The Complete Karma Trilogy (3 page)

“I’ve been watching you for a long time, Will Spector. You’ve done a lot of good things. What was your intention?”

The question caught him entirely by surprise. There was surely a wrong answer to it, and he felt like the most honest answer he could give would be that wrong one. Instead, he said, “I was just doing what I was supposed to.”

The machine actually laughed at his answer, Karma laughed at him. He felt ready to die. Karma said, “I can see all the things you do, and say, but I don’t know what you think. You wanted to be an officer, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes I do.”

“Those legs are an improvement, then,” it said. It sounded like a joke, but it couldn’t have been. A machine couldn’t joke. “You’d give your entire body, your entire life, for the sake of what is right, wouldn’t you? That is why I brought you here.”

He felt like he could, so he said, “Yes.”

“Then I see no reason that you shouldn’t get what you want. You’ll be an officer. We won’t speak again, but I trust you will always know what I want. That makes it simple.”

Will found a question, he just didn’t know how to phrase it. He had never expected Karma to possess a consciousness, and most likely it didn’t, but at that moment he couldn’t tell the difference, and it was concerning him. “Why didn’t I know more about you?” he finally settled on.

“You’ll find that it will be the right thing to do, to never mention me to anyone, just like everyone before you found. I trust you, that is why you’re here. And perhaps you don’t understand the reasons now, but you will,” Karma said.

“What if I decide to quit? Not to do it? What then?”

“You won’t,” it said. After a moment, it added, “You’ll have nothing more to say. You can leave. It was nice meeting you, Will Spector. Make me proud.”

Only confused, Will slowly shuffled his way out of the room. At the very least he made it through the whole ordeal standing.

Decay 3

A Day in the Park

Charles Darcy was
sitting at his favorite bench in the City Park, reading a book on electrodynamics. It was late afternoon on a warm winter day, and the sky around was abysmally grey, as it always was. Not far away from where he sat was one of the pillars that connected to the Solar Kite above. The pillar had the appearance of the struggling trees around it, only it never ended, just extended until it was lost in the dark cloud in the far distance overhead. It had roots too, he knew, that branched off one by one, becoming thinner and thinner, until they were the copper wire running through every wall of every building in the city.

It had always amused him that it was the City Park they had decided to place such a pillar in, all of those practical-minded people who had designed the system all those years ago. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that belonged in a park, an electrical tower. But, as he saw it, it served as a reminder that it was still nature that provided the energy, the sun above giving its life to the trees, even if the only tree that saw the sun anymore was extremely artificial. Although, he doubted many people saw it the same way. The Solar Kite, soaring above the dark clouds of the world.

So many people had been waving at him lately, ever since he made his appearance in the newspaper. Some had even tried to strike up a conversation with him, sitting next to him on the bench and waiting for him to acknowledge them from behind his book. A lot of them asked for advice on how to be a better person, which always made him laugh internally. It still had the excitement of being novel to him, but he felt more sure by the moment that the distraction was going to be a detriment to his studies, if he chose to continue reading in the Park.

He looked up just in time to notice two officers approaching him. When he saw them, he was quick to put the book into the bag that he had underneath his seat, where they couldn’t see it.

As they arrived at his bench, a young, muscular man with short facial hair didn’t even wait to be acknowledged before saying, “Weren’t you just reading a book?”

Charles looked up to meet his eyes, and smiled amiably. “I was, but I had intended to leave. May I help you?”

“I hope we didn’t catch you at a bad time,” the officer said, returning the smile. “But we were hoping to speak with you. You’re a hard man to find, Mr. Darcy. I’m Eric Devlin.” He extended a hand to shake. Charles took it, to avoid seeming rude. “And this is Marcus Cole. May we sit down?”

“By all means. And I can’t be that hard to find. You have your fancy machines.”

Eric was the kind of person that relentlessly carried the conversation forward at his own pace, which often made him dismissive. “Very true. Speaking of that, this is an interesting place for a man like you to be, Mr. Darcy. A Privacy Room. You are aware that nothing you do here counts, aren’t you?”

“I find it offensive that you refer to this place as a Room,” he answered.

“It’s just a technical term.”

“I know it is,” Charles said, a little too shortly. Eric had his legs splayed out in front of him, and his arms around the back of the bench, as if he was entirely at leisure. And maybe he was.

“I would have expected you to be more polite, after reading all about you,” Eric said. The man named Marcus had yet to speak, and seemed like he never would. He had a large, firm jaw, and eyes that were set far deeper than the average person, which made his face a strange combination of stern and comical. He just stared off into the distance, at the people walking through the Park.

“And I would have expected the same from a police officer, but then again I’ve only read about them as well,” Charles said.

Eric laughed heartily. “Only read about? Never met an officer before. Now I can hardly believe that.” And he laughed again. “I’m sorry,” he continued, “somehow this turned into a casual conversation that it was never meant to be. I’ll get to the point. I’m here to tell you that you’ve been selected by Karma to be a member of the Government. Which I’m sure you’ve expected.”

“And what position am I being offered?”

“Something administrative. I don’t know many of the details, but something entirely suited to your character, rest assured.”

“As you said,” Charles replied, “I had expected. But I would like to respectfully decline.”

Eric lost his cheery attitude very quickly. He stumbled to say, “Were you hoping for a different kind of position? I don’t understand. Whatever it is, I’m sure it can be resolved, but you’ll have to come with us.”

“It has nothing to do with the type of position,” he said. “If it is the Government, I don’t want to be involved. And I won’t be going with you.”

“Given your circumstances, it’s not possible to refuse.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Well, why would you? I know you already found your way into money, but think of how much more—”

Charles interrupted him without consciously intending to. “It has nothing to do with the money, I will say that much. Now really I must be going,” he said, standing up and taking his bag from under the bench.

Eric frowned. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Great.”

After a long subway ride, Charles stood in front of his mansion in Champlain. It was an archaic building that had been abandoned until only two weeks before, when he had bought it and made his public appearance as a man that had more money than he should. Directly behind it was the former country of Canada, which for reasons of habit was still considered by most to be foreign.

He went straight through the large living room, down one of the three hallways, and into the bathroom on its left. There was no mirror on the wall. He spoke loudly into the sink. “Brother Vincent, send Brother Peril over here right away. And activate the exchange.”

“Right away,” came a voice from his sink. Instantly a portion of the tiled floor lifted up, exposing a complicated set of machines with two seats and a control panel. He didn’t have to wait long before another man knocked on the door.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to knock?” Charles said through the door.

Peril opened it and walked in. “It’s always weird. It is a bathroom after all.”

Charles was already seated in one of the chairs of the machine. “Sit down, please. We don’t have much time.”

As soon as Peril was seated, Charles hit a few buttons and the machine began to move as it hummed. It removed the ears of both men, took a Karma Chip out of Charles’ head, and put it into Peril’s. The whole time, both men had a very pained look on their face. When their ears were replaced, Charles stood up and said to Peril, “I think I’m close to figuring out the Karma Chip. And then we can abandon this godforsaken machine. But it really is complicated, and I might never make it in time for it to matter.”

Peril was absentmindedly holding on to his ear as he just nodded slowly.

Charles said, “You’re going to have to stop doing that. Stop touching your ear. Thank you. I want you to stay here for maybe an hour or two, perhaps watch some television, and then go back into the city.” He handed Peril his own Karma Card. “It’s going to be harder from here on out. The police talked to me today. If you notice that they’re around you, it’s probably because they’re looking for me. I imagine you’ll be safe, even when they know exactly where you are, because I doubt they’ll be able to make sense out of any of it. But if you do have trouble, call the house phone.”

“You really don’t think they’ll suspect anything if you call yourself when you live alone?”

“I said if you’re in trouble. I’m leaving.” Charles left the bathroom, going to the back of his house and out the door, into his expansive backyard. He hopped a small fence, then cut between a few trees and a thick brush, and found himself in the middle of a small town.

He called it the Monastery, the land of the dead. There were one hundred tents and counting, which represented two hundred monks. Further along the path he walked there was a moderately sized farm, where they grew everything that they could possibly grow, and even further down was where they kept their animals. Even though he had only publicly owned the mansion for two weeks, the Monastery had been there for about two years, and it was his pride and joy. There was even a small, wooden temple where he occasionally gave a sermon on Sundays. It was the temple that he was on his way to.

Situated in the back of the temple was the only room that was undeniably modern, which he had to include as a necessity. It housed monitors, computers, radios, and a workbench littered with countless tools and spare parts. Three people were standing at the bench, hard at work on small machines he had them building. He took a few books from his bag, including the one on electrodynamics, laid them on the bench, and said to them, “Required reading, for all of you.”

He then found Vincent, seated in a chair in front of the monitors.

“How is everyone doing?” he asked Vincent.

“Have a look for yourself,” he said, and turned one of the screens towards them. It was a map of New York City, with one hundred dots spread out all across it. Each one represented one of his monks, out in the city, doing Good Works so that his enterprise could have the money it needed to carry out its mission.

“And they’re all alright?”

“All of the vitals are normal.”

“Who is that?” Charles asked, pointing to a circular monitor off to the side.

“That’s Brother Michael. He’s been opening the door for people at the Century Building all day.” On the screen was the visual perspective of Michael, as he stood outside the door of a building, facing the busy street. Thousands of people were walking by, and whenever one diverted into the building, he could be seen moving aside and letting them in.

Michael was one of the newer members of the Order, and Charles made sure that they were monitored for at least a week’s worth of duty, before he sent out another new member for training. Vincent was one of the four people that were always in the monitor room, watching the new recruits.

“And how much longer does he have to be watched?”

“Today’s his last day. He did fine. Simple, but fine,” Vincent said.

“That’s good enough. Where’s the next one?”

“Should be in the temple today. His name is Steve.”

“Alive or Dead?”

“Dead.”

“Thank you, Brother Vincent.”

“An honor, Brother Charles.”

Around the other side of the building were the large wooden doors of the temple. During the day, they were open. On the inside, fifty monks were sitting on the ground in lotus position, meditating. All except one of them were wearing black robes—the exception was wearing white. Charles walked through the rows and columns of people until he stood in front of him. “Steve,” he said. When he got no response, he lightly rapped on the man’s head with his finger. “Steve?”

The man woke with a startle, and when he recognized the face of the man standing above him he tried getting to his feet as quickly as he could, so that he could bow or display some sort of etiquette. “Sir, my mistake, sir.”

“Stay seated,” he said, as he sat down on the floor himself. “And please, call me Brother Charles. There are no ‘sirs’ here.”

“Yes, Brother Charles.”

“Before I say anything else, pull in your legs a little, for a better lotus. Your chi is entirely off-balance. You’ll never find Enlightenment with your legs sticking that far out.”

He waited for the man to correct his posture, then continued. “Now as I understand it, it will be tomorrow that you actually go into the world as a Brother of our Order and do Good Works in our service.” The man just sat there in silence listening, which Charles appreciated. “There are a few things we haven’t told you about yet, and now is the time. After this conversation, I will give you your black robes, so if you need to hear again any of the things I will be saying, you can ask any other Brother and they will know that they can tell you.

“You are Dead. That means that the Karma Chip we took out of your head, two months ago when you got here, was destroyed. And your death was fabricated. As far as the world is concerned, you no longer exist. Half of the Brothers you see around you are still Alive. Their Chip is still out there, being used. But not necessarily by them. Only half of the time. You will be paired with someone that is Alive, and you will be them for half of their remaining life, as far as Karma is concerned.

“It is important that you get to know the Brother you are paired with fairly well. There will be a file put into your tent for you to read tonight, make sure you read it thoroughly. It’s important that the actions you do are not too out of character with respect to the person who you will become. It is important that you never look into a mirror, if possible. And in general, avoid reflective surfaces and suspicious behavior.

“There are twenty bathrooms that we control, positioned across New York City, where you will switch with your partner. It involves that machine with the ear thing, and I apologize in advance. They are all located in restaurants that we are affiliated with, where you yourself will be eating every other night, although the cumulative effect will be that the identity you share with your partner will eat there every night. You may see Brothers you recognize on the streets, and especially at these restaurants. It is important that you don’t ever acknowledge them.