Velvet Dogma

chapter 16



Rebecca had barely noticed when Andy scrambled onto the roof two hours later. She hadn't minded being alone. In fact, she'd rather preferred it. So much information to parse—too much, really. Her mind felt broken, fried. She was unable to concentrate, so she'd spent the time staring at the underground city, the children playing as if theirs was a perfect world beneath a perfect heaven, oblivious to the realities and horrors of the world above them.

"Been looking for you."

His words sent a tendril of desire through her shambled thoughts. Andy had been her only stabilizing force and now he was her lover. Had she made the right choice? She hoped so, because now she had to live with it.

She turned and held out her hand. "Come on over. I want to show you something."

He took it and interlaced his fingers with hers. She pulled him to her and pointed with her free hand towards the children playing soccer in a grotto of CONEXs just below them.

"See the children?"

He watched for a minute before he spoke. "The tall one with blonde hair has skill, but the short girl has the tenacity to win."

Rebecca agreed, watching as the girl lowered her shoulder and pushed past the taller boy trying to remove the ball from her control. But she wouldn't have it. At the last moment she spun, then fired, the ball thundering into the empty CONEX that they used as a goal.

"I've been watching these kids for hours now, and do you know what I've discovered? Even with all that's going on around them, with the threat of death, disease and dismemberment, they're just like any other kids."

"There's a type of plant that grows in the south that's like that even," Andy said. "No matter what's done to it, it somehow manages to survive."

She shook her head. "I'm not talking about mere survival. I'm talking about faith."

"I don't follow."

"Forget the children for a moment and look at the parents." When she saw him searching near where the children played, she hastily amended, "Not just their parents, but look at all the adults and tell me what you see."

"I'm no good at this," he said, pulling away from her.

"It's a simple question."

"I can't answer it. I can master the algorithms of any program, but I can't do riddles."

She rolled her eyes. "Only because you won't try. Sometimes I wish you'd take a chance."

"I take chances."

"Only when you have absolute control. Only when you have plans set aside for you." She smiled through a grimace as she shook her head. "I'm not condemning you, Andy, just making an observation."

"Where'd this come from? Are you mad at me?"

This wasn't going the way she'd planned. She'd had an epiphany and wanted to share. She didn't want to start a knockdown, drag out. She leveled her gaze at him and kept her voice even. "I'm not at all mad at you. I want to show you something, but you have to try a little."

"I still don't—" He snapped his mouth shut. "Fine. Ask me the question again."

"What do all the parents have in common?" she asked, simplifying.

Andy stepped to the edge of the CONEX tower and stared out at the city. Hundreds of people moved to and fro. Some sat and talked in the ubiquitous city sprawl. Others sold wares in small dedicated bazaars. Still others knelt in prayer.

"What do you see?"

"Give me a moment."

She examined him as he in turn examined the city. The jut of his spine told her he hated being put on the spot. She really shouldn't have done it, but he was her lover now and she wanted him to be better...not that she'd ever tell him that.

"Interesting," he murmured. Glancing in her direction, Andy flashed her a smile. "I don't know if this is what you saw but did you notice that they all go around covered in fabric, dressed like Bedouins?"

"Yes," she grinned broadly. "I noticed exactly that."

"That's it then. But I don't get why it's important."

"Then ask yourself this question. Why does a group of people need to hide their appearance from each other when everyone has the same disease?"

"Interesting."

"More importantly, why do the children go about normally, covered only in enough clothes to allow them decency?"

"The children aren't ready for what the disease can do to a body."

"Exactly, Lover." This evoked a broad smile. "The children are being raised in faith that the Day Eaters, their parents, are doing the right thing, but the results of the choice can be so horrific that it could shatter even the strongest faith?"

"Ah. So you think that the parents are afraid that the children wouldn't follow in their footsteps if they really knew."

"I think so. It's interesting that the adults take the disease to be a visual protest, but hide it at home. You know, I doubt if more than ten percent of them ever see the light of day."

Andy nodded, his right hand scratching his chin as he observed the city beneath him.

"I met Maria's son this morning. He intentionally maimed himself far more drastically than any of the grown-ups, and because of this, he's a demi-god to them."

Andy turned to her and shook his head. "I'm smart, but I'm not getting what you're saying, Bec. Please let me off the hook and tell me what you see."

With a quick nod she relented. "Do you remember the Muslims in Israel, Palestine and Iraq? You must have learned it in world history like me. They called themselves Freedom Fighters. Soldiers of God. Some even called themselves The Chosen."

"That's just a common name."

"Sure. What was also common was that they strapped bombs to themselves and detonated them in places where hundreds of peace-loving civilians were. That was their sign of protest."

"What does that have to do with the Day Eaters?"

"Everything. Look at them." Her arm swept the breadth of the city. "The reason that they don't show themselves to each other is because they are so eaten up with the disease that once you got a good look at them, no one in their right mind would want to emulate them. I hate to use the word terrorist because it is such a point of view word, but the Day Eaters are just like those groups who sent people to blow themselves up. They saw the bright side of their religion. They were told they'd go to heaven. They were told they'd get special dispensation. But they were never shown pictures of those who had gone before them. They were never shown the maimed figures of those who survived. I remember right before I was sent to prison that young men in the Middle East were killing themselves in droves for ideals espoused by the old."

"Do you really think that of them?" Andy asked, jerking his head toward the people below.

"How can you not? Their refusal to allow the children to see them proves my idea. They don't want the children to know." Rebecca shook her head savagely. "By hiding the results of a behavior, that behavior continues, then escalates. You should have seen Abraham. He was proud of who he was. He acted like a Day Eater Christ."

"I guess it's a sort of control." Andy shrugged. "If they didn't do it, I don't know how many of these children would follow in their parents' footsteps."

She nodded fiercely. "Like the terrorists of old, if kids got a look at a blown up body part future, do you think they'd ever make the same choice their parents did? Don't get me wrong, Andy. I like these people. I like them a lot. I just don't know if what they're doing is right."

"Maybe it's a sign of their desperation."

"That makes it right?"

"I don't think that it's just a matter of right and wrong, Bec. That's too simple. Right and wrong is a point of view. History determines the rights and wrongs of a society and I'm not willing to be that judge. Not now. It's too soon. After all, we're talking small groups trying to bring down a global government. In the case of the former Middle East, we were talking about regional tribes attempting to influence world superpowers. In the case of the Day Eaters," he spread his arm out to encompass the city, "you have all of these people waging a war of ideals against the Global Allocation System. They need an edge and maybe their edge lies in the shadows of secrecy."

"And you said you didn't understand." She shook her head. "I think you understand all too well."

He shrugged. "Velvet Dogma is concerned with the same things. We want to change the world, but only have a few of us willing to go through with it. In truth, we're fools to even try."

"Then why do we do it?" she asked, including herself.

"Because it's our right. Because we have to. Because we can't just let global entities govern us blindly." Andy lowered his voice. "Because it's what makes us human."

And that was the truth of it. Need and desperation made psychotic bedfellows. Did she have the faith of her convictions? She had once. Could she regain them? Could she have as much faith in herself as these people did? One thing that she knew about these people was that their faith had been modeled after those of the Old Testament and if ever there was a book to be afraid of it was that one. "Where does that leave us?" she finally asked.

"A situation has arisen," he said hesitantly.

"What? Is there something wrong?"

He stared at her through heavy lids, as if he was deciding to tell her something. Then with a frown and a twitch of the head, he said, "They got Panchet."

Her eyes widened. That little man in the back of the porn store? The inventor of the gravBoards? The man who'd promised to take care of her?

Seeing her work it through her mind, Andy nodded. "By the description, it was the Hei Xin. They want you bad, Bec. They want you real bad."

"Is he still alive?"

"I don't know. He's off the grid, something that hasn't happened since the Virus Plagues of 2017."

"We can't let him die, Andy. Too many people have been hurt because of me." She shook her head. "I don't want to add him to the toll of my dead."

"If we return topside you're vulnerable, and frankly, I don't think I can protect you. Down here there's nothing that can hurt you. Even the government stays away, grateful that the Day Eaters remain underground most of the time."

"I don't care. My brother, then Olga and now Panchet. When is it going to stop, Andy?" A hardness began to creep into her voice. "If this is all about Velvet Dogma, then I think it's time we unleashed the damned thing. If it's as big and boogy as you say it is, it's going to leave one hell of a crater on the ID. Let's go topside and do it. Once it's done, then we'll see how badly they still want me."

"If anything's left standing."

"Well, there is that."