The Octagonal Raven (46 page)
Kewood
The next fourday rolled around, and I was still watching the news stories, usually on UniComm’s AllNews, because NEN and InstaNews were avoiding all the stories and issues we’d broken. One or two of the smaller nets had followed our lead, but only if they had space. It was as though all the comm nets were just waiting to see what would happen.
And not much was.
Majora and I were eating lunch on my conference table, watching the latest stories.
Emyl Astol, the head of BGP, the sole licensed supplier of clones to the toxic and hazardous waste clean-up industry, has thus far refused to comment on the allegations that clones supplied by BGP have been used in a way that violates genetic material use laws….
The video image was that of a sour-faced pre-select, followed by an outside shot of the entrance to BGP headquarters.
In a related matter, MagTron, DGen, AVida, TanSen, Sante Limited…have all filed complaints with the regional Advocate General of West Noram. The multilaterals are contesting material aired by UniComm and demanding that the net system not air any material that could not be used as evidence in a court of law. “That’s because they’re guilty of suppressing evidence of wrong-doing,” retorted Director General Alwyn of UniComm. “They hide evidence. When we suggest they hid it, they say that we can’t say that. Not unless we can find the evidence they hid. And they want it so that the Civil Authorities can’t even look for evidence without the evidence. What are they hiding and why? Are they behind the exploding clones? Or the murder of the top directors of NEN? Or the death of the brilliant norm biologist Eldyn Nyhal? They say they’re not. They ask you to trust them. Just don’t trust anyone who questions their benevolence….”
I wondered about my use of the word “benevolence.” I’d tried to keep it simple, but the issues were far from simple.
“And why do such notable pre-selects as Darwyn TanUy and Imayl Deng support the use of perceptual intelligence testing? Why do they use a front organization like PST…?” That was UniComm Director General Alwyn. UniComm has received no comment from those mentioned by Director Alwyn.”
No comment except legal complaints asking that the issue be buried…but I’d asked that AllNews wait a day or so before adding that as another angle. That way I could push the story longer, and that was one story where no one was going to rush to beat AllNews to report. Besides, each legal story took about three times as long, because the legal types were so touchy…but that was what UniComm was paying them for, and hopefully, my audacity and blunt statements and their expertise would prove effective. Hopefully…
“Heavy-handed,” I murmured.
“People don’t notice the light or subtle touch these days,” Majora observed from the chair to the left of mine.
I wondered if they ever had.
…student and parent demonstrations resumed in Ankorplex over the issue of perceptual testing.
The image shifted to a series of buildings set in a park-like environment.
Here in Vhat, coalition leader Rysaat urged that his followers never give in.
The next image was that of a dark-skinned norm with silver hair and deep-set piercing eyes that stabbed even from the holo screen.
“…can you not see? Only one netsys has the nerve to show how we are being controlled. The others—they ignore it. If we give in, then our children will have no hope. Our children’s children will have no hope. Nor their children…we must insist that this evil testing be stopped now. Stopped forever.”
“Someone’s listening,” offered Majora.
“One fanatic in Sudasia…” I leaned forward as the cross-lead chaser appeared, and the image switched to a shot of the facades of Blue Oak Academy.
For a related story on how most positions in prestigious universities and the top entry positions in large multilaterals go to pre-selects, check out The PIAT—Admission for just the Privileged? on UniComm’s Eduspur….
Then another news story followed.
…aftershocks of the earthquake in the Anatolian region…
“With all those tie-ins, there will be others.” she predicted.
Again, I had to wonder. I looked down at the sesame beef salad I hadn’t finished, then at the news screen that seemed to have so little effect.
“There will be,” Majora insisted.
I took another tasteless mouthful of salad. If something didn’t happen soon, I wasn’t sure it would matter. The Federal Union wanted UniComm and me to go away, and most people didn’t seem to care.
Kewood
On the next twoday, I was still watching news stories…and finding my food more and more tasteless, my trousers looser and looser, and my sleep less and less restful. We were getting on to nearly two weeks, and I could see nothing happening—except declining revenues and greater legal bills, and more and more complaints piling up with the regional advocate general.
Tomas Gallo had already informed me that the regional advocate general’s staffers happened to be working on a way to come up with a “cease-and-desist” order, but were having trouble finding the legal basis for doing so.
“They’ll find a way,” he’d said in leaving my office. “It may take a few more days, but they will.”
The way things were going, it appeared that the only question was whether the assassins or the advocates got to me first. This was definitely a time when I wished I were the one with access to exploding monoclones or unfindable thugs—except I wouldn’t have even known how to use them. My only talent was using multimedia to get people to think, and I wasn’t doing all that well there, either.
Then, I’d only been a hundred-rated edartist, and a hundred rating was like everything else I’d been doing—not quite good enough.
I looked at Majora. “Things could be looking much better.”
“They could be worse.” From the green leather chair by the conference table, she offered a cheerful smile.
“I could be dead, or incarcerated and on my way to trial and brain-damping, which is where I’m likely to be before long.” I paced back and forth in front of the cherry desk, glancing toward the inner courtyard. A misty rain was falling, giving a gloomy cast to both courtyard and office—appropriately symbolic.
I glanced toward the bookcase, then called up AllNews, which displayed an image of lava creating steam as it oozed into a very blue sea.
…eruption continues here, less than fifteen klicks from Hylo…
Devit Tal appeared at the door. “Did you hear?”
I turned. “Hear what?”
“There have been a series of riots in Ankorplex…the mob leveled the regional office of DGen—and in the Kievplex. The CA offices in both places have appealed to the Federal Union for backup. How do you want it handled?”
I didn’t even have to think about that. “Straight reporting, except with a little emphasis on the cause of the riots, if we have anything to back it.”
“One group issued a manifesto…claiming that it was time to end the pre-select cover-ups and half-truths.”
“Make it the lead story on the half-hour headlines, and run cross-leads.” I shook my head. “You know how to handle that better than I do.”
“Probably. Do you want a full push?”
“Not yet. If we jump in with both feet…right off…it won’t feel right. Can we offer more questions? You know…is this just another indication of the dissatisfaction with perceptual testing in Ankorplex or a sign of something deeper?”
Tal nodded. “That’s better. We’ll do it.”
He was gone, and I looked toward Majora.
“You thought nothing would happen.”
“Ankorplex is more volatile than anywhere else,” I pointed out. “And Kievplex is almost that unstable.”
“That means it happens first there, not that it won’t happen elsewhere.”
I still had to wonder about what I had set up. If it worked…if…was I any better than Deng and TanUy and the others? Yet what else could I have done?
The CAs wouldn’t look into anything and hadn’t been able to track anything. Eldyn was dead, and so were Elora, Gerrat, and Father. Was I just supposed to stand and wait until another monoclone finally succeeded in blowing me up? Or go begging to the PST types?
I shook my head and tightened my lips and waited.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that InstaNews even acknowledged the Ankorplex riots, and they downplayed those in the Kievplex. They didn’t mention that the CAs had refused to protect the AVida operations center or the Sante research facility.
By then, there were a few other developments coming in—mostly on AllNews, but one appeared on InstaNews.
…Anya St. Cyril denounced the failure of the Loire region Civil Authorities to protect designers at the multilateral’s health template center outside Orleans….
“Talented designers had to run for their lives, and the Civil Authorities did nothing. These riots were created by one man, and that man is Daryn Alwyn. Every person who is injured, every credit of property destroyed should be laid on him….”
The image flicked to one of me, taken at the stakeholders’ meeting.
Daryn Alwyn is the director general of UniComm, and has been charged with using netsys material in an inflammatory and misleading matter. His actions have been brought to the attention of the advocate general….
“Once more, I’m the villain.” I snorted. “I can’t mention all the deaths in my family. Or the attempts on my life. They don’t count.”
Majora nodded. I could tell she was worried, and so was I.
That didn’t change on the next half-hour’s InstaNews headline stories.
…Here in Chendu the people are bewildered by the series of explosions that rocked through the TanSen headquarters complex in the middle of the night. Even more surprising is the revelation that Darwyn TanUy, the multilateral’s director general, and most of the senior directors, appeared to be among the casualties. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the directors were engaged in a late-night meeting in an attempt to develop a strategy to counter the spate of recent news and netsys stories adverse to TanSen…stories maliciously planted by Daryn Alwyn’s UniComm net system….
“Once more the evil Daryn Alwyn strikes.”
“That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“These people are trying to install a tyranny—an even greater tyranny. They’ve used the current system to strangle any opposition. They’re responsible for the deaths of half my family, and no one can or will do anything, and I’m a villain for trying to expose them.” I laughed, bitterly. “And what’s worse is…they’re right. I’m using people, inciting them to strike where I can’t. Manipulating them, and some will die…because I couldn’t find any other legal or practical way to stop them.”
“You admit it.”
“Great! I know what a villain I am, and I’m using the power I can muster to try to bring about change, and it’s a lousy way to do it. It’s just that there aren’t any others.”
My tirade got interrupted by the next story the gatekeeper flagged—back on AllNews.
Nabul…private security guards using banned Federal Service rapid-fire slug throwers killed more than two hundred protesters who marched on the AVida product testing center here in Nabul. The protest leader—Hasad Alami—was among the first killed. Alami had charged that Mutumbe Dymke, the director general of AVida, had refused to promote qualified norms and insisted on perceptual-test-based loyalty screenings for all management positions in AVida….
A stock image of Dymke, doubtless taken from some public archive, appeared on the holo image.
Dymke has refused to comment, and is believed to have fled the Nabul area after the massacre. Civil Authorities have announced that Dymke is wanted for questioning….
Now Dymke was wanted for something. Before it was all over, all of us would probably be ready for incarceration—and worse.
“Daryn…” Majora said softly.
“Yes…?”
“There’s nothing you can do now. Why don’t we go to my place and get something to eat. You need to get out of UniComm for a bit. Devit can always reach you, and there’s almost as much security at home.”
She was right, as usual.
So I smiled. “That’s a better idea than any I’ve had lately. Shall we go?”
“Please.” The smile she offered was far warmer than mine, and I stepped away from the desk and hugged her as she stood, then held on for a time.