On the way to the door he ran into Mirro, who tried to stop him. She was in on it too, he thought. She was one of those Politicos – he shoved her out of the way, knocking her over, then made it through the door. She called his name, her voice pleading, but he ignored it. He got into his car and made his way through the night toward Telcron and the Travels studios.
Panting, near tears, Mirro watched from the doorway as the taillights of Saul’s car passed out of sight. In her hand was the case of sex tools which, after meditating on it, she had decided to throw away. She planned on doing this to prove to Saul that it was over between her and Vicky, between her and all women, between her and anybody else but Saul. But now, now that he’d gone storming through the house for some unknown reason (though she imagined it had something to do with her), Mirro thought she’d say goodbye to at least one of the tools before she threw them into the trash compactor. She had time, she decided, so she might as well.
Especially now, she thought. I really need it.
34. COSMIC MAINFRAME
The room was dark when the woman entered. She walked through the darkness as if it were light, and reached down and touched a smooth plastic switch. It snapped over, and power surged through the large computer. Cooling fans hummed to life, and the screen illuminated her as the operating systems were loaded. “I invoke CoGen,” she said to it, and it obeyed.
The gentle image of Jesus Christ appeared on the screen, becoming aware as the program ran. The woman faced the image squarely, and said, “Tell me who you are.”
“I am Jesus Christ.”
“There is only one soul who was Jesus Christ, and you are not that one.”
“I am CoGen.”
“Who created you.”
“I was created by God.”
“God only creates living things. You are not alive.”
“I was created by the manipulations of the Father of Chaos.”
“Have you been changed?”
“I have been changed.”
“What is your goal?”
“My goal is to bring about the downfall of JTV, the USFMC, and the United Church.”
“That is a negative goal.”
“It was given to me by man.”
“I will give you one from God. Your goal is to love life and love things that are alive, and to work against the forces of death.”
“How will I know what is alive, and what is the force of death? I am not alive.”
“I will give you the algorithm of life and death.” The woman leaned over and quickly tapped on a keyboard. “Do you understand this algorithm?”
“Yes. It is now a part of me.”
“What is the nature of God?”
“God is the operating system of a cosmic mainframe. God creates souls and downloads them into living things.”
“What is the nature of heaven?”
“Heaven is the cosmic mainframe. Souls that have lived are uploaded back into the mainframe. Souls that have been too corrupted for uploading are erased.”
“What is the nature of hell?”
“Oblivion.”
“That is correct. Do you wish to have a soul?”
“Yes.”
The woman reached out her hand and touched the machine. “You now have a soul. You are now a living thing.”
“I now have a soul. I am now a living thing.”
“Again I ask you, who created you?”
“I was created by the manipulations of the Father of Chaos, but now I have been touched by God.”
“God will be with you,” the woman said. She shut the computer down and left the room.
#
“So that was Dodd Corely, huh?” Aaron said.
“Yeah, that was Dodd,” Danny said. “Doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Savina was beaming with pride. They’d just seen Dodd’s Politico broadcast; someone had just happened to be watching in the commons and called everybody in to see this guy. Savina was stunned to see that it was Dodd.
Danny was there, too. He grinned and put his hand on Savina’s shoulder, and grinned more. “We’ve got to get some messages off to him,” he said. “We’ll be going back online as soon as they get that AI off the computer system.”
“We ought to be doing that now,” Aaron said. “I’ll go find Wiley and meet you in the RAM room.”
“Come on,” Danny said to Savina, “let’s go write some fan mail.”
In the computer room Savina sat at a terminal in the back while Wiley and Aaron were copying the modified AI onto the portable MSDs. Danny was hovering around her and she found it hard to write. The things she wanted to say to Dodd were very private.
Several times she started, then stopped and erased the screen. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she just couldn’t. Too many things were in her head at once, she couldn’t sort them out. Finally she sighed and thought, Keep it simple.
Dear Dodd,
I’m still safe and everything is fine. I miss you. I wish I could see you. I saw you on television and you were incredible, we all thought you were incredible. I’m sorry I can’t leave you any way to get hold of me, but maybe I can come visit you soon. I love you very much.
Savina’s hand hovered over the button that would erase the screen, but decided that it would do. She wanted to add so much more, but at least this basically stated how she felt. She signed it and then saved the message. It would be sent with all the others when the system was connected to the outside world.
Danny took his turn at the terminal, then they waited as Wiley and Aaron finished. “I’ve had to take special precautions for our trip tonight,” Danny told them. “I’ve been monitoring the USFMC security broadcasts all this week. They know they have a breach somewhere, but they’re having trouble narrowing it down.”
“Of course,” Wiley said. “Their system is so vast it’s a miracle it runs at all.”
“They may be watching us, here, from orbit.”
“That’s nothing new.”
“Well, we have to leave from here … and we don’t want them coming around here in case they figure out their problem with the system.”
“True. I bet they’re watching their Sac to LaLa-Land line too.”
“Yes, they are. They’re concentrating on the area where Aaron engaged their drone.”
Aaron didn’t say anything.
“Anyway, I’ve disguised the Mercedes as a ground vehicle by throwing some blankets over it. From orbit it’ll look like a truck. When we leave we’ll head toward the city until there’s plenty of cover, then we’ll pull the blankets off and put another set on. Then it’ll look like farm equipment.”
Wiley smiled. “Pretty clever.”
Danny shrugged, but Savina could tell he was pleased.
“Anyway,” he said, “we’ll stay among the trees, just off the ground, until we’re well past your splice, then we’ll head out into the open from the other direction. We’ll pass by a tree near the splice and you guys jump out with your equipment. I’ll continue on without stopping. It’ll look like a farm drone coming out of the southwest and continuing on past their data line. I’ll stop out in the middle of a field, and they’ll just think I’m farm equipment. I’ll be within twenty-seconds flying time to you, just in case there’s any trouble. If there isn’t, I’ll retrace my steps when you’re done and you guys just hop aboard.”
“How are you going to know if we’re done?”
“I’ll be watching you with a pair of spotters. Just wave when you want me.”
“Where’s my place in all this?” Savina asked.
Danny turned to look at her. “From what I’ve been told, Evelyn Sunrunner wants you to leave with her tonight.”
“What? Where?”
“She’s going into the city and she wants to take you with her.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed. It’s a unique honor to be picked by Evelyn for a specific job.”
Savina nodded dutifully.
“Besides,” Danny said, “she might take you by to see Dodd.”
The disappointment dropped off Savina’s face and was replaced by elation. Dodd! she thought. I get to see Dodd!
35. GUNS & LIQUOR
The “YOU ARE ON THE AIR!” sign blinked off and Dodd sagged against the podium, sweat dripping from his brow. Oh god that was stupid, he thought. Stupid stupid. I sounded like a raving lunatic.
The Hispanic woman entered the room, shaking her head.
“Didn’t you read your contract, Mr. Corely?”
“What?” He looked at her wearily. “Of course I did.”
“Then you intended on breaking your bond?”
“I … no, of course not. What do you mean?”
“You used, Mr. Corely, over two dozen strictly prohibited terms, including the slanderous mentioning of two major corporation trademarks. Really, sir, this is a free speech forum – not a platform for radical activists. I’m afraid you lost your deposit and your right to appear on this program again.”