a child molester.”

  “Why does everything remind you of child molesters?” Hunter half-joked.

  “I don’t know, why does everything remind you of gay dudes being all gay and having gay sex with other gay dudes?”

  Hunter raised his eyebrows and shrugged. Couldn’t argue with that, he figured.

  As she stared at the wave pattern created by the memory of Jin’s murder—the neuroelectrical frequency they intercepted—for the first time, the name of Jin’s killer slithered through Suren’s lips: “Lundy.”

  20

  ONE

  Two guards flanked him and led him, by the arms, down a long wood-paneled hallway. Their hands clamped down on his muscular triceps with equally unnecessary force. Without throwing off their synchronicity or missing a step, both guards propelled one foot forward against the solid brass kick plates at the base of the courtroom doors. The grand, lavish doors flung open and the guards escorted him through the courtroom’s main entryway. They pulled him along while they marched down the aisle—toward the chair of the Accused.

  He was shackled at the wrists and ankles, with a vertical chain used to connect those sets of restraints. The shackles on his ankles limited his walk to, at most, a slight shuffle. He could barely keep up with the guards, and it made for an awkwa
rd looking dance where most of the time they appeared to be dragging a drunkard between them. He thought the whole thing was ridiculous and only served to add theatrics. He figured that was probably what they were after.

  Who knows?

  He had never been inside a Surveil courtroom. He heard about them, read about them, seen them on TV back in the day—back when TV was still the central feature of every home. He hadn’t had the pleasure of being inside a courthouse since before the New Veil World hit. The court appeared nothing like he remembered, with noticeably fewer tables and chairs. That made sense, he supposed, because there were no lawyers in a Surveil court. There were no lawyers at all anymore. There was no need for lawyers; they served no purpose. At least there was that, he figured. At least all the fucking lawyers were gone. Hopefully, they were all dead.

  Straight ahead, facing him, stood an intimidatingly tall—almost comically so—wooden platform, crowned by an ornate gold-inlaid judge’s chair, which long ago replaced the traditional bench. The platform was adorned with the Department of Surveil Seal, displaying the Surveil Judiciary motto, “Justice Through Veil.” At the bottom of the platform, directly under the judge’s chair, was a pyramid arrangement of stadium seating for the court members. The top row contained one seat, for the court doctor; the second row contained two seats, for case Surveillors; the third contained three seats, for the press; and finally, there were the fifth and sixth rows, each consisting of six seats, for the jurors. Engraved with large block letters, each chair’s headrest read: “In Veil We Trust.”

  Isolated in the center of the courtroom and facing the platform was the chair for the Accused: an ugly, plain, wooden chair with yellowed leather straps attached to its arms and two front legs. The chair was bolted to the floor. A few paces behind that solitary chair stood the traditional court bar, which separated the rest of the courtroom from the gallery. The court’s gallery consisted of six rows of polished mahogany benches on either side of the aisle, meant for the victim’s friends and family on one side, and those of the Accused on the other. Or for a curious audience. Whoever wanted to show up.

  In Lundy’s case, there was one person seated on the side intended for the victim’s family. She was the only person in the courtroom when they entered. She was seated in the far corner of the back row. She was dressed in all black and wore a large hat, which concealed most of her face. She sat motionless, facing forward, and didn’t turn to look at Lundy as he was dragged down the aisle. Considering his extensive history and the woman’s age and demeanor, he assumed she was likely the mother of one of his supposed victims. Not that he had any victims, since he was innocent and all.

  Eh fuck it, he figured.

  That wasn’t how shit worked anymore. People didn’t get the chance to plead their innocence or guilt. In a Veiled court, there was simply no one to hide from and nothing to hide behind. If someone ended up in that solitary chair in the center of the courtroom, Surveil already knew they were guilty—case motherfucking closed.

  The guards strapped Lundy into the Accused’s chair, pulling the leather straps so taut he thought his hands and feet would quickly lose circulation. One of the guards took Lundy’s vPort deck-unit out of a small pouch; when Lundy was processed at the jail, his deck-unit was confiscated and replaced by a thick rubber retainer, as was procedure. The guard removed the rubber retainer from the vPort mount embedded in the base of Lundy’s neck, and returned the deck-unit by sliding it into the mount. Lundy could feel the pressure as the guard pushed the deck into the mount until it snapped into place. Having someone slide his deck back into the mount inside of him was the strangest sensation Lundy could imagine at that moment, and it sent a shiver up his spine. People cabled into him directly before, but no one removed or replaced the internal deck unit since his vPort was installed.

  It just felt so fucking weird.

  Lundy could then feel as the guard pressed the buttons on his vPort to initiate it and set it to receive connections. The guard plugged a cable into Lundy’s vPort; the cable spooled out of the ground from below the Accused’s chair and was used to connect the Accused to the court’s Veil Intranet. The guard intentionally used a great deal more force than was necessary to insert the cable, which violently pushed Lundy’s head downward.

  After Lundy was strapped down, his deck-unit was replaced, and he was cabled-in, the guards gave a signal and the court doctor entered the courtroom. He entered from a door beside the platform. Two Surveillors, three members of the press, and the twelve jurors followed him. They took their seats, cabled into the court’s Veil Intranet, and looked directly at the Accused. Despite his predicament, Lundy found himself somewhat amused because he knew, unless more changed than he realized, they would all be obliged to stand back up as soon as the judge emerged.

  Fucking sheep.

  Right on cue, the judge entered the courtroom, and the guards instructed everyone to rise. Everyone who could rise at least, Lundy assumed.

  “Take your seats,” Judge Mia Jacobsen directed the court, after she ascended the tall platform and plopped down into her throne. She cabled into the Veil Intranet and nodded at the guards.

  “Your Surveilship, we present to the court, the Accused: Lundy,” one of the guards announced.

  Lundy wondered how they decided which guard would be the one to do certain things. Like which one would be the one to cable-in the Accused and which one would introduce the Accused. Maybe they took turns. Maybe they played rock-paper-scissors. Maybe the faggots had a contest to see who could cum the farthest.

  Who knows?

  “Thank you,” the judge replied as Lundy smirked at his own wit. The guards turned and marched to either side of the courtroom, remaining in line with the Accused’s chair. They turned again and faced Lundy, their backs against opposite walls.

  “Doctor, your Accused,” the judge acknowledged and gestured at Lundy.

  “Yes, your Surveilship,” the court doctor responded as he rose from his seat. He descended the rows of court members, crossed the courtroom, and circled around behind Lundy. The doctor opened a slot in Lundy’s vPort and plugged in a small, red diagnostic cable. It had been so long since anyone accessed the control panel in Lundy’s port that it gave him another shiver. The doctor switched Lundy’s unit to diagnostic mode and pressed the button to connect.

  After twenty seconds of silence in the courtroom, a device in the doctor’s hand beeped and the doctor removed the cable from Lundy’s port.

  “Let the record show that the Accused’s memory is free of alteration markers, and the Accused is deemed fit to stand trial without the need for memory intervention,” the doctor declared and closed the control panel after unplugging the diagnostic cable.

  “Noted,” the judge responded as the court doctor returned to his seat.

  The judge directed the two Surveillors to Veil their testimony to the jurors and show precisely what was discovered during their Surveillance of the Accused’s involvement in the crime. After they explained in extensive detail how the Great Widow Tsay herself led them to the Accused, the judge and the twelve jurors Veiled the two Surveillors.

  While being shadowed, the Surveillors recalled all the pertinent details from the case to allow the court members to experience the investigation for themselves step-by-step. When the shadowing of the Surveillors was complete, the judge instructed the two of them to take their places on either side of the Accused. After they did so, the judge then instructed the jurors to upload their Witnesses onto the Accused, so the jury could begin shadowing Lundy and witness him committing the crime of which he was accused.

  During the Veiling of the Accused, the two Surveillors subjected Lundy to a series of questions regarding the details of his crime. The questions were designed such that if Lundy refused to answer or tried to block out his thoughts, the jury could still access those memories through Veil. When they concluded their questioning, the Surveillors returned to their seats, and the twelve Witnesses were uploaded back onto their res
pective jurors. To avoid inflicting court members with undue trauma, Veiling of an Accused was always conducted in Veiltime, and the Accused’s emotional signals were muted. That way, court members weren’t forced to live out the horror of a crime second-by-second, nor were they exposed to any corresponding emotional morbidity.

  After the jurors finished Veiling the Accused and experienced Lundy’s crime firsthand, they unanimously declared him guilty. The press was instructed to Veil the presiding juror as she reviewed the crime, the verdict, and the sentence. The sentence in Lundy’s case was Veil Atonement—as was the punishment for nearly every case inside a Veiled Court—in addition to five years of incarceration as well as permanent loss of the Right To Veil, except to undergo Veil Atonement. The jury also determined Lundy should be subjected to the Veil Atonement for that particular crime once a day for the rest of his life.

  Once Lundy’s sentence was determined, the judge excused all court members except the doctor, the guards, and the Veil Atoner—who was always chosen in advance by the victim’s family. In Lundy’s case, the Veil Atoner would be the victim’s widow. Through Veil, she would deliver onto him all her grief and suffering, so he would experience firsthand the pain and damage caused by his crime. The guards placed the vAtoner’s chair in front of Lundy, and the woman he saw as he entered the courtroom came from behind and took her seat, facing him. She had removed her stupid ass hat and he could finally see her ugly bitch face.

  One of the guards provided the vAtoner with a Universal Court vCollar and instructed her on how to put it on, because The Witness of the Accused could not be allowed to utilize her vPort. She initiated the vCollar, set it to accept incoming connections and placed it on herself. The guard then pressed the button on Lundy’s vPort to transfer The Witness of the Accused over to the vAtoner’s collar. After the transfer and as Lundy was then shadowing the vAtoner, Judge Jacobsen asked her a series of questions about the victim, their relationship, and the loss inflicted upon her by the Accused’s crime. The Veil Atoner was instructed to convey as much of her pain and grief as possible when responding to the judge’s questions.