CHAPTER SEVEN
When Davidson got back to his office at the Internal Security Bureau Headquarters, he dropped the CDC's personnel file on Robert Meredith on his desk and thumbed through it. As Professor Fisher said, Meredith got good work appraisals and there was no suggestion of Freedom Alliance sympathies. Davidson had hoped to interview Meredith's parents about their son's death. However, the file said they were both dead. Nor could he interview Meredith's younger sister, Anna, because three years ago she fled the City and disappeared into the Badlands. The file didn't mention why she fled.
The ISB maintained intelligence files on most citizens of Webster City. Hundreds of staff spent endless hours entering information about citizens into a computer system which, despite being one of the most advanced in the City, was slow and clunky, and often crashed.
Davidson turned on his computer and pulled up the intelligence file on Robert Meredith. Fairly skimpy. However, it contained the memorandum of an ISB officer who interviewed Meredith about his sister's disappearance. Meredith said he had no contact with her for several years before she fled and had no idea why she went. The interviewing officer noted that his answers "appeared sincere".
All ISB intelligence files gave citizens a Civic Reliability Rating. At the time of his death, Meredith scored 9 out of 10. One point was deducted because a family member had fled the City.
Davidson regarded most intelligence files and their CRRs as useless. This file told him that Meredith was either a good citizen or was good at hiding his Freedom Alliance sympathies. Davidson could take his pick.
He accessed the intelligence file on Anna Meredith and saw it was a good deal longer than her brother's. She worked as an accountant before fleeing the City. Most citizens fled because they found the City too oppressive or were in trouble with the law. She appeared to fall into the second category. Her employer reported to the police that he suspected she stole $25,000 from his safe. The police interviewed her. The next day, she disappeared from her apartment and, it was assumed, fled the City. That was easy to do if you knew an illicit guide and paid his fee. Not surprising, her Civic Reliability Rating was zero.
He was about to turn off his computer when he remembered that he still hadn't checked the ISB database for a mention of "Professor Pettigrew" or "Project Marigold". They were on his mind because he found a photograph of an unknown man at Mark Conrad's apartment. When he showed it to Colonel Prentice, the Colonel identified the man as Professor Pettigrew, a biologist at Webster University, who had gone missing. The Colonel also mentioned Project Marigold. When Davidson said he had never heard of the Professor or the project, the Colonel clammed up.
Now Davidson tried to pull up the intelligence file of Professor Pettigrew on his computer. "Access Denied" flashed on the screen. Jesus. He'd never been denied access to a citizen's intelligence file before. The Professor must be very important to get that sort of protection. Next, Davidson searched the ISB database for "Project Marigold". No hits. Damn.
Davidson was keen to know why the Professor was so important and why he had disappeared. However, right now he had to solve the mystery of Robert Meredith's death. When he'd done that, he would focus on the good Professor.
Davidson drove home just before sunset under a salmon sky. Pawing through other people's backgrounds on the ISB computer made him contemplate his own. His parents were high school teachers who died in a car accident when he was in his late teens. They were good solid people who taught their two sons, and their pupils, to believe in God and the City's mission to rebuild civilization.
Davidson fully imbibed their beliefs. However, his older brother, Ted, was less docile. He despised authority and let his mind wander far beyond the City walls. Every Websterite was nostalgic about a particular era before the Great Plague. Ted's was the age of space exploration. He read every banned book he could find about the Apollo missions and the establishment of the US colony on Mars. He often asked Davidson if descendants of the colonists might still be alive. Davidson said it was highly unlikely the colonists achieved self-sufficiency before the Great Plague caused their food and oxygen to be cut off.
Ted said: "But there's a tiny chance, isn't there, that there are still people on Mars?"
"You're dreaming."
Ted often said he couldn't stay in the City for the rest of his life. "People in this city have the whole world to themselves and go nowhere. It's insane. I can't stay here."
"We've got to stay and rebuild civilization."
"Really? I think that, after the Great Plague, all the survivors - including Alexander Webster - suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and we still suffer from it. That's why people in this city are terrified of the outside world. In fact, I think they're terrified of themselves - of their capacity to do evil."
Davidson felt a stab of fear. "Don't talk like that. If someone else hears you, you'll be in big trouble."
A shrug. "So what? I'll be gone soon."
At nineteen, Ted started his two years of compulsory military service by enlisting in the Air Cavalry. A year later, during a raid on an Outlaw hamlet in Kansas, he disappeared. His squad chased a band of fugitives into a thick forest. He became detached and was never seen again. He was officially listed as killed in action. But Davidson often wondered if he deserted and was still in the Badlands, or maybe even on another continent. There was only a faint chance of that. But Davidson still prayed that, one day, they would talk again about space exploration.
Webster City Page 7