“You see,” he continued, “being the awesome sleuth that I am, I was tasked with tracking this Brazilian drug police dude. He’d been in Mexico when we were bending the cartel over and plungin’ our collective dicks in its asshole,” he held his hands out and made a thrusting motion, everyone else laughing. “Who, you ask, woulda thought the Policia Federal would be there, takin’ money not to investigate drug crimes? Well, that’s what he was doin’. And the fucker fled along with his cartel buddies. We found ‘em in Colombia having a meeting with some other Brazilian asshole. I tracked ‘em after the meeting, but he ran into the jungle.”
“Some sleuthing, meathead,” Savita said, “the guy knew you were on him almost right away.”
“Oh please,” Rocky said, “someone must have tipped ‘em off or somethin’. That’s not the point, though,” he looked back to me, “I chased after this guy almost ta Ecuador. A place called Villagarzon. It was there I decided ta take a lil’ siesta, ya know?”
“You looooost him, man,” Pedro said, blowing out a cloud from his vape pen.
“I made a tactical retreat to make ‘em think I lost ‘em,” Rocky said. “Once again, that’s not the point. The point is, I met this chick at a bar there in town.” He paused a moment, a smile spreading over his face, “God, I’m gettin’ a lil’ chub right now just thinkin’ about her.”
“She gets hotter every damn time you tell this story,” Manny said, “She was probably a toothless old hag with a yeast infection.”
“If you’d seen her, you woulda creamed all up in your big boy pants,” Rocky said, turning back to me, “kids these days. Can you believe this? They have no respect for the fairer sex.”
“The fact that you’re not gay is disrespecting women,” Savita said.
“Look,” Rocky said, looking to me with feigned outrage, “Look what I have to deal with. Misogynists and homophobes. I am a man who appreciates beauty and love in all its forms.”
“By making it all look better when compared to your ugly mug?” Sachi asked.
“This is harassment,” Rocky said, looking back to me again, “she is my supervisor and she is harassin’ me. Where’s human resources when you need ‘em?”
“Are you gonna get on with the damn story?” Markus asked, grinning.
“All of ‘em,” Rocky said, holding his hand up as if to present the rest of the team to me, “I mean sweet stillborn Jesus. I could have quite the lawsuit against ‘em,” he grinned, “but yeah. Me and this girl,” he glanced over his shoulder, “this gorgeous woman. We had a few drinks and got ta talkin’. We decided hey, hey, we’re both from outta town, why not just get a motel room and have some fun?”
“Did you negotiate her price before or after finding out how much the room costs?” Savita asked.
Rocky ignored her, “we went to this place. Wasn’t great, but whatevs, it’s not like we were takin’ the family to Disney Land or some shit. I got the key and me and this chick go ta the room. I open the door and you’ll never guess what I saw in there.”
“Two people fucking without one of them getting paid?” Manny asked.
“I found the Brazilian dude,” Rocky clapped his hands together, grinning, “Right there. He was tied up to the bed, face down, buck naked, mouth gagged, and this enormous, black dildo stuffed so far up ‘is ass I thought I could remove the gag if I pushed on it.”
“How the hell was there still a guy in your room if it wasn’t a no-tell motel for hookers?” Sachi asked.
“I told you before, there musta been some kinda mix up,” Rocky said, “with the room keys or somethin’.”
“Did you still have sex with the hooker?” I asked.
“I tried to get a hand job in the bathroom before telling the guy at the front desk about the- hey, fuck you. She wasn’t a hooker,” Rocky said, everyone bursting out laughing, “C’mon, whose side’re you on, dude?”
“I hope you didn’t pay up front,” Savita said.
“I bet he paid in the back, like that drug agent,” Pedro bellowed as he pantomimed sticking something in his anus to renewed laughter.
“But the moral of the story is that a day later the dude got an infection in ‘is asshole,” Rocky said.
“That’s not how morals work,” Sachi laughed.
“Such unsophisticated escapades seldom culminate in ethical development,” a scrambled voice came into my earpieces, the room falling silent.
“Who the fuck?” Rocky asked.
“Congratulations are in order for recapitulating your formidable roster,” the voice said, “I anticipate prompt advancements on your endeavors.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Sachi asked, “how’d you get in contact with us?”
Savita gave me an angry look.
“Allow me to dispense with the formalities,” The voice said, “time is of the essence.”
“You want your favor returned,” I said.
“My admirable companion recognizes my objectives effortlessly,” the voice said, “I’ve traced your engagements since I assisted you in liberating your associates from their incarceration by the sentinals safeguarding the southern boundary. I gauge your activities to be…haphazard, to put it generously.”
“Why the fuck would we listen to you anyway?” Sachi said, “we don’t even know who you are.”
“Who I am is someone comprehending that the implementation of the GPFTA will be nethermost deleterious to our mutual ambitions,” the voice said, “my aforementioned correspondences with one amongst you has not appeared to make a significant impression, despite lending considerable succor. I recommend all effort be conveyed hastily to Atlanta in order to sojourn additional consultations regarding the GPFTA.”
“If you’re so smart, why not do it yourself?” Rocky asked.
The voice didn’t answer. Everyone looked around at each other and started mumbling. Savita’s eyes stayed on me. When I looked to Sachi, she had a crooked smirk. She got up from the foot of the bed and walked to the night stand, grabbing a piece of tech from the drawer – the drive Kali sent.
“You stole that,” I said.
“Relax,” Sachi said, walking over and tossing the drive onto the table, “I said I was going to vet your contacts, didn’t I?”
“How did you know about the drive?” I asked, “how did you get it?”
“Your transgenic friend brought it to me,” she said, “unsolicited, I might add.”
“Aveena…”
Her snooping around my room and the sitar…what’s she been up to while I’ve been in the Denver hospital?
“Yeah.”
“How’d you know it’d summon the scrambled voice?”
“I didn’t,” she said, “but Aveena did, after your other friend did something to it.”
“Other friend?”
“The AK.”
“Christina.”
“You’re not keeping good track of your people,” Sachi said, “especially when you leave all your shit in Cortez while taking an overly long convalescence in Denver.”
“Can someone fill the rest of us in on what the fuck is going on here?” Rocky asked, “who was that guy?”
“No idea,” Sachi shrugged, “but the transgenic girl believes they’re AK. I think I believe her.”
“What did Christina do with the drive?” I asked.
“Put their little virus on it, for one thing,” Sachi said, “and my little experiment here tells me that it’s also attempting a mid-range transmission to somewhere in Florida.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking my head. “That was Christina’s plan B. She wants to help me so she can take down the Global Prosperity Network.”
“Who the hell’s Christina?” Pedro asked, looking at Manny, “I feel like we’re not invited to the convo anymore. Wanna go spark one up?”
“We’re in the goddamn CSA, fool,” Manny said, “motherfuckers’ll shoot us over a damn spliff.”
“Alcohol’s still legal, right?” Rocky asked.
“Jus
t not on Sundays,” Manny said, “and Christmas and Easter and…maybe Lent?
“Quiet,” Savita said to them before looking back to Sachi, “should we check out where the transmission’s going when we get to Florida?”
“Yes,” Sachi said, looking back to me, “don’t tell your AK friend that we’re onto her.”
“Of course not,” I said, manipulating the small piece of tech with my fingers.
So, the scrambled voice was an Anonymous Knight.
Why did they help us get across the border?
“Is he back?” I asked.
Darren stood in front of the hotel doorway wearing a black suit, looking awkward and out of place. He’d been scared to come back into the CSA after the Wichita incident, even with a different identity and unaltered face.
“Yeah,” Darren said, “you ain’t seen that AK gal ‘round, have you?”
“I thought she went with you?”
“She was,” he said, “but said she was gonna come back ‘n check on somethin’.”
“I haven’t seen her,” I said, “she must have flaked again. Why?”
“I’m off duty in about’n hour,” he said, “was hopin’ to knock off early. Was gonna ask if she’d watch my post for an hour ‘r so.”
“I’ll get one of the other LoC Security people to cover for you,” I said, “you guys have any trouble getting to and from the press conference?”
Darren shook his head, but I could tell he was still worried.
“This detail has to be good pay, at least,” I said, “and you’re thinking of asking Ellen to marry you still, aren’t you?”
Darren forced a smile, “I sure am.”
“Well, it’s only about three months to Election Day,” I said.
“Ellen talked about…about adoptin’ one’uh them kids,” he said, “Only a handfulla’m left that ain’t been adopted. I dunno if that’s a good idea, though.”
“I couldn’t tell you,” I said, “but just because something’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.”
Darren bit his lower lip, thinking about this, finally nodding and saying, “Maybe I’ll chat with ‘er right quick when I get off duty.”
“Couldn’t hurt,” I said, using the RFID chip inserted in my arm implant to unlock the door and walk in.
“Where were you?” Tory Goodwin shouted before I could even step into the portable debugger.
“Visiting,” I said, letting the air jets blow over me before walking into the room.
He was sitting on his bed, staring into his ARs. His curly, gray hair was still wet from a shower, the thick, gray hair on his arms exposed by the short sleeves of his t-shirt, beard stubble unshaved. In his lap was a plate full of fried chicken made of lab-grown meat, his fingers and mouth greasy, the bottom of his pudge sticking out from the t-shirt above unwashed sweatpants. The suit he’d been wearing to the press conference was thrown in the corner.
I’d discovered that the reverend Goodwin was as slovenly as he was irreverent, and that only renewed my interest in why Kali chose him as her puppet. One of the reasons I’d wanted to go on the campaign was to get some time alone to think, but I ended up spending most of it doing research on the other candidates and cleaning up for Goodwin.
“Aren’t you wanted around here?” he asked, stuffing another greasy nugget of deep-fried test-tube chicken into his mouth, “shouldn’t you be more, ya know, careful?”
“I have my face altered and a different RFID chip,” I said, holding up my arm, “and I was only a few floors up.”
He shrugged, “guess I’da rather been there than at that damn press conference, too.”
“How’d it go?” I asked, plopping down into my own bed, opening up an article covering the race.
“They spend the first half apologizing about detainin’ me,” he said, “and then the second half tryin’ to make it look like I deserved it.”
“You did leave the free speech zone,” I said.
“Free speech zone,” he scoffed, stuffing more food into his mouth, “back in my day we woulda told ‘em to cram that free speech zone up their sanctimonious asses.”
“Isn’t that the platform of your campaign?”
He laughed, “Let’s make it a bumper sticker.”
“You don’t seem to enjoy this much.”
“I don’t,” he said, “I’d almost rather still be imprisoned,” he chuckled, “thank Christ I have no chance in hella winning.”
“So why do it?”
“I owe a favor,”
“To Kali?”
He sat quiet for a moment, hands no longer moving about in front of him. He sighed, looking over to me, “that woman helped me more’n you could understand.”
“How so?”
A subtle look of fear passed over him, but then a smile came to his lips. “I actually used to work for the southeast regional government right after the devolution act. I ended up workin’ for their state department which, thanks in part to me, was essentially a government run missionary. I was a company man then. I was one’uh the people helpin’ to push the southeast regional government to embrace religious doctrine for its laws.” He paused a moment, “that was until I found out what our foreign policy was really about.”
“What were they up to?”
“It was a front,” he said, “The hospital I visited in Afghanistan…no, more like a circus tent from Hell for the sick ‘n dying…I couldn’t believe how many people were there. It was worse’n when I’d been there twenty years earlier with the U.S. army. Back when Afghanistan was run by narco-terrorists. And the stench was just awful. I hadda wear a breathin’ mask.”
He sat quiet for some time, looking at the food in his lap with disgust, picking it up and setting it on the night stand. “I still to this day don’t know the full extent’uh what was goin’ on or how the CSA was involved, but India’s puppet gov’ment in Afghanistan was exploitin’ the people there. Many of ‘em children. They had them workin’ in this…this insane mine. Nobody I talked to could explain it. But the kids I was supposed to be helpin’…they were addicted to Up Shift, workin’ eighteen hours a day. That’s where some’uh the smell came from. Our missionaries were carin’ for people they had working on this.”
He sneered, “What a goddamn scam. Brilliant in its cruelty. Have slaves workin’ in your mines, and then use charity to feed, clothe, and care for ‘em. They didn’t have to pay for a fuckin’ thing.”
“How did Kali help you?” I asked.
Goodwin shook his head, sighing. “When I confronted the Indian government officials runnin’ a nearby refugee camp, the whole operation was quickly shut down. I’m almost certain this was the reason the CSA detained me. Not because I stepped outta some free speech zone during my protests.” He sighed. “After that I…I fell into a dark place. I ended up gettin’ addicted to Shift while I was there. But Kali…Kali found me. She found me and she cured me.”
“How did she cure you?”
“Haven’t the foggiest idea,” he said, his eyes locked onto mine now, “I’d known her father Girish Sanyai from when I was in the region twenty years ago. He was a good man. Helped us fly to Afghanistan. Kali had just been a little girl then.”
He sighed. “But when I was there a few years ago, I…robbed this store for money…to buy Shift. I got caught and tossed in jail. Kali…she came to visit me. It was one of her family’s stores I’d robbed.”
He shook his head. “Kali immediately spotted I was a shithead. She gave me somethin’ I thought was Shift and I hungrily injected it. What I experienced wasn’t a Down Shift high, though. I thought she’d given me Up Shift. But after I came down from it, I…I dunno. I just wasn’t an addict anymore.”
“You…weren’t an addict anymore?”
“No,” he said, “I didn’t need Shift no more. I asked her what she gave me, but all she said is that it was medicine and that it was very rare.”
“How long had you been addicted to Shift?”
Goodwin slowly
exhaled as he thought back, finally saying, “Maybe nine months. It’s easy to lose track’uh time when you’re getting’ high all the time. I had a few withdrawal symptoms afterwards, but that feeling like I needed to get high was just poof, gone.”
“And this election is the favor she wanted back from you,” I said.
“I know what you’re thinkin’,” Goodwin said, “she only saved me because she knew I had a position in the CSA government. For all I know, that’s true. But Kali’s the sweetest woman I know, and even if she only saved me to further her own agenda, it’s still more’n I deserved.”
“What is Kali’s agenda?” I asked.
“Right now, all I know’s that she’s against the GPFTA passin’,” he said, “she told me I could put forth any agenda you or I wanted, so long as stoppin’ the GPFTA was part of it.”
“Although now it seems she’s not the only one who wants this free trade agreement nixed,” I said.
It’s what the scrambled voice – the AKs – said we ought to be doing. And it’s what Christina’s trying to trick me into doing.
Goodwin shrugged. “All I know’s that I’d have done a lot more to help Kali. It’s a small price to pay to have my life back. No. More’n just that. To have my eyes opened. To the CSA. To their lies. And to the lies of my old religion.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I still believe in God. I believe more than I ever did, even as a missionary. But the God that people like Gabriel Mitchell believe in…nuh uh.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Interesting nothin’,” he said, “it’s goddamn wonderful.”
“You’ve given me a bit to consider,” I said, “but I think it’s time to sleep. We’re heading out early tomorrow.”
He shrugged, “sleep sounds good to me.”
I shut the light off and lay back into bed, thinking about what he’d just said. I felt like there were answers sitting in front of me, just out of reach, and I hoped that sleep would bring it into view. But the only thing sleep brought into view was more images from my hallucination.
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