These startling new developments are being attributed to a movement called “The Raintree Rebellion” after the young girl whose story started it all. Blake Raintree is a true hero.
—Editorial comment, The Solar Flare, October 25, 2370
“So I gained the right to present my victim statement and lost my job in the same moment,” I say, finishing the story. “The work that mattered to me, contact with my friends . . .” My voice trails off because there’s no way I can finish that sentence, it’s impossible to name everything I’ve lost. I’m sitting on a bench inside a huge tent in High Park, talking to Prospero. Not far from us, children in a small class bend over their books, Sparrow included. It’s too cold for them to be outside now, but the tent is made of self-heating fabric so we’re nice and cozy in here. It will be a good place to spend the winter.
He shakes his head. “What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. Yesterday was my last day of work. At least they let me stay to help present the report about the technocaust we’ve been working on all this time.”
“How was that received?”
“Really well. They want to make it public. It shows pretty clearly that technology wasn’t the real target of the technocaust, that people were manipulated so the Protectors could maintain their dictatorships. Everyone said we did a great job. Then they showed me the door. Now, I have to wait a few days to make my victim statement. Maybe after, I’ll go home.”
“Home?”
“Back to Terra Nova, I mean. I’ve always intended to go back to school. I’m going to be a scientist. Changing the world is just a sideline for me.”
He chuckles. “You do a pretty good job with your hobby. How about staying on until Erica’s ready to go back? You could work with me.”
“Helping out with the ghost library, you mean?”
“I was thinking of something more serious. Somebody’s got to do something for those debtors living around Union Station.”
“Somebody’s trying.” I tell him what the Living Lost is doing.
He smiles when I finish. “Great,” he says. “You can start by hooking me up with Cadence Nkomo and Mimi Beaumardi.”
“There’s something you should know. Mimi’s husband went door to door with a gang during the technocaust, rounding up people the government wanted. He’s still alive. Maybe you wouldn’t want to work with her.”
“I can’t let something like that stop me, Blake,” he says.
“If we’re going to put things back together, we need everyone who’s willing to help. How about you?”
“Thanks for asking but I don’t think so. I’ve always been a bit of a coward. Those people were really scary.” I stand to leave. Prospero has work to do, even if I don’t.
“Consider it an open invitation,” he tells me when we say goodbye.
It’s not the first offer I’ve had. Kayko wanted me to work on her holo-zine with her. I had a terrible time talking her out of quitting her job with the Justice Council. Erica too.
Convincing people they shouldn’t resign because of me has been my main occupation for the past two days.
Of course, Astral was the worst of all. “I’m quitting too,” he said. “It’s not fair.”
My reply surprised even me. “Actually, it is. They used a set of rules that would apply to anyone in this situation. That makes it fair.”
I could see I’d stymied him. “Life isn’t fair,” he sputtered. “It should be.”
“Astral, life isn’t fair. It never was and it never will be. Only people can be fair. The Justice Council is trying. They need you. Keep your job.” I could see I’d won him over. That gave me the first real happiness I’d had in days.
Then he said, “Blake, when this is over, you could come to British Columbia with me. Why don’t you?”
He’d caught me completely off guard. I looked at Astral and I knew I was drawn to him. But then, I tried to picture myself living in a Truth Seeker community. Visiting divining parlours. Astral will spend the rest of his life looking inward. “I can’t,” I told him. “I’d never fit into your world. Besides, I have to take care of something in Terra Nova.”
“Something or someone?” Astral asked, but I knew from his smile I hadn’t really hurt him.
It’s much colder outside the tent. I pull the collar of my jacket up around my ears. I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about my father and how remote he is from everyone, how finding my mother seemed like a miracle to him. Maybe the distance I put between myself and others isn’t because of everything that’s happened to me. Maybe I’d be like this anyway. But, if my father could fall in love, there might be hope for me. I have to go home to find out. My school is in St. Pearl, and that’s where Fraser is now. I’m still not sure I can love anyone, but if I could, it would be Fraser. We both want to make things better. What was it Erica told me a wise man said long ago? “To live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” We both want to do that, and it matters.
When I look ahead to the park gates, Hanif is waiting, exactly where he was all those weeks ago when everything was just beginning. I’m surprised. I still have bodyguards because of my association with Erica, but Hanif is too important to be one of them.
He starts to speak as soon as I’m within earshot. “Your father reconstructed your cousin Emily’s tracking code today. I put it into the system an hour ago.”
My heart starts to pound. “And?”
His smile is like sunlight bursting through clouds. “It works. The micro-chip is still active.”
“Where is she?”
“I thought we could find out together. She’s outside the prefecture. I told Erica not to expect you back soon. Is there anything you need to do first?”
“Not a thing. Let’s go.”
Hanif drives to a maze of huge hangars at the airship docking port by the mouth of the Humber River. Finally, he stops by some small fixed-wing devices. “A pilot is waiting,” he says.
We take off abruptly. This noisy, flimsy aircraft feels as if it might shake to pieces in the sky. For the next half hour, my excitement about finding Emily is quashed by my fear of sudden death. Below us, towns and bio-farms give way to a more rugged landscape of grey rock outcrops divided by lakes and ponds. I feel a powerful tug of homesickness. It looks like Terra Nova. The big lake to our left could almost be the ocean. Suddenly, we make a sickening dive. I’m sure we’re going to die. But the pilot touches down so lightly, I barely feel the landing.
“We still have to drive some distance,” Hanif says. “A hovercopter would let us land close to where your cousin is in half an hour, but we have no way to let her know we’re coming, and I don’t want to alarm her. You’ll have to use the tracker while I drive. A car is waiting.”
“Where are we?” I ask as Hanif drives away from the airstrip.
“North of Georgian Bay, about a hundred and fifty kilometres from where we started.”
“Are there any cities around here?”
“No. This area is rural.”
“Are there Tribes? I’ve been afraid that Emily might be with a Tribe, the way I used to be.”
“Not out here, Blake. The Tribes are strictly urban.”
I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. Maybe it’s absurd to care so much about someone who is barely more than an idea, but I do. The tracker shows the map of this area, and the tiny blip that is Emily. We have a long way to go. I have time to think about micro-dots and tracking systems.
“Why did Falcon Edwards remove my code?” I ask.
“My father had been cooperating for a long time by then. Making him suffer didn’t accomplish anything.”
Hanif thinks for a while before replying. “I read the report your group prepared about the technocaust. You paint a vivid picture of Edwards in it. He thought he was protecting a way of life. He hated anyone who stood in his way so much that he felt he had the right to destroy them.”
“There it is again, hate. It seems to be at the heart of everything that’s happened,” I say.
“Yes, it’s like a toxin. I don’t think we’ll ever achieve democracy if we can’t get rid of it.”
I’m surprised. “Why is that?”
“In a democracy, everyone takes turns. Sometimes, the other side gets power. Everyone has to be included, even people whose ideas are repugnant to you. If you hate the other side so much you can’t bear to let them take control, democracy won’t work.”
This is such a thoughtful reply. “Hanif, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but you don’t seem much like the other people in Security.”
He laughs. “I feel that way myself, sometimes. When I was taken off the streets, I was trained to work in security. That was the only chance I got. Until the Uprising, I worked for private firms. Being so dose to government has opened up a whole new world for me. Maybe, when everything settles down, I can do something else with my life.”
When things settle down, I think, we will all do something else. The idea of getting back to my real life is starting to sound more appealing. We drive on in silence until the daylight begins to fade. The forest outside grows darker, but there’s nothing threatening about it. The land looks profoundly peaceful. “This is so much like Terra Nova,” I tell Hanif. “It feels like coming home.”
The last road is just a dirt track, not even on the map. Branches slap the vehicle as we bump along. Very little traffic comes this way. The road ends in a grassy field edged by low-tech wooden houses. Dogs of all shapes and colours rush the vehicle, barking. I pull back instinctively, but then I notice their tails are wagging. These are not watchdogs or strays.
In response to the commotion, people pour out of the buildings. Someone whistles and the dogs withdraw immediately. My blood is rushing in my ears. I can hardly think. “What should we do?”
Hanif smiles. “We should get out.”
The crisp evening air carries the scent of wood, smoke and fire. A crowd has collected now, maintaining a cautious distance, waiting to find out what’s happening. I scan the faces and latch onto one, a girl with dark hair. We don’t really look alike, but there’s an unmistakable sameness to our features, our hair, the shape of our bodies. An older man beside her follows my gaze. He looks at me, at the girl, then quickly back to me. When he speaks, his voice is soft with wonder, but it carries as if he’d spoken in my ear.
“Blake,” he says. It’s not a question. It’s an answer.