2022

by Ken Kroes

  “I brought this up with me from the foundation.” Olivia said as she proudly reached in and pulled out a package of ground coffee.

  “Oh my God” Diane said in a hushed voice. “May I please have a cup?”

  Olivia laughed as she made two cups. “With steady shipments of equipment and chemicals coming in from the foundation lab, I’m making sure to get regular shipments in of this as well so at least we will have a few creature comforts.”

  Diane just nodded as she took her first sip and took a good look around the lab. “There sure is a lot of equipment in here.”

  “There is. The hardest part of getting the equipment for this lab has been the construction rules in Percipience,” Olivia stated. “Unless you get an exception from Mikhail or Richard, everything here must be able to be built using the tools and materials available here. If you do get an exception, then a two hundred year supply is put into storage. So you can imagine that it’s very hard to get those exceptions.”

  “But building all of this must be tough. I have to image that much of this equipment is pretty complicated.”

  “There’s a full machine shop here, so you’d be surprised by what they actually can build. Though some of the electronics have proved to be interesting in that they won’t last, even if stored properly, for more than a few decades. Thankfully, most basic electronic components, like resistors, can be stored for a very long time so a great deal of the equipment you see here had to be completely redesigned to be much simpler to build and repair.”

  Diane nodded. “Have you ever heard of Virtuesh?” she asked casually.

  Olivia was about to take a sip of coffee and her arm froze. “Where did you hear about that?”

  Diane went through the story of her brother being killed and how she found the Virtuesh website on his computer, which led her to Percipience.

  Olivia only then noticed Diane’s last name on her badge and realized that her brother was also her own friend who had been murdered. “Diane,” she said quietly, “I may know the person responsible for getting your brother killed!”

  “What?”

  “Your brother was a friend of mine. During a video chat we had shortly before he was killed, I accidently mentioned the word Virtuesh. It’s a secret virus that the foundation has developed, and the director of research, Mikhail, warned me that there would be consequences if I told anyone about it. There are only a handful of people who have knowledge on it, and none of the residents do.”

  “So when my brother looked it up on the Internet, it must have triggered something that signaled Mikhail. Of course! I looked it up too, and shortly after that, a suspicious looking insurance agent came around looking for me. But why didn’t they finish me off when I was at headquarters? They treated me like a VIP.”

  “Probably because as long as you were there, or here for that matter, you pose no threat. I can understand that they want to keep Virtuesh secret, but it’s not worth killing for, at least not for this project.”

  “Do you think that Mikhail is up to anything else?”

  “Possibly. I’ll dig around and see if I can find anything. Maybe I should make up an excuse to go back to headquarters after I receive the first batch of the virus and vaccines that are expected to be here in the next day or so. In the meantime, I think we both had better be extra careful and not mention this to anyone else.”

  “I agree, and I appreciate your help,” Diane said. Now at least I know I’m on the right track.  

  10 - Hope Dealt In

  Hope was tired enough to sleep on the noisy helicopter ride back to Percipience. The landing woke her and she then went on a search for Mikhail and caught up with him just as he was leaving his trailer. “Here’s the report on the interrogation that I did on that spy. Not much of a challenge. I really was hoping for something a bit harder.”

  “Give me the short version,” Mikhail said. He took the folder and sat down.

  “He’s a junior member of the DIR and was at the colonies to get more information on them since their Dark Web search engine was coming up blank. He got caught when he tried to put a tracking device on one of the computers at the colony.”

  “Harmless enough, at least for now. I’ll give this to Richard tomorrow,” Mikhail said. “Care to join me for a bite to eat?”

  They headed to the cafeteria and settled at a table. She asked him if she should continue watching Olivia and Diane.

  “Yes—for now, at least,” he replied.

  “You know; it would be a whole lot easier for me to keep an eye on things if I knew what you were looking for.”

  He looked at her and decided that he could use an ally through the next few months. The more she knew, the more effective she would be.

  “I guess that’s a fair request,” he said, glancing around to ensure that no one could hear him. “You do understand that the purpose of the Pleasant Belief Foundation is to prevent or prepare for a global collapse and to live in a sustainable fashion?”

  “I do—and I like the foundation; they’re doing great work.”

  “I have a plan of my own,” he said. “One along the same lines but I think is better.” He described Richards’s plan for four villages that would operate as experiments in sustainable living while the rest of the world’s eight billion people systematically destroyed the planet. “If there was a catastrophic event, and all those people died, I think the villages would be far too small to restart the human population. My plan involves a much larger population of like-minded people, say a few million. By now you’ve heard of Virtuesh—the virus that villages like Percipience would use as a last-resort defense?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, there’s another strain of that virus, I call it Virtuesh-B. Richard doesn’t know about it even though he paid for it!”

  “I don’t like where I think this is going,” Hope said with concern.

  Mikhail had a small grin on his face and raised his eyebrows. “With a limitless budget, I had it made at the same time as Virtuesh was designed, except this one can be transmitted through the air and lasts longer outside a host body.”

  She shifted uneasily in her seat. “That sounds pretty dangerous.”

  “It is. I’ve had enough produced to cover the earth, and it’s already in the hands of the people who will release it.”

  “God!” she blurted. “You want to take out the human race?”

  “Not entirely,” he said calmly. “I’m getting enough vaccine for this new strain made in a separate facility to cover a few million of the people who share the same environmental ideology. Together, we’ll start a new, sustainable world—one without wars.”

  “It’s an insane plan and sounds like something that CURE would do. You can’t go ahead with this.”

  Mikhail laughed. “CURE is exactly the group I’m referring to! I’ve been part of it since the beginning. We don’t have an official hierarchy, but I’m part of a small group that drives the plans and general direction.”

  “They’re terrorists and radicals, for God’s sake.”

  He raised his hands in mock horror. “From the government’s perspective, yes, but we are fighting for the planet! Before you get any heroic ideas and turn me in, or kill me, you should know that the people around the globe in charge of releasing the virus are devoted to the cause. They’ll release it even if they are not vaccinated and will do so if they don’t hear from me every two days.”

  She said nothing when he finished talking and thought about what she should do next. There may be still time to figure out something to stop him so she decided to play along for now.

  “How soon until the vaccine is ready?”

  “About three months,” he said. “Then another month after that to distribute it and let it take effect.”

  “I see. Why are you telling me all this? And what do Olivia and Diane have to do with it—are they in on it with you?”

  He sat back and laughed again. “No, they’re not helping me. Olivia is working on set
ting up the lab and vaccines for the original Virtuesh, and Diane has found out about it somehow. She must have gotten some information from her brother.”

  “So what threat are they to you?”

  “Here, in Percipience, they’re of little threat.” Mikhail said, “I was worried about Diane when she wasn’t here in that she would alert authorities and put attention on us that both Richard and I don’t want. Now, just as a precaution I want to keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t somehow stumble onto my strain of the virus or any part of my plan. The risk is very low since I’ve ensured that there are no electronic records of Virtuesh-B, but one cannot be too careful.”

  “I want in,” she said. “I want some of the vaccine for this new strain of the virus.”

  “Of course—I expected that you would. I’ll get you ten doses—will that be enough?”

  “I think so. How can I trust that the vaccine will be genuine?” she asked.

  “Listen, when all of this is over, I’ll be in a position of immense power across the world. A person with your skills is very hard to find, and I’m sure I’ll continue to have need of your services.”

  Hope nodded and then agreed to monitor Olivia and Diane and report any suspicions findings to him.

  Their conversation ended and she walked back to her trailer for a much-needed sleep. As she approached, she noticed lights inside. She opened the door and was greeted cheerily by Olivia, who immediately introduced Diane. The two young women sat on the floor playing a game of cards.

  “Where did you go off to last night?” Olivia asked.

  “I had an errand to do for Mikhail,” she said. There was no point in lying about that. “He’s a tough man to work for.”

  Olivia and Diane looked at each other. “I don’t care too much for him,” Olivia said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t trust him.”

  “I don’t” she said, lying down on her bed. “You two don’t have to worry about being quiet. I’m exhausted and will be asleep in no time.” She put her head down on her pillow. You’re quite right. I can’t trust Mikhail.

  ********************

  Sue leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, she glanced up at the clock and then around the rest of the office realizing that everyone else had left for the day. She had been so immersed in dealing with environment data requests that she had lost track of time. As she started to pack up her things to go home, she looked at the vacant cube across the aisle. Her initial anger at Spencer for not checking in with her was turning into concern. Though she had only known him for a few weeks, he did seem quite responsible, and she could not imagine a scenario where he would not get in contact with her.

  She put her purse down and turned her terminal back on. With a few keystrokes, she found that there was no activity on Spencer’s cell phone or bank records for the last few days and after a few more searches also found that he had not even used any of his e-mail accounts. One final search against hospital and police databases came up blank as well. Something has gone wrong.

  Her next move was to make a call to the West Coast colony office, but they were of little help. They explained to her that they did not keep names of anyone staying in the complex but offered to put a note on their bulletin boards with his name and a message for him to call her.

  Frustrated with her lack of progress, she picked up the phone for one last call. He has to be at the colony and must have gotten into trouble somehow. There is only one person I can think of whom I can contact to maybe get some answers. Richard, the head of the foundation itself.

  11 - The Elders

  Richard reviewed the report on Spencer while eating breakfast with Mikhail.

  “Why in the hell is the DIR interested in us?” he challenged.

  “It’s buried in the report you’re reading. They’re wondering why they can’t get any more information on us from their Dark Web search engine,” Mikhail replied. “I have to admit I thought you were paranoid when I first came on board and saw that the foundation’s computer network had no physical ties to the public Internet. Turns out it was a brilliant idea. Even I didn’t realize the depth of information that the DIR gathers.”

  “I understand they don’t like secrets kept from them—but why us? What was the trigger that made them look this way?”

  “I guess someone doesn’t like the cause that the foundation is pushing. They’re trying to find your weakness so they can put a stop to it.”

  Richard slammed his fork down. “I wish we were having the level of impact that would cause concern. I think the CURE threat is more effective than our efforts. But you’re probably right and it’s most likely one or more big corporations or the government itself looking into us. I get so frustrated by the amount of time lost in fighting things like this or convincing people there’s a problem instead of taking action. Why do some continue to think we can keep expanding and growing on a planet with finite resources?”

  “Human nature, I guess.”

  “No!” he said more loudly than intended. “I absolutely refuse to believe that. This planet, our economy, even our society has limits to what we can throw at it. A few generations from now, we’ll have exhausted the planet of some of it is key resources that we use today, like copper and phosphorus. Before that, we’ll have polluted it past key tipping points. If this were really understood, I believe that behavior would be different. People have been brainwashed over the last several thousand years that growth is good and it can continue on forever.”

  “Maybe,” Mikhail said, “but if that’s the case, you can’t fix it overnight.”

  “No, we can’t,” Richard admitted as he closed the report and finished the last bite of his meal, “But I need to run, I am late as it is for the elders’ meeting.”

  Richard hurried to the town hall and found the Elders’ Forum room. He knocked sharply on the locked door and Mario responded almost instantly. “I’m glad you found us. Don’t you have a key?”

  Richard laughed as he entered. “Good question. You’d think after paying for all of this that I’d have keys to the only two locked doors in the complex.”

  A group of ten men and women sat around a conference table. The room itself was fairly large and contained a small library in the back along with some radio equipment. A strange looking machine with a keyboard stood in one corner.

  “Good morning, everyone.” Richard said, letting his eyes rest on each person at the table. “You’ve been selected to be the first elders of Percipience. With our initial population of three hundred, we’ve decided to start with ten clan huts. During this construction phase, we’ll be laying out plumbing and electricity for the fully populated fifty huts but will only be constructing fifteen. That will give you five for easy expansion in the upcoming decades without putting a big construction burden on your small population. There’s no sense in building all of the huts now though because many would deteriorate before you ever got a chance to use them, and I want to make sure that each hut has a good population right from the beginning.”

  He told them they would receive no special privileges as elders for their huts. They would be expected to do the same work as the others and, in addition, would be responsible for managing their hut and helping to oversee the village. Their word would be law, but they must be fair. He called them benevolent dictators who could be ousted if the majority of the other elders felt the need. “I’ve selected Mario to be leader of your group. He’ll also have no special privileges, and will do everything you do but with the added responsibility of leading the village.”

  He handed each a sheet of paper. “This is an abbreviated list of your additional responsibilities. I’ve completed a more detailed document on this subject with specific suggestions on several items. This document along with several others related to the other villages, radio operation, and other information will be in the village manual that is currently being published and should be arriving within the next week or so. I’ll gi
ve you a minute to read this summary, and then we can discuss it.”

  Primary Elders’ Responsibilities

  1. Ensure a fair schedule is setup for the day-to-day activities to support your clan and village.

  2. Monitor the shortwave radio on a regular basis to get news from the outside world that may impact Percipience.

  3. At a preset time, each week, you will be contacted by the Pleasant Belief Foundation Research Division by radio to see if there are any critical problems and to get a report for research purposes.

  4. There will be no communication outside the village other than to the research division or other villages we have set up. A simple, two-way portable radio has been developed for communication within or near the village. To avoid detection from others outside, the radio design is not to be modified.

  5. With the help of the Genetic Data Processor (GDP), determine the desired dominant traits for future generations and manage the genetic pairing program to achieve these traits. Paranormal abilities will be a priority.

  6. All religions will be allowed with the exception of those that do not respect the faith and beliefs of others.

  7. Make reasonable adjustments to accommodate religious restrictions, such as not working on a specific day or not eating a specific type of food.

  8. Virtuesh is to be used only if the village is threatened by an outside group.

  9. All new elders and the leader will pick their own successor immediately. That person cannot be a direct descendent.

  10. New elders will be introduced to these rules and to other details through the Elders’ Forum Library. No one else from the village will have access to this library.

  He waited for everyone to read through the information before continuing. “I’m sure you have questions, and I’ll get to all of them, but let me address one of the more controversial points—the genetic pairing program, population control, and the GDP. First of all, residents, including all of you, have been well-informed and have agreed to population limits and to the selective pairing program. The new information I’m about to give you are the reasons behind it and how this will be achieved.”