CHAPTER 4
A few minutes later, Jade and Locke snuggled on the couch, the heavy OWG Manual in her lap. By mandate, the Manual resided in each nightstand across the World. Containing over 1000 pages of small print, Hamilton had used thirteen copies of this book to crush Govicide Agent Barbra Bitner.
Locke’s and Jade’s Manual was well-worn. Printed with the title, “OWG MANUAL,” and a map of the World on the front, the black cover had faded to a dark gray from years of use. Theirs even showed spill marks from drinking while reading. At the bottom of the cover, still legible, was the OWG motto: Providing everything for everyone.
Govicide Agents, on unscheduled stop-ins, often checked the Manuals, making sure they looked like they had been used. The OWG expected the Masses to read at least a chapter of the book every week. If a Manual looked too “nice,” the Agents gave on-the-spot quizzes to check a subject’s knowledge. If the subject failed, credit deductions followed, along with a host of other penalties.
“Are you ready?” Jade asked, flipping the book open.
“Ready,” Locke answered, rubbing his hands together, confident he would do well.
She thumbed through, stopping at a page near the front, “I’ll start with an easy one. How’d Govicide get started?”
“Govicide, originally called the Department of Collections, came to be when the OWG got created. Year one. It made sure each subject gave his fair share to the OWG. Two years later, the name got changed to Govicide. Its name came from the idea anyone who tried to withhold credits from the OWG was trying to kill it. Thus, the term, Govicide. Just like homicide means the killing of a human. Govicide means the killing of the OWG.” He smiled. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
She pointed at him. “Oh, don’t you worry. How many workers were in Govicide at the beginning?”
“Hmmm, a hundred thousand?”
“Close, a hundred and ten thousand. When did it increase to two hundred thousand?”
“Now, let me think about this . . .” Locke tapped his lips with his left hand. “When the OWG figured out the current economic conditions weren’t fair. Back in year nine.”
For the next two hours, Jade fired every question they thought Director Stallings might ask. Why did the number of Govicide workers go from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand? Answer: It believed the World would be more perfect if it provided healthcare and electricity to the Masses.
Why did the OWG un-mandate sports? Answer: It caused the Masses to compete against each other and competition was not in the OWG’s best interests. The concept of winners and losers became un-mandated a few months later.
Why did Govicide go from three hundred thousand workers to four hundred thousand? Answer: It predicted how happier the Masses would be if the OWG provided products like video communication devices and phones. In addition, these technologies could help spread the OWG’s tenets. It needed more credits to do so thus Govicide got bigger.
“What verse details why subjects cannot trade with each other?”
“Transactions 963:3.”
“What paragraph explains why gift-giving takes six months?”
“Transactions 874:5.”
“Procedures for turning a fellow subject in for un-mandated behavior?”
“Spying 302:2.”
Locke knew the answer to every question. Of course, he had no choice, no subject of the Masses did. It was the only course of study, along with the OWG language, taught in OWG schools.
They took a break. Locke poured a glass of water while Jade made a sandwich of white bread and OWG peanut butter.
“You’re doing better at this than I thought,” she said. They reconvened on the couch.
“And how would you be doing?” Locke asked with a sideways glance.
“I’d have gotten most of these right . . . I think. I follow the mandates even though I might not understand the intricacies of why they make the World so good.”
“Uh-huh,” Locke answered, doubtful.
“I would,” she shot back, punching him in the arm.
“Okay, okay,” Locke put his hands in surrender. “Next question.”
“How did the One World Government start?” Jade picked at her bread.
“In the beginning, fifty-two years ago, three wise males were able to harness the chaos of the World and bring order. No more fighting. No more starvation. No more subjects thinking only of themselves. Just subjects working for the common good. You want a more complete answer?”
“No, that’s good enough for now.” She flipped to the back of the book, hundreds of pages snapping against the hardcover. “What year was Govicide finally able to control every transaction on the World? And how?”
Locke folded his hands and searched for the thought. “Year 18. How? With the creation of the System which tracks all transactions and interactions through the use of our cards.”
As Jade searched for the next question, he thought about the perfection of the OWG. How it made sure no one starved. How it made sure no subject received more than another, except for Govicide workers, of course. But, without them, subjects would starve, so it only made sense they got more than everyone else.
A smile came to Locke’s face, growing with every word.
How the OWG delivered food to everyone’s door. How subjects couldn’t drive automobiles in order to protect World’s delicate environment. How Offenders were tracked down by Agents and then hung at dawn.
Like Hamilton would be.
Locke planned to go into the interview tomorrow and come out being the first subject ever recruited into Govicide. He would be an Agent, making sure the OWG continued to provide everything for everyone. All subjects needed it.
Except Hamilton.
The smile changed to a frown. Pain shot up Locke’s legs. His toes curled in on themselves. He turned away so Jade wouldn’t see his demeanor change. Muscle by facial muscle, he turned his frown to a smile again, trying to wipe Hamilton from his mind.
Jade found her next question and continued, not noticing Locke’s distress.
They finished up as the sun rose over Gambling City. He didn’t miss a question. Whether his memory would hold up under the pressure of the Director’s questioning, he wasn’t sure. But, he was glad he’d at least get the chance.
In addition, Locke felt the two of them had bonded in reviewing the Manual together. Now that they had done it, he realized they needed it, considering he’d been away so much.
An interview with Govicide. Locke bonding with Jade again. Things were looking up.
“Gotta take the test again.” Jade laid the Manual aside, inhaling and exhaling enough air to catch Locke’s attention.
“What test?”
“You know . . .” She rose from the couch and pointed to her stomach.
Like a tidal wave, Jade’s two words washed away his confidence, replaced with a pool of anxiety. His knee bounced. “Oh, right.”
Locke followed her into the sleeping room then into the shower room.
“Michael, can I have a little privacy?”
“Sorry. I’m a little anxious.” That was an understatement.
Jade shut the bathroom door behind her.
He plunked himself on the bed.
Could a subject be an Agent and have a girlcomrade who was pregnant through non-sex credit sex?
No way. Never. If she were pregnant, he’d slide to the entire opposite side of the scale from prospective Agent status.
But he waited, rubbing his glazed palms together and closing his eyes, asking the OWG for luck just this one time.
For fifteen seconds.
He couldn’t stand it anymore. He needed something to expend his nervous energy.
The bed was still undone from his nap the evening before. He fluffed the pillows, flattened the sheets, and tucked the covers under the mattress into a tight wrapped box. But all the action did little to dissipate the anticipation of the next few minutes.
The toilet flushed.
“So, what’s the test say?” Locke asked. Please be negative. Please be negative. Please be negative.
Silence.
Not good.
“Jade, what does it say?”
The handle of the bathroom door rotated and the door opened. Jade stuck her head out.
“It says I’m six weeks pregnant.” They sounded like the worst words ever to come out of her mouth, as if each torturous syllable scalded her tongue.
And they scalded Locke’s ears.
She shut the door remaining in the bathroom.
“Six weeks? Six weeks?” He slumped over but straightened when a spasm rippled through his spine. It ended in his neck muscles but the residual pain stuck around like earthquake after-shocks.
He crawled across the bed to their sex credit electronic date book and pressed the on button. Flipping back a few screens to six weeks ago, Locke saw what Jade said yesterday. If Jade conceived six weeks ago, they hadn’t had sex credit sex within two weeks of the date.
“Uh, Jade. We got a problem.”
“I know.” Her words sounded like they scarred the inside of her mouth.
“The date book says we aren’t even close. There’s no way we’re going to be able claim you conceived during Sex Credit sex.”
“What part of ‘I know’ didn’t you understand, Michael?”
“Right . . . right.” He glanced at the electronic book one more time and shut it off.
Jade opened the bathroom door, knotting her robe. Any harder and she would have ripped it in two. Locke stared at the knot, thinking his insides felt the same way.
“So, what do you want to do?” he asked.
“Me?” Three quick steps and Jade joined him at the bed. “Me? Don’t you put this on me?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Michael Locke. I don’t think I do. Why don’t you tell me?” she answered, folding her arms.
“What I mean is,” this felt like Hamilton’s interrogation all over again, “the right thing to do is turn ourselves in like the Manual says.”
She sat down beside him. “Us. Together. Not me going down there by myself and ruining our lives. You’re coming with me.”
Ruined their lives. That’s exactly what they had done. No more Goods and Services provided to them. They’d be struggling in no time.
And Locke was this close to becoming an Agent.
Maybe there was another way out.
“You could get an abortion. Pretend like it never happened,” Locke pleaded.
She shook her head, “Don’t get me wrong. If this were a mandated pregnancy, all on the up and up, I’d do it in a second. But, I know females who tried that. The abortion registers on the System. The OWG Doctors check to see how old the fetus is. They’ll check our sex records and find out what we already know.”
“Right.” Answers, Locke, answers. There had to be a way out. “How about you just keep the fetus? Maybe when it’s born they won’t know when it got conceived.”
“They’ll know. They always know. And if you think I’m going to carry this thing for nine months on the hopes of them making a mistake then you’re the one who’s mistaken.”
“It’s better than nothing.” It seemed like such a good idea when he said it.
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to get as big as this bed in the process.” She held her hand out in front of her stomach, showing how big she’d get.
“Sorry.”
They sat in silence. Locke heard about subjects doing abortions on their own but every one of them ended with the female dying. He heard a story of a female convincing an OWG Doctor to come to her living quarters and perform one outside the System. They both got caught, hung in the District a week later. For sure, no OWG Doctor would ever risk it again.
“I guess you don’t have to go to the airport after all.” Jade stated, laying her head on his shoulder.
Locke squeezed his eyes shut so tight his eyebrows almost touched his cheeks. He relived the last few days in seconds, knowing they’d be the last good ones he’d ever have. The Hamilton interrogation didn’t even seem so bad now.
“Hamilton . . .” It took Locke a few seconds to figure out why the name came to his lips.
“Hamilton?” Jade’s head rose from his shoulder.
“I’m the Detective who caught Hamilton.” His back straightened as a dot of hope appeared.
“And . . .”
He turned to her. ”I’m the Detective who caught Hamilton, the murderer of fourteen Govicide Agents. And . . . I’m the first subject to ever get an interview with the Director. That has to mean something.”
“I’m not following you, Michael.”
Locke jumped off the bed. “I caught Hamilton. Sure, it was with Govicide help. But, Hamilton’d still be out there if it weren’t for me. The Director already let me interrogate Hamilton. Something no detective in the history of the OWG would have been allowed to do under different circumstances. Sure, it was just a courtesy. But maybe it was more than that. His invitation to the District proves it. Maybe the Director genuinely felt I earned that interrogation but couldn’t say it because Homicide Detectives are so low in the OWG. To say a detective earned something from Govicide, well, the thought alone would have to be un-mandated, right? So, who’s to say, my catching Hamilton couldn’t earn a one-time abortion with no penalties?”
“You think that’s possible?” Now Jade jumped up, her voice cracking with excitement.
“With the OWG, everything is possible. And Govicide makes it possible.”
And without it, everything was impossible.
Unless you were Hamilton.
This time the thought of the killer felt uplifting. Yes, the killer deserved the execution coming to him. But, maybe all his murders hadn’t been for nothing. Without them, Jade and Locke would have looked at extinction in a year’s time due to the penalties for a fetus conceived during un-mandated sex.
Now, since the Agents were dead, and Locke caught the killer, he was not any ordinary detective. He was not any ordinary subject. The OWG couldn’t penalize someone who caught the killer of fourteen Govicide Agents, could it?
This new line of thinking thrust Locke around the room. He tapped on his left thigh with every step, sure this could be the way out.
“I hope you’re right about this, Michael.”