Chapter Thirty-Five

“Come in.” Anton said, and for the sake of politeness minimized the torrent site on which he was examining the most downloaded torrents.

Although it was not specifically a porn torrent site, nevertheless, there were various animated commercials all over the place, which outside the world of the Internet were still in the category of ‘indecent’.

Of course, these days even the most serious site in the web was at the most four clicks away from porn. You open the site of a respectable news agency, follow a news link to a less respectable agency, and when you follow a third gossip link, you are then confronted with a choice between ‘demented Alzheimer piss grannies’ and ‘autistic vampire Filipino she-males’.

The door opened and Chen and Michele entered, with printed out reports in their hands. They looked at his boss and he looked at them.

“What do you bring me, children?”

The female child obliged first. Her black, shoulder-length hair did not sparkle fashionably and her minimalist makeup did little to hide her paleness. “I bring you the summary of the most viewed shows for this month, and Joe’s report, together with pics and a dozen small videos which he shot psych-walking.”

Anton made a politely interested face, “Anything out of the ordinary?”

“Not really, at least not anything I saw,” Michele reshuffled her papers and saw what she was after. She extended the paper to Anton, “On the Movie Talent Reality Show, the viewers voted for the guy who impersonated a robot. One of the weaker contestants, I myself thought.”

“Harrumph. Okay, thanks, Michele.” Anton took Michele’s papers and placed them on his desk, with the one she had singled out as most interesting on top.

“Chen? What have you got for me?”

Chen would probably lose his chronic, classically Chinese cheery smile only after being cremated, and now as always he beamed at his boss as he passed over the papers. “The mayor’s office has agreed to enforce from January first the ban on music in parks, which we proposed last year.”

“Ah, splendid. At last the citizens will have a small oasis of comparable quiet.”

Chen pushed his spectacles in place with his forefinger and blinked at Anton. “Boss, I’ve thought about this. I rather think that if the law is really enforced, the parks will empty of everyone except seniors. No one can take to be in a place without some sort of music anymore.”

“So. You see right through my master plan.” Anton winked at Chen and took his papers as well.

After the junior analysts left, Anton leafed through Joe’s reports looking at the new graffiti and stills from clips of some slaphappy kids. Everything seemed to be as usual.

He reached for his pack and fumbled with it for a full minute, without taking his eyes off the report, before it finally downed at him that he had no cigarettes.

Ten minutes later, he was in his favorite small Lebanese shop and told the plump brown owner to give him four packs of Marlboros.

“Will that be the red ones, Sir?”

“Er...” Anton struggled with himself, “two reds and two whites please.”

“Ah, a healthier lifestyle,” noted Fadi approvingly, “congratulations. Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Anton had already developed the habit and just stood for a few seconds, but did not receive anything else with his pack. “What, no pamphlet today?” he inquired.

Fadi nodded, “We have new rules since yesterday.”

“Really? What now?”

The owner smiled with exasperation, “Apparently smokers just throw away the leaflets without reading them.”

“Surely not?”

“Hard to believe, I know. So anyway, now I must quickly recite what will happen to you if you smoke.”

The man smiled sheepishly, leaning on his fists on the center of authority of the small cramped shop—the wooden counter littered with bits of papers and paperclips, and small bottles lined up by a calculator.

Anton returned the smile, “Sort of reading me my anti-rights? Go ahead.”

The shopkeeper glanced at a small note stapled to a cupboard box by his side, no doubt to refresh his memory, and recited the text, “You knees will dissolve, your teeth will fall out, your lungs will collapse, your heart will stop, you will be impotent and your sperm will be disappear. Scientists have proven that it makes no difference if you smoke five cigarettes a day or five packs a day. They say your genes will degenerate five seconds after lighting up and an hour later you’ll probably be dead. You will also do this to everyone else if you smoke near them, or on the street. Buy Nova Rosh mood lifters and smile the blues away.”

“Well, see you later, Fadi.”

“Later, Mister Martorino.”

Back in his office, Anton checked the news. How could he have missed this development? There it was, black on white: new law takes effect from such and such date, blah, blah, save lives, ease pressure, national health program, international effort.

Anton squashed his cigarette with unnecessary ferocity on the little longship’s hull and immediately lit another one.