His father pauses, thinking.
“See, I think that’s what’s made you so anxious. Nobody tells you the truth. Everyone says what they think you want to hear, or they say what they want, but not the real reason they want it. That’s the problem with society. You can’t believe anybody. Nothing makes sense. So let me tell you the truth. This Earth was a gift to us from the Lord. He commanded us to use it. He filled the ground with oil for us to burn and filled the sea with fish for us to eat. Every animal living is alive because we allow it to be alive, and if we choose to hunt it to extinction, that is our choice. This planet has seen ice ages and molten eras long before we showed up, and it’ll see them again long after we’re gone. We don’t have to be afraid, because we are doing what we were created to do. To enrich ourselves. And if that heats up the atmosphere and sours the seas, so be it. Do you hear me? We are the dominant species on Earth, which means we get to dominate the Earth. End of story.”
“That’s—awful.”
“It’s the truth. My point is, don’t be anxious. You’re a rich boy, soon to be a wealthy man, in a country where wealth is all that matters. You could have an IQ of eleven and masturbate all day into your mashed potatoes, and you’d still have a better life than ninety-nine percent of the planet. Worried about gun violence or global warming? Build a bunker, buy an island. Solve the problem.”
“I want to see my friends.”
“You have no friends. You’re being used. They’re using you.”
“No. They like me. I’m part of something.”
“They’re using you. Because of your money, because of your name. To get to me.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know that if E. L. Mobley weren’t a friend of mine, you’d be in jail right now, looking at thirty to life for criminal trespass and attempted kidnapping.”
A black Porsche pulls up on the tarmac outside. A man gets out of the passenger’s seat. It’s Gabe Lin. Across from Simon, Ty Oliver stands.
“Now, these next few months are important to me. I need government approval for the Telex merger and after Claire—did you know she reported me to the FDA before she killed herself? That bitch. She even sent documents.”
He shakes his head, but respectfully, as if honoring an enemy on the battlefield.
“But now with you and that judge’s daughter mixed up in some harebrained kidnapping scheme—well, I can’t have you anywhere near that shit show, so I’m gonna put you someplace safe for a while. You and her.”
He walks past Simon, stops, turns.
“You won’t be happy there, but then, I don’t think happiness is really your thing. So, let go of that. Let go of everything. Just—do what you’re told and try not to piss her off, your minder. That woman scares the shit out of me, if I’m being honest.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I had you committed this morning. Turns out you’re a danger to yourself and others. But don’t worry. It’s very discreet. Reeducation. Think of it like that—you’ve been brainwashed and we’re rescuing you. Reorienting your priorities. You’ll be out before you turn eighteen, straight to Harvard or Yale as long as you put your head down, focus on your studies.”
He steps through the hatch and starts down the steps to the Jetway.
“Your mother sends her love, by the way,” he says. “Maybe I should have led with that.”
Simon sits stunned. He watches his father cross the runway, slide into the backseat of the Porsche. Gabe Lin closes the door, and the car pulls away.
Cliffs
In the long view of history, mass suicide is not a new phenomena. More than nine hundred Jews are purported to have killed themselves to end the siege of Masada in the first Jewish-Roman War. The men inside knew that if they surrendered, the Romans would kill them and enslave their women and children. And so the men killed their families and then drew lots to see who would kill them in turn.
In 1802 Napoleon’s forces surrounded five hundred former slaves in the Battle of Matouba in Haiti. The Haitians chose to ignite their own gunpowder stores when the French troops charged, killing themselves and four hundred French soldiers in a last-ditch act of self-sacrifice. A year later, in Greece, sixty women trapped outside Epirus by Albanian troops chose to leap from the cliff’s edge, their children in their arms, rather than be captured and enslaved. They were reported to be dancing and singing when they jumped.