REVERSE BIRTH: The Battle Against False Consciousness in the Age of Moloch

34

Blood dripped down Alicia's forearm and off her elbow but she kept her hands on the steering wheel. She had to concentrate as she maneuvered the van toward the freeway. She ignored the pain, the blood, the fear, and the screaming...

"My sister! We have to go back... We have to go back NOW!"

A line of police cars passed them going the other direction, toward the hospital, with their sirens blaring. She swerved into the left-turn lane to pass a car stopping at the light that had just turned red. She accelerated through the wide intersection and an angry horn sounded behind them. "Turn around!" Serena shouted. "I have to make sure she's okay!" Alicia got the van onto the freeway and pushed her speed up to 75. She took a breath. Now that the van was pointed in the right direction and they were a safe distance from the hospital, she could find out about the blood. Serena kept yelling as Alicia looked at her right hand.

A round had gone right through, just below her ring finger. Blood pumped out steadily. She had to put pressure on the wound, but she also had to drive. "Oh my god!" Serena shouted. "That's a lot of blood!" Alicia put the wounded hand under her thigh and leaned over so that most of her weight was on it.

"Are you hit?" She asked Serena.

"No, but my sister was!" Serena said. "We have to go back and help her!"

"She got it in the shoulder." Alicia said. "And she's at a hospital. What can we do?" In reality, Alicia wasn't so sure that it was the shoulder —Bea could've been hit somewhere closer to her collar-bone.

"I have to help her!"

"They're not going to stop." Alicia said. "They're after you and right now they don't know where you are. I want to keep it that way."

"I think a reporter got hit too." Serena said. "Where did that guy come from?"

"There's a whole division," Alicia said, trying to ignore the hot lance piercing her hand, "Exotic Assets. Practically all they do is create and manage lone nuts. We have to hide you."

Alicia passed Ben Scanlon in the hallway outside the supply depot at the Industry hub in Sarasota. He was tall and thin with light brown hair and blue eyes. She knew him from photos in a private file Smik had shared with her.

As Scanlon passed, he showed no sign that he recognized her. EA guys usually worked with blinders on, fulfilling this or that function without knowing the larger context. HR and Marketing agents had to know the topography, but a guy like Scanlon would only know the terrain. His presence confirmed her suspicion about the Industry's plans for the resurrected reporter. Her suspicion was further confirmed by the news she got when Dr. Rago called from the hospital.

"There's a movie crew trying to get footage of Serena." The doctor said. "Security ejected them from the building, but they're still outside. They must've come as soon as they heard."

"Okay, I'll look into it." Alicia said. "You should prepare the hospital staff for a media circus. Who else knows about the DNA test?"

"Just my PA Beth." Rago said. "What were the results?"

"It's her." Alicia said. "There's no doubt."

"So who got shot in New York?"

"I don't know. But if there's a film crew there already, that means the story's about to hit the national media. Serena's family will come and they'll have to request a DNA test to have her legally declared not-dead. As far as anyone knows, that should be the first DNA test."

"Okay," Dr. Rago said, "and just so you know, she's been trying to contact her friends and family. They're all hanging up on her."

"They were just at her funeral." Alicia said. "It's going to take awhile to convince people. Has she talked to a social worker?"