A story exploring time travel and societal issues in the wake of 9/11. This is chapter 29. See previous posts for chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28.
Reed's bail was set at a million dollars. Upon making bail, he drove to San Francisco and disappeared. Everyone who had been with T2 in the early days had fortunes in offshore accounts and Reed was no exception. Though his assets had been frozen by the government and his crypto tokens had been invalidated on the Federation blockchain, he still likely had the resources to start a new life. And he would have had a plan in place for situations like this.
Coinciding with Reed's departure, six NSEA headsets went missing. To Thomas, this was a worst case scenario. A brilliant enemy with mind control technology was on the loose. In theory, any person could be compromised. Any stranger could be an unwitting agent of Reed's. Though he was tired of traveling, Thomas met Ana and Trish at the Colorado ecovillage, where everyone knew everyone, and no one seemed like a mind-controlled assassin.
"So that's it," said Ana, shaking a pan of popcorn on the campfire. "Agents are on the look out, but there are no more resources for Reed."
"Okay, so when can I go home?" asked Trish.
"I keep coming back to the idea that T2 was a demonstration of the tech for someone," said Thomas. "I mean, T2 was no Robert Kennedy, but his assassination did seem almost staged in some grotesque way."
"Foreign or domestic, are you thinking?" asked Ana.
"Knowing him, it could be either," said Thomas. "My guess is someone in Silicon Valley. Reed would totally pick California to disappear into."
"That sounds right," said Trish. "What does it mean for us?"
"If he gets plastic surgery and a fake ID, he could end up anywhere," said Ana.
"Guess you guys will be here for a while," said Harry, who was no longer called Harry the Drunk.
"Did the update you got include anything about our unaccounted for test subjects?" Thomas asked Ana.
"Nope," said Ana. "But our people continue to look into it. Just like our lawyers continue advocating for Kissinger and Orange, for all of the good it's doing."
"I still don't get why Reed was suddenly trying to sell to Drexler in the first place," said Trish. "Especially if he believed Thomas about the CIA being interested."
"I called him and told him that the CIA deal was a trap," said Ana. "After Thomas had everything Reed was going to give him, but before the Drexler demo. The goal was to get Reed to make a big mistake. In hindsight, we might have pushed him too far too fast."
"In hindsight, we should have gotten rid of him ourselves instead of trusting the law to deal with it," said Trish. "No offense, Ana. But he's in the wind now, because we trusted your Bureau."
"Don't forget, he's a national fugitive now," said Ana. "We couldn't have made that happen in-house."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Trish. "Between our ecovillages and our nodes, we've got most of the country covered. And none of us would've just let him go like that."
"And what could we do if we caught him?" asked Ana. "Make ourselves criminals by holding him somewhere? To what end?"
"We could use NSEA to convince him to make a video confessing to his crimes," said Thomas. "I don't see anyone believing the part about the mind control without something like that."
"So, mind control him into admitting his use of mind control?" said Trish. "That's as unethical as it is poetic."
"What about the media?" asked Harry. "I know our free press has become less and less free since 9/11, but don't like a million people read our Anything Federation News?"
"We'll get there eventually," said Thomas. "But I'm waiting until there's consensus on what to tell the public before putting the story out. Like, do we even want people knowing that our mind control tech exists?"
"One problem at a time," said Ana. "This whole thing is already too much, too fast. I'm still coming to terms with T2's death. I haven't even gotten through half of the information he gave me before he passed."
"Same," said Trish.
"Yeah," said Thomas.
"Sometimes I wish everything would just stop for a while," said Ana.
"Well, you've come to the right place for that," said Harry. "Around here, we've got nothing but time."
"You've also got sand," said Trish.
"Time and sand and pinion trees," said Harry.
"You know what I wish?" asked Trish. "I wish I never had to go back to the regular world. If I could just stay in Federation territory forever and never have to deal with normal people again, I'd be good. Great, even."
"T2 would have loved to hear you say that," said Ana.
"Yeah, he and I both," said Thomas. "To us, the known world has always been a wasteland, inescapable until he traveled back in time to create an escape hatch. Now, we're the best chance we've got of creating a parallel society that people participate in voluntarily. No bad actor, even one as bad as Reed, can make our Federation any less of an accomplishment."
"You all got me to quit drinking," said Harry. "Before I came here, I tried treatment and twelve steps and psychedelic trips, but I always came back to the drink. Then I came here and drank like a fish, at first. But it was no fun. Being a part of this ecovillage, being accountable to everyone for my contribution, I quit, and I haven't looked back. That never would've happened without T2."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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