by Lee McGeorge
unproductive people are a risk to North America, imagine how interested they would be to discover a way to reprogram them. Imagine if we could improve productivity across the board. Rather than killing these people with brain tumours, let’s emancipate them from poverty.”
“That is interesting... The problem is Consec view you as compromised.”
“I’ll work covertly, off the Consec radar. I have the funds, I can transform Bianca’s soup kitchen into a cathode ray testing facility.”
“And I can stall the Videodrome broadcast whilst you work on the alternative,” Barry said. He suddenly had more vigour. Energised by the suggestion. “Oh, Jesus. You have no idea what kind of relief this brings.”
“Relief?”
Barry sighed. “I’ve been staring into insanity. I’m aligned with people who want to commit murder by television… Mass murder… When we partnered with Consec and I started working on a project of bringing affordable eye care to the Third-World, I thought it was going to be my legacy. I was proud of it. I thought I would be remembered as the man who brought sight to the world. Instead I’ll be remembered for Videodrome. The only way I could see to fight against the insanity was to become a complete monster. I’m not a monster, Brian. Not yet, not entirely. I hope you still believe that, my friend.”
----- X -----
Brian went to buy televisions and hit the jackpot on his first enquiry. A store called Irwin Television Rentals offered hire purchase and rental of TV sets and had a bulk lot of sixty used sets of various sizes and models. They were about to put them all up for sale and were happy to sell them as a job lot, happy to deliver them and even happier to be paid in cash.
The second problem was tables and chairs. Brian took some of the vagrants who hovered by the mission and scoured the second hand furniture stores. He offered the derelicts a few dollars on the spot to carry it back and promised a few beers when the furniture arrived back at the mission. Some of the furniture didn’t arrive but most of it did.
By the evening, the homeless were eating their soup and drinking their coffee to the light of the cathode ray. Of the sixty TV’s only ten were connected, the rest would be installed tomorrow but Brian was pleased with how well it had gone. By tomorrow night he would have sixty televisions capable of bathing the homeless in the affirming radiation of Veraceo-One. He would need content of some kind. Something to encourage them with. Something uplifting that made them want to achieve. Inspirational programs of people overcoming obstacles in their life.
It was liberating to do something productive. He felt motivated. He had a purpose.
He had a mission.
----- Chapter Five -----
Barry Convex visited the soup kitchen a week later. Workmen were hanging a sign outside that named the building the Cathode Ray Mission. He had to jostle past vagrants at the door as they pressed through to get their free coffee and television fix. It was a bitterly cold morning and the derelicts would rather be indoors than out.
“Hello Barry,” Bianca said. She gave him the slightest kiss on his cheek.
“I haven’t seen you in a long time.” He stepped back to take a look at the girl, now a woman.
“You’re looking well,” she said.
“Thank you. Although I feel a little overdressed.” He looked around at the homeless watching their TV screens. “Is this a clean signal?”
“No, it’s Veraceo-One at a very low level. About eight percent of maximum.”
Barry nodded but turned away from the screen and involuntarily shielded his eyes with his hand. “What are they watching?”
“Read All About It. It’s a children’s programme to encourage reading, writing and history. We’re hoping this kind of educational content, mixed with some Veraceo might help patch them back into society. My father is upstairs.”
Barry went up alone and found Brian sitting at a desk, speaking his mind to a video camera. Barry quietly took a seat to the side and allowed him to finish.
“The technology of television has become so pervasive that the education of not just our youth, but of all society, should be aimed at immunising against television. That is not to say that television is a disease, at least not a disease of the flesh. Rather it is a virus similar to the mind virus of a religion. There shall be a two tier system in North America. Those who are educated and therefore, have an immunity against television; and those with no immunity at all, who shall be swallowed up by the messages of the cathode ray tube.” Brian stopped the video recording.
“How are you feeling, Brian?”
He shook his head slowly. “I feel renewed and refreshed, but the doctor says otherwise. The doctor says I am ready for more chemotherapy and the fast growing tumour is still fast growing. What do you think of the mission?”
“Impressive, considering you only dreamed up the idea a week ago. What are you recording?”
“My legacy. I had a vision after seeing your computer, a vision where all the knowledge of the world’s libraries could be searched and indexed through a televisual device. I imagined that your computer was connected to all the knowledge in the world. One day that future may come and I am preparing the content for that future.”
Barry squirmed in the chair a little. “I got a call this morning. From Consec.” He paused as though waiting for Brian’s acknowledgement but there was none forthcoming. “I’m invited to a meeting tonight to discuss what you’re doing here. They’ve had a private investigator come in as a vagrant. He used a Veraceo detector and they know you’re experimenting. I don’t think they know what you’re doing but there’s anxiety on their side.”
Brian smiled. “My idea of being off their radar hasn’t lasted very long.”
“No, it hasn’t. I told them I was aware of your side research and that I authorised it, but they want me to shut you down. They’re paranoid; no, more than that. They’re terrified that Veraceo may slip into communist hands and they want it all sealed up in one location. When you showed up in Pittsburgh with a working security card it spooked them. They fear that you’re a loose cannon. They fear that you’re unpredictable and I came to tell you that if the meeting goes sour tonight, all of this may come to an end.”
----- X -----
Barry was taken by helicopter to Home Base. Cueball was there to greet him. “I think we should talk before Leader arrives.” He took Barry to a small meeting room. “What’s the story with Brian Spectrometer? I understand you visited him this morning.”
“I did,” Barry replied. He tried to put confidence into his voice. “I wanted to make sure I understood precisely what he was doing. I believe I do. It’s interesting work.”
Cueball exhaled heavily. “Barry… You need to be very careful… Your role at this time is to weaponise Veraceo and nothing more. If you deviate from that, you’ll be considered a Consec threat. Do you understand what that means?”
Barry shook his head. “No, I’m not sure I do. Spell it out for me. Don’t beat around the bush, tell me what…”
“...You’ll be killed.” Cueball interrupted. He went quiet for a moment then spoke softly to say, “That isn’t hyperbole, that is precisely what will happen. Men from Consec Security will come and murder you… Veraceo is a game-changing technology that Consec has decided they must have exclusively. Brian has been identified as a weak link. The reason Leader is coming tonight is to decide whether to eliminate him. Do you understand? Tonight we’re going to take a vote on whether to kill Brian Spectrometer. You’re going to be in the meeting too and you’re going to have to raise your hand and vote ‘yes’ when asked if Brian Spectrometer should die. If you don’t, you’re going to be the next weak link.”
“I don’t believe you?”
“Then don’t believe me. But the reason I’ve pulled you aside is to make sure you know what is going to happen. Veraceo is worth more than the life of its inventor. Brian has socialist and liberal leanings. We know what he’s doing. He’s trying to turn Veraceo into a saviour of society’s dead
flesh. He’s exposing Veraceo to the world to try and improve the productivity of a handful of vagrants. Consec Security lost their shit when they discovered that. This is as dangerous as the atomic bomb, but when the Manhattan Project made the bomb they did it locked up with military security. They didn’t do top secret weapons research from a soup kitchen with an open door to the world… This is a do or die world we live in, Barry. You’re a doer, don’t be the one who dies.”
He left Barry alone in the meeting room. Bare concrete walls. A plain white table.
Was this a bluff of some kind?
They wouldn’t kill Brian, would they? Or him?
Reality dawned slowly. It began with a tight stomach and a feeling that he couldn’t move. What the hell had happened? How had things become so murderous so quickly?
The door opened and he saw the woman he’d met on his first visit to Home Base. “We’re about to start.”
Barry made his way out of the room. The world was spinning.
“Barry. Good to see you.” Consec Leader strode to him. He looked a picture of health and confidence. The tall man with his close cropped silver beard and deep blue eyes. His demeanour changed on seeing Barry up close. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost my friend. How are things in Pittsburgh?”
Barry put on his best fake smile. “We’re making real progress in Pittsburgh,” he said thinly. “With every