Love in the Time of Technology 1 (5 page)

He seemed mesmerized by this soliloquy.
“You know so much about me.”

“You hate your perfect body. Even when brushing your teeth or combing your hair, you avoid looking at your face. You think you are a work of fiction. You’re offended by your genetically modified saliva that tastes just right in a relationship
but you feel it’s like glorified chemical droppings, to use your words which you had mumbled under your breath one evening,” Lilydeen paused. “You were so unhappy that you decided to be honest about life here. You rattled them!”

Wolf shrugged. There was little he could do. They had arranged the accident for him and a mini drone kept him company daily. Strange that it hadn’t made its appearance yet.

“You’re still unhappy Wolf. You wake up half the night feeling the frustration well up in your chest but you suppress it. You’ve stopped taking smart pills that would put down these woeful emotions. You control your breathing because you’re intimidated by that mini drone watching over you like a jealous lover.”

“I
know it sounds foolhardy but I wanted to make a difference.”

“
You are fortunate Wolf. You have a choice. You can fight it.”

“How?” he asked.

She ignored the question. “The records show that you had developed quite a hunger for historical games. You have the chance now to be a hero, hiding in tunnels and dark corners, living the life of a fugitive, hounded like an animal, all in the cause of righting your system?”

“How?” Wolf
asked again.

“
The appropriate question is, ‘Are you willing to do this’?”

“
Being on the run, risking death, fighting the Corporation?” he asked in exasperation. “I’m already dead here.”

“
It’s going to be dangerous.” This sounded like a profound understatement.

His g pad whirred urgently. It was Lazer. “Brother I don’t have much time. I must speak to her. She’s there.”

Before he could say anything, she took the g pad and spoke. Although her voice was friendly and relaxed, she looked tense and nervous. Time was not on her side. The conversation ended and she said, “He’s so sure you’re going down shortly and asked for some time with me.”

“How did he connect to you?”

“My Oracle program probably simulated that having him onboard increased our chances. But you already know all this.”

Wolf had been provided with a comprehensive picture of Lilydeen and it was on that basis that he decided to commit himself. “You don’t have issues
like me,” he said for want of something to say.

“Once you get to know me you’ll probably have regrets,” she laughed.
“In 15 seconds your mini drone friend is going to show up. You are going to shoot it not because I am telling you but because you want to do it.” She passed over the weapon. “One other thing; the Corporation wanted you suspended with immediate effect. Have a quick check of your g-pad. Your page has been wiped off as if you didn’t exist. You were deleted some time ago and they have put out an item that you were placed under observational suspension because of your erratic behavior, a most unfortunate result of the skiing accident.”

Wolf gasped.

“Fing has already recorded his message of regret!”

The mini drone whirred rudely, with supreme confidence, like an erect organ, closer to his window. Its lighted middle eye seemed to sneer at him.

Wolf stretched out his hand as if in a welcoming gesture of friendship and shot it in the head.

The bullet shattered his window. The drone made a loud screeching noise as if totally surprised by this show of bravado before it began to fall.

“What’s next?”

“We run!’

“I’ve never run before!”

“You’d better start now.
You’re a risk taker and you’ll thrive. They’ll be sending another drone and a platoon of robots is on its way.”

“Where do we go?”

“To the Fringes.”

He was surprised to see that Chloe’s artwork was facing them again with its eyes glowing. It was one of those clever tech arts that could appear on both sides of the canvas.
She was about to shoot it when he stopped her. “Growing sentimental, are you?” she said with a subtle smirk. The eyes seemed to fix her a dark malevolent look.

T
hey went down the elevator. They could hear the crash of glass in his apartment as robots made their way in.

“There’s an old tunnel at the underground level mobile carrier park. It’s a very old sewer line. We’re going to get into that.”

“Didn’t they pour concrete on that?”

“They did but we reopened them. Out tech is very good.”

She fired almost before the lift door opened. Three robots lay in an obsolete pose.

They moved very quickly trying to make as little noise as possible. They crouched down and crawled towards the manhole. As Wolf open
ed it, she watched tensely with her weapon raised for more robots that might come down. The thought had hardly flashed when three more robots raced towards them with their weapons raised. She had started firing the moment she heard their footsteps. They all collapsed in a heap in the semi darkness. She rushed over to Wolf and closed the sewer just as more robots rushed in firing at them.

She put a wedge bar on the metal cover and then flashed an orb of light. “They’re not going to follow us here. They never venture into unfamiliar territory without orders or examining what they’re up against,” she said as she walked at a leisurely pace. But if they did, the metallic wedge also had an explosive device.

He noticed that the tunnel was well maintained probably by the Genetica Underground group he had heard Roneel whisper one morning.

She seemed to read his thoughts, “There is an underground city of those who escaped from the Corporation. We will not meet them today. Perhaps another time.”

“But won’t these robots be waiting at the end of this?”

“For our grand appearance?
A whole army will be there to welcome us at the 2 sealed spots. They know we’re heading onto one of the 2 routes. There are other routes they don’t know about. But we are not going yet. We have markers to place here first.”

“
Where?”

“They haven’t told me yet.”

“Won’t the robots be suspicious if we don’t show up?”

“They won’t. Both outlet areas have been booby trapped to go off at the approximate time that we’re supposed to come out. We then make our escape into the desert. One of your personal items
will be dropped in the direction we escaped in a hurry. That should take them on a wild goose chase while we do our part here!”

“You guys think of everything,”
he laughed. “So where do we go from here?”

She
looked at him in mock exasperation, “You’re so inquisitive. Give me a break. They haven’t told me yet.”

They both laughed.

Chapter 8: Genetica: Work to Do

Wolf spoke as
she cautiously opened a manhole cover. “From the direction we are going and the distance I guess we are coming out near a park and a wooded area. I don’t think that’s wise.”

“We need to get
near the Super-machine complex to place the first marker,” she paused.

“So we need to say hello to Dr Mengele?” he asked lightheartedly.

“I’m sure he would be proud of you,” and immediately she regretted saying it. He was surprised that she had heard of the rumors too and yet they had still chosen him.

“We need to map out our escape route from there to this manhole.”

“Walking through those trees and park?” Wolf asked incredulously knowing that the blades of grass could be transformed into real sharp blades to cut and maim them. The trees would supplement the pain with their acid covered leaves.

“
We know how to play around with the parks software so that one can escape them.”

“How do the markers work?”

“By walking around strategic areas we spread out tech footprints that will help them put down markers.”

I
n the half light she turned to him.“Zugovsky and Roneel would be proud of you.”

Wolf brought her closer to him, “Where are they?”

“I don’t know. They were names provided to me,” she said as gently as possible as she pushed him back as diplomatically as possible without seeming to be rude. “Our little adventure has been simulated.”

He
understood this to mean that her team had done a simulation of how their present mission would work out.

“What’s the ratio?”

She was hesitant, “They never reveal those things.”

Their
mission could just barely succeed. It was therefore important that only enough information was provided at a given time otherwise it would affect the complex modeling.

+++++

“We’ll ditch the weapons here. Get ready to push. Your hand must move in sync with the explosions that will come in the distance very shortly. It will buy us some time, not that much but it’ll give us a head start.”

The explosions would go off at about the time they were supposed to be coming out of the outlets.

He opened the manhole as the passersby on the streets and the surveillance cameras momentarily focused on balls of fire and explosions outside the dome.

“Close it gently,” she said. “Tighten one of your shoe laces over the manhole.” She stood partly obscuring him from the overhead cameras. “Stand up slowly and look towards the direction of the explosions and register surprise on your face. We will turn away slowly almost at the same time as the cameras come back to their usual positions and then walk very casually to Park Number 10.”

+++++

Wolf had to suppress the urge to laugh when he heard the plan. They were supposed to
walk near the Genetica Super-Machine Complex which was located on a short rise beyond the wooded area not far from Park Number 10. They would take the roundabout route to the Complex through the transit line and after they had established their markers would go through the wooded area and the park to the pond and then back to the manhole!

“You
mean they’ll hack a path through the trees and park lawn and then to the pond and finally to the manhole?” he asked trying not to sound incredulous. He was convinced that they were going to be caught.

“Why the interest to engage this Complex?”

“This is the nerve center of
Genetica. This Machine carries a billion petaflops per second.”

“It’s
not easy to change its system,” Wolf said.

“That is not the plan. Our instructions are to walk through it and place our tech footprints here. I think there are some really smart devices attached to me that h
ave unbelievable algorithms.”

+++++

Then it all came back to him. This was the same Complex that he had dreamt about where Dr Mengele had brought him as child. He had drawn Wolf’s picture on a white wall and blew to give his clone a separate life. This clone was in suspension and would be activated if were to expire. Wolf remembered that he had given him the paint brush which he had been hesitant to hold. Finally in his last dream he recalled that he had taken hold of it and had been filled with overwhelming power. Dr Mengele seemed to remind him that the paint brush was still with him ready to be claimed. He felt weak and she had to momentarily take hold of him until he got a grip of himself.

“You’ll get over it,” she said. Were there things she knew that he was not privy too at this point?

He sensed that the markers were synchronized around him because he would have to return later and confront Dr Mengele. But why?

This Complex would have very
sophisticated surveillance gear and he wondered why were they exposing themselves unnecessarily? It suddenly occurred to him that they had received inside help from a mole or someone who was very familiar with the place.

She seemed to sense what he was t
hinking, “It’s not that simple.”

“Why expose ourselves?” Wolf couldn’t help asking.

She shrugged, whispering, “Let the complex simulation program figure it out while we just go through our motions.”

They walked
past the Complex without incident. The workers going in and out and the guards barely looked up at them.

It was as they were walking towards the trees
and through the park that the alarm sounded.

They started running very fast towards the edge of the trees.
The guards near the Complex did not run or fire at them. In fact they were looking at them quite incredulously as if they were insane and were rushing to commit suicide.

They could see the outlines of 2 platoons of robots moving to catch up with them.
It seemed that from the time she entered Genetica she had been monitored.

The trees were deathly quiet. “Don’t mind them. They’ll start their tantrums soon.”
She looked quickly at Wolf and was concerned at his lack of confidence. “We can do this,” she said with supreme confidence.

Then it dawned on him that in a simulation they were merely pawns playing a role. It was not for them to think of
the impossible. They were to believe and have faith. This notion boosted his spirit.

They were in the direct shadow of the trees when they began to shake violently as if they were going through a kind of controlled tantrum. Leaves began to rain down on them. But an unusual thing happened. The
re seemed to be a kind of anti magnetic repellant protecting them and they passed safely through.

“Keep running in a couching position so that they will not suspect anything until we reach the Park.”

+++++

“I suspect that the grass will not start rotating their blades until we are inside so that there’s no escape.”

“We are not going back to that manhole. The area is heavily guarded. It’s the pond.”

Wolf’s hunch was right. The innocently looking grass began to be transformed into green metallic sharp blades whirring and cutting anything it came into contact with.

However, t
here seemed to be a pattern superimposed on the lawn through where they were walking that remained passive like normal grass.

The first platoon of robots was running from the wooded area and was being slowed down by the acidic leaves. Some had fallen behind. Others kept running. A second platoon was close behind them. They had reached the park lawn and were having a difficult time with the whirring grass blades.

Wolf was aware that the water was made of a transparent chemical and that the fish were not too friendly. But he thought of what Zugovsky had prophesied and was very confident.

The robots were trying their best to run through the whirring blades and move faster. It seemed that
it had not been deactivated for them. It appeared that their orders were to take them alive as only stun guns were being fired.

In the background they could hear the furious whirring of
a heliship carrying more robots ready for engagement.

“
We have to wait for the ring.”

The seconds seemed like eternity. Then all of a sudden the
jelly solidified with a small opening for them to enter. They crawled through the opening which connected to another tunnel and then climbed up the rungs to a small walkway. The jelly and fish had gone back to their original positions. They could hear the sounds of weapon fire as the robots fired their stun guns inside.

Wolf was convinced that Zugo
vsky and Roneel had played a part in their escape.

“This guy Lazer
, how well do you know him?” Lilydeen asked.

“He’s quite a character. When he sets his mind on something he usually works hard to get it,” he paused strategically and then asked bluntly, “Why was he factored into the matrix?”

“You already know the answer,” she said cryptically. The Oracle had no choice because there was no way of getting in and coming out safely without using him as a decoy. They knew it was extremely dangerous but even machines have to take chances too.”

+++++

From a hidden crouching position Lazer watched them intently. He knew that what he was doing was extremely dangerous. He was well aware that they were planning to bring down the Corporation and that Wolf featured prominently in it. They were both linked to Dr Mengele who was integrated into the Super-Machine. If he were to to thwart the plans by the Resistance he would be hailed as a hero and share in the power and the glory, second only to Dr Mengele. If they were to succeed it would work in his favor too. Dr Mengele was a relic of a decayed past and Lazer had the main codes that could be manipulated. He thought of the girl and he was filled with an obsessive kind of love. She was very attractive and he wanted so much to touch her. He felt weak from the overpowering emotions. There was something enigmatic about her that he needed to check at the Complex. She was the key to something which was currently a mystery to him. But he would find out. He always did.