by Bob Blanton
“That’s still the plan,” Marc said. “We’ll see how the demand for space up there goes. We can adjust if we need to. Okay, Blake,” Marc added, signaling Blake that he could pour the scotch and have his toast. “I’d also like to try having these meetings only once a month,” Marc said. “We seem to be hitting our stride, and with the various situational meetings we call, I think we’ll stay in touch adequately. So let’s plan on the next official meeting for December second. We know we’ll have to call a meeting before that on the North Korean issue.”
“A double toast,” Blake said as he brought the Glenlivet to the table.
◆ ◆ ◆
“How do you manage to get anything done?” Catie asked Sophia. “You’re always on your phone.” Catie was meeting with Sophia to give her an update on the board meeting for the Gazette.
“How can you not be on your phone all the time?” Sophia asked. “I get so many posts on my Facebook page and my Twitter feed, it’s hard to keep up.”
“Probably because I don’t have as many friends as you,” Catie said.
“How can you not have as many friends?” Sophia asked. “Everybody has friends, and when you friend them, all their friends want to friend you. If you don’t friend them, you don’t know what’s happening.”
“I have a filter that manages all my social media,” Catie said.
“What does the filter do?”
“It lets you divide friends into more groups than Facebook does. You set up to five levels of friends,” Catie explained. “I use three levels, inner circle, friends, and acquaintances. There is no filter of the inner circle. Friends are filtered so that I only get posts that I’ve shown interest in. It also filters out any political or nasty posts. The same for acquaintances, but for them, it also filters out all posts from them that aren’t responding to something I posted or that don’t touch on something relevant to me. You can do the same thing with your Twitter feed.”
“Wow, that’s a lot. How is your comm smart enough to do that?” Sophia asked.
“It has a really smart AI that runs through all that info and builds a model of your personality and likes. It tracks what you do, then mimics that. It’s going to be one of the big features on the new VIT phones,” Catie said.
“How can it do that?” Sophia asked.
“You have to give it access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and any other accounts that you subscribe to, then it pre-manages all the posts before you can see them,” Catie said. “It will even move the data into a private stream without any ads if you want.”
“But that sounds like it would filter out the bad things people say about me,” Sophia said.
“Yeah!” Catie said. “Why would you want to see those, they’re just trying to be mean. Your real friends will ignore them, or they’re not real friends. And it just causes you anxiety if you read them. You’ve got one of the fast comms, so you can set one up like mine too,” Catie said.
“Why does it only work on the fast comms?” Sophia asked.
“It works on both, but it’s more limited on the slow comms,” Catie said. “When VIT starts making comms, they’ll have enough processing power to run the full filter.”
“Help me set mine up, and I’ll see if I like it,” Sophia said.
Chapter 23
Exposé
“The truth behind Delphi City, next on Investigative Reports.”
Catie and Liz were watching the video after ADI alerted everyone to the upcoming report.
“The city looks innocent, but we have inside information that says otherwise. Frankie Whitaker lived in Delphi City for two months before he escaped,” the reporter said. “Frankie, tell us what it was like.”
“Everything you did was controlled, where you ate, who you talked to, and where you went,” Frankie said. “They offer to give all the kids shots that are supposed to help them get through puberty without so much turmoil, but it’s really a way to control them. I refused the shot, so I was able to think for myself.”
“But the reports we have been getting show an idyllic place,” the reporter said.
“Idyllic, if you’re a robot,” Frankie said. “The McCormacks think they know what’s best for everyone, and if you don’t agree, they force you to do what they want. They have goons all over the city, watching what everybody does.”
“Have you met any of the McCormacks?” the reporter asked.
“Yes, I knew the daughter Catie,” Frankie said. “She is a conceited little girl who thinks she’s smarter than everybody else. She thinks she’s beautiful, but she’s just some skinny little nerd.”
“That was mean!” Catie yelled.
“He’s just making this up,” Liz said, “don’t pay attention to him. We’re supposed to be watching this so we can do a rebuttal.”
“What else did you see?” the reporter asked.
“They brought in a bunch of people from some little town in West Virginia,” Frankie continued. “Every two weeks half the men disappear for two weeks, and the other half comes back. They can’t remember where they’ve been, and they act all confused. I think they’re doing experiments on them.”
“Do you think that’s how they developed their cure for Alzheimer’s?” the reporter asked.
“Sure,” Frankie said. “They don’t care about anybody who’s not family. What are a few people from West Virginia to them?”
The reporter continued the exposé by interviewing several other people who had been in Delphi City. She also interviewed several other people who corroborated what Frankie had said, although ADI assured them that none of those people had even been in Delphi City. Then the reporter interviewed, Najib Maloof, the man they had deported for beating his wife. He told a story about how the doctors in Delphi City had brainwashed his wife to leave him. And when he had objected, they had beaten him and deported him back to Syria.
“They’re just making stuff up,” Catie sniffed as she threw herself back against the sofa cushion.
“Don’t let it get to you,” Liz said. “It’s over now. What do you think we should do?”
“What can we do?” Catie asked. “It’s all a bunch of lies.”
“Well, we can show them the truth,” Liz said.
“How? They’ll just say we’re lying,” Catie said.
“Hey, girls,” Samantha said as she knocked on the door to Catie’s room.
“Come on in,” Catie said. “Did you see that stupid exposé?”
“Yes,” Samantha said. “That’s why I’m here. What do you want to do about it?”
“What’s Daddy saying?” Catie asked.
“I think he’s still throwing things,” Samantha said. “He’s pretty upset.”
“What do you think we should do, Sam?” Liz asked.
“We could just ignore it,” Samantha said. “Or we could bring a reporter down here to do a real story.”
“Would anyone believe it?” Catie asked.
“We could bring someone with a solid reputation,” Samantha said. “Investigative Reports isn’t known for their accuracy or their objectivity.”
“Who could we get?” Catie asked.
“I think we could get just about anyone we want,” Samantha said. “We’re a pretty big story since we declared independence.”
“How about Leslie Walters?” Liz asked.
“Sure, I bet she would come. I used to know her, so I can probably get in touch and ask. And she’s been an icon in the industry for years,” Samantha said. “I’ll clear it with your father, and we’ll see how soon we can get her here.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hello, I’m Leslie Walters, reporting live from Delphi City. I have been given unfettered access to anyone and any place in the city. Come with me while we learn what it’s all about.
“We just arrived here aboard one of their Lynx jetliners,” Leslie continued. “It took us three hours from New York City to reach Delphi City, which is over fourteen thousand miles. On a standard passenger jet, that
would have taken over twelve hours.
Leslie turned to Morgan, one of Catie’s bodyguards, “This is Morgan Blair, she is going to drive me around. Morgan, how long have you been here?”
“I came here back in February,” Morgan said.
“And what do you do here?” Leslie asked.
“I provide security for the family,” Morgan answered.
“Does that mean you’re like the palace guard?”
Morgan had a laughing fit, and it took a few seconds before she regained her composure. “There ain’t no palace down here. They live in a double condo in one of our buildings. You can go see it if you like.”
“What does a double condo mean?” Leslie asked.
“Well, all the residential buildings are set up with two-bedroom condos,” Morgan said. “When people have a big family or need more space like the McCormacks, they combine two of them into one unit. The McCormacks are always working from their condo, so they got a double one.”
“How many live there?” Leslie asked.
“Oh, it’s just Marc and his daughter Catie,” Morgan said. “Her mother lives in a condo in the same building, just one floor down in a plus unit. The plus means it’s a corner unit, so it’s a little bigger.”
“Does that mean we can just walk into their building?” Leslie asked. “Is that safe?”
“Sure,” Morgan said. “You can’t have any guns in Delphi City. Even our constables don’t carry firearms. They have these stun sticks that are like a Taser.”
“Why don’t we start out our tour there then,” Leslie said.
“Okay,” Morgan said. “I’ll drive you over. Aren’t your viewers going to be bored while we’re driving around?”
“The producer will fit the commercials into the boring parts,” Leslie said. “If he misses something good, he’ll patch it in over the top of another boring part.”
“That’s smart,” Morgan said. “Anyway, here we are, your camerawoman can ride with us or ride in the other cart.”
“We’re going to drive around the city in a golf cart?” Leslie asked.
“We don’t allow any cars or other vehicles in the city,” Morgan said. “We do have some big electric vans for when they have to move big stuff around. Most of the manufacturing plants have a subway link to the docks, so they don’t need to use the vans to move stuff around. That keeps it nice and quiet up here where people are.”
“A city without cars,” Leslie said. “How can people get to work?”
“Most people work upstairs in their condo building; the top floor is usually office space. Whatever business they work for leases them a space there. They just walk up and work; lots of times, there are three or four people who work for the same business, so it’s like a satellite office.”
“But what about the manufacturing workers?”
“Well, they have to commute, but all the manufacturing plants coordinate with each other, so they have offset schedules. That keeps the streets and subways from being too crowded.”
“And shopping?”
“There’s a grocery store every few blocks. Everyone has those collapsible carts that they can wheel around like a luggage trolley or a wagon. You can even borrow one from the business.”
“That’s amazing! How many golf carts are there?” Leslie asked.
“I think we have ten,” Morgan said. “Most people just walk. It’s never more than a mile or so between places, so unless you need to get to work, it’s a nice stroll. We have green medians down all the streets, thanks to Catie.”
“Thanks to Catie?”
“I heard she’s the one who insisted on all the green space. She designed the layout of all the parks,” Morgan said, “and made sure each one got a least one big tree.”
“But this is a floating city,” Leslie said. “How do they grow trees here?”
“The city has like ten meters of space below the main deck. That’s where all the infrastructure is, water lines, electricity, sewer, stuff like that. That’s where the subway lines that run around the city are, but they really don’t get used by people much. Anyway, you just make a hole in the deck, build a box, and fill it with dirt,” Morgan said. “See, there’s one of the smaller parks here on the right. It has one of them big golden shower trees. Its leaves are just turning yellow now.”
“I’ve seen those in Hawaii,” Leslie said. “They are beautiful.”
“Marc and Blake lived in Hawaii for a few years before they came here. And we have almost the same weather as Hawaii, so some of our outdoor plants come from there or from here in the Cook Islands; lots of them are found in both places,” Morgan said. “Just ahead, you can see the big park. We’ll turn and go down alongside it, then turn left and go down the other side, so you’ll get a great view of it.”
The camerawoman turned and gave the viewers a good look at the park. “So, this is the big park. How big is it?”
“It’s sixteen city blocks,” Morgan said. “That’s about four hundred meters by four hundred meters, or one quad as we call it down here.”
“Why do you call it a quad?” Leslie asked.
“They build the city by quads,” Morgan said. “They build the quad, then attach it to the city, so the city always grows by quads.”
“Are they still making the city bigger?” Leslie asked.
“Yes,” Morgan said. “They just finished adding a ring of quads all around the first section; a section is four quads. They’re starting to work on a second ring of quads, which will make the city two sections by two sections big. That will be like four square miles of city.”
“That sounds big for a floating city,” Leslie said. “Now is this a normal day as far as traffic goes?”
“Yeah, you see a few people walking around,” Morgan said. “Lots are at work, but the manufacturing plants run three shifts, so there is always somebody out and about.” Morgan turned left and drove away from the park. “This is the street that their condo complex is on. It’s right at the corner of two small parks.”
“How big is a condo complex?” Leslie asked as she looked at the large buildings they were passing.
“All those buildings on both sides of us are condo complexes,” Morgan said. “Each one is a city block with a big interior courtyard. That way, every unit has windows. They’re mostly ten stories tall, but they vary a little to break up the skyline.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“You’re telling me that this is where they live?” Leslie asked.
“Sure, this is their unit,” Morgan said. “They’re not here, but they said we could go in.” Morgan opened the door to the unit and led Leslie and the camerawoman in. The family room looked like any family room in any house. It had a big tv display on the wall and a knickknack shelving unit with pictures of family members and a few things they had gathered on their travels. “This is Catie’s office,” Morgan said as she opened the door to one of the rooms. There was a desk and chair as well as a sofa in the office. There was also a big display on the wall and two guest chairs that could be pulled up to the desk or over to the sofa. “She has a desk, but she mostly works while sitting or lying on the sofa,” Morgan explained.
“How does she work when she’s lying on the sofa?” Leslie asked.
“It’s these specs we wear,” Morgan explained. “They give them as good a display as any computer display; they can project a keyboard onto a flat surface, and the specs read which keys they type. Catie keeps a flat board around so she can lay it in her lap or against her leg and project a keyboard on it.”
“Tell us what she does for work?” Leslie asked.
“She’s just started working for VIT, that’s Vancouver Integrated Technologies, testing code for their new phone. She’s doing that for college credit in computer science,” Morgan said.
“I thought she was only fourteen,” Leslie said.
“Not for two more weeks,” Morgan said. “But she’s real smart and does college work for a lot of her classes. She’s still taking high school
history and English.”
“You’re saying she goes to school and works for this VIT company?”
“Yes, and she program manages a bunch of projects around here,” Morgan said. “She was the program manager for both the Lynx design and the Oryx design.”
“That sounds like a lot for a thirteen-year-old,” Leslie said.
“I told you she was real smart,” Morgan said. “They have a lot of proprietary technology they want to protect, so they only use board members for things like that. Her Uncle Blake manages all the construction projects around here, although he has a new foreman that he lets do most of the planning now.”
“That doesn’t sound realistic,” Leslie said. “How can such a young person know enough to do all that?”
“She has one of those photographic memories,” Morgan said. “She learns real fast and just remembers everything. She’s helping me with my math.”
“Your math?”
“Yeah, I want to be a systems engineer,” Morgan said. “I joined the military out of high school because I couldn’t afford to go to college. When I got out, I took the job down here. They encourage everybody to take classes and learn how to do a bigger job. They pay for everything and give you extra time to study. And it’s not just college classes, some of the people are learning to be machinists and mechanics. There’s a business management program they support where someone who runs a business or wants to, can take the program and just learn the things they need to know so they can run their business.”
“Well, we certainly are learning a lot of things we didn’t expect to,” Leslie said. “Now, can we visit your jail?”
“Jail?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, don’t you have a jail?”
Morgan quickly checked on her specs, “I guess we do,” Morgan said. “It’s not far from here. I’ll take you there right now.”
They walked over to the jail, which was part of the police building in the commercial district.