Transient - Complete Book One (Episodes 1 - 4) (Transient Serial) Page 19

  “There’s a package in my room,”Rae said.“I haven’t opened it yet, but it’s from Apollo.”

  “Return address?”Danielle wondered.

  “New York City, but that doesn’t mean much. I don’t know where he lives,”she replied.“Anyway, he messaged me that he was sending me the signs for the picket. So that must be what the package is about. We’ll be picketing mostly, and talking to people on the street. The idea of course, is just to get people talking, thinking about the cryptograph in a new way…maybe get some news coverage. Apollo has already alerted the media for tomorrow morning.”

  “We won’t be winning any converts,”Benny said.

  “We don’t have to. If they’ll just listen to transients and talk to us, and remember us, that’s enough for now. We just need to insert ourselves in the national dialog. We need to start that dialog. It’s just the beginning. This will take time.”

  “Barely eighteen months left though,”Halldor said, speaking aloud a thought they all shared.

  Rae nodded.“True. But hopefully it won’t take that long.”

  “For what?”Danielle asked.

  “To raise awareness. To take this global. We’re the spark. Eventually, the fire needs to feed on itself. We can’t do that. Not as transients. We’ll burn hot and fast and let the fire go where it will.”

  “Like those social protest movements we all read about in school,”Benny said.“But no one does anymore.”

  “Because people are lazy,”said Halldor.

  “No one cares about stuff anymore,”Danielle agreed.

  Since the widespread implementation of cryptograph testing, and the ordering of society into distinct groups that had a scientific commonality, there had been very little protest on a wide variety of social issues. More and more, as people came to accept the inevitably of their deaths—a supreme injustice—smaller injustices such as government treatment of the poor, or racial barriers or the class system or increasing income equality—all those had gradually faded to the background.

  Without the illusion of immortality - which millions of years of human evolution had somehow ingrained in the human psyche, especially in the young - without that irrational optimism that they would never die, there was a kind of draining of hope from the global zeitgeist, and without that illusion of immortality - that hope of cheating death - other hopes drained as well.

  If the government knew your DOD and how you would die, then perhaps they knew best about other things as well? With OBK effectively financing the world’s political infrastructure, first through its bribery of politicians for corporate gain, the spread of its patented technologies and the quest for power itself, came a kind of global control and corporate insurance.

  With the exception of a few tribal skirmishes in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa and in the deepest jungles of South America, war had been effectively eradicated.

  Firstly because any war was a threat to the stability and monopoly brought by the cryptograph and its growing ecosystem. But also because those who knew when they would die had less to fight for.

  If you know your enemy will die of a heart attack, it sticking a gun in his face had little effect. In this way too, the cryptograph had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. There were still incidences of death by gunshot or by fire or by explosion, but few people these days thought that meant war. War had become almost unthinkable to a global population waiting for the moments of their own demise, and determined (or not) to do the most with and make the best of the time allotted to them.

  Rae said,“It’s our job to make them care. Make them think. Raise awareness.”

  “Yes, we can use that,”Benny said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Protests being a thing of the past. We read about them. Study them in school. It’s history.”

  “Ancient history, feels like,”said Halldor.

  “Exactly. And that makes it unique. We’ll be a curiosity. Like an old art form brought back to life. People will notice.”

  “Oh, they’ll notice…”Rae promised, with steely determination.

  The Tetrad—for they had finally settled on calling themselves that, since the world had already pasted them with the label—talked of this and much more. They sat around Rae and Benny drinking water and coffee, Danielle wine and Halldor, beer.

  Like the drug laws, drinking ages had been relaxed throughout the last decade. Alcohol no longer affected mortality to the degree it once did, so teenagers, who always drank anyway, could now buy their own alcohol and drink in public to their heart’s content. Rae rarely did, but apparently Halldor was a thirsty drinker, and Danielle, whose family owned a small vineyard and winery, said she always liked to sample new vintages when she traveled.

  And they were all about to do a great deal more traveling, Apollo had assured them.

  They had a long day ahead of them, so they all went back upstairs to their rooms to rest for the night, with plans to meet the next morning at 6am in the hotel lobby.

  Rae opened the package from Apollo and found the materials they needed for the event, mostly signs and and posters as anticipated, with extras for anyone who would join them in their march at OBK headquarters.

  Logging onto to her laptop, she tried to reach Apollo in the private forum, but he didn’t respond.

  “You’re in charge now,”he had told her, and apparently he meant it.

  She took a shower, then spent a few hours channel surfing on the hotel television, mostly switching between news stations to see if there was any mention of the Tetrad in San Francisco. Apollo had put out a press release and had contacted the local and national networks by email to let them know of the planned protest. He had assured Rae that there would be coverage, but she saw none.

  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow, she thought. Without footage of the Tetrad kids picketing OBK, there wasn’t much of a story.

  We’ll give them a story in the morning.

  Sleep was restless. She tossed and turned. The bed was comfortable, but she couldn’t find a position that let her mind ease into dreams. She tossed and turned, then got up and walked around barefoot around the carpeted room. The view out her window was distracting, with San Francisco lit up at night and cars passing along the Bay Bridge. She saw ships in the water and pedestrians in the streets, even in the middle of the night.

  She checked the clock on the hotel room table.

  2:37am.

  I need to get some sleep.

  She sat up in bed reading from her cell phone a science fiction novel Apollo had recommended about star travelers in the far future, a space opera that had seemed diverting when she’d first started reading it, but tonight held no interest for her.

  Once again, checking her alarm settings, she lay back down under the covers and closed her eyes until sleep found her.

  When the alarm rang, Rae jerked awake and got herself ready. When she arrived at the lobby with the protest signs, her three friends were already waiting for her.

  “How did you sleep?”Danielle asked.

  “Not very well,”she admitted.

  The others nodded. They’d all had the same experience.

  “Come on,”Rae said.“We’d better get going.”

  The OBK headquarters was only two blocks from the hotel.

  It had a long set of cement steps that led up from street level to a landing with a pillared portico and a courtyard entrance to the lab itself. It looked more like a government building than a scientific lab.

  “We’ll set up here,”Rae suggested when they reached the top of the wide steps.

  “Everyone will see us here,”Danielle commented.

  “Exactly.”

  Rae distributed the four signs, which said:

  QUESTION AUTHORITY

  DEMAND ANSWERS

  THE CRYPTOGRAPH IS FLAWED

  YOU DESERVE THE TRUTH

  “Spread out on the steps,”Benny said.

  People passing on the street looked at them curiously. A few of th
e passers-by began to taunt them.

  “Go home.”

  “Goddamn Transients…”

  “You should be in school!”

  “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

  But most people just walked on by.

  The OBK employees heading up the steps to work said nothing. They lowered their gazes and tried not to make eye contact or engage in conversation. It was as if they were expecting a rally, and had been told not to pay attention. The message from OBK was loud and clear: we don’t care about you.

  The Tetrad stayed vocal however, and whenever a businessman or scientist or clerk walked up the steps, one of them would step in close, waving their sign and shouting its message.

  “Question authority!”Rae shouted.

  “Demand answers!”Danielle urged.

  Benny called out“The test is flawed!”

  “You deserve the truth.”Halldor bellowed.

  Around 10am the foot traffic died down and by then the group had been standing for several hours. They sat on the steps and drank their energy drinks and juices, preparing for the lunch crowd.

  A news van approached, and parked nearby.

  “We’re on,”Rae said, nodding to the van.

  They all stood and returned their standing positions and their chants. They marched in a wide oval at the top of the steps, pushing their signs high up into the air, making sure they could be read from the street.

  A videographer set up his tripod and camera at the bottom of the steps. A newsman approached, with a microphone in hand.

  “Hello,”he began.

  Rae stepped forward to meet him.

  “Hi. Who are you with?”

  “Channel 12. Mike McCay. Mind if I ask you some questions?”

  “Please, go ahead.”

  “You must be Rae.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Can you give me the names of the others?”

  She pointed to her friends.“Benny, Halldor, Danielle.”

  “Full names?”

  Rae handed him a copy of the press release, which had all the basic information on it.

  “Thanks,”he said, then touched his ear, listening to his director, who was either in the van or back at the studio.“Okay, we’re rolling.”

  Rae motioned for the others to pick up the volume. The shouted louder and moved faster.

  Not much to look at, she thought, watching the three of them parade in a circle. But it’s a start.

  The news man turned toward the camera at the bottom of the steps.

  “I’m here live at OBK headquarters, speaking with Rae Lennox, founding member of the Tetrad.”He turned to her.“Rae, what do you hope to accomplish today?”

  “We’re here to raise awareness. We’re here to question authority, demand answers, let people know the cryptograph is flawed, and that the people deserve the truth.”

  “What makes you think the people don’t already have the truth?”

  “We can know the truth without verification. OBK has not released complete information about their discovery. How do the cryptograph predictions work? If it’s science, what is the scientific basis? All our lives have changed because of the test, but no one outside the company is allowed to see how the test is done. Not even the government knows. The government represents the people. There should be oversight. There should be verification.”

  “But the test has been proven accurate countless times–all the time in fact.”

  “Has it?”Rae asked.“We don’t even know that. We just know what OBK says. We know what the media reports. But the statements are contradictory, and the news results are anecdotal. The plural of anecdote is not data. We demand data. We demand facts and science. We demand answers.”

  He pointed toward the OBK building.“But it’s mostly scientists who work here.”

  Rae easily remembered what she and Apollo had practised beforehand.“Money corrupts science. Money guides the findings. Money determines what experiments are even worth doing. The motive isn’t health. The motive isn’t truth. The motive is profit. OBK is the most profitable business in the history of the world. More profitable than any bank, or any oil or tech company. OBK uses secrecy and lies in the service of prophecies. All we want is transparency.”

  “But companies have a right to their proprietary knowledge. No business wants to share its secret recipes with the competition.”

  “What competition?”Rae asked.“OBK has no competition. It’s a monopoly. It created the market. It created the technology. The technology that tells people who will live and who will die and when.”

  “Everyone dies,”the reporter said.“The only question iswhen.”

  “All we’re saying is prove it. If the cryptograph works, prove it. Show your data. Show howit works. There’s no reason not to be open about it. They control the information. They control the market. They control our lives. Enough is enough. Question authority. Demand answers.”

  The other kids took up the chant,“Question authority! Demand answers!”

  A crowd was gathered now at the foot of the steps, and at the nearby park. A group of several dozen onlookers. They looked at the Tetrad and the newscaster with bored fascination, but did not take up the chant.

  “Thank you, Rae,”the reporter said, and turned away. As he made his way back down to the van, she heard him remark into the mic,“Yeah, nothing here. We got what we need.”

  She watched the news van leave, and her heart sank. Her gaze wandered over the crowd. One by one, they moved on.

  Benny stepped in close to her.“These things take time,”he consoled.“Let’s see what happens after the broadcast. We might see more people tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,”Rae replied, but her heart wasn’t in it.

  Within minutes, the streets were empty, with exception of one guy watching from a parking lot across the street. He leaned against a black sports car. He looked familiar. Rae thought she recognized him, but couldn’t remember where she’d seen him before. And then she did remember. It was the guy from the airplane.

  Drew.

  She was right. OBK was watching. And right then Rae didn’t know whether she felt scared by the knowledge. Or vindicated.

  Chapter 2 0

  Later that evening the group watched the news interview from the lounge of their hotel. The camera started close on the reporter and Rae, then zoomed back to reveal that there were only four protestors on the otherwise empty steps.

  “It looks like we’re the only ones there,”Danielle groaned, crestfallen.

  Halldor said,“They should have cut to the crowd.”

  “Not much of a crowd,”Rae admitted.

  “Yeah, but there were definitely people there. Watching. I counted at least thirty.”

  “Thirty-seven,”said Benny.

  Rae shook her head.“That wasn’t the story.”

  “What was the story?”

  “It wasn’t about OBK,”Benny pointed out.“It wasn’t about the cryptograph. It wasn’t about any of the things we wanted it to be about.”

  “But that’s what Rae was saying ...”

  “It doesn’t matter what she was saying. The story is in the images, not in the words,”he continued.“And the images were about a bunch of misguided transient kids acting out, trying to seek attention, but getting none.”

  “We were on TV,”Halldor said, shrugging.“That’s something.”

  “It is,”Rae agreed.“It’s a start.”

  “Maybe we should give up,”Danielle sighed, with a deep sadness in her voice.“This isn’t working. Maybe we should go home.”

  “No, this is just the beginning. But we need to change the narrative.”

  “How?”Halldor asked.

  “I’ve got an idea…”

  The next day, they repeated their protest, but this time adding a new sign that Benny had drawn to Rae’s specifications. The sign was big, but the message was simple:“Day 2.”

  Day 2 was very much like the first day, but with less
attention and no media coverage. Day 3 and Day 4 were much the same.

  On Day 5, Rae saw Drew again parked at the same spot, just watching from a distance. He arrived around lunch time, and sat in his car eating what looked like a sandwich.

  When he was done eating lunch, he drove off.

  On Day 10 it rained, but they protested anyway.

  And it was on the tenth day that another reporter arrived. She was a woman from channel 9. This time, the story was about how long the kids had been out here, protesting on the OBK steps. Eight hours a day for ten straight days. And even the rain wasn’t enough to discourage them.

  It was a story about resilience.

  About endurance.

  “How long do you think you can keep this up?”the reporter asked, sounding vaguely amused.

  “As long as it takes,”replied Rae.

  The reporter turned back to the camera.“And there you have it. Four brave souls, braving the elements in their quest for the truth. Some may call them transient, but these kids are prepared to stay here for as long as it takes. Mandy May, reporting for Channel 9.”She turned off the mic, and gave Rae a smile and a business card.“If you’re still here on day fifty, call me.”

  Rae put the card in her pocket, satisfied.

  We’ve changed the narrative.

  In the days ahead, crowds gathered when the weather was good. The news had grown across the web, with the help of a few media reports and the social media prowess of Apollo. Those who turned out were mostly young, but Rae recognised some old radicals too, men and women in their fifties and sixties who fondly recalled the protests of their youth, and came for nostalgia’s sake. Some of them would come up the steps to say hi, or give the kids food, or money, or moral support. Some chanted along with the protest. Others danced, doing their own thing. All were welcome.

  On weekdays, the crowds were mostly business people on their lunch breaks. But on the weekends they saw kids and tourists. Some of the tourists posed for pictures with the Tetrad, wanting to show their relatives at home that they had stood with real life‘celebrities’.