The Complete Karma Trilogy (4 page)

“You will be doing Good Works for the whole day, on days that you are in the city. A good work ethic will be expected of you. A large portion of your earnings has already been arranged to be deducted from the Karma Card you share, as a monthly bill, so don’t be surprised when you see that deduction. You will be monitored for a week’s worth of duty, which will take two week’s time. Days that you are here will be divided exactly the same way as you’re used to. Half of the time you will be on the farm, half of the time you will be meditating here. The only difference is that your cycle will now consist of three days instead of two.”

Charles took a moment to study the reaction on the man’s face, to see if he could sense any hesitation or misgiving. He was mostly satisfied with what he saw there. “Do you have any questions, at the moment?”

“No, I don’t believe I do.”

“Then welcome to the Order, Brother Steve.”

Decay 4

Breathing Life

Spread out on
a table in front of Will were some of the most exciting things that he had ever seen in his life. Nothing in his new apartment compared. A man was seated on the opposite side of the table, and was explaining each of them one by one.

“Chances are you’ve only ever seen a few of these before, because that’s how it was for most of us when we first started, so I’ll take you through them one at a time. These you’ve seen before,” he said as he picked up a bundle of triangular shaped objects. “This is a Privacy Room, and there should be eight pieces in there. You get one extra Room, and it’s yours to put wherever you want.”

“I don’t know what I would do with it,” Will said.

“Some people like to do weird stuff in their kitchen. Just hold on to it, you’ll think of something. But you can’t give it away. They’re pretty easy to use, you just pull these tabs and stick them wherever you want. But make sure you get it right the first time, because they take literally a second to set and then you can’t move them.”

A Privacy Room was a small area defined by those triangles, inside of which a Karma Chip didn’t transmit data to Karma. Every citizen that owned a house or apartment was allowed to have at most two Rooms, one for their bathroom and one for their bedroom. Businesses were strictly limited in a similar way, although the rule wasn’t as simple. Most every other public place was monitored by Karma, with the exception of the City Park, which was the only Privacy Room that was as large as it was. Early in the implementation of Karma, it had been decided that at least some privacy should exist for the people that it monitored, since all of the things that it recorded—everything that a person saw or heard—could easily be looked up by quite a large number of people that had the authority to do so. The Park had been a similar concession to public privacy. The assumption had been that there wouldn’t be that many Good Works being done in bedrooms and bathrooms anyway, so there wouldn’t be many people complaining about lost opportunities to make money.

“These are high-torsion handcuffs, only for people you hate. If you try to get out of them at all, they start twisting. The more you struggle, the more they twist. I saw a man once that tried to get out of them, ripped his arms clean off. Funny but disgusting, so be careful. These over here are normal handcuffs, as you can see they do look slightly different, so try to remember the difference. This is a Grappling Chain, just shoot it at a wall and then you have a slightly elastic bond between you and that wall. It’s elastic so that your arms don’t get ripped off. I’m not saying you will get pushed off of a building, but if you do you’ll be glad you have this, and you’ll be glad it doesn’t rip your arms off too. They have a practice course for it that you’ll be going through, but if you’re feeling really brave you can try it whenever you want.

“These are steroids that you now have a prescription for. Among other things, like muscle strength and reflex speed, they also strengthen your tendons and joints, particularly the shoulder socket. So that it’s harder to rip your arms off.

“A lock gun. This is a stun gun, temporarily paralyzes the central nervous system. A lot of guns. This is an Evaporation Pen, you can have it now but it won’t be activated until you’re done with your training, and only then when Karma allows it. Have you ever seen one of these used?”

Will shook his head.

“Well nothing I could say would prepare you for it. This is the range selector right here, but unless you have special permission five feet is all you get. You point this end right here at a person, press this button, and then they don’t exist anymore. Not even their arms. And they’re not teleporting, or shrinking really small, or any other thing that would make you feel alright about pressing the button. They turn instantly into a gas. You’ll actually feel the breeze from the increase in pressure they create, if you’re standing close enough. It’s mostly just carbon dioxide and water vapor, but a little bit of carbon monoxide can’t be helped so it’s best if you just hold your breath when you do it. Here’s that for you.

“These shoes are awesome, but I’m not even going to explain them to you. It’ll be a nice little surprise whenever you figure it out. Good luck with that. These are Identity Mines, explosives that work when the person they’re identified for walks by. You’ll have to wait for those to work too. Benefits that you don’t see on the table in front of you are the house you live in and your Good Work rate increase, as I assume you’re aware of. You’ll find also that transportation, phone calls, and certain restaurants marked on your Karma Card are all free now.

“And I’m sure that all of that sounds pretty cool to you, but I saved what I think is the best for last, like I always do when I’m giving the speech,” he said as he pulled out a small disc-shaped object. “I don’t even know why I think it’s the best. In a lot of ways it’s the least exciting of any of these, but I think you’ll find that it’s the one that will keep you up late at night just thinking.” He laid it out in front of them and put his finger down in its center. It switched on, only to reveal a map of New York City seen from above.

“The Karma Map. This is literally the collective conscious of the world. It’s the most up-to-date map possible, because it’s a compilation of what everyone everywhere is seeing. You can zoom in and out. You can go to other continents too if you want, but only if you’re going sightseeing. These little dots,” he said as he zoomed in, “you just tap on one.” And when he did, it became the viewpoint of a person as they walked down a busy street. A man held a door open as they entered a building. The sounds of the crowd could be heard faintly emanating from the disc. “Suddenly you’re that person. If you can find a person, you can follow them around. Or if you know their Karma Card information, you can also just enter that in.

“You can also…” he said as he touched something else on the disc. “Yeah, look at this.” It was the map of the city, like before, only there was a bright path cutting across all of it like a tunnel. “This is everywhere that person has been in the last twenty-four hours. You can go back a lot further, but it gets kind of confusing if they’ve been around a lot. If you have a suspicion that the person standing in front of you just shot a man a couple hours ago, you do all of this and suddenly you can see exactly what he saw as he did it, if he did it, all displayed on this map so you know where it happened. It can be really useful like that, but it can also mess with your head. Try not to spend too much time with it. And I’m serious about that.

“The blank spots will drive you crazy. You’ll ask yourself, ‘why hasn’t anyone ever looked here? It’s right in the middle of the city.’ And you’ll go there and find out that it’s right next to the smelliest dumpster you’ve ever smelled, and the most probable explanation is that everyone who walked by would probably have to turn their senses off to survive it. Something as stupid as that, but it bothered you for a whole week until you just had to go see it for yourself. Or you’ll see this woman that you think is beautiful, and you’ll want to spend the next two months seeing the world through her eyes. What you don’t realize now is that you aren’t prepared for the amount of harassment that a typical beautiful woman can go through in two months, just walking down the street, and also you’ll have to remember that someone is also watching you, and you’ll get in trouble if you get too far off track. And you don’t want to get in trouble, I promise you. Do you have any questions?”

“Where do I put it all?”

“I’ll get you a bag. But you should totally put these shoes on right now. Throw those away.”

Will was no longer handled individually. After a few days of waiting around and getting to know the officers, he was put into a class of twenty other trainees, and instructed in a room by a slightly overweight but still physically impressive, heavily balding, middle-aged man by the name of Lieutenant Caplan. They had already learned and been tested on the various laws they were to be enforcing, but the lesson that day seemed to be focusing on practical concerns that would be encountered while they were working.

Lieutenant Caplan was saying, “Half of the calls that you are going to get involve someone taking too long in their bathroom. This is flagged automatically by Karma, and then you get sent to investigate because we can’t see what’s going on in there. You’ll show up, and there will by a dead guy sitting on the toilet, half of his skull sawed off by his own hands, blood everywhere. It isn’t pretty. Sometimes they’ll be alive still. They think they can take the Karma Chip out themselves, without anyone knowing, with the kind of tools you can buy at a local convenience store. It never works out. What you’re going to do, whether they are dead or alive still, is stand outside the bathroom, so Karma can see it, and you’re going to Evaporate them. Some of you will be tempted to call an ambulance if you find one that’s still moving, but I promise you that more often than not they’re beyond repair, and even if they’re not they’ve committed a felony crime, the punishment for which is death.

“Other times you’ll just be doing an inspection to make sure all of their appliances are in accordance with the law. If you see anything suspicious looking, like someone attempting to modify or change their Privacy Room in any way, you are authorized to arrest them immediately. If they attack you, you are authorized to Evaporate them. But remember, Karma is always watching, so don’t go around Evaporating just everyone you see. The law must be broken first.

“Another common thing you’ll be doing, especially this time of year, is reminding people that the Tax is on the way, if they aren’t quite ready for it. Most of these people you’ll usually find at the bars, which is kind of funny in a sad way. And then after the Tax, you’ll be escorting a lot of people to Rehabilitation, which can often be a messy business. We’ll explain more of those details later, when we visit one of the clinics.

“Very rarely, you will be called to a scene where someone is acting violently, whether they are just disturbing the peace or actually killing other people. These are to be handled contextually. If you can make the arrest, that is preferable. But if that doesn’t seem possible without risking your own livelihood, you are authorized to Evaporate them. Always, in all cases, Evaporations should be done outside of a Privacy Room. If you ever Evaporate a person while you are inside a Privacy Room, you will immediately be under investigation and all your weapons deactivated. Pressing the button creates a high-frequency signal that is detectable to Karma even inside of a Room.

“You may not Evaporate anyone in the Government, even if they are acting violently, or threatening your life. Your weapons will be deactivated immediately, if you do that. Instead, in such a case, you are required to use your stun gun and make an arrest. For every person that you arrest, you have the option of riding the subway system, or calling a Helicar to pick you up.

“And now we’ll move on to the next topic,” he said.

One month later, and Will was a certified officer. There was nothing ceremonious about it, no celebration, it was just that the next day he was allowed to go out into the city, carrying all of his new equipment. He was assigned to another officer, a man by the name of Eric Devlin. Eric had been an officer for only a few years, but was already well distinguished. Will was told that, for the most part, Eric would only be there to watch him perform, and that he was really on his own.

On his Karma Card was a list of numbers that he was to visit in sequential order. There was no explanation that went along with any of them. When he tapped on the first one, a marker popped up on his Map, on the thirty second floor of some building three miles away. He and Eric took a quick subway ride, and then an elevator, and then Will was standing at the door of his first official business as a police officer.

He had never been in such an unsightly building before. Nearly all of the lights that lined the hallway were flickering, and patches of the carpet were missing everywhere. He could have sworn he saw a rat, which had supposedly been extinct for ten years. He knocked politely on the door. At his side, Eric laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” Will asked, a little too irritably.

“Do you really think he’s going to answer?” was all he said in reply.

Will hesitated momentarily, but then tried turning the handle. It was locked. He patiently opened his duffle bag, found his lock gun, and put it against the door knob. When he pulled the trigger, it made a high-pitched whirring sound and pushed the door open a few inches. Before he entered, he peered in through the slit of the door to see if he could make anything out. All he could see were dirty clothes and a large brown stain on the far wall.

“Here, let me get that for you,” Eric said, and pushed the door open all the way. A horrendous smell suddenly reached Will from the breeze created by the door opening, and he staggered back a few feet to the opposite end of the hallway. “You’re going to have to have a stronger stomach than that,” Eric said, standing unaffected in the threshold. “And be quicker.”

Will regained his composure, brought out his Evaporation Pen, and walked into the room. There was a small, overflowing kitchen to the left, and a short hallway to the right that had two doorways. One would be the bedroom, the other the bathroom. He was sure, from the smell, that he would find a rotting corpse behind at least one of those doors. First he opened the bedroom, and didn’t see anything besides a deeply sagging bed with formerly white sheets, unmade. The Privacy Room triangles could be seen in the corners, surrounded by peeling wallpaper. He closed the door again.