SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

Silas's time away to heal from his injuries in the car wreck reinvigorates an enthusiasm for social action. At the LOTRY Community Center, the group plans a nighttime excursion to a club across town in celebration of their fifth anniversary. The event is being sponsored by the social media news personality, Van Dyke. After interviewing Silas on his live broadcast at the hospital, he's become a sensation at the Community Center, visiting for meetings several days a week. But the things he's learned along the way have radicalized him with rage toward Ellis Bartram's commercial enterprise, like the exploitation of cheap laborers. The vow of character assassination still hasn't left their plans, but now it's time for celebration.

The nightclub is a hotspot attraction called Amplify. The theme is electric mixes arranged by the day's DJ to popular hits in all genres—amplified by holographic projections. The line along the outside perimeter is long, with reservations deciphered with the help of body scanners. Silas's outfit is bright red at the top and burgundy to the bottom, contrasted to suede shoes that compliment his mahogany brown skin under the moonlight. LOTRY is not alone. The young intern from Delphi Corp., Ben Sims, is present in the waiting area. Just as Naoto Shimizu forewarned him, the dangers of a risqué lifestyle could hamper his internship with recreational distractions. It is a night out with his new boyfriend. Times like these make them want to give heed to such warnings, surrounded by misfits, yet Ben remains steadfast in his desire to unwind from the stress.

Ben keeps his Delphi identification close just in case he needs to show his working credentials. Before readying to enter the club's scanner interface, he shoves it, along with the encryption wad into a back pocket. Especially the encryption device with valuable codes, data, and other computer processes. While in line, Ben stays warm while hugging his date snugly. Crisp air fogs to the dim-lit mist that whirls around them, and for a moment, the music from inside echoes with each opening and closing of sliding doors. A flurry of electric beats thumps to rhythmic swaying in steady intervals, long chords rattle loose bones prepared to take it to the dance floor. When they finally make it in there is already a massive swarm of people crowding the rave's center dancefloor.

LOTRY anniversary processions start on stage when the DJ cuts the music halfway through the night. Van Dyke comes on stage to make his appearance and is met with a round of applause.

"Hey! Put your lighters, drinks, whatever you've got in the air right now." Van Dyke points to a reserved table full of Community Center members. "This is for Silas, and to a better world that doesn't have CCS plastered everywhere!" He finishes the toast with a gulp of some aged whiskey he's fond of.

They're particularly excited because boycotts on grocery outlets due to the food shortage have been successful. Farms using Delphi Corp. equipment have been relying on an automated distribution of pesticides and feed. To make things worse, the latest farming tools use a mix of LED tech with advanced diode lights. These are the photons infecting the crops each day. The steady breakdown of an already overloaded system means that frequent blackouts to the Cloud infrastructure make the entire platform susceptible to failure.

In a drunken stupor, Ben inadvertently pulls out his encryption wad and raises it with a hand to the lights pulsating under the darkened ceiling. Gyrating his body in unison to his partner in front of him, the device slips from his grasp to the floor below. The shuffling feet kick the flimsy computer node around and no one seems to care at all while bouncing through the sea of giddy dancers. The music doesn't stop, continuing to turn the throttle of emotional ecstasy. Ben and his partner lose themselves in the thrill, and subsequently any intuition of what's important now that the encryption device is gone, but they are hardly sober anymore. They haven't the slightest care in the world.