EHuman Dawn (5 page)

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Then it’s your fault your friend is dead. Because if you’d done your research, you’d know that my job as a media guy is to make everyone happy and content with news that is approved by the WG, not by some Hactivist group! I’m not sure why you gave me this information, but if it was a hero in the media you were looking for, you chose the wrong guy.”

She looked at him intensely, as if she didn’t believe him. Again something within him stirred in recognition. An eerie aura of nostalgia enveloped and overwhelmed Adam. Sensing his discomfort, the mysterious woman shook her head slightly, as if to dust away an old memory.

“I’m sorry. I’ve begun this poorly. I had the information about the power shutdown in Chengdu passed on to you so that you would know about it. I confess—I was hoping you’d
report it on your popular Newsreel. It’s important that as many of us as possible wake up and see what’s happening before it’s too late.”

“You mean before they shutdown New Omaha?” he asked.

“Yes. But our peril is much greater than that. The group I represent has been working for over two hundred years to expose the WG. We call ourselves the Global Resistance. We can’t work in the shadows anymore. The struggle is about to break out into the open. That’s why I’m here. I want to save you—and make you a hero.”

“How?” Adam demanded.

“I can offer you a second chance to help us. But now that you’re being watched, I can’t tell you anymore about it without compromising our work,” she began.

“I’ll be more careful,” he interrupted, but she held up her hand to shush him. She grabbed him and began dancing with him again, a closely held tango. Her mouth was a hair’s width from his ear.

“The Guardians have full read and write access to our database,” she whispered, “It’s part of their power. Over time they’ve read our thoughts and created small applications, written little by little into our code and memory, to make us forget our past. These applications destroy our curiosity and desire to know more. We begin to live out our lives without question. Essentially, when we became eHuman we placed our Lux into machines. We’re turning into robots. The WG can do what they wish. We’re a completely submissive society and they have access to each of us. Even if you don’t use your wireless, you’ll need to connect to recharge. They’ll see that you’ve met me.”

“Then what do I do?” he whispered back into her ear.

“I’m going to make you the offer of a lifetime. Come with me and join the Resistance. I’ll grant you full access. In exchange, all I ask is that you use this information to expose the WG on your Newsreel. My Hackers can help you get around the Friend’s Network and stream it on Neuro. No angles, no spinning—just the story as you see it,” she offered.

“Or,” Adam responded hesitantly.

“Or you can stay here, pretend like this never happened, and live out the next few weeks in peace. New Omaha will lose power, sooner than you think, and then it will all be over for you.”

“Why me? Why do you think I would be the one for this job?” he demanded.

“I’ve watched you for a long, long time, Adam Winter. I believe you have what it takes.” she said huskily.

Adam was speechless. The dazzling woman had successfully hit her target: his pride.

“Take a day to think on it,” she continued, “Absolutely do not go on Neuro for any reason. Lay low at home. Give Anthony any excuse to not go into work. At the end of those twenty-four hours, if you decide to reject my offer to join the Resistance, then plug in and recharge. One of my Hackers will instantly erase your memory of tonight. No one will know we’ve met. Not you and not the Guardians. If you want to come with me, then meet me back here tomorrow, same time.”

From the view of everyone else in the room, they looked like two lovers, held in tight embrace, murmuring into one another’s ears. But to Adam at that moment, she was a grand disturber of peace.

“Fine,” he agreed.

She relaxed her hold and began to pull away from his embrace.

“Wait,” he said, still holding her close, “you never told me your name.”

She paused a moment, then held him back to look at him. She was more radiant than everyone else in the room, even though they were all supposedly the same. She seemed an entirely different type of being.

“Dawn,” she answered. “I was the first.”

“The first?” Adam said, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“The first eHuman.”

She released him from her hold and wove her way through the crowd to the door, leaving him alone.

CHAPTER FIVE

Adam took his time walking home, meandering along the bustling city sidewalk, processing his meeting with Dawn.

New Omaha, like all other eHuman cities, was wonderful to behold. Every sidewalk was polished and perfect, without a crack anywhere. PTDs hummed on the street as they smoothly passed, bringing their eHuman cargo quickly and efficiently to their destinations. Gleaming buildings rose to the sky like sentinels heralding the great race of mankind.

Normally, Adam had an undimmed wonder and appreciation at how the entire construct seemed to answer his every desire with immediacy. It was like a perfect mother, without any needs of her own. Tonight, Adam couldn’t see the world around him. It was Dawn, with her golden hair and sparkling red dress, burning in his mind.

He decided to go sit down in the nearest park. The sun had long set, and darkness surrounded him. The sidewalks were lined with tall, brightly burning brass lamps. They cast an eerie, green glow on the buildings and people’s faces.

Adam entered the park through its grand metal sculptured entrance. In the center of this park was an empty bandstand, surrounded by a perfectly manicured lawn. Fountains flanked the four corners and small trees dotted the landscape. Flowers grew along the sidewalks. Adam scanned the scene looking for an empty seat amongst the several park benches and tables. Even though it was around 11 p.m., the park was quite full. eHumans didn’t sleep. Work and socializing took place at all hours. Adam found a small apple tree near the bandstand and settled under it to think about Dawn, and her offer.

Was she really the first eHuman? How could that be possible? Adam searched his memory database for any records about life before and after the Great Shift. What did Neuro say about how the eHuman came to exist? His query returned only one record, which contained information about a man named Edgar Prince, whose company, Guardian Networks, had funded the research and production of eHuman and the operating system that knit their society together, Neuro. Prince was known as the “Father of eHumanity.” The Great Shift was his philanthropic gift of eternal health to all.

There were no other records, which wasn’t surprising. Adam never thought about Edgar Prince or life before the age of the eHuman. He lived, like all eHumans, in the present. The current World Leader, Rosario Donahi, held his attention, but not the players of the past. His job was to report the stories that people needed to hear now. No one cared about what happened two hundred years ago. Immortality allowed him to hold centuries of information while living for the present. His memories were important, the currency of his immortality, in fact—but Adam didn’t actually spend much time replaying the past. Holding a grudge for a lifetime was impossible. So was keeping a promise, which was why companions came and went.

Yet here was Dawn, talking about the past as if it mattered very much. By being submissive, she claimed he and everyone else were allowing the WG to do dangerous things. And now, New Omaha was about to plunge into chaos. Adam resisted a momentary urge to stand up on a bench and scream. Instead, he slumped forward, head in his hands, and thought about his predicament. Should he go off with Dawn and accept her ultimatum? Or should he go home, plug in, and forget the whole thing ever happened?

Adam enjoyed living in New Omaha. He cared for his housemates. His job was interesting, he worked very hard at it, and he enjoyed the status it gave him. On the other hand,
he hated the man he worked for. He’d always been suspicious of the Guardians and the way he had to spin the news under their direction. In one way, Dawn’s offer was something Adam had craved for decades—the chance to investigate and report a real story without the WG looking over his shoulder. It meant a chance to use his skills to empower, not simply dumb the population down. To reject her offer would mean letting go of the story of a lifetime. When he’d started his career as a journalist, he’d had a belief that his reporting might somehow make a difference. Instead, he’d slaved away for over a century to keep things exactly the same.

Even though Adam had lived in New Omaha for almost two hundred years, he didn’t have a large number of friends. There was a loneliness in watching person after person leave to Jump out of his life and forget him. Miranda’s abrupt departure had been hard. He was famous. But he was also alone. And now he would be watched and monitored by the Guardians. He couldn’t recharge without their scrutiny. But if he didn’t plug in, how would he stay alive? Neuro was the only way an eHuman could keep the Chi Regulator charged. Or was it? Dawn must be able to live in the world without plugging in—otherwise how would she be a part of the Resistance?

How could he know if she was telling the truth? How could he confirm that her name was even Dawn? Was there really a Resistance? Why would a Resistance even exist? Life on Earth was good. No one was hungry, there wasn’t war, all were intelligent, beautiful, and strong. People didn’t kill each other or even fight. Theft was impossible with Neuro guarding it all. Crime essentially didn’t exist. If an individual deviated, they were simply reprogrammed to stop the offending behavior. Why resist something that was running so smoothly?

Everyone knew the Hactivists were terrorists at best. Maybe that was the real story here. A story about a group of insane anarchists, hell bent on destroying the peace and prosperity of the elegant eHuman world.

Yet the images from Chengdu, people clawing at the doors to their RMO, were burned into his mind. The mountains of lifeless eHuman bodies being bulldozed and buried in pits outside the city gave him a strange, disorienting feeling, something he had not felt before.

The strongest image of all was of Dawn: her green eyes searching his own, darker ones. Why did she affect him so deeply? If her Hackers really did erase his memory, he wouldn’t remember her. He’d always had a thing about protecting his memories. How could he willingly destroy her image from his database? Or any of this? It was the most interesting thing that had happened to him in two hundred years. His life and his way of life were at risk.

It made him feel alive.

Adam stood up. It had only been two hours since he’d left Dawn, but he’d made up his mind. He followed the geometrically perfect path out the metal arches that flanked the entrance and stood on the street corner, waiting for a PTD to arrive and bring him back to his apartment. He’d pack his bags and wait out the day at home until it was time to meet Dawn again at the jazz club.

He was ready to take on the story and report the truth—whatever he discovered. Adam wasn’t convinced of the Resistance’s innocence. He’d go undercover and pretend he was on Dawn’s side to get to the bottom of the story.

CHAPTER SIX

When the time came to meet Dawn, Adam found it difficult to leave. The magnitude and finality of his secession from the eHuman world wasn’t lost on him. He had crossed the Rubicon and there was no turning back. He’d left Jill and Thomas a message on the EC that he was leaving to research a major story that had come up. He’d be gone indefinitely, they were free to find a new roommate. He was terribly sorry to leave in such a rush, without personally saying goodbye, but his work demanded it.

It was hard for him to imagine other people using his recharge room and living in his apartment. Adam had called it home nearly fifty years.

He carried all he would need for the future in a single backpack—extra clothes, shoes, socks, rain gear, boots. The past two hundred years he threw down the incinerator in the basement of the building. It was surreal to watch his journalistic awards, clothing, and other personal items fly down the metal chute, clanging as they haphazardly fell into the fires burning in the belly of the apartment complex. There wasn’t that much, really. No photos or journals. They weren’t needed. It was all in his head. In general, eHumans weren’t attached to material possessions.

Still, it had taken a long lifetime to amass these things, and only a moment to burn them out of existence. Adam had a feeling that once Anthony discovered his absence, the WG would come around to search through his stuff. It was better to not leave a single trace.

He paused to look at a small figurine, a red-tailed hawk carved out of a bit of wood, the final item to destroy. It had been an anniversary gift from Miranda, a trinket really, that she had
brought back from one of her many trips abroad. He recalled the moment she’d placed it in his hand, whispering it would bring him good luck, as the moonlight had filtered through the window of their apartment building, her eyes shining in the night’s reflection. Regret welled up within Adam and he forcefully tossed the wooden figure down the chute, as if it were a bomb about to go off.

Adam had been offline for over twenty-four hours. He only had about that much left before he’d need to plug in or enter Sleep Mode. He didn’t want to die. He certainly hoped that Dawn knew what she was doing.

Adam entered the jazz club a few minutes early and scanned the room. No sign of Dawn. eHumans were gathered around tables, watching Newsreels and other programming streaming live on their screen tops. Oversized ECs hung in the corners. People moved and gestured, looking like they were engaged in battle but without weaponry in their hands. The stage was empty. There was no live music tonight. Still, the dance floor was full of people, all of whom were moving and thrusting independently in a soundless room. It was a “Call Your Own Night,” where each eHuman turned on the Neuro Music App called MindJuke, which played music to match their moods and thoughts. Every single person was dancing to something different—and it showed in their disharmonious movements on the dance floor.