The Portal of the Beast

by J. A. Hailey

  Chang had set up a little screenside organization to handle humanside financing. With funds in excess of two billion dollars, it was absolutely no problem resettling patients, as they were being cured.

  The intervention program was now becoming so huge that Sagan and Gales were not the only active doctor-computer duo in it. Many such teams had been set up in a number of big cities of the humanside world.

  Screenside’s interventions were mainly in First World countries and its great cities, but, as Candice observed, “We are not discriminating. What we are doing is just the end result of the way our own world is structured, a mirror variant of the human world, but one in which population concentrations and races are, in reality, based on computer usage and Internet patterns of the human world.”

  “Yes,” agreed Jennifer. “There is no desirable family continually connected in Angola, Ecuador or Somalia, and therefore there is no screenside baby from any of those countries. It is understandable that our people volunteer to become helpers in the cities they are from, which they know and have wandered around in, and in which their human families live.”

  “We could never discriminate,” said Maria. “Hungry is hungry, ill is ill, whoever and wherever. The human world has become absolutely full of reverse discrimination. When the black guy doesn’t get a seat, it is uproar, but the old, ill white woman standing is okay. Helping a mentally disabled person in New York, in no way cheats a mentally disabled person in Lagos. Everyone needs help.”

  Patrick Sagan had become so clearly identified as the pioneer of both motor and mental illness cure programs that he had been approached by the Nobel committee, but had informed its members that, while he was honored, he would decline the prize, which had then been given to some far less important medical person.

  “We’ve got something very much bigger going on,” said he, to Michael Gales. “It’s better to not get our names and pictures too entrenched into global public awareness.”

  “Yes, Patrick,” Gales had agreed. “We are soon, hopefully, going to be able to use other bodies and faces. Staying out of the picture is an extremely good idea.”

  Still, it was very big news, as thousands of patients, in cities around the world, had begun becoming cured of insanity.

  It was as Candice had observed, and while there was quite a bit of action in Third World countries, notably cities in India and China, most of the focus was in the USA and in Western Europe, where by far the largest percentage of screenside beings had their families.

  It also made sense to set up mass versions of intervention programs in countries where governmental involvement programs, like Social Security and Medical Care, were available.

  “Mental patient becoming okay is a huge challenge,” said Maria. “It is the same as a second birth, except that these are full-grown people. They have absolutely nothing with them or on them, and, as we have seen, often no identities either, having dropped out of the system altogether.

  “Everything has to be provided from scratch. Yes, we’re making them capable of working in low-grade jobs, but they still need housing straight up upfront, and they still need many basic things, like appliances and what not, that are essential for living, and which they cannot be left without, to acquire slowly through their own meager earnings.”

  “We have enough money to set the start points up for every case,” said Chang. “And I am ensuring that when they have created their bank accounts, and have managed to get other social identity things organized, mainly through us, some untraceable few thousand dollars move into those accounts. We are also issuing credit cards, without which nothing can be done.”

  “Criminal! Credit Cards. And so bloody dangerous,” said Rosa. “I was in HC the other day, talking with Brenda, the new head of the Master Control Center, and she told me that unit control groups have been ordered to give strict instructions to every single caretaker, to ensure that no patient overspends. There are the reckless spenders you know. Caretakers block their cards at transaction points.”

  4

  Sagan and Gales, with Grietzmann included as chief manipulator, had been regularly meeting both King and Sheikh as friends, so close that all three had become welcome as unannounced guests in their palaces. As the palaces, especially of the King, were not only in his land, but scattered around the globe, the Americans had been seeing a number of countries from the vantage point of the high and mighty, and also the criminal and cruel.

  The Sheikh, though much poorer than the King, was a billionaire many times over, and while he did not boast nearly as many palaces, he was a far more frequent traveler to Western cities, in all of which he had permanently-staffed residential accommodation, generally huge independent houses in the best localities.

  “I cannot travel without invitation,” said the King, haughtily. “I am the King of Arabian lands, so I cannot stay incognito, and certainly cannot suffer the indignity of not being attended to by presidents and prime ministers. You people, come to me in countries where I am a lord, and whose rulers, elected or unelected, grovel at my feet whenever I am in those lands.

  “You can go meet Sheikh Abdul in London, Paris, New York, and other cities, which he can sneak into privately. He is not a real ruler of an important country; more like a businessman.”

  Grietzmann was still in control of the jumbo jet, fully paid for - fuel, other operating costs and staff - by the King, and the three men were enjoying the convenience and extravagant luxury of being able to utilize facilities created by the wealth of the richest people in the world.

  Beyond lying to the King, that he and the Sheikh had been accepted for entry into the Internet world, Grietzmann had had to figure out a game plan to control the King’s mounting desperation at the possibility of clerical delays in the computer world leading to his death as a physical human being, before he had got in.

  The first part of the game plan was what had taken them through the couple of years that had already passed, and it was this lie - that immediately on Sagan and Gales becoming conscious in screenside, the computer people were going to consider additional applicants, but perhaps hold off from immediately attaching them to eternity matrixes, as there might prove to be testing and fine tuning still to do.

  However, as time passed, the ageing King’s frustration and desperation mounted to unmanageable proportions.

  “We have to take it to another stage,” said Grietzmann. “Somehow, he has to be kept calm, and we have to find some placebos. Ideas?”

  “Well, he knows it’s a joke, but he keeps mentioning it,” said Sagan. “So why don’t we start him off buying some supercomputers, and installing them in his palaces? I know they are a hundred million dollars or so each, but it’s petty cash to him.”

  “Good idea,” agreed Gales. “I’ll organize a commission of a very fat cut on the deal. I believe they are quite good, and can be had practically off the shelf, judging by the rate at which they are building them. Chinese supercomputers. Abe, let’s guide the conversation that way, when we’re next waiting to view the virgin girls we will enjoy that night.”

  “Amazing, huh?” said Sagan, looking bemused. “I think these guys have got it absolutely right about what heaven should be, and what they think it actually is. A lot of feasting, alcohol and drugs, and lazing about, doing absolutely nothing; torturing and killing imaginary enemies, and whoever they don’t like, and never stopping enjoying truly beautiful, desperately young virgin girls, provided by God - for each and every night!”

  “So bloody addictive, this pedophilia and rape thing,” said Grietzmann. “The whole world would be into it, if it could be done without fear, like for these rulers.

  “Apparently, in heaven, they can have some in the daytime too, depending,” he sneered. “There is to be wine, fabulous fruits and sweets, and girls already lined up for the millions of years to come.”

  “And the best part,” laughed Gales. “The best part is that these are all supposed to be single-use virgin
girls.”

  “Heaven, for these guys, is going to be pure hell for those girls,” hooted Sagan. “Unless God is planning on giving them very advanced, sort of indistinguishable-from-real, sex dolls.”

  The three men shrieked with laughter.

  And thus the King ordered ten supercomputers from the Tiananmen Square Human Rights Computer Corporation, for installation into palaces within the boundaries of his kingdom. On being shown pictures, he was truly shocked at the size of the damn things, saying, “I thought supercomputers were more advanced PCs, designed with better processors. It is good that I am the King of a vast land, and that I have no problem finding space for these things in my palaces.” He then sent for his British architect headman, and ordered him to coordinate all arrangements, including cooling, for the supercomputers, that were soon to be on the way, in their ones and twos.

  Michael Gales and Grietzmann were once again in attendance when the first supercomputer arrived. This one was going into a palace they had never before been in, somewhere in the very deep desert, uninhabited for hundreds of miles in every direction.

  “It is good to have size, just in case,” joked the King, and was delighted when Gales, using the ancient measuring system of sighting between forefinger and thumb, said, “It’s lucky we chose the biggest model for the comfort of Your Highness. You are a big man, Highness, but the machine looks like it’ll certainly provide a bit of moving space.” The King was actually only an average-sized man.

  Installation went on for a week, as the two Chinese technicians muddled their way through it. Somebody had forgotten to instruct that alcoholic drinks were not to be served, and the two fellows were actually rather tipsy through the greater part of the installation process.

  It was a very noisy machine, so monitor, keyboard and mouse were placed in the room next to it, on a gigantic gold plated desk.

  “Such a small screen?” complained the King, while looking at the monitor on the desk. It was a huge TV screen, capable of doubling as a monitor. “Although I don’t think I will use the computer at all, except for living in.”

  That was a good joke, and everyone laughed, which was most gratifying to the King.

  Thereafter, with immortality tantalizingly within reach, the King became absolutely unmanageable.

  By now, Sagan, too, was with them, having flown in with the Sheikh, who added to the unmanageability of the King, by joining him in insisting that they be immediately connected up to immortality computers.

  Staring at the noisy supercomputer, the two rulers became quite drunk, worrying about somehow dying, when eternal life and Paradise had already come within reach.

  “It is best to be swift, although we are sure that God will grant us great favor in Paradise, having already been chosen by him to rule the world,” said the King, without the slightest trace of boastfulness. “Most of the things are already available to us here, and it is surely His grand plan to require us to continue our duties of managing mankind on earth. He already gives us the best and rarest of fruit and wine, without measure, and the most beautiful and youngest girls, without count.”

  “Yes,” agreed the Sheikh, who controlled the largest global kidnapping operations ever seen in the world. “The Almighty wants us to desire to stay and serve His purpose here on earth, by ensuring that we do not excessively crave departure to Paradise.”

  Later, that night, having enjoyed fresh young girls, the three American men met together in Grietzmann’s magnificent room.

  “What to do with these fucking idiots?” asked Sagan in despair, whispering.

  The entire palace was completely devoid of tower delivered mobile signals, and, in fact, from that particular palace, no mobile signal could be found for over a hundred miles in any direction, but they had to be careful of listening devices operating within the walls, for local snooping purposes.

  “Look, guys, so far we’ve played our game well,” said Grietzmann. “It’s been almost two years, and we have let these two idiots know that nothing at all happens in that timeframe.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll question you closely in their presence, and both you guys are to say the same thing; I mean, keep giving the idea that the direction of what will happen with them, has to be the same as what has happened with you two. It is this.

  “Yes, you are not alive as yet in the other world, but you are clearly feeling some feelings that indicate your eternal life version is certainly being created.

  “And then we can take both the motherfuckers into an operating theatre and stick microchips into their heads. That’ll buy us at least two more years. After that, we’ll have to work on brainwashing them into imagining that they are actually coming alive in a computer, and somehow keep that game going until they die.”

  “Abe, you’ll have to take one into your head too, because you’re also supposed to be entering,” said Gales.

  “Yes,” agreed Sagan. “And, actually, with a chip known to be in your head, you can really work on making them imagine things.”

  “It’ll get done, no matter how absurd it might seem,” said Grietzmann, derisively. “These people’s fathers and grandfathers were sold things like the Golden Gate Bridge and Big Ben, and maybe New York City too. What is eternal life?”

  The three men laughed, but continuation of the con game was actually the only feasible plan, given the circumstances, and implementation was immediate.

  “I don’t want to go to a hospital,” said the King, aggressively, the next morning. “My residential computer is here, and I want the operation conducted here. I am ordering someone to contact you, Patrick, and you tell them whatever it is you need, to make a functioning and very modern operating theatre in this palace. It should have everything”

  The King turned to the Sheikh. “I have ordered one supercomputer for you, too, Abdul, but I have no idea where it is, or when you will get it. Obviously, I don’t follow those things. You can check with my department for that sort of thing. Do you want to delay your own operation until you are next to it?”

  The Sheikh, showing that he had better grasped the concept, said, “Highness, I will also have my operation done at the same time, alongside you, right here in this palace.”

  It took exactly three days, from the moment of the order, to have a very modern, fully equipped, operating theatre put together in a room, in a far wing of the palace.

  5

  “Be very careful from now on,” said Sagan, warningly, when the entire ‘eternal life’ group had assembled again. “Highness and Sheikh, you have to stay away from mobile signals; or else the computer people will immediately find you, because you are connected in the head.”

  “What is the problem with that?” asked the Sheikh. “We have been accepted by them, haven’t we, and the very first step is to get microchips into our heads, isn’t it?”

  That argument stumped the three American conspirators, because it was logical, and yet screenside would be outraged to know that these two criminals and Grietzmann, completely and flatly refused entry, had been connected, with hopes of entering screenside.

  Gales, thinking fast, came up with an answer. “Highness, we have been instructed to wait until they know that it is all working perfectly. They are similar to Buddhists inside the computer world, and demand that whoever enters it is to be of a patient nature. Connecting you up, before they say to do it, will show that you are sufficiently impatient to use your wealth and power in the physical world to attempt gate-crashing into their world before time. We don’t want that.”

  “We absolutely don’t want that,” said Sagan. “They might just cancel the eternal life program altogether.”

  The two terrified Arab rulers nodded madly, in agreement with what Grietzmann now said. “Let us do the management, Sheikh. You are both very desired by them in their world. Leave it to us to ensure that we make no mistake that might cause them to cancel the welcome.”

  “Highness, and Sheikh, there are those who are for y
ou and those who are against you in that world,” said Sagan. “Normal politics, you understand? Backstabbing, you know? Typical of democracies.”

  “Then what? How do we do this?” asked the Sheikh. “Democracy is such a lousy thing. You never know whom to cultivate.”

  “I just make sure that I employ whoever comes into power in the big countries of the West,” said the King. “They have to come immediately to see me, and hear the terms of employment. But I agree that it is nasty, when people just keep changing all the time.”

  “It is approved, Highness; it is all done,” said Grietzmann, waving the matter away as minor. “If the against party does not know, it remains okay. And that means only one thing. You are to never discuss eternal life matrix anywhere, with anyone, except when we are around, and even then, only when we have given the all clear.”

  . “So you think there is no danger to our acceptance into the eternal life system?” asked the Sheikh.

  Grietzmann raised a finger, warningly. “We will manage the danger, the three of us” he said. “From now onwards, you are to never ever speak about entry into eternal life. If the parties against you get to know that you are already microchip implanted, they will probably conduct public agitations to prevent your connection to eternal life matrixes, and that will mean the end of that.”

  The two terrified rulers nodded frantically. “Of course, Ibrahim, we trust you,” said the King, earnestly. “You are the people who have connections with the top people inside the eternal life system. But when is it all happening?”

  “Soon, soon, I promise you, though it is not something that you can enjoy straight away after being connected. You will feel nothing at all, like we have felt nothing for these two years, until just recently,” said Gales. “And then, you must wait until Patrick and I have been completely created in the computer world, and then wait more, for them to make sure that no physical complications exist. It is a process they have explained to us. When the groundwork is done, with us as the test cases, you will also be connected to the eternal life supercomputer system.”