Insider X (20 page)

33

Center, Duty Building, Facility 67096

BIG ALIEN BEAST WITH ROWS OF EYES

(-.(-.(-.(-.-).-).-).-)

CHINESE MAFIA WATCHING YOU!

She was part of the machine now.  Part of the Online Blue Army.  And what she was seeing now was eye-popping.

Aiguo was a few meters ahead of her, waiting.  Na had stopped to take in the enormous space.  It was just as big as the cafeteria they’d come from… maybe bigger.

Kitty Kat had gone under the couch in her head to hide.  But what she was seeing now wasn’t scary, it was just overwhelming.

Come out, Kitty Kat, Na said, it’s okay.

Kitty Kat stayed under the couch.

Suit yourself, Na said.  It was very cool what she was seeing.  There were catwalks above and enormous bow-shaped steel trusses that spanned the space.  The place was the size of an airplane hangar.  Several vertical banners hung from the ceilings with logos (or insignias?) that Na had never seen before.  The banners were a deep red color and the logos were repeated down their length, starting small and getting larger.  Each logo was a series of concentric circles with a solid blue circle in the center.  In an abstract way the logos reminded Na of radio signals radiating outwards; they also looked like tunnels, or targets.

Or, if she squinted, they almost looked like creepy alien eyes.  That’s why Na thought of BIG ALIEN BEAST WITH ROWS OF EYES.  Which also made her think of CHINESE MAFIA WATCHING YOU!

Na had coined lots of funny phrases using symbols.  Some phrases she’d copped from the Internet, but others were her own creation.  She’d had lots of fun using them sometimes with her posts.  She had several Feebies that sprinkled emoticons or shorthand with everything they wrote.

C U Ltr

That meant: “see you later”. 

Not to be confused with C U 8er, which was “Chinese Uglies ate her”.  That would be grey men eating girls.  Was she a grey man now?

Hmm.  Interesting.

“What do you think?” Aiguo said.

Na took in the vast “wired” floor that was filled with hundreds (maybe thousands) of hi-tech workstations.  No fold-up tables here.  And no Joe Cheapo gear like at the den.  Everything here looked cutting edge.  In one section, the monitors at the workstations were flat screens and were HUGE.  As in ‘humongous unbelievably ginormous extra-incredibles’.

“Are those Apples?” Na said, her jaw dropping.

Aiguo looked where she was looking.  “They are Apples,” he said. “You like?”

Na nodded her head.  She loved Apples.  That thought made her sad.  (Q_Q)  Her forehead knit.  She wanted her iPhone back.

“Is something wrong?” Aiguo said, looking at her curiously.

Oops!  She needed to keep her thoughts in check, Na realized.  No broadcasting with facial expressions.  Na switched to blissful mode.  Ah… CONTENTMENT.

Which really stood for ‘Candies Or Nasal-spray TEN Tp-headed MEN Tittering’

Hard to believe, but she just made that up.

You are a crazy Cat Lady
, Kitty Kat said, peeking her head out from under the couch.

But do you see those, Kitty Kat?  Na said the last part reverently: those are Apples.

Big whooping deal
, Kitty Kat said, going back under the couch.

It is a big whooping deal, Na thought.  “Do I get one of those?” Na said to Aiguo.

“No, you’ll be working in a different section today.  But don’t worry,” Aiguo said, “You’ll get your chance to work on those sometime.”

Darn.  Na kept her disappointment in check.  She was being silly, she realized.  Why was she so excited to use an Apple?

BECAUSE IT’S AN APPLE, YOU BIG DUMMY!

Shhh, be quiet Mr. Mouse, Na said in her head.

Yes, if anyone is listening, Na said in her head—I’m talking to you grey men now—Mr. Mouse is in the house!

Where?!
  Kitty Kat came out from under the couch.  Mr. Mouse scurried quickly back into his hole.

See you, Mr. Mouse.

Na was feeling a little crazy.  But she didn’t get to see so many Apples in one day that often.  She followed Aiguo.  Aiguo led her past the workstations.  The workstations were just starting to fill up.  Blue Army attired youth were booting up their machines.  There were lots of different kinds of gear she was seeing.  Mostly PCs now.  Lenovo gear, and some other manufacturers too.  Still good stuff.  No Joe Cheapo gear, yet.

This was amazing.  What nifty setups.  Some workstations had three monitors.  Na was having a moment.

This was so cool!

Wait a second.  What was going on?  She was definitely acting extra goofy in her head.  She felt loopy.  Buzzed.  Like she was on drugs or something.  Had they put something in her food?

That thought wasn’t good.

“I feel really… how do I say it?  Buoyant right now,” Na said to Aiguo, unable to control her mouthy tongue.

Aiguo didn’t seem surprised.  “That happens,” he said.  “You’re breathing good air now.  It can do that to you, particularly the first time.”

“What do you mean, good air?” Na said.

“The air is enhanced,” Aiguo said.  “They pump in oxygen.  Also the air filters that bring in fresh air are very sophisticated.  The air quality in here is toxin- and particulate-free.  It keeps us alert and motivated.  How do you like it?”

“I feel good,” Na said.  “Real good.  Ready to do my duty.”

In fact, Na realized, as she said the word ‘duty’, she felt like giggling.  Not now, she scolded herself.  Stop being crazy!

DUTYDUTYDUTYDUTY… DOODIEDOODIEDOODIEDOODIE

Poopy Pants is in the house!  Na giggled.

“Is something funny?” Aiguo said, looking at her curiously.

“It must be this air,” Na said, trying to get control of herself.  “I’m not used to it.”

“I see,” Aiguo said.  “It is quite a shock to the system, particularly when you compare it to the outside air.  By the way, did you know the Americans are responsible for polluting our air?  They are trying to give us cancer.”

“Really?” Na said, looking at him earnestly.  “I didn’t know that.”  Na kept her real thoughts in check.  What type of crazy dumbo comment was that?  The Americans responsible for polluting our air?  That was just dumb.  How were they doing that?

“How are they doing that?” Na said.  Oops, didn’t mean to say that one out loud.

“You’ll see,” Aiguo said.  “Ah, we’re here.”

Aiguo stopped at a workstation.  Sitting behind several monitors was a very handsome guy—no, make that an incredibly handsome guy.

In fact, it wasn’t just any incredibly handsome guy.  It was Crush.

Crush looked up at Na.  “Hello, Na,” he said.

“Hello, Crush,” Na said.

“Oh, I guess you two have met,” Aiguo said, taken aback.  “Good.  We can forgo introductions then.” Aiguo’s face seemed to lose its enthusiasm.  He seemed disappointed?  No, that wasn’t it, Na realized.  He seemed bummed.  Yes, that was it,
bummed
.

Na, on the other hand, was not bummed.  She felt a flutter of tiny wings inside her.  Butterfly wings.  She stared at Crush.  Crush’s dreamy eyes looked into hers.  It was like he was seeing right into her head.

She blushed.

Darn.  Didn’t mean to do that.

Crush smiled.  “Are you ready for your training, Na?”

“You…?” Na said.

Crush nodded. 

Next to her, Aiguo was no longer smiling.  He seemed to have noticed the color flushing in Na’s cheeks.  “Yes,” Aiguo said, in a somber tone this time.  “Crush is your trainer.”

34

CRUSH INDICATED FOR Na to take a seat next to him.  Aiguo walked off, stiffly.  He looked angry as he walked off.  So many emotions Na had picked up in such a short time:  surprised, bummed, angry.  All of those emotions had “pushed outwards” from Aiguo.  His emotional innerness was very transparent.

Not the case for Crush, though.  She took a seat next to him.  He was harder to read.  He seemed happy to see her, but she couldn’t “feel” what he was feeling.  No visible waves, no colors.

She suddenly remembered the awkwardness of last night.  How she had left him abruptly, just as he was about to kiss her.  Should she say something to him about that now?

Several voices inside her head echoed as one: NO…
no… no
.

Just pretend that didn’t happen.  Act normal.  Okeydokey.  She could do that.

She looked at Crush’s workstation.  His seemed extra special.  He had five flat screens on his large desk (not just three or one).  And his desk seemed bigger than others.  It had two keyboards and two mouses.  One of those keyboards was in front of Na now.

The gear was all from Lenovo.  But not their Joe Cheapo stuff; it was their good stuff.  Their “rad” gear.  Top shelf stuff. 
Mucho expensivo
.  Very cool.

“Nice hardware,” Na said.

“You want to give it a ride?” Crush said.

Na smirked.  He’d said that flirtatiously.  Maybe playing hard to get last night was working in her favor?  He probably didn’t have that happen often to him.

Which…

Was an annoying thought.  Was she just another soon-to-be conquest for him?  No way!  Not going to happen.  Chastity belt clipping on now.  Not getting in my pants, Mr. Rico Suave.  Or I guess she should say “skirt”.

Absently, she looked at his hands.  They were smooth.  Long fingers with trimmed glossy nails.  They were nice hands.  They looked soft, but also manly.  She wondered what they would feel like touching her.

!!!!WHAT!!!!

No, she did not wonder that!

Who was thinking such crass thoughts?!  Was that you, Kitty Kat?

Goodness freakin’ gracious.  Everyone just be quiet!  Let me sit here and not be crazy and not be such a tramp.

“Okay,” Na said.  She took the mouse in her hand and clicked the screen.

A cursor appeared and a menu popped up.

“What do I click?” Na said.

The menu showed various options.  TRAINING MODULES was one of them.  She was about to click that, when Crush put his hand on hers, and redirected the mouse.

Goosebumps!

“Do you want to take the mouse?” Na said, trying to sound annoyed, but not doing a good job.  His hand was soft, she realized.  And warm.

“Sorry,” he said, taking his hand off hers.  “We’re not doing the modules, yet.  We’re going to watch a video.  Click there,” he said.  He pointed at her screen.

There was an icon, which looked just like the concentric circles on the banners.  Under that icon was the word: TRUTH.

“Truth?” Na said.

“Yes,” Crush said.  The tone of his voice had gone neutral.  It wasn’t flirtatious now.  “I am required to show you this before we start.”

“Okay,” Na said.  That was funny phrasing, Na thought.  She clicked the icon.

A video began to play on her screen.

35

THE VIDEO WAS about fifty minutes long.  The beginning was extremely silly.  Blatant propaganda.  So silly and ridiculous she wanted to giggle.  But Crush was being very serious next to her, and Na figured giggling would not go over well.

She matched his serious face with a serious face of her own.  She kept watching.  Pretended she was engrossed in what she was seeing.  Pretended she believed everything she was hearing.

This was obviously done by dummies.  Filmed by morons.  Directed by nincompoops.  Almost like it was supposed to be a joke.  But it wasn’t a joke, Na knew.  This was very serious stuff.  Grey men stuff.  The type of stuff that had been crammed down her grandparents’ and great grandparents’ throats, no doubt.  Chairman Mao type stuff, as fugly ugly as that big ‘ol wart on that man’s knobby chin. 
Democracy is evil… the Subversive Instigator means to control our minds and take over the world… look at what they do everyday…

The video footage was a montage of different messages.  One message being pushed was how the Subversive Instigator was trying to kill as many Chinese as possible.  It showed cigarettes being made in American factories.  It showed the packaging that was done in the States with skull and crossbones and warnings about how cigarettes caused cancer.  It then showed the packaging that was made for cigarettes that were exported abroad.  Those same crates were shown coming into Chinese ports.  The packaging for the cigarettes inside those crates did not have any warnings.  No bold text that said cigarettes caused cancer.  No skull and crossbones.

They think us small minded and stupid… they try to hide the truth from us…

Video streamed of Chinese men and women smoking.  Young kids smoking.  And then there was footage of cancer wards; people that looked very sickly.  Hacking.  Trying to breathe.  Some people had holes in their throats and tubes coming out of their necks.

Grisly icky stuff.  Na wanted to turn her head away, but didn’t.  Crush was being deathly quiet and still next to her.  She watched the next message.

They blacken our skies… poison our waters…

Okay.  More crazy talk.  They were now saying that all the pollution in Chinese cities was caused by Americans.  Really?  Did they really expect us to believe that?  Yes, it seemed they did.

The Subversive Instigator is responsible for the acid in the rain… 

Apparently, according to the video, the toxic chemicals in the skies, which dropped to the earth and ruined the soil, all originated from America.  A bespectacled scientist illustrated on a chalkboard how wind currents were blowing pollution from American cities across the Pacific.  He drew several pictorials, showing how it happened.

The video then showed footage of polluted American cities.  Smog belting out of tailpipes on cars and coming out of smokestacks.  Some of the video footage was in black and white.  Other footage was colorized, but looked funny.  Was that Technicolor?  When was this stuff filmed?  Like a million years ago?  The cars in some of the video footage were so old looking.  Like what Americans probably drove in the Sixties and Seventies.

 An oil spill was shown.  Some American vessel, it appeared.  The words ‘Exxon’, and ‘Exxon Valdez’ flashed on the screen.  Dead birds covered in black sludge.  Dead fish washed up on black sludge-covered shorelines.

Oil slicks were shown in the oceans.  Washing up on Chinese shores.  More spills, which apparently all came from American vessels.

Oil refineries.  Oil in drums.  Video footage of President Bush and then President Obama shaking hands with Arab sheiks.  Other Arabs standing nearby in each similar scene.

The Subversive Instigator has allied himself with the dirty Arabs… choking off the rest of the world… keeping natural resources just for them… OPEC… evil monopolies… driving up prices for everyone but themselves… keeping oil from being delivered to China… keeping costs inflated… denying us access to oil…

The narrator that was speaking sounded Chinese, but he was speaking in English.  He continued to speak in English as other video footage was shown.  He changed his message, depending on what came on the screen.

Arrogant Overlord… power grabs… bullying the weak… taking from the poor… killing innocents…

Na wanted to stop listening as some of it (most of it) was just blatant propaganda.  Did they actually think she would believe any of this stuff?  Everyone already knew that cigarettes caused cancer, even without warning labels.  And pollution blowing across the Pacific?  Didn’t the winds go the other way?  She was pretty sure they did.  And that video footage of American cities was so old.  They didn’t even have cars like that anymore, or those smokestacks.  Did they?  She didn’t think so.

But, she had to admit, some of the footage was stuff that made her think.  It showed American military stuff.  Laser-guided missiles.  Drones.  Bombers.  Nuclear warheads.  Explosions.  America’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Death tallies of civilians were shown on the screens.  Millions were being killed by the Arrogant Overlord.  Women and children.  Old people.  Pregnant mothers.

Drones were killing indiscriminately.  Operators in America were raining death on innocents all around the world with just a click of a mouse.  Shooting missiles.  Killing babies.

Baby killers!

America was Big Brother.  Their eyes were spying on the world, the narrator’s voice intoned.  He spoke grimly of what the Arrogant Overlord was trying to do.  To control minds.  To get the world to hate China.  To see China as the enemy.  The Big Red Menace.  Speaking lies.

LIES!

The voice grew animated as some of the footage rolled.  It showed video footage of news headlines.  Recent stuff about ‘America’s Asia Pivot’, how The West was targeting Beijing, mobilizing their sixth fleet to the East China Sea, beefing up their military presence in the Philippines and Vietnam; how they were using their surveillance networks to influence minds, change perceptions, poison China’s neighbors against them.

The Subversive Instigator was stating lies of “Chinese aggression”; how China was trying to take over disputed territories that rightfully belonged to Japan and India.  MORE LIES!  Those territories belonged to the great country of China!  But the Arrogant Overlord was spreading lies, poisoning the global environment.  The West were hypocrites!  Their military was the big bully.  Their surveillance networks, like the NSA, were spying on everyone.  They tapped phone lines and the Internet.  Listened in on the world! 

Enough is enough… America’s era of global dominance must come to an end…. it is time to rebalance… to protect the world from their aggression… their evil ways… their spying… their meddling… their bullying… they cannot stand against us if we rise up… show our power… we are many, they are few… we must take control of the message… infiltrate and undermine… plant seeds of dissent… destroy them from the inside… you are our brave champions… our global warriors… the best we have… our first and last lines of defense… and also our first and last lines of offense… the China Dream… with you we can achieve our destiny… make the world know who is the true superpower!

There was lots more, but it was just too much to digest.  Too corny at times.  Too serious at times.  Too much propaganda being crammed down her throat.

Na wanted to gag.  But she had a feeling she was being watched.  Not by Crush now.  Crush’s face was still unreadable.  He could hide his feelings well.

But Na knew she was being watched.  So she nodded in agreement hearing some things.  Kept her face riveted, transfixed.  Her facial expressions carefully controlled, parsed just so.  Anyone watching her now would think she was “drinking the Kool-Aid”.

Yes, she was a champion!

FINALLY…  THANK GOODNESS…  gag, barf, spew chunks, the video finally came to an end.

Na stayed still.  Crush didn’t speak for several moments.  After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only thirty seconds or so, he turned and looked at her.

“We will begin your training now.”