Matrix Man (5 page)

Corvan said, "My name's Rex Corvan. I'm here to see an editor named Kim Kio. Where would I find her?"

Platero looked thoughtful, waiting to see if Corvan would jog his memory with a tip, but thought better of it when the eye cam whirred and the reop zoomed in on his face.

"She's in the third sub-basement. The elevators are over there."

Corvan smiled. "Thanks, Lou, I know that was a big strain. Take the rest of the day off."

The intercom jerked Kim from a deep sleep. There was a terrible taste in her mouth and her bladder was full. "Yeah?"

The receptionist was a friend of hers, a guy named Louie, and while she'd never said anything about sleeping on prem, he knew. Louie was addicted to his aerosol nicotine dispenser and it caused his voice to sound hoarse. "Rise and shine, sweetcakes. Company's on the way."

"Company? Who?"

"Why, none other than the one-eyed monster himself, that paragon of journalistic virtue, the Clops."

"The Clops? You mean Corvan? What for?" As Kim spoke, she rolled off the futon and busied herself stuffing it into a storage cabinet.

"How the hell would I know?" Louie answered phlegmatically. "But I thought you might want to meet him in a vertical position."

"Thanks, Louie, I owe you one," Kim said, slipping into a fresh set of clothes and pulling on her boots.

"Does that mean you'll have dinner with me Saturday evening?"

"Of course not," Kim replied matter-of-factly. "Your idea of dinner is a naked food fight."

"Picky, picky," Louie said as the intercom went dead.

Kim moved quickly. She cared and wasn't sure why. Call it professional pride, call it vanity, call it what you will, she didn't want Corvan to see her the way she was. Kim was in the third sub-basement of a forty-six-story building, and unless the elevators were running a helluva lot faster than usual, she had just enough time.

Grabbing a small toilet kit, Kim ducked down the hall to the ladies room, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and renewed her makeup before dashing back to the editing suite, where she ordered Val to put something, anything on the screens.

By the time Corvan knocked on the door, Kim had her feet up on the console and a don't-screw-with-me look all over her face. "Come in."

Corvan liked what he saw as he entered the room. The straight black hair, the slightly Asiatic cast to her features, and the quick bright eyes. "Hi, Rex Corvan, cold-blooded bastard at your service."

Kim wanted to dislike him, wanted to keep him at a distance, but his smile and the direct reference to what she'd called him made that impossible. Much to her own surprise Kim found herself smiling in return. She swung her feet down from the console and stood to greet him. The hand which enclosed hers was strong and gentle. ' 'Kim Kio, engineer and defender of the weak."

Corvan chuckled and indicated a chair. "May I?"

"Of course," Kim replied, suddenly curious as to the purpose of his visit.

When both were seated, Kim forced herself to look him in the eye. It was hard at first, because she had a natural tendency to avoid the lens and focus all of her attention on the other eye. But after a minute or two she felt the awkwardness disappear, as she began to see the camera as a part of him, a natural extension of what he was.

Corvan picked his words carefully, needing her help, and wanting her to like him. "Kim, I'm sorry about the wounded trooper. I know what I did seemed cold-blooded, and maybe it was, but I felt something worse was taking place up ahead and hoped my presence might stop it."

Kim found herself believing him. There was something in his face, a sincerity, which she found refreshing. Right or wrong, Corvan cared, and she liked that. "The death of your friend?"

Corvan nodded. "Yes, but something more than that, the whole situation. It had the feel of a setup, a made-to-order crisis, with a made-to-order solution."

"You think the WPO killed those people on purpose? Why?"

Corvan shrugged. "I don't know. That's why I came. I'd like to review all of your footage and see if there's proof. If we can prove the raid was staged, maybe we can find out why."

Kim's eyes were large and solemn. For reasons she didn't entirely understand, she wanted to help this man. But that desire was at war with a more fundamental urge to protect herself, to stay out of matters which didn't concern her, to play it safe. It didn't take a Rhodes scholar to figure out that if Corvan was right, the government was wrong, and that the friction between the two was bound to generate some heat. Lots of it. Enough to burn him and her as well. On the other hand, she was an editor-engineer, an innocent tweaker of electrons, a nonentity, and therefore immune to political fallout. Or so she hoped. The distant-observer part of herself shrugged as she spoke. "All right, let's take a look."

Reaching up, Kim pulled the cord and slipped the jack into her head. As she did so she felt none of the strangeness that usually went with wiring up in front of a stranger. After all, the reop's bod-mods made hers look like kid stuff, and Corvan had the capacity to wire up via the suite's second cord had he wanted to. But
she
didn't want to, and it was
her
suite, and
her
mind.

The next few hours were spent in near darkness as Kim played recordings made from both the eye cam and the robo cam from beginning to end.

At times Corvan called for a squeeze zoom, having her blow up a particular area of the frame, or asked for audio enhancement, which allowed him to hear background sounds more clearly.

The key section started at the point where the WPO troopers left the aircraft and headed toward their objective. Corvan swore softly as he watched himself discuss how the aircraft would support Captain Dietrich while the real action took place somewhere outside.

Then came the distant sound of automatic weapons, and Corvan asked Kim for a replay. She gave it to him in slo-mo with the gain cranked up all the way. Each shot sounded like the long, drawn-out roar of a jungle beast. It went on and on, but the sound Corvan was listening for was nowhere to be found.

When it was over, Kim ordered Val to hit "pause" and waited for Corvan to explain. He frowned as he did so.

"In their subsequent press release, the WPO claimed that the dissidents fired first, but they didn't have automatic weapons, and as you just heard, it was an automatic weapon which fired first."

Kim thought for a moment and said, "So the troopers fired first and lied about it. That isn't good, but it doesn't prove premeditated murder. The troopers are scared, a weapon goes off, and it triggers a firelight. Unfortunate, but hardly a conspiracy."

Corvan nodded slowly. "You're right, of course . . . and what proof we have is something less than overwhelming. The WPO would maintain that single shots were fired but not picked up on the audio. You and I know that's damned unlikely, but we can't prove it."

Just then Val's soft voice flooded Kim's mind. "There is a special report coming in off the net," the computer said. "It is being carried on every channel. Do you wish to see it?"

"Put it on," Kim replied silently. She turned to Corvan. "There's something heavy coming in off the net. Thought you'd want to see it."

Corvan looked up at the program monitor with sudden interest. Like every other reop, he was hooked on the very stuff that he provided to others.

The "SPECIAL BULLENTIN" graphic came up along with a voice which said the same thing. Then the picture shattered into a complicated tile wipe and reassembled itself into a shot of Ken Whitworth. He wore expression two, a slightly smug version of number one, which said, "I know something that you don't."

"Ladies and gentlemen, at two-thirty this afternoon News Network 56 was notified that President Hawkins wished to make a special announcement, and ever since that time the capital has been rife with rumor. At least one highly placed source told me that the president has changed his mind regarding the possibility of a single world government, and will announce that, calling upon Congress to lend their support. If so, this would be a tremendous surprise, since President Hawkins has long indicated his opposition to establishment of a single world government anytime soon and might represent a historic turning point for the world as a whole."

The shot changed to show President George Manley Hawkins taking a seat behind his desk and looking up into the camera. As he did so, Whitworth's voice became a dramatic whisper. "Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States."

Corvan had interviewed the president on a couple of occasions, and while the reop didn't necessarily agree with all of the president's policies, he liked the man and felt the country was lucky to have him during a difficult period. Cynical though Corvan was about politics and politicians, he still liked the look of the president's square jaw, his flashing brown eyes, and the laugh lines around his mouth. Of all the world's leaders this one came the closest to what he thought a statesman should be.

The president smiled. "Good evening. There was a time when I would have said, 'Good evening, my fellow Americans,' but that time has passed. For too long now we the people of Earth have divided ourselves into nations, have fought wars to protect arbitrary boundaries, have lived in hate. So this evening I greet you not as Americans, but as friends, fellow travelers on the spaceship Earth."

For the next sixteen minutes a substantial portion of the planet's eight billion people watched in wonder as the president of the United States reversed his previous position and advocated creation of a single world government. It was, he said, "time to recognize a global economy, time to build on a global peace, and time to heal a global ecology." As he wrapped it up, Hawkins said, "So I urge you to join me in a new unity, anew order, and a new opportunity for our children's children. Thank you . . . and good day."

It was a moving speech, delivered by a master orator, and Corvan was touched in spite of his efforts to remain objective. Win, lose, or draw, it was a daring move and one which would certainly garner Hawkins a place in the history books.

As to whether it was the right move, well, Corvan had privately sided with the president's previous position. A single world government sounded good in theory, but what about checks and balances? What about the populous third world countries? Would the people of the more developed countries be ready to share their ever dwindling prosperity with their less fortunate brothers and sisters? There would be lots of problems and endless new stories to identify, classify, and explain them. Corvan felt tired just thinking about it.

"Well, there goes next year's Nobel peace prize," Kim said cynically. "Everyone else might as well pack it in."

Corvan laughed. "It'll be a hard act to follow, that's for sure." His face turned serious. "And it
will
provide the WPO with additional credibility. It will also weaken the Exodus Society's drive to colonize other planets, since all the existing space programs are pretty nationalistic, and a global government might establish other priorities. That makes our story even more important."

"
If
we have a story," Kim reminded him. "At the moment we don't have much proof."

"Which reminds me," Corvan said, pulling a small package from his pocket and handing it over. "Take a look at this."

Kim felt him watching her as she accepted the package and unfolded a small square of white paper. Inside was a standard mini-disk. Picking it up, Kim saw something had been written on the inside surface of the paper. Looking closer she saw the words "MATRIX MAN." "Matrix Man? What does that mean?"

Corvan shrugged. "Beats the heck out of me. Frank slipped it into my hand just before he died. I was already suspicious of the WPO's handling of the raid, and since he went to great lengths to give it to me surreptitiously, I tucked it away. I hoped we could take a look."

Kim nodded and slipped the disk into a slot on her control console. Val took it from there, triggering the playback sequence and piping the signal up to the program monitor. The holo fluttered, tried to lock up, and failed. All they could see was a swirl of snow and electronic garbage.

Speaking for Corvan's benefit, Kim gave the instructions out loud. "Val, let's take a sample every ten seconds. Maybe there's something further on down."

Val did as Kim asked, speeding through the disk in ten-second intervals, piping the results to the program monitor. But all they saw was more of the same: snow, snow, and more snow.

When it was over, Corvan shook his head in disgust. "Damn. I was hoping Frank had something on these people but apparently not. I guess he
was
around the bend."

Kim smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Rex." It was the first time she'd used his given name and it sounded good.

He smiled, a glint of light flashing off his eye cam. "Hey, you can't win 'em all. I appreciate your help. I'll continue to nose around and let you know if I come up with anything else."

At that point something awkward happened, as both of them searched for a way to extend the contact and failed to find it.

Corvan stood and held out his hand. "Well, until next time."

Kim returned his handshake and nodded solemnly. "Yes, until next time."

Moments later Corvan was gone and Kim found herself alone in the darkness of her editing suite. Even though the room was small, it seemed big and empty without him.

"Kim?" Val's voice flooded her mind.

Kim dragged her thoughts back to work. "Yeah?"

"There's another special coming in from the net."

"Put it up."

The program monitor swirled to life, and this time Val was forced to upcut the feed. Kim saw a woman's face, someone she'd seen before, and a name key which read: "CARLA SUBIDO, CHIEF OF STAFF." She was well into a prepared statement.

"... and just as I entered the Oval Office, I saw Agent Jenkins pull a pistol and aim it at the president. Leaping forward, I managed to push Jenkins just as he pulled the trigger. The gun went off with a loud bang and I heard something crash on the other side of the room. Then I was falling, trying to get my hands on the pistol and knowing I wouldn't be able to do so."