“I guess that’s why she is in charge. Just make sure you are ready to start working tomorrow morning, okay?”
“No problem, I’ll be ready.”
“All right, I’m going to let you go, I have other things I need to get done.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you soon.” With that both men hung up the phone.
The next morning Gary was admiring his new work area. Looking around he was a little taken back that they had given him a whole floor with every piece of equipment you could imagine. He was in awe at the amount of people present. There has to be at least seventy-five workers here.
“Pretty impressive, wouldn’t you say?”
Gary jumped and turned around. “You scared me half to death sneaking up on me like that.”
Austin chuckled. “Just a little payback for yesterday.”
“Well buddy, you got me and yes this is very impressive!”
“Alright, you better get to work the clocks a ticking.”
“Yes, you are right I have a lot to do in a very short amount of time.”
Gary shouted, “Everyone, can I have your attention please.”
Once everyone had quieted down he motioned with his arms for everyone to move closer to him. “Gather around please. Alright folks, first I want to thank you all for being here. With that being said we have a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time, so we need to get started.”
He began assigning different tasks to each person. When someone would receive their assignment they would leave the group and began working. After about two hours every one had received their assignments and was busy working. Some people worked on projects by themselves and others were assigned to groups.
The whole floor was buzzing with the sound of people talking and sharing information with one another. He and the entire group worked vigorously for a week and a half until they finally had a working product. For the next two days hundreds of tests were conducted on the chip and the watch until all the bugs and glitches had been worked out.
After thirteen grueling days Gary was finally satisfied with the finished product. He steadied himself and took a few deep breaths before making the announcement. “Everyone come here, gather around. I wanted to let you all know, we did it! We have a working product thanks to every single person on this floor and we did it with one day to spare!”
The entire floor erupted into applause. People began yelling and whooping, some started shaking others hands, some starting high fiving each other because they all knew they had just accomplished the impossible.
“I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for your hard work and dedication. Because of you and your tireless work, and unwillingness to give up, every grandparent, mother, father, and child will be able to identify who they are looking for. Without this product, that would be difficult if not nearly impossible to do.”
The entire floor erupted into applause once again. He waited for it to die down before he continued. “Okay folks, you all enjoy yourselves for a while. You have earned it. I need to go speak with our superiors and bring them up to speed so they can move forward with their work. Have a good evening everyone and thank you again.”
Gary headed to Irene’s office. As he went to knock on the door it opened. Gary jumped back and Irene was standing in the doorway with a smile on her face.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Looking at the dumbfounded look on Gary’s face she could tell he had no idea how Irene knew he was on his way up, all he could say was, “How did you know I was coming here?”
“I could hear the whooping and hollering all the way over here. I knew it was just a matter time before you made your way to my office.”
“Oh.”
“All right, why don’t you bring me up to speed so I can report back to the president in the morning?”
Gary and Irene talked for about two hours discussing all the details about the chip and the watch. They also discussed any problems that citizens may have with being implanted.
“Well, thank you for all the information and your hard work. I know the president will be pleased with the outcome. I will call him first thing in the morning and will let you know if you can be of any further assistance.”
“You’re welcome Irene. I’m just trying to do what is best for this country right now and I’m glad I could help. If you need anything else from me, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you Gary, I’ll be sure to do that. Now you go back to the party and have a little fun, you’ve earned it.”
“Okay Irene, have a nice night I will talk to you later.”
***
“Good morning Mister President, I have an update for you regarding the chip and watch.”
“Good morning Irene, I am pleased to hear that, please continue.”
The president and Irene spoke for over an hour. They discussed everything from how the chip and watch work, to exactly how they could force everyone to get the implant.
“Thank you Irene for all the hard work you and your team put in to this project. I need all the chips and watches manufactured and ready to go for every child who attends public or private schools in the next week and a half. When everything is ready I need you to give me a call and we will discuss how we’re going to move forward.”
“You’re welcome Mister President, it’s my honor and I will get on this right away. I will be in touch with you in the next week and a half.”
Irene immediately started working on the president’s demands. Within forty eight hours she had thirty factories working three shifts to make sure all the devices would be ready on time. Once all the watches and chips were completed for the children the factories would continue producing them until there was enough for every adult. Nine days after Irene had spoken to the president she was on the phone with him again.
“Mister President, it’s Irene.”
“Good morning Irene, I hope you have good news for me.”
“Yes, sir, all the watch’s and chips for the children are ready to go. The factories will continue to manufacture them until there is enough for every adult to have one as well.”
“My goodness that is very impressive, a job well done. Irene, I need you to bring Gary up to speed on everything he needs to know then immediately put him on a plane to Washington, DC.”
“Yes, sir, I will have him on a direct flight by this afternoon.”
“Very good Irene, have a nice day.”
“You too, sir.”
Irene had Gary brought to her office where she filled him in on everything he would need to know and then put him on the next flight to Washington.
Gary arrived at the Washington National Airport where he was met by secret service. They picked him up and drove him directly to the White House. Once they arrived at the White House he was escorted to the oval office, one of the agents told him to have a seat and he waited with him while the other agent went into the president’s office. A few minutes later the door opened and the agent looked at Gary. “Come in sir, the president will see you now.”
Completely overwhelmed, Gary entered the oval office.
The president stood up and held out his hand to shake Gary’s. “It is very nice to meet you Gary.”
“Thank you Mister President, the pleasure is all mine I assure you.”
“Well, Gary, I don’t know about that. After all, you are the genius who developed the device that will save the United States from self-destruction.”
“Mister President, I am truly honored to hear you say that. I am just glad I could do something to help.”
“Let’s get right to it. Tomorrow morning every child who is at school will be implanted with a chip and given a watch. We have taken precautions so that no one will find out before the time is right. Once all the children have arrived at school tomorrow morning all cell phone towers and the Internet will be shut down so no one will be able to contact their parents and tell them what’s going on. We have the military on
standby. As children are leaving school to go home the military will be moving back into position for a full state of emergency. The emergency alert system will sound and everyone will be made aware that I will be addressing the nation at 8 pm. We will turn the cell phone towers and Internet back on because by then the parents will already know what took place at school that day. I will take the stage and let people know what we have decided to do and then I will have you come to the podium and explain exactly how your device works. Do you feel comfortable doing that?”
“Sir, I must admit I have never been on TV before. Especially considering the fact I will be talking to the entire nation, so saying I’m nervous would be an understatement.”
“I understand. This is a lot of pressure. I get it. You are the only one who is knowledgeable enough to be able to clearly tell the American people exactly what they can expect from your device. The best thing I could tell you to do is to practice what you’re going to say over and over again until you feel confident that you have it memorized so when you come up to the podium and you’re nervous the words will pour from your mouth just like your talking to a friend.”
“Okay, Mister President, even though I’ll be extremely nervous I’ll go and practice what I’m going to say and will do my very best to educate the American people on my product.”
“Very good! I want to thank you once again for doing this even though it’s outside your comfort zone.”
“Thank you Mister President, I will do my very best.”
The next morning the plan was put into action and everything worked out just like they expected it to. Once the buses and parents had picked up their children the military swiftly moved in and blocked all inter-states and major roadways. They forced everyone back to their homes and had the streets and cities completely cleared by 7 pm. By this time parents had already been told by their children what happened at school that day. Starting at three-thirty the emergency broadcast system had been alerting everyone that the president would address the nation that evening. Most American citizens were outraged that the United States government would implant something into a child without parental knowledge or consent. At 8 pm the emergency broadcast signal came on and everyone tuned to their TVs to see what the president had to say.
“My fellow Americans, I have to admit this was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make. I am sure by now your children have told you they had chips implanted in them today and they were all sent home wearing a watch. I know most of you are very angry right now, but I want to reassure you that we did this with the best intentions for the American citizens. I want you to look around, look at the person sitting next to you, what do you see? It’s probably like looking at yourself in the mirror isn’t it, because the flux has changed everyone so dramatically that we all look the same. I want to tell you we did not do this to spy on you, or infringe on your constitutional rights. I made this decision so that every American would be able to identify who they are talking to and have a little piece of mind in these trying times. With that being said I would like to introduce Gary Bomman. He is one of our scientists that, until a couple weeks ago, was working on finding a cure for the flux. We found out Gary had developed this device almost fifteen years ago so we asked him to make some modifications to it so that it would work how we needed it to. Without further ado I would like to introduce Gary Bomman.”
Gary walked up to the podium, shook the president’s hand, then turned and looked at the cameras. His forehead began to bead up with sweat and his hands became clammy. Gary stared at the cameras for about ten seconds then started to vomit uncontrollably. A few people snickered and then a lady approached Gary and handed him bottled water and some paper towels. Gary quickly cleaned and composed himself.
“I want to apologize to everyone, but please understand I am merely a scientist who normally works by myself or in a very small group. The last couple weeks have been way more stressful than I am accustomed to and then top it off I had to come out here and give a presentation knowing every single person in the United States of America is watching. So let me try this again. As the president said before my name is Gary Bomman, I invented the chip that was implanted in your children today over fifteen years ago. Over the last couple weeks, I had to make some minor adjustments since the original device was not intended to do everything the government wanted it to do now. I want to put your mind at ease, to let you know that getting the implant feels no different than getting a shot. The chip gets injected just underneath the skin surface so it is virtually painless.”
“The watch you see your children wearing will display information that is sent to it by the chip. Everything has been programmed so that family members will see names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and birth dates of other family members. Once you are within thirty feet of a family member you will receive haptic vibrations which will get stronger and faster the closer you get to a family member. You can also use the GPS identifier mode on the watch to look for a specific person or family member. The watch will guide you to that person and will also send a message to the person to notify them you’re looking for them. They then can hit the decline or accept button. If they accept, the watch will guide them to you, making it quicker and easier to find someone in a large group. Or you can decline a request to look for you if you are over the age of eighteen.”
“If you are under the age of eighteen, only family members can find your location. Children will not be allowed to decline the locator if initiated by a family member, the police, the military, or an educator. Children will be able to decline being located by other children.”
“I want to assure you that your privacy is extremely important to us, so all the information you can see about a family member will not be available to non-family members. Parents have the last say on who can see their child’s name, if they don’t want another to be able to locate their child, then that person will not have access. The only information a non-family member will be able to see about you is your first and last name, if parents have consented. We have taken extra precautions to ensure your children are safe. Again, the only adults who can see your child’s name will be family members, the police, the military, schoolteachers, and others you allow.”
“We did this due to the fact that everyone looks the same and we didn’t want a pedophile or someone looking to harm your child to be able to see their name and try to act as if they were the child’s parent or family member. The police and military will have access to everyone’s information so they will be able to identify who it is they are actually dealing with. I hope this helps you understand why the government did what they did, thank you and have a good night.”
The president came to the podium, he shook Gary’s hand and they talked to each other for a brief moment. There was a smile on the president’s face as he was reassuring Gary not to worry about the whole vomiting incident. Gary left the stage and the president once again took the podium.
“I hope that answered a lot of your questions and will make everyone a little more comfortable having these devices. With that being said, every adult will be mandated to get the chip. We will be setting up locations for anyone who wants to voluntarily come and get the chip implanted and receive a watch. Until every American has the chip the only place you’ll be able to travel to is the designated areas where we will be implanting the chips. If you do not come voluntarily we will come to your house to make sure you get a chip. I would much prefer you do it the easy way because, one way or another, you’re getting the chip. The state of emergency will not be lifted until every American citizen has a chip so the sooner we make that happen the quicker we can get back to our lives. Thank you and have a good night. “
Chapter Eleven
The World Reacts
After the U.S. had broadcast their decision to deport all non-citizens, the rest of the world was unsure how to react. In Japan, the government was rather successful in calming the fear. There were a few skirmishes, but overall the popul
ation dealt with the changes in a reasonably calm manner.
It was about a month after most non-citizens were deported, while Sue watched Fox 2, she was amazed at not only how all humans were looking exactly the same, but how they were reacting to the changes.
“Let’s turn this over to James who is live in Tehran.”
“Thanks Brian. We all know that after the Iranian presidential election in 2009 the population staged protests, but the governing body was able, by using great force, to bring them under control. Every so often, the masses would try again to bring personal freedom to their country only to be forcefully quieted.”
As James spoke the screen showed different pieces of video from cell phones of a multitude of people in the streets of Tehran rioting. This was a very strange sight considering how the basiji would violently clamp down on any unrest. The anchor continued, “The citizens are like a boiling pot and the governing body the lid trying to keep their power. Now with the population going through the changes, the pot has hit a cataclysmic overflow.”
“The more the masses changed the more this Muslim nation calls upon its cleric leaders. When there is no answer, or no way that the leaders can do anything about the flux, the angrier the populace gets. The streets are filled with a mass of humanity all calling for Allah to save them.”
As Sue watched this unfold Daniel walked into the room. “Mom do you know where Emily is?”
“She went outside with the dogs.”
“What are you watching?”
“The news.” After a pause she continued, “There is a big riot in Iran.”
“Oh wow.” Was all he said as he sat down to watch what was unfolding.
The TV the anchor spoke calmly, “This is no longer about freedom, it’s about ethnic cleansing. Like everyone else, these people are proud of who they are as a nation. Even the basiji, who are plain-clothes men of the cleric police, are tiring of the constant upheaval. Secretly many of them are siding with the citizenry.”
Genetic Flux (Phase One Book 1) Page 11