by Ken Kroes
Still listening to the caller, he turned towards her with his hand over the mouthpiece. “Something has come up that needs my attention. Let’s get together in a few days to talk about Percipience and the details about the work there.”
She felt grateful for the dismissal and smiled as she quickly stood up and left, closing the doors behind her.
He returned his attention to the computer screen. “Yes, that’s her. Let her through, tell her to park near the front doors and that someone will be out to meet her.” Then he hung up and immediately picked up the phone again. He punched in the code for the person in charge of village recruitment.
“Mikhail here—I know that the candidates have already been selected, but there’s someone driving up to the front doors right now. I don’t think she knows much about our program, but I want you to treat her like a VIP and convince her that she should take the tests.”
He then sent an encrypted text message to Hope, telling her to stop her search as the target she was looking for was now at the foundation. He received a text reply almost immediately that asked if he could arrange for a tracking device to be put on Diane’s vehicle and said she would be there in a few days.
He put his phone down and stood to admire the view from his office. This must be a sign that the work I’m doing is on the right path.
********************
The guard was gone for ten minutes, and when he returned, he handed Diane her website printout. “Sorry for the delay—applicants usually have an appointment. Follow this lane to the other side of the building and park near the front entrance. Someone will be out to meet you shortly.”
As she started to pull away, she noticed that a security camera on the corner of the building was tracking her. She only had to wait five minutes after parking until a well-dressed young man came out to greet her.
“My name is Gordon, and I’m the coordinator for the hiring program.”
“I’m Diane. There’s a scary amount of security here for a public foundation.”
“Yes, there is, and more inside. If you get into the program, you’ll understand why. Please follow me.”
He led her through the main entrance and into a lavishly decorated waiting area that led to a conference room.
“Can I get you anything?”
“I’d love a coffee, black please.”
He returned in a few minutes with her coffee, shut the door behind him, and invited her to sit in one of the chairs at the large conference table. “What do you know about the job offers and the project behind it?”
“Nothing beyond what was on the website,” she said. “I have some free time now and love the work this foundation is doing.”
“Okay,” he said, smiling. “Let’s start with the program itself, and then we’ll talk about the positions. The project is more like a long-term experiment in finding a way for people, say, a village numbering a few thousand, to live a purposeful life in a way that doesn’t ruin the planet. We’re currently building four such villages around the world, one just a few hundred miles from here.”
“How long-term are we talking about?”
“Hundreds of years, actually. We started out looking for two types of people. One we called builders, who would be around only for a year or so and do the majority of the initial village construction. The other group would be the residents, who would assist in the building while taking a rigorous one-year training program. They’d then stay in the village for the rest of their lives.”
“Yikes! People are signing up for this?”
He ignored the question, turned on the overhead projector, and started to run some slides. “These are construction pictures of the village near to us, called Percipience, taken a few weeks ago. As you can see, things are moving extremely well, and we’re not hiring any more builders now. But there are a few more openings left for residents.”
“Getting to your question, we’ve had thousands of people go through our week-long testing process for a few hundred resident positions. This wasn’t really surprising considering the number of people that signed up for the one-way trip to Mars. Or the many people who initially came to this continent. Both of these groups signed up for the new location and adventure knowing they would never be coming back. We’re offering all of that plus a new way to live.”
“And nothing is stopping these residents from leaving if they want to?”
“Well, sure, they can leave. The hike out is only about twenty-five miles, and, of course, they could never go back. They’d also be returning to the world with nothing since part of the agreement is that you sign all of your assets over to the foundation.”
“I don’t think I’d ever sign a deal like that. The girl I talked to on the phone didn’t mention any of this. I may have driven a few days for nothing.”
“All of this should’ve been explained to you beforehand. Let me see what I can do.” He got up and left the room briefly, returning with a grin on his face. “I feel bad that you were misled during your phone conversation. I’ve just arranged for you to stay in one of our luxury suites here on the compound, all expenses paid. Would you consider staying for the next week and taking the tests that all candidates go through?”
“No commitments now?”
“None at all. Take the week to get through the tests, and read up on the program. Then, if you qualify, you can decide if you want to go for it or not.”
“I guess that’s a hard deal to turn down. But I do have a question. What exactly is Virtuesh? That’s the website that I found all of this on.”
“It’s the name of the project. They wanted a unique name and that’s what they came up with.”
She didn’t believe him. Maybe I’m on the right trail to find out what happened to my brother
Gordon kept her busy for the rest of the day reviewing promotional information and having her complete questionnaires and forms. He took her on a short tour of the campus showing her the cafeteria, pool, and fitness center, and finally to her suite. She would be expected at the main entrance the next morning to begin the tests.
With the stress of the day she laid down on the bed with the intention of taking a short nap and was surprised when she woke up at ten o’clock that evening. She debated whether she should try the cafeteria that supposedly stayed open all night, or return to her RV and make a meal for herself. She chose the cafeteria.
When she arrived, she was not surprised to see the sitting area empty. The chef greeted her and noticed her VIP badge.
“Good evening. My name is Mario and I don’t believe I’ve seen you before. Bedtime snack?”
She smiled. “Yes, as long as your snacks are the size of a steak.”
He laughed “A late dinner it is. Were you serious about the steak or would you like something else?”
“Don’t you have a menu?”
“Perhaps things weren’t explained to you. You can order anything you wish here. If you want something exotic, or a dish that takes time to prepare, you may have to order it a day in advance. Other than that, everything is fair game, and my back room is extremely well stocked. I can do a perfect steak in a jiffy if that’s what you want.”
“That would be great—medium rare, please.”
“I’ll pull together some extras for you, too. Would you like a cold Pilsner?”
“You’re spoiling me! I must admit that would be fantastic.”
She found a seat by the window and called Gwen to let her know what was going on.
Mario brought her cold beer and a small tray of appetizers; by the time she had finished speaking with Gwen, the rest of her meal was in front of her. She could tell that nothing but the best and freshest ingredients had been used and that Mario was a world-class chef.
She finished her meal and thanked him, asking if he could prepare ribs for the following evening. Then she returned to her suite, took a bath, and slipped into the most comfortable bed she had been in for a long time. She set her alarm for seven, turned on the news
channel that was covering the political unrest around the world and the latest threat from CURE. She tried to pay attention but was soon fast asleep.
Her first day of testing did not go well and only her unwavering resolve to find out who had killed her brother kept her from jumping into her RV and heading back to Gwen. From the time she had met Gordon in the morning until nearly six o’clock that evening, she was bombarded with tests. There were a variety of written examinations in addition to the medical, psychiatric, and fitness tests. The written topics were mostly those she never had had much interest in, such as biology and chemistry, and she was certain she had failed all of them.
“Wow, it looks like you were trampled by a herd of wild hogs,” Mario said when she arrived at the cafeteria that evening. “You just find a seat, and let me take care of you.”
Finding a seat was not very hard since she was again the only diner. She selected the same table as the previous evening. Mario soon reappeared carrying a tray of appetizers and a frosted mug of beer.
“I was wondering,” he said, “instead of eating alone, would you mind if I ate my dinner with you? Since most of the scientists have left, this has been a very quiet place, and you’ll likely be my last guest for the evening.”
“That would be wonderful!” she said. “I’d love to talk to a regular person rather than psychiatrists and examiners.”
“Great. I’ll be back as soon as I’ve made our dinners.”
He returned within twenty minutes with a large platter of ribs and a few side dishes and sat down. He was easy to talk to and she found herself telling him about her past. She told him how she liked to live off of the grid and about how she loved mechanics and building things. The one topic she avoided was her brother being murdered and her real purpose for being at the foundation.
“Have you ever heard of Virtuesh?” she finally asked.
“No, what’s that?”
“I found a website a few weeks ago while I was browsing the Internet. It was actually that site that led me to find out about everything here.”
“Interesting,” he said. “You’re quite late coming through for the tests. You should’ve been here a few months ago when there were hundreds of people through here every week.”
When she finished her meal, she was surprised by how much better she felt. The frustrations of the day seemed like a distant memory. She thanked him for both the meal and his company, and then returned to her suite. She turned on the television to see if there was anything interesting on the news but soon turned it off as they were just covering how several countries remained in disagreement on how to handle the CURE threat, resulting in more sanctions and trade embargoes.
The first day at the foundation turned out to be the routine pattern for the rest of the week: a grueling day of testing followed by a recuperative dinner and conversation with Mario.
She knew she had done well on some of the tests, including the repairing of a wheat thresher with a broken attachment. The machine was situated in a well-equipped workshop, and she was given no detail other than it was broken and she had four hours to fix it. The first challenge was figuring out how the machine was supposed to work and then to identify the broken piece. She had never seen anything like this before, but after a brief period of trial and error had most of it figured out and also identified the attachment that needed to be fixed.
The simple answer would have been to put a clamp around the broken part, but she went the extra mile and used several tools as well as the kiln to cast a brand new one. When the examiners came to inspect her work, she overheard them say that no one had performed as good a job before and they wondered how she could have done it so quickly.
There were also tests that held little or no purpose as far as she was concerned. During one, she sat across a table from the examiner while he held up a card only the back of which she could see. From this image, she was required to state the first symbol that came to mind—square, circle, or squiggly lines. Another test showed her random numbers and she would then have to guess if the next number would be higher or lower.
At the end of the final day, Gordon informed her they would have her results by the next morning. She pressed him to find out if he knew more, or if he at least had an idea, but he stayed tight-lipped and insisted she would have to wait until morning. Though she was pretty sure that she had failed, she allowed herself a glimmer of hope that she may have passed since she did not want this lead to her brother’s killer coming to an abrupt halt. With nothing left to do but wait, she decided to head to the cafeteria for what she thought may well be her last meal there.
Mario greeted her encouragingly. “You made it—congratulations!”
“Well . . . we’ll have to see about that,” she said. “Only around five percent of the people who apply actually make it.”
“I’m sure that you did pass.”
“Only in some areas,” she insisted. “But in most, like the written tests, I did horribly, and I don’t even want to think about my psychology scores or the paranormal trials.”
“Hold on. Maybe it’s time that I come clean with you.”
“What?”
He slowly removed his chef’s hat and double-breasted apron, pulled out a chair, and sat down opposite her at the table. “I haven’t been very truthful with you throughout the last week,” he said. “The first thing—I’m not a real chef and wasn’t responsible for the meals you’ve enjoyed so much. I’m actually one of the elders at Percipience; in fact, the lead elder of the village. I was here this week on other business when I happened to hear about one last person taking the tests.”
She stared him incredulously. “But why would you lie?”
“You see, the results from the last five days are taken into account for resident positions, but all residents must also be cleared by an elder.” He sat back, watching her reaction. “When the main group came through, we did it more like a scheduled interview, but I wasn’t happy with the results. For the most part, people came in prepared and answered with what they thought I wanted to hear. After a few weeks with them in Percipience, the other elders and I have sent back several people because they don’t fit the type of personality we’re looking for.”
“So you decided to pose as a chef this week and check me out,” she said tersely.
“I’m sorry for the deception,” he said, his voice softening, “but I’m very happy with the results. I’ve reviewed all of your testing, and I’d be thrilled if you would join my clan as a Percipience resident. Don’t worry about the biology and chemistry stuff; there will be people around who can train you to do routine tasks in the research lab. What I really like about you is your integrity. Your natural abilities in operating, designing and repairing mechanical equipment is a bonus and you may be surprised to find out that you did remarkably well in the paranormal testing.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She shook her head slowly and looked at Mario as though seeing him for the first time. “I was so sure I’d failed.”
“Not by a long shot,” he said. “Think it over this evening and let Gordon know your decision in the morning. I do hope you’ll decide to join.”
********************
“Mikhail never told me any of this.” Olivia fumed to herself. She had procrastinated all week on getting ready for her trip to Percipience and had just started to read through the sheet of paper that Gordon had given to her listing the restrictions for what she was allowed to take along and what she could expect for living conditions.
“This is barbaric!” she thought as she read over the clause indicating that overalls and coats would be provided so other than undergarments, no other personal clothes were permitted. She sat down on the edge of the bed in a state of disbelief and went through the pages in detail, thinking that not being able to take clothes along would be as bad as it would get, but she was wrong.
“No makeup! That does it.” She picked up her cell phone and called the number on the bottom of the page
. Though it was late, she was not too surprised when Gordon answered.
“Olivia, it’s after six; whatever it is, can’t it wait until morning?”
“It certainly cannot.” Olivia stated. “Is this Percipience travel restriction list a joke or something? It says here that I can’t even take makeup along! I cannot go a day without makeup let alone for a full year.”
There was a groan from the other end of the phone. “You called me about that?”
“Well, other restrictions too. No personal clothes. No foods. No money.”
“Right, they provide you with great looking pale orange overalls so you won’t need any clothes.”
“For heaven’s sake, why?”
“They want the residents to start acclimatizing right away to their new way of life. It just wouldn’t be fair if the builders were allowed these things and the residents were not. And they don’t want a black market up there, so there is no money allowed at all on site. If you are caught with any on you, your contract is terminated.”
Olivia sighed. “I guess. . .”
“The cafeteria up there is pretty different from the one at the foundation too. What makes it unique is that it will only serve up foods that the residents would normally eat once the experiment has begun. I know how you love your custom made coffee. If I were you, I would go out and have three of them tonight since you won’t be tasting them again for a year.”
“I can live without my specialty coffee,” Olivia conceded.
‘No, I meant no coffee at all. They’ll be serving a substitute up there. Made out of dandelion roots and ginseng or something like that.”
“Sounds ghastly.”
“Now if you are over your panic attack, can I get back to my dinner?”
“Yes, of course. Sorry to have called you, I just thought that this was a practical joke or something.”
After she hung up, Olivia took about ten minutes to pack what she was allowed to bring and then spent the rest of the evening working on a plan that would help make the next year tolerable.
********************
Leafing through the results of Diane’s test scores, Mikhail found himself surprised. He was going to allow her to proceed regardless of how she did, but not only did she pass, she gained Mario’s approval as well. He started to realize the potential benefits of being able to keep an eye on her in Percipience and how she might help him find out if Olivia was the source of the information leak on Virtuesh.