A story exploring time travel and societal issues in the wake of 9/11. This is chapter 31. 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, 28, 29, and 30.
A month at the Colorado ecovillage was as long as Thomas was willing to be away from his home base and Anything Federation News. While Trish and Ana stayed put, he returned to Minneapolis and began getting caught up on work. At the same time, he shut down every part of NIS that had to do with the NSEA systems. The whole project was boxed up and shipped to an unused TAP property near the AFN office. Aside from what Reed had taken, all of the project's pieces were accounted for.
It was hard to remain vigilant against the threat of mind-controlled assassins. It was theoretically possible for one to always be around the next corner. To distract himself from this, Thomas started a new project. The first stage of this project was to construct two giant spheres in the industrial space where the NSEA headsets were. One day while working on this, he heard a noise behind him and found Mr Tyler, from Mr Wachuski's office, standing there with a suitcase next to him.
"I'm pleased to see you're in good health," said Mr Tyler. "Reed Johnson recently died of a heart attack in Sacramento."
"I see," said Thomas, suspicious. "Thank you for telling me."
"Everything he took from NIS is in the bag," said Mr Tyler. "Plus a little something for your trouble."
"It's all here?" said Thomas, moving to open the suitcase. He unzipped it and inspected its contents. "So no one else has this tech?"
"That's the idea," said Mr Tyler.
"Your handling of this matter is impressive," said Thomas. "I'll keep funding your fund."
"Great," said Mr Tyler. "But there's a bit more to it."
"You want more money?" asked Thomas. "I can increase my investment if need be."
"That would be most welcome, but I'm here to ask you to give a select group of approved individuals access to your BCI technology from time to time," said Mr Tyler. "They would, of course, work around your schedule."
Thomas looked around at the partially constructed giant spheres and the pile of boxed up tech. "Government or private sector?" asked Thomas.
"Funny that you think there's a difference in business like ours," said Mr Tyler. "You know, Johnson sold your secrets to Zee Corporation for a song and a dance. Fortunately, we were able to secure those secrets. It's in no one's interest for this particular secret to get out."
"No kidding," said Thomas. "And what will you do with the tech once you have it?"
"Above my pay grade," said Mr Tyler.
"Even with Reed dead, there is always the possibility that he created sleeper agents," said Thomas.
"Maybe, but I'd be surprised," said Mr Tyler. "From what I understand, his initial plan was to kill the elder Mr Barabos and take over NIS. When that didn't work out, he fell to pieces. I don't see him creating sleeper agents."
"Is his death officially known?" asked Thomas.
"He was ID'd correctly by the coroner and there may be a news story or two," said Mr Tyler. "NIS might consider putting out a press release about how you're all heartbroken that he attempted industrial espionage, but the work must go on. That sort of thing."
When Mr Tyler left, Thomas wheeled the suitcase he'd brought over with the rest of the boxed up equipment, threw a dingy tarp over the whole pile, locked the building behind him, and walked over to the AFN office. There, he found a dozen writers at desks in an area they called The Nest. Further into the building, Thomas saw that one of their reporters was in the green screen room, recording a segment. Passing the office of the junior editors, he eventually made it to his old office, which was now occupied by a new head editor, Rashonda Wells. Thomas didn't knock, and he found the editor hunched over her computer.
"This a good time?" asked Thomas.
"Oh thank god," said Rashonda, looking up. "I've got a story here that I don't know how to handle."
"Good to see you too, Rashonda," said Thomas. "Reed Johnson was found dead of a heart attack in Sacramento. The angle is how sad to see a brilliant mind go, even if he did try to rip NIS off. Maybe put Todd Harvey on it. I'll get him Dave Dhee's number for comment."
"Okay, but I still need your help," said Rashonda. "Harvey's latest piece says US foreign policy amounts to blocking cheap medications for the developing world while selling them weapons to kill each other."
"That sounds about right," said Thomas. "So what's the problem?"
"The problem is that I want him on a polonium story," said Rashonda. "Not the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. There's a bigger story here about polonium 210 in tobacco being the cause of lung cancer."
"I'm not following," said Thomas.
"The short version is that processed phosphate fertilizers introduce polonium into the tobacco plant." said Rashonda. "This then hits the smoker with alpha particles which cause the cancer."
"Okay, but why is this news?" asked Thomas.
"There are a few things," said Rashonda. "First, Big Tobacco knew about it for decades and didn't address it. They even tried to wash the radioactivity off of the leaves with non-polar solvents, which didn't work. The thing they never tried was using tobacco grown without the chemical fertilizers in the first place. And here's where it gets weird."
"Okay," said Thomas.
"After searching and searching, I couldn't find a single legit study that looked at the difference between organic and chemical tobacco in terms of health outcomes," said Rashonda. "So the scientific community knew that a chemical fertilizer was the origin of all of this lung cancer, but no one ever studied tobacco that didn't include the chemical input. Like, what the fuck?"
"That does seem fishy," said Thomas.
"Well, it gets better," said Rashonda. "Ever hear of Sir Richard Doll? He was a cancer researcher, the cancer researcher, really, who connected cigarette smoking with lung cancer early on. Way back in 1951. There's a mountain of research that was built on his work. But from what I can tell, he was as corrupt as the day is long."
"So ... ?" asked Thomas.
"Sir Richard Doll was paid enormous sums of money by Monsanto," said Rashonda. "Fifteen hundred bucks a day. He studied Agent Orange, a Monsanto product, and found that it wasn't carcinogenic. There's also record of him being paid by the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Dow Chemicals, and ICI. Keep in mind, those are just the ones we know about. And, surprise surprise, his findings always favored the people paying him."
"So you're thinking his early research was also tainted by industry?" asked Thomas.
"Yes, but not the tobacco industry," said Rashonda. "The chemicals industry and Big Ag. I think he used tobacco as a convenient scapegoat for the cancer causing effects of chemicals used in industrial agriculture. Blame the plant, not the toxic shit injected into the plant. That kind of thing."
Thomas sighed. "You're probably right," he said. "But maybe don't do the story."
"What?" asked Rashonda. "Why not?"
"T2 was convinced that there's a global conspiracy underway to steal our fire," said Thomas. "The idea was that the control regime is severing our connection with fire in both a mechanical and mythic sense. At the same time, tobacco clears the mind without producing intoxication in the addict. The control regime doesn't want clear minds. It wants repeat customers for pills that alter brain chemistry."
"Okay, but why shouldn't I do the story?" asked Rashonda.
"Because true or not, implying that tobacco could be made safer without industrial chemicals is probably more trouble than it's worth," said Thomas. "It's like claiming that cows eat grass in Iowa. Yes, any thinking person knows that cows do indeed eat grass. But in Iowa, where cows are fed corn instead grass, admitting that cows eat grass is a good way to get fired from your job."
"So you'll fire me if I run the story?" asked Rashonda.
"I'd never fire someone for writing the truth," said Thomas. "Write what you want. But if you end up taking any kind of pro-tobacco stance, you might not ever be able to get another job in this industry."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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