MINDLYFT (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 14

I started to live in the hanger, sleeping under my desk, hanging out with the motley crew of rebels hoping to overthrow the system, and otherwise fiddling around with a pile of ThinkingCaps. I knew how to disable most of the assemblies but had no idea how to program a virus, transmit it, or use it to 'wake people up' as Nash had phrased it. I wasn't even sure he knew what that meant.

Every few days I'd go back and visit my father and little brother. My father was morose as always and my little brother was turning out to be a good imitator of his master template. Only Ollie seemed to have a personality. He and I got along but it was a kind of love and hate thing. Playful but sinister because I knew if Ollie was plugged in he could probably launch nuclear missiles or some other such chaos. Knowing my Dad that was probably somewhere in the works.

I mentioned my new group of friends to Dad but he didn't react much. Just a sneer of disgust. Guess that was the most he could muster considering what he himself was up to. He'd given up trying to convince me to return to the real world. A real job. A real life. Instead he worked tirelessly in his bunker, hoping a five year old boy and a cartoon dog could save humanity. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would work. What the hell do I know?

Four weeks into my new mission with Nash a strange woman waved at me across the street one afternoon when I left the hangar to go for a walk. She was bald with thick eyebrows and eyes that looked huge compared to her tiny nose that must have been a genetic alteration. Her skin was pale, smooth, and tight, as if she were in her mid-teens, but her lanky arms and legs, and the disposition of her posture told me she was probably much older. That and the fact that most teenage girls wouldn't be walking around bald when there are a thousand options to grow hair. Everything from gene mods to stem cell implants and fresh-print wigs. I waved back and kept walking.

The click of heeled boots clacked behind me and I turned to see that Baldy was following me and gaining ground. I couldn't lead her back to the hanger so I stopped and turned around. Seems I'd be having a conversation whether I wanted to or not.

"Do I know you?" I asked.

"I know you JennaBerry June," she said. "I know you very well. My name is Hinka HellsPath. I work for MoonCorp. Executive Director of the Protection Project."

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" I didn't like being followed. Didn't like someone knowing who I was either. Especially when I was OffGrid.

"Not yet, but you will. In a few weeks everyone on the planet will know. Everyone who's plugged in anyway."

"Well, as you probably already know, I'm not plugged in," I said. "I'm living in GutterVille for a reason."

"You were exiled here, yes I know, but it doesn't have to be that way. I'm here to offer you something."

"And what might that be?"

"A job. A plugged in job, but not one as a node. You wouldn't have to wear a Cap. In fact, the job would require that you not be wearing one."

"What kind of job would that be?" I suddenly remembered Ollie's promise a few weeks ago.

"We need your creativity. Your independent thinking. We're looking for alternative solutions. People like you who can think on your feet and come up with something original."

"Guessing this isn't a StoryLine program or a political campaign you need help with," I quipped. Those were the most predictable scripts on the SphereNet.

"This is the Protection Project, as I said before. Perhaps the most important undertaking ever for MoonCorp, Earth, and the human race. We've got a global killer coming at us and we need a solution fast. A number of efforts designed by the Algos have already failed. We need something new. Something original. I've been asked to assemble a team. I want you on it."