“Gina and Denu are going along with it?”
“Yes,” he replied. “There’s no real point in digging in their heels right now. We’ll just talk by phone a lot more.”
“Hmm, I wonder if that’s the point?” I rubbed my chin in thought.
“What?”
“Surveillance, Kal. If we’re talking over the comms system, they might be monitoring.”
“Huh.” Kal was silent for a few moments. “And of course, if they pass a law, it’s legal. And therefore ethical.”
“Something like that. And on that subject, we should probably hang this one up.”
“Gotcha. Coming over?”
“You got it, buddy. I’ll be there in half an hour.” I hung up the call, then checked my roamer inventory. If the Council was willing to tap calls, they might be willing to plant bugs as well. Time to get serious.
*
“What the—” Kal jerked back as he opened the door. I grinned at him, unrepentant. I had kept the roamers in my pockets on the walk over, but as we Bobs like to point out, we’re not very mature. More than a dozen small roamers crawled over my clothing, and one stood on my head, doing a jig.
Kal stepped aside, shaking his head. “You really are a bastard.”
Chuckling, I ordered the roamers to sweep the room. “This’ll take only a minute or two.”
The roamers scampered down my body and scattered around the room. It took less than a minute to find three bugs. Kal and I looked at each other in stunned silence. It was one thing to talk about the possibility, quite another to discover the reality.
A couple of roamers quietly destroyed the listening devices, while their compatriots continued to search.
In the end, they discovered only the three. Kal let out a noisy breath. “Unbelievable. The lack of elections, the lack of free choice, and now this. We’re definitely over the line into totalitarianism.”
“Mm. I’m going to leave a couple of roamers here to watch for further attempts, and I’ll deliver some squads to everyone else’s home. Gina will go ballistic, of course.”
“She’s in security, Marcus. If she’s being monitored and doesn’t know about it, then she’s out of the loop. And that doesn’t bode well.”
I shook my head. “Consider the possibility that this is a regular thing, and she’s just not high enough in the bureaucracy to know about it. That’s sort of worse in a different way, of course.”
Kal waved off the comment. “Yeah, fine. Now, flying cities?”
“Given the Council’s reaction at my meeting with them, I think just introducing the cities will be provocative enough,” I replied. “And if not, if they do nothing, we win by default.”
“And for now, we just lie low?”
I nodded. “The fun will come to us, I think.” I pulled an item out of my backpack. “Meanwhile, here’s our new communication system. SCUT tech, encrypted, and infested with nanites. If someone tries to dick with it, they’ll get a nasty surprise.”
Kal took the device, carefully touching it only with the ends of his fingers.
I laughed at his obvious discomfort. “Come on, buddy, give me some credit. The nanites will recognize attempted tampering. You’re fine.”
He shrugged and gave me a lopsided grin. “Denu and Gina getting the same thing?”
I nodded. “Mm, no matter what we do, the phone system won’t be secure. We can’t protect it end-to-end.”
Kal sighed and placed the comm unit on his desk. “Remember that line I said we hadn’t crossed?”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded. “I can see it in my rear-view mirror. We are now officially revolutionaries. Yeehah.”
Tension
Howard
February 2218
Vulcan
“You should leave my mother alone.”
I’d been casually examining a store-front display at the mall, so the comment, coming out of nowhere, made me jump. I turned around to find Rosie, Bridget’s eldest daughter, glaring at me.
“What?” Oh, great comeback, Howard. Brilliant.
“You’re a machine. You’re not even human. My mother needs to get over the death of my father, and move on. But not with a machine.”
Here we go. My fertile and somewhat anxiety-ridden imagination had pictured something like this. I wasn’t particularly happy about the validation. “Rosie, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I, the real me, am human. I—”
“Spare me all the scientific double-talk. You’re a recording of a human. I’m not interested in debating the issue. I’m—”
“Then why are we even talking?”
“What?” Rosie blinked rapidly and drew back slightly. I seemed to have managed to derail whatever speech she was gearing up to. I noted out of the corner of my eye that we were attracting an audience. Several passersby had stopped to watch the drama, and at least one person had their phone out. I wondered if I qualified as a celebrity.
“Rosie,” I continued, trying to ignore the gawkers. “You may not be interested in a debate, but I’m equally not interested in standing here being lectured at. To coin a phrase that was around when I was young, you’re not the boss of me. And, more to the point I think, your mother is freely choosing to associate with me.”
“And I’ve told her exactly what I think of that!” Rosie was almost spitting the words. “But you’ve gotten her all twisted around—”
“Oh, freakin’ hell!” I exclaimed, rolling my eyes. “Have you met your mother? Have you ever tried to get her to do something she didn’t want to?” I waved a hand dismissively. “Look, I don’t want to get into a confrontation with you. Mostly out of respect for your parents, both of whom I love, and loved, dearly. But Bridget is an adult, and able to make her own decisions. I’ll stop seeing her when she says so. You don’t get a vote.”
And that was it. We stood there, glaring at each other, any hope of discussion or understanding pretty much skewered, possibly permanently. After a few more moments of impasse, Rosie sneered at me and wordlessly stalked off.
Well, isn’t that just peachy.
I looked around at the small crowd that had gathered. No one would meet my eyes, and they swiftly dispersed.
I resumed my aimless wandering, trying to get back into the window-shopping mood, but couldn’t put Rosie out of my mind. And some of the looks from my erstwhile audience had been hostile. Obviously I had been recognized. I began to wonder what I would do if this drama spilled over onto Bridget.
*
We were sitting on Bridget’s couch while I recounted my earlier experience at the mall.
“I didn’t tell you because it isn’t your problem, Howard.” Bridget looked sad, but not apologetic. “My kids, mostly Rosie, I think, would like to see me dating someone less, uh, biologically challenged. She’s started lecturing me on the subject whenever I see her. Lianne and Howard mostly stand around looking uncomfortable.”
“Wonderful. Is there anything else you aren’t telling me?”