The Handbook

by Jim Benton

  “Since you asked, Maggie, my dear: No, I’m not worried about you telling people anything.”

  The doors opened wide into an enormous conference room, three walls of which were covered with monitors. The fourth wall was a large darkened window that looked down on a street. Maggie thought she recognized the area but couldn’t tell exactly where they were.

  Jack’s parents were there in the room, sitting next to Jen and Mike’s dad. Maggie’s parents stood up when they saw her.

  “MAGGIE!” her mom called out, and a pair of agents quickly made certain they stayed seated.

  “Are you okay, Maggie?” her dad said, and her mom started crying.

  “I’m fine. Where’s Sean?” she asked. Then, noticing Jack’s little sister wasn’t there, she said, “And where’s Jessica?”

  The Supervisor smiled and directed Maggie to a seat next to her mother.

  “You see that?” the Supervisor said. “Your Maggie is looking out for the youngest ones. You can’t teach that. She has the instincts,” he said. “She’ll make a terrific little mommy one day.”

  Maggie was annoyed at the Supervisor’s praise. “Where are they?” she demanded.

  Jack’s dad said, “They’re at a Chuck E. Cheese’s with Mike’s mom. They think it’s one of their friends’ birthdays. They’re okay.”

  “But we saw the scorch marks on the wall. Didn’t they abduct you all?”

  “We convinced the kids that it was a game,” he said. “The Handbook is pretty good at stuff like that.”

  The door opened and Agent Washington, along with two others, brought in Mike. He was handcuffed, his feet were chained, and they had some sort of gag locked over his mouth. He was fighting them every inch of the way.

  “Where’s Jack?” Maggie asked.

  “Oh, he’ll be along,” the Supervisor said, chuckling. “He’s pretty clever, that Jack. He used some stuff from the book and actually talked his way out of his cell. Can you believe it? He persuaded the guard and nurse to set him free. That book is pretty powerful stuff.”

  The Supervisor pressed a few buttons and looked up at a monitor that was playing a recording from security cameras. There was no sound, but they saw Jack walking down the hallways, explaining something to the guard and nurse, who were nodding in agreement and following behind him like puppies.

  The Supervisor snickered and took a long drink of coffee. His voice was suddenly a bit less jolly. “Well, you kids know that already.”

  “He’ll get away,” Maggie said with a defiant smile. “You’ll never catch him.”

  The door opened and two agents walked in with Jack and guided him to a chair.

  “It’s powerful stuff,” the Supervisor said, “but it’s really only effective when you don’t know it’s being used on you. Once you know what somebody is doing, it doesn’t work very well. The nurse and guard weren’t prepared for Jack to break out a strategy on them. More experienced guards caught him at the front exit.”

  Mike started mumbling something from underneath his gag, and his dad spoke up.

  “Can’t you take that thing off him?”

  “Maybe,” one of the agents said angrily to Mike. “Are you going to be a good boy if we release you?”

  Mike nodded. “Okay,” he said, his voice muffled underneath the gag.

  “And NO biting,” Agent Washington added, his face decorated with three Band-Aids.

  “Those were ninja-karate-face-bites,” Mike said as they removed his gag and the rest of his restraints.

  They escorted him to a seat next to his parents, and his dad hugged him so hard he couldn’t breathe.

  The Supervisor took a seat at one end of the table, and a door opened slowly behind the large seat at the other end of the table.

  “I’d like you all to meet the head of our operation, Big Mother,” he said.

  Big Mother closed the door behind her and looked around the room. She wasn’t very old, or big, and Jack thought there was something very familiar about her.

  “Hello, everyone,” she said. Her voice was soft and friendly. “Quite an adventure we’ve had, don’t you think?”

  The door opened and Mr. Wallace walked in, escorted by an agent.

  “Ah. Mr. Wallace. Mostly your fault we’re even here today, isn’t it?” she said, irritated.

  “Yes, but I did help recover it. I did clean up after myself, Big Mother.”

  Big Mother bowed her head and closed her eyes, repeating the phrase almost like a prayer. “Clean Up After Yourself.”

  The agents and the Supervisor quietly whispered it as well. “Clean Up After Yourself,” they chanted softly.

  “Yes, Mr. Wallace, you did. And you’re very lucky that Mr. Dooley here reported the suspicious behavior. It could have been worse if it had gone on longer.”

  Maggie’s head spun around to confront her dad.

  “YOU reported us? Dad? YOU did this?”

  His eyes filled with tears.

  “Maggie, I had no idea that this is how they handled things. They tell us to report stuff, for your safety. You have to believe me, Mags, I didn’t know.”

  “Maggie, sweetheart,” Big Mother said to her, “if it makes you feel any better, we picked up the first piece of information in a phone call that we intercepted placed by Mr. Wallace. Your dad just confirmed it.”

  Maggie did feel a little better.

  “Because we’ve contained the leak, you won’t be punished, Mr. Wallace,” Big Mother said in a tone resembling a judge’s. “This agent will take you downstairs to fill out the paperwork and then you can go. Florida, right? Maybe I could visit you sometime?”

  “I’d like that,” he said, thinking how much he wouldn’t like that. “Thank you, Big Mother.”

  The agent escorted Mr. Wallace out. As the door closed, Big Mother pressed a button on her intercom.

  “Mr. Wallace won’t be leaving the building,” she said. “Please have him shipped to a correctional retirement facility in the morning.”

  Big Mother turned her big blue eyes toward Jack and Maggie and Mike.

  “And you three rascals … ,” she said with a little laugh and a playful wag of her finger. “You three scamps read the Handbook, didn’t you?”

  Mike had been punished enough times to know where this was going. He put his hands on the edge of the table and pushed back, ever so slightly. Behind him, he heard two agents activate their immobilizers. His escape plan was not going to be possible.

  Big Mother stood up. The meeting, as far as she was concerned, was over.

  “You three will be going to a reprogramming facility in Antarctica, where we will try to erase your memory of the book and its contents. You could be out in as little as four years.”

  “Where do you get the authority?” Maggie’s mom demanded.

  Big Mother took a sip from her coffee. “Mrs. Dooley, the Parents Agency has been around for a very long time. We’re in many countries, and we have representation in most branches of the government. The Supervisor and I were recognized for our outstanding abilities as parents and were appointed to the positions we now hold. So we don’t actually need to ‘get’ the authority from anybody. We are the authority.”

  The Supervisor cleared his throat.

  “Getting back on track here. It takes more like five years to reprogram the old way,” the Supervisor said. “But maybe only three if we use the medicine.”

  “Three to five years, then,” Big Mother said, dismissively waving her hand. “We’ll work it out of your little heads as quickly as we can, and you’ll remain there until we no longer view you as a threat to the operation.”

  “They’re just kids!” Maggie’s dad exploded. “Why? Why do they have to go to your … prison?”

  “Because I said so,” Big Mother said, and the others in the room bowed their heads and repeated it back.

  “Because She Said So,” they chanted softly.

  “Could you please—” Maggie began. “Could you please return my backpack? I
have to give my parents their car keys.”

  “Such a sweet girl,” Big Mother said. “Certainly. I thought you might be looking for it.” She handed the backpack to Maggie.

  Maggie smiled and clutched at the bag.

  “We took the Handbook out, of course, dear. I replaced it with a few books I enjoyed when I was your age. You’ll have a lot of time for reading, you know.”

  Maggie’s face fell.

  Jack asked, “Will we be able to talk to our parents while we’re in prison?” He turned and looked directly into Maggie’s eyes. “Like, will we be able to phone?”

  She suddenly got what he was trying to communicate with his stare, and she smiled.

  Under the table, she felt around inside her backpack. They had left everything else in it, including the phone the Resistance had given her. She held down the SEND key and smiled back at Jack.

  “Or can we send them letters?” Maggie said, letting Jack know she had picked up on what he was saying.

  “There has to be some sort of appeal process,” Maggie’s dad said. “They didn’t know what they had. They’re not going to tell anybody anything.”

  Big Mother stared flatly at him. “It’s only a matter of time before the Resistance finds out about this. Then they’ll come looking for them, and that’s when things could get really messy. The Resistance is a powerful force to be reckoned with, I assure you. Unless you want to see Sean and Jessica and Jen thrown in prison for good measure, I suggest you shut your mouth and don’t talk back to me.”

  The agents lowered their heads. “Don’t Talk Back to Her,” they whispered.

  “Wait a second! I’m an adult,” Jen shouted. “And I’m about to be a parent myself.”

  “You’re going to have a baby?” Mike said, his eyes bulging.

  “I would have liked to tell you differently,” she said. “But yeah, I’m going to be a mom.”

  “You aren’t one yet, missy,” the Supervisor said through his permanent smile. “And until you are, you don’t have any rights here.”

  “Well, we’re done here now, I think,” Big Mother said. “This was a very positive talk. You kids have fun in prison and be good.”

  As she prepared to walk out, five masked members of the Resistance, decked out in SWAT gear, swung through the window of the conference room with a huge crash. Glass flew everywhere as the kids and parents dove under the table. Agents fired immobilizers wildly, striking four of the Resistance fighters and sending them hard to the ground.

  “Where’s the book? Where’s the book?” Maggie recognized Marion’s voice shouting from behind her mask.

  Mike’s dad leapt over the table and twisted an immobilizer away from an agent. With flawless marksmanship he fired around the room, putting a single charge squarely into the chest of every guard in the room.

  “Whoa! Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Mike said.

  “I’ve always been a pretty good shot, Mike.”

  “Not when we play video games. Your aim sucks.”

  “I, uh, kinda go easy on you, Mike,” he said, and threw an arm around him.

  Jack and Maggie quickly locked both doors to the conference room. Jack grabbed one of the unconscious agents’ weapons. He pointed it at the Supervisor.

  “You’re going to let us walk out of here,” he said.

  “Not without the book,” Marion added, removing her mask. “Where’s the book?”

  Jack jammed the immobilizer right up in the neck of the Supervisor.

  “Yeah. The book. Give us back our book and get out of the way,” Jack said roughly.

  The Supervisor looked at the small light on the handle of the immobilizer and smiled. “Jack, there are hundreds of agents behind these doors—what are you going to do, hold them all off with the single charge left in that immobilizer?”

  “We won’t have to. We’re going to hold them off with the Handbook,” Maggie said.

  “You don’t have the Handbook anymore, cupcake,” he said. “Remember? We took it out of your backpack.”

  Maggie pulled a small flash drive from a pocket in her backpack and held it up. “Who needs it?” She smiled smugly. “I scanned the whole thing onto this.”

  Marion jumped nimbly to the windowsill and grabbed a rope still dangling from where they had crashed through the window.

  “Throw it here!” she yelled, preparing to make the catch and swing to freedom on the street below.

  The Supervisor lunged for Maggie, and Jack fired the only charge in the immobilizer and missed. Maggie’s dad leapt and tackled the Supervisor in midair.

  Mike grabbed the flash drive from Maggie’s hand. He had been practicing shooting baskets in his driveway since he was five, and he knew he could make this shot. He cocked his arm back, threw the flash drive, and watched as it flew through the air, bounced off the ceiling, a wall, another wall, and then onto the table directly in front of Big Mother.

  “I thought I could make that,” he said.

  Marion sat down on the window ledge and groaned.

  Big Mother picked it up and looked at it. “The whole book is on here? Amazing. You know, maybe we should do it this high-techy way. We could do it this way, couldn’t we, Supervisor?”

  “Well, yes, probably. But we’re actually a little behind schedule in certain kinds of technology. You know, it’s a shame we can’t just hire kids for our computer stuff. They’re so good at it.”

  “Give it back,” Jack said.

  “No worries,” Maggie said.

  Big Mother quickly removed her shoe and brought the heel down hard on the flash drive, breaking it into several large bits.

  “There. That’s that,” Big Mother said sweetly.

  “I could still recover data from that,” Maggie said calmly.

  Big Mother’s eyes glared and she brought her heel down a dozen more times on the broken flash drive bits.

  And then a dozen more.

  And then a dozen more.

  She smiled at Maggie; she was wheezing a bit and sweating.

  “I could still get data off that,” Maggie said calmly.

  Big Mother angrily scooped up the bits and dumped them into her coffee. She stirred it violently with a spoon and sneered at Maggie.

  “Still could,” Maggie said confidently.

  Big Mother exploded. “OH, YOU COULD NOT!” she bellowed. “And that’s that. So now let’s put down the little immobilizers and get on with things. You kids need to pack.”

  “You think that was my only copy?” Maggie sneered.

  A look of concern flashed across Big Mother’s face. The Supervisor’s smile collapsed.

  “Maggie, dear, even if it wasn’t, we’ll merely pick up your computer from your house, and then we’ll have your other copy, won’t we?”

  “You know how the Internet works, right?” Maggie said with a small, insulting snort.

  “Yes. Of course I do,” Big Mother said uncomfortably. “I have done web surfing.” Her voice became angry. “I bought this blouse from the online.”

  Mike laughed as he repeated it. “From the online.”

  Big Mother shouted, “Adults invented the Internets! Don’t you forget that!”

  Maggie folded her arms and locked eyes with Big Mother.

  “There are copies in places that will be posted at a certain time tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. Automatically.”

  “Rubbish. You don’t know how to do that.”

  Maggie’s dad sighed. “She does know how to do that. I’ve seen her do it.”

  Big Mother’s face turned red.

  The intercom buzzed and a nurse’s voice came on. “I’m told that people were blasted in there. I should have a look at them. Can I come in?”

  The Supervisor explained:

  “When people get hit with one of these charges, it’s important that we make sure they’re okay. Some people can have a dangerous reaction. The effects are temporary, but if somebody gets hit too many times, they can be out for d
ays, maybe even a week. It can be bad. In some cases, it could kill somebody. Please. Let her come in and at least have a look at the kids.”

  “Okay,” Jack said. “No tricks.” He waggled the immobilizer at him. “I could still hit you with this thing.”

  Marion dropped a couple immobilizers on the floor.

  “About all you could do. These are all empty.”

  The nurse came in and started looking over the Resistance SWAT squad. One at a time, she went about the business of taking pulses, lifting their masks, and checking their eyes.

  The Supervisor sat down hard in his chair.

  “Kids. There’s something you need to know, about why the Handbook must remain a secret.”

  “No,” Big Mother said quietly.

  “We’re at a standoff here, Big Mother. We have to do something.”

  “No,” she repeated quietly.

  As the Supervisor looked across the table, he realized that Big Mother hadn’t been responding to what he was saying at all. She was looking at one of the Resistance squad. The nurse had just removed the General’s mask.

  “Billy?” she said, her voice a gasping whisper. “Billy is part of the Resistance?”

  “He’s the General,” Marion said. “He’s the leader of the Resistance. How do you know him?”

  Big Mother’s wide, frightened eyes had filled with tears. “He’s my son,” she whispered.

  The nurse administered shots to revive the General and the others who had been hit. They wobbled slightly as they stood up and groggily rubbed their eyes.

  “So,” Jack said, “what’s it going to be, Big Mother? The Handbook posts tomorrow online, unless, of course, you’re ready to bundle up your little Billy there—since he knows about the book, and that means he’s coming with us to Antarctica, right?”

  Big Mother’s eyes fluttered, and a tear spilled down her cheek. She stared at the Supervisor, hoping he had an answer for her.

  “Don’t ask me,” he said. “I wanted to start using medicine to subdue them, like, ten years ago.”

  Big Mother sighed deeply and looked into Maggie’s eyes. Then she looked at her son.

  “Supervisor, please tell security to stand down,” she said.