Videodrome: Days of O'Blivion (10 page)

“What has happened to
them?” Brian asked. “What are their chances?”

“Their chances are
good. It has been detected quickly and Consec will provide them
with the greatest medical care and expertise that money can buy,
just as they will for you; but you need to prepare yourself that
you may be facing a cancer battle.”

Suddenly Brian laughed
out loud. He wasn’t sure why.

He’d invented a new
type of television and it gave people brain tumours.

It was hilarious.

----- Chapter Four -----

Barry waited overnight
for his meeting with Consec Leader. They put him in a boutique
hotel and picked him up for a breakfast meeting back at Home Base.
One hour later than expected, Consec Leader found him in the
lounge.

“Barry,” he called out
confidently. He had his hand ready for a handshake from the doorway
to the centre of the room. “My goodness, I have made an
unforgivably rude imposition on your time.” They met, their hands
clasped together. Consec Leader placed his free hand over Barry’s
to make a double handshake that he didn’t want to break. “We have
important work to do. Please, come with me.”

He led the way to a
bank of elevators and chose the floor with a key rather than a
button.

The doors opened to
pure white walls, ceiling and floor. The room was perhaps thirty
feet square. There were no windows. There was a desk ahead of a
bank of TV screens and a studio grade television camera. To the
side were two red sofas with a chestnut coffee table between them.
Further back was what looked like a reading chair surrounded by a
wall of dangling crystals from ceiling to floor. There was a double
bed, neatly made with a red cover. In the far corner was a spiral
of glass bricks that Barry assumed led to a bathroom.

“Do you live here?”
Barry asked.

“I have to move between
Consec locations. The psychologists designed this place to suit my
temperament. They say it is the most optimum environment to keep me
feeling refreshed. White for cleanliness and red for stimulation.
The same layout is replicated in other Consec buildings. Come, sit
with me. We need to talk about the future. We need to talk about
changing the world.”

The sat on opposite red
sofas.

“Brian Spectrometer has
a brain tumour,” Leader began.

“Yes. I know.”

“From exposure to
Veraceo-Two. I trust you haven’t been exposed?”

Barry shook his head.
“No. Only the prototype, Veraceo-One, not the updated version. They
took me to the clinic last night for tests, but I haven’t seen the
results yet. They’re going to monitor.”

Leader hummed an
acknowledgement. “Well, let’s hope there is nothing to worry about.
Understand that if you do need anything, Consec are with you.” He
looked back at Barry with intensity, the blue eyed gaze as hard as
steel.

“Thank you.”

“We’re now afforded a
special opportunity. Veraceo has, in light of this side-effect,
opened up new opportunities. In particular, we realise there is
potential for weaponisation… Let that thought sink in for a moment.
Take your time. Then give me your thoughts.”

Barry stood and walked
around the sofa. Pacing whilst thinking, holding his chin in his
fist like a theatrical philosopher. He remained behind the sofa but
turned to face Leader. “Weaponised Veraceo could be possible. I
assume you’re talking about a television programme that would be
designed to deliberately give people brain tumours?” Leader nodded.
“Are you talking about this for use against the Russians?”

“Against any enemy; or
protection against it being used against us. We have to assume
that, if it is possible to create a television signal that kills
people, an enemy might use it against friendly nations.”

Barry returned to the
chair. “Jesus, that is a nightmare scenario… It could kill millions
of people. They wouldn’t know anything. They’d sit and watch their
television programmes. Families, sitting with their children, all
the while being slowly poisoned.”

"Could you do it,
Barry? Could ‘you’ weaponise it?”

He shrugged. “That’s a
big ask. It requires some thought. It’s kind of like inventing the
atomic bomb… But this is worse. Who would want to invent something
worse than the bomb?”

“It is already
invented.”

“Yes, it is.” Barry
stood again and walked the room. He fixed his eyes on the bank of
TV screens and the camera filming the desk. He remembered when he
first saw Leader, on the TV screen in Oleksander Bartok’s Limo. He
had appeared at a desk with a pure white background; filmed in this
room or one just like it. That same man, the one he’d applauded at
the black-tie dinner, who’d invited him into partnership and
showered him with wealth; that man had summoned him here to steal
his soul.

“What are you thinking,
Barry?”

“I’m thinking of the
implications. I’m thinking that when Brian Spectrometer and I first
brought this to you, we had a way to invisibly coerce a population.
With Veraceo-One you can swing an election, but Veraceo-Two as a
first-strike weapon? When I awakened this morning I never imagined
I would be considering something of this magnitude.”

“Barry, why don’t you
take a seat and let me talk for a while. Let me try and sell you a
concept.” Barry returned to the sofa. “Have you heard of Isaiah
Berlin?” Barry shook his head. “Berlin is a political thinker who
coined two important terms. Negative Freedom and Positive Freedom.
On the one hand, negative freedom means we should all be free to do
whatever the hell we want without any form of government
intervention. Positive freedom, is when a society gets together to
organise and shape the future towards a common vision. Consec, is
outside of these ideals. Consec grants itself negative freedom
whilst forcing positive freedom onto the people of North America.
Effectively, we decide how to shape the world. We force it onto the
masses and tell them they’re free because they’re allowed to vote
for their own leaders but the truth is they’re voting between two
candidates we chose. It’s not democracy, it’s the illusion of
freedom.”

“I think most people
know that,” Barry said. “But people, I guess, they don’t think
about it too deeply.”

“No, they don’t. Most
people are insulated from the truth and thankfully so. I’m sure the
truth would terrify many people. We live in a world where a
communist ideology is trying to conquer every corner of the globe.
Make no mistake, there are Soviets who would love to see North
America fall to their control and they are tireless in devising
plans to make it happen. Consec isn’t an ideal organisation. Consec
isn’t perfect. But what we do, we do well. We are a defence against
ideologues who believe in Positive Freedom to such an extent, they
would have everybody working towards some god awful communist
dystopia. These people will stop at nothing to conquer us and we
need good people to help defend against them. You know what I
always find interesting? The way the Soviet’s always try to ram
their communism down people’s throats like it's a goddamned
religion. They force people into communism; they indoctrinate them.
Did you ever see capitalism and democracy work like that? Did you
ever see people being forced into democracy? No. Never. So how do
we protect ourselves from this kind of threat? How do we protect a
way of life from people who are hell bent on destroying it?”

“I don’t know,” said
Barry. “I’ve never given it so much thought.”

“To begin with, we
build our defences high and solid. Communism is doomed to failure
and time will bring it to an end. People in Moscow live like
rodents compared to how people live in New York. If they come to
truly understand that, then eventually the envy of the Muscovites
will end this Cold War without a single bullet fired, but in the
meantime we have to keep ourselves strong and protected.”

“I understand,” Barry
said.

“But that isn’t enough
to sway you. So let me return to Isaiah Berlin and tell you of
another of his ideas. Hedgehogs and Foxes. A hedgehog is someone
who views the world through a single lens, that is they understand
things through a single unifying idea. Whereas a fox uses a
multitude of viewpoints. Shakespeare was a fox, as was Aristotle.
Plato was a hedgehog; he wrote The Republic with a single and grand
unifying idea of creating the perfect utopian society. Consec is a
hedgehog. Our singular lens, our all-encompassing idea is that
communism must be defeated. We understand that we must live outside
of men’s laws with Negative Freedom whilst forcing Positive Freedom
onto a goal oriented society. We fully understand our abuse of
Positive Freedom and are cognizant of doing it; we even embrace it,
because we know this is how we shall defeat communism… And nothing
else matters… Look at what the Russians have done just this year.
They invaded Afghanistan and installed a communist puppet. It’s
terrible. It’s a crime. Now, let me present a real dichotomy. When
I joined Consec as a partner the first crisis I saw was the
Iranians nationalising their oil wells; those oil wells were bought
and paid for by the British. The Brits were ready to go to war to
retain them and the Iranian president, Mosaddegh, was looking to
Russia for help. Within days Iran could have gone behind the Iron
Curtain but we got there first, we overthrew Mosaddegh and
installed our own puppet. Now, on the one hand, we could be
considered villainous considering we overthrew a democratically
elected government, but the moment you compare how people lived in
the Iran we created compared to how they would live under communism
you can see we are a force for good.”

“You’re talking about
events steeped in violence,” Barry said. “These are events where a
lot of people died. Many thousands.”

Leader stared coldly.
“It’s always better to think of human deaths as statistics and
nothing more. They’re numbers... Don’t think of them as
people.”

Barry held Leader in an
unmoving stare. Dead people are statistics? Had he really just said
that the dead were nothing more than numbers? “I’ve often thought
that you can’t think like the proletariat if you wish to join the
elite. I just didn’t realise the true cost of entry.”

Consec Leader breathed
out, relaxing in his chair, perhaps signalling his ease as a cue to
Barry. “To be amongst the elite you must be a monster, Barry. Not
because of who you are, but because of the environment you are
forced to work in. Nobody chooses to be monstrous.”

“I understand,” Barry
replied.

“You are privy to a
very special world, Barry. Before you even entered this building
for the first time we made background checks on yourself and Brian
Spectrometer. We built up a psychological profile of you both. I
already know that Spectrometer could never weaponise Veraceo
because he doesn’t have the temperament for it… Not like you…
You’re a man of ambition, Barry; and vision. A future is coming
upon us and whether or not you’re involved the world will be
changed. This is your opportunity to influence that change.”

Barry turned his face
away. “Brian was always a liberal.” He gave a sad chuckle. “It
would destroy him if he knew we were talking about weaponising his
baby.”

“I don’t think we need
to tell him,” Leader said. “He has a cancer battle to fight and we
want him to win that battle. We’re going to give him every tool and
every resource he needs in that fight. But as for this. As for
weaponising Veraceo, I don’t think he needs to know anything about
it.”

----- X -----

The hospital lounge had
a view onto a small plot of forest land through a floor to ceiling
window. Brian was staring out when Barry arrived.

“How are you doing, my
friend?”

Brian looked up and
gave a thin smile. “I’m feeling weak. They started chemotherapy
immediately and it knocks the life out of you.”

“It’s going to make you
better. Get you back to full strength.” Barry pulled up a chair.
“Get you back to being fighting fit.”

“My physical strength
is unimportant. This is something I’ve learned through this tumour.
When I saw it on the X-ray, it appeared as a small white spot
between the two hemispheres of my brain, right here behind the
eyes.” He rested his fingertip on his forehead. “A new piece of the
brain had started to form. We think of tumours as bubbling horrid
masses of flesh, forgetting of course that it’s real brain matter,
these are real brain cells. They may be multiplying and duplicating
in an unregulated way but it is still my brain and I am beginning
to feel as though this new flesh may be utilised. There may be a
power to this additional brain growth that can be harnessed. What I
learned of myself, is that when weakened by chemotherapy, sitting
now as I am without strength, I’m unafraid to lose my physical
body. But my mind is everything. I had a vision that my body was
discarded but my mind lived on. I’m not afraid to let my body die,
Barry. But I’m terrified that my mind will be lost after my
death.”

Barry cleared his
throat then said, “Well, I’m glad to see you’re still
philosophising.”

“What has happened to
the women in Pittsburgh?”

“They’re being looked
after. They’re getting the same as you. High end medical services
with Consec picking up the bill.”

“I need to apologise to
them.”

“No, you don’t. You
need to focus on getting better; and so do they.”

Brian closed his eyes
and rested a moment. “What are Consec doing with Veraceo?”

“Nothing. It’s an
academic project now. Research only and down to a few people, just
enough to keep the pilot light on.”

“Who?”

“Myself and Peter
Fluorite; he’s in Pittsburgh now.”

“Why Pittsburgh? Are
you producing content?”