Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World

At midnight he approached the Infochurch tabernacle on Middle Bowery. The Blue Abbot allowed him entrance when he mentioned a certain code given him by the splendid Doctor Kismet. He entered a private booth and knelt before the giant monitor, which instantly switched on.

A tall man, even taller than Folio, with one shining silver eye and one normal gray orb, appeared on the screen.

“Hello, Folio.”

“Ivan,” the last detective said.

“I’m surprised it took you so long to find me. You must be slipping.”

“I should have guessed when you gave Tana and her step-father my protocols.”

“I didn’t give your access code away, Folio,” the doctor said in a friendly voice. “I merely let them piggyback on a transmission from Home to you.”

“Why?”

“Such a large question.”

“I know most of the big stuff. You and the other corps had a thing working with the IS. You had a communications system that the Seekers stumbled onto without knowing it. IBC, Red Raven, MacroCode, and Randac. You killed the kids because somewhere in the trillion trillion trillion bits of data they downloaded for their afternoon talks there might have been some clue to your secret.”

“Congratulations,” Kismet said with a paternal smile.

“Why me?”

“Charles Spellman told Azuma Sherman on our own frequency that he was going to get in touch with you. When your name shows up on our system I am always contacted. I love you, Folio.”

“So you sent the assassin after me?”

“Only to check you out, to find out where your client might have been. She fell for you, you know. Another unit from the Blue Zone had already engaged the sixer. She fought him to save your life.”

“If you didn’t give her my protocols how did she follow me?”

“In your right-hand front pocket.”

Folio reached into his pants and came out with a tiny scrap of paper that had Tana Lynn’s number on it.

“Micro-mitter?”

“No.”

“Radioactive?”

“Nothing. Just what it appears to be, a simple piece of paper torn from a discarded instruction sheet.”

“So? How do you track that?”

Real pleasure came into the madman’s face. “We’ve made an amazing discovery, Folio. The most important discovery in the history of the world. Every atom, every electron, proton, and maybe all subatomic particles — they are all, each and every one of them, unique.”

A small subsystem in Folio’s eye began transcribing the doctor’s words.

“Unique? You mean you can tell one atom of oxygen from another one?”

“By submyrral variance mathematics we could give every electron on this planet a name.”

“She put this paper in my pocket...”

“... and we tracked it.”

“Usin’ submyyral whatever?”

Kismet grinned broadly. Folio knew how rare this was and he was afraid.

“What’s all this got to do with the kids?”

“Nothing, really. It’s just that they mistakenly downloaded a series of files in a secret intercorporate database.”

“What files?”

“My Dominar and certain investigative branches of Randac, Red Raven, and IBC had run across a gene-testing project that the IS has been conducting in preparation for their so-called race war. We had entered into negotiations with the Aryan branch of the organization to prepare, financially, for any situations that might arise.”

“Prepare what?”

“For whatever, my friend. Of course, these negotiations needed to be private. And even though we knew these children would be unlikely to break our codes, we had to take steps.”

“So you killed ten human beings just on the off chance that they might read a file?”

“Ten lives,” Kismet said on a sigh. “If the IS gets their way, billions will die. Billions.”

“So in order to stop them you had to kill the kids?”

“First we need to understand the viability of a genetically run race war. Then we’ll consider actions, if indeed there are actions to be taken.”

“Race war? Genes? Man, are you sick?”

“Hardly, Officer Johnson. Hardly.” Kismet’s long face became downcast. “I’m sorry about the girl.”

“Tana?”

“She had to die, you know. By the time I realized that you and she had something the poison was already in her. Her and that adopted stepfather of hers, the one who transmitted the Azuma killing to your eye.”

Folio resisted the urge to dive into the screen.

“You know I can’t let this thing lie, Ivan.”

“I know.”

“You killed that woman. I owed her something. She was a killer but she saved my life. And I’ll have to find these Itsies before they do something crazy.”

“It will be a glorious time, won’t it, old friend?”

“Why did you connect with me, Ivan?” Folio asked.

“It was fate, Folio. Kismet. Your name came up and I realized that this race war will be waged against you, your people. I included you to give you a chance to fight against the Aryan branch of the ISD. I’m giving you a chance to save your people.”

“They’re your people too, man,” Folio sputtered. “Black people are your largest membership on three continents.”

“One day everyone will be my devotee. You, Folio, you are one of my apostles. It is your job to save these people. It is my wish.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Am I?”

Folio put his foot through the screen, then stormed out of the tabernacle and into the night.