21

 

Dear Dr. Kessler, Sir:

Thank you for informing me of our department’s nomination for an Innovation Award. It is truly an honor. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that our new formatting is working so well and that our contribution is so valued at Amelix.

Thank you also for your willingness to recommend me for additional study in pursuit of my own Doctor of Corporate Regulations degree. I have recently been accepted to the program and, as we discussed, my thesis will be centered around the subliminal/overt techniques we have developed to influence our inquiring employees. I believe there are significant advantages to be gained by applying these same methods in the education of our undergraduate students. It could help ensure that each of them is suitably prepared to serve the Lord here at Amelix even before they graduate.

As you know, there are still a few minor issues in our system interface that I am committed to resolving before I leave to begin my doctoral program. I will be working late for the next several weeks to ensure that everything is perfect when I turn it over to the next team leader.

Eric Basali

Vacuum

“All right, samurai,” Brian said to the mist. “You drank the Juice so you’re in control. No use fighting it. I’ll just sit here, enjoying the carnage for now.

“I see we’re getting pretty deep into the suburbs …

“I’ve gotta tell you, I like your work. One swipe of that sword and heads drop to the concrete; no wonder all the Fiends love you. But the couple of suburban border guards we’ve sliced up so far will seem like nothing once this raid really gets going.”

Looking up from the storm sewer

“Eadie, this isn’t working,” Lawrence said.

“I can see that.”

Through the narrow opening they had a clear view of the Subjects who had braved the surface and attempted to stage their phony protest. Only five of them had actually made it out of the tunnels. Now those five were huddled together, looking confused and defeated, dragging their nearly illegible signs on the ground.

“You asked for me, General?” the Prophet asked, leaning in from the narrow tunnel leading to the drain area.

“You said they’d follow me, Prophet. You said I was going to help them by leading them, and there were supposed to be forty or fifty of them up there. Nobody’s going to be distracted by five Subjects standing around looking pathetic! How are we supposed to get Lawrence and Old Fart into the warehouse?”

“They will follow you, General. That is beyond certain. But they may not follow only your words.”

Her exhalation echoed around the chamber. “You’re saying I’ve got to go up there if I want them to do what I told them to do?”

“The Subjects are timid and passive, General. It is how they came to the Underground Kingdom in the first place. I regret to say that they may well need more than verbal encouragement.”

She sighed.

“Eadie, you know you can’t go up there,” Lawrence said. “It’s right outside the CBD—there are cameras trained on the area from both sides of the fence, with all the latest pattern recognition technology and everything. They’ll identify you for sure! Ricker, the Feds—they will all be coming for you.”

She said nothing for a moment, squinting up into the painfully bright daylight.

“We just need our distraction to work for a little while. I got away from the Feds before by coming down here. I think I can do it again.”

“That’s crazy—”

“This is the best chance we’re ever going to get. We’ve got to take it. Go get ready to run for that warehouse.”

A Zone apartment building

“It’s her!” Mrs. Evans said in her message. “E.D.—the General who’s gonna change things for all of us! I’m attaching the news footage that just popped up—her face is covered, but you can see it on the infrared cameras.

“They say she killed the Ricker kid—the heir to RickerResources—and two Federal Angels!

“E.D. can take them down and build us up, but she needs our help, right now! She’s our only chance to take what we need. Look at all her followers! And more keep comin’!

“She’s leading a protest outside the CBD. Gather everyone you can find and come rally around her. This girl will change the world.”

A ruling-class dwelling

“Looook, Frontman Saaamurai. Real cloth curtains!”

Sato nodded, taking one. “Very gooood, Rounder Spiiiral, but stay away from the wiiindows. We came heeere in stealth and even their caameras could not have picked us up yet. Do not spoil our aadvantage.” He wiped his blade, then dropped the bloody curtain over its former owner’s detached head.

“Are you iiinjured, Frontmaan?” Spiral asked. “You look siiick.”

At the end of the long, comfortable room was a large screen showing a broadcast news program. The story being reported was about a major bioengineering company and some dispute involving one of its products.

To this point, the raid had gone precisely as planned. Even so, Sato now found himself distracted and furious. In his Japan, the parasitic merchant class was rightly considered the lowest of society, beneath such productive groups as farmers and fishermen, and obviously below the samurai who kept order. This world was the opposite. The parasites had taken control of the trades and the warrior class, and now they were perverting nature and claiming dominion over life itself.

Sato angrily jabbed his sword at the image. “Loook at this despicable merchant, treated like a daimyo simply because he manipulated the laaanguage of the Life Force. He is the eeenemy of life itself—and his Amelix company is also. Of cooourse the Life Force would be tampered with in a world such as this, where businesspeople rule …”

The program interrupted itself with coverage of a disturbance outside the business area. A protest, apparently …

His frustration vanished, swept away by the clarity of his purpose. The screen showed images of the General! There she was, surrounded by followers. The newsreader was saying that the Federal computers had identified her as a criminal.

“Where is thaat?” He pointed at the screen again. “Where is that haaappening, Rounder?”

“It’s wheere the CBD meets the Zone, Frooontman. See? Those are CBD security guards insiide the fence.”

“Do you know the waaay? We must go there riiight now.”

“Yes, sir, but it’s faar. Even at a dead run down the miiiddle of the street it would take a half hour, maybe an hour, sir.”

“Then we will run doown the middle of the street. Asseeemble the Front.”

The CBD warehouse

Old Fart held the gun up under the guard’s chin. “We don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said. “We’re here for the sterile nutrients. Just cooperate and everything will be all right.” He and Lawrence pushed him backwards through the open door. Ten Subjects who had been hiding around the shady corner slipped in after them.

“So far this is working,” Old Fart said. “I guess having Eadie come up did encourage some of the Subjects. It sounds like a real protest is going on. All the CBD security people seem to have run over there.”

“Yes, sir,” Lawrence said. “But it’s … weird. Not just Subjects, now. There are women there, and some men—at least twenty or thirty—dressed in all kinds of uniforms, like housekeepers and restaurant workers. And more keep coming.”

The inside of the warehouse was a single cavernous room, with wire-mesh walls separating the inventories of various companies. “Two per crate, Subjects,” Old Fart said. “Hand them off to the others outside.” He turned to Lawrence. “See if you can find a synthesizer.”

“I think this is one here, sir,” Lawrence called from a longer and wider crate over near the wall. “How can we tell whether it’s a food synth or a medical synth?”

“They’re the same,” Old Fart said. “Any food synth can diagnose and produce medicine when it’s added to a doctor’s roster and set up for billing.”

Two Subjects passed Old Fart carrying the first crate. One suddenly let go of his end and fell to the floor, unconscious. Within seconds, the guard Old Fart was holding prisoner collapsed, as did the Subject who was holding the other end of the crate. Before he could react, Old Fart, too, dropped to his knees and toppled over onto his side.