by Brandt Legg
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Runit said. “You were right. I probably should have come with you.”
“You might be dead now if you had,” Chelle said. “I’m glad you’re here now.”
Runit suddenly remembered Nelson had been with them. “Is your brother okay?” he asked.
“He’s fine. Once we found out about Doneharvest, he decided to go and try to plead with Deuce for full support, funding, and weapons,” Chelle said.
“Isn’t Deuce helping? His people led me here.” He turned, looking for the women who’d escorted him, but they were gone.
“They were actually with PAWN. They said they were with Deuce because we figured you wouldn’t come otherwise.”
“Why didn’t they just tell me that Grandyn and you were here?”
“They didn’t know.”
A short, thin man dressed in Tekfabrik fatigues entered the room. “Chelle, it’s time to go,” he said.
“Where?” Runit asked. “Aren’t we safe here?”
“We’re not safe anywhere anymore,” she said. “You need to meet someone.”
“Who?”
“A woman I’ve only recently met, who might be able to make sense of all this for you. A woman who can answer all of your questions. They call her Munna.”
Chapter 55
Chelle led Runit and Grandyn around a winding corridor in the expansive underground PAWN facility. At one point, Runit accidentally dropped his small pack, which contained a change of clothes, a few personal items, and the copy of The Road he’d taken from his library office. He retrieved it and had to jog to catch up. Chelle was in a hurry.
“Does PAWN stand a chance against the AOI?” Runit asked.
“Why don’t you ask Munna that question? We’ll be there in a couple of hours.”
“A couple of hours? How big is this place?” Runit asked.
“Oh, she’s not here. She doesn’t like to live underground.”
“Why do we have to risk going back out there with the Doneharvest going on? I don’t have to meet Munna.”
“Munna wants to meet you,” Chelle said. “Anyway, I told you. We’re not safe anywhere. It’s better to keep moving.”
They exited the POP from a different tunnel, which opened out from a stone hatch concealed in a tiny cave on a cliff. They had to jump down off a two-meter high ledge.
They hiked hard for two hours through the damp forest without a break, constantly gaining elevation. Chelle checked their location several times on her INU. Conserving their energy, they hadn’t talked much until Runit suddenly asked, “Where are the books?”
“Deuce Lipton has about half of them,” Chelle said quietly.
“How did he get them?”
“I told him where to find them.”
“Why?”
“He’s in a better position to protect them.”
“Why doesn’t he have them all?”
“They had to do it in two trips. They got one shipment out right away, but once the Doneharvest grew so massive, it became too dangerous to risk revealing their location.”
“I talked to Deuce hours ago. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“You talked to Deuce?” Chelle asked, surprised.
“Yeah, didn’t he tell you where I’d be?”
“No, we tracked you through your INU and then commandeered your LEV through a GPS interface.”
“Why can’t the AOI track me the same way?”
“We’ve taken countermeasures. It’s complicated. I’ll put you with a tech person as soon as we get to Mexico. You’ll learn more than you ever wanted to know about surveillance.”
“Mexico?”
“I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“I’ll say,” Runit said.
Grandyn couldn’t help but laugh.
“Where are the rest of the books?”
“Down there,” she said, pointing. He could see an old barn in a meadow below them as they crested a ridge.
“Couldn’t we have driven here?” Grandyn asked.
“I wish, but it’s not safe with the Doneharvest,” Chelle replied.
“Hey, look!” Grandyn said, holding his arm up. Ahead of them, a soldier was crouched by a tree.
“It’s okay,” Chelle said. “PAWN has the whole area surrounded.
“To protect the books?” Grandyn asked, impressed.
“The books, and Munna.”
“She’s here with the books?” Runit asked.
“I’m told she insisted on it,” Chelle said, waving to the soldier, who clearly knew her on sight.
Inside the barn, Runit was relieved to see stacks of bundled books. After the horror of witnessing a million of them burning, these treasured relics, among the last of their kind, overwhelmed him, and he began to shake. Chelle touched his shoulder to steady him, but he pulled away, still upset that she had allowed Deuce to take the priceless volumes.
An old woman emerged from a corner with a book in hand. She looked older than anyone Grandyn had ever seen, even in books. Thick, powder-white hair appeared to be the only thing holding up her pale, crinkly, parchment-like skin, but her ocean-green eyes were bright and clear, and her walk, albeit with a cane, steady.
“Greetings,” Munna said in a honeyed, gravel voice. “So you’re the last librarian.” She extended a hand to Runit.
“Yes, ma’am,” Runit said self-consciously, not sure if he was in the presence of a natural fluke, a revolutionary, some kind of spiritual leader, maybe even an immortal goddess, or perhaps all of the above. He took her hand and gave it a careful shake, afraid to break the dainty thing. He was surprised by its worn, flannel-like softness.
“Please, everyone, call me Munna.”
“Okay, Munna. This is my son, Grandyn.”
She smiled at Grandyn and stared thoughtfully for a moment. Grandyn felt uncomfortable as she continued staring, as if trying to memorize his face.
Runit noticed that Munna was missing several teeth. Everyone he’d ever seen had perfect teeth because the Aylantik provided free dental care to all. Munna obviously was not enrolled in Aylantik’s mandatory Health-Circle.
“My dear, you’re trembling,” she said, turning back to Runit. “Here, take my shawl.”
“No. Thank you,” Runit said. “It’s the books. They destroyed all the others.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Back when I was young, books weren’t rare at all. They were in almost every home, and libraries stood full, even in small towns.”
“How old is she?” Grandyn whispered to Chelle.
“She was born in 1968. You do the math.”
“How can anyone live to be one hundred and thirty years old?” Grandyn whispered urgently.
“Munna, it’s not safe for you or the books to be here,” Chelle said. “The AOI may be looking for the books, and they’re definitely looking for you. Neither should be with the other.”
“Lest we make it too easy for those bureaucratic thugs.” Munna laughed.
“Yes, ma’am,” Runit said. “The author Towne Windom once said, ‘Running is sometimes the best way to fight.’”
“Did he? Well, Joseph Campbell said, ‘The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.’ Understand?” Munna smiled. She waited until he responded with an affirmative nod and then continued. “Well my friends, screw the AOI. I’m not only going to see these books, but I’m going to read some of them. Might even take a few with me. I’ve got an old library card. May I check one out?”
Runit looked at Chelle.
“You can’t keep the last great library of books boxed up in a barn,” Munna said. “We have a proper place, a safe place . . . with shelves.”
“I’m afraid no place is safe from the AOI. Their eyes are everywhere,” Chelle said.
Munna laughed. “They’ve been looking for me since before you were born. I think I’m a slightly better authority on the best way to hide something from Aylantik.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Chelle said, feeling properly admonished.
/> “It’s not all the books,” Runit said. “She gave half of them to Deuce Lipton.”
“I know she did,” Munna said, scowling momentarily at Chelle. “But no one ever had all the books, did they? Libraries of various sizes have always existed. Perhaps it’s better to keep these books separated for a while, until we restore freedom to the world.”
“Aren’t we free now?” Grandyn asked.
“Dear boy, we weren’t even free when we were free, but all we have now is a beautiful lie.”
Grandyn nodded as if he understood, but the whole thing confused him. He looked to his father. Runit was the reason Grandyn was here, the reason he’d done just about everything in his life. Even when they didn’t agree, he wanted to make him proud.
Runit caught his glance just then, and smiled that slightly crooked, sort of troubled smile that always put Grandyn at ease. There was something else too, carried in that exchange between Happermans: Runit conveyed understanding and comfort for the loss of Vida, and it felt real. It helped, because Grandyn knew, better than anyone, what his dad had been through.
“Can’t we just leave the books here?” Chelle asked.
“Look where you are Chelle,” Munna said. “We can’t leave the last books in the world stacked up in a barn like bales of hay. If it were up to you, they’d probably be piled out in a cornfield.” She shook her head. “Some place easy for that crafty Deuce Lipton to come pick up the rest of them.”
“Whatever you want,” Chelle said, leaving the barn.
Munna watched her go, and remained lost in thought for a moment before speaking. “Thank you, Runit, for all your sacrifice in saving these books. You have no idea how important this is to our cause, to humanity, to the truth.”
She spoke her words as if giving a historic speech. She seemed accustomed to using her presence to motivate crowds, to giving inspiration to a revolution. The cause, as Chelle had pointed out, was one that Runit didn’t fully understand. What little he’d gleaned from his meager knowledge of PAWN and their plight seemed to indicate these people wanted to return to some form of the pre-Banoff world. That didn’t seem like a good idea to Runit, who knew too much about how harsh those days had been with war, poverty, crime, and disease.
“A smart man like you probably knows that the word revolution contains the word love. Interesting that the computers kept those two words from English for the Com language. Love and revolution,” Munna said, knowingly.
“Kafka said, ‘All language is but a poor translation.’ Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes, I would,” Munna said, laughing. “I just knew I’d like you.” She touched his face the way a proud mother would. “Of course, love is written backwards within revolution, but that’s only to keep it hidden. That’s the secret of all great rebellions . . . love.”
“How so?” Runit asked. “What is this all about?”
“Oh my,” Munna said, as if beginning to tell a magical story to a child. “It’s about everything. If Aylantik hadn’t wasted the last hundred years on greed, we could have been somewhere so very different.”
“But is here so bad?” Runit asked. “There has always been corruption.”
“No, not always. And yes, it is so bad when one considers what can be seen through the windows to your soul. If they weren’t so interested in seeing our every move and grabbing every bit of power, they might have seen that the real power lies within.”
“So this is about religion?” Runit asked.
“Not even remotely. It’s about potential.”
“I’m sorry, but what does that mean?” Runit asked.
“I’ll show you.” She stared at him, her lips slightly parted in neither a smile nor a frown. Her already bright eyes lit with a new vitality, her thumbs moved rapidly and softly on the insides of her index fingers, and then she took in a deep breath. “You’re wondering how you can search for the books that Deuce told you about,” she said, nodding. “And, hypocritically, you’re upset with Chelle for letting Deuce take half the load. You’re afraid for your son. You’re not sure you’ll live because of what happened in Belgium. Don’t worry, I won’t bring up the part about Nelson’s indiscretion here.”
“Are you tied into the KEL?” Runit asked, unimpressed.
“No,” Chelle answered, walking back into the barn. “Munna has developed the ability to maximize her brain capacity. She’s tapped into the universal consciousness . . . and into her own cells. It’s how she’s lived so long.”
“Whoa,” Grandyn said.
Munna smiled.
Runit wasn’t sure he believed it.
Munna nodded at him. “Please come here, Runit.” She curled a bony finger. He walked over to where she stood against her cane. He noticed its carvings of unrecognizable symbols, which looked like an old, ancient language. Before he could wonder what they might mean, she beckoned him again. “Give me your ear,” she said. He stooped his ear to her mouth. “I knew Harper. She was a fine woman,” she whispered. “She deserved your devotion, even with her lapse. And you’ve kept your promise to her. Grandyn is strong. And you, dear man, are brave and true.”
Chapter 56
Drast zoomed Miner, who by now was in a penthouse hotel suite overlooking Portland. Both Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood, promised the woman at the desk, would be visible in the morning. Miner loved views, and actually felt that he owned them as personal possessions.
“I’ve just interrogated a PAWN member and confirmed her answers through brain scans,” Drast said. “Munna is real, she’s alive, and she’s one hundred and thirty years old!”
Miner stared at the image of Drast and considered telling him about Cope Lipton. The danger ate at him. Normally cool and in control, Miner felt anxious and unsure. His obsession with Deuce was giving way to his concern that the combination of Munna and Cope might overwhelm Aylantik. He’d always believed in the invincibility of the AOI, but Munna and Cope changed his perception of the prospects of war, the meaning of power, and of reality itself. “Damn,” was the only response he could manage to Drast’s news.
“The life expectancy for anyone born before the Banoff is around seventy. Everyone born as late as 2024 is already dead because of exposure to the infection. Even with the great drugs developed by PharmaForce, the elderly have weaker bodies and are more susceptible, having lived closer to the Banoff,” Drast said, telling Miner nothing he didn’t already know. “I remember when the Aylantik announced that the last person born pre-Banoff had died. I don’t think anyone has ever lived that long. How is this woman alive?”
“The question isn’t a health matter. It makes no difference how she has survived, the problem is that she remembers life before the Banoff,” Miner said.
Drast looked at him, realizing both the danger and the opportunity. “If her brain is still working right, don’t you think she’d want talk about it?”
“Only if she isn’t afraid to die.”
After the zoom, Sarlo looked at him. “Why don’t we get his help? We’re looking for three people: Munna, Cope, and Runit, now conspicuously and coincidentally missing. The AOI is the greatest surveillance apparatus in human history. Don’t you think Drast can contribute?”
“The AOI is already looking for Munna. They’ve been searching for her for decades, and until today couldn’t even prove she existed. The P-Force is on it, and with them I’m certain of loyalty and confidentiality. The AOI is too big and too easy a target for the leaching tentacles of Deuce Lipton and Blaise Cortez.”
Blaise walked into Deuce’s office in San Francisco. “Good idea, doing this in person,” he said.
“Time is short,” Deuce said. “You and I are in a position to make this right.”
“War is inevitable.”
“Damn it Blaise, why do you say that?”
“Because you know it is. Delays are merely delays.” Blaise combed his fingers through his long hair, which looked tangled from the wind.
“Maybe, but the longer we put it off, the more l
ikely something else can take hold.”
“The truth?” Blaise looked at him skeptically. “That’s a dream. Something only you believe Deuce. The truth is buried too deep beneath a mixture of lies and toxic mountains of greed.”
“We can save it.”
“Ha! You manage to save a hundred thousand dusty books, and now all of a sudden you can save the truth?” Blaise asked, manipulating the lights and symbols emanating from his INU until Deuce’s private bar opened, a drink was dispensed, and a serving-bot brought it to him. “You really should encrypt your code.”
“I do,” Deuce said, knowing Blaise knew he did.
“Oh, my talent is so large that sometimes I forget to notice my own brilliance.”
“Blaise, I know you want the truth to rule once again.”
“The truth has not ruled in eons, so saying that it will once again rule is a farce.”
“Have some courage Blaise.”
“Courage is not something a capitalist understands. It implies doing something for the right reasons. I do things in the pursuit of money, not for some moral idea, and certainly not for the greater good.”
“Then why did you come here today?”
“Because you’re the richest man in the world, and you asked. Notice the financial aspect in my reasoning?” Blaise smiled.
“You helped get those books out.”
“Purely a business proposition. I did it for the money.”
“Then why didn’t you sell them out to the AOI? That information would have been worth millions of digis.”
“Any sucker can sell information when they get it. The art is selling it when it has the most value. I’m gambling that the payday is greater down the road. Some information, if not used, expires worthless. Some, like a decent wine, gets more valuable with age.” At the same time as he spoke, Blaise manipulated a massive, floating Rubik’s Cube, this one with nine hundred lighted squares per side, with sixty shades of various colors. He’d invented it, and no one, including Blaise himself, had ever been able to complete it.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way. I need a piece of information to find its way to Lance Miner.”
