Individuation (Part 3)

The city stars streak burning white across the night’s blackness overhead. Man has formed his own constellations here on earth, hovering like watchful, artificial gods above each city, replacements for those we can no longer see; a testament to the undying power of the mega-corps, to the benevolent omniscience of the Council.

     “You trust him?” I break the silence that’s ensued since Cassandra and I departed from Sidereal’s, en-route to another safe house where I am to live with her, until the song--their supposed ultimate weapon--is fully born.

     “Yes. Of course,” she says. Her eyes, rarely blinking, are focused far beyond the physical confines of the self-drive’s warm interior. She leans forward in her seat and the car accelerates.

     “And the implant?”

     “I had installed at his request, yes.”

     Cybernetics conferred superhuman power, but also deadly vulnerability: the most prized hacks in the Age of Enhancement were people’s minds. Still, to some the risk was deemed worthwhile. A man could raise his status considerably by offering himself as data courier or corporate spy. That the graceful, conceivably innocent Cassandra would risk her mind and life for Sidereal’s ill-conceived revolution infuriated me, even more so than his appropriating my own subconscious as womb to a laboratory-originated seed of an idea. At least hers could still be a life worth living.

     “Just who are we trying to save, Cassandra?” My words fall loosely and without much forethought, elicited by the rapidly passing scenery: the massive tower blocks plunging headlong into newly hung gray nimbi, the straggling revelers to their after-parties.  “Everyone has a job, seems content enough. Certainly no one desires a return to the days of mass unemployment. It’s still too fresh in their minds.”

     “This we’ve considered. In fact, it’s the reason you’re involved.”

     “To brainwash them …”

     “To liberate them, Tomas." She shifts her thin weight slightly and the car veers to the left. "They’ve already been brainwashed.”