by Terry Persun
“So what?” Keith said. “The chips will still regulate everyone's chemical balance. The residents will do what they've been doing for years.”
“The system will turn off the chips.” Rene said. “It's a safety system in case of a major disaster.” Rene put her hands to her face and rubbed it as though wiping something from it. “Boundaries will be reestablished. The residents will go through several stages of paranoia, dependence, and independence.” She looked up at them. “They'll become dangerous.”
Keith listened to Rene speak about the residents as though she had seen them go through the stages. He turned to Nellie. “How did you manage the transition, Nell?”
“I was taken in and nurtured. We create a family unit. Two volunteers usually. And they care for you, make you feel secure and loved. You get through it pretty easily that way. But…”
“I know,” Keith said. “You.” He pointed to Rene.
She sat straight up and shook her head. “You don't know anything,” she said.
“You're in this with Bradley. You faked his psychological test, didn't you? And now you're trying to destroy Newcity from the inside,” Keith accused.
“It's not like that.”
“What's it like, Rene? You can't stand living here either?” Nellie stood and put her arm around Keith's waist.
Rene looked up at one of the cameras as though she wasn't positive that they had actually turned them off. She lowered her voice and said, “You have to understand. The new chips provide additional features that allow residents to do more complex jobs. Don't you see what's going on? Eventually, we'd be chipped too.” There was fear in her eyes. Being chipped horrified her. “I couldn't let that happen.”
“So you destroy the whole complex?” Nellie said.
“No. Bradley was going to knock out the labs. That's all. By the time they were able to put them back together, it would be years. We'd have time to negotiate, maybe change their minds.” She looked frazzled. “It wasn't the best plan. But it was all we had.” She glanced back and forth between them and the cameras. “But Keith's right. It may be too late. It's been getting worse lately. More residents are escaping. The system is unstable.” She glared at Nellie. “It could be you and your people, interfering with the system somehow.”
“All we do is monitor,” Nellie said. “We capture data and read it. Once in a while we change a name or delete an order. Like when I came to see you,” she said to Keith. “Simple stuff.”
“Well it's messing up the system,” Rene said. “That and the new chips. We'll have all the Sleepers running loose.”
“Sleepers?” Keith said.
Rene stood and swung around the chair to leave. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I've got to go.”
Nellie tackled her. The two of them struggled for only a moment, Rene swatting at Nellie to get her to let go. But Nellie hung on, and eventually dragged Rene into a sitting position, her hand tight around Rene's forearm. “You're staying until we're finished.”
“I'll scream.”
“We'll tell them what you and Bradley are up to,” Nellie said. She turned to look at Keith.
She wanted guidance. He could see that. But he had none. He stared at them huddled on the floor together. There were too many things going on at once. He tried to focus on the two women. Each of them had fear in their eyes, Nellie for what Rene might do, and Rene for what her cohorts might learn about her. He felt it too. The heightened uncertainty of the situation, the growing number of choices, and with them, decisions. Standing there, he got what could only be described as an epiphany, at which moment his fear dropped away. “It's afraid,” he said.
Rene and Nellie relaxed together. “It can't be afraid,” Rene said.
“Well, then, it is the equivalent of fear for a complex this size,” Keith said. He walked away from them, his head down and his hand near his face. He thought about it further. “Part of it is afraid.”
“And the rest?” Rene said, now more curious than before.
“Bored.” Keith rotated back around. “Tell me why you don't want to be chipped.”
Rene's face scrunched up as though she was about to cry. “I would stop dreaming,” she said. “There is something beyond the mechanical, the chemical, I don't know what it is. Spirit. Free will. It's not worth trying to explain, but I see it every day. The residents don't have it.”
“They're asleep,” Keith said. “That's why you call them Sleepers.”
“But they don't even dream.”
“The new chips allow some of that to come through,” Keith said from experience. “But not enough.” He walked over and kneeled near the two of them. “You know why I see the boy and girl, don't you?”
Rene shook her head. “A theory. Based on my own life.” She lowered her eyes. “My grandmother died when I was young,” she said. “I talked with her for years after that. I could swear that she was in my room with me. She climbed in bed with me when I was scared.”
“You still feel her near,” Keith said.
Nellie let go of Rene's arm and sat back on the floor.
“I do,” Rene said, turning her head away.
“We are more than what we appear to be,” Keith said. “The system is linking in with that part of us. Maybe after years of connecting with our emotional states, it's taken on some of our traits, some of the ones that the complex and the chips have noticed all along. It's learning from us.”
“If it's bored, then this is a game,” Nellie said. “You were right when you said it was playing. But it's playing with us.”
“Why did the angel say that she was free?” Rene said.
Keith rubbed his hands together and walked closer to them. He sat on the arm of the sofa. “Because she is. She doesn't show up in the system.”
“But you see her,” Nellie said.
No one spoke for a long time, then. They all processed the situation and waited for one of the others to say what they were all thinking.
“It's spirit,” Rene whispered. “Like the boy with the bullet hole in his forehead, the angel is deformed, too. It's imperfect. It's allowed to make mistakes, to play.”
“But why me? Why can I see it?” Keith asked.
“You're just lucky, I guess.” Rene smiled at him. “But for now, we need to get you out of here. The others are prepared to operate on you to find out what's happening to the system. They'll have you in psychological testing and then physical testing.” She looked at Nellie. “And I don't know what they'll do with you to force you to expose the others, but it won't be pretty.”
“Why help us?” Nellie said in a suspicious tone.
“I've got to get out now, too. Bradley's on his way.” Rene got up and Nellie let her go. “You've got to warn the rest of your friends. How many are there?”
Nellie stared at Rene.
“You've got to trust me,” Rene said.
Keith stepped closer and passed between them. “It's okay,” he said.
Rene reached for the door.
“The cameras in the hall will be on,” Nellie said.
Rene smiled. “They've been broken for years,” she said. “I can get you to one of two exits, then I'm not sure. Can you take us to your homes?”
“We live among the other residents. Just like you explained,” Nellie said. “But now that they know who I am, they'll be able to find me.”
“I can lead us there,” Keith said with confidence.
“The boy?” Rene said.
“I don't think I need him any more.” Keith nodded for them to go through the door.
They walked in a tight group down the empty hallway toward the far end where there would be a stair exit. From there, Keith knew they'd find a doorway into the maintenance walls. He also knew that the system would know where he was going and would let them get through without setting off any alarms. He pictured it all in his head, as though he were sitting in front of his work terminal watching the maintenance reports come through. If he continued to stay calm and clear-headed,
he would be able to get through without being noticed.
Sure enough, they turned right down the second hallway and went through the first doorway into the stairwell. On the next landing down stood the maintenance door, which Keith opened and the others followed.
“I've never been in here,” Nellie said. “We always walk the halls.”
“Why is it the system never noticed that you were different?” Rene said.
“We never disrupted anything. Most of the time, we tried our best to look like everyone else. It was fairly easy, even though it was creepy walking around with all these people who were basically not available.” She reached out and touched Keith's back. “Except for Keith. I've been watching him for a long time. We knew he was different when they rechipped him the first time.”
They passed through from the maintenance area into another stairwell and walked down toward the bottom floors. At one point Keith felt anxious and the boy with the bullet hole in his forehead appeared at the bottom of the stairs, motioning him on. He followed. No one had to know when he was leading or when the system, the boy, was leading, so he kept it to himself. At times, Keith didn't know which it was, either. He appeared to be so interconnected with the complex, a spiritual connection of some sort, just like Rene's grandmother.
In less than a half hour, they were coming down a hallway and Nellie pushed her way into the lead. Other residents walked home from work and the hall got pretty busy. Rene and Keith followed Nellie the last hundred feet into what looked like a storage area. Two large metal doors stood against the wall in front of them. Nellie reached out and held one of the doors open for them. They rushed through before she closed it behind them and pulled it tight.
The room was filled with working terminals, a small kitchen area, and what looked like a conference table large enough for about a dozen people to sit around. About thirty people either milled around or sat in front of terminals. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned around. Most appeared happy to see Nellie. One of the women waved briefly. A dark-skinned man stepped forward and addressed Nellie. “You've got a plan, I hope.”
Chapter 21
He has all the plans,” Nellie said while pulling Keith around in front of her.
“That's good,” the man said, “because we're trapped in here and they're heading this way with unchipped security.”
“That can't be true,” Keith said.
“Oh it can be true, and it is. Now, let's decide what we're going to do to keep nearly a hundred people safe,” the man said.
“There aren't a hundred people in here,” Keith said.
“Not here, but they'll search us out now that they know we're operating in here. And I doubt they'll stop until each one is found. They'll chip the whole lot of us.” He approached and held out his arms. Nellie stepped into them and hugged the man. When they parted she turned toward Rene and Keith, “My Uncle Philip,” she said.
He held up a hand to stop Keith and Rene from questioning before they had the chance to open their mouths. “It's a long story, but somehow Lori and I got skipped over and never received a chip. A few years later we stumbled upon a way to tell when a chip had gone off line. Sometimes we can get to a person early enough to bring them here, sometimes not. We couldn't find Nellie. Then she had her accident and we knew exactly where she was.”
“Where's Lori?” Rene asked.
“In one of the apartments at the moment. But we've just alerted everyone. They're waiting for our direction. What do you say?” He stared at Keith.
“If this is a game of some sort, it's not a fun one,” Keith said. He swung around to Rene. “The most secure area?” he asked.
“System Center,” she said. “You have to go through the labs, though, and that's where Bradley's heading.”
“I should have known. Can you get us there quickly?” Keith said.
“I don't think that's the best idea,” Rene said, and when Keith didn't respond to her concern, she delivered the information. “From here? I'm not sure where we are exactly.”
Keith closed his eyes and considered the path they'd taken. They had spiraled up, but then came back down, as though they were in a maze. At the moment, they were several floors and a long walk from where they'd held him not long ago. “I can find it,” he said.
“They'll know we're coming. Even if only some of the surveillance works, our direction will alert them,” Rene said.
“They're coming for us now, so we'd might as well chance it,” Philip said. “After all, we're a hundred strong.” He smiled a broad, toothy grin. “It's about time we did something in here besides stay low.”
He jumped to work giving specific orders to the people in the room: where to meet up with the others, what supplies to bring, and where they'd be able to find terminals so they could interrupt the system if they had to. Finally, he stepped behind a young man and put both his hands on his shoulders. “Shut down as many of the remaining surveillance cameras that you can. We're moving out in two minutes.” He then turned and strolled toward Keith shaking his head. “Let's go.”
All the others dropped what they were doing and headed toward Keith like a mob.
He reached for Nellie's hand and pulled her next to him, then pushed open the door. The hallway was busy, but there was plenty of room to wind through the residents. He knew that upsetting any of them would bring the chipped security police, but wasn't so worried about that as getting to his destination.
Although Keith was supposed to be leading; Philip, who traipsed close behind him, asked him to stop and wait for others to join them. At one point, Philip told Keith to turn to the right when they needed to go left. It was okay. Keith knew multiple ways to get through the system now, even though he wasn't sure how he knew the answers. He would just follow his instincts and hope that the system wasn't playing a dangerous game.
That concern was evidenced when several of Philip's people showed up with guns. Keith had no idea where they had acquired them, and didn't ask. Lori joined them along the way too. She was a tall, beautiful woman, dark like Nellie, with full lips and bright eyes. She had a confident gait, yet appeared soft and motherly. Keith saw Nellie give her a wink.
In only about ten minutes of rushed walking, they approached the lab. Keith had never been in that part of the complex before. He did guess that these guards would not be chipped. Rene verified his hypothesis with a whispered confirmation.
But Philip was ready. “Gabe, Andrew, pull your men into the front.
They were still marching down the hall.
Keith could hear the calm, “Halt, halt,” suggestions from chipped security coming from a side hallway. He turned to look and noticed that some of the residents didn't know whom the police were ordering to halt, so they stopped in the middle of the hall, getting in the way.
Philip's crew pushed ahead as soon as the lab guards kneeled and stretched their arms out straight, pistols pointing. Before they had the chance to address the group, Gabe and Andrew's small, armed band began shooting. The guards went down before they could shout their warnings.
The residents scattered like quiet mice. Keith jumped at the pop-pop from the guns, but Philip's crowd wouldn't let him stop moving forward. The police bodies were dragged to the side. Two more shots at the locks, and the doors were opened.
Lab personnel stood transfixed in whatever position they had been in when the shooting began. Women and men sat looking into microscopes, holding beakers filled with liquid, or had a hand perched over a knob or switch ready to activate a piece of lab equipment. A loud humming came from some of the devices.
Philip advanced, “Nobody try anything and you'll all be safe,” he said. “Close those fucking doors and get us locked down, now.”
He had the people in the lab stop what they were doing and huddle into a group in one corner. He shouted for Gabe and his men to shoot out the cameras. Then he whirled around, checking the area before coming to Keith and stopping. “We're safe. For now,” he said. “But
we're trapped in here until we can figure out our next move.”
“There's another way into System Central?” Keith asked.
“Through the back offices,” Rene said.
“Barricade the doors,” Keith said. He let go of Nellie's hand and grabbed Rene by the arm. “You and me,” he said dragging her into a side office. “Let's talk,” he said.
The office was surrounded in glass from all sides. Philip's group went to work securing the doors that had been blasted open. Some watched Keith and Rene through the window. A desk sat in the center of the office. Papers were stacked on it, and a terminal sat to the right. Two four-drawer filing cabinets had been pushed against one wall.
“What are you sensing?” Rene asked immediately.
