2016

by Roberto Ricci

  Jimmy was busy explaining the solar system to his virtual tutor and did not hear his mother come in.

  Grace walked slowly behind Jimmy who was now talking about Jupiter.

  “Jupiter is the largest planet within our solar system…”

  Grace looked at her son. She hesitated for a moment.

  “Jupiter has sixteen moons surrounding it…”

  She took a deep breath and then she read the words on the piece of paper, “Did Eve Lie Evoking The Eternal Adorable Lost Love.”

  “The Solar System…” Immediately Jimmy stopped talking. After a few seconds, he began to talk again but this time he began to mumble words which seemed incomprehensible to Grace. She went closer to him trying to decipher his talking.

  “Delete file syn.pll.dll, Delete file sys.45.evs., Delete ae8069.register.sn, Delete…”

  Jimmy continued his monolog as if in a state of trance. After a few minutes, Grace, worried, began to shake her son. She took off his headset and found to her dismay that he was with his eyes closed. “Jimmy? Jimmy?” But Jimmy would not stop his jabbering.

  Worried, she did not know what to do. Should she call an ambulance? Should she call Doctor Tanaka? Yes, maybe that would be a good idea. She rushed downstairs to get her NetView and contacted Doctor Tanaka.

  Fortunately for Grace, Tanaka replied almost immediately. “What is it, Mrs. Rodier? I’m busy with a patient right now!”

  He remembered her immediately. That should have been a good thing although something told her that was another alarm bell. “I’m sorry Doctor Tanaka, but it’s an emergency. It’s my son Jimmy, he was doing his homework and oh I don’t know how I could be so foolish”

  “What happened to Jimmy Mrs. Rodier?” he asked.

  “I told him this stupid sentence while he was doing his homework and all of a sudden he just stopped and began to say something incomprehensible and he’s been going on with his eyes closed for the last ten minutes like this and…I need help! I don’t know what to do!”

  The Doctor’s voice was now hissing through the NetView, “What did you tell your son Mrs. Rodier?”

  “I read him these words. They seemed senseless and I don’t know why I even…”

  “What did you tell him?” Tanaka interrupted her and Grace was taken back by his nervous reaction.

  “I told him…” she paused as she opened her fist to read from the piece of paper that had ignited everything.

  When she finished Tanaka did not say anything but just put his hands on his face and shook his head.

  “What does it mean? What did it do to my son?” Grace was now in tears. She felt helpless and confused.

  “Do not do anything now Mrs. Rodier,” Tanaka finally said in a low voice. “An ambulance will come immediately to your house. We must recover Jimmy here at the Institute. Do not speak with anyone else about this incident. We will take care of it.”

  “Oh God, I’m sorry, I…”

  “You should be sorry!” replied Tanaka furiously, “You may very well be charged with an attempt to your son’s well-being!”

  “Oh no, please! I didn’t mean to,” said Grace in despair.

  “Stay there Mrs. Rodier and for God’s sakes do not do anything else. We will be there soon enough.” And with that, Tanaka closed the connection.

  She turned off her NetView in tears. She rushed upstairs again where Jimmy was still talking nonsense with his eyes closed. The doorbell rang. Grace ran downstairs surprised at how quickly the medics had taken to come to her house. But when she opened the door she found John Davy instead, the false patient at the hospital.

  Before he could say anything, Grace screamed and began to punch him. “You bastard! What have you done to my son?”

  “I’m saving him,” said Davy while trying to fend off Grace’s attacks. He finally managed to hold her arms. “Let me go!” screamed Grace, now trying to kick him.

  “We don’t have much time!” shouted Davy “We need to go before they come and get us. Jimmy should be almost finished now. Where is he?”

  “Almost finished? What are you talking about?” said Grace now even more lost and confused.

  Davy now looked at her straight in the eyes. “Listen to me! They’re transforming our children into their storage centers. Jimmy is now deleting all the information they’ve transferred onto him through the network. Most children can’t handle the load and that’s why they give them the cooling liquid, so that their brains cool off.”

  “What are you talking about? Who is they?” asked Grace not knowing what to believe anymore.

  “Anamast,” answered John.

  Grace was taken back by what she had just heard.

  “Mom!”

  As soon as she heard Jimmy, Grace turned around and saw her son coming down the stairs. She immediately dashed towards him and hugged him like she had never hugged him before.

  “Mom what happened? What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know honey,” she said whispering and kissing him on the head. She then turned again towards the man standing in front the entrance.

  Davy was looking outside as if waiting for someone to arrive. “We need to go Grace. People from Anamast will be here soon and they will take him.”

  “I don’t believe you,” said Grace.

  “They will take him to the Neuroscience Institute and find a pretext to keep him there, but Jimmy is fine Grace. It’s the information that they are slowly injecting in him every day that is making him sick.”

  “Information? What on earth are you talking about? What kind of information?” asked Grace incredulously.

  “Information about anything. We have to leave. Now!” said Davy taking Grace’s arm.

  “We are not going anywhere!” said Grace releasing herself. “I am not leaving my house. When Doctor Tanaka comes here, he will give me a plausible explanation.”

  “Grace, please trust me,” said John.

  “I want you to leave right now.”

  John stood there for a moment looking at her intently. Then, with a sad look he finally muttered “very well,” and hurriedly left the house.

  Grace then looked at her son, and only then realized that his clothes were full of the bluish liquid. He had vomited all the medicine. She caressed him and he began to cry. “Mom, what are they going to do to me now?”

  “Nothing honey I promise,” she said soothingly.

  They then heard the sirens of an ambulance approaching and soon after they saw it park in front of their house. Grace immediately recognized Doctor Tanaka coming out of the vehicle. There were two paramedics with him dressed in fluorescent orange jumpsuits. They had Anamast written on their back.

  “You are a foolish woman!” said Tanaka when he arrived at the porch.

  “Do you know how much money Anamast invests every year in each child?”

  “I don’t understand,” replied Grace, now even more confused.

  Tanaka did not seem to care about her as he pressed on, “And all we ask in return is that they store some information for us. It’s not a high price to pay now is it?”

  “What are you talking about?” said Grace, now sensing that something was wrong.

  “No one wants computers anymore. They use too much energy, they can’t be recycled. And yet everyone wants information. Well, it has to be stored somewhere, somehow, and children are perfect for this.”

  Tanaka then took out what seemed to be to Grace some kind of weapon as the doctor held it firmly in his right hand, similar to a laser gun she had often the police with.

  “We sometimes have cases, like Jimmy’s, of the brain overheating but all you had to do was keep giving him Parablu and he would have been fine.”

  “Mom!” shouted Jimmy in a scared voice.

  “But no, you had to delete all of Jimmy’s hard disk. I’m afraid we’ll have to take him to the institute for some maintenance.”

  “Mooom!”

  Suddenly another huge amount of the blue liquid came squirting ou
t from Jimmy’s mouth towards Tanaka and the two paramedics. The three men instinctively tried to protect themselves but it was too late and amidst that brief moment of confusion, Grace suddenly knew what to do.

  Taking Tanaka and the paramedics by surprise, she rushed out of her house with Jimmy firmly in her arms and began to run as fast as she could towards her car without looking back.

  She pressed the start button and without waiting for the engine to come alive she immediately gave gas making the car dash away from the house with a screaming sound.

  “You can’t escape from progress Mrs. Rodier!” were the last words she heard before getting on the car and leaving.

  “Where are we going mom?” asked Jimmy, still frightened.

  “Somewhere where progress won’t find us,” she said as she gave him a gentle caress.

  LEVEL 10

  It was almost eight pm. Traffic estimates indicated that ninety percent of the entire community’s users had logged on and were eagerly waiting for the weekly online quiz on Society to begin.

  The live stream started. The familiar pink suit of Mighty Mike, the host of the show, began to color millions of monitors across the country. “Good evening Socialites, from Society’s very own studios in Burbank California! Today is June 15th, 2016! Are you ready to play Level 10, America?”

  “Yes!” The loud cry came from myriads of users connected across the country and resonated inside the studio, which boasted a large wall-like screen full of tiny pictures with faces of Society users all eager to play the game.

  “It’s time to connect with our contestant from San Francisco, Janet Cho!” said Mighty Mike, adjusting quickly his overly dyed blonde hair.

  Behind him, the giant screen enlarged one of the tiny pictures featuring a smiling woman in her mid-thirties. The face came suddenly alive. “Hi, Mike! Good evening everyone!”

  “Come on out here Janet!” The huge screen then opened and the real Janet came out, waving and smiling.

  “Welcome back,” said Mighty Mike hugging her and then turning her towards the cameras. “Now, I’m guessing you must have had one heck of a week!”

  “Oh gosh,” she replied excitedly. “I have been swamped by requests of new contacts and people have created new discussion groups on me and on my life. I even received four marriage proposals. Everything is so amazing!”

  “I bet it is,” said Mighty Mike. “Now, to recap what happened last week, you answered all first nine questions correctly and by doing so you have potentially reached Level 9 of Society’s user ranking. I say potentially because if you decide to stop now Society will automatically upgrade your profile to a Level 9 status. However, if you choose to proceed further, by answering this last question and passing one final formality you will become one of the very few level 10 users existing today in Society.”

  Suddenly, there was a sound of awe made by the thousands of users online. “That’s right folks; let me remind all of you that are connected with us that there are currently only nine hundred ninety-seven Level 10 users in Society. By winning the contest, Janet would join an elite club with the likes of artists, millionaires, and actors including…him!”

  All the screens immediately displayed the same picture of a young blonde haired actor, grinning towards the camera.

  “Oh my God!” cried Jane putting her hands on her face as her body was trembling. “Is it really…?”

  The audience both in the studios and connected online in the mean time cheered and clapped their hands ecstatically.

  “Yes, it’s really him! He’s a Level 10.” Mighty Mike then began reading from an envelope he had taken from his breast pocket. “…And that’s not all. Besides mingling with America’s favorite stars, you could also enjoy the perks that only Level 10 users are entitled to…including this!”

  The screens now showed a state of the art villa as a voice from behind the studios began to describe it. “With a profusion of glass, stone and precious woods, this exquisitely and harmoniously blended villa of Archistar Oliver Van Der Ende is the perfect dream house for any Californian. A meticulously kept Japanese garden surrounding the villa will maintain the right vital energy and balance for the lucky owner.” People continued clapping with the sound of their oohs and aahs echoing throughout the studio.

  “That’s right,” added the TV host, “as a Level 10 user you would become the proud new owner of this beautiful house inside the best neighborhood in San Francisco, the Bay Palisades, a gated community where only level 7 users and upward live. You would add to the prestige of the community by being the only Level 10 living there. Imagine the envy and admiration of your neighbors!”

  “Yes! Yes!” Janet was excited and nervous at the same time. From where she was standing, in the middle of the studio, she could not stop clapping her hands.

  “So Janet, it’s decision time. If I remember correctly you are currently only a Level 3 socialite yes?”

  “That’s right Mike. Hopefully, not any longer after tonight. Fingers crossed.”

  “So I gather you’ve already made up your mind but I have to ask you nonetheless. What will it be? Do you want to stop and reap the rewards or do you want to risk it and go full throttle towards Level 10?”

  Without hesitation, Janet replied firmly. “I want to go all the way, Mike. Level 10 or bust.”

  The crowd immediately cheered.

  “I have to say, Janet, it takes guts to do what you’re doing. Most people would have stopped at Level 9. By stopping now you would be at the same level of our very own President. And let me remind you, it is a very comfortable place to look down upon. Most people spend an entire life trying to get to Level 7 or even Level 6. So let me ask you again. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I figure, this will be my only chance, Mike. I’m sure. Definitely want to do it.”

  “All right. Now Janet, for the question that will make you become our first Level 10 user extracted from Society’s subscriber database.”

  Mighty Mike took out a pink envelope from his jacket and extracted a small white sheet. “Here we go Janet,” said Mighty Mike now taking out a piece of paper from an envelope. He began to read, “What was the famous expression written by Niccolò Machiavelli? A: to be or not to be that is the question, B: the end justifies the means or C…”

  “Oh my God! I know it! I know it!”

  “Take your time Janet. I haven’t finished with the responses you have to choose from. This answer may change your life as you know it.”

  “I know it Mike I know it! I’m sure! It’s the end justifies the means!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes! Yes!”

  “Is this your final answer?”

  “Yes!”

  “Drum roll please.”

  Besides the drum roll, the faces of all people connected began to shout out Janet’s name. “Ja-net, Ja-net!”

  Mighty Mike opened an envelope and then looked to Janet with an expressionless face.

  For a moment, everyone fell silent.

  Then, Mike grinned and said, “Congratulations! The answer is correct.”

  “Oh my God!” Janet jumped and hugged Mighty Mike and began to cry. “Oh my God” she continued to scream, “Oh my God”.

  “Janet you are the first contestant to answer all ten questions correctly on Level 10!”

  “Yes! Yes!”

  “You are just one tiny step away from Level 10 status and a life of privileges and pampering! A new house, a new job and if you choose, even a new boyfriend. If I recall correctly your current fiancé is only a Level 2 isn’t he?”

  “Yes, but he’s working hard to become a Level 3.”

  “Of course he is. Anyway, there’s nothing that steps in the way between you and Level 10 except…come on people shout it out!”

  Now a thousand voices shouted in unison, “The recommendation scoreboard!”

  “That’s right Socialites! The scoreboard is the very last hurdle that Janet will have to overcome. Janet’s hundr
ed closest friends on Society will decide her fate. At least 70 of them will have to recommend Janet for Level 10. If they do, then it’s off immediately to your new home at 29 Bay Palisades with our limousine waiting outside for you. If, however, your closest friends do not recommend you, well what can I say, Janet, you’ll have to change your friends! You will lose all that you have gained so far and go back to Level 3. Because, come on people, if…”

  Everybody started to shout it out “If you don’t have a friend, your show comes to an end.”

  Janet was now tense and excited at the same time. Mighty Mike came close to her. “Now, Janet, I guess what it really boils down to, is, how well do you know your friends?”

  “I think I know them well Mike. I have never let down anyone of my friends on Society. In my interest groups, in the courses I take, I have always been a loyal and faithful friend.”

  “Well Janet, we will soon find out because your closest friends on Society are all connected and watching us. You can see them too on our mega screens.”

  The faces displayed on the mega-screens were all of happy users, smiling and waving.

  “Here we go people. Are you ready to send Janet into stardom?” Everybody was nodding and smiling. Mighty Mike paused for a moment looking at the mega screen and then finally said “All right! Click on yes if you want Janet to reach Level 10 or no if you do not want her to win Level 10. Begin now!”

  Mighty Mike was still smiling when the happy faces on the Mega screen were replaced with a huge chart with two words on the bottom, yes and no. A huge sign with Level 10 written on it was standing right on top.

  One of the producers gave his thumbs up to Mike and the presenter went closer to where Janet was standing and took her hand.

  “Janet, the verdict is in. Are you ready to see it?”

  “Oh God, I don’t know! I mean yes! I’m so scared!”

  “But you just told me before that you were confident that this would be a formality for you, right?”