Cyber's Change

by Jamie Davis

  “And you think this means the chief is part of the Sapiens Movement?” Eric asked.

  Cass nodded. “My father met with him and some of the other leaders in the city. I know they talked about the upcoming rally. The police chief may not be an active member of the party. He is helping facilitate the rally for my father, whatever his motivations. I think we have to accept that the officers assigned to the Saturday march will be friendly to the movement and not to any cyber-human countermarch.”

  Eric sat still in his chair for several seconds. Shelby and Cass waited for him to say something. Hopefully, he’d change his mind.

  When he looked up at them, Cass knew he hadn’t. His determined expression made him almost look fierce.

  “It doesn’t change anything. I overheard a few of the officers talking about how the Sapiens march was providing all their own security. Only a minimal police presence was needed. That means those people will have the run of our city if we don’t stand up to them. If we back down, we let them win. We can’t do that. I’m still going to the rally and countermarch on Saturday.”

  “Then we’re going with you,” Shelby said.

  “Shel?” Cass asked. “It’s going to be dangerous. I’m not sure we’ll be so lucky again.”

  “Cass, we have to go, especially if you have some connection within the police that might help us. You might be able to use the chief to swing some sort of safeguard if we need it at the last minute.”

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Cass said. “I don’t even know the chief’s name.”

  “Cass,” Shelby implored her. “We have to go. Eric is in no condition to go alone.”

  Cass paused. None of this seemed like a good idea. She still nodded because she knew both Shelby and her brother would go without her if she refused.

  Shelby smiled at her and turned to Eric. “That settles it. We’re going with you. When do you plan on leaving Saturday morning?”

  Eric smiled. “I’m glad you’re with me. We need to reach out and find out how many others from the original organizing committee got out of jail. Everyone should’ve made bail by now. Once we know that, we can gather them together and make plans for what to do on Saturday.”

  “Cass and I will help with that. We should be able to track down everybody if you give us the list of names. You stay here and focus on getting better. We’ll do the legwork for you in the meantime.”

  Eric hesitated before answering. “All right. If you ladies insist, I’ll let you do it.”

  Shelby leaned over and hugged her brother in the chair and then walked with Cass towards the door. The two of them left the apartment and headed for the elevator.

  “Shelby, I still think this is a bad idea.”

  “I do, too, but what else am I supposed to do? I can’t lock him in his apartment and he will still find a way to get there whether we take him or not.”

  “So, we’re just going to let him get arrested again? You know that’s what’s going to happen if there’s another counter-march. Given how weak he is, that wouldn’t be a good outcome. I’m also afraid what the Sapiens marchers will do when directly confronted with a group of cyber-human protesters.”

  “You think they’ll get violent?” Shelby asked. “The police will be there to keep the groups apart.”

  “You heard what Eric said. The movement is providing their own security for the march. There may not be enough police to keep the two groups apart. The streets are going to be filled with people holding strong opposing views. A lot of the Sapiens marchers will think there’s a genuine, physical danger from people who have cybernetic enhancements. They’ll believe we can do everything from reading minds to pulling out weapons hidden in prosthetic limbs like your arm.”

  “That’s ridiculous. This is a normal hand except for the fact that it has some extra capabilities.”

  “It’s those capabilities, those extras, that people are most afraid of. They don’t understand or know that for you it’s just like carrying a penknife.”

  Shelby was silent for the rest of the ride down the elevator. A signal pinged their implants as they left the apartment building. Eric sent them the list of people to contact.

  “Looks like everybody on this list is not too far away from here. We should be able to connect with them either via the net or visit their home or apartment directly,” Cass said.

  “Agreed. Let’s start with the top of the list and work our way down. We’ll send out a message to them first using the contact info Eric provided us. If we don’t hear back from them, we’ll stop and try to visit them in person.”

  Cass and Shelby started working their way down the list of all the people who’d been in jail. All of them had made bail and were either safe at home or back to work. The group agreed to come to Eric’s apartment Saturday morning and meet with him to determine how they were going to proceed.

  Cass and Shelby headed back to their dorm to pick up some clothes before going back to Eric’s apartment. He was doing better, but since he wanted to attend the rally, Shelby wanted to stay there through the weekend so they could be close to him the whole time.

  Chapter 24

  Saturday arrived too quickly. Cass woke that morning with a start, jolted from a horrible dream by her internal alarm. Though she couldn’t remember the details of the nightmare, it left her with a sense of dread she couldn’t shake.

  On several occasions that morning, as she, Shelby, and Eric had an early breakfast around his kitchen table, she considered telling the two of them about her feelings. Eric’s infectious enthusiasm and talk about how they were going to make a real difference later that morning changed her mind. Cass pressed the dread down deep within herself until she could barely feel it anymore.

  Shelby must have sensed her mood anyway because when Eric went back to his room to change for the rally, she reached across the small kitchen table and laid a hand on Cass’s arm.

  “What’s wrong? You’ve been brooding about something all morning.”

  “It’s nothing. I woke up with a bad feeling about today. That’s all. It’s probably just a combination of bad dreams and the memory of last Saturday.”

  “We’re going to be more careful this time around. You and I are just there to keep an eye on Eric. We’ll keep to the sidelines and make sure we have a way out if things turn nasty again.”

  “I hope that’s good enough, Shel. You don’t know the members of the movement the way I do. They are true believers, some of them rabidly so.”

  “You used to be one of them. If you can change your mind about us, so can they. We have to show them who we are and that we’re not a threat to them. Eric and his friends will be peaceful.”

  “We were peaceful last weekend and look where that got us,” Cass remarked.

  Shelby didn’t answer right away. After a few seconds she said, “Look, Cass, you don’t have to come today if you don’t want to. I’ve got to go because Eric’s not going to stay here and someone needs to go and keep him from doing anything rash. I know him. He feels like he needs to show his friends that he’s stronger than a few heavy-handed police officers. I’m afraid, like you, even with peaceful intent, the Sapiens marchers are going to precipitate something against Eric and the others.”

  “If you agree with me, Shel, why are we going along with him on this march today? You have to do something to keep him here.”

  “If I do that, he’ll just kick us out and then go down there on his own. No. We need to follow through with what we started helping to organize today’s rally. If we are there with him, we can keep him out of trouble.”

  Cass didn’t answer. There was no need. Shelby had made up her mind. Cass’s only options were to go along or go home.

  Eric returned from getting dressed and grabbed his coat. “You ladies ready to go?”

  Cass glanced at Shelby and nodded. Shelby smiled back at her and got up from the chair in the kitchen. “Let me grab my coat.”

  As Cass grabbed her own coat, her girlfrie
nd leaned over and whispered, “Thank you, my love.”

  The three of them left and headed to the rally point for the cyber-rights supporters. It was time to see if they could change some minds. Cass knew most were likely to be intractable.

  As soon as they reached the streets close to City Hall, it was clear the Sapiens event was much larger than any of them had expected it to be. Everywhere they looked, there were people wearing T-shirts with some pretty offensive slogans on them, all aimed against cyber-humans.

  Many were quite shocking. One had the image of a bullseye target and the words, “The Only Good Sub Is A Dead Sub.”

  Cass had never seen such blatant hatred displayed before, even growing up within the Sapiens enclave. If frightened her and she was unprepared for the visceral anger she felt at seeing it here.

  Cass realized how much her father had sheltered her from. There was no way he was unaware of this element in the Sapiens movement while she was growing up. That meant he hid it from her and Elena.

  The three of them avoided contact with the people walking towards the Sapiens rally, instead heading straight for another smaller park near City Hall where Eric had told the counter-marchers to meet.

  The other demonstrators for the cyber-humans were waiting in the park when they arrived. The number of supporters surprised Cass given what happened the week before. There weren’t the thousand or so from the previous week, but several hundred people still decided to brave the trials of a counter-protest again this weekend. All of them carried signs and placards, ready to go.

  Eric walked around to the front of the group and climbed up on a bench. He winced a little as he stood up above the assembled people. He was still sore from his injuries the previous weekend.

  Someone handed Eric a bull horn and he began to pass along instructions to the group. Cass and Shelby stood off to one side as he addressed the supporters in the park.

  “Fellow cyber-humans, this is our chance to stand up for who we are and what we believe in. We are not going to let them bully us or back down from their hatred. Now is our chance to stand up to evil. We have to show them they can’t drive us underground.”

  A cheer went up from the group as people raised their fists over their heads and waved the signs they held in the air.

  “Follow me, be peaceful, and march for freedom and basic rights for everyone.” Eric stepped down from the park bench and started towards the street.

  The rest of the group moved forward, following behind him, chanting out the slogan, “Cyber Rights, Right Now.”

  Cass and Shelby held back a little and situated themselves at the periphery of the group.

  All of them marched forward onto the street, turning right towards the square in front of City Hall where the Sapiens rally was being held.

  Stragglers still filtering into the Sapiens rally called out a few slurs at them but they encountered no organized resistance.

  Cass knew that couldn’t last for too long. She looked around, searching for an escape plan. Her feeling of dread from the previous night’s horrific dream had returned.

  About a block from City Hall, Cass noticed an alley off to their left with a fire escape hanging down on the side of one of the buildings. That might be a way up to higher ground if they lost sight of Eric.

  This week, unlike the previous weekend, there was almost zero police presence on the streets around the square. Cass did spot numerous men and women in yellow windbreakers with “SAPIENS SECURITY” stenciled on the back. Clearly, her father’s plan to provide their own security for the event had been embraced by the police chief and mayor.

  As the cyber-human demonstrators turned the corner and started up the street towards City Hall, they ran into the first large group of Sapiens demonstrators almost immediately.

  The Sapiens’ attendees in this group all wore black sweaters and sweatshirts with a stylized fist inside a white circle printed on them. Cass had never seen the logo before.

  The black-clad group turned to face them as the cyber-human group approached.

  Between the two approaching groups, stood a thin line of people wearing the yellow security jackets, spaced about five feet apart. There were no more than a dozen of them. Even if they were inclined to keep the two groups apart, which Cass wasn’t sure they were, there was no way they’d stop a confrontation from happening.

  Before Cass knew it, both groups surged towards each other, shouting angry threats and curses.

  She wasn’t sure who charged first. In the end, it didn’t matter.

  The groups pressed together and fighting erupted between those standing in the front of both groups.

  Cass and Shelby lost sight of Eric as soon as the groups converged.

  “Cass, can you see Eric?” Shelby asked, panic in her voice.

  She craned her neck, trying to pick Eric out of the melee in front of them. Cass shook her head. “No, can you?”

  Shelby shook her head, too. “What are we going to do?”

  Cass remembered the alley they’d passed a hundred feet behind them. “I saw an alley over there. I think we might be able to better see what’s going on if we get up on the roof of that building.”

  “How are we going to help Eric from up there?”

  “I don’t think we are in a position to help Eric at all now, no matter what happens, Shel. You and I aren’t fighters. We aren’t going to be able to wade in there and pull him out of that melee. All we’d do is end up getting hurt ourselves. That won’t help Eric.”

  Cass hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “Maybe, though, we can see where Eric is from up there. If we can spot him, we can track his location to meet up with him later. At the very least, we’ll see if he gets picked up by police.”

  “What police? We haven’t seen any for several blocks.”

  Cass glanced behind them and shook her head. “There’s got to be more police officers nearby somewhere. Don’t worry. They’ll break up this fight soon enough and lock up everyone, just like last week, including those Sapiens goons.”

  Shelby looked doubtful but nodded. Cass grabbed her by the hand and together they ran half a block to the rear of the surging group of cyber-human demonstrators and turned down an alley to the left. Cass pointed to the fire escape. The stairs at the bottom had already been lowered to near ground level. Together, she and Shelby climbed up the black metal staircase to the roof of the five-story apartment building.

  By the time they got to the rooftop and reached the front edge of the building to scan the street below, things had gotten much worse on the ground. From the center of the group of Sapiens supporters came another black-clad group of men and women wearing the same logo with the fist emblazoned on it. They wore ski masks pulled down over their faces.

  The newcomers all carried baseball bats and other improvised weapons. They pushed to the front of the group where the fighting was thickest, wading in to start beating on the cyber-humans shoving forward from the other direction. Above it all, with eerie clarity, Cass could hear the voices of the Sapiens’ rally speakers coming from the stage a hundred yards away in front of City Hall. She had a clear view of the stage from her vantage point.

  The current speaker on the stage said similar things to those said by her parents around the dinner table as she grew up.

  The woman speaking at the moment called out to the crowd. “Are you tired of all the traditions of decency and justice being trampled by those who want to take away our freedom? They talk about the freedom of rights granted to all humans when they aren’t human anymore themselves.”

  The crowd cheered in response and she continued. “That’s laughable because these people willingly gave up their humanity to become machines. We know what happens to machines that don’t do what we want them to do, don’t we?”

  “Junk them,” many in the crowd shouted, eliciting a shout and laughter from the woman on stage.

  “It is they who threaten us,” the woman continued. “They’re readying themselves for the time when th
ey’ll use their superior strength and power to vanquish all of us and make us all just like them.”

  Cass was struck by the contrast between what the woman said and the vicious violence being perpetrated by the so-called pure humans on the cyber-enhanced people protesting below.

  The cyber-human demonstrators retreated, falling back in an attempt to get away from the surge of the black-clad masked thugs who’d come out from the center of the Sapiens group. Then, in an instant, the cyber-humans below broke up into clusters of two and three people, dropping their signs and banners as they turned and ran from the brutal attackers in front of them. None of them were prepared to face this kind of opposition.

  The street below cleared out, leaving numerous people lying on the ground, bloody and injured.

  “Cass, you have the ocular implant. Where’s Eric?”

  Cass scanned the group of those who were retreating, hoping to catch a glimpse of Eric among those fleeing from the fight. She didn’t see him anywhere.

  Cass shook her head. “I don’t see him in the group that’s fleeing. He must be still up at the front with the few that are still fighting.”

  Shelby groaned beside her. This was more evil than their worst fears.

  Cass shifted to scan the area where there were knots of struggling people from both groups. After a few seconds, she spotted Eric and a half dozen others.

  A group of about a dozen masked protesters had them in custody along with a small group of the yellow-jacketed security guards. Their captors dragged Eric and the others into the crowded square, disappearing into the crowd before they were blocked by a line of trees. They all looked like they’d taken a pretty severe beating.

  Cass pointed as she clutched Shelby’s shoulder. “There. I saw him with some others from our rally being pulled back into the Sapiens’ crowd.”

  “What the hell are they going to do with him?” Shelby asked. “They certainly aren’t going to let him speak.”

  Cass shrugged. “Some of those with him had those yellow security coats on. Maybe they’re taking them to a police checkpoint for arrest?”