Two weeks later, on another Saturday morning, John was awakened by the ringing of his mobile phone.
The previous night, with the help of his brother Charlie, he finally moved all his stuff back to his parents’ house. During the past two weeks he had been busy with two things: divorce and moving.
The divorce was relatively simple and quick compared to most divorce cases in the country, mainly because John did not fight for the major marital assets owned by him and Alice. He just kept his own car, own financial assets, plus his personal clothing, favorites and documents. He even gave up all the joint financial assets during the marriage without touching them at all. As a result, the plaintiff attorney, after getting the approval of Alice, was easy going with John and his attorney.
But still, finding an attorney and going through all the legal items for the divorce (including dealing with the attorneys of both sides) was a time-consuming and annoying process. One right thing John did was disappointing his own attorney by rejecting his temptation of fighting aggressively. It had been a very common thing for divorce attorneys to encourage their clients to take a tough position against the other side, and the consequence would be a very long divorce process, and accordingly, more money moved from the bank accounts of the divorcing couples to the accounts of the attorneys. John hired an attorney solely to avoid some simple mistakes due to lack of legal knowledge, but not to fight for more assets. Therefore, the whole process went relatively smoothly, and John received the certificate of divorce from his own divorce attorney on Friday morning.
Packing and moving his stuff from the mansion he purchased with Alice was another heart-broken and depressive thing. Over almost a quarter century living together, too many things in the house were bearing the marks of both of them, and thus it was not only emotionally but also technically difficult to separate his things from hers. After almost two weeks of toil for picking out and packing things that he was about to take with him, John finally moved out of that house of memory and back to the house where he grew up with his parents and siblings. On Friday afternoon, his brother Charlie rented a truck from a renter near his parents’ house, and drove the truck to John’s house in S City. It took both of them hours to load John’s stuff onto the truck and transported back to his parents’ house, and then they unloaded all the stuff into the yard and the garage.
When John went to bed, it was already late at night. Before he shut off the light, he sent a few texts to some friends, including Bob, telling them that he was officially divorced and moved back to his parents’ house.
This morning, John planned to stay at home taking a good rest. He needed to release the stress of the past month since his landing on the Republic of New People. But he was waked up from his dream by the ringing of the phone. With his sleepy eyes half opened, he found that the sunlight had already penetrated into the room through the interstices of the blinds.
“Hello, this is John,” He mumbled into the phone without checking the caller.
“Hi, John, did I wake you up?” It was Bob.
“Good morning Bob,” John saluted Bob over the phone.
“Hey, it’s the late morning at half past nine already,” Bob laughed over the phone.
“What’s up Bob?”
“I am taking a vacation this week. But I think I forgot to give you a vaccine shot after you came back from the tropical island. Could you come to my clinic today and I can give you the shot before I leave for the vacation?”
“But I am no longer in the S City. I am back to where we were in the old days,” John replied.
“Come on, don’t be lazy,” Bob urged. “If you get up now and drive to my clinic, you could even make it before the lunchtime. It has been quite a long time since we got together for lunch last time.”
“Sure. I will go,” John agreed. “But I will go by bus. It’s a pain in the neck to drive into the city.”
“Good,” Bob replied. “See you later.”
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John drove to the bus station near his parent’s house, and left his car in the parking lot. It was already past the rush hours, the buses were supposed to arrive at that local station only at every half an hour.
John caught the bus right on the schedule, and it was quite empty in the bus. After getting off the bus, John changed to the subway and then walked five minutes to get to Bob’s clinic. It was almost 12:30 PM when John arrived there.
On the door of the clinic, John saw a notice saying that the clinic would be closed for the weekend. John tried to open the door, but found it was locked. So he rang the bell.
Bob answered the door and let John get into the clinic.
“What vaccine do I need to take?” John asked.
“Shh….” Bob put his right index finger on his lips and then moved his mouth to John’s ear. “Have you discharged your mobile phone?”
“Sorry, I haven’t,” John whispered back and took the battery off his phone quickly.
Both laughed wryly, but with a relief.
“Don’t worry,” Bob said to John. “There is no vaccine for you to take.”
“Then what’s going on here?” John asked. “You must have something important to close the clinic for the weekend.”
“You are right,” Bob responded. “Let’s first go to get something to eat. Then you and I would leave for B City today.”
“Why?” John was surprised. “It’s too late to go there for today. I even did not pack any changes.”
“It’s important for you to go. I am just to spend time going with you,” Bob replied.
“What is this?”
“Let’s go grab some food from the deli across the street, and we can eat in the car while we are driving to B City.” Bob went to shut off all the lights and close all the doors of the clinic, and John followed Bob around.
“But I need at least to tell my parents why I am going to B City since I am now living with them.”
“Just tell them that I invite you on a tour for my vacation as an after-divorce psychological therapy,” Bob replied.
“They might wonder why I didn’t tell them in advance.”
“Tell them that I just got an extra ticket for the tour bus and we have to catch the bus. Then you might pass the phone to me and I will say hi to them. I haven’t seen them for a while and would like to say hi to them anyway.”
“But at least you should tell me why we are going to B City now,” John grumbled.
“Okay, let me give you a quick briefing so that you might feel comfortable to call your parents. Then we might talk about it more on our way to the deli.” Bob sat down on the waiting bench of the clinic and beckoned John to sit down as well.
“I called Jessica a few days after you came here for the blood test. I told her your story and she was about to give you a call. But then she changed her mind and told me that there would be something big and she would let us know when it is ready. I didn’t tell you about this at that time for two reasons. First, I knew you must be busy with your divorce and moving; and second, I guess BMA might be monitoring your phone after what they did to you in that island country.”
“You did that right,” John said with appreciation.
“But yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Jessica telling me that they are planning a big event for BHA, which would be very important for the country and even for this world. She asked me to definitely get you to B City to help them prepare for the event. I asked her when the event will be. She said it would be someday in the middle of next week. So you might need to stay there for the whole week, but I have to come back tomorrow since I have this clinic to take care.”
“Do you know what kind of event?” John asked.
“I am not very clear, but from her voice I could sense it must be very important and it must be related to your experience in that island country,” Bob replied. “Actually, she was thinking the same as I was thinking that you might be under close surveillance by BMA. That’s why she did not call you directly and why I made up a story this morning.”
“It’s very kind of both of you. I have made up my mind during the past two weeks that I must join the force fighting against BMA.” John’s voice was firm with determination. “But I don’t want to cause any trouble for my parents. So I really appreciate your considerateness.”
“Okay, now you can call your parents. But don’t use your mobile phone. Use the clinic landline.” Bob went to grab the landline phone from the counter and handed to John. “Don’t tell them anything about B City. Just say what I told you a moment ago.”
“Of course,” John replied.
John’s mom answered the phone. John told her the story Bob made up for him, and then passed the phone to Bob. Bob had a short chat with John’s mom who had seen Bob grew up with John in the neighborhood. Then he gave the phone back to John.
“Mom,” John added before hanging up the phone, “Please ask Charlie to pick up my car from the parking lot of the bus station.”
“I will. Don’t worry and enjoy your trip.” Mom’s reply made John’s nose a bit sour and tears almost gushed out from his eyes.
After the phone call, Bob locked their mobile phones in a desk drawer. Then they left the clinic. They first bought their lunch boxes from the deli across the street, and then went to a supermarket to purchase some basic articles of daily use for John, including some changes of clothes, and then bought two prepaid phones, one for John and one for Bob. They spent some time to activate the phones in the store, and tested by calling each other. A few minutes later, they were on their way to B City in Bob’s Cadillac.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BHA was a newly founded civil society but it quickly grew into an international organization with hundreds of thousands members, with its sectors scattered in many metropolitans across the country and across the world. The sector of B City was one of the earliest sectors of BHA. There were a few offices of that sector in different areas of B City, and its sector headquarters was located on the third floor of a 17 story rectangular building in the southern part of B City. It occupied the complete floor, with windows on each side. But on the south side of the floor, there were three protruding portions separated by windows. The west and east end protruding portions were connected to the fire exit stairways; the central protruding portion was of three perpendicular walls separating the private floor space from a small space in front of the elevator gates, and there was a door in the middle of the central wall of that portion connecting to that elevator waiting area. On the north side of the floor was a row of partitioned rooms used for offices and small conference rooms. Between the partitioned rooms and the south end was an open space that could host a meeting for a few hundreds of people.
As the director of the B City sector, Jessica had an office in this sector headquarters, which was at the west-end of those partitioned rooms.
When John and Bob arrived at B City, it was around 8 PM. They directly drove to the sector headquarters of BHA because Jessica had told Bob on the previous day that she would wait for them at that location. They did not contact Jessica with their new phones on their way to B City, and they even did not talk much with each other. They knew that they need to take extra precautions for that trip. Although they were listening to light music all the way, their hearts were all heavy. They did not know what might await them in that trip just as they did not know what might await human species in the coming years. But both of them were aware that their life might no longer be the same after that trip since what they were intending to challenge was a very powerful monster that was threatening the human species with things like AHs.
After parking their car in the underground garage of the building, they took the elevator to the third floor following the address printed on the name card of Jessica. Bob pushed the doorbell button, and heard a voice asking them through the intercom, “Who are you looking for?”
“We are from S City and looking for Jessica Morton,” Bob replied.
“Oh, my…Finally you are here.”
The door was unlocked and someone opened the door from inside. It was a young lad wearing a shirt with BHA printed on it.
“Are you Bob and John?” He lowered his voice when he asked.
“Yes,” Bob replied in a lowered voice as well because he found a group of people were sitting in a circle at the far end of the floor and the whole floor was very quiet.
“I am Jack.” The young man shook hands with John and Bob. “Come with me. Jessica has been worrying about you guys.”
As Jack turned back toward the circle of people, all three saw Jessica rising from a chair in the circle and walking toward them.
Jessica hugged two old friends. “Did you have dinner yet?”
“No,” Bob replied. “We directly drove to this place without any stop.”
“I am hungry,” John said.
Jessica turned to Jack, “Could you order some pizza and drinks?”
“Sure.” Jack left to order food for John and Bob.
“Come.” Jessica led John and Bob walking toward her office.
John looked around the big open floor space. Many tables, surrounded by chairs, were scattered over the spacious floor; all the tables were jumbled with objects such as printed flyers, posters, random office supplies, as well as computers and phones. On the east side of the floor, there was a stack of piled-up chairs and tables, which could be used when there was a meeting. On the north side, the doors of all the rooms were open, and the lights were all off; when John looked into some rooms through the windows, in case they were not covered by blinds, he could see random stuff on the desks or tables, but could not see anyone in the rooms. Obviously, it was a busy working place not long ago, and all those working here might have just finished their work and joined together in that circle.
Jessica closed the door after they entered her office and lowered the blinds so that they would not disturb the circle of people outside her office.
“What are they doing there?” Bob asked
“It’s an end-of-day praying meeting,” Jessica replied.
“Are you all Christians?” John asked. He knew Jessica was a Christian since she went to the same church as he and Bob before they went to college, but he was wondering whether BHA was a church organization.
“Not all of us. Almost half and half…Christians are more than non-Christians…but we are praying to God together anyway,” Jessica replied. “Actually, it has become a culture in this location that, at the end of the day, all those who have not left yet join together to pray to God. It is not mandatory, but so far everyone seems like this.”
“How would you pray if you are not all Christians?” Bob asked.
“Here we pray pretty much in the same way as we pray in our church back to the old days, believe or not.” Jessica smiled with joy.
“Even non-Christians?” Bob questioned.
“Even non-Christians,” Jessica replied. “As a matter of fact, even Christians working in this place are not all from the same church or the same denomination…but we are just praying together anyway.”
“That would not surprise me,” John remarked. “But that non-Christians could pray together with you surprises me.”
“I guess the most important thing here is that everyone who comes here knows that what we are standing for and who we are fighting against…we all know that what we are fighting against is way much too powerful for us, and thus we have to seek the help from our heavenly Father.”
“That’s true,” John agreed.
“The other day I saw from some internet news that BHA has grown very quickly…you still don’t think that you could have an equal match against BMA?” Bob asked.
“Just look at this place.” Jessica swept her hand around. “Any site of BMA would not be like this. They are all living and working in lavish styles.”
“So you work for BHA on weekends and work in your own company during weekdays?” Bob asked Jessica.
“Oh, I told you about my company last time when you came to B City, right?”
“Yeah…you gave me a name card of it,” Bob tried to remind her.
“I sold it two months ago,” Jessica responded calmly. “It’s a very good company.”
“Why?” John and Bob asked at the same time.
“I will let you guys know later.”
“You guys always work until so late even on weekends?” Bob asked.
“Not always… we are very busy recently because of the big action day is coming…we just have too many things to handle,” Jessica responded. “You just mentioned that we are growing fast. But unlike the BMA that John has been affiliated with.”
“I am no longer a member of BMA,” John interrupted.
“Sorry, I should say…unlike the BMA that John used to be with,” Jessica grinned. “The majority or I should say the absolute majority of our members are grassroots. The point that I am trying to make is that we don’t have the same political and financial power that BMA owns. That has caused a few big challenges to us. We need to work harder, but might accomplish less due to the financial limitation; besides, we need to deal with various cultural issues since the background of our members spans a broad spectrum. But the biggest challenge would be the political and even physical attack from our enemies.”
“What do you mean by that?” Bob asked.
“Did someone get hurt?” John was reminded of his own affliction caused by BMA.
“There were some minor incidents…not as serious as your story yet…but we are prepared for the worst.” Jessica sounded a bit worrisome, but her face looked resolute.
“What’s your plan?” Bob asked.
“We will take an action, a nationwide protest, and we are going to hit them hard,” Jessica replied with determination. “That’s why I asked you guys to come.”
“What can we do for you?” John asked.
“Maybe you can first tell us what you know about BMA, which might help us to fight against them.” Jessica gazed at John with expectation.
“His story could supply you with ammunition, not just a reference book on how to play the game,” Bob chipped in.
“That would be even better,” Jessica smiled at John.
“Do you have some water?” John asked Jessica instead of responding to her request.
“You want some coke?” Jessica asked. “We have some leftover from our lunch.”
“Sure,” John replied.
“Me too,” Bob said.
She rose up and went out to get the coke for John and Bob.
“Did you call your wife telling her that we are here now?” John asked Bob quietly even though only two of them were in the room.
“I did in the garage when you were walking,” Bob responded. “We only said very few words so you did not notice …The only purpose was to let her hear my voice. We agreed before I left home this morning that we will not talk much over the phone since we did not know what might happen.”
John nodded, “It’s good to be like that now.”
Jessica came back with two cups of coke, one for John and another for Bob.
John took the cup and then sipped the coke bit by bit without saying anything. He needed a moment to clear his mind and get his own emotion under control before recalling the painful and disgraceful past.
The room fell hush. While waiting for John’s story, Jessica was playing a pen on the desk and Bob was sipping his own coke, no one was talking. There was expectation mixed with anxiety in the silence.
When he emptied his cup, John dumped the cup into the trash bin before he told his story.
“I joined BMA before I started to become a salesperson for that red hat more than 20 years ago, about two weeks after Jessica you visited me at S City with Josh and Amanda.”
John started his talk with how he was recruited by Steve into BMA in that iniquitous interview during which he was given to know the secret behind the red hat. Then he described what he saw in the SEESALL.
When John was just about to tell the story of his first project on the Skull Island Prison, they heard the knock on the door.
“Come in,” Jessica answered.
Jack came in with pizza and drinks.
“Thanks Jack. You want some as well?” Jessica asked.
“I ordered three large pizzas because I guess some others might also be hungry again.”
“You’re right. I feel hungry now as I am seeing the pizza,” Jessica laughed, and said to John and Bob, “We had some Chinese food around 6:30.”
“You guys continue and I am joining the team outside.” Jack left the room.
“A very nice guy…a graduate from the Y University last year. Now he is helping another gentleman to take care of the security of this office.”
“Have you been breached by some hackers?” John asked.
“The hacker attacks are very common. Besides, from the very beginning, we have been aware of the all around monitoring by people like the SEESALL you just mentioned,” Jessica replied.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“Do you know someone from SEESALL?” Bob asked.
“Maybe I should give you guys some background about BHA,” Jessica said.
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for a chance to ask since I got here,” Bob responded.
“Same here,” John added.
“Let’s eat.” Jessica gave John and Bob one slice each. “I will tell you more about BHA while we are eating.”
John poured out three cups of coke, one for each of them, and they started their dinner. Meanwhile, Jessica made a broad introduction of BHA’s background to John and Bob.
As John and Bob guessed previously, BHA was founded as an organization against BMA with a history less than one year. The name Brilliant Humans Association was created simply by replacing the middle word Machines of Brilliant Machines Association (BMA) with Humans. Its founder, George Hardstone, was actually the son of a top ranking executive of BMA. He was a Ph.D. of English literature from H University. Since a few decades ago, he had been in disagreement with BMA’s various operations that he viewed as anti-humanity. For that reason he broke off with his father, and his father no longer had him informed of any activity of BMA. But through his kid friends who were also from families of BMA members, George learnt of the production of AHs as the replacement of those deemed as useless humans. He decided to rise up and fight. So he formed the BHA at the beginning of the year.
“Although we grow fast and most of our members are grassroots from various social sectors across the world, we don’t openly recruit. All members are referred by existing members, and the number one condition for any member to refer a new member is that he must have known that person since they were all young just like I know you guys.”
“Why is that?” John asked because he wanted to confirm one thing that had been worrying him since he witnessed the AHs in the Republic of New People.
“Because as we know, AHs have already been put into our human society and living with us around the world including this country,” Jessica replied.
“Are you serious?” Bob exclaimed. He was obviously shocked by the news.
“Very serious,” Jessica replied.
“That’s what I have suspected since I visited that New Generation Factory,” John said.
Bob was about to ask something more, but he was interrupted by the knock on the door.
“The door is open,” Jessica answered.
“Hi, Jess.” Jack pushed the door half open. “We are leaving now. See you guys tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow. Take care,” Jessica responded.
“Then why I never heard this kind of news from the media?” Bob asked Jessica after Jack closed the door.
“There were some reports, but not by those major media networks, which I guess are the only ones you believe,” Jessica replied.
“You mean they control the big networks?” Bob asked.
“At least, they have significant influence over them,” Jessica replied.
“But I have not heard any open protest from anyone, such as BHA, either.” Bob gazed at Jessica.
“I guess what bothers Bob is,” John chimed in, “why there has not been a big noise around the world in the past about such a huge thing.”
“I know his concern, and it’s reasonable,” Jessica replied. “You guys have not heard from us to shout about it loudly for two main reasons. First, we need to collect more info about them while preparing ourselves. The high-tech has provided a very imbalanced power of information collection and force usage between the rich and the public. They could collect a lot information about us through legal ways while hiding their own traces from us. Therefore, we need to spend more efforts and take some special measures to collect their data while trying very hard to keep the secret of our own plans.”
“That’s right,” John concurred. He was reminded what he heard from General K in that private study of the Presidential Palace.
Jessica cast a smile at John and continued, “Second, because of the background of George we are aware that BMA is unbelievably powerful across the world. If we want to fight, we need to hit on them hard together before they would destroy each of us individually.”
“You just mentioned that all your members could be trusted,” Bob said.
“I didn’t say that,” Jessica responded. “We tried our best to keep our team purely human, but we could not guarantee that no one would betray us when facing a menace or sell us out for money or any other temptation. As a result, we even could not guarantee there is no penetration of AHs into our team.”
“Then what can you do?” John asked.
“We try to keep our team of employees who are on our paychecks as pure as possible while we stretch out our branches into every social corner aggressively so that we could quickly gain a social ground among ordinary people around the world,” Jessica said.
“Then what do you tell your ordinary members?” John asked.
“As a general agenda, we promote humanities in the society, and try to offer some help to those helpless,” Jessica responded. “It’s not very hard to attract the ordinary people to join us since there are many desperate and helpless people due to the automation and AI, especially due to some systematical alienation of those so-called useless by BMA.”
“That makes sense,” John agreed.
“But how do you generate your income to help those helpless?” Bob asked.
“We have some rich members and we have our own businesses around the world,” Jessica replied. “Let’s finish the pizza and go to my house. You guys need a good rest after the long hours driving. Tomorrow morning you guys come with me to our church.”
Jessica did not ask whether they would accept her invitation to her church or not. She knew that they would, just as she knew that they would join BHA.
“Maybe we should find a hotel nearby if it’s too much trouble for your family taking two of us,” Bob said.
“I am the only one living in the house,” Jessica replied.
“I remember that you were married, right?” Bob asked.
“Yes,” Jessica replied.
“I have never seen your husband yet,” John said.
“Me either,” Bob added.
“Well, I guess you won’t,” Jessica replied.
“Why?” John and Bob asked almost at the same time.
“I am divorced,” Jessica looked at Bob while avoiding the eyes of John.
“Why?” John asked.
Jessica turned to John, “It’s complicated.”
“Do you have kids?” John asked.
“Yes,” Jessica replied. “We have a lovely boy and he is living with his father now.”
“Why?” Bob asked. “Normally the mother would have the advantage of having the children in divorces.”
“I wanted him to have,” Jessica replied. “Actually, that was one important reason that I agreed to divorce…at least that would be safer for my boy.”
“So you divorce your ex solely for him to protect your son?” John asked.
“I won’t say that’s the only reason,” Jessica replied. “We did not share much in many important issues in the past few years…and we argued and fought a lot at home.”
“Sorry to hear that,” John said.
“Were you divorced after you joined BHA?” Bob asked.
“I was divorced before George formed the BHA…but I already knew that he would form the BHA since I was among those very few whom George contacted when he was planning to form BHA.”
“I see…I guess that might worsen your relationship at home if he did not support your political standing,” Bob remarked.
“He was angry when I told him that I would support George’s plan,” Jessica responded.
“But then you might need to pay monthly alimony to your ex for the kid,” Bob remarked.
“I paid it as a lump sum when we signed the divorce paper,” Jessica replied.
“Is he with BMA?” John asked because his own ex was a member of BMA.
“No,” Jessica replied without hesitation. “He hated BMA…he was just scared of fighting against BMA.”
“That’s good because that means he won’t sell you out,” John remarked.
“If he did not sell me out while we were divorcing, he won’t sell me out now since he does not have any reason to do that now,” Jessica responded confidently.
“Do you visit your kid frequently?” Bob asked.
“No, I can’t. They moved overseas after my ex found a new job. It’s better that way.”
“How are Josh and Amanda?” Bob looked at John and then turned to Jessica because he knew Jessica was close to Amanda and John was close to Josh.
“They moved to Africa shortly after they married each other,” John responded.
“They are doing fine with their life. They moved there because they got teaching positions for both of them after their jobs were all replaced by AI here,” Jessica added.
“You still talk to them?” John asked.
“Yeah,” Jessica replied. “Amanda and I still talk to each other from time to time, and sometimes they also mentioned you. I was told that you haven’t contacted them for a long time.”
“For the first few years I talked to Josh quite often. But then the frequency was reduced since both of us got busy, and then we just talked to each other no more.” John shrugged his shoulder.
“I guess that was because you were too busy with BMA,” Jessica mocked.
John smiled wryly.
“It’s not unusual to lose contact after 20 years,” Bob came to the help of John.
Jessica and John looked at each other, and started laughing, Bob also joined the laughing. All three could sense the sorry, the understanding, the happy, and the hope in the laughing.
Then John asked Jessica, “Does George come to B City often?”
“Yeah…You might see him on Monday,” Jessica replied.
“Monday? That’s too bad,” Bob complained. “I have to leave tomorrow.”
“You will have the chance later,” Jessica responded. “When do you plan to leave tomorrow?”
“I better leave right after the church, I think,” Bob replied.
“Maybe I should go with you,” John said.
“You should stay to meet George and tell him the real AHs you have seen,” Bob suggested.
“I guess you are right,” John agreed.
Jessica rose up to the cabinet at the back of the office and took two stapled documents.
“Since Bob might not come back here tomorrow, why don’t you guys complete the procedure to join BHA right now?”
“You sound very sure that we will join BHA,” John responded in a teasing tone.
“Won’t you?” Jessica stared at John seriously.
“Of course he will, and so will I,” Bob came to the help again.
“Both of us were prepared to join BHA before we heard anything about BHA from you,” John grinned. “We reckoned from the name that it must be something against BMA.”
“Why do you need us to fill out the paperwork instead of applying online?” Bob picked up one set of stapled pages from the desk.
“We don’t keep any filled out application forms in the computer system. We cannot afford to lose the whole list to BMA hackers.” Jessica picked up the other set of stapled pages. “Here are three copies for each one form. After both you and the reference, which would be me, signed the form, you will keep one copy, I will keep one copy personally, and BHA would keep one copy.”
“That makes sense,” Bob remarked. “In this case, if someone lost his copy, the worst could happen is just to one person.”
“But what if they steal all the signed forms from BHA?” John asked.
“It’s easier for us to protect the physical ones as long as we do it carefully. Besides, we won’t put all the forms at the same place,” Jessica smiled with confidence. “Now please go through and filled the form first.”
John and Bob went through the forms quickly and signed without hesitation.
“Now, you need to sign it,” John pushed his form to Jessica.
Instead signing the forms for John and Bob, Jessica opened her drawer and took out a Bible. She put the Bible on the desk and put her left hand on the Bible. “Please all rise and take a vow following me.”
John and Bob all stood up and put their hands on the Bible. Jessica led them to take the vow for joining BHA. Then Jessica put her signatures on all three copies for both John and Bob, and then she shook hands with her kid buddies as an official welcome to BHA.
“Does everyone take a vow with the Bible when joining BHA?” John asked.
“No. If they are not Christians, they could use the books of their own religions,” Jessica replied.
“How about people who don’t have any religious background?” Bob asked,
“Believe or not,” Jessica looked at Bob and John, “those people never had any issue with taking vows with our Bible.”
Three of them looked at each other for one second, and started to smile, and then started to laugh loudly.
Bob then asked Jessica, “When would be your big protest?”
“It will be the coming Wednesday.”
“Why not do it on weekends?” Bob questioned.
“Well, a large part of our protesters would be those replaced by machines, so they don’t have a job… Protesting during week days could help to expose this critical crisis of mankind…On weekends many city workers go back stay at home or go somewhere for vacation; therefore, it would be more effective for us to spread out the message if we do it during week days.”
“I agree,” Bob replied. “But unfortunately I cannot come next Wednesday because I cannot cancel all patients’ appointments for that day.”
“Don’t worry,” Jessica patted on Bob’s shoulder. “Our S City sector would have the protest on that day as well. It would be an all day long event so you might join them if you could find time after you finish with the appointments.”
“Really? But how should I present myself to them?” Bob was eager to know how to connect with BHA at S City.
Jessica took a name card of hers from the card holder on the desk and signed on the back of the card. She handed the card to Bob, “sign you name beside my signature.”
Bob did as Jessica instructed.
“You might introduce yourself to their protest organizers and use this as your reference. They would call me later on to confirm you’re one of us,” Jessica explained. “But you don’t need to be one of BHA to join the protest, so you might first get the contact info from them and then introduce yourself to them later.”
“Gotcha,” Bob hit a five with Jessica.
“Now let’s go.”
They left the office for Jessica’s house.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jessica’s church was located near the sector headquarters of BHA in B City, which was about half an hour drive from her house. She originally went to a church near her house, but after she joined BHA, she moved to a church near her office building because Pastor Joe, the leading pastor of that church, was a friend of her uncle. Most Christians in her team changed to that church as well; besides, they also brought some previously non-Christians into their church.
Early Sunday morning, Mimi, Jessica’s pet dog, a 150 pound Caucasian ovcharka was sent to the rooms of John and Bob to wake them up. After the breakfast, Jessica brought John and Bob to her church and met with Pastor Joe before the service, and then Jessica brought them to tour around the church, including the kitchen of the church, where the fellowship groups would take turns to prepare lunch on Sundays for others after the morning services. Jessica’s main purpose was not to show them the church environment, but to introduce them to the members of the church.
“Morning Jess.” At the end of their tour and just before entering the main auditorium, they were stopped by Jack, who was with a middle aged stout and tall guy, each holding a cup of coffee standing near the stairway a few meters from the auditorium door.
“Morning guys,” Jessica greeted them and then turned to John and Bob. “Let me introduce you guys to this big Doug, our security manager.” They walked toward Jack and the guy named Doug.
Doug and Jack also came to meet them in the midway.
“This is Doug, he and Jack are the guardians of our headquarters office.” Jessica then turned to Doug, “These are John and Bob from S City, two of my kid friends.”
“Hi, nice to meet you.” Doug shook hands with John and Bob. “Jess mentioned to me that you guys were coming yesterday, but I left early for some errands.”
Then they walked into the main auditorium together.
……
The service took around two and a half hours. After the service, Bob was about to leave for S City. Jessica suggested him to leave after lunch so that he wouldn’t need to stop on his way for lunch. Bob agreed.
It was still early for lunch, so Jessica brought John and Bob to the basement of the church, where they joined a Bible study group. After the Bible study, they went to the dining room, and it was already quite crowded. Jessica asked John and Bob to find seats for them and she walked to the end of a waiting line for getting lunch boxes.
Although the food of church lunch was normally quite simple, most members would like to have lunch in the church after the morning service. The nominal price for each lunch box was very low, but that was not the main reason for the members to stay for the lunch after the service. The main reason was that most members felt it quite different eating in the church.
John and Bob found an empty table near a window. John asked Bob to sit there and he went to help Jessica to get the food. A few minutes later, John and Jessica came with three lunch boxes. Before eating, John and Bob noticed that Jessica was praying silently. They exchanged a glance and refrained from eating until Jessica finished her praying.
When they finished lunch, Jessica brought John and Bob back to the BHA office building. After getting off Jessica’s car in the garage, Bob said goodbye to Jessica and John, and drove his own car back to S City.
“Let’s use the stairway,” Jessica said to John after Bob left. “It’s only three floors.”
“Sure,” John responded. “It’s good to have some walk after lunch.”
They walked to the third floor and Jessica opened the door with her own badge.
“Let me see if I can find an empty room for you. If not, you could stay in my office and use my computer,” Jessica said.
“What do you want me to do?” John asked.
“I want you to prepare a presentation about your experience with BMA, especially your experience with AH,” Jessica said.
“What for?” John asked.
“For tomorrow’s meeting with George,” Jessica replied.
“But…,” John stopped his sentence at the very beginning. He was trying to say that his experience with those female AHs was not proper to talk about in public, but then he realized that it was even not proper to explain it to Jessica either.
Jessica found an empty room for John and helped him to log into the computer in that room. But John spent most of the afternoon with others in the open space to work as a sidekick to others who might need some help. It was not because he was not willing to talk about his experience with those female AHs since he already decided that he would skip that part of his story. He did not stay in the room to work with the computer because, as a matter of fact, it was too late for him to prepare a very formal presentation; but on the other hand, it would not be hard for him to tell his own story without any formal preparation at all.
Jessica did not blame him when she found that John was not doing what she wanted him to do. “He would talk even though it would be painful for him to look back,” She told herself confidently.
John enjoyed his sidekick work, because it not only helped him to learn more about how BHA operated, but more importantly, also helped him to gain back the sense of human value after living under that dehumanizing Red Hat for decades, especially after his nightmare in the Republic of New People.
There were about 30 people working on the floor. The sound of ringing phones could be heard from one table after another or from several tables at the same time. But the whole team worked in great harmony and the morale in that BHA headquarters was high. John helped to make some posters, and compose some slogans, and do some other random work that needed some extra hands. Of course, he was not involved in any communications with people outside the headquarters. But to those he worked with, the most interesting and valuable contribution of John was not from his assistance in their work, but from his story about BMA and AHs when they chatted with him.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day of work ended early on Sunday after everything they needed for presenting to George on Monday was ready as planned. Jessica let everyone go early after the end-of-day praying so that they could gather with their families and take a good rest before the final spurt in the coming days.
When they left the headquarters, Jessica told John that she would treat him a good dinner and he did not ask where to go but just followed her. However, instead of going to a lavish restaurant, Jessica took John to shopping at a few food shops and department stores. They brought home more than ten bags of food, either raw or precooked, as well as a variety of beverages, fruits and bakeries.
So Jessica planned to cook for John at home.
When their car stopped in front of the garage, they could hear Mimi greeting them inside the house. After unsetting the alarm system, Jessica opened the postern door of the house and let Mimi went to play in the quarter acre backyard. Then Jessica started to prepare for the dinner. But very soon after the beginning of the preparation, it became a team work since John was also a good cook at his own home.
“Do you remember the last time when you and I teamed up in cooking?” John asked when he was slicing the king trumpet mushroom.
“Have we?” Jessica questioned. “I don’t remember we have ever cooked together anywhere.”
“Come on, try a little harder,” John encouraged.
“Uh…,” Jessica surfed through her memory for a few seconds. “I don’t recall…you must be trying to fool me.”
“Need any hint?” John offered a help.
“Sure, go ahead.”
John went to open a box among the groceries that they just brought home, and took a cookie from it. He walked to Jessica, who was preparing the lobster. John asked her to open her mouth and then put the cookie in her mouth. Jessica gave a bite of the cookie. “It tastes good. I like this type of cookie. Let me finish it.”
John put the rest of the cookie into Jessica’s mouth. “You still don’t remember?”
“Uhhh…” Jessica mumbled a bit and then rushed to finish the cookie in her mouth so that she could talk. “Remember what?”
“When did we team up in cooking?” John asked.
“Are you serious?” Jessica tittered at him.
“In the middle school cooking class,” John reminded her.
“Ahhh…now I remember,” Jessica exclaimed. “Ri…ght, we were partners in a baking assignment.”
“Congratulation. Now your memory finally comes back to normal,” John jested.
The cooking went on about two hours, long after Mimi finished her daily exercise and finished her own dinner that Jessica prepared for her.
When Jessica and John finally sat on the table and looked at the dishes that covered almost half of the long dining table, they started to laugh.
“I believe that I could eat all this much when I went to the seafood buffet restaurant back in the old days,” Jessica bragged.
“Why do you say ‘the old days’?”
“Oh…” Jessica looked at John with a serious face. “It’s kind of culture within BHA that we don’t go to restaurants very much now.” She said that in a pitiful tone.
“Why?”
“Just be cautious…we know that the world is no longer the same as before because of what BMA is doing,” Jessica looked at John. “Now please lead a prayer for the meal.”
“Me?” John questioned, partly because he had been far away from any religious practice for decades, partly because they did not pray together for the previous few meals after he met Jessica this time.
“Please,” Jessica insisted. Even though she was not very strictly following the practice of praying altogether before meals, which she and John were all used to before college, whenever there were some formal gatherings among close friends she preferred to give thanks with a prayer together before the meal.
John led the prayer.
After saying “Amen”, Jessica went to put on some music that was most popular around twenty years ago when they were still in the high school, then she took Mimi to the living room and chose the favorite TV channel for that Caucasian ovcharka.
When Jessica sat back in her chair, John already poured two glasses of Champagne.
“Cheers,” John raised his glass.
“For the big action,” Jessica raised her glass, and they clinked glasses.
“You just mentioned that you don’t go to restaurant often…but aren’t you afraid to stay in this house by yourself?” John asked.
“I am okay,” Jessica confidently responded. “As a matter of fact, BHA has a very strong security team…they are fighting a tough war of intelligence against BMA…they put surveillance around the houses of all major leaders of BHA all over the world when it is possible…and they have someone look after those houses on a 7 by 24 basis.”
“You mean we are under the surveillance of BHA right now?” John was surprised.
“You bet,” Jessica replied calmly. “The surveillance is outside the house. If anyone comes near my house when I am not home, they would know right away.”
“But what if someone comes in when you are in the house?” John asked.
“Don’t worry, Mimi could defeat an army,” Jessica smiled, and then added, “besides, you might not know that I am now a taekwondo black belt.”
“Really?” John asked in surprise.
Jessica nodded.
“I gotta be very careful then,” John jested and made a posture fending her off with his arm. Jessica quickly hit his arm with her palm, and both burst into laughter.
John and Jessica, as well as Amanda, Josh and Bob were all growing in the same town. Even their parents all knew each other because they all went to the same church. John’s house and Jessica’s were a few blocks away from each other so that they both went to school on the same bus from the grade school to high school. Both were nice looking and smart. Jessica and Amanda were among the most popular girls in the high school, while John was kind shy before going to college. Maybe because they were too familiar with each other, there was never any romance, not even the desire of romance, happened between John and Jessica, although they had always been good friends in school.
Now, after decades of life’s ordeal, when they sat together at the same table alone without anyone else, the atmosphere was so relaxed and they all forgot any trouble that might impact them from outside, from the rest of the world, from BMA.
After a few glasses of Champagne, Jessica extended her left palm (which was closer to John) on the table while her right hand held the glass; John put his right hand (which was closer to Jessica) on top of her palm. They gently held each other’s hand and both looking the other in the eye and smiled. Then Jessica closed her eyes, and John closed his too. No one said anything, no one made any movement; even the muscles of both hands did not experience much strain. They were just enjoying the contact between each other, enjoying the relaxing atmosphere, and enjoying the peace.
After they saw Bob off in the garage of BHA headquarters office building, the question of “what if he…” or “what if she…” did come up in the mind of both of them, for many times, and both of them had some moments of urge to say something that might cause a further instant chemical reaction between them, for many times. But within their hearts, both of them could feel the peaceful tranquility, even when they were staying with each other alone. The feelings were so peaceful that even they themselves felt surprisingly strange.
They still could remember the heart-beating excitements, the uncontrollable desires, as well as the indescribable senses of embarrassment, when they were involved in the relationships with the spouses of their previous marriages, or even some other crush feelings before their previous marriages. But now when they were sitting, eating, laughing, and even holding hands together, their hearts were so peaceful, surprisingly peaceful. It seemed that everything was so natural, that it was meant to be like this way.
Relax and enjoy the peace! That might be the most valuable thing for both of them at that moment, at the stage of life when both of them had learned the hard lessons of life from too many things, at the time when both had been aware of some ultimate threat to the human species from some man-made biotechnological products. Relaxed and enjoyed the peace when holding each other’s hand, after not seeing each other for decades, which was what they were doing at that moment.
They would have been very embarrassed or uncomfortable if they did the same two and half decades ago when playing together in the school, although they knew each other since kindergarten; but now after the elements of shyness had been washed away by the torrent of life, after learning that they were fighting on the same side, the memory of the purity of the other side made it easy to grant the trust to each other. When the question of “what kind of stupid or ugly things has he/she done during the past decades” came up to their mind, they could tell themselves “look how many stupid and ugly things I did, he/she would still be the original he/she as I would be the original myself.”
The hand holding lasted for about five minutes, and then both of them opened eyes almost at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled. They let go the hand of the other person and started to laugh loudly and happily.
John raised his glass of champagne, and Jessica did the same, then they clinked glasses without any toasting. They smiled knowingly at each other.
“What’s your plan for the future?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know…the only thing I know now is to meet with your president George tomorrow, and then go to protest with you on Wednesday, and then go back to my parents’ house,” John replied.
“Why don’t you come to work with me in BHA?” Jessica asked.
“Can I?” John asked back.
“Of course,” Jessica took a lobster in her plate and started work on it. “But we don’t pay much.”
“Would that cover the living cost in B City?” John asked while enjoying the food.
“Enough for that,” Jessica continued working on the lobster without looking at John. “But you might not even need to spend that much.”
“Why do you think so?” John asked.
“You might move into this house, and it will be free for you,” Jessica stopped eating and smiled at John.
“Do you need to get the permission from your ex on this?” John continued to eat without looking at Jessica.
“I own this house,” Jessica replied.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” John now turned his head and looked Jessica in the eye.
“It’s up to you,” Jessica avoided John’s eyes and continued to eat.
“Up to me?” John laughed joyfully. He filled Jessica’s glass and his own with Champagne. “Yes. Of course I want and appreciate.”
Jessica stopped eating and looked at John. Both of them smiled at each other. They both raised and clinked glasses.
The dinner lasted until the midnight, and they said good night to each other before going to their own rooms after the dinner. Both of them could feel one same thing---they could spend the rest of their life together. But now it was not the time for them to move into the same bed in the same room, they would like to reserve the moment for a better time.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early Monday morning, John was waked up by the alarm on his mobile phone. He washed himself up in the bathroom of his bedroom, and then walked downstairs without making much noise. He tried to prepare the breakfast for Jessica and himself. But when he passed the entrance to the basement, he saw the door was open and the light was on. He walked down to the basement and found Jessica practicing Taekwondo there while Mimi sitting aside watching her.
“Good morning,” John greeted.
“Hi, morning,” Jessica stopped practicing and grabbed a tower to wipe sweat.
“Please continue. You did so good,” John said.
“Thanks,” Jessica smiled at John and looked at the clock. “I’ve done enough for this morning. It’s good that you come to remind me of the time.”
“It’s still very early,” John responded. “You might continue and I go to prepare the breakfast for you.”
“Thanks,” Jessica picked up her changes from the counter. “You might go ahead to get the breakfast ready and I’ll join you later after my shower. We need to get to the office a little earlier today.”
“Sure. It’ll be ready when you come up.” John went upstairs to prepare the breakfast.
“Mimi, please go with him,” Jessica rubbed the neck of Mimi to let her go with John, and then went to the bathroom at the end of the basement.
……
An hour later, Jessica left her house with John.
“What’s the plan for today’s meeting with George?” John asked when they got on their way to the BHA office.
“You will be surprised today,” Jessica replied.
“Will I?” John was surprised by the response of Jessica. “I thought I will be the only one to present some surprises to George and everyone else would just make some routine reports of work progress.”
“No,” Jessica responded. “George already knew your story…maybe not in detail, but pretty much of it.”
“Then what would be the surprise?” John’s curiosity was piqued.
“If I tell you now, it won’t be a surprise.” Jessica cast a tricky smile at John.
“Not even a hint?” John sounded like begging Jessica.
“No, not even a hint,” Jessica smiled at John again. “Okay…I can give you one hint then you should not push any further.”
“Sure,” John promised.
“The only hint I can give you is that George might tell you something you don’t know about what happened to you in that island country.”
“Are you serious?”
Jessica nodded.