Wake Me In The Future (18 page)

‘I should be asking you that,’ she whispered, staring pensively into the flickering flames, ‘after what I’ve just said.’

But I knew right then, that all the weird and wacky views she’d just shared with me were just a scratch on the surface of this complex woman, and it was exactly those unique things that were going to make her the love of my life. And as I made to hold her hands across the dark wooden tabletop, our eyes made a connection which told us both, that we’d met the person we were going to be with, for a very long time.

Chapter 19
– Celebrity Day

I watched aghast, at the message projected from the vid-screen on the wall. Even on its forth re-run I was finding it difficult to take in, it was unfair, it had to be a mistake. I began to feel angry as the consequences of what I was hearing began to dawn on me, so much so that I felt like punching the smarmy 3D avatar that hovered in front of me. I was running my fingers through my hair in frustration and probably as a result of my agitation it was changing colours as I did so. In fact, by the time the full meaning of what I was being told had registered, I must have looked like I was wearing a multi coloured beret.

It was a message from the Cryogen project, informing me, in the nicest possible way that my help was not needed. The words, 'no longer require additional input to the project,' were being repeated when my anger finally got the better of me, and I took a swipe at the ghostly image. But my clenched fist and lower arm passed right through it, offering no physical relief, only serving to release my pent up frustration. The image just blurred for a moment and continued with its communication, as if mocking my inability to change it, or the message it delivered.

This just wasn’t making sense. Ramoon had given me the impression that applying was just a formality.

There’d certainly been no suggestion at all that my application could be turned down. What was I going to do? My anger began to rise again; I was certainly not going to get involved in reviewing their stupid historical records to ‘
identify gaps’
, as the end of that patronising message was suggesting.

No, there must be something I could do to change this decision; they were not going to stop me looking for Helen.

I tried to contact Ankit and Ramoon to find out if they knew what was going on. But my attempts were fruitless. Both their systems were giving out the same message that they were away on business, and to leave a message.
But neither of them had mentioned they were going to be away,
I thought.
And on the same day this message is delivered?
It all just seemed too much of a coincidence.

‘Damn,’ I barked, as I tried Ankit’s home, and got through to yet another automated message, ‘some things never change.’

At least I had more luck getting through to Jennifer. If I’d experienced problems there, I would have really started to panic. And after I’d explained the situation, she’d insisted, ‘Come over to my apartment, the others are here. We need to think about what this means.’

By the time I arrived my anger had begun to subside and growing in its place was a feeling of, well, of paranoia,
oh no
I thought, was I heading the way of the protesters?

My friend’s were as confused as I was.

‘I don't believe this,’ Jennifer shook her head, ‘it just doesn’t add up Richard. We were all invited to join soon after we were revived, but we all found other interests so turned the offer down. They certainly gave us the impression that it was an open invitation to us all. There was never any indication of a limit to the amount of people they needed. I can't see what could possibly have changed.’

‘
That’s certainly a good question Jen, but right at this moment we haven’t got anyone to put it to, because the only people I believe can shed any light on this have mysteriously disappeared.’

‘It just seems too much of a coincidence that they should both go away at the same time; and just as you receive that message.’ said Simon. ‘I’ve just tried them both again and keep getting the same response from their systems.’ Then shaking his head in puzzlement said, ‘there surely can’t be anywhere left in this system where you can’t be contacted if you want to be. Even trying to locate them with my senses hasn't worked.’

'I forgot about that,' I said.

'You can prevent yourself from being located, so I assume that's what they've done, but why?'

‘Its all a bit scary if you ask me,’ said Jennifer.

‘OK, ok,' interrupted Earl sharply, attempting to dispel the gathering gloom that was threatening to descend on us, it’s obvious we can’t do anything about this at the moment, so I propose we keep our minds occupied until Ramoon or Ankit do turn up.’

‘And how do you suggest we do that?’ asked Jennifer.

Then turning to me Earl said, ‘there’s still a lot you’ve not learned yet. How about going back to the library to continue your education, it might take your mind off this until we get some answers?’

I breathed out loudly as if in defeat, ‘All right Earl, it’s certainly not doing any good lingering on this,’ and nodding my head to him, ‘what do you suggest I learn about next then?’

‘Well up to now you’ve pretty well had things dictated to you, so why not choose something yourself. Is there anything you’d particularly like to know about?’

‘Well I always wondered what would happen to some of the famous people in our day. For example what happened to Daniel Mountain, I always thought he’d have himself frozen’ I added.

‘Killed’ Earl replied.’

‘Oh’ I said ‘OK, what about Emma Holmes then?’

‘Killed.’

‘Amy Beeroff then, she had a fantastic voice.’

‘Killed.’

‘Jenson Treacle?’

‘Killed.’

We were walking in the direction of the library now and I just stopped dead and turned to Earl ‘Hang on, that can’t be right, either by some fluke I’ve just randomly picked famous people who happen to have been killed or something bigger went on. And I am guessing it was something bigger. So what happened?’

‘
See-me Hear-me
happened,’ Simon answered ‘well, that and a few other social networking sites on the Internet,’ and as I opened my mouth to ask yet another question, Simon raised his hand and said ‘let the system show you, it’ll explain a lot better than I can.’

So before long, I was falling back into what was now becoming a welcoming and familiar dreamlike state, and the system began readying itself to show me what had happened on Sunday the third of February 2075.

I was standing in my dark space again, and one of the dimensional windows was beginning to open in front of me. Through it, the scene swept over sprawling manicured grounds, past imposing Ewe trees and evergreen bushes before moving up a wide gravelled drive to a grand white mansion. There were vans parked outside which bore the logo of the mega media corporation CON/PPC and people in overalls were rushing about, carrying equipment into the house. A man, who must have been the owner, stood at the door looking appalled at all this activity, red faced and clearly angry.

Other, smaller windows opened in the darkness now, and I could see they were following the people in overalls as they scurried from room to room. They were installing miniature cameras and microphones, fixing them in different locations in every room, over the beds, baths, inside closets and even ones that must have been waterproof stuck to the toilet bowls!

Back at the doorstep a man in the same overalls and ‘
CON/PPC live feed’
plastered on his back, held a clipboard talking to the owner.

‘...and any attempt to tamper with or remove these devices is an imprisonable offence, in addition no nightclothes are to be worn by anyone sleeping in the house and only the provided bedding should be used.’

‘You mean the ones your cameras can see through,’ the man said angrily.

‘The price of fame sir,’ said the engineer chirpily.

‘Even for my children?’

An almost imperceptible wave of guilt passed over the man’s face and he swallowed before going on, ‘I don’t make the laws, I am only following orders sir. Err... now before I go I just need to remind you that you have to update your diary at least once a day on one of our preferred social networking sites.’ Then grinned and said ‘Our subscribers do like to know as much as possible about their favourite celebs.’ Pointing to the edge of his clipboard he added, ‘Now, if I could just get your signature.’ He waited for the man to take hold of the scanner strip with his forefinger and thumb to complete the electrical circuit that confirmed the correct DNA and that this was a live person, before entering his PIN into the keypad on the screen.

The engineers packed away their equipment and got back into their vehicles, and as the doors on the last van closed the familiar logo was emblazoned across them. Beneath it, the bright orange wording spelled out the strap line, ‘our eyes on your world.’

The scene changed……I was watching a news bulletin.

‘News is coming in from all around the globe of international celebrities being killed by suicide bombers. Figures so far indicate over two thousand international celebrities and an additional five thousand members of their staff and members of the public have been killed.

No group has yet admitted responsibility for this terrorist attack but many are blaming the laws allowing the media to force well known individuals to reveal so much about their lives. The global campaign for privacy and respect has condemned the media corporations and called for a review of their exemption from privacy laws.’

Then the newsreader’s demeanour suddenly went from sombre to upbeat as he went on to say, ‘Stay with us, as we’re joined later by both the British Prime Minister, who’s government is currently introducing the new mind mapping technology, and the regional director of CON/PPC, who will both be explaining to you why privacy is a bad thing.’

As the names of the famous victims scrolled up the news screen the windows began to fade to black and I found myself back in the cubical surrounded by my friends, who seemed to be waiting for me to respond to what I’d just seen.

I managed to take a deep breath before saying, ‘that was the future we most definitely didn’t want to wake up in, it would have been my worst nightmare, and the frightening thing is, it wasn’t too long after I died. I mean, why didn’t those people just move somewhere else after their homes were forcibly bugged like that?’

‘Because when they were targeted by the media there was nowhere else to go. They became social lepers,’ said Simon, ‘there was no hiding place by that time, everywhere they went came under the same law. So obviously no one wanted to entertain them and risk having the same thing bought upon their home, even hotels had to have special rooms that were already wired up where they had to accommodate these celebrities.

‘That sounds awful, I would have preferred to stay dead than be revived into a society like that.’

‘I don’t think many of the celebrities liked it either Richard, but they relied on the power of the media for their careers so most of them reluctantly went along with it. The time when celebrities had the luxury of having any power over their own private lives, or even their own bodies for that matter, had gone, so a lot of them just convinced themselves that they didn’t mind doing whatever was asked of them, that it was their choice, and they still had self control. When in actual fact, they'd lost the control to be able to restrict what they were selling to just their talent, the media demanded everything.

Most did the very minimum they could get away with,  so they could pursue what they loved, but none of them could refuse to do anything that was asked of them, however intimate or private, without attracting the wrath of the media. Because by that time it had become so powerful that it could wipe people from history more efficiently than any Soviet dictator.

And we'll never know how many great talents were never discovered because they refused to put themselves forward and be treated in that way.'

‘How could we have blindly walked into that?’ I said.

‘They do say that you have to experience extremes before there’s a fundamental shift.’ said Jennifer, ‘The death of so many well known and loved people highlighted just how dangerous the media had become. It had brainwashed the public into believing anything it did was acceptable.

Show someone burning to death, being murdered, begging for their lives; it was news, so they showed it.

Show the famous through hidden cameras doing the most intimate things; they owed it to their fans, so show it.

Show someone being raped, it was news and the public had the right to see, so show it.

Show any sexual act, the more explicit the better, it was educational, so they showed it.

Use mind mapping technology to read your thoughts, it was acceptable because if you had nothing to hide, you had nothing to fear.

These were the arguments that pushed aside any consideration of public decency or respect for the individual involved, or any citizen’s privacy. Those things were just barriers to making money. Society didn’t matter to it because it had positioned itself completely outside the law and it had become at least as feared as any ungoverned institution in the world’s many policed states. It had taken on a life of its own, and literally had the power of life and death.’

Jennifer was looking uncomfortable at Earl’s embarrassment while talking about the industry he’d been so heavily involved with.

Noticing her discomfort he said, ‘I am not perfect, far from it. I fell under the same greedy spell as everyone else.’ He lowered his eyes in reflection. ‘I know I failed to retain some of my humanity back then, or take any action to prevent those things coming about.’ 

‘You died before those extremes became a reality Earl.’ added Jennifer.  ‘I don’t believe you would have actively participated in it, just like I am sure Simon would never have been involved with the misuse of the surveillance equipment he used to supply.’

Simon was biting his bottom lip as Jennifer said this.

‘Anyway,' I said breaking the tension, 'are you telling me that this event changed everything?’