by Ellen Clary
TYSON, AMY’S Fed handler, was thrilled and completely puzzled with the new information that Amy had gleaned from Adam, and he promised to get his best Fed brains to work on the details.
Later on, when she was filling her Locate and Investigate coworkers in on the day’s information, Harris was completely intrigued. He said, “So he thinks he’s doing something good? Do you think it’s the same project?”
Amy said, “I have no idea, but I’m sure he wasn’t playing me. He was genuinely disappointed.”
Steve looked around, shifting with some effort, and said, “Population control doesn’t sound very sexy, no wonder he’s disappointed.”
Amy looked for something to throw at him.
Yolanda wandered over. “Is it possible he doesn’t know the purpose of what he’s working on?”
Amy said, “Meaning he’s thinking he’s working on something to help people, but in fact it does the opposite?”
Yolanda continued her thought. “Or perhaps it can do both, but he hasn’t been filled in on all the nefarious details.”
Steve laughed. “Getting people to work on what they don’t fully understand the purpose of? Oh, Yolanda, you would make a fabulous evil genius.”
Yolanda smiled, inclining her head. “My next career move. Should I tell my wife yet?”
“Not yet, it will be our little secret until we figure out that we’re all bullshitting,” Steve said.
“She’s well familiar with our bullshit.”
“Wow, it does have a poetic malice to it, doesn’t it?” Harris said, running his fingers through his hair, which just made it worse. “And it makes this contraception thing sound completely ominous.” He shuddered some.
CHAPTER 49:
Tomas Talks to His People
TOMAS WATCHED everyone come in to the meeting room, with many of them talking excitedly, moving chairs around, and getting settled. His chest was tight with tension as he considered what he was going to say.
“My brothers and sisters, welcome in God’s love. I bid you greetings.”
“Greetings,” they all said.
Tomas shifted his weight from foot to foot until he noticed it and made himself stop.
“Some of you have heard that our new project is to assist with birth control to help with reducing the world’s overpopulation problem. In light of recent events, we have decided to fast-track that project.”
Everyone started talking at once. The obvious question being, which recent news?
“People are starving in areas of Oxia. Ten billion people is more than we can handle on Earth, and the colonization of Planet Aires is proceeding too slowly. We need to commit to our smaller-world goals.”
“But those are the darker nations—why should we care?” a voice asked with an edge to it. There were supportive murmurs.
Tomas paused, considering. “Well, for one, the lack of arable farmland has driven the price of hay for our sheep through the roof and may compromise our community’s way of supporting itself.”
“But birth control is already available,” someone else said.
“The solution we’re working on lasts longer and requires less maintenance.”
Adam said, “We already have too many people. Birth control won’t help that, and lots of people want children.”
“We do what we can, Adam.”
Adam’s eyebrows furrowed in a frown, considering.
Tomas looked at the floor, appearing to reflect. “We can’t go blaming the darker nations for this problem. We all have to work together on this.”
Adam said, “But it is their fault, mostly.”
Tomas inclined his head, smiling patiently. “No, we still gobble up most of the resources even after years and years.”
“But we’re not having all those babies.”
“We are God’s creatures, and we can’t go finger-pointing.”
“But you said that God smiled on the lighter nations.”
Tomas replied, “Yes, he gave prosperity to the lighter nations, but even the idea of lighter and darker nations is starting to have less power.”
“Worry,” said Simon.
Now Tomas really wanted to say My son, but he said it with his eyes. Simon could derail conversations easily, so Tomas was going to have to be a little careful. “Simon, have you seen older photos of what people used to look like?”
“A little,” came the slightly defensive reply.
“Look carefully at them. The differences in skin color used to be much more pronounced than they are now. The concept of lighter and darker is going away.”
“Not if I can help it,” Simon said.
“Lighten up, Simon,” said Sarah, who had been quiet all this time but had had enough. “Not everything is Armageddon.”
“We must choose our battles,” Tomas said. “Would I prefer a lighter-skinned world with fewer people? Yes. Is that realistic? I don’t think so. What’s important is to find ways to sustain our world, but for now we need to focus on keeping our own house in order.”
LATER SARAH caught up to Adam in the hallway, her tied-back ponytail askew and her black hair trying to escape from its bonds. Grabbing his arm, she said, “What is with you?”
“What’s with what?”
Opening the door, she dragged him outside into the barnyard, scattering a few chickens.
“What’s with this ‘It’s all the dark nations’ fault’ bit?”
Pulling on his arm he said, “Well, it is.”
Sarah glowered.
Adam changed it to, “Well, it’s mostly theirs.”
Releasing his arm, she crossed her arms in front of her ample chest. “This is not God’s way. What would Christus or Thomas do?” she asked, referring to the spiritual leader and his twin brother, whom their leader Tomas was named after.
Adam actually had an answer that surprised even himself. “Well, Christus would be a little perturbed, and Thomas would be questioning the dark nations’ motives and asking why they’re not being more serious about solving the problem.”
“What makes you think they’re not trying?”
Adam made as if to kick a chicken and refrained. “Isn’t it a little obvious? They all want to live forever through their kids.”
“They have restrictions on family size.”
“And you see how well that’s working.”
Sarah said, “Well, they’re trying. They have better education. Most people are literate. Women have more rights. Lots of resources for family planning. And governments are giving financial perks to families with fewer children and penalizing those who have additional kids.”
“And still it’s increasing.” Adam whacked a bin with his open hand for emphasis. It reverberated in objection, sending a couple of chickens running in the other direction. “And before they all manage to off themselves, they’re going to destroy everything for everyone else.”
Sarah tried to put her hands on his shoulders and only half-succeeded. “Adam, that’s completely paranoid.”
“I don’t think so.”
Sarah looked at him, shaking her head, but with a half-smile. “Can you help me put the chickens away for the evening? Without kicking them?”
This seemed to bring Adam back. “Sure.”
CHAPTER 50:
Tomas Considers
TOMAS WALKED the property. While he had said that people were welcome to approach him when he was out walking, he made it clear that he was using the time for prayer and contemplation, so few people bothered him.
He leaned on a fence, gazing out at a pasture that contained the flock of Merino and Lincoln sheep. His stock managers allowed the fine and heavy wool sheep to flock together as long as a ram didn’t make it into the flock, which usually didn’t happen. It was important, as the Merinos had beautiful fine wool, best for the more delicate articles they produced, like scarves and handkerchiefs, while the Lincolns had a heavier wool, which was better for blankets. He trusted his managers with this decision, and it seemed to wor
k out. The sheep looked at him curiously for a little while, then resumed munching when they decided he wasn’t going to be walking in with a dog to make them move somewhere.
He put his hands on the upper rail and stretched. He needed to get out and do some actual physical labor. Everyone was so quick to help him, and he needed to make it clear that he wanted to feel the sweat on his forehead, his breath laboring as he hauled a wooden tie or stomped on a shovel.
Closing his eyes, he tried to put the details of running the place out of his mind. He breathed in, the smell of the dirt, grass, sheep, and manure reaching into his senses. Exhaling and opening his eyes, he thought: Big picture. Focus on the big picture. It’s idyllic here, but not for long if we don’t do something. The masses will find us one day and consume everything we have built.
He thought about the still-encrypted data units that were in a corner of the lab containers. He had considered having someone work on them, but kept deciding against it. They were tainted in his mind. Every so often, a tech would ask about them, and he said they belonged to an academic who they were hoping to get up here to do some research. He deflected questions about which academic. His partners had convinced him that once the researchers Herman and Lincoln had developed symptoms of disorientation and were suffering from the effects of the nanobots creating havoc to their system, they would give up the encryption key under duress. Pffft, he thought. How naive was that? The police found a way to shield the researchers indefinitely until the hospital was able to neutralize the nanobots. Now they had the police looking for the data units and there was no way the researchers would help them. Why, oh why, had he let them convince him to attack the researchers? The data units were a liability. He had considered just destroying them, but that wouldn’t stop the search for them. He needed to have someone drive the useless hunks of metal back down south and have someone else night-drop them on the sidewalk in front of the place.
They were going to have to wait until the researchers published enough information about airborne nanobot transmission for them to recreate it, and that could be years. If we could get somewhere useful on a different project, we could offer a collaboration, but we can’t do it with our current research, as they would be immediately suspicious because of that boneheaded attack.
So they were going to have to lay low for a while, and he was going to have to convince his techs that the new project really was worthwhile. The fact that they hadn’t been arrested yet didn’t mean they were okay; instead, it could mean they were being watched.
Time was ticking for the world, but it had been for decades. They were likely only going to have one good chance at a massive nanobot distribution, as others would quickly come up with methods of thwarting further attacks. It had to be airborne or drinking-water transmission, and the nanobots had to be able to duplicate themselves. Those were the hard problems. The preventing-pregnancy bit was probably the easy part. If they could get further on the duplication problem, then they would have something to offer the transmission people and enough time might have passed to allow them to escape suspicion.
So now, instead of two projects they had four. Now he had to consider whether to hire people, which would create resentment, and he really didn’t want to go there yet. Plus the additional projects weren’t nearly as sexy as the first one, which was why Adam was so attached to it. Adam could see the direct benefit of being able to control heart rates. Transmission and duplication didn’t have that direct application, and birth control left everyone a little cold. He wasn’t ready to share that he wanted to make it involuntary birth control, as that little factoid, once public, would get them all arrested.
Getting his people stirred up about overpopulation might not have been the best choice. It meant that they were going to have to participate in some of the current family-planning education projects just to give everyone a direction, even if they probably didn’t want to travel to the places that needed the education the most. Something dull and humanitarian would be good cover.
CHAPTER 51:
Amy and Mike Talk at the Dog Park
AMY AND Lars walked into the Charon Dog Park to find Max charging around and Mike wandering behind him. Amy had seen the generically named Mike and Max enough times now to think of them as an integral part of the landscape.
Mike’s baseball cap was a different sports team this time, and was a little dirty and askew.
“Hi, Mike. How many baseball caps do you own?”
“Lost count a long time ago, especially when a cow steps on one or the wind takes it clean off my head, and I have to run after it.”
“Have you seen Adam?”
“Nope,” he said looking around. “Didn’t see his car in the lot yet. You got a date with him?” he said, grinning.
“Oh, stop it, you know what I mean.”
“Actually, I do, and we should take this opportunity to talk,” he said, looking directly at her. He had dropped the good ol’ boy persona.
Amy, who had given only half of her attention to Mike, looked at him, bringing him fully into focus. “Yeeessss. Go on.”
“I’m Agent Mike Hampton. I work with Tyson. I would shake your hand, but I don’t want to call attention to us.”
Amy whacked her head. “No way! Oh, you are good. Tyson, where did you find this guy?” she said, knowing that Tyson was listening. “You had me from the second you said ‘hello,’ and something like ‘Aw, shucks.’”
Mike smiled. “It comes a little too easy, I must admit.”
Looking over at Lars and Max, who were playing a game having something to do with who could kick up the most dust, she sighed. “So there’s two of you. What the heck do you need me for?”
Mike adjusted his cap, crossed his arms grinning, and ever so slightly drawled, “Because, little lady, you have gotten me introduced and talking to a guy who would only say ‘Hi’ to me at best, and now,” taking a step back and bowing, “I’m going to run away before you hit me.”
Amy shook her head, her mouth open in what was almost a grin, but not quite. “Now I’m really at a loss for words.” Mike actually had taken another step away, which made Amy chortle. “Do you really want me to hit you?”
“Oh, hell no, your reputation precedes you.”
“What reputation? Is Tyson making up stories?”
“Perhaps a little.”
“So if he’s starting to trust you, do you think I can go home?”
“Probably. The quarter is ending anyway so it’s a good time to stage an exit.”
Amy said, “Not that I mind your fabulous company.”
Mike put his hand over his heart. “You will miss me, won’t you?”
Amy smirked a little. “Terribly, but you probably have a spouse anyway.”
He nodded. “That I do.”
Adam’s car pulled into the parking lot.
Mike said, “Okay, so with the quarter ending you’ll be going back to your family for the break. Right now, you’re worried about finals, so we can be talking about that when he walks up. Sound like a plan?”
“You bet. LAI is going to be thrilled to get the plane back on a regular basis.”
CHAPTER 52:
Adam Talks to Sarah, Then Tomas
ADAM LOOKED at the screen and then leaned back, putting his fingers in a fist to his lips, contemplating. “Hey, Sarah?”
“Yes, Adam,” came the reply from the next station down.
“You know those old DNA-testing software libraries, where people were able to tell where their families came from?”
“Yeah, they used to be really common, but, over time, they became less useful as they started looking like a map of plane routes from a major airline.”
“Can you derive percentages from them?”
“Yes, why?”
“Can you tell what percentage of their ancestors came from a darker country?”
“Only as a vague guess. I’m sure you can ask the genealogy people as these issues drive them around the bend now.” S
he paused and looked over at him. “Um, Adam?”
“Mmm, yes?”
“Why?”
“Why, what?”
“Don’t give me that. Why do you want to be able to tell if someone’s ancestry is from the darker nations?”
“Curiosity.”
Sarah looked at him harder now. “Has Simon been talking ‘bring back racial pride’ nonsense to you?”
Adam laughed. “Simon can’t find his own shadow.”
“But he can work his mouth just fine.”
Adam laughed in response.
“Please, just don’t do anything crazy.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Reintroduce a disease or something.”
Adam laughed. “Like I could do that. I don’t think we have any viruses in the back fridge.”
“You know what I mean.”
They lapsed back into silence and Adam kept working on getting the sequencing going for the birth control project. “Tomas’s first idea was to get the female’s egg to generate a not-fertile message or an already-fertilized message, but I like his other idea of convincing the sperm to not even be interested in the egg.”
Sarah looked up from her screen, both hands in the air. “There are millions of sperm. That sounds pretty difficult. You’d have to affect the generation of the sperm. If you create the world’s first gay sperm, you should get to be the first name on the paper.”
Adam smiled, nodding and silently guffawing. “There are sperm that don’t work well, but creating them would be a whole different matter. Okay, back to working on making the egg invisible.”
They lapsed back into silence with just the radio playing. Adam found himself wondering about the old ancestry library routines. With a few gestures, he found himself in the ancestry testing suite. The routines for estimating percentage of DNA that originated from particular areas were still there. He knew that they had been called into serious question in years past, as travel and mobility became the norm when immigration rules eased.