by Jude Fawley
“And I would have expected the same from a police officer, but then again I’ve only read about them as well,” Charles said.
Eric laughed heartily. “Only read about? Never met an officer before. Now I can hardly believe that.” And he laughed again. “I’m sorry,” he continued, “somehow this turned into a casual conversation that it was never meant to be. I’ll get to the point. I’m here to tell you that you’ve been selected by Karma to be a member of the Government. Which I’m sure you’ve expected.”
“And what position am I being offered?”
“Something administrative. I don’t know many of the details, but something entirely suited to your character, rest assured.”
“As you said,” Charles replied, “I had expected. But I would like to respectfully decline.”
Eric lost his cheery attitude very quickly. He stumbled to say, “Were you hoping for a different kind of position? I don’t understand. Whatever it is, I’m sure it can be resolved, but you’ll have to come with us.”
“It has nothing to do with the type of position,” he said. “If it is the Government, I don’t want to be involved. And I won’t be going with you.”
“Given your circumstances, it’s not possible to refuse.”
“That can’t be true.”
“Well, why would you? I know you already found your way into money, but think of how much more—”
Charles interrupted him without consciously intending to. “It has nothing to do with the money, I will say that much. Now really I must be going,” he said, standing up and taking his bag from under the bench.
Eric frowned. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Great.”
After a long subway ride, Charles stood in front of his mansion in Champlain. It was an archaic building that had been abandoned until only two weeks before, when he had bought it and made his public appearance as a man that had more money than he should. Directly behind it was the former country of Canada, which for reasons of habit was still considered by most to be foreign.
He went straight through the large living room, down one of the three hallways, and into the bathroom on its left. There was no mirror on the wall. He spoke loudly into the sink. “Brother Vincent, send Brother Peril over here right away. And activate the exchange.”
“Right away,” came a voice from his sink. Instantly a portion of the tiled floor lifted up, exposing a complicated set of machines with two seats and a control panel. He didn’t have to wait long before another man knocked on the door.
“How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to knock?” Charles said through the door.
Peril opened it and walked in. “It’s always weird. It is a bathroom after all.”
Charles was already seated in one of the chairs of the machine. “Sit down, please. We don’t have much time.”
As soon as Peril was seated, Charles hit a few buttons and the machine began to move as it hummed. It removed the ears of both men, took a Karma Chip out of Charles’ head, and put it into Peril’s. The whole time, both men had a very pained look on their face. When their ears were replaced, Charles stood up and said to Peril, “I think I’m close to figuring out the Karma Chip. And then we can abandon this godforsaken machine. But it really is complicated, and I might never make it in time for it to matter.”
Peril was absentmindedly holding on to his ear as he just nodded slowly.
Charles said, “You’re going to have to stop doing that. Stop touching your ear. Thank you. I want you to stay here for maybe an hour or two, perhaps watch some television, and then go back into the city.” He handed Peril his own Karma Card. “It’s going to be harder from here on out. The police talked to me today. If you notice that they’re around you, it’s probably because they’re looking for me. I imagine you’ll be safe, even when they know exactly where you are, because I doubt they’ll be able to make sense out of any of it. But if you do have trouble, call the house phone.”
“You really don’t think they’ll suspect anything if you call yourself when you live alone?”
“I said if you’re in trouble. I’m leaving.” Charles left the bathroom, going to the back of his house and out the door, into his expansive backyard. He hopped a small fence, then cut between a few trees and a thick brush, and found himself in the middle of a small town.
He called it the Monastery, the land of the dead. There were one hundred tents and counting, which represented two hundred monks. Further along the path he walked there was a moderately sized farm, where they grew everything that they could possibly grow, and even further down was where they kept their animals. Even though he had only publicly owned the mansion for two weeks, the Monastery had been there for about two years, and it was his pride and joy. There was even a small, wooden temple where he occasionally gave a sermon on Sundays. It was the temple that he was on his way to.
Situated in the back of the temple was the only room that was undeniably modern, which he had to include as a necessity. It housed monitors, computers, radios, and a workbench littered with countless tools and spare parts. Three people were standing at the bench, hard at work on small machines he had them building. He took a few books from his bag, including the one on electrodynamics, laid them on the bench, and said to them, “Required reading, for all of you.”
He then found Vincent, seated in a chair in front of the monitors.
“How is everyone doing?” he asked Vincent.
“Have a look for yourself,” he said, and turned one of the screens towards them. It was a map of New York City, with one hundred dots spread out all across it. Each one represented one of his monks, out in the city, doing Good Works so that his enterprise could have the money it needed to carry out its mission.
“And they’re all alright?”
“All of the vitals are normal.”
“Who is that?” Charles asked, pointing to a circular monitor off to the side.
“That’s Brother Michael. He’s been opening the door for people at the Century Building all day.” On the screen was the visual perspective of Michael, as he stood outside the door of a building, facing the busy street. Thousands of people were walking by, and whenever one diverted into the building, he could be seen moving aside and letting them in.
Michael was one of the newer members of the Order, and Charles made sure that they were monitored for at least a week’s worth of duty, before he sent out another new member for training. Vincent was one of the four people that were always in the monitor room, watching the new recruits.
“And how much longer does he have to be watched?”
“Today’s his last day. He did fine. Simple, but fine,” Vincent said.
“That’s good enough. Where’s the next one?”
“Should be in the temple today. His name is Steve.”
“Alive or Dead?”
“Dead.”
“Thank you, Brother Vincent.”
“An honor, Brother Charles.”
Around the other side of the building were the large wooden doors of the temple. During the day, they were open. On the inside, fifty monks were sitting on the ground in lotus position, meditating. All except one of them were wearing black robes—the exception was wearing white. Charles walked through the rows and columns of people until he stood in front of him. “Steve,” he said. When he got no response, he lightly rapped on the man’s head with his finger. “Steve?”
The man woke with a startle, and when he recognized the face of the man standing above him he tried getting to his feet as quickly as he could, so that he could bow or display some sort of etiquette. “Sir, my mistake, sir.”
“Stay seated,” he said, as he sat down on the floor himself. “And please, call me Brother Charles. There are no ‘sirs’ here.”
“Yes, Brother Charles.”
“Before I say anything else, pull in your legs a little, for a better lotus. Your chi is entirely off-balance. You’ll never find Enlightenment with your legs sticking that f
ar out.”
He waited for the man to correct his posture, then continued. “Now as I understand it, it will be tomorrow that you actually go into the world as a Brother of our Order and do Good Works in our service.” The man just sat there in silence listening, which Charles appreciated. “There are a few things we haven’t told you about yet, and now is the time. After this conversation, I will give you your black robes, so if you need to hear again any of the things I will be saying, you can ask any other Brother and they will know that they can tell you.
“You are Dead. That means that the Karma Chip we took out of your head, two months ago when you got here, was destroyed. And your death was fabricated. As far as the world is concerned, you no longer exist. Half of the Brothers you see around you are still Alive. Their Chip is still out there, being used. But not necessarily by them. Only half of the time. You will be paired with someone that is Alive, and you will be them for half of their remaining life, as far as Karma is concerned.
“It is important that you get to know the Brother you are paired with fairly well. There will be a file put into your tent for you to read tonight, make sure you read it thoroughly. It’s important that the actions you do are not too out of character with respect to the person who you will become. It is important that you never look into a mirror, if possible. And in general, avoid reflective surfaces and suspicious behavior.
“There are twenty bathrooms that we control, positioned across New York City, where you will switch with your partner. It involves that machine with the ear thing, and I apologize in advance. They are all located in restaurants that we are affiliated with, where you yourself will be eating every other night, although the cumulative effect will be that the identity you share with your partner will eat there every night. You may see Brothers you recognize on the streets, and especially at these restaurants. It is important that you don’t ever acknowledge them.
“You will be doing Good Works for the whole day, on days that you are in the city. A good work ethic will be expected of you. A large portion of your earnings has already been arranged to be deducted from the Karma Card you share, as a monthly bill, so don’t be surprised when you see that deduction. You will be monitored for a week’s worth of duty, which will take two week’s time. Days that you are here will be divided exactly the same way as you’re used to. Half of the time you will be on the farm, half of the time you will be meditating here. The only difference is that your cycle will now consist of three days instead of two.”
Charles took a moment to study the reaction on the man’s face, to see if he could sense any hesitation or misgiving. He was mostly satisfied with what he saw there. “Do you have any questions, at the moment?”
“No, I don’t believe I do.”
“Then welcome to the Order, Brother Steve.”
Decay 4
Breathing Life
SPREAD OUT ON a table in front of Will were some of the most exciting things that he had ever seen in his life. Nothing in his new apartment compared. A man was seated on the opposite side of the table, and was explaining each of them one by one.
“Chances are you’ve only ever seen a few of these before, because that’s how it was for most of us when we first started, so I’ll take you through them one at a time. These you’ve seen before,” he said as he picked up a bundle of triangular shaped objects. “This is a Privacy Room, and there should be eight pieces in there. You get one extra Room, and it’s yours to put wherever you want.”
“I don’t know what I would do with it,” Will said.
“Some people like to do weird stuff in their kitchen. Just hold on to it, you’ll think of something. But you can’t give it away. They’re pretty easy to use, you just pull these tabs and stick them wherever you want. But make sure you get it right the first time, because they take literally a second to set and then you can’t move them.”
A Privacy Room was a small area defined by those triangles, inside of which a Karma Chip didn’t transmit data to Karma. Every citizen that owned a house or apartment was allowed to have at most two Rooms, one for their bathroom and one for their bedroom. Businesses were strictly limited in a similar way, although the rule wasn’t as simple. Most every other public place was monitored by Karma, with the exception of the City Park, which was the only Privacy Room that was as large as it was. Early in the implementation of Karma, it had been decided that at least some privacy should exist for the people that it monitored, since all of the things that it recorded—everything that a person saw or heard—could easily be looked up by quite a large number of people that had the authority to do so. The Park had been a similar concession to public privacy. The assumption had been that there wouldn’t be that many Good Works being done in bedrooms and bathrooms anyway, so there wouldn’t be many people complaining about lost opportunities to make money.
“These are high-torsion handcuffs, only for people you hate. If you try to get out of them at all, they start twisting. The more you struggle, the more they twist. I saw a man once that tried to get out of them, ripped his arms clean off. Funny but disgusting, so be careful. These over here are normal handcuffs, as you can see they do look slightly different, so try to remember the difference. This is a Grappling Chain, just shoot it at a wall and then you have a slightly elastic bond between you and that wall. It’s elastic so that your arms don’t get ripped off. I’m not saying you will get pushed off of a building, but if you do you’ll be glad you have this, and you’ll be glad it doesn’t rip your arms off too. They have a practice course for it that you’ll be going through, but if you’re feeling really brave you can try it whenever you want.
“These are steroids that you now have a prescription for. Among other things, like muscle strength and reflex speed, they also strengthen your tendons and joints, particularly the shoulder socket. So that it’s harder to rip your arms off.
“A lock gun. This is a stun gun, temporarily paralyzes the central nervous system. A lot of guns. This is an Evaporation Pen, you can have it now but it won’t be activated until you’re done with your training, and only then when Karma allows it. Have you ever seen one of these used?”
Will shook his head.
“Well nothing I could say would prepare you for it. This is the range selector right here, but unless you have special permission five feet is all you get. You point this end right here at a person, press this button, and then they don’t exist anymore. Not even their arms. And they’re not teleporting, or shrinking really small, or any other thing that would make you feel alright about pressing the button. They turn instantly into a gas. You’ll actually feel the breeze from the increase in pressure they create, if you’re standing close enough. It’s mostly just carbon dioxide and water vapor, but a little bit of carbon monoxide can’t be helped so it’s best if you just hold your breath when you do it. Here’s that for you.
“These shoes are awesome, but I’m not even going to explain them to you. It’ll be a nice little surprise whenever you figure it out. Good luck with that. These are Identity Mines, explosives that work when the person they’re identified for walks by. You’ll have to wait for those to work too. Benefits that you don’t see on the table in front of you are the house you live in and your Good Work rate increase, as I assume you’re aware of. You’ll find also that transportation, phone calls, and certain restaurants marked on your Karma Card are all free now.
“And I’m sure that all of that sounds pretty cool to you, but I saved what I think is the best for last, like I always do when I’m giving the speech,” he said as he pulled out a small disc-shaped object. “I don’t even know why I think it’s the best. In a lot of ways it’s the least exciting of any of these, but I think you’ll find that it’s the one that will keep you up late at night just thinking.” He laid it out in front of them and put his finger down in its center. It switched on, only to reveal a map of New York City seen from above.
“The Karma Map. This is literally the collective conscious of the world. It’s th
e most up-to-date map possible, because it’s a compilation of what everyone everywhere is seeing. You can zoom in and out. You can go to other continents too if you want, but only if you’re going sightseeing. These little dots,” he said as he zoomed in, “you just tap on one.” And when he did, it became the viewpoint of a person as they walked down a busy street. A man held a door open as they entered a building. The sounds of the crowd could be heard faintly emanating from the disc. “Suddenly you’re that person. If you can find a person, you can follow them around. Or if you know their Karma Card information, you can also just enter that in.
“You can also…” he said as he touched something else on the disc. “Yeah, look at this.” It was the map of the city, like before, only there was a bright path cutting across all of it like a tunnel. “This is everywhere that person has been in the last twenty-four hours. You can go back a lot further, but it gets kind of confusing if they’ve been around a lot. If you have a suspicion that the person standing in front of you just shot a man a couple hours ago, you do all of this and suddenly you can see exactly what he saw as he did it, if he did it, all displayed on this map so you know where it happened. It can be really useful like that, but it can also mess with your head. Try not to spend too much time with it. And I’m serious about that.
“The blank spots will drive you crazy. You’ll ask yourself, ‘why hasn’t anyone ever looked here? It’s right in the middle of the city.’ And you’ll go there and find out that it’s right next to the smelliest dumpster you’ve ever smelled, and the most probable explanation is that everyone who walked by would probably have to turn their senses off to survive it. Something as stupid as that, but it bothered you for a whole week until you just had to go see it for yourself. Or you’ll see this woman that you think is beautiful, and you’ll want to spend the next two months seeing the world through her eyes. What you don’t realize now is that you aren’t prepared for the amount of harassment that a typical beautiful woman can go through in two months, just walking down the street, and also you’ll have to remember that someone is also watching you, and you’ll get in trouble if you get too far off track. And you don’t want to get in trouble, I promise you. Do you have any questions?”