Smasher

by Scott Bly

  “Callaya?” Foxx exploded. That single word made everything clear. Callaya! How could he have missed it before? There were no papers in that box! Its purpose was clear. The pain in his ankle couldn’t compare to his fury at having overlooked the obvious. “What is your name, boy?”

  Charlie squirmed against McCallum’s viselike arms, glaring at Foxx defiantly.

  “Your name?” Foxx asked again, his voice horribly low.

  “Charles.”

  “The Highlands, you said? Tell me, did Geneva fetch you here from across time?”

  Charlie looked at Callaya, lying on the floor. He nodded. How could everything go so wrong?

  Of course, Foxx thought. But how could Geneva have known when to go, and where? Foxx could barely remember himself. “How do you know the name Callaya?”

  “You murdered her. She was my mother!”

  “Mother?” Foxx blurted before he regained control. Mother? “Charles … Charla … It can’t be!” He would have known, should have seen it in the boy’s face. But that explained so much more. What had they done? He would find out. But for now, Foxx had all the information he needed.

  The Future would not be stopped. He smiled. “John, take our friend to the computer lab. And you can take the dog, too. Make sure you put her in a cage — and lock it.”

  Back at his desk, Foxx held his handkerchief against his bleeding ankle. “Jane, take the box and go with them.”

  They obeyed. Charlie screamed uselessly. Foxx’s employees had long since learned to ignore any sound behind the heavy double doors.

  “Help him to be quiet.”

  McCallum put his strong hand over Charlie’s mouth. They were on their way to the lab. No one would hear Charlie. Soon it wouldn’t matter if they did.

  Jane Virtue was dreaming.

  No, it’s an out-of-body experience, she thought as her hands gripped the black box. She was not in control. She could hear Charlie screaming distantly, but her head wouldn’t turn to look. Her legs carried her past Evelyn’s office to the elevator. McCallum joined her at the elevator, arms still locked solidly around the kicking boy. Callaya was in a sack over his shoulder.

  Jane’s finger pressed 198. She realized she had not been herself. She had disregarded facts, satisfied to be the shining star of Gramercy Foxx’s empire. But how was that possible? Her integrity meant everything to her, and she just threw it away? For what?

  The elevator doors slid open.

  What was happening to her? Had she gone insane? Schizophrenia could make people feel disconnected from their bodies.

  The computer lab door clicked open, and her body followed McCallum in.

  What she saw was horrible — a teenage girl strapped to a table, connected to electrical gear! What was Foxx doing in here?

  Then she heard a voice, and she really began to fear for her sanity.

  Jane. The voice was in her head. She wanted to cry.

  Jane … can you hear me?

  If she didn’t answer, she wouldn’t be crazy, right? Talking to yourself isn’t crazy. Answering yourself is.

  Jane, listen to me.

  A man’s voice. She wanted to block it out.

  Jane, it’s John McCallum.

  John McCallum? He’s right here! Maybe he’s just talking.

  Jane, don’t be afraid. I can hear your thoughts. Can you hear mine? You aren’t going crazy.

  McCallum’s lips never moved. He strapped the boy to the chair with robotic precision. Then he locked the puppy in a cage.

  Jane, we’re under some kind of mind control. I think this is The Future.

  I can hear you, John. Is this what Foxx plans to release to billions of people?

  I’m afraid so, Jane.

  Foxx must have taken over part of my mind all along.

  Me too, Jane.

  Are there others? Was Janice Wong under this mind control? Janice had answered Jane’s questions with so little emotion during Jane’s interview.

  Mind control or not, how could Jane have done the things she’d done in the name of Gramercy Foxx?

  How could any of us?

  “Geneva,” Charlie whispered, hoping she would wake up. McCallum had strapped him tightly to the chair. Now the man stood silently, controlled by The Future, as a skinny fellow typed furiously at a computer.

  “Geneva!” Charlie whispered. She looked dangerously ill. “It’s Charlie! Can you hear me?”

  Her eyes rolled. Her cracked lips opened slowly. Foxx hadn’t given her water in days.

  “Chuh-ree,” she croaked, barely able to say his name. “My meh-rees …”

  “Your memories?”

  She nodded almost imperceptibly. “Dehre back, Chuh-ree.” Geneva’s eyes rolled back in her head again, and she lost consciousness.

  The door swung open. Foxx entered, limping slightly from the dog bite. His hair was slicked back, and he wore a new suit. He smiled at Charlie.

  “It’s so dark in here, Charles. Let’s brighten it up! Monitors — news coverage, please.” Wall-panel OLED screens blared a cacophony of the latest 3D-casts about The Future.

  “She needs water.”

  “Electricity and water don’t mix, Charles.”

  “She may be just a robot to you, but she still needs water.”

  “No, she’s not just a robot. She has robotic parts. But she’s a real girl, Charlie — every bit as real as you. Cut her, she bleeds. The whole bit. She simply … forgot.”

  “Get away from her, you monster.” Charlie strained against the straps.

  “Enough of that. Are you ready for the big show?” Foxx grinned. “Every movie theater, concert hall, sports arena, church, synagogue, and convention center — packed to maximum capacity … all over the world. Do you know why?”

  Charlie looked away.

  “What event?”

  “The Future!” Charlie blurted out. It was too much. Tears trickled down his cheeks.

  “That’s right. The Future!” Foxx reveled in it. “And you were here for one reason, weren’t you? What reason was that?”

  “To stop you!” Tears flowed now.

  “Yes,” Foxx said. “And you failed, didn’t you?”

  Charlie couldn’t stop crying.

  “Answer me!”

  “Yes.” Charlie was utterly broken. “I failed.”

  “You failed.”

  Foxx mussed Charlie’s hair, adding insult to injury. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? I think this is the part where I’m supposed to ask you to join me. You beg me to spare your life —”

  “Never!”

  “I didn’t offer, kid,” Foxx said sharply. “That’s how the story goes in the movies. Not here. This is my game. Check. Mate.

  “Jane!” Foxx said. “Get to makeup. And, dear, act normal, won’t you?” Jane adjusted her suit jacket and strode out of the room wearing a charming smile.

  Charlie was powerless. Hacking into The Future code had failed. Pandora’s Box had failed.

  The box was probably the only way to stop Foxx, outside of killing him. It was just across the room, but it may as well have been on the moon. Besides, the box was a dud.

  Foxx had murdered Charlie’s mother, and Charlie would never avenge her death. His best friend lay dying. He had never had a real friend before. And now he couldn’t even bring her a sip of water. Callaya had been locked up and would either be killed or taken away.

  The Future was very bleak indeed.

  “Miss Virtue, Miss Virtue!” Claudia, the makeup assistant, shouted down the long hallway. “We’re seven minutes behind schedule!”

  “Then you’d better hurry!” Jane heard herself say. She’d turned into a nightmare.

  It was time for the final half-hour presentation. Thirty minutes of … of what?

  Propaganda.

  Keep people interested long enough to turn them into zombies.

  Jane’s body sat silently in the chair, but inside she desperately wanted to tell Claudia to run and save herself. Do not watch The Futu
re!

  * * *

  “Our little friend, Geneva, can turn electricity into the Hum,” Foxx said. “She doesn’t know that, of course. After all, the Hum is just another form of energy.

  “I gave her that ability. She was to take me time traveling. But it didn’t work out.”

  “Neither did your dog,” Charlie said, hoping to hit a nerve.

  “A flawed concept,” Foxx snapped. “Too complicated to —”

  “It’s simple, actually,” Charlie interrupted. “Want to know what went wrong?”

  “Do tell,” Foxx said, sneering.

  “She doesn’t like you.”

  “Watch your mouth, boy,” Foxx said, deadly quiet.

  “The Hum likes her. Maybe because her name is Callaya.”

  Foxx ignored him. “Well, the Hum just isn’t what it used to be. It turns out all those believers that I killed were important. If no one believes, it just doesn’t work.

  “Do you know why the Hum involves blood?” Foxx asked. “DNA. The Future is essentially digital DNA, and the Hum loves it. It spreads on its own, from person to person, without electricity or computers at all. Under my control, people will generate Hum energy the way a power plant generates electricity. And I will use that energy.”

  Charlie shook his head. “You don’t understand the Hum at all, do you? No wonder my mother was so much better.”

  “How dare you!” Foxx hissed. “The Hum will return! And it will be mine.” He collected himself. “The Future launches in fifteen minutes. By sunset tomorrow, the entire world will be under my direct control. This is the dawn of a new era — the Hum and technology … coexisting.”

  McCallum stiffly followed Foxx to the studio. His mind screamed to grab the monster by the neck and choke the life out of him. But he was a prisoner in his own skin.

  Jane was on the air, broadcasting to billions. Contest winners filled the studio audience. Fourteen million people had entered for fifty available slots to see The Future unveiled by Gramercy Foxx — live and in the flesh. Jane’s body chatted away to the audience and the cameras while her mind shouted for everyone to run away. But only John McCallum could hear her.

  Five minutes to The Future.

  Gramercy Foxx entered. McCallum followed. He was the security detail.

  Now Jane and Foxx would discuss The Future, as cameras blasted it to a worldwide audience.

  * * *

  “Some claim you’re a savior who has come to bring peace to humankind,” Jane read from the prompter.

  “Well, Jane,” Foxx said, his public charm on full display, “I certainly don’t claim that. We’re talking about a global shift. We’ve seen them before. Fire enabled mankind to survive the elements, while agriculture enabled us to grow food and build societies. I’m no savior. I’m just a simple man who discovered the next step.”

  “These are the final moments. Over nine billion people are watching right now, Mr. Foxx, in every language on the planet. Do you have anything else you’d like to say to us before The Future is unveiled?”

  Foxx grinned, barely able to hold back a burst of laughter. His eyes danced, a hint of mania shining through. He had never put on such a convincing act in his life.

  “Dictators rise and fall, economies crash and boom. But underneath it all, the desire for brotherhood has been suppressed by greed. We are about to move past that to a new era of harmony.”

  “Thank you for sharing with us, Mr. Foxx,” Jane said, turning to the camera. “I believe I speak for everyone watching when I say … Mr. Gramercy Foxx, will you show us all The Future?” The studio audience cheered and clapped loudly.

  The cameras pulled away, revealing the video walls behind them.

  Foxx drew up to his full, proud height and smiled. It was too late now — no one could stop him.

  Foxx raised his arms. The crowd cheered. “Ladies and gentlemen of the world! The Future … is NOW!”

  And with that, life on planet Earth changed forever.

  The Future worked. It did precisely what Foxx promised — it united people.

  Jane Virtue knew first. The studio audience succumbed quickly. Their excited anticipation gave way to rapt awe. Instead of control, as with Virtue and McCallum, Foxx started spreading The Future with a flood of euphoria for the physical body and consciousness. That would give him the time he needed.

  * * *

  The brilliant code Geneva had slipped into The Future enhanced their feeling of unity, perforating the firewall that would have silenced them, allowing communication.

  Completely unaware, Foxx slipped back upstairs.

  “Yates!” Foxx shouted as he burst into the machine room. “Status!”

  Screens of data sprang up. The code was spreading like digital wildfire. The Future was the ultimate Trojan horse — everyone wanted it.

  The code reported back on every infected system and person. Infection rates and numbers of confirmed zombies displayed on a screen showing locations — free green clusters turned zombie red. It had taken only twelve minutes for LAanges to go completely red.

  Screens also showed the multitudes of rapt faces in large public venues.

  “Excellent,” Foxx said, watching his creation come to life on screen after screen. Satisfied, he closed his eyes to tap into the Hum flow and guide The Future.

  * * *

  McCallum couldn’t see Jane anymore, much less hear her — the noise of people’s thought was pure chaos. The original feelings of bliss were turning to confusion. What was happening?

  Jane! Jane! No response.

  He was a man of action, but what could he do when he had no power to move?

  His mind had been able to talk with Jane; maybe he could talk to the others.

  My name is John McCallum. He directed his thought at the closest man. If he had to reach each confused person one by one, then he would try that. What choice did he have?

  My name is John McCallum. Can you hear me? My name is John McCallum.

  * * *

  Foxx hovered at the edge of metaphysical consciousness. He focused the flow. The Future was spreading faster and faster. Most of the coast was his, and inland, the municipalities were turning. Nations across the oceans were changing from green to red, following the fiber-optic lines that crossed the vast seas.

  He turned to the two who had tried to stop him. Geneva’s dry eyes were stuck open, and her parched tongue adhered to the roof of her mouth. Charlie, bound to the chair, sat still with his eyes closed. He was trying to disappear.

  “My, you do have lots of energy. Good. I want to harness that,” Foxx said.

  Charlie opened his eyes. “Let her go. You’re killing her.”

  “Oh, I’ll get around to that. You should have stayed home, Charles.”

  “What you’re doing is against nature.”

  “Against nature? This is nature! Survival of the fittest — I’m the fittest!”

  “You’re taking away freedom!”

  “Freedom has been an illusion since the invention of the credit card! People are already slaves to capitalism and consumerism. Buy, buy, buy! Work your entire lives away and love it! For garbage.”

  “People should choose!”

  “They already have.”

  Foxx fired up a monitor, and The Future began its assault on Charlie.

  “I don’t need to justify anything. I know the difference between good and evil. It simply doesn’t apply to survival. If a starving man steals, is that evil? If a man kills to defend himself, is that evil? This is for the greater good.”

  He’s trying to control me, too, Charlie realized. The eternal, cosmic patterns on the screen made Charlie relax. Slowly he was giving in.

  Suddenly a powerful rush of the Hum began to flow up, into Charlie’s feet. Instead of being drained, Charlie began to feel more and more energy, as if his batteries were being recharged. Foxx was directing the Hum energy into him.

  “Who is your master?” Foxx said.

  “Callis,” Charlie heard
himself say. “You are my master.”

  “Now you will do as I say.”

  Charlie held perfectly still.

  “This is going to work!” Foxx was gleeful. “With you in my power, I’ll be able to break through again. I will finally be able to go home.”

  Something shifted. McCallum’s communication with the people was no longer a struggle — they heard him, and they took courage. He was a natural leader with enormous strength of character.

  He had spoken his name, and people listened. The confusion faded. Recognition sparked, and it spread. What he experienced next he would never understand. Slowly at first, then all at once, a wave of energy rose inside of him.

  Charlie could feel McCallum, too. He sensed the power of the man’s belief, and he understood the most important thought of all. John McCallum was right — humanity could bond together and rise up.

  Believe …

  * * *

  Freedom was possible. McCallum knew they would be free and Foxx would fail. Freedom was too deeply ingrained in the human psyche, human DNA. People are wired to be connected — to care about one another. Humanity would be …

  Free.

  One word echoed in his mind and out through his now connected mind, spreading across the masses as quickly as The Future had spread:

  Believe …

  Believe …

  Believe …

  Charlie was blinded by a brilliant flash of light.

  Countless souls lay flattened by a detonation rippling outward. But it wasn’t destruction. It was creation. Belief spread like the blast of a hydrogen bomb. The ripple — the concussion wave — spread toward him at the speed of thought. It struck Charlie, and he recognized it.

  Believe … Believe … Believe …

  Suddenly the sensation of helplessness passed away, and Charlie realized he once again controlled his body. What had changed?

  Tremendous power surged around him — the Hum. He hadn’t felt Hum energy this powerful since he left his own time. No, he’d never felt it!

  But Foxx would feel it, too.

  “No!” Foxx shrieked. “What’s happening?” The map was turning from red back to green, one spot at a time.