“Like what?” asked Harrison.
“Like, how did you hack national security websites from every major power?”
For a second no one spoke but Moms and Harrison exchanged glances and then Harrison said “Moles.”
“In all of them?” Lucas sounded astonished.
“And in every major corporation around the world,” said Sam.
“Incredible, but how?”
In the ensuing silence Moms said, “There are Gaians everywhere. And because their allegiance is to the Earth itself it transcends every government, corporation, or religion. We are large and growing.”
Lucas stared at her. This diminutive woman was implying that the organization she ran was on a par with the most powerful governments on the globe and, despite himself, her tone of voice and delivery had him absolutely convinced she was right.
“We hope you'll join us,” she said.
Without thinking he said, “Of course,” and then wondered at himself.
“Good. We're glad. Now please tell me about the gift Harrison says you brought with you.”
There was a moment's hesitation which Lucas hoped he hid before he brought the dongle out of his pocket.
“This is designed to render chip readers unable to read chips.”
The next hour was spent explaining everything he knew about the device and its burial in the files of the spy agency. When he was done he reluctantly allowed Sam to take it from him to deliver to a lab that could reverse engineer it and reproduce the results.
Lucas had wanted to hold onto it in case he wanted to ever return to the land of the chip but realized that was highly unlikely.
Moms said, “What would you think about working with our hacking crew? We could use your talents.”
“Well, I hadn't thought about it but I don't see why not...”
“Good.”
“...but not until Harrison tells me the whole story.”
“Sure. When you're ready tell Sam.”
Harrison led Lucas to a group of chairs against one wall where sunlight bathed the scene in a warm glow without heating it too much. When they seated themselves and gotten comfortable Lucas asked, “When did the Gaians organize to take down the government? I've always known them to be environmentalists and that's all.”
“We don't want to bring down the government. Not at all. And we're still environmentalists.”
“Then why all the equipment, and the nuclear watch and the hackers? And why help me?”
“Because we're more effective as a secret society than as a political party. Because caring for the environment is non-partisan really, even if one party represents more polluters than the other and helping you escape notice is a recruiting tactic. Look, remember the battle in Congress over re-wilding?”
“No,” said Lucas. “I've read about it but it was, like, a hundred years ago.”
“Not quite. The movement is over a hundred years old but the political fight is only fifty years old. Anyway, it was during that fight that we were born, “we” being the secret arm of the Gaians. We were able to influence that vote in our favor through a little judicious blackmail both here and in China. We've been able to support it around the world by feeding information to politicians they could use to neutralize opposition.”
“Information you get from the hackers?”
“Yes. And because we're unknown to the world no one has identified us as a threat of any kind. No party attacks us, the public arm of the Gaians can lobby all parties equally and we can achieve our goals.”
“So you don't want to sabotage the governments because you can have more influence this way?”
“Exactly. Do you know that over a third of the country has been re-wilded? And that nearly another third is devoted to low-impact lifestyles? We couldn't have gotten this far by exercising power openly – only by making it work for everyone's benefit and letting others take the credit.”
“I thought we had passed the peak of global warming and were on a downward path to pre-warming levels.”
“Sort of. But the downward path will take another couple of centuries and then probably fifty years to readjust the climate to pre-warming normal. That's if we don't flip into an ice age.”
“But this government is aimed at enslaving us all.”
“Not quite. The reason re-wilding has continued to grow is that it serves the government's purposes very well.”
“How?”
“By being able to concentrate on the urban areas. They've discovered that there are plenty of volunteers willing, happy really, to live simpler lifestyles and care for the wild spaces and make no demands on the central government except for retirement benefits and health care clinics. No major subsidies for agriculture, no water wars, no money to keep dying towns afloat, no support of infrastructure...the list goes on and on. What towns are left live on their own and the wildlife flourishes.”
“So if you're getting what you want,” said Lucas, “why the ongoing organization? Why keep such a large hacking crew?”
“Because the work isn't done, won't ever by done as long as we humans rule the planet, and because we want to be able to forestall any attempts to reverse what we've accomplished. Governments can be influenced but never trusted. Like with the nuclear weapons. Right now we seem to be all right but what if a maniac gains control of a country with an arsenal and decides he needs to bomb the hell out of his perceived enemies? If we know what's happening soon enough we can try to frustrate it. Maybe. Anyway we can try. That's why.”
Lucas leaned back and rubbed his temples, “How high are we here?”
“Over eight thousand feet. The air's pretty thin. Takes some getting used to.”
“I feel tired all the time,” said Lucas, “and I have a bad headache.”
“Go lie down for a while. And don't exert yourself for a few days.”
“How long does it usually take to get acclimated?”
Harrison laughed. “For young people like you, usually a few days to a few weeks. For relics like me, a few months to a few years.”
“But you're okay and I'm not.”
“I've been here before. Lots of times. But if you notice I walk slowly and not much and I sit often and long.”
Lucas smiled and said, “I think I will go lie down for a while.”
Harrison watched his grandson shamble off back to his bed and then went in search of Moms. She was behind her desk reading reports when he plopped himself heavily into a chair.
“So?” she asked.
“So, he'll be all right. He's starting to notice the young women and that will override other considerations.”
Harrison's look grew more serious. “We have to decide today about whether I return to the city. They'll notice he's gone the day after tomorrow. They'll finally trace him to Las Vegas and they'll know we were together. At that point they'll call me with questions. Will I be there to answer them? That's the decision we have to make now.”
“What would you say?”
“That he met a young woman and went off with her.”
“Are you done with the city?”
“I'm not sure. When I saw the vote in Congress I decided I would have to leave in less than a year, probably. And then Lucas was at my door precipitating things.” He sat and thought for many minutes while Moms went back to reading. “I think I should go back,” he said. “There's still useful work I can do there and I'll have a chance to properly clean up.”
Moms nodded. “I think that's probably a good thing. We don't want to draw attention to this place, at least not yet, and it's barely possible you could be traced here. This way we can fly you back to Vegas and you can be the innocent returning home.”
“Where did I stay in Vegas?”
“Sam has an address and a photo of your paramour there. She'll swear to what a stud you are and no one will be the wiser.”
“She's that trustworthy?”
Moms laughed. “She's your ex-wife.”
“Make up se
x with an ex?”
“Sure. Everyone knows how amicable your divorce was. Why not?”
Harrison thought about Marcy, his former wife. She was trustworthy and the idea would not appear far-fetched to his friends. He began to think he might want to stop in on her and have a visit.
“Okay. When can I leave?”
“In a couple of hours. We have a robo-plane taking a couple of people up there on business. Say goodbye before you leave.”
Chapter Seven
Lucas woke feeling muzzy-headed and weak and lay there thinking about the new world he had been plunged into. It was certainly a better place than his half-formed plans of leaving the country for parts quite literally unknown. At least he felt safe here which was an improvement over the fearful journey he had anticipated but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that everyone around him believed in something he considered a little mad, or at least deeply tinged with a superstitious mind-set. His engineer's brain refused to accept the premise of the entire world as a living creature.
His head still ached and when he stood he felt a little unsteady but went off in search of hot coffee. There was an urn always on in the kitchen to which he headed. With a steaming cup in hand and feeling a little steadier he went to sit in one of the comfortable chairs in the large living room. He chose a chair which looked out over the valley and settled back to think.
The events and conversations of the last several days played out in his mind and he realized he was thinking about his red-headed cousin and not in a very cousinly manner. He was just about to give himself permission to forget they were so closely related and to let his mind go where it would when a voice behind him said, “Taking in the scenery?”
He was startled enough to nearly spill his coffee and when he looked up and saw his cousin standing before him his face reddened with shame at the thoughts she had interrupted.
“Oh, hi,” he said.
“Hi. I'm Maeve. You're Lucas, right?”
“Uh, yes. That's right.”
She was wearing jeans and a loose fitting denim shirt and her hair was pulled back into a fluffy ball. Even the loose shirt couldn't hide her ample breasts which were straining the fabric. She sat in the chair across from him and grinned a huge, conspiratorial grin at him.
“Did they tell you we're sort of cousins?” she asked.
“Yeah. Sibling grandparents.”
“Oh well,” she said, “it figures. Everyone I like is off limits somehow. I just despair sometimes.”
She was kidding with him, he knew, but in a way that didn't reveal either her meaning or her feelings. Flustered, he blurted out, “Maybe we can get dispensation from Gaia.”
Maeve studied his face and decided he was just ignorant or excited.
“Gaia is not a joke,” she said.
Lucas looked properly contrite. “Just a feeble joke,” he said.
Maeve stood and beckoned at him, “Come with me,” she said.
She led him out doors and around the end of the ranch house and down a rocky pathway until they came to a small stream. She followed the stream to where it formed a small pool and pulled him down to sit next to her on a rock that jutted slightly out over the water.
“This is a test,” she said with enough seriousness in her voice to convince him. “We'll sit here quietly for fifteen minutes and then you'll tell me what you saw and heard and felt and what it meant.”
Lucas looked sideways at her and decided he'd better do as she asked. Even if they could never be intimate he knew he wanted to stay in her good graces and to earn her respect so he turned his attention to the babbling brook and proceeded to use his eyes and ears.
He lost track of time and jumped a bit when she cleared her throat to say, “Okay, report.”
“Well, the pool forms a habitat that's different from both upstream and down. I could see some fish in the shadows and what looked like dragonfly larvae in the shallows. Three kinds of birds came close but I think we kept them from getting closer. Two kinds of lizards for sure. Dragonfly eggs on the reeds growing along the edge. The stream is lower than usual. Four turtles plopped into the water when we sat down and are only now crawling back up on their log.”
He looked at her slyly, expecting a “Well done,” and a passing grade but instead was met with a smile that he interpreted as “Not quite.”
“Not bad,” she said. “Very observant. The only thing missing was an appreciation of what ties it all together.”
“Okay, you tell me.”
“You do know that all DNA on Earth is related?”
Lucas nodded.
“And you know that water is an essential ingredient in the making of life and the sustaining of life. You see how water is necessary for life – that in its presence life flourishes and in its absence life is absent.”
Lucas nodded again, appreciating her message but focused on the messenger's sparkling eyes, flowing hair and gently rising bosom.
“Well, Gaia is an acknowledgment of the total inter-relatedness of life as it is here on Earth, woven through and made up of the elements as they exist on Earth. Gaia is the Earth and the web of life that it gave birth to.”
“I can certainly understand what you're saying. I can even agree with it. I guess I'm just not very spiritual or religious.”
“Gaia is not a religion,” Maeve snapped. “Religions are built on faith, a belief in a higher power.”
Her emphasis on the word “belief,” an emphasis deeply colored with intellectual contempt, revealed her passion on the subject.
“Okay, okay. I said I'm not religious.”
Maeve stared at him to make sure he was telling her the truth and said, “When you can experience the central unity of life on Earth you will know and understand Gaia.” Suddenly she broke into a wide grin. “Meanwhile I'll just have to take you to all my personal magic spots to help you see the light of truth.”
She stood in front of him and pulled him to his feet facing her. She was so close that the heat from her body warmed him. “Would you like that?,” she asked.
In answer Lucas wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, very un-cousinly, firmly on her lips. Their embrace lasted longer than a cousin's should and when they stepped apart both their faces were flushed and ever so slightly embarrassed.
“Sorry,” he said. “Not right to do that.”
“Ummm,” mused Maeve, “check out the DNA compatibility for us. You'll be surprised.”
With that cryptic remark she turned from him and hurried off. Lucas stared after her in confusion and disbelief. His emotional state had been pulled and tugged several ways at once and the only emotion that he wasn't confused about was his desire for her. Instead of running after her though, he sat and contemplated the pool of water and thought about what she had said.
Chapter Eight
Harrison left the compound within an hour of taking leave of Moms. He was first brought to a robo-drome where he caught a drone flight to Las Vegas and from there was quickly on his way back to New York. Coming out of the clouds over the metropolis he could see how nearly all of Manhattan was covered with cubes and that they were swiftly gobbling up the other boroughs. He could also see the pattern of bright dots that were the cylindrical grow-houses on their unshaded lots. “How quickly these have taken over the landscape,” he thought. “A triumph of efficiency equaling profit equaling rapid expansion throughout the market.”
From the development of the first cube in Asia and the first multi-story, robot operated grow-house it had taken less than a century for them to become the dominant structures on the world's landscape. Architecture had become interior design and soaring atria and for the first time in the six thousand years since the rise of cities the cost of living in urban areas was no higher than its cost in the country.
Cubes, which was how he thought of them, were only cubic on the inside, in the structures that formed their bones so to speak. The outsides appeared to be perforated with swooping designs, the roof tops ringed with fa
nciful constructions and each one built to outshine its competitors with the innovation of its appearance.
“It's a good thing,” he thought, “that humans clump up into the great urban areas and leave the majority of the land and sea to the native flora and fauna. The healing powers of nature are great and rejuvenation can be confidently expected.”
He watched the landing on the screen in front of him and thought ruefully, “As long as we can keep from screwing up ourselves and everything else.”
Harrison the historian had little faith in the abilities of humanity to refrain from trying to dominate their brothers or neighbors or neighboring countries. He drew some solace from the changes that had taken place to make warfare more locally confined. None of the world's big players, not the larger countries nor the global corporations nor the multinational groups of scientists and technicians who tended the systems that monitored and combated disease, trade wars, satellite support or the health of the seas could afford a major disruption.
The pressure from these entities had produced an international system of sanctions that confined bad national actor to their own spaces. It was hard on the innocent populations but was much better than regional, let alone inter-continental, wars.
From the airport a robo-drone flew him to the roof of his home cube and a few moments later he was once more in his own apartment. Few days had passed. Everything looked the same and yet his world had completely turned over. There was a distinct feeling of disorientation which he allowed to wash over his mind, waiting for it to pass and for his usually balanced view to take over. When it did he dropped his case and played back his messages.
One was from the Head of Security in his building asking about Lucas' whereabouts.
“That's interesting,” he thought, “I'd expect the query from Lucas' end, not from mine.”
He pondered it while he returned the call, “Hello Jose. You're asking about my grandson Lucas?”
“Oh, hello Harrison. Thanks for calling back. Yeah. I got a call from his boss. They had traced him to this building and then lost him. Do you know where he is?”
GAIA Page 4