“What about my AI’s?”
“Copies of the backups are being sent over right now from New York. They’ll be on-line and working before you’re back from the field today.”
“What about viruses? What if they left viruses behind in the computers? What then?”
“Don’t worry about that, Saul. We’re bringing in all brand new equipment. Sterile chips, sterile operating systems. No viruses.”
“We’re going to have all new equipment installed and the backups running by the time I get back from the field?”
“Yes. They almost hurt us, Saul, but they failed. Those bastards. You know what I’m doing now? We’re retaliating, Saul.
I’ve got hired assassins after those JTV hackers right now.” She laughed, slapped the desk with her hand and spilling coffee. She continued, not noticing. “We’re killing those fuckers, Saul! We’re having them assassinated! That’s right, every single one of them, dead by tomorrow.” She grinned in angry triumph.
She’s serious, Saul realized. She’s a psychopath. What’s she going to do to me if I ever let her down?
“I’m not going to take up any more of your time, Kalman,” she said, standing up. “You have your job, I’ve got mine. Time’s wasting. We’re going to see this thing through. We’re going to do it – right?”
“Right,” Saul said automatically.
She nodded her big, strong head approvingly and turned her thick bulk on one heel, striding out of Saul’s office and leaving her spilt cup of coffee on his desk. Saul stood up, looking after her. He felt dizzy, he realized, and discovered he’d gone into hyperventilation. Mataphin, he thought. I need it.
He fumbled desperately in his pocket for the dispenser, brought it out. He hesitated, trying to stop himself. Two tabs fell out onto his open hand, and he told himself that two should be enough. Then he relented, and let two more fall out.
Saul ended up taking six.
17. DEPOPULATED ZONE
Savina had spent the night in a church yard, sheltered by the large silvered satellite dish pointing up at the JTV star. She slept maybe 20 minutes all that night, awaking with a start to discover she was not at home in bed. She was out in an unfamiliar neighborhood, a fugitive from the police, sleeping in the open with nothing but a shirt and a hat for warmth. It was a warm night, at least. It only got cold at dawn.
In the morning she was starving. She wanted desperately to call Dodd, but without a moneycard she couldn’t even place a collect call on a public phone terminal. The loss of her moneycard was a bad blow.
No food, no transportation. No phone. No clean clothes, no shower. Was this worth it? There was a strange stubborn streak in her that refused to let her answer that. Just take it as it comes, she told herself. Once I get to the Depopulated Zone, there’s food for the picking.
Without access to the subway or a cab she was hopelessly far away from her destination. Without a map she could only guess which direction it was. She began walking, ignoring the hunger and just walking, trusting that she would find food along the way, anarchists maybe, who would hopefully give her a meal and ride.
The sunlight and harsh shadows of the early morning made everything seem lonely. She walked east until the sun was straight up and there were people everywhere, but no anarchists. Exhausted and weak with lack of sleep and dizzy from hunger she leaned up against the corner of a building and began asking everyone who passed for spare change. Not many people carried cash anymore, and even less were willing to part with it. One lecherous-looking old black man eyed her and gave her enough for a vender meal and asked her if she wanted to come home with him. She almost accepted.
The money bought her a sandwich and a protein bar, which she washed down with water from a drinking fountain. It was only after she’d eaten that she realized she could have used the money to buy a call to Dodd. She cursed her stupidity, but then again she felt a lot better for having eaten. She continued walking, trying to stay in the shade of trees and buildings as the June sunlight beat down with physical force. She began to look at everything with a tired sense of wonder. Her situation seemed very heroic to her, and the sense of freedom came back to her suddenly. Her spirits climbed, and she began smiling at the people she passed. She collected a few dollars more before the pedestrians began to thin out. By the time the sunlight was at a definite angle she was in a run-down little neighborhood made up of old rectangular apartments surrounded by large oak trees. While the area was clean, it was not well maintained; all the buildings were in need of fresh paint, the old peeling away; there were mowed lawns but the edges weren’t trimmed, and grass grew along cracks in the sidewalk and even into the street itself. Small white children wearing ill-fitting, faded clothes played with battered electric tricycles 30 years old. Beyond the neighborhood was a fenced-off area; the fence was temporary and in ill-repair, big plastic sections fitted together and bolted, but some bolts were missing and sections were torn out entirely. She crossed through.
On the other side Savina found more apartments and some houses, but most were empty frames and others had been half-consumed by fire. The trees and plants had gone wild, spreading without check and turning the area into a jungle. This was an area zoned for leveling – the edge of the Depopulated Zone. After this area was leveled the fences would be moved back and the people around here now would be evicted. Thus the Depopulated Zone was enlarged.
It was very quiet out here, the hot afternoon air thick and still. The angled sunlight filtered through the oak trees casting streams of light. Speckled lizards ran along the ground, taking cover while she passed. Ahead were crouched figures, young boys about 12 or 13 years old, stalking each other with toy guns. One of them spotted her and they followed along behind her for a while, making her nervous, but she managed to keep well ahead of them and after awhile they grew bored and resumed their pursuit of each other.
Savina began noticing signs of habitation in the area; some of the old houses had been cleaned up, haphazard repairs being made on the deteriorating wooden structures. This was a different area of the Depopulated Zone than Savina was used to – the ruins she had explored with Greg were far south of here, an area that had once been the center of a city before all the cities had merged. The atmosphere there had been different, full of noise and teenage adventure. Here the atmosphere was solemn and serious, people lived here, this was their territory. This was not a place for city people to spend summer afternoons letting loose out of sight of public security systems. This place seemed to have its own security system, its own unspoken codes and morals. Savina had the feeling she was trespassing.
There were occasional tree houses in the giant gnarled oaks; some were very simple – no more than a scrap-wood platform nailed among the branches – but some were multi-storied and complex, with rope and counterweight elevators, glass windows and satellite dishes protruding at odd angles. People peered down at her through windows and branches, their expressions suspicious. A few half-waved at her. “Do you know where there’s an old abandon college?” she yelled up at one.
“Yeah.”
“Is it close?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Where is it?”
“North. Up that way.”
“How far is it?”
“Don’t know. Never been there.” The man smiled at her.
Savina continued on her way, heading vaguely east.
The trees thinned out and the ruins of the old houses turned to foundations with partial walls, nothing more. Tall, dry weeds hid details of old rusted gasoline cars, and eventually she found herself walking through them, getting stickers in her sandals. She stumbled upon a clearing in the grass, a hidden spot with a old ratty mattress sitting on a slab of concrete. Savina eyed the mattress longingly but decided against lying down – she didn’t want to be caught sleeping by the lovers who used this spot.
Savina looked across the vast stretch of farm land to the mountains beyond, then gazed to the north, along the perimeter of the zone. The field was unbroken to the horizon. To the south it was the same way.
She turned north.
She walked for a mile or so along a dirt road that crossed occasional aqueducts and wound back and forth along the perimeter; she passed more rusted carcasses of the old gasoline-engine cars, some stacked on top of each other like big neglected toys. There were also piles of large concrete blocks that looked like they marked something, but she couldn’t figure out what. To her left she passed a caved-in ruin that had a sun-bleached, eroded fiberglass statue in front. It looked like some sort of clown.