Cathedral of Dreams (35 page)

“When?” Keith said.

“They're probably talking things over first,” Philip said.

Nellie asked, “Why didn't they talk with Keith first?”

“Base line,” Lori said. “They needed something to start with.”

“How do you know?” Nellie said.

“We're not idiots. We were recruited, years ago. If we had known what they were about to do to us…”

“Do you think that would change a lot of people's minds?” Nellie asked.

Philip said, “Frankly, no.”

The two men who had brought Philip back walked into the area. Keith knew they were after him and gave Nellie a quick peck on the cheek. He had become very fond of her and she appeared to feel the same for him. The kiss was the natural thing to do, automatic. He left with the two men, one on either side of him, but neither one touching him, very respectful, an interesting turn of events.

The main barn space had been equipped with chairs, and tables filled with food, as well as all the people who had come with Bradley. Keith noticed that Ben was back with them, one wrist splinted and bandaged. He was sitting next to a woman, and looked up only long enough to see Keith pass by, then went back to a conversation he was having.

Keith and the two guards entered another of the barn's added-on rooms, located on the opposite side from where the escapees were being kept.

“You set up quickly,” Keith said to Bradley and Blake, who were seated on one side of a table. The guards waited until Keith sat opposite the two men, then they left the area. Keith watched them go before turning back to the others. “I'm really sorry about Rene,” he said. “It was never my intention…”

“I know,” Bradley said. “Philip told me what you said to her. She should have listened to you.”

“What do you mean?”

Blake leaned forward. “The blast never went through the computer center wall. She must have crawled back through and waited in the main lab.” He hesitated. “She was found near the entrance.”

Keith shook his head. He couldn't bring himself to say anything else.

“We have to know what went on, from the beginning. Everything,” Blake said.

“I can only tell you what happened. Bradley knows most of it already.”

“Then bring me up to speed,” Blake said.

Keith did as he was asked, using a shorter version of the conversation he and Bradley had a few days prior. At the end of his explanation, he asked, “What are you going to do with us? Especially them. They've done nothing wrong.”

Blake looked at Bradley for a moment, then back at Keith. “Honestly? We don't know yet. We haven't decided.” Blake returned to the questioning. “Can you tell us, in your understanding, what's going on with Newcity?”

Keith shrugged. “I've told you everything I could think of. You probably know more than I do. You were in contact with Rene. And the only additional information I have is what Rene explained to me. But I didn't experience any of that.”

Bradley leaned forward so far that Keith thought he was going to stand up. He reached out and knocked his fist against the table. “You were part of the machine. You probably still are. You told us that out there on the bridge. You must have a sense of what's wrong, of what's happening.”

“I told you. The only sense I got was that it was bored and wanted a broader experience.” Keith cowered slightly, afraid that Bradley might thrash out at him.

“I still think that it became omniscient,” Blake said, “at least in its own world.”

“Like God,” Bradley said. “You think this room full of computers became God? Well I don't buy it.”

“The hologram,” Keith said.

“What about it? Philip mentioned it too,” Bradley said. “What did you see?”

“Everyone at once. The people in the hologram went on forever.” Keith cocked his head and said, “Like you said, it could be that it believed it was the universe.”

“Belief is a human sensibility,” Bradley said.

“Not if the machinery is God,” Keith said. “But we're not totally under its control, not even with the chips. I know because I've been chipped, more than once.” He wanted to get up and pace, to move so that he could think, but they'd stop him and he knew it. He fidgeted in his seat. “Let's think of it as a society unto itself then.”

“Go on,” Blake said.

While speaking, Keith leaned against the table, then leaned back, reached out and tapped the table with his fingers. “As long as it's able to control the emotions of those inside, it feels safe. As a leader, it provides all the necessary items needed for survival, then goes beyond that and supplies enough to reduce the want for change. Isn't that what Newcity was about from the beginning? The people are given everything and want for nothing. Cheap labor. Cheaper and easier to maintain than robots. Freedom is limited, but the people don't care because they have food and shelter and games and technology. Who needs actual freedom if you don't feel deprived in any way?”

Blake sat forward in his chair. He glanced back at Bradley whose jaw muscles tightened as he clenched his teeth. “Perfect for people with the right personality. Those who are comfortable to follow.”

“Sleepers,” Keith said.

“But that's not good enough for an evolved, evolving, entity,” Blake said.

“So it lets some of us escape…on purpose.” Keith shook his head. “But why? Why isn't it happy to be in control?”

“We may never know,” Blake said.

Bradley couldn't hold back any longer. He stood quickly. His chair fell over, making a dull thud as it hit the dirt that covered the barn floor. “This is insane,” he said. “Computers don't think, they don't believe, and they don't become unhappy.”

“Prove it,” Keith said.

Bradley spun around and glared at him, leaning on the table, his arm muscles tight, ready to strike out. “What did you say?”

“I said prove it. You and Rene studied the people. You were part of the system, too, in many ways. Now go back in there and analyze the computer, the hologram. It answered my questions. Put it straight if that's what you have to do. In fact, put it back so that it's a part of the society instead of a leech. Return us to a balanced state.” Keith let Bradley stew. When Bradley appeared to relax, as though he was thinking about the proposal, Keith said, “You may be the only person capable of setting this straight.”

“And what about you?”

“I'll leave. You don't need me. I'm not useful to you. There's a new boy with a bullet hole in his forehead. Find him.” Keith looked at Blake for help, seemingly the more open-minded of the two.

“The image,” Blake said, “is because the system isn't perfect either. It can't, for some strange reason, create something perfect because it's not perfect.”

“It can only create in our image,” Keith said.

Bradley rubbed his face with his hands. “We might have to break it down to rebuild it.”

“Just don't shut it down completely,” Blake said. “We're talking about a touchy operation.”

“We could pull residents in groups as large as we can handle until the system isn't overloaded. Maybe that's all it would take.” Bradley looked as though he shifted gears mentally. He began to plan how he would attack this bigger problem. He put a hand on Blake's shoulder.

Keith saw that Bradley's demeanor had changed. The frustration he carried with him had alleviated with the idea of something important to do. “I believe you can do this,” Keith said.

“It won't be easy,” Bradley said.

“You've organized nearly a thousand men and women, and carried out one impossible plan already. You destroyed the lab,” Blake said. “I have to agree with Keith.”

Bradley grinned as he thought about what they were proposing.

As volatile as he appeared to be at times, Bradley surely wasn't afraid to act. Keith saw a man of power, but also one of intelligence. But most of all, Keith felt that it didn't really matter. There was a very small band of people with him, fourteen who'd survived the escape from Newcity. Maybe they'd recruit a few more from Bradley's ranks, but it would be enough to create a self-sufficient group. That's what he believed. But it was up to Bradley now. “May I go?”

Blake lifted from his chair and stood next to Bradley. “We'll talk about it,” he said. “Guards. Take him back with the others.”

Keith walked out with the guards. When he got back with Philip and the others, Nellie ran to his side. She looked him over, touched his face. “They didn't hurt you.”

“No, like Philip said, they asked questions. If they're satisfied, maybe they'll let us go.”

“Where would we go?” Nellie asked.

Keith smiled, “Anywhere.”

Everyone gathered in a circle, sitting cross-legged on the ground around Philip and Keith, who discussed what had happened during their conversations with Bradley and Blake.

“What do you think they'll do?” Philip wanted to know once Keith finished relating his experience from minutes earlier.

“We're not a threat,” he said.

Nellie's face lit up and so did several others in the group. “This could be it.”

“Such an odd end to a long story,” Philip said. “I felt like we were battling something but we never really were. There are no bad guys.” He looked surprised by the idea.

“Only misinformed ones,” Keith said. “And that included all of us.”

Lori shook her head in disbelief. “I'm sorry that people died over this. Really, what were we protecting? What were they trying to harm?”

“The system really has no control at all,” Philip said.

“How do you mean? Aren't people chipped automatically?” Keith asked.

“Yes, they go through a sign-in station and are ushered through by chipped guards. The operation is automated; you lie down on a moving platform that takes you through several stages. You come out the other end chipped and ready for assignment.”

“So if you stop people from entering…” Keith jumped up. “We need to tell Bradley. This may be easier than we thought.”

Philip stood slowly. He laughed.

“What is it?”

“Newcity is sending people out almost as fast as they're coming in. I never realized it before, but only a few people are allowed in each day. Originally it was set up like that as production of products grew in phases. Now the input is supposed to match the number of deaths.” Philip explained how internal production increased with increases in the number of people, and how the system would see increased production as a positive thing even if their wasn't a balance in the number of people using the products.

“It's running in circles,” Keith said. “It's in a closed loop and can't see outside.”

“You can't solve a problem using the same elements that gave you the problem in the first place,” Philip said.

“It needs us to interrupt the loop.” Keith swung around and walked toward the entrance of their room.

Philip was right behind him. “Or someone like Bradley,” he said.

“My thoughts exactly.” When Keith reached the doorway, two guards stopped his progress.

“Hold up. Where do you think you're going?”

“Nowhere. I have some important information for Bradley. Could someone get him?” Keith waited and one of the guards yelled into the center part of the barn for someone to retrieve Bradley. Keith turned to Philip. “I think that's the last piece.”

Chapter 26

B
radley liked the idea. Not the best psychological explanation, but the idea of a closed loop did appear to answer a lot of questions for him. He explained to Keith and Philip that, after they'd talked, he had realized that the Newcity security was the least of his worries. The real problem was the few people who ran Newcity and still believed that the computers knew what they were doing. Rodger, Doctor Mike and Charles, who Keith had met, were only a few of them. From what Bradley recalled there were probably only about twenty in total. And his assessment, as well as Rene's, had long been that the group of them were followers, even if they hadn't been chipped. They'd go through the chipping process easily and without complaint.