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He took a deep breath, fixed his eyes on the ball and
let go all his tension in his next blow. The ball traveled farther than planned, bypassing the red pennant marking hole 16. The leader could not hide a smile as he watched the projectile exceeding its flight to betray the nervous state of the player.

As the ball landed
, the two of them went on walking, stick to the shoulder. There was no further comment.

Another half hour had passed when they were pulling
their last strokes. The new co-leaders were on first, and they managed to tie their scores two strokes over the other two. The next up was the monitor, who looking up to the scoreboard, noticed that he was in a tie with the leader. His first intention was to hole out. The shot was easy. He held his putter and stood in position. He breathed deeply while slowly separating the metal head from the ball. He paused. Then he pushed forward, but twisting his wrists in an almost imperceptible way just before making contact with the white sphere. The ball rolled gently, touched the edge of the hole and continued its journey to stop a few inches away.

The leader took the last turn and holed on the first try, thus winning the game. They had met again the obligatory mandate:
“The leader is always right.”

Once
carried out farewell formalities, the monitor headed to the bar at the end of the clubhouse. He crossed the door and paused for a moment, looking around for any of his usual playmates, but no luck. He spotted an armchair near the terrace, next to the large door that was wide open. There, he would get the freshness brought by the breeze from the waterfall outside. He sank into the cushions until having reached the pleasant feeling of relaxation throughout his body. He ordered a beer, and then went to recap this morning’s events.

Everything had happened so suddenly that he had
to go minute by minute over every action and every expression of the participants.

He congratulated himself for having been
lucky enough to be asked to join the elite group of the corporation, as by that fact alone, the position achieved would place him socially at the level of the most important sub-leaders. The power acquired by virtue of this appointment would open him the higher gates, including those that led to the counselors. The increase in his salary that should come with the promotion would not be negligible, regardless that in that sense, his situation was well off in itself. Moreover, like any other promotion, this would attract a further amount of veiled rivalries and enemies, not counting, of course, the two co-leaders who now knew they were under observation.

The new workload would keep him busy. That would help
him to set aside whatever they were the thoughts that had been assaulting him in recent times. In addition, Saganville would cease to be an eventual prize to become a place made available. Lucy would be delighted.

It w
as ten to nine Monday morning when the new member of the elite group crossed the entrance of the skyscraper, home to the corporation’s offices.

He went
along the line waiting to take the elevator, turned at the end of the wall, and walked to find the private lift that ran straight to the penultimate floor. The door opened as soon as the system acknowledged him, he set foot inside, and the trip began.

This was a beautiful
morning. A vibrant energy had seized him from the moment he woke up. His first day as part of the elite group was arising him emotions as he had not felt in a long time. Life seemed to smile him again and the promise of setting aside the tedium of his daily routine lied head.

At
the 104
th
level the air was peaceful. Although in this floor there were 34 offices, an absolute calmness could be sensed. The coming and going of the staff was barely noticeable.

Once i
nside his office, surprises began. The information system’s display was packed with new messages. The access codes showing on it were putting within his reach a huge amount of previously restricted files, and besides that, dozens of new links had been enabled, allowing him instant direct communication from that day on with other members of the group, many of whom had sent him their words of welcome already, and many more kept coming in.

During the first hours of the day
he devoted to the tasks entrusted to him by the leader on the previous Friday, but slightly after midday, curiosity overcame him. Then he began to peer into the classified files that had just become within his reach.

He went
through the index list, checking the titles one by one, until one of them caught his attention. He read in a low voice: “Position of the Reaction - Monthly Update.”

He opened the file to
carefully study is contents. Here, among other things, were the details about geographic distribution and quantification of the population called the “reaction bloc.”

His surprise was
enormous when he found that the figures shown in this document were much different from those reported through media to the inhabitants of the overdeveloped world. The bloc was not only in no danger of extinction, but on the contrary, was growing in a sustained way. There also was summarized a number of trade operations between both sides, the kind that was not supposed to be happening. The last part of this document reported the results of the corporate leaders’ bloody methods to keep this bloc alive, yet away. The world self-proclaimed as overdeveloped was just a myth. Many of its operations still relied on supplies obtained in the traditional way, which were imported from the territories controlled by the reaction bloc. Only this way could they manage to keep up their gigantic industries.

He s
tudied the document for several minutes, going once and again over data and statistics, just to find at every step more inconsistencies between the official version of the global situation and the facts showed in it.

When he finished the reading he was
astounded. He had to come back from his surprise to close the file and resume the activities suspended when he was overcome by curiosity.

This information would not have caused great
astonishment to some other member of the elite group. To reach a privileged position it was necessary, first of all, to have passed through the careful scrutiny of thought that the Internal Security Central periodically carried out to all executives since getting to the lower levels in the hierarchy.

In this scrutiny
, characteristics such as loyalty and lack of critical sense towards the actions of superiors were specially sought. It seemed that the newest member of the elite had managed to pass this testing thanks to the repeated use of the isomentalizer, which he had abused in recent times driven by a combination of discipline and fear of losing his position. However, deep inside there was still his natural need to evaluate all information entering his systems. Despite the large number of years during which he had managed to numb his reason, he knew that his life as a member of the organization betrayed basic ethical principles, the very same that had been instilled in him during childhood by his parents.

The rest of the day
he struggled to turn his attention away from any thoughts outside from his normal duties, even though the memory of the recent reading kept coming back over and over again, disturbing his tranquility and shooting endless series of questions whose answers, although obvious, he did not dare to accept.

It was five o’clock when he
stood up to leave office. He walked briskly to his car, eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring those around him. He had an urgent need to move away from the corporation’s building. He was feeling deceived. The rigid mental discipline he obliged himself to observe and his many years of loyalty to the corporation seemed to him absolutely incongruous with what he had just found out. It was hard to accept that in a world where access to information was a universal and inalienable right, a senior executive like him had been systematically deceived without being ever assaulted by the slightest suspicion.

And the key word in his discontent was precisely
“systematically,” which induced him to think that he, like so many millions of people, was living under a regime of control and exploitation. The conclusions to which his thoughts were leading him were becoming increasingly hard to deny.

He reached his car a
mid this mental turmoil, got in in a hurry, instructed it to take a two hour tour through the outskirts of the city, and flipped the communication system switch to privacy. He needed to meditate.

When
he felt the vehicle moving, the rigid expression on his face began to relax until it became a blank stare that would only change now and then following his thoughts:

“
I must calm down to let my ideas flow orderly,” he said to himself.

He took a deep breath
, held the air in his lungs until having counted to ten, and then exhaled slowly through his half-closed lips. He repeated this exercise a few times, which helped him slow down the pace of his thoughts. Then he went on:

“
I’m behaving like a madman, but I can’t remember feeling so angry in years. I guess I’m so concerned because it has been decades since we all began to trust the media, and to such a degree that the Internet faded away to be replaced by corporate information systems. We put ourselves in the hands of the leaders and now I find out that that they have been cheating on us. Just a few hours ago I was feeling an immensely fortunate man, but suddenly everything has fallen apart. All these years I have supported my self-esteem and my self-assurance in the role that I play for the corporation, but now, what should I do? I don’t know yet. I just know that I cannot see things the same way anymore. I have been awakened from a long slumber. I feel as if today was the first day of my life. I’m feeling naked before reality. Or perhaps there was that deep inside I always knew I was living deceived? I have erased my memory so many times already... And now I desperately need those memories. I will not use that damn thing anymore! And what about mental backups that the corporation stores so zealously? I’m scheduled for this week, but no more, I will not yield to that. I must plan how to escape from the system’s clutches, no matter what the price might be. But the first thing is to buy myself a little time, so I’ll delay this week’s session as much as possible ... Lucy! I must think about her. She is the only thing I refuse to sacrifice, but, how shall I tell her? How to convince her? Will she be willing to leave everything behind to follow me? Behind what? I don’t even have a plan. I need more information. Fortunately, now I have access to it. What an irony! My captor’s most precious treasure will be precisely what helps me to free myself from him. Tomorrow I’ll go back to work and devote all day to inspect restricted files so I can come out with a plan. I just hope Lucy will follow me! That’s all I ask!”

The expression on his face now was different. His eyes
were sparkling again just as this morning, but for the opposite reasons. He deactivated the privacy mode of the communication system, which immediately showed a message from Lucy:

“Where have you been? I’
ve been trying to reach you since 5:30. I want to know how your first day as a great character of the corporation was.”

The
tour scheduled for the car was still far from completion when he changed the instructions to turn around bound for home. Then he replied the message:

“I’m on my way
. Be with you in 40 minutes. We have much to talk about.”

When he
stepped out of the car, his calm had returned. He could feel his feet firm on the ground while in his mind he was recapitulating the times when he had lost his peace in recent days. He realized that the turmoil of the past few hours was only a preamble of the uncertain adventures still to come. Then he savored in advance the victory he intended to obtain. At that point, everything had been turned into optimism.

Inside the
house Lucy was waiting for him, dressed for a special occasion and sitting in the lobby near the front door.

She had spent her whole day planning it;
after all, this celebration was worth it. How many times in life does one succeed just as her man had just done it? And this was success that she would also share.

Th
is morning she had been asked to lead the reaction pro-integration group in which until this day she used to participate only once a week. She accepted the appointment without hesitation. Later, she received an invitation to meet in the near future with the group of elite executives’ wives, which would settle her as a member of this exclusive class. The future now promised her an improved lifestyle from which it was to be expected to get great satisfaction. Happiness was shining on her face.

“
How was your day?” she asked as the door was open. “You will not believe it when I tell you,” he replied.

“
I have so much to tell ...”

“You’
ll have to tell me during dinner. I’m starving.”

They went into the dining room
, where the table was elegantly settled. A tasteful tablecloth, lit candlesticks, fine crystal, silverware and china service. It was a time to celebrate.

Next to the table
was standing an immaculately dressed waiter. He was guarding a dinner prepared by one of the best restaurants in the city, which had been waiting since a few minutes earlier for the arrival of the guest of honor.

At the sight of the stranger
he decided to contain his impetuous desire to tell her about his day. He better let Lucy take the thread of the conversation.

As the service began the conversation went
on:

“This morning I was
appointed to lead the group.”

“Your
Tuesdays group?”

“Yes, is
n’t it great? Also, I received an invitation to meet the wives of your new coleagues. That will be Wednesday. I can hardly wait. It has caused me great excitement.”

“
And, how is this reaction thing going? Are these groups really insignificant these days?”

“
Yes. Thanks to the efforts of our association and of many similar others, the population of the few places that are still lagging is less than one percent of the planet’s population. It seems that we are getting a victory. I don’t know what will I do with my idle time when integration is complete, but I’m glad that we have helped so many people to find their best way.”

The
light from the candles betrayed the sarcastic smile that his woman’s words had drown on his face. She felt puzzled, so she had to question him:

“What’
s that smile for? Did I say something funny?”

“
No. I just remembered some things at this time. It doesn’t matter.”

“And w
hat about your day? Was it something special?”

“
Not really. It was like any other, except that I received many compliments. Finally, it isn’t but work.”

After
dinner the waiter served a round of liquor, then he said goodbye, leaving them alone at last. They moved to the living room to resume their conversation. This time he began:

“
Today I got access to a large amount of highly classified information. As I began to browse on it, I discovered something that gave me a jolt.”

“You are
supposed not to say anything about it to me, why are you doing it?” she replied.

“
Because what I have to tell you will affect us both. Have you wondered why you or anyone in your group has never been allowed to visit a settlement of the reaction? Why they allow you to interact only with those reaction members who have chosen to move to our side? Or even, why reaction is called so?”

“
We have been told that these settlements are extremely remote and difficult to access, and not worth the effort to travel to them because people there are just waiting that we provide them the means to migrate to us.”