Escape The Grid: Volume 1

by Patrick F. Kelly

  “What do you mean ‘a lot of school’?”

  “I mean, you must have come to camp ten years ago, so you would have been two. There aren’t any schools at camp, unless you are taking VR school online.”

  I’m four years younger than him and he thinks I’ve had a lot of school. The boys in these camps must never go to school. It’s like Samitha said.

  “Well, I take a lot of online school classes,” she tried to recover.

  “That’s pretty cool,” he said. “Can you show me some one day? Maybe we can take some classes together? I’ve always wanted to go to school.”

  “Sure. What’s it like on the island?”

  “Not bad. There’s a good community.”

  “How many people?”

  “They said that there was over 100,000 people at first, and they built tall buildings for everyone, but the girls are allowed to leave when they turn sixteen, so we have fewer people and more space now.”

  “Can you leave?”

  “No. The boys and the moms aren’t allowed to leave. Once the mothers decided to come, that was it. They had to stay for life. And any girl that stays has to get some shot that prevents her from ever having more children. My mom says they are controlling the population.”

  “Well, how close is it to San Francisco? Could you swim across?”

  “The water around the island is really cold and rough. They say it would be impossible to swim it. Plus they have cameras everywhere to watch for that. People say that it’s impossible to escape.”

  “So you live with your mom?”

  “Yeah, and my kid sister.”

  “How do you get food?”

  “There are ships that come every week. Plus we grow a lot of our own food. Most of the mothers hate the grid, so they usually work in the buildings where they grow food. My mom doesn’t like me playing so much, but the grid is too fun to never use at all.”

  “I’m glad you use it, Brice. I really like playing with you.”

  “Thanks. You’re fun to play with too, Sonny.”

  “Want to hear another secret?” she said.

  “Sure.”

  “Promise you won’t hate me?”

  “I guess.”

  “I really am 12. But I’m not a boy.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me, but don’t make a big deal because I don’t want to set off any alarms or anything if someone is listening.”

  “You mean?”

  “Yes, you know what I mean.”

  “That’s weird. Are you in a grid camp?”

  “That happens to be my next secret. The answer is no.”

  “Are you allowed to be on here then?”

  “Don’t ask questions like that, silly. You know the answer. That’s what makes it fun.”

  “You’re more dangerous than I thought, Sonny boy.”

  “Are you mad?”

  Brice thought for a second and then said, “Heck no. I’m excited. What’s your real name?”

  “I don’t know if I can tell you that. Let’s save it for another time.”

  “OK, I guess. Hey, still want to see Mars, right?”

  She looked out the cockpit window. She had been staring at him for the whole conversation. Now she saw that they were almost to the red planet. It was gorgeous.

  “How many colonies are there?” she asked.

  “Twenty-five. The US has two and twenty-three other countries have one.”

  “Which one do you want to visit?”

  Brice thought about it. “All of them.”

  “I mean right now, silly. Which one do you want to visit first?”

  “I don’t know. Let’s go to the biggest US colony. I heard it’s the coolest and most realistic.”

  “Awesome. Let’s go there. And, Brice?”

  “Yes, Sonny?”

  “Thank you for being my friend even after you know the real me.”

  52

  IT HAD BEEN over a month since Julia arrived in Jasper. She was sitting on a couch in Debbie’s basement, messing with Thomas’ hair. They had been like teenagers in love, hidden in the corner of his small cube.

  “I probably need to get back to work,” he told her.

  “How did you do it?” she asked.

  “What? Learn farm automation? Not very well, truth be told.”

  “No, silly,” she interrupted. “How did you live on the grid for twenty years and not end up being a total narcissist?”

  He laughed. “What do you mean? I was a total narcissist for a long time. But we can all learn, right?”

  “What did you learn?”

  “I learned that the world didn’t revolve around me even though the online worlds make it seem that way.”

  “Exactly. How could you start off as a selfish, narcissistic pig…”

  “Now hold on a second,” he interrupted her, laughing.

  “I don’t mean it bad.”

  “Sounds pretty bad.”

  “No, it was bad at first, but I’m saying how could you start off so badly and then be in an environment that reinforces every selfish tendency, and then somehow stop?”

  “Well, hmm. For starters, I wasn’t very happy with the world revolving around me. You’d think it would make me happy, but it didn’t. I felt empty and lonely. I’d get angry and not understand why. Then I’d get depressed because there must be something wrong in my head. I met other people with similar issues.”

  “I’ve heard the same things from guys I met on the grid,” she concurred.

  “Yeah, it’s weird. A lot of angry campers.”

  “Who would have guessed it? When men get everything they say they want, it pisses them off,” she laughed.

  “I started reading history and philosophy. I read how rich and famous people of the past were often miserable. Kings, queens, trust-fund babies. I realized that being rich or getting what you want all the time wasn’t a path to happiness.”

  “You weren’t exactly rich, Thomas,” she joked.

  “I know, but on the grid I was. I mean, wealth has always been about having things or servants or free time. On the grid, I could have anything I wanted.”

  “I guess.”

  “I spent a lot of time thinking about real life and what I was missing. In the real world, I’m not the center of anything.”

  “I think you’re pretty great,” she kissed him on the cheek.

  “When I was in VR, I knew it wasn’t real.”

  “Even though I was?”

  “I knew you were special, but I didn’t know you were real. Everybody in VR that I hung out with, including you, did whatever I asked. If people always do what you say or act the way you want them to act, I don’t know… It’s weird, but I didn’t like it.”

  “Nobody to challenge you?”

  “Maybe that’s it. Maybe I needed someone to challenge me every now and then. There was something about you that was different. I don’t know. You tell me. You are probably just as responsible for me changing as I am. What did you say to me?”

  “Well, I tried to act like a computer most of the time. I guess I didn’t do so well.”

  “You must have tried a few things to make me attracted to you.”

  “Not on purpose. Not at first, at least. The avatar Julia was a girl that you spent time programming. I reviewed your profile. You spent more time setting her up and editing her features than any of your other girls. So, I just figured that if you spent that much time, you’d hang out with her more.”

  “Funny. I didn’t realize that. I wonder how they tracked it.”

  “All I remember is seeing a total time for setup and a time for editing. It was on an admin screen I hacked into.”

  “I might have taken my goggles off to use the bathroom or something while I was setting her up. I don’t remember spending more time on her.”

  “Well, it worked out. I just tried to play the part. Afterwards, when you started treating me nicely and trying to learn Spanish, I started to like you more.�
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  “I loved learning Spanish with you. You know what’s crazy? I actually was a little nervous about asking you to teach me. Even back then, I treated you like a real woman. Any other avatar, I just would have commanded them to teach me something. But I was nervous to ask you.”

  “I remember. I thought it was cute. And I remember you wanting to visit all these places in Spain and wanting to learn the Spanish accent. I had to spend days studying up on Spanish history and pronunciation. You know that we don’t talk like that in Cuba. And I’ve never been to Spain, so the questions you asked me were not always easy to answer.”

  “I noticed that you took longer than most software to answer me.”

  “That’s because I had a search algorithm in the background keying in on your voice. You would ask something and then I’d read off whatever the search AI put on the screen. Sometimes it would put crap up there and I’d have to do another search and say something foolish to buy time.”

  He laughed and looked in her eyes. “Foolish like what?”

  She kissed him. “Foolish like, oh your eyes are so delicious, they twinkle when you talk.”

  “I remember that. See, that is something no avatar ever said to me.”

  “Well, I wasn’t a very good avatar.”

  The screen on the table lit up and indicated a call.

  “It’s Tito. We should pick it up,” she said.

  “Do you need to be alone?”

  “No, stay here with me.”

  She swiped the screen and Tito’s face was there.

  “Hola Tito,” Thomas said.

  “Hola Tomas, Hola Julia,” Tito replied.

  “What’s up?” Julia asked.

  “I just wanted to tell you that I went through a one-mile CNT pipe yesterday and everything worked.”

  “Excellent news,” Julia said.

  “Where?” Thomas asked.

  “Port-au-Prince Bay, between two fishing boats that the company bought. They are staying on schedule with everything. It’s remarkable to do something on this scale and be on schedule.”

  “Well, it’s only the first month, right? A lot could still go wrong.” Julia said.

  “Hey, don’t be negative,” Thomas nudged her, lovingly.

  “That’s right. We still need five more months. But more good news, they have all the approvals set up for the barge they will use. They are doing shipments every month, so we can go on any of those runs, whether we are early or late in the schedule.”

  “That’s good,” Julia said.

  “Hey, Tito. If they have a barge that has an approved shipment, why can’t we get stashed in there somehow and come out on the barge?” Thomas asked.

  “Smart question. I asked the same thing. The barges have strict port security. Once they arrive at port, all of those containers and the barge itself are scanned in heavy detail. Years ago, they had to deal with criminals smuggling in illegal materials, so all the US ports today are super-high security.”

  “Remind me what the barge is doing?” Thomas asked.

  “We need it to cross over the Atlantic ocean from Cuba to Florida. We aren’t allowed to take our fishing boats that far off the Cuban coast. Anyway, the fishing boats couldn’t carry the pipe that far. They aren’t strong enough to carry a long pipe.”

  “So the barge carries the pipe?” Thomas inquired.

  “Yes. The barge will carry it just south of Key West where it will meet with another fishing boat we purchased in Miami. That boat will stay off the coast of Key West and the pipe will be transitioned over.”

  “Won’t the authorities be looking at that?”

  “That’s the big risk. We plan to drop the pipe at a known location and then have the fishing boat come to that location later to connect with the pipe. There will be a deep sea diving team with the pipe to re-attach it.”

  “Sorry if I’m asking too many questions,” Thomas said. “But couldn’t we board the fishing boat in Key West and then they could drop us off and leave us in the water for the barge to pick us up on its way to Cuba?”

  “That might work a few times, but we would eventually get caught and then the US government would investigate the company. If we take the risk once with the pipe, the company is less likely to be discovered. And finding the pipe will be far more difficult for the NSA than spotting people jumping into the ocean and waiting on the open sea.”

  “Guys, let’s not beat a dead horse,” Julia said. “The plan is the plan. Sounds like we need five more months, maybe more.”

  “That’s right,” Tito replied. “The plan is going well. And once this pipe is in place, we can use it for smuggling thousands of people from the US to Cuba. You two will be the trailblazers.”

  “We would like to trail blaze earlier, if that is possible,” Julia said.

  “We’ll go as soon as it is safe and well-tested. No use working so hard to get this far and then dying two miles off the coast of Havana because we forgot to test something.”

  “Good point. I’d prefer to live,” Thomas said.

  “There is one other thing I wanted to talk to you both about,” Tito said.

  “Which is?”

  “What is your plan if the cops come and you need to escape immediately?”

  “Panic,” Julia smiled.

  “Seriously. You need to have a plan and have everything mapped out and timed. If the cops come, you should be able to be in your car and on the road in a few minutes.”

  “Where will we go, Tito? Do you have another UR site?”

  “I have a place south of Miami, but you should talk to Debbie about someplace closer, maybe in Alabama.”

  “I think if they come, we’re toast,” Thomas said.

  “You can’t think that way,” Tito replied. “Aren’t you in a large basement? Maybe there are alternative exits? If not, maybe you can construct something. Park the car near one of the alternative exits. Have some kind of alert or trigger so you know if cops are there. Have your route mapped out in the car, as well as some alternative routes. If you are on a farm, find some routes that don’t use roads. Things like that.”

  “I’ll work on it,” Julia responded. “They’re good ideas.”

  “Do you know how to drive? Either of you?” Tito asked.

  Thomas and Julia looked at each other and shook their heads, and then laughed.

  “Why do we need that?” Julia finally said.

  “The car may not go off-road under the navigation system’s control. Plus, the cop cars may be able to force your automated pilot to stop.”

  “I’ll figure out how to put it in manual mode. Maybe you can contact Joey and ask him. I’m sure he would know the details of something like that. It’s an old car and I think he did a lot of the modifications himself,” Julia said.

  “I’ll ask him. You two stay safe. We are looking forward to seeing you in Cuba. Thomas, we’ll smoke a nice cigar together when you arrive.”

  “I’m going to love that.”

  “Thanks Tito,” Julia said and disconnected the call.

  53

  MARGARET AND MAXIME were on their twelfth date in a two month period. For a while, she had even requested dates twice per week. The sex had been amazing and frenetic at first, but lately everything seemed too artificial. Especially the conversations. The conversations were the worst.

  Margaret sat at the table in the diner, having just finished a terrific filet mignon. The meals here were phenomenal. Far better than anything she had at the Pentagon or the dinner her robotic cook prepared at home. She wasn’t sure how Joey did it, but his culinary expertise was world class.

  “Let’s skip the dessert,” she said to Maxime.

  “OK,” he replied.

  “My compliments to the chef,” she said loud enough for any open microphone to hear. “Another excellent meal.”

  Maxime could tell that she was talking to the surveillance equipment and not to him, so he didn’t respond.

  “You wanna go to the room?” he asked. />
  “Is it available?” she replied.

  “Joey always keeps it open for our dates. I have to double check that everything is spotless before you get here.”

  She grinned. “I like the attention to detail.”

  Maxime got up from the table and pulled her chair back. He scooped the cloth napkin from her lap and placed it on the table. “Shall we?”

  “Can we dance a little before? Like last time?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Maxime said and made some hand gestures to the wall. Suddenly, Marvin Gaye was singing “Let’s Get It On” and the light in the room was dimmed with accents of red LEDs turning on subtly around the room. Joey had taught Maxime about mood music and had created a play list and lighting effects for moments like these. The area between their table and the special bedroom served as a dance floor.

  Maxime was wearing a black tuxedo and red bow tie. He took her in his arms. “May I have this dance, Madame Secretary?”

  “Of course,” she said, staring into his gorgeous blue eyes and giving herself to his muscular frame.

  He is so beautiful. If only he had some education and could hold a decent conversation.

  They danced for a couple songs before making their way to the special room. Maxime conducted himself like a blend of gentleman and hired professional. An hour later, Margaret was in a car on her way back to DC.

  As the vehicle drove her away, she reflected on past romances. They never seem to last more than a few months. No matter how attractive the man or how great the sex, there’s only so long before it all gets boring. She wondered when she would ask Linda about a replacement.

  Wouldn’t be long.

  IT HAD BEEN almost three months since the grid escape when Susan and Stephanie finally got the breakthrough.

  It was a Thursday in November, the week before Thanksgiving, and the two women were talking on a grid connection, both wearing goggles in their different cities. In the VR connection, they were both in a virtual office in Nashville where Stephanie’s avatar was stepping through the intelligence.

  “So last night we got this tip that turned into gold. A woman named Elizabeth Simmons owns a trucking company in Jasper, Tennessee. One of her trucks was on the list you gave me driving into and out of the camp area the night of the escape. We got a tip last night that she was known to sympathize with the UR movement and may be using her trucks to move people around. We also know of a UR suspected site in Jasper, near her home. We pulled up all of the recent surveillance of the area, and we think we have something.”