A story exploring time travel and societal issues in the wake of 9/11. This is chapter 32. 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, 30, and 31.
Two dull metal spheres dominated the industrial interior of the building where Thomas had been spending much of his time. Each sphere was hollow and insulated, with an outer diameter of thirteen feet. Inside each were comfortable chairs, computers, and NSEA headsets.
While Thomas made and outfitted these spheres, four anonymous workers came and went, two men and two women. Thomas called them A, B, C, and D. In various combinations, these four would arrive, fiddle with the tech, spend time in one of the building's two offices, and leave. They had their own keys to the building, which had initially surprised Thomas though it should not have, and they mostly kept to themselves.
Having delegated all of his regular work to capable others, Thomas turned his focus exclusively to the spheres, and to programming software for the NSEA systems. Over time, AFN attracted a million subscribers, half a million families were renting-to-own on TAP properties, and the value of NIS exploded as blockchain tech grew from obscurity into something everybody was talking about.
Though he observed these developments and sent weekly letters to the whole network recognizing them as they unfolded, Thomas became increasingly absorbed with his work on the spheres, which he started calling the Mind Spheres. He wrote Mind Sphere programs and tested them on himself. Once a week, Thomas made an appearance at AFN, never once mentioning the secret project which had become his obsession.
A great deal of time passed. Years passed, and T2's legacy continued to bear fruit. Then, as the end of 2015 approached, things changed for Thomas. Ana, Trish, and Dave Dhee turned up in Minneapolis, banging on the door of the Mind Spheres building. Thomas was studying a computer screen when they arrived, and it took him a minute to even realize that someone was knocking. "Oh, hey," he said when he eventually opened the door.
"Hey, yourself," said Ana. "Don't you even look at your phone anymore?"
"Not really," said Thomas.
"What the fuck is that?" asked Trish, pushing her way into the building, ogling the spheres.
"Seriously!" said Dave.
"Alright, alright," said Thomas. "You may as well come in. But this project is as secret as it gets, and I'm counting on you to keep it that way."
"I can't believe you kept it a secret from us!" said Trish. "We expected to find you deep in cocaine and hookers. Or maybe lost in a painting, like what used to happen with T2. But this? What even is this?"
"I call them Mind Spheres," said Thomas, walking around a Sphere to show them its entrance. "I repurposed the NSEA systems to explore human potential."
"Why are there two?" asked Dave.
"For psychic research," said Thomas. "That'll be phase two. I'm still on phase one."
"I expect to hear all about it later," said Ana. "We have more important stuff to talk about now. Do you even realize that we've entered T2's red zone. You do remember about the red zone? This is the crucial moment everything he did prepared us for. And you're ... what? Playing mad scientist here?"
"So you're still thinking we can swing the Democratic Primary the other way, like T2 wanted?" asked Thomas. "Fine. I'm up for trying. There's a big whiteboard over there and we can order food. you want to hash this out, let's hash this out."
They sat on metal folding chairs in the larger of the building's two offices, eating sandwiches from the deli down the street. Ana had printed relevant sections of T2's timeline of the future, which she taped to the whiteboard. "So here's what we're looking at," she said once everyone was mostly done eating and chatting about everyday matters. "Hillary Clinton beats Bernie Sanders in the Primary and everything goes to shit. Ideas?"
"Just so we're clear," said Dave. "I didn't really know T2, so I don't understand the nuances of his plan. Is the objective to secure a Sanders win in the Primary, even if Trump eventually beats him in the general election? I mean, based on everything you've already shared with me, Trump has a billion dollars from the Koch brothers. He has Cambridge Analytica hijacking tens of millions of Facebook profiles to favor him. So, like, what does it matter who he beats in the general election?"
"It matters," said Thomas. "It matters because, in part, it will determine the lines along which people in this country become divided in the years to come. That was T2's thinking, anyway, and I trust him like I trust myself."
"So what are we looking at here?" asked Trish. "Campaign donations? Media blitz? What?"
"As much as I hate to say it," said Ana. "The whole process seems like it's already too corrupt to influence by traditional means. Thomas, have you read the briefing I emailed? Everyone else read it."
"Sorry," said Thomas. "But I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the situation from what T2 drummed into me, when he was alive."
"Okay, so why don't you take us through the next few months of this?" said Ana.
"Fair enough," said Thomas. "The short version is that the Democratic National Committee is not at all democratic. They've already selected Hillary Clinton despite the fact of her profound corruption. The most egregious example of this corruption was probably her approval of arms deals to Clinton Foundation donors when she ran the State Department. But whatever. The DNC wants her, not Bernie Sanders, so she's the one who'll win the election."
"At some point," continued Thomas. "A DNC staffer will become so fed up with the Clinton-DNC collusion that he'll leak a trove of damning emails to Wikileaks. The CIA will blame Russia for the leaks, and will convince mainstream media to start calling the leaks Russian hacks. Julian Assange will dispute this characterization. So will a diplomatic insider named Craig Murray. But the truth won't matter. By the time Broward County is caught literally destroying Sanders ballots , the election will long have been over."
"Fuck," said Trish. "Hearing it all summed up like that makes our job seem impossible."
"Only on the surface," said Thomas. "The momentum pulling us towards a Trump presidency is probably too great for us to overcome no matter what we do. But most of T2's wealth was passed to me. I could mobilize these funds to get Sanders the Democratic Party nomination. The big question in my mind is how to most effectively mobilize these funds."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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